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.

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 73- Christmas and New Year's

The last few, short, dark days before Christmas were spent making presents for everyone.  We spent Christmas day together, exchanging gifts, eating and drinking.  Everyone imbibed a bit, and all were merry. 

The Littles, Sally and the kids played with all of their new homemade toys, and several commented on how busy Santa must have been in his workshop this year.

The adults all seemed pleased with their new rocket stove outhouse heaters and 2013 calendars.  Sil knitted new scarves for everyone.  Nira sewed everyone new longjohns.  Diego made a bow for each of the men, and the boys got the bows that we had traded them.  Mom knitted dishclothes and Dad made knives.  It was truly a wonderful Christmas, with more gifts than I had imagined possible.  We played cards late into the night.

Boxing Day we went for a sleigh ride, stopping to check on Sanya and Roam, and meeting the neighbours around the other bend in the road for the first time- the ones who remain in their homes.  We took along a few jars of pickles and some of the bear to trade.  Most of the people that way have a bit of livestock- chickens, goats, cows and horses.  I'd like to find someone close by that might have some piglets for to barter in the spring.

The rest of the week was spent doing the normal daily chores, fires and water and cooking.  We got another foot of fresh snow before the temperatures took a nose dive, holding pretty steady at -30°C now.  We reminisced about that first winter, when it was -45°C for three weeks in a row, warming up just enough to snow, then plummeting again. 

It's too cold to do much of anything outside, quick trips to the barn, then back in the house to thaw out.  I've been stitching up coats and clothes, repairing rips and tears.  I even figured out how to sew a button hole with the treadle machine, replacing broken zippers with buttons.


#2 got bored and cleaned the basement, without anyone telling him to.  It was a nice surprise. 

New year's Eve was another night of everyone gathered together to eat, drink and be merry.

Husband finally sat down to read over my notes on how to build a windmill with a car alternator.  He's concerned that the wind won't blow fast enough to make it worthwhile.  I miss the internet.  It would be nice to be able to google other designs and ideas. 

For the time being though, he and the Bigs brought in all of the car and truck batteries and wired them together in the basement.  It's only an 8 battery bank, but it's more than we had before.  They're going to check abandoned cars for batteries now too.  He wired a cord to the generator, so it can be charged a bit when the generator's running, but that's only on rare occasions.  They fastened the two little 'battery charger' solar panels onto the old internet satellite dish, and ran the wires down to the basement to the battery bank.  On sunny days it gives us just enough power to run the furnace fan for about half an hour in the morning and again in the afternoon.  It really helps to take the chill off.

Brother and Sil have a heat powered woodstove fan, and Husband and Dad have been making plans to copy it.  It would be an enormous help in circulating the air in both our houses, not to mention a great trade item.

Otherwise, things have been fairly dull.  Laundry in the bathtub, after using the water for baths.  Pancakes for breakfast.  Stew for lunch.  Usually beef for supper, although we did have turkey for Christmas.  Lots of pumpkin treats this week- I baked a pumpkin just before Christmas- pies, cookies, breads. 

I went through a bit more than a bag of flour this month.  I'll have to watch it more closely.  One of the neighbours said the feed mill should be able to mill wheat and other grains still, if they can find a power source.  He used to work there, and although a lot of renovations have been done through the years, a lot of the older equipment is still set up and functional.  Not that I have enough wheat seed to grow a real crop next summer anyway, but maybe someone will grow enough to sell or barter.

The days are getting longer again, thank goodness.  We went through a lot of candles the past few weeks.  It's hard to conserve when we were barely getting nine hours of daylight.

It's a brand new year now, who knows what the future will hold.  Maybe we'll get hydro back at some point.  Maybe we'll stop missing it.  It's hard to say.

Day 8- Taking Inventory

Another crisp, cool morning.  I check the beef in the garage.  It hasn't frozen.  The water bottle outside has though.  I switch it with the one in the cooler.

Husband and the Bigs will be working on the outhouse again today.  They're cutting all the pieces with the chainsaw.  We have a decent supply of nails and spikes, due mostly to the boys telling me we're out of things, when they haven't put the last bunch I bought away yet.  Still, we'll need to be a little cheap with the supplies.

I dig the campfire 'toaster' out of the trailer, and we have toast for breakfast.    We're low on water, but it feels like rain.  We'll wait and see rather than going for water now.

I have crabapple catsup to finish today.  I need to find something to occupy the Littles.  They'll try to kill each other if left on their own all day.  I decide to send them to Grandma's for water after all.  They'll stop and visit there for awhile, and bring back a couple of pop bottles full of water from the spring.  It'll keep them busy for a few hours anyway.  Then maybe I can get started on that inventory in the cold room.  I better check the freezers too.

I get the crabapple catsup set up alongside my canner on the woodstove.    Before lunch I have 6 quarts of catsup cooling.  Sandwiches for lunch again, but we're almost out of sandwich meat.  It's almost funny how we've gotten addicted to store bought convenience.  I'll have to start serving lunch- probably soup.  Yeah, more cooking, more dirty dishes.

Husband and the Bigs are pretty sure we'll be able to test out the outhouse before dark.  Dark.  Hmm... "How about a window?", I ask.

"Is that really necessary?", Husband looks annoyed.

"Well, I can pee in the dark, but you all have bad aim.  And the Littles won't use it- they're afraid of the dark.  Or were you planning to install hydro?".  I can tell he doesn't appreciate my sarcasm.

