The 31st... The last day of the year and the looking forward to the new. Tonight, in Eugene, there would be parties, and fireworks, yelling and nerves. The dogs would be a mess. Freya would be barking her head off, Pan would be trembling like a palsied poodle as well as barking and Thor would be in our bed since he can't get under it. Fireworks drive them all insane. Peoples houses would get egged, or TP'd and cars may get tagged with spraypaint.
Here in the Backwoods of Nowhere, there is a party at the local bar, and there are no kids in the area. Fireworks aren't used around here for fear of forest, house or barn fires. TP is pretty precious (don't want to run out while you're snowed in) and so the kids would get their butts beaten for wasting it. And while your neighbor may be a partying fool, he's also 2 miles away.
We are planning on dropping in on the local party, so long as the weather holds anyway, if it's pouring snow we'll stay home, don't want to get stuck out. Don't know if we'll stay until the entire midnight thing or not. Being old folks midnight is a bit late. lol.
There is something to be said for not running the generator at night! Our nephew forwarded us a Christmas present via paypal. We used it to buy a battery. A lot of money for such a simple little thing, but it is definitely needed. So, yesterday hubby charged this battery up, and last night we hooked up the inverter to it. And it ran Harvey (my sleep apnea machine) all night long! I was so happy about that, it's gas saved which means money saved. Unfortunately I kept waking up imagining that the gas in the generator had run out and that hubby would have to go fill it. lol.. But I know that will go away with time. Going to try using it again tonight too and see if I can get two nights worth of power out of the battery to start with and then only charge it every other day. That will cut our gas consumption by 1/3. Not running the generator makes the night SO quiet. Every little click, and thump was heard.
I made a call last night and invited a friend to come up to stay at the property. She has recently been evicted from her home of 10 years and has a travel trailer. I explained that we won't be able to afford to buy propane for her or provide her with electricity, but at least she would have a stable place to park the trailer until something better came along. She was estatic about the offer and said she may take us up on it. Where she is at now she is at a friends house and they rent.
Last night after we got home from filling the propane I got busy and did some handwork. I had some fringe on a scarf to finish, hemming of 2 washclothes, and a hole in one of my favorite sweaters to fix. So I did them all. I still have 2 washclothes to hem, and a pair of socks to repair, but I'll do them tonight or tomorrow.
Well, the battery on my laptop is down to 27% so I'll be done for now. Maybe I'll use some of the battery power from the big battery to charge my laptop battery later. :D In the mean time I need to get ready to go back into town today and cash a couple of checks and drop off some information to an aquaintence there. As well as maybe stop at the library. Although, we do have some books unpacked now for me to read. :D I do love to read.
Busy as a Beaver Lady of Treehaven.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
Looking Back
I have a feeling that this will be my last blog entry for the year. The new year is coming up fast so I'm going to do what all the old media does and take a look back at the old year.
Last New Year's eve I was at home making sure our cowardly middle fur child didn't freak out over the fireworks all our neighbors were setting off. If I recall correctly we watched some movie to "celebrate". You could say the event didn't leave a big impression in my mind.
If I were to try and sum up the last year in a word it would be "frustration". Frustration that I was just another cog in a big corporation, frustration with my own body as it fell apart more each day, and frustration that so much of my life was under the control of someone else.
All this frustration took its toll on me. I live with pain everyday, it's part of the price I paid to survive cancer. I also live with fear that the cancer could return. This pain and fear magnified every other problem I bumped into. Eventually my frustration with work hit a point where I had to do something. I believed (and still do believe) that my physical, and growing mental, limits caused my work management to treat me differently then they did my co-workers, in other words I was being discriminated against. A bit of advice for anyone who might find themselves in a similar situation, don't trust the internal company process for reporting discrimination, it is only there to protect the company, not the individual worker. Go straight to the (choke, gag, cough) government.
