Friday Thoughts: defining reality from fantasy

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~*~

INSTRUCTIONS FOR READING: 

Gently form your tongue into a point.  Now, firmly place it into the side of your cheek.

YOU MAY CONTINUE READING

~*~

As a child I could easily suspend reality and believe that a flying bear in my dreams could sprinkle fairy dust over me, and then taking my hand float me away from my sadness.   Flying over the familiar dry fields that surrounded my home in California was an effortless and very real thing to do.   I believed without hesitation that my toys came to life when I wasn’t looking, and when a bit older, that the stories on the Twilight Zone must have some basis in truth.

Toy Story is a perfect example of this animistic view.  The sense that objects can move unbidden, for good or evil intent, is a natural phase of our growth and understanding of what is real or unreal in our natural world.  When we are very young we are certain that our toys can move and objects that scare us can come to life.  Then when we were about 7 to 10 years old we knew better, and yet, we could freely suspend reality to get into a good fantasy and believe, if for only a while, that it was true.

I am a grown-up.   And although I am certain that the truth of the matter is this:

Inanimate objects do not move or have life.

I nevertheless do imagine it at times.

And I ask you:

Is a flight of fanciful imagination now and again such a bad thing?

Disney certainly never believed it was a detriment to our maturity.

Anaisa Franco doesn’t think so either.  In her feature on the Creators Project she seeks this very thing. She brings life to her thoughts and the inanimate objects she creates through her art.

For my taste she borders on the scary side of animism, but I still like her work!

This video keeps disappearing on me, I don’t have any explanation  for it, the code just spontaneously combusts!  If it happens again, then please go HERE to view it on Youtube.   Thank you!   🙂

~*~

And so it is, that I still carry some vague notion that my little statues in the garden are somehow endued with a life that is unseen.  And although I have never really seen them move, save through the eyes in the back of my head…  I do enjoy these fantastical slips into childhood,  and then pen them to paper in my stories.

For over ten years I have had a little trio of friends in my gardens.  They are a lion I named Aslan, and a mother squirrel with baby.  They traveled almost 3,000 miles with me from California when we moved.

Over the years the little guy happily sat with his mother in the shadow of Aslan.  Knowing no fear he stood bravely by when the Big Dog came barking and growling fiercely at him and his mother.  He remained stalwart when taking insults from the other squirrels, who often pushed him over, and then waited patiently for me to come by and set him right again.

And so it was this morning, that I was taken aback when I found my little squirrel’s head laying crushed in the stone drive.

He is not real,

He is plastic,

and yet I find him eerie to look at in this state.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHe was a good little squirrel and I shall miss him in the gardens.

~*~

What do you imagine happened to Rocket? 

Your version can be firmly rooted in reality or you can take the fantasy stance.   It is your choice.

~*~

NOTES: In my writing I freely use animistic, and animism to relate to my childhood feeling that inanimate objects could move under their own power, and thus had a life of their own.  In one sense of the word, Merriam Webster defines it in this way:

“[the] attribution of conscious life to objects in and phenomena of nature or to inanimate objects”

Friday Fictioneers: The game

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Friday Fictioneers is a weekly writing challenge using  a photo prompt.

THE CHALLENGE:

Write a one hundred word story that has a beginning, middle and end. (No one will be ostracized for going a few words over the count.)

THE KEY:

Make every word count.

As always, thanks goes out to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, at Addicted to Purple for encouraging us, and a special thank you to John Nixon for the use of his photograph.

~*~*~*~

The Game

the_second_hand_shop-1

When Moira’s memory began to fade she became shy about going into public, so Henry devised a game to get her out of the house.  He began taking her little treasures to the second-hand store.  Bringing in one of her curiosities Sally the shopkeeper would hold it aside.

Moira seemed to enjoy her weekly visits and sure enough, she would spy her item, and her face would light up.   “Oh,  Look Henry, I used to have one of these!  Do you remember it?”

Today, Sally noticed him alone and hesitating at the door.  Crying she whispered,   “I’m sorry Henry.”

~*~*~*~

WORDS:  exactly 100

For more great stories on this prompt look HERE

A rough beginning, but the day ends well

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We have scrimped and saved wherever we can to keep our costs to a minimum.  To say that the Mountain Farmlet is costing us a mountain of cash, might sound scary to some, but we are managing and doing so much of the work ourselves.  It feels intimidating, and to be honest overwhelming at times, but we have been researching and learning by doing and each time we tackle a new job at the old place we feel better equipped for the next bit that comes along.

Yesterday Bob left for work and then came back saying that his car transmission was acting funny.  We took it into the transmission repair shop and got the verdict of $1,400.00 to rebuild it.  We are not elated, but we will survive this too.

Now I am going to share with you some of our outlook on life.  I have no intention for this to be preachy, so please don’t take it as such.

I mentioned to Bob that some people would look at what we are going through (car repair, our sick Little Dog expenses, hidden damage in the old farmhouse) and might think:

“God is punishing us.”  

To which, after some deep thinking, he later replied:

“(paraphrased)  You know some people would think that, but I believe he is preparing us and teaching us to live more frugally.  Look at how much we are accomplishing by learning to do the work on our own.  Yes, there are some projects we can’t do ourselves, but none of this is insurmountable.  He is making us stronger, smarter and wiser.

We have always dreamed of living in the country and owning a bit of land, and this dream is becoming a reality.  We are just having to work for it, and that is not such a bad thing.   It will take us longer than we anticipated, but we will accomplish our dream.”

Today, after a parts delay, the construction of the new roof begins.  It has to be done, it is expensive, but a sound roof will protect all our hard work on the inside.  And while we have found some really rotten wood behind the walls in the kitchen and bath, we now have a brand new floor in the bathroom.  We have also discovered that under the badly damaged sub-floor in the kitchen there are relatively new, and pristine beams to hold up the new flooring when we install it.  That was a welcome surprise that will save us much labor and money.

