Another freak windstorm

Yet another freak windstorm passed through here yesterday as you can see by the picture to the left. That WAS the 8x16 carport that I left up over the winter for storage. I had 18" stakes every 2 feet along the frame on both sides, but they didn't do a thing. I was going to pick it all up today, but it stayed just as windy and got bitter cold for a few hours before warming back up. I'll have to clean it up tomorrow after I finish a few things at my folks place. I suppose it could have been worse, nothing broke the glass on the dehydrator. Now I just have to make room in the garage for all of it so I can get it out of the yard. I planned on taking it apart to cut down and make the chicken run, but I didn't quite have THIS kind of disassembly in mind! lol

My Answers

Basic Questions About You
1-What is the biggest goal of your lifestyle?-to be as self sufficient as possible
2-When did you start this lifestyle? around 9 years ago
3-What was your main motivation? We were both tired of paying too much for things we could grow/raise/ make for ourselves
4-Did you have any previous experience in anything you're doing now? Yes, gardening and outdoor skills. Lisa knew almost all the rest
5-Does your spouse/signifiacant other (if you have one) share the same ideas? Definitly, she pushes ME to go for new things
6-Do your friends and family understand and support these choices? What about your kids? Family-some support us, some think we're odd. Kids-don't get it at all
7-How happy are you with your achievements so far? Very
8-Are you more of a gardener, homesteader, prepper, health concience, "green"' or a combination of several? I'd say all of the above
9-Has this change of lifestyle affected your personality? Oh yea, i'm wayyy more laid back now
10-Has it changed your view of your life before? Of course, I see all the time and money wasted
11-What about how you view others that don't understand it or naysay? Well...I used to be really negative with people, now I try to talk and get ideas in their heads.
12-If you could convince someone to live the way you do in ONE sentance, what would you say? I ask people what they do with all the time they DON'T spend taking care of themselves...that usually gets them thinking

Other Questions-
1-How large is your vegetable garden? 45x60 veggies, 8x24 and 6x12 strawberries, 4x32 grapes, 4x24 and 2x48 blackberries
2-Do you grow any fruits, and what and how many? see above
3-Do you have any animals and what are they? (other than pets) Yep, 9 laying hens, 2 rabbits, and 3 new chicks
4-Do you can/dehydrate/freeze/store your own produce? yes, yes, yes, and yes
5-Do you work with mainly power tools or hand tools in your gardens and others? (wood cutting, splitting, tiller vs. broadfork etc...) I prefer hand tools. I like the feeling of being tired when something is done, it gives me a great sense of accomplishment
6-Do you compost? yep
7-Do you recycle?uh-huh
8-Do you consider yourself energy consience? (conserving to save $) Oh yea, definitly
9-Do you make any of your own household cleaners? almost all
10-Do you make your own bread? Lisa does-almost 6 months now with no store-bought bread
11- If in an emergency situation, are you able to not leave home for a week? How about a month? A year?? Not quite a year, but working on it
12-Are you tired of answering questions yet? naaaaa, I wrote 'em
13-If you prep, what do you consider to be your most useful tool/items-A good knife and a 22 rifle
14-Are you able to heat your home without gas or fuel oil? unfortunately no, just with camp heaters
15-Are you able to cook without gas or electricity? on camp stoves, yes, and also outside on a stone grill
16-Again, if in an emercency situation, could you live in the wild or out of a tent? ( camping,hunt/fish, cook,etc.) Yep, used to do that all of the time when I was younger
17-Have you ever practiced your prep skills? (turning off main power for a day or 2) How did you do? (this can include a power outage due to weather as a test) Yes, during a power outage and a few test runs here by killing the main breaker
18-Do you have the knowledge & skills (plus tools) to hunt and fish for food? Since I was old enough to walk
19-If you don't prep, why not?
20-Do you or can you sew your own clothes and make your own bedding? I can sew a little, but mostly thats Lisa's department
21-Can you field dress a deer, drink a coffee, smoke a cigarette, make a cell phone call, light a fire, AND answer all of my annoying questions at the same time? lol thanks for playing! Dammit, I just got deer blood on my keyboard and dropped my phone in the fire.........at least my coffee is still sorta-kinda warm even though I left my cup on some snow after I spilled half of it on my last 4 smokes.

