Taming the Wilds

As I was scraping snow off of the porch today with a dust pan, I started wondering who was taming who?

I started with a raw piece of land three years ago come April 1st and this is my third winter here.
Seems to me I'm the one that's been tamed.
Sure, I've carved out a small corner for my home and even dug out a few terraces for when I have company, a place for a table and chairs and of course the firepit. I had a driveway made and brought in a storage shed, but thats about as far as I've gotten.
The weeds up the hill tend to take over now, after trying to battle them every year, I kind of gave up on that. After all, I reason, I don't spend a lot of time there. It's all I can do to keep the weeds down from around my yard. Gave up on grass. Tried to plant some special shade loving grass and that didn't do too well. Of course, I didn't try to help it along either once I got to thinking about having to mow it.

The driveway I had put in that goes to the area on the hill where I eventually want to build another small cabin is getting washed out by the runoff from the top of the mountain. Oh, well, I think. It's gonna be a long time before I can start another cabin, and in the meantime, I hardly ever drive up there anyway.

My first year here, I spent the whole spring,summer and fall raking and burning leaves and cleaning tangled vines and dead leaves off of the 500 rock wall. I cut back weeds and claimed an area as my yard space, making it even bigger the second year. By my third spring and summer here I decided that raking leaves goes against nature and decided to let them go, gently raking only a small area, and after all, how big of a yard do I really need?

The first year here, I made a twig fence with character, now it's starting to crumble away and I'm planning on rebuilding parts of it next year. I started out with a 12 ft pond, digging and digging it out, then filled it in and settled for a small tiered one about 3 ft across.

I had all of these grand plans, and still do, but my land has taught me that it's more important to learn it's rhythms and work with it rather than against it. I have learned to slow down and listen and stop fighting to tame this land. It has been here a long time and will be here long after I'm gone and nothing I do to change it is going to last anyway.

I have learned patience from my trees. I tended to want everything now. I wanted all of my visions for this land to happen as soon as possible and it doesn't work that way.
I am building a life here, trying to keep it debt free and unless you have some deep pockets, it doesn't happen overnight.

So, next year, surely I will get my room addition done, after all, I've had the floor down since last summer.
,
Next year, I will finish my porch, after all, I got a good part of it done last summer.

Next year, I will have my own indoor shower if I manage to get the addition done.

I have found that I am the one that has been tamed. I have fallen in with the rhythms of nature, hibernating in the winter, looking forward to the warmth of Spring and the new green shoots popping out of the ground, slowing down in the summer heat, and relaxing on the deck in the crisp cool autumn air.
The day is warming and the snow is melting in the sunshine. Why keep shoveling it off when I can let nature do it's own job.
Think I'll make some snow cream instead before it all melts away.

Old Fashioned Christmas, Radical Idea

Being the time of year it is I feel the need to pass along a few thoughts that are rolling around in my mind.

I wander around the local malls, stores, the television and the world wide web and am surrounded by Christmas. Songs coming from every corner of every room I enter, lights and
decorations abound. Buy, buy, buy is the message everywhere.

I happen to live in a tourist area and this means it is multiplied with the commercialism of
bringing tourists in to shop, shop, shop. Christmas is everywhere you go this time of year.

Debates get hotter and hotter as the 25th nears over the commercialism and the meaning of
Christmas. The Christians are mad if a manger is left out of holiday decorations, the Jews
are mad if a menorah isn't displayed, we now have state regulations for decorations in all
government buildings, was Jesus really born on Dec 25th, is it a Pagan or a Christian
holiday, is it 'Happy Holidays', or 'Merry Christmas', ad nauseum..

As the years pass I see the meaning of Christmas going away and being replaced with a lot
of hatred and anger, stress and depression. This has become the time of year when more
people commit suicide and feel bad about themselves based on what they DON'T have. The haves and have not's are brought into sharp relief.


If you don't have the latest gadgets and hottest toys under the tree we feel sorry for you,
so we drop gifts in the Toys for Tots box at the local department store or we pick a name
off the angel tree and buy some warm socks for you. The churches ask for food donations to
give to the needy.





I can't help but notice that when giving to others, no one is purchasing a Wii or an MP3
player to drop in the box. It's usually the most basic of needs we stick in those big boxes that is supposed to light up the eyes of a child at Christmas.

