KW-40 Picky pigs and produce picking
To get right into the big news of the week, the piggies aren’t too keen on the whole sweetcorn plants.
I still think we can find a combination that they’re happy with. This week, I mostly tried mixing the chopped up sweetcorn with all of the other things that I could think of, and apparently, they are more skilled at eating around it than I thought possible. Of the three, Marilyn seems the most persuadable to the task. I was surprised by this, she is definitely the pig who complains the most when things are not quite to her satisfaction, but she is also the pig who gets last choice of everything, so I guess she’s used to making do. Tony gets the first pick of the picnic, but he’s also the one who likes green things most. He was the first to actually eat a whole sunflower plant last year. He seems less keen this year, and he’s the best by far at picking the choicest nuggets out of the sweetcorn mash. Equanimous Brunnhilda mostly gets on with life except for those moments when she forgets she’s a pig and wants to spend all day with her human.
In the garden, I’ve been slowly taking up the potatoes. I’m more or less planning on finishing that today. Which means I need to make a decision. Am I going to follow them with pumpkins as in the pirate pending 6 year crop rotation, or is it going to be the winter wheat again. For practical purposes, I think it has to be the wheat. I don’t have anywhere else to put it. Note to self: get the damn rotovator fixed. Urgh. That chant which has bedevilled the entire year.
I don’t remember if I mentioned getting the onions in last week. That is going to happen this week. I’ve cleared the heinous mess of exploding tomato plants, and the ground is perfectly prepared. Seeing as planting onion sets is by far the least work of any annual job, that shouldn’t be too much of a bind.
What else?
More sauces. I’m also going to start on the pickles and chutneys.
Harvest the beans. It looks like there are going to be a lot of beans. I have a plan for something new and exciting. I’ll tell you how it goes next week. I’ve already made a LOT of baked beans for the winter. Yummie.
Harvest most of the sweetcorn. Looks like I am going to have to separate the corns from the plants. No biggie, but not the Plan A.
Chop wood. Damnit. Get on with it, boy!
Mow everything. In preparation for the big raking action that is just around the corner
Try to finalise the categories on the card game I’m making. It’s called “We’re all going to die” and I think you’re going to love it.
And I’m sorry for those of you who like this newsletter in your inboxes by super early - I just realised that I didn’t have any photos for you, so I went to feed the pigs. Honestly, they are so sweet at the moment. They each interrupted their breakfast and came up for a hug, and not one of them tried to bite my face off!
In the last two weeks, we have 5 new paid subscribers! This is by far the biggest step up in paid subs I have ever had for this newsletter. And none of them are new to the barracks. Each and every one of them has been on the free sub for quite a while now. The longest, for over a year. I’m feeling really good about this. The free and the paid will always be the same. And sometimes, after a while some people want to change up a level. For nothing new for themselves, other than to support the barracks, the pirate, the pigs, and next year, the poultry!
Thank you to every one of you who takes the time to read this. It means the world.
Why not drop a greeting in the comments? I know that most of you are German and British (which is obvious), if you are from further afield, I’d especially love to know how you heard about us here. Me and the piggies. Say hi some time!
Great helpings of pirate love
your
Pirate Ben
xoxo
(sorry for the lack of narrated version today. I’m not in the mood. Wow. That was blunt! Sorry! :) )
I live in the middle of nowhere in Sweden, in a tiny cottage with some land. We have, what I think is called, a root cellar, in which we can keep most of what we grow all year around and we're mostly self sufficient. At the end of last summer I was browsing google for new ways to preserve my crops, especially tomatoes, and somehow stumbled upon the barracks via a newspaper or magazine. Can't remember exactly. The internet works in mysterious ways. However, I savoured every blog post with a growing hope that someone's actually doing something. Have diligently read the newsletter every week since then. It's like a beacon in the night. Thank you for what you are doing!
I'm from Dallas, TX and have no recollection of how I stumbled across your particular corner of the world. We have maybe just finally wrapped up one of our notoriously bad summers here. We may get 2 weeks of fall before first winter sets in. This part of Texas is not known for nice seasons.
I enjoy your journey in self-sufficiency. Lots of people mumble about stuff like this but few even understand what it requires. Thanks for continuing to chronicle your work.