Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1196)
Hello Everyone!
Bizarre dreams, Tackling the shop tent cleanup, A fruitless vermin hunt & Whoa my gear is in rough shape!
Alright, I am running pretty far behind on my writing routine schedule... but not quite as much as I have been the last few days. I was actually almost on time this evening but of course some stuff came up with the land purchase that skewed my timing a bit which to be clear is utterly fine given the seriousness of it all.
Last night I have no idea when I wound up drifting off to sleep... yet it was roughly on par with all my other nights of late... but at least this time the actual 'tossing and turning' was not as harrowing nor as long lasting. I did however have some intense dreams... and while I guess that many folks would have found them stressful (and I probably would have also at other times of my life) I just rolled with it... and more or less accepted them at face value.
Not to get lost on that particular topic... but I do want to say that in the dreams I kept encountering these really unnecessarily stressful situations (created by someone else in the dream) and while I did not quite 'keep the kid gloves on with them' I did not invest myself with engaging with them on an emotional level overly much. It was kind of bizarre but it was like tussling with a 'man child' who was not only ill... but hellbent on ignoring their illness whilst both acknowledging it... and noticing the harm it was bringing to others.
Basically, I kept laughing in their face while trying to stop them from harming me, others and themselves with their shenanigans. In the end the person in the dream eventually buggered off... but whoa they were persistent right up until the moment lots of other folks began to appear... and began taking note of their behavior, expressing concern for their well-being... and offering to help them to help themselves.
Anyways, once I woke up the dreams took the proverbial 'backseat' because I once again missed some early morning correspondences... and had to dive into reading them and responding as my morning espresso was brewing. I of course dove into my Hive engagement routine in short order... as well as looking over some real estate documents... which can be quite nuanced to say the least.
Once I was able to wrap all that stuff up... I got outdoors and did my usual prep work to run the dogs on the vermin in shop tent... but this time I avoided running them on that covered lumber pile behind it. I think the dogs were kind of disappointed on that one though... because it is where we have flushed the majority of the rats from when we have managed to flush them out.
My main focus this time was to clean out the shop tent more... and begin the arduous process of cleaning up my tools... and also sorting out the tools that do not belong to me. The whole affair was a bit of a mess due to all the rodent activity... but I did manage to make some massive headway in regards to all of that.
The dogs were a bit disappointed that we did not find any rodents... but they enjoyed the time spent looking for them nonetheless. At one point I briefly considered running them in another area (that I also need to get some gear of mine from) but decided to just stay focused on the task at hand instead.
One of the major tasks that I accomplished was getting all my 'garden tools' (rakes, pick axes and such) all removed from the barrel that I had them in... and set them on a bench so that tomorrow I can wash them all off. The reason for all that is because the bottom of the barrel was absolutely stuffed with rat nest material... and I needed to get it all disposed of and get the barrel washed out.
After getting the barrel emptied... I sprayed it out with some high pressure water... and then set it up near the edge of the dog yard where I could scrub it out, empty the foul water from it... and then fill it with some water with a high concentration of bleach in it. I even zip-tied a rag onto a broken tool handle (from a rake) so that I did not have to 'crawl inside' the barrel to get it cleaned out.
During the shop tent cleaning process... I kept emptying other small plastic containers (that had vermin waste on them) and then plunging them into the barrel full of bleach water so they could soak. I did not quite get as many of them as I initially wanted to... but that was mainly because I kept getting sidetracked by correspondences about the land deal.
I did however get the trash can stuffed full yet again... and since I missed last week's trash pickup (due to it being canceled because of the holiday) it was already half full. One thing is for sure, and that is that I am definitely going to be throwing a lot of stuff away... mainly because of the vermin activity... but also because I keep finding those 'someday I will use this' and 'maybe I will fix this' items... which really just are not worth the space they are occupying.
On a bit of a sadder note I felt really bad about seeing the shape most of my gear is in at this point... and especially so in regards to my tools and other accessories that I have always taken such good care of. I know that I have said all along during this journey that it has been hard on my gear... but now that I am actually trying to get things packed down... the enormity of it is hitting me pretty hard.
Hopefully, once I make this next move I can manage to get a good storage situation setup rather rapidly... and avoid this kind of scenario from occurring again. Having slimmed things down over the years so much... and mainly just having the necessities (as I see them) is one thing... and having them get ruined (to one degree or another) is an entirely different matter... and one I am far from pleased with.
Anyways, by the end of the day today I was hoping to slide into a nice hot bath (after doing all the rigmarole to empty and clean the tub) but then I remembered the temperature was going to get below freezing again tonight... and I had to hike around to drain the water system. That little bit of extra time resulted in my 'perfect temperature' hot water in the tub being lukewarm... so my bath was not quite as relaxing as I had hoped that it would be.
Per usual I had to make my mad dash to the warmth of the cabin afterwards... and whoa this time it was downright chilly because not only was the temperature dropping but the wind (which had been blowing in earnest all day) had really started to pick up. As long as the wind dies down overnight... and the temperature is not too chilly tomorrow... my big plan is to continue with the packing... and trying to make as much headway in the shop tent as I can.
If the conditions are not that favorable... I might just spend the day washing off all those tools that I piled on the bench... and maybe starting on the equally challenging task of getting the solar shack cleaned out. I have a feeling that I am going to have a lot of days of doing similar activities ahead... but by the time I am done my plan is to have all my gear totally cleaned, organized again... and of course ready for the big move.
As a side note to all that jazz... we officially put in our initial bid on the property tonight... and will know (if everything goes according to plan) within the next twenty-four hours or so if they accept it... or make a counteroffer. It really has been a heroic effort on two of my friends (and my own) part to get the proverbial 'ball' rolling to the point that it is at... and the rest will turn out however it turns out.
Well, I think that is all the words that I have in me for this entry. I hope that everyone is doing well and has the good sense not to bang their head against the proverbial wall too much... by trying the same things with no success when looking for solutions. Ta ta for now!
I hope they accept the offer.
I need your dogs here, I have a rat in my truck, it was under the hood and I kept tearing up the nest, and now it moved inside, I have pulled things from under my dash and now it has made a nest in the glove box, I tore it out once but now it is back.
Ha! Train them dogs you have. Mine are so dialed in that all I have to do is point at something and they will start circling it and looking wherever they can to try flushing the vermin.
It would be hard to train them to get rats but leave the baby bunny nests alone.
Ah that is true. Mine do good at leaving the chickens alone but they are rather exceptional dogs.
The other two we had would leave the chickens and turkeys alone but I would not trust these two, we did not raise either of them and one had to hunt for its food.
Yeah they need to learn it young if they are going to learn it.