gary james

Excellent Topic Dale!

I have been a customer of Uhaul storage and Uhaul rental vehicles for many years. I have had a number of occasions where I had to put things in storage or face losing them because I could not put them in a backpack or next to the couch I was borrowing from a friend. Over the years I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on storage fees and truck rentals moving things in and out of storage. So Much has been wasted in this process. I still have not found a permanent place to be and I still have much in storage about 2500 miles away. It is a challenge only when the things which are being stored cannot be replaced. In a storage in Hamden, CT, I have all of my family artwork, some original artifacts from around the globe, an afghan that would fit a king sized bed that was made for me by a dear friend now gone from this world and many of the tools with which a craftsman can seek gainful pursuits. Some of those things can be replaced but most cannot. I have easily paid for my tools seven fold in storage fees. If I had back every dime I ever spent at Uhaul I could easily buy a piece of land with enough forestry on it to build a weather tight shed large enough to house all of it and myself.

Sometimes I wonder if cutting off everything from my past is the best course of action but My family art is works done by those no longer living and cannot be replaced. Sentimental value is a big thing to address in this topic and I am sure there are voices on both sides of that choice with compelling reason to do or not do in regards to the original and irreplaceable works of family.

paul wheaton wrote:I didn't make the document, I found it.  

I would also like to see this format greatly expanded.  

The honey bee, amazing creature that it is, has purpose, and gets around. Works hard for the queen and has a unique place within the system  of pollenation, and is much established as an important part of life for flour and fauna alike.

The bumble bee also pollenates but produces less honey, yet seems to have a bit of a weight problem,(you do the math), which is offset by the fact that it defies the laws of physics just getting around according to Urban legend, giving us all a warm (little engine that could) feeling inside, or at least those of us with a soul.

The yellow jacket is a carnivorous bastard who is protected and fed by the queen herself until it grows up to be a predatory bully among other bullies. Socially anti social bastards....yet, part of the great cycle of life.  

Really, I know little about them all. I learned something today. Yay me. Thanks for the post.

Burra Maluca wrote:link isn't working - can you check the permissions on it if it's your photo?

Burra, I reposted it to my site. I had linked to a page on a different host site.  

That should fix it.

A funny thing happened on the way to the forest......


http://buildonyourowndreams.weebly.com/critters.html

Friends often are seldom seen or heard.  They seem to prefer the anonymity.

Restoring friendships is not easy, making them harder still.

"surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away."

Restoration is important, when further neglect assures further deterioration.

When I had my working tools.........and my mental faculties somewhat intact    http://onthelevelrestorations.weebly.com/

"Getting to know you."  

http://thechp.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Unlikely-Alliances-Friendship-People-with-Developmental-Disabilities.pdf


"To understand rather than be understood."

From behind the wall it is only the sounds of encouragement or chastisement that one can hear. When the working tools are in their hands, the sight of working tools tearing down the walls is a long sought but ever present dream, perpetuated by hope and darkened by despair.

My dreams, as I have observed the dreams of others, are not only mine, but shared.

Here are some of mine.   http://buildonyourowndreams.weebly.com/

 

 "We're all out of roofs. But we still have tiny ads:" I love this quote. It was at the end of my thread.

In my element, I can help with that....just sayin. I'm also a pretty good cook.

I would like to have an opportunity to help some ants finish up some projects while working towards becoming an active member of the community. I was humbled today by the efforts of one person there who has quite a handful and my immediate reaction is to jump right in and help. That feeling has been one of the things which keeps me going in life. The desire to help others. I do have goals but they have been pretty vague. They have been life long though; food, shelter, security, utility, community. Sometimes I get these five things mixed up and out of order, often collapsing efforts.

Food for thought.

What is key for strong homesteading within a community? (question is rhetorical only if no one feels the need to comment)  

I am curious about the people in the community and what they are focused on.

Are there plans for a rocket stove kiln for pottery?
A rocket stove forge for working metals?
Finding a way to coax that river closer to the village via the use of a diversion pond and an aqueduct system.
Rainfall and snowfall collection ponds?
I wish I were walking the land right now.

I want some jerky. I like the food dehydrators that I saw in one thread.

Are there any Ants or Gappers who are archers?

So then I was thinking about a cabin i built with a really good woman when we were in upstate, NY

It was twenty two feet long, twelve feet deep eight foot tall rear wall and roughly sixteen foot tall front wall. fully insulated and sheetrocked. The whole front was lofted to have storage up out of the way, and would house a rain collection barrel.
Off the bottom of the barrel would be a copper line run to the stovepipe, drop down the wall from a T splitter, spiral up the stove pipe and the rejoin the cold feed parallel and continue across the wall to the sink area  (or stub out the wall for a shower)where they would drop down and attach to a faucet. The  barrel, being above everything would gravity feed both hot and cold running water with an adjustment on the hot coil for varying the temperature and the option to install a sleeve to cease heating the water.

This part of that dream never came to fruition. I always wanted to work out whatever bugs surfaced in setting this system up.
Converting it to fit a 55 gal drum in a rocket stove set up would be possible with the right design and placement.
I would love to experiment with this.

I would like an underground house ultimately, like a kiva only different.
Ok, that is my dose of random for the evening. I hope it inspires good ideas and good dreams of world domination through permaculture.

Glad I got that out. I have some room in my head now. Maybe I can have math back, or my sense of humor.



"Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours."

Shan,

Thank you for the pre welcome. I can't wait to meet all of you!

Thank you Karen,

I will need it.