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

I Will Go With You

But probably i wont. :)))

Still working on getting better... dancing to release the stagnate energy in my body.



XoxoXO

Morel Mushrooms (again! in Video...)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

i could not resist going back for more. I ate them up in a stir fry... soooo good!
....



xxoxox

Dance Time, Stereo Love

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Having another burst of cabin fever on this cold rainy spring day!
must...move...my...body... or i will goooo insane.



xoxox

And For Some Laughs...

George Carlin - Stuff - watch more funny videos

xoxoxox

Ritual-less Ritual

Change. It's not just the seasons... it's another one of those things that happens inside me, something that feels like I made it over a hurdle I didn't even know i was jumping. Then i am free'd by the feeling of my feet hitting the ground. Not Running. Standing still, seeing, watching, learning.

All my life people have thought I was a free spirit and most my life I have felt largely trapped by this, that and the other... something always holding me back (usually I could blame the stagnation on my health). It's not some kind of hippy thing, like I am going to fee myself by joining a nudist colony & OM'ing... it's inside me. Something that says, I am free to have what i deserve, free to seek what interests me, free to look in the mirror and like what i see no matter what the world may see, free to love what i love, free to run around a big fire with headphones stuck in my ears & dance. And no one is watching. No needs to be.

I never was good at religion, rituals, worship or agreeing with the Pope. And I'm still not. I wouldn't even make a good witch. My religion is watching the fire with a smile, having enough food and being thankful for it, having a place to live that reminds me of what heaven would be like (at least during the better seasons), and hell during the winter. Trials of sacrafice and empowerment in simple tasks, like staying warm, finding friends in a remote location, getting behind the wheel of a car and finally being able to drive again.

And freedom for me = i can get my feet dirty. Completely black.

XOxoxoxoX

The Arts Will Save Me (and us all)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

and now for something completely different.
art, nature. have similar effects when you submerge yourself into them. and let go of the outcome.



xoxox

WHat You WAiTinG FoR! (Dance Off)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So my theory is, if i embarass myself enough times, evenutally i will break. And be a free spirit like i always wanted to be. This one is helping bunches.

Go see more at Dance Off!



xoxoxoxo

Dance Off!

With the dawning of my video camera, I have found a dance mania re-kindled in me. Being a recluse about to embark upon a long long winter that may include many snowed in days... I came up with a lil' something fun for us all to do while inside.
A Dance Off!
No for realz... I even made ah-nother website for it today for those dancing fools, brave ones, silly ones, ready to be embarassed ones and even the ones who will blow us away.
Wanna see the spanky new website, then go HERE.
....
So here is how DANCE OFF works:

• I will pick one song a week (maybe more as we go along) for everyone to video themselves dancing to
• Each person uploads their video and sends me the link so I can put it on the Dance Off post of the week

... it's that easy!

The best part is EVERYONE is invited. Young, old, housebound, wheelchair bound, slow moving, fast moving, dramatic, bouncey, beautiful, hidious, professional and hopefully hysterical too! The whole point is to have fun, for free!

Sooo, Go NOW to find out what this weeks song is...
like now!
Xoxoxox

My Cat Is Scared Of My Dancing

My Cat Is Scared Of My Dancing from Leslie Richard on Vimeo.

My Cat Toots gets really unraveled when I turn up the music and start dancing... I don't know why? But you can watch and see. ;)

....

Dancing Benefits ::::: Health, attitude, breathing, self love, feeling hawt, and the phobias of little cats. I have this idea that when people are happy they treat other people and the earth with kindness/balance. Dancing makes me happy.

Especially when I am snowed in with my very own cabin fevah.!

XOxoxox

Debris Hut (part 2)

Yep... I am STILL working on my debris shelter. But I have a reason why this quick easy type of emergancy/survival shelter is taking me months - I was waiting for the leaves to fall off the trees this fall season and use them, cause I am not really in any hurry. :)
JuJu my donkey watched me gather wet leaves in a bag with great curiosity, and wondered why I was tossing them on top all these sticks.

She really started to think it was a cool project (and not just a big stupid scary bag of leaves) when i decided to see how hay would work, and used part of a moldy bale of hay in combo with the leaves. The hay was thicker, and more sturdy, it also held to the sticks better.

But JuJu kept trying to steal the parts of the hay that weren't moldy.... ;)

And I am still not finished this project.... (i know, it's taking way too long!)

I am thinking of covering it in one layer of hay, then one layer of leaves.

But what should be on top of that to hold the leaves down properly? Suggestions appreciated!!!

Xoxoxox

Eco Cabin Exterior Facelift Ideas that are FREE

My cabin, is a bit more of a shack... I'd like to think of it as the Love Shack though! Let's just say it's been known to be called such names as "rickety", "not year round", and "hunters cabin" - but since I have moved into the tiny wonder back in March I have happily put a ton love labor into making the once seasonal shack into a year round cozy home.

