In the middle of October we had a warm spell, hovering around 70F for a week. Still, firewood was on my mind. Our friends Kath and Paul joined us in renting a log splitter and doing the work. First we worked at our place, splitting all those old rounds that had been cut last year …
Category Archives: preparedness
Disaster Preparedness, Resilience, Treading Water and Dangerous Assumptions
Amie reads Calvin and Hobbes during Hurricane Sandy (13h) power outage, 29 October 2012 So we weathered yet another storm. Or rather, we didn’t. Sandy went around us. We got some of her peripheral gusts of wind and some rain, but none of it very severe.  Half of my town was out of power.  School was …
Continue reading “Disaster Preparedness, Resilience, Treading Water and Dangerous Assumptions”
Transition Initiatives: the Giving of Gifts
I discovered Rob Hopkins’ book, The Transition Handbook, about two years ago and it immediately struck me as the right approach to our problems – climate change, peak oil and economic crisis (all bound up together, of course) – and to our solutions (grassroots, positive, pro-active, hopeful, inclusive). It still took me a long time …
Continue reading “Transition Initiatives: the Giving of Gifts”
Independence Days, Week 6
The Indian summer came, went, and came again. Last Friday we hit 37 F – cutting it pretty close – but yesterday it was 70F. It’s going to get cold again soon, though. Plant. Moved (replanted) the 2 rhubarb plants, because in the end we chose their first bed as one of the beds to …
Independence Days, Week 2 {reset}
{Reset} Since I started again last week, I’ll call this week 2. Plant: Transplanted mostly lettuce seedlings in the old potato bed, but I’m afraid they drowned in last week’s downpours; luckily I didn’t put in all of them, and I have many more waiting on the porch. I did drop a tray with mizuna …
Independence Days – Week… ahum…
So behind, it’s shameful. Forge ahead, anyway! Plant: Fall garden of spinach, kale, broccoli, purslane, various lettuce, chard, mizuna, mustard greens, all as seedlings, and in the ground peas, more green beans, chard and carrots. Harvest: chard, kale, cucumber, potatoes, various tomatoes, beans both green and dry. Preserve: apple* sauce, peaches* in syrup, tomato-apple* chutney, …
Beginning Preparedness
If for some reason you couldn’t leave your house, how long could you and your family survive on the food and water you have at home? If your answer is three days, you can count yourself “normal”. If for some reason the grid blinked out, would you be able to cook that food, heat your …