As we worked away the day, and along our journey home,  I took these photos to share with you.  Be patient, they may take a moment to load…

I leave you with a message found on a church notice board near where we live…

“The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us.”

To which I respond…

Selah!

~*~*~*~

NOTES:  The Amplified Bible translates *selah as “pause, and think of that”  I like that translation.

Reference: Selah in the Psalms ~  http://ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com/ancient_hebrew_poetry/2007/07/selah-in-the-ps.html

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A scenic route, hard work, and a graceful glider

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WARNING:  Go grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea, because this is a longish post!

~*~  THE SCENIC ROUTE ~*~

Each week we try a different way to get the Mountain Farmlet.  This week on our way up we discovered a cute pond.

The owner of the pond set it up with duck decoys and a painted silhouette for the dog.  Most of the rest are garden art statuary.  Kitschy?  A bit overdone?  Nah, a wee bit Disneyesque perhaps.  😉

~*~ HARD WORK ~*~

To say that fixing up the old cabin is hard work goes without saying.  To say that it is hot work is an understatement.

On the previous Sunday whilst peeling the walls we discovered that there were rodent feces falling down from a crack in the ceiling.  And I suppose it is to be expected in a drafty over 100-year-old farm-house.  So we stopped our work, went to Home Depot and purchased disposable space suits.  The label said “One size fits most…”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABut barely.

Poor Bob was getting overheated and we both had to make frequent stops to hydrate and cool off.  He lost five pounds this past Sunday!

What we have discovered so far is a fire in the kitchen walls, termite damage, and graffiti.  Apparently, the house was empty for a while?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

What we discovered in the ceiling was pounds of rat crap.  I’m sorry, but there is no more delicate way of saying it, and it was disgusting.  We were very glad for the “One size fits most” disposable space suits and our face masks with mold filtering capabilities!

And, I suppose it goes without saying that we were glad we had the foresight to put down disposable paint tarps before we pulled down that ceiling, and that we spent the extra money to purchase HEPA filters for the shopvac.

Bob was so grossed out that he put everything, including the HEPA filter into a black trash bag and tossed it.  GACK!

As we pull away the layers and remove the damaged wood I have been spraying EVERYTHING with pure vinegar.  It kills germs, kills mold (I looked this factoid  up) and remarkably, makes the house smell fresher.  So far, best practice says that the mold is growing on the surface, and to remove it you must use elbow grease and *hot soapy water to get rid of it.  It also says that if there is discoloration into the wood, Then it is wood rot and you should remove it.  Of course if the mold is in the wallboard, or in the fiberglass batting, then it goes without saying that it should be removed and properly disposed of.

Which leads me to the next factoid.  Did you know that if you stuff an old wooden house with fiberglass batting, that you are trapping moisture within the walls and you are inviting MOLD to live there?

Apparently, in our efforts to use less energy and to be “green” we are creating a perfect storm for mold growth and decay.  The more you stuff into the walls, the more air tight you make your home, the more you save on energy costs.  Right?

Unfortunately, the trapped moisture you create means your walls become a spore factory.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAExhibit A:  White mold on a wall brace where fiberglass batting rested on it.

Mold spores are everywhere outside.  They are kept in check because of sunshine and the breezes that surround us.  Once they are locked up tight into your walls they go into overdrive and you may get sick.

So it turns out, that a drafty old house is a healthy old house.

We have decided to remove the toxic, formaldehyde off-gassing, mold harboring, fiberglass batting.  The walls will be able to breathe again and the mold will have a less inviting place to grow.  We will not be “green” but as our winters are not so harsh here, we then find it an acceptable tradeoff for our health.  Currently, I keep the thermostat set to 64 degrees in winter and wear warmer clothes.  In summer it is 74 degrees with ceiling fans to circulate the air.

This Thursday the new insulated tin roof goes on and that in and of itself should be a big energy savings winter or summer.  😀

~*~ A GRACEFUL GLIDER ~*~

Would you ever guess that a Guinea Hen could be a graceful glider?

Last night the hooty-owl from the oak woods came for a second visit in exactly seven days.  We lost another Weechoo in the dark of the night.  Bob came in and told me about it early this morning.  Strangely, for as loud as they are, we never heard a thing.  Poor Weechoo.

So this morning while I sat on the front porch to wave Bob off to work I saw a rather largish bird take off from the top of the tree across the street.  At first in the dusky light I thought it was the killer owl, but no, it was one of the Weechoos returning home.  From that height it spread its wings,  stretched out its neck, and in a perfect glide went over the barn into our chicken yard.  That was a distance of over 200 feet!

Who would have guessed that such an ungainly and to be honest, rather ugly bird could be so graceful?

IMG_6673Image courtesy of Lori on her visit to the Farmlet this spring.  AKA: Little Sundog at Day by Day the Farmgirl Way.

Unfortunately for us… trash day was yesterday.  We were left with no other choice but to triple bag the carcass and put it into the freezer till next trash day, because it is still very much hot, humid, summer weather here.

Now I can hear some of you gagging and groaning! 

But think… 

You put dead things in your freezer all the time, and I’m betting that you don’t even triple bag them.

😉

~*~

(You’re still here?  Thanks for reading!)

~*~

NOTE:  Borax was highly recommended on many sites for mold remediation.  You know I will be adding that to the hot soapy water!

REFERENCES:

  1. http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/reports/rr-0211-mold-causes-health-effects-and-clean-up
  2. http://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/prevent-mold-growth-under-fiberglass-insulation/
  3. http://www.insulation.org/articles/article.cfm?id=io031002
  4. http://www.cdc.gov/MOLD/