Misc/Chat Getting ready for winter>>>

ioujc

ioujc

MARANTHA!! Even so, come LORD JESUS!!!
Well, trying to get things squared away for winter here. Have ripped all the pole beans off the cattle panels and lo and behold!!!! The taters from spring are making a second crop!! I knew we missed some, but they are growing thick already.

I had covered the bed with cardboard to keep the weeds down and when I moved it to pull the beans up, by golly there was a bunch of potatoes popping out of the ground! And not just one, but many!

Am going to cover the cattle panels with plastic and grow lettuce, peas and I guess potatoes, now :lol:

May also try some broccoli, but I really want to build an underground green house, which I could easily do, just finding the TIME and energy to do it in addition to everything else.....

We have expanded a lot this summer. Got two new critters several months ago>>>>Alpacas. Not for hair or babies, although we WILL be breeding them, but to be lawn mowers, which they have done VERY well the past couple of months. Also could be used as pack animals if the SHTF happens, could also probably pull a cart if needs be. So could the 2 new 1/2 Great Pyrenees and 1/2 Kommodor pups we got last week!!!

Also have to hook up the wood furnace and get that up to speed and ready to go....

What are you all up to these days??
 
Vicki

Vicki

Girls With Guns Member
Well first of all I couldn't help notice your timing of 3:33. Good one. :) Congratulations on all you've gotten accomplished thus far. I was scouring the net for recipes and decided to try a Chocolate Zucchini Bread recipe before the heat hits us in the next couple of days. It's suppoed to get up to almost 90 degrees here monday and tuesday. Anyway, I'm plugging along trying to get ready for fall and winter myself. Much still to do but the main things have been taken care of.

Here's the recipe I found that I'm going to make...

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Servings: One 8-1/2 x 4-1/2-inch loaf

Total Time: 1 Hour 20 Minutes

Ingredients
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2/3 cups all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled off with a knife
1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (ok to substitute natural cocoa powder)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee (optional)
2 cups shredded zucchini (from 2 medium zucchini), gently packed
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees and grease an 8-1/2 x 4-1/2-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Place the butter in a large microwave-safe mixing bowl and microwave for one minute, or until just melted. Stir in the brown sugar until completely smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until incorporated. (Be sure to add the eggs after the brown sugar is mixed in, as the hot butter alone could cook the eggs.)
Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda and instant coffee (if using) in a medium bowl. Add to the butter mixture and stir until well combined. It will be very thick.
Stir in the shredded zucchini and chocolate chips. (It will still be thick -- that's okay.)
Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread evenly. Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean (save for perhaps a smear from the melted chocolate chips). Let the loaf cool on a rack for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

I don't do microwaves but otherwise I can't wait to try this and eat it! :) I'll make numerous batches if the first one turns out good of the smaller loaves and freeze them for later. For the smaller pans I'll use 325 F and 40 - 45 minutes bake time in case anyone else wants to try it.
 
M

Martinhouse

Deceased
This morning I planted kale, broccoli and even a few cabbage plants in the available containers in my greenhouse. Several of them surround my severely pruned back okra plants, which I am experimenting with this year. Here in Arkansas it is far too early to bring in my outdoor potted flowers.

I only wish the impatiens and coleus would survive winter in the greenhouse, but it isn't heated and they do not. I have to cover my geraniums and a few hardy annual flowers with old mattress pads when it gets below 20 to 25 degrees on winter nights.

I am not able to have a big garden any more, but I am looking for someone to help when it's time to rake up all the leaves. That will be in November or possibly even December. Several bags of leaves are needed to insulate my outdoor faucet, and then the rest go into my big compost bin.
 
Vicki

Vicki

Girls With Guns Member
October 10th and 11th are perfect for root crops. I'm penciling in the 10th for garlic. The temperatures here went from 90 yesterday to 40 tomorrow night. Wild swings in the weather. Leaves are turning quickly now and I really don't want to turn the furnace on yet. Glad we got all the wood done so the fireplace will have to do for a few days.

