Soon springtime is upon us even here in the far north. The meter thick snow is melting into an icy slush swamp during the day, and refreezing during the night, coating everything in shining armor made of ice.
I thought I’d get back into blogging here on Hive, at least sporadically. New account, new focus. And a reborn love for things a bit simpler and slower.
This is just a short intro post to explain what the future will bring. Expect no literary masterpieces, these posts will mainly be a writing outlet for me and sort of homestead journal to follow my progress as time progresses. Below are some areas that interest me greatly and I’ll talk further about.
Homesteading
First up. I’m no true homesteader. Me and my fiancé live in a quite rural part of the country, but we do not live of anything close to a farm. We live in a regular house with a regular backyard in a regular neighborhood. We live in a small village of around 350 people, surrounded by forests, lakes and farmland.
While we do not own a farm, we do have a great backyard for growing plants. During the hot summer days, our backyard has a bit of a issue with being swarmed with biting horse flies, or gadflies. Last summer, when weed whacking in the backyard, I counted fifteen bloody horse fly bites after a few hours. Hence the informal nickname of our garden, backyard of the biting horse flies.
This year I’ll focus a lot on expanding the existing garden beds. I plan on planting more berry bushes, potatoes, onions, carrots, along with tomatoes and cucumbers. Our climate is quite cold, so we’ll see how things grow.
Other than growing food, I am interested in and am learning more about food preservation. Currently I water bath can a lot of jams, pickles and jellies. I plan to get a steam canner to decrease water costs and save time. Also, I want to get my hands on a pressure canner, but being European, this is not easy or cheap. A dehydrator is also on my list.
Growing food and preserving the harvest is a main priority this year. Both failures and successes will be shared.
Other than the gardening and food growing aspect, I'll get back into cooking from scratch, starting with bread baking. An old hobby of mine that I'm wanting to revive. Making my own candles is also something that I want to try. We'll see what happens when it happens. If possible, I like doing things the old and manual way.
Prepping
I’m also a bit of a prepper. Might be a word riddled with tension to some. But there’s really no drama. I’m not a doomsayer holed up in my bunker. I don’t even have a bunker.
The main reason for my prepping is that we live relatively remotely. The power grid here is a bit sketchy, though usually it works great. But in two years the power grid has been down at least four times (longer than a couple of hours). The last power outage was a three hour outage in the middle of winter with outdoor temperatures as low as -38 Celsius. Cold as all hell. This makes backup heating sources necessary.
The amount of snow we get here during winter is also a potential hazard. The risk of getting snowed-in is real. Combine a week of heavy snowfall with a tough influenza where you’re too weak to clear the snow, and you’re in for a tough time.
I’m not faced with the harsh conditions of people living in war zones. But the risks are real and present. I also believe that being well prepared is the most responsible thing you can do towards your family and your community. If things get tough, I should not be reliant on the support system to survive. Help should primarily go to those who actually need it, the elderly and the children. Not able-bodied and decently young people like me.
So if you’re interested in a slow attempt to become more self-sufficient, growing food, canning and preserving food, establishing a compost, installing a fireplace, buidling a firewood reserve, building a crisis water storage and preparing for grid-down situations, stay tuned for upcoming posts.
Until next time!