I'm sure you have heard the term "going postal". It's a way of saying that someone went bonkers and started to right perceived wrongs they experienced at work with the help of their favorite firearm. Once I started to realize I was growing ever closer to the "going postal" state of mind from the company's discrimination investigation and treatment of me, I talked to my Dr.. For the good of all involved, and my own physical and mental well being, he placed me on medical disability for a few months. Yep, this MAD mountain geek is truly certifiable.
If you have been reading the blog from the start you have a good idea what all has happened since then, so I won't recap all of that.
I'm still dealing with frustration but not as much as I was, and the majority of it is from dealing with the company's and the insurance provider's "policies". I hate the word policy, corporations sling it about as if it were law chiseled into stone when it is nothing but their idea of what is best for the company.
For now, I am still at the mercy of this corporate control over parts of my life, but I have discovered a new way of approaching life here in the backwoods. I no longer look at every person I see as another source of frustration that needs to be removed from the gene pool, that is as long as I stay out of the city.
Whoops, time to head into the city, breathe... breathe... breathe, I can do this.
Certified Geek of Treehaven
Walk About, drive to city, and all that
What is it about lazy days that tend to not stay lazy? Yesterday was supposed to be a lazy day. After writing up the blog and doing some Bible reading for the day, I went for a nice long walk about with the hubby and the dogs. Thor stayed pretty much right next to me the entire time. He's very much a mama's boy. Good thing he can't read the blog, as he would probably be embarassed that I just told a bunch of people that.
Freya on the other hand ran about 40 or 50 times the distance we walked. She ran ahead on the road, then back to us when we called, over to the right side of the road and up the gully, and back when we called... the left side of the road held a bit of interest too, so she ran over there, and back to us when we called. lol. You get the picture. Teens have SO much energy. And she never walks anywhere, it's always at this ground eating trot. She loves to trot up a hill and look back at dad, when she does this he calls her back and she comes back down the hill as fast as her legs can carry her back at dad like a runaway train. "Catch me dad! My brakes are broke!" and he catches her and she wiggles and wags all over, if she could she would be laughing so loud.
Pan kind of does both. He likes to stick closer to us than Freya does, but he's not against running up the road and back to us and playing as we go along. So he also gets a ton of excersize and is panting like a steam engine when we get home usually.
Yesterday they were all crazy dogs. Running and plowing through the snow, jumping over the piles of snow on the side of the road where it was plowed by the grader. Barking, and being silly. A few times Freya and Pan were playing on the side of the road, they were leaping and barking and feinting and such, and the snow was up past their tummies! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, we did have over 2 foot of snow in places up here. I was just surprised that they would want to play in it. lol.
After our walk about we came home and the dogs crashed. Hubby put up another shelf for me! This one is about 3 1/2 or 4 feet long. All of these shelves look so crooked, but it's because they are level and the cabin isn't. We won't be able to level the cabin now until spring. But the shelves are all level so nothing will fall off and against the unlevel wall boards it looks funny. Anyway, we debated what to put on it, and I am content with the food that we have on the shelves, even with the rest on the floor for now. So I decided to put books on it. So, hubby went out to the garage and brought in a tote full of books, which I promptly put up on the shelf. And then he brought in 2 more boxes of books which I also put up on the shelf. One of these boxes was one that should have stayed in storage and not come with us, but it accidently was included with what we brought. So I took it from the box it was in and either tonight or tomorrow I'll repack it into the empty tote box to go back into the garage for storage. Or maybe I'll find a corner to tuck it into in here.
I also added some screws to the front of my spice shelf. This will give me a place to hang some of my cooking utensils so I have them at hand while I prepare meals. My "Mis en plas" is getting there. I just have a bit more tweaking to it, such as more shelves to get some more stuff out of my way while I prep food. It's just so important to have a place for everything in this tiny cabin.
