Information Expectations

Yesterday we made a trip into town. The goal was to spend the last of our cash on propane and gas, and grab some internet time at the library.

Overall I have been impressed by the library system in klamath county but yesterday's trip to the library was disappointing.

This branch has no wireless internet access. Every other branch we have used provided wireless access, but not this one. I asked the librarian why thay didn't offer wireless and was told that at one time thay did have wireless, but it caused some kind of problem with the DSL connection so thay stopped offering it.

BLINK ... BLINK

keep in mind that I'm a computer geek by trade. I have been working with computers of one kind or another for 25 years. There is no reason a wireless access point should cause any problems with a DSL connection. I don't think the librarian was lying to me, but someone is lying to someone.

The library has 3 computers hard wired to the DSL line. Two PC's with Windows, and one Mac system. When we got there one of the PC systems was in use and the other had no network connection. I think it has a bad connector on the network cable but thay have the OS locked down so tight I would have had to hack in just to work on it. I figured hacking the system was a bad idea so I just left it be. Looks like it will just have to wait for the paid county library geek to fix it, someday. We can hope.

With my options for internet access down to the Mac system I opened up Safari and tried to go to one of my podcast sites. Note I said "tried". Instead of my expected web site I get a notice that my requested web site is "'not on the approved web site list".

BLINK ... BLINK

A library should NOT filter internet access. A library is a center of information. No individual or group should determine what information someone can have access to.

I can already hear the shouts of "but we must protect the children". No, protecting the child is the job of the parent(s) not of the library. If you must allow someone else to "protect" your children then at least provide some kind of adult override so only the children are being "protected".

Beware the person who would deny you access to information, for in their heart they secretly believer themselves to be your master.

The Slightly Enraged Geek of Treehaven 

This home protected by Mossberg

Sunday was not a complete down day, but not a lot got done. The wife's back was bothering her so most of what we wanted to get done was put off.

Instead we spent some quantity time shooting and cleaning our neglected firearms. That is to say, I did some shooting, and we both did some cleaning. Mrs. Treehaven didn't feel up to handling her baby, the Mossberg, but she is vary capable of using it should she need to.

I support the 2nd amendment fully. Our founding father's had just won a war using mostly farmers and merchants against a tyrant's professional soldiers. Thay knew the value of individuals with firearms and insured future generations would have access to firearms should the need ever arise again.

The rest of the day was down time. We had a short visit from our friend the trader, I spent some time doing some geek stuff and playing a computer game.

I charged up Tim (our battery) using the 50 amp setting last night. I got it up to 13.2 volts, still not the 14 volts I was hoping for. After running the sleep apnea machine all night and our light for an hour or so, Tim showed a remaining charge of 11.8 volts. Tonight I will repeat the process and see how things go.

I'm staring a spread sheet today to track our costs for power and heat. I will also track charge time, volts, and some other data that I will share once I have enough information to form solid conclusions from.

Today it's into town for a bit. We will be spending the last of our cash on some gasoline and propane. I hope we will have enough to last until next Monday.

I'm also going to drop off a laptop for our trader friend. I'm introducing him to the world of podcasts.

Well, time to face the day.

The unfocused Geek of Treehaven

Palsied Poodles, Shooting and my aching back

Yesterday didn't go as I planned at all! Sometime in the night I rolled over (I had woke up just enough to do it) and as I rolled, my shoulders rolled, and my hips didn't and I had a click and a crunching sound in my back. Ugh, so I woke up to a tight back that was sore. It was sore for most of the day so I spent it sitting. I don't mind a lazy day, but enforced lazy days I hate.

By last night it was doing better, but even today I am having twinges and some stiffness. I am hoping that the stiffness is gone by the time I get out doing stuff. I want to run into the nearest little town and fill up one of the 5 gallon gas cans and put $20.00 in the propane tank. That will be all the cash we have until our next check comes in. oh well, that's how the cookie crumbles so they say.

For our lazy day yesterday I played around on the computer, messed with some pictures, and prepped some stuff to send to my email list always_ready on yahoo groups and then cleaned our weapons. It's something you can do sitting at least. lol. hubby took the shot gun out after it was clean and put a few rounds through it, then I swabbed her down again.

I mention this only because I wanted to let you in on more about Pan, our palsied poodle in a Lab mix body. The first shot went off and you would have thought it hit him. He jumped up from where he was laying next to me and tried to crawl under me, the entire time shaking like a leaf in a snow storm. By the time his daddy had 9 or 10 rounds through, he was under a blanket, glued to me like epoxy and shaking like mad. I don't know how we will desensitize him. I thought if maybe I covered him with his blanket, a stadium sized fleece one, and just sat there with him it would help, but it really didn't. Unlike popular belief, you don't want to do the "poor baby" thing and pet them and love on them when they are like this. To a dog all this does is tell them that what they are doing is right, and I really don't want to reinforce his problems. Although, at 11 and 1/2 years old, I don't know if I will ever be able to desensitize him.

