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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2getFXu:
It poured most of the day. For the record, I’m told, this area’s status was just changed from Category 0 Drought (meaning, abnormally dry, but not a drought) to Category 1 Drought (meaning, mild to moderate drought). (For comparison, parts of California are Category 4 Drought, meaning End Times Are Nigh.)
So. While it has felt like a rainy autumn, that’s just because autumn is supposed to be rainy here, and actually it’s been significantly less volume of rain than it ought to be, and the water tables are all suffering for it. It’s worse a little farther west, people’s wells are drying out.
For the record, I’m talking about New York State. And I know everyone thinks that New York is just the City, but as it happens, we’re not only the third most-populous state in the nation, we’re also one of the main agricultural powerhouses of the East Coast. The primary industry is dairy, but we are also fourth in the nation for grapes (behind only CA, WA, and OR) and pretty far up for apples.
My point is. It’s New York. We have a climate like every fictional Everywhere on TV, with four distinct seasons and plenty of rain and everyone has a big green lawn because that’s literally what happens if you just cut the brush back. This is a green place. If you look at the Ben and Jerry’s logo, the green hills and the blue sky, that’s this region (I’m currently about 12 miles from the place where Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts all intersect).
And we’re in a drought.
So like. Climate change, amirite? Anyway. (Personal ruminations behind the cut, mostly about my season of intermittent yurt living coming to a close.)
So, I’m going to take the yurt down for the winter this week. It was 25 degrees F the first night I was here, and that was fine, I slept great with the kero heater on all night. Last night, though, it was 34 degrees, and that’s too warm; I woke up at 1:30 am sweltering. It’s an 11,000 BTU heater, I should really have something smaller for this space.
But. For the record, I could probably overwinter in this thing, if I were determined, because I don’t live here, I just sleep here, and I can handle temperatures down to about 20 comfortably. It’s just that because the heater doesn’t turn down far enough, it’s the in-between temps, where it’s not reasonable not to heat the place but not cold enough to justify the heater, that make me suffer and also have gotten me super into blanket forts.
I’d buy something different, but I’ve been promised that next year they’ll run a power line out here. And I’d shrug and make plans for that not to happen, except that they moved the greenhouse and reoriented it, and the greenhouse is having power run to it, and given its new orientation the end of it is only like… 100ft from the yurt, and across a road, and there’s a tall pole holding the high-tension electric fence carrier wire already, so it would be incredibly actually trivial to just run another hundred feet of cable over to the yurt and give me a power outlet over here, and give them an outlet for power tools for repairing the equipment they park over next to the yurt all the time. (I’m surrounded by a manure spreader on one side, and a flail chopper on the other, and the disc attachment spent the summer right next to me too.)
So. Electric heater for next year, and electric fan, and maybe an electric blanket, and an electric lamp, and then i can charge my phone instead of the crazy shenanigans I’ve been doing of plugging my electronics in all over the place in the house and outbuildings. And it still will all be basically a single power strip, and I don’t plan on anything extravagant. But. Luxury!
Anyway. Taking the yurt down for the winter, since it can’t handle a snow load. And the lattice is buckling in a few places, it really needs an overhaul. I just got it insulated all nice… oh well. And I was going to do it today, and then it poured today. That was the elliptical point of this whole entry. (For my own accounting purposes, today instead of taking the yurt down I made a bunch of wreaths and then sister and I made the entire stock of this year’s potpourri, which is one of the things they sell to make up for the lack of fresh flowers, and definitely one of the things the previous lady never did any actual accounting about really. My innovation this year to improve sales was to offer the stuff for sale already packaged in a nice organza bag, as a sachet, instead of scooping it by weight into a Ziploc for you to take home and put into something. Same function, nicer presentation; I know I’d never buy a plastic baggie full of potpourri but I’d totally buy a sachet.)
I came out to the yurt tonight as soon as it stopped pouring. If the bed was wet (always a hazard) I’d go sleep inside, but it wasn’t, so I’m good. Going to run the kerosene heater all night to hopefully dry out the canvas. If only it would stop fucking raining. I may have to do the same tomorrow night and take it down Friday– I just didn’t want to, tomorrow’s the best shot I have at really having the time to do it.
(Turkey slaughter is Saturday. It’s going to be a long-ass hectic day, because they’re processing some birds for another person, which means we have to keep them separate AND package them up right away, same day, which is like– a lot of trouble, for sure. And so Friday’s setup day, and that’s time-consuming and exhausting. And it’s also harvest day, because there’s a vegetable share for the CSA customers for Thanksgiving too.)
Maybe tomorrow I should just get everything except the bed out, and then maybe sleep here one more time or maybe not. That’s probably the best plan– get every other bit of furniture out and packed and into storage. And if the canvas is dry, I’ll take the thing down, but if it’s not, I’ll sleep out here with the heat on one more time.
I don’t really want to take it down, but I want to set it up fresh, and I want it repaired and improved, so. Goodbye, sweet yurt, for now, and we’ll revisit you in probably April.
