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.........

Back to normal life

The storm is done and it's back to normal living. The garden out front, partially covered by the apple tree that fell over has a small bit of damage. I lost my cucumber plants! They were pretty big, already producing but could not take the high winds. Guess I better get some more started today to replace them. Too bad, I was looking forward to some cucumber and sour cream with dill. The already in bad shape ban had a few pieces of tin ripped up. It needs repair badly. Not even sure at this point if the joisting can hold my weight to tack the tin back down.

All in all, we made it thru in good shape. I'm really excited about my brick oven and grilling area I plan on building sometime this year. It needs to quit raining so I can pour the concrete pad! The wind caused some cooking problems for me and the rain was also a hinderence. Once the covered porch and cooking area get finished, one major trouble spot will be eliminated. The only other trouble spots I found were laundry and hot showers. I could heat the water no problem but the actual showering proved to be a bit more than we'd expected. So, I'll be working on some ideas to fix those areas as well.

So, I feel like my self sustained livestyle is a worthy adventure. I had more than enough home canned food and a way to pump water without electric, I had a way to cook, it worked out well.

Now for a greenhouse and an outdoor shower.......

more Inland hurricane

Nothing has been said on MSM about this at all. The rest of the world hasn't got a clue about how bad this storm has hit us. I know what New Orleans felt like now for sure. 155mph winds were recorded by the anamometer(reads wind/air speed) before it blew off the pole. Widespread damage from trees falling, homes an businesses smashed, etc. I guess the ice storm we had this past winter didn't teach people anything, thousands were caught unprepared. This is something I just don't understand. For us here, it's business as usual more or less. I of course still don't have the brick grill and oven built, it's rained too much this spring for that. But, a nice smoker/charcoal grill has been my stove and it's worked out pretty well. Now if the wind would quit, I'd be more happy with it.

Thankfully the gardens aren't real tall with growth, they weren't damaged much. I did have part of a tree fall in my corn patch. It'll need replanted. The chicken house was untouched but I noticed yesterday my corn crib is gone and my thresher is ruined. Both can be easily replaced as I built them both myself.

We're under another storm warning for today and tonite, another bad one headed our way. Just what we need is more rain on already saturated ground and soaking storm damaged homes and businesses. I'm sure a storm will slow the power guys down in their efforts as well.

Tuesday and an ice storm

The wake up this morning was a little disappointing, I was hoping for snow. But instead, we got about 3" of tiny ice balls. It's packed tight on the ground, you don't even crunch on it. It's still coming down like a misty rain. The weather channel says 3 to 5" of ice is coming with 4 to 6" of snow on top of it. the big concern now is power failure from ice accumulation.

Talk at the coal mine last night was mostly how they guys would need to gather candles and such in case they lose power. Hello? You don't have those things in place already? 300 guys all making a decent paycheck and none of them have any type of emergency preparations in place! I was even invited to go sledding in the ice storm today. Why do I get the feeling I am surrounded by idiots?

I have spent the last 6 months, every work shift, talking about survival skills, being prepared for the coming economy troubles, general emergency preparedness and sharing home grown food with these same guys. I guess my words fell on deaf ears. Apparently, not a single man listened.

I can't explain this any clearer or make it any more simple without writing it in crayon. If you don't prepare now, you will be a ward of the government. This is the path our government is on and they have several wonderful plans already moving toward being implemented to make sure we all fall in line. Unemployment will continue, costs for your basic necessities of life will continue to rise. Get prepping now! Buy a couple food grade buckets and fill them with food you can live on. Learn to build a fire so you can cook what you've stored. Learn to can and dehydrate food and learn to grow food. Think of it as additional life insurance without the red tape. Or, better yet, think of it as Freedom Insurance.

Keep prepping!