Suck it up buttercup. (Edit)

Or; On the next episode of survivor.

Some days it feels that way, except the part where I backstab my friends and win money.  I am sitting home alone as I type this. Boys are at school, and Husband is at work orientation, finally. There is no coffe at the house, as I have stopped building fires in the morning, and I have developed a slight headache. I'm sucking it up. Actually I am taking a short break from gardening. I have spent several hours this morning weeding a mulching.

 A word of advice, gather leaves while everything is dead, it gets a bit cumbersome once things start growing again. You find yourself standing in a forest asking the chirping squirrels where the leaves are. 

I gave in, and sprayed myself in deet. The locals tell me listerine works, but I didn't have any on hand. I couldn't stand the ticks anymore. It is a daily battle, and we are losing. Every time we have an itch, Spoon! (Comic book reference) we think it might be a tick. And the majority of the time we are correct. They itch for weeks on end. I am glad I made the Goblin Spit. 

And now that the jewel weed is growing again, I will be making a lot more of it. 

Speaking of weeds, my house has bundles of early German camomile hanging to dry. I can use them in so many concoctions. And the smell of honey suckle has began to perfume the air, albeit scantly. Blackberry and raspberry bushes are in full bloom. I keep thinking about all the breads, cakes, and sauces I can make with everything. It's been so long since I have had a honey suckle cake, mouth waters with anticipation. Oh oh with a decadent raspberry sauce. . . Oh my. . .

I don't have any tomato plants yet, I fear I won't be able to get any. However I have planted onions, green beans, cucumbers, carrots, peas, lettuce, spinach, lavender, basil, parsley, spearmint, oregano, corrinder, cilantro, mustard, radish, potatoes, sweet majorum, watermelon, lumina pumpkin, winter squashes, summer squashes, pinto beans, kidney beans, black eye beans, good neighbor peas, brussel sprouts, popcorn, hickory corn, blue corn, and sweet corn. Oh and sunflowers and okra. I know I am missing a few herbs on the list, I know I planted more. Just not remembering right off the bat.  Even without tomatoes, there are so many things I can make that we might not miss them too badly. Thoough Husband might throw a hissy.  I'll have to see what I can do to get at least a couple of plants. Oh and I planted Bloody Butcher corn.

With the winter now gone, I of course feel better. One of the big things with this past winter is that I was doing it without husband most of the time. He was back in Kansas during the artic blast, he left on my birthday and came back right before Christmas. Before then he was gone a few weeks as well. I was alone, I was stressed, I was frightened, and still gimpy. I realize some women do this without a Husband, I know that some women go without seeing their men for weeks at a time. When Husband use to work motorcycle rallies, he would be gone for a month at a time. But it was different, I knew where I was with the world, I had an established home, I knew my neighbors, I had money, electricity, running water. I had a wonderful group of friends that could rescue me in a moments notice. I had my family. Not here, in this new world. Here it is all raw.

Today, I find myself more at peace with the woods. Not as worried that something is going to jump out and bite me. 

We have a few things on our to do list. For starters we need a lean to for our fire wood. We had a lot stacked in the house during the winter, weeks worth. It helped insulate the place, but we can't continue that. We are just asking for trouble. With the rainy season we have gotten very good at starting fires with damp wood. Not the most ideal situations, but it has to be done so I can cook and we can have wash water and drinking water.

We had to stop drinking the public water. It was making us sick. We boil our creek water over night, then in a make shift filter, we pour it into 6 gallon drinking jugs. We are no longer getting sick. Husband has to build a new base for my pitcher pump, and then I will be able to get water out of the cistern. 

Medium has a gift for lighting fires with damp wood. He doesn't use anything but leaves, wood and matches. Even under the threat of a downpour, he gets it going. Food is a great motivator. 

I guess I have taken up enough of your time. I will tell you about our other to do items later. 

A client just came by the shop and gave me a tip.