Storms Creep Closer, A Sunny Spot For Corn, Planting Potatoes, Musings On Cognitive Cohesion & Lifestyle Choices
Today, the weather was nothing like the pleasant temperatures and sunshine that I have been enjoying of late. It was chilly and drizzling rain for much of the day but for the last hour or so it has been coming down rather steadily and it looks like there is more such weather on the way over the next few days. It was actually quite nice to take the day off and hang out with the dogs in the warm and cozy tent. On the days that inclement weather conditions keep me cooped up I seem to relax a lot more than the days that I intentionally take off. Perhaps on my days off I should just pretend that it is the weather keeping me indoors and not my aging body that needs rest more often than I am willing to admit.
Anyway, I took Sunday off entirely and listened to music all day while basking in the sun. It was such a gorgeous day and I did my very best to get both my body and my mind to fully relax which of course involved lots of bike riding and some of it with the dogs running beside me. I also went on several walks where I ambled around the place and let my mental gears turn in regards to ongoing projects and future ones and just sort of 'what the place needs from me' in the general way and the more specific way of what is most pressing. As far as that last bit goes the 'pressing' actionable things that came to mind are general fire preparedness, getting rid of standing dead trees, removing large deadfall stands and maintaining a good handle on the vegetation encroaching on the roads and trails.
I am unsure if I ever mentioned it but there was a pine beetle problem here at some point in the past few years and as a result there are a lot of standing dead pine trees scattered around the property. That dodgy pine tree that I felled the other week (and got the saw hung in when the stump buckled) is a good example of what I am up against but there are easily dozens and dozens of them. They have of course also fallen on there own and made quite a mess of things not just because of the piles of deadfall but because they have shifted the way the surface water flows in all kinds of wacky directions causing who knows what kind of erosion. It will take time but I will eventually get them all dealt with which will make a large portion of the property where the dead trees are most concentrated useful again and of course much safer to boot.
On a different note. There is this sunny spot in the woods on the south side of the dog yard that I have been watching ever since I got to this site and began clearing out the brush. The slope of the hill there makes it a mostly southeast facing slope and there is enough of an opening in the surrounding canopy that it gets awesome sun for about the first five or six hours of the day but then loses it after that as the sun gets behind the larger trees to the southwest. With my past experiences of planting in places that I have only watched throughout the fall and winter months and having had little success... I was hesitant to try it again! So, with all of that said after weeks and weeks of internal debate I went into the area with the loppers and the cordless chainsaw and opened the area up a good bit by removing a bunch of dead stuff and some unwanted small trees and vines. The spot that I cleared is pretty level for the side of a hill and after raking the leaves downhill up against a long log (to begin a terrace) I discovered that the loamy soil below was actually soil and not clay.
Long story short on the 'sunny spot' I wound up planting a few hundred kernels of silage corn in rows and still have plenty of more room to do some more planting later. I have yet to see if I have more corn seed in storage but if I do have some I am thinking of planting some more in that area and if not then I may plant some garlic there. If that garden area does well then I might clear out more of the vegetation and open the area up even more so that I can perhaps build a small greenhouse there or just continue to terrace it and continue planting it with whatever I can. Once the leaves grow back on the trees for the warmer seasons I will have a much better idea of how viable that garden area is but for now I should probably keep planting in truly sunny areas so that I do not waste the seeds that I have available.
Alright, I never got this posted yesterday so perhaps I should add to it before wrapping it up. It is a little before dawn here and there is some severe weather set to blow through the area later today including strong thunderstorms and the possibility of tornadoes so I doubt that I will get much done outdoors. Considering that I am still camping in a canvas tent the idea of tornadoes is pretty sketchy but I do have a more or less secure building that I can shelter in place inside of if the need arises. I have most of my kit put together to take with me to the building in case things get wild here and I already staged a five gallon container of drinking water there just in case I need it.
Given how well the tent is anchored to the deck I am not super concerned over the thunderstorms but before things get lively today when the storm front arrives I plan on storing my kit (along with the chainsaw and an axe) in the secure building so that all I will have to do is make a beeline for the place with the dogs if I get a tornado warning. The main reason that I want those two items with me is in case trees fall on the building that I am planning on sheltering in and in case I need to cut my way out of it. I will also have a cordless drill and long deck screws with me in case I need to fasten anything (like a door) in place during the storm.
On a different note. Keeping with my tradition of planting potatoes on Saint Patrick's Day each year... I got the ripe smelling box of potatoes from the tent where I have had them since the fall growing eyes o them and got a bunch of them planted. I had both a large and small variety of potato to plant so I planted the smaller ones in three gallon flower pots that I filled about halfway full with potting soil and the larger ones I planted at various places around the property. I will more than likely move the ones in the flower pots to bigger containers later but as far as the larger potatoes go I put a few in the new 'sunny spot' garden, a few in the mounds of dirt created by the recent trenching and a few in a large mound of dirt near the frog pond area. All the ones planted in the various mounds I do not have a whole lot of faith in because of the clay content but I figured that since I had so many potatoes ready for planting that I should experiment and see how it goes.