Poor kids, they aren't getting a Nintendo for Christmas so lets give them a cheap plastic
firetruck and maybe that will make them feel better.(or us)

Poor homeless, they don't have a Mcmansion decorated to the hilt and relatives coming to
impress with how much they can spend on the holiday, so let's give them a can of spam and
hope that makes them feel better about themselves.(or us)

Poor lonely people, they have no family, so lets visit the nursing home and act like we care
once a year.

Charity after charity beg for your money, after all, it's almost the end of the year and you
can write it off your taxes.

Do your 'Christian' duty and give, give, give....

Let's face it, the holiday season has become all about money.

The reason people are so sad this time of year is because of all the commercialism. Spend,
spend, spend, and if you don't have it to spend then there's something wrong with you.

I think there's something wrong with buying into all of the commercialism.

Think back on your own childhood. Do you remember every present you ever got or do you
remember the time spent with family and friends more? What is it that made the holidays
memorable for you? Maybe THAT is what we should be passing down to our children.

If we could stop the madness and try having a holiday that involved a good meal shared with
family and friends, singing some carols together, perhaps sharing some handmade trinkets,
and celebrating what is really in our hearts and important, whether religious or not, maybe
the world would be a kinder, gentler place the rest of the year.

No one would feel inferior, no one would feel left out and lonely.

Spread the giving throughout the year. Everyone still needs a warm meal, a hug, a kind word

and a warm coat after the holidays.

Try having some backbone and standing against all the hype. Who knows, maybe it would spread and catch on and then we could really remember what we got for Christmas...

A bad case of the warm fuzzies... Lol!!!

Yule time

Well, I think it's time to wake this blog up again. It's December and I'm not too busy this time of year working outside. Time to settle in for the winter and enjoy catching up on inside activities.
It's snowing outside right now and that never fails to make me want to curl up with a good book and spend the day being lazy.
I have stocked up on herbs for medicines, made an Elderberry tincture for colds and the flu, put up a few Yuletide decorations and now looking forward to hibernation. If I didn't have to leave the house to work, I would be one happy bear. I think it's good for me though, not just for the money, but I tend to become a hermit and I need to get out and be around people.
Over the last year I have managed to accomplish a few things around the homestead. I will be posting some pics in the coming days.
In the meantime I do have a few new pics of my tiny house on my Facebook page, this link should get you there...
I have added siding, and expanded the deck, I also have the floor done for a 10 X 12 room I'm adding on. That will be a bathroom and closet. Can't wait till that's done! I have the materials waiting for the walls and roof, all from the local sawmill.
I am also in the process of putting cedar shingles on the roof which looks pretty nice, better when it's done.
The Winter solstice is Dec 21st, on the night of the 20th there will be a full lunar eclipse, mark it on your calendar, those don't come along very often!
Thanks for hanging in with me, and thanks to my followers for asking where I've been. I will get back to posting regularly now, and have some new pics for you.
See ya soon!

Spinning Wheels

You know, sometimes it feels like the wheels are spinning, but I'm not getting anywhere. Life has a way of doing that to us sometimes, and the only one we have to blame for that is ourselves.

The last few months have been that way for me, seemingly all due to the state of the economy. I'm certainly not the only one that has been out of work before and I definitely won't be the last, it's just tough when it hits home.

Life has a way of looking up in direct proportion to your attitude. When you keep your eyes on the sky, the sky has no limit. My wheels are spinning and I'm starting to go somewhere now. Thank God. Really.

Persimmon Glen hasn't seen a lot of changes in a while. I managed to add a roof to a short portion of the porch, with plans to get that enclosed by winter, and I put in a new stone walkway and laid out pathways through a rather large shade garden with a few plants being added.

The small vegetable garden I put out was thoroughly enjoyed by the rabbits and crows. The only thing left is the garlic and a couple of pepper plants. Ah, well, there's always next year.

Work has picked up and now I'm confident I'll be able to start getting more done around here. I have three days a week off, plenty of time to work on various projects, and I am so looking forward to that. Question is, which one first?

That is usually answered by how much help I get. It's hard for one person to get some jobs done, but I manage most of the time. I have friends and family that show up sometimes and help to put their stamp on the land along with me, and I appreciate every one of them.

I'm still looking for that one special guy to come along and be a permanent helpmate for me. Been looking for a long time and I always have high hopes. It will happen someday, in the meantime I'll keep chugging along...

Busy as a Bee

Morning Everybody. I've been real busy lately. Working, looking for work, working on the yard, working on the house. Do you sense a recurring theme here?

