dear diary: 30th November

It's been a very busy six weeks. A lot of things going on, a lot of stuff happening, and on the roll to the solstice, to Christmas, and the new year. OOF.

OBSERVATIONS:

The weather is absolutely all over the shop. Hot and then cold, humid and rainy, and then dry and soul-sucking. But things are growing pretty well.

One thing I need to remember is how much water everything needs in the middle of summer!

The water in the tank is beginning to smell. I think it needs emptying and then cleaning out.

One of the odd things is the harvest disparities.

The MANGO is way up, so is the PEACH (yellow clingstone).

Definitely down are the AVO, APPLES (golden del, gala), the NECTARINES (white), and the PEACH (china donut).

Same-state of unproductive are the backyard 'DUAL' PLUM, FOUR-APPLE, APRICOT, CHERRY, and the front yard APRICOT.
UPDATE: I have an apricot off the APRICOT in the tub!! OMG, SO EXCITED!

Same state of productive are the backyard PLUM, and the citruses - LIME (makrut), KUMQUAT, and CITRUS (oranges and tangerines).

Two that I can't really tell are the POMEGRANATE and the PERSIMMON, which are late-summer/early-autumn harvests, and the fruit set on these doesn't look very good.

One thing to note: I've tracked that a lot of times my fruit trees have a 'bounteous' year and then an 'ordinary' year. It switches between a year which is really good and year which is ordinary. Sometimes it's harder to tell with some trees - I pay more attention to the nectarine-peach duos, but I also keep them pruned back pretty hard so I can actually harvest them, and still every year I get a pretty decent harvest. But last year was crazy for the persimmons, so this might just be a quieter year.

CHOOKS:

The four left remaining after Kerry died back in late August have all been fine. We have a series of very hot days coming up, though, so we're keeping an eye on them - spraying down the enclosure, sometimes making them sit in cooling baths.

Goong is broody, and has been so for about a month. She should be coming out of it now...

We buried Kerry in one of the compost piles. See below.

COMPOST:

Dug out the middle compost pile - it's been processing since before I went away, but hadn't fully decomposed. With the assistance of the sisters, I sieved it on Saturday, and dumped most of it back in the new compost, which we built around Kerry.

Contents:
- leaf-and-grass mulch
- cutting from the garden (most of the mother-of-herb vines, trimmed back)
- comfrey
- ferns
- lucerne
- Kerry
I topped it off with a layer of leaf-and-grass mulch. I'd hoped that the gardener would have come by on Friday, but it rained all day and so I guess he put it off after I said last Wednesday wasn't any good. Anyway, it's reached the middle of 'active' status but not 'hot' according to the thermometer, and I'm tempted to try injecting it with some manures - chicken and cow by preference - and see if that gives it a kick?

PREPARING:

I have MELONS and PUMPKINS growing, and they're going to need some pretty decently prepared ground. I have the soil, I have a few planting sites, I just need to plant them out and remember to water them. I'm thinking of putting an olla in each bed. I just have to work out which set of melons and pumpkins are going together.

SEEDLINGS PLANTED OUT:
SNAKE BEANS - germinated and planted out in LOUNGE VEGEPOD
BUSH BEANS - Cherokee wax, full germination - plant out in AVO-SHED
BUSH BEAN - royal burgundy, full germination - plant out in CREPE-APRICOT

PLANTED NO GERMINATION:
BEAN (Soy green) - no gemination at all
EGGPLANT tsakoniki - no germination
No ZUCCHINI

PLANTING OUT:
PUMPKIN - mystery (brett cooper's green-orange turban type) - 2 germinated
WATERMELON - moon and stars, no germination
PUMPKIN - galeaux d'eysines, 3  germination
POLLINATOR - lion - 2 full germination
MELON - zdenka's - 1 germinated
MELON - rockmelon - 4 germinated
PUMPKIN - musquee de provence - 1 germinated
CUCUMBER - burpless - 1 germinated
EGGPLANT, TOMATO from Jen in Hornsby

