July

The beginning of the month is still hot and humid.  There's so much to do, but it's so hard to get motivated.  The Littles start going to the lakes with the men to cool off and swim in the afternoons.  They return with the cart loaded with firewood, weeds, and grass.  The fishing is horrible, but that's to be expected, given the heat.

I get up early every day to let the birds out and get the gardening done before it gets too hot.  The beats are looking good, we're starting to harvest peas and lettuce, and tiny peppers and tomatoes have started forming in the greenhouse.  The potato plants are a mess of bugs.  I pick them off every day and toss them to the birds.

Another banty returns with a clutch of chicks.  One is still missing.

The Bigs work on cleaning out the old chicken coop in the mornings, taking load after load of manure to the garden.  It always amazes me how we end up with so much manure out of one little building.  I spread the manure between my garden rows and pile it at the ends and side.  It'll make spreading easier in the fall.


We finish the fence down to the creek on our south side.  Our new neighbours get halfway to the creek on the north side before we go over to help.  We take them the chicks Husband offered for the fence work.  We talk and work together.  Arlene is waiting for berry season to start canning.  Her garden is doing well. 

The weather breaks and the rains come.  Day after day it rains and the temperature drops.  We start cooking inside again, to take the chill and the dampness out of the house.  It's sweater weather in the mornings now.

We finish the fence to the creek on the north side of Mom's property.  We start fencing the roadside.  We fence around Mom's yard and build gates for her back trails.  The tree tops and branches give us enough firewood to finish filling Mom's wood shed.

The blueberries ripen and we start picking every day.  More and more townsfolk travel through to go picking in the woods.  I put a sign out, eggs for trade.  A few people stop and ask about the eggs.  Two agree to pick a small basket of blueberries for a dozen eggs.  They come back at the end of the day.  One man has some tin at his place.  He'll trade it for eggs, chickens and a chicken pen. 

Husband and the Bigs spend three days carting logs to town, building a little chicken coop, fencing it in, and bringing home tin.  We give him four hens and two chicks, along with 3 dozen eggs.

The tin is nearly enough to finish Mom's roof.  We decide to take the rest of the siding off the trailer wall that is inside the add a room, and that's just enough to finish it.  That also exposes the insulation, which we pull out and put into the new outside wall.  It's enough to cover the west wall.  Two more to go.  Mom has a can of roofing tar, which we use sparingly to fill the old nail holes in the tin.  Leaks should not be a problem.

I get enough blueberries to make a batch of wine.  Blueberries were the reason I bought the wine making equipment.  They're coated with natural yeast, and very sweet, so I add nothing but water to the carboy and hope for the best.  I rack the dandelion and dandelion/rhubarb wines. 

Husband picks up the newly fashioned hay cutter and practices using it on the way home.  He's got a pretty good handle on it when he gets back.  It's too wet to cut for winter storage though.  The rain has helped the grass though, along with our continued rotating of the cows.  The pasture looks like it might last the rest of the summer now.

The boys and I finish the fencing down the road.  We build gates for all of the driveways.  So long as the critters don't try to cross the creek, they are completely fenced in.  The sides of the creek are very steep from winter run off, so I don't think it'll be too much of a problem.  We decide to test it with the horses, Mildred and the calves, leaving them loose overnight.  The next morning we have to walk to Brother's place to get the horses back.  They stayed within the fence, but now have too much freedom.

The rain finally settles down, and after two days of straight sun, Husband decides it's time to start cutting hay.  He starts with the north side, beside Arlene and Mel.  It's the largest clearing.  The boys and I follow along with the horse cart, raking the hay and tying it in bundles.  Most of it will be left to dry in the field, as it should, but since we expect this to be a long process, we get started right away.  Once the cart is full we take it up to the house.  We unload the bundles in the new chicken coop and open them back up.  I spread them on the floor in the pens to finish drying.

The boys go back for a second load and I go back to picking blueberries.  It takes nearly two weeks to get the clearings all cut, dried, bundled and brought back to the house.  We fill the manger in the old chicken coop- the milk room, and cover the floor with thick bedding.  We fill the old chicken coop from floor to ceiling for storage.  The hay loft above the barn is only half full when we finish.  There's not nearly enough for winter.

The elderberries ripen near the end of the month.  The Littles do an amazing job of picking them off the stems.  I start another batch of wine, elderberry with some blueberries thrown in for sweetness and yeast.

I can blueberries without sugar.  They'll probably be our sugar next winter- one of the few hints of sweetness in the long, cold, dark nights ahead.

June

It's incredibly hot out.  And humid.  It's rarely humid in the north, but this year we're into our fourth week of heat and humidity.

