Fall is always busy with family & the teens, and we are in the throes of tech week for my son's play...but still managed to get a few things done in the last month to 6 weeks:
Rendered tallow from the 1/4 steer we bought from friend. Need to melt it down again & put it through some cheesecloth for final storage.
Canned: 15 pints pickled beets, 5 pints green cherry tomatoes, 7 jelly jars of ham.
Made pesto for freezer and dried basil for the spice cabinet. It was my first time blanching the basil before drying--it looks so much better, nice and bright green. Also dried celery tops for soup, celery and probably some other things I'm forgetting.
Have more cider vinegar made & ready to go into some old screw top wine bottles.
Bought 50lb bag if "dirty" potatoes and 50 lb bag of onions (about $15 ea( at the vegetable stand a few town over. Packed them into old cardboard tomato boxes with lids down in the basement. Last year that got me through the winter & spring before I had to buy any more.
Coordinated for a new to us "free" piano. It's only 20 years old, and we are only paying for the moving and removal ($400)of our 100 year old piano that's been held together with spit & duct tape. The old one is gorgeous, but the tuner said the only way to truly fix it would be a complete rebuild--and that's super expensive. Why am I listening this as a prep? Well both kids play-so that's both educational and non electronic entertainment for the family (life without music would be very sad). Also my son in particular is progressing to the point where I can see in a few years it being a lucrative side gig for him--churches, choruses, theater groups etc are always looking for substitute pianists. And even if the SHTF there will still be people and churches who want music. Setting my kids up to have multiple revenue streams is a prep for the future.
I cleared out & hubs tilled the front garden. (I've deep mulched for several years, it was time to till & add some lime). So that's one garden ready to go in spring. The back garden still has chard, broccoli, beets & carrots going...it's been so mild we haven't even had many frosts.
Hubs finally got some mentoring on the bee hive. He's comfortable now getting in there. Our captured swarm (given to us) didn't have much honey stored so we treated them for mites, fed them some sugar etc. A week later we put in pollen Patty, bee fondant, wrapped the hive and sheltered it with some hay bales. We'll feed again in a bit, put in the entrance reducer & hope for the best.
Regular deer season prep has begun. It's the first legal season for our son. Opening day is in 2 weeks.
Reorganized & inventoried the freezers when the beef came.
