Prepping 101

Learning new skills

Yesterday, the kids were off school. In our area of New England, they get the day off on Election day. So do most teachers. This means that we were all at home yesterday, enjoying some well-deserved time together. We took down a couple of trees, bucked them, and brought them over for splitting. We loaded up wood for the house (there's our first winter storm on the way), and brought much of it inside. We had delicious food for each of our meals, and Halloween candy (and popcorn) for snacks. Voting took almost no time at all, and was a pleasant experience. All in all, it was a pretty good day. 

We also watched a movie together. We decided to watch The Day After Tomorrow with Dennis Quaid. I chose this movie because I wanted to see what the kids would think of the choices made by the various people in the story. We didn't watch the movie all the way through, but instead stopped at several points throughout, having discussions and answering the children's questions.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!

Our kids just turned seven last week. They're in first grade. They've grown up in a fairly middle class family with an interest in sustainable living, and with many loving and caring adults (and younger people) around them. They're also incredibly smart, and they've grown up being rewarded for thinking "outside the box." I wanted to see how they'd stack up against others in a survival situation, at least via talking points.

Cooking stew at the campsite

The first thing we discussed was "global warming," a theme throughout the movie. We talked about climate change versus global warming, and why we work with the former and not the latter in our family. We talked a bit about Hurricane (tropical storm, tropical depression) Sandy, and how scientists have said that the warmth of the water on the coast helped make the storm much larger than it might otherwise have been. We also explained that the movie was completely fictional, but that climate change is real and that Sandy and her storm surges and flooding was quite real as well.

I think that part of the lesson was over their heads a bit. Though they asked some good questions, I suspect much of what was said is going to be "in one ear and out the other" as they say. I don't blame them, considering that's also true for most adults.

When we began to see the storms rising in the movie, our girl flipped out. There were tourists taking photographs of the developing funnel and she was literally screaming, "That's a tornado, you dummies, get out of there!" We had to pause because she was so upset that people could be so stupid. Our boy, being autistic, was more constrained on the issue, but he also seemed upset that people would just stand there as a giant destructive thing started coming for them.

We talked, also, about whether it was safe to be in a car or house during a hurricane or other natural disaster. We asked the kids what they'd do if they were on their own for some reason, with no grown ups around, and saw (or heard) that a storm was on the way. Their answers were gratifying. Despite never being taught directly, they had picked up some pretty decent strategies.

Her first sewing project

The girl child immediately said that in some storms it was okay to be in a car, but that she'd rather be in the house. Both children said they'd head for the basement if they knew a hurricane or tornado was on the way, and that they'd go to the very back where the heavy brick walls are, and crouch there. They said they'd take flashlights, too. Since that was the most correct answer, I was extremely pleased.

Later in the movie, when the snow started falling, we paused again. Once we all had popcorn and drinks, we asked the children what the most important thing is in a winter storm. There was a bit of guidance involved, but they eventually got to the correct answer: shelter.

They listened to the climatologist explain the (pseudo)science behind the storm cells ravaging North America, and when some of the people decided to go out and try to walk in the snow (presumably to escape to somewhere warmer, although I've no idea where they thought they'd go on foot) they both gasped. We were told emphatically that it was stupid to leave perfectly good shelter with lots of burnable things in it (the characters were in a library). Yay, team kids!

Our boy, ready for anything

When we were all done with the movie, we sat together as a family and had a long discussion about what the most important things are in an emergency, and what that means to them personally. They've heard us talk about the Rule of Threes numerous times, and got to see it put into action during our talk.

The Rule of Threes states you can live for:

• three minutes without air
• three hours without shelter
• three days without water
• three weeks without food
• and three months without hope.

Major first aid is beyond our little ones,  but they have bandaids and such in their packs. Shelter is something we spent a lot of time on, because we wanted them to understand just what shelter is. Shelter is your car or house, or a tent, but it's also a bivy sack, a tarp held up with paracord, a log cabin, a lean-to made out of branches, warm clothing (both inner and outer), and much more. We covered everything from having extra socks to using space blankets. Since both kids have had the experience of sleeping in their daddy's bivy sack (and the boy did so in the middle of a rain storm where he was basically in a huge puddle in the bottom of the tent, and still quite warm and dry), they were able to use that experience to expand on the other things.

