The Weekly Digs #134

by Becky

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Cam and I took this weekend to take a little trip. We are on our way home now but it was great to get off the homestead for a little while. 

I realized we hadn’t done any traveling or vacations since last November. We have learned that all traveling needs to be done after the main growing season is over… so fall and winter traveling is what we do!

We stopped at an orchard stand on the side of the road on the way to our destination because they had a HUGE orchard behind the farm stand. I asked the employee if I could look at the orchard and she said, “Yes, but it doesn’t have any apples on the trees. We lost them all to the late frost this year.”

I replied by saying, “That is just fine with me. All I really want to do is look at how the trees are pruned!”

It’s funny that this ended up being the highlight of the trip for me. They also pressed their own apple cider and made it into an apple cider slush. It was delicious! 

Grape Vines were also around the orchard that we visited

Since I’m not at home, this week’s pictures are all coming from my phone so sorry about the blurriness.

In the Garden

Friends have been asking me, is the garden slowing down yet? Production has definitely slowed but I have been spending at least 3 hours a day working to get things cleaned up and cover crops planted. 

Cover crops I planed several weeks ago are filling in beautifully

Between the garden and finishing up our preserving for the year, I still feel super busy and like I am running around all the time. I am thankful for the little break this trip gave me and hopefully with winter coming soon, I’ll get a nice long recovery time.

We still have lots of  peppers coming in, lettuce, baby bok choy is almost ready, carrots, cilantro, basil, and green onions. 

The big harvest for the week was sweet potatoes! We weighed them and it was 165lbs. I think it will be perfect to last us through winter.

I cleared out my zinnias and buckwheat and planted winter rye, crimson clover, and oilseed radish in two and a half of my rows.

New area of cover crops just planted. I left a few Chinese cabbages that you see in the foreground. They are all that is left after the harlequin bugs attacked my newly planted Chinese cabbage.

Preserving 

We have been drying apples all week. I ran out of half gallon size mason jars and by a miracle Cam found me some more at a Walmart! 

I’ve had canning peppers on my to do list since last we but haven’t even started it yet. Next week hopefully!

This isn’t preserving but it was homemade and I took a picture so I’m putting it here 🙂
I made 2 huge batches of granola bars. They are so much cheaper and healthier when they are homemade. I’ve tried so many recipes. I liked but didn’t love this one (It’s Car Snack #3 from the book, The Homemade Pantry. I’m going to have to take some time and develop my own.

Homestead Projects

This past week Cam finished the driveway grading. It looks way better, even if it is a bit bumpy. The true test came on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday when it rained nonstop for three days! 

There was no huge runoff into our neighbors yard anymore and everything drained great! Wahoo! The only issue we ran into was that the dirt was still really soft so when you are driving on it wet, so it created some ruts. They aren’t huge but will needed to be raked over a bit.

But thanks to the rain, the dirt is more settled and packed now. Consequently, we are going to try and get on the list to get some dirty base gravel put down asap. There is no rain in the forecast this week.

I’ll share a picture of the finished product soon!

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3 comments

Wendy October 17, 2021 - 4:39 am

I can imagine being off the farm for a trip is refreshing, after what I have read it has been some year (with the new house and all). Will this be the first winter that you can refuel yourself? Think the neighbour will also be happy with the new gravelroad. We are expecting a lot of rain coming week. Living in the middle of bulbgrowing area and behind the coast we have a lot of canals and installations to controll the waterload.
Have a nice trip,
Wendy

Reply
Laurel M. October 24, 2021 - 9:33 pm

I’m glad you got to rest and play! You’ve worked SO HARD!! My goal was just a year’s worth of tomato products. I reached it, but needed all the tomatoes my family and neighbors would give me because 28 plants wasn’t enough for our family. I am completely impressed with you and your family.

Reply
theseasonalhomestead October 28, 2021 - 9:18 pm

Thank you so much! And great job to you too! That’s awesome.

Reply

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