Hello Everyone!
Apocalyptic Homesteading Day 422!
Cold weather, Hiking the hillside, Digging in the watering hole & Ending the day in the cozy cabin!
I have gotten pretty stuck in this new sleep cycle and have yet to get out of bed before nine even though I keep waking up several hours before that just to fall back asleep again. The weather once again dipped below freezing overnight so it was early afternoon (when it was warmer) before I actually got outdoors and started doing stuff. I should really look back over the last week or so and count how often I actually got busy outside before noon because I bet it is just a handful of times. I guess it is better than staring at the computer screen all day but I feel like I am trying to cram a full day of work into a few hours of time.
Once again I went from doing my routine chores to doing other stuff but this time I grabbed a trenching shovel and set off hiking the hillside. Thankfully things have dried up a bit and clambering up and down the hill is not a slippery affair and whoa did I do a lot of hiking! Basically I went around to most of the larger gulches along the hillside and used the shovel to see if any of them had water (or just muck) in them. Surprisingly most of them did not appear to be anywhere nearly as damp as that one that I dug that bore hole in yesterday.
In fact most of the gulches were 'bone dry' so I am assuming that those only get damp when the heavy rains occur and the runoff water flows down them. Overall it looks like I am going to concentrate my efforts to create a watering hole on that initial area where I started the pseudo-dam. After all the hiking I returned to that area and dug a small hole near the 'dam' and used its dirt to fill in the base of the 'dam' a bit. The hole is not super deep or anything and I was careful to make a wide ramp leading out of the hole so that no critters will get stuck in it.
On a different note, I have yet to work on that new compost again and I keep mulling over whether I really want to use chicken wire on it or not. I keep thinking that just using a bunch of sticks might do the job instead. A good combination of stakes and woven branches could make a nice sort of 'basket' and then I would not have a bunch of rusty wire to deal with later. The more that I think of it the more I like the idea but honestly I just need to make up my mind and do it one way or another.
Around four thirty it began getting much colder outside so I called it quits on working outdoors and retreated to the warmth of the cabin. In hindsight I should have taken a brief nap but instead I made a little coffee and geeked out on the computer for a while listing some eXode cards before feeding the critters. Lately it seems like so many of my days have been so similar that it is difficult to recall in what sequence they occurred. I guess the dull, cold landscape of winter contributes to that 'blending together' of the days and although they are drab I have actually been enjoying them so that is nice.
Alright, I think that I am going to wrap this up and get on with the editing. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
I hear you on the sleep cycles! Been embroiled in that battle myself and feeling thoroughly unproductive at bit getting a routine going.
If you want a vote for the compost, I'd go with the sticks over the wire. As you say, messing with rusted wire is not a fun prospect, while if you have plenty of sticks around in your environment anyway, then you can just replace as they break down.