What did you do to prepare today?

[fogswamp]

I got my winter garden a little more "weather proof" and canned a batch of chicken thighs. Also starting my knowledge journey of saving seeds......

[Farside]

It's been -20C to -25C up here in Canada recently so everything's frozen solid. Not much snow either which is concerning because it means a lot of plant and animal deaths without that snowpack for insulation. Hungry wolves too because they rely on a deep snowpack to slow down the deer. We've had a few sightings in town recently, the first in years. In this part of the country they still spray roundup over the forests to kill off all the broad leaf "junk species" because they supposedly compete with the timber species for nutrients and sunlight. They dosed the forests a few years back, and so all the berries died, the nut trees, and birch. The effects are making their way up the food chain. The first to go were the rodents and other small critters who ate the seed, nuts, and fruit. Later that winter we had a lot of lynx come into town looking for food. This year it seems to be the wolves. I hear the deer have been hit hard out in the countryside, and so the wolf come in after the suburban deer whose numbers are out of control.

I'm making my two oldest children (11 and 8) bows for xmas out of 1/2'' pvc pipe. I'm making myself one too out of 1'' pvc pipe. It's about time they learned some skills that might just come in handy one day. I was watching that guy Lars Andresen:


I did quite a bit of traditional archery when I was young, and I'm thinking of starting the kids out using his technique. It would be fantastic for hunting with.
And when hunting in the forest, you can do more with a bow than you can with a rifle:

[8greenbeans]

Who boy it's been a bit since I've posted here. Lots of family stuff was happening and I simply has very little online presence during it all.
I finally got my goals for year typed out and started on! I've started seeds for the greenhouse winter garden, gotten the first layer ready for potatoes next month, some bottle "pots" have been attached to the side of one bin, lots of clean up from emptying the greenhouse earlier, wood chips have been delivered and I've spread about 3 of the 22 yards in the coops so far. We were gifted with meat rabbits this past Sunday so are in the process of building tractors for them. Yay for jumping into something brand spanking new right off the bat! I've been working in an almost frenzy outside while we've had mild dry weather. Freezing and more wet weather is rapidly approaching. While I will certainly work outside in the freezing temps (at the bare minimum I've gotta care for the animals) - it's certainly more enjoyable when it's not freezing!

[Tom Kleffman]

Seed and food inventories. We have done our own food for over 10 years, but knowing exactly what we have, where we are, what seeds are not worth saving (due to age) and should be converted to food (beans or corn) or just garbaged and replaced (onions, herbs, biennials) or grown out for new seed (I have a lot of varieties of short/cold season tomatoes, corn, beans and squashes. More than I can grow in a typical year, but dont want to lose the varieties).

[anomalous howard]

Although a sensitive topic, began working on my marksmanship today.

[Farside]

Today we cracked this year's batch of sauerkraut. It's awesome.

Every year when cabbage is on sale, I make 2 1/2 gallons of sauerkraut which is about 3 large cabbages. I don't use a recipe, but I put more salt in than recipes call for.
I slice up cabbage, put it in the pail, sprinkle salt on it, then crush it with a wooden 2X2. Layer more cabbage, sprinkle salt, crush and so on until the pail is full.

It takes about 2 weeks to a month to complete fermenting, and the batch lasts us a year without refrigeration. the pail just sits in the basement where it's cool and dark.

We keep a glass jar in the fridge for convenience, and when I transfer it over from the bulk container I squeeze the juice out (leaving it in the bulk container) and place the kraut in the glass jar. When it's full, I fill it with fresh filtered water, put the lid on, give it a shake to dilute the salt, and put it in the fridge.

Near the end of the year, the kraut takes on a brown appearance and tastes like you've added soy to it. It's still crunchy and tasty. The fresh stuff is zingy, crunchy, and tastes more like salted cabbage.

[Storm]

Planted the first of two bare root pear trees. Part of my ongoing conversion from lawn to home food forest.

[vonik2]

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