The garden is spotty and disappointing.  Given the heat it should be growing like crazy.  The greenhouses are doing well, but outside is slow growing.  The weeds of course, are growing like crazy.  We pull them for the birds every day- a fresh layer of weeds to cover the floor of the turkey shack every night.

We continue foraging for weeds and fiddleheads.  It's too hot for puffballs now.  I start a batch of dandelion wine.  I skimp on the sugar, so it won't be very strong.  Rhubarb is up, although not much appreciated without flour and a ton of sugar.  The boys much on an occasional stick.  I start a batch of rhubarb and dandelion wine.  I make a small batch of dandelion syrop, blending it with the birch syrop for sugar.

We dig dandelion roots and dry them for coffee.  Husband appreciates them more now, much stronger than my other tea weeds alone.  He even digs some himself when he's out and about.  We try to dig for roots farther away from the house, keeping the dandelions in the yard for greens.

We're cooking outside on the fire pit now.  We don't have to cut the branches as small, and are able to use a lot of twigs as well.  Cooking doesn't entail much.  We planted the remaining potatoes, carrots and beets for seed.  Meals are just a jar of canned meat and whatever weeds we foraged that day, mostly dandelion, occasionally lambs quarters.  We're all in the habit now of munching as we go as well, eating dandelions as we pick, and chewing on grass and clover.

The perennial bed comes to life, and I start cutting and drying chives, and some flowers and plants for medicine and tea.  I wonder if I can make tinctures with wine.  I make plantain/comfrey salves with tallow.  I plant calendula, bedstraw, bergamot, cicely and some other herbs.  I gather stinging nettle and make vegetable rennet.

We rotate the cows through the pasture every three days.  It's not enough to allow each section proper rest, but it helps.  The horses spend so little time in the pasture that we just leave them up at the barn.  They're usually in the side yard, or the garden yard, or at someone else's house.  They graze as they go.  The goats roam around loose, as always.  We never could keep them fenced in.  They never wander far though.

Sanya's horses were out behind the pasture one morning.  Brother and Sil chased them off.

We work on fencing the edge of our property, down the side of the logging trail to the creek.  Hopefully that will keep the horses out, and eventually we'll let the cows out to graze.  We cut thin poles and nail them to the trees, a crooked little fence.  We keep the tree tops and branches for firewood.  The Littles saw through the branches with the hand saw.  The basement fills slowly.

Brother and Sil take down their add a room tent and frame it in with logs.  They frame all the way around the trailer, putting the roof up over both.  They cut logs for the sides and chink it in with clay.  Poles for the roof are covered with the vinyl tent.  They soon have a solid little cabin with the drafts all sealed.  They build a bigger chicken coop beside the cabin, with a trap door/window between them.  They can heat the chicken coop with the woodstove next winter.

They fence in their growing yard and garden.  They need to protect their garden from their free ranging chickens, and the cows that will be grazing through soon.

Mom's roof leaked last winter, so we all work together to build her add a room and put a new roof on over the trailer.  She has enough lumber to frame in the walls, and press board to cover them.  The roof is covered with poles, then tin.  There's only enough tin to cover half of it.  We have to scrounge for more materials elsewhere.

We nearly fill Mom's woodshed with the tree tops and branches we cut for the roof.  We move the woodstove into the add a room.  We frame in the windows and build an archway in the trailer wall where the windows used to be.  It needs insulation and interior walls, but it'll give Mom more space and hopefully keep the roof dryer.

The first two banties to go broody both hatch their chicks, 18 little fluffballs between them.  We move them from the brooder boxes to the floor in one of the pens.  We pick weeds for them every day for two weeks, then let them out to free range.

Week after week, the other banties hatch their chicks, and we move them first to the floor, and then outside.  One of the missing hens from outside returns with a clutch of chicks as well.  Two are still missing.

Husband takes ten chicks to the farmer who gave us the calf.  He finds out the farmer couldn't drive his cows to Diego's.  They all scattered through the bush.  Most came home within a few days, but there are still a few loose.  He also caught a couple of horses that were roaming free.

We shoot a fox going after the chickens one afternoon.  I cut the meat into small pieces and put them into five gallon pails with holes in the bottom.  I hang the buckets from the fence surrounding the turkey pen.  The flies lay their eggs on the meat, then the maggots hatch and fall to the ground, providing the birds with a tasty treat.

