Last week I was thinking about trigger points. With my schedule so busy it's hard to think about things that may bring it to a dead stop. Having spent so much time away from home how can I ever prepare? I hardly even have time in the evenings to read in order to expand my knowledge base on survivalism.
Finally having a few minutes to myself this evening, I am finally able to get back on line. This past week I had over 100 emails that I didn't even look at. Some were somewhat important but many were solved without my having to step in to make even one comment. I wonder how much time we spend on things like email that are not at all necessary. Remember the times prior to email? Computers and email were supposed to be much more efficient. I don't know about you but I think that it's made us have more on our plates because with the instant communication and ability to put things in writing, we have more to do, not less.
I got home Friday night after putting in 6 days and 76 hours. Not one cent in overtime...love being in management. It was good to get home but it was even better to be away. I was able to miss Mrs. Bug-out renter moving out and son and his family moving into the bug-out place. Mrs. Bug-out renter tried to talk son into letting her stay there and just paying rent for a room. Son and his wife wanted no part of that. They packed her stuff up and on Saturday morning brought Mrs. Bug-out renter and her things over to my house. She couldn't move into her new place until Sunday so son and a couple of grand kids unloaded the U-haul and loaded it into my trailer, my garage, and the side of the house. Son-in-law came over to pick up his kids and also the washer that Mrs. Bug-out renter didn't want Mr. Bug-out renter to have. You see, even though son moved all their stuff up on Friday, and Mrs. Bug-out renters stuff out on Saturday early morning, Mr. Bug-out renter showed up Saturday late morning to pick up the rest of his things. We kept Mr. and Mrs. Bug-out renters apart because nobody wanted to deal with any drama. Moving three different households in a couple of days is plenty of drama even if everything goes right. As I said, I was glad I was away from home for some of it!
Today son and family and other grand kids came over to help move Mrs. Bug-out renter to her new place. Such a relief to have her out of my "responsibility". She tried to talk me into letting her stay at my house. After all, the grand kids "needed" her. Too much drama and she needs to be self reliant. That won't happen at my house. She' turn the grand kids into her little slaves. No one gets to do that but me! (Joke...sort of!) On the drive over to her new place I told her if she "blew" this new home the only place she had left was to go to her brother's house. She wanted nothing to do with that!
Mr. Bug-out renter left all the trash (1/2 the garage) and the dog. Other than that, I think he took everything that was his. Now the trash is left for son to deal with. Since son and family don't have a lot of money they will probably just bring it down bag by bag for daughter-in-law to throw away when she goes to work. It will take a while to get it all cleaned up. Son has big plans for the place. We'll see how that goes. He's talking more mature than he has for a while, but all I have to do is reread some of what I've written over the years and it is a good reminder that he talks a good game but hasn't done much to prove himself. Time will tell.
After being gone for a week, during record highs for this time of year, I was wondering how my garden would fair. I watered all the trees rather well so I knew they wouldn't need to be watered while I was away. What about the garden? I set the water up so that when it was turned on in the back to water the chickens and sheep that the garden would get watered at the same time. I knew it wouldn't be enough to water really well, but it would be enough so nothing would die. It worked just like I planned. Everything in the garden looked great when I finally was able to go out to check on it all today.
The front didn't fair as well. Great grandparent/babysitter said that I needed to fix the water for the strawberries. Uh oh. If the strawberries aren't getting enough water then the raspberries aren't getting enough water. Sure enough, a couple of my raspberry plants look like they aren't going to make it. I watered them for a long time yesterday so perhaps they will spring back. I'm going to have to take cuttings of the raspberries and try to root more. Of the ten plants I have growing I think three or four are not going to make it. I really need about 20 plants to cover the front hedgerow of branches.
The chickens didn't do so well either. Big dog and Yip-yip have both been trained not to kill the chickens or ducks that wander into the yard. Great grandparent/babysitter's dog hasn't been trained. I don't think that dog will ever be trained in that fashion. I was expecting "Meanie" chicken (the one that thinks it should live in the house) to be killed. He came out OK, although Boy had to rescue him one day when the dog trapped him in the log pile. They pretty much kept Meanie locked in his cage for his own safety. The chicks and ducks in the front pasture will go under or over the fence to wander in the front lawn. They don't hurt anything so I've never tried to force them to stay in the pasture. Two chickens got out but didn't make it back in. The visiting dog killed them. I'm not sure how to train chickens to stay away from dogs when the two dogs that are here don't bother them.
This evening son was telling me that oldest daughter told him that her family plans on moving up to the bug-out place when the world "ends" in December because there will be lots of food up there. I need to have a chat with her about how long she thinks the turkeys and deer will last when everyone else wants to head to the mountains to hunt for food. Son is convinced that the Mayans are right in their calendar predictions, that the world is changing, not ending. He thinks that there will be a polar shift and we'd better prepare for 200+ mph winds, flooding for 300 feet (we get ocean front property when it's all done), and utter chaos for a few days. After that it will all settle down, other than all the dead people from the coasts getting flooded. It's an interesting premise but not one that I'd ever take seriously. Still, he has preparation on his mind.
I have a crazy schedule for the next month. Out of town 3 days this week, 3 the next, 2 after that, then 7 days. After that, I hope there's no state disaster so I won't be stuck on duty. On the other hand, maybe I could pick up some overtime since none of this upcoming travel will give me any. All I do is pray that nothing locally bad happens while I'm away. With the state of the middle east, there are worries every day, but hopefully there will be enough notice if the trouble heads toward home.
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