Some projects are more affordable to start then others (a more efficient roof VS. gray water system), depending not only on your budget but on your personal level/ability to do your own labor OR maybe having some huge group of friends who somehow wanna spend their time fixing your house instead of theirs. :)

*

Here are three simple, free and beautiful ways to transform a rustic cabin into a WOW, HOW AWESOME rustic cabin:::::

1. Change all the outside poles/columns/supports from the square store bought ones to small tree trunks. How is it eco to cut down the trees? Well I used a hemlock tree next to my house which was dead, I not only opened up more sun to my front herb garden, but made use of the wood in a way that took my cabin out of the "rickety" category and into southern rustic beauty.

I am using the hemlock trunks all the way around the porch. It's awesome how well it blends in with the forest!

If ya don't believe me what a HUGE change using naturally shaped trees make on the cabin's appearance, check out this BEFORE picture below... (that is the Luck cabin before I moved in and made any changes, the porch poles were rotten 2x4's....)
2. Cut your own railings! The forest is full of downed trees/thick branches, and it takes little effort with a hand saw to cut some porch railings, gather them and then get really creative about adding them to the outside or inside of the house. If you don't live in a forest, there are people having branches cut off their hardwood trees in the city all the time, why not ask a local company if you can pick some up one day.

3. Stones! I can never really have enough of them, I am a total sucker for the look of a stone path. I got these rocks (pictured below) from when the pipes for my gravity fed water were buried and these were dug up...if you don't have alot of big rocks, or enough rocks think of all the things you could do with even just a small amount of rocks - mosaics on stepping stones made of concrete (which is cheap), mosaics on a bathroom floor or wall, around some windows, decorating a hand built cob oven.

The main point is, wherever you are there are some resources that are probably free or cheap, so start looking around. I find that when I am forced into FREE creativity, things just turn out so much more interesting then anything Lowes or Home Depot could sell me.

*

EXTRA TIPS FOR CHEAP & ECO HOME IMPROVEMENT:

• Buy from thrift stores when decorating! Piles of fabrics, fun lighting, lamps, quilts, pictures, paintings and then some wait for you for only dollars.
• Need new thermal windows, try your local HABITAT FOR HUMANITY first - tons of house building supplies for much cheaper.
• Use your own skills, and the skills of local people around you!
• One man's trash is another's treasure, think out of the box - someone somwhere is throwing away what you need... go find it.

YAY for DIY!

PS- if anyone has done similar minded projects I would love to see pictures, send links!

xoxox

Peek-A-Boo With JuJu (the donkey)

After reading up in various places online about Training A Donkey, I finally found one thing that was utterly consistent throughout all the methods & ideas (which ain't easy)... Donkeys are curious! And this curiosity is the way to getting their friendship, love, attention, and eventually it is your biggest tool in training them to do specific tasks.
*
I decided to play Peek-A-Boo with JuJu, to see if she would take interest in my silly antics... this was not a recommended game, I just started doing it to see how she would react. I would stand outside her stall quietly, and then poke my head around saying "ah-boo" in a soft, happy voice. She immediately wanted to know what was going on with me. I did it about 3 times before she had to come out the stall and follow me... at which point I snuck around the barn wall to the other side and poked my head out again, saying "ah-boo"....

She caught onto the game and when we got to the next wall she passed me up to show me she knew where I was going already, and had figured out the exciting plot to Peek-A-Boo. WOoo-hooo!

After she came fully around the barn I rewarded her with a treat she loves in her special "treatsie pot". I would love to know more training games we could play together, if anyone has any suggestions, has used any specific techniques, or knows of one fun for us BOTH, send me a link- pretty please!

JuJu Bean says YAYAYAYAYAY!

XOxox

Mud Wrestling in the Luck Pond

It didn't start out that way... it always starts out innocent, with a finger, a wellie boot, then a toe. Next thing ya know, your legs are sinking and your knees are covered in mud. Then someone pushes you down in the mud and your face is splattered....... then IT'S mutha' freakin' ON! Mud Wrestling!!!!! Mud Zombies start coming towards the other people who are watching in surprise, to pull them down into the dark skanky smelling muck........ dirty loves company!

There was plenty mud slinging, mud being shoved down other people's pants, mud squished just for the lovely feeling of squishing it... i think someone even put some in their own pants to see what it would feel like if ya poop'ed yourself! That is what good times are about. :)

Swimming with the snapping turtles didn't last long though...

This is the kinda girl gang you don't wanna F with. trust me.

Thank gawd for the outside shower here at the cabin which actually has warm water - but only a little bit so we all piled in to wash our clothes and faces off before the warmth ran out!

YiPPpeeeee Zipppppieee!

Xoxoxox

Part One: Building A Lean To (Debris Shelter)

With the picture above in my mind, ingrained into my memory from reading various outdoors, survival, camping style books - on a whim I took a pile of dead branches from some recently cut trees, and started constructing a make shift Leslie style lean to!
*
I lucked out cause some kids showed up when I was partly started and begin helping me by carrying, cutting, and building the primitive shelter too. (That is my sister's kid Cam, my cousin's kid Stephanie, and then last in the pic is me. I know I am the same size as kids.)
I am using a live tree for the 'backbone' of the shelter that is leaning all the way to the ground, making a perfect beam for an A-frame type of debris shelter. The A-frame shape is my favorite kind and I have always wanted to try it out!
In the pic below you can see I even began a small door on the side, so it could have more then one entrance, and just to see how it would work out. Pretty neat! :)

After a few hours the kids left and I was back into it by myself - loading on thick branches for good structure and lots of little ones in between. I tried to have the biggest ones go all the way over, or at least to the top of the 'backbone'.

