Cold and cold. Hopefully clear so that it gets a little warmer later. Yesterday didn’t get much warmer. It was 40s and 50sF all day and the breeze was bone chilling.
I did get a couple of things done. Got up at a reasonable time, for me, for a weekend. Did some cleanup. I cleaned a felt hat for me that I picked up a while ago. It’s been in my storage unit since then. Now I’m wearing it. It’s a soft felt packable fedora, with a wider brim than my other ones. Took some work to get the spots off of it but it looks good now. And I cleaned a pair of shoes for resale. Nice Prada driving moccasins. They’re too small for me but look nice after cleaning, reshaping, and conditioning.
Did some other home stuff then did my pickup. It was just down the road so it wasn’t a big commitment. I got three new galvanized steel buckets. Buckets are an important but undervalued prep, and plastic ones will break or degrade and then break. Long term prepping says “you better have some buckets that will last.”
Took a load from storage to the shop too. I’ve still got a lot of stuff in the unit. I made some more room in the shop with some more sorting and condensing, so maybe today I’ll get another load or two taken over. I should do some work on the patio or the driveway here too, but the cold makes it very painful to work outdoors.
No matter what else I do, I’ll find something on the list to chip away at.
Stack something. Learn something. Stay busy.
nick
Sunday. Good morning. 1 February already?
Today is Imbolc and Saint Brigid‘s Day. Along with glorious Saint Patrick, she is the co-patron saint of Ireland. Imbolc is an ancient feast that marks the beginning of the end of winter (I saw daffodils in bloom the other day!), and Christianity astutely associated the existing feast with Saint Brigid, in the same way that ancient midwinter festivities morphed into Christmas.
In Ireland, it is traditional to weave a cross for the house today out of rushes. I haven’t done that since I was a child, but the memory somehow popped up. Maybe I should find a damp spot in the woods and get some rushes. Other than in bogs and marshes, rushes like to grow in a substrate that has been compacted and therefore holds water, so they can often be found in places where vehicles passed through the woods, but are not coming and going regularly, like infrequently-used tracks.
Time to think about some breakfast… Have a good day.