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

To The Local Farmers Market

Warning ::: this video, is a bit dizzy ....




XooxXOx

Mating Ladybugs

CUte! Little ladybugs mating on woodland nettles....
(woodland nettles sting, but not nearly as bad as stinging nettles...)
there was a whole lotta shakin' going on!
XoXox

Grey Snake

MORE Snakkesss! Yesssss!
This is so cool. It's like a snake-a-thon out here the last two days. And all friendly snakes too, i think maybe it's a sign. Of what? I dont know.... but i could make up a buncha silly stuff it could mean.... and i am going to right now....
like :::

• Dont judge a snake just cause its a snake, look closely at it's nature/attitude
• I can find bunches of cool shit on my own (no need to lament aloneness making it harder to find bad ass stuff in nature.)
  
• sometimes you get what you wish for, especially if it is obscure and easy to deliver, like seeing snakes or lunar moths
• and if i think hard with my hippy mind.... i am SURE it means my kundilini is a' risen' (and i want to note here that spell check wanted to change "Kundilini" to "cunnilingus".)
  
• According to my "Animal Speaks" book.... it means Rebirth. That the snake represents swift fast changes and shifts, and healing... AKA, phoenix rising from the ash in fast forward! that is me!
  

YAY!
Is this a garter snake? I can't remember.
I love him regardless of his name though.
XOxXO

Mountain Laurel Blooming

All around the Luck Cabin, there is mountain laurel bursting open, with clusters of white flowers. When they very first open they smell so sweet and good. Then the flowers slowly fall to the ground like white confetti, in a way so natural brides wish they could recreate such simple beauty down their wedding aisle, but could never compare.
I like it, alot.
XOXOxooxxox

Green Fuzzy Moth

Amazing. Shade. Of. Greeeeen. Found this beautiful one on my front porch.

Nothing else to say, because in this case pictures are louder then words.

XOXoxox

Brain Surgery, Ramps and My Mama!

My verrrrry loved friend Heather had to have emergancy brain surgery a few days ago! Which is why I have been a bit slowed down, exhausted, and my mind has been far far away from it's usual processes. Heather loves me and I love her too... she has been a good friend to me for years now! She had a scary octopus like absess infection in her brain but did not know it till it was paralyzing half her body --- the surgery had to be done ASAP when the test results came back. I am so happy she is talking and alive! She makes me glad to be alive. Heather makes this world a place where you are loved, all things including the most terrible, creepy, disturbing... all is accepted, all is adored. ........................................ When i wasn't pacing, and crying in the woods about Heather.... life went on as it always should. (Appreciate it while you have it! and being i came back from the dead myself, i know i dont want to lose time...) Today... I found the RAMPS i planted last year coming back up!!! I transplanted some that came up where i cut down trees (they don't like the sunshine the way I do)... so i moved them into another patch I had started in a good shaded spot where i will not be cutting anything back.

My mom also came to visit me! She is hillarious... she was singing to all my animals, and she was trying to train the chicken to not come inside the cabin. I have to say she was doing a better job with the chicken then i have...

if ya'll coulda heard her scream when the chicken came in and landed on the stove!!

............... here is a video, of my mom... I could not stop laughing and was acting out a bit to egg her on!



xoxox

The FOG

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Ride with me through the creeeeepppppy SPooookkkY fog!
It's so beautiful, you will want to reach out and touch it, like a bug goes towards a bug light.



xoxoxo

A Walk In The Clouds

This is why they call them the Smokey Mountains. Sometimes I might spend half a day in the clouds, a thick white fog. In New Orleans it rolled off the river, here it rolls across mountain tops.

It can make the mundane, turn spooky and beautiful.

It can transform your driveway, into a portal of unknown destination.

It washes out everything behind you, and everything in front of you in a way I find much more soothing then the white of snow. This white haze is something I am familiar with, i love it the way i love the sounds of barges on the mississipi river and a train blowing it's horn.

