I found this in the draft file,thought i'd share ....

As i said once before, or did i .... my life is just a little different from the average American .... in fact at the moment i live closer to some of the third world than my neighbors .

Here is my washing machine ... yes, it is outside. A fact which embarrasses my youngest to no end. I have a perfectly good washer in side one of my trailers, however there is no water in that trailer (wait there is not water in my other side either ;0) Some thing that was meant for a temporary stop gap seems to be a permanent fixture to my life. There is a story here ...

During the 'Great Freeze' of 2011 something inside the washer broke making laundry an interactive activity. Everything works except the thing that tells the water to shut off when it has filled. Sooooo to do a load of laundry i turn on the hose let the washer fill, shut off the water when the machine starts to agitate. Remember to go out and turn on the water for the rinse and off when the agitation starts again .... Today i did five loads of laundry. Do not think this activity will make it into a recognized sport, but i did get some exercise!

I am going to continue this in a series of randomness (I do not believe that that was a real word! i used it once in a school paper and was docked points for making up a word -- the world has finally caught up to my way of thinking 37 years later)

Yesterday was my day off and on those days i tend to think ... or talk to my self which ever ... first off i decided that i am a 'mind writer' i write things in my head all the time ... 99.9% of that writing never hits paper. The loss of some of it is the world's loss, believe me. The rest is much like what is here ...

Most of what i think is mulled over then placed on a mind shelf and re-visited from time to time, or not. However yesterday i was re-visiting conversations; verbal and written, of the past few days. The conversations were on communication. The need for people to be authentic in what is being shared, the loss of one-on-on conversation, and how the loss of eye contact allows people to be more aggressive and less sincere .... i got to thinking about something i shall call 'verbal shorthand' where i say something with all my thoughts, knowledge and experiences behind what i am saying with out express those thought, knowledge and experiences and expecting the hearer to know what i am saying. And the hearer is hearing with their thoughts, knowledge and experiences (possibly different from mine)

Return to talk

It has been a long time ...

Still do not have running water in the house .... third world living conditions (hehe) .... I have gotten used to hauling the hose into the house to do everyday things, dishes, bathing, cleaning ... have to admit the summer is much nice than the winter ... with proper timing there is the convenience of hot water with out any real effort.
There is a method to my madness ... just have to mark out a little more time before i make changes.

I have decided that i want the flying diary that Judy Jetson used ... something that followed me around and i could talk to with out stopping what i am doing. I  like what i think better than what comes off the keyboard. Perhaps, that is because i can not see it to edit it.

My 17 year old dog is helping me write this morning, i was noticing how old he has gotten in the face - I am not sure he will make it into winter. He is one of the last animals from when the kids were at home. There is a whole batch of new and younger dogs, cats and horses ...

When I was out earlier feeding I caught sight of a cat I call 'Mystery'. I first notice her when she had a litter on my front porch this spring. I had thought I had gotten all the gray female cats spayed last summer. (there are a hand full of the ferrell cats who keep the mice and snakes off the property in exchange for food, several of which look alike)  After the kittens got big enough to join the general population she kind of disappeared (blended in). The only way to tell her apart from the others is she does not have a notch taken off her ear ... just have to be close enough to see both ears .... She is one of two adult female cats i have yet to catch to get spayed. I think she knows what i have in mind and has no intent for me to accomplish my goal, but shows up now and again to mess with my mind. Cats can be like that.

Discipline of Water; one gallon at a time. The begining

Such a long time ...
Thinking i should change the name to something else, but that would not get me back here to do what i started out to do .... to capture where i am, where i have been and look to the future ... Perhaps it would work better if i did not have to come sit inside of an unheated space to write ... Wait, i missed summer months too ....

As the picture above shows .... my kitchen froze not to long ago, well really the whole trailer froze .... solid! It took over a week for the water to unfreeze in the pipes (i capped it off before that happened) and another few days for the septic to unfreeze. Did you know that that when a tomato freezes it looks normal until you touch it? Did you know that a computer does not like the cold and mine will not work when the temp gets into the 40's and lower ... How about a lighter will not work when it gets really cold ... Keep those matches around folks! The milk in your breakfast cereal will freeze, in 20 degree temp, before you can eat your cereal!

