Frozen Pipes and Broken nails

There are advantages to living like we do now to go along with the disadvantages. Yes, we have to haul in our water, and yes we have to haul out our sewer. Yes, we have to go to town to fill our gas cans for the generator, and yes we have to go to town to fill our propane tanks. We even have to go to town to check our email and to upload the blogs. But there are problems we don't have to face living like we do. the last time we heard a car go by at lightening fast speeds outside our house while it's being powered by the thump-thump rap crap that is coming out it was October. We have no neighbor kids bouncing their balls into our back yards. Nor do we have to listen to our "Christian" neighbor woman yelling curse words at her grandkids. Unfortunately we also have no nice neighbor boy who comes and mows our lawn either, but that neighbor boy is now all grown up an in college! We also have no lawn.

One of the other great things we don't have to contend with is water pipes. in -18 degree F weather, if we had water pipes, they would definitely freeze! Well, we don't have to worry about that. But even if we did, I always kept about 40 gallons of water (no joke!) in my storage. Now.. I just gotta do this, although I'll probably pay for this later. My sister called yesterday. She lives in a LOVELY old farm house. Two storey, two wood stoves plus propane heat. However, sometime in the night it got cold enough where she lives to freeze their pipes. Ugh. If you have ever had this happen then you know that there is no way of knowing when it defrosts if it's going to burst a pipe or not. In the conversation with her, I found out that the only water storage they have is the water pitcher in the fridge. No 5 gallon containers of water anywhere in the house or on the property! Anyway, there is another house on the same property that her sister in law lives in. And the sister in law's pipes wasn't frozen so at least my sister has water. But in the 8 years I have been preaching preparedness at her, she still doesn't have anything for emergencies put back. Not even water. I know she reads here, so I'll catch a load or two of poo for this I am sure... I can take it though. Feel free to post comments here so she'll see them. :D She can share them with her husband and maybe he'll get the bug too. hehe.

Yesterday was spent going to the library to post something like 6 blogs. Now that Mr. Treehaven has started blogging too, maybe it'll be time to break the blogs in two sometime so we can each put stuff up. I don't know how much room we have for storage, so maybe someday I'll do that. Until then, remember to read the signature at the end so you know who posted, myself or the hubby.

I have so many pictures to share with you. I'll be posting more to the blogs in the way of pictures soon. So, be ready for them.

Speaking of pics... I have some lovely pics of what living in the wilderness can do for a woman's hands. lol. You have to keep your nails SHORT living out here or any little thing you do out here will rip them right up. I don't usually pay a lot of attention to my hands. Fake nails are for those people who have way too much time and money on their hands. People who actually work for a living usually don't have fake nails. Out here, fake nails would last the time it took me to drive home from the nail salon. If that. I'd probably loose one climbing into the truck. :D Prissy hair styles that take more than a brush and scarf or much more also don't last out here. Forget the curling iron. Forget the blowdryer. If you can't just wash, comb and go, then rethink moving to the wilderness. Makeup? Why? Are you trying to impress the deer? Maybe the coyotes? I can see camo face paint... But most women don't wear that kind of makeup.. Although, if you are single ladies, I am sure that camo face paint would definitely attract the right kind of man for LIVING out here 5 miles past the end of civilization. Now, I'm not saying that personal hygeine isn't important. You want to keep your hair, feet, and nether regions clean. Especially when you are living in a 200 SF with someone else. It's more comfortable for both of you. I mean, even if that other person who lives in your personal space does live with a perpetually plugged up nose, you have to go into town sometime. Or someone may drive by and see you and stop by just to say howdy. But I digress. I don't usually pay too much attention to my hands, and I unknowingly let my nails get to long. And then I paid for it. If you have ever had your nail bent back from your finger, you will know how much it hurt when this damage happened to my nails.

Breakfast today will be cheese quesadilla and refried beans. Lunch will be Ramen, and dinner will be rice, with chunks of Treet, and sweet and sour sauce with some peas or greenbeans on the side. Can't decide which veggie I would like more. :D

Off to cause mischief and cook breakfast!

Ms. Treehaven

Daily Business

Snow.. It can be a beautiful thing. It can also be a real pain in the rump!

