Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1072)

Hello Everyone!

Burning the burnables, Washing laundry, Dismantling the fallen scarecrow & The snakes are still active!

Alright, it is close to sunset and I somehow managed to stay on track and start writing while there is still some daylight left to the day. I do not think that I mentioned it before but the last few days I have been falling asleep super early and waking up early as well.

All of which has been made possible by shifting my writing routine by a mere few hours earlier in the evening. I think that what was happening before was that I was focusing so hard to battle the fatigue, get my daily entry made and then try to unwind for the day... that 'unwinding' was nigh on frigging impossible... especially after having more espresso than I probably really needed!

Anyways, the weather today was still rather chilly but the wind finally died down... so first thing this morning I was able to safely make a fire and get all my burnables burnt. I really did not have many 'burnables' per say but I did have a lot of small tree branches that I had collected from around the shelter site over the last week.

As much as I complain about the winds... it is nice that they often produce lots of tinder for my fires... in the form of fallen branches. Later in the day the wind did pick back up a bit... and I wound up dousing what remained of the fire but by then pretty much everything in the fire pit had been turned to ash so no big loss there.

While the fire was burning I piddled around the shelter site doing some laundry and other mundane chores before changing gears and finally taking all the fasteners out of my fallen scarecrow. For a while I kept telling myself that I would rebuild it but the more I looked at it... the more I realized that too much rot had occurred and it was time to give up on it.

Some time back I had collected a bunch of cherry 'art wood' and stacked it on those 'China berry' benches that I made a few years ago... and since then the rain has washed them rather clean... but I have failed to make anything with them yet. Nearly every day for a month now I have told myself at some point during the day that I would work on a sculpture (or a table or something) and somehow I never quite get to it.

I guess that the same could be said for a few other projects as well... which is why I have been trying to do at least one such 'undone project' each day. Given that I have a lot more energy since doing that parasite cleanse... doing stuff without feeling exhausted afterwards has been rather enjoyable... so we will see how it goes.

My morale has also begun improving so perhaps the combination of those things will keep me plugging along, getting projects done and taking those daily hikes that I am so fond of. This morning while I was hiking I was thinking how it was maybe cold enough for the snakes to not be moving... but less than a minute later I came across yet another Eastern Black Kingsnake (this one was near those oyster mushroom logs) and I was like: Welp they have assuredly not stopped moving yet!

Long story short there, I think that I am going to delay running the dogs on the vermin for a while longer... and maybe even until the temperatures get closer to freezing. Thinking back on things I do not think that I ever ran them on the vermin this early in the year... and the only reason that I am itching to do it now is because I am fed up with the vermin... which really is not a good enough reason to risk the safety of the dogs.

Well, I think that I am going to wrap this entry up and get on with the editing and posting phase of my evening. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice time.