A day in the life...

I have been so busy lately that I've not had much time to blog. At least two days a week, my time is not my own, for reasons esoteric (not all of my life is public, you know) but not entirely altruistic.  On those days, I have to be out of bed and making coffee by 4:30 a.m.  Oy.

The farmstead chores, housework, and miscellaneous woodland adventures get crammed into the remaining time.  Here's how today went:

Wake up.  Brush teeth. Throw on old jeans, t-shirt, jacket and boots.  A hat might've been a good idea. I'm lucky I didn't scare the chickens.  At least the sun was out.

Check bottom of drive for packages since the delivery driver is afraid to drive into the deep, dark, scary woods where chickens and geese could lurk, lying in wait to drop eggs on his head, or perhaps chase him with loose feathers for tortuous tickling.   Expecting the package yesterday, I left the gate open and even hovered near the front door.  Later, I found a Missed Delivery sticker on my mailbox with a request to sign permission to leave packages at the end of the drive, right by the road, a fifth of a mile from the house.  *sigh*

Feed and water critters.

Shower.

Coffee with Eöl, catch up on what has been going on with each other, and fend off several varied interruptions.  "We haven't seen each other since yesterday! I don't care if the house is on fire, stop bothering us!"

Check driveway again, just in case driver can't follow directions left with the less than helpful Customer Disservice Line, instructing him to leave packages at the gate.  Still nothing.  Mother Nature said she was just kidding with the sunshine, and it clouds up.

Bookkeeping.  Or, more accurately, manic chainsaw/machete/cream pie juggling.  No limbs lost or pie in face, always a good sign.

Schedule and re-schedule appointments for various maladies (not all mine).  I will eventually get to that orthopedic surgeon about my knee, I swear.

Bring in wood to fill fire rings.

Make lunch.

Wash ground cherries and put them in the dehydrator.

Check for packages again.  Hooray! They are here, and actually at the gate.  

Review homeschool work with Little Sis. Perfect, as usual!

Clean out chicken house.

Clean out goose house.

Clean out duck house.
     Between the rain and my insane schedule, the poultry houses were well past due for a cleaning.  The chicken house, which stays very dry, was full of some seriously dusty poo.  Dusty poo that puffed up as I cleaned, and landed on my skin, clothes, and hair.  The smell made me really glad that I didn't actually eat lunch. Little Sis (who helped immensely by fetching the clean hay) went on and on about how bad I smelled until I threatened to hug her and wallow my stink all over her skin, clothes, and hair.  Did I mention that farmsteading is quite glamorous?

Walk down driveway again, to get mail.  That makes almost two miles today, just going up and down the driveway.

I found this salamander while stacking wood.  Isn't he cute??

Stack firewood, in the rain. I absolutely cannot complain about stacking firewood.  I didn't have to cut it, haul it up the hill in the wheelbarrow, or split it with the ax.  Nope.  I  just have to stack it.  Did you know a cord of dry, seasoned hardwood weighs about 3500 lbs? (Thanks for that bit of firewood trivia, Colonel!)  Between stacking wood and doing laundry by hand, I have forearms that would put Popeye to shame.  Which reminds me:  if you've ever seen the movie Rob Roy, remember that scene when the skinny little fop manhandles the farm woman?  The farm woman that does her laundry on a friggin' rock??  As if.

Harvest basil.  I need to get all of the tender garden stuff harvested; we may have frost this weekend.  The rain stopped, but the clouds got bigger and thunder rolled.

Take another shower, for obvious reasons.  Use an entire bar of soap.

Eat dinner and work on this post.

Lock up critters for the night.

Do laundry.  Remember, this is by hand, so I can't really do much else while the laundry is being washed.

Hang laundry.

Do dishes.

Sweep and mop kitchen floor.

Finish up this post while I have a bedtime snack.

Fall into bed, exhausted.

How to save seeds.

This is something I'm asked fairly often, so hopefully this will be helpful.  This is the method that has worked best for me, after much experimenting.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 Step 1:  Select your nicest fruits and veggies for seed.

Make sure your selection is an heirloom or open pollinated variety, not a hybrid.  A hybrid is a cross of two or more other varieties; sometimes their seed is sterile, but most often you end up with one of the parent varieties.  Most of the fruits and veggies sold at grocery retailers are hybrid, so you'll want to avoid saving seed from those.  If you aren't already growing something, start with fresh seed.  Johnny's is a great source.

