Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1161)

Hello Everyone!

A hot bath on a chilly day, Filling water jugs, Installing the bug-proof mattress cover & When convenience is inconvenient!

Alright, I am on time with my writing routines and hedging closer to the early part of the allotted time frame for it... like I mentioned trying to do in my last entry. Although, I am not beginning it all a whole lot earlier than the previous few days... it is earlier nonetheless... and as I am fond of saying: Even marginal improvement is still improvement!

Thankfully, I got to sleep rather early last night... and in doing so I managed to wrest my sleep cycle back to my more 'normal' pattern... which is good because it was really starting to wear on me. I even woke up rather early this morning... and started my Hive engagement routine not all that long after the sun rose over the eastern horizon.

I am still unsure on the wisdom of doing so much engagement given how many of 'the words that I have in me for the day' that it tends to use up... but I keep giving it my best nonetheless. I have also noticed that I gravitate towards engaging with folks that are actually 'doing stuff' in life... and who inspire me in ways that only 'muses' and/or 'peers' can do.

All around I am still a bit hesitant with going out of my way to share helpful stuff with folks... given the resistance (and dismissiveness) that I sometimes meet (mainly due to folks egos and such) but alas I do still tend to give them a chance... and see how the chips fall from there. It is so weird sometimes having to express that I have decades of actual real world experiences on a variety of topics... and am not talking out my ass (or being merely ingratiating) as so many folks tend to be on the platform.

What I have learned along the way (not just recently but over the course of sharing my life the last seven years) is that by and large... getting into spats with folks just is not worth the energy invested. That said though... sometimes it is well worth it... and I have very little tolerance for keeping the kid gloves on or not being verbally combative... when the perceived stakes are high enough.

Overall, I have been doing my best to stick with my resolutions for the new year and 'trimming the fat' from both my online activities... and who I choose to interact with in general. In the long run doing so might come back around to bite me in the arse... but I have grown rather intolerant over my own tolerance of certain things and people... so go figure!

Anyways, this morning it was super cold outside... but I once again got outdoors early, broke up all the ice in the water containers for the critters... and let the chickens out of their coop. I thought about leaving them in there given that the windchill was a bit severe... but it was so sunny that I figured they would do alright regardless.

Not long before the sun was at its zenith... I bundled up in some warm clothes and hiked over to the well so that I could bring the water system back online... and see if anything had gotten broken during all the freezing weather. I was actually kind of surprised that everything was fine... because when I flipped the breaker in the panel (to energize the pump) the first thing that I heard... was a bunch of ice clunking around inside the pressure tank.

I think that when it drains that most of the water is able to evacuate... and that there is enough room inside the tank for the water that remains (because the tank is on its side) that it has enough room to expand when it freezes. I am unsure what effect (if any) that the ice shards might have on the bladder (once they start moving around from the water) but even with the main water valve (to the rest of the system) off the tank seemed to correctly hold its pressure.

After all that jazz was done... I had to do all the usual hiking (and closing all the open spigots) involved in bringing the system back online... after all the air was purged from the lines. It might not seem like all that big of a deal... but whoa it is pretty tedious given how far apart (and vast) that the water system is.

Since I wanted to get a bath while the water system was online... I got my pump from the solar shack and got the outdoor tub pumped out in short order. I am unsure if I mentioned my new strategy with that but now when I plug the pump in... I lay it on its side inside the tub of water... and then step on the PVC pipe (and its elbow) where it rests on the tub's edge... then plug the pump's electrical cord into the extension cord using both my hands.

Once I got the tub pumped out... I sprayed it all out with one of the hoses with a high pressure nozzle... and called it 'clean enough' because I damn sure was not going to scrub it out... and get my hands soaking wet in this kind of cold weather. After that was done, I then purged all the air from the hot water line, hiked across the property to the building with the water heater... and powered it back on before hiking back to start filling the tub.

