Action4Canada - A4C Prepper Dan Mid April 2023 Vlog2

00:00:00.000 Well here we are, end of the first week of April and already as you can see some of the ice is

00:00:13.620 already melting off the river. Not soon enough. Today we've got a full lineup. We're going to

00:00:19.720 transplant some of those tomato seedlings and already they're doing really really well and

00:00:23.520 we're going to pick some chaga that I found on one of the trees out there. I'm going to show you 1.00

00:00:28.920 how to make a pot of chaga and we're going to do a few other fun things here. So why don't you join

00:00:34.560 me? We're going to have a little bit of fun today. Thanks for coming along. So a couple weeks ago we

00:00:41.240 started these little tomato seedlings in these little peat pots and right now they're about three

00:00:46.360 inches tall, three and a half inches tall. So we're going to transfer them to these little beer cups

00:00:51.280 that we get at the dollar store. We poke a few holes in the bottom and what I like to do is get some of

00:00:57.500 these trays at the dollar store. You can also get the plastic ones and then once these are on there

00:01:03.360 I'm going to put these back on the racks that I have behind me underneath the grow lights and what

00:01:08.880 I need to do with these as you can see the roots are already transferred like right through these

00:01:13.800 pea pots down here and I'm going to put these down so that just the tops of the leaves here are sticking

00:01:21.740 out of the cups because we want as much root growth as possible. With tomato plants all of these stems

00:01:28.920 are going to grow into roots and that will encourage even more growth. Then what I'm going to do since

00:01:34.680 we're only in the middle of April here or first week of April is probably in about three weeks time

00:01:41.280 this will all be full of roots as well. I'm going to take these out of here and then I'm going to put these

00:01:48.320 in larger yogurt containers like this and that'll encourage even more root growth and I'll do that

00:01:57.000 for about a month before I transfer them over into my garden. So before we get going I also use this

00:02:03.960 really good miracle grow soil. Don't use just the cheap dollar store stuff. So let's get going.

00:02:11.700 Put a little bit of dirt in the bottom and then I know I've got like three or four plants in here.

00:02:20.380 I'll leave them in there and then what I may do is separate these later on and then make two or three

00:02:29.220 plants out of these. So I just keep putting dirt in here until these are sticking up just exactly the

00:02:34.880 way I want them. Just like that and then I fill these up gently. Careful that I don't break the plant.

00:02:46.100 Moving the dirt around and it's nice make sure your dirt is dry while you're doing this.

00:02:57.740 Just like so. So let's keep going around.

00:03:27.740 So a few weeks ago I started some peppers as well as the tomatoes. Peppers are a little slower growing

00:03:33.960 and I had some old seed. I wasn't sure if they were going to germinate or not and I have three

00:03:38.540 containers here and obviously none of them germinated. So I've run out of store-bought packages but I found

00:03:44.840 a package of yellow and red pepper seeds here. So I'm going to give them a shot and usually these take

00:03:51.620 a couple of weeks or so to germinate. So you know what I'm going to use them off. If they don't work

00:03:58.040 they don't work. So I'm going to be a little liberal here and just go ahead and put them in these containers.

00:04:04.340 I mentioned before that I use these old recycled mushroom containers and these here actually have

00:04:12.840 holes in the bottom and I put them in these trays here that used to have flower pots in them for drainage.

00:04:20.180 So I do poke some holes in the bottom as well so they don't flood. Actually there's going to be

00:04:24.800 too many seeds here so I'm not going to use them all after all. So we'll be generous with the amount

00:04:31.820 of seeds I put in here. So we'll put some back just in case they do work. I can always plant some

00:04:37.280 inside the greenhouse later on. To move things around and they do start growing sometimes I always have

00:04:43.020 four or five pairs of these long tweezers from my medical kits here. So I'm just going to put a

00:04:49.860 really thin layer of soil on here. Just barely covering them about a quarter of an inch of dirt.

00:04:57.180 So they're growing medium here. Again I use the Miracle Grow for this. Just give them a little dusting

00:05:04.020 here. And these trays go on a heat mat that I have and the temperature right now on here says 89 degrees.

00:05:14.700 It just helps with the germination. Now before these come up I have a tray over top to help with the

00:05:20.280 condensation with the moisture. But because these plants are up already I won't be able to cover

00:05:24.540 these. So once this is done just give them a little bit of a watering just to keep the dirt moist.

00:05:34.920 And hopefully in about a week's time we should start to see these shoots come up just a little bit.

00:05:44.240 And that's about it.

00:05:48.720 Well another beautiful spring day to be planting. And these crops in here have been doing very well throughout the winter.