Chris's poll & questioneere

I know I'm asking a lot from you folks, but I designed a bit of a poll/questionere for all of 'ya. Reading everyone's polls and responses has gotten me thinking about everyone, what they do, who they are, and what they stand for. (ok so maybe I'm stuck at home on my first day of layoff and bored) It's a bit long, 33 questions in all, but I just wanted some insight on everyone that may respond. I'll repeat this on another post with all of my answers, just for comparison. Thanks to anyone that responds!

Chris

Basic Questions About You
1-What is the biggest goal of your lifestyle?

2-When did you start this lifestyle?

3-What was your main motivation?

4-Did you have any previous experience in anything you're doing now?

5-Does your spouse/signifiacant other (if you have one) share the same ideas?

6-Do your friends and family understand and support these choices? What about your kids?

7-How happy are you with your achievements so far?

8-Are you more of a gardener, homesteader, prepper, health concience, "green"' or a combination of several?

9-Has this change of lifestyle affected your personality?

10-Has it changed your view of your life before?

11-What about how you view others that don't understand it or naysay?

12-If you could convince someone to live the way you do in ONE sentance, what would you say?

Other Questions-

1-How large is your vegetable garden?

2-Do you grow any fruits, and what and how many?

3-Do you have any animals and what are they? (other than pets)

4-Do you can/dehydrate/freeze/store your own produce?

5-Do you work with mainly power tools or hand tools in your gardens and others? (wood cutting, splitting, tiller vs. broadfork etc...)

6-Do you compost?

7-Do you recycle?

8-Do you consider yourself energy consience? (conserving to save $)

9-Do you make any of your own household cleaners?

10-Do you make your own bread?

11- If in an emergency situation, are you able to not leave home for a week? How about a month? A year??

12-Are you tired of answering questions yet?

13-If you prep, what do you consider to be your most useful tool/items

14-Are you able to heat your home without gas or fuel oil?

15-Are you able to cook without gas or electricity?

16-Again, if in an emercency situation, could you live in the wild or out of a tent? ( camping,hunt/fish, cook,etc.)

17-Have you ever practiced your prep skills? (turning off main power for a day or 2) How did you do? (this can include a power outage due to weather as a test)

18-Do you have the knowledge & skills (plus tools) to hunt and fish for food?

19-If you don't prep, why not?

20-Do you or can you sew your own clothes and make your own bedding?

21-Can you field dress a deer, drink a coffee, smoke a cigarette, make a cell phone call, light a fire, AND answer all of my annoying questions at the same time? lol thanks for playing!

3 hot chicks in a box

Earlier I was on the way to visit my friend Jim, and decided to stop at Tammie's and drop off some eggs. Apparantly my timing was perfect, and she had just came in with the chicks. We talked a while and I drove back home with 3 little Americauna chicks in a box. 5 minutes later and they were in the brooder with food, water, and Lisa's hands ready to welcome them home, LOL. The temp inside the brooder is holding steady at around 92, and they're chirping and eating like crazy.... how can ya not love baby chicks???

SOS- same old saturday

Today was kind of a lazy day, what the hell, not like I have anything important to do by since my weekend is extended to a couple months lol. I cleaned a bit downstairs, set up the brooder for the chick's arrival tomorrow, and pretty much just sat on the couch watching a dvd and reading the new Countryside that came in the mail yesterday. The brooder sat with the heat lamp on for 2 hours,. and read a steady 95 degrees, so it's ready to go....just gotta wait for the call tomorrow from Tammie to go pick 'em up.
Tomorrow I'll be starting a few other projects around the house that have been on hold since early winter. Nothing huge, just door casing, re-hanging a few doors in the basement, and maybe start patching some drywall that the kids cats had shredded while they still lived here. UGH... I am so happy to be cat-free now. I'm hoping it stays warm tomorrow and more of this snow melts off, I want to try to get a few things done outside too. I'm thinking about using the carport frame for a chicken run and just cover that in wire fencing. Right now I'm looking at saving $ anywhere I can, and not having to buy fenceposts would be a small help. I'm not sure about it yet, but I'm gonna look at it tomorrow and decide if its feesable. Right now, it's 8 ft wide x 16ft long by 8ft tall. I think IF I use it, I'll cut it down to 6 feet tall, just enough to get in there for cleaning and what-not. It's not as big as I had planned on making, but right now I gotta do what I gotta do......

