Independent living 101

An Outdoorsman’s Journal

Hello friends, This column was supposed to be written on June 15 and it is my annual hobby farming, getting by with nature as much as possible story. Instead, the good Lord decided to have my beautiful woman pass away that night and so I had my 21-year-old daughter Selina write my column so I could meet my deadline.

Here is another unique situation. I am writing this week’s column in one of my three gardens. It is the one that is directly across a fence from my sweet corn. On the other side of the corn I just let my steers into a small area where they can graze on knee deep clover. Earlier in the summer I was working in one of my other gardens. It was five days after Michelle passed and it seemed like my steers were on the wrong side of the fence. I was correct and in a matter of five minutes all 36 of my pepper plants were consumed to nearly the ground and it was a challenge to get the steers onto the right side of the fence and minimilize the damage. At this moment all I can hear is grazing cattle.

After I finish this column, I am going to freeze about 25 more bags of corn. I have already frozen 42. After the corn freezing, I am going to harvest enough veggies to make another Nesco of chili.

So far I have made and froze or given away seven gallons and have to make at least 20 to take me through the next 12 months. I put lots of venison burger in it and freeze most of it in 1-quart bags and it makes for a perfect meal on my trips. I will try to write this corn freezing recipe as simple as possible to save space.

Fifteen cups of corn that has been cut off the cob, has been in ice water, 4 cups of ice water, 1.25 cups of sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt. No blanching, super-fast, best frozen corn ever.

This year Michelle and I planted enough garden to give us food for 12 months for six people,which would have been three of her children, Selina, Michelle and myself. I lost all of my consumers but Selina as well as my labor force. If you would come to my house, you may actually be in disbelief as to the amount of garden.

In the fall I fence off my main garden and let the cattle live in it which makes incredible soil in what is one of the worst counties in the state for growing food, unless you use large amounts of fertilizer.

I have all of my firewood cut, split and stacked under shelter for this winter and soon I may harvest a black bear, will probably harvest a whitetail or two and, in October, I will be heading to Montana to hunt elk and mule deer with a rifle on a lone-wolf hunt that will be a huge challenge and should be very good for my mental health.

Everything I do, or at least I try, is to be as independent as possible including how I earn a living.

I miss Michelle, but I need to keep putting one foot in front of the other!

Sunset