Independence Days Challenge

1. Plant Something- Finally planted main veggie garden with starts. Raised bed is doing great, no more Mr. Stumpy! Started peas & green onions from seed, and transplanted all the basil I started from seed inside. Bought some thyme since mine died...

2. Harvest Something- Eggs, grass clippings, chives. Spreading compost, wow, a lot was ready! Got some wonderful rhubarb for free from my neighbor.

3. Preserve Something- Froze half a batch of cookies. Still adding more to chest freezer, Costco breads, etc.

4. Store Something- Restocked some of the pantry. Froze some of my free, gifted rhubarb and half of the cookies I made last night.

5. Manage Reserves- Get A Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Found a great deal on veggie starts today, so bought a few more tomatoes. Found a nice, new kitchen rug, bought some vintage items- more for my enjoyment than use :) Bought a couple of huge, cheap bags of organic chips from Costco. Got a great deal on some 1/2 price Dansko's for work for in the fall. My feet will thank me :)

6. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipes- Made global wraps (recipe coming) to use up some leftovers, and some homemade chocolate chuck oatmeal cookies. Working on freezer food.  

7. Build Community Food Systems- Got some wonderful rhubarb for free from my neighbor, about 5 lbs! More coming soon. Will go to farmer's market soon for veggies to can. I will start selling eggs in the fall.

8. Recycle/Re-Use- Spreading/adding more compost, feeding chickens more food scraps. Will be building a new deck cabinet out of reclaimed wood to use an old window screen for the door, for storage. Got rid of my big iced tea maker, freed up some counter space. Now using a nice, smaller tea pot, which will work for winter tea too. Have sold a few things thru Craigslist, like our old doggy divider for our SUV we don't have anymore. Flipped over our stained living room rug to use clean side, until we can get a new one. Still working on cleaning out my closet for charity donations. Weird how attached we can get to clothing that is too big, but has sentimental value. I'm doing it in small batches.

9. Skill Up- Dave and I tackled getting the huge broken branch down off our tree after the 65 mph winds came thru. Neither of us, or the chickens, got killed, which is always nice. Survived pretty comfortably with no power for a while. Knew where to find my lamps, crank up radio, etc. Prepped early for the storm. It's scary how many people are totally oblivious to nature :(   Learned how to freeze rhubarb. Met with advisor on insurance and retirement ideas. There's a lot to learn.

10. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- Moved a few perennials and evergreens to better location light-wise for better growth and to fill in open spaces. Will be dividing some more to move. Will be spackling some areas in the house to touch up the paint. Will be doing some gutter painting too, oh joy! Deep cleaning the garage, shed and house now that I'm off for the summer. I'll be starting a project list soon...