Stickin 'Mud' on a Shitty Wood Stove

I knew before i moved into the yurt that the woodstove was kinda moody.... it burned hot and fast - not the way you want it to burn for a long cold winter. Then when i was casually perusing the wood stove section of a Lehmans (non electric homesteading) Mag i saw this exact stove pictured....

Omgawd... the first words next to the glossy pic were "don't buy one of these cast iron stoves if you desire high quality." I laughed. and laughed. and then started to think of ways to work around it's poor quality...

While experimenting with pushing ash in the grill holes and also against the giant gap in the door, i felt like an uber genius when i thought of using a clay/ cob / -like substance to fill in the cracks and holes.

I could totally get toxic stuff to fill this in.... i could use glues and pastes and fire proof fiberglass ropes, but i hate chemicals. I hate ruining my home space with chemical stuff - because what i am looking for is to make things more comfortable, easier, healthy and pleasant.

!! Screw buying some creepy VOC goop..... cause for free i got some clay from a dug up pile of dirt on Dogget Mountain, and mixed it with rice flour. Anyone who eats gluten free knows rice flour turns to something awful and cement-ish when baked...
I mixed the clay, the rice flour and water in a bowl and started filling in the spots where air was leaking too much (causing the hot fast fires)......

and so far so good. There was some slight cracking in the clay, but i kept filling in the cracks as it shrunk and dried, making sure less air could get in the stove while the door is shut.

Now i have to do the smaller cracks.... like the cooktop and all around! and this doesn't solve the issue that the manufacturer didn't even bother to make the flue/damper fit correctly either! (lame and shame!) The only solution for that is to put a second one on there.

I am kinda glad about the cracks though, cause its fun to play with the clay... and i like experiments. :)))

XOoxOX

Little Leaf Hopper (red and blue/grey)

Sooooo tiny. sooooo friendly..... so pretty!
I wish i could have gotten a better close up of its awesome face!...... but the red beedy eyes say it all. :))))
oOXOOxX

Everybody Wants Direct TV... EvEeeeryBoDy

XoOXoOX

Yurt - y - Purty

THE Yurt! not to be confused with similar words.... like YoGurt, or Burp, or Yack, or Turtle.

Because mostly when people hear i live in a yurt, they think i live in a yogurt container or a pile of exotic animal dung.

I wasn't sure how living in a yurt would really fair out.... ya know... with weather and it being a bit like a giant tent and all. This yurt has been up for some years now and it seems like brand new still - no damage, smells free of anything nasty, a real simple yet functional floor plan.

I like it. Its kinda awesome and i think people should know its a good option for housing, during economic strife (building a regular common house is WAY expensive and wasteful).

..... but i digress into my planet-y thoughts.....

let's just look at the yurt..... cause its so fuckin neato!

This one has the silver bubble wrap type insulation (stays SO warm with a woodstove, its freaky! its even sweaty!) in between layers of fabric walls (inside wall/outside wall).... the fabric of this yurt is made of synthetic weather proof stuff and it works really well. I have already sat in pouring rain, scary winds, etc.... and it weathered just fine with no leaks. The window can be zipped shut completely, or the clear part can be pealed off (Velcro) and leave a screen for fresh air.

There is a built in section with a small bathroom and kitchen, and loft on top that space to sleep (get there by ladder)...

PLUS a bubble sun & moon roof in the center!!! Talk about wacky, trippy, weird.....

you can watch the clouds go by, the rain hit, the storms blow in, the stars above, the moon move across the sky, the sun come up...... the bubble makes you connect to flow of nature outside while sleeping inside.

I really like it. Impressed, is what i am.

*** i will show more details later, when i make a video on a sunny day! ****

(this yurt is made by the Colorado Yurt Company)

XooOXO

MOvinG is Change, Change keeps MOvinG

I am just starting to adjust and settle down into having left the Luck Cabin.

I dream of it every night while i sleep, seeing the cabin from the outside, orbiting around its walls only in my deep subconscience mind - never really inside it. My conscience mind keeps in the present when it can - but moving has that.... ya know.... epic feeling of change. Major change that is not always easy to flow with even if ya love it, trust it and know you want it.

Its not just the cabin though. It is leaving an adventure that borderlined dangerous, an experiment i had no idea i was walking into. I thought I was going to a peaceful self sustaining place to live my life...... but what i experienced was more like an initiation into some kind of survival club i didnt even know i joined! A survival club that copied the patterns of The SHinING movie for a basic script during winter.