PLANTING OUT THOUGHTS:

I have the BANANA CIRCLE, the FRONT TRIANGLE, and the FRAGIPANI

I would like to do THE CHOOK YARD FENCE and the FRONT LOUNGE WINDOW

1. Bury an olla next to where the seedling is going to go.

2. Plant the vines around them with:
half a bucket of compost
half a bucket of cow manure
a handful of wood ash

3. surround with straw and water in with:
an ice-cream containers of bioworm liquid

4. fill the olla with plain water

5. first week, water every second day with:
seaweed solution
worm wee

6. second week water with
bioworm liquid

HARVEST: Still baby tomatoes, still white peaches, all the nectarines are gone. Golden Dorset apples, the (lone) apricot is nearly ready (maybe one more day; hopefully it's not the day that the damn possum eats it), and the golden peaches are starting up

FEEDING:

Corn planted mid-October, blood and bone, cow manure

See melons

PRUNING:

STONE in backyard needs pruning (apricot above)

CHERRY in backyard needs pruning

DONUT PEACH in backyard needs pruning

THOUGHTS:
PUMPKIN - mystery (brett cooper's green-orange turban type) - 2 germinated
PUMPKIN - galeaux d'eysines, 3  germination
PUMPKIN - musquee de provence - 1 germinated
POLLINATOR - lion - 2 full germination
MELON - zdenka's - 1 germinated
MELON - rockmelon - 4 germinated

If we have five places to grow then keep them together by type - so all the Galeaux d'Eysines together, all the Musquee together, etc. Pollinator can go one for the PUMPKINS and one for the MELONS (more or less)

if we have three places to grow, then one each of MELON, PUMPKIN, and POLLINATOR in each spot.

TO DO

0. Prep ground: add compost/manure

1. make labels - wood, large, painted

2. group where they're going

3. Plant out.

FINAL PLANS - Sunday 30th Nov:

I'm going to use the Frangipani and the Banana circle this year, doing the work on the Triangle Garden this year I'll improve the soil along the chookyard fence and the front garden in the coming seasons.

dear diary: 20th October and previous weeks

OBSERVATIONS:

I've been gone six weeks and the garden has changed...significantly.

For starters, I left in late winter, and returned mid-spring and EVERYTHING IS GROWING.

The weather has turned hot and dry, with a couple of temps at 35-40C. Unfortunately, the watering system in the back is leaking and I need to fix it before I can properly water the back. DAMMIT. I guess that might end up being a job for Saturday perhaps?

In the front triangle, the PERSIMMON has grown back super-thick and leafy, and I'm thinking it's going to need some trimming so it doesn't get too out of hand. It's shading the space where I was growing tomatoes and some pumpkins, thinking that it would take longer for the shade to hit. But no, apparently not. So both the CITRUS and the bed I had behind the STONE arein full shade.

The beds I planted have overgrown, and while things are surviving in there, nothing is really thriving, thanks to the heat and the lack of watering. B1 couldn't really manage it, which isn't surprising, and I didn't have the watering system properly set up, unfortunately.

Several of the grafts took, but some didn't.

The APRICOTS on the TWO STONE took, (the cherries did not)

The PLUMS on the PLUM took (the cherries did not) (I'm seeing a pattern with the cherries.)

Something that concerns me is a kind of fungus that seems to be growing out of the cambium layer of the tree – I think it's because the sealant stayed on too long – the full six weeks, instead of being taken off at three or four weeks. I've taken it all off now, but...we might have to wait and see if I've killed the trees entirely.

Next job is to trim down the scion trees, because they're entirely too vigourous right now.

Neither of the APRICOTS, nor the STONE fruit APRICOT, nor the FOUR-APPLE are flowering. Not at all. The GOLDEN DELICIOUS APPLE is flowering a little, and the GALA usually comes in late, but it's also not looking great. Don't think this is going to be a good year for apples, anyway...

