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Monthly Archives: October 2025

Power is out.

Again.

Wind storm tonight, first quarter moon and overcast so it’s really dark. Odd day it’s been,  started off with a pretty good little earthquake. Temp got up to 44° today, really Old Man Winter?? First time I’ve seen the end of October this warm.

Felt this one really good.

We were working up the last of our meat chickens, that we slaughtered on Sunday evening, we were on the second to last one when the final flicker happened. Thankfully I had filled some reserve jugs of water earlier and with what capacity we have in the lines/pressure tank we had enough water to finish the job.

I already had the canner prepped with a batch of canned chicken meat (I had run a batch of chicken broth this morning!). Propane cooktop still works, just have to manually light the burners. We know how to make do!

Chicken broth in progress, made 2 gallons.

So here I sit in the darkness, with a headlamp on for light when I need it, a phone with half a charge, listening to my canner weight dancing around its 11# psi. Watching the blue glow of the burner flame faintly illuminating that portion of the kitchen. While the dog prances around wondering why it’s so dark. Waiting for my 90 minute timer to go off.

Power should be restored by 3 am the Power Company says. Not that I’ll care at that point, hope to be sound asleep before then.

I probably should consider a generator for times like these. However inconvenient losing power is, it kinda brings a sense of calm, a slowing down, a moment of pause . I’m not so sure I want that generator after all.

I remember back when we were kids, living on 6th street, when the power would go off we’d get so excited! We busy ourselves with grabbing the candles and lighting them only for the power to always come back on within very few minutes (our close proximity to the hospital meant we were never down long).

Awww, those were the good old days.

#alaskalife #canning #poweroutage #foodpreservation

We were pushing it but thanks to Old Man Winter for delaying his arrival we managed to get all of our birds dispatched and into the coolers! We started at Mo’s house and her 30 birds then moved over to ours and our hodgepodge of  18 or so birds. Nearly 50 birds done, mess cleaned up and only one minor boo-boo. (I cut my finger a little!) All finished before it started to freeze.

Good job!

#Relieved #grateful #fillingthefreezer #stockingthepantey

Mo’s happy hens

I tried a couple micro batches of mead this fall. I decided to give mead a try instead of wine, to switch things up a bit. My first batch was a quart of rhubarb mead. It turned out okay. Definitely a different flavor profile than rhubarb wine. I’ll be giving it another try next season, maybe with a different yeast.

Next I tried some raspberry & Saskatoon berry mead. I used a half gallon mason jar to brew it in and recently bottled it up. Between the spent berries and dregs at the bottom, this is what I ended up with. It’s delicious, dry and full of raspberry flavor.

Raspberry Saskatoon Mead

What a beautiful day as well! Mid-October and its 47° out, sunshine, light breeze and glorious.

All good things must come to an end however, this is our last week of fall-like weather according to the weatherman. Old Man winter is moving in.

Bring on the snow!