Husband takes more parts off the tractor and delivers them to the fellow who builds cutters.  He stops and chats with the new neighbours on the way home.  Their names are Mel and Arlene, and the kids are Tommy and Ben.  They've built a small lean-to, set up a tent, put in a large garden, and have fenced off the area.  They've caught one of Sanya's horses that were in the garden before they fenced it.  They considered butchering it, but for now have it tied to a tree.  Husband offers them a dozen chicks if they'll continue working on the fenceline down that side of the property to the creek.

Lisa and Sally fence in their garden and a new chicken pen.  They dry and store weeds and grass for their chickens next winter.

Once all of the banties are out of the chicken coop, we clean it out and start drying and storing weeds and grass as well.  We clean out the hay lean to for grass storage.  We clean out the loft in the barn.

We accomplish much in the longer days, without screens and such to occupy our time.

May

Spring?  Most days are warmer now.  The deep snows are gone, with only a bit left in the shadows of the trees, along fence lines, and sides of buildings.  It's melting much quicker, turning the yard into a small lake. 

We frame in the water barrels in the pasture to keep the animals from dumping them.  They're against the chicken coop wall to collect rain water from the roof.  Emptying and cleaning will be more difficult, but dirty water is better than no water.  We fill the barrels daily with water from the puddles.  It'll save a bit of work later, when things start to dry up.

It's still too mucky and wet to use the horse cart on the trails.  The roads aren't much better.  We stay within walking distance of home.  We've adapted to walking though, and can cover a good deal of ground.

Construction begins on the greenhouses.  Then the handle snaps off the post hole digger.  Dad picks a thin birch tree and begins carving a new handle.

We tap the birch trees for sap.   We collect it every day.  We keep a pot on the wood stove boiling constantly.  It takes a lot of sap to make syrop.  I pressure can one jar at a time and store it in the cold room.

Grass starts to turn green.  I let the birds out to free range.  We start picking fresh 'greens'- weeds.

I plant my greenhouses with brassicas, carrots, beets, onions, radishes, swiss chard and lettuce.  It's still too early for tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to transplant.  I start more seedlings in the house.  Sil, Lisa, and Nira start working up their garden space.  They all move their chicken pens over, and start working the areas the chickens fertilized through the winter.  Mom and Dad dig up their garden and plant cabbage.

It snows on Mother's Day.  Thanks for the gift, Mother Nature.  I hope that's the last of it.

Days get warmer.   Grass gets greener.

May 15th.  Wildflowers start poking up.  Mom and Dad go flower picking.  Dad gets a pain in his belly.  He lays down.  He takes tylenol.  The pain gets worse.  There's nothing we can do for him, except to make him comfortable and hope it passes.  No doctors, no medicine.  Dad dies early the next morning.  He was 66.  We are lost without him.

Days pass.  We cry.  We dig a grave.  We cry.  We bury him.  We cry.  We wait to wake up from this horrible nightmare.  We cry.

I cry all the time.  I go to the garden to plant or pull weeds.  I cry.  I stack firewood in the basement.  I cry.  I go to bed.  I cry.  I try to keep it together around the boys, but when I'm alone, I cry.

I plant the rest of Mom's garden.  She doesn't care.  It was Dad's garden.

#2 finishes carving the birch pole and fixes the post hole digger.  The men finish the greenhouse frames and cover the roofs with plastic.  There's not much left of the roll, so everyone is on their own to cover the sides.  Brother and Sil cut poles to cover the bottom two feet, and fill the chinks with clay.  Lisa does the same, except she goes up the full north side.  Diego and Nira find some tin in one of the sheds at northern neighbour's house, and use it for walls all the way around.

We are out of hay.  The pasture is still short.  We reinforce the fences.  We add another fence line to keep the critters in one spot and let the grass grow on the other side.  We move the cows and horses over.  We add another fence line.  We keep adding fence until the pasture is divided into 12 sections.  We'll have to keep rotating the animals all summer.

Sanya lets her horses loose.  Her paddocks are too small to feed them.  We find them in our yard one morning.  We shoo them away.  Husband goes to talk to her.  She figures they can roam free for the summer, and eat what they like, and she'll worry about hay next winter.  Husband tells her they can't roam free on our land, and we will protect our property.

We build gates for the end of the trails.  They won't stop the horses from entering through the trees, but they will slow them down a bit, cutting off the easy access.

It finally gets warm enough to plant the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the greenhouse.  We plant more brassicas, beats and mangels in the garden.  The beans, corn and potatoes go in.  I decide not to plant melons, since spring was so late.  I plant a few pumpkins and squash, but save most of my seed for next year.  We fill the rest of the garden with wheat, barley and oats.  It's less than half the seed, but we'll see what grows best in our short season, and save the seed to plant a full crop next spring.

