Self Reliant Living...

6:35pm - 56 degrees - scattered clouds...

Here's the thing... I'm a bit of a worrier. I find that when I'm worried about something, being able to take a positive, substantive action, makes me feel like I'm a bit more in control. This is true when preparing for the harsh upcoming Winter season. This is true when preparing for natural disasters - both small and large. It's true when dealing with any medial issues. And it's true when fretting about the economy. With the world in a bit of a turmoil these days, it seems that there's a lot of worrying going on, and not just in my own head.

With the rising costs (which everyone is feeling the pinch) I started wondering about the people who survived the Great Depression. My grandparents were teenagers during that time, and I've listened to their stories. But I still wonder... in hindsight, how would they have prepared themselves for such a tough time. If their parents, my great-grandparents, had known what was coming, what would they have done differently? What did they wish for in the midst of their survival efforts? What would they have deemed mandatory survival needs?

I'm a voracious reader... and once I'm interested in something I seek out every resource I can find to learn everything I can about a topic. And maybe I've been reading too many apocalyptic novels lately, but these are questions that are concerning to me.

These days, we're so conditioned to jump in the car and run to the store whenever we need (or want!) something. What would our world look like if you weren't able to do that as often, or possibly not at all? 

In this day and age, we also heavily rely on the internet. During a power outage, or when the internet is down, you can't Google, or ask Alexa, how to do something, or look something up. That's why it is essential to have physical resources to turn to when digital isn't an option. 

Being prepared for when times are tough is an exercise in self-reliant living. Getting through tough times - whether it is nature related or man-made related - will be easier if you have skills. Knowledge is power, especially when the unexpected happens.

Here are some invaluable books you'll want on your shelf to get you started... 

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival

Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine

Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 

SAS Survival Handbook, Third Edition

The Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual

The Survival Medicine Handbook

The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, 2nd Edition

Ultimate Guide: Wiring, 9th Edition

When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes

Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook

...then you can continue to add to your collection - cook books, gardening and wild edibles specific to the region you live in, bread making books, animal husbandry, general food preservation, herbalism books - really the list could go on and on.

I would absolutely love book recommendations, and I encourage you to let me know your favorites in the comments below. 

The Ups And Downs Of Life...

11:32 am - 42 degrees - raining, foggy...

I haven’t posted in just over a month and there’s a pretty good reason for that...

On Valentine’s Day, our computer crashed, or rather the hard drive did.  We lost all our photos, videos and most of everything else since I only had a very small portion of it backed up.  I was pretty upset.  It was not a good day.  But lessons were learned.

I was also in the middle of our Girl Scout cookie season – yes I’m a Girl Scout troop leader to 25 amazing girls.  Cookie season is already an insane whirlwind, and without a computer it just made it that much more interesting... not it a good way.

2 of the 5 vehicles we needed to haul our troop's 375 cases of cookies.

Caitlyn out working a cookie booth.  It was cold out!

And that whirlwind of craziness was topped off with snow, snow, a little bit of rain, and oh yeah, more snow. 

 

Clearing off the road so we can get through.

Snow and fog.

  

We always keep a handsaw in our rigs
so we can clear the road when needed.

Breaking trail on the county road as we head down the mountain.
Have to get the kids to school some way.

Because we have gotten so much snow this winter, Tony has spent a lot of time in the tractor blowing off the driveway and part of the county road.  Because he does this, we haven't had any real problems getting on and off the mountain.

Blowing off the county road...

...until we met the county plow guy!

Last Monday, while we were all in town, we got 16" of new snow.  So when we tried to get home, we got stuck on the last tight corner on the driveway... well, I got stuck, then Tony got stuck trying to get me out.  

Tony was going to try towing me up, but then he got stuck.

Tony and Caitlyn hiked home, while Jack and I stayed with the rigs and busted into a box of Girl Scout cookies (what else are you going to do when you're stuck in the snow?).  

I managed to rock my rig back and forth enough to get unstuck, before Tony came back with the tractor and towed his truck up while Jack steered - he didn't want to put his chains on.  I don't blame him, I don't like putting my chains on either, they're a pain!  In fact, in order for me to put chains on, I have to be completely stuck-stuck and unable to move at all. 

