The garden is done except carrots, broccoli, and
cauliflower. It’s time to rototill.
Our Mountain Salmon are spawning now but the smaller ones
they planted in the spring are really nice size to eat.
It hasn’t rained here for three months. Nothing but dust.
Rain is in the forecast next week. We are going to have to celebrate when it
does.
Another water leak. We have over 1325′ of waterline and this
time we don’t know where it is.
When we bought this place we inherited the existing well and pump. The pump was
undersized. Because of that it hasn’t ever worked the way it should. It is
drawing 44 Amps of solar power. The new one we are putting in will only draw 15
Amps and get the job done three times faster!
The hunters will be moving in this weekend for a week. Probably
should paint the horses bright orange.
Almost done with the equipment maintenance. Checked the tire
inflation pressure and changed oil and lubed all of the grease fittings.
Getting ready for winter use.
Headed out to friends to cut free wood to bring home for
next year. Part of the down trees from the July 20, 2012 Big Storm. We can
always use more wood.
Winterized our outdoor sink this week. This time I
remembered to dump RV antifreeze down the drain.
Pretty soon I will be up on the roof plugging vent holes
before the real cold sets in.
We also need to get the insulated cold frames planted –
SOON! We still have a few fresh veggies like spinach and Swiss chard in the
garden but we need to plant those kinds of foods in the cold frame as well.
We’ve been heating our home this fall with our masonry
kitchen stove but I will need to fire up the masonry heater in a week or so. We
have to build a few small fires first to make sure all of the moisture is out
of it so it doesn’t blow up from a steam explosion. I wonder what the odds of
that happening really are?
Time to harvest a few chickens. No need to feed them all
over the winter. We had a good batch of young ones this year. I may take some
of them as well. Never a fun thing but it’s why we have them.
Made a trip to town to stock up for a while.
Last batch of tomatoes to can this week. One more batch of
fish as well. Laurie has been grating zucchini for the freezer to be used in
zucchini bread this winter.
On the way to cut wood tomorrow we will stop by a friend’s
house and get some apples off his tree. That will be the last of the canning,
freezing, and preserving for the year.
Our neighbors will all be moving their RV’s off the mountain
for the winter. We probably won’t see them until next spring.
This is my favorite time of the year for some reason
although I don’t look forward to the snows again. I wonder how much snow we
will have? I guess it doesn’t really
matter as long as we have lots of wood to burn and food to eat.
Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in
the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their websites goodideasforlife.com and offgridworks.com.