00:06:03.920 But today we're going to be using a little bit of space that's left over here. And I've got a few leek seeds

00:06:11.480 that I'm going to be putting in here. And I'm also going to use a container to put some catnip in here

00:06:16.800 and start a few of the plants in here. So let's get you a little closer and let's get going and plant some seeds in here.

00:06:24.200 Okay so to plant these leeks in here I've got the Tadorna leeks that I'm going to be putting in here.

00:06:31.760 These take 110 days to mature or actually to mature. These are also open pollinated.

00:06:41.320 I'm just going to put, I've got enough here for about two rows. So I'm just going to, and I can go by feel here just from experience as well.

00:06:53.760 And I may have to thin these out a little bit or transplant these here. I've got enough here for two rows.

00:07:00.760 And I'm going to put these about 4 inches apart. Yeah there's no doubt I'm going to have to transplant these at some point.

00:07:08.760 But this will give them a good spot to get a good head start. And I'm just going to lightly cover them over.

00:07:17.760 This soil here is very loamy. I'm going to explain to you in just a little bit about this soil in here.

00:07:26.760 And so remember what this is in here. I'm just going to stick this back here.

00:07:31.760 But the soil back here, I mean I've got layers and layers of different types of things in here, decomposing things.

00:07:37.760 And there's a bunch of worms in here as well. I usually get some worms that I put in here.

00:07:42.760 But it's very loamy soil and I do make my own soil. And at some point too I'm going to show you how I go ahead and I make my own soil.

00:07:50.760 So, in a couple of weeks hopefully we'll start to see some things coming out of the ground.

00:07:57.760 These do take a while to germinate, but we'll see how that goes.

00:08:01.760 This is fairly damp right now, but I'm going to go tamp this down just a little bit.

00:08:06.760 And then just give them a little bit of water.

00:08:10.760 So, while we're in here today, I'm going to start some champion curled parsley in a couple of these mushroom containers.

00:08:20.760 And I'm just going to leave these in here. It's warm enough in here now.

00:08:24.760 We use quite a bit of parsley too. And I'm eventually going to plant some flat leaf parsley as well.

00:08:30.760 And we have some wooden boxes that I installed in here in this greenhouse once I take this plastic off in about a month's time.

00:08:40.760 When it's going to be plenty warm enough in here.

00:08:42.760 But I'm going to start a few of these in here just to see how they do.

00:08:46.760 Just sort of as an experiment.

00:08:48.760 And if they do well, then these may just be transplanted outside later on.

00:08:54.760 So, I'm just going to scatter some seed on here.

00:08:58.760 And then lightly cover them with some soil.

00:09:08.760 I want to quickly explain to you the concept of this greenhouse here.

00:09:12.760 I have had no heat at all in this greenhouse all winter.

00:09:16.760 And I planted some of these crops here in the fall.

00:09:20.760 I planted some turnip, some carrots, some parsnip, as well as some beets.

00:09:28.760 And as you can see, I've only watered this garden maybe four times throughout this winter.

00:09:34.760 And the reason I have eggs in here is because I crush my eggshells and feed them back to the chickens.

00:09:39.760 And everything has done fairly well here this winter.

00:09:42.760 Now we did lose some crops because it did go down to about 24, 25 below here in the wintertime.

00:09:50.760 But the concept with having a raised bed, raised beds in greenhouses is you don't have to fill the whole greenhouse with really good topsoil.

00:10:03.760 So what I did here, these panels that you see down in the bottom here.

00:10:08.760 These panels are the inserts from steel doors or from fiberglass doors that when people order a big glass insert in their doors,

00:10:18.760 those are cutouts and those are thrown out.

00:10:21.760 This one here is actually a fiberglass one.

00:10:23.760 And these are insulated.

00:10:25.760 So I have those on the outside and on the inside.

00:10:28.760 And probably this much of the bed is filled with decomposing material.

00:10:34.760 So old logs, leaves, some really old wood chips that I make from my wood chipper.

00:10:42.760 I put leaves through there as well.

00:10:44.760 Then I put a layer of grass clippings.

00:10:47.760 And then I put some soil.

00:10:49.760 And then some better soil.

00:10:50.760 And then a layer of rabbit manure and shredded newspaper from the chicken pan.

00:10:55.760 And then more soil.

00:10:56.760 So you don't have to fill this full of really good topsoil.

00:11:00.760 And as this decomposes, it heats up.

00:11:03.760 So the heat rises and the roots gravitate down toward it.

00:11:07.760 And they get the nutrients from it at the same time.

00:11:10.760 So this is a nice concept.

00:11:12.760 I got these for free.

00:11:13.760 You can get these.

00:11:14.760 I got these from Rona and from another place.

