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.

April

The rains come.  Snow melts.  Snow falls.  Rain.  Warm days.  Cold nights.  More rain.  More snow.  The roller coaster of spring has arrived in the north.

By mid April it's no longer safe to go ice fishing.  The men have little luck fishing from shore.  The sleigh bogs down as they travel through the bush.  The trails aren't clear enough to use the cart.  Everyone stays within walking distance of the house.

What little grass pokes through the snow is still dead and brown.  We manage to shoot an occasional bird, rabbit and fox.  They stave off starvation for the birds, just barely.  The birds are getting more milk than we are now, along with the kale that I planted midwinter in the sunroom.  I'm afraid I may have to start feeding them my seedlings soon.  They're almost ready to transplant now, with no where to transplant them to.

I busy myself in the greenhouses, working the soil, filling buckets with snow, patching the plastic.  It's still too cold overnight to plant inside, but towards the end of the month the weeds start growing, giving the chickens some fresh greens.

The men cut logs to build more greenhouses for each house.  The ground is still frozen, so no digging yet.  At least they'll be ready when they can dig.  Tree tops are brought up for firewood.  Our wood shed is full, so we begin refilling the basement.

 I can what meat is left in the entranceway freezer.  There are over 700 jars, enough for one meal a day for each house, until fall.  We decide not to butcher anything big until then.  With any luck Dorie and Nelly will calve soon, and we'll have meat for the future.  Mildred's calves are growing well, and Monsoon, the little bull, will probably be on the menu next winter.

The garage freezer is filled with pop bottles of water.  All the extra bottles have been filled and stored in the basement.  The carboys, canning jars, and 5 gallon pails in the cold room have all been filled with water.

There are only a few jars left of pickles and beats, and still a fair bit of jam.  Sometimes the boys take a jar and eat it straight.  What else can we do with it with no flour for bread or pancakes?

Dad and #2 carve a mold of a foot, and make new shoes for #2 from last year's cow hides.  They plan to carve more molds in everyone's sizes, but only #2 is without shoes for now.

We're down to the last four bales of hay.  We need grass soon.  The snow melts slowly.  We put up more fences in the clearings, more places to graze this summer.

We have visitors regularly now.  The townsfolk come out to see if the trails are cleared to the bush every 4 or 5 days.  They're looking for greens.  They cut pine branches for tea, but there's not much else to be found yet. 

A seed exchange is set for mid month.   We go with just a few assorted seed packets.  There are fewer people than last time.  We hear of many who didn't make it through the winter, or chose to head south.  Letters from the south tell of decimated populations, but an early spring, and growing season well under way.  Town governments have begun contacting one another, seeking answers to the questions that everyone is asking- when will the power be back on.  In some areas windmills have been fixed, and pockets of hydro do exist.

We're surprised to find some of the Mennonites there, and they have wheat, barley and oat seed with them to share.  Everyone gets enough seed to grow one acre.  I am thrilled at the prospect of bread in the fall.  They have a working mill, and will grind what wheat we grow, in trade for other goods in the fall. 

Everyone is hopeful for the future.  We've survived the winter.  In another month we should begin harvesting the first spring veggies, and fresh weeds and forage before that.  Hydro in the future.  Some hope for normal.

Day 26- A Quiet Day

The headache is gone this morning, but my nose is running like crazy.  I add some yarrow leaves to my tea pot to help combat the cold.  A good dose of vitamin C would help too.  Instead of honey I use rosehip syrop to sweeten my tea.  It's wonderful to have milk in it again!  There's a bit of cream on top that I skim off for butter.  The boys get up, two with runny noses and two with stuffy heads.  I give them each the same treatment.  Husband gets up, not sick, and cheery.  Weirdo.  The boys take turns shaking the jar of cream and passing it around the table.

What to do today?  More bear fat to clean, drain, cool, reheat, jar.  More cracklings for the dogs and birds.  The boys go out and collect snow after breakfast.  It hasn't melted, but there isn't any fresh either.  We need to get water.  They do chores. 

Husband decides to try hitching Knightmare to the stone boat.  She starts out planning to take him for a wild ride, but soon discovers that's too much work.  She settles down and starts following his cues. 

