{"id":19661,"date":"2015-01-13T18:45:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T02:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=19661"},"modified":"2015-01-13T18:45:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T02:45:31","slug":"a-little-catching-up-including-santa-cool-gear-and-other-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/13\/a-little-catching-up-including-santa-cool-gear-and-other-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"A little catching up, including Santa, cool gear, and other stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just catching up on a few overdue things …<\/p>\n

Santa has been extremely, extremely good to me. Yeah, I know it seems sorta late to mention that, but not really. Apparently Santa hasn’t even finished with me yet. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I wasn’t expecting any gifts this Christmas. Really, none. I was in such a non-Christmassy mood that (regrettably) I didn’t even send out any cards and only got gifts for a couple of people. Yet, somehow, the Santa energy keeps pouring in my direction. Yes, clear into mid-January.<\/p>\n

So thank you to some Santas A.G. and D.A., who arrived before Christmas. And Santa S.W.A.T.<\/i>. And Santa Furrydoc who turned up on Christmas day not only with goodies for all the critters and me, but also the largest bag of the special dog food that’s helping keep my old boy Robbie from losing his marbles.<\/p>\n

Then came Santa M.J. with a large box brimming with dried fruit — and tucked in among them the coolest carry flashlight I’ve ever had, a Nitecore P16<\/a>. Shazam, that is one powerful and versatile light. It’s “tacticool,” too. \ud83d\ude42 And came with a bunch of extras.<\/p>\n

\"NitecoreFlashlight\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then just yesterday Santa W\/J. B. arrived with two tins of some of my favorite treats in the whole world, cinnamon rolls made with pie dough, just like Mom used to make. Now, somebody please<\/i> tell me they’re paleo …<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Also in the box with the Nitecore light was a pair of very light, flexible work gloves. And this combo made me decide it was time to update my “walking around” prep kit<\/a>. Did that today.<\/p>\n

I’ve been carrying a Maxpedition Jumbo Versipack<\/a> with a few prep items in it and attached to it. This afternoon I added the Nitecore flashlight, extra batteries, those gloves, a couple of reflective thermal blankets (courtesy of A.G. Santa), a little dried fruit, a bag of almonds, and a small first-aid kit. It already contained a knife, water bottle, small screwdrivers and an awl, a sewing kit, spare TracFone, and … other stuff (some contributed years ago by Commentariat member Scott).<\/p>\n

Now I just need a small donkey to carry it. But I feel ready for anything whether I’m walking in the woods or I get caught in town when the Big One hits. (And even without the donkey, the straps on the Maxpedition pack are pretty good at distributing the weight.)<\/p>\n

Is it neurotic to run around everywhere you go prepared for disaster? Or it is normal but nobody knows that any more?<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

I promised some photos of the flood we had last week. Unfortunately, none of the ones I took looked all that impressive. A street running with 18 inches of water or a bunch of trailers standing in a lake look dramatic when you’re trying to walk to the post office, but not so much in pictures. Oh well.<\/p>\n

I did like this one, though. You can’t tell that the house is two feet deep in<\/i> that lake and not just next to it. But that “lake” is normally a road and a wetland with just a few watery channels running through it.<\/p>\n

\"Flood_010515_HouseAcrosstheWetland-SMALL\"<\/a><\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Finally, since we’re still in the midst of Christmas hereabouts, you might enjoy watching 13 shelter dogs — and one cat!<\/a> sharing a holiday feast. (H\/T Karen, with thanks for the laugh)<\/p>\n

If you’ve laughed at those European videos of dogs dining formally, you’ll like this. And there’s a how-we-did-it video, too.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just catching up on a few overdue things … Santa has been extremely, extremely good to me. Yeah, I know it seems sorta late to mention that, but not really. Apparently Santa hasn’t even finished with me yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12,19,27,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dogs-and-cats","category-guns-and-gun-rights","category-miscellaneous","category-preparedness","category-rural-and-small-town-living","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}