While I was doing all that... I kept thinking how pretty much everything to do with that setup is a total pain in the arse... which then lead me to consider how few things in my life were not a pain in the arse! It was a short list to say the least... and I admittedly terminated that line of thought with maximum prejudice before it could gain too much momentum.

Eventually, I got the tub filled and after letting the one hundred and forty degree Fahrenheit water cool a bit... I climbed into the tub wearing my black colored thermal underpants, a black long sleeve shirt and even the black beanie that I like wearing on my head. It was probably all overkill... but it sure made the transition period (of getting in the water) a bit easier considering how icy cold the wind was.

The hot bath on such a cold day was admittedly nice... and although I was trying to avoid closing the greenhouse (that covers the tub) around me I wound up doing it anyways... because even once I got submerged (and acclimated) it was frigid once I took my hat and shirt off. Usually it would not be all that big of a deal for me to close the greenhouse... but after all the high winds we have had lately the poles had shifted a good bit... and the space between the walls was super narrow and made the area inside a bit too cramped for my liking.

Eventually, I decided to get out of the tub before the water could cool much more... and wound up sprinting to the cabin where I had the heater cranked up to the point where opening the door... would not quite let the place lose the bulk of the heat trapped inside. As far as taking a hot bath in very cold weather outdoors goes... it was the first time this winter that I did not catch a chill in the process (before I could get dried off and clothed) so that was nice.

All the hiking around and such, left me feeling more than a little hungry... so I decided to cook up a large pan of potatoes and ate so many of them... that I zonked out and took a nap not all that long afterwards. I was kind of concerned that I would oversleep... so I more or less curled up on the bed in such a way... that I would have to get up to straighten out if I was going to sleep for a prolonged period of time.

Per usual that tactic worked and after waking from the nap and doing a wee bit more Hive engagement... I began the process of filling all the water containers for the critters. I then stuffed my own water jugs in a backpack and took the dogs on a hike with me... to go fill them from a spigot near the well... like I remarked upon needing to do a while back.

Hiking around with the dogs was nice and all... but whoa I was pretty over 'hiking' for the day... and knew that I still had to do more of it to get the water system taken offline again... and of course get everything drained before the freezing temperatures arrive this evening. I also had other stuff to do still... so I basically made the whole affair take as little time as possible given how late it was in the day already.

After the water system was all drained... I decided to take the mattress out of the cabin and stick it outside on the deck with the intent of freezing it. With the mattress out of the way I cleaned the platform that creates the bed... and whoa I had forgotten just how much diatomaceous earth that I had covered it all with last time that I cleaned it... and wound up filling the cabin with a bunch of its dust in the process.

At that point I got a bit cranky with the whole affair... because after finally opening that bug-proof cover that I ordered a while back for the mattress... I realized that for forty bucks it was a chintzy piece of trash... and nowhere near worth that much money in my perspective. It was also going to be a total pain in the butt to install it on the mattress if I did it indoors (after the mattress froze and dried out) like I was originally planning to do.

Given that the temperature was going to start plummeting rather rapidly after sunset... and the wind chill was going to be in the five to ten degree Fahrenheit range... I pictured what it would be like trying to get it back inside and install the cover indoors... said screw it... and installed it while the mattress was still outdoors. My thinking was that if it really is bug-proof my lack of freezing the mattress should not really matter... and given how worn out I was already feeling... I did not want to be messing with it all in the middle of the night nor lose all the heat from the cabin in the process.

We will see how it all works out and hopefully I can get another cover (to protect the bug-proof cover) because given how cheaply made it is... I think that it will wind up with a bunch of holes in it from the dogs toenails. The bummer of it all is that... for that kind of money I really thought that I was making a good purchase... but I guess that a 'good one' would cost even more!

Okay, I think that is enough effort invested for this entry... and I am going to try to get this all edited, proofread and shared before the hour grows too much later. I hope that everyone is doing well... and if one thing after another in your day to day life is not a total cluster-cuss to have a modicum of modern convenience... you are grateful for it.

Ta ta for now.

Just another chilly winter day!

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