Snow-pocolypse, & my bad!

I have had nothing to say.
Which is new for me. One of the reasons I write here (usually) every single day is because I want to share all the cool ass shit we can do while living sustainably, off grid, eco, primitive or whatevs label you enojoy giving it.
I havent been saying anything on here, because I have been in a sort of limbo that may not end till Spring time - when decisions must be made. I like to only write about good stuff, positive feelings, i like it to motivate, be happy --- none of which I could do the last few weeks in all the snow storms because everything I did to prepare here, kinda.... well.... started falling apart.
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The plumbing does something new every single day. I told ya'll about the filter-splosion in the cabin that flooded it, but there has also been intermitten times of no water, then water, then no water in the outside pump even, only water up the side of the mountain, then water again, then drain pipes freezing so i had to stop dripping water (aka no water again) - drain pipes de-frosting and coming apart, flooding the floor again, no running water?
I DONT fucking get it anymore?!!!
And i can tell you it's not sustainable water anymore (even though gravity fed) cause unless i put "heat tape" on the pipes (which uses bunches of electricity) they will stay frozen all winter long.
......
So i was talking on the phone with a friend who was ready for me to stop complaining and buck up - she said something to the effect "you wanted to be off grid" ---->
but these problems are not related to being Off Grid. They are problems of location, lack of immediate help, and did i mention NO SUNSHINE whatsoever during the winter months.
Yep, i found out the hard way that my cabin is between two ridges and during the winter the sun is behind a ridge and i get none. Even cutting back trees wont do enough good, and i would have to cut back hundreds of them, ones not even on my land.
My Mistake :::::::::::
not knowing the sun pattern before buying the Luck Cabin.
I thought it got enough sun, even though it doesnt get tons... i had no idea the winter would mean utter darkness. And the reason I have said nothing for quite a while now is because i have been sitting in my rocking chair in front the wood stove comtemplating whether I can spend the rest of my life half a year in darkness. This prospect, after all i have put into being here at the Luck Cabin, and it's utter perfection at all other times of the year make me feel heartbroken in a way there have been and still are no words for.
I don't know many or really any people who could live without sunshine half a year.
------ the other part of this, is just right down my driveway is another climate. I literally am just a few hundred feet from a warmer climate. My driveway marks some kind of elevation change, where the tempature drops a significant amount, and i got twice as much snow & cold as people just a lil' ways below me. Yesterday I took my Jimmy truck dangerously down the road, only to see that I really was in some kind of isolated world, one that had a storm much worse then those just hop, skips, and jumps away - and this was a bit of a shock.
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Two things I can NOT fix :::::::::::
the sun
the micro climate at the Luck Cabin
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For many weeks I could not put my finger on it, I could not put into words how i was feeling. I only knew I was getting no sunshine here and was feeling really depressed. I had no intention of ever revealing this dirty little secret, my big sustainability mistake.... but eventually i began crying (thanks PMS) and had to confess to the first person that rang my phone in the middle of the nervous breakdown.
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I think living this way alone is quite hard, but do-able. But if you choose to live off grid in a harsh winter climate alone, you are either brave, crazy or the uni-bomber!!! It's grueling. There is no question about it.
I now have a greater understanding of why re-wilders like Urban Scout are preaching community. Everything is much easier with a lil bit o' help. Especially in any climate that may have harsh storms during the winter.
*****
Western North Carolina used to not have this kind of weather, not the last ten years I have lived here until last winter. I hear from locals it's been over 20 years since they have seen storms like this. So although I am kicking myself, at the same time how was i to know about the micro-climate PLUS the strange climate changes?
What would you do, if you were me?
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Xoxoxoox

Hell Froze Over, A Snowball Has A Chance

When I woke up this morning I had this horrible vision in my head that my animals would all be dead and frozen despite all I have done to make this storm OK for them...
Maybe cause the other day when I drove to town for supplies I saw a horse somewhere in Leicester laying on the ground in a big field, appearing to be dead, after the last snow storm. And I thought, PLEASE gawd don't let that happen to JuJu Bean.
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The last ten years here in western north carolina had really been pleasant during the winter (on a hot sauce scale it was the bland, mild, without spices) - until last year's hell-a-cious snow frenzy. It seems this season has picked up right where last year left off it's white fluffy drama (on the hot sauce scale it's now spicy, tongue burning, tear jerking, nose running, red HOT).
Except, it's FrOcking cold.
So frigid in fact, the water i filled up in my tub INSIDE my cabin is now frozen solid.
The spring water for the animals to drink finally froze over too. A thick layer of ice formed which i crushed hard by kicking it in with my boots then lifted pieces up outta the way. Unfortunately, not much water was underneath, and I had to smoosh the pot into the cold mud to gather anything. I also had to smash/slam the hell out of the pot against a tree trunk to get the frozen water out. (A rebel yell or grunt makes it easier when swinging!)
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JuJu the donkey is now limping also. Which worries me, i kept scraping snow off the favored hoof and breathing warmth onto her ears. As I pushed my feet through a foot of snow back to the Luck Cabin I was thinking about tropical islands( yes, mmmmm), i was finally 'getting' why people are obsessive about moving to costa rica and some such places. I was longing for my hometown of New Orleans, if only for a lil warmth and sunshine. I was also thinking... building a sustainable place to live, all alone, in a frigid cold harsh winter'ed location is NOT a good idea. (Note to self: Dont ask if you made a mistake cause it's too late!) Too hard, unless you have a partner who is there to help each day and minute with the unforeseen trials and tribulations of this kind of lifestyle.
Until then I can go between laughing and crying when i fall down in the snow over and over, and beg all powers in the universe to spare my animals.
Not much is making me feel better....
but Billy Idol helps. Thanks BaBY JEzuz for keeping Our ELECtricty On! ;)


