If last week was lucky number 7, this week was unlucky number 8!  We got a lot done around the Suburban Steader Homestead but there was also a lot of problems that needed to be overcome.  Come along and find out what happened!

This Week’s Milestones

Sickness Invades!

I mentioned last week that sickness invaded the house.  Well, little did I know that it was just the pre-emptive raid.  Initially, it was just my kids getting sick.  They both had vomiting incidents (into their beds, mind you) last Thursday night.  But, they were both fine the next day.  Unfortunately, the sickness was just finding our weak points and made its tactical advance on Friday when it took out the Mrs.  The poor girl was out of commission starting Friday afternoon and wasn’t right until sometime Monday.  I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday night “camping” in the den.

We thought we had vanquished the enemy, but it did an end around and struck the final member of the family, yours truly, on Monday night.  I was useless on Tuesday. To make matters worse, I had originally taken Tuesday off to spend time with the family since it’s winter recess for the girls.  That didn’t happen.  And then, to pile it on, I developed a killer sore throat Wednesday night which left me with zero sleep heading into work on Thursday.

Long story short – the Suburban Steaders are sick of being sick!

Gardening and DIY

Despite the plague that has been set upon our home, we did continue with some of our projects.  I started peppers, parsley, eggplant, and broccoli in my hacked together seed starting system.  I even made a small YouTube video about it.

In addition, I began construction on the gas can holder that I talked about.  I only had a few hours to work and got the platforms fabricated.  I had originally designed it with mitered corners for the supporting 2×4’s but think I’m going to change it butt joints as I can’t get the dimensions right on the miters – they seem to overhang a bit where I know I can make butt joints perfect.  Construction should resume this coming weekend.

Blog Work

Blog work took a hit this week as I just didn’t have the energy or the time to get an article up on Tuesday due to both playing the dual parent role while my wife was out of commission and being ill myself.  I apologize for that and can assure you that articles will resume next week.  I may even play catch up with two articles plus my weekly review.

Next Week’s Goals

Planting will go on hiatus next week.  By the calendar, we shouldn’t need to start anything else until the following weekend.  We’ll let everything grow and start getting ready to harden off some of the seedlings before growing them outside.  The beds also need some TLC so maybe we’ll take care of that this weekend.

Outside of gardening tasks, the gas can holder build will continue this week.  I’m looking to also make a few videos – an EDC overview and perhaps a garage/shop tour.  Also thinking about a GHB overview.  Would you like that?

Long Term Plans

Long term plans still include the shed and getting the garage/shop into some semblance of order. I think I need to review all my yard tools and see if any of them need any maintenance before the growing season is in full bloom.

OK, Week 8 is in the can! I hope you all like what I’m doing here.  Let me know in the comments what you like or don’t like about the site!

Thanks for reading!

Dan

Founder/Owner at Suburban Steader

I am a middle-age guy with a wife, two young kids and a crazy dog. We live on Long Island, NY and had an interesting experience with Hurricane Sandy. That experience led me towards the self-sufficiency movement and eventually led to the founding of SuburbanSteader.com. I aim to provide suburbanites with the confidence and know-how to become more self-reliant by providing content on topics such as gardening, personal health, financial responsibility, cooking, self-preparedness and self-protection.