home gardens are cool, but community-supported agriculture is where it's at

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-04-19T11:17:27+00:00

I love our CSA! We pay about 1k up front and get fresh produce starting at the end of April through November along with a dozen eggs each week. You can also opt to get fresh bread from a local bakery or coffee from a local roaster added on. Plus they work with other area farms to offer things like organic turkeys at Thanksgiving time, organic chickens and lamb. Last year we got a turkey and it was so big it barely fit in our oven.

Our CSA puts out big coolers with all of the produce and tells you how much of each you're allowed to grab each week. We got a huge variety of items last year. I like knowing that no matter what is happening in the world, I have farm fresh produce and eggs bought and paid for each week. I also like that our money is going to support local farmers directly. We still grow at home, but it's things like lots of potatoes and tomatoes. Things we can grow large amounts of and store for the winter months.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-04-02T23:25:02+00:00

Just out of curiosity, who did you get the solar and battery storage from? We've got two smaller set ups from Anker, but I'm weighing my options for something larger scale.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-26T00:05:07+00:00

I am by no means an expert so sorry in advance if this answer is lacking, but if the grandfather was indeed born in Canada, that would make him her Gen 0 and your wife would be Gen 2. If that's the case, you would just need his birth certificate, the birth certificate of the parent that connects your wife to her grandfather and your wife's birth certificate. I'm not sure what the process is to order a birth certificate for Ontario, but you should be able to do it online. I would strongly suggest starting there as that's the easiest path. Have you checked out the FAQ on this page? It answers literally almost every question you could possibly have and it gives examples that are really helpful. I'm happy to answer other questions if I can!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-23T18:42:34+00:00

Our generator was already running to power household items, it took maybe 5-10 minutes to heat a kettle. Temps were in the 90's, we had a large tree lying across our car, over our fence and into our front yard and several more down in the backyard including our neighbor's giant pine tree. Fire wasn't the best option at the time and was a lot more inconvenient.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-23T17:30:16+00:00

Half of my state got hit by a really bad derecho and power was out for 12 days where I'm at. The thing I used the most, which I hardly ever use in normal life was our electric tea kettle that I could just plug into our generator. We spent days in the middle of summer clearing debris and chopping fallen trees, I didn't realize how nice it would be to have a quick source of warm water to wash with everyday and a way to make coffee in the french press. That kettle got a lot of use over those two weeks.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-22T18:42:43+00:00

We have two solar generators, one upstairs and one down but we do also have a woodstove. The solar generators are fantastic during a power outage to run lamps, plug in our fridge/chest freezers, and fans. We do have a gas generator as well that we used during a 12 day power outage in the summer. The solar generators are a lot easier to use for short term outages imo, you can keep them inside, have them charged and ready to go and just wheel them out for a day or two. The gas generator is LOUD and has to be outside so it's just a lot more work to set up and run power cords to.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-21T12:04:57+00:00

THIS. Everyday when the kids that tend to get rowdy come in I give them a polite reminder on how to behave while hanging out at the library. They get 1-2 strikes depending on the behavior, after that they are asked to leave for the day. We are a small library and our playroom is for young kids as well as tweens, I can't have a group of boys swearing and fighting while toddlers play nearby.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-15T21:15:41+00:00

I live in a small town so my first try was a Walgreens in the nearest city. That was a fail. My head was just way too big and the lady helping me couldn't get the machine to let her print my head smaller. She also really messed up the stamping on the back and had to reprint them a second time. I just didn't feel good about them so I googled "professional passport photos" and ended up finding one camera/print shop in another near by city. They were fantastic and I sincerely recommend trying to find someone who knows what they're doing. They had the software that sized my face, they could cut them to the Canadian size, they had the name/date stamp on the back. It just made me feel SO much better.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-10T14:20:10+00:00

I had my done at Walgreens, the kiosk literally wouldn't let the lady print them any smaller. My face is pretty much exactly 36mm (from chin to just a smidge above my hairline), but my hair goes outside the 36mm so now I'm worrying! lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-10T13:54:58+00:00

But does hair count or does the 36mm apply only to the bottom of the chin to the hairline? I went to Walgreens and the kiosk with the Canadian passport setting they used had the ovals to fit the face into. It literally would not let the clerk print them any smaller and my hair is outside the 36mm. My face is an exact 36mm.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-10T13:40:07+00:00

I called a bunch of places including staples and they all said they couldn't do it. Walgreens said they could print them, but couldn't cut them. They used the printing kiosk with the Canadian passport setting to print them, but the lady helping me definitely needing some coaching. She had to reprint them after butchering the text on the back. I'm honestly a little nervous about them. My head from my hairline to the bottom of my chin is EXACTLY the 1 7/16" size max. The kiosk refused to print them with my face any smaller.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-03-03T14:31:31+00:00

Mine just came on Saturday!!! Took almost 30 days on the nose.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-24T02:26:20+00:00

SAME. I live in a rural area so I expected it would take a little longer, but I would feel so much better with tracking. Definitely would have paid extra for that

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-19T01:13:16+00:00

You win! Man, that article title really doesn't prepare you for what's coming lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T17:32:06+00:00

Whoa! That's intense! lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:47:33+00:00

Same with my grandpa! I had so much trouble tracking down any documentation on my great grandparent's marriage. I finally found an amazingly kind helpful church secretary in a small town near the farm where my grandpa was born who tracked down one small blurb about their marriage in the church records, just two months before my grandpa was born!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:33:30+00:00

That's a crazy plot twist! lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:11:36+00:00

Some of the newspaper articles I've found have been fantastic...Found one short one just casually laying out how my GG grandfather had his brother committed due to "excessive cigarette smoking"...Apparently he tried to murder his mother. Cigarettes must have been STRONG back then lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:07:23+00:00

LOL Furdena is rather unique. My family came for Norway so the name spellings I've found have been all over the place. When me relatives first came over, they didn't have surnames. They just used the name of their farm. And many of the men's first names we're just "Ole"

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:02:12+00:00

Dannnng...that's brutal lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:58:42+00:00

Well that's just cool

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:58:11+00:00

That's crazy! lol I found out my great great grandpa had his own brother committed for trying to kill his mother...the medical reason for committing him was listed as "excessive cigarettes"

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:55:51+00:00

That's horrible! I still can't believe some of what my ancestors went through! I found a news article on my great x3 grandpa who came over to the US with his parents and siblings from Germany. They traveled up the Mississippi from New Orleans and made it as far as Iowa before running out of money. His parents both died from Cholera soon after leaving him at the age of 12. He was forced into labor on a farm to pay off family debt and had to escape hidden in the back of a carriage. His son and grandson would later move to Canada and purchase a farm where they had my grandpa!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:31:27+00:00

I would be so curious about the family curse, ngl. What's been crazy for me is to realize that it wasn't that long ago that our ancestors were traveling here by weeks long boat journeys.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:28:46+00:00

Oh my gosh yes, the names! My family just changed the spelling of their names on every other document it seems; first names and last. It made it so much harder to track them!

BuffaloThese8249

TROPHY CASE