Watch Your Language!

Over the holidays I was discussing people going "off-grid" and my interest in learning more about it and how they are faring at it. Later, a friend wanted to know if we were going anti-government. At first, I laughed about the misconstruction but over the next few days I was still puzzled over what I had said to make them think that in the first place.

About a week later, while cooking supper, I was going back over the conversation in my mind once again.

Then bing, bang, BOOM!

Words came in a thread. I began piecing them together. Off grid, grid, coordinates, location, off, off the map, hidden, bunker, survivalist, radical, BINGO!

I was talking about going off the power grid and they were picturing off the map, as in can’t find a trace of me, hiding in a bunker with enough ammo to start a small militia! Then I did laugh, at my ignorance. It took me that long to come to that conclusion! I could see clearly in my mind's eye what I meant when talking to our friend, but conveying it was a little murky.

We aren’t environmentalists, extremists, or even greenies, though I do tend to think of myself as an accidental greenie, of sorts.

I’m not seriously going off-grid. We aren’t set up for it. We do not live in an area with constant wind, so a wind mill would be out of the question. We don’t have a creek with a constant flow of water so a water wheel wouldn’t work . But it would be so neat if it would! Could you imagine having that as a backup in a power failure instead of a gasoline powered generator? Because with a generator we would always be caught without gasoline at eleven o’clock at night. Trust me on this one.   

Actually I was interested in off-grid on a more subtle basis instead. Using a spoon to mix batter as opposed to using it’s electric counterpart. Hand kneading dough instead of using a dough paddle on a mixer or a bread machine. Little things.

Why, when it seems like a penny is all your saving,? Well a penny adds into a dollar sooner or later. You’d be surprised how much appliances pull on the meter. And this is one area I can control.

Let me give you an example on the control factor: Let’s say I go to our bank that holds the mortgage on our house, walk right up to John, our loan officer, and say, “ You know John, our house this past month has kept itself neater it seems. I only had to dust occasionally, that creaky floor board didn’t creak as much , and that leaky faucet seems to have healed itself. I’d say that deserves a reward. So how about lowering our house payment this month?”

John of course is standing there blinking at me. One blink, two blink, three…..mentally he is wondering if they changed the date of April Fool’s Day without telling him.

“Ok,” I say, “then how about waving our interest on it this month?”

Again, with the blinking. John is now pondering what fishing hole would yield the most fish this afternoon, having tuned me out after my first suggestion.

What I’m getting at here is you can’t change that mortgage payment. It’s set. As is your car loan and any other loan you have out there in the ether. They do not fluctuate. But we do have expenses that fluctuate. Variable expenses.  Namely utilizes. Anytime I can do a manual operation of a task as opposed to the electrical operation, I am saving electricity. Which translates into lower electric bills and less money going out the door.

One other reason, personal reason, for wanting a backup, is that our service isn’t what it used to be. Twice last year our power was off for over 20 hours at a stretch, that’s twice we had to restock the refrigerator for food safety. The eggs, mayo, and meats had gotten warm, had to be thrown out, and that is a waste. Most of the smaller outages happened when there was no weather factor to increase the problem, like high winds, rain, or lightening. Right before Christmas the power went off twice in the same week at the same transformer!?!  The company is no longer independently owned and things that are worn out aren’t getting replaced; they are getting patched instead. Apparently there just aren’t enough funds to get things back to the quality they used to be. Which brings me back to off-grid. Whether to have it solely as your supply or just as a back up seems to be not such a "radical" idea after all.

Have a great week!

Kristi.


PS.  Every time I think of a bunker, I picture the Teletubbies house.......

Just saying..........

Moving forward in 2012!

One Last Look Back

In reflection…..

　

2011 was a year of firsts. The first year of mom being in the nursing home, the first Thanksgiving without her at the table, the first Christmas without her here, and the first birthday without her calling. It was a tough year for me.  I don’t want to go back and start it over. But I did learn from it. Both about others and myself. Some good and some bad; some weak and some strong. I learned that the ‘Be Aware” wasn’t just about being aware of others as I’d thought. It was also being aware of yourself and what you do to impact others. I succeeded sometimes and I failed miserably most of it. I take some small consolation that I realize where I failed in hindsight. That, at least, means I have grown to some slight degree.