Step 2:  Gently remove the seeds from the fruit.

 Step 3:  I use these mini strainers for small seeds. 

They are very handy, and can usually be found pretty cheap.  I got mine in a two pack from the Dollar Tree. 

 For larger seeds, you can use a regular colander, or even a fry basket.

Step 4:  Because nothing is ever as easy as it should be, and gardening is messy business, seeds are usually covered in some type of slimy glorp.  Or maybe just something that wants to be tomato sauce when it grows up.  Either way, you'll want to rinse that off the seeds.

 Step 5:  As I said: Messy Business.  I push the slimy glorp through the sieve while rinsing.

 Step 6:  I place the strainer on a paper towel to drain, and place in a warm (but not over 90 degrees Fahrenheit) and dry location.  The kitchen counter works well for smaller seeds.  I put bigger stuff on a rack near the back of the wood stove, where it doesn't get very hot but does stay warm and dry.

Attach a label of some sort to your seeds!  

You may think you'll remember what they are, but all tomato seeds look alike.

 Step 7:  A lovely chunk  o' seeds!  Tomato seeds tend to darken as they dry, so don't let it worry you.
Crumble the seeds apart, gently, into a paper bag.

Step 8:  LABEL LABEL LABEL that bag!!!

I like paper bags for storing seeds.  Store in a cool, dry place for next year's garden. Or, store in the freezer for long term storage. 

This method works well for most fruit and veggie seeds.  Lettuce, radishes, rutabaga, and many others, produce their seed in a pod after flowering. For those, I let them dry on the stalk and then pick them, place in a paper bag, and label.

Beans, peas, and corn can also be saved by letting them dry on the vine/stalk, then storing in a cool, dry place.  Corn should be husked before storing.  Beans, in my experience, do just as well whether removed from the pod or not, as long as thoroughly dry.  Do not harvest dried seed when it's wet outside, unless you are going to let it dry thoroughly before storing.

 Flower seeds are pretty much the same.  The center of the flower is usually the seed head, and once the petals fall off and the seeds dry, they are easily collected.

Be sure to do a little research on whatever variety of seed you choose to save. Some seeds require stratification, which is simply a way of simulating the winter dormancy to stimulate germination.  For the most part, you won't have to worry about this with the basic veggie garden seeds.  Lettuce and strawberries are the only ones I can think of offhand that require stratification.  You can accomplish stratification by putting the seeds in seed starting mix, in a bag, in the fridge or freezer (be sure to research the time and temps for each type of seed).  When you order seeds, the packet should say if stratification is necessary. In most cases, it's been done for you.  If you choose to store your seeds in the freezer, you don't have to worry about stratification.

There are other seeds that require almost no work at all.  Tomatillos, for instance, tend to volunteer all over the place.  I have about 30 plants this year, and I didn't plant any of them. Either they volunteered, or the garden gnomes were very busy this spring.  To save those seeds, I just leave a few fruits outside.  The fruit part rots away, and the husk makes a neat net to hold the remaining seeds.  I'm hoping for the same results with ground cherries (husk cherries), but as I've never saved those seeds before, I'm trying both methods to ensure viable seed for next year.

Remember, not every seed you save will be viable, which is why plants produce so many of them.  Save more than you think you'll need, just to be sure you have enough.  If you end up with extra plants, you can always share them with friends.

ETA: I use the paper towel method (see comments) for tiny seeds that would slip through the strainer, like ground cherries, sweet pea tomatoes, tomatillos, etc. For bigger items, I prefer the strainer just to cut down on the fruit flies and smell of old produce. 

Cozy

The first fire of the season!  Already?  I can't believe it!  Generally, it's the first week of October before we have a fire going.  But the rain has us all feeling damp and chilly, so a fire was just what we needed to make the house cozy again.

We've been so busy lately that today seems like real down-time.  I'm still in my warm flannel pj pants.  (No, I don't wear them in public.  When did that become acceptable outerwear, anyway?  I even saw a guy in Kroger one day in his bathrobe!  I'm not one for dressing up, but geez, put some pants on before you go to the store!!)  I didn't have to be anywhere this morning, which was a blessed change.  I don't have anyone coming by for any reason today, which is also a wonderful change.  There's no canning to do right away, and it's pouring rain, so no working in the garden either.  I tell you, it feels positively luxurious!

