Keeping it real

The 100 Happy Days web site says that 71% of  people do not complete the challenge, citing lack of time as the reason.

I think it's not that we lack the time to be happy, but more that we lack the time to blog/post/tweet about it.  Most of us are so busy that we enjoy those moments, however brief, and don't feel the need to try and hit the pause button while we share this happiness with others. We are living in the moment, and sharing it with those most dear to us, rather than the world at large.

As for my Homesteading Happiness challenge, it has truly been a challenge to put these things online, or to remember to run and grab the camera, as well as to take the time to upload (I don't have the apps on my phone for all this because I own an ancient android) the pics. Thus the batches of happiness as I can steal a few minutes here and there.

My schedule is generally not as crazy as it has been the last few weeks, and I'm hoping to slow things down a bit after this week (which is packed every. single. day.).  Actually, I'm supposed to be writing an article right now, as I sit in a McDonald's waiting for Little Sis, who is attending a meeting nearby.  This particular McDonald's, by the way, may require a hepatitis shot on the way out. Ew. But I digress.

I'm looking back over blog posts and wondering how on earth I thought I was busy before.  If that was busy, this is a tornado of time-sucking.   Almost every single day has a work obligation, and the ones that don't, I do my best to visit the grand babies or spend time with Little Sis (thus Warped Tour).

I have not cooked a meal in at least three weeks.  My time in the garden has been limited, and my cooling-off breaks from mowing/weeding/maintenance involve answering work emails and reaching out for interview contacts.

My house hasn't had a proper cleaning in far too long (everyone pitches in, but face it, dad and teen clean is most certainly not Mom Clean).  Spiders are proliferating all over the house, inside and out, and the house is desperately in need of the fresh exterior paint job I had planned for this summer. My bedroom still cries out for that face lift, but for now, I'm happy if the bed gets made (thanks, Love!) and the laundry gets put away.

It helps that I am doing something I love.  I enjoy meeting new people, learning new things, and stretching my wings.

Will I be able to continue to homestead on the scale I have been?  It remains to be seen.  This year, my garden is a tad smaller than in previous years.  I estimate it's a scant 14,000 square feet, compared to the 16,000 plus of previous years.

I still have about half the stuff I put up last year in the pantry, so I'll be sharing a huge amount of produce this year, and dehydrating like mad.  Dehydrating has to be the *best* way to put up produce -  it takes a lot less time to toss things into the dehydrator than it does to can. Bonus: dehydrated stuff keeps longer.

Eöl, bless his heart, mentioned firewood today.  Egads!! How can it be time for firewood, when I haven't painted the house, or even mowed the yard completely (I get started, it rains, I come back to it, and by the time I'm done, it's time to start over)??? 

Harvest will start in mid-August and last through early to mid-September.  By mid-September, we will be facing frost weather.  By October, we could either warm back up, or, as has happened in the past, have snow on October 12.  We'll be heating the house, likely starting in late September or early October, until mid to late May, which is the norm. That's 8-9 months of heat.  What. The. Heck.  Why do I live in a place with such a short summer? WHYYYYY??? I hate the cold.  I love heat.  I should move south.

Sigh...anyone need a journalist in the south?  I'll gladly review all bids! :)

Presents!

Eöl played with the new chainsaw last weekend and left me this great present!

All I had to do was get it up to the house. 

Which ended like this...

Happiness is....

...dirt under my nails

Fresh eggs. A sure sign of spring.

A new chainsaw!!! 

Weather notes: The peepers are getting louder. We've had a couple of days in the 60s with lots of sun and it's been wonderful! The tomatoes and peppers are started in the greenhouse. Spring is hopefully on its way!

Bit windy out....

Hurricane Sandy is in full roar outside.  We've got a layer of snow and I can hear ice/sleet hitting the house.  I'm in no hurry for the sun to come up since that means I have to go outside for chores...brrrrr!  The wind chill is 21 degrees.  Of course we are very lucky compared to others hit by the storm, so I'm not really complaining.

I haven't felt much like blogging lately, and I guess it shows.  I've been busy with the real world, spending time with Chipmunk and hauling Little Sis from one thing to another.  But, now that I've got a whole new schedule and am up before the sun, I may try to get back to posting regularly.  There's not much else to do this early without waking up the entire house or traipsing around outside in the dark.

I've noticed other homesteading bloggers wandering away from the blog-o-sphere, as well.  I guess it's just that, after blogging about homesteading for so long, it's really just lather, rinse, repeat.  Sure, every season and every year bring new challenges, but it's always busy, busy, busy with little time for blogging about what we're up to.

And really, how many times do you want to read about planting, harvesting, canning, etc?  I hope the answer is "regularly", since that's pretty much what you'll get here, along with the occasional rant about...something...anything...everything...

I have some pics I want to post, so I hope to get around to those tomorrow.  Dates of first frost, notes about weather, blah-de-blah.  But for now, I'm off to tackle this distracting mess on my desk.  I couldn't even find a pen yesterday and ended up balancing my checkbook with one of the pile of crayons here by the keyboard.  And I'd thought my years of writing things in crayon were over... lol.  Thankfully, grandchildren come along to keep us young, right?

Prepper Fail

The recent storms have really opened my eyes to the whole  prepper deal.  Yeah, I know this isn't a Prepper/Doomsday/Hoard Stuff blog, but homesteading is sort of about being prepared to deal with the unexpected.

I never wanted to be one of those people that obsessed about the end of the world.  I don't want to spend my day mentally tallying bars of soap and blocks of cheese,  worrying if we have enough to outlast whatever:  plague, natural disaster, or zombie attack.  What I do want, however, is to survive, and survive comfortably,  Zombie Apocalypse... or local power outage.

We got hit by the Derecho that knocked power out in several surrounding states.  It was something to see, trees bending and various items (furniture, plant containers, groundhogs) rolling across the yard.   The greenhouse stood up to the winds, but the electricity didn't.  Inconvenient, since I had market the next morning.  I never knew I could get a shower with less than half a gallon of water, but I managed.  We even had an excellent turnout for the market.  I guess there wasn't much else to do with the power out all over the area.

After that storm, our power was back on within 24 hours.  During the outage, I was wishing for nothing more than water.   Lots of water.  Not drinking water, since I keep several cases on hand, but water to use.  Water for important things, like dish washing and bathing.  Eöl and I discussed holding tanks and various other options before settling on something fairly inexpensive but useful:  a pool.  Yeah, it's a seasonal answer to the problem, but it's worked for us in the past, with the added advantage of cooling off in the pool during super hot days.  We usually have a pool set up in the summer, and then several large water containers (usually trash cans, clean and new) for winter.  But this year, somehow I'd forgotten that a pool was dual purpose.  So...once the power was back, we were off to buy one.