Yesterday we went to the big city. Nothing unusual there, we normally go on Mondays. But we drove all the way back with chains on and at 30 miles per hour or so... My lower back today is killing me, but my rump got a great massage. lol.

Anyway, we only are going out one more time this week, today. We need to go fill all the propane bottles and gas cans. The rest of the week, at least until next Monday, we are staying in. Like I said, it is lovely, but a pain in the rump to drive in. :D While we are out, we are going to stop at the store and see if there is anything we need or would like to have. We have a lot of food here, could go for months without going to the store, but not a lot on the side of munchies. Will pick some of those up. Some bread, some crackers.... Maybe a few more 1# propane bottles for the camp stove, then I'll have enough for biscuits and stuff for the oven. hehe.

It was COLD last night, down around 0 degrees F. At 5:30 last night it was at 11 degrees, so can do the math from there. Gotta still get that thermometer installed, then we'll know for sure what the temp is at times. We only know the temp because hubby was on the phone with the neighbor at that time and he told us. lol. Most of the time our temps are "cold", "colder", and "you gotta be kidding me!"... Last night was of the "you gotta be kidding me" variety. Yes, we still have some insulation to get up, but at least this week we'll have time to work on it some more. It's like we need 2 more people here to help us do all that needs to be done. lol. Move this, haul that, do this, dump that. It's crazy.

Just think. Sometime before spring (or late spring at least), we have to, build the goat pen, build the chicken coop, put up fence around the property, put the water containment in the ground, build several storage sheds, get the solar system in place, get some system for getting water in place, and get some raised beds for gardens in. This also isn't counting the wood we have to cut, the woodstove we have to put in, the smoker and oven we have to build outside, or any improvements in our cabin we have to do. hehe.

On the domestic side, I have curtains to make, rugs to make, and such too. We are talking of putting a wind baffle in the front of the house. Kind of a place that as you are coming in, you can open the door, and come in, then close it, before opening the house door to come in. It's kind of a "dead space" so not so much cold air comes into the actual house. That will help to keep it warmer in here too.

I'm sitting here listening to the hubby be outside with the kids. Everything is crunch, crunch, squealch, squealch, where hubby's sneaker bottoms are crunching in the snow, which is really more like ice crystals.

Whoot! The porta potty has just been delivered. :D no more using my beloved little John then trucking it to the disposal place. Now we can use John and not HAVE to leave the house, then just dump him in the porta potty. that will save a lot of time and hassle. It's amazing how much the simple things are soooo nice.

ok, I am off to find something to get into. :D I'm pretty good at that.

The kindness of strangers

n the short time we have been here I have encountered some of the most interesting folks. Most of them are struggling just to make ends meet. Everyone of them has provided me with a renewed faith in humans.

The first contact we made down here was our post mistress. This woman has lived here all of her life and knows just about everything about everyone in a 25 mile range. The wife and her have hit it off well and we have bartered for some of her fresh eggs.

Then there is our nearest neighbor, he is a retired business owner who has been on the hill for several seasons. He worked in the electrical field and has given us valuable advice on our power systems. He was also the source of our propane fireplace that we use for heat. Without him we would have been a lot colder. Just having someone within walking distance is a comfort, even if it is a long walk. He also introduced us our next new friend, the trader.

Our trader friend has been invaluable and is fast becoming a good friend of mine. We have very similar outlooks on the world and its condition right now. Mr. Trader has made his way bartering and trading for everything he has, or ever had, for the last 20 years or so. Everything I have needed on the cheep he has found almost the same day. He is like the Radar O'Rielly of the backwoods, he knows the connections to get what you need.

Mr. Trader made the arrangement for us to get a ride into town so we could get our truck. We rode in with a cool old guy who's idea of the high life is having his cookies and ice cream ( peanut butter and chocolate ) and taking care of his 8 cats, including one wild stinky black kitty with a nice white stripe down its back. This wonderful old guy ran us around in town in some nasty weather, just so we could get our truck back I owe him a least gallon of his favorite ice-cream when I see him.