My last drive over Dogget mountain with my truck packed with the last of my belongings- i felt chills come over my body, i felt like that initiation was ended and made known to me all at once. I felt the mountain was smiling on me, saying i had done a good job with the shit it gave me, and now i could go back into the world slightly below.... i felt Dogget mountain was proud, and it was spitting me back out the bottom a different person..... shooting me down it's curvy snake slide like a bird pushing its babies out its nest to fly. Or maybe like a kid down a water park slide for the first time.

*Lesson I learned : Winter.... shouldnt do it alone at the top of a harsh snowy mountain.

(this radiohead song below is exactly what leaving the Luck Cabin felt like to me........)

And now....

relief.

A kind of outward breath, so different I am not really breathing out but sucking back in and accessing whats here. Am I safe now? yes. and so are the animals (as safe as farm animals can be!) We gotta make some temporary alterations to our old patterns.... until we find our permanent home....

I didn't move back into the city, or even close to that kind of life. It's still the forest, it's still rural as hell, still at the end of a road no one goes unless they live here - i still will be chopping and carrying in my logs to stay warm, cooking all my meals, hiking, exploring, discovering. It's just not on top Dogget mountain, and that says it all to anyone who's lived FULLY year round on top Dogget mountain..... and not many do.

****

With that emotional super emo crap being said.... :))))

here is what the future is more like while i look for my true home...............

(and i dont mean naked orgy... i mean FREEDOM)...

**********WARNING THIS VIDEO CONTAINS NUDITY!!!!!!!!*******************

Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook by le-pere-de-colombe

XOXoxOXOX

MOved to a Yurt (Mad World Dance)

I am at my temporary new place! I live in a yurt...(secret location)

I like it bunches, i get tons of sunshine, there lots of wildlife/animal excitement here, plenty hiking and exploring, the yurt is warm with a woodstove.... andddd

just enough space to dance around and release my demons (aka anxiety/stagnant emotions).

XoxoxoX

The Beginning Of The End ::: The Move

Here I goooooo.............................

Winter came before fall could end.....

XoOXoOX

Bye Bye Luck Cabin

I have been preparing to leave the Luck cabin.... not just for the winter, not for a vacation, not for a weekend.... forever.

It was not an easy decision after everything i put into it, but i guess i am living up to the Gypsy nickname my parents have given me. A slow nomad, going from forest to forest... and then...

pass it on.

Each one.

Passing it to the next runner. The family who is taking over the Luck Cabin could not have been anymore perfect... they have a great respect for the forest, as a whole, and as each organism that comes together to make it function, that makes it what nature intended it to be. They will cherish this micro climate, with all its rare plants, and invisible animals (who only leave evidence of their lives rather then show themselves)...

............

I will leave my goodbye at that. So much could be said, it could be its own novel - but i have cried enough tears saying my goodbyes, and now I look into a open future again.

Searching for another place, to call home.

A search that has already lead me to many secret & strange tucked away places -

and each one holds bit by bit a puzzle piece to the whole i want to take root.... a bigger picture, my own personal perfection. And i have made the lists ..... the lists, always come to fruition, for better or sometimes for worse. And that is why.... before making wishes, be sure you want to get what you want. I made two this week, with two pennies - and just went ahead and repeated the first wish twice. Insure my intention.

For now (while moving), i am going to roll with the adventure part. Maybe not even roll with it, but roll IN it, Eat it, breathe it, love it, let it scare me, let it soothe me, let it open itself up to me. Let it make me laugh, let the giggles come, the horror, the disappointment leading to more unknown. I will take it all, exhausted or smiling. Cause i can't stop watching.

Xoxoxox

Larry Hopsalot (grasshopper)

(As named on FaceCrack by my friend Shannon.)

It's a face that more then a mother will love.

:)))

XoXOXOXx

Fuzzy Arm'ed Moth (Brown, Black and White)

Omgawd! wow. This tiny beautiful moth now rivals the great big Lunar moth in supreme awesomeness (in my mind)! This is the first time i have ever seen a moth with extended arms that look completely like a furry fuzzy beast fists.
The coloring is also very bold, and stunning - I am not sure how this works in nature as far as camo... it reminds me a hipster wedding cake.... so maybe it can hide at annoying, hip weddings? I would hide too.
Mr. Fuzz Arms did not blend in well with the colors of wood. But possibly it does with a tree that has alot of white fungus/mushrooms growing on it.

