The Fantastica Chronicles (Day 92-98)

jacobpeacock (66)in #homesteading • 5 years ago

Day 92. (TFC Napping On A Nice Day, Giving A Tour Of The Homestead & Spreading More Straw)

It was a rather nice day outside but with how off my sleeping patterns have been lately I wound up just napping for much of the day which was nice because I felt like I was finally getting some really deep sleep. I will assuredly adjust to a better sleeping pattern as I slowly sink into my winter downtime mode but for now it just is what it is even though the hours in which I am getting rest are a bit erratic. On the plus side at least I am getting rest and even that night (a few days ago) that I stayed up super late did not leave me feeling exhausted or anything like that.

Late in the afternoon a fellow that I know who lives in the area stopped by for a surprise visit and after seeing everything that I have built at the shelter site I gave him a quick tour of the property. The few times that I have given folks tours here I am always a bit surprised at just how much has been accomplished here in such a short time and I always wonder if folks truly understand just how much effort/calories that it took to get the place to the point that it currently is. Of course I haven't done all the work myself and along the way of giving a tour I do my best to give credit where credit is do.

One of the things that I got to see for the first time during yesterday's tour was just how much progress some of my fellow homesteaders have made on creating a nice camping area near the creek. Recently they have been clearing more brush from the camping area and whoa it sure opened up a heck of a lot more space!

All the little tours that I give seem to always end at the place among the boulders where I have the spring water ran to and perhaps it is just me but folks never seem to grasp just how much of a feat it truly is to get the water to not just overcome it's initial head at the spring but overcoming it by a little over meters. I do take the time to explain how it all works each time because I think that it is important for folks to at least have a foggy idea of how to setup a gravity fed water system.

Anyway after my visitor had departed I spread a bunch of straw around the entrance to the shelter and even a little on the path leading to the dog yard gate. I have been a bit surprised at how well the previous layers of straw have kept the muck down without needing numerous applications especially given all the rain that we have been getting here. So far I have somehow managed to keep the entryway mostly muck free which is pretty damned nice because otherwise the dogs would be tracking it into the shelter all the time which can really make a mess of things considering the number of dogs.

Anyway it was overall a nice day and although I am slowly easing into my winter downtime mode I definitely need to use the fair weather days ahead to wrap up a few projects (like the greenhouse) before winter really sets in.

That is about it for now. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

Some of the grass that I planted is growing in rather well even in the cold weather!

Day 93. (TFC A Day Of Strong Winds, Long Naps, Removing Fallen Branches From Trails & Spreading Grass Seed)

It finally got rather sunny and was overall a really beautiful day except for the heavy winds that fortunately were blowing up from the warmer south instead of down from the colder north. Although it was a 'good' weather day my inclination towards hibernation mostly kept me indoors working on stuff for my customized Linux distribution and taking several long naps.

I do not really know why I have been napping so much of late but it probably has to do with finally having a cozy little shelter and trying to rebuild some of my body's reserves that I burned off over the course of this year's upheaval. There is also the recuperating factor of revitalizing my mind as well because honestly everything involved with getting to where I am now wore my mind 'thin' and to say that I was feeling a bit frazzled by it all. In short I think the frequent napping has been doing me well and each day I feel a little 'better' which is absolutely fucking awesome after all the upheaval and subsequent changes I have gone through this year.

Anyway late in the afternoon I walked along some of the trails here and collected a bunch of fallen branches (the results of the high winds) and mostly just got the ones removed from the trails that I actually use a lot so that I won't be tripping over them when I walk back and forth from the woods to the homestead proper. Most of the branches were thankfully very small and I was able to just toss them onto one of my kindling piles.

After picking up all the branches I looked at the weather forecast and decided that since the weather is supposedly going to stay rather fair for several days that it was a good time to spread more grass seed so I filled a large empty coffee can with grass seed and sprinkled it along the main trail leading between the homestead proper and the shelter site and then I spread the rest of the seed around the shelter site itself and inside the dog yard.

