Seconds to breathe

Prepping for the trip still in odd moments at work. It's going to take a bunch of prepping.

o Talked to the abattoir, I can pick up either around 5pm the day of (fresh) or 2-3pm the day after (frozen). Neither of those really allows me to drive home across full daylight. Processing what I'll do.

o Keeping an eye on the weather. Snow is supposed to hit afternoon/evening of "the day after" (so maybe I should load the fresh birds up in coolers with ice and try driving straight home? But it's a 4 hour drive, and I'll have done the 4 hour drive in at 5am that morning, but I'll maybe avoid snow?)

o Updated BCAA/roadside auto insurance, just in case

o Got grain last night, need to offload a bunch of it still, which means...

o Need to cut and power wash a couple more grain barrels (and need to powerwash carriers and coolers)

o Still researching possible places to stay, there's a nice place (The Creamery Inn) in a small town nearby, but that isn't close to restaurants. There's also a treehouse place in that small town that would be fun if Tucker was coming along. Hotels in the bigger town are an option. Keeping an eye on budget, of course, this will cost me a couple hundred in gas and more than that in butchers' fees.

o Got snow tires put on.

o Slowly acclimatizing the ducks to eating in the goose shed, so I can put them in there Wed night, close the door, and get them in the carriers on Thurs so I can leave at 5am Friday.

o It would be great to get the mat off the truck bed and wash under it.

o I definitely need to put the top on the truck, which I haven't done singlehandedly before. It's several hundred pounds and very awkward, I think I have a system that involves scootching it along 2x4s. I should probably find someone who can be a safety check-in after I do that. I guess that'll happen Wed evening, since I need to unload tires and grain tonight.

o I need to choose which geese are going, I have three selected but need to select the other couple.

o Also need to pull my breeder ducks.

o Need to get lumber and other odds and ends under cover suddenly, since it's supposed to snow and if it sticks then everything is there forever/until May or June.

o Really should cover straw.

o Need to pack, including birth control pills and pads since this of course will be happening over my period.

o Need to make sure the truck has emergency supplies if I need to sleep in it, patch a tire, etc.

o Need to figure out how to get both full carriers and coolers into the truck, this is a lot of items that take up space. Tetrisy.

o Need to load the animals up on food/water on Thurs night.

o I'm tired.

Problematic

So my internet out here has been a wireless hub that runs off cell signal. It worked pretty well in the beginning, but it's pretty awful now - I stopped doing youtube videos in part because I can't upload them at all anymore, and now I'm beginning to lose video quality. I'm paying $100 for this, and the company that provides it has no interest in assisting.

Much as I dislike Elon Musk's whole thing, and much as I wish the government had gotten in on this, the only other options I have are getting a landline and dialup ($75 or so) or starlink ($140 plus the unmanageable startup cost). I could try getting a cell booster (same cost as the starlink startup equipment but for a much slower and less sure outcome).

I need to pay down a couple thousand dollars of feed debt from the animals, so I don't really have the ability to take on an extra $40 plus the nearly a thousand to get the unit right now.

I may just... go into work instead of working from home for awhile and get rid of home internet, with an eye towards maybe doing starlink once the feed is paid off. There's a touch of data on my phone.

I've been chewing on this one awhile but it's really coming to a head lately. My work stuff still runs, barely, but I don't know for how much longer. I'm pretty upset about the whole situation - the gov is paying companies a whole bunch of money to run fibre down along the southern highway but it isn't coming up here. My understanding is our cell tower is degrading and no one is interesting in maintaining it, which is why it's getting worse out here.

Bah. Infrastructure is so bad out here. Capital investments, but no taste for maintenance. They're putting in a new hospital but they can't staff the one we have, they keep closing the emergency room down from lack of staff.

At very least, the current internet situation is not a disincentive for moving off-grid.