The final step! If these work out we'll probably add more next year. Then we'll have grapes for jelly, grape juice, and wine making.

We planted the grapes between the poles. I had to fill in the hole slightly with compost to get the plant at the right depth.

I'm tamping the earth (more like clay) around the post to hold it steady.

This is where we'll put out grape vines. I'll set three posts then we'll plant the two grape plants between the posts. I'll need to string some wire later to train the vines as they grow.

We planned on using new straw for mulching but can't seem to hit the fed stores at the right time. We've always been after they sold the last they had and before they got the next shipment in so we're using straw we've had around several years. It works but is more labor intensive. The straw's pretty crumbly with a lot of dust and mold. (Try not to breathe the dust!)



We used potatoes and carrots from the root cellar, home shot, butchered and canned venison chunks from the pantry and spices grown in the garden. Add in the free heat from the sun and it's the kind of thing we've been working toward these last seven years. Of course the clouds moved in after we set it up but it was still done by meal time in the evening.

Our first time use of a solar oven. We ordered this one last winter. We looked at several but this one had the best reviews.

These are the supports that will go on the ends. I ran out of spikes so I'll have to wait to finish it until we go to town again.

This is what it looked like after the initial clearing of trees and brush.

The future home of our elevated water tank. I've got a steel tank that holds between 300 to 400 gallons from the neighbor's place. We're going to elevate it and run some pipes to have gravity fed water for the garden. It will also increase our water storage capacity.

We ran out of the small vacuum seal bags so Susan cut some of the large bags into quarters and resealed the edges to use them at the smaller size. We'll get more next time we're in town. When the buckets are full we'll cache them.

These are some of the things we put in "Christmas Caches." We call them that because they're made up of things that might behard to find a few yeas after TEOCAWKI (should that ever occur). They contain "treat" items like chocolate, candy, gum, coffee, cocoa mix, etc.. Nothing essential for life but things that we'd miss if they weren't around. If we never "need" them and they're approaching their expiration dates we'll let grandkids do some treasure hunts to "recover" them at special times just for fun.