Back To Basics Update - Week 9

Sowing seed or Planting -
Potting Up

• Golden Zucchini
• 10 Tomatoes

Planting

• 6 Tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Leaf Mustard
  

Sowing

• Red Quinoa
  

Maintenance

• Liquid fertilised all the veggie garden plants

Harvest

• 4 Strawberries
• Comfrey
• Spinach

Planning for The Future -

• Thinking on the next 12 month goal list
• Ordered Clay's for soap making experiments
  

Working for the Future -

• Finished Christmas shopping
  
• Waterbath canned Raspberry Jam
• Waterbath Canned Boysenberry & Raspberry Jam
  
• Sent postal gifts
  
• Bought Chickens!!!!!

Building Community -

• Caught up with some like minded friends over at Garden of St Erth
  
• Caught up with and delivered house warming present to Miss Eagle
  
• Bought my chickens from a nice young man based in Sylvan (if you want to contact I suggest email as the mobile seems very intermittent)
• Donation to OXFAM
• Sent out more seedlings for a friends garden
  

Learn a new Skill - Naturally set Berry Jams,


Participant Posts

FootPrint Reduction in the Burbs -It's standing room only out in the veggie patch right now meaning that some plants are just sitting on the sidelines hoping that room can be found to allow them to stretch their wonderful roots. Time and effort has been expended on finding the rhyme and reason behind the almost daily great chicken escape and it seems it's guise is dog. Stronger fortifications as well as well as some garden reshuffling is hoped to increase next year's harvest. Potted seedlings are set to leave the Burbs and travel into the Blue Mountains this week in the hands of a good friend.


Remote TreeChanger - Lyn has been searching through her old magazines and found a couple of amazing sounding recipes, one of which would be just the thing to help use up that left over Christmas ham. As with many people that live quite a way out of town shopping trips when you travel to larger centres are planned with precision so the calendar has been out and must do's and must have's noted on the relevant days. School events are the main community building efforts in these weeks leading up to Christmas and meeting someone that you have heard about but never actually met is a wonderful experience.


Cockatoo Dreaming - Unfortunately up at the Dreaming the snails have been having a bit of a hey day so reinforcements in the form of nursery seedlings have been brought in to bolster the ranks. Of course this fact also works to her advantage as lettuce is popping up everywhere from last year's plants being allowed to seed. There has been lots of precooking going on to allow everyone easy access to meals when the schedule gets busy and tight. It seems that there might be changes afoot in the future out at Cockatoo Dreaming so a new savings account has been established to ensure that money will be available to put to good use if the decision to sell or renovate eventuates. Op shop deliveries, friendship visits and sending out Christmas Greetings to Military service personel has made things pretty busy on the Community Development front along with a wonderful effort to repair a canvas tent for future use.


Little Farm in The City - running up against the constraints of space there hasn't been a lot of sowing or planting out at Little Farm this week. The guinea pig plans are really starting to take shape, no that with considerations for feeding and watering are being discussed as they are due to arrive next week. Maintenance and permanent plantings are the order of the day right now as the harvest start to roll in to make happy tummies both now and into the future. Although I am pretty sure there will have been more community building occurring out at Little Farm than is being reported, buying local is certainly a good effort when no other options present themselves.

Growful - Between starting to update next years budget, meal plans, tracking the Christmas shopping list and starting to put away new bag patterns for next year it seems that Lyn has the whole planning idea well and truely under control. I hope her MIL loves her tote because I have seen some of her work and may I say it really is pretty impressive. Sending out Christmas cards, attending presentation evenings and dinners, leading the church choir, lending a hand at the last playgroup meetup and being an active blogging community member means that I will bet there are not too many quiet days over at Growful.

The Tin House - Planting and sowing is still going full bore out at Tin house. Harvesting certainly seems to be steaming along, and boy does her garlic stash look impressive, but in her words her zucchini this year is an exceptionally odd shape. From growing them last year to me it looks looks like a ringin crookneck squash at this point but it will be very interesting to see the progress. Lisa is planning on buying their Christmas chook locally this year so the search begins both for that and ideas on garlic preservation. Please drop by and comment if you have any thoughts on the garlic situation. A good dose of worm juice and reading up on powdery mildue recipes should mean that the zucchini have a good chance at success regardless of weather this year. Berry picking and the family tradition of creating a "Christmas Tshirt" are a focus of the next few days. The next week or so certainly sounds busy in the community building department out here, I can only hope that the BBQ duty goes well and doesn't end up requiring rope :-).

The Crone - made a really large effort to update this week when she was feeling less than communicative with the world. Her planting is continuing to go along well and the made Christmas presents and ornaments are being finished. She admits that life was certainly simpler, and if you work out an hourly rate cheaper, when all she needed to do for Christmas was walk into the shops and put down her card. I can only hope the results get the accolades they deserve.

It's All Good - Leila just joined up this week, welcome aboard and hope you enjoy the ride. Mulching has been the order of the day out at her place after she discovered that her last lot of seedlings baked themselves into oblivion in recent heat. She is currently persevering with her struggle to record her spending and not give in to all the pressures around her suggesting that "more, more, more" should be the order of the day when it comes to Christmas. With any luck being able to afford that shade sail to keep the house cooler sooner rather than later will help quieten the internal and external critics. Leila has also just volunteered for the church roster and hopes to commit herself to making 4 St John Teddies before school resumes next year. Good Luck, and if it is appropriate to post a link or the pattern to the teddies along with the donation details some of our more crafty challenge members might be interested.