More of the things in the last week...
Went up to the folk's place in northwestern Wisconsin. 1 tank of gas exactly. Helped move a shed so there is room for a 2nd garage. A little target practice, not as much as I hoped for though. Made some home made pasta with my mother, she had never done that before. Lots of fun. Made a pasta drying rack for this as well - actually two, one for her, one for me. It's actually pretty easy to make pasta. She has a hand cranked unit she has never used. I brought up my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer attachments. No sense making work out of it when it's not needed. Helped dad lay the stone for the new fireplace. They had bought the place with a gas fireplace. That came out last week, a wood fireplace went in. They are different sizes. The chimney had to be modified to suite.
The folk's place is my bug out location - they just don't know it. I am spending time working the place so I keep my open invitation. It's on a decent fishing lake. Well & septic system. The old house burnt down the beginning of the year, so this one is paid for - make sure you have enough insurance! I mentioned the new solar tax credits. Maybe they will put aside some of the little remaining insurance money for later next year to at least install a little solar.
I picked up a K&N air filter for the trucklet. I can get up there on 1 tank of gas, but it would be on fumes. To close for comfort if I had to sit on the highway, or take a longer, alternate route up there. I got 25.37 mpg on my 2007 Escape 3 liter on the way back. 35k on the original air filter - needed to be changed. BADLY. Gonna see how the new air filter helps with millage. Will report back.
I went grocery shopping. Spent twice as much as I wanted to, but only a third of it was for food for this week. A third is long term, and the other third is for medium term - things like bread flour, as well as a few items for the 5 items challenge. Canned chicken. Gonna give it a try next week and report back. Some Coriander and a gallon of apple cider vinegar for my 2nd attempt at Biltong.
Rice and beans for lunch yesterday. I just can't get it to come out like they make it in South Florida. **sighs**
Yesterday, read about a local bank getting mailed envelopes containing an unknown white powder.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/1232667,3_1_EL21_A1CHASE_S1.articleDid a quick threat analysis. I am a little over a mile downwind. I have N95 masks in the apartment and in the glove box of the trucklet. I don't carry any in my laptop bag which doubles as a GHB. Trying to find a way to carry one without it getting crushed to uselessness, as well as be explainable if someone where to snoop without being seen as 'one of THOSE' people. I work a block from the apartment, so that may not be a big deal. Small office, only a half a dozen employees with school aged kids. Not too terribly many people from the outside in and out. The ones that do come and go would be strong vectors, about 5 delivery people, US mail, Fedex, Fedex Express, UPS, custom shipping.
My biggest worry is that though is that they got the first envelope on Monday, I heard about it on Tuesday. A day later. I was able to find an exact location, which nobody else had heard of that knew about it.
Today, I get home from work. No water. Damn.
Mental run through of the situation. My biggest concern is the lack of shower in the morning. I looked at the pile of dirty dishes in the sink, annoyed. Part of this pile is half a dozen empty juice and soda bottles waiting to be washed and or filled. Oohps. Good thing I got a bunch filled and stashed already as well as a couple of 6 gallon water containers. Water is good for 2 weeks.
Pizza for supper - no dishes.
Water came back on a few minutes later - guessing maintenance was winterizing the outside spigots and had to turn water off to the building to get the water to drain away from the outside.
I took a piece of Jack's advice. Started a company. Well, registered a domain name actually.
TheLocalFarmersMarket.com - the buddy of mine that was let go at work last week and I have been talking about something along this lines for about 6 months. Jack's show got me thinking, and I came up with the above name on the walk back from lunch at home.
Goal for the site is to be a resource for small growers to connect with their local customers. Offer free tutorials on how to make websites focused on local farmers for free to next to nothing. I also have a few years of Internet Marketing and web design experience, so I can sell my services to those who are willing and able to pay for it. That's where I make my coin. Spend a few hours getting them set up where they can take care of it from there. I make a quick buck, they get an affordable website. Do a monthly newsletter with ideas and updates on how they can do things.
I have secured hosting. I need to get that all set up yet. Been working on the content of the site. I figure I have this winter to get the site built out. Going to start marketing at the local farmers markets next spring.
Anybody know somebody in the Chicagoland area that would find a website for their farmers market schedule useful? I would be willing to barter my time helping them build a site this winter for some produce next summer. I would like a few sites for a portfolio and to kick off the word-of-mouth marketing.
