Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 586-618)

Hello Everyone!

The new hobby, A fun time gaming, Yup the heat is intense, Taking a step back & Some crypto thoughts!

I would normally not break these posts into two but I think that I am going to do just that. Perhaps it will make the editing a bit easier and also keep the previous entry from growing overly long. I have yet to actually edit that other entry but I am sure that I will get there before finishing this one off.

The weather is probably the easiest topic to dive into here given that I have not written anything in almost a month now! That said I gotta say the heat has been rather grueling and although the temperatures have not gotten up super high (like they did a few months back) they have stayed rather high and even the nights are muggy and hot.

With only the rain to cool things down the frequent rainstorms have been quite welcome even if they do tend to upset the dogs with all the thunder. At this point anything that breaks the sweltering conditions sure is welcome but whoa there for a while (near the beginning of the month) it seemed like it was storming all day every day.

Anyway, the days have gone by in a blur and although some time back I tapered off on how much time that I spend playing that game... I did wind up spending a bunch of time making mods for it and eventually starting a small coding project in an effort to make managing the game a bit simpler.

All in all I have no complaints that I played the game longer than I initially intended to especially since it lead me back around to getting interested in coding again. Oddly enough I think that it may well become that 'new hobby' that I have been looking for which is kind of funny because I had not even considered it previously!

It was kind of wonky how I got into that 'new hobby' because I mainly had to do it to make the operating system that I was gaming on more cooperative to both my own and the game's needs. That stuff is assuredly a rabbit warren of 'details and particulars' so suffice it to say that I learned a good deal, banged my head against many a 'technological wall' but in the end I was spectacularly successful with my goals.

On the flip-side of all that though my writing has suffered and I have fallen out of the habit of making daily entries or even weekly ones for that matter. Honestly, the reprieve has been nice and given my long track record of doing it I knew that I would pick it (the writing) back up again eventually.

As far as content creators go I feel like I have failed more than I have succeeded but overall I have not given up and just keep doing what I do and self-perceived 'failures' be damned! After doing the content creation thing for almost five years now there is no way that I can refute just how good the process has been for me both mentally (and emotionally) even if it has been challenging.

The last several months I have been slacking with it all but whoa has it been nice taking a huge step back and just breathing for a moment without feeling the pressure that I had been putting on myself for so long there. Admittedly I also buckled under the strain of the uncertainty of what all is going on in the world and needed a break from that as well.

What I am getting at there is that I caught myself utterly obsessing over how bad things could get and missing out on how 'good' things actually still are. Which I guess is human and all but ugh my anxiety level just would not drop to a reasonable threshold.

Of course my solution was to do my 'ole zone out gaming' trick and although it took a couple of weeks for it to happen the weird mental loops I was stuck on eventually began to breakdown, occur less frequently and then fade away completely. In other words I broke one obsessive tendency with another and got to have a heck of a lot of fun gaming with friends online in the process!

For someone that does not have a whole lot of interactions with other people those days grinding away with my gaming mates were absolutely epic and to say that 'good times were had by all' would be a massive understatement. Out of all the online ladder seasons that I have played over the course of the last twenty-one years... this most recent one scores at the top of the list if that gives you any idea how much fun I had.

On a different note. My little garden area has somehow survived all the flip-flopping between near-drought conditions and massively heavy rains and I think that some of the potatoes are almost ready to harvest so that is pretty awesome. I am unsure if I got lucky on that one or if I am finally getting better at taking care of the plants.

Getting my daily chores done each day has in general become a bit of a chore itself with all the high heat but there has only been a few times now where I procrastinated stuff more than I normally do. Trying to scramble around in either the very early hours of the morning or the last half hour of the day has more or less become my new routine with all that stuff.

Aside from the heat though I have not had much motivation either which is fine since I have been taking a break until the season's change anyways. It is still not good to get too dang cozy though because I know that doing so will just make starting the long work-cycle up again all that much more challenging.

Alright, I never actually wrapped either this (or that other entry) up yesterday like I intended to so I best dive back in and see what emerges. One way or another I really do need to get these entries posted because the longer I procrastinate the more I watch my finances dwindle away with a zero percent replenishment rate.

Overall, I have been doing pretty good at not letting the financial scenario get to me too much. In regards to the crypto-sphere I think that it is hilarious (and also sad) that the major response is that 'crypto has failed' or some horseshit like that. To me it seems like the major ones are holding their value quite nicely especially considering what the price was just a few years ago.

Furthermore they are holding that value during a time of intense financial, political and social upheaval whilst continually being shat on by talking heads and media personalities. Seriously, does anyone actually believe that those folks (and various corporate entities) have even the slightest clue about what is really happening in the world of crypto? Or are they themselves just cashing in on an opportunity to create content on the topic!

I cannot say that I have not 'felt the pinch' of the current scenario but it sure has way less affect upon me than say the insane prices of groceries and building materials. Perhaps if folks focused more on those kinds of issues (which is the real crash no one wants to talk about) we could begin working towards solutions instead of endlessly mulling the problems while the price of goods continues to climb.

Okay, it is another morning here and I am off to a slow start even though I awoke around sunrise and almost immediately began doing stuff. Some mornings not even that dark sludge I call espresso (or a bout of physical activity) seems to be capable of jostling my brain fully awake!

Well, right after writing the above two sentences I headed back outdoors and continued getting some stuff done before the sun could make it fully over the horizon and make things truly miserable outdoors. It sure happens quickly in the mornings and like I have previously remarked upon it tends to remain hot until long after the sun sets.

To be clear here it does 'cool down' a little near sunset but that 'little' is just that... a little! Seriously though compared to last year it has been quite different and although sure it was (and always will be) hot during this time of year... this year is like one long sweltering summer that began long before spring had even finished.

Anyway, one of the things that I got done early in the day was to finally get some of my burnables disposed of and of course make some ashes for the compost in the process. I have been avoiding having a fire for quite some time now due to the hot and dry conditions but I just had to finally breakdown and do it before any more stuff could pile up.

Alright, I failed to add much more to this entry but am just going to call it 'good enough' and get the heck on with the editing and posting before the hour grows too much later. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

My arbor worked and there are a bunch of grapes growing on it now!

Some of the grapes are almost ripe!

Between the burnables and some cherry wood I wound up with a nice pile of ashes!

Thanks for reading!

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