Freya jumped up from the floor onto the bed then put her head down and laid there. Thor just kind of cocked an ear and went back to sleep. Whoot! one out of three who does nothing when a gun goes off is a good thing!

If everything goes as planned, we'll be going to town as I mentioned earlier, stopping at a friends house to help them with their computer, then to the library to load pictures and the blogs (whoot!) and then back here to home, where I'll work on getting some english muffins going. I really want to give it a whirl and see if I can do it. Bread that doesn't have to be baked is a huge nicety right now. I know there are others, such as bannock, but I don't have the familiarity with them as I do others. Feel free to send me any stove top bread recipes, and I'll give them all a go and see if I can make them all work. Keep in mind here I am limited. lol. I have a coleman cookstove to cook on, and no dutch oven or frypan with a lid. That will be remedied soon, gotta have a frypan with a lid to fry chicken in. yummmm.

We are still continuing our quest for another furry companion as well. One more, no more than two more right now. We don't have room for the 20 or so I would LOVE to have, but you just can't fit that many dogs in a 200 SF cabin. lol.

More snow fell last night, only about an inch, but some. From the sounds of it my sister is getting hammered more with snow than we are, which is highly unusual. But I'm not complaining. She lives 5 minutes from town, we live just over an hour... She has electricity and we don't also, so this means that she can still stay warm no matter what, if we run out of propane right now we have no heat. And that depends on us being able to get to town to refill our tanks. I can't wait until we get our wood stove in, it'll be really nice to be able to not to have to run to town to get the propane filled or freeze. :D That's a choice I don't want to have to make.

ok, gotta brush my hair out and get ready to go soon. May your day be filled with wonder and glory!

Mistress Treehaven

"Some call me... Tim"

We name things, the wife's medical equipment is called Harvey, our portable 12 volt battery pack is R2, we even have a wooden chest we call George.

Now we have added the newest member of our none-fur family. Please say hi to Tim. Tim is 100Amp hours of 12 volt deep cycle power. Tim puts poor little R2 to shame. In fact I'm thinking of changing R2's name to R0.5 because it performed so poorly.

We named Tim after my nephew, the doctor. (Phd in Electrical Engineering) It was his christmas present that allowed us to aquire the heart of our off grid power system.

Using batteries as a main power source is not as straight forward as I thought it would be. Who would have thought that you would charge a 12 volt battery to above 12 volts. One of our neighbors says I should charge it up to about 14 volts using the 50 amp setting on our charger and then top it off at 2 amps for about an hour. I'm going to try that tonight.

We have a 750 watt inverter that converts the battery's DC power to AC. The inverter has 3 information displays, battery voltage, watts in use, and output voltage. The watts display has me a bit confused. Last night it showed our little 27 watt (CFL) light was pulling almost 100 watts. I don't know if our light bulb is going bad, the lamp itself has a problem, or if there is something in the whole process I just don't understand.

Working with limited power brings a whole new way of looking at power conservation. You need to really examine what your priorities are. For us the number 1 priority is the wife's sleep apnea machine. Our 2nd priority is charging our gizmoes, cell phone. iPod, R0.5, my PDA, and our laptops. The wife might disagree and say the number 2 priority is our one little light, but I'm good with just my head lamp.

I'm having to get use to doing any heavy computer work only when the genarator is running. Likewise, if we want to watch a DVD, we need to do so while the genarator is running, the laptop battery doesn't last for a whole movie.

I'm learning to adapt, this blog is being written on my PDA and I'm trying to keep myself busy with things that take little or no electricity. It's hard to be a geek in the backwoods.

The (twitching in power withdrawal) Geek of Treehaven

Menial Labor

Dinner last night WAS meatloaf. about 1 lb of hamburger, and about 1/2 lb of sausage meat. I added to this, some

sea salt, some pepper, some worcestershire sauce, a drop or three of liquid smoke, and a few generous dollops of

hickory BBQ sauce. I made it up into largish meatball size (about the size of a baseball) and set it in a ring

around the outside of a pie tin. In the middle of this ring of meat I put a coffee cup of water and put it to

cook in an oven that varied from 300 to 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes. The coffee cup of water was to water

bath it. I only have one shelf in my camp oven, and this served nicely. To get a nice and moist meat loaf you

should always water bath it somehow. In a larger oven I usually put the loaf pan for the meatloaf in a cake pan

and put water in the cake pan. This really does work well in keeping the meatloaf moist.

