Living where and how we do, it’s important to have a partner you can rely on. James and I have been living this life style since 1996. The first twelve years we lived with out power, telephones or running water. Well that’s a lie, we did have a hand pump on our kitchen counter that delivered cold running water to the kitchen. So yes, we had a outhouse and outside shower.
It was then we became a great team, we did pretty well everything together. We worked together, cut firewood together and sawed lumber together. The only thing we didn’t do together was cook. I cooked…he ate. It’s still like that. When times were tough and one of us was hurt, the other one had to pick up the slack and get things done.
We have since moved to a less remote area but it still has its challenges. There is still 7 or 8 cords of firewood to gather each year, we are still trying to finish fixing up the old church we live in. Yards to keep up and let’s not forget about the bees. I don’t care what anyone says…bees require work, sometimes a lot of work. Thankfully the first year I got into bees, James slowly started taking an interest in them. So for his birthday in year two, he received his own bee jacket and gloves. He is more my helper when I need it. I still do the majority of the day to day work but he’s there to help build hive stands and assemble boxes and help pull honey. The bees are more use to me than him, so they remind him every so often who’s boss.
This summer was a difficult one. Probably one of the hardest yet. Of course we are 25 years older then we were when we started this journey, so that doesn’t help. It started with me hurting my knee, which turned out to be water on it. I kept going but it wasn’t fun. Then James fell getting out of a fishing boat and smashed up his hip big time, thankfully he didn’t break it. This was months ago and since then things have gotten worse. Now his sciatica is acting up and out of no where, carpal tunnel has reared its ugly face. The poor guy is not used to be down for the count. We have always called him the energizer bunny. Now he can hardly grab or pick up anything. Getting old is certainly not for sissy’s.
Slowly but surely we have managed to get everything that was on our list of things to get done before winter, done. The only thing left is the last of the firewood for 2022/23 winter. We don’t need much more, so hoping by spring we can finish that up. But we might still managed to get it done before too much snow sets in,,,but we will get it done.
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| James having fun at -30C |
Here it is December 28. Another year almost gone. Up to this past week, winter has been kind to us. But then -39C hit us hard. We knew it was coming so had time to prepare, but are we ever prepared for that? And when did -39 get so cold, burrr. I am pretty sure it wasn’t that cold 25 years ago.
Anyways, what’s knew for next year? Well first thing is…we are hoping the bees survive yet another winter in Dome. They got brand new winter coats this year so I am hoping they work. So if all the hives survive, we will be doing splits on all the strong ones. I would like to keep one more hive and have a total of six. As far as for us…. Getting the garden beds done, finish firewood and whatever else comes our way.
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| New winter coats |
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| After the big dump of snow a week ago |