(song of the day ::: Crave You .... i like how they switch lives. I wanna do that one day. Watch the video. )

XOXoxoxox

JuJu the Donkey's Buck Wild Hike (ft.) Bruiser the Dog

Today was the first time i have dared to take JuJu the donkey on a walk, since her last run away stunt to the neighbors house. In our case, the grass really is always greener, cause we dont really have any grass. So, she has a point.
Our odd herd (trio of unlike species- human, donkey, dog) had an awesome time hiking to the top of "bob knobs" ridge and overlooking one of the most fantastic parts of Western North Carolina.
On our walk JuJu really made the saying "buck wild" come to a reality (watch video below)...
Once we got to the top,
JuJu ate grass, Bruiser was the ever ready body guard, and I listened to headphones, felt the wind, handed out treats and enjoyed it until the cold felt less good then the view.
On the way home,
JuJu did run away AGAIN... and ya'll know how that goes.

Anyone wanna come help me get her back home?



xoxox

Thrift Score.... and bruiser drives the truck?

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Today, I went(with the neighbors dog) to the thrift store! Then I wanted to go visit my Aunt (who is so awesome) but I got totally lost on the way to her place cause all the street signs were bent ajar, and the numbers on the houses were not consistent.

I stopped to ask directions 3 times on one straight road.

The third time, I was asking some 100 yr old man at a nursing home about using a phone, when i turned around I see my truck was driving away with the dog in reverse, down the nursing home driveway and out into the street, and up on someones lawn- people on the road were slamming on the breaks & slowing down - i was running and screaming, chasing down my truck - luckily before it could hit the person's house, it hit a uphill patch of grass and it forced the truck to slow/stop reversing.

A lil' video of da' adventcha ::::



xoxoxox

To The Lil' Local Library and Beyond- (a bit of fail)

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The girl on the phone told me the library opened at 3:30.
Away I go.



xoxoxox

Snow-pocolypse, & my bad!

I have had nothing to say.
Which is new for me. One of the reasons I write here (usually) every single day is because I want to share all the cool ass shit we can do while living sustainably, off grid, eco, primitive or whatevs label you enojoy giving it.
I havent been saying anything on here, because I have been in a sort of limbo that may not end till Spring time - when decisions must be made. I like to only write about good stuff, positive feelings, i like it to motivate, be happy --- none of which I could do the last few weeks in all the snow storms because everything I did to prepare here, kinda.... well.... started falling apart.
*
The plumbing does something new every single day. I told ya'll about the filter-splosion in the cabin that flooded it, but there has also been intermitten times of no water, then water, then no water in the outside pump even, only water up the side of the mountain, then water again, then drain pipes freezing so i had to stop dripping water (aka no water again) - drain pipes de-frosting and coming apart, flooding the floor again, no running water?
I DONT fucking get it anymore?!!!
And i can tell you it's not sustainable water anymore (even though gravity fed) cause unless i put "heat tape" on the pipes (which uses bunches of electricity) they will stay frozen all winter long.
......
So i was talking on the phone with a friend who was ready for me to stop complaining and buck up - she said something to the effect "you wanted to be off grid" ---->
but these problems are not related to being Off Grid. They are problems of location, lack of immediate help, and did i mention NO SUNSHINE whatsoever during the winter months.
Yep, i found out the hard way that my cabin is between two ridges and during the winter the sun is behind a ridge and i get none. Even cutting back trees wont do enough good, and i would have to cut back hundreds of them, ones not even on my land.
My Mistake :::::::::::
not knowing the sun pattern before buying the Luck Cabin.
I thought it got enough sun, even though it doesnt get tons... i had no idea the winter would mean utter darkness. And the reason I have said nothing for quite a while now is because i have been sitting in my rocking chair in front the wood stove comtemplating whether I can spend the rest of my life half a year in darkness. This prospect, after all i have put into being here at the Luck Cabin, and it's utter perfection at all other times of the year make me feel heartbroken in a way there have been and still are no words for.
I don't know many or really any people who could live without sunshine half a year.
------ the other part of this, is just right down my driveway is another climate. I literally am just a few hundred feet from a warmer climate. My driveway marks some kind of elevation change, where the tempature drops a significant amount, and i got twice as much snow & cold as people just a lil' ways below me. Yesterday I took my Jimmy truck dangerously down the road, only to see that I really was in some kind of isolated world, one that had a storm much worse then those just hop, skips, and jumps away - and this was a bit of a shock.
*
Two things I can NOT fix :::::::::::
the sun
the micro climate at the Luck Cabin
*
For many weeks I could not put my finger on it, I could not put into words how i was feeling. I only knew I was getting no sunshine here and was feeling really depressed. I had no intention of ever revealing this dirty little secret, my big sustainability mistake.... but eventually i began crying (thanks PMS) and had to confess to the first person that rang my phone in the middle of the nervous breakdown.
*
I think living this way alone is quite hard, but do-able. But if you choose to live off grid in a harsh winter climate alone, you are either brave, crazy or the uni-bomber!!! It's grueling. There is no question about it.
I now have a greater understanding of why re-wilders like Urban Scout are preaching community. Everything is much easier with a lil bit o' help. Especially in any climate that may have harsh storms during the winter.
*****
Western North Carolina used to not have this kind of weather, not the last ten years I have lived here until last winter. I hear from locals it's been over 20 years since they have seen storms like this. So although I am kicking myself, at the same time how was i to know about the micro-climate PLUS the strange climate changes?
What would you do, if you were me?
*
Xoxoxoox