I cut the leftover roast for hash, peel a large pot of potatoes and put them on to cook.  I chop some garlic and onion, and add it to the chopped roast in a skillet.  I start a batch of bread.  I get the soup pot from the fridge and put it on the stove for lunch today.

The Littles do their school work while I tidy the kitchen.  More banana bread for breakfast tomorrow, and the soup should be good for a couple more days, so there's not much to work on in the assembly line.

With the turkeys butchered and the geese and ducks moved into the chicken pen, it should be safe for me to plant some garlic and a few potatoes.  I'll check to see if the birds left any of the beets, carrots, and mangel roots in tact for seed as well. 

Planting garlic in the snow is chilly on the fingers!  I put most of it in the hugelkultur bed, and one bunch at the back of greenhouse #1.  I can't see any signs of the root crops, but then it could be just that they're well beneath the soil.  I decide to leave them and plant more in the spring if they don't come back.

Husband and the Bigs have Samson hitched to the cart and are loading buckets and barrels when I come around the house.  They go to Sanya and Roam's for water.  Roam's taping up a window when they arrive.  They had some prowlers around in the night.  They didn't go outside, and nothing seemed to have been touched on the property, except a rock was thrown through the window.  It seems an awful long way for kids to come causing mischief, but if it had been looters they would have done more damage.    Their dogs started barking though, so perhaps that scared the prowlers off.

Husband and the Bigs drop the water off at home, then go to Mom and Dad's to pick up their barrels and buckets.  They take them to get filled as well.  One final trip, they get water for brother and Sil.  As a thank you gift I send over a small roast and a jar of beets.

We have the bear soup for lunch, which is ok, but a tad strange.  I decide to thicken it tomorrow and turn it into stew.  I add a few more potatoes to it after lunch, along with some flour.  I roll out the bread, mix the potatoes into the skillet with the roast beef, and add some bear fat to it.

We cut and pile firewood in the afternoon for awhile.  The weather's warming and the snow is melting.  I hope winter holds off a bit longer.

Supper is served, soup is put in the fridge, the oven goes on the stove for bread.  When the first batch is done I cut a loaf open and smother it with the goat butter.  It's still somewhat milky, and I never worked the buttermilk out of it, but it tastes delicious!  The second batch goes in the oven while we tidy up. 

The boys and Husband play Battleship and chess after supper.  Once the bread is done I go to bed to read.

Day 23- Bear and Market

Everyone's up early this morning.  I'm sure I heard something, but I'm not sure what.  Smitty was growling softly when I woke.  Maybe he heard it too.  Nobody else remembers hearing anything.  They're just awake early.  It's still dark out, but the dogs have been out and they didn't seem to have noticed anything out of place out there.

Pancakes, coffee, and tea for breakfast.  #2 is my resident pancake chef.  He's a morning person.  I drain the bear fat into the metal bowl and take it out to sit on the freezer.  I grab the bowl of chopped turkey, take out a handful, and toss it in the soup pot for lunch.  I drain the beans, reserving the water.  I pour some of it into the soup pot and put it on the stove.

I put the beans in a roasting pan, add catsup, onions, garlic, molasses and a bit of bear fat.  They go back on the stove to bake.

After the boys do chores and feed the dogs I add a couple cups of rice and some weeds to the doggy stew pot.  They grab a bone package and I toss it in.  It'll sit on the counter until tonight.

Husband and the Bigs go out to work the horses.

The Littles get out their work books and do a couple of pages while I tidy the kitchen.  I clean out the breakfast pan, bowl, and utensils and set them in their place on the counter.  Organization makes things easier.

Husband and the Bigs have Samson hooked to the cart when the Littles and I come out to pick weeds.  We decide to go visit Mom and Dad, and take them some bread.

We find a dead bear just off the deck when we get there.  I knew I heard something this morning.  The bear had come looking for food around their grill.  Dad shot him.  Now he'll be food.  Excellent.  Dad tells us to take it home and hang it in the garage.  He'll come over to help butcher tomorrow. 

We visit for a bit, Samson trims their lawn, we load the bear and head home.  We stop and gut it on the side of the road.

Samson refuses to back the cart up to the garage so we can hang the bear.  It's too big to carry, so we use the quad to move it inside and hook it to the come-a-long.  #2 and I start skinning.  Husband and #1 take Samson to practice backing up for a bit, then put him away.

