One modification to the parameters I set up for this blog: I can write 15 minutes only on those workdays when I’m in the office. So you’ll probably not see any posts on weekends.

One aspect of homesteading is having to do lots of things for yourself that you used to pay others to do for you. It’s part of self-reliance. You feel great about learning to do things yourself, and you save money. Plus, the pool expands of things you know.

Sometimes you do pay in discomfort. Saturday it was about 33 degrees outside and a light rain was falling. I was out changing the oil and oil filters in my Jeep and Beautiful’s vehicle, a Ford Expedition large enough to haul everybody, and here I was under the cars on the wet ice, picking up the wrong wrench 17 times in a row. Changing oil is a messy job, and we put enough miles on our vehicles that we have to make sure to do it punctually. Next, to learn how to change the fuel filters. I don’t think that’s been done on our vehicles in a while.

Since we moved up here I’ve learned a lot. Using a chain saw well and splitting firewood accurately, like what’s-his-name in The Man from Snowy River (each stroke splits a piece, rather than making three or ten whacks before the wood breaks), I’ve been working on these for a while. Other things have come as we’ve built and progressed. I have a better idea about running a backhoe or felling a tree, but those take practice. Care and feeding of firearms is coming, thanks to a neighbor. I have my ham license and have purchased a radio (it’s in the budget, of course). Beautiful lets me make whole-wheat bread for the family (she says she’s a bread dud, though she cooks everything else like a dream). Electrical and plumbing I can do well enough to be dangerous. Gardening and animal husbandry we’re still working on. Live and learn. That’s life.