The last seven miles of our drive home that night only took about 2 hours or so, but we finally made it home.  And Tony once again jumped into the tractor to go blow off the driveway.

Snowy sunset.

Fast forward to today, and we once again have a working computer, I just finish the final cookie season reports (YEA!!!), the last several days of rain has helped to melt out the driveway and life is calming down again... and just in time for the next round of heavy snowfall which is due to start tomorrow.

I'm ready to be snowed in again.  No winter cabin fever here!  Guess where I'm going to be... yup, curled up on the couch with a book!  

Spotted a used book sale the other morning while
running errands and I got all this for $6.50!

Winter Storm...

12:08 pm - 32 degrees - snowing...

We’re in the middle of another winter storm that will carry through till tomorrow night.  The weather forecast is all over the map so they’re saying we could get anywhere from 1 foot to 4 feet of snow before this storm is over.

We’re currently just over 8” of new snow which is also known as Cascade Concrete.  This type of snow got its name because it is characteristic of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest, and we get it quite often.  It is a wet, heavy and often sticky snow, which makes doing anything like walking, snowshoeing, driving, skiing, snowboarding, sledding, literally anything, very difficult and you’re bound to get soaking wet doing it!

  

He's having trouble getting his sled to work...

...but that doesn't stop him.
It's snowing, he's soaking wet and this little polar bear is having a blast!

This is the kind of snow that is horrible to drive in.  You can be in 4-wheel drive, with new studded snow tires with chains and you will still be spinning your tires.  Glad we don’t have to go anywhere today.

Driving Home - In Hyperspeed...

9:06 am - 25 degrees - 32+ mph wind gusts...

Our area was hit hard this month when about a foot of snow fell on the metro area in a 24 hour period - that usually only happens about once a decade.  The snow moved out and the colder air moved in and kept the winter scenery around.  Schools, businesses and most activity in the area was either halted by the snow or severely reduced as a white blanket draped the metro area and surrounding communities.

Most commuters weren’t prepared for the snow storm causing abandoned vehicles and a lot of accidents.  A week later and freeways are clear, main roads still have icy patches and side roads are covered in packed snow.

With all this crazy weather that we have been getting lately, several of our friends have made videos of portions of their commute.  They wanted to see what our commute home was like so here it is...

Another Snow Day...

11:47 am - 29 degrees - snowing...

It's another snow day for us (5th one I think). Tony left the house early this morning to blow off the snow/freezing rain/snow that came with the latest winter storm over the weekend.

Just over two hours in the tractor this morning and he's only been able to do one pass about a half mile long down the driveway.  The snow is deep and very heavy and he's sliding around on the icy layer that he hasn't been able to break through yet.  He broke a couple shear pins so he had to come home and grab some more.  Now he's off again to finish blowing the driveway.

The temps have warmed up a bit and the water line to our wash machine has finally thawed out.  It's been frozen for well over a week now.  So I'm busy doing laundry and cleaning house while Tony's clearing the driveway and the kids are playing.  Just a normal winter day on the mountain.  

View From The Window...

9:37 am - 25 degrees - overcast...

My kind of beautiful... snowflakes on the window.  

Even after getting a touch of cabin fever from being snowed in for several days, there is always something amazing and beautiful to be found if you just look for it.  

Winter Storm...

6:42 pm - 20 degrees - overcast...

We have had several winter storms in the past week and a half.  The storms brought freezing rain which left everything covered in a sheet of ice.  60-70+ mph winds that blew all the new snow around causing snow drifts everywhere along with causing trees and branches to break from the added stress of the ice.

Tony has been having to run chains on his truck every day, while I have been driving only when absolutely necessary.

In the past week, Tony has spent over 12 hours in the tractor blowing snow.  Monday night, he spent about 3 hours blowing snow, coming home just shy of 1:00 am.  He's out blowing snow right now and will probably spend another 2-3 hours tonight clearing the driveway and part of the county road.  He is just amazing, I love that man!  