Thus far the grass that I previously planted has been doing pretty well even though there has been a lot of freezing weather. The soil here is not all that great and where I am located in the woods does not get an abundant amount of sunlight but somehow the grass keeps growing so perhaps by next year I will have a grassy yard that will undoubtedly require routine mowing.

Well that is about it for now. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The green stuff along this trail is the grass seed.

Day 94. (TFC Having An Excellent Holiday & Going To A Potluck)

I do not really know what all I can say about today other than that I had a wonderful holiday.

Early in the day I ran into a bit of a snafu because one of my dogs vomited in the bed and I spent the time that I was going to spend taking a shower cleaning up the mess and getting my blankets into the washing machine at the homestead proper. They probably needed a good washing anyway especially since they are the same blankets that I had in the dusty tent when I was at first camping upon my arrival here.

Anyway in the early afternoon me and some of my fellow homesteaders went to an annual potluck hosted by one of the neighbors here and wow there was so much food that I did more gawking at the variety than actually eating but I definitely ate my fill and even took home two heaping plates of leftovers.

As much as I tend to avoid social gatherings at this point in my life I must say that there was quite the eclectic group of folks and I found myself having a lot of pleasant interactions and good conversations which was very nice.

Before the majority of the folks arrived at the potluck one of my fellow homesteaders went on a hike with me to show me where they had started removing some chain link fence last winter that the neighbor wants removed. There is a good bit of fencing that still needs removed which could probably be done rather rapidly if the bottom of the fence was not connected into the ground with concrete and thus requires being cut at each individual strand of wire. It will undoubtedly be a tedious process to remove it all but at the end of the removal process we would have a lot of really nice six foot tall chain link fence to utilize around the homestead.

After looking at the fence I continued further into the woods alone following a small black irrigation line uphill until I eventually came to an old spring head and a makeshift covering over it made from a plastic truck bed liner. I am always curious about different ways that folks do spring water captures but in this scenario I couldn't really see how the actual capture was done and dared not disturb anything to find out in case I accidentally buggered something up.

During my hike I noticed several other un-captured spring heads and given that the property itself is a rather large watershed in the bottom of a narrow valley there are probably dozens of sizable springs located on it. I am definitely looking forward to exploring the place further and now that I have a better understanding of it's layout I have a better idea of where to look for springs on the side of the ridge near the Fantastica homestead. The owner of that property has said in the past that we can capture a spring on our side of the ridge (on their property) if we can find one. I have actually looked a few times for springs along the base of the ridge (near the creek) but have been putting off exploring the steep hillside until the colder months when the vegetation has died back and the snakes have gone inactive and both of those things having now occurred I should really do some hiking soon and see what I can find.

Anyway it truly was a lovely holiday and words sort of fail me to describe just how 'warm and fuzzy' it left me feeling.

That is about it for now. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

One of the plates that I took home was mostly just dessert and included this incredibly yummy piece of cake that one of my fellow homesteaders made!

Day 95. (TFC Adding More Shelving To The Shelter, Preparing For The Next Snowstorm & Generally Having A Nice Day)

I seldom wonder why I wake up at three or four in the morning and decide that it is time to start my day and today was no exception to that. I was actually a bit surprised by waking up that early after all the food that I ate the day before and that for the last many years any sort of prolonged social situation tends to exhaust me in ways that excessive physical activity seldomly does. I guess that there is much to be said about the quality of good company but don't worry I am not going to say it here.

On a different note having enough storage inside of the shelter has been pretty tricky and although I like living in small spaces I also like having the stuff around me that I 'need' or just want to have around like my music rig, computer gear, writing paraphernalia, clothes and all the other barebones basic stuff that either brings me comfort (like having music) or that I absolutely have to have like clothing.

I would probably have a lot more room to work with inside if I didn't share my abode with four other critters but surprisingly (or unsurprisingly to me because we have almost always lived in small spaces together) they seldom actually 'get in the way' or even take up all that much room but we all need a little bit of space to be comfortable in and not feel cramped.

