Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 485)

Hello Everyone!

An achy start, Loving the greenhouse tub, Tree felling, Hinge cut perfection & A natural trellis!

I awoke a few minutes after five this morning and whoa am I aching all over after yesterday's activities. It was probably dealing with that fallen tree that wore me out so much and I found myself falling fast asleep very early in the evening because of it. Heck, I am still feeling pretty wiped out and could undoubtedly fall back asleep if I tried to.

Since I am trying to stay on track with waking early in the day and falling asleep early in the evening I will just have to keep sipping my espresso and hope that the mental fog eventually lifts. All of which is often easier said than done on days like this when I am so worn out feeling that all I want to do is curl up with the dogs and snooze the morning away!

There was a bit more that I did yesterday than what I could squeeze into my last entry before zonking out and falling asleep last night. Apparently I was in quite the daze when I wrapped things up with the writing and I awoke in a mild panic today thinking that I had not made an entry. I know that it would not be the end of the world if I missed a day but it would be incredibly disappointing to mess up my posting routine.

One of the things that I did late in the afternoon was to finally use the chainsaw to trim back some of the longer logs that make up that big triangular shaped compost that I made a few months ago. The ends of the logs were not exactly in the way or anything but I wanted to eliminate them so that neither people, the dogs or even the wildlife could bump into them and potentially knock them out of place.

I wound up using the one longish log that I had from that endeavor to form another triangle (inside the larger one) and I set the shorter pieces aside to be used as stakes. Having already had a few stakes staged there it was nice to add to them because I had been thinking that I need more of them to line the interior of the compost with along the downhill side.

Basically what I have been picturing doing is making a rough semi-circle along the interior edge of the wall of the big triangle so that during heavy rains it will not wash stuff through the horizontal logs/poles that comprise the compost's frame.

Previously I had gone in there with a shovel and added about a hand's width tall berm all around the inside of the frame. Afterwards though, I keep thinking that once the compost starts getting filled that may not be quite sufficient enough... hence the idea of adding vertical stakes.

Hopefully they help keep the area between the horizontal logs acting as vents for the compost but time will tell on that especially since I have yet to add more than the stakes that help lock the structure in place. That design being an experimental one has made for an interesting project and although it would undoubtedly work 'as is' I also want to try to 'perfect it' to maximize its potential.

On a different note, I have to once again express just how awesome the little greenhouse and outdoor tub combination has been working. After bringing the water system back online yesterday morning I immediately ran some hot water into the tub and got a much needed bath.

Without the greenhouse around it I would not have even bothered to do it given it was cold and windy but being sheltered against the elements made it an enjoyable experience. Which has not always been the case and I have often struggled with getting routine baths during the colder months. Like I have said numerous times before... being in/under the water was bearable but getting out to dry off was all too often a chilly and unpleasant affair!

At this point I want to definitely make a better frame for the greenhouse and perhaps even get a different kind of tub so that I can drain it instead of pumping (or bailing) it out like I have been doing. My bathing system is pretty simple since I just use bleach in the water and I often let it sit for a few days between baths so the chlorine evaporates.

So, using a tub with a drain is not that big of a deal as long as I make a sufficient gray water leech pit system. Even though I am not really making gray water I still want to control the output so that it does not cause erosion or create algae blooms or anything like that.

Not that I would recommend folks using that approach but given how I do not put (nor get) anything on my body that is not ecologically safe to get on the ground... and the system has been working for many years now... I think that the science is sound and I will continue the practice.

There really is a lot more to it all than filling a tub with water and plopping down in it and although the process is much more involving than the traditional 'indoor plumbing' approach... it is one that not only fits my lifestyle but is also portable which is pretty important.

All the impact considerations really do matter when doing that kind of thing and most soap (and hygiene product) loving folks really are better off sticking with the modern methods. As with most things it takes a good bit more work and attention to detail than what most folks are willing to muster to mitigate their impact.

Do not get me wrong because soap sure does come in handy for a lot of stuff but for my personal soap needs I never create enough gray-water to matter. I use it so infrequently and never create more than maybe a gallon or two of the stuff at a time and even then it is heavily diluted.

Any gray-water that I do make goes to either watering vegetation, poured in the fire-pit or gets applied to a mushroom log area to get broken down. In other words the system is rather 'granular' and I do not like cutting any corners when dealing with it. It is that way with all the waste but whoa I really do not want to get lost writing about (and mapping) that rabbit warren this morning!

Okay, the sun has been up for over an hour now and I got sidetracked doing stuff with my eXode NFT collection which is no big deal or anything because it is all part of my routine at this point after a few years of doing it but I sure can get caught up in it nonetheless!

Even though I have some other NFT collections I do not give them remotely as much attention as I do the eXode one. I guess that it is just the science fiction lover in me because even though some of the other game related ones are cool... they just do not capture my imagination in the same way.

Anyway, I wound up making more espresso because that first batch did not have much affect on me and while I was making it I kept thinking that at some point I really should detail all the things that I have learned about using those stove-top espresso makers over the years.

My latest trick is pre-heating the water in an electric kettle before putting it in the maker and while it makes screwing it together a touchy affair due to the heat... it also makes the espresso brew way faster once I place it on the burner.

I can also use the burner on a lower setting which definitely helps the espresso to not take on a mildly metallic and burnt taste. Not that I drink that nearly motor oil consistency brew for the taste but hey better tasting coffee sure does not hurt anything!

That pre-heated water method also helps from overheating the maker which hopefully preserves its overall integrity longer and the two main parts do not lose their fit where they thread together. Which has happened to every maker I have had (from all the expansion and contraction at higher heat) and why I wind up wrapping the threads with paper to create a seal.

Alright, the sun has begun to set so I better get back to writing here and see what all I can spell out after this very long day of doing stuff outdoors. I will need to avoid going into too much detail with everything (because I am super sleepy) but at least I took plenty of pictures. Thankfully even the weather held until just an hour or so ago when it began raining. In short it has been a long haul since five this morning!

First thing today I took both the battery operated chainsaw and circular saw along with a hammer and two wooden wedges down to that medium sized pine tree that needed felled in that area below the dog yard where I have been clearing brush. The tree itself came down rather well and I did one of the best hinge cuts that I have probably ever done so that was sweet because the tree fell both where I wanted it to and with zero hiccups.

Getting that tree all bucked was quite time consuming and per usual I did the majority of it with the circular saw which just seems like a way faster way for me to do it. I once again used the smaller branches that have needles to make a mound near that big oak tree and this one I placed directly downhill of the tree where there was a bunch of erosion occurring.

As for all the logs I just rolled them into a semi-circle in front of that same oak which hopefully helps to both keep water in the ground there and shed fast moving surface water away and around the oak. Basically I need to stop the erosion and build up the soil all around that tree or else eventually it will fall over. That is mainly due to how it is situated on that knoll that has very little soil on the downhill side of the tree.

While I was down there I also created a trellis by felling another scrub oak for coppicing like I did those other ones. The little tree was covered in grape vines so I used all of them to wrap both the older coppiced trees and create a natural trellis by stringing them between those same trees. It came out pretty cool and hopefully they get enough sun there and I get some grapes later in the year.

Anyway, I finally coiled up all the pieces of grape vine that I have been saving. There was this vine hanging from a tree (from one of my previous endeavors) and I hung most of the coils on it so that they can continue to cure in the sun. There were so many of them hanging from that vine that a bird could make a nest in there so I am curious to see if one does just that.

Okay, I have to keep this entry short and get on with the editing. I am fading fast here for the evening and looking forward to getting a nice rest. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.