Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Good morning to those in the south. I'm up at the new house. It was -9 degrees this morning when I woke up. I waited until it got up to +1 before going out to split firewood. Was down to shirt sleeves by the time I finished and it was a balmy +6. Currently 11. Thinking of going out for a walk. And there is 13" of snow on the ground. Loving this up north lifestyle.

BTW, 36 degrees and snow flurries last night (June 22, 2021) up at the new house. Ahhh, summer time in Michigan.

I like the cooler temps. I can always put on more clothes, yet they only will let me take off so much.

Well the temps have been pretty warm the last week or so. Upper 80s-low 90's. I spent Thurs-Mon over the holiday up at the house.

The good....
-The weather, it was dry all week.
-Had the relatives coming and going all weekend including one of my sons and his wife and my brother and his wife.
-Rode the ATV and mini bikes a lot
-My niece and her husband bought a house on a lake about 10 miles away so we spent one day at their lake house and on their boat.
-Her mother (my sister) and her husband bought a house in the same area (about 8 miles from me) and were moving in last week. Nice house and it's good to have family in the area.
-My brother brought up his new Taurus TX22 and we shot quite a bit on my range. It's fun to shoot with somebody. I'm used to being up there by myself.
-Got some trails cleared which allows better access to overgrown areas.
-The buckwheat is about 3 feet high. I swear it grew 2 feet in the last week I wasn't there.
-The house stayed cool without the AC on. I was kind of testing it to see how well insulated it was. As long as the doors and windows stayed closed we didn't need to even turn the AC on.

The bad
-It was dang hot outside. Like was said you can only take off so many clothes.
-The bugs (mosquitos, biting flies etc) were bad.
-Strained my back clearing trails i.e, cutting and moving logs, branches etc. Was pretty much done working the rest of the time up there.
-My wife couldn't come up since her 90+ y/o parents have declined in health recently and she's taking care of them, all day, every day until she can get them into a nursing home.

We are moving my mother into Assisted Living next week and we are also moving my wife's parents into Assisted Living (different places) next week or the week after as well. All three of them have declined in health in recent months (they are 94, 92 and 94 respectively) and need more help than we can give them. My mother and FIL both fell recently and spent some time in the hospital. Neither were seriously hurt but they can't live independently anymore.

That should free us up to go to the new house more often. I was up there 4 or 5 days a week last summer, been up there twice for a few days so far.

Sorry their health has declined. At that age they've seen a lot of history. Good to be able to enjoy the new house more though, you guys have earned it.

We got some bad news today. My father in law who has parkinsons and bladder cancer was checked out by the oncologist and the tumor has grown considerably and has spread to his lungs. He is losing weight like crazy, can no longer walk or stand. They're giving him about 2 weeks.