In the long run I want to get some good garden areas established around the property here and this year (especially with the corn) I want to just find out what does well in what soil (and where) so that I have a better idea of what areas that I should focus on with the gardens. The one area that I have sort of avoided clearing (or planting in) is a south facing slope that from the looks of things gets really awesome sun throughout the year. Although there are some large semi-open areas in the woods there the density of the surrounding trees and the number of large trees makes me hesitant to get in there and begin disturbing things. Basically if I am going to be felling large hardwood trees I do not want to be lacking a way to move, mill and store them... which would make them be a total waste otherwise because many of them are straight and perfect for milling into lumber. Currently I am going to just keep watching the area and how much sunlight it gets throughout the year and stay focused on the garden areas that I have already begun getting established.
Sometimes I want to write about the minor dramas of my life and what the heck is 'really going on' for me in these peculiar times and I still find myself lacking any real words to even remotely sum things up in a way that does not involve writing all my time away churning out a novel worth of words... so I do not do it. I abstain from even attempting to write about it and avoid the text editor altogether on the days that I feel that I cannot abstain. There is simply too much to write, too much to word down and all too much potential to fall into spending my days being a 'cerebral hot mess' and get absolutely nothing else accomplished whilst over-thinking everything ad infinitum. I dislike the very notion of trying to make sense of the world during a global crisis and want to remain focused on my own cognitive cohesion so that my immediate world does not resemble the train wreck of the larger world. There is a level of discipline in my day to day life that has dictated my habits over the years and what I have been thinking lately is that I am incredibly dedicated to living the kind of lifestyle that I live.
The consistency of my days has been nice to lean on in so many ways over the last many months and there is no great mystery involved in why doing all my daily chores always leaves me with a smile on my face to one degree or another. Keeping up my morale and all aside I have to do those chores to maintain my life so any avoidance of them can really make 'rugged living' turn into a nightmare scenario rather rapidly. It takes a lot of work to not just live this way but also to do all the other projects as well and we all know that I have a project fetish to start with so go figure. Seriously, I am glad that I have a few decades of living this sort of lifestyle under my belt before really diving into homesteading, farming, off-grid electricity, water systems and all that jazz like I have done over the last four years now. I think that tackling all of that stuff with no foundation to work from would have been a real mess.
Whenever I see folks endeavoring upon this sort of lifestyle I try to get across to them just how difficult (and different) that living like this will be and that without a sort of fortitude that things will eventually get more comfortable/convenient... they are in for what will amount to a rather un-enjoyable experience to say the least. It takes time to adjust to a different way of living and it takes time to form new habits as well as time for breaking old ones. I guess that patience is really the key ingredient because going from raw land to a cozily convenient scenario is a trek in and of itself and there are so many steps in between that there is no real point in hurrying. Personally, I love the challenges that present themselves and keep in mind that with each day there is the potential for new challenges to occur that will prod my imagination and perhaps even tax my skills to address them. If nothing else it all keeps me feeling like life is anything but dull and at the end of the day I am at the very least actively pursuing my dreams and occasionally fulfilling them.
Occasionally I wonder about why folks would romanticize schlepping a bunch of gear out into the bush (the woods, the forest, or whatever you want to call it) and trying to eek out some sort of existence in mild luxury. I mean hell it sounds frigging awesome until the logistics come into the scenario and things actually have to be done to make it possible. Meanwhile the weather and nature carries on per usual and gear gets damp, bugs find their way into stuff, mold grows, tools break and in a not so general sort of way shit just happens and life goes on in such a way that a person can either remain flexible or descend into the insanity of being rigid. In other words there has to be a constant engagement with the world around me or else stuff gets ruined beyond repair, mistakes get made (which will happen no matter what) and stress compounds upon stress until there is more time spent coping with the stress than dealing with the problems that are causing the stress to start with.
All of that stuff will always be present when living like this and my best advice is undoubtedly to maintain absolute dominion over determining your own attitude and let nothing (and no one) infringe upon that. It is after all the only thing that we can absolutely choose for ourselves regardless of whatever difficult circumstances that we find ourselves in. Coupled with some good ole fashion 'bullshitting of oneself that things will eventually get better' seems to do the trick for me but honestly I just have faith in my own abilities and a few decades of well-developed coping skills to lean on if things get too wacky along the way.
Well, I should get this wrapped up and get on with my day. It has just begun raining. There is a tornado watch and thunderstorm warning spanning the next few days so wish me and the dogs good luck on weathering the storms. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
Hopefully the sun returns in the next few days!
Thanks for reading!
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That Is All For Now!
This post was originally posted to the Hive Blockchain here:
https://peakd.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/apocalyptic-homesteading-day-114-117
