Good bye 2007! (And good riddance!)

Peace out

Rule #1: "You couldn't be a homesteader if you didn't know something about plumbing"

That is a direct quote from my homesteader hubby on the morning of Christmas Eve while we were repairing the pipe that had frozen and busted. We awoke to discover that we didn't have running water (oh no! not again!). We immediately went to the well house - the pump was running but the pressure tanks weren't filling up. We let it keep pumping thinking that it just needed more time. A couple of hours latter my DH remembered that we had just caped off the water line to the mobile home after the flood. It was sticking out of the ground about two feet without any kind of insulation to protect it from freezing and, sure enough, it had frozen and busted. The cap had blown off and was no where to be seen. The PVC pipe was shattered about 12inches down and into the first connection. DUH! We quickly shut off the water, scrounged up PVC pipe and connectors, and caped it off again. Only this time we put a 5 gallon bucket with bat insulation over it!

I'm SO GLAD my hubby is such a pack rat! After 20 years of him collecting free or cheap pipe fittings, insulation, electrical ends and odds, etc., we have been able to go to the barn and find things we need these past few weeks without driving to the hardware store. Which brings up rule #2: "You can't be a homesteader if you aren't a pack rat" - you have to hang on to those things that "might be useful for something in the future.

Peace and happy belated solstice

And then there was fire!

After much research and debate, we settled on a Jotul wood stove with a cook top, and what a difference it has made. Of course when the sun is shining the house really warms up, but the stove gets us to a toasty 67 or so. My DH and our dear carpenter friend installed it last week and a salesman who frequents the shop gave us some firewood to get us by until we can cut some (what a great guy!). All this happened just in time for the first snow storm of the season! What luck!

Counter tops are being installed this Friday so I will be doing my holiday baking and making gifts this weekend. I don't like waiting until the last minute, but I thought I'd wait until I had counter tops.

Peace

Now that we are moved into the house I have started my search for the ideal wood cook/heat stove. I think a fire on these cold winter nights will make the house seem more like home - even though it will be a while before it's completed. I guess I'd better add wood cutting to my list of to-do's!

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

1. Physiological Needs
These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, including the need for water, air, food, and sleep. Maslow believed that these needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met.
2. Security Needs
These include needs for safety and security. Security needs are important for survival, but they are not as demanding as the physiological needs. Examples of security needs include shelter from the environment, a desire for steady employment, health insurance, and safe neighborhoods.
3. Social Needs
These include needs for belonging, love, and affection. Maslow considered these needs to be less basic than physiological and security needs. Relationships such as friendships, romantic attachments, and families help fulfill this need for companionship and acceptance, as does involvement in social, community, or religious groups.
4. Esteem Needs
After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem needs becomes increasingly important. These include the need for things that reflect on self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition, and accomplishment.
5. Self-actualizing Needs
This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualizing people are self-aware, concerned with personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of others, and interested fulfilling their potential.
Types of Needs
Maslow believed that these needs are similar to instincts and play a major role in motivating behavior. Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are deficiency needs (also known as D-needs), meaning that these needs arise do to deprivation. Satisfying these lower-level needs is important in order to avoid unpleasant feelings or consequences.

Maslow term the highest-level of the pyramid a growth need (also known as being needs or B-needs). Growth needs do not stem from a lack of something, but rather from a desire to grow as a person.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid, with lowest levels of the pyramid made up of the most basic needs and more complex needs are at the top of the pyramid. Maslow believed that a persons needs on the basic levels needed to be met before they could “move up” and focus on the more complex levels. For example, a person whose basic needs for food, water, and shelter (physiological and safety needs) are not being met cannot think about cultivating friendships or romantic relationships (social and esteem needs).

I have always found Maslow's theory fascinating, and I think this last paragraph is especially relevant. Recently I have been thinking a lot about how applicable it really is when trying to understand human nature and people's behavior. I know that mine and my hubby's behavior has been influenced lately by our physiological needs for water and sleep as well as by our security need for shelter. Your perspective definitely changes when you are deficient in some of these lower level needs.

If you think about it, Malow's theory explains a lot about miscommunication and misunderstandings between people. It's hard enough for people to put themselves in another persons' shoes, but when one of the people involved is focused on a different level of the pyramid than the other person, it becomes almost impossible.

That is why, after my experiences of the last few months, I am vowing to be more empathetic, understanding, and to make sure I am really there and step-up for the people I love when they need me, for as long as they need me.

Peace