Casa de Pollo

Needed to build protection for the chickens. My husband built this coop from scraps. It has a roost and 5 nest boxes, a trap door for cleaning out poo under the roosts, a small door for them to exit into their pen. Shack is well ventilated, 2 windows, and the pen has netting over the top for protection during the day from the hawks. We'll see how it goes.

I swore I'd never buy a swiffer !

Well, I actually got it at a rummage sale for $2, but i now own a swiffer. It IS great for my new floors which i cant mop, but I despise having any gadget that requires buying expensive refills and disposables. I gave it a go. I even found reusable pads at yard sale, but then discovered that the spray bottle attachment has a locking cap. This obviously is a sneaky attempt to force me to buy cleaning solution refills at almost $4 each. Nice try. I then discovered the secret to refilling it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pO-AbT3GpE

Take that, swiffer people.

my first car

Honda 600 Coupe 1971
2 cylinders
45mpg






1971? AMC Javelin

Making progress

We're getting close to occupancy! Finishing the siding was a huge step. It was finished barely in time for the heat to get unbearable. The electric hookup was a hallelujah moment. We have a toilet and a bathroom sink. The driveway culvert is finished and that was awful work, shoveling steaming hot asphalt in 90+ degrees.

Latest dilemma is the required hurricane shutters. I object to being forced to provide protection for your own home. It should be optional if it does not affect others. The risk of our home being hit by a hurricane is ridiculously miniscule yet the whole coast must comply. Absurd. The insurance companies must be behind it.

Projects still needed for occupancy: Stair rail, remove pepper trees (non native, invasive), finish hooking up plumbing fixtures after the kitchen countertop is installed, shutters,

My husband can do, build or fix damn near anything, but if he cant, he knows someone personally who can. "And for that, we thank you" (Tosh.O)

Regift me. Please!

As we finish the interior of our new home, guests come to see. My sisters visited this week and brought gifts:

i LOVE that these gifts cost them little to nothing. One from my sisters home, the other from a thrift store. That makes them even more meaningful to me. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
I recently read of a challenge to not buy anything new for 1 year. Could you?
When my kids were young, and sometimes still, when we would go to kid parties, my boys would choose something in their rooms that they no longer played with, in good condition, that they would gift to their friends. Some friends would do the same in return. One of our favorite was the gift we received from Will Parrish, his boxing gloves and kick boxing protective wear. The boys had endless fun with these for years, and even to this day, when all their friends gathered to rumble in the front yard and show their stuff. We laughed so hard we cried.
I have received gifts in the past that you just "knew" were regifts. Someone might find that offensive. I appreciate it. It still needs to be appropriate, but when the right person/occasion comes along, it works.

Meet "Blue"

We have adopted a 3 month old, Catahoula pup. Kids named him Blue.
He chases the chickens. He is playful, smart, wants to play with Chibi, our chihuahua, who just growls at him.

Home Sweet Home

Our new home has arrived. I was taking garbage to the road (which is a quite a journey) when a neighbor was driving by. She stopped and said "Congratulations, your house is beautiful". She went on to say that it was very peculiar to drive by each day and then all of a sudden one day there is a HOUSE there!

It was quite an adventure getting it from Georgia to its foundation.


Anyway, it has had its trials, delays, over budget, etc. But its here, its big, its v well built.
It is still a work in progress and we probably wont move in for a couple more months.

"No Poo" Happy Hair (& pits)

I haven't used shampoo in nearly 4 months. Its healthier and cheaper. I no longer get dry itchy scalp and my hair is happier. Here is the method:

http://www.naturemoms.com/no-shampoo-alternative.html

For that matter, i haven't used deodorant is a couple years. I use a crystal rock made from mineral salts. No aluminum. Works great. One lasts more than a year!


Im always happy to share healthier,
simpler and cheaper alternatives!

A little off topic, but another cheap alternative:
The other day I researched and discovered a way to clean out my dryer ducts without spending the $50 on a gadget or hiring a pro.

