2022-08 August Prep Journal and To-Do Lists

Not a great garden year here. Not enough rain and too much heat. My peppers are doing good, but they quit blooming. Tomatoes are horrid, mostly blossom end rot. I can't keep them watered enough. Soil has all they need....if they can get to it. Beans also are blossom light. I did plant 4 types of dry beans to be seed stock for next year (I bought a few seed, but not enough for a full crop, so I'm growing seed ) Those are slow but doing ok. Squash bugs come late this year, but come on HEAVY. I decided to just let my zucchini plants go....I can't fight that fight.

For us wood prices are UP....but that's because we keep having to drive to the other property to clean up what the stormes took out, lol. Woods free....but the gas to get there and the labor isn't

On the upside, contractors are coming tomorrow to fix the driveway at Pap's. Also...the realtor is coming to take pictures AND!!! That house will be on the market!! HAPPY DANCE! They already have someone that want to see it.....maybe it will be sold FAST! While the contractors are there, we will be there. I run the vacuum through the place, tidy here and there a bit, mow lawn, etc.

Ohio Dreamer, ann, it is a tough garden year, isn't it.
Our toughest so far, cauliflower, nothing, tomatoes, not good at all. I still have hope on many other things, especially the green beans. We didn't plant for dry beans because we'd need 90 to 120 days, and we didn't start any early in the summer, so they would have time.
A fungal disease hit the apple tree really hard about 3 days ago, all the leaves show this apple cedar rust damage.
The hope I have is in things that are coming on late: beans, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, chard, purple sprouting broccoli. Maybe sunflowers. We'll just keep trying.

midtnmama, I saw somewhere that black lights illuminate hornworms....if you have a black light. I don't have one but we talked about how it would help with them in the garden.

Oh by the way, our solar lights in the garden seem to be doing good, and we enjoy them so much! I'm totally happy we wasted money on them..lol.

Since we have the moth population under control in our kales/root veg/broccoli.....I THINK we'll do okay withe the purple sprouting broccoli.....we'll see. I just can't get over how my youngest does so well with broccoli and I haven't ever been able to do as well as that with mine. He must have the touch. (oh and I talked with him yesterday for a short call......to see how he was doing with covid. He said he was flu like cold like sick for a couple days and now it's just a bad sore throat. I sent him info on blackberries/blue berries/ raspberries, in drinking water, all day long every day, to help the throat. I hope that helps him.)

feather ,midtnmama ,Ohio Dreamer ,ann ,susannah ,nbc3mom , so far, August has been nothing like what I was hoping for. For starters, my horse, the palomino that I had feather post a pic of here for me, colicked and died a few days ago. She was fine all day, happy to get her supper, and a few hours later, Abby heard Bear, our stallion, calling over and over, like he was in distress. She ran out in the dark to see what was going on, and found Fly 2 pastures away from where she belonged, walking in circles, covered in sweat and in obvious distress. She ran back in to tell me and I was trying to call any vet that was open when she texted me not to bother with a vet, that Fly was dead. I was just in shock at that point. How can a horse that was just fine, suddenly be DEAD!? As near as we can figure, she rolled under a fence and twisted her gut, probably ruptured a blood vessel and bled out internally. It's the only thing I can think of that would have killed her so quickly. Needless to say, it's been a sad week here. That was Monday. We were finally able to get her buried Wednesday, meeting more of our neighbors in the process, as one of the neighbors I hadn't really met brought his backhoe over and buried her for us. It was already getting horribly smelly out there, with the weather being so warm. It was a good example of a neighborhood coming together. They told me that any time I needed help with anything, I could call on them, and I told them the same was true from us. We exchanged phone numbers and it turns out they are related to the family that used to live in that cabin when Abby was much younger. She used to play with the kids that lived there then! Have I mentioned that this is a really small community?

One thing I found out throughout this horrible experience is that sometimes even someone who is very good at decision making and dealing with emergencies (me) can freeze when something awful happens to them. I tried to find an animal removal service, no luck, racked my brain to try to think of someone with a backhoe who could dig a hole, but didn't even think about calling these particular neighbors because I was told his backhoe was broken down.  But through it all, I just felt frozen, like I couldn't think or make a decision.  Thankfully, another set of wonderful neighbors (one of the couples we used to have game nights with) came through for me.   After I stopped to talk to them about trying to find a way to get her buried,  they made the calls and connections, and called to say help was on the way right then. The wave of relief that came over me about brought me to tears. C had a hole dug and her buried in about 15 minutes start to finish. I'm so grateful. Now to find some way to show our gratitude in a more tangible form...

