We took a day trip out to the Camp yesterday. The weather was cool, the sky was cloudy.
We found one mouse in our trap in Grace the trailer, and I found no droppings to clean up. There were also two deceased flying ants in the bucket, so hopefully they are gone now.
The battery in the trailer ran the bathroom fan all day long, which really helps with airing it out. The aroma of mice is lingers still. It is a familiar smell, so many older buildings were infested with mice, including my Grandparents home. Mousetraps were a familiar site during my childhood.
In the great outdoors there is always something happening. About a month ago we found a young porcupine in Whinny the open shed at the Camp. Eventually the youngster moved on, as he did not like our presence at all.
During this trip we found many of our pine trees damaged by chewing porcupines. They had killed dozens of healthy branches with their chewing. It was sad to see. I remember my Grandfather hated porcupines because of the damage they did to vehicle tires, and the house itself. He trapped them, it was memorable.
I hope they have moved on from our property!
Spring this year has offered abundant rainfall. The trees and plant life are lush and green. This is the healthiest we have seen the flora in this area since we moved here in 2015. Everything at the Camp is flourishing. Everything that is except the mosquitoes. We were not bothered by them at all until evening, when they seemed to discover our presence.
My physical activities are more restricted now than they have ever been in my life. Because the aneurysm will cause no pain until it is life threatening, my perception of what I can do remains unchanged. The reality of what I should not do is a concept only. The adjustment is interesting. For instance, I spied a small dead tree in the bush, and would normally pull it down myself, carry it to the camp fire area, cut it up, and burn it. Now the only part of the process I should be doing is using the the cut up pieces of wood to feed the camp fire. Attila has to do everything else. When they say just do what you normally would do, they fail to take into account that “normal” encompasses quite a wide range of physical activity.
There were quite a few wild strawberries ripening at the Camp during this visit. Picking strawberries is hard on the back, but who could resist them! This morning I felt my folly of picking wild strawberries, I could barely move when I got out of bed. Morning stretches helped put me right, as did going for a brisk walk.
For the last month I have been “intermittent fasting”, only taking sustenance between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Visits to the Camp need some tweaking to accommodate this eating window.
We enjoyed a lovely lunch consisting of onion and cheese sandwiches, grilled over the coals of the campfire. This was accompanied by home canned Coleslaw. Because we would not arrive home by 6 p.m., I needed to eat my evening meal before we left the Camp. My Stone Soup came to the rescue. Attila turned on the propane so that I could use the range in the trailer to heat my soup, which I enjoyed eating out on the picnic table. Attila had decided to wait until we arrived home to eat his evening meal.
Here at Mist Cottage the garden has been keeping us busy. Luckily it doesn’t require all of our time, so Attila was able to build a shelf to store jars of dehydrated foods. This is a very welcome addition to our kitchen. A step stool is needed to reach the jars, but that isn’t so bad since the contents are not used on a daily basis. This has cleared counter space to house my fermenting Kombucha and sourdough.
Almost every space in our little kitchen is occupied with something we use frequently.
The new shelf is above the windows in the dining area of the kitchen.
I save glass jars that I find attractive. The jars for the dehydrated food on the top shelf are reused mayonnaise jars, saved over a period of years.
This area in the kitchen used to be where our dining table sat. There is no room for it in the kitchen anymore, so the table now resides in the living room.
On the upper right of the image you can see my one gallon Kombucha jar in its new home. On the floor on the right is a 11.34 kg bag of organic popcorn that we purchased a few weeks ago, it is thawing after being frozen for a few weeks. Once thawed it will go into a five gallon food grade bucker for long term storage. Popcorn is a preferred snack.
As you can see there are still a few square inches of blank wall space, I have my eye on those blank spaces!
Just to note, the liquor bottle on the floor contains filtered water. We attained the glass bottle from a friend who gave it to us filled with his homemade maple syrup. I like to have a small supply of filtered water in the kitchen in case the Berkey goes empty on me during a project.
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Wed, Jun 12 at 2:47 PM
19 °C
FEELS LIKE 19
Partly cloudy
Wind 15 S km/h
Humidity 67 %
Visibility 24 km
Sunrise 5:23 AM
Wind gust 22 km/h
Pressure 101.6 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 8:52 PM
Quote
“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
1929 – 1968
This applies to so much more than just physical violence.
I think this also applies to nastiness on social media, aimed at unsavoury characters. Unlovable as they are, the loving thing to do for them is to out them and then ignore them. Hateful slings and arrows cannot drive out their flaws, nor convince their supporters.
Oh, I love your window shelves…they are so cute! Had to laugh when you said you had your eye on those blank wall spaces. 🙂
Eileen, our kitchen reminds me of those images of mice or rabbits in kitchens with wall to wall shelves full of stuff, as they busily cook in their cozy space.
Everything is so well organized! I love that quote!
I love your window shelves too! You and Attilla both remind me of my Grandmothers, who had large gardens and would can everything they could. Your window shelves are very neat!
How did you start with the intermittent fasting, Maggie? I’ve pretty much lived that way for the last 20+ years. I usually eat breakfast between 9 and 11 and then have my last snack around 8:30PM.
That’s a really great quote! It deserves to be more well-known.
Thanks Joan, with so much going on in such a small space it is struggle to keep things organized, small improvements all the time. The quote is so multifaceted, and a great observation about human behaviour.
Thanks Sandy! We have both been heavily influenced by our Grandparents, rural people living relatively self-sufficient lives. We both admired our Grandparents, and feel comforted and connected by this way of life.
Teri, I began about a month ago, just started cold turkey by waiting until 10 am to start eating, and stopping by 8 p.m. I found that didn’t work for me, because my mornings were dominated by thoughts of breakfast. Then i switched to eating from 9 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and found that a lot more practical for me. I noticed that I was forgetting to eat food after 6 p.m., so I changed my eating window to 9:00 am to 6 pm, that has been working fine for me. I have to admit, three meals a day now feels like I am constantly eating and I am relieved at 6 pm to stop thinking about food for the day.
I decided to give it a try after watching a ZOE video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yExtphYB8w
I love the quote too.