Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 43)

over 3 years ago

Hello Everyone!

A brief introduction: Hi I am Jacob.

TL;DR: There is no tl;dr because you should have more patience and attention span than a gnat on a high wind.

[End Introduction]

Apocalyptic Homesteading Day 43!

New Years Prep, A Storage Tent As Shop Space, Cleaning Up The Shelter Site & Musings About The Previous Year

It has been a rainy morning here and I slept in a good bit after waking up several times throughout the night and having a bunch of strange and albeit surreal dreams. Although I do recall much of the dreams that I was having I do not want to spend my morning writing a small novel about them which is probably what it would take to even begin to sum them up in a coherent fashion. Thankfully they were not nightmarish or anything like that even though they were quite intense and very engaging and at one point when I awoke from them (at around midnight) I just laid in bed more or less staring at the ceiling of the tent and letting it all replay in my mind in the hopes of learning whatever I could from them as well as committing what I could remember to memory. Early in the evening I had been watching a bunch of science fiction short films (and even fell asleep doing so) and I think that had a heck of a lot to do with all the wacky dreams but as is often the case with dreaming I dunno where the hell my mind conjures that stuff from and it is difficult to say exactly what 'causes' them even if I can perceive what may have contributed to them.

Anyway, I made a super early start to my day because alas it was going to be the last fair weather day of not just the week but also of the year so I really wanted to make the most of it. It was also super warm compared to all the other mornings of late and just the idea of getting in a full day of doing stuff outdoors was rather exciting to me. Since that big storage tent had gotten dropped off the night before I figured that the best use of my time early in the day (when I am the least fatigued) was to get the tent setup so that I could not just get the lumber that also got delivered the day before stored inside of it but also my music rig and all the gear that I have been using for developing the new shelter site and installing the fence. As far as the tent setup goes it took me almost exactly three hours to do it by myself which considering its size and complexity was pretty good in my estimation of things.

Although I had briefly considered installing the tent inside the new dog yard I am really glad that I discarded that idea and set it up by the access road on a section of flat land because setting it up on any sort of slope would be a mess. It is worth noting that once that kind of tent is setup that it could easily be moved to a sloped area (given enough people to carry it) and would probably hold up rather well not just in the moving process but also in the actual application of it being on a slope. The big difference between that tent and other such tents like it that I have setup over the years is that between its vertical poles it has horizontal poles at both the top and the bottom of the side walls which makes it super frigging stout and makes the tarp material that covers it all very taut and even in the wind it does not billow as much as similar tents.

Once all the tent installation was done I moved onto setting things up inside so that I could move all the music rig in there. Which amounted to me using a large wooden electrical wire spool (that is empty of wire) to make the base for a table and then laying some lumber across its top and laying a full sheet of plywood atop the lumber before screwing it all together. Since the spool had seen much better days and was a bit wobbly even before I added all the wood to the top of it I used several pieces of those oak and cherry poles that I collected during the original clearing of the shelter site to create a bunch of bracing and two legs on the side of the table that is closest to the door. Although beneath the table the bracing takes up some room overall it did not create much in the way of 'dead space' aside from where the center of the spool is. Since the sheet of plywood was damp and had some weird white fungus growing on it I used a small tarp to act as a table cloth for it before I began lugging all the music gear from the bar at the shelter site to inside the tent and piling it atop it.

I did not bother with wiring all the music rig up because I knew that I could do that anytime even if it was raining and instead I focused on moving all the lumber that got dropped off the day before to inside the tent and got it ricked so that it could start drying out. Given how wacky the lumber supply chain has become in this country this year (and the prices tripling and quadrupling) I did my best to rick the lumber on a very flat section of ground and properly rick it so that it will dry both uniformly and without the boards getting twisted or curvy. Basically lumber (in my mind at least) has become a precious commodity and I want to go above and beyond to ensure that I do not waste any of it. Since a lot of lumber is also in short supply the stuff that is in supply is soaking wet still and I do not mean the normal 'green/wet' that lumber is when purchasing it from a supplier... in other words it is fresh from the mill and in this case the treatment facility because it is after all pressure treated lumber which has been in even shorter supply than other lumber.

