The Old Folks Home

[microchick]

It's just DH and I for Christmas. Neither of us have family that is close or whom we are close with. I love our quiet Christmas's. We met 2 weeks before the holiday 11 years ago. Having him to share life with is the best gift I've ever received so it is a special time of the year for us.

This year I'm going to make cranberry pumpkin bread and take a couple of loafs over to our next door neighbors. They moved in three months ago. Just had water put in and are living off the grid. They have 12 children.

To everyone who is having their Christmas plans changed and family is going to be far away. They will always be close to your heart.

 

[pennyJo1960]

We are three here my BF has another son that is married he and his wife
will be here truthfully we all three are happy without them.. his Mother BF
deceased wife taught him the world owes him

but we did agree
to have them over as they have not been here

 

[Alaskan]

It's just DH and I for Christmas. Neither of us have family that is close or whom we are close with. I love our quiet Christmas's. We met 2 weeks before the holiday 11 years ago. Having him to share life with is the best gift I've ever received so it is a special time of the year for us. 

This year I'm going to make cranberry pumpkin bread and take a couple of loafs over to our next door neighbors. They moved in three months ago. Just had water put in and are living off the grid. They have 12 children.

To everyone who is having their Christmas plans changed and family is going to be far away. They will always be close to your heart. 

to being totally off the grid. I was into that when young, but I am now old enough that I look at that lifestyle and my back starts spontaneously hurting.

I finally got rid of the goat I so much wanted to get rid of... the place I dropped it off... they live in a yurt, they have a well, but it is deep and outside without a well cover or well house of any kind... so when it snows they need to shovel out the pipe, hook up the gas generator (that they probably had to first warm up by the wood stove and then haul back outside to the well) run the generator to get the well to pump, put the water in jugs, haul it to where it needs to go before it freezes solid. Again...

When I drove up the dad was out running the generator for the well...had maybe six of those blue jugs of 5 to 6 gallons each, loaded in a sled..... now my back is starting to hurt

Talking of being old and cold....

If a big blizzard is rolling in do all of the chores WELL before or after. One year I almost died trying to walk to the house, only 100 feet away. Stupid house, even with all of the house lights on, couldn't see it until I got ten feet from it. I kept thinking of the story in the Little House books... kept thinking what an idiot I was, and why didn't I have a rope running from each coop and back to the house?

I still dont have ropes set up. Guess I never do learn.

 

[Cynthia12]

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[drumstick diva]

Balmy weather Cynthia, take ours -PLEASE

 

[getaclue]

to being totally off the grid. I was into that when young, but I am now old enough that I look at that lifestyle and my back starts spontaneously hurting.

I finally got rid of the goat I so much wanted to get rid of... the place I dropped it off... they live in a yurt, they have a well, but it is deep and outside without a well cover or well house of any kind... so when it snows they need to shovel out the pipe, hook up the gas generator (that they probably had to first warm up by the wood stove and then haul back outside to the well) run the generator to get the well to pump, put the water in jugs, haul it to where it needs to go before it freezes solid. Again...

When I drove up the dad was out running the generator for the well...had maybe six of those blue jugs of 5 to 6 gallons each, loaded in a sled..... now my back is starting to hurt

Talking of being old and cold....

If a big blizzard is rolling in do all of the chores WELL before or after. One year I almost died trying to walk to the house, only 100 feet away. Stupid house, even with all of the house lights on, couldn't see it until I got ten feet from it. I kept thinking of the story in the Little House books... kept thinking what an idiot I was, and why didn't I have a rope running from each coop and back to the house?

I still dont have ropes set up. Guess I never do learn.

Al, I'm with you on not being totally off the grid. I do think most people should be a lot more self-reliant than they are today. I don't say that because I'm a total city slicker, and spoiled. I've actually done wilderness survival, which is why I will never romanticize living off the grid.

Just before Y2K, my ex suggested we get a couple hundred acres in the Carolina's, move up there, go totally off the grid, and totally self sufficient. I asked him about the housing situation, food, etc. Well, he would use his ax to cut down trees, and build us a cabin just like they did back in the day. Did he have any experience doing anything like that? Nope. Did he know how to build a working fireplace? Nope. Yes, he could drill us a well, or two, and we could have several hand pumps, both inside, and outside. Food? Well, we could get cows, chickens, pigs, and he could hunt, and fish. Did he have any experience whatsoever with raising any type of livestock? Nope He would put in a garden, and grow everything else we needed, which I would can, and put up. Did he have any experience with gardening? Nope. How were we to cook the food? Over a fire pit outside in the summer, in the fireplace during the winter. Did he have any experience dealing with snow, and harsh winters? Nope. He was like me, born and raised in Florida. Laundry? I could wash everything by hand with the soaps I would make.

While it may sound good to many, our forefathers labored hard, and that hard work ate up their youth. They survived conditions that were made more intense, and much harsher due to their more primitive living conditions. Their life expectancy was a lot shorter. Knowing how to live that way, and the capability to live that way often meant the difference between life, and death. It was not a game. I suggested we start with a good sized travel trailer, and generator, put in both large gasoline, and propane tanks, build a summer kitchen to can, and store food in, build a barn, and the livestock pens, then get started with gardening, and livestock, and transition into the off the grid lifestyle. He wouldn't hear of it, so I refused.

The older I get, the more I'm glad I did not decide to go along with his foolish plans. I am working at being more self sufficient, but at this stage of things, I want balance too.

 

[getaclue]

 

[jtn42248]

It is 14 degrees with a wind chill of minus 8 right now here in west texas.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

It is freezing rain here and I'm regretting snow removal yesterday because even with crampons it's awful out there.

Hoping we keep power long enough to finish my bunny quilt today. I will also probably have to put a chick down today (a weird form of wry neck).

 

[Beer can]

We got the below zero stuff, the couple feet of snow stuff, now the rain stuff. I did shovel some.
Sometime soon this morn I have to start spreading wood ashes from our OWB , driveway is a couple inches thick sheet of slick ice.