January 24, 2012

     Many people move to the country out of a desire to be more self-sufficient.  Self-sufficiency in the country means more than just growing and canning your own vegetables, or raising your own animals for meat.  It means when things break down, there is no repairman to call.  You have to learn how to fix things on your own.  Or have family and neighbours close by who are handy.  That's helpful too.
     In just over 10 years in the Peace Country, I have learned more about water pumps than I would have thought there was to learn.  At the other house, we had a very poor well.  The previous owner had tried about three different wells.  The one in use when we moved in had rather grey water, left rusty stains on everything and had very low water pressure.  We had to "shock the well" (pour bleach in the well) more than once to kill the bacteria that cause the rust stains.  And I had to be very careful with my water usage.  If I did a load of laundry I had to wait for a couple of hours to have a shower or wash dishes.  If I didn't wait, the pressure would drop too low, switching the pump off and I would have to wait two or three hours or more before it built enough pressure for me to get it turn on again.
     One of the reasons we moved to this house was water.  Our water comes from a natural spring and now we have an abundant supply of excellent water.  We still have pump problems but we are becoming experts at diagnosing and repairing pump problems.  I know how to fix and replace the pressure switch, the pump and the pressure tank.  I know what to do when it freezes, and where it's most likely to freeze. Well, most of the time I know what to do, but sometimes it still surprises me.
     Last week we had a cold snap.  It dropped to -30 every night, with a windchill of -40 at the beginning of the week.  We've been having trouble with the water for a few weeks.  We changed various parts out, and couldn't find the problem.  Then the cold weather came.  Monday I had no water for the morning because the water froze.  Wednesday I had no water all day because the pump quit.  Thankfully the cousin down the road had another pump and helped put it in for me.  Then Thursday the water froze again.
      Being without water is very frustrating, especially with four kids in the house.  It means laundry and dishes have to wait longer to get done.  It makes everything difficult.  It makes me thankful for running water though! My water shortages are temporary.  I'm thankful that I don't have to haul jugs of water for miles, or wash my laundry in the river.  I'm thankful that I can get some jugs of water from the in-law's down the road, and still have a working sewer system to pour water in the sink and into the toilet for flushing.  I'm also thankful the temperature's back up again!

Jenn's Chocolate Cake

     This chocolate cake recipe comes from, and is named for, one of my college roommates.  The small town community college had dorm rooms, as well as townhouses for older students with families.  Four of us girls shared one of the fully furnished townhouses.  We had a nice big kitchen to share, our own washer and dryer and we each had our own bedroom.

     Remember college, when you'd just left home, and thought you knew everything?  Oh the things I would tell myself if I could.  Instead I will tell them to my children, who will roll their eyes and ignore my advice and learn their own lessons.

 Jenn's Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups flour  

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda                 Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.

1/2 teaspoon salt  

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water                                  Add all the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to

1 tablespoon vinegar                    combine.  Pour the cake batter in to an 8x8 or 9x9 pan and   

1 teaspoon vanilla                         bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

This makes a very nice, moist chocolate cake.  It doubles easily and it freezes well.   I like to use half whole wheat, half all-purpose flour.  And I often add rum flavouring because it adds richness and depth to the chocolate flavour.  This is a softer, crumblier cake, so it's not a good one to take out of the pan and decorate.  But it has no eggs or milk, and is a quick simple recipe.  It goes beautifully with homemade vanilla ice cream too!

     One of the things about living in the country, is functionality and practicality trump aesthetics.  Nobody worries very much about neighbourhood property values.  If an item is useful, it gets used.  No worries about what the neighbours will think of it, and no worries about what the neighbours have in their yard, unless their stuff/junk is cooler than what you have! 

So here's my new storage trailer!

      My husband works for a local company here, and when one of their truck trailers reached the end of it's working life this winter, we jumped at the chance to offer it a retirement home.  It is lined with sturdy wooden shelves, and has three separate compartments.  Can you see the door at the back?  That leads to what used to be the refrigerator and freezer compartments.  There is also a door out the right hand side, toward the back.
     All the gardening and yard tools will come out here, the electrical cords and garden hoses, the unused chicken feeders, and many more things.  The cats will have a home underneath the trailer, and the mower will have a winter home under the front section of the trailer.
     All the organizing of this new space will have to wait for another week however, as the temperature is unlikely to make it above -25 C this week, and I have a water system that doesn't want to work properly for me.

January 10, 2012

     It's new year, and time for some new beginnings.  I'm kind of excited to start a blog, and keep an online journal of life.  I love reading books and blogs, and hearing stories of people's lives, all around the world.  It amazes me how our individual circumstances can be so different, and yet our life experiences can be so similar.  So here is my story added to the mix.
     Shall we start with a weather report?  This morning is -6, but it will be dropping through the day to around -17.  We have not seen -17 since about mid-November, making this a rather unusual winter.  In fact yesterday's school buses were cancelled due to freezing rain, with the temperature hitting +4 in the afternoon.  All of December, and January up until today, remained very close to melting temperatures.  To compare to other years:  last year we had so much snow there were several days I could not get the van down the driveway.  The city had huge snow piles all over the place from clearing streets.  Two years ago, it dropped down to -40 at Christmas, and stayed there for the entire Christmas break.
     The mild temperatures have made for a much more enjoyable/bearable winter, but it does come with risks unusual for this time of year.  The warm temperatures have meant a lack of snow cover, and they have also come with high winds.  This means very dry conditions and fires in January.  And unless we get a lot of snow in the coming weeks, there will be great many fires come spring time.
     The kids spent most of Sunday afternoon outside enjoying the beautiful weather.  Their plan was to make a snowman, so they took 5 gallons pails all around the yard to gather enough snow together in one place to make their snowman.  It wasn't very big, but they got one made!