Garden update

Somehow I missed posting this before. We got the garden in last weekend! Everything is planted!! I'm glad I did it when I did because this week has turned out hectic with everything going on. I haven't had a chance to weed since I finished it Sunday.
We have planted:
Potatoes (white and red)
Onions (white and red)
Corn
Peas
Beans (yellow and green)
Beets
2 Pumpkin plants
leeks
Celery
Tomatoes (4 kinds)
Radishes
Lettuce (2 kinds)
Cucumbers (pickling and slicing)

To our landscaping/perennial edibles we've added this spring -
3 blueberry bushes
2 Pear Trees
1 Cherry Tree
6 raspberry canes (which all seem to have died).

I'm sure I've been overly ambitious. This is only the 3rd or 4th garden we've put in. Every previous year we've lost the battle with the weeds and didn't get great crops as a result. This year we've divided the garden into 3 sections. Hopefully by breaking it up into smaller sections we can tackle a section every day or so rather than trying to week the whole thing at once.

Just for reference sake we also have the following -
rhubarb
horseradish
4 (pre-existing) raspberry canes
a couple dozen strawberry plants
an apple tree
a beech tree
4 maple trees
well established oregano, and chives
a languishing creeping-thyme
assorted herbs and medicinal plants
ever present dandelion and burdock plants - couldn't get rid of em' if I wanted to! (Lord knows I've tried!)

Lifes little emergencies - do you need an "ER Kit"

Rachel (5YO) closed Noah's (2YO) wrist in the van door this morning as we were leaving the school. So I've spent the whole day at the hospital just to make sure nothing was broken.
I've been meaning to make up another 'kit' called an "ER Bag" - useless to most adults, anyone with kids will appreciate the idea. We keep an emergency kit in the car but it only has... you know... *emergency* stuff in it. I also keep a random book in the car at all times - puzzle book, magazine, something in case I'm stuck in the car waiting. The ER Kit would complement your car kit without taking up as much space as a BOB - which would be overkill in this situation.

The idea of the ER bag is to have a small bag or shoebox size tote near the front door or even in the car if there's room. That box would contain a few snacks, small toys, coloring books, crayons, etc. The thought behind it is that the emergency kit in the car doesn't need to be cluttered with toys but I want to have *something* so I don't need to run around the house collecting things to entertain the other children; and I don't want to dump money into the vending machines at the hospital when someone gets hungry after sitting in the ER for 2 hours. I already keep diapers, water, change, first aid, etc. in the car kit; so this would just be something small to hold the remaining items. If you car kit has the room you could feasibly just add these items to that container.

So, think back to the last time you had to 'grab and go' with your kids. What were you wishing you had brought with you? Here's my list:

• drinks - juice boxes, kool aid koolers, water bottles... ANYTHING that doesn't cost $1.50 per bottle!
• Snacks - Those little snack packs they sell in the vending machine for $1 or more can be had 9 for $3-5 at the grocery store. Even if they go unused for 6-12 months they can be used as a 'safety reward' if the kids can go 6-12 months without a trip to the ER (Well worth the investment!!)
• activities - coloring books/crayons, travel games, matchbox cars, little people, deck of cards

A few other suggestions/ideas - an MP3 player or other portable player, a lightweight blanket (certain areas of the hospital are cold), maybe a travel pillow, a book

None of these things are necessary, but they will all make a difficult trip a bit more comfortable and less frustrating. I wish I had one in my car this morning. It was also a good reminder to give my preps a semi-annual complete overhaul

Lessons from Lice

My eldest child is 15 and this is the first time I've ever had to deal with head lice in my home. I've learned some interesting lessons.

#1 - Being prepared means being prepared for ANYTHING - including ignorant neighbors who allow infested kids to wander the neighborhood!
Fortunately I happened to have tea tree oil and a lice comb. Funny thing was - when I bought the comb I thought "I'm not going to need this, but it's only 49 cents - and you never know"
#2 - Go with your gut. When the kid turned up here an hour before school got out the other day my gut said 'send her home, if she's out of school she doesn't belong here'. Shoulda' listened to my gut. Instead I decided to play nice... dumb idea.
#3 Good neighbors vs bad neighbors. We caught them quickly thanks to our other neighbor who thought we should know since they knew our daughter played with her.
#4 schools suck/privacy rights trump common sense even in a small town- they checked my 14YO but didn't feel compelled to let me know so I could check my 5YO even though they know the kid lives right next door and plays with my daughter.
#5 vigilance and persistence pay off - we caught it quickly, checked the whole family, and followed up every few hours. DD was the only one infected in a house of 6. I've found a few migrants on myself but I think they just escaped while I was cleaning DD. So far so good, but we'll follow up with a few daily washings for her and I using OTC lice shampoo. I'm a firm believer in natural remedies and this one seems to work exceptionally well, but I'm also not a gambler when it comes to infestations. They're too hard to get rid of once they're entrenched and I don't want to have to bomb the whole house (though I may still have to).