For dinner we splurged and went down to the local resteraunt for dinner. Burgers! Pop! and ice cream for dessert for me. Oh it was good! Hubby had blackberry pie for dessert, heated with ice cream on top and he had sweet tea to drink. The owners of the resteraunt are amazing people too. Friendly and very family like. I love going down there, and if I could I would just sit all day and talk with them and just drink pop. lol.
There are so many wonderful people up here who have such great stories to tell, I feel like I have stepped into a Foxfire book sometimes with all the great information and stories of these peoples lives. Ex-military who have been everywhere, people who were born here and went no where although they know everything about the area... People who work with livestock, some who work with technology, and people of all races, religions and creeds.
And now we are adding our story to the pot.
Well, today is that dreaded day of driving into the big city again. Ugh, I really do not enjoy that. But it has to be done, so I grit my teeth and do it. At least we are in a warming trend weather wise so We won't need chains on the truck to do it. yay! We'll be able to drive faster than 35 miles per hour.
Mrs. Treehaven, who is off to see the wizard.
Freya on the other hand ran about 40 or 50 times the distance we walked. She ran ahead on the road, then back to us when we called, over to the right side of the road and up the gully, and back when we called... the left side of the road held a bit of interest too, so she ran over there, and back to us when we called. lol. You get the picture. Teens have SO much energy. And she never walks anywhere, it's always at this ground eating trot. She loves to trot up a hill and look back at dad, when she does this he calls her back and she comes back down the hill as fast as her legs can carry her back at dad like a runaway train. "Catch me dad! My brakes are broke!" and he catches her and she wiggles and wags all over, if she could she would be laughing so loud.
Pan kind of does both. He likes to stick closer to us than Freya does, but he's not against running up the road and back to us and playing as we go along. So he also gets a ton of excersize and is panting like a steam engine when we get home usually.
Yesterday they were all crazy dogs. Running and plowing through the snow, jumping over the piles of snow on the side of the road where it was plowed by the grader. Barking, and being silly. A few times Freya and Pan were playing on the side of the road, they were leaping and barking and feinting and such, and the snow was up past their tummies! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, we did have over 2 foot of snow in places up here. I was just surprised that they would want to play in it. lol.
After our walk about we came home and the dogs crashed. Hubby put up another shelf for me! This one is about 3 1/2 or 4 feet long. All of these shelves look so crooked, but it's because they are level and the cabin isn't. We won't be able to level the cabin now until spring. But the shelves are all level so nothing will fall off and against the unlevel wall boards it looks funny. Anyway, we debated what to put on it, and I am content with the food that we have on the shelves, even with the rest on the floor for now. So I decided to put books on it. So, hubby went out to the garage and brought in a tote full of books, which I promptly put up on the shelf. And then he brought in 2 more boxes of books which I also put up on the shelf. One of these boxes was one that should have stayed in storage and not come with us, but it accidently was included with what we brought. So I took it from the box it was in and either tonight or tomorrow I'll repack it into the empty tote box to go back into the garage for storage. Or maybe I'll find a corner to tuck it into in here.
I also added some screws to the front of my spice shelf. This will give me a place to hang some of my cooking utensils so I have them at hand while I prepare meals. My "Mis en plas" is getting there. I just have a bit more tweaking to it, such as more shelves to get some more stuff out of my way while I prep food. It's just so important to have a place for everything in this tiny cabin.
For dinner we splurged and went down to the local resteraunt for dinner. Burgers! Pop! and ice cream for dessert for me. Oh it was good! Hubby had blackberry pie for dessert, heated with ice cream on top and he had sweet tea to drink. The owners of the resteraunt are amazing people too. Friendly and very family like. I love going down there, and if I could I would just sit all day and talk with them and just drink pop. lol.
There are so many wonderful people up here who have such great stories to tell, I feel like I have stepped into a Foxfire book sometimes with all the great information and stories of these peoples lives. Ex-military who have been everywhere, people who were born here and went no where although they know everything about the area... People who work with livestock, some who work with technology, and people of all races, religions and creeds.
And now we are adding our story to the pot.