Somewhat surprisingly the WHITE MULBERRY in the chook pen survived. It even has a little fruit on it. I should pick those off before they get much bigger.

The WHITE SAPOTE is almost dead, the BLACK SAPOTE is surviving. The ICE CREAM BEAN is comfortably in the fake barrel along with...another tree that I don't know.

Almost all the COFFEE seedlings dried out. And several of the LYCHEE trees are on the blink. B1 insists she watered them enough but I have my doubts.

I suspect the FIG strikings that I took have failed, but one of the branches from the BLACK GENOA that got worm eaten has survived and has a leaf on it.

PASSIONFRUIT vine is probably dead. KUMQUAT has survived, although isn't looking great.

MANGO has a bajillion little fruits on it, and I'm going to have to keep that one watered properly this summer. And that's going to be an effort and a half!

the GRAPE is doing wonderfully, thanks very much. I need to get some kind of a frame up so that we have a hope of growing it for shade, maybe? IDK. B1 and I are on two pages about that. She wants a shade that we can pull back (ie. Man-made mechanical), I'm for the grape in summer and bare in winter.

CHOOKS:

All seem healthy and laying (except Carambah, who has an implant and shouldn't be laying at all). Life rolls on without Dr. Kerry, and she's in the freezer awaiting the moment for burial. Also, a location.

Currently TRACTOR is on CREPE-APRICOT, should stay there until early November

COMPOST:

I thought it had dried out while I was away, but the temp in it was just under 'steady', and when I turned it on Tuesday 21st it was damp (but not moist) and most of the non-fibrous things had decomposed. I turned it and covered it with sacking.

Lawn guy came this afternoon, said it was okay mowing the leaves, but ended up leafblowing most of it to the edges of the garden. Oh well. I'm going to have to whip out the mower myself on Friday and give it a good going-over. Then use the leaves as mulch.

PREPARING:

I'm pretty much preparing for the Sydney Edible Garden Trail in March 2026. I want to showcase how much can be grown in a small space, and effectively using chickens.

That would mean I'd have the chooks on one of the tractor beds. And I need to make a decision about which one. My instincts say that the AVO-SHED would be best: it's a good visual, and it's difficult to grow things in there. So I need to do any growing in the AVO-SHED ASAP in the next six months with an eye to having the girls on it by early March

FORWARDTHOUGHTS:

AVO-SHED
thoughts: not a lot of sun happening here, things tend to grow badly when they grow at all now that the avo is next door. I wonder if some careful planting and feeding might do a better job now?
Perhaps try a ZUCCHINI, assorted BEANS and some LEAFY GREENS (SILVERBEET) – going to need to feed and water them hard.

CREPE - should be ready by early November
- plant the GLASS GEM CORN in this bed, with ZUCCHINI and TOMATO and BEANS

APPLE-CREPE
- BEANS, ZUCCHINI, TOMATO

PLUM-STONE

DRIVEWAY WICKING
- plant the COUNTRY GENTLEMEN CORN in this bed, in a triangle at the top left corner (around the watering pipe)
- CUCUMBER along the back edge
- SNAKE BEANS along the back edge
- BEETROOT and SILVERBEET spaced through the middle
- BUSH BEANS along the front

HARDWARE WORK:

1. Watering System

2. Garden seat

3. Take the TRIANGLE beds out and consolidate into a single bed

4. Make up the IBC bed on the porch

SEEDING:

So many things need planting, especially for the SEGT 2026, which is in March (I think).

21st -22nd and 27th - 28th
CORN – Country Gentleman, Glass Gem
CUCUMBER – Burpless
ZUCCHINI – black beauty
PUMPKIN – musquee du provence
ROCKMELON – zdenka's?

Also: SILVERBEET, SPINACHES, maybe WATER SPINACHES?

PLANTING OUT:

Nothing to plant out. Anything I seeded back in August is pretty much dead.

HARVEST

FEEDING:

Fed the potatoes shop potash. Or phosphate. Hm. I have a feeling it was phosphates.