We move the birds to the turkey pen.  We let them out to free range for a couple of hours every day, then pen them back up.  Two of the banties go broody, so I take them back to the new chicken coop and put them in the brooder boxes.  I let them set their own eggs for a few days, then sneak in at night and steal all of the eggs from one hen and replace them with eggs from the larger birds.  I add the stolen eggs to the other hen's nest.  This will keep the timing together so they should all hatch at the same time.

As the other banties go broody I move them to the new coop, into the brooder boxes, until all six have a broody banty nesting.  The rest of the banties are on their own to raise what they like outside.  Three go missing, nesting I hope.  One continues to hang around the other birds.  I add the days eggs from the other birds to the banty's nest when I move her.  Banties are great, but there's more meat on the larger birds.

The trails dry up enough that the men can get back to the lake in the horse cart.  They go fishing in groups of two or three, forage for puffballs and fiddleheads, and cut more wood.  They travel down different trails each time, looking for more lakes, different trees, raspberry patches.  We draw a map on the wall and make note of everything they find.


Nelly calves, but the calf is still born.  Husband, #1 and Diego go looking for a replacement calf.  At one of the neighbour's they find a farmer whose cow had twins.  One is not doing so well, so he lets them take it in exchange for 10 chicks when they hatch.  He doesn't have enough pasture to keep all of his cows either, so Diego makes a deal to let some of them graze at northern neighbour's, and keep one for beef in the fall.  The farmer will try to walk them over. 

Sanya's horses are running up the fence line at our house when they return, irritating our horses.  Husband goes out to shoo them off, but Diego stops him.  If they're running free, they're free for the taking, right?  They manage to catch three of them and Diego walks them home.

Nelly is very disagreeable with the calf, kicking it every time it tries to nurse.  We end up bottle feeding it with Mildred's milk.  After several days the calf, Murphy, figures out that Mildred is more agreeable, and starts nursing off of her.  We let Nelly back in the pasture with the other cows.  I am amazed that Mildred is able to feed all three of them. We keep Mildred and the calves in the side yard.

Our milk supply drops again, but that's okay.  We milk just enough for tea, breakfast, and a bit of butter, and let the calves take the rest.  Since we can't store the butter long, I just take the cream off the milk after a couple of hours in the cold room, put it in a small container and shake it up.  It's more of a chunky cream as we use it than real butter.

Mom is upset that her grass is getting so long, which makes the bugs worse at her place.  We aren't about to go wasting gas (if the lawn mower even works) and 'hay', so we offer to bring Mildred and the calves over to eat it.  Then Mom gets upset about the poop on the lawn.  Then Mildred walks through the garden, and Mom gets real upset.  We dig out the old solar electric fence charger, and are surprised to find that it still sort of works.  It's not a very strong shock, but it seems to do the trick for Mildred, so we fence in her yard.

We take the horses back to the creek pasture to 'mow' the lawn around Lisa's place.  Brother and Sil's place gets mowed when we're there with the horses.


Everyone is busy, foraging all the time, drying weeds for winter, planting, digging, weeding.  Everyone comes to visit and borrows the wheel barrow, helping to clean out the barn as they take home manure for their gardens.

Husband takes apart some old bicycles, wheel barrows, and a wagon, and builds a water cart, a manure cart, a tool cart and a horse hitch.  The hitch can be moved from one 'implement' to the next without unhitching the horse.  It seats one.  He takes the side cutter off the old tractor and loads it on the horse cart, along with some bits of scrap metal, and takes it up the road to the fellow who builds cutters.  The sound of the generator is deafening after silence for so long.

The fellow who builds cutters will get started on ours in a couple of weeks.  He needs more parts and gives Husband a list.  He wants beef in the fall for trade.  I worry about how we're going to keep producing beef of our own if we keep trading off all of our calves.

Spring is short lived and soon it's hot and dry.  Summer seems to have arrived.  We haul water from the creek several times a day.  We do laundry at Lisa's, hanging it on the clothesline at home.

The townsfolk are moving out into the fields and bush, staking claim to land outside of town, digging gardens, setting up camps where they will spend the summer.  Three families choose our road for their base, one is actually on Mom's land on the far side of the ravine.  They're a young couple with two young children.  They seem harmless enough for now, and self sufficient, so we let them be.

News from the south isn't great.  It seems in some areas whoever has the biggest guns gets to be the boss.  It's sad really, in a time like this when we all need to work together for the future.  People are still leaving the cities, moving into the country, squatting on any open space.  Unlike here, where the trees and forage are plentiful, there the concrete is plentiful, and absolutely useless in these trying times.  People are being killed all the time, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  There is news that the working windmills in one area have been taken hostage by a group of thugs.  They figured they deserved the power for themselves.  No one knows what happened to the guy who was fixing them.

