A New Garden Just Around the Corner

Good morning…

You know that we bought about 3-1/2 acres back in March. We had some of it cleared, and this was in order to plant some Pensacola Bahia grass for the cows.

This place was basically a scrub, and after clearing we burnt the brush we had cleared. In the last few weeks we’ve built a new fence, and have been picking up roots and limbs the loader couldn’t get. We’ll now turn the ground in just a little, and hopefully we’ll get it seeded today, if not, by tomorrow for sure.

The only thing that could stop us is rain, and the rain chance today is 70%, and 60% tomorrow. So, now is a good time to plant.
We have two pretty good size oak trees to cut up for firewood too. We have to cut these up first, because the seeding will be the last thing we do. After seeding I don’t want to drive over the new seed, so once we cut the trees up, and slightly turn the soil over, we’ll plant, then lock the gate and leave it alone…at least until next spring.

I did a little video yesterday showing this new piece, if you’d like to see it…

The oaks we cut up, we stack for use later. First we cook on oak quite a bit, and this keeps us in barbeque wood, plus we could use for other things as well. We like to sit out during the fall and winter and have us a little fire going, but right now the dern bugs are too bad after dark. They WILL pick you up and tote you off, or at least they seem to be able too!

We rarely use oak for campfire use, we have a good supply of pine we use for that, but once it starts getting old, we’ll burn it as well. We also like to keep a good supply of wood available on hand, as we simply don’t know what type of situation we may be faced with in the near future from an economic standpoint, and if needed, we can use it to cook with entirely…if the need arises.

We are living in such uncertain times anymore, and if our economy continues to weaken, then we’re all going to be faced with some seriously hard times. Food shortages, inflation, loss of work, continued devaluation of our dollar, all these could factor into a problem.

I strongly recommend you guys , if you haven’t already, please put up ample food storage if at all possible. I know things are rough, and times are hard, but guess what…you’re going to have to eat.

Just do what you can, and pick up extra any chance you get. Rice, flour, beans, cornmeal, sugar, grits(Yes my Northern Friends…grits!), all these are really good fillers, and will keep very well. All these are still fairly cheap, but they are getting more costly almost weekly. I do promise you this…just keep putting off trying to put up some extra groceries. If inflation does hit, and it is almost inevitable, you’ll be wishing you’d have laid in some extra. Understand this is my opinion, that’s all it is, but I do know a great many families who have already done quite a bit of what I’m talking about.

Take a quick look at our national debt. On top of this, we’ve given our President another 2 trillion in increased monies? From even a standpoint of a simple man, this type of unchecked spending is literally insanity. Can we continue this type of outrageous spending? Of course we can’t, and if this keeps up…let’s just say we’ll all be in big trouble, quicker sooner than later.

So once more, if possible, please set aside a little money to purchase a little extra each week.
Let’s see, what else we got going on?

Well, we’ll be starting a new compost pile, again hopefully today, depending on the rain.

The last pile we did, which also was the FIRST pile we’d ever done, did really, really well. It sold me on the idea, so, we’ll be doing another.

We’ll be turning the soil in the garden area as well. We’ll be putting in our fall pea crop here pretty quick, and I’d like to lightly till this area another couple times at least, prior to planting. This year we’ll probably go a little heavier with black-eyes, as last year we really didn’t plant very many of these.

I really would like to double its size, but still just kinda’ throwin’ that out there. It’ll be simple, as we’ll just cut the fence in the middle of one side, open it out on both ends, snatch out the posts, and all we’ll have to do then is just run one new 110-foot section of wire, and we’d be doubled the size, and pretty quickly too.

I’d love to not have to fence it in, but between the cows, deer, and hogs, it has to be enclosed. I’m not real big on those “redistribution of wealth” policies. I don’t mind helping someone out one bit, BUT I DO like to pick and choose who I do help, and that should be up to you.

Some people you help really, really need it, and appreciate when you do so, and who knows, down the road a little ways, you may need some help yourself. On the other hand, you have people who want help, but only for one reason…cause they don’t want to help themselves.

These people don’t need help, they only want something for nothing, so in my opinion, why should we waste our time, and our hard earned money to give to them. Plus, most of these same people hate the ones who are helping them.

Why? Because they’ve been convinced by many of our politicians that what we have is THEIR’S too! You only have to look at these “community organizing” groups, and listen up a little. According to them, you and I who’ve worked for what we have, saved for what we have, and in most cases “sweated blood” to achieve our place in life, well, they think we somehow stole it from them.

This didn’t just pop into their mind, this has been POUNDED into their mind, by our politicians and community organizers. Shoot, we’re being led today by our Community Organizer in Chief and his wife, who I’ve heard to declare these so called “oppressed” need their fair share of the pie too.

I don’t mind for one minute someone getting their piece of the pie too, but I offer one stipulation…pay for the damn thing, just like everybody else.

Let me get off that…

Hey, got a question. I want a greenhouse. Do you think I could contact our elected leaders and qualify for a program that will help me in this regard? You know, possibly all you guys redistribute some of your wealth to ole’ Deb and I, and shoot, we’ll build our dern greenhouse yet!

No seriously, Deb and I talked about building one yesterday. The reasoning, though I’d thought about a small one before to use for seed beds, is that simply the fresh fruit and vegetables we’re using in Deb’s juicing each morning is costing us between 90-100 bucks a week…every week.

My answer to her to begin with was, “So what…if it helps you, I could really care less,” but after contemplating her idea for a few minutes, I agreed with her, and for a couple of different reasons.

First, if we’d build maybe a 30×30, or a little larger, we could use a third of it as seed beds, but also grow a couple of egg plants, a couple of tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. By doing this we could grow them year round, when the “garden” garden is not available.

By doing this, we’d be able to keep a fresh supply of vegetables to juice daily…year round, and really offset the cost of store bought.

But the biggie here is that we’ll be growing our own, at a much cheaper price, but the vegetables will be grown by us, and not by someone else. By so doing we’ll not be eating “who knows what,” through different types of herbicide, insecticides, or even additives to prolong decay. We’ll know what we are eating, and not guessing.

So, we’ll be looking into this shortly. If you already have a greenhouse I’d like to hear from you, please. Also, if you’ve any info you’d like to share, I’d love to hear it too.

I got our tomato plants we got planted. There’s 8 Parks Whoppers, and 6 Big Boys. We’ll be hoping these come along good. I already miss ours we had earlier in the year, and those store bought ones are hardly fit to eat anymore…

Listen, we appreciate all you guys do in regards to Deb. She’s doing really well again since stopping chemo, and looks and feels much better. She says to tell all of you hello, and adds that as quick as she gets me “straightened out,” she’ll give you guys an update.

We’d also like to ask you guys to put a special friend of ours in your prayers. You probably have read some of her comments before, and she’s one great lady. Her name is Sandra, and she’s dealing with cancer too, although for a much longer time than Deb has. I think since 1998, but if I’m wrong Sandra, I apologize. Anyway, if you guys would, please say a special prayer for her if you…

You guys have a great day, and God bless you and yours.

Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

This entry was posted in Home Cooking. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to A New Garden Just Around the Corner

  1. Tom Lawson says:

    Wonderful article. We just tried gardening for the first time in ‘square foot’ gardener. Didn’t do too well but we’re keepin’ on. Please add us to your email list.
    Thanks again.
    Tom & Kathy Lawson,
    Chocowinity, NC, 27817

  2. shirley says:

    I just hope S510 doesn’t kick in and the government stop us from being able to have our own gardens and grow our own food!

  3. susan elaine says:

    Loved the tour! Thanks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>