Simple Question

Or maybe it's not so simple...


If you could change one thing about your life (or yourself), what would be it and why?

Leave your answer in the comments section. I'm very curious to see what will be written, I'll write my answer later, I have one but don't want to influence anyone's answer. :)

I'll temporarily remove restrictions on posting comments, anyone can comment, the comments will still be moderated though.  Sorry, had to put the restrictions back on for anonymous postings, thanks spammers, you ruin it for everyone.



All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Eggs & Scorpions

One has nothing to do with the other, but I'm writing about them in the same post, so here goes, LOL!

Yesterday after church, I went by a friend's house to buy some eggs, like many people who live in my neighborhood, they have far more laying chickens than they really need for just the 2 of them, so they almost always have a surplus of eggs. When I got there and asked about buying the eggs, I was informed that I couldn't buy any, but I could have some. She went into the kitchen and promptly brought out a dozen and a half, I offered to pay again but was again turned down, I have to say that I have the best neighbors! These are pretty eggs too, she has the kind of chickens that lay colored eggs, greens and such, they are almost too pretty to crack and eat, almost, they are very tasty too, so that makes it easier to use them.

I do recycle the egg shells, I rinse them out and allow them to dry, once dry I break them into small pieces then spread them in my garden. The calcium and other goodies are excellent for the garden, especially tomatoes, they require lots of calcium to prevent blossom end rot, I also understand it deters slugs and such, they don't like crawling across the broken shells, though I haven't seen even one slug out here.

Now to the scorpions. They are back, about a week ago, one fell on me inside the sky castle, fortunately I didn't get stung by that one, last summer we had a major rash of them, we were killing 2-3 ever night inside the house, I did get stung last year, I have to say, they HURT! Normally I'm a live and let live kind of gal, but in this case, I have to take action, I do not want to get stung again.

When the one fell on me the other day, that was the last straw, I decided it was time to go on the offense, I know that they fluoresce under UV light, so I purchased a 51 bulb UV LED flashlight. I received it on Friday and as soon as it got dark, I put it to work. I went around the sky castle out to about a 10 foot radius, I found and killed about a dozen of them. I don't really want to eradicate the population, I know they are beneficial, but dang it, they HURT when you get stung by one. If they would just stay outside, I wouldn't mind so much, but they manage to find their way inside, and they have a habit of crawling up to the ceiling and falling down on you.

The second night, I repeated the same thing, just after dark, I went around and didn't find as many, I killed about 5-6. This morning before daylight, I walked between my house and my neighbor's house, I killed 2 of them. I think I'm making a dent in the extreme local population. I understand they can live several years (5 is what I remember reading), I also understand that poisons do not work on them very well, and I don't want to poison everything around me, it's just better to kill them directly as I find them.

I also use the UV flashlight inside the sky castle, I look around to make sure there aren't any scorpions crawling around, since they are active at night, it's hard to spot them, but with the UV light, they glow quite brightly and are easy to spot. I keep it next to me at my computer, and when I go to bed, that way if I think there might be one nearby, I can grab the light and look around. It makes me feel much better.

This light works great, it does give off some visible light, that is not necessarily a good thing for the UV part, but for what I'm doing, it's great because I don't have to carry and use a separate flashlight, I can see just well enough to not trip over anything or run into something unpleasant. The flashlight lights up the scorpions quite nicely, they glow a bright green, they almost don't look real, but they are very real and become very squished as I find them. This uses 3 AA batteries, not so many that I mind using them, but it's enough juice to put out quite a bit of light, I have spotted scorpions at 8-10 feet away, though mostly I am finding them at about 4-5 feet. I like the LED part, it puts out good light without using much juice, so my batteries will last longer.

Happy Independence Day everyone! Have a safe 4th of July!



All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Summer Days Before The Monsoon Season

Summer is in full swing, the garden is growing, the sky castle is growing, well sort of growing, it's being improved anyhow. PB has been working on the roof of the extra room on the end of the west deck. I like saying "west deck" because I hope to someday have other decks around the sky castle. It's been so blasted hot that PB only works in the mornings and the evenings. We are supposed to be getting some rain this weekend, though they keep pushing it back, we had 50% chance of rain on Saturday, now it's a 30% on Sunday, I just want it to RAIN!

