Lessons learned

I lost my favorite apple tree. Lesson 1- never depend on a single thing, always have a backup. One granny smith apple tree could be wiped out on you and then you won't have any!

Bucket baths are cute if your camping for the weekend. They just don't cut it if your going to have to do it long term. Lesson 2- have an alternative way to bathe and a way to provide enough hot water to cover everyones bath. Cold water just doesn't cut it!

Washing clothes in a bucket for yourself in an emergency is okay but if you have kids, forget about it. All you'll do is bucket laundry all day. Lesson 3-have a way to wash clothes, more than a shirt or 2 and some socks at a time.

Something else I've taken a bit for granted, my coffee. While I grow my own and have an endless supply, that 40 minute wait each morning to get a fire going, have a good coal base and heat the pot up enough to brew about made me unpleasant to be around! One morning was enough for me to learn I needed to brew it the night before and just heat it up for that first cup of life saving coffee. Lesson 4-think and plan ahead of time for everything. Doing things the "old fashioned" way takes much more time than the fast paced on demand society we are is used to.

Walking across the yard today to look at my poor apple tree was like it's been for the last month around here, really soggy! We received 3" of rain overnight with some high winds in the form of a nasty thunderstorm on top of everything we've already gotten. More limbs to pick up, again.




I am pretty anxious now to get the brick oven and grill set up built. This of course is not my picture, it came from a site I don't recall offhand but the lady I think has a vineyard and is from Italy and designed and built it like the one she grew up with in Italy. I want mine to be kind of something like it with a brick grilling/cooking area (wood fired) next to the oven and some butcher block or stainless steel counter space for food prep around it. I'd like to build it close to the house so I can incorporate it into the enclosed porch section of my home(still in the working stages) but not interfere with where I'd like to have the sunroom/greenhouse. I got lots of ideas going. I just hope my skills can handle my dreams as I get into the project itself.

ARG! The gardens will be overtaken by weeds soon if the rain doesn't quit. Way too soggy to even attempt to get in them to weed them. I checked the corn patch this morning and I'm glad I was barefoot because I sank mid shin. Woulda ruined my sneakers! So weeding is out of the equation for now.

The chicks lived thru the 5 days with no heat lamp. They complained almost constantly but now they have their heat lamp back and have quieted down. Glad I didn't move the bigger chicks out before the storm, the little ones burrowed up under them to keep warm. Big chicks are out now and it's back to the peaceful chirps of happy chicks.

I'm working on a batch of cheese today, gotta replenish the eating stock! Hard enough getting all the cows milked without the milker machine let alone have time to make cheese. The cows are happy now and I get to make cheese again.

I'm off to have another cup of hot coffee.........