What are you all doing to prepare for winter?

[Mini Horses]

Try saving a couple to see how they hold. My butternuts were huge...I had 3 vines that had started in the old hog pen that year. Transplanted, unsure if melon or squash. They went everywhere and I got over 125# from them. Kept very well over7 months. I'm thinking your squash are sweeter. But I often baked with butter & brown sugar. Sometimes with butter & sage for a savory. I like the keeping quality with no processing.

 

[Beekissed]

We are doing the same, Sumi.

Same as we do every year.... getting wood, canning food, calking, painting and other general maintenance of the buildings and grounds, bedding down the garden with deeper wood chips, changing out bedding in the dog house, adding more in the chicken coop, changing out nesting materials, laying in dry goods, drawing up fresh water into jugs(winter storms take out our power here very frequently), gearing up for hunting season and the deer harvest and canning it up, gathering in chicken and dog food, foraging for apples to can and use for livestock, deer and pet feed, raking and storing leaves for winter bedding needs and also to put on the garden, culling of the flock and canning them up, fall cleaning and clearing out of storage areas and the home.

The usual.

 

[sumi]

I'm looking forward to lots of sewing by the fire this winter. I have a quilt on the go, another planned for one day and one for a friend that I just started on

 

[baymule]

I have a hoop coop finished for the chickens. When we moved, I had nothing for them. They spent the night in a cramped little cage. A neighbor and I used 2 horse panels, chicken wire and a rabbit cage for a temporary coop for them. They like their new place better. A permanent coop is in the plans, then the hoop coop will be used as a grow out coop.

Garden was a total failure. Nothing to put up. (Shrug) freezer is full anyway ......

We moved in February. It rained, snowed and ice stormed. Poor horses huddled under cedar trees. I had nothing but a fence. Saturday 2 neighbors and I cleared up dead trees, brush and cut 2 dead trees, to clear a place for a barn. It's a mess. We got a small spot cleaned up, long ways to go.

DH watched. He had open heart, 3 bypasses 3 weeks ago. Total surprise to us. He needs knee and shoulder replacement and had to get a check up first. We praise God for our blessing. He had 95% blockage. He started 12 weeks of rehab, 3 times a week, today. Getting him back in tip top shape is priority #1.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - I've been there and know what you're facing. Keep on him to do that rehab - he'll be better for it in the long run. My DH had his triple on March 3 of this year. He had a couple smaller vessels at 100% - thankfully they weren't major ones. He did have 95% and above on some of his big ones, and a previous stent, so he and your DH were running on borrowed time. So glad they're both still here!

You hang in there gal! Wish we were closer - I'd come help you.

 

[Denim Deb]

I wondered if they may have been planted by him. I've always been fascinated by his story.

 

[Corn Woman]

Foraged for apples this weekend up in the mountains, just old trees growing out in the woods....hard work out in the brush, so lacerations were sustained, but we got a few to start with. Will glean apples from my sister's two trees this coming week as well. Dusting off the copper kettle this week and will have an old fashioned "working" to get apples canned and firewood in the sheds.

Those are beautiful apples.

 

[goatgurl]

envious of your apples beekissed. when i lived in west Virginia i discovered an old type apple called York imperial. still my favorite apple in the world but it doesn't grow down here. I'm planning on going up to wva to visit next month and I'm going to try to find some while I'm up there.

 

[Britesea]

Unfortunately for us, we are probably looking at a warmer, drier than average winter due to El Nino. It brings more rain and cold to California, but doesn't reach this far north; instead we get the opposite. This will be the third winter without normal snowfall, which the basin depends on for water the rest of the year. I'm researching more ideas for keeping the water usage down in the veggie garden while still getting a decent harvest. Mulch, of course; I use drip/seep hoses already. I'm thinking of an idea I saw that is used in the dryer parts of Africa- A large covered pot of water is set up high (like on a platform about 3 feet above a garden bed) with strings running down to each plant; the water seeps down the string to the plant where it delivers a bit of moisture all day and night. They also use something like shade cloth on an A frame above the bed- the cloth covers only one side of the bed, and gets moved halfway through the day to follow the sun; this protects the plants from the hot sun and drying winds, but still allows lots of light. It might work in our high desert.

 

[Mini Horses]

As always, what we do depends on our own area and resources. Britsea has already a house with grey water use & I suspect that many in that area may have due to "normal" weather for them. TX - yep, generally hot/warm majority of year but, not entire state. VA we have coastal with some issues -- summer hurricanes & nor easters -- then the western portion of state has some low mountains, so they have more snow & rain. They actually stop, slow or reduce some that that snow/rain that won't get to us at the coastal area, 3 hrs away. They have snow ski areas....we only water ski. LOL

For me, snow over 3" and cold enough to last over 3 days on ground is severe Every 7-10 yrs we get HUGE snow, 1 to 1.5 ft. Talk about paralyze -- our area is not equipped for removal as it is so unusual to see. A friend lives in IL & has said she can get snow early Nov and not see the ground until Mar. Where you get 3 to 5 feet, and doesn't melt, so next piles on. WOW ! Not what I could live with, I'd move.

It's interesting to hear what others go thru. I had a member on the mini horse forum say it was a mild day as only -10 that day --- that's MILD? What they must do to even have running water is unreal. We all live somewhere but, that's not for me.

With the el nino, they say many areas warmer & wetter. Guess we will all have to wait and see what we get.