Day in My Life at Home the Land Built

“What do you do all day?”  my friend Doug asked.

I stumbled a bit.  “Um….chores…eat good food….”.    What the heck do I do, I wondered.  So on Monday Jul 16, I actually documented my doings. 

6:08	Arise.  Check  house air temp 74F.  Close porch windows.  Turn off fan in yoga loft window.
6:10	Breakfast:   Granola and blueberries while re-reading Guns, Germs & Steel.
6:25	Clean cat litter.  Check solar battery capacity:  79%.   Not bad since we’re running 3 fans, 2 freezers and 2 fridges all night.
6:30	Do dishes
6:40	Tea on west porch.  Identify birds:  Robin, Cedar Waxwing, Bluebird, Orchard Oriole, Song Sparrow, Red-Winged Blackbird, Tree Swallow, Downy Woodpecker, House Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Goldfinch, Crow, Vulture, Goldfinch, Wren, Catbird, Barn Swallow
7:50	Call Dustin to deliver water.  (5400 gallon cistern dangerously low.  Rain harvest still not working!!!)
8:05	Put 1 gallon jug on east porch for sun tea
8:15	Sweep beetles off floor  (every day we get a few dozen more of these little brown jobs)
8:45	Dustin fills cistern from his milk truck with water from Plainview fire hydrant.
9:15	Empty two composting toilet buckets into compost heap.  Clean.  Dry and sterilize in sun.
9:30	2nd Breakfast:   bread and honey over Guns, Germs & Steel.
10:05	Fix string in yoga loft gong, a present from friends Doug and Monica.
10:30	Sun tea brown and warm.  Put tea bags into another jug to make more of sun tea.
10:45	Call RainHarvest company to try and solve rain harvest problem.  The Clean Rain Advance is supposed to divert the first 50 gallons away from the cistern (the dirtiest water).  Problem is all the water coming down the gutter is diverted away from the cistern.
11:00	Research Shade Cloth.  Right now the 2’ overhang keeps the sun from beaming through the south bank of windows.  In a month it will coming burning through.   Considering hanging shade cloth off the gutter.
12:30	Luncheon:  Fried egg, toast, tomato, garlic-aioli from Trout Caviar
12:50	Do dishes.  Check solar battery:  100%.   Wow!  Now the solar array is just loafing out there in the sun.
1:30	Ordered Shade Cloth.  70% sun block.  Enough to hang down 2’.
1:45	Scoop 3” of sawdust into composting toilet buckets.  Return to garage.  Check solar hot water tank.  150F.  Solar collector 283F.  House Air  80F.    Outside 95F.
2:00	Begin assignments for week two of Self Publishing Class through Loft Literary Center.  Wow!  Anybody can publish a book online or Print On Demand.  Discovered that volunteers, Linda and my friend Heather, are not my Proofreaders.  They are my Copyeditors.  Who knew?
3:00	Afternoon tea:  Bread.  Almond butter.  Honey.
3:30	Downloaded Gregg Reference Manual as “gift” for my Copyeditor.  Linda actually seemed excited.
4:45	Replaced full composting toilet bucket with empty bucket.
5:30	Began formatting my novel for Print On Demand using Amazon's CreateSpace.  Feeling like this thing might actually get done after 8 years.
6:30	Happy hour with Linda.  Mojito and chips on east porch.
8:30	Supper:  Linda made fennel slaw while I grilled corn on the cob and hot Italian sausage.
10:00	Kick back in recliner with good book:  Attracting Native Pollinators.
10:30	Open windows.  Start fan in yoga loft window.  Off to bed.