Well, today is that dreaded day of driving into the big city again. Ugh, I really do not enjoy that. But it has to be done, so I grit my teeth and do it. At least we are in a warming trend weather wise so We won't need chains on the truck to do it. yay! We'll be able to drive faster than 35 miles per hour.
Mrs. Treehaven, who is off to see the wizard.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Simple Days
Some people measure their wealth by the size of their bank account. I measure my wealth by my friends and family... and my food. lol. We put up another shelf yesterday, and filled it with canned goods from a box under the cook table. Mostly diced tomatoes, but that's ok. Diced tomatoes you can make a ton of things with. There was also some evaporated milk, and peaches, canned grapes, and some pineapple slices, just to name a few of the treasures I pulled out of the box. Yummy! There is also some cheddar & broccoli soup mix bags I found in the box. It's a good thing to have, as you can eat it as soup, or you can thin it down a little and have it as a sauce. I am thinking of mixing some in some biscuits and seeing what I come up with. I still have 6 flats of food under the table (12 cans/jars per flat) and a case of chicken broth and a case of peaches. The case of beef broth is open and under another table/stand, and on top of it is tomato paste and sauce cans.
Last night for dinner, I did some rice up in Chicken broth. Then I added a can of peas and carrots, 1/2 a can of sweet corn and a can of chicken. All the cans of stuff were drained of course. Then over that I put some turkey gravy (homestyle gravy from a jar). It was pretty good. The gravy was added seperately because Hubby and I each like different levels of "goopiness" to our food. Definitely a do again meal. This morning, hubby took the left over rice mix, added some veggie oil, some seasame oil and some teriyaki sauce, and fried it up for breakfast. It was pretty good!
While I was playing with the shelf yesterday, hubby went out and changed the oil in the generator. I guess you have to do that every 100 hours or so of operation, and since we use it for about 10 hours each night, he'll be doing that quite regularly. At least it only takes about 1/2 quart or so of oil! If it didn't then that could get expensive.
There are some short, squatty trees up the road from us. I don't know who owns the property, but no one lives on it. I need to do some research, as I have been told they are Mahogany trees! A nice dense, hardwood that is good for burning or wood projects. As far as I can tell we don't have any on our immediate property, and if I can find out how to propigate them, then maybe I'll just have to gather some and put here. There are so many I don't think the owner of the property will begrudge me if I can transplant 1 or 2 or if I can get starts off of them. It's a pretty wood, with silver bark and a nice orange inside.
Today is Sunday, so I think I'll spend the day doing as little as possible. I have some Bible reading to catch up on, and a book to finish. And if I'm REALLY energetic, I have some crochet to finish too. A dark blue scarf and a grey scarf. I think I am going to give them to the gentleman who cooked our Christmas dinner and his dad. Most of the people up here are men, and most of them don't have womenfolk to do nice things for them. So I'll do what I can and see if I can give them a little of what they are missing. Who knows... Maybe I can bring a touch of sophistication to these wild mountain men.
Lazy Mamma of three furkids
Last night for dinner, I did some rice up in Chicken broth. Then I added a can of peas and carrots, 1/2 a can of sweet corn and a can of chicken. All the cans of stuff were drained of course. Then over that I put some turkey gravy (homestyle gravy from a jar). It was pretty good. The gravy was added seperately because Hubby and I each like different levels of "goopiness" to our food. Definitely a do again meal. This morning, hubby took the left over rice mix, added some veggie oil, some seasame oil and some teriyaki sauce, and fried it up for breakfast. It was pretty good!
While I was playing with the shelf yesterday, hubby went out and changed the oil in the generator. I guess you have to do that every 100 hours or so of operation, and since we use it for about 10 hours each night, he'll be doing that quite regularly. At least it only takes about 1/2 quart or so of oil! If it didn't then that could get expensive.
