We are having a California Christmas here in Colorado this year with temperatures nearing seventy in southern Colorado and sharp winds that feel like a tornado is coming. Odd year, I must say, and if I’d had the foresight to plant an autumn garden, we’d be dining on broccoli and brussels sprouts as we speak!

Last night the power went on and off with the 50+ mile an hour winds rushing through the valleys and whipping the power lines as if spirits were playing jump rope under a starry sky. Across much of the front range, the power companies turned off the electricity to mitigate fire danger from the wind. It made me realize that I need to get my homestead in order and prepared for things like this! Why, I only have one oil lamp left!

Over the years we have had variations of self sufficiency and preparedness in each homestead, but not everything at the same time, which is our ultimate goal! In Kiowa, I used the hoses from the washer hook up to fill a two sided wash bin. I used what looked like a plunger to wash the clothes with homemade soap, and folks, my clothes were never cleaner! They went into the second side of the bin for rinsing then some half-assed wringing (my hands aren’t that strong!) and out to the old clothes line to be hung in the sun. In the coal shoot area of the crumbling basement, we stored up to 800 home canned items at a time with loads of carrots and potatoes in bins. We had goats and a small dairy. We had all of our own cheese and eggs.

Then to the 1800’s homestead where we had a washer and clothes line and cooked on a wood cookstove. We had farm animals and rows of colorful jars of produce put up.

To Pueblo with our solar power (still hooked up to the grid, however. That is the law in most of Colorado.), wood stove, canned goods, and fresh eggs. The clothes line went away when we adopted an adorable fluff ball puppy. Our Great Pyrenees, Gandalf, loved to swipe the clothes from the clothes line and gleefully destroy them in the yard. A stackable washer and dryer took its place.

Off to Penrose where rows of canned goods were displayed in the front room for lack of storage. I put in a wood stove. Our clothes line blew away the first day. I imagine it is somewhere in New Mexico by now, along with our greenhouse. We had extensive gardens and plenty of eggs from our pet chickens.

Here is Rockvale, I have none of it. I may as well live in the city for how prepared I was for a power outage! So, dreaming again of putting together a homestead, where like in Kiowa, when the power went out, Doug and I did not even notice.