2020

I am extremely late with this post but WOW, what a crazy year it has been so far! A pandemic, civil unrest, economic shut down on the verge of a depression, and I don't even want to think about the upcoming election and how divided everyone is this year. It gets to be all so overwhelming. But... I don't have to be helpless and I can focus on being as self sufficient and resilient as possible by growing our own food and working on the homestead. Focus on the things you can control. With the pandemic, the silver lining is we got a lot more done on the land than we would have otherwise! The photo above shows us wearing our Peak Prosperity Resilience t-shirts. A very fitting theme for this year. This website has helped us prepare for the past decade and I highly recommend you check them out.

Recap of 2019: Absolutely everything fruited! Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, goumi, jostaberry, plums, peaches, pears, peaches, and apples. The asparagus also popped up but we decided to wait until this year to harvest to give them more time to establish.They all liked the long winter with a good amount of snow and a spring and summer with the perfect amount of rain. We had more fruit than we knew what to do with, so had others in our community come pick for cider, sauce, etc. The berries and peaches were either eaten fresh or were frozen. Plums were eaten fresh and made into a ton of jam. Pears and apples were for fresh eating and dehydrating. I meant to dehydrate a lot more apples and do cider but we did not get around to it.

Accomplishments of 2019:

• Tapped maples for maple syrup

• Pruned fruit trees & berry bushes

• ATV

• Mushrooms - Wine Caps & Shiitakes

• Mulched blueberries

• Planted 3 Hazelnuts

• First year of strawberries!

• Small vegetable garden - tomatoes, peppers, herbs

• Solar panels! One step closer to energy independence!

• Harvested & preserved fruits & vegetables

• Loads of plum jam

• Planted 3 Nanking Cherry

• Bought backup generator

• Protected blueberries from birds/deer

• Protected hedgerow from deer with burlap

Things we didn't get to 2019

• Switch pellet stove to wood stove

• Drainage ditch for road

• Rain catchment system using IBC totes

• Raised beds

• Compost bins

• Dog composting area

• Plant nursery

• Chop firewood

• Temporary fence

• Living fence

• Start trail building

• Compost tea sprays for orchard 3x

• Mulch evergreen hedge and windbreak

So our goals for 2020 are to finish what we didn't get to in 2019, as well as the usual:

• Tap maples for maple syrup

• Prune fruit trees & berry bushes

• Mulch fruit trees & berry bushes

• Plant perennial layer of forest garden

• Vegetable garden

• Harvest & preserve fruits & vegetables

• Forage for food & medicine

Highlights of 2019

2020 so far:

• Tap maples for maple syrup

• Planted 5 Korean Pines - can't wait until we harvest them in like 20 years!

• Converted the pellet stove to wood stove

• Seaberry oxymel -so much Vitamin C, awesome for your immune system to fight COVID-19

• Homemade flat bread from scratch

• Homemade pizza

• Prune fruit trees & berry bushes

• Mulch blueberries

• Chickens!

• Bought firewood

• Harvested apsaragus for the first time!

• Harvested wine caps

• Foraged pheasant back mushrooms

• Harvested Rhubarb

• Black locusts first flowers

• Strawberries eaten by squirrels and/or chipmunks, bunnies

• Raised garden bed - broccoli, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, hot peppers, carrots, ground cherry, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, zucchini, onions

• Herbs - lavender, rosemary, sage, pineapple sage, dill, oregano, cilantro, parsley, chamomile

• Joined CSA

• Surgery for endometriosis

• Harvested broccoli for the first time! Birds helped take care of cabbage worms and fenced off from groundhog

• Harvesting blueberries, purple raspberries, black capped raspberries, black berries, chamomile flowers, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, zucchini

• Foraged Yarrow, St. John's Wort, Plantain

• St. John's Wort tincture

• Plantain Salve

• Installed heat pump/ heat pump water heater

Woodstove & Heat pump/heat pump water heater - More ways to be resilient and not depend as much on oil. And if the electricity goes out, then we will at least be warm in our living room with our woodstove!

Chickens! - For the past 4 years I have been saying I want to get chickens, but we always put it off to the next year because of lack of time and energy. We were going to put it off again this year until the pandemic and food shortages happened. So we finally took the plunge! Fortunately, we ordered before everyone else got the same idea and everything was sold out. Although I'm glad so many others are preparing as well. The chickies are so interesting and each have their own personalities/habits. And we actually had time to take on this task since I was able to work from home. We should be getting eggs in a few months, so exciting!

Surgery - Finally! I've been putting it off but due to debilitating and worsening back pain and the fact that with the pandemic I wasn't sure when we'd be able to do it, I sucked it up and bit the bullet. We drove to see a specialist in Maine who is supposed to be the best with excision for Endometriosis. It went well and recovery was a pain but I'm glad we got it done. Hopefully it provides much needed relief but it'll take a few months to see if I am fully healed. Crossing fingers!

Due to the state of the world at the moment, we feel a sense of urgency to fast track other projects. So we are looking into getting batteries for our solar panels, installing a pond, getting a cheap greenhouse and setting up our root cellar. Will keep you posted on our progress!