Hook. Fish hook?

This is another small opening for Threshold. I'm having a couple people over for Thanksgiving, one up from Van, one from PG, and one (intermittently) from town. I am considering inviting one more friend from town who might not fit in as well.

It's kind of spontaneous so I have zero plans. My one friend (huh, their names all start with K) is celiac, my other makes fabulous doughnuts, and the third is a honey person. We are all pretty crafty in various ways and I think they will be an excellent fit with each other (I suspect having a couple folks up will be easier on my socialization energy than just one?).

Like, it's thanksgiving, we should eat something. I have a ton of lard that needs rendering so we could deep fry a bunch of stuff. I have some pork and I should probably thaw a goose. I have a lot of squash and a bunch of potatoes and carrots and eggs and spices. Maybe doukhabour borscht will be made, which would be one of the best things ever? One person has a doukhabour heritage.

Also it would be nice to have a little fire, it's still very dry here so a big fire is probably out. We may make shampoo or soap. We may mess around in the yard. I may kill a couple roosters and make chicken soup? We may groom seeds. We may just talk a bunch. I expect food, sewing, and alchemical-type hobbies will be on the list of topics, as well as maybe "not living in the city" and social organization. We shall see. I think it will be fun.

I am not sure yet whether I'll sleep on the (catted) cot in The Room (the pantry) or on the couch downstairs. Unless someone wants to sleep snuggled with animals in a warm room, in which case they can sleep on the couch downstairs.

I am trying to excavate my house from Josh's visit before folks get here.

I am feeling the lack of rocking chair in my livingroom.

I should also probably have an informal open house for American Thanksgiving.

I may be planning to have a pagan gathering next solstice. That feels weird because now I'm again not 100% sure if I'll be here (more on that in another post) but in a lot of ways it doesn't matter. I'll be somewhere good.

Planning things now is weird, because the level of memory that used to hold those details in my head (which holiday/time of year, who I'm planning to invite, general set of people, how many people, general activities, general food style, which parts of the property I'll use, what needs to be done before then) just doesn't exist anymore. I can't retain any one of those details for more than a couple seconds, let alone a couple next to each other to make the pattern of the visit. I probably need to start a spreadsheet, which feels... weird.

Away

There's a 160 acre place near town. It's off-grid, tucked up against the mountains with it front to the broad valley full of hayfields. There's a roughly 1.5-2km driveway to get there, accessed from the driveway of the house below, which is basically on the road. This drive goes through woods, pops out into a field, pierces into woods again, and then opens into the little clearing in which the house and its 5 outbuildings sit. It's tidily kept, despite the fact that its inhabitants are dead and its current owner lives abroad.

Rumour is, it has a pretty good push-button generator/solar system that the gentleman who lived there made for his wife.

Rumour is, it has gravity fed water.

It's certainly beautifully quiet, remote in a cozy secluded way rather than a frightening way.

It's not currently on the market but when I mentioned having too many neighbours to my friend, she said she thought it may be looking for another owner.

There's a barn and a chicken coop for sure. I've only driven up the driveway and left but the people at the bottom of the driveway, who care for it, may be willing to show me around.

I don't think one can get a mortgage for an off-grid place.

I could bike to work from there, it's on the road to the dump so it avoids the problematic part of the highway I currently avoid navigating. It's 10km to work instead of 13 or so, but not all paved.

I'd said I don't want to do off-grid since it would be too much work, but right now my only grid umbilicus is the power line. My water comes from on-site, in the well (a mechanical powered system, not gravity fed). My sewage goes into my lagoon. My internet is wireless (I'd need starlink up there, I bet).

So it would be learning another electrical system. It would be paring back some electric use, ditching active hydroponics and maybe most grow lights, not sure how much a freezer draws in summer (I turn mine off in winter anyways).

Something something fencing.

Roughly 3 acres cleared and groomed currently, about what I use on Threshold.

SW slope at its back. Olie Creek (the map says) goes along the base of the hill behind it. It would be colder than here, shorter season by a little, I think.

Receiving slope on SBS dw 3, technically.

I could have people there without being watched. I could go outside without clothes and feel comfortable again, which I haven't since the neighbours across the way moved in.

I would not regret having planted the trees here if I moved.

I have no need to move. I can explore this slowly and gently and see what I think.

Visitor menu: thanksgiving 2022

Note a menu is a list of things to select from, not a to-do list to accomplish all of

Things to do:

Fire (consolidate brush, light fire, feed fire, haul stumps to sit on, poke fire, cook marshmallows over fire)

Talk.

Mushrooms (heat wax, drill holes, pound in dowels, cover with wax, must all be done in relatively quick succession)

Sauerkraut (cut cabbage and hot peppers and maybe root veg, salt cabbage etc, pack cabbage etc into crock)

Render lard (thaw fat a little, chop/grind fat, put fat into crock pots or oven)

Make soap (make recipe, mix lye, mix fats, heat fats, combine, pour into molds)

Harvest rose hips

Cover straw

Muck out barn (I suspect no one will want to do this)

Help me move the tailgate

Feed baby muscovies

Scritch pigs

Hunt for eggs

Check bucket hen for chicks

Organize carport

Split and/or stack wood

Kill and process roosters

Vanilla comparison

Squash comparison

Food:

Eggs (boiled, scrambled, frittata, custard, those steamed dashi ones, devilled (avocado instead of mayo?))

Potatoes (mashed, fried or roasted in lard or goose fat, lemon-greek, latkes, other)

Squash (roasted savory or sweet, soup, stuffed, honeyed)

Carrots (roasted, pickled, soup, candied, other)

Cabbage (fried, ethiopian with carrots, salad)

Pork (roast, pulled, in peach BBQ sauce, fried chops, ground as sauce for potatoes, ground as meatloaf or burgers, quick sausage, bacon)

Goose (breast rare, confit roast body)

Chicken (stewed with dumplings, soup)

Rice (topped with pork sauce, goose confit, sardines, mixed pickles, chili crisp, maggi, fried egg, and/or steamed or fried greens)

Breakfast hash with bacon or quick-sausage and an egg on top

Casseroles involving many of the above and hot peppers, bonito, kelp, berbere, lemon, many fermented bean things, canned tomatoes, mixed pickles, who really knows, I do have a lot of spices

Applesauce (grape, vanilla)

Meringues

Chocolate lava cakes

Smores

Optional, need to buy ingredients for:

Mega caesar salad, need romaine

Doukhabour borscht, Kris' recipe (oh shoot, there will be two Krisses)

More smores, need more g/f graham crackers

Something with fried mushrooms

Deep fried things, I need to get un-flour-contaminated corn starch or use my tapioca starch since my normal use corn starch is certainly contaminated with gluten. Squash tempura? I could make the dipping sauce easily

Prep:

Maybe I should pre-cook some potatoes to make a frittata fast and easy, or hash browns or whatever.

Get cream for Kelsey's coffee.

Get more milk.

Boil some eggs for snacks.