Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 684)
Hello Everyone!
Waking before dawn, Ecological impact garners no attention, A pessimistic view & Fixing the Muck boots!
It is a little after sunrise here and although I did not wake up at the four o'clock goal that I was aiming for... I did wake up long before dawn so hopefully if I keep trying I can get my sleep cycle adjusted to where I want it to be. Having fallen asleep rather early last night I am unsure how I slept for so long (close to ten hours straight) but alas that is exactly what I did.
Today being a Sunday I am not inclined to do much in the way of writing nor doing stuff outdoors but that said... here I am once again enjoying the early morning stillness as I clack away at the keyboard. Although I want to avoid working on my day off I could not help but notice how there are a bunch of leaves that got blown up against the cabin and my first thought upon seeing them was: I should rake those up today so they are not a fire hazard!
Perhaps I will do just that and pretend that I did not break my deal with myself about taking one full day a week off just so that particular task is not perpetually running through my mind. I mean heck, I did just take most of last week off due to a combination of the potentially inbound severe weather and of course focusing on the storm prep aspect of things.
Anyway, something that I keep thinking about the last few days is just how much of an ecological disaster that recent hurricane caused down south and how I have yet to see a single 'news' outlet mention anything about it. Of course I know that the focus is currently on the humanitarian crisis there (and rightly so given the scope of devastation) but honestly it shows just how little such things matter to folks.
Perhaps I am wrong in my assessment but given how frigging fragile and mostly destroyed the ecosystem already was there due to human activity long before that storm hit... I can only shudder at the idea of what it is now! Given all the flooded fuel storage sites, submerged vehicles, the household chemicals, flooded septic system contents and all the other stuff that wound up in the water... I would guess that it is in total collapse at this point.
Then there is the debris, the trash and all the other stuff that undoubtedly made it into the wetlands there and even the Gulf of Mexico itself. As far as that last bit goes it was already a rather polluted and gross place to start with in my not-so-humble opinion... so I am sure that overall it will be far worse off than it was before... but hey it is not like most folks gave a damn before and my expectation of that changing is rather non-existent.
Of course I do not have high hopes that people will not be self-centered and only focus on the loss of human life and property but it is almost like it is intentionally being omitted from the conversation. Which absolutely makes sense in a very pessimistic way because yeah humans brought all that stuff there, chose to live there and ultimately are responsible for it all... but hey blaming the storm sure is a convenient way to dodge any responsibility on humanity's part!
Sure it is a full-blown tragedy and an awful situation and I am not trying to undermine that nor detract from the importance of human life but when the focus is only on human life and the loss of property... I have to really wonder whether folks even care about the level of ecological destruction, loss of habitat to toxification and all the other impacts caused by said property (and other stuff) being strewn about willy-nilly!
I get it though because accepting 'human impact' is not something that ever gets much attention beyond how it affects humans doing what they want to do! After all we got into this whole climate change scenario because of such narrow-minded sentiments and the resistance to broadening our 'mindfulness' has been (and will continue to be) what ushers us to not just continuing the destruction of our planetary ecosystem... but making it increasingly inhospitable and eventually uninhabitable.
Obviously, that stuff has been on my mind for several days now and at first I did have some kind of hope that the environmental impact would eventually make it into the 'news cycle' but at this point I think that it will simply get glossed over. Whether the news is covering it or not I am sure that to the folks on the ground dealing with the devastation in all the various areas it is painfully obvious.
To be clear here I am in no way downplaying the human tragedy and am merely saying that the tragedy itself and its impacts extend well beyond what folks are currently focusing on. Per usual none of that surprises me but it does say a lot about how little progress in regards to attitudes and priorities changing when it comes to our ecological impact goes.
I cannot help but to keep thinking something along the lines of: Perhaps now that a bunch of wealthy people have been directly effected we will hear more about it all when it comes to the real dangers and impacts of the climate scenario. That said though, I also highly doubt that will ever be the case no matter how much destruction gets caused along the way as the scenario continues to worsen over the coming years.
Alright, it is much later in the day now and although it is my day off I decided to go ahead and fix my Muck boots with some of that Barge cement. I am really glad that I decided against doing it indoors the other day because I was right about that stuff because whoa does it have some rather noxious fumes!
The repair process itself was rather straightforward because I first cleaned all the areas that I wanted to apply the adhesive to with a toothbrush and diluted bleach water and then set the boots in the sun to dry out. Once the boots were dry (and after reading the directions on the Barge cement package) I began slowly applying the cement to the entire seam where the boot meets the sole on both of the boots.
Since the directions said to let it sit for fifteen to thirty minutes before pressing things together I waited the minimum amount of time before proceeding. The next and final part of the process was the messiest because I used some electrical tape to close all the 'open' seams (the damaged areas I remarked upon before) and had to handle the boots while wrapping the tape around them.
Overall the process was not that bad and I will know tomorrow how well it worked after letting the boots sit in the solar shack overnight so that the adhesive can fully cure. Once that happens I plan to look the repairs over closely and fill in any holes with more of the Barge cement if it is necessary. If there is no need to make further applications I am thinking to either use a razor blade or a file to remove any excess adhesive.
Well, I think I am going to keep this entry short and sweet and get on with the editing and posting phase of things so that I can unwind for the evening. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
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It is so much easy to point the blame at natural disasters, that actually take responsibility for ones actions. So many people say they care about the environment, yet continue to buy toxic products and use them. And then we have the huge factories, pharmaceuticals etc that are constantly polluting our air and water and are rarely held accountable. There is so much out of balance right now.
Nice job on your boots x
The sad fact about this state is the people who do not make their living from the environment do not give a damn about it. As long as things look nice, like no seaweed on the beaches and their homes do not get washed away from erosion they do not care. They pump sand onto the beaches after every storm, where does the sand keep going? It is covering the reefs killing everything and blaming the fishermen for the decline in the fish, the sandfleas eat the rotting seaweed but when they pump the sand they make it a steep slope so the seaweed does not stay there. They keep all of the freshwater from entering our brackish water lagoon and tell the people it is polluted when they need it for all of the new developments. Sorry about the rant but it really pisses me off. I hope your patch job works for you. What size boots do you wear? If I see any at a thrift store I can send them to you.
No need to be sorry about the rant. Sadly it is all too true about how things have been (and continue to be) done there.
So far the patch job looks good but I think I am going to give the seams another application once the Barge cement fully cures.
I am a size nine but do not worry about boots. The only kind I wear anymore are Muck boots and have no plans on changing that. Their 'Wetland' chore boots are just too perfect for my lifestyle and if I had not abused my current ones they would not have been in need of repairs.
ok, well if I see Muck boots size 9 I will grab them for you. I hope the repair holds up.