Our Little House in Tornado Alley
Last week, I posted that spring has finally sprung at our house.
This week, it is summer. We already have had to turn on the air conditioning.
The heat may bring more of a chance of severe weather. Last week was a particularly deadly week in the Ozarks. As we now know, on Sunday a rare, monster EF5 struck Joplin, Missouri. By Tuesday, 14 others had died in tornado outbreaks in Kansas, Oklahoma and in Arkansas to the southwest of us.
A few times, I saw people posting on Facebook, “I’ll take hurricanes over tornadoes any day, at least with hurricanes, we get notice.”
I was reminded of a conversation my mother always had with her cousins who lived in California. They would inevitably ask, "How can you stand living here with the threat of tornadoes?" and she would respond, "How can you stand living out there with all of those earthquakes?"
As a life-long resident of “Tornado Alley,” who spent my early years in a little bungalow that sported a tree in the front yard with an oddly twisted trunk, I guess it’s all a matter of perspective and a matter of how you prepare.
Spring Cleaning (Finally) at Our Little House
Winter clothes out, summer clothes in
This week has all about organizing.
Well, in between the numerous tornado warnings (we are fine).
I have never been the greatest organizer and although living in Our Little House demands better organizing, it just isn’t happening.
Maybe it is too many years of having a larger house that had numerous places to throw things, such as an empty bedroom, stairs and a larger kitchen table.
At any rate, Our Little House, as well as The Belle Writer’s Studio, had become a disaster since my last seasonal cleaning.
Mail cluttered the kitchen table, my table I set up in the studio for taxes took overflow and books were stacked on every available surface.
Giddy at Our Little House
Giddy.
That’s the word my husband used to describe me last week when I was finally able to have DSL installed at Our Little House.
Before Thursday, it was that old dial tone, high screeching, low screeching, ultra slow dial up on which the Internet was born nearly 20 years ago.
Yes, we did know this was all that was available at Our Little House when we built more than 7 years ago. We also knew this was all that was still available when we moved here 4 years ago.
But I did figure that it would have to come, sooner rather than later. Besides, the small rural telephone company that owns a monopoly on the lines they installed in this part of Arkansas just 25 year ago, had been telling my aunt for 10 years that it would come “soon.”
A Stinky Problem at Our Little House
It’s never good when this conversation takes place:
Me: “I don’t think my new all natural deodorant is working very well.”
Dale: “I’m glad you noticed.”
Alexandra Grabbe, a member of our Living Large community that also runs a green B&B on Cape Cod and writes the B&B blog, Chez Sven, is my anti-chemical hero and after learning a lot from her writings, I decided to embark on my own quest to eliminate as many chemicals from our lives here at Our Little House as possible.
That includes ones we ingest and that come in contact with our skin. I’m using the fabulous all natural Indigo Wild products and some all-natural skin care products.
I decided to try an all-natural deodorant last month.