When the bear is skinned we hang it on the wall of the garage.  We're developing quite a collection there.  I give the beef hide and the first bear hide a quick scrape, then salt all three.

Soup for lunch with turkey salad sandwiches.  I even open a jar of mayo.  It's cold enough now that we can just set it outside.  The freezer is getting kind of crowded though, with the assortment of things to keep cool.

Husband and the Bigs hook Tori to the cart.  Her leg is better now.  They use the cart to move our old fridge, which has been sitting beside the work shop, up to the house.  I had planned to use it for storage, but there wasn't much in it.  They set it beside the entrance way door outside.  Right now it will be perfect as a fridge, just a bigger cooler with shelves and no ice required.  In another month everything in it will freeze.  It'll keep the dogs out of things though, and take the clutter off the freezer.

#2 saws the bear carcass in half and we cut a hind quarter down.  I wrap it in a garbage bag and he loads it on the cart.  We grab some bread and a jar of cattail flour and go to Brother and Sil's.

Brother heard the gunshot this morning too.  They're happy for the meat and bread.  I tell them to try the flour.  If they like it they still have time to dig more cattails. 

Their cabin is quite cozy now, with the closet and shelves up, and walls framed in around the girls' room.  They don't plan to put in solid walls, but continue with the sheets hanging instead so the heat will move through freely.  They've built a bench for more seating around the table, and another small table for crafts and cards. 

Sil and the girls have gathered and dried an impressive collection of weeds.  They want to go to the flea market/feed store to see if Marsha has any jars for sale.  I have boxes of old pickle/pasta sauce/cheese whiz jars stored, so they can take some of those, but they'll need more jars for canning next summer. 

Husband figures #1 will be fine to drive, so Sil and I head out with him in the cart.  We stop at home and cut a shoulder off of the bear to trade with.  I grab a handful of change as well, just in case.

The market seems to be doing a bustling business these days, and much like the store in town, has an odd selection of things to trade.  Animal feed is long gone, but the trailers it had been kept in are now loaded with clothing, blankets, assorted building supplies and other odds and ends.  There's a shelf on one wall with food.  I'm surprised by the amount of meat- bear, moose, beef, chicken, partridge and rabbit.  It seems that everyone can hunt and butcher, but vegetables are in short supply. 

There's a list on the wall of people hoping to trade animals they can no longer feed- mostly horses, dogs and cats- but also goats, cattle, rabbits, chickens, ducks and geese.  I get directions from Marsha to a couple of the people who've listed chickens.

Sil finds a couple boxes of jars, some extra dishes, utensils, blankets, and clothing.  I ask Marsha what the bear shoulder is worth to her.  She says we can take all of that and a bit more.  I add all of the jeans I can find and a couple of blankets.  We both figure it's a pretty good deal.  I ask if she's still taking cash and she says no.  I ask about coins.  She hesitates, but still says no.  I expected coins to hold some value over paper, easier to carry than household goods, and they can always be melted down for the metal.  Not yet, it seems.

We drop off my blankets and jeans at our house, load a couple of boxes of jars onto the cart, then go back to Brother and Sil's camp to unload.

The girls get busy jarring up the dried weeds while Sil and I put away the other supplies and cut up the bear.  Husband and Brother load the cart with barrels and buckets.  They go to Sanya and Roam's for water.

By the time they come back and get the water unloaded it's already dark.  We go home, do chores, have baked beans for supper, drain more fat from the rendering pot, and put the doggy stew on to cook overnight.  The fat bowl and baked beans go in the fridge outside overnight.

The boys look through the pile of jeans that I got from the flea market.  They take what will fit, but a lot of them are women's jeans and won't fit any of us.  I'm thinking ahead, of alterations to be made, or reusing the material.  What we have won't last forever.  The blankets get folded and put away in the chest upstairs.  Again, we don't really need them right now, but the time will come.

The boys start playing cards.  Husband reads.  I start writing out three lists of edible weeds- what to look for, which parts to use, how to eat them.  When finished I head to bed.

Day 19- Bath Day

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring!!

It is pissing down buckets, and it looks like it started in the middle of the night.  I am so happy!  I run outside and make sure there are buckets under all of the rain gutters.  Two buckets are already overflowing, but a third was knocked over.  I carry one in the house.

