Hey HIVE family,
I want to write a quick note of gratitude to you all for being here. I've barely written since this covid thing started, but I've been watching. When I first heard of this mysterious illness in China, I looked around our Steem (then) communities for any first hand accounts. None. I checked again when news hit of a dire situation in Italy. Still nope. It wasn't until the first lockdowns hit Europe that I began to see accounts of this phenomenon here. Always about lockdown, never about illness. Strange for such a deadly virus, eh? Anyways.
Facing the potential of extended lockdowns and shortages, my family first stocked up on non-perishable and long-keeping foods for the pantry: rice, dried beans, lentils, canned fruits and veggies, flour, potatoes, onions, winter squash. Next, we put a good chunk of the bribe our government paid us to keep quiet and stay home toward expanding our ability to grow food on our own property. *Last," but not least, we stocked our freezer with a variety of meats.
Subtropical Victory Garden
Thankfully, our area has not experienced significant disruption yet. Our stores lacked paper products for a while and there was a run on meat, but things have been restocked. I'm glad, because the minimal preparation I described above would not go far if we suddenly had to rely on what we have stored and what we can produce. We don't eat primarily from our land, we eat from the income from my small business, so most of my attention has gone into keeping that alive.
Like all of us this year, I'm growing into a new way of living. Today, I want to highlight our little banana patch.
Dwarf Cavendish Bananas shortly after planting, June 2020
I heard that bananas want lots of water and lots of nutrients. These babies were fed with high-nitrogen kitchen scraps in the planting holes (specifically, the remnants of turkey after making soup,) and planted near the overflow outlet for my neighbor's water pump (so there's always a trickle of water there.) It seems they like this.
Since we haven't needed to consume all those pantry foods, some of these have gone into the victory garden. We've already grown and harvested some red potatoes, and planted more. As summer heated up, I realized we need some green cover crops to shade the feet of our baby fruit producing trees. Check out how happy our Dwarf Cavendish banana plants are with a patch of cowpeas (black-eyed peas) contributing moisture, shade, and nitrogen to the soil!
Dwarf Cavendish Bananas with cowpeas, Aug 2020
I'm not sure if we will have bananas by winter at this rate, but luckily our winters are mild. I have many more small garden projects to share, so I'm looking forward to joining you all in growing this online victory garden!
Till next time,
Be "all in" in whatever you do.
Definitely some crazy times... Looks like you're doing some very wise things! I've also been working on preparing and stocking up and learning more about the natural edibles in the environment and other survival sorts of stuff. Who knows what might happen and there's a lot of discouraging signs, it's smart to try to be ready!
So... I wanted to let you know that we finally finished judging at the IFC.
You scored at least one point during the season so you are eligible to play in the finals and compete for the grand prize of the crypto, artwork and crystal trophy if you want to.
I'm so sorry it took so long... A lot of crazy stuff has been happening in my life and the world in general.
Part of the delay has also been in relation to difficulty with finding judges on a budget and me improving the IFC in the future in other ways, so I'm definitely not giving up on this contest and I want to keep doing it in the future and I hope to address some of these issues and put more financial resources in regards to the prizes and such and more hopefully towards this idea/game if things work out well.
Right now I've set the date for the finals for November 28th, I'll probably make the post in the morning or afternoon mountain standard time if nothing changes and would be honored if you're still willing to play.
If that timeframe doesn't work for you, but you still want to play then let me know and maybe we can move things around a bit as I'd like to have more players if possible.
Once again I'm so sorry about the delay... I feel bad about it, though I do hope that we can still finish the season with at least two players?
Please let me know when you can if you think you'll be able to play on that date or not or if we should move things around a bit so I can figure things out more. Peace and much love! <3
PS... It looks like you've been inactive for a while so I'll try to message you on discord or see if there's another way like an email somewhere or something. It would be great if you could play. But, I understand you're probably very busy and I hope you're doing well. <3
Thanks for checking in and I would be happy to play! @ifc always gave me a good motivation to post more, rather than just consume content here.
See ya around soon!
You're welcome for checking in. We already talked briefly on discord as you know, but I'm happy that you're happy to play! :D It's cool to know the IFC helped motivate you to post more and some of your entries have been some of the most memorable for me! I value you and your presence and I'm thrilled you will play. I'll be in contact with you and the rest of the players who decide to play shortly before the finals begin and I look forward to seeing you all more soon. :) Much love friend. <3
good choice!!!👍
I also seriously started growing vegetables this year!😀
And I agree with you, almost I haven't heard stories of people actually infected with this pandemic…
Anyway I shared your awesome post on Twitter!🙌
Thank you for sharing!
Yes, the stories about lockdown, economic ruin, and riots far overshadow any stories of disease.
When I garden, I find I am much more willing to eat my vegetables. Even okra, and eggplant. But fruits are more fun!