As The Crow Flies

I’m on my 82nd day of eating raw.    I don’t  remember how it all started but something on the Internet must of inspired me.  Then I asked the library to mail me a book on raw food eating and then I decided to try it.

All the stuff I read said you needed a bunch of  appliances—an expensive juicer, a 500 dollar blender, a dehydrator,  a food processor, and a refrigerator and freezer.

I have a knife and a grater.   I’m thinking about adding a potato masher to mash up avocados and tomatoes.

The book I read was called, “12 steps to Raw Foods: How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Food”

Some of her “scientific evidence” is skewed but I looked past it.

Problem: My door is blocking my view.

Solution: Buy a 450 dollar full view door, wrestle the 150lb thing home and attempt to install it.

OR

• Chisel off the molding on the outside of door
• Pop out the piece of plywood
• Bring the piece of plywood to Home Depot, to the molding department, where they have a saw and miter box all set up and sell molding by the foot. Cut new molding to fit the piece of plywood.
• Along with the molding, buy: some glazier points, water cleanup clear outdoor sealant, and some little finish nails or brads.
• Bring piece of plywood to glass place and order a piece of tempered glass the same size as the piece of plywood. ( I asked for a little smaller, because the plywood was really tight.)
• When you get your glass home, apply a bead of sealant around opening.
• Press glass in opening
• Install glazier points with a putty knife
• Start the nails in the molding until the nail almost comes out the other side and then put on door and finish hammering.
• Clean up the excess sealant on the glass.
• Sit down and enjoy the view!

Difficulty level: Easy

Price: Under 50 dollars.

Web article that inspired me: How to put a window in a solid wood door

Five years ago I bought my Washington cabin.   My cabin came with a mattress up in the loft,  and since I had a mattress I thought I should cover it with something.

I was at my sisters and she gleefully produced an ad for a Mervyns white sale and a coupon for 20 percent off at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.    And that is how I came to enter a mall for the first time in 15-20 years.    And how I came to own bedding.

I bought a set of jersey sheets, a fleece blanket and a cheap down comforter.

Even though I’m an active sleeper, all my bedding stays in place and my bed is still made when I wake up.   I think it’s because the jersey sheets stretch when you pull on them instead of coming undone.    Also they aren’t slippery so the blankets stay put.

They’re also warm and feel good.

They’re not expensive—I paid less than 20.00 for a top sheet, bottom sheet and 2 pillow cases.

After I bathe in my basin, I often use the water to wash out a piece of clothing.    I throw it in, let it soak over night, wring it out, and hang it up to dry by the wood stove.

To wring out the piece of clothing, I throw it over a tree branch that hangs over my deck and wring it out by twisting it like the illustration shows.

The illustration is from a book called Living on the Earth.   I’ve had this book since I was twelve.    From baking bread to building a home, nothing takes more than a page to explain.

That’s the way things should be—if something takes more than a page or two to explain you’re probably making it too complicated.

It snowed all day yesterday. But it’s supposed to warm up today so it might turn in to a big slushy mess. I better act fast if I want to harvest all that water.

Yesterday while I was out snowshoeing I saw a guy plowing his road with a big wooden V that he drags behind his pickup. He has a full size pickup but it’s not four-wheel drive. He puts a bunch of weight in the back of his pickup. First he drags the big wooden V going down hill and then drags it back up. It does a good job. It’s a cheap way to plow a road.

So far my road isn’t plowed which is the way I like it. Eventually the guy that lives furthest up the road and has to go to work will pay someone to plow it and I’ll contribute to be neighborly not because I want the road plowed.

Maybe when that guy retires we can stop plowing the road. I doubt it because most people can’t stand staying home.

1. A luggable loo
2. An LED headlamp
3. A large stock pot for hot water
4. a basin
5. cordless tools

1. Buy a four wheel drive vehicle
2. Buy an ATV
3. Get a bunch of animals
4. Get satellite TV
5. Get some guns

This is how I run my laptop directly off my DC battery power. I connect a 12 volt cord to a battery. For my solar system I have gel batteries but when I go up to my other cabin I bring a deep cell battery. Red clamp on positive/ black clamp on negative.

Then I plug my DC power adapter for my computer into the socket.

There is a different DC power adapter for every laptop.

If you don’t have a DC power adapter for your computer you can plug a little inverter into the socket and it will run your AC laptop off of DC. They have an annoying little fan that eventually stops working so I don’t like using them.

My generator is a Honda EU2000i. 

There are many cheaper ones out there but they aren’t small, quiet, or fuel efficient.  When I see how much gas people with the cheap generators use, I’m so thankful I bought this one. It think it’s supposed to run up to 20 hours on one gallon of gas.

I’ve had it for  5 years.  I use it to charge my batteries on my solar system when the sun doesn’t shine.

For a while now, when it’s cold, it has been starting and then as soon as I go inside it dies.  I have to start it like four times before it stays running.

I always add stabilizer to my fuel because my fuel sits for so long.

Last year I  tried adding some Heat to it.  That improved things a little but not much.

This year I bought some octane booster and added it to the fuel.    I don’t remember what kind but I think it said “barely legal!” on the bottle.     The generator runs perfect now. Problem solved.