Husband sends the Bigs to the window pile- it was there when we moved in.  They find a small window that still has it's glass, bring it back to the outhouse, and they work on framing it in.

I look at the solar lights in the sunroom window.  I'll need to make them less fragile, and able to sit up on their own.  Or hang.  They could hang in front of the window.  I get out my spool of string and make several loops around the base of one of the lights.  Then I work on wrapping string through the loops, over the top and back.  It's not pretty when I finish, but it should work.  I wrap a second one the same way.  I'm not sure that the outhouse will need two, but I could hang one in the livingroom window.  Then I decide to do all of them and hang them around the house.  We had been carrying them around, bringing them back to the sunroom to charge through the day, but hopefully they'll get enough charge in the rooms they're in to stay put.

I finally get started on the food storage inventory.  I light a candle in the coldroom.  The solar lights might keep you from stubbing your toes, but they don't work well for writing.

I count 60 quarts of beets, 52 quarts of dill pickles, 49 pints of salsa, 15 pints of yellow beans, 9 quarts of cabbage, and 24 pasta sauce.  If I count each jar as a serving for 6, and we eat 1 serving per day, we're good for 209 days.  That would get us through til spring.  If I count each jar as one serving for 6.  So much for 7-10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

There are other things too, of course.  Lots of jams, jellies, juices, condiments.  They'll help.  And of course the buckets of carrots, the squash and pumpkins, but only 35 pounds of potatoes.  We'll have rice for awhile, too, but I guess I better start alternating potatoes every third meal, rice every third meal, and one meal with neither.  I look at the buckets of mangels and wonder how they'd work as a potato substitute.  But then I wouldn't have anything for the cows in the spring.

I grab a jar of beets, a jar of pickles, and a bag of rice and go back upstairs.

I haven't been too worried about the freezers, since things are staying frozen.  I know I froze 30 bags of green beans, and 25 of yellow beans.  There's a basket of other mixed veggies as well- cabbage, pumpkin, rhubarb, turnip- 25 bags.  Another 80 servings.

I'll have to bake with fruit, but that's nothing new.  How long will 70 kg of flour last?  With no potatoes to fill those hungry bellies?  We have to get potatoes.  I just can't see any other way around it.

Husband and the Bigs are just finishing the outhouse door when I go outside with the solar light on a string.  I hang it up above the window.  We need a toilet seat.  We could take the one in the house off, but I'd rather not.  Mom and Dad have an old toilet that hasn't made it to the dump yet.  I decide to walk over and see if it still has the seat.

Mom has the Littles bringing in firewood when I get to their place.  She fed them lunch.  She's in a much better mood.  Brother and Sil couldn't get through to the girls on the phone.  They're very worried.  I feel sick.  I wish they had come with their parents.  Otherwise everyone's fine.

Brother and Sil want to cut some firewood for their camp.  They're almost out, and they could be here for awhile.  I tell them to go ahead and cut anything close, save fuel for the chainsaws rather than hauling wood from farther away.  There's a pile of older stuff left from logging years ago.  If they mix it in with greener wood it should keep them going for awhile.

I find the toilet and borrow tools from Dad to take the seat off.  I tell the Littles we should head home, and mom says, "Take those bags".  I look over and see she has two big bags filled with dandelions.  Mom's a little weird with dandelions and the lawn.  We usually feed her diggings to the cows, but I'll pick through this batch and cut the roots off to roast.  That'll stretch the coffee and tea.  We head home with the Littles each carrying a bag.

There's a mob of people coming up the road.  I tell the Littles to drop the bags and run back and tell Grandpa.  I wait at the end of their drive as the people get closer.  Dad and Brother join me with guns.  The people start yelling before I can see them clearly,  "We come in peace".

We yell back, "Why?  What do you want?"

"We're looking for a friend who lives around here.  Do you know Husband?"  I can see it's a man and a woman with a bunch of kids now.  Oh.

"Diego?"  I call out.

"Yeah, hi!",  he yells and starts running towards us.  I can see him clearly now.  I tell Dad and Brother it's ok.

I introduce them when they get there.  Diego is Husband's friend from work.  People are looting in the city, and they decided it was time to leave.  They walk home with the Littles and I.

Husband is happy to see them, glad they made it to our place.  We tell them they can use the trailer and add-a-room for now.  They don't have any food with them, but brought guns, ammo, and crossbows.  The 4 older kids are each carrying a backpack with clothes, sleeping bags, and pillows.  Diego and Nira have back packs and duffel bags.  They brought their lab, Tank with them too.  Their smaller dog disappeared before they left the city.  I wonder to myself if someone ate it.

They were upset to leave their food storage- enough for a couple of months- and home, but just didn't feel safe there anymore.

I haven't started supper yet, so I rummage in the freezer for something quick, and decide hot dogs will have to do.  The kids are all happy with that, but I don't want to use up half of the remaining potatoes to go with them, so that's all I serve.  Everyone gets 4 hot dogs on bread, with toppings, but that's it.  No one complains.

We chat for awhile, then everyone goes to bed.

Husband and I talk about the food storage.  I tell him we would have probably been ok until spring, but with 7 extra people...  I was already worried about potatoes.  I ask him to get the horse cart put together, and get Tori working.  We need to see the potato man.

I go to sleep worrying about food, firewood, and heat.  This could be a really long winter.