Building separatism

I expressed I wanna go to the forest more, so I could collect the dry pieces of wood on the forest floor, to use for cooking during winter. They both got upset and asked why I need to do that for, when I have a perfectly good fallen tree on my property that just needs to be put into the shed.

I explained the dry wood in the forest is completely dry, easy to light, doesn't create much smoke, and once the autumn rain starts falling, it's all gonna be wet and difficult to use. The fallen tree on my property is not completely dry, and after I manage to cut it up, it should cure for about a year before it can be used as firewood.

They were bewildered at this and claimed, no, it only takes 2-3 months of being in the shed before the wood is good for use, I could cut down a tree now and use it this winter.

I have no idea who is right, I don't wanna ruin my chimney or my indoor wood stove. Can you settle this?

please write a book about your experience. Pleaseeeeee...

Sincerely

someone who admires your bravery, creativity, persistence and eloquence

I spent some time sketching the layout of the house, the power lines, the wood shed, the ruins. And then I made a list of things I wanted on my property.

Ground gardens, raised garden, strawberry area. Asparagus area. A big shady tree where I can put a swing, table and a chair. A lake. Another, irrigation lake. Bushes and tall flowers. Brick storage area. Terrace gardens. A vine climbing structure for the grapes. A forest area. A whimsical round pathway that leads to all of these places. Small pillars I can use to put things away.

I spent hours sketching it all in, looking at the sun and calculating where the shadows will be, where the gardens consequently cannot be. Making sure no trees are close to the power lines, or the neighbours house. No tall trees that could fall on houses. Picking out tree varieties. Drawing in fruit trees. Checking where the water will travel down the slopes, drawing in changes to direct the paths.

The final sketch made me unbelievably happy. It had everything I wanted. Made me feel like I'm building a paradise.

And I wanted to show it to you. But then a small voice inside my head went: 'Hello I know you live remote so everything feels safe but how about you don't publish a sketch of your entire house and yard layout to tumblr.com. You do not run a cute and cozy cottage blog, you run a controversial radical feminist blog that goes after every prevalent system on the planet, you are not in a friendly world out there and you are just hurtling into doxxing yourself.'

So then I couldn't post it. :(

I bought a phone card that gave me 2gb for a month, and I use it only to post and look things up. It expires on Monday, then my posts will become much rarer.

Fun fact! Signal is so bad I have to get to a specific spot in the property to upload an image. So every time you see something, I stood in that spot begging and praying it would get through. I shrunk all images to screenshot size to improve the chance of uploading.

Then I wanted to also fix the small standing area, between the bench and the stove. The earth was uneven, so I dug out the taller bits to even it out. Then I thought, I should do something about the rain.

Because if it rains, the entire place will turn into a mud bath, and I need a place to stand. I looked at the broken roof tiles, and got an idea. What if I poured wet mud in there, then placed the tiles like I'm making a path? Then I could stand on the tiles and not get muddy.

The roof tiles are not even, so I meticulously picked the ones that were just so broken that one side was flat. I poured a bunch of mud and clumsily and un-evenly tiled the area.

I don't know if this will be good, because I couldn't really get them even, some are sticking up a bit. We'll see after it dries whether it worked. It would be prettier with cut rocks but I don't have that. Only hundreds of broken roof tiles.

Ooh I should!

She could be Leaf, because she's always larping aa a leaf. Spiky because she has sharp bits on her arms she uses to hold bugs when she munches on them. She likes plastic bags but I can't name her after that. She likes to turn her back on me. Likes being on a chair. If I talk a lot or sing, her antennae twitch at the sound. Her head is triangular. She slipped on the linoleum first time she was here. She tries to be stoic but she's goofy and fun. Her body is long, like a heron, but green and with sharp limbs.

I wanted to make soap but I didn't learn it yet. A soap bar is 60 cents and I can use it for a year so it's a tiny expense. But I am getting progressively annoyed at how much perfume they put in, the scent is too strong and lingers too much. I picked 'Aloe Vera' scent and I can smell it for two hours on me.