Need to try actual wood ash from Sue's fireplace next time.

Found this advice about POTATOES on the internet:
Leaf mulch, compost, blood and bone, potatoes, compost, leaf mulch
planted in June
watered very regularly
fertilised halfway through growing season – potash

she had some really good potatoes in October after planting in June.

Was wondering if I could do the same from the August planting by December in the small vegepod on the path...

LET OPERATION POTATO COMMENCE!

PRUNING:

Honestly, everydamnthing in the garden needs pruning.

dear diary: short September

Just a few updates while I'm out of the country.

CHOOKS:

Kerry died the morning I left to go overseas. We medicated her, B1 tried to put her back into the coop, she was already wilting – as in, head drooping, everything failing, and before we got to the expressway, she was dead.

Poor Dr.Kerry, although I like to think she had a magnificent life at the end there, once she'd come to us.

GRAFTING:

I found some notes!

Apricots: grafted to Nectarine
- Cotton Candy (300) and Unknown Apricot grafted onto Two-Stone Nectarine. It was very wet while doing so, and I don't know how well it's going to hold. You do what you can, I suppose.
- Fireball (450) and Bulida (500) grafted onto horizontal Two-Stone Nectarine. Again, very wet while doing so. 

That's all the notes I have, but it's more than I had before!

THOUGHTS:

It looks like it's going to be pretty dry while I'm away, and while I left instructions on watering the seedlings, I do wonder a little how they went in the cold snap we had on the weekend.

dear diary: end of August

NOTES:

Been a lot of things happening lately, And entirely too long since I updated this.

I keep thinking I have things to talk about, which I do, but then I haven't really had time to write them down, so I haven't typed them out.

I grafted a bunch of stone fruit to each other, BUT I DIDN”T TAKE NOTES and, uh, now I have to work out what went where.

Stupid.

- Royal Crimson, Minnie Royal, and Royal Lee
-Bulida, Fireball, Cotton Candy
-Gold Plum and Luisa

Do I remember which one I grafted where? Nope. NOPE.

I didn't even take photos, because it was in the middle of a week of rain and I just wanted to get it all done.

CRIIIIPES.

CHOOKS:

Finally buried Haami. She's gone into the compost bin where her sister Tofu went nine months ago. More composting down to do.

The girls have been let loose on the northern lawn, which is mostly dead thanks to me already growing brassicas on it, and also due to the frangipani dropping all its leaves and not getting them raked up. I wish I had some seed to plant on it (clover, maybe meadow flowers).

I need to block the girls off from the northern lawn while I'm away, though. B1 will let them roam there for the entirety of my trip and the whole zone will be an absolute wreck when I get back.

COMPOST:

Made another compost, it's not heating up. Was going to put some chook poop through it to improve the nitrogen, but didn't get around to it before the crazy weeks of rain.

PREPARING:

I've been adding composts and worm loads and fertilisers to the various beds, and netting frames for the trees, so the netting for keeping the fruit fly out is all set up.

I set up a bed for the tomatoes in the TRIANGLE GARDEN, have added worm castings, and some 'dino dung' (I got from someone in a swap).

I've added 'dino dung' to the small vegepods, plan is to grow POTATOES, GINGER, and maybe a MELON there? IDK.

SEEDING:

I should plant some things to be ready for when I get back:
- ZUCCHINI
- CUCUMBER

I already have CAPSICUM and EGGPLANT, although not many of those.

More TOMATOES? (Roma in particular)

I just planted COTTON, ZUCCHINI, CUCUMBER, ARTICHOKE, and some more EGGPLANT (blacknite, seeds from Zja).

PLANTING OUT:

TOMATOES: roma, pink bumblebee, jaune flamme – into the new bed in the TRIANGLE GARDEN. They're going to need extra nutrients, because there's tree roots all through that bed.