I baked the chocolate zucchini bread along with regular and made the mistake of buttering it before I ate it. Too much!! Yuck! lol It's perfect by itself though and it is a hit with the kids. Yay! :)
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Well everything is frozen outside right now, with the exception of the kohlrabi and brussel sprouts. I emptied our rain barrels since the temps are staying quite low, and will finish buttoning up everything this coming weekend. I got my first seed catalog for 2018 on Saturday! :D
 
greenhart

greenhart

Veteran Member
In a quandary here, I have several garden beds that had been mulched with wood chips with the intention of just adding more to next spring. The soil underneath is in very good condition and I had not intended to till these beds. My problem is I bought a Mantis tiller that will till a lot deeper than the what these beds are. Should I try to rake off the wood chips and till as deep as I can then replace the chips or do I till the chips into the soil and hope for the best. The chips are mostly rotted out anyway.
 
M

Martinhouse

Deceased
I am trying to trap a huge tomcat who has been making "contributions" in my little gardens and most of my big planting containers. Until I catch him and relocate him, I can't plant my garlic.

Last night I caught a huge raccoon in the trap and will have to deal with that today if I want to set the trap again tonight.

I am really anxious to get the garlic planted!
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
I don't think it matters. But... plant your garlic, and place a piece of chicken wire on top of the soil... pin it down with "earth staples" at the corners (you can make your own from wire coat hangers, if you still have some of those around)

Cat can't scratch through the wire, and it hurts his paws... he'll stay away. I've done this for years to deter chickens from scratching up garlic as well as seeds in my raised beds, although we usually pen them up in the growing season. (I also used to cut 6" lengths of multiflora rose stems and scattter them around the beds... the cats avoided those beds like the plague!

If you can't find chicken wire locally (Tractor Supply has it), get some 1/2" hardware cloth and use that...

Summerthyme
 
M

Martinhouse

Deceased
Summerthyme, I have tons of chicken wire around here, including several new rolls. And I've found that even 2 x 4 welded wire fencing keeps chickens off of things. A four foot wide piece works wonderfully on a triple row of potatoes that have been mulched with about 6 inches of straw. The potatoes grow right up through the straw and fencing and there are very few weeds.

Maybe I'll do this with chicken wire, but I only have leaves to mulch with this year. If I am generous with the rabbit manure and a little stingy with the leaves, I should get a pretty good bed of garlic under either kind of wire.

I've even had to stack bagged leaves upside down on my big compost bin to deter that blankety-blank tomcat! So now I have to bag more for insulating my outdoor faucet.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
summerthyme said:
I don't think it matters. But... plant your garlic, and place a piece of chicken wire on top of the soil... pin it down with "earth staples" at the corners (you can make your own from wire coat hangers, if you still have some of those around)

Cat can't scratch through the wire, and it hurts his paws... he'll stay away. I've done this for years to deter chickens from scratching up garlic as well as seeds in my raised beds, although we usually pen them up in the growing season. (I also used to cut 6" lengths of multiflora rose stems and scattter them around the beds... the cats avoided those beds like the plague!

If you can't find chicken wire locally (Tractor Supply has it), get some 1/2" hardware cloth and use that...

Summerthyme
Click to expand...

This and put some aluminum foil balls in your gardens, planters, pots, cats and raccoons both hate them.
 
M

Martinhouse

Deceased
I remember when I was a little kid, we would bite down on a folded piece of aluminum foil with our back teeth and it would cause a very odd sensation. Do you suppose the animals experience that and it's why they avoid the balls of foil?

I don't think foil would bother my own cat. She is used to getting chicken livers and their juice served on the foil they were baked in.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Martinhouse said:
I remember when I was a little kid, we would bite down on a folded piece of aluminum foil with our back teeth and it would cause a very odd sensation. Do you suppose the animals experience that and it's why they avoid the balls of foil?

I don't think foil would bother my own cat. She is used to getting chicken livers and their juice served on the foil they were baked in.
Click to expand...

I imagine it gives them the same effect but I do know that they don't like walking on foil.
 
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