Brrrr.... difficult to write tonight. It's turned very cold & I'm glad the boys brought in firewood this morning. We were due for another cold snap & having our expeditionary force take a night off was, in retrospect, perfectly timed. They would have found going out tonight a real challenge. I'm not sure they would have been able to dress properly for this; not easily. They would have needed warm clothing for the lighter work, yet the ability to shed a few layers when they were pulling sleds full of items.


I spoke to both Anne & Drew a few times today - MT let me off the sofa to do that much! That & use the chamber pot. Drew is quite pleased with what they've obtained & hidden away so far. He was able to get most of the items he wanted at the feed & supply store & either bring them home or hide them away. They were careful to disguise the hidden items as carefully as possible, using downed branches & snow. These things will have to be removed fairly soon though & we're praying we don't get a thaw. That would both render our 'stash' visible & make is much harder to get it home. Boy, I wish we had some sort of silent vehicle! In terms of food items, that was a little more mixed in terms of results. Much of the "easy" food was already gone. By 'easy food' I'm referring to those items which people can prepare easily - canned soups, stews & instant food. We had hoped to get some of these sorts of items, to use on very busy days. They did get some, but not as much as they would have liked.

They did find lots of rice, pasta & flour. Rice especially I was glad to hear about. We'd not be able to grow it & even if we could, I wouldn't know where to start to cultivate the stuff. Somehow, I have trouble imagining myself standing ankle deep in water & stooping over little green shoots. I'll miss rice, if things don't get "fixed" quickly enough for us to be able to buy more when we run out. The same can be said for many spices & seasonings. Imagine dressing for turkey without sage, yet I'm not sure we could grow sage here - perhaps indoors. I can see I have a lot of reading to do this winter; just on gardening alone.

Perhaps MT is right; I can be just as useful researching all this sort of stuff from books I've bought over the years & the mountains of material Andy downloaded when we still had power. The more time passes, the more I'm beginning to realise how much we're going to have to do on our own. It's more than a bit daunting to think of all we must prepare to do by spring, by planting season. It's making the prospect of moving to Drew's both more attractive, (more land & more people with knowledge), but also a little more worrying - all that work! Well, regardless of wether or not we move to Drew's the work awaits us.

We need to determine how much food we need to grow, to hunt to sustain us all over at least one year & two would be even better. I'd like two for a couple of reasons. We may not need that much, but no one can tell us that for sure. If we end up with too much, it gives us trade goods to use to barter for other items & services. Anne is insisting the next trip concentrate on medical supplies & devices, drugs & other such stuff. She's had time to make up some pretty detailed lists & told Drew that between her skills as a nurse & having such items in our possession, she figures we have, or can have... quite an advantage.

I was so pleased to get the chance to speak with her, even if it did burn a lot of battery power. She assured me her ankle is mending & she's expecting to make a full recovery within a week or so. She'll be careful for a time after that; she tells me that's the most likely time to re-injure the affected area & perhaps cause even more harm. Right - another thing for us to read up on & learn. better first aid & the ability to assess injuries & illness.

While I'm thinking along those lines; things we have to bone up on over the next several months, I'll include such things as animal husbandry - the kids have chickens in hand, but I know nothing about cattle, other than what comes out of which end. Yes Drew is a life long farmer, but what if something should happen to him - or Noreen. As the military does, I think we should all train in at least one speciality, then 'cross train' in at least two others. It's a bit scary to think of all we need to learn & how quickly we need to learn it.

And that's just basic family survival stuff. We still have three, no four children to educate. Annette thank goodness is at the age where we just have to make sure her inquiries go in the right directions & she can check with any of the adults. The younger ones; well that won't be so tough. Basic skills can easily be learned in the context of family work as opposed to family lessons; rather like it was done in the 'old days'.

Between all the adults, we have a fairly extensive set of skills & knowledge to pass on to the children. I teach & have more than a passing interest in history - all aspects of history. Anne is a very skilled nurse, a gardener & this would be a great time for her to revive her interest in astronomy. We used to spend a lot of time star gazing & she can still name more constellations than I can even see. Sam understands people well & how they interact. He's also fascinated by government, how it's constituted, how it all works. Maxine always was a good writer, in my opinion, is superb with food preparation & a good planner. Andy is into mechanical stuff, both making & fixing it. We share that interest & between the two of us & Drew, we can teach all four kids basic shop skills & probably go well beyond that. Drew & Noreen are experts in animal husbandry & large scale gardening or farming. I was surprised to learn Drew is a talented artist, doing both water colors & pencil sketches - we can't neglect the arts. Several of the adults play instruments & a few can sing. Me; I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but Anne & Andy more than compensate. Cindy, when she's not so frightened, has a heck of a good sense of humor & a quirky approach to problem solving that sometimes bears excellent results - more often than not actually.

Yup, skills we have aplenty. What I think is lacking right now is the habit of thinking in such terms as we are being made to think in. Ouch - rotten grammar for sure, but readers will, I think, understand what I mean. At least, what I THINK I mean. In spite of years of preparation, of planning for the worst, I find I'm not entirely prepared to mentally 'give up' the idea that help will, somehow, come from outside. Oh I know, my brain tells me that "outside" consists of conditions no better than here; cities under siege, towns barely hanging on, little pockets of people doing the best they can to avoid falling ill. Everyone is concerned with their own health & safety, not to mention that of their families.

I can almost picture that, on a map of the United States; a big blank canvas starred with little points of light, each representing small groups of people desperately hanging on until spring and/or... until the Outbreak begins to wane. We're probably all worried about the same things; getting enough food, avoiding illness, wondering how others are doing. We're wondering about family & friends far from us, those we've not been able to hear from for weeks now. In some parts of the country, many may be alive & well. Other people must be starting to feel very much alone. I wonder how they're coping with that? Some I suspect, are not coping well at all. It's bad enough with our family; I think we've all suffered moments of feeling really alone, even amidst those who love us, as we contemplate the next challenges which will lie ahead. People who are truly alone, with no family or friends near by, perhaps no one left alive for miles must at times feel truly destitute.

I've always been a sociable type, not a social butterfly by any means, but love the give & take of a good conversation, friends sharing & exploring ideas, proposing solutions to old problems & trying to come up with truly new ways of looking at things. I suppose this is the ultimate situation in which to propose & try out new ideas. Trouble is, what it took to get to that point is not what anyone sane could have wished for. And... I'm not too sure anyone will be prepared to begin to address these areas of speculation for quite some time yet. As is usual, practicalities will necessarily intrude. The little things, (Being sarcastic here), such as feeding oneself, digging latrines & other 'fun' facts of life. I suspect because of these concerns, initial discussions among remaining groups of people will focus more on the pragmatic than the ideal. That may not be such a bad thing, although I'd hate to see ideals get pitched out the window.

Yes, there will much to think about in the days, weeks & months ahead; for all of us as individuals, families & communities. Only then can we begin to reconstitute on a higher level & frankly, I can see ways in which delaying that procedure may be more than a bit useful. Our governments have been runaway trains these last several decades, slowly, then not so slowly eroding personal freedoms & to a large extent, the concept of personal responsibility. We're now being thrown into the pit of personal responsibility with precious little preparation for many of us, but it's truly sink or swim time.

But now, it seems as though I am being 'sent to bed'. MT is standing there frowning at me & pointing to her watch. She's right; it's almost eleven & I've promised to be in bed at sensible times for the next week or two. It's that or they swear they'll find a way to chain me to the sofa!