In this vlog, the speaker narrates a day marked by personal physical discomfort (knee and back pain), harsh cold weather, soaring gas prices, and a power outage caused by a fallen tree on a power line. He details the logistical challenges of obtaining diesel fuel and dealing with a non‑functioning pump, and notes the uncertainty of power restoration. Amid these uncontrollable hardships, he shifts focus to what he can control: gardening. He receives plant starts and strawberries from a local business called Humble Veggies and Flowers, along with 1,500 lb of compost, and expresses gratitude for the community support. The speaker emphasizes that while external factors like weather, fuel costs, and power are beyond his control, growing his own food—from planting to harvesting—is a source of security and agency.
Chapters
My knee and back are jacked up. It's butt cold outside. And gas prices are skyrocketing. These are all things completely out of my control. West winds 5 to 10 miles an hour. Wind chill values as low as zero this morning. Uh-oh, that's not enough water. And that hose is going to be frozen. It's not going to be enough water. Okay, this is going to be frozen. Yeah, we got to get our hoses. Any fuel in that? I think it's just fuel. Just the two diesel ones. There they are. They're empty. We're out of diesel fuel. I measured it this morning. I think we're gonna be out. Power's not coming on until 7:30 tonight. We got 4 inches left, filled it up to 8 inches last night. This I emptied to 4 inches and the pump's not— the pump isn't pulling out anymore. All right, the plan is we're gonna go get 10 gallons of fuel and then at 7:30 tonight, the power hadn't come off, I'll go get some tanks, maybe get 50 to get us just to make sure we get through the night. Found our problem on the way out. There's a tree, it's fallen over on the power line. You can see the power line draped down. Uh, that means we're it. That means there's one house out of power. Yeah, they're not going to be in no hurry. I don't see any crews. But there is something in my control. I can literally turn off the news gird up my loins, push through the pain, and build a garden. And the plants are here. What did the crazy plant lady order this time? I can't help myself. Zinnias, tomatoes, snapdragons. There's a bunch more stuff in there for her. Yes, it's for me. Well, you have a whole table full of plants in the living room. I feel a sense of security knowing We've got hundreds of plants in our living room needing to go out. Hundreds of plants in our greenhouse needing to go out. This time we got starts from a local business, Humble Veggies and Strawberries. What's the name of it? Humble Veggies and Flowers. Okay, that's food that doesn't have to get trucked to me at expensive fuel prices. They brought me a little bit of greens, just a little bit. Head start on the cabbage there. Yeah, there's cabbage. Nice. I know, I'm excited. Few surprises in here, or did you order some strawberries? I did not, I did not order strawberries. They put those in there for us. Nice. I'm thankful for these folks. My knee's flaring up. I've lost my energy. Very thankful. Thankful for y'all too. Look at these guys, unstoppable. We did it! 1,500 pounds of compost on our garden that will help grow thousands of pounds of food this summer. And guess what? The power came back on. Power company's here. Even if it didn't, that's out of our control. On or off, out of our control. But growing our own food, that's something we can control. We— from planting it to food prepping it to eating it. That is what we can control.
