Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

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Doubter

18 December 2009

So yes, the doomers are all wrong as of today. They don’t matter.

What does matter is making a life for my family that I know is right. I know that it’s right to be as self-sufficient as possible in all aspects, I know that independence is good, I know that debt and spending money frivolously is wrong, I know that politicians are liars. I’ve moved beyond reason and logic and into what I know to be true. There’s not much else that matters. I’ve been a self-doubter all my life, and now it’s time to live on the basis of what I know to be true. There just isn’t enough time left to be a doubter any more.

Posted in Family, TEOTWAWKI | Leave a Comment »

First Snowstorm

9 December 2009

We’re having our first serious snowstorm of the season. It started yesterday evening and is still going at 9am today. We have about a foot on the ground so far. The wind has shifted around from the Northeast to the Northwest, and it’s supposed to get very windy and cold later today. Our power blinked off momentarily sometime during the night.

I shoveled the front steps, walk, and driveway today. The snow is sticky enough to shovel well, but not too heavy.

I was a little concerned about the earthworms with the warmish weather we had up until last week and then heading down to zero tonight, but with this much snow on the ground they’ll be well insulated, and freezing of the ground will take place slowly. They should have plenty of time to get below it.

My place of work is closed today and both boys have a snow day, so we’re all together as a family today. That doesn’t happen very often.

We hit a low point in our electricity use of under 13kWh/day for a 21-day period ending 11/7/2009, and it’s been creeping back up to 15.73kWh/day for the 11 days ending today. Why would that be? The refrigerator and the freezer should be running less, we didn’t turn on the furnace until 12/4 and it’s hardly been running at all since, and the dehumidifier is off. I wonder if it could be the water heater needing more electricity as the temperature in the basement drops. It’s time to get a timer on that thing.

Posted in Electricity, Family, Weather | Leave a Comment »

Being Right

7 December 2009

Finally, and for the first time in a long time, I feel as if my understanding of the world is correct and that it’s time for everyone else to come around to what I think instead of the other way around. Specifically:

  • We cannot continue spending money we don’t have, as individuals, as states, or as a nation.
  • Farming is one of the most important activities anyone can engage in, and being a farmer who takes care of his land and everything else under his care is one of the most honorable things anyone can do.
  • We all need to grow as much of our own food as possible.
  • We all need to be responsible for our own health to the greatest extent possible. That means exercising every day, not eating trashfood, and not burning the candle at both ends.
  • We all need to be independent, both as individuals and as families. You only rely on others when you absolutely have to. That does not diminish the importance of community.
  • Debt is bad.
  • Engaging in foreign wars should be avoided at all costs.

Posted in Corporate Control, Family, Financial Meltdown, Food, Gardening, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Thanksgiving

19 November 2009

My family and I must remember to be thankful. With so many people losing their jobs, losing their homes, living without health insurance, not having enough to eat, we have to remember that we have it much better than many, many families. M and I both have jobs, money is not an issue, we’re all healthy and we have health insurance, our house is paid for, we have almost an acre to grow food on — damn we’ve got it good.

And yet it’s so easy to forget all that and think about nothing but what you don’t have. Right now, I’m sitting on a couch typing on a tiny little laptop, wirelessly connected to the Internet, drinking a cup of echinacea tea with honey a few feet from a hot woodstove. I’ve eaten all the food I care to. M and the boys are out, and it’s very quiet and peaceful. Damn, what the hell else could you want?

Sometimes all I have to do is sit down in a quiet place, calm my mind, and consider what I have, to realize that I don’t need anything else. It’s when my mind is frenzied and I’m trying to beat some deadline at work and my head is filled with the endless list of household tasks to perform that I start thinking there must be a better way or that I can earn or shop myself to happiness.

But I can’t. I have everything I need to be happy, I just need to stop and be happy.

Posted in Family, Money | Leave a Comment »

Saturday

2 May 2009

This post talks about the difference between what I’m doing and what I should be doing. If I want to be honest, I can’t blog about only the successes and happiness in our lives.

Today is Saturday, so that means that DW is at work until this afternoon and I have both boys at home. And that means that this is my chance to have an influence on them, to be their father, to make them into good humans.

It also means that this is my time to get some stuff done around the house, especially, this time of year, yard and garden work.

So, we hang around in the house for a while this morning, playing and reading while waiting for it to warm up outside. Around 9:30 am or so, it’s warm enough and we’re pretty much done with being inside. We go outside. I move the vegetable plants out of the greenhouse and into the sun and water them all. Meanwhile, the boys are picking dandelion flowers and putting them into a bucket for me. I didn’t ask them to do that, but that’s fine.

By the time I get through moving and watering (maybe 10 minutes tops), they’re done with being outside and ready for a break — inside. There’s a ton of work to do out there, but I can’t leave them inside by themselves (because they’ll probably end up fighting) and I can’t talk them into staying outside with me. So we all go inside.

Frustrating. Am I asking too much of them? Will this work when they get older (they’re 4 and 6)? Should I just insist that they stay outside? How much should you pay attention to the stated wishes of 4- and 6-year-olds?

Posted in Family | Leave a Comment »

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