survive and thrive friday: getting rid of stuff, container garden, fresh food, deer meat wrap-up

There's a lot to sum up this time around for my remarkably popular (hi, Mom!) "Survive and Thrive" series. I know some of this stuff is as boring as all git-out, so if you make it to the bottom of the post, you are a real patriot. Of whatever country you choose.

Looming largest before us, both in our minds' eyes and in our basement, are our mountains of crap. Down-sizing possessions has been an ongoing process for the last, I don't know, 7 or 8 years. But this time we're serious. We no longer want to keep anything that's not on the slimmed down list of our truest interests. Moving into our first real home is the impetus for this newest manifestation of an old resolve. We lived in a one room cabin in Alaska for a couple years and a pickup camper in Maryland for a few months, but sadly, though we had the appearance and scent of minimalists, we always still owned our stuff; it was out of sight - in storage, or at Mom and Dad's house. This time, we're whittling down the piles in every single category, including the sacred cow of books. It's really something for us to get rid of books. We love books. Our collection is our history, our identity, in a form you can hold in your hands. But you know what? Any books we haven't referenced for years and that are readily available at the library, why haul them around? They make for very heavy shelf decor. We'll keep the practical, how-to books for when/if the internet isn't available. And a few sentimental books. And maybe a joke book or two for when we're super bored not owning any possessions. And some classic series' that we want the kids to read. And a few that are signed. And maybe some we wouldn't want to bother hunting down at the library. Dangit. This is hard.

One of my proudest sorting feats was getting the kids' clothes down to three cat litter boxes or roasting pans apiece. Give me a break, those are the only cheap containers that would fit into this weird closet thingy. Anyway, pride. And then I read the account of my friend, Kim, who lives in a hut in Sudan. She showed lovely pictures of the villagers in their new Christmas outfits. Very colorful, sturdy outfits (lucky, right?)....which they'll wear nearly exclusively until next Christmas, when they each get one new outfit to wear all year. Doh.

By the way, is this not the cutest dress on God's green earth?
Rachel made it for Z for Christmas. It's reversible.
Don't be distracted by one pink and one gray sock.

  
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Jason is trying his hand at this particular style of container garden. (Resource: this PFD instruction link at www.seattleoil.com.) Jason and Zoralee planted tomatoes, peppers, peas, basil, and cilantro, and I think maybe a little flower that fixes nitrogen in the soil. I can't recall exactly, but we should know soon enough! This container is pretty neat. You keep water in the bottom reservoir, and then the soil pulls it up as it needs it, through the column of soil that sits down into the water. 

Jason cut the edges off of the bin's lid so it would sit down inside the bin,
making a floor or shelf for the soil. He cut a hole in the center for a small bucket.
Dirt will fill the bin, including the bucket, making a column of dirt that pulls water up
by capillary action. (I remembered that term off hand. Kidding. Thank you, google.)

The soil floor is held solid by four legs of PVC pipe.
They, and the bucket bottom, sit on the bin's actual bottom.

Holes are poked throughout the bucket! Muy importante, so the water can come through.
They are poked into the floor/shelf too for soil aeration.
Once the bucket is foil of soil, you fill the lower reservoir by pouring water into the pipe.

They laid down cheesecloth so the soil wouldn't fall out of the holes and into the water,
but the water could still come in to the soil.
How useful you are, oh cheesecloth, despite your name being really awkward
when there is no cheese involved.

Day 1: January 16

We started getting some sprouts within a few days. It was fabulously rewarding! (no pics of those little guys)

Day 14: January 29

Day 18: February 2
Jason will do another round of thinning out those foreground herbs.
The germination rate on our seeds was super high.

We've had a couple of casualties. One pea plant was voted off the container garden by a certain young girl when she wondered what would happen if she picked the leaves, the only two tiny leaves by which the dear plant could obtain light and grow. A couple of herbs won't make it because a baby dropped a ball into the bin and it rolled all over the delicate sprouts. Oh, what the heck. I'll just tell you - it was Zoralee and Ziah, those rascals.

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In food news, Jason was on a week + long vegetable and fruit juice fast, after watching the documentary, "Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead." Every concoction was different than the next, some in very pretty colors. This was my favorite:

The kids and I go through the yogurt and fruit smoothies anyway,
but I started to add more veggies when Jason took up juicing.
I'm gonna say go easy on the sprouts. If you overdo them,
you've got what essentially tastes like a sprout smoothie.
And, there's nothing wrong with it, if a sprout smoothie is what you set out to make.

Oh. This is JUST dawning on me as I type: Zoralee, the child who has always said things like, "Yay!! Broccoli!" has recently stopped wanting vegetables. I know that it weirded her out to have spinach in the smoothies, but oh my. What have we done?!? I hope it's an unrelated phase, I hope it's an unrelated phase, I hope.... 


Anyway, since we started eating a more "Paleo" style diet a few months ago, we have really cut down on wheat and other grain products. The kids and I still eat a lot of dairy, but Jason, not so much. And yes, fresh produce is expensive, but I really think good health is worth that cost - especially when it coincides with spending very little money on chips, crackers, pop, and every manner of pre-packaged food. It is so freeing to not have to run down every aisle at the grocery store. We stick almost exclusively to the edges for the fresh and refrigerated stuff. As time goes on and our gardening and canning skills improve, we'll be able to cut out buying canned goods too! 
  

Granola Doll in fresh produce ecstasy

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I'll close by showing a few shots of wrapping the deer Jason shot a couple of months ago. More details of his hunt are available upon request. :)

Always, always, always, we're learning lessons! Now what we've got to work on is trying the same experiments twice in a row so that we can apply those lessons.