Thoughts of Survival

Sunrise

It is late. I'm waiting on the oven to heat up to temp and the bread to bake. Summer means not turning it on until it has cooled off in the evening. Cooled off is a relative term I know depending on where you live. Here, we are in the fifties at night or low, low sixties at the highest - heavenly.  When it begins to cool, we throw our windows and doors wide open and let the cool air circulate throughout the house, air conditioning being reserved for only the hottest of days. In this manner we wake to  68 degrees most mornings in the house, my favorite temperature.

 

Heat and I are enemies. It clashes with my Addison's disease and lays me low. Cold may not be pleasant but at least I can put on more clothes. Sweatshirt weather is my favorite.

 

Maybe that is one more reason the Lord put us here in the boondocks where we are nestled against the mountains. It is definitely cooler than where our son lives 25 miles away. Definitely cooler than where we use to live about 140 miles away. And that definitely means a change in gardening. At our son's and back at the old house they have had a fair number of 90's and at our old house quite a few 100's.We have had only a couple or so 90's and it can stay that way.

 

Right now I'm listening to it rain and sitting on the back deck under the large overhand that protects it. The clouded heavens make darkness complete but it is a cozy darkness. A darkness that envelopes you and makes the world seem intimate. The porch lights creates a room all my own.

 

As I type away, the leaky sky ebbs and the torrent of water that gushed down the down spouts slows to a plinking rhythm. It creates an accompaniment to the creek's whispers as the noises of the heavens still. From the corner of my eye I see brown and look up from my computer screen to see a doe walk along the edges of the light's reach. I can hear the tearing of the grass as she feeds unconcerned by my presence. Soon another doe joins her. They slowly wonder off around the corner of the house as the oven beeps, informing me it is up to temp.

 

Have I told you lately, I LOVE this place!!! At the old house yes, I also cooked late at night with the windows flung open but there was no serenading of a creek or companionship of nature, just sounds of traffic, televisions blaring, and music playing. As I enjoy the moment, my body screams SLEEP, SLEEP but that will come soon, bread is baking, the last of the chores before bedtime. I spent most of last week chasing the dotted lines down highways in both directions. So this evening I had to culture yogurt, start sauerkraut, make two desserts, bake bread and a yummy new casserole, as casseroly as I get. It a a new cabbage dish, a winner and I'll be sharing it with you. 

 

One of the things I've been contemplating lately is when we have to live off of a garden what would we plant? I can see that a survival garden isn't the same as a supplemental garden. Too many enjoy nows and things to can or freeze. There is only so much space and so much energy and so it has to really count. I question if we will always have electricity or will the interruption of it become common place? We are getting a taste of that as brown outs happen fairly often and power outages for a few minutes to hours happens about twice a month. I'm told we live in the forgotten valley of the county. It can be rather nice sometimes. My thoughts never still they wander off to will we need to rig something up like they do with donkeys that go around and around to pump water up from a well only we will probably be using goats? Should look into that just in case. Good food for thought anyway.

 

Warfare in the future is to be increasingly a cyber one. Knock out the banking and electricity and a nation comes to a stand still. Our daughter has friends in the military who specialize in just that, defensively and offensively. That is why my thoughts turn to what did the pioneers grow and do? There is so much history concentrated on the wars and treks but not so much on the daily sustaining things of life.

 

Potatoes and cabbage are two of the things I've come to conclusion were a staple. But it is late and for tonight I going to give thanks for the things I've learned to date, one of which is to mark my milk, and yogurt jars with the date they were put in the refrigerator with a dry erase pen. A refrigerator, another one of those conveniences we've come to depend upon. I've looked into natural refrigeration. Something I've yet to share with you. But for now, I'm going to sleep for tomorrow will come all too soon.