Hell Froze Over, A Snowball Has A Chance

When I woke up this morning I had this horrible vision in my head that my animals would all be dead and frozen despite all I have done to make this storm OK for them...
Maybe cause the other day when I drove to town for supplies I saw a horse somewhere in Leicester laying on the ground in a big field, appearing to be dead, after the last snow storm. And I thought, PLEASE gawd don't let that happen to JuJu Bean.
*
The last ten years here in western north carolina had really been pleasant during the winter (on a hot sauce scale it was the bland, mild, without spices) - until last year's hell-a-cious snow frenzy. It seems this season has picked up right where last year left off it's white fluffy drama (on the hot sauce scale it's now spicy, tongue burning, tear jerking, nose running, red HOT).
Except, it's FrOcking cold.
So frigid in fact, the water i filled up in my tub INSIDE my cabin is now frozen solid.
The spring water for the animals to drink finally froze over too. A thick layer of ice formed which i crushed hard by kicking it in with my boots then lifted pieces up outta the way. Unfortunately, not much water was underneath, and I had to smoosh the pot into the cold mud to gather anything. I also had to smash/slam the hell out of the pot against a tree trunk to get the frozen water out. (A rebel yell or grunt makes it easier when swinging!)
*
JuJu the donkey is now limping also. Which worries me, i kept scraping snow off the favored hoof and breathing warmth onto her ears. As I pushed my feet through a foot of snow back to the Luck Cabin I was thinking about tropical islands( yes, mmmmm), i was finally 'getting' why people are obsessive about moving to costa rica and some such places. I was longing for my hometown of New Orleans, if only for a lil warmth and sunshine. I was also thinking... building a sustainable place to live, all alone, in a frigid cold harsh winter'ed location is NOT a good idea. (Note to self: Dont ask if you made a mistake cause it's too late!) Too hard, unless you have a partner who is there to help each day and minute with the unforeseen trials and tribulations of this kind of lifestyle.
Until then I can go between laughing and crying when i fall down in the snow over and over, and beg all powers in the universe to spare my animals.
Not much is making me feel better....
but Billy Idol helps. Thanks BaBY JEzuz for keeping Our ELECtricty On! ;)


Xoxoxox

Screwed Blued and Tattoo'ed (or just snowed in again)

Terrible no good very bad SNOW STORM PREP ::::

