Death

Boy, there has been a lot of death already in 2016 :( David Bowie passing away earlier in the week and Alan Rickman leaving us today. The world lost two amazing entertainers.

I lost my favorite hen Alice yesterday. I'm not sure what happened, I found her outside, alone, laying on her side. I brought her in, and she was still alive, but barely. I held her in my arms, sent her love, but alas, it was too little too late. She left this world cradled in my arms. Goddess Bless her, I hope she returns in her next life an eagle or a hawk, something magnificent that soars the skies!

My brother-in-law's (who passed away in 2006) mother passed away yesterday too. I haven't seen her in a few years, but have the fondest childhood memories of her. She was a good woman, full of love and laughter. My deepest sympathies to the Latronico family.

The wheel turns, and with death comes life, and with life comes death.

Rest in Peace my Sweet Alice ... she's the big black and white hen in the photo below.

Wood Stove and Asthma

I have asthma and have sensitive lungs (I had a bad case of bronchitis ten years ago and pneumonia three years ago). Since I moved here, I have had four lung infections; the first one was in August and was caused by mold in the back bedroom, the other three have all been in the last three months. Friday night, my breathing was so bad I had to go to the hospital. I spent almost three hours there with an oxygen mask on.

So, what is causing all my lung problems? The Doctor thinks the woodstove :( I think he is right, as every time I even smell wood smoke I start coughing now. It doesn't help that the ceilings are very low here, only about 8 feet tall, it adds to the smoke problems.

I spent yesterday googling asthma and wood stoves, and sadly the Doctor may be right.

What a huge bummer. I LOVE the wood stove!

If you are interested here is a good article on wood stoves and lung health:
http://www.familiesforcleanair.org/myths/

So, I have to limited my time near the wood stove ... no more sitting beside it to read, to play D&D or work on art (I was spending many hours each day sitting within a foot of it).

I had planned to move for April 1st, but I need to move for March 1st if possible. I started a Go Fund Me page as I could really use a helping hand coming up with first and last months rent. Sadly it is hard to make money when I cannot do my normal online work and I'm too sick to take many dances :(

My Go Fund Me Page

If you could help out a tiny bit it would be greatly appreciated!

Hopefully I can get out of here for March 1st and get my life and health back on track!

Hugs and kisses!

A Cold Snap

This morning when we awoke it was -25 ... damn that's cold! I was up every two hours during the night to feed the woodstove and keep it going. This whole woodstove thing is sort of like having a baby, it takes constant care and dedication.

I really like the woodstove and hope our new place has one. It is a wonderful heat. However, it does take a lot of hard work and constant care.

I have found the woodstove does a great job heating the house until it hits -10 and below and than things go down hill. It sadly does not produce enough heat to keep the house warm at -25. We had to turn the propane heat on today to help get the cold out of the house. 

The woodstove also has a few dangers. As seen in the photos below I have managed to burn myself fairly badly several times. When putting wood in the stove, it is super easy to touch the stove with your hand, a split second is enough to burn the skin.

Thankfully the cold snap ends tomorrow and we are back up to around the zero mark! :)

Snow

Hi!

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile! Sadly, my power is so limited right now that it's difficult to spend any time on my computer :(. I did get a new generator, which is a huge help, but with zero solar power all month, I'm running it 4-5 hours a day just to maintain enough power to run a light, modem and my tablet (I finally got a cheap tablet so I can at least check my emails)

Monday overnight we got a shit load of snow, about a foot. It is incredibly beautiful! However, it was a serious task shovelling the driveway!

So here are some lovely pics of the area ...

First Snow Fall

Well, it finally happened ... it snowed. I went to bed Friday night to no snow and awoke Saturday morning to about an inch of it.

It snowed off and on all day, all together we got about three inches of snow. I'm not the biggest fan of snow, but you gotta admit its awfully pretty!

It's suppose to be +7 in a couple of days, so thankfully won't be staying long.

The snow is very nice for the Winter Solstice, which is on Monday.

I hope you all have a most wonderful Holidays! Hugs!

Raspberry Pi

In an attempt to lower my energy use, I purchased a Raspberry Pi. Well, technically, I gave the money to a friend who ordered it, set it up and then sent it to me. It's nice to have such great friends!!

I'm sure many of you are wondering what the heck a Raspberry Pi is ...

Basically it's a super small, super efficient computer tower. It cost about $80 and uses about 5 watts of power. I got it to replace the computer tower that was hooked to my TV to play downloaded movies and TV shows.

So, this photo is of the Pi all hooked up ....

This pic is of all the stuff my purchase came with

This photo is of the Pi in it's box. As you can see it's pretty damn small!

I could get another Pi to replace my main computer tower, but I would have to get a larger size as the one I got does not have the memory/ram for all my art programs.

So far, I'm impressed. It works great, was easy to get going and takes almost no power. However, if I had gotten it myself, I would of been horribly confiused as you have to set it up yourself (and I'm not the best at that kind of stuff). It does come with lots of directions.

You can buy a Pi on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=raspberrypi&tag=googcana-20&index=aps&hvadid=89307221849&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3875158643383683144&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_3kollhp7lp_e

Here is the link for the Pi site:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

If you are trying to save power or just looking for something small to replace your tower, I think a Pi is worth checking out!

Lung Infection and Herbal Remedies

Hi! Hope everyone is well! I've been having a boring blah week. I unfortunately have a lung infection again :( and am stuck sitting around being very bored.

Boy, I tell ya, the solar sort of sucks at the best of time, but damn it really really sucks when you are sick. I can't move around, so I'm stuck sitting, and without limited TV and computer, there is not a lot to do.

I've read two books already this week and did some painting and other art, but it gets really boring after awhile.

It doesn't help that I haven't been able to work doing dances all week. It really adds to my boredom. I normally have 1-2 nice fellas to chat with daily. I'm also a little bummed as I had planned to treat myself to a tablet this week with my dances money (So I can go online easier), but that didn't happen as I have been too sick to dance :(

I've been getting slowly better every day. I'm taking some herbal remedies. However, if I'm not significantly improved by Tuesday, I'm going to stop in at the walk in clinic when I go to town.

So, here are a couple of good herbal remedies for chest/lung infections and bronchitis:

Bronchitis Shooter

1. One shooter glass of tomato juice
2. 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
3. 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
4. a clove of garlic, minced

Add the spices to the shooter glass of tomato juice

The shooter should be taken twice daily for two days. It BURNS A LOT! Be prepared. Have a glass of milk or some bread for immediately after doing the shooter.

~~~

Tea Tree Oil Steam

Fill a bowl with hot boiling water, add five drops of tea tree oil. Inhale the steam for about 10-15 minutes.

The tea tree oil will help kill any infections in your lungs.

~~~

Honey and onion cough syrup

Take a cup of honey and finely chop in an onion. Put in fridge and leave for a day. Take a tablespoon like cough medicine when needed.

The onion could be substituted with cinnamon; it tastes better than the honey/onion, but I didn't think it worked as well.

~~~

Of course whenever you are sick, you should increase your vitamin C and adding a little extra garlic to your diet always helps.

I look forward to being back to my normal self soon and I hope you are all staying healthy! Hugs!