Okay, okay. I haven't been blogging much recently so I doubt I have any "regular" followers left, but just in case I thought I'd post an update on our attempt to be self sufficient. My new life style has left me much busier than I ever thought I would be!
Several years ago (was it 2008 or 2009?) we started planting some fruit trees and shrubs that we are beginning to get some fruit from. We have expanded our orchard from just a couple of trees in our side yard to so many trees it is hard to keep track of them all. Our orchard has expanded into our front and back yard. Once we filled those areas, we expanded to the area along the front of our tree line up by the road in front of our house. This year we added 2 plum trees as well as a pear and a couple more varieties of apples (like we needed more of those, lol).
My square foot gardens have continued producing a ton of produce to can each year. I have become fairly comfortable with the canning skills I gained from reading library books, blog posts, and other things several years ago. We are getting enough to have to begin making additional areas to store all of our canned goods. Each time I pluck some edibles from the yard I feel so richly blessed.
In 2010 my wonderful hubby built me a grape arbor that has been heavily planted with grape vines that have also begun producing fruit this year. It looks wonderful. On the decorative top cross braces we have hung those topsy turvy bags which provided us with so many tomatoes last year I'm not really sure that we needed to plant more tomato plants this year.
We have begun working on an area in the back yard where we are moving our strawberries, raspberries, asparagus, and rhubarb to so they get more sunlight. That will be a lot of work. It had been difficult this year to have enough cool days to do such intensive labor, but I am still hoping to get it done this year.
Another venture I began last summer was to add a bunch of herbs to my garden. This year I began drying them for future use. I have even added them to my containers as accent plants instead of the traditional varieties that we have used in the past.
The negotiations continue for getting bunnies and chickens.
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
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