I was never one to ask for help much back in the city. With a very few exceptions, when I did ask I was let down. Everyone was more tied up in their own problems to really be worried with someone else's problems. Folks around here have learned that you need to look out for each other. It's a lesson that a lot of folks in the city need to relearn. The kindness of strangers is something we can rely on.

The Humbled Geek of Treehaven

Food moring and silly Dog-dog

There is so much that is just totally awesome about living out in the backend of nowhwere. It's really hard to know what to share with all of you.

Yesterday was a busy, busy day for us. I got up and after writing the blog for the day, I made pancakes. Yummy! we ate and ate and there were still 4 pancakes left over so they went to the dogs, and they loved them too. Since we don't have refridgeration, when I make pancakes, the entire mix has to be cooked up and used, or tossed. lol. I guess I could just stick it outside and the snow would keep it, but I don't want to be calling that many wild animals to the homesite.

Then Mr. Mad Mountain Geek got busy and started bringing in boxes from the garage. hehe. Since it has turned cold we knew that we needed to bring in the canned goods and whatever could be damaged by freezing. Because I hadn't thought about it, I didn't really seperate these items from the ones that wouldn't be damaged when we packed. So I had canned goods packed with dehydrated stuff and the like. This meant that he had to bring in all food boxes so I could go through them. Bless his heart he did it! He brought them in and we sorted and repacked and all that. Now all the canned goods are in the house, and all the dehydrated, freeze dried, powdered stuff is back in the garage. Even if the snow collapses the garage, it's just a tent after all, it'll still be ok since it'll still act as a tarp above and below the stuff.

That pretty much took all day. lol. I was feeling a little punkish about how much meat we don't have here in our stores, but after unpacking all those boxes I feel a bit better. We found a canned ham, 3 more cans of treet, 8 cans of chicken and a lot of veggies, beans, milk, and spaghetti sauce in these cans. The pictures you see here are just of the shelves really. But there are three huge boxes of canned goods under my cooking table too. None of these pictures include pics of the freeze dried chicken, beef, cheese, milk, fruit, wheat and such that are out in the garage.

Whatever else may happen while we are here, at least we won't starve. :D

Dinner was a jar of marinated artichoke hearts split between us and bread with balsalmic vinegar and oil for dipping. Simple, but filling and good. Trying to decide what I am going to make for breakfast, but since it's only 6am I guess I don't have to hurry.

Plans for today is pretty much nothing. ;) Boil some water, wash some dishes, wash my hair and then sit around reading... Or maybe it's sit around reading then boil some water, wash some dishes, wash my hair... not sure yet.

Yesterday while we were doing the job of moving around the food my sister called. They, my sister and neices and nephew, were making gingerbread houses. Fun! While we are chatting and I am doing the unpack and move thing, I am looking out my kitchen window. And lo and behold I see movement on the back ridge. After looking for a second it dawns on me.. DEER! About 4 of them or so, a mixed herd does and bucks, moving up the hill behind the house (well, in front of the house because our door faces the back of our property). they were so close I could see the rings around their eyes. Thankfully all the dogs were in the house with us or the deer and the dogs would have been in the next county.

Speaking of dogs, my beloved dog-dog was a pill last night. Around 8 or so maybe 9, Thor got up and wanted out. So hubby, who's training is going well, dutifully got up from the table where he was playing a computer game and let Thor out the door. I was chatting away on the phone with my Aunt, whom was calling to answer some questions on the blog and chat about our lives. A little bit later, it hits me, I'm missing a dog. !!! Hubby jumps up and says "oh! I forgot Thor." (the kids still need to work on Dad's training some more I see.) Or something like that, but I am sure it needed to be something censored, so I'll just say that's what he said... And he opens the door and calls Thor. Now mind you. Thor is 12 years old, and doesn't EVER wander. Usually when he has to go out, he goes out, does his business with single minded efficiency and then comes back to the door and scratches. Dog-dog then comes back in, wags, gets a drink or not, then goes back to bed. Where he lays until some other bit of need hits him and he comes back to us to let us know he has that need. Not so last night. He went outside, Dad forgot him, I didn't pay attention, think Dad had it... And Thor decided to go on walk about. Hubby opens the door up, and calls, no Thor. He calls again, no Thor. Dad then puts on his shoes, knowing this isn't like Thor and goes around the cabin calling for him. Thor in the mean time still isn't around. So by this time I am telling my aunt I have to go, Dad is back in putting on his coat, and grabbing his headlamp and hat and I am putting on my shoes so we can go find him. Just as Dad heads back out the door, here's the Big Dog, wagging like mad, and grinning from doggy ear to doggy ear. He comes in the house, still with this big smile and wagging like he's wag powered. Snow is up to his belly on his legs, and he is so happy. Still don't know where he went or what he did, but he was pretty pleased with himself. lol. Will go out once it's daylight and see if I can see where he was. Just out of curiosity. Maybe it'll be easy to see since there is still a lot of snow on the ground. Or maybe it'll be impossible to see because it snowed more last night.