I stoke the stove and fill it with wood.  I want a really hot fire today- partly because I'm now soaked through and cold, but mostly because I'll be boiling water all day.  I start straining some of the water through my filter, then fill a big pot with straight rain water and put it on the stove. 

I yell upstairs for the boys to get up.  It's been weeks since I yelled up the stairs in the morning and the Bigs come running down thinking the house is on fire or something.  I send them back upstairs to get dressed, and hurry.  It's raining!  They probably think I've lost my mind.

When they return I send them out to make sure all of the rain barrels around the barn and chicken coop are upright in their proper places.  The critters tend to knock them over when they get low.  I tell them to bring in the full buckets from around the house when they're done.

I start a pot of coffee and tea just as Husband stumbles into the kitchen wondering what all the fuss is about.  I am so happy I am dancing around.  I clean out the kitchen sink, take the pot off the stove and fill it.  It's not boiling yet, but hot enough for dishes.

I strain the water off the cattail starch, which seems to have settled fairly well, then dump the pot into a big bowl.  I want this pot boiling water on the stove!  I get it washed and ready just as the Bigs come in with buckets of water.  They fill it and top up the first pot.  My other big pot is full of bear fat so I grab my canner, wash and fill it too.  I strain more water, then take the little bit that's left and pour it in the bathtub.  The Bigs take the buckets outside and switch them with the other two under the gutters.  This also goes in the bathtub and the buckets go back outside.

I wash out all of the pop bottles and juice jugs that are sitting empty, then start on the dishes.  Once the first pot boils #1 pours it in the tub, and #3 gets the first bath.  He's the cleanest of the filthy.  The water is pretty dirty when he's done, but #4 has to share. 

I wash out the empty pot, fill it with filtered water, and put it on the stove.  The Bigs go out and switch the buckets again.  The rain is slowing down, but the barrel is nearly full, so they top off the buckets from the barrel.  They strain more water through the filter.  I wash out the cattail and meat buckets from yesterday, then drain the sink.  #1 refills it for me with unfiltered boiled water, then tops up the pot on the stove.

#4 gets out of the tub and the water is disgusting.  After it's drained #2 gives the tub a quick wash, then starts refilling it.  The Bigs bring in more water from outside and start filling the tub again.  #2 gets to bathe next.  We wash dishes, filter water, fill buckets to cool, and take turns bathing over the next few hours.  Everyone looks and feels so much better than they have in weeks.

The Bigs go outside to do chores, and fill the chicken coop with all the buckets and dishes they can find.  They fill them with water from the rain barrels, then cover them with feed bags to keep dirt out.  The Littles take all of the heavy blankets outside and hang them on the clothesline for a rinse.

I go last in the tub, and take my time just soaking.  It's such a luxury now!

The rain has picked up again when I get out of the tub.  I tell the Bigs to go see if Brother, Sil and the girls would like to borrow the tub.  I keep filtering, boiling, and cleaning.  It's so hard to keep things clean while trying to use minimal water.  Even the floors get mopped for the first time in weeks.

The Bigs come back with the girls.  Brother and Sil will be over in a while.  They're trying to store as much water as possible too, and of course cleaning everything they can.  The Bigs fill the tub for the girls, and Niece1 goes for a bath.

The boiled, filtered water in buckets has cooled sufficiently to start filling the pop and juice bottles.  We keep the cycle going, taking out buckets, bringing in buckets, filtering, boiling, cooling, filling bottles.

Niece2 gets her turn in the tub.  Brother and Sil arrive.  They need more buckets- and a bath tub.  They take their turns in the tub as well.  Who knew we'd ever be so happy for a downpour?  The snow is long gone, the yard is filled with puddles, the critters are drenched, and we hope the rain continues!


Late in the afternoon we finally clear enough space on the stove to make brunch.  Brother, Sil, and the Bigs go over to Mom and Dads to see if they need help gathering and carrying water.  The girls go back to their camp to keep filling and boiling water there.

I've filled every pop bottle and juice bottle I could find with clean, filtered, boiled water.  The Littles even dug through all of the recycling bags looking for extras.  I start filling canning jars, my wine carboy, refilling the tub, even the mop bucket.  Anything that will hold water. 

Finally the rain stops after supper- cabbage rolls cooked in a pot on the stove.  They aren't great, but I didn't want to put the oven on and lose the boiling space while it was raining. 