Suggestions for anyone interested -

Keep the following in your preps for lice treatment whether you think you're going to have to deal with it or not. Like the flu, when you need it - the store will be sold out because everyone is looking for it at once.
Olive oil (should have this anyway)
Tea Tree oil (also does quite a job on bug bites)
lice combs (plural - they're not very sturdy and we have thick hair, one day of use and the one we have is already getting weak teeth.) They're cheap so keep a few around. You can also use flea combs from the pet store, anything with close-set teeth will work but they need to be very close.
shower caps - so you can allow the hair to soak without having to sit in the tub to keep it contained. Again, they're cheap so have a few around. I didn't before this but you can be sure I will after! Poor kid has spent hours in the tub since yesterday!
OTC lice shampoo - can't find it around here today, everyone's out of stock. I'm going to call and see if I can get a prescription from the pediatrician. I doubt they'll ask to see her.
butterfly hair clips like they use at the hairdressers - dd has long hair and it's a PITA trying to be thorough when I can't pin up what I've already checked. This is something else I don't have in my preps but will be adding.[/list]

Building a preparedness/survival binder

This is far simpler than it might seem at first. The keys are consistency and organization. Basically whenever I find information that would be useful in an off-grid emergency I print it out and add it to my binder. There is tons of information on the web and I've saved many things to my computer and memory stick - but if the power fails I'll be out of luck without hard copies.

This is different from the information you should keep in your 72 hour kit. That would be personal information key to you and your family only. A preparedness binder would contain more general information and could be seen as a "Recipe book for survival". Right now mine consists of basic yet somewhat complex things like:

• how to make lye
• how to dry food without electricity
• oral rehydration solution recipe
  
• recipes for basic condiments and sauces
• recipes for household cleaners
• a list of local wild edibles with pictures
• vinegar making instructions

Other things that should be added will be printed and filed in the correct tabbed areas as I find them. I'm just starting this binder and much more will be added over time I'm sure. Ultimately the recipes will have a binder of their own as I tend to collect lots of them but for now those basic ones will stay in the prepping binder. I have books that cover many preparedness topics but it's handy to have all the basic info at my fingertips, in one convenient place.

Exhaustive list of area for prepping

(Disclaimer - making lists in no way implies that the author has the preps listed or advocates such thorough prepping. It's nearly impossible to be prepared for every occasion but it never hurts to think about it)
So being the OC/listmaking type I came up with this:


FOODS -
Grains - flours, oats, tortilla/taco shells
Sweeteners - sugars, honey, molasses, karo
Fats/Oils
Adjuncts/misc - (cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, salt, unflavored gelatin)
Pasta & Rice
Dairy & eggs
Legumes & Nuts
Meats & Fish
Fruits & Veggies
soups, broths/boullion
Spices & Flavors
Condiments
Water & Beverages (Includes coffee & tea, water treatment supplies)
Beer & Liquor
comfort foods (chips, cookies, candy, convenience foods)
Garden plants, seeds, trees
Fishing supplies
Guns & Ammo

NON_FOODS -
Medications, First Aid & Essential Oils
Vitamins & Supplements
Baby needs
Toilet
Cleaners & Soaps
Hygiene & Personal
Paper goods
Batteries
Pest control
Lights & Flames (flashlights, lamps, candles, lighters, matches, etc)
Pets
Office supplies (paper, pens, etc)

CLOTHING & SHELTER -
Shoes/Boots
Fabric, yarn
Sewing/Knitting supplies
Shelter (tents, tarps, etc)
Bedding & Towels

TOOLS -
Hand tools (hammers, saws, screwdrivers, etc)
Yard/Garden tools (Shovels, hoes, etc)
Kitchen tools
Communication/Time/Direction (radios, clocks, compass, maps, etc)
Ropes, Bungees, & Fasteners (nails, screws, etc)
Adhesives (tape, glue, caulk, etc)
Canning supplies
Gardening equipment
Candlemaking equipment
soapmaking equipment
Buckets, Dishpans, Washboards
Blades (Knives, Axes, etc)

TRANSPORTATION -
Auto
Auto supplies & Parts
Transport (non-auto) Bikes, wagons, etc

KNOWLEDGE -
"Survival" Binder - wish I could take credit for this idea but read about it elsewhere. I've been doing this general thing for a while. Oh well - another post later...
Books - prepping books, cookbooks, how-to books, etc
Educational (if you have children)

ENTERTAINMENT - books, games, music.

