Light My Fire

I can build a fire.  Of course I can.  When I have kindling, a fire is a piece of cake.  Well yesterday, I went down to start a fire in the basement so Kane and I would be more comfortable cleaning out the storage room.  Kane wasn't here yet so might as well get the chill out before he arrives.  So I go get the kindling.  None to be had.  Now I certainly could chop some.  No I can't.  Me and a Hatchet is not a good idea.  I have never been good at chopping wood, and with my neuropathy, well, not going to happen.

So I sweep up all the little pieces and think, this might work

It didn't.  So maybe more newspaper might revive it.  I run upstairs and grab the first newspaper I come to.  Take the first page off and what do I find?

You know when a gold fish sees something shiny.  It forgets what it's doing and their off looking at the shiny object.  Well.............You can't get any shinier then My Elton!

HE'S COMING.  Why did my front to back newspaper reading husband not tell me.  Could it be because the tickets are always outrageous?  Could it be that LL thinks me seeing Elton 9 times already is quite enough.  I do not know.  Tickets go on sale noon today.  My heart is fluttering just thinking about it.  What was I doing?  A good 15 minutes go by.  I am imagining me with a front row seat (never been even near the front row before) Elton looking down at me and saying "There's my number one fan, so happy to see you again Konnie".  Oh we will have a moment.  I just know it.  What was I doing?  Hmmmm.  Kane comes in, goes downstairs, I follow him.  Oh yes, the fire.

Luckily he chops kindling well.

I ended up getting three phone calls from people wanting to make sure I knew Elton is coming.  I am loved.

Kane and I got the storage half done.  LL was having people over to play music, and since the music room was Kane and my sorting room.  We had to put the room back in order so didn't get the job done.  But Kane said he will be back this morning to help me finish up.  Kane must also still believe in Santa.  He's being an awfully good boy:)

Added later............maybe I have seen him 10 times.  How can I not be sure?!!  Do people forget how many times they met the Pope, the angel Gabriel?  I hope God sees my satire and does not strike me down.  I think it is ten times I have seen my Elton.  The house fire ate up all my old tickets, so I am not sure.  Hopefully, Kane and I will take a break close to noon and with him on the internet and his cell, and me on my cell and landline, we might get the seats we want.  I have them scoped out.  Yes, I am his number one fan.!

The Clothes Line Poem

I found this poem on-line while reading one of my regular blogs. I enjoy drying clothes out one line. The rest of family doesn't like the stiffness of clothes and towels, but I think the freshness and smell more than makes up for the crunchiness. So here is this cute poem.

THE CLOTHES LINE POEM
A clothes line was a news forecast
To neighbors passing by.
There were no secrets you could keep
When clothes were hung to dry.
It also was a friendly link
For neighbors always knew
If company had stopped on by
To spend a night or two.
For then you'd see the 'fancy sheets'
And towels upon the line;
You'd see the 'company table cloths'
With intricate design.
The line announced a baby's birth
To folks who lived inside
As brand new infant clothes were hung
So carefully with pride.
The ages of the children could
So readily be known
By watching how the sizes changed
You'd know how much they'd grown.
It also told when illness struck,
As extra sheets were hung;
Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too,
Haphazardly were strung.
It said, 'Gone on vacation now'
When lines hung limp and bare.
It told, 'We're back!' when full lines sagged
With not an inch to spare.
New folks in town were scorned upon
If wash was dingy gray,
As neighbors carefully raised their brows,
And looked the other way.
But clotheslines now are of the past
For dryers make work less.
Now what goes on inside a home
Is anybody's guess.
I really miss that way of life.
It was a friendly sign
When neighbors knew each other best
By what hung on the line!
-AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Plastic Surgery While Shopping

In trying to live a more sustainable life I am finding more challenging than I thought it would be. But while my long term goal is to have as close to a zero carbon footprint as possible, my short term goal is that every month I improve. A couple weeks ago, I started to tackle two areas. Transportation and Laundry. I kept track of my use in these categories and will continue to do so. I would like to see improvement every month to the point that I feel I am doing the best I can do. Here is where I am at.

Transportation

Out of town in car-9 In town in car-0 Walk-1 Bike-7

If I was to double the results, that would give me an idea of a month's worth of transportation. Obviously I did well in town but need to reduce out of town trips in car.

Laundry

Other people using dryer-5 Dryer-2 Clothes line-5

The last two weeks have been challenging because we have had almost nonstop rain. The first problem is we don't reuse towels enough. 2nd is that my son comes and does his laundry but doesn't stay long enough for his clothes to dry on the line. We will work on this.