It's been a great, though exhausting day, racing against the weather.  I look at my stinky sheets and decide to change them before crawling into bed.  Laundry day at the creek tomorrow.

Day 14

I slept well for the first few hours, then tossed and turned the rest of the night.  I'm up before dawn, but I wasn't going back to sleep anyway, so what was the point of laying in bed?  I take the oven off the woodstove and check the jerky.  I think it's a little overdone.  Overdone is better than underdone though.  I make tea- no coffee today.  The dishes are really piling up again, especially with everything we used for butchering yesterday.  The rain barrels are getting low, so we'll have to haul water from the creek when we pick up the laundry.

The boys are up early too.  We're all stiff and sore, with several more days of butchering ahead of us.  I put a pot of water on to boil for the dishes, and another filled with bones for beef stock.  I chop a few carrots and throw in some chives.  At least this nice weather is keeping the herbs and weeds growing.  The beef stock and weeds will make soup, along with a few potatoes,  for lunch for the next few days.

We eat pancakes for breakfast, then the Bigs join me in the garage after chores.  #1 lights a fire under the smoker outside and leaves it to get hot.  We cut up one of the front quarters, dividing the shoulder into 12 roasts.  We start another tray for ground beef, cutting the brisket and meat off the ribs into it.  The Bigs work on grinding it up while i start trimming the fat off the roasts.  The fat goes in a bucket to be rendered into tallow later.

After packaging the meat and laying it out in the freezer, we break for a late lunch.  The soup won't be ready until tomorrow, so for today we just eat bread and jam.

After lunch I check the smoker.  It seems hot to me.  I add some cherry wood chips to the coals underneath, then layer the meat on the racks.  I close in the bottom of the smoker with gravel and dirt and hope for the best.

The Bigs get the horse cart ready.  This will be their first time driving without their father around.  They tie the other horses alongside so they can all graze at the back while we're there.  I fill two more ice cream buckets with ashes, nesting them inside of other buckets so there will be lots of lye water on my next laundry day.  I find another piece of PVC pipe to take for a water filter.  I'm not planning on using it for drinking water, so I'll fill it at the creek.  I take some material and elastics to put it together.  The Bigs strap one of the empty rain barrels onto the cart to bring water back to the house.

We go around by Sil's to see if she wants to come with us and do some laundry.  She loads a couple of baskets and adds them to the cart.  I notice she has weeds drying in their shed.  She brings a bucket to pick more.

At the creek we discover that something has gotten tangled in the clotheslines.  Laundry is knocked down everywhere.  Most of it is still clean and dry, but I have to rewash some of it.  I layer rocks, material and sand in the filter, then fasten material over the ends.  We scoop water by bucket into the filter and fill the bathtub for laundry.  The boys keep scooping water to fill the rain barrel while I wash.  It'll still need to be boiled and filtered at home, but at least it looks clean.  I dump the ashes out of the bucket that was already there, and refill it from the two I brought with me.  I cover all three with water and leave them inside the cabin.  Sil does her laundry.  The two of us ring out the bigger stuff- jeans and a blanket.  I still don't think it's worth the effort involved to ring it out. 

The boys fix the clotheslines and check the fence.  They can't see where anything would have gotten in, except through the creek.  Hopefully it won't happen again.  They add a few more small trees to the fence, starting a lower line on the fence.  If we can make it secure enough, we'll be able to bring the cows down instead of watering them if it doesn't rain soon.

We pack up the dry laundry and get ready to go.  The horses seem like they would like to stay awhile, but we drag them out anyway.  We'll bring them back tomorrow.  Sil and I walk beside the cart and pick weeds as we go.

The cart jerks to a stop and #2 grabs my .22.  I figure he's spotted a partridge, but to my surprise he shoots a fox.  Nice shot and good riddance!  Shiloh freaks out over the gunshot and breaks her lead as she rears.  Samson, the horse from the neighbour, looks shaky too.  We wait for Shiloh to stop running and calm down before #1 attempts to grab her.  She's not too disagreeable, because as much as she wants to run she also wants to be back with the other horses.  We'll have to start doing cap gun training with the two of them.

Back at the house the boys put the horses and cart away, then check the chickens to make sure they got the fox before it got lunch.  They bring in three eggs.  I am so happy with that!  Sil and I jar up the dried weeds and lay out the fresh ones.  The Littles put away the laundry.

