January 23, 2023

Wildlife, the Bad and the Good

I’m a little late writing this, sorry. Today I’m going to write about wildlife. I’ve had two experiences with wildlife in the last week or so that I want to tell you about, dear reader, one good, one bad.

First, the bad, to get it out of the way. I discovered that I have mice in the house. I’m not exactly surprised, as I’d discovered a couple of mice nesting in a shop vac the previous owner had left in the (detached, unsealed, completely uninsulated) garage. But I started noticing what I was pretty sure was mouse droppings under the sink in the kitchen, then I noticed a couple of kids treats that were gnawed open and eaten. One rice cripsy treat, one mini candy bar. Not like the kids snuck them and ate them, but like something with very small, very sharp teeth had opened them. So I took a quick trip to the nearest home improvement store and bought some Tom Cat bait stations.

January 15, 2023

Getting to know the place

As I mentioned last week, when you have all the possibilities of a new place, it’s hard to pause and look around before jumping into projects.

One thing I have going for me is that I still have a ton of unpacking and organizing to do, and this week I have my kids with me, so that keeps me from grabbing something simple from the fridge for dinner and spending all my time on projects.

January 8, 2023

New Homestead, where to start

As I mentioned in my re-introduction post last week, I just bought a house on five acres, and I’m busily thinking about how to turn it into a homestead. I know enough not to try to do everything at once, but I’m trying to decide what to prioritize, and what I’m thinking about long-term.

I’d like to have some small-scale livestock. There’s not a lot of open space, so I think chickens are a bad idea, at least at first, so I’m thinking quail and/or rabbits. In either case, I’d want to breed my own and have a self-sustaining population, as well as meat and possibly eggs. But that’s a big endeavor, so I’ll put it off for now and do the one thing I am already set up for: bees.

January 3, 2023

Starting from 'Scratch', Again

It’s been exactly a year since I last wrote anything of significance in this blog, and I didn’t actually publish that. In 2021, I had big goals of what to write, how to eventually monetize it as a side hustle, and how to track my move from happily married to suddenly divorced, and rebuilding with basically nothing. I was going to call the series “Starting from Scratch,” and while it’s about two years later than I expected, I’m going to write the series now.

February 21, 2021

Ham Radio as a life skill

I’ve been thinking of some other things to write about. One of the things I’ve been toying with lately is ham radio. Several years ago, I went and got my Technician license, and played around on the local repeaters and things, but then I decided I really wanted to get onto the HF bands. To do that I needed to upgrade the license, so I studied for the General and Extra exams and, miraculously, passed both. I only really expected to pass the General.

September 29, 2020

Back on the Keto Wagon

About a month before I started this blog, I ate a strict Keto diet and did Intermittent Fasting, and lost around 15 lbs in a few weeks. Then I went on a trip…

September 20, 2020

2020-09-19 Mentored Hunt After Action Report

Despite not bagging a deer, yesterday’s mentored hunt at Occoquan National Wildlife Refuge was a great learning experience for me. This post is a basic recap.

On Friday afternoon, Eddie from DWR called me to let me know that my mentor had missed a flight and wouldn’t be able to join me. As it turns out, we had another mentor who bowed out due to a COVID scare (I hope) as well, so it was left to myself and another mentee, Eric, to go it alone.

September 17, 2020

Cooking as a life skill

Cooking isn’t that exciting, I guess, but having been in a place of… I don’t know, subservience for a while, the idea that I can cook for myself, and it’s more than grill a steak or heat up a frozen dinner is liberating. I’m not super far into that journey yet, but even with the little things I’m already doing, I can see the joy that it will bring, and the sense of accomplishment.

September 12, 2020

My First Post

Nothing here, yet.