February

It takes several more days of butchering and delivering beef before we are done 'paying' for our hay.  It's all been carted back to our place though, so we should be set until spring.

Delivering beef to folks in the area turned out to be extremely rewarding.  We now know all of the neighbours, who has what types of supplies, and things they'd be willing to trade.  Everyone is looking forward to spring and gardening, and fresh veggies.  There's talk of another seed exchange for those who missed the first one.

We met people with all sorts of poultry.  I manage to make several trades, and have increased my flock to 30 chickens, 7 turkeys, and 10 ducks.  10 of the chickens are banties, so I have hope they'll hatch eggs for me in the spring.

We got lucky and met some people with a small dairy.  They've been trading and butchering their herd.  We arrange to trade them one of our beef cows for one of their jerseys.  Driving Mindy to their house takes four people and a full day.  She's not halter broke and doesn't like being cut out of the herd.  We manage to get her there by blocking the crossroads and walking behind her with a whip.  The trip home with Mildred goes much smoother.  She is halter broke, and walks behind the sleigh quite agreeably.

The new birds bring new concerns.  The coop is not big enough for all of them, and it's not safe to let the banties 'free range' to nest.  We decide to turn the add a room into a new chicken coop.  We have enough lumber left to frame it in, and we take wire off the hay lean-to to separate pens.

The men take turns going ice fishing and cutting firewood every other day.  They've made a trail back to one of the lakes in the bush where the fishing is better, bringing home at least three a day.  The fish are essential for chicken feed.  I boil all of the skins, bones and guts in the doggy stew pot, along with a potato, any table scraps, and a few leaves of assorted dried weeds.  The pot feeds the dogs, cat, and birds.

The wood shed is filling slowly.  The fishermen cut down a few trees each day with the axe, bringing them home in lengths in the sleigh.  We're trying to conserve fuel, so they're using hand saws to cut the wood into pieces.  They alternate cutting firewood for each of our 'houses', building everyone's wood supply.

We continue to eat simple stews, and soups, and are lucky to have eggs each day for breakfast.

I keep busy through the long, cold days, patching clothing, blankets, and sewing new underwear.  Sil has become proficient at knitting socks.  We are on the lookout for old wool sweaters when we got to town.  Lisa and Nira also sew and knit.  Sometimes we stay home alone to work, sometimes we gather at one another's houses.  Mom joins to visit, and knits a bit.  We keep busy, and wait for spring.

Day 100- Ice Fishing and News

The weather has warmed considerably.  Nights are still cold, in the -30°C range, but the days are barely hitting -10°C now.  Of course that shift in temperature brings fresh snow, and freezing rain. 

Niece1 and Niece2 took the Littles, the kids and Sally back to 'school' when the weather broke, while Husband, Brother, Dad, Diego and the Bigs went ice fishing.  It didn't go well. 

The snow is too deep to make it back to the good lakes, so a lot of people are out on the lakes by the highway.  They were lucky enough to find several previously drilled holes to fish in, that only needed the fresh ice cut, but the lakes are really being over fished right now.  Dad managed to catch one small pike, Diego got a larger one, but the others have no luck.

Chatting with others in the area they learn that there is mail in town!  There's no organized 'postal service', but people have started taking pen to paper, passing letters on to whomever happens to be going the right direction.  A few people in town have heard from relatives from the south, and one got a letter from Manitoba.    The news in general is that there is no government, no corporations, no military coming to the rescue.  There are self appointed local sheriffs in some towns, and maybe even a mayor, but mostly just people trying to get by. 

Home alone for the day, I walk to Sil's for a visit.  She's been busy knitting and making rugs through the cold spell.  She's nearly out of material for rugs and completely out of yarn.  She has their floor completely covered, with more rugs of various sizes covering furniture and walls.  She may be able to trade some of them at the store.  Their food stores are running low, since it's been too cold to hunt.  I tell her I'll send over some beef when the men return.  We decide to walk to Mom's together.

We take the back trail and stop in at the cabin by the creek to see Lisa.  She's happy for the company.  She's been keeping busy whittling and has started to develop some skill.  She's made a few wooden spoons and is working on a ladle.  She and Sally have dug out a root cellar under her bed, giving them more room for storage and more clay to fill the chinks.  Today she's busy cutting firewood to replenish her pile. 

