I just finished walking the dog and the sunset was glorious. I stood in the yard and watched the clouds rush by while taking on the pinks and orange of the sunset. Never forget nature/God is the best artist. though we don’t always appreciate the work.
Winter is not over and it seems many people in the USA and EU seem to think that it won’t get cold in February or March. I’m no Climatologist but I figure my area is about half way through winter and there are plenty of cold and snow days in the forecast. I am using more wood in the house is the last week and it is still in the teens F. overnight and we have not hit single digits or below zero cold. I finished moving the extra wood from my mini-wood pile to my porch. I had a couple chunks of wood that got wet but over all the overflow wood pile did it’s job.
I have filled all four small boxes with kindling and about half of the box I have by the wood stove. I should have at least a months worth of kindling though it is probably about 2 months worth the way I start a fire. While I cut kindling I get all that split wood that isn’t easy to cut for kindling but makes starting larger chunks of wood super easy. If you can’t cut a chunk of wood into kindling because of knots or twisting grains. Stop and toss that chunk of wood on the start other larger chunks of wood pile and only use easy to cut wood for kindling. I think a lot of people work to hard making kindling. Perhaps we get stubborn and convince ourselves that only hard work is good work. I have to work smarter and not harder because my physical energy is limited. It makes no sense for me to split kindling from knotty or twisted grain wood when I can simply grab a different chunk of wood.
A bit of colder weather is coming and I need to top off the wood rack and the garden wagon has worked well this year as the snow fall has not been very deep and melted off in the valley. I really like the canvas wood carry bag I got for about $15.00. Much better than stacking up wood in your arms to load up the wood rack.
I got hit with price inflation that took my breath away. I buy some frozen fries for a treat and about a week ago the price was $2.29 for a gag of fries. The same bag of fries now costs $5.69! No change in weight just double the cost and then some. While I have planned for this happening for many years getting smacked in that price jump is a bit staggering to see it happen. I bought a few store bought eggs as Mom’s chicks laying is a bit iffy in winter. I’m not complaining about Mom’s chicks they are good layers but winter is tough on chickens for laying. I’ll use my store bought eggs first but I have mineral oiled Mom’s chicken eggs and will store them in the basement for the future. I want to get about 4 chickens for my place and I have an Idea for a small coop and run but I need to “noodle” out the details. I can’t see paying a pre-fab chicken house is a better deal now. Compared to buying the lumber to build a coop with the recent price drops.
Winter is not over but Spring will be here before you know it!
My Adventures in selfreliance 
I’m enjoying the mildest part of the year for SE Texas. Other than that early winter storm when we were in a hard freeze for a few days it’s been typical. Since our winters are so mild it helps take the sting out of May through October’s hot and humid with a layer of mosquitoes. I kick myself in the butt for not getting any water recovery system in place. We have been getting some heavy rain that would have nicely topped off any bulk water storage. It’s too easy to let things slide when you get older because of physical limitations. We’ll it’s time to start walking my pack of dogs. It’s only 42° but the clouds will block most of the sunrise
EM You are correct that there are always trade off no matter where you make a home. I hate the humidity so this is a good spot for me most of the year.
It might be late or unworkable but could you use Water troughs or those big party buckets and tarps to redirect some rain water. Or just set out a lot of 5 gallon buckets for water collection until you can set up the Water system.
I started with getting the rain barrels but my gutter system uses chains for a downspout. Pretty to look at, but not a good system for my area. I need to replace my gutters but if you can start collecting the water storage first and pay for that, then add in the gutters and pipes later as you have the time, money and energy to finish up the project.