Food Security and the Church

 My husband and I have been watching news reports about the possible food shortages and rise in food costs predicted for 2021. Covid and wildfires and crazy weather and a host of other factors make me think it's time to bolster the food storage both at home and at the church. We've always kept a good supply on hand of staples, but I think it's a good idea to keep extra at the church too. I intend to spend a lot of the winter there, and there's always a chance of getting snowed in longer than expected, or having to shelter in place due to the pandemic.

Our church runs a storehouse in Brampton where we can buy big cans of dehydrated carrots, onions, potatoes, and milk that are packaged to last for many years. They also sell bulk oatmeal, flour, rice, beans, etc. The selection is somewhat limited due to supply issues, but I'm going to stock up in January on some essentials. I also want to take up cornmeal and other items that will allow me to bake and cook there as well as I do at home. One of my favourite things to make is homemade pita, made into wraps with cheese, thinly-sliced chicken, and coleslaw with cucumber dressing. Because Warwick is not within walking distance of a grocery store, anything I need has to be acquired ahead of time while my husband is there with the car.

I've also thought it would be a good idea to put aside some emergency supplies for the neighbourhood too, while I'm at it. Water filters, non-battery-operated flashlights and lanterns, cots, extra emergency blankets, etc. in case of floods or power outages. It gets awfully cold up here in the winter, and if the power goes out, no one's propane furnace will work. There are quite a few elderly people in the area. I could see opening the church up as an emergency shelter if needed. We could get a lot of people in there!

I think it would be fun to run a store that sells emergency supplies and self-reliance equipment, such as canners and wheat grinders. Like a miniature Lehman's.

Pergola

 My husband has been tinkering with the idea of putting a pergola-covered walkway around three sides of the church, for meditative walks or just sitting in dappled shade in the summer. And if you wanted, you could slip a sheet of plywood on top to act as temporary scaffolding to access the upper windows.

Confessions

There are eleven stained glass windows to restore. Vast amounts of carpet to vacuum. Lots of woodwork to polish. Snow to shovel. Curtains to sew. Manuscripts to write. Walls to paint. And I have spent the last four nights after work watching people like Roberta Battaglia on America's Got Talent. I love music; the right high note can move me to tears. The whole reason I took up bagpipes in the first place was because I wanted to be able to sing soprano and really belt it out. Everything else can wait. During this approach to Christmas, I just want to revel in beauty.

Lunchtime Walk with Brio

 The local conservation area is a five-minute walk from the church. It appears to be a favourite spot for geese.

Stocking up the pantry

Sunday I made biscuits for breakfast. Yesterday I frosted cookies for the neighbours and made S'Mores for myself. Today I'm making pita for lunchtime sandwiches. Why is it that baking feels like such a happy accomplishment?
 

For Fans of Louise Penny...

 I don't live in Three Pines. I live in Three Birches!

The children next door aren't in a Christmasy mood

Tonight after dark I heard a dull thudding, so I opened the window to listen more closely. Someone was in the parking lot behind the townhouses next door, making a slapping noise and chanting "I hate reindeer! I hate reindeer!" No idea.

Felling Trees

 In the city, you have to get a permit to cut down any large tree, and you have to have an arborist certify that the tree needs to go. Here in Warwick, it seems anyone can take out a tree whenever they want to for any reason. Our neighbour has taken out two large trees, a maple that was probably over 75 years old, and a giant pine that was blocking light from their house. The noise that the trees made falling was quite exciting and shook the earth (and the church). But luckily the feller was experienced and good at his job, and the trunk of the maple fell neatly about eight feet from the church. It had been responsible for a great deal of the leaves on our roof and in our eavestroughs, so in that sense I'm not sorry to see it go, but it is still a bit sad to see such a mighty trunk getting cut up and hauled away.

The pine took longer to haul out, great piles of boughs piled on trailers. One bough remained sort of propped up against the stump, and my neighbour has decorated it elaborately with Christmas ornaments, like Charlie Brown's tree. Rather fun!

Other neighbours have also taken out trees recently. Some look like they may have fallen in a storm, but others were moved to make room for a back porch, etc. It seems the practice here is to haul yard waste such as pine tree branches up the old village road and dump it on the side of a farmer's field. When a sufficient pile has accumulated, someone sets fire to it, and it burns for days. The smoke drifts over the village like fog and you can smell it from far away. It smells like Christmas burning.

