October 12 -- first frost.
Mostly it hit the squash vines and the stevia. Everything else, even the tomato crop, seems to be soldiering on. Nevertheless I took the hint, and gathered up the three most heavily green-tomato-laden vines -- a Brandywine and two Romas -- and hauled them to the potting shed to hang; we'll see what happens. I had brought in the basil plants and hung them up by the fire to dry the day before. All the remaining green tomatoes I brought in; I'm not fond of fried green tomatoes (except as a book) but I did make a green tomato pesto that I liked. Anything that's half-turned we set out on paper in a window to see if it will ripen; most do.
There were a few zukes among the blasted squash leaves and I took those as well, and gathered the remaining sunflower heads and some bean vines for the poultry. It occurred to me that I haven't been making much mulch the last couple of months, so I got out the electric shredder and made about thirty pounds of chips from sunflower and pepper and sunchoke stalks.
Earlier, after breakfast, I sat by the fire cutting open feed sacks to lay out flat and roll up. I've begun using them to create more dead air space in the tiny crawl space that serves here for an attic, along with bubble packs, styro peanuts, cardboard, and pretty much anything else we can get our hands on.
It's a struggle to get up there as the hatchways are right up under the rafters and I have to squirm like a caterpillar to negotiate the opening. It's completely dark up there, so I've installed the trouble lamp to see for the time being. There's no floor; the ceiling fortunately is made of very sturdy one-by sixes nailed to the underside of the ceiling joists; but one has to negotiate the joists anyway to avoid roiling up the matted fiberglass insulation, only about two inches thick, between them.
The obvious thing to do is get more fiberglass, R-17 or better, but we're out of money for this kind of thing and as we don't maybe have as much wood as we should, for this winter, I'm beefing up the best way I can, mostly with poly sheeting that's had several uses already, such as for drop cloths for painting, and the ubiquitous and numerous feed sacks. These are of three varieties: woven white plastic, patterned after burlap; kraft paper with white plastic insides; and kraft paper inside and out with 1/2 mil polyethylene sandwiched between. Cut open and spread, the bags cover an area about four by six feet each, and I tack them down at one end, then stretch them taut across the joists, tacking down as I go with the hammer tacker. Not very much R-value, I suppose; yet I can tell that it helps; the house already is appreciably warmer. And to think we went fifteen winters before we got around to even this! Shiftless critters...
Beloved has been processing more apples, and planning storytime and music programs, and practicing guitar; so she's within hollering distance to pass things through the tiny hatch to me as as I run out of them. She says that I look like a big bug in my hoodie, mask, and goggles. Whatever.
Oh! She wants you to see some of her eggplants:
We've ordered a pitcher pump and a foot valve, and they have arrived, so when the attic is done, being able to get water when the power is off will be a priority. Then when it has rained enough to soften the ground some, we'll move the deer fence and start making the long permanent beds. GWATCDR (God-Willin'-And-The-Crick-Don't-Rise).So, that's us. What are you doing to ready up for winter?
We have put a cellar house over our root cellar that shades the walls. They had been absorbing solar gain and heating the inside.
ReplyDeleteWe have four bushels of potaotes and 2 bushels of apples. I hope to make hard cider in there, too.
We have dried tomatoes and frozen a lot of food including 50 chickens.
I worry that you are putting flamable stuff in the attic as insulation. That is a danger. Where is your chimney? Paper and wood get superdry after a couple of years of high temp exposure. After they are superdry the ignition point drops very low and you might have a fire on your hands.
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Dave
Wow, nice. We can't do a cellar as the water table is just too high.
ReplyDeleteFlammability; I thought someone would mention that. Wisely.
It's why I hesitate sometimes to talk about what we do here. Necessity is the mother of inventions that will make an inspector lose sleep, and we've had a LOT of necessity. Fortunately the wood stove is in the dining room, which was added decades after the original cottage. There's a flat roof there and no access from there to the crawl space over the main house.
This place is a nightmare of sixty year old builder's paper everywhere -- all the walls, for example -- and even the fiberglass in place has kraft paper backing. We are going to have to rely on prevention. Keeping our electricity use to a minimum helps, and avoiding frying stuff, or using toaster ovens, etc. Regular chimney sweeping and inspection, too.
We update the alarms every year and we have our escape plan and a spare building to retreat to. The V.F.D. here are wonderful folks but they could never save this place once it gets going.
There is a fireplace in the living room but I looked it over and promptly bricked down to roof level and roofed over the chimney, then bricked up the fireplace itself. Sad, but it was too dangerous if actually used.
Thanks for stopping by!
Also some plastics out gas harmful toxins as well as a point of fire and when they burn give out poison gas. Too much safety is never a problem. Too little ends life.
ReplyDeleteWell put, and too true.
ReplyDeleteWe aren't as organized as you are! I'm trying to figure a way to let cold outside air into one room in the basement that we use as a pantry. Of course, I'd like to do this WITHOUT making my home more susceptible to crime. And the window is at the front door so bars wouldn't be a great look :)
ReplyDeleteKeep me in mind if you ever need to barter a hard worker for something... I have a connection on your side of the moutain... although he's doing controlled burns these days, but just happy for the employment. He sent some pictures this morning.
Hiya, Chica!
ReplyDeleteWell, controlled burns is work -- I used to do that -- then they would get out of control -- job security, was what that was...
We've got a storm door on the cold room with the glass down, and an interior door, which we're insulating, stays bolted when we're locked down. Anyone getting into the cold room without permission (by cutting the screen or breaking glass) gets to steal mostly apples and potatoes ... past the bolted door, they are apt to trip the Ruger alarm ...
Our "root cellar" is unfortunately our basement, so once they're in, they're in. I worry mostly about when we're gone. Nights we have one dog who sleeps in the basement and another who sleeps in the main house. Both barkers ;) Plus there's always an arsenal around here, so that doesn't bother me much.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have found your blog through your post on butternut squash on mine. I'm envious of YOUR abundance of eggplants, tomatoes, etc. Neither of those produced much for me this year.
ReplyDeleteWell, the eggplant were abundant; tomatoes, not so much. We are treating the red ones like royalty!
ReplyDelete