independence days - week 2

since i'm struggling to get the garden in again this year due to my rambunctious toddler, i thought taking the id challenge would be a good moral booster for me. i try to practice this idea anyway during the growing seasons so it's a great reminder of how much i really do even when it feels like i don't.

1. plant something:
sat: too cold to have the little one outside (ok, so really, i'm the wuss when it comes to cold. i was productive inside)
sun: weeded and mulched garlic and horseradish, weeded asparagus, planted 5 summer squash (a pattypan i think)
mon: planted 17 tomato plants, 1 row of carrots, 3/4 row of beets
tue: planted 34 more tomato plants
wed: planted last 4 tomatoes, planted last 20# potatoes, mulched potatoes
thur: extremely rainy day, no outdoor activities - got over 3" rain
fri: more rain. sorted seeds to be started in the greenhouse and directed sown outside, hopefully tomorrow! planted 3 cotton plants when the rain finally stopped and transplanted holy basil into larger pots

2. harvest something:
^harvested more asparagus
^harvested some mint

3. preserve something:
^made lilac jelly
^made dandelion jelly
^made mint jelly

4. prep something:
^started list of items needed to further our cause (more supers and a spare hive or two, electranet fencing, etc)
^figuring how many chickens we need to separate to harvest eggs for hatching
^following up on milk goat leads
^bought 10 cases of jelly jars
^still searching for berkey water filter (lost an auction this week by $2.50 grumble)
^ordering more chimneys and mantles for my aladdin lamp once money is back into account

5. cook something:
^made goat stew. it was good but chewy. need to slow cook it more
^made goat chops, baked. still a bit tough

6. manage your reserves:
^placed coop #2 order
^ordered 4 turkey babies (don't know what they are called)
^picked up #1 coop order
^emailed 2 navajo-churro breeders about availability

7. work on local food systems:
^fed and watered broiler chicks several times a day (they go through food like crazy).
^emailed slow food st. louis to be added to their database
^emailed local harvest grocer to feel out interest in selling our products (and got a response...now i need to send them a price list)
^discussed possibility of selling our eggs at local nutrition store

8. Compost something:
^every day, all our foods go into the compost bucket and get fed to the chickens who turn it into manure for the garden.
^i hold back apple cores, carrot ends and peels and a few other veggies scraps for goat treats
^the dog and cats eat most the meat/bone scraps (i feed fish scraps to the chickens for extra protein)

9. Learned a skill:
^working on perfecting butter making and pasta making
^made mozzarella balls with citric acid instead of cultured method. yum!