The First Days of Fall

Hello, friends.   Last week, I harvested the first eggplant, and stir fried them in homemade plum sauce, our garlic and green onions, which we enjoyed over brown rice.  While in town for groceries, I stopped by two thrift stores, where I found two canisters for my shop, and a piece of slate wall decor for our skoolie.  I made a stop by the library, and picked up three books.  With some leftover sweet potatoes, I made two pies, one GF for me.  I gathered bachelor button and rudbeckia seeds to save.  Two quart bags of banana and aloe bits were blended with water, which made several quarts of fertilizer, to feed a number of plants.  I wiped down shelves that will hold winter squash and sweet potatoes with vinegar solution.  I watched what I thought would be my last Netflix movie, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, which was lovely, but they ended up shipping the last movie on my list, which had been saying "very long wait" until then. 

 

J & I planted our lettuce seedlings, along with swiss chard and chive seedlings he bought this week.  He gathered some of our pile of chicken manure to add to the raised bed.  We also planted seeds of carrots, mixed greens and beets, which pretty much finishes our fall planting.  On Sunday, I noticed the greens were already coming up.  My favorite garden basket had started coming apart around the handle, so I mended it with a combination of T-shirt and leather strips.  Hopefully, that will extend it's life a long time.  Bananas were frozen that were about to get too ripe.  We're in that in between place, where we're using neither a/c or heat, and able to be open most of the time.  A simple, seasonal pleasure. 

I finally got around to cleaning and braiding the garlic.  There was some rot, which I'd rather not have seen.  Some heads had to be totally composted, but in the ones that were partial heads, I saved the good cloves, cut them thinly, and dehydrated them for powder.  Celery with it's leaves was also dried, and while the dehydrator was going, I harvested mint, and dried it for tea.  A batch of golden paste was made for the pups.  One dinner, I made pasta sauce with our tromboncino, tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil and rosemary, along with a jar of our tomato juice.  Another night, I made my Mom's lentil soup, using a jar of homemade broth and our onions and potatoes, and sloppy joes with home canned lentils and broth, onions and garlic were made another dinner.

I'm loving the current variety of purple, pink and blue flowers.  We had some cooler days, with highs of 72 and 69.   To add a little heat to the house, the first day, I put bags of vegetable scraps on to simmer, and canned up broth the next.  There are still very few birds, but I did see the first one bathe in the new birdbath, which was pretty exciting.  Another suet cake molded, so I gave it a break for a few days, and scrubbed the suet feeder and other feeders, while they were empty.  Harvests this week included muscadines, figs, pawpaws, cucumbers, yellow squash, eggplant, a tiny tromboncino, and tomatoes.  Pawpaws were brought to a neighbor who loves them, and others were offered some.  A couple of soap shop orders came in over the weekend, for which I'm always thankful.  These cooler fall days are giving me energy to do lots of little tasks on my to do list.  Many wishes for a most enjoyable week!

A Little Skoolie Progress

 

This will be a short post on the skoolie progress.  We were able to get both of the armoires in place, and Joseph nailed beadboard to the piece of bedroom wall next to them.  He also boxed in the area at the lower right of the armoires, to accommodate some of the wheel well.  We're thinking we'll use that small area for a broom closet.

He built a wall just inside the door, put up beadboard, and stubbed in the wiring for the outdoor light and the living space lights.  He's worked on it some more today, but I don't have any pics yet, so that will wait until the next post.  Until then.

GF Tortillas, A New Birdbath & A Trip To The City

Hello, friends.   While walking with the pups last week, I gathered chanterelles, and added them to our sloppy joes that night. Laundry was dried on the line.  Chanterelles gathered later in the week were dried.  Tomato paste was canned, likely the last of the season.  I experimented with doing one canner load of dry canned potatoes, some cut for fries, and others cubed.  They're soaked in water before canning in a pressure canner, and there's enough residual liquid to leave an inch or so in the jars.  It's just that no additional liquid is added, as the typical instructions state.  I researched it, and what convinced me to give it a try was a woman who had gotten lab tests on jars after two years on her shelf, and of course, all was well.  It's said they taste more like fresh than the traditional way of canning, which is what I was curious about.  We tried out a jar of the fries, and honestly couldn't tell any difference from ones that were canned the usual way, so unless the cubed ones are something special, I won't be repeating it.  

