Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 527)
Hello Everyone!
Fudging the sleep cycle, Focusing on what matters, The photo fix, A stormy day & The seedlings are growing!
The morning is dragging on here so I best get to writing before time catches up with me and I have to get on to doing my routine chores and all that jazz that keeps my little life afloat. Last night I once again had a difficult time falling asleep at a reasonable hour but in all reality I was not up all that late which is nice because I got enough rest and awoke at a decent hour today.
Lately I have been pushing my sleep cycle back some intentionally because I know that I will binge out with my friends gaming in a few more days... but all this restless activity (including my failed daily naps) is in no way part of that plan. Obviously my mental gears have been turning to the point where they do not slow enough (preferably to a stop) for me to rest properly and although I could throw some 'sand' in there to grind them to a halt... I kind of want to see what it all reveals as far as my inner clockwork goes.
Anyway, that all comes down to stress, anxiety, worry and most of all concern which yeah I have in abundance not just for myself but also for other living critters, the planet and even the systems and mechanics that are the underpinnings of those things. It is not like I am freaking out or anything but there is a heck of a lot to be concerned about currently and for the folks that cannot look around and see that fact... I dunno what to tell them.
Just to be clear I in no way envy folks who are doing that nor think that 'blissful positivity' is anything but a sham that completely avoids addressing anything that is going on. Words mean very little when action is what a scenario requires and whoa it is going to take a lot of said action to change the course we are currently on before the time to do so evaporates.
A while back I broke that 'news binging' cycle that I was stuck in and although it was really tricky to do so... by pushing the time back to noon each day before permitting myself to look at it worked fantastically because for weeks now I barely think about it until way later in the afternoon. Mostly if I am going to do it I do it late in the day or even at night and some days I look at zero news!
Of course I get exposed to the news no matter what I do or where I go on the internet because it is all so interwoven (and 'in your face') that it is kind of hard to miss even if you are just searching online for stuff or trying to watch videos. Heck, even inside things like the public chat in that game I play there are components of it all and yeah I am not a fan of its insidious nature.
To be totally clear here I am not trying to avoid paying attention to what is going on in the world or any ill-advised thing like that but yeah I have to keep my attention to it toned down because given all the chaos... it seems imperative for me to focus on the world immediately around me, what folks I know are doing, what is going on with the weather and of course the folks that I care about or just find interest in.
In other words it seems more important to focus on the things that I can actually truly focus on and not have to have a large part of my brain power being devoted to stripping away the intent of advertisers, propagandist and of course all those folks (and 'entities') pushing one horseshit narrative or another.
All things considered my mind is much more subject to be a sponge of information if it is not having to also thwart things unrelated to said information even if it is the subtle maneuverings of algorithms and internet 'search' suggestions. Seriously none of those are things that I want having any kind of influence over me in any way shape or form... yet it is everywhere including spell checkers and auto-correct! (Ha ha! during the editing of this the spellchecker knew the word 'propagandist' but not 'positivity' if that tells you anything!)
Anyway, I do not want to get lost down that rabbit warren and yeah I have by and large done well at escaping most of it by 'looking' less, hiking more and like I said generally staying focused on the things that are important in my life. Suffice it to say that dropping the news binging from my daily routine has worked wonders and with all that 'freed up attention' I have turned my mind's eye towards other matters that are within my grasp to do something about.
In other news I think that I may have figured out what has been going on with that camera on the phone that I have been taking pictures with. I hope so at least because all those blurry images have been obviously driving me crazy for a while now especially when I am trying to get detailed ones of mushrooms, plants and trees that I am trying to identify.
What had happened is that I had switched a setting in the 'non-factory' camera app that I was using and it being a very robust app with lots of settings I had a hard time finding where to correct the problem. Apparently I had switched it to take pictures at a higher resolution and aspect ratio than the camera (or its firmware) supported... hence all the blur!
The kind of messed up thing is that the menu to change that setting is at the the very top of the options menu and I had this entire time, I guess ever since switching it (probably unknowingly in my pocket) had thought it was just the icon saying that I was in the settings/options menu! Moral of the story I think I should start using my reading glasses any time that I am using the phone and having to look at the small screen!
We will see if that improves things or not but so far the few test images that I took looked okay on the computer but I understand that what is 'okay' is wholly subjective! At least now I know where to adjust the setting and to keep in mind to look extra close at stuff unless I can properly see it which is a bit humbling to say the least.
Alright, the sun is now setting so I am back to wrap this entry up so that I can unwind for the evening. I had forgotten that today was the day that the weather was going to grow stormy and although it never rained very hard it did sprinkle pretty good throughout the day.
Since I have been feeling rather run down I decided to more or less take it easy today. Which was fine because early on when the storms were approaching the dogs were a little unsettled and I figured that chilling with them was not all that bad of an idea. Then later once the storms blew over I could get outdoors and do some light duty tasks and call it a day well spent.
Well, I happened to leave my boots on the porch before it rained and later when the storm blew over and I saw the boots with water in them I was like: I guess I will not even be doing any light duty stuff! Thankfully setting them in the sun dried them out rather quickly but I had lost my ambition by then and went hiking instead.
All in all it was a pretty mellow day but here at the end of it I am still feeling fatigued so maybe I should have taken a real day off and just napped the day away entirely. Over the coming days once I start gaming I am sure that I will get a nice break in but the trick with all that is going to be to keep my existing sleep cycle and not binge out too much.
On a different note I think that I finally figured out where I am going to dig that next trench to plant more black locust seeds in. There is this tiny area just below the PVC fence that surrounds that garden which gets pretty good sunlight up until about the middle of the day.
I think that it will work well as long as I keep the other brush trimmed back from around it but I am concerned that it might not get quite enough light and the trees might become stunted over time. Not that some stunted trees is all that big of a deal but if I am lucky (and do not over-plant the area) perhaps I can get one good tree growing there.
On a similar note the little black locust seedlings are doing awesome and I swear that some of them have doubled in size from yesterday but I know that is just my imagination! They are looking healthy though and like I remarked upon last week I am extremely impressed with just how many of them actually sprouted.
Okay, it is that time of the night again when I wrap this up and move on to doing the editing and publishing. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
https://peakd.com/c/hive-114308/created
We have been trimming back the jungle so our plants can get more sun, it is an ongoing process. Sometimes my pics are very blurry, I bet I am doing the same thing. I had to stop watching the news, it keeps me depressed, I feel much better by not watching it.