Phew! So glad this week is over.  It’s been one of those weeks that just wouldn’t end.  Work was a bear – nothing bad, just busy – and home life has been hectic as well.  The Suburban Steader Homestead made some progress in terms of the garden and I even got into the workshop to make a fun little project.  Oh, and my uninvited visitors are back! Com check out what happened around the homestead during Week 20 of 2017!

This Week’s Milestones

The (Uninvited) Guests Are Back!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve mentioned that I had some uninvited guests show up in my garden.  These annoying yet cute guys set up camp in the straw that was used to overwinter one of my two raised beds.  They had evacuated their burrow and I was moving forward.  Well, take a look at this:

The little buggers are back! Somehow or another, they moved to my other (closer to the house) raised bed and are even nibbling on my lettuce plants.  I can’t bear to remove them; and having little daughters who think they’re “SOOOOOO Cute!” doesn’t help the situation.  I’m going to have to ride it out.  The Mrs says she saw an “adolescent rabbit” (her words) hopping around the backyard yesterday so I’m hoping their moving to a newer, more permanent home.

Any tips on how to not get them to settle in the straw next winter/spring?

I Continue To Get Inspired In The Workshop

Most of you are aware that I live in the bastion of freedom (cough, cough) that is Long Island, NY.  There’s a lot to not like about this place – we have limited evacuation roots off this God-forsaken sandbar, it’s vastly over-populated, housing costs are out of control and our Superior Leaders don’t believe we’re responsible enough to handle our Second Amendment right on a daily basis.  But, every once in a while you can find nice things to enjoy here.  Two of those things include the beaches and the vineyards.

Yes, we have vineyards! In fact, our wines are regularly put up against those from California (another bastion of freedom) and are considered superior in some instances.  Anyway, you can’t live here and not find some kind of wine to enjoy.  That being said, I was inspired by my old college buddy Bob (GreenRiverWoodcraft on Instagram) to build a “Magic Wine Bottle Holder.”

It was just a prototype made out of scrap 2×4 but it worked out pretty cool.  I’m thinking about making a few for family members and would like to see if any of you would want to purchase one.  I’m, of course, going to use a nicer wood than cruddy pine.  Any takers? Probably looking at the $20 plus shipping price range.

Regardless of whether I ever sell these, it was a fun project and I look forward to doing more work in the shop.

Garden Is Banging

The garden continues to grow.  The lettuce (despite my fury “friends”) is growing quite well and the snap peas are coming in great as well.  I bought some eggplant and broccoli from the local plant store on Mother’s Day.  Those went into the ground and seem to be growing quite well.  I’m a little disappointed that my seedlings didn’t take that well for both of these, but it’s all a learning experience.  Perhaps I should start both of these in the ground next year and not under the grow lights.

I’m getting very antsy to start eating some of my produce, but I have to wait a little longer.  The snap peas should be blooming in a few weeks and then the lettuce will be ready as well.  Carrots overwintered and can be picked any time.

Oh, I did use some of my “worm juice” to fertilize this week and that seemed to perk up everything, including the hurting peppers.  I mixed one quart of the “worm juice” with three quarts of water and put it in an inexpensive pressurized sprayer like this one.

We’re getting there folks!

Next Week’s Goals

Gardening

I’ve got a lot still left to do on the garden (does it ever end?).  The cukes, cilantro and basil starts need to get hardened off and into the ground.  The trestles have to go up so the snap peas can start climbing.  I also need to build or buy some more trestles for the cukes to climb on.  I’ll keep working on the garden beds as well, making sure all my babies have as much nutrition as they need.

Workshop

I didn’t work on my toolbox project that I talked about last week.  I’m leaning more and more towards sanding it smooth and kind of starting fresh.  I did take the hand plane to an inside edge this week while out in the shop and it looked nice.  I think I could make this thing look awesome.  My big concern is the inside, but we’ll get there.

I also got a request from one of my daughters to build her a desk.  I’m starting to research ideas online (Pinterest is great for this kind of research) and need to discuss with the Mrs on what kind of desk she’d like to see.  I think it could be a good project though.

That’s it folks – Week 20 is in the books!  How was your week?

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.