Things You Can Do Now To Prep for Next Growing Season

Here in the northern hemisphere we are still not officially in winter. Even though there is a good bit of time before spring, I am already thinking about what we will add and grow next year. There are several things that we can do to improve our next harvest and increase our long-term food sovereignty.

Listen and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

Cleaning up the garden bed

After the growing season has ended there is some cleanup that has to be done. Plants that have played out need to be removed. They can simply be cut off even with the ground. This will leave the roots in the ground that when they rot will add to the soil's structure. The vines and stems that have been removed can either be composted, shredded and used as a component in mulch or burned. 

The only time you shouldn't leave plants anywhere near your growing area is if the plants are diseased. If plants are diseased they should be pulled up roots and all and disposed of either in the garbage or by burning.

This is also the perfect time to remove tomato cages and stakes. Tomato cages may need to be cleaned and stacked up somewhere so they will last longer. Leaving wire cages in the ground will make them rust faster and shorten their usable lives considerably. The same is true for wooden or bamboo stakes. Simply by removing them from the ground and placing them somewhere out to the weather their lifespan is extended. While removing the infrastructure you will want to inspect each component. You may find that some of the pieces will need to be replaced. 

If you need to add to your garden infrastructure this is a good time to do so. You can find tomato cages and/or stakes an nearly everything else through either the yard sale pages on social media or through Craig's list. Now is the perfect time to look for bee boxes, garden tools, and really any type of equipment. Some people try gardening for the first time and decide that it is not for them. Other people will sell unused or unneeded equipment or supplies to help them pay for the holiday season.

Planning

It may seem early, but it isn't. For me this is the time of year where I think about how everything produced. What varieties did well, what didn't? For the varieties that didn't do well, is there something I could have done to give them a better opportunity to grow? Were they in the wrong place? Did these varieties get enough sunlight or water? 

Now is also the perfect time to think about whether or not you wish to expand or reduce your growing area. If you are planning on adding growing beds, where will you put them? What size will they be? What will you put in them? If you are going to be adding raised beds, doing so now will allow them time to get settled. If you are planning on adding garden space in the ground you can lay them out and begin preparation. 

How would I prep an in ground garden bed for next season? By starting now you can save yourself a lot of hard work next season. Placing plastic or tarps over the area where you are planning on planting next year will help you a lot. This will cause many of the weed and grass seeds to germinate and die throughout the season. This will reduce that amount of weeding that will be necessary next year. This is especially helpful if you are planning on working with a no till system. 

Now is also the time you can order your seed and nursery catalogs. To any hardcore gardener a seed or nursery catalog is as good as the old Sears Wish Book. I may be dating myself a little there. You can check out new varieties of fruits and veggies and see what you might want to try next season. Here is the link to request White Harvest's Catalog. 

Mulching

Last year I moved completely to no till gardening and I was very pleased with the results. Now is when I will be mulching the garden bed heavily. This is also a time of year when there is plenty of resources available to do the job. Fallen leaves make a great mulch and will gradually improve the soil as well. Mulched leaves are best, but just raking leaves and piling them in your garden spot will still help. Whole leaves should be piled 8 to 12 inches deep across your entire garden bed. Ground leaves should be about 4 inches deep. This will inhibit winter weed growth and will be a good base for your spring garden. These leaves will breakdown slowly. As it rains and snows then melts nutrients will slowly leach out of the leaves and into the soil. Doing this alone will improve the quality of your soil. This is especially important for people with heavy clay or sandy soil. The addition of organic matter will move both of these more toward the center and a much more fertile growing environment.

This is also a perfect time for a side business. People everywhere are trying to get rid of this very useful resource. If you live in or are close to an urban, suburban, or even semi rural area there are plenty of people who will pay to have their leaves removed. There will be a few that will want the leaves moved from their yard to their garden, but very few. With a little determination and a blower/vac/mulcher ,a teen or really anyone can turn this into a decent supplemental income. Just think, you could be being paid to obtain a resource that you want. 

What do you need to start this kind of seasonal business? Well, that depends on your area. There are some places that in order to do this you will have to have a business license. I will admit that drives me crazy. The government has to have their hand in everything it can get. Other areas all you have to do is have transportation, a rake and garbage bags or a mulcher. Place some fliers around and it won't take long before you are in business. You might even want to work an elderly neighbors yard for free in exchange for them telling their friends about your service. This can be not only good advertising, but also a good service to your community.