I've been busier than ever, I am still a caretaker for a friend out here, I go to her house 3x a week and do whatever needs to be done, that usually means cooking, cleaning and such. I'm also driving another lady into town once a week, sometimes more often. She is losing her eyesight and isn't comfortable driving anymore, so I get to go into town at least once a week and do whatever shopping I need to do, we tend to go to the same places so it works out great for both of us, I help her with her shopping too. I bought some brightly colored t-shirts, hot pink, red, orange, safety yellow and purple, I wear one when I'm out with her so that when we are in the stores, she can spot me easily, she has some eyesight, and can still see color quite nicely, I don't have to stick to her like glue, this way she knows when I'm next to her and when I'm at the other end of the aisle.

Back at the sky castle, we hung up a second hummingbird feeder, and the hummers are quite happy about it, just having one means the most dominant hummer gets most of the food, now more of the hummers can get some, though they still fight over it. Right now it's not so bad, but when the Rufus hummer shows up, they are very aggressive and will not share at all, with the second feeder, this will give everyone a chance to feed, unless a second Rufus shows up...

Our west deck is nicely illuminated now, when my Dad came out to visit, he arrived bearing gifts (my Dad is the best!), one of those gifts was a package of those solar lights, this was meant to go on the trail between our house and our neighbor's house. PB had other ideas, he placed them outside around the deck, including the steps he made for the deck, the lights are subtle, they don't make so much light as to attract a myriad of night bugs, but they make a soft light so that you can walk outside on the deck at night and not fear tripping over something or taking a misstep on the steps. PB's Mom also sent a package to us, one of the items on this package was a solar light, this one is shaped like a decorative lantern, the light is green and is quite pretty. We placed it where we can see it from inside the sky castle, PB's Mom is also the best!

I received a printer last week, it's something I have wanted and somewhat needed since we moved here, it would seem that my old all in one printer/scanner/copier died a couple of weeks before moving out here, I had already quit working at Best Buy (bummer), money was real tight and I couldn't justify spending any money on another one when it wasn't a complete necessity. I was able to buy this with my Amazon.com credits from the clicks and sales from this site and the other sites where I write, thanks to everyone who made their purchases through my links, those pennies really do add up!

Here is the printer I purchased, it's a Canon PIXMA MG5220 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-In-One (4502B017), I wanted an all in one printer, I was very interested in the scanner part, since I do a lot of crochet now, it's much easier to scan the pattern (from a magazine or book) and take that with me, or printing off songs (lyrics) so I can use it at my music keyboard, I'm getting better and better at playing BTW, at church this Sunday a couple of people told me I was sounding very good.

Back to the printer, before I ordered it, I was concerned about it working on my off grid system, I knew that a laser printer would not work on a modified sine wave inverter, but I wasn't sure about this particular printer, I was mainly worried about the scanner part not working. I emailed Canon and asked them about it, apparently they don't get questions like that, they couldn't give me an answer, finally they just said "try it and see".  I even considered getting a battery backup (UPS) but then I remembered that even with those, they say not to hook up a printer on the battery side, so that wouldn't work either.

I am happy to state that it does work very well on my system, wow have printers changed in 3 years! It took about an hour to hook it up and get it running, it was mainly the software/driver side that took so long, but I was patient and followed all of the steps. I chose not to use one of the features on this one, it has a wireless printing feature, I can always access that later if I want, but for my needs, I just don't need it, but I'm glad it's available.

I'm being very frugal with it, I only ordered one package of paper, it also had free shipping so it didn't run my total bill up at all. I haven't gone crazy with printing and such, I want to save as much of the ink and paper as possible, even though this printer has separate ink tanks for each color, I still don't want to have to shell out more $$$ for more any time soon.

I have more to write, but I'll save it for another post. Oh, almost forgot to report, I have another book to review, I just received it, it looks very promising, more to come later! You can see my other book reviews here CLICK FOR BOOK REVIEWS, and in case you haven't noticed, I'm now offering ad space on this blog, the prices are very reasonable, I also limit the number of ads so your ad will not be lost in a sea of ads. Be sure to visit my newest advertiser, http://www.shedandshelter.com/, there's lots of great resources there about different ways to make/build/purchase conventional and unconventional homes, many are very inexpensive and ingenious.



All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Father's Day

I know this is late in the day, but the day is still here, so I'll write

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

to my Dad, who just happens to be the best Dad in the world!

I love my Dad so much, and I am so fortunate to still have him and he is in good health, and at almost 83 years of age, he still drives all over the place and is active.

