The icebox that used to be a kitchen

The poor kitchen has no heat, we pulled that out on Tuesday so we could start the drywall. It was too windy and too cold to get any done today, have to cut it on the porch so we will wait for better weather this weekend. The walls are well insulated but it's 10x15 and the cold seeps in no matter what. No drywall yet and half of the kitchen in above ground with a crawlspace underneath.With wind chill it's about 5 degrees outside right now.

That seemed like -50 when I stepped outside of the gym in my wet swim trunks. I've changed my training once a week to swimming, being coached by someone who works at USA Swimming. Tonight I did the hardest parts of the workout with 1 breath per 5 strokes.

breathe and left
right
left
right
left
right
breath and left

I'm a sucker for cardio now that I've switched from a lot of running and this was a super hard hour session. I have to keep the cardio and endurance up so I can get back into running this spring, so it's either swimming or the dreadmill.

I had 3 buckets of powdered milk show up today. 1311 servings (cups) of milk, bringing my total milk servings to about 3000. Not that 1 cup of milk means anything unless you are rationing, but I'm not the big milk drinker like someone else in the house. Sometimes it's a gallon a week and I don't know where it goes.

I also got 3 boxes of these:

They are cool little hockey pucks made of cedar and paraffin wax, 90 per box, 30 minute burn time (at my altitude). I found an awesome deal on them and plan on giving some to the in-laws to help them start the fireplace. Father in law with a hatchet trying to make kindling is not a pretty sight, he bleeds at the slightest bump into anything and I don't like sharp objects around him. Besides, it's a sort of holiday gift thing I suppose.

All the hustle and bustle over ammo, guns and magazines in the last few days made me glad I didn't need anything. Sure I would have loved to get a SCAR or some other high end fancy black shooting thing, but I've been a prepper on and off my whole life so we were already set. It's a very good feeling to be set for a lot of things, even cold weather we could manage with propane and heaters (but it wouldn't be fun). I realize that we have a lot of stuff that is simply nice to have so it's not such a hardship right away if something were to happen.
Sometimes we feel silly for buying more of anything... why get fuel pucks when you can make your own fire with fire starters. I like to think of it as comfort, convenience, ease. It doesn't mean we cant do without, it's just nice to have and we are very fortunate to be able to get this kind of thing while we are able.