Independence Days Challenge, Week 4
Watching things grow in the summer sun.
(Read past Independence Days Challenge posts here (week one has some info about this challenge and why I’m doing it: 1, 2, 3)
Week four . . . dang.
I’ve been thinking today about how it’s easy to do this stuff when it’s July and sunny and summer. Everything grows. Harvests come in every day. I’m happy and productive, in at least some part because I’m warm and there’s no snow to shovel.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this goes when it gets colder. When it’s time to try out my greenhouses and I’m cold, but I still need to get out into and take care of things. When the days are short and the wind tries to kill my little farm.
But, for now, July is awesome.
Okay, here goes! For the week ending July 29, 2018:
Plant Something
Here is this week’s video walkthrough of the Hyperbole Microfarm.
I say this every week, but it’s always amazing to me to see how much everything has grown in seven days. That watermelon and my City Picker planter especially.
This week, Kevin and I drilled holes in the bottom of a bunch of plastic tubs I bought on clearance at Wal-Mart for $1 each. They’re 17 inches in diameter and 7 inches deep. I wish they were a little deeper, but I think they’re going to work just fine.
I planted out the tubs with a bunch of the seedlings I’ve had germinating for the last couple of weeks. Starting from the top left (with the bamboo sticks) I have: 1) sugar snap peas with two pinto beans, 2) beets, 3) okra and beets, 4) cucumbers and lettuce, 5) pinto and black beans, 6) spaghetti squash and cabbage. In the two black small pots are more peas and the little green pot has Walla Walla onions. There’s one more blue tub that isn’t shown, it has cabbage and carrots.
Last week I showed these plastic tubs that Kevin and I drilled holes in to use as planters. I took a picture right after we planted them and one a week later. They’ve grown so much, I decided to show you week three. I promise that by the end of the summer, you won’t have a string of 20 photos here! But this is super cool to me.
DAY ONE
DAY SEVEN
DAY FOURTEEN
Cool, right?
My City Picker is plugging right along. I planted some more radishes as I’ve picked them this week.
I bought these 5 and 10 gallon grow bags from Amazon this week. They’re relatively cheap, compared to plastic or (especially) terra cotta pots. Especially for how big they are. The 5 gallon size were 5 for $8 and the 10 gallon were 5 for $12. I just planted the seedlings from my germination kits into them, so it’ll be exciting to see how they look next week.
I’ve planted some small things — radishes, lettuce, short n’ sweet carrots, in the spaces between larger, more slowly growing plants. Otherwise, everything is pretty much planted now. I don’t have any more seedlings to put out.
I’m going to start some more cabbage this week. Birds . . . or something . . . ate some of the seedlings I planted in the grow bags.
Harvest Something
I’ve been posting pictures of my daily harvests to my Instagram page. You can follow me here.
Here are some of the harvests I gathered this week.
I wasn’t sure about picking the eggplant so small, but decided to see if it would help it to produce more. And the next day, this happened. Flowers!
I had at least a small harvest every day this week!
Preserve Something
I picked some zucchini (from the grocery store, for practice) and some jalapeños (from my garden!) The zucchini pickles turned out spectacular. I used this recipe.
I’ve picked basil nearly every day this week. Seems like the more I pick, the more grows. I made some Basil Walnut Pesto that turned out really, really well.
All I do is put a couple of handfuls of basil in the food processor and whirr it up. Then add walnuts and shredded parmesan cheese — maybe a quarter as much as the basil, but I just eyeball it. Whirr it up again. Then keep processing as I drizzle in some olive oil until the whole thing is the texture I want. Salt and pepper and voila. It’s impossible to mess up!
I just store it in a jar in the fridge.
Prep Something
I’ve got eight two liter bottles of water saved. I’ve been thinking about the whole water storage thing. Part of me thinks maybe it’s silly. What are the chances that I’m really, really going to find myself in a situation where I can’t get water.
I mean, we had a water main break a few weeks ago. So it happens. But we just had to run down to Wal-Mart and fill up water bottles. We don’t live in a place where weather issues are common — no tornados or hurricanes or that sort of thing. I’ve never experienced a serious water shortage that couldn’t be rectified easily at the store.
BUT. One of the times we went to fill up the water bottles, the machines ran out of water. And I live in wild fire country — they don’t normally come as far as Reno, but it’s possible. And I live in earthquake territory, too.
And I live in the desert. If I don’t water my plants at noon, they wilt. Seriously, they just droop. It’s so sad. That’s if I miss the noon water — even with a deep watering in the morning, they suffer. It’s dry here and there isn’t any of the wet stuff falling from the sky. Not really.
So, I’m going to store some water. Just in case. I can water my plants with it, if nothing else. We can use it to flush the toilets or wash the dishes. Whatever.
My compost pile is coming right along. I just toss my kitchen scraps on it and once or twice a week, Ruby gathers up some dried stuff and puts it on top.
Cook Something
I’ve gotten in the habit of just adding whatever veggies I’ve picked or have on hand that need to be eaten, to dinner. Extra tomatoes and bell peppers to the sauce, that sort of thing.
I made some eggs poached in tomato sauce this week that were a smash hit. I just sauteed some veggies (garlic, onion, peppers (sweet and hot), fresh tomatoes) then added this sauce and some canned chopped tomatoes.
I went back and stocked up on that sauce. I got it at Grocery Outlet for 99 cents.
Just let that simmer, then crack eggs into the sauce. Let them poach. Serve over rice. Yum!
Manage Your Reserves
I did week one of Countdown to Preparedness this week.
Food storage. Check.
Water storage. Check.
I’ve been adding $10 a week into my Stash acccount for several weeks. I’m up to $104.81.
And I spent some time figuring out where we’re starting from.
Work on Local Systems
I started posting Hyperbole Microfarm stuff on Instagram and it’s been super fun to see new people follow me!
We went out to the Carson City Fair this week. It was . . . interesting. The fair itself was pretty disappointing. We were practically the only visitors there. But — I did meet some 4H folks and got to talk to them about their rabbits and chickens and goats.
I saw these guys. And fell in love.
Other Stuff
I connected with my friend, Patty, who is a local realtor. She actually responded to a frustrated post I put on Facebook about the ridiculous cost of housing in Reno.
Anyway, she showed us a house this week. It’s not the house. But it was interesting anyway. It had an acre of land and a chicken coop and a huge apple tree in the backyard. It’s over priced — especially considering that it has potential, but that potential isn’t actually actualized yet.
It still gave me something to think about though. If we go twenty-minutes out of Reno, we could have a non-Urban Homestead. If we wanted to.
Operation Ruthless Declutter
This is my own category. I wrote about Operation Ruthless Declutter here. I thought this would be a good way to keep accountable.
This week, cleaned out the fridge — like completely emptied it. I also started to declutter my bedroom. Just plugging along.
Here’s my secret weapon for sticking with whatever your thing is.
Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She lives in Reno with her husband, three superstar kids, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation and the upcoming novel The Astonishing Maybe. She is the original Ninja Writer.