I have learned so much from him, things like how to cook, how to fix things, how to be independent, how to be frugal, how to forgive and to always look to God no matter what.

Thanks Dad for being there for me. :)

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Sad Days

If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you are aware of my baby girl Pekoe, my long hair chihuahua. I have had her since she was weaned, she was always a good dog, quiet, never a barkey or nippy dog, well maybe she was a nippy dog, especially to strangers (we just kept her at a safe distance, I was more worried about her hurting herself than hurting other people)... but she was still my sweet little baby,  I could go on but I won't.

About a month ago, she got pretty sick, I hoped she would spring back, but at 12+ years old, she just didn't bounce back like she used to. I took her to the vet and he said she had a heart murmur, by that time she had gotten pretty sick, the vet gave her a long acting antibiotic shot and said let's see how she does.

I took her home and watched as she got sicker and sicker each day, I took her back to the vet, he gave her another antibiotic shot and a cortisone shot. He prescribed a heart medicine for her and sent us home.

By this time, she had gotten so much sicker, she coughed constantly and had little strength, she wouldn't eat and had lost a half a pound over a long weekend, that's a lot for a little dog, I had always kept her weight around 5-6 pounds most of her life. When I took her to the vet the first time (on this illness) she was at 7.5, in the following week, she went down to 7.

She then started bloating, mainly her stomach, it really affected the way she walked and stood, so I called the vet again and he prescribed a diuretic. So now, on a heart pill and a diuretic, she still wasn't getting any better, in fact she was going downhill pretty fast. I had been debating if it was time to put her to sleep.

On Wednesday of last week, I was supposed to be going to town (3 hours away) with the lady I work for, but the day before, Pekoe's back legs swelled up 2x the normal size. That wasn't a good sign at all. She couldn't walk more than a few steps before falling down in exhaustion, I called my friend to tell her I wouldn't be going to town with her. I knew that I would be taking her to the vet for the final time. I spent the night in tears, praying to God, asking that He take her instead of letting her suffer. The following day, I spend the entire morning with Pekoe in my bed for the last time, we cuddled and napped together.

I'll not write out the rest of what happened in any detail, it's too sad, let's just say that I took her to the vet, what clenched it for me is when I let her on the ground outside the vet's office to let her take her last squat, she couldn't get back up. She passed peacefully, looking into my eyes while I talked to her, the vet and his staff were gentle and compassionate.

I am so glad I didn't have to drive either way, a good friend took me in and talked to me all the way home, it worked out the best way it could.

When I got home with Pekoe, PB had made her a proper casket, with little handles. We picked out a spot to bury her and PB dug the hole, he made it pretty deep, he was standing up to his waist in the hole. We put Pekoe in the casket, along with some food and water so she will never be hungry or thirsty, I also put in some Cheerios cereal, that was her favorite morning snack. I included a toy that PB's mom sent last Christmas. She is buried near the garden, under a stand of trees. PB is making a headstone for her.

This is very sad for me, for anyone who doesn't understand why or how someone can be so hurt by losing a pet, my reply is I feel sorry for you as it's clear that you never had a deep relationship with a pet, they have unconditional love, they are so trusting, to me she was part of my family and the pain I feel is a direct reflection of the love I felt for her, and she for me.

If you want to see the pictures of the casket, click on the "read more" below, if you do not wish to see the casket (with Pekoe in it, then don't click on it).

Giveaway

The contest is now over, congrats to the winner. :)

))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

Here's another giveaway from Patriots Against The NWO, this one is for a book Five Acres and Independence: A Handbook for Small Farm Management, go here to enter:

http://patriotsagainstthenwo.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-great-book.html

And stick around on the site, there is a lot of great info there. :)




All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Fire Update

As you can imagine, I didn't get much sleep last night, though I was confident that if the fire began coming back, the firefighters would let us know, they stayed at my church all night watching the fire, you just don't fight fires in the brushy wilderness at night, God bless each and every one of them.

Around 3am, the wind shifted, it wasn't a strong wind, just a couple of miles an hour, that brought the smoke into the neighborhood, (I just heard 4 airplanes go over, I didn't get up to see them, I know they are fighting the fire), I read that last night the fire burned another 500 acres overnight. I went to bed shortly after that, but had a hard time going to sleep with all the smoke in the air.

