KW-49 Tony, Brunhilda, Marilyn

Tap dancing through the mud

Good morning, dear Pirates. Winter has officially begun, and on cue, temperatures have started to drop. Today is the first day that I made a fire before doing anything else. And then I stood around and waited for the kettle to boil, made myself a cup of tea, and realised that quite a lot of time had passed, and yet it was still Monday morning, and I have a newsletter to write.

It is chilly, and no mistake, but every day this week, I have been able to put out the solar panel to charge up the battery a little. At best, this little 400W portable solar panel was sticking out 240 watts. Which is pretty surprising for the start of winter. All goes to show, it’s the photons, not the heat in them! And next to that, wood for the fire. Also a daily routine.

I am going to have to interrupt my flow to go and feed the piggies, but let me tell you a quick story about that first.

I wrote a thing on Instagram about having enough food for humans (see below!), and this does seem to be the case. I did a quick stock take of potatoes and we have definitely had more in previous years, but we should be ok. We have enormous quantities of dried beans, and yesterday, I started off 10 litres of sauerkraut. If that doesn’t all constitute a balanced diet, then I don’t know what does. I also alluded briefly to the perma-problem of feeding piggies. A problem that right now is actually developing into a worry. And a neighbour from the next village turned up just a few hours later with two bags of horse museli for them! We are on excellent terms, but I haven’t spoken with this human in a while, and when they turned up with stocks, I nearly burst out in excessive emotion.

The lilacs. Trimmed and ready to burst forth in new growth next year. Does anyone know, can you eat lilac flowers?

~ Pig feeding interlude ~

Ahh, I am now back on the sofa, in front of the fire. And boy, does it make a difference coming in after pigs with the fire already on!

The pigs were so cute. Poor little fatties. They don’t mind the cold at all. They have plenty of straw (bought on tick.. oops!) and great fur coats. And really, quite a lot of fat. I was petting Marilyn the other day. She now comes almost up to my waist. Imagine a dog of that size. It’s a pretty big dog. But in contrast to a Great Dane, Marilyn’s belly almost touches the floor. These piggies have padding!

What they don’t like though, is uneven surfaces. Holding up all of this 200+ kilos of porker are four rather dainty little trotters, like they are wearing high heels. Coming out of their nice flat concrete, straw filled house into the frozen pock marked mud is not a thing they do with any confidence. It takes quite some encouragement. Well, except for Tony. He is either braver, or hungrier than his sisters, and fair barrels out of there.

Big Chief Eye Spy wants you to find: Kale, spinach, carrots, celery, savoy cabbage, winter cabbage, turnips, salsify and rapeseed.

And so, on to the week ahead.

I will be spending some time on the phone to the bank. I guess I never said why the pig feeding situation is quite so dire. The short of it is, my TV Licensing bill went a bit unpaid, and so they asked the bank to put a hold on my account until I cleared it. That is a thing here. While it was on hold, three more bills came in, none of which could be paid because my account was on hold. I believe this is what they call the debt trap, or spiralling debt or something. I believe the bills are now cleared, but more are coming. For the last 6 weeks, I have had no access to money.

It’s been quite nice being able to ignore all forms of commerce, but it’s been a bit of a problem as well. It should be sorted by this week and by about February, I should be able to buy margarine again. Yay!

Maybe this is a good time to hype up the Growing for Self Sufficiency courses we are going to be running here next year? Learn all the essential skills, and understand and master the gulf between a bit of backyard growing for pleasure or profit, and the entirely different growing for 12 months of the year.

Or the Collapse Laboratory? The premier, week-long event at the barracks. This year, stronger and more structured than ever before. Get your tickets now to avoid the rush!

Man, I am crap at sales.

Signing off then, slightly embarrassed

Love you all

Your Pirate Ben

xoxo