We find Mom outside in her garden shed.  She doesn't usually start her own seeds in pots, but has started getting things organized for this year.  Dad plans to put a small woodstove in the greenhouse and start tomatoes and cucumbers from seed.  I tell her I've finished sorting and organizing my seeds, and have tomatoes and peppers started already.  She gets out her seed stash and starts sorting while we're there. 

Mom and Dad's garden has always been pretty simple- tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peas, onions, turnip and lettuce.  They grew potatoes last year, and hopes they left enough in the ground to bring up another crop this year.  They want to try a few cabbages and some carrots this year, but otherwise don't plan to try much new.  I'm sure I have enough seed for that.

Walking home I stop and stare at the back field.  I want a new greenhouse put up in the spring, to keep the squash and pumpkins separated.  In truth, it probably isn't far enough apart for proper seed saving, but for now it's the best that I can do.  We'll need to fence off the clearing too, to keep as much of the wildlife out as possible.

When the others return and share the news, I send Brother and Sally home with a couple of roasts and some stew meat.  Hearing that mail is moving gives me a bit of a thrill.  This one small service could be the beginning of a return to civilization. 

The Littles had a good day at the community center.  They played outside most of the day.  It seems all of the children had too much pent up energy from being cooped up the past week or so to sit still and do any work.  I laugh as they tell me all of their stories.  It's nice to see them getting along for a change.

After another meal of stew- the pot is never ending, always on the woodstove now- we all head off to bed and read.

Day 61- Let There be Honey

Husband and I set off for the Hutterite Village right after breakfast.  The boys do chores, then work on building toys.

Things are not as quiet this trip as they have been in the past.  People come out of their houses and ask us to stop.  It seems we've traded half of our goods before we even get to Littletown.  Everyone wants to trade and chat.  Some things I agree to trade just because the people are so obviously bored.  One man traded a knife for a bow, and then traded the bow back for a pot that I got from his neighbour.

It's a fun ride, and we're obviously not the first people this has happened with.  People in Littletown come running out of their houses with pots, dishes, blankets, baskets, knicknacks and tools.  Everyone wants to trade something, and no one seems to care terribly much what they trade or what they get in return.  They trade with us, they trade with each, they trade back again.  Everyone is laughing and talking.  It feels like a party.  They tell us there were a couple of people with carts that would come every other week before the snow got so deep.  We trade in our box of books at their library, taking a large assortment of books in return.

We finally get to the Hutterite Village.  The store has only root vegetables available- potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, onions, garlic, and sugar beets.  The men come out to look at our sleigh full of goodies.  They're impressed with Diego's bows, and trade us one bow for enough supplies to build at least a dozen more, and two more for a selection of veggies.  They trade the fox skins for more veggies, and my candles for three large jars of honey.  Most of the other things we had left home with are already gone, and I honestly don't know what to offer them, or what else to take.

We ask the men if there's anything else they're interested in.  They continue to eyeball the sleigh.  Finally one asks what we want.  I ask for seeds, more honey, size ten shoes, sheets and blankets, hankies.  They pick out a few odds and ends, some things I don't even recognize.  They give us a bag of assorted seeds, another jar of honey, and three sheets.  They tell me to come back in a month with two bows and they'll have a pair of size 10 shoes.

We take a detour on the way home.  Most cars on the highway had their tanks punctured, but we find a car on one of the back roads that's still got enough fuel to fill our jerry cans.  We pick up the pace from there, waving at people who come out wanting to chat and trade again.  If we don't hurry home we won't make it before dark.

Diego and Nira are happy with a third of the veggies, a jar of honey, a few odds and ends, and the supplies to build more bows.  They didn't expect to get that much.  I give them all of the toys that were traded, and a stack of books.  I tell Diego that I need two bows to trade for shoes in a month.  He doesn't know what he wants to trade them for, but he'll think about it.

Brother and Sil are at Mom and Dad's when we get there.  I keep a few veggies for us, but give them the rest to split between them.  We're still doing ok, but I keep the sugar beets to plant for seed in the spring.  Dad takes a couple of hand tools.  Sil takes a sheet.  I give them a jar of honey, and mom pours some in another container.  They all pick out a few books.

Lisa and Sally are waiting at our house.  Lisa cooked again, and helped the Bigs build toys.  The Littles kept Sally busy and wouldn't let her in the garage.  All of the dishes, pots and cutlery that are left in the sleigh can go to the cabin for them.  I give Lisa a few veggies, some clothes that will fit her and Sally, and I pour a bit of honey in a smaller jar for them.  There's an odd assortment of baskets, bins, craft supplies, and knicknacks left.  I keep a few baskets, then Husband takes the rest to the cabin.