Water was the most interesting topic that we went over, in my opinion. Both kids came up with fantastic outside-the-box ideas for where to find water. The boy pointed out that the ice in the fridge and freezer can be melted and used for drinking water, something I admitted to him that I hadn't even thought of myself! Then our little princess, who wears pink and doesn't like to get dirty, sported a disgusted face and started to giggle. With a bit of coaxing (and assurances she wouldn't get in trouble), she noted that the toilet is full of water. Bingo! I could have hugged them both into little piles of love at that moment.

Canned summer harvest

Food they know way too much about, having been involved in the canning and drying and otherwise storing of our harvest and purchases. Hope, too, they're fine with. They know that books are precious friends, that board games and card games are a ton of fun, and that little projects like cross stitch and quilting and the like are also a lot of fun to engage in.

Our children passed the Prepping 101 test with flying colors. They understand the mentality of putting away food for lean times. They are very aware that home grown food tastes better. They know that we care for them, but we also expect them to care for themselves and be responsible children. They might give a bit of lip while sitting around the house (yeah, okay, sometimes a LOT of lip) but in an emergency they're pretty darn good.

In the process of our family day together, our kids learned valuable lessons. They taught us, too, that they're hearing a lot more of our talk than we thought. We found out that they not only have some pretty fantastic ideas, but that they're not bound by the standard thoughts held by most people (how many people do you know that would think to drink the water out of the back of the toilet in an emergency?).

I hope they never have to deal with an emergency like Sandy or Katrina. I hope they live their whole lives with nothing more upsetting than a lost election, and the usual sibling rivalry. I also am comfortable knowing that they are aware of what needs to be done if we're not that lucky.

What things do you teach your children about? Do they know what to do in an emergency? Are you willing to teach them some elements of preparing for emergencies of various kinds? Why or why not?

Learning at the Freehold

The girl shows off her corn

There is a lot to be said about the public school system here in our corner of New Hampshire. I've been incredibly pleased with it since we moved here last October. The twins have been truly challenged, have learned a lot, and yet have not been the least alienated from their peers. This speaks to me of good differentiation and good teaching habits.

However! Just because the kids are getting a great public school education doesn't mean they don't have stuff to learn at home. There's just so much for them to learn here. We may not be teaching the staid and solid original three - readin', writin' and 'rithmatic - but almost everything we do has something to do with one of those or a plethora of other subjects of great importance.

Reading is a daily habit in our home. Every one of us reads, and we read both for pleasure and for education. The kids have some fun books (high on the list right now are Captain Underpants, the Redwall series, and Harry Potter of course) and some books that are meant to challenge their reading abilities. They're well ahead of their peers, and we believe this is because we've pretty much read to them every day since they were born.

Writing is a new thing for our munchkins, but they've taken to it with gusto. One of their favorite things lately is to get online and open up IM and chat with one of the adults. At the moment their ability to type long messages is fairly low, but it gets better with each attempt. They also create little books and glue or tape or tie them together and give them as gifts (having already learned that books are always well received). They are working on handwriting, both printing and script.

Arithmetic is a subject they practice every day, several times a day. Whether they're eyeballing the size of something, estimating the amount of milk needed for their cup, or figuring out the fractions in slicing pizza, they are always using math.

Those are just the "school" subjects, though. Our kids are always out and about. They climb trees, allowing them to commune with nature. They find nests and discover hungry, blind baby birds. They help in the garden, learning both where their food comes from, and what is and isn't edible. They enjoy baking, wood working, music and dance, and hundreds of other subjects that we provide during our daily living.

They also learn how to teach. Watching the little miss in the above video, you can see how she enjoys sharing her knowledge with others. She wants everyone to understand the joy she finds in twirlie birds and maple trees. She is patient, and well spoken, and it makes me thoroughly proud.

How many opportunities do most children get to teach others? Few, if any. It's a shame, too, because numerous studies have told us that teaching is a great way to learn. If we'd just give our kids the opportunities and get out of their way, they'd soar to heights beyond our reckoning.