I'm going to note here, for those unfamiliar with our place, that we have a well pump.  No power means no running water.  And you'd be surprised how many times you attempt to turn on the water, even though you know it won't work. *sigh*

I was in a rush to get the pool home, set up, and filled, just in case the power went out again. But it was late when we got back, so first thing the following day we ...meaning Eöl and Little Sis since I was tending Baby Chipmunk...put the pool together and filled it.  1100 gallons of water!  We were set!! And just in time, too, since the heat wave rolled in with a vengeance.  Temps well into the upper 90's and heat index values over 105.  That may not sound very hot, but for Ohio, where we are acclimated to temps in the mid 80's or lower, it was HOT.  It was even hot for me, and I spend  most of my time in the greenhouse, where the temps are almost always over 100.

The 4th of July rolled around.  Little Sis had suggested a movie instead of the usual fireworks, and as we left the theater we saw Mother Nature had decided to put on a light show of her own.  The entire sky, from every direction, was flashing.  We made it to the car as the downpour hit.  Just as we left town, the hail started.  Yes.  Hail.  While I was driving my brand. new. car.  (No dents, thank goodness!!)

So...we have heavy rain, wind, and hail.  Or maybe I should say, "It was a dark and stormy night...." lol.  The closer we got to home, the worse the storm became.  On our street, bizarre eddies of fog swirled over the road, making it very hard to see where the road actually was.  A trash can zoomed in front of my car.  Tree branches broke and fell around us.   It was like being in a video game.

Of course, when we got home, the power was out again.  We were soaked, frozen (believe it or not, it was COLD rain), and stumbling through the house in the dark, grabbing flashlights and candles.  I'm just glad Little Sis had suggested the movie so that we weren't in the middle of a field somewhere, waiting for fireworks, when that storm hit.

The next day, I called the power company to report our outage.  They had set up a recording to let people know it was out all over the area, but should be fully restored...by Sunday.  The 4th, when the power went out, was on Wednesday.  *sigh*

20 minutes later, Eöl said I needed to call the power company again.  Why?  We had a line down in the yard.  Yep, not the first time that's happened; there was the ice storm and the tornado.  But, overall, it ended up being the longest time the power line had been in the yard. *rolls eyes*

Remember the pool?  How glad I was we'd have water if the power went out again?  Yeah, that pool.  It sprung a leak.  Prepper-effing-fail.

The power was out until Monday, despite the Sunday promises. The heat index stayed well above 100 every day.  We lost everything in the fridge and quite a bit of stuff in the three...yes, three...chest freezers.

It wasn't as bad as it sounds, though.  We bought a solar shower, filled it daily with water from the pool (thank goodness it was a slow leak) and showered in the greenhouse.  That was actually kind of fun.

We did our cooking on the built-in grill on the patio, over a wood fire.  We had things like pasta salad, made with pasta cooked over the fire, tomatoes, cukes, and garlic from our garden, topped with olive oil.  It was sooo good!  We roasted garlic in the fire and smeared it on crackers. *drool*  We did actually eat hot dogs a couple of times, though.

The heat:  that was the worst part.  With the power out, you'd think we'd get a lot done outside.  But no, it was just. too. hot.  The heat warnings issued by NOAA mentioned the cumulative effect of the high temps, and we were living examples.  We even splurged and spent a couple of air conditioned hours at a local restaurant, just to get out of the heat for a while.  For once, I was glad it took a long time for the food to get to the table at a restaurant.

 We  jumped in and out of the slowly draining pool pretty often.  When the power company sent their reps out to...well...I'm not sure why they were here other than to take pics of the downed line.  It was still several days till the power was back.  But I digress.  I had been in the pool earlier, sitting in the lukewarm water, wishing for a cool breeze.  I had been out long enough for my hips to dry, but my heinie was still wet.  And you know what's coming here, right?  I got to lead the power crew across the yard, looking like I'd pee'd my pants.  Joy.  Not that I really cared.  When the guys show up, fresh from the a/c in their truck (one guy was wearing LONG SLEEVES) and not a drop of sweat on them, it's hard to accept they aren't a mirage.

Little Sis pointed out that our adventure wasn't really a Prepper Fail.  She said, "We are far better prepared than most for this situation, but not as prepared as we'd like to be."  Smart girl, that one.

The outage brought to our attention a couple of very important things:

1. We need a way to get water from the well when the power is out.
2. We need better lighting.
3. More canning and dehydrating, less stuff in the freezer to ruin.

Once upon a time, our home had skylights.  I've never missed the skylights as much as I did during the power outage.   The south side of our home is mostly glass, but this time of  year, with the sun more to the north and the woods all, well, woodsy, the light just doesn't make it inside.  My kitchen was a veritable cave, complete with cranky mama bear.

I have a solar shed light.  What. A. Joke. That thing doesn't put out much light at all.  I'm thinking maybe a brighter solar light would suffice, at least for the kitchen.  Lehman's has plenty of lanterns, but kerosene lanterns give me a headache.  We have some lamp oil lanterns, but they aren't very bright, either.  

I talked to an Amish lady at the market last week and asked her how they get the water out of their well.  Guess how?  A gasoline engine.  Oy.  Living off grid doesn't mean they don't have machines, I guess.  

I also quizzed her on lighting choices.  They use kerosene lanterns, the ones Lehman's used to carry that you pump air into.  I hear they are pretty bright, but I also heard they weren't meant for indoor use.  

By now you are probably wondering why we don't just buy a generator.  We don't really want one.  They are SO LOUD, for one thing.  Secondly, they are gas hogs.  And what if I can't get gas?  One fellow told me that if I can't get gas, it's the end of the world, so I won't need to worry about well water.  *sigh* In reality, I would've had to drive several miles to get gas in the last outage, since local pumps were without power.  Assume it's not the Zombie Apocalypse, an EMP, or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.  A severe ice storm, blizzard, or tornado could cause just as many issues with gasoline, kerosene, and propane. I'd rather not have to rely on any of that.  We have a dual fuel camp stove, but I think Eöl used it once during the entire outage; making coffee on the fire was faster...and safer.