I use soap for hands and showers, tea for hair, just a regular dish soap but I use tiny drops so it lasts a very long time. And for laundry I use wild chestnuts, if they're broken and mixed with warm water, they make a soapy water..

When I found her, she put her little arm over her head because the light was too bright! It was adorable! Imagine a little bug covering their little face with their tiny little arm because you shined a horrid bright phone torch in their face like an annoying idiot. It was sooo cute!

I see spiders every day, they're the ideal house critter because they eat other bugs so they clear your house for you. My praying mantis does it too! They're kinda like house guardians.

The giant spider I found in the ruins could be dangerous, and is holding eggs so she's extra pissed at me, but as long as I don't accidentally harm or threaten her, I should be fine.

My thing is I've never gotten hurt by a spider or any bug in general, save for little ant bites and wasp stings, so I don't believe they're dangerous. At the same time I'm so fascinated and entertained by them, I'm always on the lookout so I see them before accidentally threatening them. Creatures that small are not our predators and would only attack us if we put them in a situation their life feels threatened.

House spiders are generally very small and non harmful even if you do swing at them or put your hand in their webs, big spiders are rare. If you have a garden you can get some big spiders there too, also not dangerous, they benefit the garden.

Sunny is at this point bigger, but that doesn't mean she'll win. What's likely happening is Shady noticed how her soil is really nice and airy and wet, so she decided oo I'm gonna focus on root growth first, I could grow into a huge successful plant here so I'm going to establish great roots to become stable first, and then do leaves and fruit.

And Sunny noticed her soil sucks so she went urghhh fine we're growing leaves only, then quickly fruit so I can make seed and get out of this hellhole.

What I don't get, is why is Raindrop so tiny. I planted her two days after Sunny, same spot, and I water her just as much. Is it just because her transplanting time wasn't ideal? Her roots were a bit overgrown in the little pot before I put her out. These two were started as seeds on the exact same day.

I built a little bench from the bricks, in front of the stove, for sitting. In the ruins, I ran into a big pregnant spider so maybe I have to stop clearing them now, it is not polite to disturb a pregnant lady.

I found rocks at the ruins, some very big, and I want to use them for dozens of purposes, but now that I know moving them will make me tired, I'm suspecting I won't be able to do it in one day. Which is annoying.

On the other hand, I messed up with the seedlings - some of them already became leggy. Despite the bright window and the mirrors. It turns out they need direct light or else. I can't keep them out because the heat would kill them, and I get very little sun in the house. Which means I'm now chasing that single sun ray with my tray of plants, moving them every half an hour. It's worth it. I can still save the most. My garden depends on it.

I can't remember where I've exposed my handwriting. Which makes this an ominous message. Who are you and what do you know.

I had an exhausting day biking to town and back so I deserve a little treat! I have some whole oat flakes gifted to me in a cereal, and I foraged for blackberries. Here's the theory of how this is going to go.

Blenders pulverize the oats into powder and this powder is what mixes with water and creates the milk-like liquid. I am going to use a mortar and pestle to pulverize the oats first, let them soak, then use a whisk to mix them in with water. Then strain. It might work.

I'm leaving them to soak for 15 minutes, and in the meantime I'm washing and crushing the blackberries. I'm gonna strain them in. I'd put any other fruit in whole but these have seeds, unpleasant in a drink.

I always add a bit of oil, vinegar, a tiny bit of salt and sugar to taste in the oat milk, so I whisked those in. It tasted just like the blended oat milk! After I strained in the blackberries, it looked just like my regular blackberry smoothie too.

One thing left over: to cool it down. I don't have a fridge, so I closed the jar and submerged it into a bucket of ice-cold well water. I cool my drinking water this way too. It's been cooling while I typed and edited this, gonna try it now.

*

The ones I got don't look or smell roasted, they look completely normal; that doesn't mean there wasn't some treatment, it just wasn't roasting.

You know what, now I'm not sure either. I don't think incorrect storage would sprout them, they would need to be very damp to sprout and unless they're directly on wet surfaces, it wouldn't happen. Does this mean there is no human who would straight up try to storage their cereal in a wet condition? No. I'm sure someone out there tried it.