This is not meant to be a slam on the public school they're in, though. They are doing very well there, and have many friends. I'll admit, I'm proud that their friends tend to be the other "smart kids" in the school, but no matter who they're friends with, I'm still happy. You can see the girl in this last video dancing with her old Zumba teacher. We ran across them today, dancing in the local drugstore at the grand opening sale. She jumped right in, not the least bit self conscious that there were adults galore, all staring. She knew what to do, and did it with a zest for life that teaches me something new every single day.

What do your kids teach you?

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Thrive: Make Your Own Girls Tights!

Thrive: Make Your Own Girls Tights!:

'via Blog this'

Okay, how many of you have children that destroy the heels or feet or knees of their tights before they've outgrown them? I know our kid does that! Here's an amazing tutorial on how to turn cheap adult socks into wonderful tights for girls!

Winter Activities

There are lots of things to do during the winter that keep you occupied. Splitting wood for the fire, for instance, or shovelling snow (except we haven't gotten any!), or cooking. Now that the holiday rush is over, we've started to make some of our own food again rather than relying so heavily on store bought. One of the nice things that Gray has been making, is pasta! You can see the girl twin in the picture to the left, holding up a length of tomato linguine to show us. Gray made the dough, but she really enjoys helping with all stages of pasta creation. Her favorite part, though, is getting the pasta off the rollers and setting it off to dry.

Here's a little video of the girl and her dad, working away at spaghetti noodles. It's short (30 seconds) but cute. Please excuse the jerky camera; I used my cell phone and it isn't the greatest.

I will admit, we don't often have pasta stored away for future use. Gray makes it, and we immediately want to eat it, and end up boiling the water and cooking it right off. Even though he made a HUGE batch last night, we ended up eating all of it! One of these days, though...

Oh, and we found his ravioli plate! Sometime next week we'll be making stuffed raviolis... oh yum.

Like the Pioneers!

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away... Hm, no, wrong opening. A long time ago in the Big Woods... there we go.

Many years ago, our pioneer forefathers (and sisters and brothers and mothers) lived in log cabins on large farms, trying to stay alive in a subsistence style of living. It wasn't easy, or glorious, and it wasn't nearly as clean as the Little House series would have you think (books OR television). Cleanliness is next to Godliness, they used to say, and since one couldn't be like God they probably couldn't be clean, either.

Have you ever read the Little House description of bath night? I believe it happened once a week during school days, and it always happened on Saturday night so that you could be clean for Sunday morning church. They filled a single large tub (sometimes tin, sometimes wood) with hot water, which they boiled on the fire. First, Pa went. Then Ma went. Then everyone else, in order of age and seniority. Can you imagine what that bath water looked like (and felt like) by the time it was Baby Carrie's turn?

(Shudder)

I knew you could.

Right now, the house we're in has a damaged leech field for the septic tank. Over the winter, it meant we had to be somewhat careful about how often we flushed, ran water, and did laundry. Now that spring thaw is here, though, we discovered something wonderful (not): the water that melts into the ground where the leech field is, flows back into our septic tank, filling it. In 2 days. After a complete empty. Which cost a lot of money.

This means that we:

• can't do laundry
• can't run the dishwasher
• can't take showers of the long variety and shouldn't even really take short ones
• can't flush if it's yellow
• have to double up on baths as they did in the Olden Days.

Tonight, I discovered just why it was that Baby Carrie went last, not first. See, I was going to shower, until I found out how bad the water situation was. Given a choice between flushing and bathing, I'll take flushing every time. However, the girltwin was in the bath before we had a chance to say much. Well, once the water was in the tub, I figured it might as well get properly used! Once the child was taken out of it, I went in.

Ew.

The water was lukewarm and filled with a disgusting bubble bath that makes my throat hurt. The bottom of the tub was gritty with kid-dirt. The water was a sort of grey color, reminiscent of the water that comes off a potter's wheel. 