It's dark out when the horses are finally put away for the night, and I'm exhausted, so I head off to bed.

Day 44- Settling In

Lisa and Sally come up for breakfast this morning.  Lisa returns the hatchet and trades it for an axe.  She has most of the stubs flattened off now, and needs an axe to spit kindling.  She'll need to keep working on firewood as well, since there's not enough back there cut to last the winter.  She helps the boys with chores, and me with the dishes.  She's never been afraid of hard work, and it's good to have her around.

The girls come to get the Littles and the wagon to go to school.  Sally asks if she can go too.  Lisa is a little concerned about them being separated, but I assure her Sally will be safe.  #1 goes with them and takes the .22.  He'll go hunting while they're at school.

#2 gets the smaller cart ready with Tori, and helps me load laundry.  I take one of my big stock pots as well, since it's too cold to use water from the creek.  We put four of the chickens in a cage and take them and a bale of hay with us as well.

I take the water filter off the tub at the creek.  It's frozen solid, and they'll need it in the cabin.  I use some baler twine to tie it to the wall inside, and set the stock pot below.  Once we've filtered enough water through, it goes on the stove top to heat.  I empty the oldest of the lye water buckets into the tub, dump the ashes, and refill it with ashes from the stove.  Lisa scooped them out with her hands this morning, but she'll need a shovel and a metal bucket for future use.

#2 sets up a little chicken pen with another log cabin coop for the birds.  The thin layer of snow keeps them from being able to feed well, but I notice a piece of rotting firewood that's full of trails at the end.  Lisa splits it open, and we toss it in to the pen.  Full of ants, it'll feed the chickens well for today.  We cut a pine branch for them, and toss in a flake of hay.  They should be ok for a few days.  I tell Lisa that they're hers now, so she'll have to forage feed for them every day.

#2 takes the cart and goes back to the house.  He and Husband are going to see Diego and Nira.

When the water has boiled, I pour a bit into one of the laundry buckets, fill the coffee pot, and take the rest out to the tub.  Lisa washes the bucket with a bit of lye water, and rinses it out.  That'll be their drinking water storage.  She takes in another bucket of water from the creek to filter and boil.  She puts a pine needle branch in the coffee pot on the stove to steep.

I'm almost done my laundry when she comes outside to the tub.  It's too cold to be too picky about how clean the laundry is, and we seem to change clothes less and less frequently these days, so there's not a lot to do, mostly just socks and underwear.  We add more lye water to the tub and start on Lisa's things.  Sil arrives with a basket of laundry to wash as well.  I think they've met before, but I introduce them anyway.  Lisa hangs her things on the line, while Sil and I leave ours in baskets to go home.

The second pot of water has boiled, the bucket to drink is filled, and a third bucket is filtered and put on the stove to boil.  I bring in another stump to sit on, and we drink our pine needle tea and chat.

The drafts in the cabin are really bad.  The bucket of clay is warm and gooey, so we fill chinks in the walls.  Once it's empty, we refill the bucket and take it in to defrost.  We wash up in the bath tub, then drain the water out.

Husband and #2 arrive.  Diego has started a little hobby, making bows and arrows from a pile of PVC pipe he found in one of the sheds.  Husband has brought one with him, a gift.  Diego thinks they'll make good trade items.  I think it's great, and perfect timing, too.  We leave the bow with Lisa.  It's the only weapon she has.  She shouldn't need it for protection, no one is likely to be wandering that far back in the woods, but if she practices and becomes a decent shot she might be able to get a few birds or a fox with it.  I'd like at least three more for the Bigs and I.  It would save ammunition for hunting.  I'll have to think about something to trade with them.

We load the laundry and go to Brother and Sil's.  Brother has been busy hunting, and has two fox skins nailed to the side of the cabin.  He's feeding the meat to their chickens.  I think that's great.  That'll help with the predator situation, as well as the chicken feed.  He's gotten some partridge and a couple of rabbits.  He's also built shelves in front of the window.  Sil wants to plant something in the window.  She's got a bucket of dirt that she dug up before the freeze, but needs some pots and seeds.

We go back to our place.  Sil hangs my laundry for me.  I get a bunch of pots from the garden shed.  I had wanted to start some kale in the house, but hadn't been motivated enough to get it done. No time like the present.

I sort through my stash of seeds and pick out kale, swiss chard and lettuce.  We each plant a pot full of each.  Then I plant an extra set for Diego and Nira.  Hopefully they'll provide enough fresh greens to keep us all through the winter.  We take Sil home, then Lisa and I go back to the cabin to put up some shelves in front of the window. 