This morning the wind shifted back in our favor, (here's another airplane going overhead, this time I went out and looked, it's the spotter plane circling around the fire). It's an odd thing to hear so much air traffic, we might have a small plane a couple of times a month, and the occasional helicopter, it's quite the sight (and sound). The firefighters started back up fighting the fires this morning, a few friends sent me some pictures, the pictures are big, click on them to see the full size. The last one, if you zoom in, you can see how close the fire is to a home. I believe we are going to be OK, there are lots of great firefighters and equipment fighting this fire, the winds are light and the humidity is up.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

The Mountains Are Burning... Again

We had the promise of some rain, some much needed rain, but instead all we got was a lot of lightening, thunder and fires... that was a couple of days ago, and fortunately our wonderful volunteer fire departments were able to put those fires out before they got too bad.

Today I went into town with a friend, I was gone most of the day, we noticed that there were lots of vehicles with flashing lights passing us going the other way (toward where I live), we knew there was another fire but didn't know where it was... until we started coming home. It was easy to see the huge plume of smoke, we were hoping that it wasn't near our neighborhood.

As we were approaching the entrance to our neighborhood, we could see many vehicles parked around, mostly emergency vehicles, by then it was painfully clear that the smoke was very close by. Our first thought was that we wouldn't be allowed to enter the neighborhood, but it seemed that no one was there to stop us. I spoke to the deputy there who was watching the smoke, he said it was not in our neighborhood, yet, and the wind was in our favor (blowing it away) but they were there just in case, along with the sheriff and the deputy, there was a big truck with a trailer, on the trailer was a big bulldozer, there were a few other emergency vehicles there. We checked our mail and headed into the neighborhood.

Near my friend's house, we had a perfect view of the mountain ridge that was on fire, it looked very close, I later found out that the fire had indeed breached the boundaries of our neighborhood. Tonight I can see a glow over my mountaintop, I'm not too worried though, there are firefighters watching the fire all night, just in case things turn for the worse. I'm hoping there will be some rain tonight, but I'm not holding my breath.

I found some great pix of our fire on the internet, this might give you an idea of how difficult it is to fight fires out here.

We appreciate the hard work and dedication of our volunteer firefighters and all the volunteers who are flying the helicopters and airplanes who are helping us.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Shed & Shelter

Hi everyone, you may have noticed a new sponsor on my page, the one at the upper left side, this goes an interesting site all about the different ways you can build or make a home, some are quite conventional, some are pretty far out there, but they are all great ideas, probably some you haven't even thought of.

http://www.shedandshelter.com/

Gary, the owner of this site contacted me a few days ago asking about advertising on my blog, I get emails from time to time inquiring about this, the majority of the time, these ads would be for something that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of my blog, I am not interested in making a quick buck at your (my readers) expense. Gary's site is very much in line with what I believe you would be interested in, also be sure to check out the very bottom of Gary's page, there are lots and lots of links to Gary's other sites, they look pretty good. :)

If you have a website that you would like to promote on this blog, please shoot me an email with the link to the site you wish to advertise, my prices are very reasonable.




All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat Book Review

There are people who have seemingly unlimited funds to purchase whatever goodies they want. This book is not written for them, though they could glean some great ideas. It's really written for the rest of us, those who have limited incomes but still want to go off grid and live comfortably.

Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat

Creekmore writes with a very down to earth style. He gets right to the point. He didn't fill this book with fluff -- this book is written from experience -- he actually lives the life and walks the walk. I live 100% off grid, and have done everything on the cheap, I've lived this way since Dec '07, I can tell you that this book has some useful ideas and info.

This book covers most all of the bases, I say most only because there is always something that could be added no matter how complete a book might be. You will learn about buying land cheaply, how to get shelter, how to power your place, this is something that can get expensive, but Creekmore tells you how to do it on the cheap. He also tells you how to deal with waste and sanitation, about security, food, water and more.

This isn't about being a hermit living in a cave, wearing skins and eating worms, Creekmore does use modern technology, lights, radio, computer... he just does it smarter, and he is sharing this info with the rest of the world in this book, hopefully so that the reader will have a head start on what to do and what not to do.

The part that I found very interesting is the security section, a couple of the ideas are the kind that make you slap yourself in the head and say "Why didn't I think of that???" I also like the section on how to find cheap land. Without that, you probably will not be able to even get started living anywhere on the cheap.

Whether you already own raw land and just want to know how to get started living cheaply, or you are just thinking about doing this, I highly recommend this book. Thanks Creekmore for sharing your life and experiences with the rest of us.

Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat

Read more book reviews here:

Book Reviews

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!