Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 563-568)

Hello Everyone!

Another big storm, The cherry branch falls, Pokeweed as a deer deterrent, A much needed supply run & Other odds and ends!

The last few day have passed rather quickly and although I kept telling myself that I would work on another entry... get back in the habit of writing daily... and basically get back on track here... I just have not.

All of which is of course fine and all because it is not like I have quit or anything but it would be nice to get back into a steady routine not just with the writing but with life in general. At least I have stayed on track with my routine chores and not let things get too piled up before dealing with them so that is good.

I know that these bouts of binge gaming are not always the best for me as far as productivity goes but whoa I sure needed the little 'break from reality' that it provided. Not to entirely re-cap what I have said before on that topic but it is worth noting that within the first week or so of doing it I had already noticed a serious disruption to many of the repetitious things going through my mind.

Mainly I think that (the disruption) is a natural side effect of just focusing my attention on something else (in this case the game) to the point where there just is not a whole lot of room left in my mind's eye for much of anything else. It is not that my previous 'mental loops' were all that horrible or anything but ugh I have to admit that they fell squarely in the doom and gloom department!

Not that things in the world have gotten better over the last month or anything because they have assuredly gotten worse but without the continual bombardment of it all via the news or social media... I actually feel like I have gained a good bit of control over how it all affects me mentally and am incredibly loathe to surrender any of that hard won head-space.

I hope that all makes sense because that is the absolute most condensed way that I can put it. Of course I could achieve the same ends by binge reading books but hey there is not much 'social interaction' to be had in doing so and to be honest... as much as I love books they are not quite as fun as playing a video game with other folks.

Anyway, another big thunderstorm blew threw the other evening and brought that cherry tree branch the rest of the way down to where it was sitting on the dog yard fence. Luckily it landed on both the H-braces that comprise the corner there and it also landed on the corner post itself which assuredly helped with it not crushing the fence.

There was easily a few thousand pounds of weight resting on that section of the fence and most likely if the branch had broken off fully at the trunk of the tree more of that weight would have settled on that corner and perhaps buckled it. Alas though the branch did not severe itself completely and thank goodness for small miracles because if it had... it would have done a good bit of damage to the fence one way or another.

Yesterday I spent a good bit of time dealing with that branch and after lots of cutting with my battery powered circular saw I was able to get the main branch lifted up and off the corner of the fence. Most of the smaller stuff that was inside the fence I cut up for firewood and stacked it either in or near the fire pit which was conveniently located just a few meters from where the branch fell.

There is still the main branch to be dealt with as well as a bunch of the smaller branches that fell outside the dog yard when I cut them loose... but overall I achieved my goal of getting it off the fence and cleaning up all the sticks and vines that were littering that corner of the dog yard. Suffice it to say there is a lot of tree there yet to be cleaned up!

One thing that is kind of cool about all that (or just another silver lining like the firewood) is that when that branch came down it brought with it a really big grape vine that is covered in little buds and tiny flowers. I am still unsure what I will do with the vine but if I were to stretch it out there must be something like thirty odd meters or more of it which yeah could potentially yield a lot of grapes over the coming months.

It is worth noting that the cherry tree branch itself is rather loaded with little cherries and although most of them are not yet quite ripe I did notice that some of them are so I might pick a few of them once I start dealing with the rest of the brush piled in that area. I think that they are 'choke cherries' which although are edible... are also super tiny (and mostly pit) so I will probably leave the majority of them for the wildlife.

On a different note. I went on a supply run a few days back and I think that it had been closer to four months since my last one and not the three months that I thought that it had been. Although I thought that it would be a bit overwhelming to see the increased prices... I largely ignored them and just got the things that I wanted to get instead of compromising and getting whatever cheap stuff that I could find to hold me over or skipping certain food groups entirely like I have done before.

All in all it was really good to get stocked up again and of course I also re-stocked some of my long-term larder which is what made going that long between supply runs possible in the first place. I have by no means replaced everything that I used but I am planning on making an online order of food as well over the coming days (or weeks) and after that I should be back to where I started with all that stuff.

