summer squall bites the pocketbook :(

Had a squall blow in Monday morning. Yeah, we lost power, till late last night.

Our neighbor David is super- awesome! We did without electric most of Monday, and were hitting the phonebook to start to look around for generator help Tuesday morning (rather dejectly I must add, since without power there was no coffee), when up walked David to our front door, offering us the loan of one of his generators till we got power. He's also going to give me the name and number of his tree guy so we can take care of the backyard, and the boys can finally play in their tree fort again. THANK YOU DAVID!!

We did have to spend quite a bit to get a good generator for ourselves. A nice kid at the store offered to drop it off after work for forty, and of course my love was smart enough to do it. Kid was honest as hell, found the place just fine and dropped it off ok :) We got it unpacked and hand tightened assembled, and dark was really on us. So we hiked it back to the solarium. We were doing our last bathroom and house securing done before killing our loaned generator for the night.. And the electric company had stopped a truck out front. So I skipped around to the office, and we went out and met the two guys who were doing a visual line check back to our transformer. I told them all the lines in the back were still hanging, and they got back on it at the road. So we killed the generator, and about 30 minutes later, the power came back on.

I do not miss Chicago, nor my home town right now. I've had better living and way way better local interactions here than anywhere else I lived since I was a kid.
I do dearly miss everyone I love though, they all seem so far away now. Geez, I got family that stays no more than thirty minutes away from me.. Somehow this place still feels surreally disconnected. I still can't believe our good fortune.

BTW, I have family traveling.. both on a lot of local trips and much longer hauls over greater waters.. Safe travels to all of you. May your paths be full of wonder and lacking of any anguish or drama. I recommend listening to the Sunscreen Song...

I would also recommend another video, not sure how many can show in a post yet, starting with one :)

Sadly, the emergency with the generator pretty much tapped us, so no wagon for the lawn tractor for a while. On the bright side, hauling everything a tarp load at a time to the firepit or compost pile sure is a good workout!! Maybe I'll ask everyone for gift certificates to the farm shop, home depot, and amazon books this year for christmas. It would sure go a long way to help fill in some gaps we got going on. I will for sure be getting at least a wheelbarrow soon, maybe I can weasel one for my birthday, lol.

As time goes on, I feel the pressure of our needs for a cheap pickup too. We could have carted the generator back ourselves then. And shoot, if it was good for it, I could use the truck bed to do the whole yard wood pickup at once and back down to the firepit. And provide a stable base for higher ladder action. The spacing of the trees will allow it I think, I will try to keep it that way. Late fall will see some heavier pruning than cleanup has been so far.
And yack, we will need a second generator setup for the other side of the house too. And a furnace for this side of the house too before long. Pttht, the paperwork side of growbox hill isn't as fun as the other stuff.

Anywho, so today was a lot of yard cleanup. Pick up sticks, mow the lawn. Finally got the backyard cleaned up for a high pass. Still got a lot to cut up though. Got tons of brush to burn off. Sweet, finally getting to the point of some stackable logs to cut up and let cure for the 2012 winter months. Picked a whole bunch more mulberries and several red raspberries. Picked two of the three poppyseed pods. After the third one dries enough, I'll collect that too, then split the seed with Chris. It's a terribly fine seed, hard to tell it from the chafe. But it will get sprinkled back into it's place next spring :)

Tippy and friends: Cept the chicken wallows. Mr. Tasty and his girls were out wandering around me when I was doing stuff in the backyard. I separated him from his girls on accident, and did he crow about it, lol. And they were all clucky at me when I hit the mulberry tree. I wasn't sure if I was stealing their shade or grub, so I tossed a couple berries I accidentally picked too hard, and they ignored me and headed for home. On my way back in I saw the obvious wallow spots. I will keep those open, and I think that area will see the first calcium trough.
And I heard a new animal noise today. From the pond area, more birdish than anything else. Will keep an ear out for it now.

Fishing this weekend past wasn't awesome. The boat plug leaks, so I gotta take a look at that. And apparently the casting from our side isn't all that great. I'm a bit leery to whack at the edge the boat wallow made. It's such a healthy environment that I think I would really have to set some death to make the area fishing clear. I'll have to come up with a plan for at least boat launching. Time to get final confirmation on the boat from David, then keelhaul the thing if I get the OK. It's just a basic rower, and in aluminum to boot, so it should be pretty easy to outfit. We just got the lifeneckers, I can probably get the foam and fabric cheap for making buoyant cushions too. I can just hang out for the fall sales on summer stuff like that, and make them before the lake thaws again. If I can keelhaul it, it's likely going to be the first project worked on in the pole barn.
The sawhorses are shabby, but they will work ok till I get a new set cut up. I think there might be enough salvaged 2x4 action to make two sets, which would be perfect. Tee-hee, if I measure it right, I can make a perfect quad set. Think the hardware for it isn't too bad either pricewise. Maybe I will end up with scrap for proper bracing without hardware.

TIP OF THE DAY: When you buy a generator, keep in mind that the battery, power cable to hook up the generator to your house, oil, and gas are not part of the deal unless it EXPLICITLY says any of those things are included on the box or by sale promotion on the behalf of the store. Make SURE you check the generator for these things before you get back home. Apparently those are (%$(*$#*#))^&* giggle jerks) nice lil add ons to the purchase of the generator itself. Most places that sell the generator sell those parts too.

OTHER TIP OF THE DAY: Use screws when you can to join parts. Use nails more when finishing or when vibrations and weights concerns don't apply so much. When using dowels, ALWAYS use a spludge of glue in the hole first. If using shims, a light coating of glue before tapping in does not hurt either. Smear the tapped out glue to smooth out he ridgeline of what it's gluing together.

And hey, if other people are reading this.. Could ya comment sometimes please? I'm not sure how much of this is more journal and less public sometimes. If you have a favorite plant, or good source, speak up. If you know the original link to something I talk about and didn't include, post it :)
If you have links to stuff that helps out self sufficiency, post it up. If you just want to say, hey, keep up the good work, that helps too :)