New mug from Tom Gray & tea ball from Brightside Gallery NC

On a more positive note, I bought more garbanzo bean flour, and tried the full recipe of GF tortillas that Daisy shared.  They worked great, now that I had all the ingredients.  They're a keeper, and much better than any store bought ones I've tried, not to mention much cheaper.  I'm happy to be able to have tortillas again.  They were used for bean burritos, and The Prudent Homemaker's spanish rice was made as a side, both of which used our tomatoes and onions.  The birdbath/fountain I asked J for was based on a design of bird expert Julie Zickefoose.  We happened to set it up at a time that's normally a lull for bird watching, as there's plenty in the wild for birds to eat at the moment.  There have been many days in the past three weeks when I haven't seen one bird, other than hummingbirds, and the past two suet cakes have gone moldy, where I had been filling the suet feeder every day or two.  In any case, I trust they will return, and began seeing and hearing a few on Friday.  I hope they'll soon find the new birdbath.  It's so pretty, and has the most wonderful, calming sound.

Almost all of the basil was harvested.  Most of it was chopped, and frozen with water in ice cube trays, to add to sauces.  The little bit remaining was made into pesto.  All laundry was dried on the line.  I don't often think to mention much of the usual things we do, such as using homemade soap and deodorant, using cloth napkins, putting kitchen scraps in the broth bag or the compost bin, and shredding paper and thin cardboard for the chicken's nest boxes or compost.  Almost all of the raised beds in the garden have been left to their own devices since spring.  It hasn't been a stellar year in the garden, in many ways.  I cleaned out two of the raised beds for planting, and brought the chickens what I had pulled out.  More beds need to be cleaned out, and amendments added.  I harvested almost all the butternut squash and melons, because the vines had died, not because they were truly ripe.  Another example of how the '23 garden has gone.  During the week, cucumbers, figs, yellow squash, pawpaws and tomatoes were harvested, for which I'm thankful.  J has been asking for fig bread, and some was made for him on Friday, with extra to freeze.  It was such a gorgeous day, and the first day we were able to leave the house open all day.  It's the first time it was cool enough I could think of baking something.  The beginning of cozy season.

Saturday morning, J dug the sweet potatoes, and I gathered them into the wheelbarrow.  We got a somewhat decent harvest, despite some of them having holes chewed in them.  He then mowed the same area of the garden, tilled it, and planted collard seedlings.  He also transplanted volunteer kale seedlings I'd marked in the garden.  I've been meaning to say that we now know four out of seven of the chicks are roosters.  Sigh.  This is the very reason we stopped letting broody hens sit on eggs here, and bought chicks.  Of course, the last time we bought chicks, we were promised two RI Red hens, and they ended up being game birds... one hen and one rooster.  But, by the time we knew the game hen had been sitting on a nest this year, it had been several days, and we didn't have the heart to stop the process at that point.  Stinging nettles were cut back, to encourage another harvest.  A dear friend and I drove to dinner and a concert in Charlotte Saturday.  It's a great little venue, and was a thoroughly lovely evening.  It seemed a perfect way to wind down these last days of summer.  On Sunday, our dinner was totally homegrown, with one of last year's sweet potatoes, last year's frozen collards, and canned crowder peas.  Our onion, garlic, homemade broth and red pepper flakes were used for seasoning, so only the olive oil and salt were not produced here.  It's always a great feeling, when we can accomplish that.  Eat well, friends, and many wishes for a lovely Fall Equinox.