Our yard has nine trees in it -- one large maple that belongs to the township, and eight tall cedars growing around the edge of the side yard. They look a bit scabby, and I'm hoping they don't need to come out, because the propane tank is planted firmly in front of them.

A Week on My Own Again

 I am back at the church with Brio for another week, partly so I can meet the College Hunks (moving company bringing up a couch and bed from home, and no, I didn't make up the name of their company!) and partly just to check on things and have a peaceful week to myself. Arrived to find all is well, except there was a planned power outage last week and we've discovered that the two little heaters we had set to keep the pipes warm in the bathroom and water heater room do not re-set themselves after power outages. So we will have to think of an alternative way to keep the pipes warm. We tried a wire you put along the pipe, but it doesn't seem to be working either. Hmm.

It rained most of today, but during one brief dry spell I walked Brio just a little ways up the road. Cool but not cold. Faint honking of geese. Beautiful sunset starting. A clean smell to the damp air. Lovely!

Idea for the Stained Glass Windows

We are removing the stained glass windows to work on them one at a time. Because each takes a long time, it will be years at this rate before we can install real glass windows on the outsides. So hubby suggested that next summer or so, we just remove all the stained glass ones at once, install the glass outside windows, and take our time putting the stained glass ones back in.

Each window comes with five glass panels and a bunch of tricky wooden frame bits, which we need to keep straight. Hubby had the idea of putting a folding table in front of each window. As we take each apart, we can lay it out on the table and keep ourselves organized. Since the floor in the sanctuary is unfinished, we can just work right there, restoring the glass, sanding down the wooden parts, and rebuilding and refitting them. But since we're not there often, it may take a decade if we do all the work on site. We may have to transport portions home to work on there.

Removing the windows leaves a gap that lets in lots of clean light but also lots of cold. There is currently plexiglass on the outside of each window, but it isn't much protection from the elements, so I've made a window-shaped pillow of fluffy pink insulation between two sheets of heavy plastic. This fills in the space where the stained glass used to be.

After we installed it in the gap, Hubby stood back and considered it for a moment, then told me to go get a Sharpie pen.

"Why?"

"So you can sketch a Madonna and Child on the plastic, so it looks more like a window."

It made me giggle. It would be a lot cheaper if we just installed plain glass windows and painted them with glass paints and markers. My head immediately filled with visions of "Group of Seven"-style paintings on the windows, with northern scenes of rocks and wind-sculpted pine trees and vivid sunsets over lakes.

Depending on how successfully restoration goes, that may be my Plan B!

Glass by Rick LeRoux https://www.facebook.com/studio194glass/

Glass by Gayle Thompson  https://www.shopmidland.com/gaylesstainedglass

Glass by https://sunrisestainedglass.com/gallery/

Brio's acting weird

Ever since Brio and I came back to the city, he has been acting really weird. He barks at people he knows (but not strangers). He wedges himself between my calves and the chair I'm sitting in, as if he's afraid of something. He actually climbed right into my lap the other day, which he never does, and huddled there as if terrified. I couldn't hear anything disturbing. The weather was fine. Everything was calm. No idea what's going on. If I scold him for barking, he just gets worse. He'll bark and then duck and peek at me as if apologizing, but he just can't help it. It's like he has Tourette Syndrome.

The last two mornings Brio woke me, whining, at 3:30. I didn't want him to wake everyone in the house, so I went downstairs and slept on the couch with the dog wedged tight against my legs. Such a strange thing. Maybe we're in for a tornado or something.

It was so quiet for two weeks at the church---maybe he just can't handle city noise anymore. Or people coming in and out of the house. I don't know, but my hubby is threatening to send us back to the church for the rest of the winter if he doesn't settle down.

I admit part of me thinks staying at the church all winter has some attraction. So silent and slow! But I'd miss my family, and Christmas is coming. Maybe I'll go for January.

A shoutout to Brooketelecom

I just got an email from the small local company (Brooketelecom) that provides our internet at the church, saying they got an alert that our internet was down. They sent a technician out (got the lockbox combo from me so they could get the key and go in) and fixed the problem literally within 15 minutes of their initial email. Up and running again, no worries. Sheesh! That’s amazing service. 

In contrast, when our Rogers line at home was cut, it took them a week to come out and restore our internet, TV, and phone service. It pays to go with the local company!

I told Ron at Brooketelecom I'd been worried that the internet being down was because maybe the power was out, and I was envisioning frozen pipes and floods, but he assured me no apocalyptic events were happening there today. Whew! These days, you never know.