Home from my meetings but life isn't back to normal

After spending a week away from home I'm really happy to be sleeping in my own bed.  Not that San Diego sister didn't have a comfortable bed for me, but it wasn't my bed. 

The grand kids had a great time on this trip and so did the dogs.  The dogs decided to escape from sister's back yard.  She lives in an interesting neighborhood because the neighbors all know which dogs belong in the area and since these two didn't someone scooped them up and locked them in their backyard for safe keeping.  Then people kept an eye out for someone looking for the dogs.  As I was walking down the street I asked one person who was out in her yard if she had seen two dogs.  She had and said someone about 1/2 mile away took them home.  She told me where the person lived and then as I left to walk over there she called that person to say I was on my way. 

The grand kids went to the beach, to the base (sister is retired military), the San Diego Mission, and Costco.  They got to ride is sister's jeep.  They were ready to come home at the end of the trip although it was a great way for them to spend part of the spring break. 

I spent most of my time down south sitting in on lectures.  One of the topics I found interesting was a discussion on diet breadth and mobility.  Scientifically this is a study of behavioral responses to seasonality and food risk.  While staying in one place could mean you have the ability to have a greater variety in your diet by capitalizing on all the seasonal resources, you also have the option of decreasing the diet breadth with a narrower range of foods by making use of storage since you are not mobile.  By narrowing the diet and making use of storage it can free your time up to do other things rather than just deal with gathering and preparing food.  It just reminded me of my food storage program.  While I eat a large variety of fresh foods year round my storage program, although a narrower variety, will be able to keep us safely subsisting if TSHTF and grocery stores and regular "shopping" aren't available. 

The other topic I found interesting was on morphometric starch grain analysis.  (Big words meaning using a microscope to examine food remains on anything from tools to teeth)  Next week I'm working on a project out of town.  I'm hoping to be able to incorporate some of the grain analysis into this project.  It's something new for me but I think I can put it to practical use.  If I can learn what historically was grown and used in the area I live in it will be easier to figure out what native grasses and plants can be planted and will thrive without much attention or water.  Sure it's easy to go to the local nursery and get the local native plants but to know what historically grew on my property is interesting, at least to me.

I'm dragging the grand kids along on my project...they will be missing a few days of school.  We will be going to another mission too.  There are over 20 in the state and the kids want me to bring them to all of them.  This will be their 6th so we have lots to go. 

On my way home from San Diego Mrs. Bug-out renter called to tell me that her daughter's baby had arrived after being two weeks late.  Then yesterday Mr. Bug-out renter called to tell me that the baby passed away.  Needless to say, their entire family is in a tailspin.  They were supposed to come over this weekend and stay a few days while they visited with us and took care of some things in town.  Obviously that has been put on hold.  Since they are a religious family I passed along some stories that help a little, at least to slightly take away that questioning of why would God allow this.  There isn't much more that we can do other than pray their sadness will diminish enough for them to function once again.