Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1287)

Hello Everyone!

A long soak, Pyrethrin for all, Expanding the staging area, Another big storm & Moving the black locust!

Alright, I am running exactly thirty minutes behind schedule this evening with my writing routine... because I took quite the long soak in the outdoor tub in an effort to relax my aching muscles a wee bit. I would probably still be soaking in there if my elder dog had not started her whining routine... that she has gotten into doing anytime that I am out of her sight... for more than a handful of minutes.

Last night I once again fell asleep at around the same time that I have been lately... which seems to land around one in the morning more often than not. As ridiculous as it is not to be able to get my sleep cycle on track... at least it has been consistent and I tend to still wake up six hours after falling asleep.

This morning is a bit of a blur at this late hour... but I did make it a priority to check on Esmarelda first thing after waking... and was happy to see that she was still alive. During the night she had shifted around a good bit and could no longer easily reach her water bottle... so I moved it closer to her and made sure that she drank her fill before feeding her half of a flour tortilla.

While I am on that topic, at one point in the day I mixed up some more of that pyrethrin dip for the dogs... and since the ratio is the same for treating poultry with it... I also gave Esmarelda a treatment with it. I am really unsure if it will do her any good because I cannot see that she is having any kind of pestilence problem... but figured that on the off chance she does it might help her out some.

Anyways, it is difficult to recall everything that I did early in the day... but very early on I lugged a few more cinder blocks to the edge of the road and retrieved three more pieces of lumber from the lumber pile... to extend the platform that I built there earlier this week. Of course the newly added boards were covered in vermin waste... so I spent some time alternately spraying them down with water... and using the broom to scrub them off with a strong solution of bleach water.

I might actually get three more boards and extend that platform even more... because I think that it would give me just enough room to stage everything on when it comes time to dismantle the shop tent. It also gives me plenty of room to stage things in the order that they will be loaded into the moving truck... without having to do it all 'willy-nilly' from various piles of stuff.

Late in the afternoon the sky turned dark... and another big thunderstorm began rolling in at almost the exact same time that it did yesterday. This time I just kept working though... because I really wanted to get all the fasteners that I had stored in the wagon put away... and right as I put the last fasteners away lighting struck nearby and I was like: "Yup I am done!" Before making a beeline for the cabin.

There was some stuff that I wanted to do indoors during the storm... but I wound up eating a very big meal and taking a nap for nearly an hour. It was a little challenging not to continue sleeping... but I somehow roused myself, brewed up some espresso and got back outdoors in short order.

Given it was pretty late in the day by then (and much cooler after the rain) I decided to go ahead and finally drag all my black locust saplings out of the dog yard... and out to the staging area near the road. Before moving my largest sapling, I measured it and it has put on another two feet (or roughly 0.6 meters) since the last time that I measured it... which makes it a whopping eleven and a half feet (or roughly 3.5 meters) tall!

For the most part getting the saplings moved was not much of a hassle... except that the big sapling had sent out a rather large root that pierced the bottom of the flower pot... and apparently was solely responsible for holding it upright. As a side note, I cut the root off at ground level so it will grow another tree there... but whoa it took a heck of a lot of tethering (and adding extra dirt to the pot) to get that big sapling to stay erect in its new location.

The day was filled with so many other activities that I cannot squeeze them all in here... and get this entry wrapped up by a reasonable time... so suffice it to say that it was an extremely productive day. At this point I only have six more days left until the day of the big move... so I am going to have to just keep hammering away at getting as much as I can done each day before then.

Well, on that note... I think that I am going to call this entry 'good enough' and get on with the editing and posting portion of my evening. I hope that everyone is doing well. Ta ta for now.

So many reishis!

I did some quick and dirty seasoning to these old cast iron skillets today!

After adding vegetable oil to the hot cast iron skillets!

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Cheers! & Hive On!

All content found in this post is mine!