What Homesteading Activity Did You Do Today?

[flowerbug]

i've been getting some bean gardens planted and trying to also get some weeding done on top of projects. too busy as usual this time of the year but i would rather be gardening than doing anything else which is why i'm here.

[steev]

Right. I got into gardening at five with my Grandad and it's what I do, as a business (41 tears) and in my time off; I once went on a weekend to Lake Tahoe with my sweetheart and some other folks; somebody asked her what hobbies I have; she was stumped! I don't golf or play bridge, hunt or fish, or watch sports; I garden, cook (remember, I was a bench chemist, all same as a cook, broadly process-wise), and read. My life is full enough, IMHO; do I care if it looks impressive?; I don't give a husky!

[flowerbug]

i love gardening, i just wish my body could keep up with what i'd like to do. it is good exercise and i like having good food in return. besides gardening i do like cooking and reading and messing around on computers but i've largely given up on keeping up with whatever is currently popular. with the library being closed the past few months it's been a challenge, some on-line reading worked, but i really do like a good in the hand thick book. i've read the dictionary or encyclopedias when nothing else was available. i have a good collection of non-fiction books here but for some reason i just can't get into them that much. they are mostly survivalist and just in case the end of civilization types of books, like basic metal working or the encyclopedia of veteranarian medicine and such, old biology, chemistry, physics, texts. t.v. is not something i watch very often either.

[steev]

Reading the dictionary...; that's mostly how I learned to read: Webster's Unabridged, 1934 edition (my sweetheart has a copy; we're obviously meant to be!); we didn't have many books, but that was a big sucker, so there was always something new and it had interesting pictures even when I couldn't read. My TV broke ten years ago; I bought a new one; haven't un-boxed it yet; I'd only used it as a monitor for a DVD/VCR for years; broadcast TV is such crap, I'd rather watch paint dry; at least it doesn't have a laugh track for those who don't know what's s'posed to be funny. I often watch clips on my 'puter from netflix, HBO, and youtube. I have a huge collection of DVDs and VCRs, as well as two never-un-boxed combo players (don't want my VCR collection to be obsoleted and unusable), so off-grid, asocial living, here I come!

[reed]

I used to like going to town with my older sister when she went to the laundry mat. I guess she didn't like the way mom did laundry. The library was 1/2 a block away, they had big reclining chairs and big rows of encyclopedias, it was great.

Just started a book I got at a yard sale for a quarter, an historical account of the era of oil fueled battleships, called "Castles of Steel". About 1500 pages so it'll do for a little while.

I watch some TV but was never all that into it, I was six or seven when we got one so guess I missed out on the early indoctrination.

[diane]

Early indoctrination? Back in the late 40s someone a couple of miles away had TV and all the kids in the neighbourhood were welcome to watch after school when there was a program - Howdy Doody I think. Most of the time there was just a test pattern, but we'd watch that for a while, too.

[steev]

I rarely had access to TV until I was 13; prior to that , the only program I really liked was "Crusader Rabbit"; in my stoner twenties my fave was "Rocky and Bullwinkle" and their associated cartoons.

From eight to twelve, The town library had a small separate room for kids under ten, of limited interest; once I was allowed into the main library, I discovered a collection of bound volumes of National Geographic in six-month increments; I started in 1914 and read every article through to 1956.

[reed]

I think I was five or six when we got one but I don't recall being very interested. I did also liked "Rocky and Bullwinkle" "Boris and Natasha" Buggs Bunny" and all his cohorts. Never cared for Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck much.
One night in 1962 the "Twilight Zone" was on and the Ohio River was simultaneously creeping up in the yard. The yard was real flat and dad had a lot of fruit trees, I could literally watch the water getting closer to the house and kept saying we needed to leave but dad said it was OK. Sometime in the middle of the night my older brother carried my sister and I through waist deep water out to the road.
My brothers and I got to live in the hay loft of my grand parents barn for a couple weeks, it was great.

[steev]

Disasters are often worse for adults than for kids.

[flowerbug]

yeah, the earliest memories i have are living in the basement with funnel clouds going over. being the youngest it was rare i could watch what i wanted. the Addams Family and the Munsters were two i liked more than most others. just silly stuff. i much more was into reading.

outside i've been getting the north garden (outside the fence) weeded and planted. today will be the last of bean planting for the season. have to get the strawberries picked through today too. this is the time when things get easier for me once things are planted the scramble to get things done is over and i can then just do the more routine weeding and finish up whatever i can of the various projects i have going. fence, restack bricks for a bit of a wall, the pallet project... always plenty to keep busy with...

most of what i have planted has been coming up ok so that is good.

also good to see multiple bumblebees on the bunching onions. almost had a good picture of four of them within a short distance of each other but by the time i got the camera they'd moved apart. i still did get some shots of two bumblebees on one flower head so i hope that turns out ok. will look at them some evening.

[Dewdrop]

I finally gave my garden row a through weeding. I planted some bush beans with my corn plants and Wando peas near my 'cattle panel' trellis.

[xdrix]

I have created a box of seedling for stocked all my seeds collection.

[synergy]

Swept my loft , hauled fresh hay to my rabbit cages to keep them warm as we get some arctic weather heading our way here in coastal British Columbia . The less than fresh hay I shoved in a black plastic bag along with pulled mint and ivy as insulation for the worms we added to our compost bin . We had finished fishing so added our worm farm into the compost bin, hoping to start up our successful worm farm again next year so we have them readily on hand for fishing , we started with 36 worms , end result was about a thousand

I ordered a Jiro early persimmon and a bareroot apricot tree for spring planting . I also have a small order of Dahlia bulbs coming which I have never planted before but I look forward to adding more blooming things before I ever plan to get bees, and it was supporting a local farm . I also bought a book called Grow Your Own Tea , The Complete Guide to Cultivating, Harvesting and Preparing, as I sit here in snow dreaming of finding Sochi tea shrubs locally here to buy as they and a few more walnut are still on my wish list . I am sure TO DO Lists and Wish Lists are homesteading activities in winter

[flowerbug]

you can keep worms in five gallon buckets indoors. very simple to do, just use an old t-shirt to cover it to keep the bugs from getting in or out and feed them once in a while and check for enough moisture. once a year i take mine out to the gardens and then restart the buckets keeping back about 1/5 of the worms.

www.anthive.com/project/worms/

[xdrix]

The apricot tree is very sensitive at the freez at the flowering.Each years, the flowers fallen for me.I have put my apricot tree toward a bamboo wall for protected of the wind.The bamboo did of shadow but the flowering is more late,in same time that a peach tree at full sun.