Little Big Things

I like to play in the dirt. Literally and maybe metaphorically, at times. But yesterday was literally, planting some things here at Francie's that she left for me to plant. It's a friend who knows you well who leaves the good plant clippers on the bathroom sink counter for easy finding. 

Aloe, course

Passion fruit vine at the mailbox

After a few hours of shifting dirt and plants, it was siesta time. At least until the sun and humidity dropped. Then it was lake time. 

Did I mention how lush everything is?

If you are from the neighborhood, you can camp on the lake here. 

Once upon a time on the west coast of Florida, I tent camped with some friends on an island known to have a lot of gators around ('red eyes' as they are called by poachers and others on the water in the dark). All night they could be heard moving around us, splashing into the water, a bellow or two. I know this because sleeping was really not happening. There are some gators around here too. Pleasant dreams, American camper.

I know there are too many bird photos below, but since this was the only bird around and it was hunting on a perfect stage, I was captivated. Completely. And I left about 90 on the cutting room floor. You're welcome.

Yes, sometimes I have to play arty

Score!

In the magic light, these fisher folk slowly drifted by.

I saw tiny fish jumping but no doubt there are more out there. This glassy lake, the cooler temperatures, the quiet...a fish on the hook would almost be gilding the lily.

Odds and ends worth mentioning.

For those of you who know Matty, his ongoing (for months now) situation with infection in his leg and foot, making work impossible, is piling up the bills. He's been in and out of the hospital numerous times to take care of this. Update: Matty writes - "I am going into hospital in the next few days. I have to go get a gallium scan first in Caguas, then will be admitted in Fajardo." 

If you want to help out, here is his Funky Foot page put up by his son Zak. Matty is a big man with a big smile and a big heart. If you know him, you already know that. We can't fix his foot but we can ease things a bit for him on the home worry front. 

Someone suggested this site and while it's a bit overwhelming in some ways, the possibilities are enticing. So here's 37 websites to learn something new!



Last but not least. There is a company called Bespoke (a word I love, meaning handmade) that makes cool...are you ready for it? prosthetic legs and awesome 3D printed casts (I still don't get 3D printing yet, hope to see it done sometime soon because right now, it just seems like magic). 




Technology is bringing us more than selfie sticks, texting, facebook and Go-Pro's. Which is pretty amazing and pretty wonderful to me.

If you've ever broken a limb and had a plaster cast, how cool would THIS have been?

That wraps up today's session. See you on the playground. 

Have a teachable Thursday. Do something taxing. 

Tiny Home Tuesday ~ Out and About

There is a wonderful, impulsive sort of quiet explosion going on in the world of tiny and small homes. While there seemed a long rut going on for awhile of mobile trailerable fairly look-quite-alike tiny homes - and many of them were and are brilliant, mind you - there is a sense of the movement blossoming/morphing/expanding even as the size of the homes stay small to tiny. 

Oh, there is pretty much nothing new under the sun or moon; people have been living in small dwellings since cave days. Of course, they might not have outfitted their caves quite like this. This isn't really quite a cave; rather an under hill / into the earth sort of dwelling. With lots of light.

Located in New Zealand, you can see a lot more photos and read all about it here.
Thanks, as often the case, to Keith of The Flying Tortoise for mentioning it!

If you haven't enjoyed a video by Kirsten Dirksen of Faircompanies, you've been missing a whole segment of the tiny house movement. I don't know if this video on a 'tiny house hamlet' in France is the latest work she's done, but it was new to me and certainly worth a look at the video on Solar Burrito's blog. 

People have NOT been living in vehicles since the dawn of time, but probably since 10 o'clock on the timeline of vehicles. I read The Grapes of Wrath, bucko, and you can bet those folks weren't choosing this lifestyle for the charm of it. People still aren't choosing vehicle living for the charm at times, though many are embracing a rolling mobile life, including me, because it ticks off a lot of boxes on traveling and living. 

Don't ask about all the boxes it ticks. 

A photographer, Andrew Waits (which is a very cool name), did a series about people living in a variety of vehicles, for a variety of reasons. Though rolling homes roll (usually, not always), the composition of this mobile across the country neighborhood is about the same as your own: the happy people, the generous people, the bitter ones, the hermits, the troublemakers and the not quite able to define just generally a little crazy, a bit of whackadooly. Ok, maybe your neighborhood isn't like that, but you might be surprised.

photo & text credit: Andrew Waits

Tex. Shaver Lake, California 2012. "After my stroke, I was completely mute for two years. The doctors told me I’d never do this again and my heart was crying. I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t curse. I had someone bring my RV to the therapy parking lot and I ended up staying in that. Once I started talking again, I told the doctors I had better things to do than fart around here and I took off. I think I would have died there if I had stayed. I’ve laughed for 20 years with RV people. They take care of me. We’re just a big family. "

There are more photos and stories captured by Andrew Waits in his American Boondockers series on his website.  Go. Look. Listen.