Everyone returns from school.  Sally had a fun day.  It's the first time she's been out with other kids since the blackout started.  #1 got two partridge on his hunting trip.  He saw a couple of friends from school, and they made plans to go ice fishing together as soon as the lakes freeze.

Lisa and Sally stay for supper with us again, then walk back to the cabin.  I am really tired, considering I didn't really do that much today.  I have a bit of a chill, but it's probably from the laundry.  I go to bed early.

Day 35- Winter?

We enjoyed a couple of beautiful spring like days again, though I was worried that the freezers wouldn't keep, before waking this morning to three inches of snow.  The temperature dropped overnight and the wind is howling.  I have both fires burning trying to take the chill off.  Three inches of snow doesn't provide much insulation against the wind, and with no blower on the furnace it takes a lot for the heat to spread.  We may need to move the boys beds downstairs and seal off the upstairs.  We've had a pretty mild fall so far, but winter may finally be here.  At least with the snow I won't have to wait all day for water.  I'm really behind on the dishes and laundry again.

Husband and the boys tested the new hay wagon/school bus out by going back in the woods for firewood.  The basement is full, and the woodshed just one row shy.  Samson managed the wagon on his own on the way out, but was really struggling with it loaded.  They hitched Knightmare up to team with him, and she did ok.  She tried to break away a few times, but the weight of the wagon prevented her.  They still wouldn't trust her on the small cart on her own, but she'll learn.

I made my last potato packet with lemon pepper last night.  The jar is empty.  I do have a fair bit of the spices I use all the time stored, but I think I had best start an indoor herb garden and experiment with what I can grow before I run out of everything.  I'm glad I dug out the thyme, marjoram, oregano, and lady's mantle from the perennial bed in September.  That'll give me a bit of a head start.  I think a large planter of kale might be a nice addition for winter too.

I'm starting to worry about yeast.  It looks like my flour supply is going to outlast my yeast supply, and the yeast I have is a bit aged, so I'm having to use a bit more of it to get the same effect.  I was sure I had another vacuum sealed package, but I've triple checked the cupboards and can't find it.  I started some sourdough experiments, but I've never had good luck with them before.  I hope I'm not just wasting flour and potatoes.  I've opened another bag of flour now, leaving 5 bags in the basement.  That's about 1 bag a month, so we should be ok until spring. 

Honey is getting low again.  Husband wants to wait for a bit more snow so he can take the sleigh to the Hutterite village, or a melt to take the horse cart.  The cart would be ok right here, right now, but we'd run the risk of hitting deeper snow or none at all within a few miles.  And you never know when a winter storm is going to dump a foot or two on top of you.  For now we'll stay put, and go without, since it's just not worth the risk of getting stranded.

Dad and Brother  spent the nice days fishing and hunting, doing well with both.  They got a dozen fish in one afternoon, several partridge, and a moose calf.  The smoker is down at Brother's camp so Sil can keep an eye on it.  They're making jerky.  Sil has the moose fat rendering on their woodstove, though there wasn't a lot of it.  Sil and the girls have collected a lot of cattails and weeds, boosting their winter stores as well. 

Niece1 has taken to driving the horse cart pretty well.  Niece2 seems to think they're going to crash.  I'm not sure if she's afraid of horses or her sister's driving.

Diego and Nira have asked for more potatoes.  I really don't want to part with them, even though I said we'd share when we brought them home.  They just seem to have gone through the first bag awfully fast.  They didn't even offer to trade any of the jars of pickles that they don't like.  I guess they've decided to eat them after all.  I know Diego helped dig them, but it was our meat that we traded for them, and more of our people that did the digging.  We'll stop and see the potato man again, but I don't think the odds are in our favour.

I spend the afternoon making more tallow candles.  I don't know if they'll make a good trade for honey, since the apiary would have beeswax, but maybe that won't matter at the village.  The demand for candles must be pretty high by now.  Although we find we're burning fewer candles by just going to bed earlier.  It means we're up before the sun, but everyone gathers in the kitchen in the mornings, so one candle is plenty.

I'll need to gather more jars to make more candles.  #2 is having a shoe problem.  He has the biggest feet, size ten, and no spares.  He'll be ok for winter, with his boots, and his rubber boots and steal toes are ok, but we'll have to keep our eyes open for shoes for him for next spring.  I could make slippers from the cow hides, but I don't think they'd hold up real well without soles.  Maybe we'll get lucky.  Thankfully everyone else has at least two pairs of spares, so they'll be ok for awhile.

Roast beef for dinner, soup for lunch, and pancakes for breakfast.  We're still doing well with food.