More wood, green beans, and community

Still no critter, and another late(ish) post. This time it's because it was just a very busy weekend, and I am unused to having my patterns changed. Having Monday off which you'd think would put me in a better place for getting things done did nothing of the kind. Instead I found other ways to fill my time, and didn't have the pre planned preparation time in place, so blog prep didn't get done. Ahh well. A re used picture from last year shows what we're starting to look like, even if the weather tries to fake us out with 70 degree days, the 30 and below degree nights remind us winter is not just coming, it's close.

Saturday we got a lot done around the property and in the house with help from friends, for which we

are extremely grateful. Got another cord of wood bucked, split, and stacked before the chainsaw gave up the ghost for the day. That leaves us with 3 of the 5 cords of wood we want prepared ready to go, which is a great place to be. When we are done I am going to be spending time helping the friend who's been bringing the chainsaw up split and stack wood for his family. It is how these things work, many hands make light, and safer work. What one does for you, you return the favor in the future, and it's how communities bond. The reason I'm including the picture of the cart is, that's what we bring the wood from point A to point B. It has given us good service, but it is easy to load more than one person can move. Much easier to move wood with two.

While we were outside working on the wood the Lady of the House and another friend sorted, washed, cut, blanched, and stored 4 gallons of green beans. We essentially now have steam from frozen green beans from the yard instead of from the grocery store. It is also a real reminder that we want to get beans going next year. The beans we did this with were extras from the garden of the ever generous Michelle Chandler of the Blessed Acre Rabbitry. It is going to be wonderful to have home done frozen green beans, and while the Lady of the House said it is a lot of work, the common theme here is, doing it as a community makes it not just tolerable, but can even be fun.

I need to do a thoroughly thought out post on community and the benefits and costs of it, but I'm going to touch on some of it in a small way right now. The community around giving birth, and the expectations we put on women who are giving birth. If you do some research it used to be the norm that a community, or family would pull together to allow a woman to rest and not be overwhelmed with necessities around the house she took care of not getting done. For the first 6 weeks to three months new mothers would recover and focus on child care while family and friends took care of her. Now there is mostly the expectation that she's going to be on her own, and is going to be back to work as soon as she can, within 6 weeks often if she had to take time off before birth due to the complications of pregnancy. I am glad that we are in a place and in a family where friends and family are going to be coming up to help us out with the transition in our lives as a kid comes into the world. I feel very lucky that we are in a position that the Lady of the House isn't going to have to go right back to work because of the help we are getting, and I don't understand how we would get by without the community that is stepping up to support us. Just something I'm thinking about right now.

Continuing Critter watch, T minus ??? until arrival. We'll keep you posted.