A Ceiling, A Wall & A Fridge For The Skoolie

 

I requested that Joseph make a priority of getting the two armoires in place in the bus, as they've been in my studio where the largest house plants sit, when they come in for the cold weather.  I begin bringing the more tropical plants in, like the lemons and avocado, when the lows dip below 50.  We're already getting lows in the 50's, so it probably won't be long.  We got the first two ceiling panels hung in the skoolie, which you can see above.  We chose to use maple plywood for the ceiling.

He then put up the bedroom partition wall, and the wall behind the armoires.  We've chosen beadboard for the walls.  The two armoires will fill in the space on the left, between the wall partition and the door.  They'll need to be cut out on the back and bottom to accommodate the wheel well and the power supply.  

Joseph has been looking for a fridge for a while now.  He had actually ordered a new one on Walmart a couple of months ago, which was a great deal, but then received a message they were unable to fulfill the order🙄.  He found this one on FB Marketplace.  It had been used only 8 months, and was $225, though she paid $470 earlier this year.  It's 10 cu ft., which we're hoping will be large enough for us, and all our produce.  He gave up on the gifted Sunfrost fridge, as it would take more money than he already has in it to get it running, and it's really too large for our space as well.  The black fridge matches our sink.  The RV stove is off-white, so we may end up painting it to match.  We're rolling right along.

Harvests & Plantings

Hello, friends.  Last week, I canned another round of tomato sauce.  We weren't eating the last of the cherries, so I turned them into a jar of cherry lime jam for a gift, and canned it while all the equipment was out, and the water was still hot.  Spicy cucumber chips were made for a dinner.  I harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, pawpaws, figs, and cantaloupes.  We sent pawpaws home with a couple of visitors.  I gathered seeds for evening primrose, calendula, cosmos, and marigolds.  My birthday was last week.  J wanted me to go with him to pick up beadboard and maple plywood at Lowes for the skoolie.  I asked to go by a nearby flower farm, where we got two types of lettuce, chard, collard and purple broccoli seedlings, several packets of seeds, yellow and yellow/pink cannas, and a couple of water lettuce for the birdbath/fountain J made me for my birthday.  I'll try to take a pic of it soon, to share here.  It's wonderful.  I used the Amish method to start two types of tomatoes for next year, as it worked so well this year.  Lemongrass and homegrown lemon balm and lemon verbena were used to make iced tea.

One night, J requested rice and beans for supper.  I pulled a bag of our crowder peas from the freezer for him, but decided to use up some cabbage and mushrooms in a stir fry for myself, and added our zucchini and garlic, plus carrots.  Not long ago, I found a stir fry sauce recipe I like, so used that.  We've been opening the house up whenever it was cool enough at night, sometimes not until 4am, but it looks like we'll be able to open at bedtime from here on out.  We both sleep much better with windows open.  Egg production has seemed very low lately, as in none or one in a day sometimes, but then I saw where at least three different hens, based on the colors, had laid five eggs under their teepee "safe space" in their yard.  That's a first.  Several are molting, which always affects egg production.  I'm adding several spoonfuls of powdered milk to their mash, to up their protein, and help encourage new feathers.  I continue using bits of this and that for their mash.  This week, I opened a jar of mustard green beans, which neither of us can eat now, so I've been chopping a bit each day and adding it.  They always come running, when they see me coming with the bucket.

The pups were bathed in the outdoor shower, with homemade dog soap, on the last day in the 90's.  J wanted chicken and noodles on a night he was feeling under the weather.  I pulled a container of curried butternut squash soup from the freezer to have for my dinner.  With harvested basil and a small amount of purslane, I made pesto, using our garlic. I also made some cashew parmesan, some of which was added to the pesto.  On a recent supplement/grocery purchase, I used a promo code for 15% off, and went through Swagbucks, receiving 4% back.  We finally have some tiny eggplant growing in the garden.  Hallelujah!   Just as it was beginning to rain, we planted the purple broccoli and two of the chard seedlings, as well as the two cannas.  J also dug a clump of the canna we already have, and put it in the same area.  We hope next year will be a kinder one to our garden and plants.  Be well, friends.  

