So youre that Gary,eh?

Thanks,looks like a fine tool.

This is the tomato bed that did about 70 lbs this season of romas and betterboys.Note 3 solar panels on barn roof supply its lights and keeps 8 batteries charged for power outages.




From fence on left,as wide as 2x4's and out to red trash can is new bed,it will be twice size of tomato bed.




Will use top layer of leaf from this bin.Will be chicken poo,leaves,composted chips and dry chips.




The chips....brown barrel has the heavily composted,they will be first layer





How cool is this,house behind us is chipping branches,they said take all ya want,back later to update progress.

Thats some chipper,they gave us 6 trash cans half filled,very heavy,this will be the topmost cover.



Got another 6 cans of this,I owe lunch Wednesday




Put down some leaves,etc...Birds loving it,Pickles got some crickets.





Looks like enough stuff left to fill in the whole area (more than we originally planned to do,Mrs wants to do all of yard)

Wife and daughter approve,finish it up tomorrow.Thats a lot of work doing it by trash cans,they are heavy,humping em up a lot of steps.If we had a front yard they would have been happy to drop the truckload of chips free.

Turned out nice,from this to this....






This is where we get chips

Looks good. Chips helped quite a bit to keep the mud from being tracked into the house too

Exactly what wife said as we went out to get 5 barrels today,going to do side of house and a couple more areas,very cool stuff.

I've been doing some grilling on an inexpensive "tailgate" type grill, and it will probably be my go-to cooker for power outages during hurricane season...stamped burner, with a louvered diffuser plate to keep the juices from dropping on the burner... works fine for grilling veggies and meat, but the diffuser doesn't allow food to be heated in a sauce pan that well...cut a 6" hole in one end of the diffuser... not exactly rocket science... works more better...

tonight....chicken breast marinated in soy sauce and orange juice for about 3 hours, dusted with some Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning...

Les,so true.I dont worry about cooking so much,Ive been able to cook with a hole in the ground,a grill and twigs/tiny branches,did it for years.Hot and fast is doable.

Got our first rain,mulch is NICE,no muddy dog feet,awesome.Got our first benefit of soil prep,very nice.

Got whole salmon,Keta from Alaska,for 2.99/Lb

Got 72 pint jars today 7 dollars a dozen,bought em out.Usually about 12 dollars a dozen for jars with lids here.


3 of these fish,5-6 lbs each,2.5 fish canned,saved a big hunk for baked salmon Sunday.



Cut em up,packed to one inch head space,bones,skin and all.Each pint got 1/4 teaspoon salt,some with a few drops liquid smoke and peppercorn and a garlic clove,some with seaweed seasoning,some with lemon pepper.No added liquid.




Got 18 pints,will do em for 110 minutes at 15 lbs for 5000 foot level.



When we eat it will pick out bones and skin at that time.

Will make salmon sandwiches like tuna sandwiches,salmon casserole,salmon cakes,lots of things.


Looks like they turned out pretty good.Thats our first try at fish.

Ive really been going thru these pickles,if you like em gotta make some.We put in a few garlic cloves,next batch going to put in a lot more,makes a fine tasting garlic.

So good,I'll be hard pressed to ever buy pckles again,unless need a specialty type.

Lots of youtubes on doing this if you have a pressure canner.

Im canning and dehydrating pumpkin.

Made soup but overcooked it and it turned brown,going to be chicken food today,and dog food.EDIT-Dogs like it.So did chckens,a LOT.

Into oven at 375F about 45 minutes




Cut off skin




Cut into chunks




Process pressure canner 90 minutes at 15 Lbs pressure here at 5000 feet.Turned out nice




Mash some up




3 cups per tray on parchment paper




12 hours later in our cool dehydrator,most do this much quicker