Off da butt, in da woods

Checking in. Not dead. Been living real life, doing meaningful things. Not that internet life and the people here aren't meaningful, but my physical/digital balance has been way off for a while.

I deleted Facebook this weekend. Again. I was supposedly keeping it because of my neighborhood group, a couple chicken groups, and the marketplace feature. I never used any of them, so I deleted it. No sense in having it. Maybe one day I'll get on and only join chicken trader groups and my neighborhood page and never add any friends, but maybe not. We'll see.

What's new on steem?

We went to the park today. Sam, Sawyer, and I harvested some pecans while Melissa and Sophie walked and played. About 4,000 calories worth of pecans in an hour. They'll be put on the drying rack soon.

Soph and Sawyer playing. Sam and I waaay off in the distance, picking pecans

I've been saving seeds and kinda thinking ahead to spring. This year I planted around 100 okra seeds. They all sprouted and all but three sprouts were eaten by chickens. So those three plants made fruit and I let it all go to seed. That's free food for me and the chickens. Mostly the chickens probably. Fine by me, because those three plants have made way more seeds than what I planted. I've saved a catastrophic amount of squash seeds. They're for sale at one steem each plus shipping. ($1.50 per dozen seeds) I'll put them in my HSCO shop when I get around to it. I say a catastrophic amount because these are a very crazy squash. They took over the food forest this year, killing two blueberry bushes, some comfrey, and trying to kill a fruit tree or two. I won't be growing them next year because they're just too big for my space. They were a whole lot of fun though! Orange watermelons, canteloupe, and Lima beans are saved as well. Idk if I'll grow those beans again. Not very productive.

I'm going to grow a big bit of corn next year. A native flour variety so I can attempt to replace some of my agricultural grain intake. I think corn will be more productive per square foot (and less work) than rice or wheat, and I prefer the taste of corn. So I'll be learning some old traditional ways to prepare corn along that path. It'll be fun! I'll grow some other squash too. Loofah, some summer squash, and a not crazy variety of winter squash. Sticking with the three sisters approach, but I'll do it better this time. I learned that you're not supposed to plant all the parts at the same time. That'll help next year.

I might start fishing and hunting too. An economical meat source would be great. Thus the chickens. Still waiting on them to lay though. Any time now for the older three. I need more, of course. Had to put one down. She wasn't eating or growing for a while, then she got sick and the flock stopped letting her roost with them. I think I need about six more hens to be happy, to account for broody hens, and to have enough to not have to kill one of the roosters. I've grown kinda fond of both of em.

The chickens are doing a good job spreading my compost pile too. Putting it right where I want it: everyfreakingwhere. It turned out pretty good. Lots of completed soil, and it smells great.

I've come to some realizations lately too, with the help of my wife and my childhood best friend. And offline time. It's all stuff that I've known for a long time, but that I have avoided by getting online and talking about other shit. One is that I've been really depressed for the better part of the last decade. Not that I'm suicidal or sad or whatever, but that I'm just deeply dissatisfied with something. I'm needy, and require dramatic and whimsical changes pretty often. Might have something to do with it. Things to work on, I suppose, and I'll be going to some kind of counselor or something to work through it. Another thing is that Melissa and the kids aren't going to eat the food I grow. So on that front, I'm just gonna grow what I want, and they can catch up when they get around to it. That'll make things easier, not having to cater my gardening to picky people. I don't want a monocrop of watermelons and apples. Boring. It'll also decrease our grocery bill a bit because I'm the biggest eater in the family. Thus the corn and hunting.

Our debt payoff project is coming along great! This last month we paid of an extra $1500 and bought a new mattress and three new tires, all without touching savings. The power of overtime I guess. Just under two months pay in one month. A year ago, we'd have been up a pretty smelly creek to have those expenses, so I guess something is working!

I'm excited to see how all this comfrey does this winter! I'm going to dig and divide my two biggest plants after I get another good harvest off of them. I wonder if I plant them nice and thick along contour lines if they'd act as a bit of a water harvesting device...

Well. Too long of a post with not enough pictures. I've been leaving my phone behind a lot, on purpose. That means no pics of the garden or the woods. I'll take it next time so I can do a big photo dump with not a lot of words next week. Later!

All action for the good of all.

Nate.

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