Xoxoxox

Screwed Blued and Tattoo'ed (or just snowed in again)

Terrible no good very bad SNOW STORM PREP ::::

• drove truck to state road that gets plowed and hiked back up a mile to the cabin
• filled the tub with water (pot by pot cause the water pipes under my cabin froze a week ago)
• fill pots and jars with water
• cook food ahead of time
• clean house, change cat litter, feed animals
• cleaned out composting toilet (frozen urine would be just TOO frOckin' much for me at this point!!!!)
• carried in STACKS of logs into the cabin and onto the porch
• hand washed comfort clothes and hung to dry above wood stove
• move all my bedding into my loft, where it's warm & I will be sleeping when it get down to -20 degrees
• charge up my crank lantern
• fall down in snow a bunch and not cry

And this is not even the beginning of what is to come...
the last storm never bothered to melt, my pipes under the house never defrosted (even though my gravity fed spring is still running just fine. It was supposed to rain today but instead of nice melty rain it snowed a few more inches. And well the icing on that snow cake is coming tonight and tomorrow thru the night.... feet of snow icing I am guessing.

What can i say? I dont like this part.... whatever this is a part of. But the feeling of accomplishing so much in one day to prepare for the worst feels damn good.

I need a girl scout uniform... but one that is long sleeve and made of alpaca wool, comes with matching wool gloves, hat, scarf, coat and leggings. With logo snow boots. Thanks Universe!

*****

BTW- I hope i don't lose power, internet or phone... but I dont know what is coming, and after last year I except the worst. Will miss ya'll if I do go M.I.A!!!! SMOOCHes!

XOxoxoxoxo

My Snow Freak Out and My Snow Luv...

It's been snowing for days. The first day was novel, not so cold I could see my own breath inside my cabin (yet), I crocheted, I hung out with Bort, I even went for a short drive down to the Trust Store (i have never driven in snow before, even though I have lived here for 10 years!)....
But dang it... 3 days and still snowing the temperature dropped, and dropped. Finally my spring water froze in spite of pipe dripping & obsessive precautions, the wind chills hit -15 degrees in my county, and I worried for my animals!
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I brought ms. Butterworth inside because she was the only chicken shivering and not mentally capable of seeking out water & things to fulfill her needs. She's very happy by the wood stove again...
When I went out this morning to check on everyone else, someone was missing and I noticed right away. Beep Beep the baby chicken. I freaked. Under pressure I stay quite calm, I don't lose my mind but I do get very upset and cry and when I called for Beep Beep for 10 mins and she never showed up I thought the worst. All the other chickens were staying warm in their coop and nesting boxes, Beep Beep was nowhere in sight. I kept seeing R.I.P BEEP BEEP in my head, like it had already been tattoo'ed distastefully to my shoulder. With all the snow, and her being mostly white I felt like I was looking for the impossible to try tramping around in the snow- it had piled up enough inches overnight to have buried a small chicken.
I was about to give up and was walking out the gate, when instincts had me slam it back shut and quickly walk through the wooded area in the fence, across the spring and into the trees. My eyes felt like animal eyes, the ones that spot things better then normal... and that is when I saw her... poor lil' Beep Beep sitting on a small tree branch, freezing cold all alone, out in the open.

I grabbed her and hugged her to keep her body warm, as she shivered. I brought her right to the barn for warmth, food and water - all of which she was frantic about getting. I had never seen frozen poop on a chicken's ass till this moment. That's how cold it was. Poop-cicles.

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JuJu the donkey is getting much more feed then normal so she can create more body heat.