Spring heralds a lot of work. We come out of semi-hibernation when the temperatures go up. Just like the local black bears, we are driven by the need to eat. Humans also seem driven by the need to improve their surroundings. Take a trip to Lowes or Home Depot on a sunny Saturday and you'll know exactly what I mean.

Carts are loaded with building materials, flowers and garden plants. I managed to get a small garden started with onions, garlic, lettuce, carrots, radishes and potatoes and will be expanding as I put in tomatoes, peppers, cataloupes, beans and squash. The ground here in Persimmon Glen is soft and friable and easy to work, thank goodness. I've been tilling by hand and luckily it hasn't been hard. I hope the little seeds agreee with me.

Tomatoes are going in this week and I will plant them the way I always have, on their side. I have had great results planting tomatoes in a trench and will continue to do so. I've made several terraces in my sloping yard, built a new firepit and grill, added an eight foot section of roof to the porch (cost $50), planted grass seed, waited for the pond to fill and raked leaves.

I have officially been here a year as of April 1st. When I think back to all the things that have been accomplished in that time I wonder how I've done it. Who would have thought I would have been able to make do just fine with no running water? My composting toilet system works great and now I can't imagine having it any other way.

Now I can sit on my porch and wonder what the next year will bring. I have so many projects on the table and hopefully I will manage to get each one accomplished by winter. I bought a small woodstove at a yard sale for $20 that will heat the house this coming winter instead of electric heaters. I should also have a permanent bathroom built on with a shower, so I won't need the outdoor shower anymore. I might turn that into a hen house for next spring.

Whatever the year brings I will be content and happy, making do with less....

My Lesson for the Day...

I had to laugh the other day, not at myself, but at our American society as a whole.

Let me explain.

The weather here lately has been wonderful, and I've spent every spare minute I could get working outside. I'm finishing up my pond. It has some water in it from my rain barrels! Hooray! Now, I'll sit back and wait for the rain to fill it up and do some decorating.

I also have been busy building several terraces in my yard which is on a slope and makes it a bit difficult to find a level spot to put a table and some chairs. When you live in a tiny house, your outdoor space becomes an extension of your home, so I need lots of space for company. I have a huge firepit and a dedicated cooking area, both for grilling and for baking. I plan on having people over a lot this year and wanted a nice large space for a table and chairs, since having company almost always revolves around food.

The terraces have been built by hand. I start digging on the high side, moving the dirt to the lower side against a low rock wall which I built by moving rocks from all around my property. Each terrace is small with steps going from one to another, so it's almost like having a bunch of separate rooms, all built around the fire pit and next to the pond.

So a few days ago, I had a few family members over for a picnic. The weather was just right and the day was beautiful. My oldest son has a new girlfriend and she came with him. I really like her and am trying to get to know her better.

My family and friends all know that I live here with no running water and I use buckets inside for a bathroom, and they don't think anything of it, but I was a little nervous about the new girlfriend. I knew she would have to use the toilet at some point while she was here and I didn't know what she would think when I had to show her the bucket to use.

So, we're visiting and waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive and watching the fire and she tells me how pretty it is here and how much she likes it. Then she tells me that where she comes from, almost all cooking is done over fires outside. Then she proceeds to tell me how difficult it was for her to get used to cities when she moved here because she had always lived in the country, and that where she lived, they didn't have bathrooms like everyone has here. When they need to go, they just go outside somewhere, and all showers are outside and taken with cold rain water. She said it was very much like what I have here, except that in El Salvador they don't have trees like I have, they have banana and mango and lime and avocado trees everywhere.

Well, this was my kind of girl, and I instantly lost my nervousness over a bucket, so I proceeded to show her my outdoor shower and my compost piles and explain how I compost the human waste. She thought that was a wonderful idea.

Later, after everyone left, I got to thinking about Americans. In this country, those of us who are going back to the basics are in essense just learning to live as people in many other countries have always lived. Yet here, we're seen as 'progressives' with our new ideas for living in harmony with the natural order of things. How backward we really are! We have become so accustomed over many generations to all the niceties of modern living that we have a tendency to forget our own roots and to realize that there are people all over the world who know nothing of our modern lifestyles.

In these political times and with our country's recession in full bloom, people are panicked over the cost of bread at the grocery store, and it is seen as almost radical for a guy to dig up his manicured lawn in order to grow his own food, and it's seen as a terrible thing to have to cut back on the cable bill and start using coupons and start shopping at the discount stores.