After many hours of work on this today, this is how far i got...

It looks like a cozy cave!

But it will need more on top to be rain proof....

XOxoxo

PS- taking suggestions on how to get to PART 2 .... what should the 'cover' be on top the stick structure?

Nature DIY: Making Paper Birch Garland

The bark from the paper birch tree is very strong and the wood in the middle tends to rot long before the outside - leaving these beautiful birch bark tubes - with all kinds of character, roughness, texture, knots, and curls. I like it alot and decided to make some simple garland with it.

Is this the most chic, hip and cool project? Nope. It's just fun to play with things in nature... (also if you have kids they love stringing things together like this!) I myself, just have an inner kid.
The easiest way to string the pieces is to use a safety pin on the end.... I used soy yarn as a string.

For the pieces that were not perfect cylinders, i used a hole puncher to punch a hole to string through and it worked perfect!
The two end pieces on both the right and left I punched holes in to tie a knot so the garland can stay in place.
YAY! This is a gift for someone and I can't wait to give it. Handmade gifts, even weird hippy-fied nature ones are the best. :)
Xoxoxoxo

Visitor's F-en Rock!

I was all YIPPEE when I saw this truck arrive, because it held my super good friends Heather and Phoenix. We used to be neighbor's in Asheville, and back when my seizures got really bad and I could no longer drive... i sold my truck, that golden Ford Ranger pictured above to Phoenix so that it would get some good use. How fun that it now brings them to visit me here in Hot Springs now!!!

The best part of the visit (and the only part before my camera battery died) was when I showed them the 'bog' of swampy mush mud and tangled trees, in a little spot that resembles something from the imagination of Jim Henson... something for other creatures or dimensions. Water has turned the trees every which way- up, down, braided, horizontal, exposed roots with large enough holes to crawl under. The area is like having my own small piece of Louisiana swamp in my backyard and I am enthralled with it more then any other section of land.

That is Heather, crossing on a multi tree'd tree....
And Phoenix, coming out of a root hole underneath another tree ( an old paper birch)!
Some trees almost made sense, but others had things going on that were impossible to ever figure out what had happened, how it was shaped - what was root or trunk?!? A history too old and twisted to ever read.

Me and Heather played on one of the most twisted bizarre trees of all. It was fun. :)
Heather also brought me beautiful gifts- scarves to make shirts out of and a tiny teacup from the thrift store. Thanks ya'll for coming to my remote cabin!!!

Bye bye!
XoXo

Humor: Black Sheep

I found this ad below today in the local classifieds called iwanna.com , it made me laugh. :)

"Free black sheep to anyone who can catch. 828-626-XXXX."

XoXo

Book Review: Southern Highlanders and Animal Farm

Constant snow = alot of reading while stuck inside.

Here is a quickie review of the books I borrowed to read:::

Southern Highlanders ->
I thought at first that this book would not interest me, mainly because I am not a historical reader... but this particular book is written like a story telling journal of the author's experience when he moved into the Appalachian Mountains around the year 1907. Being that I live in these mountains I found the descriptions of the early houses, people, and the natural habitat to be something that sucked me in without expecting it. It also amazed me when he describes which native animals were still abundant, the plants in their thickest tangle, and the trees before they were logged to hell. Another fascinating point for those into wilderness survival, the settlers of the mountains here were extremely isolated and could not rely on outside help or trade for survival so the inventive, almost barbaric, and extreme ways in which they created a code of surivial within their community is something to be in awe of.
On a side note, if you love to read about people taking the law into their own hands, moonshining and family feuds (not the game show but real murderous ones) , then 70% of the book will thrill you.

Animal Farm ->
You might guess that I am like a little kid when picking up a book, if it says "animal" in the title I pretty much will read it whether it has to do with animals or not. This book is all about animals, although with some deeper political meaning that is beyond me cause I don't know dookie about politics. I still really enjoyed the book though - the basic story is that the farm animals decide to have a revolution against the farmer who takes care of them... the animals feel they are working too hard and not getting enough food and become inspired after a sage like pig tells them to revolt. This is the kind of story that pulls itself full circle and is full of little life lessons about community, society, and the nature of... well nature (in a Darwin sort of light). This book is not happy, not uplifting, and does not end good. Whatever the detailed political meaning was that went over my head, the end is very clear. (It also might make you hate humans and pigs, so beware!)
The best part of the book is that one of the characters is a donkey... and of course, the donkey is the smartest one of all the animals. :)

Anyone ever read these too? Ya'll know I love book suggestions, so please keep them coming!

XoXo

Things I Do While It's Snowing and I'm Sitting On The Toilet

I built a toilet paper roll Stone Henge!
XoXooooXxx