On to the next……


I’m ready for the new year. I’m ready to look ahead and move forward. Last year we were aware of where we are, now lets look ahead to where we are going.

One step at a time, bit by bit, and day by day.

Moving forward in 2012!

Just Cause

You often hear on the news about a person or group of people fighting for a Just Cause and I can understand that totally. 

For example, if Zach comes in the kitchen and asks why I'm making a cake, I reply "just 'cause". 

Or if I give someone a gift and it isn't their birthday, I did it just 'cause. 

If our dog got his bedtime cookie too early, it becomes a just 'cause cookie and he gets a new one deemed bedtime snack. 

All very good reasons for taking a stand in my book. 

Just saying.....just 'cause this is my blog!  (smile)

Have a great day!

Warning: Murky Water Uh... Politics Ahead!

The following report is just one of many on ABC News. There's a new one every week about Hunger at Home. People in our own country going hungry and malnutrition in American children during this current "recession".
I have my own theories about this recession, the debt crisis, that wascally wabbit, silly rabbit, trix are for kids, and everything else under the sun but that's for another sermon. Today is just to bring you snippets of news that you might of missed and piece them together with a needle and thread.....

By DAVID MUIR
Aug. 24,2011
The McKimmons girls in Arkansas pray before each dinner, grateful for every meal. Michelle Sutton near Atlanta sacrifices her own food for her boys. And 10-year-old Jahzaire Sutton in Philadelphia has a nearly empty refrigerator.
In every corner of the country, a portrait of hidden hunger has now emerged. The recession has pushed 2.4 million more children into poverty. Seventeen million children are "food insecure," meaning their parents often don't know where the next meal will come from.
Simply put, one in six Americans don't have enough food.
Dawn and Michael McKimmons live near Fort Smith, Ark., and have moved into a trailer to save money. Dawn works at a hotel, while Michael delivers pizzas. They have taken whatever jobs they could find, but it is still not enough to feed the family.
They make do with help from their local food bank and try to shield their three little girls from the daily struggle.
"I hear my kids ask me, 'Mommy what's for dinner?' And I sit there at times, I sit there and kind of just pace back and forth thinking to myself, 'Oh my gosh, what is for dinner,'" said Dawn.
Outside Atlanta, the Suttons slipped from the middle class when Bob Sutton's concrete company went under. Michelle Sutton said she used to be a typical soccer mom, but not anymore. She told ABC News that her 11-year-old son hugged her and said, "Wow, you feel skinny."
Dr. Mariana Chilton, founder of Witnesses to Hunger, says the recession has hit the middle class hard.
"People who have been middle class who are now struggling to put food on the table are feeling an enormous amount of stress," she said. "They are starting to experience the pain of poverty, of what it's like to be poor."
In Philadelphia, 10-year-old Jahzaire Sutton knows it's the end of the month, when the food stamps have long run out.
His mother is trying to finish her degree so she can find work.
When asked what is toughest for him, Sutton said, "When I eat, and my mom doesn't. She sacrifices."
Before the recession, 26 million Americans were on food stamps. Today, that number has grown to more than 46 million, or one in seven Americans.
Sutton says he wants to be a senator when he grows up and has even written to Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., to ask for help.
Without a car, Sutton and his mother are forced to walk to Rite Aid to buy food. Rite Aid is the closest store, but it is often too expensive and there is no supermarket nearby. Walmart is their best alternative.
St. Christopher's Hospital in Philadelphia is ground zero for hunger. The emergency room might see 250 children a day, and up to half are hungry.
"They don't have the growth that they should," said. Dr. Chris Haines, ER director at St. Christopher's Hospital. "What disturbs me is that your brain grows much in your childhood, and nutrition is what's important to your brain's growth."
Tom Lesher, who brought his grandson to the hospital, has been out of a job for 18 months.
"Things are going to get tough," he said. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't find a job."

The following was in the news a few weeks ago.

