Progress as at 31 Jan 2024 - Harvesting & Zen, Water Security, Evacuation Drill, Gratitude

January had a couple of themes: 'harvesting' and 'water security'. Something new I'm trying this month is a 'Gratitude' section to help with my motivation and morale. 

Harvesting

There's a lot of produce coming through thanks to the constant sun, water and attention. It's a good problem to have. In previous years, it has felt more like I worked for the garden rather than vice versa. Being able to throw stuff in the freezer for drying later has been a great relief.

I won't repeat the roll-call of what's growing now, because it's the same as last update. The one exception is the potatoes - I finally kept my promise to myself to harvested and replace the current crop.

Looking ahead, the last 'lots' of summer crops have been planted, and my thinking is turning towards autumn crops. 

The Zen Of Harvesting

To stay on top of the harvesting, I started an early 'morning patrol' of the gardens. I was surprised to discover a consistently peaceful slot. While coffee is a mandatory comfort-food, the morning patrol provides a gentle wakeup and a good mood to start the day with. 

Garden Water Security

The hot summer under El Nino escalated my concerns about having enough rainwater on hand. As the El Nino cycle typically lasts about 3 years, now seemed like an appropriate time to increase capacity for the future.

I started this month with a collection system with a total capacity for about 2 months in theory. My goal is to capture 3 months worth during winter, and top up with summer rain. Within that are implied considerations like automatically switching between tanks. 

In January I tried to complete that intention. The results were mixed/educational. I now have

• The third month of storage added as a standalone tank with various workarounds used to fill it or pump the water in and out.  
• A better understanding of my total needs and the gaps.
• A better appreciation of the value from a larger commercial tank that can store more water in the same footprint. 

I can get by with the current arrangement like a manual workaround, but I want something better. 

Civil Defence Bug-out / Evacuation Drill

One goal I had was to "revisit more of my natural disaster prep." 

Over the Anniversary weekend, I used a Sunday drive to rediscover my evacuation plan. I'll dwell on the deficiencies/lessons later, but the main one was realising I hadn't done a practice run for over three years. No surprise then that I had forgotten the route, didn't have the minimum petrol needed and a few other things.

Gratitude

Specific 'things' I am grateful for are 

• I have multiple systems working for me in food, power and water. While none of them are fully self-sufficient, each makes significant contributions. 
• Building my own systems means I can maintain/repair them myself, as I realised after an emergency repair on the collection system.
• The benefits of my time/effort seems to be compounding e.g. expanding the tank storage makes it easier to create more crops.

Learning-by-doing is often a fraught process, but  

• Being knee-deep in confusion about what I want/need and how to do it, is just part of the learning curve
• I can work through this confusion and produce meaningful results; and 

• Two-steps-forward-one-step-back, is still progress.

Conclusion

January was a good month in terms of both actual results and building up the systems. It got a bit wobbly in the middle, with the learning-by-doing around the water storage etc, but I made things work out enough.

Looking ahead, I need to update/define my specific objectives.