Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 50-52)
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.
Apocalyptic Homesteading Day 50-52!
A Cherry Threshold, Staying Off My Feet, Cooped Up During An Attempted Coup & Some COVID Thoughts
It is a little after sunrise here and probably the earliest that I have gotten up over the last few days so I may as well take the time to do some writing and not let the days stack up too much because the more of them that I have to summarize the trickier it gets to do so. A few days back I began a break from doing physical activity so that the old leg injury that recently flared up could begin healing and after a few days of just being cooped up in the tent and for the most part literally just laying around... I am growing weary of it to say the least. Thankfully the injury does seem to be getting better but even sitting at my writing desk seems to agitate it which has left me feeling annoyed because even doing nothing but sitting is uncomfortable and trying to play my favorite video game or be even mildly productive just seems like more hassle than it is worth.
The last day that I worked outdoors (on Day 50) I wound up digging a trench between the main gate posts of the new dog yard and installing a 'threshold' much like the one that I did on the southern gate. Since I did not have a piece of fence post to utilize as the threshold I wound up cutting a cherry log down to size and using it. The log will undoubtedly rot over time but for now it will make a good barrier in case any of the dogs try to dig out (or other dogs try to dig in) beneath the gate. Even though I cut the cherry log a little longer than the gate opening and hammered it into place (in the hopes that it would help plumb up that out of plumb post) that did not work to any noticeable degree because of how taut the fencing is along that fence line. Basically to get that one gate post fully plumb I would have to disconnect all of the fencing material along that section of fence (including its attachment to the gate post itself) and then straighten the post which is just way more work than it is worth to fix something so minor.
As with most big projects there were a lot of odds and ends that needed attention on the new fence and after doing them I was like 'damn this was quite the undertaking' and it assuredly was but it was so worth it because now there is one heck of a stout (and secure) dog yard for me (and after me for others) to utilize. It really is quite the impressive fence and I am super excited to have reached the point where all I have to do is fabricate and hang the gates before I can start using it. Even with this bum leg I could probably work on constructing the gates but I have been waiting on the lumber to finish drying and since I failed to put a fan blowing through the stack of lumber that has been a slow process. It is probably for the best that I do not have dry material to work with because just walking around (especially on the hillside taking measurements) would undoubtedly cause my injury to flare up even more no matter how careful that I am along the way.
Since I do not have much to write about going on in my own life at the moment and the events unfolding in this country are sort of nagging at me perhaps I should attempt to word out a few of the things that I have been thinking about in regards to that stuff. Basically the public shitshow is exactly what it appears to be... a shitshow! Which is not to say it is not dangerous nor so far beyond disturbing that I have an inability to find a proper word or series of words to define it but I will try to regardless.
The attempted coup at the capital was obviously a 'predictable surprise' and yet so many folks seem shocked that it occurred... I mean come on 'outrage' sure... but shock? There is nothing shocking about it at all and just think of how many folks watched it all play out in slow motion and just tolerated it. Seriously why does it come down to law enforcement to protect democracy... is it because it is their job... their profession... their duty... and yet when folks saw them failing at their job what did they do? They took out their phones and started participating in it by broadcasting it instead of doing their fucking civic duty to (you guessed it) protect democracy. In this instance of reality (in my not so humble opinion) folks should have intervened and helped law enforcement quell an act of treasonous insurrection. The shit side to all of that though is that the result would have been not one mob but two mobs and that sort of flash-point event would be much harder to recover from. It is still a good question though because just how many 'ordinary citizens' were in the area, saw what was happening and did absolutely nothing to intervene. I guess that if nothing else it shows the level of apathy going on at the very heart of this country. All that stuff is a fucking mess and of course the bar of 'acceptable behavior' has now been set so who knows what else will be found to be 'acceptable behavior' before all the upheaval winds down.
Anyway, as troubling as all that stuff is the pandemic is still raging here as folks continue to gather in large (and small groups) and disregard basic precautions. Folks just seem fatigued on every level about the entire scenario and so desperately want things to be 'normal' that they cannot connect their own behaviors to the mounting body count each day. At this point we are approaching ten percent of the population having at least contracted the virus and that is just the 'known' figures. Given how many folks never get tested the real numbers are probably much larger but hell there is so much bad information out there it is difficult to say one way or another the real scale of the virus's impact.
What is more obvious is the virus's non-health related impact as far as jobs, the economy, unemployment rates, supply chain difficulties and availability of services goes which is obvious if you try to do anything other than sit at home and consume media and order things online. A good example is getting building materials delivered seems tricky on not just the availability of items but also in just getting stuff actually delivered and when you inquire about the delay the reason is usually somehow the 'virus' and not some failing on the building supply company's part. The saying used to be 'all roads lead to Rome' but now I just think of it as 'all conversations lead to COVID' which has more or less been the trend ever since this thing really got going last spring.
For myself all I can do is continue trudging along much like I have done over the last many years and be grateful that my lifestyle affords me to have not been all that greatly affected by the pandemic nor the civil upheaval in this country. The biggest impact on my own life has still been the economic one but it all just amounted to me being a little lower below the poverty line than where I was accustomed to being which resulted in me enrolling in a food assistance program which balanced things out and made it where I could cover all my other needs with my marginal income.
At the end of the day I am fortunate to have been so far along in my 'alternative lifestyle choices' that when things really began to fall apart in this country that I was rather insulated from it affecting me and along the way I have further 'dialed in' aspects of my lifestyle to where at this point all I really want to do is continue moving forward and share my experiences in the hope that others might learn something. I guess that is pretty much the goal with anyone who shares their life and I doubt that I am an exception to that but having been doing it now for four days shy of four years... I feel confident in saying that it is a tricky endeavor on even the best day to word everything that I can down and share as much as I can without winding up with a fucking novel full of words by the end. The difficulty is in the details and the sharing of the details in the form of words can be painstaking and tedious not to mention all the damn editing of said words.
Well, with all that said I guess that I should just wrap this up and get on with another day of staying off my feet and letting this leg injury heal so that I can dive into the next phase of things at the new shelter site. All that is really left to do before I can move in at the place is to build and hang the gates, build the deck for the living quarters tent to be setup upon and move everything over to the area. The progress thus far at the new shelter site has assuredly been awesome but I sure am looking forward to using the space also instead of just working in it! I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
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.
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https://peakd.com/hive/@jacobpeacock/hive-survival-guide-sixth-edition
