This post is brought to you on our glorious Election Day here in the U.S. And because I try to be civic-minded and frequently write about living sustainably and fixing our broken Earth and environment, I’m here to remind you to vote if you haven’t done so, and vote responsibly. (I’ll also give you a homestead update later in the post, so you get some pretty pictures and tastiness in the mix.)

Allow me to quote from an earlier post on Living Sustainably, Little By Little (which, by the way, is a handy guide to starting and continuing your more sustainably lifestyle if you haven’t already seen it):

Vote intelligently. Research your politicians and potential politicians, especially local figures since they will affect you most noticeably. Do they support environmental efforts? Do they put their money where their mouths are? Have they supported environmental efforts in the past, or are they jumping on the green bandwagon via lipservice? Vote for people who actually have climate change solutions on their agenda – if they’re not speaking up about it, they don’t care about it. Don’t be fooled into thinking otherwise.

Y’all. We don’t have time to wait for people in public office to “believe” in climate catastrophe, or to deny its existence. We will not be saved by a few extra dollars in our bank accounts, or from the bank accounts of climate catastrophe deniers. Money and the electronics that keep track of that money burn in a world that’s literally on fire in many places, including the United States.

Vote to protect what environment we have left, and to protect our most vulnerable, underrepresented humans on the planet. We have no more time to waste on nonsense and selfishness.

*steps off soapbox*

And now, speaking of sustainability and doing cool (hah!) things for the planet, here’s a short cold-weather update from the Walbaczia homestead!

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So, as you can see (or squint at), our recent frosts/freezes have gotten most of our warm-weather plants. A heartfelt goodbye to our beautiful moonflower cave (right), as well as our okra, tomatoes, and peppers on the left. Thanks for the goodies!

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All I gotta say is, slugs are assholes. Here are some of our surviving collards and kale, which are being absolutely torn apart by slugs currently. We intend to put the slugs to a timely rest with some well-placed jars of PBR (yes, as in the beer) later in the week.

On the other hand, our mustard greens are doing fabulously! We’ve already used a good deal of the leaves in a soup, and look forward to using them for many other applications (e.g., hand pies, pasta, more soup, saag paneer, and more) this cold season.

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Our black radishes are thriving! Our chickens also love to escape to dig up and eat these beds, which is not nearly as cool. I’m excited to finally try some of these when they’re fully mature. Getting close!

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And finally, our parsnips and carrots have little sprouts. (They take FOREVER to grow!) Not many have popped up, but more than a few have, so I remain optimistic that we’ll have some of these yet come spring.

In other homestead news, our chickens continue to chonk around and act as little lawnmowers for the back quarter acre, as well as give us a variety of beautiful eggs every day:

Yep, that’s a double on the right end. And it was delicious.

That’s all from the homestead for now. So go vote responsibly, stay crunchy, and happy homesteading!