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

Run Leslie Run (What I do When Car Sick)

I have gotten brave in the last 8 months... or maybe just more healthy. Sometimes it's hard to say what makes what happen in a universe full of so much circumstance - but I tried driving my Jimmy truck to downtown Hot Springs (remember when i could not drive at all for a gazzillion years?). It's a town I have never been to before because the roads to get there make about as much sense as a plate of spaghetti, regurgitated. And trust me, there are many stops on the side of the road to do just that.
I thought I was doing well, in spite of the many fast driving rednecks daring head on collisions on blind curves... but eventually the road waves got to me (BaD nausea), and I had to get out the car, give up my original plan and just... run around.
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BENEFITS OF CAR SICKNESS::::

• You pull over and see the beautiful details of life you would never see blazing by in the car
• Time to play
• There are no other benefits i can think of cause actually car sickness sucks

I saw things I really love... giant icicles, awesome mountain views....

BIG rocks!

.... GRAffiti!

and the most brilliant sunset I have seen in a long time. All these things made it worth it. Of course I drove about 5 mph all the way home and never did make it to the town of Hot Springs. ;)

(for those who dare to wanna puke, I have a 6 minute video forthcoming tonight, of the roads I traveled...)

XOXOXoxox

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

(Not) Trespassing: Bob Knob's Ridge

One day when I was going down the road I ran into an old man named Bob Knob who invited me to come walking on his property, to see the "view from the top of the ridge"... (his real name is not Bob Knob but his real name totally ryhmes in that same way, making wish mine did too). So, for realz this time I was not trespassing, this place is not for sale nor was I uninvited... these facts though did not change the same basic feelings of mysteriousness, confusion, and excitement. The land was vast and the road winding, long and with many forks!
Bob Knob had explained to me to walk right through the gate, then walk up the road "till you get to the big tree in the road, then go up towards the ridge." These directions sounded easy 'nough and I bound through the gate with confidence... till I got the the very first fork in the road, big trees on either side and I had no clue which way to go.
I literally stood at the fork and closed my eyes and waited to feel a tug towards which way to go (this is how i follow my spirit instead of my mind.) The tug pulled to the dirt road and not the gravel side so up to the right I went!

THINGS I SAW :::::::::::::

Even though I had a hunch I was not going the "right way", I also didn't feel like it was "wrong" either, so i took in the smells, heat, shade, plants, trees through my nose and eyes and enjoyed the lack of knowing where the *F* i was going.

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I saw streams....

I found apple trees!

And wild red bee balm !!!!

PLUS, evidence of wild animals....

Such as turkey feathers! (I love these feathers and keep a collection at my cabin...)

Really strange coyote scat.... except all the animal had eaten was pine needles and berries, i saw no sign of fur in the poop and was a bit baffled as to why? and IF it is indeed coyote poop?

TOTALLY LOST:::::::::::::

Eventually I realized I was totally lost and came upon a big mountain home where I noticed the left hand gravel road must have gone to also! I figured it was Bob Knob's house and went up to the door to say hello.... (so that i wasnt' the creepy person randomly walking around outside)....

Something about approaching a doorbell, in the middle of the woods, not expected, that seems utterly strange. I felt like I should give a rebel yell or whistle to announce myself --- if i hadn't already been watched walking up the dirt road.

I rang it. And heard a small dog barking like crazy, and eventually heard some people coming. When the older woman (who came down some stairs in some auto-electric chair) and younger old man answered the door I was totally thrown off because it was not Bob Knob, but it totally looked like him.

Bob Knob JR. !

Me and Bob Knob Jr. became instant friends - he told me about the coyote scat he had found and he told me the way to the top of the ridge.... the right way he said was to "go past the big tree in the middle of the road, up towards the ridge, stay on the gravel road until you see a picnic table..."

Bob Knob Jr also told me about a hidden old cabin (coming soon)!
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I started back along the road up and up and up a long curvy abyss of forest, hiking in such a way that I was out of breath, my ears popped, and i had to stop in the road and eat a pear. I could tell though that i was close to the top and the space was beginning to open up.

I eventually saw on top a hill, the picnic table I'd been waiting for, and walked towards it like a bug to a bug light, nothing could have stopped me....

WOWSAS! Bob Knob Jr was not kidding when he said "it's the best view I've seen around here." The air, the sun, the vast beauty was astounding - it made me think about deep shit, and I listened to my mind ask deeper questions like "Who made this, how does this come to be, it's such a good idea...?!!??"

In the vast vast world, I am so tiny.

views of lives on other hills, views of the valley below, views of endless forest... (is this when I get the cue to sing 'The Hilllllssss are alive with the sound of MUzzzakkkkk"???)......

Patches of wildflowers.....

I sat down to take it all in and have a snack, cause it was one hell of a hike up there in the summer sun! A hike entirely worth every bead of sweat, every moment of lost uncertainty.

Turkey vultures flew overhead, coming close down while riding the wind that blows over the tops of the mountains...

WHEN IT WAS ALL (ALMOST) OVER :::::::

On my way back down, I found the big tree in the middle of the road! ha!

smooches XOXoxo

Electric Bike Ride Part 2

This time... I think I got it right. But the first time it went all wrong wasn't my fault! Turned out that after about 4 miles of fun on my first ride, my electric bike motor was broke as a joke, and the whole bike had to be returned to the manufacturer, Liberty Bikes. I just want to note that the company was extra helpful, nice, informative and good with trouble shooting via e-mail... AND because my bike broke they sent me a brand new electric bike to replace it!!! It's the same fold up model as "peewee" was... but this one is their newest version and let me just say, it is way more pimped out.

Now it's got a back red light & more reflectors for night ridin' , a snazzy side logo in red, a upgraded rack on the back, a hardcore lock in kick stand, and improved bike seat ---- and best of all on my very first ride on this new bike the chain never fell off, the brakes were not jumpy, the motor didn't die, and the battery gauge didn't do that half empty thing while going up hill. The new bike is way peppy!
Here are some things I saw along the way....

XoXo

Screech Owl... oh my gawd I am the luckiest me I eva' was

If I told ya how I got this close to the screech owl, ya might not believe me... but I will tell ya'll the story anyway...
I heard a sound outside the house that I thought was my cat meowing for my help, so i stepped out onto the deck and made some lilting, soothing calls of her name - Toots. Suddenly I heard the trill call of the screech owl from the large pine tree, then saw the small owl spread it giant wings and fly across in front of me over to the apple tree. It made another soft trill (go here to listen to the sound) - which I copied back to it. We were talking... me and the owl in both our languages. I have no idea about what.
When I got right underneath it with my camera, after a few pictures it got nervous enough to fly into the more camouflaged branches of the apple tree, rather then sitting on top the lone dead branch.
I quietly walked along under the tree, continuing to talk 'trill' with it - long enough to take a few more pics and get to see it spread it's beautiful wings wide - then fly off, low to the ground and swoop up into another apple tree further up the hill.
According to superstition and the Native American beliefs {described by Tom Brown in The Tracker}, an owl only shows itself to you when someone is going to die. Literally.
...
I am still happy to see it, I have waited many years to be this close to an owl again.
"These common owls are fearless in defense of their nests and will often strike unsuspecting humans on the head as they pass nearby at night. When discovered during the day, they often freeze in an upright position, depending on their cryptic coloration to escape detection. The two color phases, which vary in their relative numbers according to geography, are not based on age, sex, or season.
Nesting: 3-8 white eggs placed without a nest lining in a cavity in a tree or in a nest box."

Read more about owls in your region at Enature.com!

XoXoxoxoxo hoo hoo!