Planting Bare Root Trees

Winter is the best time to plant bare root trees as long as your soil isn't frozen. Bare root trees are bought when the trees are dormant. This means you don't have to be as careful with them. Bare root trees are typically less expensive than potted trees. These trees are normally available December through February. I have found that there is a larger selection of trees available as bare root. I think this may be because shipping is much easier. 

I myself have made my wishlist of fruit trees that I wish to plant this winter and have given them to a friend of mine who works with a nursery to see if they can get the varieties that I am looking for. Some of the varieties would be considered rare and all but 2 are very old, over 100 years since discovery. You can bet there will be several posts and podcasts about them in the future. 

Building Infrastructure

 Due to the reduction of homestead chores, this is a perfect time to build infrastructure. Again this is dependent on whether or not your soil is frozen. Fences, and outbuildings can be built now and be in place for the beginning of the next growing season. The shorter days do create some challenges that we do not have in the summer, but there are so many more things that need to be done in the growing season.

Equipment Maintenance and Repair

I cannot tell you how many times I have talked to a small engine repair person who has said that as soon as the growing season starts they cannot keep up with the workload. If you need to have your tiller, tractor, mower, or whatever serviced now is the perfect time and you won't be waiting while the grass grows or you are losing growing season because the repair guy is backed up.

Now is also a good time to clean up and care for your hand tools. Hoes, axes, and scythes may need to be sharpened. All wooden handles can be wiped down with boiled linseed oil.

As you can see there are several things that can be done in the winter, especially before the weather gets too bad or you have had too much rain or snow.

Bringing Rural Back

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address * 

First Name 

Last Name 

You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook follow on The Rural Economist on Gplus. We now have a YouTube channel and we cover all sorts of things. Hop on over and check them out, oh and don't forget to subscribe. I have just joined Instagram if you would like you can follow us HERE. We will be sharing several things over the next year, I hope to see you there. 

Check out The Rural Economist on Pinterest

Visit The Rural Economist's profile on Pinterest.

Affiliate Link Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog. If you see something you are interested in, check them out. Thanks for your consideration.

Getting Prepared for Beginners #15 Skill Development (Home)

Special thanks to Brenda Barnes, Kathi Rodgers, and
Quinton Wojciechowski for providing photos for this post.

You may be thinking "Why is skill development important for a short term emergency?"  I actually hope you are not thinking that. If you are, just remember you will be asking help from people who are in the middle of the same emergency. I have been a member of a volunteer fire department. When the call comes out you really want to answer. But if something is going on at your house that needs your attention, you are not going to go. This is not being a poor first responder, this is being a responsible father or husband or mother or wife. You cannot expect someone to come to your aid if doing so will endanger themselves, their families, or their property.

Skill development is something you want to do in advance. You do not want to have to learn to run a chainsaw when the tree is already on your house. I know this seems like an extreme example, but it's not and you get the point.

So what skills should you learn? Oh I am so glad you asked.

First Aid and CPR

There is a valid argument to be made for every parent to know CPR. I am not going to cover this in depth. My wife is much more qualified than I and will be writing a full post in the near future. I am just going to share a story.

My grandfather was the fire chief at the local volunteer fire department. As a result every member of my family had a role in the department. My aunt and uncle were rapid responders. A rapid responder is kinda like a medic or advanced first aid person.

I don't remember how old I was but I do remember it was Father's Day. A call went out about a heart attack. We were all at my grandparents' and the address was only a couple miles away. We took off. When we arrived at the home a man was laying in the front yard. My aunt and uncle started CPR.  His adult children were standing around as my family tried to save their dad's life. He didn't make it. At the time I thought it awesome that these people needed my family to try to save theirs. Now I realize that if they had started CPR sooner they might have been able to save his life. Yes CPR IS VERY important.

If you would like to find out where you can become CPR certified you can search for classes HERE.

Building 

These skills are not as glamorous as first aid skills but are just as important and to be honest more likely to be needed.

Skills that at least one if not two people in your family should have include:

• Being able to shut off the utilities
• Being able to tarp a roof to prevent leaking and further damage to your home.
• Being able to board up windows.

We will cover each of these topics.

Electricity. You should at least know how to shut off the power. Depending on your service box you could have two different ways to shut off your power. The most common way to shut off the power is at the breaker box.

Inside the box you will see a large breaker. It will be by itself. Just switch it to off. That is it. Now doing this shuts off the power to the entire house. You can also shut off the power to certain sections of your house. Hopefully your breaker box is labeled. If it is you can just choose which circuits to shut off. If it is not labeled, no problem you can label it yourself.