For instance my big dog sometimes likes laying on the bed but she is more prone to laying either by the door or her more favored place which is on her dog mattress under my writing table which works out really well because she likes having her own space. Anyway under the table was a bit cramped because I had a tote stored there and although she had enough room to stretch out I had noticed that on several occasions one of the other dogs wanted to either lay with her or was laying in 'her spot' and there just was not quite enough room for both of them to lay comfortably together.

After seeing this occur on several occasions it finally bothered me enough that I had to do something about it so I got the big L-shaped piece of plywood that I previously used for my bunk beds (which I can't use in this shelter because of the low ceiling) and hauled it to the shelter site from where I had it stored in an outbuilding at the homestead proper.

Of course before I could install the L-shaped piece of plywood as shelving I had to clear off the existing shelf, pile everything that was on the shelf onto a table in the dog yard and then uninstall the shelf itself.

With all of that accomplished I used a level to find where I needed to install more blocks of wood to mount the longer shelf to and then after taking a few measurements I cut the L-shaped piece of plywood down to a length that would actually fit into the shelter, then installed the blocks of wood on the wall for it to rest on and then finally installed the shelf itself.

It all worked out really well and I was able to move the tote out from under the writing table which made enough room that now three dogs can fit under the table comfortably and I now have plenty of shelving space for everything.

On a different note there is another round of foul weather moving into the area and we are probably going to get a good bit of snow and ice so I spent some time filling water jugs and prepping the areas that I walk in by raking the slippery leaves away from around the entrance to the shelter and the dog yard itself.

Thankfully the shelter is so warm and cozy that even impending snowstorms do not raise my anxiety level and as long as I leave the water line dripping so it does not freeze I really don't have much to concern myself about other than keeping myself 'entertained' whilst being cooped up until the bad weather passes.

Well that is enough tedious phone typing for now. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night/moment.

As you can see the new shelf accommodates a lot of stuff!

Day 96. (TFC Staying Indoors On A Rainy Day, Mulling Over The Evolution Of Steemit & Finally Getting To Hear Just How Well The Cellulose Insulation Dampens The Sound Of Thunder)

I got up super early once again and although it was mostly just overcast outside at first it gradually got more rainy as the day went on. All in all the weather stayed rather warm which was nice because it would undoubtedly have been a dreary day had it been cold.

I pretty much just stayed indoors throughout the day and did a bunch of reading online and thinking about Steemit (by Steemit I mean the entire Steem ecosystem) and how although I love the idea of more folks joining it I also really dread the platform becoming 'popular' and thus being inundated with all the unsavory things that seem to crop up on every social platform I have seen thus far. Mostly I dread an invasion of mega-corporations, celebrities and political figures all pushing some myopic narrative that has lead me to pretty much abandon truly participating in other platforms.

I of course have a lot of conflicting feelings about seeing the Steemit platform grow because on one hand it is necessary for it to grow (it is a business after all) and on the other hand as a decentralized platform where freedom of speech and diversity is highly encouraged there is definitely going to be aspects of that growth which do not entirely mesh well with the original founders, developers and early adopters, or even my own vision. Who knows how it will all work out in the end but it would be nice to see it grow in a positive and prosperous way without becoming yet another social platform that makes me want to vomit a little at the mere thought of it which is essentially how I feel about all the others at this point!

Anyway all that jazz aside the day progressed into one heck of a rainstorm that turned into a thunderstorm early in the evening. As I have said repeatedly before three of my dogs have an adverse reaction to thunder but last night was the first time in the new shelter that there was loud thunder close by and whoa that cellulose insulation that I used in the walls dampened the sound amazingly well! The dogs still heard the thunder of course but their reaction to it was rather mild which was nice because I really don't like seeing them stressed out.

Well that is about it for now. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The leaves are really disappearing from the trees after getting a few days of high winds!

Day 97. (TFC Getting An Early Start To My Day, Spending A Bunch Of Time On Steemit & Doing More Prep Work For The Impending Snowstorm)

As the title says I got up super early (around four a.m.) and per usual on Sundays I got my weekly Fantastica post compiled, edited and posted long before the sun rose which always gives me a sense of accomplishment and that I have done something worthwhile with my time.