The beef stock is ready to can, so I pull it off the stove and put my canner in it's place.  Sil pops empty jars into the pot of boiling water while I strain the stock from the bones.  I get another pot ready and pour a few inches of stock into it.  We pull the meat off the bones, along with the carrots, and put it into the second pot.  Sil tosses in two good handfulls of weeds.  The Littles peel a few potatoes and chop them up.  The soup will sit on one of the side grills overnight to keep warm.  Sil pulls the jars back out of the boiling water and I fill them.  We fill the canner and let it pressurize.

I check the meat in the smoker and it seems to be drying.  The smoker is still hot, so I don't disturb the fire.

We all walk over to Mom's to check on her.  She's kept herself busy stacking firewood most of the day.  The boys get her some water from the spring and she asks where we've been getting water from.  I tell her  we've been using rain water and getting water from the creek.  She wants to go with us to do some laundry tomorrow.

We all walk back to our house for supper.  Hamburgers tonight, with fresh ground beef.  I check the smoker again, and it's cooling off.  The meat looks to be about done anyway, so I take it in the house to cool.  I set the oven back on the woodstove and put in the last tray of meat to dry overnight.

We play cards for awhile, then Mom and Sil walk back to Mom's.  Sil will spend the night there.  We're all tired too, and decide to call it a night.

Day Four

 The dogs woke me up.  It's early.  Really early.  It's still dark outside.  They're barking at something.  I let them out, but I see nothing.  Everyone else is still sleeping.

I pour myself a glass of apple juice, thankful that tomorrow morning I will have tea.  I could have tea today, outside on the fire pit, but I'm too lazy (and scared of the dark) to bother with it.  Today husband and the boys will get the woodstove reinstalled in the sunroom, and tomorrow I will have tea.

I go to the basement and check the fire.  There are still some hot coals- what time is it?  I give them a stir, add some cardboard and kindling.  Hopefully it'll catch.  Lighting a fire without the fan is such a pain.

I let the dogs back in.  They're wet.  It's raining.  I won't be going hunting this morning.  I will stay home and can.

I look in the fridge.  It's not really cool, but not warm either.  I'll need to clean it out.  There are lots of leftovers.  I start opening containers- goulash, lasagna, cabbage rolls, potatoes.  I chop them, mix them all together, then add a bit of water.  I pour them in a casserole pan and cover it with tinfoil.  Lunch.  There are two packages of mushrooms that need to be dealt with.  A bowl of turkey bones that I had planned to make stock with.  Broccoli, celery, apples, milk.  I decide a nice cream of broccoli soup would be good for supper, and I'll can cream of mushroom soup.  I could do cream of celery as well, but I still have some in the cold room.  The celery will keep for a while in the cold room.  At this time of year it's like a big walk in fridge.  I start chopping veggies.

As the boys get up, they discover a pile of stuff from the fridge, and a mountain of dishes spread across the table.  I send one after another downstairs to the cold room with things to be kept down there.  I tell them to drink milk for breakfast, it won't keep.  I send one to the freezer with his arms full of freezer stuff from above the fridge.  Most of it has started defrosting.  I hope it's cool enough out to refreeze.

Husband gets up.  He's cranky without coffee, but I pour him a glass of apple juice and tell him the sooner he gets the stove installed, the sooner he'll get coffee.  He takes the Bigs out to get started.  About an hour later, they have it installed.  They had to take out the platform from the old stove, it was too small and the new stove doesn't need the extra height.  I get a fire started, then get the camp coffee pot from the trailer.  I fill a pot with water and put it on top of the stove as well.  That's pretty much all of the usable space, with those two items.  There might be enough room to squeeze in one more small pot.  We're going to need to extend the surface area if there's any hope of canning, heating water and cooking.

Husband looks over my campfire grills, and disappears in the garage.  I hear him start the generator, so I take my phone and flashlight outside to charge.  I debate whether to find an extension cord to plug in the freezer, but he comes out and shuts the generator back off.  So much for that.  He's welded two of the grills together to sit over top of the stove, extending the sides.  They won't work for cooking, but they should be warm enough to keep water heated.  I mention to him that I'm going to need some sort of oven as well, to bake in.  He gives me a look, and I just smile and say, "Coffee's ready."

