THE SQUIRREL CHALLENGE: Want to join?

[Farmfresh]

I am VERY sure there will be!

 

[FarmerDenise]

We consider blackberries a weed. We chop down all things blackberry about once every 6 weeks. We pick the blackberries over the fence from the neighbor's yard. SO freezes them by the bagfull and hopes I make blackberry deserts all year. I make blackberry jam, syrup and sauce and the occasional blackberry baked desert. We also give blackberry jam for gifts all year round.
SO does toss rabbit pellets over the fence and pour the fish pond water along the fence-line on occasion. We have had a super harvest so far this year.
I can send seeds to anyone who wants them, but no guarantees. The birds plant them around here. I don't provide the same fertilizer package with the seeds.

 

[tamlynn]

Ok, found a real squirrel challenge deal today.

At Walmart, there was a cart filled to overflowing with one pound boxes of elbow macaroni. A sign taped to the cart said they were 25 cents each! My dh started putting a few in our cart, but I grabbed that entire cart and pushed it to the checkout line!

So I got 102 pounds of elbow macaroni for $25.50!

I handed a sack of boxes (about 6) to a lady outside the store who was collecting for a homeless shelter. Afterwards I felt bad I didn't give her more, I'd only given her $1.50 worth of pasta. Another guy appoached us in the parking lot with a big old story about how he was on America's Most Wanted as a victim. He showed us his scars and his poster with pics of his little girls as we were loading our pasta into the car. I gave him a bag of pasta, but he handed it back and walked away.

I've been waiting for a month to add to this list! We were gone for 5 weeks visiting my parents on their 2 acres. (We have a 5000 square foot lot in the burbs.) They live in orchard country, so I love visiting them in the summer. I made apricot and cherry jam, about 24 pints total, and made tons of apricot and cherry fruit leather. My kids inhale that stuff. I did pay full price for a 30lb bucket of cherries (pitted!!!) and for 20lbs of first quality apricots, but got about 30lbs of second quality apricots for free, then a few weeks later picked about 50 lbs of apricots off a neighbors tree for free. We ran out of time before the end of our vacation to make more leather, so I just brought home gallon bags of frozen puree. I hope my dehydrator has fruit leather trays, I've never used my own dehydrator for leather.

So while I was gone, dh canned (I KNOW!) about a dozen quarts each of peaches and tomatoes from our garden and froze about 3 gallons of peppers. Our volunteer spaghetti squash thrived and we have about 9 nice squashes from it.

Time to get the winter garden in!

Oh, and the 2 new hens I kept from this year's chicks started laying, so I have 3 laying hens!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Well, no canning jars lining my shelves yet, but tomatoes haven't started yet.

So far since this spring--
~20# asparagus (wild)
~8 # green and yellow beans (more to come)
~20# strawberries,
~15# raspberries
~14# blueberries (more to come)
~8# corn, (more to come)

All in the freezer.

7 rabbits in the freezer(more to come--22 waiting for the deed--2 this week (unfortunate litter), 9 due in two weeks, 10 due in 4 weeks, then of course more litters, but I will sell them.)

Sold 30 chickens, have 50 due in 6 weeks (some to be sold)


40# lake trout cut into steaks, in freezer(possibly more to come)

All I have in canning jars are the batches of strawberry jam I made, and they are disapperaing quickly, so I won't even count them.

Since then--about 10# of corn, and 50 chickens in the freezer.
21 quarts (plus the 7 I'm doing today) of tomatoes. Possibly more.

Then apples next week.

Hopefully, ds and dh will bring home a bear, and that will be ground up and put in the freezer, and then there is deer season. Also 50# of potatoes, more to come, and 20# of onions.

 

[Wifezilla]

I recently found a seal-a-meal food saver at a garage sale for $4. I bought some bags and have filled them with TONS of grapes. By freezing them, if I want to make jam or wine, they are really easy to juice. Plus frozen grapes taste awesome.

I have about 25# put up so far. I also still have grapes on the big vine (Audrey)...and a second vine that isn't ripe yet (Seymore)

 

[Ldychef2k]

I became a so-called "prepper", which includes being self-sufficient, of course, the last week of June 2009. Every spare moment or spare dime has been dedicated to getting ready to go off grid 1Jan10, including quitting my job.

I have hit the 500 jar mark. Apple season starts soon, and I hope to get another 100 with them. 50 sauce, 50 other.

Built three cardboard box dehydrators in the spare room which are working very well. I have stopped counting the quart vacuum bags. I believe I have bought more than 100 pre made and another eight or ten rolls.

I have now taken out five trees and reduced them all to firewood. Including twigs for the rocket stove. I have filled and emptied a 35 gallon trash can 25 times to make the pile of twigs, and have approximately two, maybe three, cords of firewood.

Installed a fireplace insert to heat the house.

Obtained a 2300 watt solar generator.

Stored 500 gallons of water. Have filtration system in place.

Fall/Winter garden is in progress here in Zone 9. Lettuce, spinach, brussels sprouts, beets, turnips, cabbage, celery, peas, fennel, and herbs.

Have built the base for my cobb oven. Finding a truck to haul the hay has been a slow down.

Have camping gear for 15, including tents, air mattresses, sleeping bags, severe weather gear, rocket stove/buddy burners, all cooking necessities and dehydrated foods for 30 days, in case of bug out.

Arranged distant bug out site, off the grid and completely protected.

Taught basic survivial and alternative cooking classes for adults and teens over the summer.

Spent every cent I could get my hands on, so I was not able to join other patriots in the march on Washington on 9/12/09.