lights out

Note: Since I started this post, we got hit with another nor'easter in the form of snow. Thankfully, we didn't lose power and were plowed out by the end of the day.

I had been procrastinating on a few post ideas, when post-worthy events dropped into my lap. My friends on the east coast, you've noticed some unpleasant weather lately? Like high winds and tons of rain in the form of a nor'easter? It was hard to miss in New England.

At first, I just worried about our MacGyver'ed dryer vent in the basement window. (My father-in-law did make us a Plexiglass window with a louvered vent in it for us to install at some point, but we hadn't gotten to it yet). I noticed the drywall was starting to wet through, and also that the window wasn't entirely air or water tight, so I rushed through two loads of laundry and then took some precautions.

I'd like to ask the person who wired our house if he was even aware that our state has electrical codes. 

On the bright side, my concerns about the dryer vent got the laundry washed and dried before I started noticing some brown-outs. Ok, clearly it's the wind, because utility companies in New England still haven't discovered underground power lines. I was in the basement with the kids around 3:30 when the lights flickered three times, then went out.

Okay. Let's go upstairs. I texted Mr. Husband and suggested that he bring some dinner home, just in case the power wasn't back by dinner time. I led/dragged the kids through a decade of the rosary partly to pray for the restoration of our power, and partly to have something to do since our playroom was pitch-black. We read through some books in the waning daylight (I may have cursed the early sunset of the northeast to myself), played "camping," lit some candles, gathered a few flashlights, and started telling stories as we waited and waited for Mr. Husband to come home.

By some miracle, a pizzeria and a convenience store on the way home had power, so once Mr. Husband navigated three detours due to downed trees, he came bearing pizza, wine, chocolate, batteries for the flashlights, and ice for the refrigerator. God bless this man.

We were surprised to wake up to no power, but got the kids breakfast (after catching them with the refrigerator doors wiiiiide open and administering a scolding), and Mr. Husband went out in search of a Dunkin Donuts with power. We took three second showers with the remaining hot water in the tank, and Mr. Husband decided that he could still get a few house projects done without electricity. I went out for more ice and gas while he worked.

I married up.

I'd planned to attend the funeral service for a friend's mother, so I headed out to the church two towns over, took three detours around down trees, and arrived to discover that though the church was holding the service, they were also without heat or power. After the service I saw I had 8 or so texts from Mr. Husband informing me that it was too cold in the house to stay there with the kids, and that he, the kids, and all of the meat from our freezer, would meet me on the way to his parents'. Once we'd thawed out and had a hot meal, we decided we couldn't face another night without heat.

The next morning, after hot coffee, Mass, and breakfast, we headed back home to find no power, and most houses on our (hilly) side of the street using pumps borrowed from the fire department to drain their basements. After checking our basement for water (none except a weird drain thing by our bulkhead, which I'd covered with a towel to keep cold air out anyways), we decided to run some errands, then come home to either stay if the power was back, or pack for another night at the in-laws' if it wasn't. We were delighted to come home again to no internet, but a warm house, running fridge, and lots of blinking clocks.

Snug little cuddlebugs at home again.

Many thanks to all the utility workers and tree specialists who worked overtime for days and nights. Many thanks to God that we had neighboring towns still on the grid where we could get gas and buy ice and coffee, and a place to warm up during our 48 hours without power. Many thanks to the internet for being out for an extra day and reminded me how little I need it.

But seriously, we're getting a generator once any store within 50 miles gets one back in stock.

seven quick takes

1. Miss A turned 3 last weekend! All she wanted was a Minnie cake...for her present, for her birthday dinner, and for dessert. We did give her actual presents, and she was a good sport about my chamber music concert falling on the same day. I can't believe my house is now devoid of babies and toddlers. It seems only yesterday that my day was a marathon of feedings and diaper changes.

My cake decorating philosophy is "know your limits."

2. The east coast has been blessed with a few lovely patches of warm weather. Unfortunately for us, it's either been so wet and windy, or I've had so many errands that we've spent less time outside than when it was just snowy. Goal for today: making the kids go outside, even if the time spend bundling up is equivalent to the time spent playing.

3. To get myself out of the winter doldrums, I'm planning my first-ever real vegetable garden for this summer. We finally have the space to start a decent number of seeds without worrying about the kids accidentally spilling everything. So far we have an odd mix of herbs and vegetables in potting soil, since I bought my seeds on clearance at the Job Lot last fall. #cheapskatesgonnacheap

4. Speaking of winter again, few things remind me more of the lack of forethought and planning than our barely-functional mudroom and the multiplication of outerwear items store in it this time of year. It's roughly 3' x 6', with more of the useful wall space taken up by a window, two inward-opening doors, plus another door to the kitchen.