Monday we had 19 inches of snow, but due to the extreme winds last night it was difficult to get an accurate reading today.  Due to the snow drifts, I was measuring anywhere between 3.5" and 8" of new snow.  Then I broke my yard stick trying to break through the ice layer so I could get an overall depth reading. 

Kids were excited that school was cancelled again today and thankfully it was a perfect day for sledding. 

Although the storm warning has officially been lifted, we're still in for below freezing temperatures with wind gusts up around 40+ mph for the weekend.

No denying winter has finally arrived!  Since moving out here, the weather has definitely earned my respect for its sheer power, ruthlessness and beauty.  A winter storm, out here in the middle of nowhere, is a call to action.  We've got the pantry stocked, fresh batteries in the flashlights, extra gas/propane for the generator, and lots of firewood.

For folks who have to work and travel in this kind of weather, it can be a major inconvenience and even scary.  But on days like this, where there is nowhere else to be but here, I feel such gratitude to have created our own refuge from the storm.

New Generator...

5:37 pm - 25 degrees - overcast, windy...

This past weekend our generator died.  So we had to run out and buy a new one before the next winter storm hit.  We spent all day shopping and ended up buying a Champion 7500/9375 Duel Fuel generator we picked up at Cabelas. 

Tony was looking at a couple others online, but everything he liked had to be ordered.  Since we were in between storms, we had to pick something out that we could take home with us.

Less than two miles from home, after putting ice breaker chains on the front tires, the rear end almost slid over the edge.  So he had to put another set of ice breaker chains on the rear tires as well.  Whew, that was a close call.

Finally made it home, took the generator out of the box, then had to push/slid/carry it over to the power house so Tony could hook it all up and we could have power again.

So far, we have run the generator on propane and gasoline and it's working great!

Clearing Ditches...

4:11 pm - 43 degrees - overcast...

When it comes to maintaining our personal driveway and the main driveway, there are three main objectives – control the flow of water around the road, remove obstacles, and fill in the holes/ruts.

Water in any of its numerous forms – snow, ice, sleet, rain – is our number one enemy when it comes to maintaining the driveway.  Water run-off will always take the line of least resistance and when the ditches are full of debris, that usually means the water is running down the middle or across the driveway somehow.  Also, any low spots that collect water will also collect snow and freeze causing bad slick spots during the winter.

So Tony has been in the excavator all day clearing the ditches out along the main driveway.  He’s hoping to get all the ditches done and a fresh layer of rock on before the weather turns on Thursday (weather reports are calling for snow!).

He’s trying to prevent washouts that seem to happen every year due to heavy rain and snow melt.  Hopefully this year we won’t have to deal with any of this...

It’s Snow Much Fun...

10:17 am - 32 degrees - 9 inches of new snow and still snowing...

The kids were up before 6 am this morning (they don't know the meaning of sleeping in) shining flashlights out the windows looking at all the flakes fall and swirl like those in a snow globe.  

I made them wait until it got light out before they got suited up and dashed outside to go play. 

Even the cats were having fun in the snow.

What a wonderful way to start the day!

Mountain Chores...

9:53 am - 32 degrees - 9 inches of new snow and still snowing...

The last storm blew over a few more trees and left quite a bit of debris all along the driveway. 

The weather reports were saying that we’re supposed to get 2-3 feet of snow by Friday, so we spent yesterday morning cleaning up the debris.  This will help when it comes time for Tony to either blow or plow the driveway, he won’t be hitting broken branches or fallen rocks.

For some reason, the kids had more fun shoveling off the bridge, than they did tossing limbs.  At least they were having fun while doing their chores.

Winter Storms...

3:15 pm - 36 degrees - thick clouds...

We are once again in between storm systems.  The last round of storms brought about a foot of new snow, only problem was that it was very west snow so it settled down to about 5” of snow slush – looks like snow, but when you step in it, your foot prints turn to slush.

The snowflakes turned into pelting waves of freezing rain which left a ¼” of ice over everything.

Then the wind started to howl, along with the pelting waves of freezing rain, you started to hear the pop and crack of branches breaking all around from the strain of the heavy ice.

Although this last round of storms left a mess of broken branches and tree limbs behind, thankfully that was the only damage we sustained.