My plans in preparing for a frugal future
This thread will constantly be updated and revised as I accomplish tasks, make revisions when and where needed or add new projects. When I edit this thread, I'll put the date when I did so in the OP title.
This may be of some interest for others and I'm also going to use it to organize all the information for this multiyear project in one place.
So, this initial posting will be a very rough draft which I'll flesh out over time such as adding links and more information.
One of my biggest projects in the past few years is converting my entire backyard into a vegetable garden and orchard. I've planted apple trees, plum trees, peach trees, hazelnut trees, raspberry bushes, blueberries, chives, strawberries, honeyberries, asparagus and rhubarb. This spring I plan on planting cherry and pear trees and hopefully within a couple of years, grapes. My backyard isn't that big but I'm trying to maximize space by using backyard orchard culture techniques where I plant the trees together in groups of two and will be keeping them pruned to a 8' high by 8' spread.
I also want to make the backyard into a habitat for native bees such as the bumblebee, miner and leaf cutter bees. I'll accomplish this planting perennial flowers, allowing dandelions and white clover to grow and by providing nesting for the bees.
After a year of effort, I was granted a variance to keep up to four hens. I got them last October and they are in a coop with covered run. I have Gold Lace Wyandottes and they are beautiful birds. The coop and attached run are in the southeast corner of the vegetable garden.
This year I plan on installing electric fence around the perimeter of the orchard and vegetable garden to keep the darn deer out. It'll be solar powered.
In order to store some of the food I harvest, I plan on using cold storage, fermentation, canning, pickling and dehydration. I built a root cellar under the basement access, but it doesn't stay above freezing during the coldest part of the year, so I have to make revisions or just use it when outdoor temps are 30 degrees or higher. I could just move the content of the root cellar into the basement itself as that is very chilly during much of the winter.
To help ride out times of food shortages or when going to the store may not be advisable such as when covid hit, I intend on building up a 120-day food supply and a 45-day water supply. The ingredients or meals will be shelf stable or dry goods. I have a menu planner which I'll fill out so that will make it easier for me to keep in stock premade meals and dry goods. To help store this, I'll need to build another set of shelves in the basement. Below is a list of meals I plan on having canned and in stock:
Chilli
Spaghetti sauce
French Onion soup
Charro Bean soup
Black Bean & Lentil soup
Baked Beans
Beef Vegetable stew
Zuppa Toscana soup
Refried Beans
Borscht soup
Pickled Sucker fish
Dutch Coleslaw
Sauerkraut
Kimchi (my version of it)
Beets (when in season)
Green Beans (when in season)
Asparagus
Pears
Peaches
Plums
Dehydrated foods will be mostly onion, chives, tomatoes (ground into a powder). Fermented foods will be beans, sugar snap peas, sauerkraut (some of which I'll can for longer shelf life), kimchi (some of which I'll can for longer shelf life), and tomatoes. Pickled foods will be eggs and sucker fish.
My garden plan will consist of two parts. One will be for normal times when seeds are readily available and the other will be for times of emergency where I'll concentrate on the very basics. By basics, I'm talking about foods that are relatively easy to store and/or crops I can easily get seeds from for the following year such as potatoes, garlic, winter squash, summer squash, peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. I'm considering learning how to harvest seeds from beets, carrots, rutabagas, cabbage, and onions. However, the bulk of the emergency garden will be dedicated to the growing of potatoes and winter squash. I have a garden planner which, once I get accurate measurements, I'll be able to use that to determine how much I could plant.
For perennial vegetable plants, I already have rhubarb, asparagus and chives. I want to plant horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes and lovage (a celery substitute). There are many patches of cattails withing a reasonable walking distance from me and I'd like to become proficient at harvesting and preparing the parts of the cattail that are edible.
I have found that many of the weeds in my garden are edible and when I've been out in the garden, I've eaten my fill when weeding. So, instead of throwing the weeds away, I'll use them to make a salad. It is the quack grass that's my enemy but even they can serve a purpose as the roots of the grass and the grass itself can be chopped up and feed to the chickens. Three of the edible weeds I have in my garden:
Pigweed
Purslane
Dandylion
I mentioned before that I have chickens, and another goal is to come up with a plan on how to feed them in case chicken feed from the stores isn't available. I purchased a book, first issued in 1941, titled "Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps" which I intend on reading soon. Spring through fall wouldn't be too much of an issue as I'll build a chicken tractor from plans, I got from the University of Wisconsin, and they'll be able to find much of their food on their own, as I move the tractor each day. It is winter that I'm more concerned about.
Keeping rabbits is a possibility that I'll do more research on.
As for larger animals, I'm considering the American Black Belly hair sheep to be used as a source of meat. I don't have the land here in ton to raise such but my stepchildren own property outside of town and a brother lives at the old family farm some miles away. A small herd at each location would suffice for normal times but for frugal times, I've calculated the two herds would need to consist of 4 rams and 50 ewes in order to supply my extended family of 40 individuals with an adequate supply of meat. Both places have more than enough open fields to pasture that number of sheep along with their offspring.
I have had the materials for but haven't gotten around to building a waterless toilet in the basement for situations when water from the village is out.
Ok, that's it for tonight. I have much more to write but that'll have to wait for some other days. I'm looking at my notes and I've just scratched the surface.
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