If you have an older home you may have a fuse box instead of a breaker box. That is not really a problem. The concept is still the same. There will be a large double fuse by itself, either above or below it will be rows of small round fuses. The large fuse will have a handle on it. You will need to pull this fuse out in order to shut off the power to your entire home. To shut off power to individual circuits you will need to unscrew one of the smaller (normally glass) fuses. Just like in a breaker box each circuit should be labeled.

Reasons you might need to turn off the power include: Doing any work that involves an electric circuit. Damage to your home that might cause a short (one room damaged). Flooding of your home or a really bad leak (roof damage).

Water. Shutting off the water is pretty simple. You will have a water meter between your home and the main line. This will not apply if you are on well water or live in an apartment. If you are on well water I hope you are familiar with your system. If you are in an apartment there should be a maintenance person who is charged with this duty.

Your meter will be in a concrete or rubber box. Inside that box you will see the meter. The shutoff will be on the street side of that meter. It normally only takes a quarter turn clockwise to shut off the water. This cuts the water to the entire house. It is a good idea to have shutoff valves in every bathroom and each sink.

Here is the meter tool I mentioned in the video.

Natural Gas or Propane. If your home uses natural gas or propane every member of your family that is old enough to do so, should know how to shut off the gas. If your home is damaged this knowledge could keep a bad situation from turning into a true catastrophe. If something has happened which has caused a gas leak, the slightest spark could be devastating.

Shutting off the gas to your home is just as simple as shutting off the other utilities. Just a turn of a knob. If you do not think about it ahead of time you probably won't think about it when you need to. Being able to shut off gas lines is very important.

Most gas companies and even modern gas appliances have safety features that make gas leaks less likely, but this knowledge could be the difference between a bad situation and a total loss.

Boarding up Windows

By now you know me. I am not talking about protecting your home from zombies. I believe it is much more likely for a tree to knock a window out of your house. Once you remove the tree you will need to do something about that window. If you are rural and it is not during the blazing hot summer or hard cold winter you may be able to get away with just using plastic to prevent critters and weather from getting in your home. If you live in an area where looting is a possibility you will need to do something more substantial. Enter boarding up your windows.

There are several ways to board your windows.

The most common way is take boards or plywood and nail it up. Easy right? Also fairly easy to tear down if you have a pry bar.

There is another more secure way to board up a window, but it takes advanced planning and at least two people. Here are the steps and supplies needed. 

1. Cut treated plywood to at least 4 inches larger than window opening.
2. Cut a 2X4 at least 6 inches longer than the window is wide on the inside of the house.
3. Open window wide open and figure out where to drill a hole as close to the center of the plywood as possible. Hole will need to be about 3/8 of an inch.
4. Also drill a 3/8 hole in the center of the 2X4
5. You will need a 12 inch piece of all thread 2 nuts and 2 fender washers for each window.
6. One person holds the plywood in place and feeds the all thread through the hole with a fender washer and nut already started.
7. The person on the inside makes sure the all thread goes through the hole on the 2X4 places the washer on the all thread and then tightens the nut. 

I pulled this picture from Amazon, but you should be able to find this locally.

This will hold the plywood in place and will protect against most of the elements, but it is still not "zombie proof". It could be made so, but that would require tack welding, a cotter key and a drill press. If someone really wanted to get in all they would need would be a wrench, but if you had a tree come through a window, this would be the best way to keep the elements out of your home.

Tarping a Roof

Like so many things there is a couple of right ways and a ton of wrong ways to tarp a roof. The reason you would need to tarp a roof could be as simple as a few shingles have blown off and you are trying to prevent leaking that might occur or a whole section of shingles are missing and leaking will occur. Of course there is always the scenario where not only are shingles missing, but some of the decking of your roof is also gone. In the last two situations tarping your roof is a necessity. 

I know you could always call a carpenter or repair person, but remember when you need them in situations like this several others are calling them as well. You could be way down on the list. The longer you wait to put into place preventative measures the greater the likely damage to your home.

If done incorrectly tarping your roof can actually increase the damage caused. When you put a tarp on your roof you are trying to keep moisture from getting to your decking. If the tarp allows moisture to get to the decking it also interferes with your decking's ability to dry out. 

If at all possible the tarp should go across the ridge line of your roof. This helps prevent water from just running under the tarp. If you cannot have the tarp cross the ridge line of your roof you should use either a 1x2 or furring strip the hold the tarp as tight as possible then caulk the upper edge and the edge that is the direction where most of your weather comes from. Around here our strongest storms tend to come from the southwest. Ensure the tarp is as tight as possible and use either 1x2 or furring strips around the whole perimeter. The pictures below are of a tarp job done well.

Special thanks to Brenda Barnes for these photos.

