Hello Everyone!
Taking a real day off, The natural building dilemma, Filing for food assistance, Hiking & Lots of Napping!
I slept in until a little after sunrise this morning and from the way the weather is looking I could go back to sleep and not miss anything. All the dark skies sure are making it a much cooler morning than it has been lately and it also looks like it could start raining at any moment and not let up again for the rest of the day.
After my failed attempt to take the day off yesterday I am feeling both sore and quite inclined to take the day off (for real) and just veg out indoors which I will probably do anyway given the chance of rain is ninety-nine percent. The hourly rainfall chance is around fifty percent so yeah it looks like more rain is on the way along with some severe thunderstorms.
There is not a whole lot on my mind at the moment aside from trying to figure out some kind of solution for my storage scenario and what if anything that I can do to remedy it. Deep down I know that the only real solution is to build something but I repeatedly shy away from thinking about that because it just reminds me of the crazy high lumber prices.
Of course I have also been thinking about how to build something without the need to purchase a bunch of lumber but none of the ideas that I have seem all that adequate or even very efficient. I have been considering building with cob but I know that it would take forever to do alone and it would require a sizable footer and stem wall to boot. Heck, I have even considered a log cabin type structure or a cordwood structure and come to the same conclusion that it is not worth it.
Maybe if I had some equipment, an actual budget and a helper or two I could make building in one of those styles a bit more realistic but for now none of that stuff is a factor so I have to look at what I can do. Which honestly is not much in the way of long-term buildings given how there is not much in the way of rot resistant material available and how bad the termites are here.
In other words even if I harvested a bunch of small trees and built something with them the material itself just would not hold up well and of course I would still need some kind of sheathing to create a roof and walls. I am all for working with round wood when I can but it just seems like it would be more hassle than it would be worth in this instance. Not to mention the available trees are far from the best kind of material for such a project.
There are so many considerations to be made with any kind of natural building, lots of manual labor involved and of course a steep learning curve for the styles that I have limited or no experience with like cordwood construction. In other words I might start a project like that and get stuck doing it for way too long and not really solve the immediate storage problem.
Alright, it is now a little after sunset and I better dive back into working on this entry before it grows too much later into the evening. I have been unable to get to bed early enough each night (for over a month) and I think that these entries (or at least the nightly writing portion of them) are a part of the problem.
Since I do not really know a better way for me to do the writing routine than the way that I am... I may have to start sticking with whatever gets written in the morning which would leave me only having the editing and posting to do at night.
Over the last week or two I have mostly gotten out of the habit of writing from when I first awake until noon. So, if I can do something similar at night (by limiting my time invested) that would be nice because I have begun to often feel like putting in so much time each day is not at all worthwhile.
All that jazz aside, I took the entire day off and aside from feeding and watering the critters I did not even do any of my routine chores. I avoided that last bit just because I knew that if I got in motion doing them then more than likely I would move on to doing other stuff in short order and wind up working on my day off... yet again!
I did go on a few short hikes but nothing all that exhausting or anything like the one that I took along the hillside yesterday where I was walking up and down it and zig-zagging around looking at trees. On these hikes I just stuck to the roads and trails and did not deviate away from them as I leisurely strolled along looking over what trees, plants and wildlife were getting active with the warmer weather.
Aside from the hikes I slept for much of the day but I did finally break down and file for government food assistance again. The application process was a good bit different than the last time that I did it but eventually I jumped through all the hoops (yeah there was a frigging lot of them) and got my application submitted.
We will see what happens but hopefully I get approved and can alleviate the food scarcity problem that has been plaguing me for the last six months or so. Considering how high the inflation has climbed and all the price hikes that have occurred on foodstuff over the last year... I dunno how much it will help but it will assuredly be better than the current scenario.
I am unsure if I ever mentioned it but the last time that I went shopping for my monthly supplies I found the clearance section very interesting. I think that the next time that I go I am going to make a beeline for it and buy whatever of it that I can just to cut costs.
Even if that means buying stuff that I usually do not get like the really big canned goods, seasonal/holiday stuff, or whatever might be worth purchasing just for the savings. I dunno how else to say it but the future is looking dodgy and even if its stuff I do not necessarily like... having any kind of bulk food stored away will go a long way towards relieving some of my anxiety.
Well, on that note I am going to call this entry good enough and get on with the editing. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
Thanks for reading!
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