Surprisingly not long after getting my post made it started racking up some high value votes which is always an awesome feeling in and of itself but it also always makes me a bit nervous in a fucked up way because I am entirely more comfortable dealing with failure than I am with success but hey I am gradually getting over that quirk of my personality by telling myself 'you gave it your best and the rest is beyond your control and/or responsibility.'

Anyway I spent much of my day reading stuff on Steemit, doing some proposal voting on there and generally just trying to 'take the pulse' of the platform and expand my knowledge base a bit about it's workings. Mostly I learned what 'burning tokens' means and how it's primary function seems to be to help control inflation but how there are other reasons to do it which honestly are a bit fuzzy to me because financial market related stuff is just something that I have never understood very well and often just makes my head spin in an unpleasant way.

On a different note I did a bunch more prep work for that snowstorm that is heading this way and now I think I am all set to spend a few days cooped up indoors out of the weather without worrying about stuff.

With all the high winds I noticed that some building materials and firewood that I had covered had become either partially or wholly uncovered so I got all the tarps and plastic secured in place a bit better than they were before so hopefully they stay that way now.

I also filled a bunch of water jugs and emptied out anything that had standing water in it so that it won't freeze and break the container it is in. Every time there is going to be bad weather I get a bit nervous over the water scenario here because without electricity pumping the water up from the well is not possible. My solution thus far to alleviate my anxiety is to store about ten gallons of water each time which is plenty for my needs.

There was also my laundry to deal with which has been hanging on the dog yard fence for the better part of two weeks and each time it almost gets fully dried out it rains again. So I took it all down and brought it inside where I am now drying it a few items at a time on a piece of string that I hung on the wall across from my propane heater. I haven't had to run the heater all that much but with the approaching storm I undoubtedly will so I figure that I might as well get the laundry dried out in the process of keeping the shelter warm.

Well that is about it for now. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

On the flip-side of getting so much rain...this grass is growing in quite well!

Day 98. (TFC The Snowstorm That Wasn't Much Of A Storm At All, Staying Cozy In The Shelter & Napping The Day Away)

Well the title sort of clues you in to just how unproductive the day was but nonetheless I did feed my mind (and belly) a good bit which is always quite the treat.

My curiosity lead me to researching emerging technologies and the application of current technologies that mostly encompass blockchain implementations and their underlying software. There is just so much in that entire field that it is hard to encapsulate it in just a few words but...whoa...the future is looking much different than the past in regards to things like centralization, ledger systems, record systems and even currency/asset exchanges...and so much more. The technology truly is providing a 'method' for the actualization of accountability in numerous fields which is truly exciting especially given the ability to have both anonymity and transparency simultaneously. It is all assuredly a very exciting frontier to be exploring!

All that stuff aside the big storm that was supposedly going to dump five to nine inches of snow on us failed to truly deliver anything more than a light dusting early in the day with hardly any actual accumulation and it was all melted by the afternoon. It was quite cold, the wind occasionally gusted and it even sleeted a few times but really the weather was no where near as bad as it was predicted (forecast) to be. Nonetheless I feel good that I was prepared and thankful that there is not a bunch of slushy muddy snow outside making hiking/walking treacherous.

For much of the late afternoon I took a nice long nap and during that nap I kept waking up thinking how fucking awesomely warm my bed and shelter was and how comfortable I have grown to feeling at home in the place. I keep wondering if I have ever felt this 'at home' before and all I keep coming up with is 'nope'.

This whole winter downtime thing is rapidly sucking me in but damn I feel so happy and at peace that I am absolutely okay with it and not giving myself a hard time that I should be doing more physical activity every day.

Anyway I am going to wrap this up and call it good enough. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night/moment.

Evidence of the snow fail!

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That Is All For Now!

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5 years ago in #homesteading by jacobpeacock (66)

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tts (-8)(1) 5 years ago

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