Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1154)

Hello Everyone!

A seven year anniversary, The long slog continues, Permethrin treatments, Securing the coop & Draining the water system!

Alright, I am on time with the writing routine again... and have been sitting here waiting on the espresso to cool down a bit... so that I can get a few sips in me before diving into things. Considering that this is my seven year anniversary... or two thousandth five hundred and fifty sixth day...(not that I am counting) of my little experiment with sharing my life... I should try to make it a good one.

I say that I 'should' do that but honestly I would rather not do that... and just meander on much in the same manner that I have been doing of late. Seriously it is not like making hundreds of videos, dozens of podcasts, sharing thousands of images and spelling out a few million words has 'vastly improved my life' or anything like that... so... meh.

It has all been an incredible slog that has undoubtedly grown more disproportionate when I pause, look at things and apply my 'effort versus earnings' metric that I have grown so fond of referencing of late. In other words... the longer that I do it, the better that I get at spelling things out... and the less that I actually want to spell things out... given how out of balance my time invested versus the earnings actually are.

None of that is to say that I am not appreciative of the meager earnings that I do make... or that I am ungrateful for my long time supporters... but ugh the entire affair sits like a stone on my heart more often than not. Again, I dislike having to point it out but those are observations... not complaints, gripes or some round about way of shaming folks into showing more support... or any simple minded horseshit like that!

Honestly, I am so far beyond giving a damn about those things that I do not even try to gain more supporters, promote my work or do anything at all... besides the one aspect of it all that I actually like doing. Which of course is indulging in my 'worst vice' which I affectionately call: The writing.

Heck, I barely even want to take a picture each day to 'fluff out' these entries... because at the end of the day it just amounts to more time that I have to spend on it all. Not to get lost on that particular topic... but ugh it is a hassle even when one or two of the pictures that I take come out 'good' and then have to do all the post-processing required to share them.

Occasionally, I do miss making those daily videos (along with a brief blurb of writing) but again the hours it often took to upload them over some dodgy cellular connection was its own damned hassle... that was much more aggravating (and time consuming) than making these entries... so go figure. It also meant that I could not do anything else with the internet connection during that time... which yeah just made everything even more of a headache.

Believe me I know how most of that 'reads' (comes across as) but for my long-term readers I think that it is abundantly clear what I mean by it all... and no 'defending myself' or even 'inserting disclaimers' is really necessary for them to see my point. For anyone else that happens to fail to grasp it all (and its true context and meaning) well... it is not like the last seven years of my life is not here (publicly available on the blockchain) for all to see.

Obviously, I have been mulling this 'seven year milestone' over quite heavily the last few days (and also over the previous weeks preceding it) and when it comes right down to it... I still do not know what I really think about it all. What I do know, is that every step of the way I have given it my best, kept putting one foot in front of the other... and have (as of yet) not given up on it all.

In some ways it has been really good because I went from having a complete inability to write about my day to day life... to excelling at spelling out my day to day life with very little internal friction involved along the way. As I have said before... my job is to make the boring everyday things seem interesting via the medium of words.

After all I also have to read all this... to do the proofreading and editing... and for me personally there is nothing more painful than having to read (and gasp) edit stuff that absolutely sucks from a reader's perspective. So, perhaps it could be said that if I cannot find enjoyment in reading it myself... then it is not worth writing in the first place... which as an aside is something that I wish more folks did.

Now that I have gotten a smidgen of that off my chest... I should get on with spelling out my day and what all that I did or did not do... as the case may be.

Anyways, I awoke once again a little before dawn but the dreams that I was having were rather fantastic (even though they were bizarre) and I let myself drift back off to sleep so that I could see how things played out in them. Which was a bit of a mixed bag because although they were mildly enjoyable... they later took a weird turn where I became homeless, got caught up with (and befriended) some odd individuals doing some psychic hacking on me... as well as watching a hearse (driven by Death) run over one of my dogs while they were looking at their phone... and only briefly shrugging an apology as they drove away.

I awoke and went back to sleep a few times during and after all that... but I better not get too involved with spelling all of it out or I will get a bit too wrapped up in the parts that were actually weird and/or peculiar about it all. Suffice it to say that they were absolutely the kind of dreams that I pay close attention to... and do my best not to overthink as they slowly become cemented into my long-term memory.

Once I was up and about for the day I did my usual Hive engagement routine... but once again I was feeling rather lethargic and did not give it a whole lot of effort. There also was not much in the way of content that I wanted to engage with... which made me extra appreciative of those who were engaging with my own content. I am still unsure if spending four to five hours a day on that is worthwhile... but at least I am giving it a try.

Since it was what I would call 'brisk and chilly' outside I did not spend a whole lot of time outdoors... but I did get a few routine chores done early in the day as well as finally washing my frying pans so that I could cook with them again. I have no idea how long it has been since I actually cooked anything... but I made a big pan of potatoes and onions... which had me napping in short order... after eating nearly the entire pan of them.

The nap only lasted for about thirty minutes before I jostled myself awake... and treated all the dogs with some permethrin drops. Honestly, I spaced doing that for well over a month now... and am glad that I remembered to do it before any fleas could start hatching from all the bedding that I have yet to let get frozen on the infrequent 'below freezing' nights.

Later in the afternoon I did my best to secure the tarps and blanket that I have the chicken coop wrapped with... because I noticed that the wind was causing them to flap around when it was gusting. I probably could have done a better job of it overall... but basically I wedged a long wooden pole up against them where they meet on the backside of the coop... and called it good enough.

Tonight the temperatures are set to plunge below freezing again... so I went ahead and got the water system fully drained. This time I even did it before all the hoses were super stiff (from the cold) and I also did it before the temperature began to plummet... so that all the hiking around was not uncomfortable to do in the wind.

Well, I guess that is enough effort invested on this entry. I hope that folks are well... not spending too much time dwelling on the traumas of their lives... and are being thankful for the millions of small miracles... that makes life possible on this rock as it hurdles through space at a whopping sixty-seven thousand miles per hour... with no one at the helm. Ta ta for now.