Achievement

I finished building another elevated "loft" bed for a child.  This time I took a slower pace and had more assistance from children in sawing, gluing, and assembly. 

For some reason the 2x6 lumber that my husband bought for it earlier this month was of much better quality than the wood for the previous loft in the fall.  I don't exactly know the cost, but it was reasonable enough for a piece of furniture that is needed now and will be used for years and years to come, and possibly recycled into something else after that.

I made some improvements in loft-building workflow this time around.  It is important in my loft design to have accurately-drilled holes, especially where I have to drill into a 2x6 from each side and meet in the middle. I gave up trying to use our heavy-duty electric drills (discarded by an electrical contractor), and set up three hand-powered drills:  small bit in the eggbeater-type drill for a pilot hole, and then medium and large bits in two bit braces.  Tightening the bit braces is a Process, at least for me, that involves using large vise grips around the chuck, with an additional pair of pliers to tighten the vise grips just enough (without cracking the chuck). I try to avoid changing the bits in those.

So I was drilling each hole three times with three different drills, but each one was easy to do, aside from the largest (3/8") bit, which tends to dig in too quickly.  I often had to pull up on the bit brace while drilling downward.

When it was was all finished, I discovered that the box spring I intended to put up there was a few inches too long for it, so I had to dig around in the garage for a different support for the mattress.  The seat frame of our futon couch, which doesn't fit in this house, turned out to be a good size for the little Ikea mattress, which must be about a decade old by now.  On top of that I put a doubled memory foam mattress topper that had been handed down to us.

Alternatively

The claim here is that major food shortages in 2022 are likely to be limited to urban areas.

In 2020, the pattern was often that rural stores were last to be stocked; the trucks were sent out from the cities to the nearest stores first.

And the likelihood is that if food becomes very scarce, it will be used to keep order in the metropolitan areas.

Mostly good

The holidays went well for us, aside from me discovering that the freezer plug had been knocked loose, and that the food in the freezer was well above refrigerator temperature.  It is not a large freezer, and it was only about half full, so it was not a huge loss, just disappointing.

I set up a sewing station for myself in our library, and have been working on a sewing project using a commercial dress pattern.  I used an old sheet to make a "muslin" version first, for fittings and pattern adjustments, which turned out to be a very good idea, as the initial fit was poor, being far too small in several places, and large in others.  I did find a zipper in my stash, and I had the fabrics and thread already, so the only cash outlay was for the pattern.

I ignored my mending pile from about Labor Day until Christmas, but after that did most of the easier repairs.

Last month I also made a batch of homemade laundry soap, using scraps of bar soap, and borax and washing soda (recipe should be in one of the posts under the recipes tag), now that we are no longer living in a rental with a high-efficiency washer.  I've previously worked out that this laundry soap does tend to leave a thin build-up of soap scum over the laundry, but that that probably protects the fibers to some extent.  I still use regular detergent for my husband's clothes.  The grocery store was out of borax for several weeks, but eventually restocked.