makingahome

[makingahome]

A brief and ugly summary of surviving cold climates

For visitors and writers alike.

You were never meant to be here. Never forget this. You are an ape of the equator, built to run the savannah and swim in tropical waters. Whatever terms and conditions your body has, they are void here. Mother nature never certified to function in a Death World.

Enduring the cold is never a matter of “how much” as much at it is “how long”. Think of it as the water levels of the vieogames you have played. No matter what equipment enables you to remain longer, you can’t stay there indefinitely. The coat that keeps you warm and toasty for three hours in -15 is enough to keep you functional for an hour of -40.

Whatever the locals say, listen to them. Err to the side of caution if you must. You may not endure what they can endure, but you SURE AS FUCKING NOT cannot survive what they say cannot be endured.

That being said, alcohol is a filthy fucking liar and so is anyone who offers it to you. The warmth it gives is an illusion, and a sign of damage. You are worse off feeling comfortable with a mouthful of whiskey as you are freezing your gonads off stone cold sober.

Winter tires. Studded winter tiers are a MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH when you drive on a frozen road. That being said, whatever the locals tell you that your car will need to run as theirs do, take it. Taking the risk of being pranked is worth survival, and you can always stab their tires in the spring if they were shitting you.

Eat. For the love of god, make sure that you eat. Heavier meals might be unpalatable at first for someone used to lighter nutrition, but maintaining bodily warmth in a cold climate takes up a lot of energy, and you will feel tired and drowsy for a long while shile your metabolism adjusts to producing more heat than Mother Nature ever intended. The skinny people in your party are especially vulnerable, ensure their well-being on a regular basis.

If you have a smartphone/other essential technology on your body, keep them close to your body to keep them warm. They were not designed to be frozen any more than you were.

Sleep is death. SLEEP IS DEATH. Never, ever stop to rest in the cold, if you do not have the means to make a fire/otherwise produce heat. The cold tires you out because keeping warm takes energy, but taking a rest will not return your energy. If you feel the need to sit down and rest because you are tired because of the cold, call for help. This is not a hyperbole, if you feel like you are too tired to go on in a cold climate, CALL A FUCKING AMBULANCE. If you fall asleep in the snow, you will not wake up. Hypothermia can and will literally kill you.

Avoid skin-to-snow-contact if you can. It hurts because you were not supposed to do it. Consider ice to be like acid. Touching is bad for you.

Feel free to add to the list if you feel like I missed something.

[makingahome]

Long post!

#recipes

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Small Bathroom Easy Access Storage http://ift.tt/24IkGjL

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[makingahome]

FUCK NO

In honor of devil’s dare day, here’s a compilation of demonic gifs. I obtained all of these from here. 

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20 Smart Tips To Organize Your Bathroom On A Budget →

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“I make $30,000 a year” sounds totally different than “I will sell you an hour of my life for $14”.

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16 Genius Tips For Gardening In Small Spaces →

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straight guys masculinity so fragile that they have to think long and hard about putting a flower in their hair and wearing a skirt for 10 mil

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17 Drought Hacks for #WorldWaterDay http://ift.tt/1JRbiu1

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17 Inexpensive DIY Headboard Ideas To Spice Up Your Bedroom →

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Picnic wedding

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20 Creative DIY Mason Jar Ideas You Simply Have To Try →

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How to make individual mini wedding cakes

Really nice recipes. Every hour.

Show me what you cooked!

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15 Things You Never Knew You Could Make With Old Jeans →

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heathen offering: honey cookies

i never thought i’d be sharing a recipe for religious purposes, but these cookies are absolutely stellar and they’ve served me well as an offering to frigg, sif, thor, and various other nordic deities (the recipe itself is an old german one). as we all know, honey’s one of those little sacred ingredients that you find throughout all cultures with various types of religious significance, so feel free to make these for whoever you know likes sweet treats!

and, of course, in purely culinary terms, these cookies have come out chewy and soft for me every time, and the measurements make it easy to increase or decrease servings. they taste incredibly sweet, but as a caveat, the honey taste comes out super strong, so if you have sugar-sensitive teeth, these might not be for you.

yield: 2 dozen cookies. you will need:

½ cup white sugar

½ cup honey

½ cup shortening

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla

½ tsp baking soda

2 cups all-purpose or bread flour

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp cardamom (or nutmeg, but nothing tastes quite the way cardamom does)

in a saucepan, melt the shortening over low heat, then add in the honey and sugar. keep on the stove until all these ingredients have blended together, and then remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature: important, since you’ll be adding it to egg!

in a mixing bowl, stir together all remaining ingredients except the flour until well-blended. then add in the honey/shortening/sugar, and mix again. once all those ingredients have come together, add the flour (just a little at a time) until you have a sticky cookie dough, which will look more like a very, very thick batter.

there are a couple of options for getting the dough to the pan: you can go ahead and stick a teaspoon in the bowl and drop it onto a prepared cookie sheet, or you can put the dough in the freezer for a little while until it’s stiffened, then roll it out into a log on a floured cutting board and cut the cookies like that.

bake them (one cookie sheet a time: trying to cook two in the same oven doesn’t let the heat flow the same way) in a 350­°F oven for 12-15 minutes until they’re a pretty light golden color.

bam: you will have some of the most delicious honey cookies in the world. give them to the deity/spirit of your choice, or hog them all to yourself tbh, because they’re tasty as hell.

[makingahome]

Professionalism is a funny term, because it masquerades as neutral despite being loaded with immense oppression. As a concept, professionalism is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, imperialist and so much more – and yet people act like professionalism is non-political. Bosses across the country constantly tell their employees to ‘act professionally’ without a second thought. Wear a garment that represents your non-Western culture to work? Your boss may tell you it’s unprofessional. Wear your hair in braids or dreadlocks instead of straightened? That’s probably unprofessional too. Wear shoes that are slightly scuffed because you can’t yet afford new ones? People may not think you’re being professional either. For years, professionalism has been my enemy, because it requires that my gender identity is constantly and unrepentantly erased. In the workplace, the gender binary can be absolute, unfaltering and infallible. If you dare to step out of line, you risk being mistreated by coworkers, losing promotions or even losing your job. And if you are discriminated against for being transgender or genderqueer, you may not even have access to legal recourse, because in many states it is still perfectly legal to discriminate against gender non-conforming employees.

Why I’m Genderqueer, Professional and Unafraid | Jacob Tobia for Neutrois Nonsense (via gaywrites)