It poured most of the day. For the record, I’m told, this area’s status was just changed from Category 0 Drought (meaning, abnormally dry, but not a drought) to Category 1 Drought (meaning, mild to moderate drought). (For comparison, parts of California are Category 4 Drought, meaning End Times Are Nigh.)
So. While it has felt like a rainy autumn, that’s just because autumn is supposed to be rainy here, and actually it’s been significantly less volume of rain than it ought to be, and the water tables are all suffering for it. It’s worse a little farther west, people’s wells are drying out.
For the record, I’m talking about New York State. And I know everyone thinks that New York is just the City, but as it happens, we’re not only the third most-populous state in the nation, we’re also one of the main agricultural powerhouses of the East Coast. The primary industry is dairy, but we are also fourth in the nation for grapes (behind only CA, WA, and OR) and pretty far up for apples.
My point is. It’s New York. We have a climate like every fictional Everywhere on TV, with four distinct seasons and plenty of rain and everyone has a big green lawn because that’s literally what happens if you just cut the brush back. This is a green place. If you look at the Ben and Jerry’s logo, the green hills and the blue sky, that’s this region (I’m currently about 12 miles from the place where Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts all intersect).
And we’re in a drought.
So like. Climate change, amirite? Anyway. (Personal ruminations behind the cut, mostly about my season of intermittent yurt living coming to a close.)
So, I’m going to take the yurt down for the winter this week. It was 25 degrees F the first night I was here, and that was fine, I slept great with the kero heater on all night. Last night, though, it was 34 degrees, and that’s too warm; I woke up at 1:30 am sweltering. It’s an 11,000 BTU heater, I should really have something smaller for this space.
But. For the record, I could probably overwinter in this thing, if I were determined, because I don’t live here, I just sleep here, and I can handle temperatures down to about 20 comfortably. It’s just that because the heater doesn’t turn down far enough, it’s the in-between temps, where it’s not reasonable not to heat the place but not cold enough to justify the heater, that make me suffer and also have gotten me super into blanket forts.
I’d buy something different, but I’ve been promised that next year they’ll run a power line out here. And I’d shrug and make plans for that not to happen, except that they moved the greenhouse and reoriented it, and the greenhouse is having power run to it, and given its new orientation the end of it is only like… 100ft from the yurt, and across a road, and there’s a tall pole holding the high-tension electric fence carrier wire already, so it would be incredibly actually trivial to just run another hundred feet of cable over to the yurt and give me a power outlet over here, and give them an outlet for power tools for repairing the equipment they park over next to the yurt all the time. (I’m surrounded by a manure spreader on one side, and a flail chopper on the other, and the disc attachment spent the summer right next to me too.)
So. Electric heater for next year, and electric fan, and maybe an electric blanket, and an electric lamp, and then i can charge my phone instead of the crazy shenanigans I’ve been doing of plugging my electronics in all over the place in the house and outbuildings. And it still will all be basically a single power strip, and I don’t plan on anything extravagant. But. Luxury!
Anyway. Taking the yurt down for the winter, since it can’t handle a snow load. And the lattice is buckling in a few places, it really needs an overhaul. I just got it insulated all nice… oh well. And I was going to do it today, and then it poured today. That was the elliptical point of this whole entry. (For my own accounting purposes, today instead of taking the yurt down I made a bunch of wreaths and then sister and I made the entire stock of this year’s potpourri, which is one of the things they sell to make up for the lack of fresh flowers, and definitely one of the things the previous lady never did any actual accounting about really. My innovation this year to improve sales was to offer the stuff for sale already packaged in a nice organza bag, as a sachet, instead of scooping it by weight into a Ziploc for you to take home and put into something. Same function, nicer presentation; I know I’d never buy a plastic baggie full of potpourri but I’d totally buy a sachet.)
I came out to the yurt tonight as soon as it stopped pouring. If the bed was wet (always a hazard) I’d go sleep inside, but it wasn’t, so I’m good. Going to run the kerosene heater all night to hopefully dry out the canvas. If only it would stop fucking raining. I may have to do the same tomorrow night and take it down Friday– I just didn’t want to, tomorrow’s the best shot I have at really having the time to do it.
(Turkey slaughter is Saturday. It’s going to be a long-ass hectic day, because they’re processing some birds for another person, which means we have to keep them separate AND package them up right away, same day, which is like– a lot of trouble, for sure. And so Friday’s setup day, and that’s time-consuming and exhausting. And it’s also harvest day, because there’s a vegetable share for the CSA customers for Thanksgiving too.)
Maybe tomorrow I should just get everything except the bed out, and then maybe sleep here one more time or maybe not. That’s probably the best plan– get every other bit of furniture out and packed and into storage. And if the canvas is dry, I’ll take the thing down, but if it’s not, I’ll sleep out here with the heat on one more time.
I don’t really want to take it down, but I want to set it up fresh, and I want it repaired and improved, so. Goodbye, sweet yurt, for now, and we’ll revisit you in probably April.