Ah the joys of being a mom.

Jobs for the day also included gathering snow. No, not the yellow snow, but the pristine, white, fluffy snow. We gathered it in tubs, put it in the turkey fryer and set that on our propane stove top where the heat that heats the room can melt it. Need to harvest this free water source. So long as we have snow we'll do this. So what if it's water we have to boil or treat with bleach. At least it's water. And it'll work for dishes or for washing or whatever. And since the dogs have been eating the snow, I am sure they can drink the water. :D One full turkey fryer of snow, yeilds 1/4 of a turkey fryer of water... This is going to take a while to fill a 5 gallon carboy.

My aunt had a good idea of making a sink for my dishes. Take two largish water containers with spigots on them, turn them on their side, cut the sides out and make a bench to fit them into. Now they can be filled with water, dishes washed, and then drained easily. That would definitely give me more room for dishwashing than I have with my two little dishpans. It would also mean that I wouldn't have to take down the table and all that between dishwashing. Of course once it gets REALLY cold up here, I would still probably be doing dishes in the house. I don't know if I want to be standing outside to do dishes in -10 degree F weather. hehe.. But it would certainly work when it wasn't in the negatives for temperature.

Ok, gotta get moving for the day. Not really, it just sounded good to say. :D

Lazy Lady of Treehaven

SNOW redone!

OK, so we really did get snow last night! About 2 inches of it. It's beautiful, and COLD. :D It's everywhere we look and just simply wonderful. I don't know how far down it went, if it hit the flatlands or not, but we sure got it. Big fluffy snow. Everything is so pristine and wonderlandy out there. I am sure that by the time April or May comes around (when we get melted around here) that I am going to be saying much less nice things about it!

It was very odd yesterday. We were out moving things around outside, when suddenly the quality of the air changed to me. It was a sudden temperature drop and the "FEEL" of the air changed. It became more crisp and... Well, it's very hard to explain. I know that some of you reading this blog may understand while the rest of you kind of go "huh?". lol. It was very special to be able to feel that though. A wonderful gift.

Then, along about 4pm, hubby went to get something from the garage and opened the door on the cabin and said "oh, it's starting to rain"... I looked out the window (I was sitting at the kitchen window) and noticed it wasn't rain. I KNEW it wasn't rain I felt coming on earlier in the day. So I went to the door and said "look again". He said "I know, I know." and grimaced at me! lol. It IS beautiful though. Everything has a wonderland look to it.

I guess I better enjoy it while I can, by the time Spring comes it'll be a muddy morass that sticks to everything. I'll have to have the dogs wash their feet before coming in the cabin and hubby will have to leave his boots outside. Ugh. I have always hated Spring, but I have a feeling that I will come to hate it a lot more living here in the Wilderness.

Here it is: 7:10 AM 12/13/2008 and it's starting to snow out there again. Not a lot. If it were rain I would say that it's "spitting". Maybe it's snow powder coming off the tops of the trees? Don't know. I can see it every once in a while though.

the dogs are of mixed feelings about it. Freya goes out in it and still tries to track stuff, but it's giving her difficulty. When she went out this morning instead of being in the next county inside of 2 minutes, she was just up on the hill. At least this makes it easy to call her back. lol. Pan is cold, even with his coat and doesn't like to stay out in it. Thor is totally indifferent. It may as well as be a sunny day out there for him. He sniffs around, and looks up and then kind of shrugs his shoulders, does his thing, then comes back in the house. lol.