Storm damage can happen to anyone at any time. Knowing these basic skills will help you protect your family and property.

I wish you all Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address * 

First Name 

Last Name 

You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook follow on The Rural Economist on Gplus. Or you can even follow The Rural Economist on Pintrest. We now have a YouTube channel and are doing a series on wild edible and medicinal plants. Hope on over and check them out, oh and don't forget to subscribe.

More Posts in this series:

#1 Why Prepare

#2 The Preparedness Mindset

#3 Priorities List

#4 Getting to My Family

#5 The Backpack

#6 Food Storage

#7 Basic Energy

#8 Water
#9 Security
#10 Medical
#11 Travel and Communications
#12 Fuel Storage
#13 Keep It Quiet aka OPSEC
#14 Building Community and Helping Others
#15 Skill Development (Home)
#16 Don't Fear the Reaper

#17 A Case for Long-Term Preparedness

Affiliate Link Disclosure: The post contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog. Any time you use one of our links for Amazon, if you purchase something The Rural Economist receives a small commission and it doesn't cost you any more. Even if you do not purchase the items I list. In this way you will help support us trying to teach people about self reliance and homesteading. Thanks for your consideration.

Rural Wisdom and Know How #1

News From Around Carter Homestead:

Here in the South the weather is chaotic, one day the high will be the low 50's and two days later the mid 70's with night time lows ranging from upper 20's to low 60's. Our weather makes things interesting. For tonight at least I am sitting by the fire.

My wife is in full on "Let's get this Christmas shopping done" mode. Most of the shopping has been done on Amazon so far. She is incredible. No procrastination going on with her.

We have two birthdays this week both my wife's mother and mine. We also found out that my wife will be having to work Thanksgiving day and the weekend before, so we will be having to get creative in our celebrations this year.

I would like for this to turn into a real conversation. I would like to get to know all of you and give you a chance to get to know my family and myself. In that spirit I am going to post some questions each week and give my answers. I would like for you all to answer the questions in the comments.

(1) As we are coming up on Veterans Day, are there any veterans in your family?
(2) Do you do anything to celebrate Veterans Day?
(3) Have you started your Christmas Shopping?
(4) When do you start listening to Christmas music?

My answers (1) I am a veteran as are both of my grandfathers. Both of my grandfathers served during WWII. I have my paw paw's WWII flag that was on his casket and his father's WWI flag. (2) Sadly, I do not do anything special. I will have to work. (3) My wife is on this with a vengeance. (4) I listen to Christmas music anytime the mood strikes me February or even July is fine by me. My wife thinks it should wait till the day after Thanksgiving. Now it is your turn.

<center> <a href="www.theruraleconomist.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="The Rural Economist" src="http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad181/Gregg_Carter/8ef953d9-df53-4adb-9757-5bb387bc3286_zpsa112e922.jpg?t=1383736118"/></a></center>

We have a giveaway going for copies of two eBooks. The Urban Chicken and The Gardening Notebook. You can enter for this giveaway either on the posts about these books or on The Rural Economist Facebook page. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

DIY or DIFM?

Are you a Do It Yourself person or a Do It For Me? Most people are a mixture of both. I know I am. I am very dominate DIY, but I am very willing to admit when I need to become a DIFM. There is nothing wrong with paying someone else to do something for you if you do not have the time or expertise to get the job done. If you are anything like me you have several projects going at the same time. Plus you have several more waiting to be put in the line up. How do you determine which ones to do yourself and which ones, if any, to hire out? We are going to take a look at how an asset manager would consult a business on which projects to subcontract and which to do in house.

First things first. We must prioritize our projects. There may be projects that seem critical, but may not be important. I know that sounds confusing so I will explain. There are things that instantly grab your attention, they almost scream at you "I need to be done!!". But does it really need to be done? Some things that are urgent are not important. If some children have rolled your yard (thrown toilet paper into every tree) you are not going to be able to ignore the fact that there are streamers of Charmin everywhere. Most people are going to want to clean it up immediately, it is urgent to clean that mess up, but is it really important? If you were to leave the toilet paper up there for a few days would it damage the trees or the yard? No. Does leaving the paper out there create a health risk? No. So is it really important? No, it really isn't, but it is urgent. (My wife after reading this said "But we would have to clean up the toilet paper right away."

If we take this lesson and apply it full scale things that are urgent and important will be done first. Things that are important will be done second and things that are just urgent will be done third or later. I was first introduced to this concept in a book by Stephen Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This book was the first time I had heard this concept explained in such a way. This was an incredible observation and I can tell you when I practice this things work out better. People sometimes get upset because what they see as urgent gets put off, but the result are incredible.

