There were plans to prep the yards and work out some building concepts for coops and a rabbitry over the winter to be ready for building up come springtime. Life had other plans, and I am sitting here instead in a boot from a major ankle sprain.
Plan A
The tilled plots are expanded and have their new irrigation system, though there’s still a bit to do with them. The plan there was to have my son knock out two birds with one stone and rake leaves for BETA volunteer hours and to add to the plots. Then we would cover them with plain cardboard. Now Leon did rake and filled 3 lawn bags with leaves, but it turns out 3 bags was only enough to fill one plot. Then all the cardboard we had been saving barely covered the leaves. So, we drastically underestimated how many bags and boxes we would need for three plots.
New Plan!
Instead, while I’m keeping my ankle rested and elevated, I’m in research mode. Like I’ve said before, I love learning how to do things, and my social media’s full of webinar signups. I’ve joined a beekeeping webinar from Beekeeping 24/7, a year-round gardening webinar from the Kitchen Garden Academy, and another round of the HomesteadHer summit. I’ve joined before, but some of what I learned and took notes on didn’t click so I’m hoping for some clarification.
Beekeeping 24/7
In a week of videos, live Q+A’s, and reading through a printout, I learned a ton about beekeeping. Obviously, there’s no better teacher than hands on experience, but Peter and Amy’s teachings were a great second. I’d love to get started with bees in the spring, but I think without a fence installed, neighbors might be an issue for the time being. There’s a little girl near the back of my property I’d be worried about getting stung. But game on when the fence comes up! I wrote some 4 pages of notes on these videos and if it weren’t someone else’s paid for knowledge, I’d be happy to share their every word. But I can at least share my own work with bees when I add them, and you might pick up what they taught me with those updates.
Kitchen Garden Academy
The webinar from the Kitchen Garden Academy was a single live video on how to garden year-round. Nicole Burke explained how her program allows one to garden all year instead of just the spring and summer. I didn’t end up joining the program, but I think the information will prove beneficial. For one thing, it opens the door to growing all year with the concept of cold season plants. Certain leafy and root plants will grow past the freeze date. Another big concept is arrangement of plants. The popular style seemed to be a fruiting plant centered in root plants, then leafy vegetables in the corner. Her last point was to work with nature and copy what works around you. Nature doesn’t follow grow zones and freeze dates; it just works.
The HomesteadHer Summit
This summit pops up on my page repeatedly. I’ve signed up a couple of times but like I said, sometimes a rewatch helps drill in what they teach. Over four days, multiple topics were covered from gardening and herbalism to livestock, to making and preserving foods like cheese and breads. Some of the videos seemed almost too simple, but I recognize there are people starting at zero. Other videos were daunting, like making your own cheese or all about edible flowers. My note taking is filling an entire page with the day’s notes, but those two videos singlehandedly filled pages each.
Miscellaneous
In between those webinars, I’m in the School of Traditional Skills. Here and there, teachers from the school will host some kind of live video or training. Just in time for the holidays, I got some additional teachings for baking breads.
The tips there are to read the dough, not the recipe. Sometimes just adding the amount of flour a recipe calls for is enough to make your bread a dense brick. Add a little at a time to get the right consistency. We also learned about four tests to perform for better bread.
~Flour Saturation Test: the dough will pull clean from the sides of the bowl.
~Windowpane Test: a small ball of dough can be stretched to allow light through without tearing.
~Poke Test: your dough won’t spring back when you poke it if it is done rising.
~Thump Test: your bread should sound hollow after it is baked.
Plus, we got a free multipurpose bread recipe for bread or pizza dough or cinnamon rolls or buns!
3/4 C All Purpose Flour with 1 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil and 3 tsp Salt
1 1/2 C Warm Water with 1 1/2 Tbsp Honey and 3 tsp Active Yeast
Mix those together and SLOWLY add up to 6 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour
Bake at 375
She didn’t say how long, only to use the thump test and your senses to figure out when it’s done.
Hopefully, my ankle will be functional again soon so we can keep working on the land. I love doing research but writing in notebooks doesn’t grow food. I am forever grateful to Marcus and Leon for doing what they can while I recover. Until next time!