Does anyone know the name of this moth and what caterpillar it comes from?
XoxXOxoXo

Drive in the Rain

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

just a rainy day drive in the mountains.



XoxoxX

Kitten VS Donkey

JuJu the donkey made a new friend. Sort of. He seemed to be just chasin' tail!

XoxoXOx

TINY grasshopper (grey, tan, camo colored)

Soooo tiny, like the size of my pinky finger nail. anddd, it looks like little tiny wings on its back, but it's just two tan dots that are part of the pattern.
I like to think of them as evolving dragon wings.

Loooooook at his amazing old man, stone henge, pouty, big nosed face!!!! it's like something you see in a nursing home.
A face i love!
xoxoxoxox

Hanging Laundry To Dry (with JuJu the donkey and Bruiser the dog)

The Flagyl antibiotics are wearing off.... and just in time for the sunshine to come back out... and i can be in it's bright heat again! I call um' hot hugs.
So, now i have to wash all the new underwear i bought because I burned all the ones i was wearing while having the Giardia parasites. Fuck that parasite, it stole my whole summer... i show no mercy. I play no games, and i take no chances. Out with the old farted panties, in with the new!

Time to wash down all my clothes and really scrub the cabin (to shine like the top of the chrysler building?) too... just in time cause my mom who has cleaning OCD arrived in town yesterday and due to come over this week.... HELP mom, you must use your special talent on my sinks and toilet! Make it safe again! ;) ha ha

Oh yeah, and here is my life in video.... exciting yes? Just me and the animals hanging laundry together.



XOOXoxox

Magical Carrots::: ft. bruiser, juju and jen

My friend jen came to visit me and the animal crew today... and she brought JuJu her own bag of carrots. They really helped JuJu with not wanting to stomp on Bruiser the Dog...
Here is a video of how the carrots work like magic...



Thanks Jen for coming for a visit! You are such an awesome friend !!!
XOxoOX

Bug and Dog and Gang

When things shift, for me it always seems to be a violent shift.... but an invisible one. It's like a horrible fart that makes no sound, but the smell wakes you in the night, and you think WTF has that dog been eating in the woods?
My life... silent but deadly... smelt it but didn't delt it?

I have a dog now. My neighbors dog who is known as the neighborhood "whore dog" (AKA, Bruiser) - because he can't seem to stay at home. He doesn't say why and it doesn't matter how he ended up back at my house... he is here now. A big bag a gluten free dog food, and I made him his own pillow bed from some wool and fabric. He seems content, and has not yet run away.
I was feeling a bit more then disappointed this week, because the local primitive & outdoors living skills classes (called Firefly) was happening and i missed it due to having to take the Flagyl anti-biotics to kill the mean, evil, worthless giardia (parasite) that was plaguing my intestines.
And kill it, it seems to have done. Kill many things. No more diarrhea! YAY... but oh the fuckin' side effects that linger and my body is eager to throw off toxins, which means now the waves of nausea are again my pal. A friend I have to tell to go away.
I chant over and over "but no more diarrhea!"

I have noticed with the weird weather we are having this summer (it never gets hot here, and now it is downright chilly!)... the variety of bugs has shifted a bit from last year. I have seen maybe 3 live mosquitoes all summer. Had only one night of No-See-Ums.... and the moths are slightly different too. And remember the giant bug that got in bed with me? The Palo Root Borer Beetle....
here is a video of one outside, looking for a place to lay eggs and then actually laying them in a dead log outside the Luck Cabin!......


My animal gang is my joy, entertainment, my drama, and my laughter.
If you replace "my animal gang" with "my future man" ... that totally sounds like a terrible 'walk on the beach' personals ad. ha ha. I bet these guys would love to walk on the beach too... maybe i can book that whole animal crew and myself a plane ride to the Caribbean, the donkey would love it.
XOxOXoxOX

Floor Oiling 'Ballet' !

Originally when i finished my woods floors, I made my own non toxic oil out of bees wax, walnut oil, salt and vinegar (cooked a lil'). Now when i want to give it a quick re-finish i go over it with just the walnut oil.