Something that I have little regret about is moving away from utilizing so many canned goods (the kind in actual metal cans) because I think there for a long time I was consuming way too much frigging sodium for it to be healthy for me. Ever since making that shift I have felt more energetic and just overall 'better' physically so that has been nice.

Basically in the future I want to continue to avoid the 'canned' diet (if at all possible) even if it makes for me having to do more cooking, cleaning and food preparation than I really want to do on any given day! Furthermore I think that if I ever do find myself subsisting on canned goods again that I am going to need to drink a lot more water, get more exercise and sweat more to help get rid of all the excess sodium in my system.

The whole diet thing has always been a hassle given that I have never really been all that financially secure and even now I would be pretty screwed had I not bit the proverbial bullet and gotten enrolled in that government food assistance program. In the not-so-grand scheme of things there is a lot to be said for the mental benefits of having some kind of food security and no amount of me trying to explain it can convey what it is really like to experience the opposite.

Alright, I never finished working on this entry yesterday like I was hoping to. At least I awoke early enough today that I can sit here in the moments after sunrise and spell things out without too much distraction. Each day I miss doing so just a wee bit more so perhaps if I keep doing it (waking early and writing) I can get back on track with making daily entries.

During the afternoon yesterday I spent some time cleaning up all that brush left over from that fallen cherry tree branch and was even able to use some of the smaller branches to make an arbor to string those grape vines on. I am really unsure if the vines will get enough sunlight where they currently are but for now they are at least off the ground.

As far as those grapevines go I was at first thinking to string them along the fence but discarded that idea given how destructive vines are to fences and although I could string some wire along the tops of the posts and train the vines onto it... doing so would mean that I would need to constantly prune back the growth that would invariably stray onto the fence itself.

There is however plenty of room in that area (between the PVC garden fence and the dog yard) to install some posts in the ground and use them to attach wire to for the vines. If the trellising is done tall enough the vines might even do well over there especially given the slope of the terrain and how much sun reaches the area throughout the morning and into the early afternoon.

Anyway, getting all that brush cleaned up was a bit of a task to say the least and I have to say that whoa is that choke cherry kind of foul smelling when it is still green and gets chopped up! I did not get quite as much firewood out of the smaller branches as I hoped to but once I section down the medium and larger sized branches I think that I will have more cherry wood than I will know what to do with.

Some of that material I have been eyeing for sculptures and/or furniture but honestly my options (or lack thereof) for storing it are not all that awesome at the moment and I would rather just make it all into firewood instead of storing it in a half-ass manner. None of it is straight enough to mill or be used 'as is' for building material but it is some very pretty wood and burning it does seem kind of a shame.

Currently I have yet to cut the main branch free from the tree itself and it is still hanging there which yeah is kind of sketchy but getting up there with a ladder and cutting it free is probably four times as dodgy! I am hoping that it just finishes relieving itself and surrenders to gravity so I do not have to fool with it.

That said though, if that does not happen soon then I am going to see if I can just trim the branch down (from the ground) and tug the rest of it free from the tree without pulling off a large swath of healthy bark (below the breakage) in the process. To avoid doing that I have been considering making a small cut through the bark below the break but given that is the only thing really keeping the branch still attached... doing so might inadvertently make it fall.

That entire affair is a complicated one because of where the tree is positioned, the lay of the land there, the girth of the trunk and not having a lot of options on where to put the ladder to make the cut without having it be in the branch's trajectory when it falls. A pole-saw sure would come in handy and although I do not have one I might just have to fabricate one for the task.

On a different note. While I was working on all that stuff the last few days I definitely noticed that my little one month reprieve left me a bit more out of shape than I want to be in and I think the biggest part of that is just not getting enough hiking in. Not that hiking this time of year is all that awesome but there are a bunch of ripe blackberries at the moment and the idea of picking some of them is some good motivation!

Seriously though I think that regardless of whether I am taking a break to game online (or just veg out) I really need to still get outside every day or two and get in some extended cardio. Of course doing so will help keep me in physical shape but also just the aspect of doing something leisurely (and heck even therapeutic) like hiking will alas help keep me in good shape mentally as well.