The boys are fighting again when we go back in the house.  I send #1 and #3 out to do chores, #4 to put away clean dishes, and #2 to check the fire in the basement.  When the Bigs have finished, I send them to the add a room to get the wood rack, then all of them to get firewood to fill it.  That keeps them busy for a while.  I set up the grill over the stove and move the pot of water to one side, and put my canner on the other.  I set the casserole pan on the stove, along with my tea pot.  I'll have tea today after all.

After the tea boils I slide the water pot back onto the stove, and it too is soon boiling.  I wash dishes, starting with my soup pot.  Then I put the turkey bones, some carrots, celery, onions and spices with enough water to cover, back on the stove to make stock.  I continue washing dishes.  The dishwasher is soon overloaded with clean dishes.  It's been nothing but a dish rack for years now anyway, since it doesn't work.

The boys come in, and I send them out to find buckets.  We're going through water awfully fast, so we had best take advantage of the rain.  First I tell them to make sure all of the barrels in the pasture are up against the chicken coop wall to collect water off the roof.  I tell them to bring the barrel from my forest garden up to the house and put it under the rain gutter by the sunroom, then put 5 gallon pails under all of the other gutters and find something to go under the garden shed, so it'll be closer for the turkeys.  "One of the barrels in the pasture has been leaking.  Bring it back to the garage, maybe Dad can fix it."

Husband goes out to the garage.  He returns some time later with the top half of the leaky barrel cut off.  #1 carries in a piece as well.  He tells me to move my soup pot, and I do.  He sets the half barrel on top of the stove.  "How's that?", he asks.  The piece #1 had was a door, and they have built me a little stove top oven.

"That should work.", I smile.  I take it off the stove and set it on the floor.  I put my soup pot back on.  They go back outside.

Throughout the day I have to alternate soup and boiling water on the stove top.  I remove my canner- it heats up much faster than I expected, so I leave it sit on the floor beside the stove.  It won't take too long to get it hot enough to can with later, once the stock is done.  That frees up some space, so I grab the doggy stew pot and start some stew.  That should make the pups happier.  Luckily we had some dog food when the power went out, since it's been so unstable, but they really aren't fans of the stuff.  The doggy stew is going to have to be heavy on the veggies (dandelion, potato peels) for awhile, to stretch the rice out.  I use water from the spring for it.  It's been boiled, but I'd really like to filter it as well, especially if we have to drink it.

It rains most of the day, and we're lucky enough to fill several buckets of water.  When the rain lets up Husband and I decide to go for a bird run.  His quad won't start.  I'm not surprised.  It's newer, an automatic, computerized.  He borrows #1's quad.  I take my trailer, a bucket, empty pop bottles, and a chainsaw.  We only get one bird, but we get sand, a load of firewood, and water from the creek.  We'll have to do a lot more combined trips like this.

Back at the house, I take the boys out to the garden.  The turkeys have cleaned out almost all of the remaining veggies, leaving only the weeds and corn stalks behind.  I wish I could let them out to free range, they eat so much at this stage.  It wouldn't be safe for them though.  I've already lost a bunch to foxes this year.  The Bigs raise the sides of the greenhouses for me.  I want the snow to go inside through the winter so they won't be so dried out next spring.  Then they put the rototiller back in the garden shed.  They pull out the pea fences and move them over against the garden fence.  The Littles and I gather up garden stakes, pots and tools.   Everything is put away for the year.  Now it's ready for husband to bring over composted manure to cover the new hugelkultur bed.  I hope the tractor will start.

It's been a long, but productive day.  We're all tired.  We go in the house.  I check the turkey stock.  It's ready.  I slide it over, and put a cast iron pan on the stove.  I need to fry up the mushrooms.  I take the doggy stew pot off, and the boys take it to feed the dogs.  I put my canner back on the stove to heat.  I strain the stock from the turkey bones.  Once the mushrooms are fried, I add them to the stock, along with some salt, and bring it back to a boil.  A short while later the cream of mushroom soup is ready to can.

The boys have finished chores, and I have the cream of broccoli soup ready in another pot.  I put it on the stove beside the canner.  Supper will be ready soon.  There's still a bit of milk left, so I tell the boys to drink it with supper.  I get two large pots of rain water ready to go on the stove once the canner is done, more dishes to wash.  The boys put away clean dishes and set the table.  I put the first pot of water on when the soup comes off the stove, and the second when the canner is finished. 