I do it by hand... usually on my hands and knees. This time all i used my knees for was the dancing, swaying, sliding, fun because I oiled the floor using my feet! I took two wash rags and two rubber bands and fastened it to my shoes. :)))
Slip N Slideeeeeeeeeeeeeee



XOxOXOX

Luck Cabin For Sale

The Luck Cabin..... built in 1970 by some mountain man.... hardly touched until 2010/11 by me.... i did a total transformation to this cabin. I wanted to stay here for the rest of my life. But it ain't gonna happen. And now it's official, a small piece of my sweat and soul is for purchase.
$120,000.... and all this can be yours (see list under the pictures!) :))))
Above - outside shower, below is the back deck...
the mini barn with built in chicken coop me and my uncle designed and built.
and here is the front door.... go inside....
the living room and kitchen are open to each other... the loft is up top...

bathroom has composting toilet (dont worry i will clean it out before i leave), clawfoot tub and little birdbath sink...
and the one bedroom.....
ALL ABOUT IT :::::::::::::::

--- composting toilet
--- grey water system for sink and tub
--- gravity fed spring water to house, with outside non electric pump
--- pond
--- mini barn with storage space and chicken coop
--- fenced in approx. 1 acre
---property approx 8 acres
--- flat, sloping, steep, wooded, small cleared area for garden
---claw foot tub, stain glass window, outside shower
--- locally milled hickory wood floor
--- new metal roof with 40 year warranty
--- PEX (pecs) plumbing
--- gravel road
--- large deck and covered porch on three sides
---creek, springs
--- satellite internet, with French Broad's Broadband being installed
--- electric stove, electric fridge
--- new storm windows
--- woodstove

You Burn Bras, I Burn Panties

For the last week, I have been taking a antibiotic called "Flagyl".... it kills protozoa. While raging through the waves of illness and side effects to the drugs - i decided to take the time to test out my skills at being OCD. I am not so good at it, but i have mopped my floors about 4 times this week (more then i usually do all year), i have washed clothes, scrubbed the tub and sinks several times, i have taken everything out cabinets and wiped them down. Soon i will do a second round on cleaning out the composting toilet (supremely unpleasant now!)

Then as a final anti-parasite ritual (with practical purpose) i decided to buy all new underwear and burn the hell out of the pairs i have been wearing since i got sick.
Wasteful? yeah.... well, so are sick people who use tons of toilet paper, medicines, resources, and waste away doing nothing but being ill ---- and i dont want to re-infect myself, or some other person. My panties were the main thing i own that could questionably harbor the parasite because i don't have a dryer to high heat kill them, and with the summer humidity I can't quite get anything "dry" around here.
So BURNNNnnn bayb burn. Sorry panties.

The antibiotics have halted the diarrhea finally....but it's not like I went back to normal, because with all the other symptoms the pills cause i don't know left from right.
It's akin, to being a zombie, who has demons exercised out ya body, with sick gaggable nausea, headaches, stiff neck, and sleepy brain... with a side order of cramps, paranoia, confused/disjointed thoughts, and jumpy body parts. WTF. Oh and i can't go in the sun at all!!!
Vampire maker pills!

XoxOXO

We No Speak Americano (dance!)

I drank some Usnea tea and had a lil' burst of energy. YAY!
So here is my July 4th tribute. Except i forgot it was July 4th until a little while ago. oh! bad bad americano, i am!



XoxoxX

Ghost Of Myself

I went on a ghost story binge yesterday.... which made me want to make my own fake ghost picture in the Luck Cabin.
So here is me, dead and haunting you.
:)
In other news.... the test results came back from the allopathic doctor and I am free of parasites they say. Like 100%.
Only thing that sucks about that, is i only got about 30-40% better after having took the Para-shield pills. So what next?
Even though i paid the doctor in full and many many hundreds of my dollars, they refused to call me back and tell me what route i should take. Also they told me to go to my family doctor, which i dont have, DUH, cause most doctors suck. Then they promised to refer me after the holiday ends. But only to a GI clinic which i have been before that treated me very badly.
GO US health care!

So...... for now I will concentrate on balancing the after-battle damage. (parasites and all methods to kill the little shitheads can really put your digestive track out of whack and under serious distress. )
Fingers crossed.... for probiotics, usnea tea, salt baths, happy thoughts, etc.....
...........
a wise man asked me recently "is this a hill you are willing to die on"....
no,
fuck no. Not ready to be the ghost of myself just yet.

XOxoXoxo