Our first Christmas in the wilderness.... Has been great. :D I woke up early this morning, and after a nice long cuddle with the furkids, they all went outside to play and chase dad around while he did the morning outside routine. This routine includes shutting off the generator, and sweeping off the tent as well as just a general look around to be sure everything was ok. Then at 9am I started the calls. I called my sister first, but she was busy so I just got voice mail. So then I called bio-mom to wish her and dad a Merry Christmas. Ended up that I got her out of bed. oops. lol. I just figure that at 9am everyone should be awake. So after calling my mom, we called Hubby's mom and wished her a Merry Christmas. I talked to Mom-in-law for about 20 - 30 minutes, then hubby talked for another 30 - 40 minutes. It was a great call! My sister called back in the middle, but I figured that if I left voice mail, so could she. lol. Just kidding, Hubby's mom is important, so I didn't want to cut her off. Anyway, after we got off the phone with mom in law I called sis back.
After that it was bath time! One of our neighbors was having a shindig for the local folks for Christmas and we were invited, so we got dressed and hustled ourselves up there. We were there for about 3 hours and met some more of our neighbors and had a great visit. As usual, I found myself volunteering in the kitchen. I helped by butchering the turkey and making the gravy. Yum, the chef of the day had cooked the turkey perfectly! There was also stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, rolls, deviled eggs, gravy, homemade bread, and various other snacks. AND, there was even warm eggnog to go with it, and brandy for those so inclined.
So, after a pleasant day spent visiting with new friends, we are now home, I am tucked into my bed, while hubby went out to sweep off the garage (tent) and do an evening walk around just to be sure everything is as it should be, and he'll be back soon too. Where we'll tuck into a quiet and shared night of computer games, and some reading, and then it'll be lights out and to sleep.
We are currently sitting at about 2 foot of snow, and it is currently snowing. lol. I guess that according to the radio that we are supposed to get another foot or so tonight, and then more over the weekend. Then Clear up some on Monday. Which is nice, as on Monday we drive into the big city as usual. Ugh. I am really, really, really getting tired of that drive.
Tomorrow, (friday) we have decided that we are going to decorate a tree. Yes, I realize it'll be December 26, the day after Christmas. But, it'll still be fun. Going to make peanut butter balls with oatmeal and millet and lard and hang them with yarn on this cute little cedar tree we have. The birds of the area will love it if we can keep the dogs out of it. I may even have some raisins and the like I can put out there. Wish I had some red ribbon to put on the tree too, that would really spruce it up.. Even though it's a cedar tree, it may use a little sprucing I guess.
Will also take some time tomorrow to hang some more shelves. I still have a few boxes of canned goods to get up on the walls, as well as some cans I bought this last time we went into town. I would love to have the storage room where I am keeping the cans right now for something else, and to do that requires the shelves to be put in. Of course, this could end up to working on the walls some more, still have some more insulation to put in and some vapor barriers to get in place. As it is, we'll have to take down some of the shelves to get the additional vapor barrier up, but I guess if we have to, then we have to.
The gentleman where we went to have dinner at has 2 - 6 volt batteries that he uses for his power generation. He said that they ran him $130.00 each and are like 200 amp hours. (I could be very wrong on the amp hours.) Anyway, the quick calculation in his head was that if we did the same thing then it would run my sleep apnea machine for almost a year on one charge. lol. Well, I guess that if we used them for my machine, the 2 laptops, the 1 lamp, recharge the cell phone, and the earpiece for the cell phone then it would probably still last us a week or so. It will be SOOO nice to only run the generator once every 2 - 3 days for just a few hours instead of every night for 8 - 10 hours. I can't wait until that is all in place.
After the batteries and solar is in place then it'll be time for the woodstove to be bought and to go in. With the solar in place, and only having to buy gas once a month or so for the generator during the winter, and then a woodstove so we don't have to keep buying propane we'll be ready for whatever sinks the nation.
Well, I am in full "dead turkey coma" and am going to snuggle down to do some brainless computer game... Like Soduko or Mah-jonng, maybe some chess, or civilization (which is the most likely of them all)...
Lady Triptophan.. I mean, Treehaven
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