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Independence Days Challenge

February 2, 2012

I have signed on to participate in the Independence Days Challenge over at The Chatelaine’s Keys and I am very excited about it!  I’ve seen it mentioned before, but it wasn’t active (again) until now!  I’m looking forward to tracking all that we’re doing, because despite all the busy-ness of it all, sometimes it just doesn’t feel like much.

The intention of this challenge is to mark down your accomplishments each week so you can feel good about what you have done.  From little to big, simple to simple, everything counts!  WooHoo!

Each Friday, everyone participating will post a blog about what they have done in the following categories (these are Sharon’s words, not mine):

Plant something: A lot of us were trained to think of planting as done once a year, but if you start seeds, do season extension and succession plant, you’ll get much, much more out of your garden, so I try and plant something every day from February into September.

Harvest something: Everything counts – from the milk and eggs you get from your animals to the first dandelions from your yard to 50 bushels of tomatoes – it all counts.

Preserve something: Again, I find preserving is most productive if I try and do a little every day that there is anything, from the first dried raspberry leaves and jarred rhubarb to the last squashes at the end of the season.

Waste not: Reducing food waste, composting everything or feeding it to animals, reducing your use of disposables and creation of garbage, reusing things that would otherwise go to waste, making sure your preserved and stored foods are kept in good shape – all of these count.

Want Not: Adding to your food storage or stash of goods for emergencies, building up resources that will be useful in the long term.

Eat the Food: Making full and good use of what you have, making sure that you are getting everything you can from your food, trying new recipes and new cooking ideas, eating out of your storage!

Build community food systems: What have you done to help other people have better food access or to make your local food system more resilient?

And a new one: Skill up:  What did you learn this week that will help you in the future – could be as simple as fixing the faucet or as hard as building a shed, as simple as a new way of keeping records or as complicated as making shoes.  Whatever you are learning, you get a merit badge for it – this is important stuff.

So, staring tomorrow, I’ll be posting my weekly list and sharing it over at The Chatelaine’s Keys.  If you’d like to jump on board, I’d love to see all that you’re doing, too!  You know, positive reinforcement and all that good stuff 🙂

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5 Comments on “Independence Days Challenge”

  2. Hi- I found you through Sharon’s site. This should be fun. I participated the last two years she hosted this and it was great. I missed it and am excited to get back on track.
    Judy

    1. Judy, Thanks for popping over! I’ll check out your site! This should be loads of fun! I’m looking forward to tracking myself and being inspired by what everyone else is doing, too!

  4. what a great thing to do! I don’t know if I’ll have time to participate much right now, but I’m going to go check it out~

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