Eggs Away!

 Pretty much since the day I moved into my house, I had ideas of making a modern homestead. I nice garden, some chickens, maybe a pig ot two. Not a full on hobby farm operation to grow all of my own food. Just something to supplement my groceries and help me get through a rough spot.

I've raised a garden a few times but thats been about it. 

Now, with the price of eggs and constant hinted threats of bird flu. I'm going to raise poultry. 

What has always kept me from raising chickens is winter. The idea of shoveling out a chicken coop in the dead of winter is pretty much the deal breaker for me. I could raise some boilers, but I'll be honest. I'm lazy and the butchering process for chickens can be quite involved.

But then I remembered quail.

While quail eggs are about a third the size of a chicken egg, quail are easier to take care of, and reach maturity in 6-8 weeks instead of 6-8 months. Plus they are surprisingly harty, able to handle the Wisconsin winters with minimal shelter. 

So quail it is going to be. I have a bunch of hatching eggs on order and I have my brooding pins setup. Even gave my new incubator a test run.

Looks like the Lazy Homestead is going to be a real thing.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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The Email Purgatory Folder

 Since 2019 I've been practicing a form of "zero inbox" with my work email. For over five years now, when I shutdown the work laptop, there are no emails in the Outlook inbox. I wish I started doing this years earlier. Those who follow some sort of zero inbox practice know how good it feels at the end of the day when there is nothing in the email inbox screaming for your attention.

My personal system is a bit different than what you'll see others do. Most follow a digital file structure for their emails like described by David Allen's Getting Things Done. A productivity book that you'll find displayed in the office of many middle managers. 

My email file structure is similar. 

• Inbox that gets processed several times a day
• A folder I named "In Process" which is my version of the "tickler" folder
• Several archive folders for each project / customer

Up to this point there is no real surprises if you're familiar with the GTD process. Emails land in the Inbox. Periodically throughout the day I process the emails. Accept or decline meeting invites. Delete older links in a email change. Act on urgent emails and/or the ones that take little time. Then move into the "In Process" the emails that I can address later, or I am waiting for a response, etc. Up to this point pretty much the same as everyone else.

What I do differently addresses the challenge most have with a Zero Inbox system:

How are you sure you don't delete something you may need later?

My solution; email purgatory. I have another folder I call "Hold 90 Days" that I place maybe half the emails I "delete" throughout the day. As the name suggests, this folder is setup to delete any email that is more than 90 days old. My logic is if I didn't need to look for an email in 3 months, it doesn't need to be saved. 

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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People Who Say They Want Term Limits, Really Don't Want Term Limits

 I'm seeing term limits being thrown out in the new feeds. Makes sense, we just had an election and about half the population doesn't like how it turned out. Just like every election cycle really. While calling for amending the US Constitution sounds like a good idea, it's not going to happen.

You really think the people in office are going to vote to removed themselves from their power? Get real, that ain't happening.

Here's an example. Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Now please keep in mind I don't want to throw one political party under the bus by calling out Senator Cruz, but he's the first example I thought of. I remembered the below linked news article.

Ted Cruz Files Bill Limiting Senators to Two Terms

Senator Cruz filed a bill in Congress to limit senators to 2 six year terms... while running for his 3rd term. Senator Cruz won his re-election to his third term. Anyone want to make a friendly wager that he runs again in 2030?

But those in congress aren't the only ones full of BS when they say they want term limits for politicians. So are the citizens who bemoan they want term limits. They really don't want term limits, the person / party they voted for didn't win. I'm sure that's not the case for every person who calls for term limits, but certainly the majority.

Now even though it is extremely unlikely there will ever be term limits by law in the United State, you do still have an option. They same option that's been part of our political system since the beginning... Don't vote for the incumbent. It's really that simple. Vote them out!

Of course the knee jerk reaction is something along the lines of "but I vote for X party and the current congressman is from X party." So? Do you want term limits or not? If you are only going to vote for an X party candidate, vote for a different X party candidate during the primary elections.

To be blunt, that's not likely to happened either because the average voter is too lazy to put anymore effort into voting than just put a check in the box by the candidate's name that lines up with your favorite political party. 

If only the average American put as much effort into deciding who they send to Washington DC and their state capital as they do picking their fantasy football team... Then there would be likely be no call for term limits. The swamp would be self draining.

Most people who say they want term limits, really don't want term limits. The person / party they voted for didn't win.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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Deep Work again for the first time

 I bought a copy of Deep Work by Cal Newport back in 2021 after hearing him interviewed on a podcast.

Amazon link if you'd like to get your own copy. 

The book was talked about in great detail by in the productivity circles of the internet. Infact, I was exposed to the book so much online over the course of a few weeks that I don't think I actually read it until this month!

I was cleaning up the home office and found the book and thought I would read it again, for I definitely need a refresher. Many of my old habits of distraction have return and there are once again, not enough hours in the day to get work done to my expectations.

So as I started the book, I quickly released I didn't read it yet...  At least not past the introduction. That was familiar territory, but then again that could have been discussed in one of the podcasts I heard on the books. At any rate....

Over the past few weeks I have started to put recommendations from this book into practice and it is already making a noticeable difference on how my day goes!

The book suggests the tactic of blocking off chunks of your calendar for focused, unrestricted work. While time blocking is nothing new and a tool I've been using for well over a decade, I have now started be much more intentional. I make a point to eliminate as many potential distractions as possible, and define specific tasks I am going to work on (not just "work on this project" for an hour).

Possibly the best hack (so far) that I've implemented into my office life is shutting off MS Outlook for about half my time in the office. That's right. I don't just turn notifications off, minimize the Outlook window on my computer. I close the app entirely for hour long (if not longer) stretches at a time. 