By the time that I got the table built, the music rig and the lumber moved it was well into the afternoon and although I was hoping to install the last section of fencing (a mere five meter long section on the southern fence line) I decided not try to racing against the sun setting to get it done. Instead of doing that I focused on cleaning up the entire shelter site, staging some stuff I would need to finish that section of fence and digging all the low-grade biochar out of the fire pit and hauling it over to the new compost mound. As far as the biochar goes I used a wheelbarrow to haul it to the compost and then dumped it just outside of the compost mound itself on the northern uphill side so that I could slowly add it later as 'cover material' when I begin adding dog waste to the mound. It is worth noting that I am also considering mixing an equal amount of topsoil with the biochar and using the combined mixture as cover material and not necessarily using the biochar by itself. Like I have said before there is actually a lot of good topsoil around the property and it is just a matter of digging it up and using the wheelbarrow to cart it around. I have yet to actually investigate it but I have been thinking that the best topsoil on the property is probably going to be located in that dry stream bed at the foot of the eastern slope.

By the end of the day I had the new shelter site cleaned up quite nicely and between the status of the fence project and the new storage tent (that will also house all the building materials for the cabin project) I was feeling pretty good about the overall state of things and that I am finally prepared for the next phase of things. I was also rather stoked that if the inclination strikes me to do so that I can have some loud music (rain or shine) over the next few days as I ring in the new year and maybe more importantly ring out the old year. I even took the time to place a bunch of burnable stuff in the fire pit and covered it with the wheelbarrow so that if I want to have a fire (again rain or shine) that I could do so. Given that the temperatures will be quite warm the next few days having a fire would be a luxury but I just wanted to leave my options open and not have to try to get a bunch of wet material burning in the rain. Once the fire is going there is plenty of fat lighter around that I can feed it with and that stuff will burn in the rain without any difficulty so just having that peace of mind that a fire (and hell even music) is an option is pretty damned nice to say the least.

A lot of how the next few days go (and what I do with my time) will depend on how many gunshots, fireworks and explosions there are and how much three of my four dogs get freaked out by all the racket. I could of course just stay at the base camp with them as they go through the turmoil of being terrified but it would be a heck of a lot better for them (and me) if we hung out in the new storage tent (at the shelter site) and I blast a bunch of music to drown out the worst of the racket. Having done that for many years now on various holidays that for some reason elicits folks to shoot guns, set off fireworks and blow shit up... it works and although it is not a 'silver bullet' to calm them down it damn sure helps a lot. I did consider trying to set the music rig up in the living quarters tent at the base camp but decided against it because it is already frigging cramped inside of it and the last thing that I want to do is sort of sit in my bed 'celebrating' the coming of the new year. If it comes to doing that I would be better of just playing my favorite video game online and not really celebrating at all. It has been one hell of a weird and at times a downright fucking surreal year and although I have more or less come through it unscathed and without my life being changed all that much (unlike most folks' lives) it has assuredly deeply affected me. One thing that was pretty eye-opening is just how insulated my life is against being affected by what is happening in the world and that perhaps my strange lifestyle choices are not that strange after all if they provide my overall life with such a deeply rooted security.

It is hard to sum all of that up and I do not actually want to sum it up here so suffice it to say that all things considered I am glad for the choices that I made along the way, my mental resilience and even my 'post-apocalyptic hardiness' because without those things I would mayhaps have been crushed by the sheer weight of the hardships and disruptions that both myself (and most other folks on the planet) have been going through this year. It has all been the largest crisis of my own lifetime and given that I spent a few decades preparing myself for such circumstances... in all honesty there was no real 'being prepared' for such a thing to occur beyond mentally preparing myself to cope the best that I can along the way. Sure I have been in all sorts of wacky situations where I had to cope with various stressful (and even dangerous) things but it is assuredly different when most of the planet's populace is also having to cope and the big question is 'where the hell is our collective response leading us' which thus far is apparently nowhere all that good because the death rate keeps climbing and the virus keeps spreading and in this country that can mostly be attributed to folks not taking basic precautions and willfully disregarding safety protocols (wait for it) largely for entertainment/celebratory purposes. If those things have more value than actual human lives I fear that humanity is in for a rough ride over the coming years and decades because that is what the recovery time is going to be regardless of folks simple-minded ideas that it will all just go away once this year is over.