sprinkler fitter for hire

Well I got the dreaded news today, unless there is some miracle of jobs popping up in the next 2 days, I'll be layed off starting next Monday. As I've said, job bids just aren't coming in, and the ones that are, are VERY cut-throat between contractors. Some are even taking jobs at a loss to ensure their guys have paychecks. When I worked with this same guy 4 years ago, I ran the inspection and service department, that was my baby. I set up the appointments, and went to these buildings with no more than a clipboard and flashlight. "Yep, your system works fine, here's your bill for $250 for my 20 minutes of work. "..........we've been trying to get that going now again lately. (long story but the origional company went bankrupt, and my old foreman bought the name and re-opened as a new company with him at the helm) We've made a few dozen calls, and have been completely shocked by the responses. Most are holding off on even spending that small amount unless they are caught by a fire marshall/inspector and forced to do so. It REALLY shows how much our economy is in the crapper when $250 is put on hold. I was offered a part time job for a few bucks at a 100 acre farm. The superintendant on this hotel job owns it and needs help, so I jumped at his offer. It won't be much, but anything will help now. Unemployment benefits max here at $265 a week, that's just under HALF of my normal TAKEHOME pay, it's gonna be a very rough and tight spring.....


Other than that giant kick in the $#@!, our new chicks will be here Sunday. Tammie got 25, but only wants to keep 15, so we're taking 3. That will put us up to an even dozen, just enough to have here, but not quite too many. Before things got tight, we went today and got a bag of starter feed, chick grit, a chick waterer, and a 50lb bag each of layer feed, cracked corn, and mash. It'll take a week or 2 for benefits to kick in, so rather than run out with no paycheck, we decided to get it now. I may run back this weekend and get bunny feed since it's cheap, I just didn't think about it while we were there. I priced rubber muck boots and leather work gloves while I was there, for when I start this farm job. I normally just wear workboots and thin jersey gloves, but working around cattle, horses, and pigs, I wanted something a bit better. Let me tell ya, it SUCKS being an ogre!!!!! Size 14 muck boots are $40 for the cheapest pair, and XL leather gloves (that barely fit) are $17. Grrrrrr what I wouldn't give some days to be 5'6" lol.

Thank you all.......

Thanks everyone for your words, it means a lot to me.
Quick cliffnotes story about dad. Dad will be 72 this year. He retired early in '99 from nearly 40 years of raking concrete, talking non stop of fishing 5 days a week. He had a checkup not long after,and the doc recommended a colonoscopy, and they found pre-cancerous polyups. A simple surgery and it was over on the medical end, but on dads end it was too much of a scare. From that day on, he sat on the couch and did nothing but watch tv. No matter what we tried, he just quit. His arthritis got worse, his heartrate only rose when he got up to get coffee or go to the bathroom. He fell into a slump, occasionally admitting that he was just waiting to die. Now jump to last January. He goes in the ER and we find out he's not only fighting pnemonia, but he also has COPD and emphisima, along with low blood pressure. He's dealt with that ok since he got home, his mood got better, and he has went from 114 lbs to 165 since.( at 6 feet tall, he looked awful at 114) Now he has cellulitis, and is on meds for that, along with all the other pills, plus oxygen 24/7 and his breathing treatment 3 times a day. He's in decent spirits, but scared and feeling sorry for himself. I sit over there and talk every chance I get, and give him the occasional kick in the ass when he makes a stupid comment. We tell the same old hunting and fishing stories over and over, but neither of us seems to care.

It's just tough for me to see him this way. Dad was always the tough guy, the one that came home from work with a broken finger wrapped in duct tape, (he actually did that!), or yanking a fishhook out of his own forehead and continue fishing looking like he was mauled by a bear. He was always active, and now he's just a tired old man watching tv all day. I'm always happy when I'm there talking to him, but always sad on the way home knowing he isn't half the man he once was. I guess facing the fact that my parents will never get old or pass away is a hard pill to swallow.

Thanks again everyone.....Chris