Last night I was sitting in my darkening cabin thinking how lucky I am live the way I do.  It’s hard to explain but just sitting there watching it get dark is the best feeling.

That’s the great thing about cabin life, it doesn’t cut you off and protect you from the world as well as a house.   It more enhances life than cut you off from it.

When it’s dark, you know it’s dark.  When it’s cold outside, you know it’s cold.

If you want heat, you go chop wood.  If you want water, you need to melt some snow.

If the cabin burns down, you need to figure out a new shelter.    But that’s all it is—shelter.

Some people think my life is harder than for people who live in a house.   I can tell you, from my house sitting experiences, that I have far more time and far less chores to do than a house dweller.

It takes me like 40 seconds to clear the snow off my porch.

When I house sat for my sister, I had a long walk to shovel, many decks to shovel, and a long driveway to plow.

My toilet is a bucket.   I have two of them.   Once a week I dump them under a big pine tree, rinse them out with my saved gray water, and rake some pine needles over the top. It takes 10 minutes a week at the most.   They work flawlessly, don’t use water, and they make top soil.

At my sisters, not one of her three toilets worked flawlessly.   A half of day was spent cleaning up after one of them overflowed.

Though my cabin is cold in the mornings, some night it’s probably close to 80 degrees.   To be that warm when it’s cold outside feels delicious.

I make a nest on the floor with blankets and pillows and in the dark cabin, stretch out in front of the wood stove and the propane heater, drink tea,  look out at the stars, and think, “There is no where I would rather be.”

At my sisters house she has inlay hot water coils that heat the floor of her large house.   You set it and the house  stays that same temperature all the time.  So it’s too hot when you’re sleeping and too cold when you’re awake.

The one thing I thought that her 3500 sq ft. house would have over my 200 sq. ft. cabin was space.   In my cabin, I carefully lay myself out to do some yoga postures so I have enough room.

The shocker was that because she had filled all her space with stuff, I had the same problem at her house as in my cabin.  She had no more room to stretch out and do yoga as I did.

If I need a new roof—500 dollars.  If she needs a new roof—10,000 dollars.

I can wash all my windows, inside and out in under an hour.  She needs scaffolding to wash her windows.

My shelter serves me; she serves her’s.

I could go on and on but my point is cabin life is easier, more comfortable, more beautiful, and much more sustainable than big house living.

I have always liked getting rid of stuff.  Even when I was really little, when my parents would yell at me to clean up my room, I would grab a Good Will bag and throw all my stuff into it.

When I had a house it was full of stuff.  It made me tired.   So, I made a rule.  Everyday I had to get rid of at least 10 things.   I did that for months.   Everything I got rid of increased my energy.

Then one day I couldn’t think of anything else to get rid of.   I started feeling so tired.   I told my son and he posted on his geek board that I had beer making supplies to give away for free.  Within hours there were a couple of geeks taking away my brewery and my energy surged.

After my big purge, I was robbed and then I had even less stuff.

Then I sold my house and  I had to get rid of almost everything.   There was no room for sentimentality.

It was so freeing to dump all the pictures of my past into the garbage.  I don’t need pictures; I lived my life; I was there.

Now, I have less stuff but I still try to  get rid of one thing a day.

It’s a good goal to set: by the end of everyday— less stuff.

What’s an uncluttered life worth.   Certainly more than any of the clutter is worth.

Plenty cold here. It was supposed to have got to -4 F (-20 C) overnight. But it’s really sunny this morning.

I think I went in to hibernation mode. I fell asleep on the couch at dark(about 5:30pm). Sometime in the night I woke, the fire had gone out and it was cold. I climbed up to the sleeping loft and slept till after 8:30am.. I never sleep in that late. I’m usually up by 5 am.

I really appreciate the sleeping loft when it gets this cold. It’s about 20 degrees warmer up there and not as drafty as the rest of the cabin.

If you are thinking of building a cabin, I would recommend a sleeping loft with an operatable window. On nights, when it is not in the negatives, it is often so warm up there that I sleep with the window open. Even with the window closed it’s drafty enough to give me fresh air while I sleep.

When it is really cold, I keep my clothes in bed with me so they will be warm and I can put them all on before going down to light a fire.

I appreciate all the windows down in the main floor when on cold mornings the sun pours in and heats up the cabin.

Since there wasn’t  any snow to melt for water,   I headed out to town for one final load of water.    By the time I got back it was snowing.  If I had put my chains on, maybe I could have made it up to my cabin, but instead I decided to park  my truck at the bottom of my hill and  carry the water jugs up on my backboard.

Times like these, I wish I had bought the 5 gallon jugs instead of the 7 gallon jugs.

It’s cold and dark out there, but I have two more to go…..

This candle is called a 7 day candle because it burns for 7 days continuously.  It comes in a glass jar so it doesn’t drip wax.   They cost about 1.50 in the Mexican food aisle at the grocery store or in the candle aisle at Walmart.   Sometimes they have pictures of Jesus and other saints on them.

If I have a guest, I  keep one going all night so they have a night light.

Most nights I don’t even light a candle.   I’m either reading on my laptop or reading a book with my LED headlamp.   Sometimes though,  it’s nice to sit around at night drinking tea, looking at a candle.

Related post: A new era begins—The Age of Light

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