Today

This morning’s activities included bringing sandwiches out to the places where homeless people sleep. The past three weeks, there haven’t been any people in those places, and I’ve been hpoing they all found indoor places to stay while the weather was so brutal for this part of the country. We still have ice on the ground.

Today, there was only one person, new to being homeless. I gave him hot chicken soup and all the sandwiches he could pack and a list of places to go for getting re-housed. He still has a job, so it shouldn’t be too hard if he can get off the streets in the next week or two. Any longer than that, and the chances of getting re-housed falls and falls dramatically. It’s as if there’s a conspiracy to keep people homeless once they reach that level.

Anyway, he still had cell phone service, warm clothes, a working car (old and decrepid but functional), so I hope he uses the information I gave him to find a place quickly.

That was actually a very hopeful homeless meal-share, one of the best I’ve had in 5 years.

The rest of the morning, I did necessary shopping – buying ingredients for the pet brews and grocery shopping for the house. I found a new bread machine to replace the one the wild mice munched last year.

I didn’t think it would be so hard to find a replacement bread machine. I consider them one of the central pieces of equipment for a permaculture kitchen, especially if you’re like me and have lost part or all of the use of one of your hands.

I bought a Sunbeam 2 pound bread machine because, for this entire year, that’s the only one I ever saw in the stores. All the stores. No Rivals, no Breadman, no Panasonic, no Hitashi. My choices are the Panasonic and the Breadman. Instead, I now have a Sunbeam.

At least it was cheap, so if it turns out to be a bad machine (ie doesn’t meet my expectations), it won’t be a large waste of money.

I’ll bake my first loaf in it tonight, after I brew up some Dogshead Mead and some Sea Cream Cat Beer.

The local brew shop came through for me in terms of bottles – I’ll be getting them delivered (I love my local brew shop!) later this afternoon.

I stopped by the Farmer’s Market for cabbage and potatoes and carrots, which is about all that’s locally available this year.