2015, Realities of Living in The Great North Woods and Farm Diaries

So, the new year is upon us again.
No resolutions here. I have too much damn stuff on my MUST DO list to indulge myself in the mental masturbation of "should dos" and "want to dos" in the coming year.
I MUST put up more fencing. I MUST have a decent garden. I MUST get my milking section of the barn completed before the new kids arrive. I MUST build a chicken house/yard. I MUST get more chickens. I MUST get in a better heating system before next winter. I MUST, I MUST I MUST!
The entire list is way too long to set down here, but, trust me, there is no room for the pipe dreams of resolutions.
********************
Our water heater bit the big one.
This is bad.
One of my few joys here is taking a long HOT soak in the tub. It is cold here. VERY cold. We weren't able to get a pellet stove yet (expense), so, our heating is just a baseboard electric heater in the upstairs living room. Even with that, it is currently only about 45 or 50 in the living room. Some mornings, even lower to the point I can see my breath. Right now, I am running the clothes dryer to boost the temperature a teeny bit.
I am wearing 2 pairs of socks, thermal underwear, jeans, a t-shirt, sweater and a sweat shirt. This is inside. And I have a blanket over my lap and legs.
This is the reality of living in The Great North Woods here in the NorthEast US. It gets cold here. Damn cold.
You learn to adapt. To live with it.
Or you get the hell out.
We are staying.
So, we will have to get a new water heater, which we can ill afford right now.
Until we get one, I am heating water on the stove to wash dishes and myself. If need be, we can go over to a neighbors for quick showers.
Should be getting the water heater on Friday.
***********************
I plan on starting a farm diary on the 1st. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and many Colonial farmers kept farm diaries. That way I can flip through the pages and see what worked, what didn't.
I'll be doing it on actual paper, not online.
I suggest everyone keep a farm diary. Even if it's only a line or two a day, it can help you keep track of your efforts.
***********************
Hope everyone has a terrific new year!

Summer Heat

Yes, the heat is on here...ugh! Hot, hot days!

An oven is a dry heat, too...but I am not gonna crawl into one of them!
As I have noted before, I don't do well in heat. I get ill. I have cramps, I throw up, I get severe headaches. Doesn't matter how much I hydrate, I can drink 3 gallons of water a day and still have these maladies.
I have been this way since infancy, more or less. In cold climates, I thrive. In hot climates, I wilt.
The past few years I have had air conditioning. I always keep my AC on the coldest setting.
However, I do not have that option here. We have evaporation coolers (AKA "swamp coolers") and they cool the house down 10 to 20 degrees cooler than the outside. Not a big help with temperatures going over 100!
So, in an effort to avoid the worst heat, I have flipped my schedule.
I am getting up between 2 and 3 am, feeding the goats, having breakfast, then milking the goats. I water my garden beds sometime around 3:30 or so,do my housework (except for vacuuming) and generally catch up on the news online, etc.I get the fella off to work and the kids off to school (they have one more day this week and the Girl starts summer school this coming Monday).
I generally finish up with everything around the house by 11 am and then go to bed. With two fans blowing on me. The kids get me up when they come in around 4:30 pm.
I get up and fix dinner then, the fella gets home and I generally go back to bed around 11pm.
Weird schedule, but it is working for me.

I know some people that are seemingly "allergic to the cold". They can't function at all when the temperature drops below 60 degrees.I, on the other hand, rarely put on a sweater until the temperatures dive below 32 degrees. I have been known to go barefoot in the snow!

I guess some people are *cold* people and some are *heat* people.
*************************************************
The fella stopped at the store the other day and found some great sales going on in the meat department.
He got a couple of nice lean pot roasts that were in the *must sell today* bin. And they were also marked "Buy one get one free". It was a deal...a good one.
I repackaged them after he got them home...two pot roasts became the basis for 5 meals! Possibly six...

First things first...a sharp knife, my vacuum sealer and cutting board and the bags for the sealer.

The pot roast cut up. I now have two small pot roasts (each enough for one meal, with possible some left for sandwiches left over), stir fry meat, beef stew meat (I cut meat for stir fry smaller), and some nice thick slices I will marinade and braise for a nice meal.

All sealed up and ready for the freezer!
I am always on the lookout for bargain buys and I guess it has rubbed off on the fella!
I buy hamburger in the big bulk packages and separate it into one meal packages as well.
***********************************
My garden has suffered from the heat as well...I am having to replant most of it, but we have a very long growing season here, so I guess I will have much bounty come September or so!
The only thing thriving right now are my snowpeas.

They popped up within just a couple of days from when I planted! This was taken when they had been planted less than a week!

Did YOU Prepare For Winter Storms?

The whole country is in the grip of Ol' Man Winter and I see news story after news story about folks getting stranded in their cars, leaving freezing homes to shelter at centers set up by their city, etc.

 Pictures of grocery store cleaned out by people desperately trying to buy supplies at the last minute are all over the 'Net.

What did your local grocery store look like?

I didn't go to the store...had plenty of food and water here and had plenty of things to do before the storm hit.
I am in El Paso and we have had black-outs, water mains bursting and natural gas shortages here, along with pipes freezing, fires, etc. to keep the city busy.
None of the above has affected my household yet and I am holding onto hope that we won't be affected.
BUT...before the storm hit, I prepared.
First and foremost, actually listen to your local weather report or look it up online. Forewarned is fore-armed for whatever comes your way!
Two days before the cold front hit, I washed and dried all the extra blankets we had in storage and placed them in the various bedrooms for easy access.
I put a flashlight beside everyones bed on the night stands.
I placed candles around the house in locations I thought would be appropriate.I put a pack of matches in each location as well!
I put extra straw in the goat pens and chicken coop so the livestock could stay warm.
I did buy a couple of extra bags of charcoal for the grill and positioned the grill on the back patio just in case we ended up having to cook on it.
Although we have plenty of stored water, I bottled up more---just in case.
In case the power went out, I put a cooler on the back patio near the door so I could put frozen foods or refrigerated food in it if need be.
Baked some bread and cookies in case we lost our gas.
Made sure all household members had ample sweaters, sweatshirts and long sleeved shirts clean and ready. Ditto for gloves and hats and socks.

By the time the snow started to fall here, I felt that I had done everything I could with my resources to prepare. We have stayed warm and well fed, as has our livestock.

Look at the word PREPARE.
PRE means "in advance of"....
We should all PREpare for situations we are forewarned about.
The economy is bad, so we should all PREpare for the possibility of losing employment by paying off debt and saving a *safety cushion* of funds "just in case".
A storm is coming so we should all PREpare for the possibility that we may lose electricity, gas and water.
If you have minimal resources, prepare as best you can...even some preparation is better than none!
Stay warm!