There are some short, squatty trees up the road from us. I don't know who owns the property, but no one lives on it. I need to do some research, as I have been told they are Mahogany trees! A nice dense, hardwood that is good for burning or wood projects. As far as I can tell we don't have any on our immediate property, and if I can find out how to propigate them, then maybe I'll just have to gather some and put here. There are so many I don't think the owner of the property will begrudge me if I can transplant 1 or 2 or if I can get starts off of them. It's a pretty wood, with silver bark and a nice orange inside.
Today is Sunday, so I think I'll spend the day doing as little as possible. I have some Bible reading to catch up on, and a book to finish. And if I'm REALLY energetic, I have some crochet to finish too. A dark blue scarf and a grey scarf. I think I am going to give them to the gentleman who cooked our Christmas dinner and his dad. Most of the people up here are men, and most of them don't have womenfolk to do nice things for them. So I'll do what I can and see if I can give them a little of what they are missing. Who knows... Maybe I can bring a touch of sophistication to these wild mountain men.
Lazy Mamma of three furkids
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Milo, Otis and Shelves
Gifts from heaven aren't to be ignored.
Hubby and I had been talking about adding another furkid... but we never guessed at the possibility of two.
On our way up to the Christmas dinner on Thursday, two dogs were running down the road. Mind you, they were running with purpose and after a brief hesitation on our parts, we just left them as it looked like they were heading home. One was a little brown lanky fellow, the other was a stocky looking canine that had a stubby tail who was black with some white and brown tossed in for flavor. We asked at the dinner and no one knew who they belonged to.
Yesterday, we were heading into town to get some more gas, there were rumors of another storm coming and we wanted to be sure we had plenty to last. Here were these same two dogs again, so we stopped, and they came running full of wags and happy greetings. They looked scruffy and jumped up in the truck without a qualm. So we took them down to the store, no dice, no one knew them. Then we went to our friends place the next town over (where we go to get gas) and he didn't know them either.
We were starting to warm to the idea, but still weren't 100% certain about keeping them. The working names of Milo and Otis were applied to these two vagabonds, can't just call them "Dog" or "Mutt". Of course they would still have to get along with our own three furkids. But we thought we would give it another shot. If they had owners/human parents, then that is where they belonged.
So, we went up to a new friends place not far from us, he had been at the dinner and from the description, couldn't place them. However, we hit paydirt. Once he saw the dogs he said he knew them and they lived up the way a bit. So with heavy yet happy hearts we drove up to their home and returned them to their parents.
I guess these two have the wanderlust as their owner said it was the second time that they had taken off and someone had returned them. Kind of crazy to let them run if you ask me, there are trappers up here and a trap isn't a good way for a dog to die.
Thus the adventure ended with us coming home and me being a little sad that we didn't have more kids. Oh well, I know that when the time is right more will come.
On another note, we got another shelf hung yesterday! And now my spices are out and ready for cooking. Today we will put up some more shelves, and whatever else comes to hand. I'll have to get a picture of the shelf we hung yesterday. It's SOOO crooked, but it's totally level. It's just that we are that far off level on the cabin. Once the Spring thaw comes though, you better beleive that the cabin will be leveled. This of course means that most of the shelves will have to come down too. lol. But I can live with that.
Haven't a clue for breakfast, but dinner will be, chicken flavored rice, with peas, carrots, and corn, and some turkey gravy over it. Pretty much a meatless meal except for the bits of turkey in the gravy (it's from a jar and has some pieces in it, although there are only a few of them). Sometimes it's good to have no meat right? :D I'll compensate by doing meat something tomorrow. hehe.
off to find something to do.
Ms. "Searching for more furkids" Treehaven
Hubby and I had been talking about adding another furkid... but we never guessed at the possibility of two.
On our way up to the Christmas dinner on Thursday, two dogs were running down the road. Mind you, they were running with purpose and after a brief hesitation on our parts, we just left them as it looked like they were heading home. One was a little brown lanky fellow, the other was a stocky looking canine that had a stubby tail who was black with some white and brown tossed in for flavor. We asked at the dinner and no one knew who they belonged to.