The above just scrapes the surface of what is going on with the tiny house movement these days. There are pods and containers and tree houses and cabins and houseboats and rolling homes; even a girl on a Harley with a teardrop trailer she calls TicTac as well as home. 

When it comes to tiny and small homes, nothing is too small, though there are sometimes heated debates about what makes too big. As much as I love a good debate, I ain't touchin' that one. Who cares? If you are home and you are content in that home, that makes it pretty much right in my opinion. As long as it didn't and isn't breaking someone else's back or part of land devastation...there is that. Otherwise? As the children say, Peace out, man. Do they still say that?


There used to be, not so long ago, maybe one company (which I think was just one person) searching out and listing tiny homes. Now check it out, they are thriving alive alive O! There's a reason for that. While plenty of people are out there whinging on about their plight (some valid, some not so much), there are plenty of others out there figuring out solutions and tiny homes often play a part in that, freeing up money, time and resources. 




Have you ever noticed that when one link in a chain of events turns out to be a good one, more seem to follow in fairly rapid order? Yes, it works the other way too, but this isn't about that. 

This is about life. It's fast. It's slippery. It is worth savoring. Not in an Anais Nin sort of way (at least, not my take on how to enjoy your life without being a remora), but also, certainly not just drifting along, with words of 'someday' or 'I can't' riding on your lips. 

Have a take tantalizing topside Tuesday. Do something tendereyezing.

Technical Difficulties...Please Stand By

Remember that line on your television? Actually, it was 'We are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by' with the iconic Indian head test pattern screen. Later, but before color, then it would go to a screen called snow, with the hiss of crashing waves sounds,  until whatever those technical difficulties were got solved.

There might just be a technical difficulty getting back to My Friend Flicka or there could be the announcement we were about to be bombed to smithereens, by Communists, the bad guys of my day. A frission of fear came with these interruptions in our schedules, not much, more like when you know you could get a shock from static electricity, electricity we played with in socks and jabbing fingers. A little danger, but safe danger, because nothing ever happened, or so it seemed to this American at the time. Russia? Soviets? Bombs? Wars? What did we know? Not much, as it turns out.

Now, living in a world when I could electronically be sitting in the living room of a Russian family any time, day or night, it seems impossible how ignorant we were.  And yet, is the world really any smaller?  How many people use this amazing connection of wires and screens and satellites to know more than when we only had 2 or 3 channels on a black and white television and radios with no FM station to be had? I know it isn't like this everywhere, we have this surfeit of time and place as Americans that lets us squander much in the name of escape entertainment. I'm not pointing a finger (there are three pointed back at me, yuk yuk nostalgia), this is just how my head operates in the wee morning hours.

Due to my own technical difficulties, blog/online time yesterday was halted. Yesterday's Tiny Home Tuesday would have gone a bit like this. Pam was kind enough to send along a  page of 9 Tiny Homes You May Love (I like that the title writer open ends us...we don't have to love them, there is no prediction that we will love them - is it my inner rebel without a cause that appreciates the acknowledgment of various tastes?) Also across my radar - not real radar, I don't own a real radar - came 28 Great Homes Smaller than 1,000 Square Feet. Well, some are great in my opinion, some are not. So, 28 Great Homes Smaller than 1,000 Square Feet might be better.

Just in case you've been missing Spike.

So, when life is smaller, is it really bigger? Do we truly become more aware of our space, our surroundings? Is less more, ultimately? Does a plethora of choices improve our world or lead to mediocrity, lowering the bar for quality of everything from goods to food to conversation? Am I on the bias here? Indeed I am, but I know there are many other points of view that would find mine narrow and drab, almost parsinimious if you will. But I'm not. Really.

All of this falls into how we live, how we think about how we live. In 158 sq. feet or 10,000, it's important for some thinking to be going on. If you have 10,000 square feet to live in, I hope you're doing a lot of sharing from the front door.

As most people who read this know, I am a devoted follower of Lloyd Kahn, who has just published his latest book Tiny Homes on the Move. It's well covered by The Flying Tortoise, another blog I really enjoy, so I'll just let you go there until I get a copy of my own! If you want your own copy, you can get it here.

Have a weed it out Wednesday. Do something with wonder.

p.s. Hope all you US East Coasters (and everyone else, yes yes) are prepped for the season and that all will be well.