There is so much that the everyday person in America takes for granted ...

I am taking a time out and looking at life differently (as if i already wasn't). I am going to name this time of my life ---Discipline of Water; one gallon at a time.
Because of the extent of possible damage and the unavailability of plumbing supplies i have chosen to keep the inside water cut off until warmer weather and the return of pvc to the shelves. Thankfully i have water on the property, it is just a matter of bringing it inside ... a much shorter distance than most of the water toting people of the world.

Every glass of water i drink, pot of coffee, ounce of water i use inside the house must be a forethought ... i must plan for everything i do using water. That includes flushing the toilet and washing my hands --even taking a bath and washing my hair. Only once have i forgotten that i was going to wash my hair when i bathed ... not a good time to realize you need another gallon of warm water .... I am learning about the need to plan for the simple things.

It would appear that God has directed me to a time where simplicity is the very best course of action. Most days i find it joyful and funny in my new life ... where i don't it can be a direct cause of lack of planning or forgetfulness (not the same thing, trust me). One of the positive sides of all this is find that i gauge the daily crises, of myself and others, on their actual life threat value. Sometimes .... that is good thing, sometimes not! It is hard to feel sorry for a friend who is telling me how broke she is because she can not pay for her new washer and dryer this week and has to wait. My washer is outside and laundry for me is an interactive event, the shut off on the washer does not work and i must play the part or risk flooding the front yard. I am glad my friend is able to get a new set, i am laughing that waiting a week is a crises. Her old set still works and her life is really not inconvenienced. Then i wonder would this be me had i chosen to live differently ...

Return

Returning .....
Been away, not very far ....
taking the time, to re open a door .....

update

Up date, up date ......

I am out of the storage unit and no longer paying to store anything !!!!!

Do have a stove and a dryer behind my shed that need homes, but the 15 boxes of stuffed animals have a new home ---- just waiting for the kids to come and retrieve (hint, hint) ....

Celebrate the small things that is what makes up the memories of life ..................

lightening

thank you internet picture taker

Lightening ............. something to be watched, something to be enjoyed .....

Last week there was a lightening strike on the hill across the highway ..... I watched the smoke plume grow and then shrink .... life and death of a fire ... because of the location firefighters had to hike into the fire ...... they used the old fashioned method of fighting fires ..... shovels and sweat (yea, they did have chain saws) .... with all the advances in the world I wonder what is it we are giving up to advance ....... Will my granddaughters children know what a book is? Will my granddaughters look back on the extreme advances that are happening in their infant hood and thing how old fashioned?

A few years (3) ago I had a totally awesome black and white TV the picture was crisp and clear .... my youngest got me a color TV (thank you, baby boy) because he did not think mom need to watch movies in black and white .... having grown up on black and white TV I didn't realize there was a problem ..... Narnia was much better in color. The point being the fact that i got to watch TV was cool beans to me, the fact that mom had to be deprived of color was important to the one who grew up on color TV. (I do love my color TV)

Reading the internet (I do like some of the advances) I am watching changes come about where it appears that people are giving up their right and need to think ...... allowing others to think for you is not a safe or natural thing. Just a question, 'Who will be in charge of the thinking in the future?'

George Orwell was not that far off in his writings ....................................

Celebrate

Celebrate the day! Today is an awesome day in that it is .......... (of course the wind is not blowing, the sun is shining and there is a possibility of afternoon rain) .......

I am almost out of the old storage unit and will move remaining thing to a smaller one with the hope of being out by the end of the summer .......

Been finding all kinds of things in boxes .... childhood (my kids) memories ...... books i forgot i had ..... dishes, quilts, artwork and so much more ........ And there are the "WHY?" things ..... (not going to list) ...... if i calculated the cost of keeping all of these things ....... that pottery mug with my blue flowers (the cheap one not the good one) is worth big bucks ...... The Goal is to downsize what is there to fit in less than 1/3 of a 8x10 storage shed in plastic containers .....

Kids if you are reading this time to come and get your stuff ..... blond daughter has the most ..... she said she'd take it home with her when she comes and changes out horses next month. She has no clue what is waiting for her....

I anticipate Celebrating the end of an era ----- storage queen ----- very shortly!