I blew a ribbon thru my ducts with a leaf blower, then i cut off the end of a new toilet brush and pulled it thru the ducts a few times to get all the lint out. Worked like a charm.

The house that never was...

We bought 3 acres in N. Merritt Island in March 2002 to build a new home. Its a beautiful piece of property with loads of oak trees dripping in moss, a pond in front, garage for Rod, privacy, wildlife. We have seen huge owls, some wild hogs (we ate 'em), otters and fish and a gator in the pond, bald eagle, osprey, turtles.

We have recently finalized plans and our modular home is now in production at the plant in Georgia. Finally! It's been a long road.

This is where the house will go.

Modular homes are built in factory, stronger, more energy efficient, better sealed and insulated, no danger of mold from elements, faster.
“In a FEMA study following the Hurricane Andrew in 1992, it was found that wood-frame modular homes in hard-hit Dade County, Florida, stood up to the devastating winds better than stick-built homes."

Will post when home is being delivered and set.
Looking forward to the space to breathe, but will miss being close to the beach.

I don't hate schools

Defining Unschooling:

"Unschooling is trusting that kids will learn when and how they need to/choose to for their own purposes, their own agenda, as if school didn't exist. Radical unschooling takes that trust and poses the question - If I trust my kids will learn to read/add/whatever in a manner that works for them, why not trust that they can also learn to eat/sleep/etc in a way their own bodies need? In both cases, I'm right beside them to provide information and assistance and facilitate access as they need/choose it." Deb R.

I dont hate schools. My dream is to open an alternative Summerhill type school for kids of all ages. Just show up, go to classes only if you want to, freedom to play, work, dream, sports, workshops, gaming, computer room, discussion, art, electronics, music, gardening, automotive, carpentry, all there for the taking, nothing mandatory. All run by a student government that makes the rules.

I came across this:

"I think a school without a curriculum is better than a homeschool with lessons at the kitchen table."
by Sandra Dodd, who also wrote,

I think it's not the school building and the bus and the cafeteria and the books that are harmful. It's certainly not the music program or the well-stocked art room or the theater department with working stage amenities. It's not the school library. It's the shaming and force-marching through reading chapters and answering questions without talking. It's being pressed to read one book while another more interesting book is to lie untouched. It's memorizing and reciting things that aren't even useful or true.
Because what I care about is children having options and parents being supportive and compassionate.
Schooling isn't as good as natural learning."
Sandra Dodd

I'm a "Beaner"!

No, I'm not actually Mexican. I beach comb and collect seeds that wash ashore from other lands, like the hamburger bean (right). Cocoa Beach is a good location for finding drift seeds as well as host of the annual International Seabean Symposium. People bring their collections from near and far to discuss finding, polishing, growing, sharing, crafting, etc. Some are lucky, some mystical, some make great jewelry or art . This is my collection. Yeah, i know, "get a life". But there's plenty of science here.

Sea-beans (also known as drift seeds) are seeds and beans that are carried to the ocean, often by freshwater streams and rivers, then drift with the ocean currents and (hopefully!) wash ashore.

(These i found in an hour or two on vacation on Costa Rica's west coast near Dominical.) Seabeans get caught up in the global currents much like the garbage that collects in the pacific gyre where there is a floating island of plastic twice as big as the state of Texas.
(WARNING! not for environmentally sensitive viewers)

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch! - The bulk of it will not decompose in the traditional sense. Exposure to sunlight will eventually break it down into small pieces that will make it more likely to be consumed by wildlife like sea birds and fish which leads to death of the animal. Furthermore, plastic pieces can absorb toxic chemicals, which migrate up the food chain and eventually make it to humans. For every pound of plankton there are as many as six pounds of marine litter. Sad but true.

Ron Paul

I was never too seriously interested in politics until recently. Oh, I did vote, registered democrat, until Ron Paul. I switched parties for that man! He made perfect sense to me. No one else was saying it. Stop the spending, stop the war. I joined the Ron Paul Revolution. Not many took him seriously. When it gets bad enough, maybe they will.

"A govt strong enough to give you
everything you need is powerful enough
to take everything you have."