Are You Really Prepared?

[unclejoe]

Wow! I didn't really expect such a response. I just meant to share a hard learned lesson. "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched". :/
We certainly aren't going to go hungry, but we had such a grand vision and it just washed away. We had one storm in particular that dropped over 5" of rain in 2 hours so I feel your pain 2dream. If it wasn't for the fact that I had just put 2 loads of wood chips at the lower end of the garden that's on a slope, I would have lost not only all the seeds but 2"-3" of topsoil as well. I spent the better part of a week redistributing soil after it dried out a bit.

Free, We have our goats (11) and our chickens (40) also, as well as about 150lbs of hard red wheat, so we could do the same thing, but those veggies that you put up from your own garden would really be missed in the event of a major calamity that broke down the food distribution network. That's what this grand experiment was all about.

FC, I have discovered that " love of food like the oldin days". I haven't been to a "fast food" place in almost 2 years. I truly do treasure oldin day foods.

Gina, Everything we grow, we do on less than 1/2 an acre. I know I've seen the pics of your place but don't remember exactly what it looks like. There's a lot you can do with 2 acres even if it's hilly. I have a friend that I helped turn a 20' bank into 3 long rows of workable ground. It was a lot of work, but he's got a nice setup now.

Ldychef, First time I've seen you, but then I don't spend a lot of time on the puter at this time of year.

OK Bedtime. Good night all.

 

[TanksHill]

Ok unclejoe, I'll get going on a hillside and see if something will grow. I know it's possible. Just yesterday I was thinking about the water thing. Maybe moving some type of tank out there and filling it slowly by bucket or some other means. Maybe even have my son use his atv and pull our little trailer full of manure down there.

Ok now you git me thinking.

You grow all your stuff on 1/2 acre??? Wow!!

 

[unclejoe]

I think I use about 8000sq ft for everything we grow. Veggies, berries, and grain. That's about 1/5 of an acre. The rest of the place is for the critters.
Don't know if you saw this. The link is to another thread where I posted a pic from google earth after I did a little art work on it. You can see how little area we use for food.



http://sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2669&p=5

 

[me&thegals]

I feel your pain We gardeners always have wonderful plans, don't we? How is it that we always manage to forget that Mother Nature might have other plans? It has been so chilly here that I am starting to wonder if I will ever see more than a handful of ripe tomatoes on 75+ plants! So, yes, I truly feel your pain. I'm starting to feel slightly panicky at the thought of NO homemade salsa, NO tomato soup, NO stewed tomatoes, NO tomato sauce, etc....

 

[eggs4sale]

I envy all of you for growing ANYTHING in your garden. I manage to kill everything I grow, or the chickens get it. We were able to get some small yellow tomatoes to snack on, but not enough to can by any means. I'm also growing a little bit of okra, but it seems to be good for seeds, not eating. But it's pretty! (Burgundy)

Summer means NOTHING grows here, but the okra stayed alive. Figures. I just planted seeds the other day for pumpkins, beans, squash, peas, carrots, etc. We'll see what doesn't get eaten by stupid chickens.

Oh, wait. We've got dates. Lots and lots of dates. Fruit roll-ups on the bottoms of your shoes.

 

[Javamama]

The weather and the bugs took over here too. This has been a freakishly cold summer. Tomato blossoms keep getting nipped by cold night temps. I guess I'm glad I put in 14 plants. They have yielded almost as much as the THREE I had last year. No pickles, squash, or melons due to bugs. My peas probably would have been fine with the cool weather if they had ever sprouted. Don't know what happened there.
Onions were OK, but small and very strong tasting. Not great for eating raw, but good for cooking.
I have put in some cold weather crops, but who knows what will happen. We might get summer in October!
Ah well, there's next year...I'm already planning for it.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

thanks for the great discussion everyone -- and especially for theprepared site. interesting.

unclejoe sorry about the garden
:-(

we started last year on a new property with The Worst Soil In The World...so i know your pain. in the old place i didnt even have to try and the garden boomed - now its improve improve improve..slowly but surely. i'm planning on next year being a blockbuster but i'll heed your words.

we learned the 'dont count your turkeys until they harvest' lesson hard this year - we were really counting on them. but we had some losses. since the spring tho we are bouncing back. the pigs promise to be huge, we just processed a buncha meat chix, and i'm hoping for one more round of poults. but the garden can definitely be better. and i'm going to try and squeeze out one more round of growing for the fall.

last year we did a lot of bartering and it really worked as i've found most farmin' folks are eager to help each other.

i remember a story our grandma told of when they lived on the farm. they had plenty of milk and meat but needed other things. so they took the eggs and cream into town - and the cream spilled...that was the money for their entire weeks groceries. it was a sad drive back home. i try to remember that to remain vigilant.

good luck to all!

 

[unclejoe]

Well, I started the cool weather stuff again a couple weeks ago; Taters, beets peas, lettuce, carrots and broccoli. It's all up so lets hope for an actual harvest in Oct.