I'm going to check with the well service people to see if there's some option they have for non-electric use of the well.  The last guy that was here told me our well was too deep for a hand pump.  But if the well pump can run on some sort of gas engine, that engine can be modified to work with bicycle power.  

Then there's the issue of the freezers.  I've been lazy, freezing instead of canning.  I don't mind canning.  I enjoy the end result.  I do hate being stuck inside during the precious, sunny days of summer, watching the world through the window and listening to the canner and the a/c battle for dominance.  If only we could put canning off until mid-winter!

We'd already decided our 2012 garden would be tailored to dehydrating and canning instead of freezing.  The week without power just drove the point home.  

An interesting thing I realized when the power was out:  most people that store things tend to buy in bulk...giant cans of this or that, with the leftovers being frozen or at least refrigerated.  Guess what you can't do when the power is out?? Leftovers!!  It's the one time single-serving items are a good idea.  For future stockpiling, other than dried foods, I'm thinking small serving cans of high protein items.  At least until I get canning meat down.  Yikes.  That whole pressure canner thing, well, it kind of scares me.  Not so much the canner, but that evil little fiend called botulism.  But I've mastered water bath canning and so far no one is walking around half paralyzed, so maybe I am careful enough to trust myself not to put us all in the hospital with a home canned portion of beef stew.

Now that I've been properly motivated, and finally finished this post, I'm off to work in my garden, so hopefully there will be something to can later on!!

Today was gorgeous!!  The sun was out, the snow was melting, and the air had that smell that always reminds me of a defrosting freezer:  damp, chilly, and warm at the same time.  It just smelled like spring....in January?

We've had one snow so far, other than a couple of dustings.  The ground has only been frozen for a few days all winter.  I'm not complaining, I'm just hoping that the trees don't bud too soon and lose their blossoms, as well as this year's fruit harvest, to a freeze later on.  An average winter here has snow on the ground from November to April.  This is a nice change.

The worst part about today was that I was completely exhausted.  For reasons both boring and mundane, I was up till 3:30 a.m., and then had to be up this morning at 7 a.m., once again for boring and mundane reasons.  I desperately needed a nap, but didn't want to waste such a beautiful day.  I compromised with a 30 minute coma power nap, and spent the rest of the day outside.

I brought in the wood and did some other every day chores, then decided it would be a great time to put fresh hay in the critter houses.  When I want back around to lock up the critters at dusk, I found that my mud-slogging-itchy-hay-hauling was not as appreciated as you would've thought.

The ducks were horrified.

"Drake, dahling!  Come here, quickly!" chirped Mrs. Muscovy, "This simply will not do! We've been redecorated!  Oh, it's horrid!!"

The young chickens in the tractor were also upset:

"Dude!"

"Gag me with a pitchfork! Why is our house all full of green, itchy stuff?"

"Oh. My. Gosh.  This. Is. Gross!"

"I am totally sleeping outside.  You cannot make me go in there.  I just had my feathers done."

Just kidding. I love Cyndi Lauper.
We should all age so well. 

"Chicks just wanna have fun."



At least the geese were happy:

"Yo, Vinny! How you doin'?"

"Yo, T! How you doin'?"

"Yo. Dat lady put new hay in da house.  No more mud for youse guys, she says."

"Fuggedaboutit!"

Ok...I guess it's weird I hear critter voices in my head, and they all have their own nuance and character.  But after a total of four hours of sleep, well, I'm lucky that's my only problem.

A country point of view

I've known for a while that our view of the world has changed since we moved to the country, but it has never been as obvious as this week:

• While flipping through a magazine, I came across a pic of a gorgeous outdoor kitchen.  I showed the pic to Eöl.  His first comment was, "How do they keep the chickens off of it?"
• On our way to get tags for the Soul, we passed a shop with a sign out front that read, "The perfect gift for your tanner!"  I was about to ask Eöl to stop there, so we could see if they had any tanning solution on sale, when I saw the posters in the window of deeply tanned men and women.  "Oh," I thought, "tanning (darkening of human skin)...not tanning (making leather from animal skins)." Duh.
• Watching an old Elvis flick with Little Sis, the folks were having a shindig after a flock of chickens had appeared earlier in the movie.  Once again, Eöl asked, "Where's all the chicken poop?"  *shrugs* It's a fact of life with a free-range flock, ya know.

It's the same deal with any movie we watch showing farms or gardens.  In the movies, nothing is muddy, poop-covered, or stinky; an entire village can be fed from a garden the size of a compact parking spot; freshly plucked fowl never still has feathers at the ankles.  We generally look at each other, roll our eyes, and laugh like...well...like homesteaders that just know better.

Why am I a glutton for punishment?

I really don't know what it is about this time of year that makes me want to start a major remodeling/redecorating project.  I've just been looking back through some pics and realized it's an ongoing issue.  I must be a masochist.

In 2007, I was doing the living room flooring on Thanksgiving day.  We finished dinner and went right to work.  It was my Christmas gift, and I wanted the floor done before the tree went up.  I still love my floor.

before

After

In 2008, Little Sis' room was my holiday rush project.  From pink to blue, fairies to horses, complete with new flooring and a mysterious dead thing in the wall.  Oh, I also redid a bunch of stuff in the kitchen just before I started her room.

In 2009, Big Sis' room got a makeover, from Nightmare Before Christmas to something a little brighter.  The flooring was fine, but the ceiling needed papering, and I remember what a nightmare that was.  Ha. It was a Nightmare. Before Christmas.  Or maybe way after Christmas, by the time it was done.  That's one project I won't repeat.

In 2010, Eöl's bathroom was the project.  I still need to install new light fixtures, and eventually there will be a new sink, but it did get a new ceiling and paint job and looks pretty nice.

Fauxing it up.

I do other projects over the winter, but it seems I'm always involved in something that needs to be finished before I can start cooking for Thanksgiving.  Of course this year is no exception. *shrugs*

I've been watching Hoarders.  Actually, I've been watching a lot of junk lately; it's something to do during my very boring physical therapy exercises.   Anyway...the show always inspires me to clean, organize, and throw stuff out.

So...my upcoming adventure involves cleaning out the storage part of the garage, moving one of the freezers out there, moving a chest of drawers from the garage to a bedroom, and redoing a small chest to put in Eöl's bathroom.

I'll also be gutting my closet.  I'm sure I'll find Jimmy Hoffa in there.  Or at least a skeleton or two.  But I may not start the closet project until Thanksgiving weekend, when I will have time to finish it.  I couldn't stand to sleep in my room with all that stuff spread around.  I'd have hoarder nightmares. *shudder*

Am I the only one compelled to start crazy projects at this time of year?

