I have been having all sorts of trouble with my internet today but it looks like it’s finally working again.

I’m at days 45 and 46 for preparing. This really just piggybacks my year of growing resilience. So here’s what’s up. I have had my mammogram, emptied my small freezer and consolidated the contents. I actually considered selling the small freezer as we have cut down to one pig but I decided against it. For one thing, I will be a lot more grass-fed beef, 20 pounds at a tie as I can afford it. The other thing is that I just bought turkey poults. My friend, Pepper, the young farmer who runs my raw milk CSA, wanted some turkeys but really didn’t want to drop $8.00 a piece for them. I could pay for the poults but didn’t want to build a coop and raise them. A deal was struck. I’ll pay for them. She’ll take care of them. We’ll split the cost of the feed and we will each pay for the birds we have butchered. I have agreed to take 14 birds. She’ll take the rest, keeping a Tom and three hens for breeding. We choose Bourbon Reds as they are a heritage breed on the watch list for conservation. We didn’t want a critical status bird as we want to eat them as well as protect the breed. Even with the inputs, the turkeys should cost far less than the $60.00 I paid for free-range birds at Thanksgiving. The meat will provide a lot of the poultry I want each month and will give me the option of canning if I want the freezer space for something else.

Other accomplishments were getting a mushroom harvest and buying more Shoo-Goo. It smells awful but it does a great job repairing boots. My Mucks had cracked across the top. I patched them upholstery fabric and Shoo-Goo and will probably get another year or two out of them. Check out my pictures. I’m still working on getting them labeled and haven’t figured that out yet) and inserting them in test but I’m getting a lot more comfortable each day.

One more thing before I add the photos. Guy McPhearson from the Nature Bats Last blog is coming to Cummington to speak on April 10. I hope that any of you who are local will consider coming. He has written a terrific book. Walking Away From Empire will convince you that resilience is a necessary attribute in the coming hard times.

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