Summer Recap

The last few days I have been working on a printable "Zine" version of this blog, this post being the last in it. I guess that officially means we are moving into the next phase of the property. Winterizing.
Between shifting the focus to winter, and reading all the goals we had for this summer, has made me realize all the things we accomplished, and all the ways we came up short.

My cabin is in somewhat better shape than it was in june. The loft is twice the size, turning a sleeping pad, into a mini living room. though most of it still needs siding and insulation, I finished a space large enough to build myself a desk, thus my cabin finally has a place for me to sit down and work on shit. A winter necessity.

The kitchen is showing a lot of promise, though not completed yet. The propane stove I got for free off of the community board broke, and potentially almost exploded my house. I got a new one, and built it into the counter, however it has a broken pipe and is not safe to use yet. as soon as I get 50 bucks to spare our local propane tech is going to fix it, and we will be baking cakes like a reality tv show. We had a rainwater system hooked up to the sink, but the filtration wasn't the best, and it kept clogging the pipes (which were half made of bicycle tubes) luckily we dug a 6 foot deep mini well, which has provided us with enough water to water the gardens, aswell as wash dishes. As for drinking water we are still sneaking into campsites and behind buildings to fill up where we can.

As for electicity being hooked up, the siding being finished, or any of those other things I said i would have done in july...... I'm still working on it. I blame a fractured ankle, and way to many awesome travelers coming to stay with us. Plus working three days a week took up some time.

Around the property is where you can see the most improvements. Where in february there were piles of rocky, clay filled dirt, there are three and a half gardens. Soon to be merged into one very large garden. The motorhome we got donated last year is now in its permanent location with a deck built off of it. The newest addition to the yard is a trail we started that circumnavigates the property. Its going to act as a jogging trail, mountain bike trail, and when it gets a little more advanced, we will turn it into a network of trails on which we will host games of capture the flag, with bow and arrows.

The garden taught us lots this year. Our apple tree died from the onslaught of tent caterpillars in early summer, the plum tree was near producing fruit mid august, until deer bent the fence, and ate half the tree. They will pay.......  My dad always says deer wait until the day your ready to harvest before they break in and eat everything, and that has proved true more than once this summer. We have only suffered minimal casualties, but deer fence reinforcement is necessary for next year. Most of our leafy greens came in with complete success, we have had tons of kale, lettuce, peas, and all  the easy things to grow. Whereas our root vegetables arent doing so well, mostly because we didn't thin them out enough. Our squashes seem to form, then die, buut that might be due to over-watering. we will find out soon. Also the tomato greenhouse I made might have been too hot, as those plants never grew, and turned a little purple, whereas the tomatoes in the ground turned into crazy jungle tomatoes.