In the lap of luxury...

...is a relative term.  If you are used to gold plated utensils and liveried servants, then anything less would not be luxury.  However, if that's what you are used to, you most likely aren't reading this, as you are too busy trying to get Justin Bieber scheduled for your next tweener party.

For me, luxury is pretty simple to define:

My comfy couch. 

Firewood - cut, split, dried...and delivered.

 By the way, that's not a retouched photo.  But it's how every firewood delivery looks to me, anyway.  Can you hear the angelic chorus?  I can.

There was a time, not so long ago, that all of our wood came from our own woodlot.  The most high tech tool used in the harvesting of said wood was...a chainsaw.  That's it.  No tractor.  Not even a horse.  Just me, the chainsaw, and a wheelbarrow.  Oh, and then there was the splitting...with an ax and a maul.  No gas powered wood splitter.

On the firewood front, we didn't wimp out...we ran out.  Or close to it.  Our woodlot isn't all that big, and needs time to recover.  We still cut up the storm damaged trees, but we don't want our place anywhere near clear cut.  We want to live in the woods, and for that, we need, well, woods.

And finally...the new washer... and dryer.

Yes, that's right.  Country Wife has moved forward a few hundred years, and now does laundry in a washing machine.  **collective gasp of horror**

At first, I felt like a bit of a failure, dropping out of my laundry challenges that way.  I hate giving up.  But when I considered the resources invested in hand washing and indoor line drying vs those invested in the new machines, the machines were definitely the best investment.  

The wettest year on record for our area was probably a contributing factor.  Some days, when the weather was warmish but dampish, we were burning wood just to get the laundry dry.  The house was full of moisture and the windowsills were mildewing.  My time was spent washing and hanging the laundry, mopping up puddles, and constantly wiping down the windowsills.  Honestly, I have better things to do.

Of course I will still line dry in the summer; nothing smells as sweet as line dried laundry. 

The new machines are much more efficient than my old ones.  I can't get over how much easier my life feels now.  I am actually doing laundry as I type this!  (Not something you'd understand unless you'd done all your laundry by hand for a while.)

With all my new free time, I'm hoping to get back to work on the house.  First on the list are those pink counter tops in the laundry room.  Egads!! Can you believe our whole kitchen had those when we moved in? The laundry room sink also needs an overhaul; hard water leaves some pretty ugly stains.

But as I was saying, luxury is a relative term.  I know people that complain when they have to stack firewood that was delivered to them, and people that moan about having to do a load of laundry.  If you've done it the hard way, you won't ever complain about those things again.  I stacked firewood with a smile on my face and a (very off key) song on my lips.  I do laundry now with a little dance and a maniacal laugh.

Maybe I'll be a better listener to my friends now.  Before, when they would complain to me, I'd just stare at them unblinkingly, until they remembered that I was hauling wood in a wheelbarrow (uphill) and doing laundry in a frickin' bucket.  At this point, they'd stare sheepishly at the floor and change the subject.

Maybe now I'll be a nicer person.  Or maybe not. Bwhahahahaha!

Couch Hunting

We haven't owned a couch in ages.   We did have a futon for a while, until it fell apart.  Then we had his and hers chairs and footstools, but really missed the snuggling made possible by a comfy couch.  

I'd planned to use the earnings from my seasonal job to buy a nice couch, but thanks to the earthquake in Japan and our temporary retirement, those earnings were needed for other things...like electricity. *rolls eyes*  Besides, we'd done a bit of couch shopping, and I couldn't find anything I liked.  Not that there aren't a lot of nice sofas available, but I wanted something unique.  Vintage would've been ok, but buying used furniture is too big of a gamble when Ohio is a veritable epicenter of the bedbug population.  

Remember when all the sofas were Naugahyde?  I'm not sure if they stopped making those because of the efforts of the Save The Nauga Foundation or the Foundation For Save The Skin On The Back Of My Thighs.  

Anyway, thanks to my beloved's thoughtfulness, or maybe just the fact that he was tired of being drug (sometimes kicking and screaming) from one furniture store to another, looking for something inexpensive and unusual, Eöl decided to launch his own Couch Hunt. 

This is the story of that exciting adventure:

Here is our Hero, stalking the elusive Sofa Beast.

He spots an entire herd of Sofa Beasts!
He selects the one best suited to his needs, based on age and size....
and the fact it's leaning over the driveway.

As Eöl readies his tools, the Sofa Beast charges unexpectedly!

With lightning fast reflexes...and a sharp chainsaw...our Hero fells the Sofa Beast.

Notoriously hard to kill, this Sofa Beast needs further subduing.

At last, the Beast is field dressed.

The Ritual Skinning of the Sofa Beast:  the hide makes excellent mulch for flower beds.

Properly processed, the Sofa Beast is now ready for trophy mounting.

The sinew of a Sisal Critter has been added for additional strength and comfort.

The finished sofa is inspected by His Royal Barkiness.

lol...I know...I have way too much fun with the mundane.  Though there's nothing mundane about my one of a kind sofa!! WOOT!

The couch was my early anniversary present.  I was going to make cushions for it over the winter since I really didn't have time when Eöl built it.  In the meantime, I opted for using the mattress from our deceased futon.  I kind of like the futon mattress, so I'll just be making a new quilt for the back of the couch.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my couch!!! It is MADE OF AWESOME!!!  It's the most comfortable couch I've ever sat on.  I know better than to lie down on it if I need to stay awake.  I'm out in about three seconds if I stretch out; it's just like a hammock...so comfy!!

And now, if you'll excuse me, the Couch Beast is trying to creep away, and I must hold it down with my body weight while munching bonbons.

Meet BOB (Now with added features!)

*I edited this post to add some things I'd forgotten.

As promised in my earthquake post....

 This is BOB.  Say hi, Bob!

BOB:  Bug Out Bag.  There are other nicknames and acronyms for these handy packs:  Grab and Go/ GAG bag (that one just sounds like something that would be full of plastic vomit); Go Pack; Panic Bag (sounds like something that would be full of real vomit).  There are tons more, depending on which book you're reading about survival, or which websites you visit.

There are also suggestions as to what to carry in your BOB in each survival book and website.  Some of them can be pretty over the top, like the one that suggested a folding chair.  If you can't get by for 72 hours without a CHAIR, go ahead and kiss your butt goodbye.  That same list was about a page long and included so much stuff that was bigger than a breadbox a cart was required to haul it all.  Can you just see me pushing my BOB down the highway?  I keep picturing scenes from the movie The Book of Eli.