After supper, I wash dishes again.  There's plenty of hot water, so I tell the boys it's bath night.  They pour two buckets of rainwater in the tub, and then the hot water.  I start another pot boiling for warm ups.  It's a shared tub, cleanest to dirtiest, but it makes them all feel better.  I splurge and have a bit of a clean bath with the water left in the pot.  Husband washes up after me.

We stock the stove, close the dampers, and add another large pot of water to heat overnight.  It's time for bed.

Day Two

The power was still out when I woke up this morning.  The bathroom stinks.  The toilet needs to be flushed.

It's hunting season.  I stumble in the dark to gather my things for moose hunt.  Everyone else is still sleeping.  Except maybe Husband, who hasn't made it home yet.  I turn my phone on to see if it has service, but no luck.  I shut it back off.  With my guns and pack I head out the door.  Smitty meets me at my quad.  He's my hunting buddy.  We head off into the woods.

We're almost at my chosen moose spot when I spot a partridge.  If I shoot it it'll frighten off any moose headed into the area.  The temptation is too much to resist though.  It's been a busy fall, and I've only been out bird hunting twice.  I shoot the bird.  I clean it, take the breast and the legs, and Smitty gets the rest for breakfast.

We head further up the road, and spot another two birds.  He doesn't finish his share of them, so I toss them on the back of the quad for the dogs at home.

A bit deeper into the bush, and I see I've disturbed two other hunters.  It's getting bright, and it's going to be harder to find a quiet spot for moose.  The idea is to get in quietly in the early morning and hunker down before they head to their resting places.  They sleep through the day.  I decide I might as well just make it a bird day.  I let the other hunters get a bit ahead of me- if they disturb any birds, I want them settled again when I go by.

We're out riding for a couple of hours, and I get my limit of 5 birds.  I head home.  I run into my brother and sister-in-law on the way back.  They're up for the week visiting and moose hunting.  They have a camp set up on the edge of my property.  They're on their way out for birds.

I get home and toss the remains of the birds to all of the dogs, then take the meat and my stuff in the house.  Cleaning the birds without running water is a pain.  Luckily I have pop bottles full of water stored in the basement for times like this.  Still, it's not the same as turning on the tap.  I put the birds in the freezer.  They won't freeze with the power off, but they should keep a couple of days.

The boys are up when I get back, and have already done chores, brought in water from the rain barrel to flush the toilet with, and put away clean dishes.  They made sandwiches for breakfast, since the toaster 'wasn't working'.  Sometimes kids say the funniest things.  Yesterday's laundry still needs to be hung on the clothesline, and I send #4 to do that.

It's a quiet afternoon.  Grandma stops by to see how we're doing, and invites everyone for supper.  It's Thanksgiving, and we're having a pot of chili.  That's normal for us- we don't do a big turkey meal during opening week of moose season.  Dad's got his generator running, but the truck still won't start.  I try the car, and it won't start either.  I check my phone again, still no service.  Grandma had the radio on earlier, but there's only one station that comes in at all in our area, and it's mostly static.  She thinks they were saying that the blackout is across the country, and into the states.  It could be awhile before we have electricity back on.

I go for a nap, and the boys play cards.  #3 is getting rowdy from computer withdrawal.  He's such an addict.  When I get back up I tidy up the kitchen.  The dishes are stacking up.  I don't know if there's enough water in the rain barrels for another day of chores and toilet, as well as washing dishes.  I don't want to use the bottled water from the basement, we might need it for drinking.  I send the Littles out to the recycling to find extra pop bottles.  We can fill them at the spring at Grandma and Grandpa's.

We head over shortly afterwards, and the boys fill the pop bottles before supper.  Brother and sil need water, too, so I give them a couple of bottles.  We have a nice meal together, and play cards for a while after.  I check my phone again, but still nothing.  I have no idea where Husband is, or how he's doing.  I can't imagine that there'd be many restaurants open with the power out, and if the car won't run he's got to be getting frustrated.

Back at home, I read until bed.  The boys are still mostly content with their cards, although they are starting to get loud, whiny, and cranky with each other.  If the power's still out tomorrow I'll have to find something more constructive for them to put their energy into.