What a beautiful morning! I had time today to sit with a cup of energizing hot tea and made a hot breakfast for the first time in weeks. That felt very nice indeed and I was ready to work while I had the coastal cloud cover to protect me from the sun. While my tea had been brewing, I set up a new mesh herb dryer outside and put some basil and dill in. I will add some more saint johns wort in too, this afternoon after I take a small break from my work today here on the homestead.
I weeded two garden beds and planted a fall crop of potatoes and pulled a few weeds from the carrot and lettuce bed. I only had about a pound of sprouting potatoes, but I cut them into pieces each with growing eyes on them and coated them all in the wood ash I had made the other day for the job. The rest of the ashes I put around the lilac bush as they love ashes. I tidied up the garlic I pulled last year and had curing outside. I hadn’t planted them, Gary the land owner had but since he has a hard time gardening I harvested for him and will give them to him when they are done curing.
I pruned dead branches and removed/cut out some weeds and Himalayan blackberry plants from around young fruit trees and smashed a bunch of pear sawfly slugs off and eggs from a young cherry tree that was getting eaten up.
Cut up some pieces of wood from the forest path to burn later.
Gathered some reeds and bindweed to dry for basket making.
Watered young trees, grapes, newly planted trees, the corn, tomatoes, and Gary’s garden, and the bananas and potted plants.
I helped Gary load up a bunch of metal junk into his rig, to take to the dump.
I did stir up a bunch of hornets, accidently while looking for cardboard boxes in the shed to use as mulch….and so that project got sidetracked until I can spray them at night. There were a lot of them and they are currently angry.
I did contact the county extension office about agroforestry information for this area and hope I can get some good money making ideas for this property.
So far I’m thinking- mushrooms, herbs like ginseng, elderberries and paw-paws, baskets, nettles, worm farming, etc.
This kind of work is so much more enjoyable to me and I feel good doing it. The trick is to actually somehow make money at it. Unlike working for someone else, I can work and take rests without making my pain worse. That is the number 1 reason why I prefer my own employment. At my pace, I can work days with out the pain I feel just in a few hours of working for someone else.
Climate Wary Homesteader 