Sunday was sunny, one of our first really nice weekend days this year, and we were out working in the yard. Sarah built her potato box and planting potatoes in it. Ryan and Chanse worked on the greenhouse putting up some of the polycarbonate siding. I did miscellaneous, around the yard, projects; exciting stuff like turning the compost, raking out dirt, pruning the tree, weeding (aka adding greens to the compost pile), all while being available for technical assistance as needed.

Later in the week I got back to the greenhouse and almost finished putting the polycarbonate up. I’m now, finally, within two to three hours of being completely done; hopefully that’ll be Sunday, which is again supposed to be sunny and warm. The greenhouse has been a big learning experience, construction-wise; I’d hesitate before recommending the project to anyone else–because of the amount of time, energy, and money it took–but I’m glad we did it. We really look forward to putting it to use this spring and, hopefully, using it all winter also. I really do need to finish it Sunday, because I plan to write up the greenhouse project for my Monday post.

Not really prepper related, but I also transplanted a couple of rose bushes. I bought three bushes for Sarah last year, unknowingly buying the climbing variety, and had planted them way too close together. So I dug up two of them and moved them to a better location against the fence, and put up a trellis for them to be able to “climb”. While most of our gardening is focused on food production, striving for self-sufficiency, there is a place for things that are just pretty. But even the pretty things–roses, lilacs, rhododendrons, and the annual flowers we will plant–have practical value because they attract pollinators to our yard which will then, hopefully, move on to our fruit and vegetable plants.

I bought some external pockets for my GHB* hiking pack (Maxpedition Falcon II), made by S.O. Tech, that I really like. I got them through SurvivalGearBags.com, they had great customer service and fast delivery; I was impressed and will buy from them again. Like Momma Bear mentioned, when discussing packing BOBs, it’s good to put items you may need quickly in easily accessible pockets. I love the PALS webbing stystem, on the newer tactical-style packs, that allows easy and secure configuration of external add-ons. In general I love all things bags/packs, and the more cool pockets on them, the better – I’m sure there’s a point of diminishing returns, but I haven’t found it yet. In the picture you can also see the red carabiner tied to the cord leading to my FAK.

What did you do?

(Monday: The Greenhouse Is Completed)

*For my list of abbreviations and other information, open the above ‘Check Here…’ page tab.