Building separatism

I think your neighbors who gave you cans see it as a good thing, too. They see it helps you, helps the environment, and it helps to save them a trip to clear away their own cans.

I carry an extra bag for cans on my walks. In my area the exchange rate is pretty small but I’m happy to do it.

I’m sure me and the other ladies here are happy to know you have another means of securing goods for your livelihood. Stay well and keep going forward. We’re rooting for you.

-Mary anon 🌹

Hi Mary anon, thank you for reassuring me! I'm so curious about the exchange rate now, here it's 10 cents per bottle.

The neighbours all have their retirement to live off of, so they don't need to exchange bottles; they were just accumulating them. It was a good riddance for them!

She has a purple flower, and the petals are shaped like it's trying to be a tiny little windmill. No idea why but that is cute. Then I tried to follow her down to soil to find out what the leaves are like and instead I found a second flower; it unfurls from a spiral vine!

This plant is doing so much already. And you are not ready to see what the leaf is like because it takes the cake. The leaf has a painting of a maple on it:

Dragging my full bags home, I noticed the neighbour passing my house and going back in her yard. I figured it's polite to say hi so I drop my bags and go towards her.

I wasn't even in the speaking range when she yelled 'What are you rummaging for in your yard?'

I ignored this, came to her, said 'Good morning,' and sat down on a stump. She said it was 'Good day already,' (it was 10am). I continued, 'Now that we've said hi to each other, let's move on with the inquisition. Am I not allowed to rummage around my own damn yard?'

She wasn't even taken aback, just demanded I tell her exactly what I'm doing, I told her to guess. She guessed I'm trying to pick out wall materials. I explained I'm just trying to make that pile go away from my front yard, and sorting out everything that I could use.

She then informed me this pile wasn't the original part of the ruins, but the ex owner brought it over from his house and left it in the front yard like it was a trash landfall location.

This almost pissed me off but I liked the bathroom tiles I found so I shall not complain. Some weren't completely broken.

I was sure once I have a place to live and some land, I wasn't going to be able to work or earn money, so I accumulated stuff I figured would be necessary for this situation. Out of context it looked like a work of a lunatic.

I gathered hundreds, and I'm not downplaying, hundreds of jars. I wouldn't get rid of them, I packed them in every move. The plant lady kept telling me I could get jars anywhere and they're trash. They're just keeping up space. Well. Look who needs 200 jars now and has an entire house to store them in. Me. I am the jar queen. Jars mean food storage in winter.

I also kept gathering clothing, even stuff that wasn't fitting, if it was a natural fabric. I did this to use as a fabric resource to sew my own clothing after I wear out all of my stuff. As a result I have enough fabric to feel clothing safe for life! I don't have to buy anything anymore.

I kept accumulating those weird store commercial newspapers because I felt they would be good for starting fires, in case I needed to cook on fire. Now I have enough of fire-starting material not to worry about it.

I also researched compost toilets and read about how they function, enough to immediately be able to set one up, and not to have to worry about a house with no bathroom. I researched purifying water, even though this didn't end up being so critical; neighbours let me have drinking water and there's a spring 30 minutes away.

Learning to grow and store food was also for this. I knew if I managed to gain this skill, I could survive on land alone. Then I also learned to cook from scratch and to can food for winter.

I learned foraging and bits of herbalism for this too; I hadn't been able to use these skills massively yet because everything is so dry and crisp, there aren't many edible plants I can find and want to use. I did find chickweed after weeks of looking.

Learning to weave and make baskets was also for this; collecting berries, vegetables and foraged goods works better when they're held in something firm and airy that doesn't smush them together like a plastic bag would. And baskets can be so pretty and they're free if you know how to make!

Fiber crafts was also for this, it makes living more cozy.

Learning to sew was already so helpful, I was making bags, blankets, tablecloths, underwear and period pants at first, to later be able to make full on shirts and jeans.

I did only a basic look into making things from clay and made maybe 5 little objects but it helped a lot to understand how to work wild clay and how it dries and takes shape, this experience proved invaluable in fixing walls.

I accumulated a few old curtains, hopeful I'd have a place to use them and now I do! I haven't washed them yet though. So. One day.

I did a lot of tests on how much seeds I can collect and store, what groceries get attacked by bugs and how to save them, in order to be able to keep a seed supply and a safe pantry.

I figured out how to use wild chestnuts as a fabric detergent! Someone actually came to my dms and just told me how to do that. It was a great day for me!

I read books on varieties of trees and started to learn the latin names of trees.

I was still worried I've missed something, and somehow I'd be facing challenges beyond of what I'd prepared for. What if the roof broke, or the walls, or the chimney exploded. I kept in mind that I can't research and be ready for absolutely everything. Some things will be new and I would research as I go. Nothing is so bad it doesn't have a solution.

This way of thinking helped me get through the rest. Opened walls and broken stove, I couldn't know about that. Bug eating furniture, who knew? I'm sure my entire house is infested but I'm being calm about it.

Due to all the dreaming and scheming, once I got here I immediately knew what to do. I looked at the yard and recognized most of the plants and guessed the quality of the soil. I could name most of the trees in the forests. I knew where to find clay for the walls and soft soil for the plants. I could set up a toilet. I already had some canned food ready. I knew how to live without a fridge. I knew where to plant zuchini and potatoes and have them grow sucessfully in a heat wave. I never had a minute where I didn't know what to do, I only decided on the order of things that needed to be done. I figured out how to build an outside stove and built it in two weeks.

