Today's Update - 8 Sep 2014

Well we didn't finish with the dirt moving, hopefully will get that finished tomorrow assuming the weather cooperates.  It is looking good and I think we'll even be able to avoid having to put in a French drain to direct run off into the pond.  I'll have pics tomorrow if we get it finished.

Also, I've changed the posting settings on this blog.  You should be able to post "anonymous" now if for whatever reason your google ID isn't working or BlogSpot is having a migraine moment.  Hope this helps those that are having trouble posting comments here.

Someone said they were trying to imagine my yard.  ROFL.  We've lived in this house going on five years now and we've done more "taking out" than "putting in" as far as the yard goes.  We hadn't been in the house that long before we had to completely excavate and replace the septic field.  That required a lot of changes.  After that I had built raised beds and then dismantled them when I didn't have time to take care of a garden.  For us it was been more cost efficient and time effective for me to go to farmers' markets and u-picks than it has been to grow our own veggies.  We also had to dig out and get rid of some citrus trees that were almost a hundred years old that didn't survive the bad drought we had in this area for a couple of years ... clean the fences, clean out the pond and then change plans when we realized there was a huge difference between the pond during the drought and the pond during a normal year, trim trees, etc.  I do grow barrels of lettuce but that is because a couple of my daughters seem to be part rabbit and that stuff can get flaming expensive at the store not to mention inconvenient.  I go in for lettuce and wound up coming out with several additional items ... bad for the pocket book.

Our old house had a lot more edible landscaping and I am improving what we have at this house as time, finances, and weather allow.  We still own our old house but the people that have lived there haven't taken proper care of the landscaping and nothing is as healthy and producing as it used to be, not to mention the drought dealt a death blow to quite a bit of it (as did their kids and pets).  But that's life and I'm happy to have more scope for my plans here.  Life is a series of lessons ... just like I had to change my plans for our BOL because some of them were unrealistic I've also adjusted and changed plans for our primary location.  In addition to volume I've now added in the issue of nutritional impact.  What I mean by that is if I only have the capacity to take care of so many tress/shrubs/bushes what should those be that give the biggest bang for the buck ... enter the Barbados Cherry with its super high Vitamin C content, the papaya, the pineapples, the plaintains and bananas, the limes and lemons, prickly pears, etc.  Also enter in forage ... the apple snails from the swamp, the bamboo shoots, the dollar weed from the lawn, the swamp bunnies and squirrels when they get too numerous for my patience, etc.

Eventually I will finish rebuilding my garden and I will have my edible and defensive landscaping to the point that I'm content with it.  All of that takes time and money ... and energy and focus to do it the right way the first time around so you don't waste time and money.  I keep a 4" D-ring binder full of ideas and plans ... and that D-ring binder is just one of several on various subjects that I keep handy.  Filing cabinets are great but binders are more portable.  LOL.

I have managed to get some writing accomplished today ... Enjoy!

And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth
http://geekinherittheearth.blogspot.com/

Zombies Aren't Real ... Are They?!
http://zombiesarentrealarethey.blogspot.com/ 

Up On Hartford Ridge
http://uponhartfordridge.blogspot.com/

Larkspur in Eden
http://larkspurineden.blogspot.com/

There Is No Such Thing As A Thornless Garden
http://thornlessgarden.blogspot.com/

When All Doors Close
http://whenalldoorsclose.blogspot.com/

A Bunch of Wild Thyme
http://bunchofwildthyme.blogspot.com/

Enduring on the Lake
http://enduringonthelake.blogspot.com/

Mother Hen's Recipes
http://motherhensrecipes.blogspot.com/

The other thing that I've been doing but haven't mentioned is that after I did all of the pantry cleaning and reorganization I had some "orphan cans" of things that were like singles of an item; or, I had really super large cans of items that I'd purchased for another project that I never got around to ... like a #10 can of peaches that I was going to use to make peach butter or peach salsa.  Instead what I have been doing is dehydrating those items.  Below are some videos of drying commercially canned food.