What you carry in your BOB is really up to you.  The basics of food, water, and first aid should get you through 72 hours, but you'll probably be wishing you had a lot of other things (besides a Big Mac and cable tv) when the time comes.

72 hours, or three days, is the rule of thumb for emergency supplies.  You need a MINIMUM of three days worth of supplies.  More certainly wouldn't hurt, but you really don't want to carry it all with you.

When we decided to put together our BOBs, I thought about how we may actually use them.  For one thing, they are handy to have in the car.  We live in Ohio, so snowstorms are common in the winter, and it's a good idea to have emergency supplies whenever we leave the house.

A BOB would also be great in case of medical emergencies:  imagine you have to rush a family member to the hospital, and you are stuck waiting in the ER for hours at a time.  After the last year, I'm an expert on waiting rooms, snack machines, and dying of boredom.  A BOB would've made things easier.  OK, I probably wouldn't need my fire starting kit or tarp, but then again, after 24 hours in the ER, I'd like to light a fire under some doctors...metaphorically, of course. ;)

Then of course there's the real reason for putting together a BOB:  any emergency that requires you to leave the house to seek shelter in another location.  Personally, we prefer to 'shelter in place', so it would have to be a major thing to get us out of the house:  a chemical spill, toxic gas, or something along those lines.  But it's best to be prepared for whatever eventuality may force the use of BOB.  Besides, I've read one too many novels involving EMPs, and it's a long walk home from anywhere I go.

Now for the big question:   What the hell do I put in this thing and how the hell am I supposed to carry 3 gallons of water in it? 

The "gallon per person per day" rule for water is a tricky one.  It's no big deal if you are in your home or car, but to carry that, on foot, for any number of miles could be pretty exhausting.  A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds, so that's an extra 24 pounds in your pack...per person.  If you have someone that can't carry their own, then you are looking at even more weight.  My plan, should this come up, is to carry as much as possible, but also to carry water purification tablets so that we can refill our water bottles from creeks and streams.  Thankfully, water sources are plentiful in our area.

The first aid kit is an absolute must have.  This is ours:

 The contents easily fit into a gallon size ziplock bag.

In addition to first aid supplies, I keep fire starting supplies in this bag, plus a redundancy in the basic BOB pack.  When caught in the wild, a fire can be used to sterilize water (did you know you can boil water in a paper cup or plastic bottle?  Yes, you can!!), as well as cook food and supply heat.

The Ready.gov site has a pretty good list of basic BOB supplies.  Except for the fire extinguisher.  *shrugs*  Maybe for in the car, but for on foot?  No thanks.

In addition to most of the supplies listed at the ready.gov site, our BOB list also includes:

• duct tape, because you can use that for just about anything, including first aid.
• A tarp, preferably camo.  A lot of books suggest carrying a tent, but I've seen the Blair Witch Project, and don't really want to be blind on all four sides.  Oh, and should anyone ooga booga your tent, a la Blair Witch, make sure it's not someone you like before you shove the machete through the tent fabric and into Mr Oogy Boogy, ok?  If you run out screaming like a girl, you fully deserve to suffer through the entire movie.
• Binoculars
• Petroleum jelly, for fire starting, chapped lips, and windburn protection.
• Clothespins, since they can be used for all sorts of things, including hanging wet clothes by the fire.
• Rope.  Pack more than you think you'll need, and then put in a little extra.
• Seeds.  I never see this on any list, but yes, seeds.  If it's actually the end of the world as we know it, I want to be able to grow something good.  They don't take up much space.
• Hygiene items: soap, toilet paper, feminine items, and even shampoo and deodorant.  The end of the world is no reason to be gross.  But leave the perfume behind, unless you plan to reveal your location to every bee in the woods, as well as anyone looking to pilfer goodies.
• Towel and washcloth.
• Sewing kit, which can be used for first aid in a pinch.
• Field guide.  This isn't the time to try to find out which plants are edible, so learn that ahead of time  But it's handy to have a field guide in stressful situations, when you are likely to forget which leaves are safe for toilet paper substitutions. 
• Fishing kit.  Those hooks and lines have all sorts of uses; use your imagination.
• A bar of naptha soap, for laundry as well as removing any oils you may get into.
• A wire saw.
• A spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol, which will neutralize urushiol from poison ivy, oak, and sumac, on your clothes as well as your skin.
• A mess kit
• Food, of course, including ramen noodle, trail mix, and power bars.  Try for things that are lightweight, filling, and easy to prepare.
• Cash.  This one, I'm not too sure about.  If you are thinking end of the world, cash won't be mean jack.      If I can't eat it, wear it, or wipe with it, I don't want it, so don't even think about offering me money for any of my stuff.  But to be prepared for all eventualities, enough cash for the hospital vending machine is a good idea. Many books suggest cash for a hotel room, which may be a good idea, assuming it's the end of the world and hotels actually ACCEPT cash, which many won't do now without a lot of ID.
• A folding shovel, because bears aren't the only things that poop in the woods.
• Fire starting supplies; not just matches.  You'll want to learn to use those before you need them.  I have a post coming up (eventually) on fire starting.
• Water purification supplies:  iodine tablets (not for use for people with thyroid problems), chlorine tablets, or just plain bleach.

Most books suggest carrying a weapon. I'll be wearing my chainsaw on my hip, so I'm all set.

Each of us have our own BOB, with redundant supplies, in case we are separated.  As you can see with my BOB, any backpack will do in a pinch.  I don't suggest bright colors, unless you are sure you want everyone to know where you are.  I probably sound a little paranoid, but in the event I need to bug out on foot, I'm not sure I want to advertise my location to the desperate and the ill prepared.

I've probably left out a few supplies, so if you can think of anything, or have something in your bag I haven't mentioned, please list it.

ETA:  Knives!! OMG Eöl is going to laugh his butt off at me for forgetting to list knives!!  Thanks to Carolyn Renee from Krazo Acres for reminding me in the comments section.  And I completely forgot to mention a hatchet.  Duh.  Of course you need one.

Knives are probably the most important tools we use on a daily basis here on our farmstead.  So you are probably wondering why I didn't think to list them.  lol  It's kind of like having to remember to list your limbs; we carry ours all the time.