We made a trip to the dump yesterday. Only $5.00 and it was just absolutely peachy. Dumped off a whole truck

load of trash and it was WONDERFUL. most of it was packaging for this or that. The world would be a much cleaner

place if companies just used less packaging.

Then we ran into the nearby small town and put some gas in the truck, and let hubby on the internet for a little

bit. He was trying to find more information on our generator and such. I was also able to find out that

"Loppered" milk is the same as Clabbered or soured milk. That's a relief! I had found a recipe for cottage

cheese that was basically just loppered milk with hot water poured over it and wanted to try it. But now I find

out I need unpasturized milk. Good grief. Where do you find that now a days when you don't own a cow?

Did some laundry by hand yesterday, now I have several days worth of clothes again. I'll probably wash some more

today or tomorrow though, just so I can keep up on it a little more. Will have to try to use bigger tubs though.

I used a few dishpans and they were FAR to small to do my jeans much less any of Hubby's thick flannel shirts. I

can't wait until spring and summer when I can put a clothes line or two outside. Then I'll have more room to dry

things. Right now I have a short line over the propane fireplace (about 3.5 feet long) for socks, washclothes and

other small things. And then for jeans and shirts they are hanging from the rafters. Come summer though.. Watch

out! I'll be a hanging fool!

So,to do laundry this is what I did. Large wash basin with warm water in it, and some liquid tide. I like the

liquid as even if you use cold water it will not clump up, but I don't like the fact that so much is stil WASTED

when you empty the bottle. Put the clothes in there while we filled the smaller basin with clear warm water. I

would swoosh the clothes in the wash basin, and if there were any particularly dirty spots I would scrub it

together with my hands until it looked cleaner again. Pay close attention, after you wash clothes many stains are

set, even if you don't machine dry them. Then I wrung out the clothes, and put them in the rinse basin. Hubby

swished well the clothes there, and wrung them well, then hung them up. Unmentionables were on a line strung over

the stove, and jeans/shirts/heavier stuff were tossed over rafters to dry.

Eventually I'll get two BIG basins like 5 gallons each, and a toilet plunger. I'll do the same thing there, that

I did with the smallish basins yesterday, but I'll be able to do more at a time. The plunger will work the

clothes like the agitater in a washing machine. I'll also splurge on a washboard to help get the hard stains and

dirt out of the clothes.

Got the mail, it had the usual bills in it. Blech. Also a nice big envelope of stuff from my Sister in law of

craft stuff to do. There is a great possiblity there. Stuff I may be able to make and sell or that hubby may

make and sell. Some definite possiblities there.

Well, I am off to do some stuff around here. This morning it's egg sammies for breakfast, and then to empty some

more boxes from the garage.

Later Gater!

not so lazy daze...

Dinner last night WASN'T meatloaf, but it was really, really good. Here is what I did. About 1/2 lb of ground pork sausage, some sea salt, some pepper, some ground sage, some minced garlic, and I browned that up. To the ground pork add, one can of black eyed peas including the juice, add to this, a few drops of liquid smoke, and some brown sugar. Don't add to much brown sugar or it will be too sweet. Boil this for a few minutes. I split this into two bowls. THEN, add back to the pan one can of green beans and bring them to the boil so they heat through. Drain the green beans and put them over the top of the black eye peas in the bowls. Serve with bread and butter. It was very good, it was also very filling. lol. It's high fat, high fiber, high vitamins, high protien, and high taste. It also fullfilled our requirement of black eye peas and greens on New Years day. It's a Southern Thing.

Our lazy day was 1/2 a lazy day. lol. I woke up at 6:30 am, which is about when my body wakes me up every day anyway. That's when I wrote the blog and was grumpy about being awake. I also played a few turns on civilization. But after an hour or so found myself nodding back off, so I put up the computer, turned back on my sleep apnea machine and went back to sleep... Until noon. lol. Then I rousted myself and hubby decided to do some stuff too. So between noon and 7pm yesterday we got the following done:

Washed my blanket where Pan barfed on it New years night.
Emptied the turkey fryer into water jugs and refilled it with snow.
filled 2 basins with snow to put into the fryer as it melted down.
made dinner (see above).
Did dishes.
Emptied John (the small porta potty in the cabin).
Delivered some movies up to a friend, and took back his copy of "The Hulk".
Recharged the battery for my sleep apnea machine.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but we actually did do a lot for a day when we were still recovering from sleep deprivation. :D Today the plan is to take a load to the dump, get the mail, put up another shelf, and whatever else comes our way. Nothing solid yet. lol. Life today is still in the formative stage. I know that we do need to do some laundry, but I don't feel like driving into town to do it. So maybe I'll just find a way to wash some jeans here at the house. Since that is what I am out of is jeans. Would probably be good if I washed some other stuff too.

i've been reading a nice old book called "Housekeeping in Old Virginia". It's a compendium of sorts, mostly of recipes, but with some other knowledge tossed in. Edited by Marion Cabell Tyree, and the copyright is 1897. In it I found this recipe which I thought I would share. It actually sounds kind of good.