June's new focus is PLASTIC!!

In the US, most of our waste is plastic. All the plastic that has ever been made still exists or has been burned which releases toxic chemicals into the air because of petroleum. There are several garbage swills in our ocean. The Largest is called the Pacific Gyre. Or The Great Garbage Patch. It is 2 times the size of the continental United States. It is responsible for killing marine fish and mammals and vegetation.

I have looked at my buying habits. Oh boy, my family is terrible when it comes to purchasing items in lots of packaging. My goal is ultimately reduce all packaging. But for the month of June I will be just keeping track of plastic. No plastic is good, but some is recyclable. I will save all plastic that is not recyclable that we normally would throw away. I want to see how much I collect in a months time. But I will also be working on reducing. Like buying more bulk items using reusable containers and purchasing less items covered in plastic. A lot of what we already have in our house is packaged in plastic, so I don't anticipate we will do well for the month of June. My short term goal is not perfection, it is improvement. We'll see how I do. This will drive LL and B. nuts but OH WELL.

Sustainability and Practicality

The person I was B.C. (before cancer) didn't mind a good argument one bit. I would argue politics with my brother, and sometimes religion (although I never have liked to argue religion). Through my ignorance and perhaps a bit of arrogance, I use to think arguing made a difference. Like it will change someones mind. Never realizing if my mind was so made up, why would I think the other persons opinion was going to change any easier. The person I am today tries to avoid conflict when possible, it is not that I feel less passionate about things, its just I think modeling my spirituality, and other views are much more persuasive and lets face it, I certainly don't have all the answers so who am I to lecture. The reason I started this post making the above point clear is that I am going to be talking regularly about my journey into living more sustainably, but I want it to be clear that this is MY journey and I do not want to be perceived as lecturing. I also will be making lots of mistakes and I do welcome suggestions but criticisms are not welcomed. With all this said I will list the areas I will be working on and also talk a bit about my day yesterday.

Smart Shopping

The first area I want to talk about will be my most difficult. Buying more responsibly. Things I do right is I usually shop when I need something, not always when I want. (containers are the exception, but I will work on it). I shop at thrift stores first to see if I can reuse an item. I tend to buy natural materials, but haven't looked into "organic" clothing. Where I am going to have the most problems are that I am cheap, um I mean frugal. I like to coupon, but most items you get couponing are not the healthiest, too much preservatives, not local or organic and come with far too much packaging. So on this journey I will talk a lot about this struggle.

Household Energy

I like a warm house in winter, cool house in summer. I have a lot to learn and work on about lowering our energy use in the household. But I will learn. One thing I have done right is use my Solar Clothes Dryer. But I have not used it as often as I should and will be using it almost exclusively this summer and fall. I haven't figured out the Oregon rainy winter and spring use yet but I have lots of time to figure it out. What's a Solar Clothes Dryer you ask.........................

An old fashion clothes line:)

Transportation

I am blessed with living in a small town that is very bike friendly. With the exception of a few big hills, it is very easy to get around in my town. LL and I have already made some changes to lower are gas usage which I will post later about but we can do more.

This is my cute old fashion bike I have named Freda. Yesterday, after being so upset about Susan's death I decided to ride Freda to the store to clear my head.

On the way home I stopped and visited with a family I have got to know. There are 4 of them who basically have the run of the neighborhood. By the way, all the cars went by without even noticing my friends. Maybe they are just use to them, but the drivers never even turned their head to notice. So another benefit of walking or riding a bike. Here is a picture of some of the family yesterday.

Local and Organic

I definitely need to improve at trying to only eat seasonable, local, and when possible organic. It also means growing as much of our own food as possible. Which includes eggs from my ladies:) My dietary issues will make this very difficult but I am determined. Yesterday, my "digestion" issues and Neopathy was manageable so I got a lot done. I am determined to plant less ornamental and more edibles this year and as chemical free as possible. This is what the garden looked like at about 10:30 yesterday.

I dug and turned the soil, mostly myself but needed M. help with an small 2'x2' area that I swear someone poured concrete on. It was that hard.

Now I know worms are good for the soil and garden. I should leave them all alone. But what is a lover of fishing to do while digging and seeing the best juiciest worms around. Well I boxed them up for fishing tonight. I have to have balance in my life you know.

I borrowed my brothers cultivator, after he showed me how to use it.

And planted a few things.

So there is an overview. I have a lot of planting to do today. (if my "digestion" holds out) and hopefully a funeral to attend. I hope you all have a blessed day.

Konnie