Independence Day

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th! 

As for me, I stayed in the holler to babysit the cows, and allowed the boys to go to town to be kids and enjoy the holiday.

They really enjoyed the Internet from what I have been told. Aw well. It gave them time to be kids without responsibilities. 

Before my story continues I have to obligatory warning; do this and you could die, sayth the FDA and USDA.

I canned 13 pints of green beans.

They are a bit larger than I like to pick, but right now I can only do things when I am able to get to them. These will be put in the way back shelf, give them time to soften up a bit more, to be used last or in stew. They still pop when snapped, I didn't keep any rubber ones.

Still without propane, I had to use an open fire to can.

It's difficult and super tedious to pressure can on a campfire. It requires you get it very hot, then back off on the heat and attempt to maintain a constant temptature. I might be talented, but not that talented. I chose to hot water bath them. 

Gasp!

It takes 90 mins to do, at a hard boil. 

While the first batch was going, I harvest and started drying more spinach.

 

Without an electric dehydrator (I have one packed somewhere) I use a window frame with screen, placed on four logs, then cover with hail screen. With the moisture here, it takes two to three days for them to completely dry.

I thought I might take a bath, but the cows kept drinking my bath water.

Soon my first batch of green beans were done, and I restoked the fire and started the second batch.

Sunday I will be able to can the younger, better tasting green beans. 

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.

Still here

We finished tearing up the soil for the garden, by hand. A Maddox and a garden claw can do wonders.

And my cool weather veggies are sprouting. This in itself makes me feel better. Of course it helps that word of Husband's genius has gotten out, and the V-twin guys are starting to show up at the shop. It's still a struggle, but things are looking brighter. 

The boys enjoyed their first swim of the season. Of course the water was freezing, and I should know, I went in. There is another small waterfall down stream. husband and I walked down here to bathe. I could lay at the top of the fall, hang my head off the ridge, and wash my hair with abandonment. It was wonderfully awesome. Only words to describe it. I felt so much cleaner in the creak than I have in the tub. Chilly, but blissful.

Miss Buckets even joined in.

Watermelon seeds that were spit out last fall are starting to sprout. As well as many windflowers and wild onion.

I chased sheep around, trying to get a photo of the lamb. Turns out it is a girl.

I still am unable to run, however I did manage to get into a skip without my knee hurting.

This is Pail. She was dumped at the top of our hill. We found her during the coldest part of the winter, and I just couldn't have her freeze to death.

At least she smiles.

That's the extent of what is happening here. Besides I think I am going to change the name of the holler. The garden has taken up most of our time. Once that is in, other things can start.

Oh, and. Husband named the bull calf, Bullbo. (We had a Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit marathon)

TIMBER!!!

Well we got over a bit of our Lorax complex. 

This hickory was having some issues. Carpenter ants had hollowed the base out, so it needed to come down. Once we realized that, we made a decision to remove a few more scattered trees. We do have over 30 acres of trees. Plus this opens up a spot closer to the house for the solar. Actually half the distance. That saves us a bit of money, plus we have fire wood and wood to create things with. 

No worries, this is not where the teddy bears have their picnic, that's a bit higher up the hill.

Husband's saw just wasn't cutting it (pun intended), so Small Farm Girl and Hubby came to our rescue. We would have eventually got it done, but with their help, we got it done the same day.

We took 1 hickory (yes gathering nuts) 2 poplars, 2 walnuts and 1 oak. 

This poplar had barbed wire in the center. 

Don't mess with the bugs though.

No one got hurt, no property damage just a good day.

Here's some eye candy for the girls (ok maybe just me)

Living on a generator.

The solar array has taken longer to arrive than thought. These past two weeks have had us living off a generator. If it didn't cost us $40 a day to run the entire house, we might actually use it more than twice a day. 

Durning daylight hours, it's not so bad. Rarely are we in the house when the sun rises. The boys and I watch the sun rise at the top of our ridge, as we wait for their bus. The fog slowly sinking into our holler, husband sleeping through it all. The sky lightens, and things get going. I heat water for laundry, but with the dampness down here, it takes two to three days for the clothes to dry. I have two massive clothes lines, and use Small Farm Girl's facilities to wash school clothes. It doesn't really matter what Husband and I may smell like, but the boys need to be clean. 

