Preparedness 20.0/ Independence Days Challenge, Orwell's Truth, New Furry Member of The Family

 

Preparedness 20.0/ Independence Days Challenge-

We woke up to 21° this morning! The ground is still frozen pretty hard. We had a few really warm days and all the snow is gone in the yard finally. It's going to be in the 50's this week. Spring is around the corner! I was feeling bad for the chickens yesterday that the ground is too hard for them to dig through. There was an incident Friday were one of our very passive hens started attacting two of the others. Very vicious, never saw anything like that. After doing some research I saw that boredom can be one of the causes of this. I started thinking that the ground was frozen so long they didn't really have a lot of digging to get into. Luckily Dave was able to turn some of the garden soil to give them something to go through. So far everything is calm again. I also realized that with the construction Friday, noise and vibration right in front of our house, it may have caused her to really stress. So here's what we've been up to-  

1. Plant Something-

Too early for outdoors! Will be starting seeds soon indoors in our grow light rack. Just ordered some fave tomato seeds, lots of other from last year. Will start veggies, herbs and flowers. 

 

2. Harvest Something-

Lots of eggs, that means more bread pudding in the future! Herbs in the yard are frozen.

 

3. Preserve/Store Something-

Working on replenishing the freezers. We did an inventory of both freezers this weekend. Nice to have it all written down.  

 

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep-

What I bought this week: chicken quarters, $1.30 lb. decent price, organic grape jam clearance, organic flour, ditto some organic cereals, herbal supplements. I finally found some Ricola sore throat/cough drops (family size) bought four bags, bulk herbs, sneakers for both of us. I'm watching sales/discounts closely. Please stock up now, if you're not already! There are rumblings of an American trucker convoy. If so there will be even more disruptions to the supply chain!  Buy what you can where you can, think ethnic stores, outlets, bulk grocery stores, etc. Get used to thinking outside the box as far as what you're used to eating, versus what you may be able to find. Get creative, and barter, etc.  

 

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe-

Made French style Baked Eggs. Have lots of home frozen homegrown peaches/apples. Will start making some cobblers. Will work on more frozen meats, but keeping some in reserve. 

 

6. Build Community Food Systems-

Not this year so far, need to wit until spring for farmer's markets. 

 

7. Recycle/Re-Use-

Dave pulled part of our front fence out, as road construction has started here. They're finally adding sidewalks to the whole street! Afterwards we can install the panel again-

Extra panel under tree

Made more donations, clothing and household items. Found a fun wooden holiday item, $3.00 at a thrift store today and a small snow man lamp-

8. Skill Up-

Had to update my tax withholdings. After I changed jobs I didn't realize the 2019 tax code changed, and didn't have enough withheld, ouch. Luckily can change for this year. 

 9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-

I asked Dave several times to add another shelf to our little cabinet-

He had a spare stair riser and worked perfect! Free upgrade!!! Easy to see what's in there and relocated some stuff-

Bonnie's scratching post/perch needed some love, the lower carpet on the post was shot. We removed and I hot glued new sisal to the bottom and rubbed on some catnip. She loves it!

Orwell's Truth-

I read 1984 so long ago I don't remember when. George Orwell's novel, which I highly recommend, is one of the world's most famous books. 1984 is like a deep dive into the psychology of power and how the ways that manipulations of language/history/the press can be used as tools of control. I was reading some of his quotes recently these, really grabbed me-

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear

Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history

We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it

Good ideas.... 

New Furry Member of  Family-

Recently one of our daughters move to another state. Because it was during a really bad snowstorm we suggested that she leave her cat here with us. It was a good move as she drove thru one of the worst snow storms we've had in quite a while. We knew that there would be a little bit of hissing involved with our new furry friend getting used to Anya our Empress of the house. Anya is a super mellow cat, 11 years old and really curious. Our new furry friend Bonnie had been through some jostling around with the move. Luckily we had her kitty scratching post perch in the spare bedroom for the first week with cat box, food and water. We let her out when we were home, to supervise, to make sure the cats along okay. It took a little bit of time but now both cats are really enjoying each other's company, chasing each other up and down the hall. It's great for Anya because she's older and now she's more active! Bonnie has a really sweet disposition, very affectionate and likes to be held. Anya is more likes to lay on a blanket on your lap, but not a lap cat really. I think that was from her former owners. We will be keeping her for a few more months until our daughter can pick her up, but depending on how things go she may wind up staying here permanently. She's really enjoying the house and loves looking out the windows and watching the birds! She's been a great addition to our furry and feathered family. Her cat post needed some work and so I decided to fix it with some sisal that I had left over from a project. The bottom part of the carpeting was pretty well torn up so I removed it, and replace it with some fresh sisal with lots of lots of hot glue. Looks great!