A New Kind of Game: Days 1-7

I really enjoy the writings and attitude of The Minimalists 

and although I missed the first round, 

I am playing The Minimalist Game for November...

Here's how it works - on November 1st, I got rid of one thing, the 2nd, two...

the 3rd, three and will continue on through to November 30th...30 things!

Here is my first week, not difficult to get rid of things out of excess, 

but I expect that it will get more interesting as the days go on...

I think the stories are important - so here they are. 

A bit vulnerable for me, but necessary for this process.  

Day 1: A broken frame, boxed and useless - tucked in between two pieces of furniture 

in the basement for, I would estimate, 8 years.

Day 2: The last of the television graveyard - two 15" televisions that are never used.

Day 3:  The story of FREE - Giveaway metal drinking containers, piled on a shelf, and very clearly collecting dust. My advice is to stay away from the giveaways...

Volunteer, clean up, give your time, but leave the free stuff there.

Day 4:  Four boxed things that haven't been touched since childhood 

or silly whims abandoned them.

Day 5:  Harry Potter Collectibles, dusted off for E-bay.

If they don't sell - they aren't mine and will leave the house another way.

It's important that my November be my stuff, but I can help get things ready for selling 

or donating if other family members want to play too!

Day 6:  Opened a drawer in the basement and found a strange array of empty containers and 

covers to things long gone...I think of this as the "what if I need it someday" dilemma. 

More to come on this as the days go on...

Day 7:  Miscellaneous cookbooks - duplicates or destroyed from use.

Books are being recycled or donated as needed.

Reflection from the first 7 days?  

There are 3 empty shelves and a couple of recycling bins ready to go.

I'm putting the Bagster out in the driveway and bagging stuff up to donate.

I am enjoying the Minimalist Game! I haven't known where to start, 

and even though this is a slow start, 

I expect that I will be changed by the end of it.

I am doing this to make room for people, and stories I want to write,

to simplify what I need to do each day and make my daily routine easier.

Who wants to play?

Start where you are and do what you can...

Less is most definitely more.

Canning Carrots

With the first frost heading in, we decided to dig up the carrots do some canning.

Mixture of Purple Dragon Carrots and Orange Carrots

The Dragon Carrots looked a bit like candy corn!

We were able to can 13 pints from the 4x4 bed

Cover Cropping Beds

Autumn is here, we took the dead corn stalks out of the 4x8 bed and brought all of the Red Beans in to dry. During the autumn and winter, we are trying something different this year. We planted oats in the 4x8 bed that will grow quickly, prevent weeds and provide more bulk matter for the bed.

In only a week, the oats are sprouting along with some straggler beans that fell into the bed. Beans will grow as much as possible and be cut down to replace nitrogen in the soil and also add some bulk to the bed to break down over the winter.

After the leaves fall and we layer the back garden with leaves, we'll also seed some oats and buckwheat for next year.  Buckwheat has been a great success in helping to bring insects into the garden when other plants aren't flowering. 

We have had above average temps the past couple of weeks and the plants kept growing. I'm hoping to have a couple of smallish pumpkins to use for seeds for next year and we are still eating the peas and carrots, tomatoes and eggplants are growing.

Late sugar pumpkins running up the Juniper Bush

Carrots!

After the potatoes were done - we planted peas

Finally some tomatoes!

Little Eggplants growing