My One Match Fire!

This morning I woke up to snow! wtf, right? Yesterday I was sweating my tits off in my crochet bikini, gardening, getting a tan...I went to bed to the sounds of a spring time thunder storm, it was so warm I let my fire go out. While sleeping, in came some freezing cold winds & snow, so a fire was needed as soon as I woke up.
I can finally do this with only ONE match!

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HERE IS HOW I DO IT ::::*
1. I put paper at the bottom (sometimes with a toilet roll), down the middle, front to back
2. I layer tiny tree branches, by size up to larger branches on top
3. I put wood slivers on top the branches
4. I add small logs at the top of the pile...
5. and light the match to the paper at the bottom
6. then BLOW and blow and blow some more, till ya have a big flame!
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Watch the process here::::


XOXO

Rain Walk: Things Me and Mah' DOnkee Liked

Me and all my animals (chickens, a donkey and one cat) have all been cooped up (so to speak) for the last few days with the constant fall rains. Even though it was still overcast and a drizzle came down on my hooded head I invited JuJu the donkey to go for a walk with me...
She totally wanted to come. On with the halter and out the gate, we ventured not too far from our home but far enough to feel freedom from the gloomy confinement.

JuJu is one of the most alert, consistent, and reliable guard animals I have ever seen - she hears things from farther away then I can even imagine them and is always right on target. She knows when they are just something to notice or if they are a true threat (which a donkey will kill or injure), she always shows me whats far ahead when she stops short of walking, flares her nostrils, and takes on the stiff, high eared pose she has in the pic above.

A lil' further up, I saw what she heard over some hills and hundreds of feet away...

wild turkeys!!! (See them in the pic below, making a run down a nook in the meadow...)

Along the road we also came upon something that is fairly new... someone set up a wood stove for outside cooking! I happen to love this idea, because I have a really old not serviceable wood stove on my porch and have been dreaming of using it as an outside fire/cook stove for Spring, Summer and Fall when it's too warm to fire up the one inside the house.

The wood stove I have is missing a front door, and I thought it could be turned into a Cob Oven! (Read HERE how to build your own cheap outside oven.)

Remember the 'pink trailer' I (didn't) trespass at a few months ago...

JuJu has a thing for the retro trailer too. Everytime we pass it she wants to walk all around it, look in the windows, nibble on some charcoal in a burn pile out front, and just generally chill out there...

I am so glad she doesn't look in the windows of my neighbors who are actually home! ha.

The same someone who must have set up the wood stove, placed two animal skulls side by side on a mossy log. Then I found the plastic daisy. I like old plastic flowers in a weird way, even though I am not sure I should....

The thing me and JuJu like the most though, is the forest in general. The bigger picture, the adventure, the all encompassing balance of it, the safety & the dangers, the sounds, the peace, the tall trees, the wet bark, the weather, the wild plants-

the feeling that things are completely right.

Xoxoxox

Learning To Use An Ax Part 2 (The bungee cord idea!)

Ya'll might recall when I was learning better ways to split wood with an ax called a "go devil"? Well, the poor "go devil" is now R.I.P like most things with a plastic handle end up these days (it's cracked at the base) - and we have now moved onto old school wooden handle ax which I like bunches better. But hec, that isn't what this post is about... it's about how we tried out the awesome bungee cord idea by one of my most favorite readers 'Gratuitous'! (Hi, Gratu! Yeah, I am talking about ya...)
I did give a few swings on this bungee cord wrapped humongous black walnut log, which happen to be sitting in thick mud puddle... when I swung down the ax hitting the log that cold puddle squirted me right in the mouth and eye!! lol
So... moving right along.... Here is how this trick works:

• We tied a bungee cord around the log (see bad ass video Gratuitous found here!)
  
• Push it closer to the middle or bottom to prevent breaking the cord itself
• Go ahead and swing as per normal, except now you wont have to keep standing the pieces back up cause the bungee will be holding them all together!

Pretty sweet idea, cause it worked!
XoXo

Eco Art: Homemade Charcoal & Scrap Paper Drawing

Yay! I am all excited about this eco art project...mainly because I was able to work in the larger size I am comfortable with, but also because the whole thing was free (free charcoal made in the wood stove, free scrap paper from a shipping box!) I made a lil' video for ya'll of the step by step process of the drawing itself... take a lookie down below!




XoXOXooxx

Eco Art: Self Portrait in Charcoal

This portrait is just a teaser, cause tonight I am working on a much larger charcoal drawing using the charred wood from inside my wood stove (which I am burning wood in for winter heat.) The drawing here though was a quickie self portrait I did while thinking deeply into how I can make fine arts truly part of my life again with the same joy I had when using the easy to access toxic art supplies I used to buy. Art by virtue of it's rebellious political stance really should naturally lend to a more earth friendly, recycled, upcycled and natural formation - AKA maybe a lil' less purchasing of mass manufactured supplies and more learning how to create our very own art supplies. Free is always good for the 'starving' artist anyhow. :)
This self portrait took only a few minutes, and was done on trash paper that had been stuffed in a box that was delivered to the house here... which made it 100% free and eco.
Can't wait to show ya' the next one...
xoxo