I hope to catch up a few posts here and there over the next few days.  Today, I'm making zucchini bread and putting the last of the zucchini, shredded, in the freezer.  I'm going to sit on the couch and peel ground cherries to put in the dehydrator. Then I'll tidy the house and do some laundry, which will be sure to dry with the fire going.  I can't tell you how thrilled I am about that!!

Speaking of laundry:  For the person that was wondering if you could get your deer hunting clothes clean in baking soda, the answer if yes!  You can also use white vinegar to rid your laundry of any odors.  The Fels Naptha soap is great for removing odors and stains, as well.  Also, Eöl has discovered that the best scent cover is just to smoke your clothing.  You can just build a small wood fire outside and put the clothes in the smoke.  The longer you leave them, the stronger the smell will be.

I'm tossing in a Michael Franti cd, and headed for the couch to rest my knee (long story) and work on those ground cherries.  More posts soon!

Laundry Challenge Update

This is probably the perfect week for an update on my laundry challenges.

First, there was the Dryer Challenge.  I've been over a year without one, and it's only weeks like this that I consider getting another.  Well, it's a passing thought, anyway, because I know the sun will shine again soon.  Right now, however, I have a huge, menacing pile of laundry just waiting for that sunshiny day.  The dirty socks keep trying to crawl out of the hamper and into the hallway...

Yes, I manage to dry laundry indoors all winter.  But now, with the temp too low for a/c and too high for heat, the laundry just sort of hangs there, plotting a coup and feigning boredom.  I use a fan, which helps a lot, but it still takes at least 12 hours for stuff to dry.  Fortunately, weeks like this are few and far between.

Then there was the Washer Challenge.  Things are going surprisingly well on that front.  I don't know if I'd mentioned the lint problem I was having.   I thought it was just my brand of washing machine, but after asking around, I found a lot of people have that problem. The solution, of course, is to use a dryer, or a case of duct tape.  Not an option here.  The lint from the towels was pretty annoying, dusting the living room overnight when I'd hang a load to dry by the wood burner.

Once I started hand washing all of our laundry, my lint problem disappeared!  Even the towels are lint free.  A major plus for hand washing, in my book.

Another thing I noticed is that my line dried laundry is no longer "crunchy".  In fact, my family thought I'd been using fabric softener, since everything felt so fluffy and soft.  It could be that hand washing uses less detergent, or that the rinse is more efficient. Or it could be that the "convenience" of a washer means you need a dryer for lint removal, and fabric softener for comfy clothes.  Most likely a conspiracy, cooked up by bored towels and lonely socks.

All things considered, I'm pretty happy with the Laundry Challenge.  Of course the current challenge - keeping that growing pile from spilling out of the laundry room for another day - is something else entirely. If no one hears from me for a week or more, you can safely assume I was overthrown and am being held prisoner by an army of dirty socks.

Chatting about the weather

Saturday was hot.  So hot that we had heat index warnings and were sweating just sitting still.  A fitting day for the last weekend of summer.

Sunday rolled in wet and chilly.  Monday was more of the same.  Yesterday, even chillier and wetter. Today, yes, you guessed it: wet and cold.  Ok, it's in the low 60's, but I'm freezing my toes off in here.

I think the damp is the worst part. It's not cold enough to turn on the heat; it's not hot enough to turn on the a/c.  Either of those would help with the dampness indoors.  It's just....well...ick.

Just last week, I'd have loved a rainy day to catch up on inside chores.  I guess I should be careful what I ask for, huh? lol  I am trying to catch up the housework today. Tomorrow, rain or shine, I'll tidy up outside a bit and pick produce to be canned the following day.  (I'm not sure what day it is; it's been a crazy week.)

I know I promised a Bug Out Bag post, and I'm working on it.  I kind of got sidetracked with the canning, the holiday weekend, and this, the most hectic of weeks.

We had a lot of projects we wanted to do over the three day Labor Day weekend.  Instead, we got a lot of resting done.  Eöl and I have been exhausted lately.  He's working overtime, and we have a lot of stuff going on around the farmstead right now, so we both feel that we've been run ragged.  Add the weather, which is perfect for snuggling and sleeping, and you can see how that's about all we accomplished.

In fact, I could use a nap right now. *yawn*