Barack Obama launched his taxpayer-funded campaign bus tour today.

Even some of Obama’s fellow Democrats have expressed frustration that the president has not promoted plans to boost jobs growth more aggressively. Republicans blasted the trip as a taxpayer-funded “debt end” bus tour and hammered Obama over high unemployment, record national debt and the flagging economy.


And this:

At his rural economic forum in Iowa Tuesday, President Obama exhorted the need to boost the manufacturing and export of U.S. cars and trucks to create jobs.
"We've got folks in America driving Kias and Hyundais. I want to see folks in Korea driving Fords and Chryslers and Chevys," Obama said, drawing applause.
"I want to sell goods all over the world that are stamped with three words: 'Made in America.'"
But it turns out the president's new custom motor coach comes stamped with a brand that's located someplace else: Canada.
The $1.1 million jet-black rumbling bus that has been carrying Obama through the Midwest this week was designed in part by Prevost, a motor coach manufacturer based in Quebec. The New York Post was first to report this, and Provost officials confirmed this fact to ABC News.
The U.S. Secret Service said it purchased the vehicle from Hemphill Brothers Coach Co., which is based in Nashville, Tenn.
Hemphill, which declined to discuss the presidential bus or its business generally, assembles custom motor coaches and customizes the interiors before selling the finished product directly to individuals, businesses or the government.
"We just make the shell. We don't know anything about the end user," said Christine Garant of Prevost.
Several industry sources speculated that Hemphill may have installed an American-made engine, such as a Detroit Diesel, in the presidential bus, though that could not be immediately confirmed.

The service acquired two of the new campaign-style buses last year as additions to the government's protective fleet. Could the government have purchased a bus that was made entirely, or almost entirely, in America? In theory, yes.
The only U.S.-headquartered coach manufacturer, Motor Coach Industries, based in Schaumburg, Ill., also builds the country's only "buy American compliant" coach, the majority of whose parts are made here, an MCI spokeswoman said.
It's unclear whether the Secret Service considered this option.
The presidential limousine, nicknamed "the beast," was made by Cadillac, a General Motors Corp. brand, in 2009.

Just saying..........


I try not to talk about this stuff too much.  But sometimes it's like a belch, you just gotta let it out!  Next time I'll take a Tums and keep it to myself.  (fingers crossed)

Until next time........Kristi.

My Oh My!

It was just a tough week for politicians last week wasn't it?  First up Mrs S., we'll call her, and her fine rendition of history.  But in all fairness we can't blame her solely for this.  I mean we should have learned our lesson the first time around.  When she speaks we cease to listen.  What's that old saying?  Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice.........


And then there was Congressman Weiner and his weiner.  Need I say more?  Don't even want to touch that and I do mean literally.  But it did bring to mind an old song......but you know me, I have to put my own twist on it.

Oh I wish I was a congressman's weiner
For that is what I'd truly like to be
For if I was a congressman's weiner
Then all of twitter would be in love with me!


(can substitute "then all the tweeters would be in love with me")

What is the Worth of a Word?

I had a friend mention to me not too long ago that we say the word love too often. That set me to thinking how many times I use the word love, and whom I say it too. What I came up with is that the word itself has many versions for there are so many levels of love. There is the 'I love you bud' for the friend that you've known forever and that you confide in. The 'I love you buddy' for the nephew you love like your own son. Love for the people you care about and care what happens to them. The 'I am in love with you' kind of love. And of course the ones you have to love because they are family but don't necessarily like them. So yes I guess I do tell lots of people I love them, using the same word but with a degree of difference depending on the person. I don't feel a need to apologize for that because I also thought about the times I had used the word hate or felt the emotion. I couldn't come up with one actual time or person that I absolutely hate. Maybe a few with a small dislike but no hatred. So isn't that what we are suppose to do? Love one another and not hate? Do good to those around us? Maybe we should overuse the word love more often. Maybe there would be more compassion in the world and less wars. Less children abandoned and abused. Less elderly lonely and overlooked. Less bickering over petty insignificant things. Again I don't think I should apologize for using a word I mean, in whatever degree I say it in. Until next time....Kristi.