My first rule of preparedness is organization. Well. I broke my own rule. My house is a mess. I certainly have some excuses. We added four people, two of them children with all the assorted “kid stuff”. Then there’s the heat. It’s just sucks the ambition right out of me. It’s been too hot to do any real work. The garden work can’t be put off and I have a pretty full teaching schedule. The result is a house that’s cluttered and dusty. But today is a perfect house cleaning day. It’s wet and cool and I need to get busy.
I’m starting with my living room. The magazine situation has gotten out of control. I get Mother Earth News and Bruce gets American Bee Journal and Woodworking. I have a friend who passes on Grit and Organic Gardening. There are always a few articles I think I’ll revisit but in truth, I seldom do. Today I’m going to load them all up and bring them to magazine share at the Sustainability Library. I’ll also get out the mending and just do it. I may just put on a good movie and tackle the ironing too. I don’t iron a lot but it always feels as though I just got a new wardrobe when I do. Just getting rid of those baskets of clothes and the magazines will feel good. I may weed out some books too. My son is buying a new house and I can give him some of my overflow of gardening books.
In between raindrops, I hope to get some more carrots pulled. Thank you all for the recipes. I got the inspiration I needed. The garden is doing surprisingly well, in spite of the drought. It’s the mulch that makes the difference. What water I put on is absorbed into the soil rather evaporated to the dry air.
I have a very full week ahead of me. On Wednesday, I’ll be teaching my final class at Berkshire Botanical Gardens and I’m preparing for a candle-making class at Cold Antler Farm on Sunday. I’m going to a climate change presentation on Wednesday evening. I also need to get my curriculum set for the Greenfield Community College classes that begin next week.
I’m so excited to see the progress on my summer kitchen. Bruce and I picked out the wall covering and the countertops on Friday and he’ll pick them up today. I’ve been using it, even unfinished and it’s made all the difference to me. The mess and the heat out of the kitchen and keeps my supplies corralled. By next week the water will be hooked up. I’m as excited about the drainage as I am about the ability to have running water. The waste water will be routed right out to the garden. I usually let the water I use cool down and then carry it outside. I won’t miss that job.
I have been thinking a lot about water lately. We use a LOT of water around here. I have never done much with catchment but that needs to change. This dryness may be the new normal. There’s no way I could ever store enough water to meet even the basic needs of my family for more than a few days. A water filter is on my wish list as are rain barrels. My birthday is this week. Hint, hint Bruce.
July 23, 2012 at 8:40 am
Oh my, I feel like I need a nap after reading your list! Ha I too worry about water storage. We have two rain barrels and a big Berkley water filter along with bottled water I pick up on sale but it would never cover the needs we would have if the water lines were down for any length of time. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with in that Dept
July 23, 2012 at 8:45 am
happy birthday (in advance!). Te heat and humidity does suck the life right out of you! No rain here yet, it keeps going around us.
July 23, 2012 at 8:49 am
I’m looking forward to the candle-making workshop at CAF this Sunday. (Sunday, right? Not Saturday?)
When you get your rain barrels, install them on some kind of setup to elevate them a little bit. It’s a pain in the neck to wait for the watering cans to fill from the hose oh-so-slowly…
July 23, 2012 at 9:17 am
I fixed the date. Yes. It’s Sunday. I’ll see you there.
July 23, 2012 at 11:29 am
We had a boil notice and low pressure water for two and a half days recently. No outdoor watering or anything but the basic uses. We used purchased and stockpiled water for drinking and toothbrushing. That used a lot more than we had imagined. (At an early age I learned to use one glass of water for toothbrushing and rinsing my mouth and also the brush. It is just a matter of being careful.) Even with care we used nearly a gallon each per day. The water boiling to wash dishes and wash vegetables was a nuisance since the water was too hot to use right away, and we kept forgetting to boil extra. It was a real relief to have things back to normal, but we can’t forget what happened and are a lot more careful with usage now. We are also very concerned about where we would get water in a serious emergency. We are ten miles from a lake, and creeks around here are dry most of the year. The nearest stockponds are a mile or so away. Even if we got water from any of these sources it would have to be boiled or otherwise treated.
July 23, 2012 at 6:05 pm
Happy Birthday to You!
Water is something we’ve been trying to give a little more attention to here as well. It is so easy to take for granted. Looking into hand-powered or (second-choice) generator powered solutions to getting water out of the well. Anyone have any good tried-and-true solutions?
July 24, 2012 at 3:21 am
Happy Birthday- hope you have a lovely day.
I have the filter and I have lots of rain barrels but they wouldn’t last very long with 5 people and various animals including ducks and chickens.
We have plans to change one of the 250L barrels for a much bigger one, which should help, but I’m always aware of the fact we have some very dependent neighbours- several very elderly and a large family next door who are constantly running out of everything and knocking on the door to borrow pasta/sugar/an onion/dog food as it is.
July 24, 2012 at 9:36 am
We are in SW Florida and have been in a drought condition for the past 4 years. It is rainy season now and we are having rain but according to our Water District authorities it is not bringing our water levels up to normal.
We do almost all of our vegetable gardening in pots due to the sand for soil and multitude of bugs especially nematodes. To water daily it takes about 6 gallons. The fruit trees are doing OK now that they are established but when we planted them 3 years ago they each required 2-3 gallons each day. Even tho we have 5 rain barrels (almost 500 gallons) that we use for watering if we had to use it for personal consumption also, it just would not last very long. We are extremely conservative in our personal use – showers, toothbrushing, laundry & even cooking. Water is very expensive and so far we have not had to buy any bottled water.
Altho there are only the 2 of us now I made sure to straighten up every night before bed even when the 3 kids were home and they were taught early on to keep their toys, clothes, homework, etc in order. Magazines are a real problem as I too always think there is some article I will reread. Now, I only keep 2 issues and older issues are donated. I designate one day a week for mending and another for ironing. Keeping up with it I find is the key. Finding the time to keep up with those kinds of chores with everything else that MUST be done, whether it is your kind of schedule or working full-time outside the home is the hardest part.
July 24, 2012 at 10:35 am
It’s astounding just how much water we require for plants and people. Remeber the days when we always had designated times for laundry? Dependent neighbors are such a worry. The elderly need us but the incompetent are wearing.
July 24, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Water is the second thing on my list when I talk to folks who don’t prep. The 72 hour kit is first. That I think is the easiest way to get em started up! That kit should trigger a mild concern lol I agree with you on the summer heat. I am trying to ride out our desert summer by hibernating when I don’t have to work. Only me and my daughter so I don’t have to worry about visitors.
Will read more from you! Like the post =)
July 30, 2012 at 7:53 am
This time of year I feel like housework is a treadmill. My work outside and the resultant food preservation adds so much more to my regular housework routine that I feel like I am only just hitting the surface, literally. Stasis is housekeeping.
My husband is a teacher. I have plans to tackle each room before he heads back to work in the fall. Closets need a good thinning. The far reaches need some serious de-spidering. There are a few unfinished projects that I should tackle.
But I love the idea of heading into the fall with a tidy home, and the return of the school routine to our home.
July 30, 2012 at 10:41 am
Change of subject! I just saw the schedule for the MEN fair at 7 Springs and you’re not on it! Oh no!
December 3, 2012 at 2:11 am
both regular and community colleges are nice institutions to get a degree.-
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