Triatominae, also known as kissing bugs, conenose bugs, assassin bugs, whatever you call them, these are nasty creatures, they are about the size of the end of your thumb, have a huge biting snout, fly around at night and suck blood. If that isn’t bad enough, they spread a parasite that causes Chagas disease. I’ve heard it referred to as the “AIDS of the Americas”.…
Marketed as the next Superbad, this movie is more simply the next summer classic.
Three 15-year-old boys in suburban Ohio stumble on a wooded area not far from home and decide to abide there for the summer, living off the land and off the grid. Their hunter-gatherer lifestyle quickly turns into more shopper-gatherer, or bargain-hunter; and of course the communal wilderness friendship is tested when girls show up. …
A few weeks ago, I grabbed the camera on my way over to a friend’s house, I get to live in and drive through some very pretty country, we have been here a little over 5 years now, one of the first things I thought when we first moved here was that I hope I never get used to the views out here, I’m still awed by them. This is the high desert, in the mountains of far western Texas.…
In a recent article, I talked about all the critters that poke, stick, sting and bite, one of those critters we deal with out here are the scorpions, and it’s the beginning of scorpion season now. A few years back, we had a rash of them inside the sky castle, we were killing one and two a night, every night. They become active after dark, coming out to hunt other insects, mostly crickets and such. I wouldn’t mind except for their nasty sting. When we had that bad rash of them, I had been sitting in front of my laptop one evening, it was warm, I was wearing shorts, I felt something on my leg next to my knee, I thought it was a fly and absentmindedly brushed my leg with my hand, that was the first time (and hopefully last time) I got hit by a scorpion, I have to say, it HURTS!…
I sit looking out the window, my view is magnificent, I am looking down across a high desert mountain valley, words cannot describe the beauty of the landscape that falls below me, but this is a harsh beauty, full of plants, bugs and critters that poke, stick, sting and bite. Some might find this a torture, I find it to be my Heaven on earth.
PB and I moved out here 5 years ago this last December, in some ways it was a huge move, in other ways it felt like coming home. After buying up just under 6 acres on a mountain side, in the high desert of far western Texas, one of the first things PB did was build our cabin, what would become our sky castle. …
Look around you, how many grey and white heads are nearby? If you are lucky, you will have at least one, if you are very lucky you will have multiple to choose from. Why is it so fortunate to have older folk around? Simple, beneath all that gray and white hair is a plethora of knowledge and experience. This is a valuable resource, and one that is dwindling each and every day. Often the biggest feat is to find those who lived through the great depression and still have their mental faculties and are willing to sit down and talk about their lives, that’s the trifecta!
These folk grew up during a time when most things were done by hand, black and white TV was something for the wealthy, that’s if they had electricity. Lighting was often candles and kerosene lanterns. Some lived on farms and had to get up before dawn to take care of farm animals before eating breakfast and heading off to school. These folks grew up in circumstances that most of us can’t even imagine.…
Today is traditionally the day when men are supposed to show their love and affection for their women by buying flowers, chocolates and cards, then there is the obligatory dinner, if you have more money to spend, maybe a splurging on a bit of bling for your woman… All month, the world has been filled with red hearts and cherubim flying around shooting heart shaped arrows, all the commercials on the TV and radio has been trying to make men feel guilty if they do not do the traditional things that are supposed to be done by today to make the woman in their life feel complete.
BLAH I say! I had a discussion with PB today about this very subject, I don’t understand why some women feel so giddy when their man spends half a C note or more on a dozen roses and a box of chocolates, in a week the flowers will be turning brown, the chocolate will be on its way to adding inches where they aren’t wanted, then you have to toss the refuse in the trash. I say, if you are going to spend money like this, why not spend it on something that is really useful?…
…know how to have fun when it snows! When I was a kid, I loved snow days, I lived in central Texas so we didn’t get snow every winter, and when we did, it was usually only a few inches and it would only last a few days, as soon as the sun came back out, it was gone. I remember having to use several of my neighbor’s yards to have enough snow to make a snowman.…
I can’t believe it’s already December! Where did the year go? As I posted previously about being thankful, I can’t say it enough, I am so very happy with my life. One reason, and I believe it to be a really big part is the fact that I am content with my life. I don’t have the best money can buy. I don’t have everything I ever wanted. But I am happy and contented with what I have and how I am getting to live. Can you honestly say that?…
Black Friday, it’s something that some of us look forward to, for the rest of us it’s something to avoid like the plague, the consumerism, and sometimes the insanity. I can be counted in the latter group, I suppose it’s because of too many years working in retail and malls, being on the other side of the insanity that seems to possess people after eating all of that Turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie.…
Living off-grid, I get questions from time to time, mainly about how we live, some even think we must live in a cave and eat dirt and wear skins… I said I live off-grid, but we don’t live that primitively! :) I do enjoy some of the modern conveniences of life, including having a place to keep perishable foods, aka a refrigerator.
When we first moved off-grid, in Dec ’07, we brought with us a small, dorm sized fridge, but honestly we didn’t use it much, only plugging it up on the occasions when I brought home a gallon of milk or a pound of ground beef, once the perishable food was gone, we unplugged the fridge. What I quickly found out was the standard type of fridge used up a LOT of power and they tend to be very inefficient.…
Says more remote you are the happier you are…
