It’s Saturday, my turn to make dinner. I made chili (served with plain Greek yogurt, yum), cornbread, and winter squash, it all came out really good, and between cooking, serving, and eating, was a very satisfying experience. From the garden, I used kidney beans (dried), onions (from the basement), and red peppers (dried) in the chili, and Butternut and our sole Acorn squash (from the basement) — wow, that’s a lot of food from our garden to be eating in February. (The meal also included The Three Sisters from the Northeastern Native American cuisine.) I’m liking those dried red peppers quite a bit, more than I thought I would. I also ground wheat berries from storage to make flour for the corn bread. Awesome.
The biggest challenge was making the chili taste like chili without making it too spicy for my boys. G ate it, but not D, so I was at least partially successful.
Another great family note is that G, my 7-year-old, spent about half an hour reading our Thomas collection on the couch by himself. It’s not the first time he’s ever read a book on his own, of course, but it was great to see him spend time doing it independently.
I purchased and received a rocket stove. It looks good, although I haven’t used it yet. I made the contribution to purchase a stove for someone else in the world who needs one.
So that should cover us for cooking without utilities, between cooking on the woodstove, the kerosene stove, the sun oven, and the rocket stove. Finding enough woody stuff around here for cooking on the rocket stove should not be that difficult, no matter what happens. We could probably cook for a year just using the wood we have in our brush pile.
I do have the nagging thought that I’m trying to buy my family into being prepared, and no doubt that is partially true…but I am moving us forward. And at this point in my life I have more money than time.
The biggest issue remains water. I’d like to get another layer or two in place for drinking water. Just buying a big filter would be a step in the right direction.
Meanwhile — only five weeks or so until seed-planting! I can’t wait.
I could be planting kale for some early greens in the greenhouse. So???
Ending and Beginning 