Come in, Come in.. shake off the snow and I will hang your coat up by the extra heater so it will be nice and dry by the time you head back out.

I can put the kettle on if you want tea but I have hot coffee ready for you, it’s a bit strong today, I need it to help wake up today..

Ya, I am moving a little slow today, I am sore, between the extra work by the storm, the extra work on the physio and then yesterday, the storm and bitter cold lifted but we ended up with an ice blockage and the rain found a way in and I spent way to much time removing water..

Its fine, the hubby stopped at the hardware store and got the patch for it, and the gentleman said, we are not the only one, I had friends on Facebook that had the same thing happen.

I am looking at it this way, while It made for a long day and I am sore today, better to find out now and fix it on this coming cold snap, then find out about it in the spring melt and have days or weeks of the issue before we can do the required repair work.

I am just glad that they have the right product for the job, it makes things so much easier when you can buy the right item brand new and carefully follow the directions, rather than winging it and then having to deal with it a year or two later when the “fix” breaks down.

Been there, Done that.. learned the hard way.. don’t trust it! Just pay the money to get it done right with the right product!

There was so much happening this week that went on my little note to talk about this week on the rambles around the table. I have the new Canadian food guide, a number of things happening world-wide, including prepping happening in UK due to worries, The China/Canadian brouhaha that is happening at the moment, the insane heat wave happening in AUS at the moment (I am so sorry that you are in the middle of this very hard heat wave!)

But the truth is… my mind is just not there..  out of all the posts I write each week, Friday Rambles around the table is one of my favorites to write but it also takes the most of out me.. Both of those are positives..

I am just tired today.. So I am going to keep today’s really simple and soft..  Hubby update, he is finished his physio for this time, I am so proud of him, he is doing his routine faithfully at least five or more days a week, and it really shows. His back has healed up really well and I am truly amazed to say that he has no knee pain.

There is a part of me that wants to just go “WHAT” I mean he has been talking about knee pain for years and I mean since I meet him. So the fact that a matter of weeks of care and the correct treatment has removed his knee pain is both a “WOW!” and at the same time, it makes me a little sad that we never got treatment for him soon..

I am starting my treatment now, I am not sure I will have as easy of a time as J, one because we are dealing with more damage done over many years in different ways than him but I am game to try.  So far, it just hurts lol.  It hurts to do it, it hurts afterwards and I wake up hurting..  I feel like I “woke” something up if that makes sense and its going.. dude.. Hey.. DUDE!!!!!  LOL..

The second thing that changed a bit is that I have stopped waiting for sales at the store and I am just setting $100 per pay-day to the side to stock up the pantry. I normally wait for good sales and then buy things by the case..

Its been months and in some case’s year plus since some of the things that were on sale have been and while my storage pantry has been doing its job, it’s not been getting restocked at the same rate as normal.

So I am switching gears.. I am adapting to the new norm and I am going back to what we tend to tell people to do when they are stocking up with limited funds.. if you use it, always buy the one for use and buy one or two more at the same time for the pantry.

I added to this, I also am starting to add in things that have great storage ability when done right but that I can see as open to issues to climate change issues in coming 4 years.

Examples of this is dried Coco.. It’s not been on sale in forever and I normally keep a couple tins of it in the house however my reading seems to show that this crop will be effected, it’s also one of the GMO gene changing plants coming down the pipeline and as you know in Canada, they do not need to tell you if they have made the switch..

Given this information, I have taken to adding in one more tub per shopping trip.. it add’s in ten dollars but it gives me two to three months worth of baking chocolate, I can use it for cooking, I can use it to make chocolate ice cream for hubby, I can make a sauce to be used for hot chocolate and more.  I want to keep working on this one till I have X years put away.

Like everything, if you don’t use it.. don’t stock it.. there is just no point.. if you do use it and its something that will store well.. why not..

Nuts are on my mind as well but they are not as easy to store.. peanuts can be grown here but they don’t produce much.. I think I will need to plant out a few new nut tree’s here on the farm, hazel nuts and heart nuts are the ones of choice for our zone and for our preferred tastes.

Anyone put the smaller Hazelnut tree’s into permaculture guilds on berms before? and if so, how did they do? I think I will do some in more traditional style but I also into the new hedge rows.

Its funny that they talk about eating nuts as a replacement for different kinds of meat protein (including egg) without seeming to be aware of the crazy amount of water required in some of the world biggest nut producing areas.

One more thing to work on bringing the production of into a local way and ideally a 0 mile backyard way..

Well that’s it for me today folks..  Here is a kitten playing with plants to lift your spirits 🙂