Acquiring Skills

Bedding plants in the south window

I didn't work on weeding the fenceline yesterday, as I had planned.  I looked at the weather app on my phone, and it said that the temperature was to get down to 35 degrees on Thursday night, which is pretty close to freezing.  So I knew I had to dig up and pot any outside bedding plants that I wanted to bring in for the winter.

I began this practice when we first moved back here about 7 years ago, and some winters would have bedding plants spilling from every south or west facing window in the house.  It can be as big or as small a project as you like.  It provides color and beauty through the winter, because many bedding plants we don't think of as house plants will bloom profusely and colorfully all winter.  And it also provides new bedding plants for next spring, because while the plants may need to be pinched back during winter to prevent becoming leggy, those cuttings can be rooted to make more plants. 

This year I only chose to keep a few:  3 different colors of impatiens, a geranium (the original plant was given to me by my daughter for Mother's Day many years ago), a red flowering plant I can't remember the name of, a lemon grass plant for making lemon grass tea (which is supposed to be helpful for cancer patients), and a pot of 3 old-fashioned petunias.  I left them all long and scraggly so they don't feel too much shock at being dug up and brought inside, but once I know they are adapting well I'll cut them back so they can put all their strength into developing good roots.

I also prepared my furnace and duct work for winter by removing the plastic bags I had taped over the floor ducts (to prevent dust and stuff from falling down in there all summer... no way to shut off the grates) and washing them off.  I put a new furnace filter in.  Then I took some rags and made them very wet. Almost dripping.  And laid them across the heat vents and turned the furnace on.  The first blast of air from the ducts will blow whatever dust is in the ducting onto the wet rags and capture it instead of blowing it all over the room.  

Then I swept all my floors.  My eyesight isn't very good, so there are some cleaning projects I'm blissfully ignorant of.  But I just assumed the floors needed a good sweep.

I believe it's a good idea to learn whatever skills we can, at any age.  We can get things out of our own head to experiment with or try something we see someone else doing or have read of someone doing.  

When I was a young woman living in Berlin in the mid-80s I read an article about people from some country (I won't attempt details because I'll get them wrong) who had, through government grooming, lost the ability to bake their own bread.  So they would stand in line for long periods of time just to get a loaf of bread.  I was amazed that none of them, apparently, would just get out of line and go home and bake their own bread, no matter how bad.  And just keep trying until they had it right.

I decided then to learn to bake as much of our baked goods as I could.  So I experimented for many years with various recipes and types of buns, loaves, muffins, etc., until I got good enough to satisfy myself on my ability to provide us with bread.  I've enjoyed baking all through the years and baked all our own sandwich bread until about a year ago.  

Many other things I've experimented with until I felt I was good enough to do it if I had to.  I didn't always continue on with doing all these things, as a survivalist might, but I knew that I could do them if necessary, and that was what mattered to me.  And I also have the knowledge and experience in my head to share with others who need those skills.  

Having the ability to do many strange 'frightening' things can give us the confidence to try other new things or to be ready to tackle unexpected emergencies around the homestead, instead of just folding up and mewing piteously like a little kitten when things go wrong... and things will go wrong.

Here at my homestead I currently have the happy combination of a propane water heater with a pilot light (read:  no electricity needed) and city water.  The city water was NOT my idea, but my late husband's.  I thought city water would cost us money, which it does, but it's very convenient for me, which is what he was concerned about at the time.  Because of my happy combination, when the power goes out around here, I can still do dishes and take a long hot bath.... by candlelight!  

We still have a well, it still has water, but it's disconnected from the house.  A well needs a well pump (read:  electricity needed, unless you're going to use buckets or an old pump operated by elbow  power).  Several winters ago our water company had a huge main break and we lost our water for more than a few hours.  I'm remembering 2 or 3 days.  We went and got a couple buckets and tied a rope around the handles.  We pushed the concrete cap off the top of the well and dropped the buckets down into the well (we have an old hand dug well lined with field stone) and hauled up several pails of water and lined them up on the front porch.  I had never done this before, but I saw it in the movies.  This was not that difficult.  I'll never have to wonder again if I can do this, because I know I can.

Don't be afraid of adversity... use it as an opportunity to equip yourself with new skills and the knowledge that you can still acquire new skills, no matter what age or state in life.

Blessings,

Katrinka

Inside of our well during drought of 2012.  This is a very low water level for this well.