• drove truck to state road that gets plowed and hiked back up a mile to the cabin
• filled the tub with water (pot by pot cause the water pipes under my cabin froze a week ago)
• fill pots and jars with water
• cook food ahead of time
• clean house, change cat litter, feed animals
• cleaned out composting toilet (frozen urine would be just TOO frOckin' much for me at this point!!!!)
• carried in STACKS of logs into the cabin and onto the porch
• hand washed comfort clothes and hung to dry above wood stove
• move all my bedding into my loft, where it's warm & I will be sleeping when it get down to -20 degrees
• charge up my crank lantern
• fall down in snow a bunch and not cry

And this is not even the beginning of what is to come...
the last storm never bothered to melt, my pipes under the house never defrosted (even though my gravity fed spring is still running just fine. It was supposed to rain today but instead of nice melty rain it snowed a few more inches. And well the icing on that snow cake is coming tonight and tomorrow thru the night.... feet of snow icing I am guessing.

What can i say? I dont like this part.... whatever this is a part of. But the feeling of accomplishing so much in one day to prepare for the worst feels damn good.

I need a girl scout uniform... but one that is long sleeve and made of alpaca wool, comes with matching wool gloves, hat, scarf, coat and leggings. With logo snow boots. Thanks Universe!

*****

BTW- I hope i don't lose power, internet or phone... but I dont know what is coming, and after last year I except the worst. Will miss ya'll if I do go M.I.A!!!! SMOOCHes!

XOxoxoxoxo

Big Spider with Striped Long Legs

Check this bad mamma jamma out! I was so super de duper excited to see a spider in my house, especially one so big that it might have to wash dishes if it wants to stay here more then a few days. The one thing about the cold days of Fall leading through Winter is that all my bug friends disappear (except for this one annoying fly living in the cabin that somehow pushes on through the odds, I hope the spider and him will meet up!) :0

Fantastic striped legs, of a reddish brown color with darker brown rings.

LONG legs.... and those eyes. Tiny eyes, 4 of them!

A nice artsy abstract pattern on it's back, reminds me of some kind of medieval shield. A off white with a touch of golden, running against the shiny black.

My cat Toots thought the spider was also the most exciting thing in the cabin since sliced gluten free bread... the spider played dead. Good idea Mister Stripes.

Can anyone ID Mister Stripes???

Xoxoxox

My Gravity Fed Spring Water System (in the real!)

Ya'll might remember back when I first moved into the Luck Cabin, that a critter had pooped in the main puddling area of my gravity fed spring water. Not only that but the original system had all the piping (landscaping pipes) above ground which had cracked from harsh freezing temperatures in the winter, making the water pressure nearly nothing. The tank was also a small barrel that had some leaks too... with all the squirting water and the poop prob I had the system re-made this past Spring season, using the same spring water spot!

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I wanted to make sure the pipes were deeply buried so that they would not crack in the winter (5-6 feet), and a big tank put in that could catch sediment (at the bottom naturally) and wouldn't leak unless the water overflowed the top of the tank through a pipe (called an 'overflow').

**This all could have been done with back breaking digging man power, but I needed water right away and had some dudes use a bobcat machine to get all this in place.**

The spring water source was also 'boxed in' between the rocks it was flowing out of to keep out animals... with just cement in the front and tin roofing on top the larger rocks that existed there already.

My main concern was that if all my house pipes froze that I would still have water easily accessible down at the cabin, and this was solved with a non electric water 'pump' of sorts that won't freeze in the cold, and pushes the water down underground till it's ready to use. (Watch the video below to see how easy it works, and how much water pressure blows out tha' thing!)

To Make a Gravity Fed Spring Water System You Need::::

• Water source
  
• Tank(s) to catch the water (more tanks create more pressure)


• Pipes to get the water where ya want


• Digging power to bury pipes & tank in colder climates


• Ability to connect it to your house plumbing


• Something simple to 'box in' the source if critters might be a problem

***
Here is a walk through vid I did today of the improved water system...
(guest appearances from JuJu the donkey, the chickens and my neighbors dog!)


Xoxoxxo