Where I'm at

is a place I love. I live in a place where even the paved roads are mostly dirt come Spring. The tractors from the fields going too and froe. I live in a place where having a garden is a natural thing we do. I live in a place where 24 hours is never enough time in a day.
Those are the things I love about where I live. But I also live in a place where planting 51 cabbage plants means only 1 will survive to the next day. I live in a place where the frost will hit the peach trees right after the blooms come out. I live in a place where the rain is not plentyful.
So what does a person do that depends on these things for the winter months of feeding a family of 5. Well I plant more plants, spray the trees with homemade orgainic fruit tree spray, and pray. Pray that we will get through this and get rain. But in the mean time we will collect as much water we can and plant more veggies that the birds will leave alone.

What do you love about where you live?

Good to know

with the uncertains of the weather it is good to know that our pantry is plentiful. We are snowed in and the schools are closed. The snow is coming down and the wind is blowing but we are warm and comfortable. Its hard to believe that some carrots are still in the ground but good to have plenty food.
They say it could get down to -13 windchill tonight but with a handy kerosine heater the electric could go out and we can still be warm.
With all the snow coming down its hard to think we are garden planning today. We are making lists and preparing the greenhouse with a few last touchs. Our garden will be expanded by 12-15 feet this year also plans for another 6 raised beds going in, in the back this winter also. And again we will be tearing up some of the front yard for other edibles, herbs, trees. So excited.... So what are you preparing for the growing months?

Best food ever

voted number one from the family. Spaghetti sauce, homemade of course. Its wonderful on cold days. The sauce recipe comes from the Blue ball book. And its a winner!!!

January

and still stocked. This winter we have bought $34.23 of groceries. Thats it! But we didn't really have to buy that much but the kids were begging for a hotdog. They haven't had one for sometime at home.
We have our frezzer still half full and the pantry shelves from 6 shelves to 3. We have not gone hungry and we eat well. This is all off the pounds we grew and or were gifted to us. I love winter....and spring.......fall..........and summer...

Shed/ greenhouse

With the temps here in the low teens and planting time quickly upon us here we decided to make the shed into a make shift greenhouse. With little time to spare we cleaned it out and are in the process of putting up more shelves. We also was gifted a little Coleman heater that runs for 20 hours on one fill up of Coleman fuel. Surprisingly its perfect for the little shed to stay warm and toasty. And that's even on low. I started the heater on a below zero night and within 1 hour the 9x9 shed was above freezing and around 45 degrees. Should be perfect for the little plants not to freeze on cold nights. Also the lights give off heat so its worth a shot.

Another year over

and yes, as the song goes, a new one just begun. So here's a run down of what we have done this year. We have come along way in one short year. We have about 90% of our food consumption growing on our land. We now have 3 peach trees, 5 apples, a cherry, and strawberry plants, and a means to get all the pears we need in the fall.
We have the herb garden done. Working on a few more raised beds for the spring. going to bring in a calf for some meat. We are still eating on the pantry goodies we froze, canned, or dehydrated this summer. Carrots are still in the ground and we pick them as we need them.

Planning - greenhouse will have heat from a gas Coleman heater which we recycled.Its brand new and was thrown in the garbage. Jan. is a busy time for me around here with getting everything ready to plant. I also have tons of things to mail, orders to make and compost to gather.
we also are looking into buying an outdoor wood burner for our house to cut the cost of the electric we use.
everyone have a great New Year!!!

September - mid- October update

Well with over a month hiatus I am back. We here on our bit of soil have been going through a great deal of variety of things from sickness to just every day life.

I am happy to report that i am feeling better with some 'ME" time taken. the garden is almost done. Still have carrots in the ground, Still drying walnuts and peanuts. Now we are in the middle of hunting seasons which provides our family with 95% of our yearly meat consumption.
I went to a court days recently ( which is a really big yard sale) and found a juicer like my moms that I borrowed for $5, yes just $5. My mom paid over $50 for hers. I am one happy girl.
With the upcoming holidays arriving rather quickly I am also trying to find ideas for presents. If you all have any please let me know.