Yesterday, we were heading into town to get some more gas, there were rumors of another storm coming and we wanted to be sure we had plenty to last. Here were these same two dogs again, so we stopped, and they came running full of wags and happy greetings. They looked scruffy and jumped up in the truck without a qualm. So we took them down to the store, no dice, no one knew them. Then we went to our friends place the next town over (where we go to get gas) and he didn't know them either.
We were starting to warm to the idea, but still weren't 100% certain about keeping them. The working names of Milo and Otis were applied to these two vagabonds, can't just call them "Dog" or "Mutt". Of course they would still have to get along with our own three furkids. But we thought we would give it another shot. If they had owners/human parents, then that is where they belonged.
So, we went up to a new friends place not far from us, he had been at the dinner and from the description, couldn't place them. However, we hit paydirt. Once he saw the dogs he said he knew them and they lived up the way a bit. So with heavy yet happy hearts we drove up to their home and returned them to their parents.
I guess these two have the wanderlust as their owner said it was the second time that they had taken off and someone had returned them. Kind of crazy to let them run if you ask me, there are trappers up here and a trap isn't a good way for a dog to die.
Thus the adventure ended with us coming home and me being a little sad that we didn't have more kids. Oh well, I know that when the time is right more will come.
On another note, we got another shelf hung yesterday! And now my spices are out and ready for cooking. Today we will put up some more shelves, and whatever else comes to hand. I'll have to get a picture of the shelf we hung yesterday. It's SOOO crooked, but it's totally level. It's just that we are that far off level on the cabin. Once the Spring thaw comes though, you better beleive that the cabin will be leveled. This of course means that most of the shelves will have to come down too. lol. But I can live with that.
Haven't a clue for breakfast, but dinner will be, chicken flavored rice, with peas, carrots, and corn, and some turkey gravy over it. Pretty much a meatless meal except for the bits of turkey in the gravy (it's from a jar and has some pieces in it, although there are only a few of them). Sometimes it's good to have no meat right? :D I'll compensate by doing meat something tomorrow. hehe.
off to find something to do.
Ms. "Searching for more furkids" Treehaven
Thursday, December 25, 2008
I'm Dreaming of a white Christmas
It may seam silly to some folks, but this is my first ever white Christmas and I'm a bit giddy over it. The holiday season has never been a big deal for me. I see it as a commercialized controversy generator these days.
Back in Eugene, last holiday season, one of the big issues was over Christmas trees in public buildings. Some of the rabid politically correct bunch thought having the trees was a violation of church and state. I have to say that in a way they were right, but I don't think the local government was trying to force the Druid's beliefs on anyone.
The Christmas tree was originally a part of the druid celebration of winter solstice. The whole Christmas thing was put into place to help blend the pagan solstice celebrations with the new Christian religion. Don't get me wrong, I believe that Christ was born, just not on Dec 25.
I remember the Christmas TV specials of my youth, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and the other stop motion animations about the season. They kept me and other kids involved in the stories of Christmas. These stories were brought to you by .. Narelco or Zenith or Mattel or some other company wanting the parents to spend money. The message to kids, Christmas is about garbled history and your parents need to buy things or Santa won't come down your chimney.
The only Christmas show I still think got it anywhere close to right was the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Sure, it ended with Linus giving the Christian spin on Christmas, forgetting about all the other religions, but the message of helping one another, forgiveness, and hope stood out. Besides, who can resist Snoopy.
Today I look out at a snow coved vista and hope that somewhere, someone is teaching their kids about more then just garbled history and toys. Maybe they are teaching their kids about the hope of a new year approaching and the need to help out other folks. Yes, it is a good time to reflect on the birth of the Christ, but to so many people around the world the season has very different meanings. Teach truth to your children and they will have the greatest gift of all.
But don't forget to play in the snow if you have it.
Snow Covered Geek of Treehaven
Christmas Day
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
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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