Eöl makes knives and swords, as well as other handy tools like hatchets and ulus.  You can look at a few of his available items over at our Etsy site.  Thanks to Eöl, we all have knives, hatchets, ulus, etc on our belts, on a daily basis.  The items we carry will change with the seasons, but for the most part, we are always bristling with lovely sharp things.

Carrying your knives and hatchets on your belt is a good idea, especially in a bug out situation.  If you are tangled in brush or attacked by zombies, you don't want to be digging in your bag for your knife.

Carolyn also mentioned garbage bags, something else I forgot to list.  Garbage bags are handy for carrying any wild food you find, covering your pack in the rain, tying up your pack for crossing water, and can even be used as a poncho if you forgot to pack one.

A sharpening stone is also a good idea. Learn how to use  it.  It's not used like you see in the movies.  If you don't know what you are doing, you will round the edge instead of sharpen it.

She also mentioned maps.  A great thing to have...if you know how to read one.  Most people rely on GPS, which can be useless when they can't get a signal or in the case of EMPs.  I can read a map, but I'd be lost in operating a GPS unit.

The mirror she mentioned, I hadn't thought of that.  Great one, Carolyn!! Thanks!  I will be adding one to our packs, preferably the unbreakable kind.

Tinder should be included in your fire starting kits.  I don't think I mentioned that.  Wouldn't hurt to carry some dry kindling, as well.  I'll be doing a fire starting post soon.

Remember, none of this stuff will do you a bit of good if you don't know how to use it.  Now is the time to learn.

Keep those suggestions coming!  There are probably other handy things I've failed to mention, or haven't even thought of.

You Might Be A Homesteader If....

You might be a homesteader if...

You've ever put on a jacket and found eggs in your pockets.

You know how many cubic feet are in a cord of wood.

You've ever picked feathers out of your chicken soup.

You've ever taken a bite of something and said, "Is that a bone or a bullet?"

You've ever laughed so hard that you were asked to leave the John Deere store at the mall.

You've ever had chicks in your bathroom (the feathered kind).

The muck on your muck boots is really muck.


You have ever gutted something and then eaten a bowl of chili.

You can identify the plants in your yard, and know at least three uses for each.

You know the difference between straw and hay.

You know that "free range" actually means "chicken poop on the porch".

You know how to pronounce "scythe" (hint: the c is silent).

You've ever given mouth to mouth to a duckling.

You've ever been stalked by a duck.  (Our drake follows Little Sis everywhere, even hiding behind things to stare at her. Weird.)


Got any more??

Slow Food

A friend of mine asked, after my A Day In The Life post, how many meals I cook per day, and when I find time. I told her she probably didn't really want to know; around here, if you ask for fried chicken, someone will hand you a hatchet.

I thought it may make an interesting post, though.  She's not the first one to ask about how we eat.

We don't grow absolutely everything we eat.  I like Pop-Tarts, and I can't seem to find seeds for a Pop-Tart bush...or is that a root crop?  We do grow as much of our own food as possible, but we also try to enjoy life, and if we want the occasional take out pizza or frozen egg roll, I'm ok with that.

I used to post on a "What's for dinner?" thread on a homesteading forum.   Some people took offense when others listed things as homegrown, home canned, fresh picked, etc.  They said it sounded "uppity" and a bit like bragging, or some such nonsense.  I say if you plant it, grow eat, harvest it, raise it, pluck it, hunt it, gut it, or even just barter for it or buy it locally, then BRAG AWAY!! If you only tossed ingredients into a bread machine, it still deserves kudos, so give yourself a pat on the back.  Take pride in what you do, and don't worry about those jealous ninnies that can't do anything without a microwave and a can opener.

Anyway, I've listed our meals for the week.  My "uppity" details of how the food was harvested, etc, are for informational purposes only.  I certainly would never brag. **clears throat** I GREW THAT!! I CLEANED IT!! I COOKED IT!! WOOT!! GO ME!! I'M AWESOME!!  (oh dear, was that out loud?) *snickers*

This will also give you an idea of the way I cook.  I rarely measure things; I toss things into a pot and hope for the best, generally making stuff up as I go.  If I screw it up, the chickens happily recycle my mess into edible eggs.

Lunch is normally our big meal of the day.  We aren't breakfast people, thank goodness.  Sometimes, when it's just us girls here at dinner, we eat leftovers from lunch,  have sandwiches, or just snack on popcorn.


Sunday:
Brunch:  Homemade cinnamon rolls.

Dinner: Veggie soup and homemade rolls.  I haven't harvested the carrots and potatoes yet, so I had to go out and dig some up for the soup.  I picked some loveage, thyme and basil while I was outside.  It took a bit of scrubbing, but the root veggies were finally ready for the pot, along with some homegrown onions that had been stored in the fridge.  I added a quart of home canned tomatoes, some water, salt, and a couple of handfuls of brown rice.

Dessert:  Pear Crisp Pie.  Sort of like Apple Crumb Pie, but made with pears I picked right off our own tree. Finally.  The poor tree didn't have any last year, and only three the year before that.

Monday:
Lunch:  Leftover soup and rolls.
Dinner: Burritoes.  I was making Tuesday's Mexican Lasagna, so there was a bit of meat/pepper mix leftover.   I wanted something quick for Tuesday, so I made the Mexican Lasagna and put it in the fridge; all I had to do on Tuesday was bake it.

Tuesday:
Mexican lasagna:  Ground beef from my friend's farm, onions, fresh picked cilantro and peppers, a quart of home canned, chili-seasoned crushed tomatoes.  I cooked the beef, then stirred together with the rest of the ingredients, then layered with corn tortillas and cheese. Bake at 350 for about an hour.  This was lunch and dinner.

Wednesday:
Lunch:  Leftover mex lasagna again.  No one complains about leftovers around here, in case you were wondering.  I'm not a food nazi; if someone doesn't like what I cook, there's plenty of peanut butter for sandwiches.

Dinner:  Greek pizza tortillas.  Garlic crushed in olive oil, brushed on flour tortillas.  Tortillas are topped with basil vinegar peppers (yes, I made them), calamata olives, and onion, baked until crispy, and then topped with feta cheese.

Thursday:  Texas Italian:  Chorizo sausage, browned, then put in the crockpot with onions and lots of fresh picked green peppers.  Added one quart of home canned crushed tomatoes, plus two pints of home canned italian crushed tomatoes.  Served over Texas toast, made from leftover homemade bread, sliced into thick slabs, coated with a mixture of olive oil, butter, and fresh crushed garlic, then broiled.  Eöl calls this dish "spaghetti western".  (lunch and dinner)

Friday:
Lunch:  Leftover sauce from Thursday served over spaghetti noodles.
Dinner: Potluck.  Which means: raid the fridge for whatever you want.