In my opinion, these are good things for this country. We've all gotten too soft and our society is spoiled. In a way, I wouldn't mind seeing everything crash in order to teach people some lessons and force them to learn how to grow a tomato and save rain water for a garden and not a lawn.

Maybe then more people would learn to appreciate the niceties and not take them for granted as our due, and maybe then we would learn some patience by having to wait for a watermelon to ripen on the vine and children would get off the computers and video games and learn where a hamburger really comes from. We wouldn't be so immersed in instant gratification and be such a throw away society.

People from other cultures have so much to teach us if we would just learn to listen.

Reduce, Reuse and Save Money

Today I thought I would share some great ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and save money.

It's free to become a member, all you do is list some books or dvd's that you don't want anymore, other members request them from you, you wrap them up and mail them off. When the other member receives the book or DVD from you, you get a credit which you can then use to request a book or DVD for yourself. The only cost involved is the cost of mailing. What a great way to recycle and save money. Feel free to click on the link on the side of this page, it will take you directly to each site.

You can also take books, cd's and dvd's to local shops for credit that you can use to purchase more more from their store.

If you'd like to make a few dollars from your books or dvds, then you can sell them directly on Amazon.com or Half.com. It doesn't cost anything to list your items, they take a small percentage when you have sold one, then transfer the money to your bank account.

If you have some things laying around that you'd like to get rid of, list them on either Freecycle or on Craigslist. Both sites are free.

If you need rain barrels you might try asking at the carwash. The soap that they use comes in barrels that are perfect for collecting water. See if they would be willing to sell you a few. I take mine to the carwash and rinse all the soap out of them.

Of course, there are lots of thrift stores around to help out the budget and start going to yard sales. You can save a tremendous amount of money on things you need.

Around the house, start saving glass bottles instead of throwing them away. You can re-use them for storing anything from buttons to putting homeade jam in them, or you can even build yourself something with them. Mortar them in a wall and it will be highly insulated.

Re-use plastic bags of all kinds. Save your old bread bags and the bags from the produce department, any kind you get. That will save you from buying so many new ones.

If you're a smoker, here's a great tip that will save a ton. Buy yourself a pipe and buy bulk cigarette tobacco from the smoke shop. Smoke that instead of costly prepackaged cigarettes, or you can roll your own. The cigarette stores sell all the makings.

Get a freezer, preferably used, and start buying in bulk when items are on sale. Shop at the bread outlet stores and freeze if necessary. You can freeze milk when it's on sale, just make sure you remove a small amount first to leave room for expansion.That also helps to reduce the number of trips you make to the store, saving gas.

Buy your lumber from a local sawmill if possible. You'll see a tremendous savings over going to your Big Box store, and you will get true measurements. A 2x4 actually measures two inches by four inches, rather than 1 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.

One of the most simple ways to save money is to always pay cash. Leave credit cards for others to use. If you don't have cash, don't buy. What good is it to get an item on sale if you'll have to pay all that interest? If you absolutely have to use your credit cards, make sure you can pay it in full at the end of the month.

Shop the discount stores, like Dollar General and Family Dollar, Dollar Tree for things like aspirin, shampoo, beauty and household products. They work just as well as name brands at a fraction of the cost, and you'll also find name brands at a big discount, even over Walmart.

Unplug anything around the house that you don't use all the time. Most televisions use 80% of their power even when they are turned off, so unplug that baby if you're not watching. Likewise with everything else in your house. It takes a bit of getting used to, but you'll be rewarded with lower electric bills.

If you're a cook, save money by making from scratch. You can make that Hamburger Helper way cheaper on your own rather than buying a box and it really doesn't take much more time.

Here's a neat little tip for making your mascara last longer. When you think the tube is empty, you can usually get another month out of it by letting it warm in a cup of warm water. The warm water will soften it and you'll get a lot more uses out of it. One caution, once you start doing this, you'll have to do it every time, so don't do it until you think it's empty.

Try using witch hazel instead of expensive astringents. You can get a large bottle for a dollar and it will last a very long time.

Make a great garden cart out of an old lawn mower that doesn't work. Remove the engine, bolt a metal trash can to it where the engine used to be and you've got a great cart for moving things around your yard.

I hope these tips help you to be creative in reusing and recycling. Look at everything in a new way and you'll come up with lots of great ideas of your own.