As we like to say, prepping is about doing, not talking. In our case, prepping has been doing, not posting on Beans, Bullets, Bandages and You.
Rest assured, we are alive, well and absolutely as dedicated as ever to producing one of the best prepping websites out there… Having said that, it’s time to do… the garden is in and producing, The Place needs maintained, and since both of us work full time jobs (and I have a daily blogging gig that pays a significant amount of actual money) we have that to deal with as well.
We thought we would give a quick update about what we’ve been up to.
Summer work in the garden
This year’s garden has been really good to us, better for us than most of our neighbors largely because we have our watering system (you can read about that here)
https://beansbulletsbandagesandyou.com/bullets/2018/07/13/drip-irrigation-rain-barrel/
Tomatoes have come in like a house afire, and we had a decent run of zucchini before the squash bugs eventually won (we are organic and don’t use pesticides)
Spice tried a new way, using self-rising flower, and here are her results:
- It definitely helped. In the past, I’ve always lost the whole plant within three days of finding significant eggs, and every plant within a stone’s throw in under ten days. This time, all the plants kept producing for at least two weeks and some lasted six.
- It didn’t solve the problem. I did lose all the plants, despite being pretty diligent about re-flouring. So it improved the harvest quite a lot for the cost of a pound of flour, but was no magic bullet.
https://beansbulletsbandagesandyou.com/bullets/2019/07/28/win-pest-wars/
https://beansbulletsbandagesandyou.com/bullets/2019/03/08/preps-defend-insect-assault-garden/
News from The Place
Some things are working well at The Place and some things are not.
On the pond erosion front, that problem seems to be just about completely solved as plants have totally overtaken the hill. You can really tell the difference in the amount of “mud” in the pond water after a big strong rain.
https://beansbulletsbandagesandyou.com/bullets/2019/06/06/bol-pond-erosion-control-update/
We’ve also been experimenting with “guerrilla planting” and now that we know it can be done successfully, we’ve decided to discontinue doing it going forward unless there’s a SHTF situation.
Why?
It’s a lot of work, and garden plants need to be picked when they are right. The theory is sound, but you need to be there a lot to make it work, and by the time we are there to pick the veggies are over ripe. The theory is sound, but it’s not worth the effort for us to do it at The Place.
https://beansbulletsbandagesandyou.com/bullets/2019/04/30/guerrilla-planting/
Wonderful article, good to hear your both well and prepping is progressing.
Spice about the self rising flour vs. the squash bugs. Given a pound of flour has some 1600 calories do you feel the effort was worth doing again for the yield saved? Personally I DO feel it useful even if the calories gained wasn’t quite as the lost calories that eating that flour. Because of the food variety and Vitamins-nutrition of the squashes gained. Could you please comment about the pounds of squash saved thusly?
Do you use ugly blankets to cover the still ripening winter squashes from frost and hail storms? I find them very useful as last years early frosts I had 12+ butternut squashes still green and over the next month of covering-uncovering I got them all in the cellar. I’ve even used the ugly blankets on tomatoes as I prefer ripe ones dried and oil packed to green tomatoes chutney.
Thrift stores often have ugly blankets so worn or ugly that they toss them. I ask them to save them and I trade a box of donuts for them occasionally.
Thanks again for all the work you do on this blog.
I have used the coverage trick to extend harvests, although I used plastic that I had on hand. For low crops like squash, I just use straw, as I often use that as a winter/early spring cover anyway. By the time the frost comes I’m often tired of messing with the garden, to be honest; but I tried it a time or two for the experience.
As for the flour, it cost me less than a pound of flour and I got more than a five gallon bucket’s worth of squashes after I started using it. I don’t look at it as a calorie swap, as we have a lot of stored wheat. I look at it as micronutrients, fiber, and just plain more pleasant to eat. Those zucchini chips, some canned salsa, and canned beans eat like *real* food, not like iron rations. Moreover, the saved plants provide seed that can be used another year, and I’m not getting *that* from a pound of flour. Also, the winter squashes were protected as well; and they are far more calorie dense and have a longer shelf life than the zucchini. So I looked at it as a win. Plus a moral victory; I was tired of losing to squash bugs. 🙂