Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1208)
Hello Everyone!
So much preoccupation, More shop tent cleaning, The snakes are already moving, Building sawhorses & Whoa the fatigue!
Alright, I am beginning my writing routine about seven minutes early tonight... which sure is a lot better than running late like I have been lately. I really do not know how much I will get spelled out in this entry... but at least I have my evening espresso to help get me through the fatigue.
I am unsure when I fell asleep last night but it was rather early... and I wound up waking a little after sunrise. During the first part of the day I remembered what I was dreaming about... but at this point it is mostly a vague blur of weirdness... and disjointed snippets of equally vague memories.
For much of the morning I piddled around on the computer... but did not do much in the way of my Hive engagement routine. I dunno why I have been slacking so hard in that regard... but it most likely has to do with being incredibly preoccupied with packing... and thinking about everything involved with the new land.
Not long before noon I finally got outdoors and was really glad to see that it was a super sunny day... and that everything had more or less dried up after all the recent rain that we got. Although, I did not have an exact 'plan of action' I did not let that stop me as I began dragging stuff out of the shop tent... and continuing to get it cleaned out.
At first I just focused on getting the rest of the propane tanks cleaned off... but I soon began cramming more stuff into a big trash bag to be tossed out the next time the garbage pickup occurs. So far that strategy has been working well (to get rid of stuff) but I really wish that I had a frigging dumpster... so that I could get all the junk out of my way in one fell swoop.
Most of what I have been throwing away has been either stuff that the rodents have damaged beyond salvation, actual rodent nests... or stuff that has just 'seen better days' and it is time to part with it. As far as 'slimming things down' goes I really do not have much to actually 'slim down' but there sure are a lot of things that I wish had not gotten all buggered up by the damned rodents!
While I was cleaning in the shop tent, I spotted a juvenile rat crawling down one of the legs of the lumber rack in there... so I paused and got the dogs (from the dog yard) to see if they could catch it. My boy dog actually managed to flush it out of hiding... but the little bastard ran out of the tent... and into that pile of covered lumber outside of the tent.
Given that the only way to really get the rodents when they are hiding in there is to move the entire stack of lumber... I did not have much hope in getting it... but I did pull back the tarp on the off chance that we could flush it again. Aside from finding a new rat nest on top of the lumber pile (under the tarp) I did not see the rat again... but I did see a black eastern kingsnake wiggling its way back under the lumber pile near the ground.
It sure seems a bit early for the snakes to be moving... but like I have remarked upon before lumber piles like that (especially covered ones) produce and hold a lot of heat... so I am not super surprised to have seen that snake already being active for the year. The thing is though, that if that snake is 'moving' (meaning it has ended its brumation period) then others probably are as well... and I need to stop running the dogs on the rodents to avoid encountering any venomous snakes.
Later in the day, I decided that what I need for storing everything in the shop tent (once I get rid of the lumber rack and that plywood shelf) is a pair of sturdy sawhorses that I can lay some boards across. Long story short, I scavenged up some lumber from in the shop tent, scrubbed it all down with bleach water (to remove the rodent waste) and then set about building a pair of sawhorses.
The sawhorses did not come out all that 'pretty' but they sure are stout... and being four feet wide I can make quite the table out of them once I put the boards on them. I am still debating on whether I should paint them or not... but I think that once I start painting those other boards that I might slap a few coats of paint on their feet at the very least.
Depending on how that setup works out for storing stuff on... I might wind up building another pair of them if I can find enough lumber to do so. The current pair are a bit bulky (because I cut the legs at a forty-five degree angle so they would be stout) but I think that if I make another pair I am going to make them a bit more compact.
Anyways, I wound up doing a bunch of other stuff throughout the day including burning a bunch of burnables in the fire-pit... and by the end of the day I was absolutely filthy with grime, dust and sawdust. So I took a nice hot bath just before sunset... and even managed to time it so that the water was the perfect temperature for a nice long soak.
Well, the fatigue is starting to catch up to me and I best call this entry good enough and get on with my evening. I hope that everyone is doing well and thinking for themselves. Ta ta for now.
I still have a rat in my truck, I keep tearing its nest up but it builds it back.