Independence Days

It's Monday again. And that means an IDC update post. For those of you unfamiliar with this challenge. There is a link on the sidebar that should take you there. Yes, I know the image says 2008 but I never got around to updating it for the new year. This challenge is a great way to keep track of all the accomplishments towards 'independence' in a weeks time. It would be nice to have something from every category every week but in my life- that isn't possible. But here goes the update for the week.

1. Plant something- Nope. I STILL need to get my flower bulbs in the ground but just haven't had time. Well, I would have had time but both yesterday and today I've been feeling under the weather. I sent everyone off to church without me yesterday and actually called in sick to work today. Don't know what it was but I had a temp, headache and achey joints- it felt like someone had been beating me with a baseball bat around the knees and elbows. And tired! Oh my! I didn't roll out of bed until 930 this morning (after 12 hours!) I'm feeling better now- I think the sleep helped tremendously.

2. Harvest something- Let's see. Things are winding down. We had frost predicted late last week and were down to 36 this morning. I got what I could from the garden. The tomatoes are gone but I got peppers (LOTS!), eggplant and I harvested my red corn that will become cornmeal this winter. Oh, and a few cucumbers and a large amount of basil.

3. Preserve something- I froze another gallon bag of hot peppers and a quart bag of diced bell peppers. Made and froze pesto in my ice cube trays that I got specifically for that. They are smaller, round cubes (if you can have a round cube) but best of all, the bottom of the tray is flexible silicon so it's easy to pop the cubes of pesto out of the tray. Then this winter, thaw, add cheese and a bit more olive oil and presto- pesto!

4. Waste not- hmm, just the usual I think. Not much special going on this week.

5. Want not- stocked up on frozen veggies for stir fry. I really wish I had been able to have my own sugar snap peas but the bunnies made quick work of them this spring. They also had a sale on their store brand of frozen cheese tortellini which we love and make a really quick meal combined with pesto. So I stocked up on some of them as well.

6. Build community food systems- Not much. But this afternoon when I was feeling better V and I drove to Cedar Rapids (not quite 30 miles away) in search of new filters for our furnace (to no avail- the store that said online that they had them- didn't). But anyway, we took the scenic route and while on the way, discovered a family farm nearby that has a pumpkin patch and is also selling winter squash. Since we didn't have time or room to plant any of those this year, we're now plotting a trip so the kids can pick out pumpkins and I can stock up on some local winter squash. This farm is only about 15 miles away, if even that.

7. Eat the food- Veggie month is progressing. We've had pasta with pesto twice, veggie stir fry, stuffed chilis and locally farmed catfish (J15 has decided to allow seafood once a week in her veggie plan).

Well, J15 needs to use my computer to watch a youtube video for school so I've gotta go. Her computer is too slow. sigh.