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Sunday, March 30, 2014

The beat goes on



The water supply line for the house is still frozen. At least I have a well with an overflow where I can fill up my waterbricks.

A fair bit of my time is taken up with digging firewood out of the snow. I pull the pieces out of the snow, knock the worse of it off, then let it dry out by the woodstove.

There's a Buddhist saying: Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. For me, that means some things just have to be done, but your state of mind makes all the difference.

Progress is one step forward and another back sometimes. All my wife's car needed so it could start was some time with a battery charger. On the downside, there's too much ice in the driveway to drive it out. I tried to tow it out, but there is nothing solid in the front of the car to hook a tow strap on.

Going into town the roads are all broken up with frost heaves. Looking in my mirrors I saw a volunteer fireman with his red lights flashing. I pulled over to let him pass, but he pulled in behind me and walked up to talk.

“Do you want your bumper?” he asked.

Apparently on one of the more serious bumps the van's rear bumper fell off. The guy picked it up out of the road and caught up with me. That was real nice of him. We both thought it was kinda funny. Might as well laugh at life's little twists.

We did spend a marvelous evening with family and friends in town. After all, that's the main reason we are not totally nomadic.

Just to round out the evening, when we got home I tried to warm something up in the microwave and it wouldn't heat anything. Most folks would just buy a new one. My dad taught me that if it's broken anyway, it doesn't hurt to take it apart and see if it can be fixed. Sure enough, once I pulled the case off, there was an obviously broken wire. Once that was replaced, the microwave worked just fine. Chalk that up in the win column.

Most of my problems right now could be solved by a very lazy man. As the weather warms up, supply lines thaw, driveway ice melts, and there's no need for firewood. Since I'm not quite that lazy, I'll still fiddle around with those things. In the mean time, we've food, water, shelter and community. The basics are covered.

-Sixbears

14 comments:

  1. This winter has been a real test for sure. I have to make a few changes around here for the next bad winter.

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    1. I plan on coming back a month or so later. That should help.

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  2. I hope that bumper wasn't also the boat hitch....

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    1. Nope nope nope. That sucker is rock solid, totally welded to the frame. Now it is my bumper.

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  3. I miss the days when cars had FRAMES! I miss the days of running boards and tow-hooks coming on trucks, too.

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    1. The darn car is half plastic or painted cardboard for all I can tell.

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  4. Wow whee what a winter, still frozen pipes and lots of stuff happening in your neck of the woods..Here in the pacific northwest we are finally getting some rain we never got for 4 to 5 months, Washington state is not in a drought anymore and Oregon neither, still skiing and lots of snow on all the mountain passes and mountains..Our grass has turned to moss and the back and side yards are ridiculous with water..Our Rhubarb is coming back like crazy, the tulips are ready to bloom as it is in the 50's & they like the warmth,the daffodils are still blooming and gorgeous, of course the snow the first week of feb makes school get out now in the middle of june, they make the kids go to school a full 180 days, the seniors of course will be already graduated the first week of june or the end of may, school starts here the last day of august..we are going to the beach in a few minutes, clamming is great first since a red tide last year, we are ready, also we do get lovely crabs up near Hoods canal on a trip, Dungeness no less and also we get mussels from Penn Cove, world famous, we love that we live where we can get to these places, we know folks up there for years and get good prices at both places, we are retired and it is wonderful to go to a tiny place at the coast and have a feast and enjoy our time with grade school friends also retired, they live there full time, we would love to live there but no doctors in the town where they reside and we think it wise to live where a physician would be ready and able in a medical emergency but we love love the pacific ocean and the Washington coast! I love your blog and so admire that you use your noodle to boat places and live a wonderful life with your wonderful wife and not spend all that you worked so hard for your hard earned money..Ciao and best wishes for the freeze to subside so you don't have any jam ups!!!!!!!!!

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    1. The Pacific Northwest is one of those places I've wanted to see but have yet to visit.

      When the thaw comes here, it could come all of a sudden. Probably be some local flooding, but that's not a problem at my place.

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  5. Being off the grid and having a place to get buckets of water is a great way to live. It is called independence.

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    Replies
    1. or camping. It's a lot like camping. :)

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    2. Yeh, like camping BUT: with a comfy bed; walls that dont leak when you touch them; room to store stuff; and a few mod cons...
      I do like camping though...

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    3. There are some important differences, as you point out.

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  6. Re fixing the nuke machine: I once had a VCR stop working. I popped the lid, everything looked OK so I yelled obscenities at it, put the lid back on and it worked fine ever since!

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