Strange Times To Be Alive, Trench Digging & Trying To Have Meaningful Interactions But Probably Failing At It

  It has been one incredibly long day and I have yet to fall asleep. It is a few minutes after two in the morning so I have now been awake a solid twenty-four hours which is not all that big of a deal or anything but I do dislike having my sleep schedule disrupted. So why am I awake would be the question of course. Well, I could probably sum it down to a number of things weighing on me about the current scenario in this country and I cannot help but to feel like there is some massive juggernaut of strife looming on the horizon. Most likely nothing will really change around these parts but I do not cater to the notion of instilling some sense of false security upon myself which might lead to me feeling too damn cozy and hence less vigilant.

  I really do not even have the words to sum up the stuff going through my mind and although I find the scenario intellectually unsettling I am still remaining focused on my resolve, my attitude and my morale because those seem to be the key ingredients to keep less helpful feelings at bay but today I have had a bit of an edge to my thinking and lets just say that edge is fucking sharp and numerous times I just had to steer myself clear of some rather paranoid lines of thought just so that I could stay focused on what I was doing and not get too stressed out.

  All that jazz aside, I got a rather early start on working outside this morning not too long after the sun was up and yup it was frigging cold again but it was yet again not all that big of a deal once I got all bundled up in a few layers of clothes and started doing stuff. Aside from doing my usual chores I pretty much only worked on digging more of that trench to bury an electric line in and ugh was it some slow going because of all the roots and rocks. The trench is only about sixty meters long and I have the bulk of it done at this point. At first I was just going to bury the electric line but partway through the day I decided to also bury the water line that runs to the shelter area. I decided against burying the water line two feet down (below the frost line) because when it is going to freeze I have to leave the water dripping anyway to stop it from freezing up. The end of the water line just lays on the ground outside the dog yard so it is not like it terminates inside an insulated building or anything so burying the rest of it against freezing is just overkill. It would also take me an incredibly long time to dig that deep of a trench by hand and honestly it is just not worth the effort. Mainly I just want to get the water line (and the electrical line) below the surface of the ground so that they are protected from both UV and foot traffic.

  So today I would dig some on the trench, stop for a short break, drink some water and then dive back into digging again with more of a slow steady rhythm rather than any kind of hectic activity on my part. It was exhausting work and I was a bit surprised that I did not fall asleep as soon as I wrapped everything up a little before it got dark outside but hey here we are all these damn hours later and I am still awake. I am thinking that it will take me another day or two to finish the trench and get everything buried inside of it. One thing is for sure is that I am not going to work on any other projects until the trench is finished because I do not want it to rain before I do and make a mess of everything.

  Anyway, I did spend a few of my breaks (from digging the trench) chatting with some of my fellow homesteaders but mostly I just wanted to get 'a feel' for where they were at with everything and not overly share the numerous concerns that I have and cause them anxiety. It is a tricky balance for me to communicate with folks during 'normal' times and of late I have found it increasingly difficult to engage folks because really I find the need to censor/filter myself all too taxing. My solution has been to go around other folks only when I am feeling amicable, then I try to keep the interactions short and to the point and if communication seems clear and productive I drag the conversations out and if not I retreat to the woods again. Mostly I am just doing that so that I can keep my feelings of alienation and isolation at bay but I am also trying to build the habit of talking to folks more and 'taking the temperature' of the other humans that inhabit the place. Basically I do not mind feeling cagey but I do not want to get so damn cagey that I am looking at everyone sideways every time that I interact with folks. I guess it is 'good medicine' but by now the other folks probably think I am going a bit batty but hell folks thinking that is nothing new!

  What I have been doing (instead of going batty) is just focusing on getting the place more viable for self-sufficiency (like I was explaining in that post the other day) and also doing my best to make my own scenario better by wrapping up as many projects as possible and working towards getting the shelter area more to my liking as far as functionality and 'visual appeal' goes. I had the place looking pretty nice before I moved all that stuff from out of storage (and into my little area) and pretty much junked it up in the process. It is not horrible looking or anything but I want it to be nicer looking than it is and get it out of the damned transitional state that it has been in while I have been sorting everything out the last few months. It has been a slow process getting things in order but I am slowly getting there and keep picturing what it will all look like when I am done. Looks are assuredly not everything but ugh if things get too untidy it really gets on my nerves.

  Well, I am going to keep this one short and sweet. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

Part of the trench that I have been digging!

Thanks for reading!

More about me: I have been doing property caretaking (land stewardship) for many years (decades) and live a rather simple life with my dogs doing what most folks would consider to be an 'alternative minimalist lifestyle' but what I often just think of as a low-impact lifestyle where I get to homestead and spend the majority of my time alone with my dogs in the woods doing projects in the warmer months and taking some downtime during the colder months.

A little over three years ago I began sharing the adventures (misadventures) of my life via writing, videos, pictures and the occasional podcasts and although my intention was to simply share my life with some friends it undoubtedly grew into much more than that over the years and now I find myself doing what equates to a full-time job just 'sharing my life' which is not even all that glamorous or anything but hey folks seem to enjoy it so I just keep doing it!

The way that the Fantastica Chronicles came about is that I was living at another place when I started chronicling and sharing my days but eventually I wound up moving to a new place. The new place is a homestead named 'Fantastica' so I started with 'Day 1' upon my arrival here and just kept documenting my days much like I had done for the previous nine hundred and fifty-seven days at the last place that I lived.

I have mostly done that 'documenting' at Fantastica exclusively with words (and pictures) opting not to do the videos because as I learned at the last place, sharing videos over an intermittent and slow internet connection is horribly time consuming and what I often think of as an 'ulcer inducing' experience. All that said, I opted for simplicity with the documentation and have no real regrets for doing so.

The way that I look at it is that I give it all my best each day and while some stuff I write is better than others I think that for the most part I do a pretty good job at doing what I am doing which is simply 'sharing my life' as candidly as I possibly can and whatever folks get (or do not get) from it there is always the satisfaction of me doing what I set out to do... which is to simply share my life.

Follow me on the Hive blockchain here:

https://peakd.com/@jacobpeacock

Please check out the Homesteading Community On The Hive Blockchain:
https://peakd.com/c/hive-114308/created

A playlist of my Jacob Goes Off Grid Videos can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CsWYxlqp36dEFkg5mnlzgY41bE761oK

Please consider becoming a patron on my Patreon page!!!

https://www.patreon.com/jacobpeacock

Contribute via Paypal:

https://PayPal.me/jacobpeacock

That Is All For Now!

This post was originally posted to the Hive Blockchain here:

https://peakd.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/the-fantastica-chronicles-day-431