Hello Everyone!
A brief introduction: Hi I am Jacob.
TL;DR: There is no tl;dr because you should have more patience and attention span than a gnat on a high wind.
Apocalyptic Homesteading Day 105!
A Rusty Can Of Grass Seed, A New Tire On An Old Wagon, A Hacky Haircut & Planting Silage Corn
It is a bit overcast, windy and chilly outside this morning so I am just hanging out in the tent, drinking espresso and waiting for the sun to come out and the weather to turn fair. Having never spent a full cycle of the seasons changing here I do not know what to really expect as far as the timing of the changes goes but I am thinking that winter is pretty much over at this point aside from perhaps a few more random nights of freezing temperatures. Like I said the other week the wildlife is already becoming much more active, the breezes are warmer and the vegetation is beginning to turn green which (combined with the warmer weather) are all signs that winter is coming to an end here a solid two months before it does in the mountains. For my part I have been enjoying getting an early start on the outdoor season but hell I am still in motion from the previous year with no real plans for slowing down anytime soon.
Early in the day I hiked around the property with an old rusty coffee can filled with grass seed and spread them in a bunch of places that I had been wanting to get seeded before the springtime arrives in force. It actually took a few full cans of seeds to get everything seeded but I just ambled around taking my time and enjoying the warm weather spreading the seeds by hand without much fuss along the way. I did do my best to not over-seed things which tends to slow the spread of the Kentucky-31 (and its other variants) because of how root-bound it can become when done that way. Of course spreading things by hand does not make for the most 'uniform' of methods to begin with but alas lacking a seed spreader (and not wanting to fabricate one) it is the best that I can do. The important part of the entire equation with the grass is getting it established so that it can then spread itself and especially so in the bare and erosion prone areas.
Once I was done with all of that I switched gears and finally took the time to empty out the wagon of all the cut-off wire fencing pieces that I stored in there while building the new dog yard fence. The stuff was quite the mess to say the least but I eventually got it all sorted into a big double layered cardboard box and got the wagon freed up. A few weeks ago one of the landowners here got me a new rim and tire for the wagon so the next thing that I did was swap the bad tire (and bent rim) on the wagon out for the new one. All that I had to do was remove a single pin and washer, slide the old rim off and pop the new one on before installing the washer and pin again and voila the wagon has four functional tires again!
I was so excited to have use of the wagon again that I hauled it around the future horse pasture here and collected all the metal fencing parts left behind by the folks that had previously worked on its fence before my arrival here. I only used my small neodymium magnet on a stick to find all the metal pieces that I could and will more than likely go over the areas again with a larger rolling magnet later just to make sure that I got everything. I wound up also picking up some other random litter and by the time I was done I had a full wagon load which I immediately unloaded into the same box that I had stuffed the other fencing scraps into so that the wagon would be free again.
Shortly after I had moved here I broke a framed mirror that I have had for many years. I am unsure at how precisely it got broken but it had something to do with me shuffling stuff around and not paying close enough attention to what I was doing and breaking the damn thing out of negligence. Without that mirror I was at a loss for giving myself a haircut or trimming back my face hair and it was not until I went to clean it up (and stuff the broken pieces in the box with the fencing wire scraps) that I got a good look at myself in the largest remaining section of the busted mirror. I was looking like quite the wildman with my bushy beard and untrimmed head of hair so I spent some time rummaging through my storage and found my hair clippers. I saved the largest piece of the mirror and used some tape to cover the sharp edges and affix it to a thick piece of cardboard which effectively gave me a new mirror to work with so that I could give myself a much needed haircut... which I promptly did! My beard had been driving me a bit crazy anyway because with the warmer weather it just made for too damn much hair on my face (and neck) to keep me feeling cool and like I have said before I just get tired of having all that shit growing on my face all the time and have to do something about it.
Later in the day I retrieved one of my flower pots of corn cobs that I have been using the last few years to plant corn from and was happy to see that most of it is still in good shape for planting. I am rather surprised that the kernels are still looking so good beneath the cob husks and I wonder if that is in part due to it being a variety of silage corn. Whatever the reason I was super stoked and planted a few kernels in a flower pot before then hiking to a sunny area near the southern edge of the property and planting five or six rows of it in a small plot that I bordered with some sticks. It is still about a week or two too early for planting corn in this hardiness zone (Zone 9) but for whatever reason I have had good success in the past planting that particular strain of corn a bit earlier than recommended and I am thinking that I will most likely be planting a lot more of it over the coming days. Since my corn harvest last year was non-existent I am really hoping that I get a good crop this year so that I can at the very least have more seed stock to work with for next year. If it grows fast enough I may try for a second planting of it later in the season but from everything I was reading it does not do well here in the fall so most folks only grow it once during the growing season unlike in the mountains where two crops a year is often achievable.
Anyway, it was a rather long day and even with my back being sore I was able to get a bunch of light-duty work done without injuring myself further. It is still sore and all today but at least there are no longer any sharp pains which is always a good sign. Most likely after another day or two of 'taking it easy' it will be healed and I can get back to doing some more strenuous activities. Not taking the winter off has left me in awesome shape physically so I am sure that is playing a big part in my rapid recovery. Honestly I have been doing my best to lay on my back a lot, not push myself to do things that will further injure me, soaked in a hot bath a few times and done lots of stretching and those things seem to be working so hooray! I guess that it is natural to feel a bit stir crazy when injured to the point that it impedes me working at my full potential but all in all having to slow down a bit has probably been good for me especially since I tend to work my body rather hard. It has assuredly done my mind some good as well because I have spent a bunch of time just enjoying the wilderness and hanging out with the dogs the last few days which is something that I always find incredibly soothing.
Well, I should get to wrapping this up. The weather is still chilly and windy outside but I am thinking that I will have to decide to either bundle up and get to working in it... or take a nice long nap after I get this all edited and posted! I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
More about me: I have been doing property caretaking (land stewardship) for many years (decades) and live a rather simple life with my dogs doing what most folks would consider to be an 'alternative minimalist lifestyle' but what I often just think of as a low-impact lifestyle where I get to homestead and spend the majority of my time alone with my dogs in the woods doing projects in the warmer months and taking some downtime during the colder months.
Nearly four years ago I began sharing the adventures (misadventures) of my life via writing, videos, pictures and the occasional podcasts and although my intention was to simply share my life with some friends it undoubtedly grew into much more than that over the years and now I find myself doing what equates to a full-time job just 'sharing my life' which is not even all that glamorous or anything but hey folks seem to enjoy it so I just keep doing it!
The way that I look at it is that I give it all my best each day and while some stuff I write is better than others I think that for the most part I do a pretty good job at doing what I am doing which is simply 'sharing my life' as candidly as I possibly can and whatever folks get (or do not get) from it there is always the satisfaction of me doing what I set out to do... which is to simply share my life.
https://peakd.com/c/hive-114308/created
https://peakd.com/hive/@jacobpeacock/hive-survival-guide-sixth-edition
