Reflections from the Bayou

I didn't plan on living in the woods without water or power this long.

Back in October 2011, when we bought this property, we knew it was going to be a ton of work getting it livable after it's destruction from Katrina. It was left as it was for all those years. The food from the pantries had long ago been eaten by the rats, squirrels and mice. The piles of clothing and furniture that we had to haul off or burn took over a month to move out. Cleaning the filth took another 2 months. We bleached it several times over top to bottom. When we found out all the red tape we had to go through to get the electricity back on we pushed ahead trying our best to get the help we needed. I called over and over trying to get a septic company to look at (and repair) our septic system without anyone ever coming out. Plenty of promises though. I did get an engineer to come out and check it out. His report stated I just needed repairs not the design and new system that the Health department wanted from me. I figure the septic companies just wanted new work and didn't want to do any repair work.


At this point I decided to hell with them all we're going solar. Which would have been great had we not been short on cash. I designed and priced out the project which I would build everything from scratch. Solar panels aren't that hard to put together. We lacked the 1300 bucks we needed though. So, we rely upon a good neighbor for water and a source of power for our batteries.

We are getting by with a radio which has a hand crank or can be powered from rechargeable batteries. The radio is important for weather information and for talk radio. Other than the crickets and birds, this is the only noise in our neck of the woods.

I haul water from a well 600 ft. away. I picked up six 55gal drums to have on hand. Bathing involves heating water on the propane cooker in a big pot, or just dipping from one of the barrels that has sun heated water in it. We have a compost toilet or use the neighbor toilet at his shop down the road. It's rough but not like living in a tent in the woods. Almost though.

The hard part is the heat. Most of the time we've had a breeze at night which allows us to sleep. There's been a few sleepless nights though. Skeeters get in without fail, and this leads to a sweat filled night of frustrated swatting. I've thought about getting my shotgun out to deal with them. Reality sets in as I realize this would only make more paths for them to get in the house and I put aside this thought settling into the numbness of being a victim.

For internet and job hunting I have several places to get online. Now it's mostly at McDonalds.

The garden keeps plenty of greens coming in the house. I am raising quail and (curse-ed)chickens in the backyard. We were getting block ice til the local ice house had a fire and closed, now it's cube ice which melts too quickly. A coffee pot goes on the propane burner in the mornings making all the issues relatively insignificant at first smell and sip. Amazing the power of that bean.

More later
And so that's where life is at the moment.

Posted from GScribble.