Cold snap hit hard and my Aunt stopped by.

Thank goodness we only had a couple of days of the cold snap as it hit me hard. Usually I handle the cold temps well but this cold snap knocked me for a loop.  It is over and I’m feeling much better overall. Boomer and I got in a good walk, I refilled the wood boxes. Everything is now toasty warm here at Casa de Chaos!

I used my Mr. Buddy heater during the cold snap to heat up the back rooms and learned a few new things. Set the heater for low heat despite how tempting it is to use high heat setting to warm the room faster. Low heat over a longer time period gives you a  long lasting heat and saves on propane.  A lot of the heat from this heater actually radiates directly above the heater so a small fan can help circulate the heat. Mr. Buddy now has a heater + cook top combo stove for $120.00-$150.00 I have seen at the local farm stores. With the large propane tank attachment hose this could be a good multi-tasker for folks with limited storage space or need a way to heat and cook off-grid.

My aunt stopped by to get her Xmas presents and stuff I had for her and she brought me a dozen eggs so a huge win for me!  My aunt wanted some of the 15 gallon food grade barrels for her goats when she has to travel long distance. With the water barrels she can take water from her own well that the goats are used to and reduce stress on the critters. I think the 15 gallon water barrels are one of the best sized water barrels for storage. The barrels have a small foot print of 12 inch x 12 inch and when filled weigh about 120 pounds. You could move the barrel easy with a dolly and you don’t have to worry about the weight being a strain on your floorboards. You can fit this barrel easily in a closet as it is not very tall. You can’t do those things with a 50-55 gallon water drum.

My aunt is very sharp on the gardening stuff and she is suggesting that people need to order seeds for the gardens ASAP.  I ordered from Baker creek about mid-January and got all off the seeds I ordered.  I stopped by on of the local Dollar tree stores for some odds and ends. The entire vegetable seed rack was almost empty. Only a few veggies seeds were left but the flower seed section was full. The seed packets were selling 4 for a $1.00 and American Seed company does not sell a lot of Hybrid seeds and those packets are marked hybrid. If you are looking to buy seeds for your garden get them ASAP because it looks like seeds are selling out quick this year.

Are the American people starting to wake up? Yes, some and a few more than I expected if not as many as I hoped. I think it is great that many people are starting gardens and raising chickens. Starting mini-homesteading type projects.  My concern is how long it will last and if it will produce enough results for people to keep it going and improving rather than give up at the first failure. I have had 2 crazy weather growing seasons with crazy hot weather, a dry spring then a cool start to summer then crazy wicked heat for 6-8 weeks then a glorious and long fall that helped many plants recover for a harvest.  That is Mama Nature doing her thing. Will most new gardeners be ready for that sort of thing or will the give up when things go sideways? I don’t want to discourage any one that is starting to garden. But it is a long term project and failure of something will almost always happen and it won’t be your fault or it will be your fault and you won’t know why it failed. It’s okay a lot of gardeners have been there and will help you out.

I don’t know why growing my squash plants next to grape vines seems to protect against squash bugs in my garden. I don’t get squash bugs and the only thing that seems different is I have thick grape vines close to where I grow my squash.

Any way I have a couple of weeks to sort out the garden space for growing and starting seeds. I’m hoping I can do a better job a succession planting and get 2-3 harvest depending on the weather. Farmers and gardeners must be the most optimistic people because they plant seeds do the work without any guarantee of the out come.

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