We flush the toilet with a bucket of water. This is a huge upgrade from the hole in the ground we used the first week. We use a solar shower, except the days I can snag Small Farm Girl's. I am trying not to over stay my welcome with her (she will make some kind of sweet comment then tell me to get over it when she reads that). We are amazingly alike. So that makes it easier. I told her we could never stay upset with each other because of it. Once we think about it, we would realize that, darnit, I would have done the same thing! I will admit, I love having her as a neighbor. Within a week, we had a huge amount of blackmail material on each other. 

Back to living on a generator. 

Ice cream never hardens. No actual running water. We use buckets from the creek for laundry and toilet flushing. We have several 5 gallon water containers that I have fresh, filtered water in for hygiene and dishes, as well as cooking. Besides the solar shower, it gets warm enough that the boys play in the creek. They at least can knock some of the dirt off then. As I said though, I make sure that they have clean showers, even though they might take place outside. 

We did take a trip to the electric co-op. With the solar taking so long, we were getting a bit frustrated. We need electricity for a few things. I have no idea what the guy was thinking when he placed this house where he has. The co-op will only do 1,000 ft free. The rest will cost us. And cost us a pretty penny. None of my pennies are pretty by the way. They also needed the deed. I had the deed for two plots of land, but not the land with the cabin. It should have arrived a month ago. It should be on the way now. Nothing the co-op could do without the deed.  Not even come out to measure. We measured where we could. 2,000 ft from top pole to house. Co-op would come through tree line if need be. That makes me a bit uneasy. Coming from Kansas with little amount of trees, I suddenly feel like the Lorax here in Kentucky.

Luckily I talked with the solar guy, and a freight company. Solar items start arriving today and throughout the week. I am stoked! Once the solar is up and running I will review it for you, telling you all that nitty gritty stuff. 

Mornings are a bit difficult without power. I get up at 530 am, with no light. The flashlight is my only companion as I get coffee brewing and breakfast ready. Large wakes, and gets the generator going, that usually wakes the other two up. With only one light going, we have our food, get dressed and preform morning rituals. Once the sun rises, the generator goes off. Around lunch time, the generator comes back to life to keep the fridge cold. Night is easy. It gets dark just before the younger boys bed time. The generator comes on, so the evening rituals may be preformed, and electronics charged. Then off it goes for the boys to sleep. We have the outside solar lamps bright indoors for Husband and I to see. Luckily they stay lit until 5am, so any midnight bathroom runs can happen without issue. 

I guess it isn't too awful. We have our routine. It just would be easier with actual full time power. It's on its way. Patients is key. Normalcy is in our future.

The next day *************************************

The solar array has arrived!

Well. . . Most of it. The main power bank is being made with our difficulties in mind. It should arrive sometime this week.

We got the call yesterday. Small Farm Girl gave them directions, (what would I do without her?).  We had to meet the freight company on the side of a highway near our roads. He was in a semi, and no one thought he would be able to make it up. Down we went.

On the phone, the driver informed us we had an 800 lbs pallet and a 500 lbs pallet as well as some other boxes. Small Farm Girl brought her truck, and Husband and I drove ours down. The driver was young, and not super experienced with working the lift gate. Husband helped him out a bit. But the driver was polite and personable. And curious. He said he had never delivered solar before and was interested in what was going on. Some might say nosy, but we chalked it up to genuine curiosity. 

The packages arrived intact. Although the panels, pictured above, hand boot prints on it! This freaked me out, and I had Husband open it before the driver left to make sure there was no damage. Luckily it was fine. I don't know who walked on it, so will not call out either company. The driver was patient, and he too wanted to make sure it was all good. 

As we loaded, a State Trooper pulled up. I was right next to his door, and he rolled his window up! Then answered his cellphone. While he did that we loaded the rest of the solar. We were ready to leave, but had to wait for the Trooper to get off his phone. I was highly tempted to just leave. We hadn't done anything illegal. Finally he asked a couple of official questions, then got plain nosy. Trust me, it was nosy. He finally told us to stay safe, and he drove off.

We had to take the slow way home. The roads aren't as steep. Even though my tailgate was shut, Small Farm Girl's couldn't be. Tie downs were used to ensure safe travel. 

Once down in the holler, we unloaded the lighter pallet, multiple boxes, by hand. The panels were unloaded by the wonderful hubby of Small Farm Girl's and his tractor.

Today we can start set up. And once the power plant arrives, we can plug it all in and have real power. I would say like a normal family, but Large keeps reminding me we aren't normal, we're limited edition.