After fishing out all the toys, I settled down to wash. I cleaned all the necessary bits as quickly as I could, then dunked my head and got wet. I scrubbed, and the dirt in the water and on me ate all the bubbles. Bleh. 

I admit, I broke down and rinsed with clean water. I made sure I had thoroughly washed, scrubbed, and spot rinsed everything, then let the water out of the tub. As it drained, I turned the tap on and used the resulting chilly water to do a full rinse from head to toe. It helped. I don't know that I feel CLEAN... but I feel less dirty. And I don't smell anymore.

I really feel sorry for those pioneers....

I don't know why you say goodbye; I say hello.

That's Gray and me standing out in the winter wonderland up at his camp. It was just yesterday that sis took the pic of the two of us. We decided to hike up to camp, make some hot chocolate on the camp stove, then come down again, all with the twins tagging along. Gray took up his weight bearing vest**, and I wore my backpack and belt pouch with canteen. **Note from Gray: Load Bearing Equipment (FLC).  Aside, he feels out of shape and is starting the process of getting into shape by doing walks with extra weight.  His LBE carries a waist pack in the back with water filter, oatmeal, hot chocolate, water flavoring, tinder for lighting fires, a "blast match", and a couple of lighters.  He plans to add a stripped down MRE to it.  On the sides he has two canteens holding 1qt of water each.  One has a canteen cup and 15yards of paracord.  He plans to add water purification tablets as well.  On the right top is a pouch holding a GPS, and below that is a camp knife.  On the left side are two double 30 round magazine pouches which are currently empty.

It's a good thing I took up water and so did he, as the water jug we keep up there was frozen solid! Of course, I could have melted snow for our water, which there was plenty of. It was quicker to use the canteen water, though, and there was enough for us to make hot chocolate for five, plus enough left over of the hot water to wash the dishes afterward. You can't ask for much more than that.

The boytwin really enjoyed his hot chocolate. We took our time hiking up (sis has terrible bad feet and needs surgery on them this summer), and really worked up a sweat. It wasn't that cold, all things considered; just hovering around the freezing point. We sat around with jackets open and gloves off, enjoying the crisp and clean air and the total lack of noise up there. The kids had rosy cheeks and sopping wet mittens before we got half way up the hill, and though I was a bit out of breath, I feel like I made a good effort. I made it up without much problem, so different from three years ago when we arrived here.

There was much fun enjoyed during our outing. The children stopped dozens of times to make snow angels. The girltwin was in her element, as you can see here. That's a Tinkerbelle "barbie" doll in her right hand, who came along for the ride because she wanted to visit with the Nymphs that inhabit our stream up by camp. I'm so glad our children know that fairies are real.

Though I wasn't able to get a picture of it, we found an interesting and fascinating sight when we arrived at our footbridge yesterday. The water in the stream was flowing well, and we could hear it from a ways off as we walked up. When we arrived, we saw that the water was frozen solid, though. Yet, we could see it go in one end of the black pipe, and HEAR it coming out the other end. The mystery was solved when we realized that the ice had formed a pipe of its own! The stream water was actually flowing down the black culvert pipe, and out of that into a pipe of ice that had formed around itself. We were really stunned, having never seen that kind of ice formation before. How neat!

We are concerned that the land may not be ours by spring. Much is going on in our private lives that doesn't belong on a blog, but suffice it to say that the forces of darkness really don't want us to be on the land at all. We'll be doing all we can to stay, but at the moment I'm guessing there's just no way for us to keep it. In a way, yesterday's trip seemed almost like a leave-taking, even though if we do have to leave we'll need to go up and take down structures and tents and such. It hurts, thinking of all the work we've put into the land; the shrines I built, the small altar to the Nymphs, Gray's whole camp, the footbridge, the ditching to drain the swampy area, the logging we did to make some of the paths safer... hundreds of man-hours that look to be thrown away. Yes, it hurts. But... we move on. We'll fight as much as we can, and still be sensible about it. The land isn't more important than our family, after all.

And so we focus on the happy moments. After all, we have each other. No one can take that away unless we allow it. Property, jobs, money, these things are able to be removed, but love belongs to us alone. We're not giving up. And so... we say hello.