What I Did To Prep This Week: August 2nd – August 8th 2020
Hey there, Pack. I hope you have had a successful week of prepping. The way things are going with the continued violent protests in cities across America and the presidential election less than 100 days away, we all need to be battening down the hatches to prepare ourselves for just about anything.
We spend a lot of the week in the gardens. As you can see by the feature photo, battling Japanese beetles has once again become a problem. The cabbage plants are still growing, but the beetles are still infesting them on a regular basis.
I pulled into the house a few days ago and caught two horses and a pony in my apothecary patch and small garden. I was not pleased. They all had that kid with a hand in the cookie jar look on their face.
This is the second time I have caught them finding a way into my patch. They bolted and jumped back out of a section of fence that had apparently tilted down enough to allow them to gain entry.
Not only did I have some unexpected fence mending to do, but my beloved equine had devoured ALL of our lettuce. There was no barn put up treat that night, that’s for sure. I planted some lettuce seed for a fall garden and will, unfortunately, have to rely upon nasty store bought lettuce until it grows.
This weekend we will be doing a lot of tomato canning. We are going to make salsa if a few more peppers are ready, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice, and can whole tomatoes, as well.
Our berry picking days appear over. This last heat wave did just about the rest of the still producing branches in.
A Facebook post prompted a run on canning jars and supplies in my area. I do not recall exactly what the now viral post said that my husband showed me, but it was claiming that there was a Mason jar shortage and to grab what you could now or they would all be gone before harvest time got into full swing.
We have hundreds of Mason jars, but you can never have too many, right? I experienced sticker shock when I saw the local Piggly Wiggly selling a case of pint canning jars for $20!
In other preps this week, we had a few rounds of shooting practice with Bobby’s militia pals. I also had to deal with a snake getting into our bathroom – I was quite shocked to reach for the cold faucet handle on the sink, and find a 2-foot snake crawling up it.
This Week’s Questions
- What is the biggest garden pest problem you are battling?
- What ways do you preserve the bounty of your tomato harvest?
- What predictions do you have for the 2020 presidential election and the ongoing violent rioting in urban areas?
- What did you do to prep this week?