It is assuredly a tricky balance between it all but physical activity sure does do me well as long as I do not overwork myself too much along the way. I am definitely getting better at pacing myself throughout the day (and year) and have even gotten back into taking naps so I guess that overall I am on the right track in regards to all of that.

Mainly I just take my sweet time with stuff and do it all as safely as I can because at this stage of things I am rather committed to staying the course and being fully intact and focused for the times ahead. The best way that I can see to deal with things is to make sure that I remain in tip-top shape (or a close approximation to it) and approach life exactly like I have for the previous forty-odd years... one frigging minute at a time!

In other words now that the times that I have stressed over arriving for much of my life are apparently here... I have been 'kissing the stress goodbye' and saying c'est la vie much more often than I have ever said it before! Its like when the deer ate all the black locust and once I saw they were eating it I just let them keep doing it because after all a big part of growing it in the first place is to help the wildlife!

The whole scenario really got me thinking because here are these critters that had avoided getting close to the dog yard for my entire stay here and now they are getting right up close to it and foraging which makes me ask the question of why the change. Although they could be acclimated to the dogs I think they also might be using that trail more now that I cleared the overgrowth off of it.

Something very interesting that I did learn is that during the time between when the deer first began eating the seedlings and the time that they basically wiped them out I went through and pulled out all the pokeweed from the pots everything is growing in. When I was doing it I noticed that none of the pots that had lots of pokeweed in them had their black locust seedlings eaten.

Apparently, the pokeweed being rather noxious and toxic to most critters makes for the perfect companion plant for any saplings that I transplant into the ground because after I removed them the deer came that night and ate every one of the newly exposed seedling and small saplings. So, a lot was learned from it all and perhaps all I need is a pokeweed thicket to keep the deer at bay in that garden area.

Well, I never finished working on this entry yesterday (yet again) so here I am at the beginning of another day clacking away in the text editor as the sun slowly makes its way over the eastern horizon. Although I slept rather well last night I am feeling quite groggy so bear with me as my little brain continues to wake up and I continue sipping my overly strong espresso.

Yesterday was not super productive or anything given I was still feeling sore from my efforts with that big fallen cherry tree branch (that I finished cleaning up the mess from) but I did get out and do some hiking late in the day. I have to admit that it was really the idea of picking some blackberries that motivated me to do so and although I could not get to where they were growing well without wading into the dense underbrush... I did manage to find a few of them growing near the edge of the road and they were quite delicious.

I also checked on the various persimmon trees scattered around the property and was happy to see lots of small green fruit on them. It is hard to tell whether my efforts to increase their fruit production (by removing the vines from them during the winter) has paid off or not but overall the trees do look much healthier. Of course that could be due to all the rain we have gotten but it sure is nice to think that my efforts were helpful!

Perhaps during this coming winter when I do the vine removal again I should look at adding some fertilizer to the trees in the form of either the compost material I have been making or with some of the chicken waste. I think that either of those options (or any fertilizer really) would work pretty well given how poor the soil is here so I am going to do my best to not forget about it.

Okay, I fizzled out on writing earlier and wound up discovering that I can block all the high definition content in that game I play which whoa sure sped things up a good bit on my elderly computer! Thankfully I did not get too lost down the gaming rabbit-hole and broke away to get some stuff done outdoors before the afternoon horsefly fiesta begins and things grow sweltering hot to boot.

Before I wrap this entry up I did want to mention that the blackhaw berries are getting much larger now that all those trees below the shelter site are getting more sun. Also a heck of a lot more of them are producing fruit than they did last year which is no surprise given how covered in vines and shaded that they previously were.

I have yet to see any ripe ones but I am rather excited to try a new fruit once they begin to do so. Given how many birds there are around here I best keep a close eye on them or they will disappear nearly as rapidly as they ripen just like the larger variety of cherries did this year.

It is good that they get eaten no matter what but whoa I would love to get at least a few treats after all the effort I put into the fruit trees around here! I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.