FUELS

BARTER/BENEVOLENCE GOODS

DEBT SERVICE - not that it's my last priority but it does cost money and is imperative to being prepared.

Coping with New England weather and busy schedules

I've been waiting nearly a month for that perfect combination of clear weather without a frost warning and an afternoon where DH is home and not working on other 'priority' projects. I think we may finally have reached that magic date though it's looking overcast I don't think it's going to rain.
One of the hard points to living in VT is not going stir crazy in May and planting too soon. I've talked to/ read posts from sooo many people who planted too soon this year and lost everything to a late frost. Gardening here is a precise dance of patience and perseverance.
The garden's been tilled for weeks and I've been working on weeding the perennials between wet spells. We've got all our new trees and bushes in the ground and the apple tree has had it's first treatment of Captan for the scab that has plagues it since we bought the house. It's always been an annoyance but we never bothered to try to harvest the fruit before so we just left it. This year we're hoping to get some fruit from it so we'll need to treat it weekly for a while to see how it does.
Michael got most of the yard mowed and weedwhacked last night while I weeded around the raspberries. Today we're hoping to get to the interior of the garden. I've spent alot of time these past few weeks pouring over gardening catalogs and "Carrots Love Tomatoes" to figure out the best planting plan. I was pleased with last years plan but, as I understand it, we're supposed to change the layout each year to keep pests from getting established. I'm thinking I may just flip the plan so everything that was in the first row is in the last and vice versa, which will work fine til I get to the middle of the garden.
I think the first of the rhubarb is about ready to be harvested and yesterday I noticed tiny berries forming on my strawberry plants. I've had fresh chives and oregano for weeks now.

Progress - the Catch 22

So I've been gone for several weeks again. I'm really back and forth with this blog. I started it as a way to journal the changes our family is going through, as a reminder to us and as an inspiration to anyone who might come across it sometime down the road. What I find is that the more I 'do' the less I 'write'. It reminds me of the old saying "Those who can-do; those who can't-teach". I'm so busy doing that I don't have time to sit and write about it. On the other hand. my mind sometimes gets so full of ideas that I can't slow down long enough to get it all out in writing, and sometimes, like this afternoon, I just have to write it down to get it out of my head.
The past several weeks have seen many small changes, much like the weeks before; changes so subtle that those who see us regularly won't notice them; but those who haven't seen us in a while notice quickly that 'somethings different' but they just can't put their finger on it.
I keep the TV and radio off most of the day now - I no longer feel the need to have constant noise coming into my life. There's very little of true value to be heard or seen these days over the public airwaves. Quite honestly I wonder now if there ever WAS anything of true value in these places. I love our local Christian radio station but when compared to the direct study of Gods word or singing a well loved hymn - there's no comparison. My senses are freed up to hear the birds singing or the children playing, my own music sweeps into my mind, favorite tunes that are ingrained in my mind.

One thought that people have is "what about the news? - How do you get the important news of the day" My answer is simply another question - "What constitutes important news of the day?" Swine flue? Wall Street? What the 'first dog' is doing? How many kids Brad and Angelina have? I'm more empathetic than most people so what I say next may sound harsh but it's true. It's unreasonable for me to beat myself up about starving orphans in Bangladesh or sex slaves on the other side of the globe when I don't even know my next door neighbors. Think about the hypocrisy of that. I care about people who I'll never meet but don't care about those I see every day?! That is the problem with this modern world. We try to tackle the huge issues rather than dealing with the mundane everyday problems. If we would each deal with the issues around us we wouldn't have global problems. It's a waste of time and resources for reporters from New York to fly to China to cover a natural disaster there - not to mention they are then in the way of the people who are actually trying to do something about it. It's not that I don't care about the plight of these people, but I can only affect so many lives and I can't spend my time wringing my hands over things I can't change - that takes my hands away from effecting change around me.

One aspect that has always frustrated me in my own life was hushing children to hear the TV or radio, etc. - it's what I was raised with though so it came as second nature to me, even though I distincly remember yelling at my dad for doing it to me - I do the same thing to my kids. I feel like I'm overcoming that... finally, now that half of my kids are nearly grown. It's not completely too late though and I see our relationships changing day by day in small ways. Each change is intertwined with another; less stress means less interest in 'relaxing' or 'escaping' into TV or computers or whatever, less time on those things means more time with the kids, more time with the kids means less stress because they aren't fighting for our attention. It just keeps going.

So I'll try to be better about updating here but I just can't do that at the expense of improving my families situation.