For me personally I have settled into 'the long haul of things to come' and at this point I think that I am in a damn good mental state to navigate the times ahead without too much difficulty along the way. One thing is for sure and that is that it is some interesting times to be alive in and I never thought the things that I know (as well as my tactics for learning) would come in so damn handy. Just the ability to keep my morale up has been very beneficial for me and although I have assuredly had plenty of 'highs and lows' throughout the year I think that for the most part I have stayed on a rather even keel regardless of all the challenges and changes to my scenario. Honestly divesting myself of the things that were disrupting me from living my life to its fullest potential was gods damned frightening not because I enjoyed them (depression, anxiousness etcetera) but because I was accustomed to and familiar with them and hell facing the alternatives (being content, happy etcetera) was a much more daunting task. Yeah some days are absolutely 'better' than others but for the most part I made choices that would lead me not-so-much down the proverbial 'road less traveled' but out into the wilderness where there are no roads at all and it is up to me to make said roads... or not.

All that existential jazz aside. Life is good the dogs and chickens are happy and I feel very good about the status of the projects that I am currently putting time, attention and effort into. The timeline that I was originally looking at to have the cabin built by has definitely shifted but the trade-off was that I would have a really nice dog yard to use both during and after the cabin building phase of things. I know most folks would probably focus on building a shelter first but given the options and the scenario I think it is time well spent and will make the rest of the process much easier because I will not have a bunch of anxiety in regards to the critters that I am ultimately responsible for but honestly I just love with all my heart and want them to have the best life that they can possibly have. Hell, if I can also have the best life for myself along the way then so fucking be it!

Well, it is currently pouring rain and I am thinking that I have rambled on enough for one morning and will rummage up an umbrella once I get this all edited and posted so that I can hike over to the shelter site and see how it is shedding its surface water. I have been wanting to do that for awhile now but every time that it rained it was also frigging cold to boot but today it is actually quite warm outside. If all goes well the water will be shedding the way that I envisioned that it would and if not... well I will burn that bridge when I get to it. While I am over there I will probably get the music rig all setup as well and perhaps do a small sound check just to see how it sounds in the new location now that it is at the top of the hill instead of partway down it.

Alright, that is all for now. I sincerely hope that everyone is doing well and has a good new year as well... as all following years to come!

This ladder was my 'helper' for setting up the new storage tent!

The new storage tent that will act as a shop during the cabin building!

Thanks for reading!

More about me: I have been doing property caretaking (land stewardship) for many years (decades) and live a rather simple life with my dogs doing what most folks would consider to be an 'alternative minimalist lifestyle' but what I often just think of as a low-impact lifestyle where I get to homestead and spend the majority of my time alone with my dogs in the woods doing projects in the warmer months and taking some downtime during the colder months.

Nearly four years ago I began sharing the adventures (misadventures) of my life via writing, videos, pictures and the occasional podcasts and although my intention was to simply share my life with some friends it undoubtedly grew into much more than that over the years and now I find myself doing what equates to a full-time job just 'sharing my life' which is not even all that glamorous or anything but hey folks seem to enjoy it so I just keep doing it!

The way that I look at it is that I give it all my best each day and while some stuff I write is better than others I think that for the most part I do a pretty good job at doing what I am doing which is simply 'sharing my life' as candidly as I possibly can and whatever folks get (or do not get) from it there is always the satisfaction of me doing what I set out to do... which is to simply share my life.