After we have prioritized out projects and determined which ones are important and urgent, which ones are important but not urgent and which ones are urgent but not important we have a clearer picture of what needs to be done and in what order.

Many times I will hire help to complete a project rather than hire someone to do the job for me. There are a couple of reasons I would rather hire assistance. (1) I can make sure that the project is done exactly the way I want it to be done. If the project is something I know a lot about I can hire someone with little or no experience and save some money as well as help teach someone how to do things. (2) If it is a project that I do not know a lot about I can hire someone who has more experience that I do and I will learn from them. I love to learn from someone who really knows what they are doing. When I can get an expert to help work with me on one of my projects I not only get the project done I gain knowledge.

Here are the reasons that I would advise hiring a project done:

1. A contractor can do a superior job
2. The job can be completed more quickly
3. The job can be completed more cost effectively 
4. Hiring a contractor frees you to do something else or even work on another project.

Now for my words of warning. I would never advise someone to hire a project done if they need to borrow money to complete the project. If you would have to borrow money I would advise to either wait on the project till you can save up the money to pay cash for the project or do it yourself a little at a time. I do not like debt. 

I would never let a contractor work on a project of mine unless I am certain that they have a full understanding of what I want done, what time table I expect and can communicate back to me what I want. Several years ago I hired a gentleman to do some excavation work for me. We sat down and talked out everything that I wanted done. I drew out a map of how and where I wanted everything. This project included putting in a drive and building up a raised flat surface as well a preparing a building pad. The day the excavation was supposed to start I worked all morning and was expecting to see some progress as soon as I arrived after work. Nothing. I was late when I got in so I thought I would give them a day or two to get with me. The next day the equipment was there but no work was done. The third day I could tell a little earth had been moved, but I needed this part done before I could get anyone else on the site. I called the operator and several times and did not get in touch with him. After a week of gradual progress on my site I took a day off of work to be able to see what was going on. 

The guy I hired finally showed up to start work at around 10 am. He worked for about an hour and a half and left. About two hours later he came back and worked for about an hour. He was getting ready to leave when I walked up on him. I do not remember the excuses he gave me, but he no longer worked for me. I hired another man to do the work who charged more per hour, but was finished with everything in three days.

The moral to the story is do your homework. Know what you want done and be able to communicate the scope of the project to a prospective contractor. Ask around for a recommendation for a contractor and above all else watch your contractor as closely as you can. 

Think big, plan well, pay your bills, and work hard. Above all .....

Keep It Rural

Like the Rural Economist on Facebook by clicking here

By Gregg Carter

It is cheaper to repair than replace?

At one time the statement "It is cheaper to repair than replace" was true about almost everything.Not so anymore. Why is that?

Prior to the 1980's we repaired almost everything. There wasn't a large community that did not have a radio and television repair shop. I remember taking things to be repaired and walking around looking at all the tubs and even a few solid state boards. I even dug a couple trenches for the satellite lines, for the dishes, the really big ones.

Some time in the late 70's or early 80's there was a paradigm shift. It was slow to take over and actually started much earlier. People stopped going to the shoe repair man. Most shoes were no longer made to last. The tops wore out way before the bottoms. The components of electronics cost more than the product itself. If your television went out you bought another without any thought of having it repaired.

Slowly the shoe repair shops, the watch and clock repair shops, and yes the radio and television repair shops started closing. These small business owners are all but extinct. Recently I had a window air condition unit go out. I reacted the way my grandfather would have. I started calling repair shops. I left a message on every answering machine asking if they worked on window units. I called nine shops. Only one called me back. I explained and asked if he would work on a window unit. He said he would if I would bring it to his shop. I told him that was what I expected.

When I unloaded the unit, we started talking. He said that he didn't see very many window units but was willing to try. He checked out the unit and found that the control panel had gone out, so he pulled out a catalog and looked for the the part and found that it would cost $275 to repair. When he told me that, I asked what the most expensive part was and how much it cost. He looked up the compressor and it also was around $300. The unit only cost about $298. We rigged it to work and it works great.

The generally accepted principle is when the cost of repair is 50% of the cost to replace, you would replace. Keeping that in mind when the cost of repair is 90% of the cost to replace there is no reason to even take repair into consideration. This is a truly sad state of affairs.

Now my question is, how does a single part cost as much as the whole? Answer: It isn't possible. That tells me that the culture has had such a violent change that no companies are producing aftermarket parts. This is an intentional move to push people to more consumerism. Diminishing our ability to be frugal and encouraging credit use. Think about what you do and remember to "Keep It Rural".