POTATOES: planted in one of the small vegepods

GINGER: planted in both of the small vegepods – note; also iron pelleted the pods b/c of slater bugs

HARVEST:

Avos still going strong

Going to be BROCCOLI available for some time

Already harvested and pickled one RED CABBAGE, need to do something with the other

The WOMBOK are still good, but probably need to be picked

FEEDING:

everything, once it's in

PRUNING and PEST CONTROL:

I have learned that one should never prune APRICOTS in winter

All the stone fruit have been whitewashed (hydrated lime, water, copper spray crystals, a little paint) against pests

GRAFTING – SO FAR

Okay, so I grafted the CHERRIES onto one branch of the triangle WHITE NEKO, and grafted some APRICOTS onto another branch of it. I've trimmed the WHITE NEKO down .

I grafted more CHERRIES onto the back PLUM and also the two PLUMS.

More detail than that, I don't have. I didn't take photos, I didn't write it down, I'm a dumbarse.

At least one of the CHERRIES on the WHITE NEKO has taken

Nothing on the APRICOTS

Need to fix the sealing on the joints (all of them, looks like the wax has shrunk and cracked) and remove the envelope from around the branch

THOUGHTS:

It's going to be another six weeks before I next get to update this, so it'll be interesting to see what the garden will look like by then.

while I'm away, my sister will be watering the seedlings (and possibly the rest of the plants, too). It's going to be a wet year, it looks like they've decided this is going to be a LaNina year, and the ElNino is going to wait until next year. So the goal this year is to get as much water into the landscape as possible. Lots of organic matter, lots of mulch, lots of things decaying to improve the soil as much as possible...

Posting a bunch of photos here for the record.

dear diary: end of July

GRAFTING PLANS
Gonna go visit the guy with the fruit trees on Sunday, going to get APRICOTS, CHERRIES, and PLUMS from him. Promptly come back and
· white NECTARINE stump: graft APRICOTS onto it
· Backyard CHERRY tree: graft low-chill CHERRIES onto it
· Backyard PLUM tree: graft low-chill PLUMS onto it

PLANTING PLANS
· TOMATO: eating and canning tomatoes
· CUCUMBER:
· ZUCCHINI:
· MELONS: what if I grow them in the EMPTY BACK BED?

DRIVEWAY BRASSICA BED
-for tomatoes later in the season? After the chooks have run through it again.
-maybe try CORN again? Or leave that in the backyard?

(FORMER) APRICOT bed
Run chooks through the area? (how?)
Manure, bucket waste, comfrey, seaweed solution, weed tea, cover with pea straw

Timing will be everything I think.

Two things I have to think about:
1. going away through September and half of October
2. the Sydney Edible Garden Trail in March 2026

Things I particularly want for the SEGT:
1. CORN (late sowing)
2. MELONS (always late)
3. APPLES (just ripe)
4. PERSIMMONS (should be in full flow)

I feel like I should plant out the garden beds before I go, but the risk is that nobody looks after my garden while I'm away and the whole thing dies...

Same with seedlings. It's kind of going to require someone to at least do some of the basics of watering my seedlings while Im gone and keeping an eye on them. I'm not sure my sister is up to the task.

To do this weekend:
Plant TOMATOES seeds
- ROMA
- eating
Plant CUCUMBER seeds
Plant ZUCCHINI seeds
Plant MELONS seends
Chop out some CHINESE CABBAGES and pickle
Prep MELON bed locations
Move chooks to NORTH DRIVEWAY BED

dear diary: 8th July 2025

OBSERVATIONS:

Okay, let's have a proper gardening post.

It's been a fairly mild winter. It doesn't feel like it, of course. It feels cold, just as it always does, because the walls leak heat something fierce. We're doing okay with the windows, but to do the walls is a dream – possibly a pipe dream at this point.

We have a slow water leak somewhere on the property. I have no idea where or how, because I checked all the taps and they seem fine, but the meter is moving ever so slowly - by milliliters, I think, but still. It would add up to a litre or two a day at least. IDEK. I'm worried with all the rain and drought, that something has cracked or twisted just a little and the result is a tiny leak. I'm also worried about mould and rotting, both of which are issues if the leak is somewhere in the walls.

