Beautiful outdoor space! Thank you for validating how strange and hard it is to keep doing every day things while our world is burning down around us. I still have a minor child so I’m trying to show her hope instead of the despair I feel. Things we are doing to inspire joy: planting fruit trees, playing with our dog, snuggling our cat, reading, creating art, and connecting with friends and our community.
During this insanity I actually can’t pay much attention to it. We moved our very elderly parents to be near us finally last September. They fought every step of it until it became so very dangerous that they were in the country without any help at age 83 and 86 with physical and mental disabilities. And then in January they both got Covid and declined greatly. My Dad is now in a nursing home and I’ve had to navigate the nightmare of applying for a Medicaid to pay for his care. Still waiting on approval. My Mom had a psychotic break and started have delusions and hallucinations. She’s oblivious that anything is wrong with her. My sanity has been saved by a new therapist and my garden and cats. Also, I started baking bread again.
LOL, so I haven’t started grinding my own wheat, but I did get a book from the library about it this week. I’m not adding that to my plate just yet but I’m curious about whether I want to in the future. Mostly I can’t afford a grain mill right now. I’ve been stocking up on flour when the good stuff goes on sale instead.
I had wanted once since the early 1990s, which I first read The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book. I could never raise the dough, haha. (Forgive me.)
I finally decided if I were ever going to do it, I should do it right now — before tariffs hit — because in a worst-case scenario I could always find a local farmer and buy a bushel of wheat directly. You know, in case things collapse. (Although I bought an electric model; I debated for years about whether I should get a hand-operated model).
I have that book! And from the same time period. Sadly I had a manual grinder back when Y2K was a thing. I “decluttered” it during a kitchen purge a few years ago. I didn’t regret doing that until I finally got a chance to start baking again in 2023. I finally got a good starter going and was learning sourdough and then the parent thing hit us and my so called spare time vanished.
I’m really looking at it again for the same reason you got one but also there are increasing crop failures of everything with climate chaos. Wheat berries save forever but milled flour does not.
I’ve been what they now call a prepper my whole life but I call it being frugal and having some common sense, which I learned from spending a lot of time with my grandparents who went through the Great Depression.
Your property is so pretty and inviting. It looks peaceful. That is my main goal...to guard my peace and try to not let the fascists steal it, like they are stealing everything else.
I stay off the internet a lot more than before; I stay outside too. Trying to make my backyard a staycation spot like you did, as going anywhere is expensive and unsafe. I live in a place that is overrun with crime. People are desperate and guns are plentiful. Our court system is a joke and criminals know it.
Oh yeah, I'm taking free art classes at our huge and awesome library too. It's fun and relaxing. I can't turn into a total hermit, lol🏺 📒📚
I’m fortunate to live in a low-crime area with cheap housing. There are downsides to living in a smaller town but we work with what we have. (I haven’t shared pics of all the undone projects inside, but there are many!)
Beautiful outdoor space! Thank you for validating how strange and hard it is to keep doing every day things while our world is burning down around us. I still have a minor child so I’m trying to show her hope instead of the despair I feel. Things we are doing to inspire joy: planting fruit trees, playing with our dog, snuggling our cat, reading, creating art, and connecting with friends and our community.
Those are all wonderful things. Yes, you have to offer as much as normalcy to your child as you can. Challenging, of course.
During this insanity I actually can’t pay much attention to it. We moved our very elderly parents to be near us finally last September. They fought every step of it until it became so very dangerous that they were in the country without any help at age 83 and 86 with physical and mental disabilities. And then in January they both got Covid and declined greatly. My Dad is now in a nursing home and I’ve had to navigate the nightmare of applying for a Medicaid to pay for his care. Still waiting on approval. My Mom had a psychotic break and started have delusions and hallucinations. She’s oblivious that anything is wrong with her. My sanity has been saved by a new therapist and my garden and cats. Also, I started baking bread again.
Oh, I’m so very sorry to hear you’re carrying such a load.
I can tell you I also find baking bread therapeutic; in fact I just started grinding my own wheat to make really fresh sourdough.
Try not to do that; you have enough on your plate.
LOL, so I haven’t started grinding my own wheat, but I did get a book from the library about it this week. I’m not adding that to my plate just yet but I’m curious about whether I want to in the future. Mostly I can’t afford a grain mill right now. I’ve been stocking up on flour when the good stuff goes on sale instead.
I had wanted once since the early 1990s, which I first read The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book. I could never raise the dough, haha. (Forgive me.)
I finally decided if I were ever going to do it, I should do it right now — before tariffs hit — because in a worst-case scenario I could always find a local farmer and buy a bushel of wheat directly. You know, in case things collapse. (Although I bought an electric model; I debated for years about whether I should get a hand-operated model).
I have that book! And from the same time period. Sadly I had a manual grinder back when Y2K was a thing. I “decluttered” it during a kitchen purge a few years ago. I didn’t regret doing that until I finally got a chance to start baking again in 2023. I finally got a good starter going and was learning sourdough and then the parent thing hit us and my so called spare time vanished.
I’m really looking at it again for the same reason you got one but also there are increasing crop failures of everything with climate chaos. Wheat berries save forever but milled flour does not.
I’ve been what they now call a prepper my whole life but I call it being frugal and having some common sense, which I learned from spending a lot of time with my grandparents who went through the Great Depression.
Your property is so pretty and inviting. It looks peaceful. That is my main goal...to guard my peace and try to not let the fascists steal it, like they are stealing everything else.
I stay off the internet a lot more than before; I stay outside too. Trying to make my backyard a staycation spot like you did, as going anywhere is expensive and unsafe. I live in a place that is overrun with crime. People are desperate and guns are plentiful. Our court system is a joke and criminals know it.
Oh yeah, I'm taking free art classes at our huge and awesome library too. It's fun and relaxing. I can't turn into a total hermit, lol🏺 📒📚
I’m fortunate to live in a low-crime area with cheap housing. There are downsides to living in a smaller town but we work with what we have. (I haven’t shared pics of all the undone projects inside, but there are many!)
I'm waiting for you to share more about the interior of your home, especially the boho touches. I bet there are a few🌞
I have an old piece about our kitchen project deep in the archives. We painted the floor blue and made some of the cabinets