While We’re Away…

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Mark Zeiger

For us, preparing to travel has always been a matter of making checklists and completing them. We’re lucky to have started that early, as leaving the “homestead” is far more complex than locking up the house and taking off for the airport.

Thursday, we headed to the Lower 48 to spend Thanksgiving with family. Even though we’ll have friends watching the property, we shut down most of the operations: braking the wind generator, turning off the water, insulating everything that might freeze against the possibility that the cabin temperatures may drop too low at certain times of the day.

Along with this, I’ve got a list for the blog. Continue reading →

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Early Onset Christmas

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Mark Zeiger

If you’ve read the blog long enough to form any impressions of me, no doubt you’ve learned that I value (dare I say sacralize?) the separation of the Sacred and the Profane. I draw sharp distinctions between the holiday and the every day, to ensure that each will be appreciated for its proper value (see The Key to Simple Living: Appreciating the Present). This is never more evident than at Christmas time (see Feeling “Holidaisical”: Christmas Comes to the Zeiger Homestead).

Part of that preference involves maintaining a clear separation between two distinct but closely proximal holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I strive to keep the two separate, and honor them both, even if, for us, the Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving.

Not this year. This year, I’ve decided that the only sane thing to do is to take a big ol’ metaphorical belly flop into the Christmas season a few days before Thanksgiving. Continue reading →

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