Saturday:
Cheeseburgers, made from ground beef from my friend's farm. Topped with homegrown veggies and served on homemade buns.  Side dish: onion rings...from Aldi. lol   We were so stuffed from the late lunch that we really didn't eat much else that day.

Sunday:
I had a chicken soaking in salt water in the fridge overnight.  This was our old mean roo, and I knew he'd be pretty tough, so I put him in a pot for stew.  After cooking for a few hours, he was still a tough old bird.  So...into the crockpot (slow cooker).  We ended up having him for lunch on Monday.  Anyway, for Sunday, it was sandwiches.  We were working outside so I really didn't want to waste a lot of time in the kitchen.

Monday:
Lunch:  The old red roo, now tender as can be from cooking overnight in the crockpot, baked squash and greenbeans (both from the garden).

Dinner:  Leftovers.

Tuesday:
Lunch: Chicken Stew.  I fished all the bones out of the crockpot, and added some veggies, and cooked overnight.  There was still some stew leftover, so that went into the freezer to be made into pot pies.

You may read through this and think, "Well, she doesn't even cook every day!"  And you'd be right! When you  cook slow food, it really is slow. S. L. O. W.  Who has time for that every single day?  But we still want to eat something healthy, tasty, and filling every single day... preferably without my being stuck in the kitchen when the weather is nice.  What's a gal to do?  I cook big portions, and find ways to reuse those leftovers in meals the rest of the week.

There are days that I make a huge pot of something, counting on leftovers, only to have every bit eaten that first meal.  Well, I'm sure not going to complain about that!! Either it means we were very hungry, or it means I'm a pretty good cook.  Probably we were just starved. lol

One thing about homegrown food:  it's more filling.  We could eat an entire bucket of KFC in one sitting, but a single home grown chicken can make several meals.  I'm not sure why that is.  It could be that the home raised chicken had access to grass and feed every day, plenty of sunshine, fresh air, and clean water.  Basically, there's just more to the meat that way, if you know what I mean.  Compare that to chickens raised in overcrowded cages, indoors, the air full of the reek of chicken manure (boy, I can tell ya, that stuff STINKS!!), fluorescent lighting instead of sunshine...you get the idea.

I have several older hens in the freezer.  Anyone have any good chicken recipes for a slow cooker?

On the homestead

I have about a dozen posts in progress, but never seem to find time to work on them.  Maybe, with knee recovery and rainy weather, I'll get around to finishing them up.

I still don't have the garden put to bed. In fact, it was just Monday that I got the rutabagas and beets harvested, with Eöl's help.  Then it was on to potatoes.  This was not our best potato year, by a long shot.  Little Sis helped me work on digging those up, until my knee got too painful and I had to give up for the day.  Since then, it's been nothing but rain.

The hardest part of this whole knee crisis is being unable to finish up all the farmstead chores on my own.  Thankfully, harvest is pretty much over, and other than putting the garden to bed and doing that scaffolding project, I can rest my knee and concentrate on physical therapy.

You know, that is something to keep in mind, if you are considering the homesteading lifestyle:  chores go on, even if you can't.

Eöl has been working a lot of overtime, and I'd taken up a lot of the chores he normally did, in order to make life a bit easier for him.  Now the poor guy is still working overtime, and helping me as much as possible.  I feel guilty about that.

Ok, maybe the actual toughest part of this is that I have to say, "I can't."  I am not great at asking for help.  I'm even worse at admitting defeat, especially out loud.

It's probably a direct result of my stubbornness that my knee is so bad.  I just kept going, no matter how bad it hurt.  I had things that needed to be done, so I did them.  I don't give up easily.  My body, however, refuses to keep up with my spirit, so here I am, with my leg propped up and the keyboard in my lap...whining.

Oh dear gawd shoot me if I become one of those whiny women that bursts into tears at the drop of a hat...even if it's a very nice hat.

Laundry Challenge Update: It's a wash

I suppose you remember the washing machine challenge.    I was doing pretty well with that over the summer.  After all, washing and drying the laundry outside wasn't too big of a deal, especially when we were wearing summer clothes: shorts, tank tops, etc.

Now that I'm doing the laundry inside, it's another story altogether.   Fall and winter clothing are bulkier, and more difficult to wring out by hand.  Sure, I've got these awesome forearms and biceps to show for it.  But you know all that water that doesn't get wrung out of the clothes?  It has to go somewhere.  My house is now a sauna, the windows are thick with condensation, and I'm pretty sure there are some lost rainforest animals living in my potted plants.

The time it takes to do the laundry is getting ridiculous.  It's not too bad if I can manage to get it done daily, but if I skip a day, yikes.  I can end up spending three or more hours on it.  Really, with all the other stuff I hope to accomplish on my free days, laundry is sucking up way too much of my time.  I have little enough free time as is, and life is short, ya know?

There are some good points to doing the laundry by hand:  I'm using less water, the clothes are cleaner, there's absolutely zero lint in my life (the army of dustbunnies living under my bed and seeking new recruits doesn't count), and the laundry is softer than if I had used a quart of Downy.

I've looked into getting a wringer.  A good one costs almost as much as a new washing machine.  I've looked into a few other ways to wring out the laundry.  But the more I think about it, the more I think I'm ready to go the lazy route and get a new washer.

I'm not saving any electricity with hand washing; I have to run the whole house fan to help cut down on the water vapor in the air.  Oh, and there's my knee, of course.  *exasperated sigh*  Even sitting to do the laundry is painful, and sitting for a long period is misery.

So, add me to a list of whiny housewives if you like.  Revel in the schadenfreude if you must.  I see a washing machine in the near future; I'm taking my life back.

A day in the life...

I have been so busy lately that I've not had much time to blog. At least two days a week, my time is not my own, for reasons esoteric (not all of my life is public, you know) but not entirely altruistic.  On those days, I have to be out of bed and making coffee by 4:30 a.m.  Oy.

The farmstead chores, housework, and miscellaneous woodland adventures get crammed into the remaining time.  Here's how today went:

Wake up.  Brush teeth. Throw on old jeans, t-shirt, jacket and boots.  A hat might've been a good idea. I'm lucky I didn't scare the chickens.  At least the sun was out.

