Ideas For Low Impact Simple Living

For a long time I’ve been wanting to start a strawberry patch. Finally, last spring we bought some plants from the county 4H. We prepared a bed down by the creek. Adding compost to the soil we planted them in hills. To keep the chickens out we built a primitive fence around the strawberry patch using sticks and twigs we gathered from the woods (this spring we rebuilt it using bamboo). Then we waited…

We waited for Spring to come around again, anticipating the ripening of our first Strawberries. We have been watching the strawberries flower and then develop little green berries for about a month now. Well, yesterday was the day. I went down to the garden and peered over the strawberry fence. There they were, nice plump red berries!

I was tempted to pluck one off and eat it right then and there. But this was a special occasion. I wanted to get some photos of them before I picked them. I had to wait a little while longer because Charley had gone to town and had taken the camera with him.

Finally, after supper, I took my photos and then picked 7 beautiful, red, ripe organically grown Strawberries. I enjoyed my 3 1/2 berries with a bowl of my home made cereal with a few dolops of vanilla yogurt and a little milk. Ummm Ummm Good!

I can’t wait to make pies, shortcake and ice cream with the strawberries we harvest. But, I need to remember to put some away for those winter time treats.

It’s very satisfying to know that the things we do here at the River Rest takes us one step closer to being self sufficient. Looking back, I see that we have come a long way. But we still have a long way to go.

There’s alot going on here at The RiverRest this spring. We’ve been busy getting the garden ready, preparing the soil and starting transplants. It seems like every year it gets bigger.

We had to find ways to keep the chickens out of the garden. All of the Bamboo that Charley and Tony cut and hauled here really came in handy. We used it to build a fence around the main garden and the Potato Patch. So Far So Good. We’ll be publishing our stick fence building experiences as soon as we get around to writing it. In the meantime, here’s some photos of our new bamboo fences.

Last year we built a primitive stick fence around the new Strawberry Patch. We used sticks, limbs and twigs from the woods. It lasted the Winter but was in need of some repairs so we decided to try something new with the bamboo.

Probably the most exciting thing to happen is with the chickens. Red, one of our hens, went broody. She started sitting on a few eggs so we jumped at the chance to let her hatch them.

I’ve got many things I want to tell you all about. Like about how our dog Pearl has become an egg retriever, making Dandelion Jelly and what to do with KnotWeed. So, please bear with me. I’ll get around tuit, soon, I promise!

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It’s been a while since I posted a favorite simple recipe. This is for my favorite salad dressing. It only takes minutes to make. It’s so good that when my salad is gone I turn the bowl up and drink any dressing left in bowl! Our dog Opie even likes it! This dressing is also great for slaw and as a marinade for meats.

Homemade Honey Vinegar Dressing

In a bowl or dressing bottle mix together:

Equal amounts of(I use 1/4 cup or 1/3cup for the 2 of us. It usually last for a couple of meals.)

• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Honey
• Oil
• Water

1/2 teaspoon Lemon Juice

1 clove minced Garlic

1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt

Dash of Ground Black Pepper

Stir it to dissolve honey. Shake or stir before using.

I have one of those Good Seasons salad dressing bottles. I have also used a glass measuring cup with a pour spout. You can also reuse / recycle those glass bottles that store bought dressings come in.

Last year being our first to have chickens, we never really had a need to fence in our garden. Our chickens free range during the day. When we first got them they didn’t venture to far from the coop. They slowly widened their horizons, so to speak, and found the garden. By that time most of the plants were mature enough to withstand their scratching around in the dirt, though they took their toll on the more delicate plants. They really loved the potato patch.

“Chickens in the Garden!” became a common cry as one of us ran down to chase them out. It soon became apparent that we needed to find a way to keep them out. After a little research we learned that buying fencing material was going to cost a lot more than we could afford. But we were getting ready to plant strawberries and did not want the plants ruined.

In our efforts to be self sufficient we try to use resources that we already have on hand. So, looking around us, we realized that we have 30 acres of fencing material right here!

Weaving a Stick Fence

Charley and Tony gathered up the materials we needed. One Sunday afternoon the three of us went down to the strawberry patch an build a fence. Actually, we wove a fence.

Taking trees & limbs about 3 inches in diameter we build a frame consisting of 3 limbs for the uprights and 3 horizontal limbs to weave the smaller twigs through.

We had an assembly line process. Charley cut the limbs and twigs to size, I assembled the frames, Tony arranged the frames around the strawberry patch and began the weaving. As we got them ready, we tied the frames together end to end. When we had all the frames we needed in place, Charley and I joined Tony in the weaving.

For the weaving we used twigs about 1 inch to make smaller uprights. Using smaller twigs we filled in the gaps. The weaving works best with green, bendable twigs.

The result was a functional, affordable fence. It was rustic looking, but that’s what we like. It really cost us nothing but time and with a little tweaking has worked very well.

If you are thinking of trying this, I do recommend that you weave it pretty tight. Chickens can get through gaps you never thought they could. Test your fence. If you can move a twig, so can a chicken. Charley just recently wove some bamboo twigs in to make it a much tighter fence.

This ideas can be expanded into other parts of your garden. You can weave stick trellises, plant beans or other viney plants can climb over them & use them for support.

We plan to use the bamboo that Charley and Tony harvested at a neighbors property to fence in the larger garden. I’ll be posting on that at a later date.