EDIT: I have a feeling it might be at the tap which turns off the mains water. There's a tiny seep around the tap head. Which is a problem, because I suspect that Sydney Water will have to turn off the mains in the street to replace the washer or the tap or something.

Otherwise, mostly sunny days, generally very dry weather. Occasional squalls, and those two weeks of rain back in May.

CHOOKS:

We had Haamyu chicken put down on Tuesday. Big and black, she had all kinds of internal issues through her life, some of which were more costly than we needed. But after consultation with a vet who *does* do terminations (unlike the ones who didn't and basically just kept doing scans and palliative care) we determined that she wasn't ever going to get better and it was better for all involved that we just put her down. Now I got to find another place to bury a chicken.

B1 thinks we could put Haamyu in the same compost that we buried her 'sister' Daofu in.

That's one of the last photos we have of Haami roaming with the others. In the last week or two, we'd brought her inside as she just became more and more lethargic, until we took her to the vet and made the decision.

COMPOST:

Still making leaf mulch. Tossed more leaves into the chook yard for them to scratch over. Need to go back up the street and grab that pile of leaves (if it's still there after tonight, which is green bin night).

PREPARING:

Need to prep a melon patch. Exactly where from? IDEK. Maybe in the BANANA CIRCLE? Or possibly the FRONT LOUNGE bed? But need to make a decision and pronto.

SEEDING:

Should probably do some tomatoes, although I have no idea when I'm going to be able to plant them out... Maybe do some just before I head out on the trip. If they survive, they survive...

CORIANDER. Was going to plant some of that to go with the avos.

PLANTING OUT:

Planted out another set of brassicas, I think it's WOMBOK and BROCCOLI again. Half in theDRIVEWAY VEGEPOD, half in the PLUM-STONE bed in the back. I anticipate the ones in the PLUM-STONE will be slower-growing than the DRIVEWAY VEGEPOD which is fine – hopefully we will be eating those in October when I return from overseas.

The DRIVEWAY VEGEPOD lot were planted out, fed a bit of wormcasting mud, and watered around rather than on top of. The PLUM-STONE were planted out in worm castings, and watered in. Both were sowed with iron pellets to combat the snails.

HARVEST:

The BROCCOLI in the DRIVEWAY GROUND bed are doing splendidly. I've cut several heads, and more are still growing. AVOCADOs. ORANGEs.

The damn cockatoos ate most of my kumquats. Although 'ate' is a misnomer: they picked off the branches then ate the seeds out of the flesh! AUGH! There was a decent crop, too - about two dozen, maybe three?

Oranges are still on the tree, though. Avos are producing. It's some, and I hope it's enough.

FEEDING:

The brassicas in the two beds in the TRIANGLE-ESPALIER. They need some seaweed solution, and also some Biocast. (Should see about getting more of that.)

PRUNING and GRAFTING:

I'm getting a bunch of grafting scions from a guy in Sydney at the end of July, and will have to promptly graft them on. I need to have my tools cleaned and sharpened by that time.

THOUGHTS:

I have a bunch of thoughts related to The Apocalypse here. That's more planning than planting, but that's also a part of what I'm doing here.

In essence, David Suzuki thinks it's too late. Something catastrophic is going to take us down and out, and at this point we need to start building communities and connections. Doing what we can with what we have, and working out what we're going to do when (not if) it all goes to hell in le handbasket.

Make Water Filter Barrel

I'm also thinking about water collection off the carport roof. It's aluminium and needs a decent clean with a pressure-sprayer, but the water from it shouldn't be chemically contaminated, so a run through gravel and sand and a ceramic filter should be sufficient to make it drinkable.

Trying to work out where to put a number of trees, how to build a space for small birds to shelter in (they get driven off by the mynas), and how to trim stuff down so I get a good crop in the coming year.