 

Skoolie Kitchen & Bathroom Progress

 

We recently figured out the kitchen layout.  I originally wanted an L shape, with the stove turned, but we realized the oven couldn't go far enough past the cabinets to allow the oven door to open, without being too far into the walkway, so they'll be in a line instead.  The sink will be placed so I can look out the window.  In every place I've lived as an adult, I've had a window at the kitchen sink, which I feel is one of life's little pleasures.  So much time is spent there, how much nicer it is to look out at nature, rather than have to stare at a wall.  The refrigerator and our dining table will be across on the other side of the bus. 

Here's a view of the bathroom.  The foreground will be the shower.  It will be flush with the driver's side, and the corner in the middle of the photo will be a storage area.  The sink will be to the right of the toilet.  You can just see the hole he cut out for the fan, in the upper middle.  Joseph has done more framing, put up more insulation in the ceiling and walls, and has been changing out some hoses with much higher quality ones, as well as adding in some stainless steel pipe.  I spent time cleaning up and vacuuming.  We're moving right along.

Simple Days

Hello, friends.  Last week, we incorporated the chicks in with the flock.  It was a surprisingly easy transition.  Not to say perfect, but pretty smooth as these things go.  I canned tomato sauce twice, and made black bean burgers, using our onions and garlic, red pepper flakes and homemade lemon pepper.  Leftover burgers were frozen for another two meals.  I harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, pawpaws, two pears, and figs.  The pears were on our smallest pear tree, and we hadn't noticed them before, so that was a nice surprise.  I brought a bunch of pawpaws to my massage therapist, and froze several batches of pulp.  We bought seedless watermelons for $3.99 ea. 

A small amount of organizing and decluttering was done in two areas.  Though not a lot, I'm considering every little bit progress.  While checking on the melons, I found a small cantaloupe that was off the vine, so it was brought indoors.  We had it a few days later, just a few bites for each of us.  All the various squash and melons seem to be at a standstill in the garden, as far as growth at the moment.  The coming week calls for temps in the mid-90's, so we'll see what that brings.  Thankfully, it seems we'll cool back into the 80's after that for some time.  All laundry was dried on the line.

This feeder has obviously had a hard season, but I'll scrub it up before storing it for the cold months.  We've noticed organic potatoes have not been available in stores this week.  As that's one of the things I can eat in abundance, it's a bit concerning.  Almost all the potatoes we planted in the grow bags died, so we don't expect there to be much if any potato harvest on the homestead.  Our cabbage and broccoli plants have a new pest, which was ID'd as a harlequin cabbage bug.  Hopefully, we can keep ahead of them.  On Sunday, my sister and her husband met us at a local winery in the evening, then we headed to have dinner, as part of my birthday celebration.  Wishing you a gentle week ahead.  Take care, friends.

Framing & Insulating the Skoolie

 

Joseph has been hard at work on the skoolie, installing lots of insulation, and framing out the bedroom, bathroom and beyond.  I had a photo of the bathroom, but it's disappeared, so next time I guess.  He nailed up the cedar accent wall in the bedroom, and placed the headboard.  Between the mattress, and cabinets on the upper wall, less of the cedar will be visible.

You can see the upper framing of the corner of the bathroom, and the insulation he's installed in the center and driver's side ceiling.  He's also insulated and put in almost all the subfloor. 

Our quality control team was on board, to make sure everything was up to snuff.  A friend gave us a Sun Frost fridge, which has been unused for ten years.  When I first began learning about homesteading in the 80's, it was the go-to fridge, being the most efficient, and perfect for off-grid situations.  After connecting two new parts, it's still not working.  Joseph is contacting the company before he gives up on it.  We've decided the layout of the bathroom, and where the stove is going.  It's feeling like good progress is being made.