I'm kind of interested in getting dressed, and going out to see what tracks I can find. I know I'll find dog tracks... Duh! I have 3 dogs! I know there is deer up here, and I have been told there are lynx, badger, wolverine, squirrel, chipmunk, birds of all shapes and sizes, couger, bobcat, coyote, of course cow and horse, skunk... Who knows what all kind of tracks I'll find. When we placed the cabin, it's placed on a wildlife trail. Probably deer made it, but who knows what else uses it. I know that in the mornings, when we let the dogs out, that they sniff and sniff to see who else has been here.

It keeps coming to mind that I have to be sure to get the fences up before spring! I don't want to wake up, and go to let the dogs out only to have them disappear over the ridge chasing God only knows what. Cow? Horse? Some other critter. At least with a fence they can run to the fence then no more. We'll do a 4 foot hog fence to keep the dogs in, then string at least a double strand of barbed wire on the outside of that to keep the cattle and horses OUT of the hog fence. Hope that works. If not then maybe shooting into the air will scare them off if we see them come around.

I'll have to send hubby out with the infamous camera and see what pics he can get from around the homesite. Will have to be sure he puts toe warmers in his boots, last thing I want to have to treat is frostbite. Especially if it's only because of pictures.

Snowshoes! We'll have to get some snowshoes for both of us. I would just make some, but we don't have the right wood aorund here. I think Willow is the best? I don't know, I'll have to research that, feel free to send me any links on making snowshoes. Since I do a lot of other crafts that would at least be a USEFUL one out here.

Will need to get at least Pan some boots for this weather too, can't leave them alone for long here, they'll freeze their noses, toes and the like. If Freya doesn't stop eating the snow she'll freeze her tongue! Brain frozen dog! Hubby mentioned that maybe it's a breed thing, since neither of the other two do it, only her. She's a Norwegian Elkhound. Someone else have an Elkie that does this? Is it a breed thing or just something my brain damaged furdaughter does?

Hummm... I am pretty sure that it's snow spittle happening out there and that it's not just coming down out of the trees now. It's light enough I can see it and it's all over, not just by the trees. I wonder how much this particular storm is going to dump on us?

Last winter was one of the worse winters a lot of these people can remember. They got 7 foot + of snow. At once! I have heard that the average is about 2 feet. So sometimes it's 2-3 inches, and sometimes it's more. lol.

OK, I am outta here, not sure what I am going to find to do, maybe some crochet. I have a kitchen towel to finish. this towel is going to wrap the gift of scarf for the very nice lady in town who has been so helpful to us. The gift of scarf to the neighbor who has been so giving of his time and information, was wrapped in two hand crochet washclothes (washed and preshrunk of course) yesterday. I don't know if he's going to wait until Christmas to open it or not. Either way, I hope he likes it.

have a great day everyone!
Snowoman of Treehaven

It's all in how you look at things

Over a dozen pines reach for heaven, their needles tips painted with glistering snow. A hill sweeps up to the horizon just beyond the trees where the low sagebrush dots the ground and stubbornly defies the light snow. There are fresh paw prints in a light fluff snow made by an over excited K9 leading out of our front yard, into the groves of trees to my right, and then stretching up the sage doted hill in the distance. One lone pine, bent till its crown just touches the two inches of snow on the ground, laughs at me because it has survived yet another day without me ending its struggle for life with a chainsaw.

That is the view from my window this morning as I sit here contemplating our own struggles here in the backwoods. Right now we are stranded with no truck. My own stupidity the cause of our plight. We should be able to retrieve it on Monday, but it's going to cost a good bit of my next check and we are at the mercy of the same snow that looks so wonderful. Bad roads could prevent us from going into town to pick it up.

We are low on gas for our gas hog of a generator and our little portable battery pack has proven to way less then we needed. If it were not for the help of some of our new friends, we would be even worse off then we are right now.

Thanks to good advice and help we have heat and still a good bit of fuel for our heater. We have plenty of food and water so we will make it. It could get unconformable, but I don't foresee dire circumstances.