It's a lot.

if it's the last thing I ever do...

This is going to be a more grim post than is usual for this blog, but it's no longer about 'gardening' but about 'survival'. Skills, teachable and otherwise. I haven't quite gone full prepper, but certainly I'm looking to start preparing for the worst. The world is going down, and while I don't fear death I don't want it to be slow, and I want to be enough of a survivor to be able to help the community around me. That means brushing up on knowledge and being both someone with the knowledge, as well as someone who other people know have the knowledge and are willing to ally with.

Black swan events

· Unpredictable events that change things
I think it's a matter of 'when' now, not 'if'. These are the basics for my own household, but we'll be dealing with a lot of far less prepared people, too, so it could get sketchy. May need to work better at connecting with the neighbours, getting to know their skills and so forth.

More difficult than it sounds. We are instinctively self-involved with our lives and our little thoughts, and the belief that today, next week, next month, next year will all be the same as it was last year, last decade, last century. That is almost certainly not going to be the case. So I'm getting myself organised (in my head and in my house).

What black swan events are possible in the next decade?

• Flood
• Fire
• Earthquake
• Riot/government safety net failure
• Cut off electronic access to money (no card, electronic payments, only cash)
• Internet shut down (blockade, cutoff)
• Water cut off
• Power cut off

How to plan for them
There's only so much you can do, really. THe one that worries me most is fire - it's also one of the most likely, unfortunately. Fire through the area would leave us without a home, and no way to rebuild. That'll be the tough one to deal with. Flood is unlikely, quake/sinkhole also. Can't spend too much time preparing for what might never be. Government failure will be a slow descent. Electronic severance is going to be more of an emotional/psychological difficulty. Even if we're used to communicating and dealing with other people in meatspace, the ease of communications in this era is going to take a big hit if connectivity goes down. Water would be a real problem, and so would power.

1. Energy
• a. requirements
• i. Fridge and freezer
• ii. Computers/modem
• iii. When power goes down, what will we absolutely need?
1. Fridge
2. Freezer
3. Internet/charging
4. Cooking: Rocket stove & gas oven+stove
5. Warmth: gas heater (requires electricity) or manual coverings

Home battery for extra storage 20kwh/day?

1. i. Lithium ion (may not last long)
2. ii. NiFe - will last a long time, so expensive
3. iii. LFP (lithium iron phosphate batteries)

'Standard' battery would be the ones that are being offered right now. They're not very recyclable, but they're cheap. I'd like the Nickel-Iron ones that last for a long time, but apparently they don't do so well with solar panels? (Check with Nev.)

Do we want one for power? For longevity? For reusability (charging cycles?) Price?

2. Food
   • a. More sealable containers (anything in sealable rectangles? - what about the pool chemicals boxes? Do they seal?)
   • b. More pulses, grains - solidly sealed. Buy one extra soft package next time at store.

3. Water
   • o Water filter - purchase is looking at least a couple of thousand
   • o Better water storage (additional tanks/under house water storage?)

4. Can I pay off the house before it all goes down?
   • a. Yes, by selling stocks. However, it will leave us with no savings, and let's assume I won't be paid after July. B1 has useful healthcare and assistive skills, I have homesteading skills. We can live off what we have stored and can grow for a while, although it will not be be pretty.
   • b. Wanted to pay off B2's place as well. Not likely to manage that. Also B2 is having other issues with the costings of her apartment. She might need to take assistance from the parentals and damn the electric fence, even if that's not something she wants to do. But I'd help her get the apartment paid off, so that's one less thing she has to worry about.
   • c. The twins might be more able to hold their jobs: helping, assistive, "femme coded". Low paying, but still necessary and valuable.

Priorities?

1. Water filter for roof
2. Another water tank supply
3. Water bladder for under the house
4. Home battery (unless found cheaply before)
5. More dried foods

Thoughts: I better get the trees in this winter, bushes also. If they fail, they fail. At the least, I need to get them in and give them a chance - particularly the coffee bushes!