And not just for times I block my calendar off to focus on "deep work" either. Basically I just turn off Outlook at an early trigger point in my morning, such as during a Teams meeting or my first blocked hour or half hour of focused "deep work." Then the rest of the day it is turn on or half in roughly one hour intervals.

One caveat is that it's on the last 45 minutes to an hour of the day. That way I can put out any end of the day fires and be able to shut things down with a zero inbox. Yes, being able to have a zero inbox is actually possible. I've been able to do it since 2019!

Amazon links to this book and others I recently recommended here on this blog

Deep Work by Cal Newport

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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Grid Down!

Let me make a quick list.

1. An aging power grid infrastructure
2. A commitment to reduce fossil fuel power plants
3. An ever growing population connected to the aging power grid infrastructure
4. Increasing demand for the power grid from both the growing population and our technology centered lifestyles and workplaces
5. Increasing risks to the power grid from cyber attacks, severe weather, mechanical failures, etc.

Is my tinfoil hat on a little too tight, or is it a logical theory that the days of us typical Americans always have the lights come on at a flick of a switch could be ending soon? I'm not saying that we're going back to the days of before electraction. However I am saying that scheduled rolling blackouts in urban areas or unexpected power outages may become more of the norm.

This is what of the things that concerns me as we head into the new year.  In a recent post I mentioned I am making a focused effort to get my house in order. Both figuratively and literally. 

One of the literal things I'm doing is assessing my addiction to electricity. If I have to go without grid power for days or even weeks, what is going to happen?

Over a decade ago, we had a windstorm that tore up my local area. I didn't have power for 3 days. Fortunately, I had several things in my favor. I live a fairly simple lifestyle and enjoy camping. So not having lights for a few days was no big deal. Plus I had the camping gear, light lanterns and headlamps to take the edge off.

My biggest concern was my fridge and freezer. Fortunately, I had friends nearby that weren’t impacted my the power outage that had a almost empty "garage fridge" that I was able to use.

While I made it through that 3 day blackout pretty much unphased, it did make me think about what if power was lost for a longer time or larger area. That got me into canning. So now if push comes to shove, I could can some of the meat I have in my freezer using a propane stove and pressure cooker. 

If blackouts become more frequent. I may need to rethink my electrical usage, habits and sources. With my camping and portable radio hobbies, I do have a small collection of batteries and some solar. Currently I'm saving for a larger solar generator for use at the house to augment my grid power. 

Recently I purchased a small dual fuel generator. Not big enough to run my house like nothing is wrong, but it will run my fridge, freezer and top off batteries.

I am also assessing my habits and seeing what I can reduce, eliminate or do more efficiently.

In all reality, we should take a closer look at our electrical / electronic addictions and see how we can do better. Besides being better prepared for rough times, it's just better for our environment and our checkbooks. Two worthy reasons on their own.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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With New Years here, may I make a suggestion?

I have had a copy of Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic sitting on my coffee table since 2016. Reading it is part of my daily morning routine.

You should have one too. It's a book I cannot recommend enough.

As the name implies, the book has 366 chapters or more accurately, daily meditations. Each daily reading starts with a direction quote from a classic stoic philosopher, such as Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca. After the quote, is a single page commentary from the author to give more insight and perspective. 

Studying the stoic philosophy has helped me improve my life and outlook tremendously. That, combined with deleting Facebook and stop watching the nightly news has drastically reduced the stress in my life, and has helped me see a clearer path for me to navigate this insane world we have created for ourselves.

Amazon Link to order your own copy.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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I don't make New Years resolutions, but...

 Waiting for a semi-random point in the earth's annual orbit around the sun seems like a strange reason to reflect on one's life and make promises to oneself to improve it, if you overthink it. Why not put in place a plan to improve whenever you see an opportunity or need? But around the time the year changes, one can't help but to reflect.

As this year winds down, I can't stop but look back at how crazy 2024 was and think 2025 is probably snickering and saying "hold my beer and watch this." I could try to list off all the wild and concerning events of 2024 locally, nationally and worldwide that come to mind. But let's just sum it all up that it looks like we're getting close to critical mass with the world as we know it self destructing.

With all that negativity around us, and a real potential of real tough times ahead one my ask themselves what are the going to do about something that they cannot not change or stop? You're going to have to find your own answer, but mine is to change myself.

Not to sound like a doomsday prepper, but it's hard not to sound like a doomsday prepper. There is almost a certainty that there is going to be some significant impacts to my life from factors far from my control. From possible interruptions or shortages of goods and services I've have taken for granted, to civil unrest and natural disasters directly impacting me. Many things that I can not stop, avoid and possibly won't even see coming. But I can change myself.

I can't stop bad times but I can adapt if or when they come. 

As 2025 closes in, I am focusing on improvements I need to make in my life to make it easier and better. It basically comes down to simplifying it, getting my house both figuratively and literally in order, and enjoying life more with less. 

Let's start over. Again. For like, the 5th time or something.

 I started this blog many, many years ago. 

Been somewhat active with it for a while then stopped. This repeated many times.

I completely forgot about this for several years now, until a few minutes before I started typing.

I was relaxing on the couch reading a self improvement book and the author mentioned his blog he started before social media really kicked off in the mid 2000's. Then I remembered... me too.

So hear I am. I looked at the last few blog posts I had here and they were similar to this. A series of failed and forgotten reboots of this blog. 

That looked depressing, so I did something drastic. I purged the entire blog. I just deleted without even looking at them over 250 blog posts going back 20 years.

Lets see where it goes from here.