I could sit here and curse and rave at the snow for making our life that much harder, but right now its just to pretty for me to get mad at it. I guess it really is all in how you look at things.

Snow bound Geek of Treehaven

Taking Care of Business

Hi hi!

The hubby got 3 posts up before I got this one up! Not fair. :P Well, I'll just have to work harder at it I guess.

thought we would get snow today, but no dice. Looks like I'm still stuck driving in to do laundry. :( ick. I can't wait until I can start doing it here, but I don't have a bucket/pail/tub big enough yet. There is a second hand store I thought I would check out in the small town just to the north of here, but I can't go there yet. :D Need the $$$ to do that.

Of all the things we are short on the cash is the the worst. We can make do with so much, but it seems that homesteading is a rich mans sport. lol. I keep thinking that if we just had about $3,000.00 to our name then we would be sitting so much better off to be able to survive the bad weather when it hits. But I keep making do with what we have coming in. There just seems so much more week at the end of the money. lol. I'll do it, it just takes some practice I guess.


We all went for a nice walk-about yesterday. I made it all the way up the road to a neighbors house! Whoot! I'm getting better at this walk thing. Getting to his house is no easy task. On the road (much easier walking than cross country) you go down a small incline from our driveway, to where a culvert runs under the road. This culvert is filled in on one side and Hubby says that he is thinking of going and shoveling it out so maybe the road doesn't get washed out this spring. It's a nice area, but then you start UP the next hill. And while it's a hill, it's STEEP. I had to break 3 times on it yesterday to get my breath. Our neighbor lives at the top of this other hill, around a small bend in the road.

Anyway, we got there just as he was leaving yesterday! lol. So what did we do? He turned off his car and got out and we stood yammering in the middle of the road! ROFL. Only in the country. We were there for about 40 minutes and didn't even have to THINK that there may be a vehicle coming through. hehe. I love it.

It's so much easier to sleep up here. No loud rap music, no screaming and arguing neighbors, no loud trucks driving by, It's just so NICE! And the sporadic barking of the dogs at all of this aforementioned City Sound? None! The dogs are SOOOO relaxed up here. Even Pan has stopped barking at every little thing and just kind of takes his day in with a grin.

OH! I didn't mention that I now have some SHELVES! WHOOT! I have a place to put some canned goods, it's extremely wonderful. Now I just have to get them up on it. lol. And a rug on my floor, and my curtains up, and walls up... ROFL. So much to do and so little time in the day. It's pretty amazing though that every little thing that is done is so WONDERFUL and makes us feel so accomplished.

Back in Eugene, when I worked all day and did so much, I never had this feeling of satisfaction of getting anything done. Even when I KNEW I did so much during the day. But now, I am so happy to have accomplished something when I cook a meal, or look around our cabin and see what we have done with so little.

Hubby put up the shelves while I was doing dinner last night. Nothing fancy, just some wood and shelf brackets. But they look so awesome and will be so useful. It just tickles me.

I have had so much going on lately It's hard to remember it all so I know what to write about. but right now I want to talk "BIFFY". Yes, porta-potty. We have been using a small chemical toilet here in the cabin. But it needs emptying every few days. A pain in the... Well you get the drift, after all we are talking about a certain portion of your anatomy here. We finally bit the bullet and called a porta-potty place. I was worried that they would be balky about bringing one out because we don't have a physical address, but she didn't blink! We're all set up and for a measily $75.00 a month we'll be living in style with our own blue out house. We'll keep the small toilet in here in the house for those night time or snowed in emergency needs, but this will make a complete difference to not have to run somewhere to dump poor John. (Yes, we named our little potty here John, it's after my ex-brother-in-law, who is a real stinker to be polite about it.) Whats even funnier, is that while I was ordering our shiney, new, blue Biffy, I was talking with the wonderful lady that took our order, and she told me about a pretty place not too far from us where there is some AWESOME fishing, and photography ops. We chatted for about 10 minutes about this after I ordered the potty. Hubby was just looking at me as I went on and on and on with this conversation. She's going to find out exactly how to get to this camping place from her hubby then let me know in the next day or two so we can go down and get some pics.

Mistress Treehaven AKA Social Butterfly extraordinare!