Survival Saturday

This week has me focusing on my garden.  Yes, we just go through a polar vortex with -25 degree temps and -50 degree wind chills but its never to earn to plan out.

I went to raised beds last year after moving in for two reasons.  The first was that without Kevin here, I quite frankly did not want to put in the power to rototill up a garden.  Second, I found out that the previous owner had dumped sand over the entire property.  I was glad I made that choice.  I grew cucumbers and pumpkins in their "garden" area and didn't get squat.  Literally, I had about 10 half pints of pickles and that's it.  The pumpkins didn't grow big or well at all either.  It was sad.

I also know that this year I needed to double the size of my garden and add on some extra veggies.  I'm adding beets, broccoli, and green beans.  I'm doubling the size of the carrot and tomato beds and making others larger too.  I'm hoping to really get a lot out of our garden this year and I'm looking forward to stocking up my shelves with canned goods.

Last year I planted three small blueberry plants, six raspberry plants, and 25 strawberry plants.  This year I'm adding a large blueberry bush, 2 blackberry plants and another 25 strawberry plants.

In the tree department, I planted three plum trees (semi-dwarf) and one cherry tree.  I was going to add more but we had crazy rain for three months.  To be honest, I'm surprised I got anything out of the garden last year.  I will be adding two pear trees, three peach trees, and hopefully 4 dwarf apple trees.  We have three full size apple trees on our property but they have never been pruned.....like ever.  The fruit last year was super small, although we did get a lot of it.  I worked on pruning a little last year and will be continuing to do so for the next few years until its where it should be.  I don't want to do it all at once or the poor trees will probably die of shock!  I will also be weeding out fruit this year to get less but larger apples. 

As far as our emergency stock pile, I have a new plan this year.  Last year I wanted to have a two month supply and ended up with a three week supply, but that's okay.  I now have enough stock that if I run out of something I don't have to run to the store, which is great because it is a drive to get somewhere.  This year I will be stalking  surveying the ads to follow the sales and then will be stocking up on only one or two items to build up my supply faster.  I have made a list of priority items such as rice, beans, veggies, canned fruit, etc and hope to get a nice stock going.

Also on my agenda today is to complete my emergency binder.  I have printed out all the pages and have filled in important information and names and addresses.  I will be just transferring that information and adding social security cards, birth certificates, etc to complete the binder.  We've always had everything in one expandable file that we have carried from one duty station to another that we amply named "life".  "Life" will have a new home and be totally organized.  Wonderful!!

So what are you doing or stocking up on?