My attempt at a 360º-ish tour.

The walls are too soft for wall anchors or 3M hooks, there is mold on the baseboards, one of the door frames is rotting, and I'm afraid to mop the stick-on vinyl tile because it's starting to peel off. Furthermore, there is no insulation in the walls or floors, except for a lone paper towel I found stuffed in the wall while hanging a row of pegs.

This means that snowy gloves, hats, and boots do not dry in our mudroom, but rather become stiff and frozen. At least I managed to find a single stud under the window for hanging said pegs.

5. On that DIY thread, thanks to some generous family members who sent us Home Depot gift cards for Christmas, we are starting to build our tool arsenal past basic hand tools and electric drills. I'm one part excited and one part terrified that I'll lose a finger.

I have big plans for all of the scrap lumber the sellers left in the basement.

6. It's becoming more apparent to me than ever that my youngest was somehow born without any sense of self-preservation. Her first instinct upon entering any room is to find the highest surface she can climb, and then climb and jump off of it. I was hoping putting my kids in swimming lessons would help them be safer around water...nope. After Miss A strolled down the steps and went over her head once, it didn't deter her from trying again and again. God bless our ever-patient swimming instructor.

7. On Instagram, I pledged to join a "practice every day and gram about it!" with other followers of @wholeparenting this past Tuesday. How many days so far have I practiced the repertoire for my symphony concert in two weeks? Zero. Eek. I guess I'd better slow down my wild goose hunt for free pianos on Craigslist and pick up the fiddle for an hour or four.

This page is going to kill me. Especially if I have to read off of someone else's copy without my fingerings again.

or

Flesch called. He wants his arpeggios back.

Linking up with Kelly.

crunch crunch

Quite by accident, I've been sliding down the slippery slope into being some kind of homesteader.

It started, likely, with my childhood love of crafts. I learned sewing, knitting, crocheting, beading, quilting, loom knitting, moccasin-making...if there was a kit for it, I probably tried it.

In college, I learned to knit socks. When you make your own socks. you don't want to throw them away when they get their first hole, so you start learning how to darn holes. I was also on a very strict student budget, so I cleaned almost exclusively with baking soda and vinegar. After that, I always made my own cleaners. I've never quite stopped being cheap frugal.

Pre-Instant Pot yogurt making on the stove. Warning: this may require effort.

After I got married, I started making my own chicken broth. You see, before I had children I was on a kick to make lots of things from scratch, like bread, granola, and yogurt (the latter two in the crockpot, because that was before the fancy Instant Pot entered onto the scene). Some of that went away for a while when my son was born, but later came back. Some I never really did again after having children. It's a lot cheaper and easier to buy our sandwich bread at Market Basket.

The trifecta: pressure canner heating up jars, stockpot heating up broth, and Instant Pot making dinner.

When you make your own chicken broth and cook family-sized meals, you either need to dedicate a lot of freezer space to the broth--even if you cook it down to gelatinous, concentrated stock--or learn how to pressure can. So I started pressure canning my broths, which was a slippery slope to preserving food through jam-making and fermentation and sourdough starter babies.

With the quantity of broth we were going through, I started religiously freezing vegetable scraps and bones so that the broth was far cheaper to make. Meanwhile, I was growing cherry tomatoes and herbs in pots every summer and buying bagged compost. So, I eventually decided to stop throwing away perfectly good coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable scraps, and eggshells, and make my own compost. At the apartment, I used an old plastic storage tub with holes drilled on all sides outside (we did have a yard, but I wanted something closed to keep curious children and animals out) and added lots of shredded junk mail since we didn't have much in the way of yard waste. I collected compostables in a washed-out yogurt container, but eventually upgraded to a 2-gallon bucket when we moved and the trip out to the compost bin got longer.

Fancy.

Our outdoor compost bin is now five wooden pallets (four sides and a top) held together with zip ties. It cost me about $3 in zip ties and whatever amount of gas it took to make three trips to and from the nursery ten minutes away (which was getting rid of the pallets). Despite the freezing temperatures we had in the last two months, I can see the materials breaking down when I get around to turning the pile. As I said, I've never stopped being cheap frugal.

My crunch cred regarding cloth diapers has already been addressed, although I'll confess that we use disposable pull-ups at night now that both kids are potty-trained. Does homeschooling count?

What's next? I'm excited to start a larger vegetable and herb garden next summer, now that we have a large yard. I may risk starting some of our plants from seeds, now that we have older children and enough living space that they probably won't inadvertently kill the seedlings. I'm not sure if our town bylaws allow chickens, but since we live on a small dead-end street I would rather stay on my neighbors' good graces anyways.