Today the temperature is supposed to peak at 19C, although currently it is 10C. 10C is so much nicer than the spring weather we have had thus far, so I am enjoying it!
It is wonderful to have the windows open!!
Yesterday a dump truck delivered a load of compost for the garden. It was expensive, and very high quality. It was dumped on the driveway at the front of the house. Attila began yesterday to transport it to gardens at the back of the house, wheelbarrow full by wheelbarrow full. This project will take at least week to accomplish.
The raised beds are being topped up. The soil in them shrinks as the fill material at the bottom decomposes, particularly in the first few years. This is their second summer, so the shrinkage has been significant.
Attila peeked under the straw covering the strawberry plants, they are alive! There was concern that they would succumb to the cold, as the soil in the raised beds becomes much colder during the winter than the ground.
My days are full of routine things. Most of these tasks new at some point in the past, and had to be learned. Now it is more a matter of keeping going. Every day there are tasks: fermenting Kombucha; filling the Berkey water filter; sorting wheat berries; milling flour; baking bread; baking hamburger buns; baking muffins; grinding nuts and dates to mix with yogurt for breakfasts; making batches of soup base for the freezer to thaw daily for lunches; cleaning up after Ginger (a big daily job, litter everywhere, cat hair everywhere, good thing we love him); making condiments such as salad dressings; grinding meat and making sausage; hanging laundry to dry; making a big dinner every day so that there are lots of leftovers for Attila’s second suppers and snacks; harvesting and preserving the garden, the list goes on and on.
I think through most of history it was only the wealthy who avoided the daily rituals of physical survival. We choose to live this way, attending to our needs ourselves as best we can, in this modern age of convenience.
<radon>
We live in a known high radon area.
I continue to observe the radon levels in the living space on the main floor of the house. Today, because the temperature is so agreeable, I have opened all the windows in the house. This has brought the level down below the recommended threshold, and briefly to 0.
Attila has added sealant around the sump pump opening, and another opening that has an unknown purpose. This helped to lower the levels a little when the heating system was on and the windows were closed. But not enough. We will be taking measures to seal the basement floor, in the hope that that will prevent radon from entering the house. However, I suspect that our efforts will not suffice for winter living, when the house will be closed against the cold.
Come to think of it the heat of summer will also be a problem because we will have the house closed and the air conditioning running. However, in the summer we can open the windows briefly at night when it is cooler, to let the collecting radon escape.
Attila feels he can install a mitigation system. I have reservations about this project. Not that he wouldn’t do a great job, he would. But Attila likes to take things slowly, very, very slowly. I doubt he would have a mitigation system operating by the time we need it this autumn. He is an optimist with his timing on projects, they always take at least twice as long as he thinks they will, sometimes ten times as long. It doesn’t really matter for most projects, but this one matters.
</radon>
Worldly
Weather
10°C
Date: 1:00 PM EDT Friday 3 April 2026
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.3 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 9.9°C
Dew point: 7.4°C
Humidity: 84%
Wind: SSW 16 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death”
Dead Kennedys
A compilation album title.
1987
Attila quotes this from time to time, as it seems the species has made their decision, some unwittingly, some not so much.