00:11:17.760 But you can ask around.

00:11:19.760 And as you can see, you know, this greenhouse is only eight by twelve.

00:11:24.760 There's only a few of us in the house.

00:11:26.760 There's just a couple of us in the house.

00:11:28.760 And this will look a lot prettier when all the plastic is removed in, I'm going to say two or three weeks.

00:11:35.760 So here we have a little bit of chaga on a birch tree.

00:11:42.760 And chaga grows on trees, birch trees that are usually dying.

00:11:47.760 And I make tea out of this stuff.

00:11:50.760 Now in this particular one here, this stuff is fairly small.

00:11:54.760 It's been picked over once before.

00:11:56.760 And there's a little bit more just down on this one right here.

00:12:00.760 So I've got a pot of chaga actually on my stove all the time.

00:12:05.760 And I may pick a little bit of this here.

00:12:08.760 I don't have a container here right now.

00:12:09.760 But I may just pick some of this stuff and put it in my pocket.

00:12:13.760 And I'll take you inside and show you what chaga tea looks like.

00:12:18.760 You can research chaga tea on the internet.

00:12:21.760 And you'll see all of the medicinal benefits of this.

00:12:24.760 One of the main ones is it's an anti-inflammatory.

00:12:28.760 And yeah, good stuff.

00:12:33.760 Alright, so we're just coming in from having picked just a little bit of chaga. 0.95

00:12:37.760 And I'm going to add it to one of my two pots that I have.

00:12:40.760 This one is just for chaga here. 1.00

00:12:43.760 And I've already got a basket full of this big chunks of chaga. 1.00

00:12:50.760 And basically I leave the chaga in here until my water doesn't look like tea water anymore. 1.00

00:12:58.760 I probably had this in here for about a month and a half to two months.

00:13:01.760 Maybe even longer.

00:13:02.760 So I'm just going to add the little nuggets in here.

00:13:05.760 And then we're going to cook up a brew.

00:13:08.760 And I'll show you how I like to prepare it.

00:13:11.760 And that's about it.

00:13:13.760 Voila.

00:13:15.760 Alright, so our chaga has been boiling for a little while.

00:13:20.760 And I like to just put a little bit of hard honey in mine.

00:13:26.760 And my wife likes it straight up. 1.00

00:13:29.760 Sometimes I'll put a little bit of cinnamon.

00:13:32.760 Just to add a little bit of flavor to it.

00:13:34.760 And as you can see, it's quite dark still.

00:13:38.760 Even though I've had this in here for a few months.

00:13:41.760 You can probably see how dark this is in the cup here.

00:13:44.760 Even though I'm more of a coffee drinker, this is really nice on certain days.

00:13:49.760 I am going to do a whole section or segment at some point on making different teas.

00:13:54.760 I do forage quite a bit of items from our property here on making teas.

00:13:58.760 Queen Anne's Lace.

00:13:59.760 I collect quite a few rose hips.

00:14:01.760 We grow a lot of different mints here as well to flavor some teas.

00:14:05.760 And the chaga, I wanted to show you. 1.00

00:14:08.760 I've got a few jars of this here that I harvest.

00:14:10.760 Sometimes I just go for a walk in the woods.

00:14:12.760 And innotes oblicas.

00:14:17.760 I say that fast ten times.

00:14:19.760 But usually what I do in the pots, I break it down into parts, chunks like this.

00:14:25.760 And I usually put this into our dehydrator for about an hour or so when I bring it in from the woods.

00:14:30.760 Just to make sure that it's nice and dry.

00:14:32.760 And yeah, so it lasts quite a bit in the pot.

00:14:37.760 I did mention also while I was in the greenhouse about the leeks and that we dry them.

00:14:42.760 And we use these quite often in soups and sauces and dishes and that.

00:14:48.760 And they keep quite long after they've been dehydrated.

00:14:51.760 And we've got quite a few jars of these.

00:14:53.760 Oh, and this one's sealed quite hard.

00:14:55.760 But oh, the smell is just divine.

00:14:58.760 So let's go and have a nice cup of tea and get on to the next project.

00:15:12.760 I'll

00:15:19.780 take a little of them to the next project.

00:15:21.760 Please let me get a little question.

00:15:23.760 Maybe we'll turn this over there for a few hours.

00:15:26.760 First we've roasted relación with two wheels and two shifts.

00:15:29.760 You can take the little juice, let's탄hy, and sort that thezek and the developer.

00:15:34.760 At first we've forgotten and said,

00:15:38.760 that when you'll see this portable,

00:15:40.760 Thank you.

Action4Canada - April 17, 2023

A4C Prepper Dan Mid April 2023 Vlog2

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