She also wanted to send out a reminder:::

Do Not Eat Yellow Snow. It's Not Lemon Flavuh. ;)

THE BEAUTY OF IT ALL::::

The cold is painful to me. Maybe cause I am so small, maybe cause my DNA is that of cajuns who lived in the hot tropical swamps- never the less, I hate the cold but love the beauty, the way it re-sculpts the landscape.

Xoxoxooxxx

Epic Snow Storm

DAY 1The news had predicted about 8 inches the day before the storm. I knew that meant much more would fall, but I had no idea I would spend the next 5 days without any phone, internet, electric or an easy way out! It came down so fast, so blury, flurry and wet that it was leaving a tall coating of snow on everything. A specific kind of pile up, that weighs down trees and power lines. But it was sooooo pretty I was super happy and excited to see such a unique snow storm.
I noticed within the first few hours that trees and bamboo were leaning, cracking, and falling down to the ground. It had a creepy crushing feeling, just to watch everything be pushed, their tops now at their roots.When i hiked through the snow to check on the pig, we was happily eating some fluffy white to keep the entrance of his door clear. Sometime soon after the power in the house began to flicker and I rushed to prepare every flashlight, lantern, the one candle, cook food, fill pots with water, wash dishes, set up blankets, keep the wood stove fire going, crank up an electric heater...make a few calls, till everything went dark and the phone went to static in the middle of a conversation.
DAY 2
I woke up to the pure silence of no electricity. As quiet as my environment already is, this was something to adjust to - no running fridge, no internet, no IM blinging away, or typing keys, no radio (no music!), no ringing phone, no low hum of all that is electric. The ice castles that formed on every branch of every tree were something out of nature's magical imagination - like nothing I ever saw before. So sculptural and majestic, so cold and foreboding.
The snow was up to 18 inches in some spots - varying from my knee to mid thigh. Pushing through the wet snow took strength I did not realize- especially uphill! My muscles got very sore very quick! People in regions used to this much snow might think this is no big deal, but we don't usually get large amounts of snow, especially the kind that takes down so many power lines and fills up so many roads that people lost all contact with the world for days... some still don't have it. I spied an old phone line in the bamboo and it was so tangled in fallen stalks it looked like the heartbeat on a heart monitor! When I saw that, i knew it would be a while before things went back to normal.
The beauty was astounding. In the pic below, you can see the tiny brown spot under the roof of white snow - that is the house i live in!
I trudged my way all the way up into the orchard to see the stormy view....the snow was still coming down.

By the end of day 2 I decided the fridge and freezer food would need to be moved on ice - so I took an old washtub and filled it with snow. I placed it in the bathroom which was as cold as outside, but protected from animals. My idea ended up working great for storing fish, eggs, tofu and leftovers that i was cooking on the wood stove.
DAY 3
The drabness started to get to me, no sun, no way to call friends or family, the other person in the house with me was endlessly moody and stressing out --- i concentrated on cooking food on the woodstove, tending to the fire to stay warm, and began two activities : Reading books and hand writing a journal of the power outage. (Look forward to seeing it online in it's hand written form maybe tomorrow!)
This picture below is the driveway/road to the house. Bamboo had created an elaborate maze to jump under and over. No way in by vehicle and ya had to crawl out...until someone came with a chainsaw... then you just had to duck on your way out.
DAY 4
There still was no power or phone, but the sun came up and somehow that warmed my heart just enough! When I walked to the end of the road to use someone's cell phone plugged into a car charger, i knew things were gonna get better cause the FIRST SNOW PLOW came down the road and was clearing the snow and ice!!!
YAY for the snow plow man!!!!!!!!! This meant it was only a matter of time before the workers would come to Big Sandy Mush Valley and clear some of the mess... trees had been hanging off power lines and the area had been virtually untouched since the storm.
PLUS music played in the car, music was like magic to my ears. Pink Floyd no less..."we don't need no education"... so i got excited for a little while and took the dare to jump into the snow. (Did you know wet snow sticks to wool, then melts and makes your warmers wet?!!! it does!)
But this poor opossum on the road just broke my heart looking at him ( killed by the neighbor's dog most likely) pretty much sums up this week of snow hell. It's amazing what takes place when we lose our protection, whatever illusion or physical protection it is we have. Being vulnerable in a dependent modern world is no joke...I learned alot of good and hard lessons. The biggest of all lessons ***What Doesnt Bend Breaks***.
on DAY 5 during yesterday evening the power came back on!!! It turned off once after, but has been on ever since. Let's hope it stays on (in spite of the warnings from the radio it may go back off and they predicted snow on X-mas!!!) NO more snow pLEASe!

THINGS I USED TO SURVIVE:

• hand cranked LED lantern + No battery flashlight
  
• wood + woodstove (heat and cooking)
  
• snow 'cooler' for food
  
• humanure toilet system
• water stored in pots + water stored in hot water heater
• books and writing
• help from others

XoXo