Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1174)
Hello Everyone!
Another nice day, Cleaning up the temporary compost, Some belated leaf removal & More firewood less chatter!
Alright, I am running about fifteen minutes behind schedule with the writing this evening... and wound up putting on my reading glasses for good measure... if that gives you any kind of idea of how long of a day that it was. It is worth noting that when I sat down to write, that I was on time... but I had to take care of some correspondences first... and got a bit sidetracked along the way.
Last night I was up super late and had a heck of a time falling asleep... after having taken that late day nap earlier in the day. When I finally drifted off all the way... I then had one of those peculiar dreams that keeps continuing where it left off... no matter how many times that I awoke from it during the night.
Amazingly, I got out of bed rather early in the morning... and although I glanced through my various Hive feeds... I did not make much effort to do any engagement. I think that with that particular routine it will always be hit or miss... but as long as I put in the effort... I feel good about at least trying to fulfill it.
Once I got all that jazz done and got some espresso in me... I headed outdoors and did my best not to sit down in front of the computer again... except for a few minutes at a time when I was taking a brief break. It is kind of funny but 'breaking away' from the online stuff is really not that hard for me... and especially so ever since I broke my phone addiction what seems like ages ago now.
Anyways, the first thing that I did today was to flip all my laundry over that I hung up on the dog yard fence yesterday... so that the other side of each item would get the bulk of the sunlight available in this area. I have no idea why it took me forever to realize that doing that would speed the drying time up... but now I think that I am going to start doing that all the time.
Given that the weather was super nice today and the chilly wind had disappeared... I was able to not have a ton of layers on... which made my 'big project' for the day a heck of a lot easier. The main reason for that (aside from freedom of movement) is because I knew that I would not only be working up a sweat... but also because half of my time would be being spent in the shade.
Several months ago I mentioned how I had both slacked on getting the leaves raked up in the dog yard... and how I had created that 'temporary' compost mound. I gotta admit that both of those things got a good bit out of hand. Basically, the compost had grown way too large (and stinky) and all too many of the leaves had created quite the matting/drift along the fence-line on the downhill side of the dog yard.
Not to reiterate how important it is to get the leaves reigned in before the springtime when the snakes get active... but yeah that was my main motivation for getting them out of the way. Obviously the compost needed to go as well considering it was a big pile of not just leaves... but very warm leaves... due to how rapidly it was all breaking down.
Since I have been wanting to get all that cleaned up for a while now... I dove into it with real gusto... but at a rather slow and measured pace. I have no idea how many buckets of leaves and compost that I carried to that new compost mound (the one outside the dog yard) but whoa I got quite the workout in the process between the bucket hauling... and using the leaf rake in one hand and the flat-head shovel in the other hand... to get everything into the bucket.
It was actually rather relaxing... and by mid afternoon things warmed up enough... that I was even able to shed my sweater (and warm hat) and not need them again throughout the remainder of the day. The dog yard looks nicer now also... but I still have the entire quadrant around the deck to give the same treatment to... which is something that I am planning on doing in the next few days.
When I finally switched gears from that project... I hauled the wagon around some... and collected even more firewood for the fire-pit. This time I mainly focused on getting medium sized pieces of pine as well as more pine fatwood... so all in all I have plenty of wood to keep the fire going (for my relaxation day) and plenty of fatwood to mitigate how damp the rest of the wood is.
Honestly, I now have way more firewood stacked up than I have had since I first did the brush clearing for the shelter site... and I also stacked it a bit too close to the fire-pit... and will need to keep an eye on things when I start the fire. My big goal with it all is to not just have enough wood for my day off... but also so that I have plenty of ashes to treat that new compost mound with.
It is kind of funny but when I looked at the weather for tomorrow (which is the day I am thinking to chill out by the fire) it had this note for the day: "Partly sunny and cooler; a nice afternoon for outdoor activities" which of course I took as a sign... that it was a good day for just listening to music, tending a fire and relaxing. We will see how that works out... but I am actually feeling rather excited about it... and going to do my best to have a good time with it all one way or another.
Okay, I think that is all the words that I have in me for this entry. I hope that everyone is doing well... and not pushing the proverbial boulder uphill unnecessarily. Ta ta for now.
An the thing about wood is it really dries out when it's in thermal radiation range.
My van i could have snow covered wood and my little fireplace could dry it all up before the first wet piece was needed in the fireplace. Just had to have enough to start the fire and let it run for a bit.
I love wood fires.
Really can't wait to be out in the country. Yeah man. I need enough room for.me and dog to go wild!
You all will get to the woods one day!
That is a great observation and given how hot that fatwood burns I bet it will dry those wood stacks out quickly.
I love wood fires also and although I seldom make pine fires... I have been doing several of them recently just to get rid of some of it... and of course for some quick ashes.
Well all wood is good to turn into charcoal! That wood gas is great.