Check bottom of drive for packages since the delivery driver is afraid to drive into the deep, dark, scary woods where chickens and geese could lurk, lying in wait to drop eggs on his head, or perhaps chase him with loose feathers for tortuous tickling.   Expecting the package yesterday, I left the gate open and even hovered near the front door.  Later, I found a Missed Delivery sticker on my mailbox with a request to sign permission to leave packages at the end of the drive, right by the road, a fifth of a mile from the house.  *sigh*

Feed and water critters.

Shower.

Coffee with Eöl, catch up on what has been going on with each other, and fend off several varied interruptions.  "We haven't seen each other since yesterday! I don't care if the house is on fire, stop bothering us!"

Check driveway again, just in case driver can't follow directions left with the less than helpful Customer Disservice Line, instructing him to leave packages at the gate.  Still nothing.  Mother Nature said she was just kidding with the sunshine, and it clouds up.

Bookkeeping.  Or, more accurately, manic chainsaw/machete/cream pie juggling.  No limbs lost or pie in face, always a good sign.

Schedule and re-schedule appointments for various maladies (not all mine).  I will eventually get to that orthopedic surgeon about my knee, I swear.

Bring in wood to fill fire rings.

Make lunch.

Wash ground cherries and put them in the dehydrator.

Check for packages again.  Hooray! They are here, and actually at the gate.  

Review homeschool work with Little Sis. Perfect, as usual!

Clean out chicken house.

Clean out goose house.

Clean out duck house.
     Between the rain and my insane schedule, the poultry houses were well past due for a cleaning.  The chicken house, which stays very dry, was full of some seriously dusty poo.  Dusty poo that puffed up as I cleaned, and landed on my skin, clothes, and hair.  The smell made me really glad that I didn't actually eat lunch. Little Sis (who helped immensely by fetching the clean hay) went on and on about how bad I smelled until I threatened to hug her and wallow my stink all over her skin, clothes, and hair.  Did I mention that farmsteading is quite glamorous?

Walk down driveway again, to get mail.  That makes almost two miles today, just going up and down the driveway.

I found this salamander while stacking wood.  Isn't he cute??

Stack firewood, in the rain. I absolutely cannot complain about stacking firewood.  I didn't have to cut it, haul it up the hill in the wheelbarrow, or split it with the ax.  Nope.  I  just have to stack it.  Did you know a cord of dry, seasoned hardwood weighs about 3500 lbs? (Thanks for that bit of firewood trivia, Colonel!)  Between stacking wood and doing laundry by hand, I have forearms that would put Popeye to shame.  Which reminds me:  if you've ever seen the movie Rob Roy, remember that scene when the skinny little fop manhandles the farm woman?  The farm woman that does her laundry on a friggin' rock??  As if.

Harvest basil.  I need to get all of the tender garden stuff harvested; we may have frost this weekend.  The rain stopped, but the clouds got bigger and thunder rolled.

Take another shower, for obvious reasons.  Use an entire bar of soap.

Eat dinner and work on this post.

Lock up critters for the night.

Do laundry.  Remember, this is by hand, so I can't really do much else while the laundry is being washed.

Hang laundry.

Do dishes.

Sweep and mop kitchen floor.

Finish up this post while I have a bedtime snack.

Fall into bed, exhausted.

Laundry Challenge Update

This is probably the perfect week for an update on my laundry challenges.

First, there was the Dryer Challenge.  I've been over a year without one, and it's only weeks like this that I consider getting another.  Well, it's a passing thought, anyway, because I know the sun will shine again soon.  Right now, however, I have a huge, menacing pile of laundry just waiting for that sunshiny day.  The dirty socks keep trying to crawl out of the hamper and into the hallway...

Yes, I manage to dry laundry indoors all winter.  But now, with the temp too low for a/c and too high for heat, the laundry just sort of hangs there, plotting a coup and feigning boredom.  I use a fan, which helps a lot, but it still takes at least 12 hours for stuff to dry.  Fortunately, weeks like this are few and far between.

Then there was the Washer Challenge.  Things are going surprisingly well on that front.  I don't know if I'd mentioned the lint problem I was having.   I thought it was just my brand of washing machine, but after asking around, I found a lot of people have that problem. The solution, of course, is to use a dryer, or a case of duct tape.  Not an option here.  The lint from the towels was pretty annoying, dusting the living room overnight when I'd hang a load to dry by the wood burner.

Once I started hand washing all of our laundry, my lint problem disappeared!  Even the towels are lint free.  A major plus for hand washing, in my book.

Another thing I noticed is that my line dried laundry is no longer "crunchy".  In fact, my family thought I'd been using fabric softener, since everything felt so fluffy and soft.  It could be that hand washing uses less detergent, or that the rinse is more efficient. Or it could be that the "convenience" of a washer means you need a dryer for lint removal, and fabric softener for comfy clothes.  Most likely a conspiracy, cooked up by bored towels and lonely socks.

All things considered, I'm pretty happy with the Laundry Challenge.  Of course the current challenge - keeping that growing pile from spilling out of the laundry room for another day - is something else entirely. If no one hears from me for a week or more, you can safely assume I was overthrown and am being held prisoner by an army of dirty socks.

Chatting about the weather

Saturday was hot.  So hot that we had heat index warnings and were sweating just sitting still.  A fitting day for the last weekend of summer.

Sunday rolled in wet and chilly.  Monday was more of the same.  Yesterday, even chillier and wetter. Today, yes, you guessed it: wet and cold.  Ok, it's in the low 60's, but I'm freezing my toes off in here.

I think the damp is the worst part. It's not cold enough to turn on the heat; it's not hot enough to turn on the a/c.  Either of those would help with the dampness indoors.  It's just....well...ick.

Just last week, I'd have loved a rainy day to catch up on inside chores.  I guess I should be careful what I ask for, huh? lol  I am trying to catch up the housework today. Tomorrow, rain or shine, I'll tidy up outside a bit and pick produce to be canned the following day.  (I'm not sure what day it is; it's been a crazy week.)

I know I promised a Bug Out Bag post, and I'm working on it.  I kind of got sidetracked with the canning, the holiday weekend, and this, the most hectic of weeks.

We had a lot of projects we wanted to do over the three day Labor Day weekend.  Instead, we got a lot of resting done.  Eöl and I have been exhausted lately.  He's working overtime, and we have a lot of stuff going on around the farmstead right now, so we both feel that we've been run ragged.  Add the weather, which is perfect for snuggling and sleeping, and you can see how that's about all we accomplished.

In fact, I could use a nap right now. *yawn*