The garden is starting to produce, slowly. My lemon cucumber plants have a few small cukes on them, growing slowly, but growing.  The slicers and picklers are doing absolutely squat. The bush beans should be ready to pick tomorrow - could do it today, but I think I'll let them get a tiny bit bigger. We've had a few peas off the vines, with lots more tiny peas and blossoms on them. The potato vines have nearly all died off, and I've dug a few medium-sized red potatoes, planting back the babies that never had a chance to grow any bigger. I'm very disappointed in the poor potato crop, especially after all the work I put into clearing the weeds and hilling the potatoes. Between my knees and the community fair, I lost a lot of days of TLC for my garden, and it shows in the potato patch in particular, as well as the strawberries, which are trying hard not to die. I knew I should have planted them in the ground, rather than in the raised bed. The moisture just drains too quickly from the raised bed, and strawberries really need a lot of moisture to thrive. At least the peas, beans and rhubarb are thriving.

Abby and I spent the evening yesterday pulling tansy ragwort in our pastures and woods. We really should have done it a few weeks ago, as some of the blooms were starting to set seed. We pull them and place them head down in feed sacks, then tape the sacks shut and leave them in the sun to bake. Once the burn ban is lifted, we will burn them, but the hope is that the hot sun will kill any viable seeds. Next up is to pull the tansy in the neighbor's pastures, since any seeds from their plants will end up seeding our property with the nasty plants. It's not as easy to pull them this year for me, as my knee is still not handling a lot of walking on rough ground, but I CAN do it, and it's something I can do to help them, as well as myself. I'll also pull tansy for the neighbors on the other side of me, since I have seen a few plants along the roadway. Since they plan to help me with the greenhouse, I like that there is SOMETHING I can do for them, too.

ann , a special hello to you! It's so good to see you post here, since I've pretty much given up on the other site. (If I just read the prep journal and tightwad threads there, I'd be fine, but I keep reading other posts that raise my blood pressure too much, lol.) You are one of the folks I miss talking with, along with Jan, Oma, and a few others that don't post here (yet or regularly).

manygoatsnomore. I’m so sorry about your horse. I can feel your pain coming through your words. It’s wonderful that your neighbors were so supportive when you needed them. Hugs.

manygoatsnomore, oh I'm so sorry about you losing Fly.

I found a hole in our preps, not expensive but if for some reason we can't get it, then that would be bad. Baking soda, there's none put away. It comes in cardboard boxes, so I'll wrap them in plastic, like I do with the salt, to keep the humidity from making them clump.
And softener salt, so we picked up enough to get us through most of winter.

The whole house generator was finally installed last week. I am absolutely tickled to pieces to have it working! It will run 24 hours on 10 gallons of gas I see some pri-g in my future. It runs the barn, the well, the two mini-splits (heat pumps), the freezer and everything in the house except the stove. I have a microwave and a propane grill, plus lots of trees, so I can cook.

I have a shed that I was going to get rid of, but it has become the generator's new home. Must keep the new baby dry.😉


I finally broke down and bought a riding lawn mower that is supposed to work on hills. Let's hope it really does manage to front yard's hill. I think I will get some snow chains for it to give it a traction boost. My BF has made me promise not to get on it until he tries it out - the last one I had slid sideways down the hill. I think he's afraid getting run over.

I wish I could send some of our rain out to you all. I've gotten 4 inches in the last week. Most weeks we get at least 2 inches. I'm beginning to think that summer has become monsoon season.

I almost forgot - in July I worked 60hours of overtime in the first two weeks of the month and then spent the next 10 days with COVID. No more of that work schedule for me.

25 lbs eco farmed california lundberg brown basmati rice. We are just running out, we bought that much a year ago this august. Mr feather started eating the veggie rice more often in different combinations with other vegetables added just recently. I'm guessing we'll go through 25-50 lbs this next year. Azure standard, $1.40/lb.
I checked the price of lundberg basmati rice at our grocery store. $3.50/lb in the 2 lb bags.

I hear the price of tomatoes are going up due to the dryness, and tomatoes take a lot of water, they are expecting a ketchup shortage and prices will rise this next year. Mr feather stopped to buy more #10 cans of Contadina Tomato Paste and there was only one left. $6.69.

midtnmama, I've been pricing the pasta roller for the kitchen aid. Amazon is about twice the price new, than FB market place used. I'd rather get a used one but I have to trust FB market place and I'm having a hard time with that.

I also heard that pepper sauces would be in short supply.

Instead of canning soups, I'm pretty convinced pressure canning a mire poix and holy trinity, as a soup starter, in quarts will be a good use for the little onions I have. 2 parts onions, 1 part celery, then either 1 part carrots or 1 part green or red bell peppers in water. The celery can be harvested only partially, I have carrots from the store, and the peppers are starting to come off the garden.

feather,midtnmama,Ohio Dreamer,ann,susannah,nbc3mom,manygoatsnomore,mzgarden,adinwnc,
It's the end of August if anyone wants to follow up. New prep journal tomorrow as September begins.