Independence Days- weeks 11 and 12

Ok, I obviously didn't have a chance to post my update last week so this is for two weeks. I'm going to try to keep this brief. We have to get up waay early tomorrow morning. J15 needs to be in town to meet the van by 530 am. She is leaving for a week in New Orleans. She is part of a group who will be attending the ELCA National Youth Gathering there and doing some service work. She's really excited but it's going to make for a long day. V and I didn't get home until after 930 tonight from the house in town where we were cleaning and continuing to move out a few last items. The last of things that will require two people to move (My antique library table/desk and my sewing table) are out.

But on to the business at hand- the Indendence Days Challenge.

1. Plant something- Nope

2. Harvest something- Beets, broccoli, chard and hot peppers. It has been so cool lately that my tomatoes, while loaded, aren't ripening.

3. Preserve something- nope.

4. Reduce waste- we've been pretty bad this week. Oh, still composting and recycling but lots of my cloth grocery bags have been used to move stuff and I keep forgetting to put them back in the car/van.

5. Prep and storage- froze 4 pints of blueberries. My Mom gave me the idea of freezing them in drink mix containers. We went through a few canisters of lemonade mix while working out here when it was so hot and we didn't have air (I know- presweetened drink mix- yuck), But the containers work well for airtight storage for berries. I'm also thinking that all our continuing work here counts as prep. For storage- we got the freezer moved and the shelves for my canning jars- I only have about a dozen jars that are still full so I hope my tomatoes kick in- we need tomatoes canned for the winter!

6. Build community food systems- ate sweet corn purchased from a farmer selling out of the back of his pickup down the road and a locally grown melon.

7. Eat the food- we've been trying to eat out of storage but it's been rough this past week. I still don't know where some things are (my menu board is MIA) and we've been busy so we've been piecing it together a lot. I desperately need to make a significant grocery store run since we're out of lots of things that I usually keep on hand. I was trying to NOT stock up and eat down our stores before we moved and now I'm paying the price.

All in all, it has been a pretty productive week. Our town house will be on the market this week, we're moved, I've got the morning bus commute worked out, and everyone is tired but happy.