Potatoes

I think I bought our red seed potatoes for about $15.00 or less.  I didn't record it in my garden journal - tsk tsk.  However, it was worth planting.  

We've enjoyed several meals with them already, and I am freezing red potatoes tonight.  We dug up over half of them, and still have more to dig up.  If you take the cost of a bag of potatoes in the store and compare it to what you can grow and freeze - WOW!  What a savings to our family.  And not to mention how healthy they are.

Once we get a root cellar built, I can put some in there also.

Last year was the first season to plant potatoes.  We had enough to feed us until the season was over, but wanted to prepare more.

Once I invest in a pressure canner, we can also can potatoes.  There are so many possibilities yet.


This year, we succeeded, but will have to plant more varieties.  This year we planted 2 types of white and one type of red. 

Preparing for Winter

While walking around, inspecting the barns for repairs (and pointing them out to my husband who was mowing the grass), I looked inside the "wood" barn.

We call this barn the "wood" barn, because it's been the one barn we store our wood in.  

 A portion of wood stacked 2 years ago.

My arms dropped, my head dropped, and I took a deep breath.  We are gonna need to start splitting wood early this year.  We had many cold days last season, and we used more than we thought.

I started making a list of what I need to get done before October:

~split wood
~get chimney swept
~power wash the house 
~re-do the corn burner piping so it keeps the soot away from the house
~build top split barn door and attach
~build side door and attach for goat barn
~tear down "emergency" coop, and re-build it larger
~set up a second heat lamp for the chickens
~sew Jesse's winter coat (our smallest dog)

.......and the list continues.


I figure, with a list, I could get focused and get the family to help.  

Last year I split over a cord of wood by hand.  This year, my husband's nephew purchased a wood splitter.  We've been trading tools this summer and last.  This way neither of us have to buy everything.  This summer we loaned out our tiller, and in exchange borrowed the trimmer (however it's not feeding the string and will need some work done on it).  We will borrow the power washer and in exchange loan out other needed tools (or barter with helping do work).