Wind Storm- Flying Buildings and Blueberry Jam

54°, light rain, breezy

“I’m tired of these storms! There never used to be so many!” Proclaimed my climate change denying neighbor when I mentioned another storm arriving Sunday.

Last week we had a bit of a storm. And one I wasn’t quite expecting. Tuesday night, I woke up on hearing a bang and a “CLUCK”. I thought maybe a tree in the woods had fallen, as they sometimes do, but the CLUCK is what got me out of bed to investigate in the strangely warm, howling wind. A CLUCK was bad news. It meant something could be scaring the hens.

I didn’t have to go far to see the entire of the chicken run had made its way a good distance from where it had started. Somehow making it over the young cherry tree without harming it, and up against my little fence where it got caught, mercifully, or else it might have damaged my camper.

But not only this. The shed that houses the chickens in the night had decided to take a jump and a tumble an impressive, but luckily not nearly as far, trek in the yard, landing on its backside.

The chickens were loose, and scared. I tried to catch them but that was only stressing them more and they are faster than I.

I could only hope that they would survive the rest of the night. I wanted to put them somewhere safe, had I been able to catch them.

The morning came, and they were alive and accounted for. We assessed the damage. There were a few panels and a door on the greenhouse blown off also but this was the extent of the chaos on the property as far as I know. I haven’t gone into the woods since the storm to see if things have changed.

That day was very busy for me. I had a mission- canning blueberries. I was asked to clear out one of the freezers in Gary’s basement so they could order 100 lbs of ground beef and have a place to store it.

So I hauled out of storage my canning pots and doodads and got to work making lots and lots of jam. Gary said he had a lot of pectin in his pantry once the pectin I had ran out. But I should have just gone to the store to get more. Gary’s pectin was old and so some of the jam is actually syrup.

This is a good reason why when prepping it’s good to actually practice skills, and to rotate supplies, not just acquire stuff just in case. My pod didn’t know that old pectin is useless but I used it as a demonstration to them. To show them I just wasn’t blowing hot air. I don’t mind the “syrup” for my pancakes in this last few jars I processed.

They have canning equipment, not counting mine, that they have never used, not once. I worry about how these “preppers” will actually do if something happens. In my opinion preppers are full of hot air. Homesteaders are more likely to survive. They actually DO the skills on the daily basis that would lead to survival for the long term.

Now, that jam making and canning took a good portion of the day up. I used Gary’s kitchen for the task. No way could I have done so in mine. And after a bit of lunch, a few of us managed to lift and carry the chicken run and the shed back in place.

Now this is where I find being here beneficial to my survival. I don’t have the physical ability to do a lot of this stuff on my own. And with help I could. I then foraged for some t-posts that had been abandoned on the property next door (don’t worry, we had permission, it’s not theft) and I brought them over and banged them into the ground around the chicken run to anchor it better. I did this part on my own. The others having decided they were done helping and went back inside to do whatever it is they do in their own homes.

I was pretty useless the next couple days because my body hurt- my previously broken wrist, and basically all my upper body was aching so. My disability sucks, at times. It doesn’t take much to set the pain off the charts for a few days. And this is also why I want to make sure I grow pain relieving plants in the herbal garden as well. For some of us it will be necessary.

Now, I have a few days of work, and will be canning some more berries on Monday or Tuesday again. I want to try to get plastic up and over the greenhouse to make it more useable as I need to be starting onions very soon so I need to prepare for that.