"To Prepare a Beef's Head as Stock for Soup"

"Cut up the head into small pieces and boil in a large quantity of water until it is boiled to pieces. Take out all the bones as for souse cheese, and boil again until thick. Then, while hot, season very highly with pepper, salt, catsup, allspice, and onion chopped fine.

Put into a mold to get cold. For a small family cut a thick slice, say five inches square, whenever you want soup in a hurry, adding about a quart of water. It need cook for a few minutes only, and is valuable as keeping well and being ready in times of emergency. By adding a few slices of boiled egg and a gill of good cooking wine, this soup may have very nearly the flavor of mock turtle." Mrs. A.M.D.

I know a gill is about the same size as a shot glass. I am guessing that this forms a type of aspic or gelatin, but how do you keep it? Does it dry out and you keep it on the shelf? Or in your icebox / refidgerator?

Another recipe calls for "loppered" milk.. Does anyone know what that is?

I LOVE old cookbooks. I would have a whole room full of them if I could.

Anyway, I am off to find some mischief.

Still recovering some Mrs. Treehaven

Hello 2009

The first day of the new year has dawned grey and raining. lol. It's almost like we were back in Eugene it's so grey outside my bedroom window. Glancing out the kitchen window doesn't change the scene much.. Especially considering they are only about 11 feet apart. hehe. I sit here awake, because at 6:30 this morning my body said it was time to get up. That's what time I usually get awake and doing "something" in the day. however, I had went to bed at 1am-ish, so I am still pretty rummy and tired. Getting to old for this party all night thing!

Having moved to the wilderness where our local civilization is about 4 miles away and that consists of about 5 businesses and a post office you would think that there wouldn't be much night life. But wow... Does it get a little wild or what?

Some of the local people own a local bar, local as in here in town. They threw a hoot-n-nanny (bigger than a shindig smaller than a feista) last night that was pretty nice. For the total sum of $27.00 we got a great meal, 4.5 beer for the hubby and bottomless pepsi for me. I even got a great handmade mardi-gra mask from one of the people we met last night.

We arrived about 7pm, and commenced with the eating and the looking for people. There were only about 4 or 5 other people there and we were teasing the hosts about where everyone was. She said to wait, that more were coming. And boy was she right. I lost count at about 25 or so, not counting kiddos. Yes, it was a family affair. We had kids as young as 1 and 1/2 running around.

There was no games, but plenty of good food, appetizers included popcorn, chips, salsa, BBQ sausage, turkey wraps with lettuce and cream cheese and whatever you wanted to order from the menu (but you had to pay for what you ordered off the menu). Drinks, hey, we were at a BAR for crying out loud. No hard liquer, but all the beer in about 40 different varieties that you could want. And lots of good people who were more than willing to chat you up.

Met a couple who live locally and who sell their lettuce at the local farmers market, and who are going to help open a store here locally, (I let them know I am willing to work!) and someone who knows someone who raises mules. There were so many people there I didn't meet everyone, but a good time was had by all.

The best part was that there were no arguements, no fights, and when we left to come home, I didn't have to dodge a torrent of drunken fools. Of course I did have to wait for the incredibly large amount of traffic as I pulled out of the parking lot to come home (one car on the road, going the opposite direction) but that's just normal right? I mean, there's always a lot of traffic on New Year's Night. Did I mention it was one car?

I have to say I have some pretty contented and happy New Years celebrations over the years. Most of these have been spent at home, happily surrounded by only my hubby and my dogs. Quietly celebrating the "out with the old, in with the new". But, never have I had a more enjoyable New Years outing.

Dinner last night was a mushroom/swiss burger with fries for me, and a handmade pizza bread for hubby. Dinner tonight will be meatloaf and veggies. Maybe. If I can stir that much energy. lol. If not then it'll be soup. But I do have a bunch of fresh hamburger to use so it won't go bad. And some sausage too.

And yes... Today will definitely be a lazy, nap kind of day.

Tired but happy Mistress of Treehaven.