I think I've learned plenty. I still don't know all the bugs and animals, names of all the birds, lizards, frogs, all the plants or all the soil types. I've never suceeded in fermenting. But I know enough to know what to do.

I was right in between them so I stopped them and suggested I could take it. I could use it for mulch, compost, and toilet. The neighbour immediately agreed. Tomorrow I can come and get as much sawdust as I want!

I didn't sleep well that night. It's been raining through the night, and it was hot in the morning, making the air pressure unbearable.

The first red flag that day was that Artemis was gone. I was worried this would happen. The day before, I found out there was mold under the linoleum in the same room, and I lifted it up to air it out as much as possible. I wouldn't fault her to not want to be in a moldy room. But I was scared I would accidentally step on her or hurt her. I couldn't find her anywhere.

I decided to go and look for mushrooms while everything is wet. I went for the biggest, most unexplored forest. I didn't stick to the path. I had a plan.

I knew the forests get wet much slower, due to all the trees shielding the ground. But I also figured if there's a wet side, it would be the northern side of the hills, where the sun wasn't reaching. So as soon as I saw an east-northern side, I wandered over there. I heard barking. I assumed it was dogs or deer. There's plenty of noises in the forest.

I only found one polypore, and couldn't recognize it. It smelled like a delicious wood mushroom, so I took a tiny piece just to smell it. I wanted to eat it so bad.

I kept wandering deeper into the forest, trying to recognize trees and do a visual sweep of the forest floor. I found trees I didn't know the names of. I climbed further up and down, following whatever sight I thought pretty. Hoping there would be another path back. The barking kept on going.

I was tall up a hill when it changed. Into howling. My heart dropped. Deer and dogs didn't sound like that. The neighbours said there was wolves but I didn't take that seriously. What if the wolves found me? I didn't have an plan of what to do. I heard crows then. For the first time that day.

I was just about to turn around and try to wander my way back, when I saw something that shouldn't have been there. Far through the trees, something white and rectangular. It couldn't have belonged to the forest.

I knew heading there would get me more lost, but I couldn't resist knowing. I headed for the white rectangle.

It was a bed. Placed under big, protective trees. It didn't look that abandoned. The mattress was adorned with a silk-looking sheet, patterned with flowers. It had a pillow. Beautiful metal vintage frame, the kind I wished I could have. Few empty bottles on the floor. I didn't touch them. I was scared.

I rushed back, hoping whatever slept in there didn't see me. At one point I thought I saw someone standing between the two trees, looking at me. When I looked again, it was gone.

I found my way back despite never finding the same path. I looked at my hand where I was still carrying the small piece of mushroom. It had turned black.

I had never felt like that in a forest, it was always relaxed and cozy to me. Something was in there.

When I opened the door to my house, Artemis was on the top of linoleum, greeting me by doing her horror-worthy stare as usual. The relief, I really could have stepped on her.

I'm still uncomfortable with what I saw. Probably wont go back there. I saw furniture in the forest before, but never a bed. And it was a good bed too.

So these are some peppers and a sunflower. Now, if you're a gardener, you'd know it's not a good time to be starting any of those. But hear me out!

Sunflower is from the test of 'Will the cereal seeds germinate' and it turned out, yes, and now it's growing, maybe it gets somewhere, we'll see.

The peppers, well.

When I was putting the sunflower seed to germinate, I thought to myself: Why wouldn't I try a pepper? You see I have heard that if you have a pepper plant in the fall, you can technically grow her in a container and keep her inside during winter so she doesn't die. I've never sucessfully done this, or seen anyone do it. But I never tried it in this house.

I think the reason these two grew so large is firstly, the soil is actually awesome here, I got hands on some fertile land. Second, these two and some potatoes are my whole garden, so I've been doting on them, watering them twice every day and fertilizing even the ground around them. If I had a big garden I don't think I would be able to allocate that many resources to two plants but as it is, these got my full attention. No opened flowers yet! It's a race now.

Anyway, the actual lighting of the fire isn't difficult, or even maintaining it; it's remembering that everything is hot. The entire pan, the metal door, the bricks, the lid, the whole stove, you can't be touching all that. Sometimes you can't even be putting fingers close because fire is escaping containment. So then you might panic and try to throw something in a pan from a distance and get burned by the hot oil. That isn't good either.

It is faster though. Water boils faster having the entire fire under it. Stir fry is done fast. When you count in the time you spent messing with the fire, it comes to about the same number.

The taste is incredible, especially if there's smoke, it adds a smokey aroma to everything. Not much effort required in making things taste nice, the fire has got you covered.

The downside is that all the pots and pans you use are now black and washing them isn't gonna do much good if they're going right back into the fire. Instead I have a spot in the kitchen with a piece of newspaper to put them on, so I don't blacken the entire place. If you touch your pots and pans, black fingers. You wash it off eventually. Things get blackened mysteriously when you don't think it was you, but nobody else lives here.

I think the reason these two grew so large is firstly, the soil is actually awesome here, I got hands on some fertile land. Second, these two and some potatoes are my whole garden, so I've been doting on them, watering them twice every day and fertilizing even the ground around them. If I had a big garden I don't think I would be able to allocate that many resources to two plants but as it is, these got my full attention. No opened flowers yet! It's a race now.