Two Blogs, too much!

Hi,
Unfortunately having two blogs is a little too much for me to keep up, but I'll still be writing about homesteading and  other stuff on my other blog, You can check it out HERE.

Thank you so much for stopping by :)   

Independence Days part deux

Anyone coming over from my family blog, Kozy Kabin in the Koots , Welcome!

So, not much action on here since my initial post about the outline, oops! My best excuse is that it has still been pretty wintery around here, even more than usual here, north of the 49th parallel ( we had 3-4 inches of new snow yesterday and my kids are on spring break!) But, there really shouldn't be any excuses so lets start fresh this week and I'll share the piddly amount of things I've done so far this week :)

Plant Something: started some seedlings of tomatoes (both cherry and non) and some broccoli and leeks as well.
Harvest Something: Nada

Preserve Something: Nada

Waste not: Hmmm we're down to a half a bag of garbage a week for five of us if that counts :) also been working on compost plans

Want not: working on adding to my collection of canning jars, need a new hoe :)

Eat the food: finished last of the canned pears

Build community food systems: I'm working on becoming part of our local grain CSA.

Skill up: worked on my pruning skills as I pruned apple and pear trees and rosebushes

Anyone else planning to take up the challenge? Anyone else still at least ankle deep in snow?  We're going to MIL's (mother in law's) house to visit and meet some new little lambs and her new flock of chickens :)  Have a great weekend!   

The Independence Days Challenge

Hello! And welcome to my new blog! If you have joined me here from my other blog Kozy Kabin in the Koots thanks for coming to have a look around and if you have come here directly, you can check out our family blog mentioned above.

Some of you have seen me mention the name Sharon Astyk before as I've read two of her books Independence Days and Depletion and Abundance. I so admire this woman and I love following her blog The Chatelaine's Keys. As a fellow woman and mother (she has four boys) I really feel a kinship to her and like her outlook on the future of our planet and continent. Well maybe not the outlook so much as her ideas in how to help this poor planet of ours.
So, when I saw her post a few weeks ago about the Independence days challenge I felt excited and determined to join in the challenge. Therefore, every Friday (I hope) I will be documenting my results of the week, planned out in the following format (copied from Mrs. Astyk's blog)


"The whole idea is to get the positive sense of your accomplishments – it is easy to think we haven’t done anything to move forward, but in fact, we all do, almost every day.  We just think of accomplishment as a big thing – a whole day spent putting up applesauce or a hundred tomato plants.  The Independence Day project makes us count our little accomplishments and see that we are moving forward.  So for each week, tell us what you have done in the following categories:

Plant something: A lot of us were trained to think of planting as done once a year, but if you start seeds, do season extension and succession plant, you’ll get much, much more out of your garden, so I try and plant something every day from February into September.

Harvest something: Everything counts – from the milk and eggs you get from your animals to the first dandelions from your yard to 50 bushels of tomatoes – it all counts.

Preserve something: Again, I find preserving is most productive if I try and do a little every day that there is anything, from the first dried raspberry leaves and jarred rhubarb to the last squashes at the end of the season.

Waste not: Reducing food waste, composting everything or feeding it to animals, reducing your use of disposables and creation of garbage, reusing things that would otherwise go to waste, making sure your preserved and stored foods are kept in good shape – all of these count.

Want Not: Adding to your food storage or stash of goods for emergencies, building up resources that will be useful in the long term.

Eat the Food: Making full and good use of what you have, making sure that you are getting everything you can from your food, trying new recipes and new cooking ideas, eating out of your storage!

Build community food systems: What have you done to help other people have better food access or to make your local food system more resilient?

And a new one: Skill up:  What did you learn this week that will help you in the future – could be as simple as fixing the faucet or as hard as building a shed, as simple as a new way of keeping records or as complicated as making shoes.  Whatever you are learning, you get a merit badge for it – this is important stuff."

So what do you think? Think you would like to join the challenge too? Are you as concerned about our planet as I am?