Thursday, October 18, 2018

Freeze Warning!

Blessings Darlings!

There's a freeze warning for my area tonight.  This is VERY early for our area.  We've not even had a frost yet - my basil is still very happily growing.

Since my UPG is that Samhain is 3 days after the first freeze ... it looks as if Samhain will be very early this year.

I'm now in a hot sweat over the last of the garden.  All crops not harvested by Samhain are left for the Pooka, so getting them in is now or never.  Harvest today - process like a fiend for the next 3 days.  Then Samhain with the ancestors. 

This is why I tend to start working with the ancestors Oct 1.  All 'issues' between us get cleared up, they get offerings and I start to listen to them even more closely. This way, when ever Samhain shows up - the spiritual work is well under way.

How are your Samhain spiritual preps going?  I see lots of folks posting in Pagan groups about how they are decorating for Halloween - but not many posts about them prepping for their ancestors dropping in.

Frondly, Fern

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Black Walnuts

Been spending most my life
livin' in a prepper paradise ...

So - today's cheap preps was day 1 of going out to collect black walnuts. Lesson already learned: smaller bucket or fill it less full. I DID remember to grab a bucket with a handle, but it was a 5 gallon bucket. And I filled it. And it was heavy. And I was on foot.

Of course - most of these have their green/black covering on over the shell of the nut. So this isn't going to produce that much actual usable black walnut meat. OTOH, it's free and they have SUCH rich flavor - and buying them, even in bulk, would be about $15 a pound plus shipping.

These are NOT your tame English walnuts. I'll have to drive the car over them to de-hull them, then dry them, then use a vise to crack them so I can get to the meat.

FWIW - this is sort of why Black Walnuts can be used to break from the past.  They also are useful for dyes and the roots are great for protection/warding.

Over the next week or two I plan to collect a lot more. But for today - it's on to water rotation (we are not on city water. If power goes out our well pump stops. When you live like this - you store water because storms can take out power.)

I might just take some Motrin (okay, the generic version) and have a cup of tea first.