Global Warming, HA!

It is May 27th and it is cold and windy and overcast today. It is practically June and I don't think it even reached 60 degrees today! I even had to wear a little jacket today when I went on break at work it was so chilly and windy. I think the ice caps are safe today. Brrr!

Origami

Hmm, I'm going to have to do something about this because it dose not seem to be working...(June 11th, 2008).

*Please note that the top and bottom row are the same.

**Notice: I do not claim to be an origami artist, all of the origami shown here was done using models and directions from various books. One day when I have the money I want to work on my skill and become better. Right now I am just a beginner and I enjoy the art of paper folding immensely.

Low

I've been in the mood to listen to Low a lot lately and today I have given in; it seems to match my mood. I've been really down lately because I am $3600 short for a college housing payment (University of Hawaii at Hilo) of $3600 that is due on June 2 which is TEN days away. I have tried everything I can think of and when I called the school today to discuss my options they told me all I could do was take out a loan. But I don't want to take out a loan!!! I DO NOT want to go into debt. I have already resigned to accept the loan that I was offered through my FAFSA and that just about killed me. I am so desperate. If I can't make this payment then I will have to postpone going to school because I am starting to think that I will not even have enough money to go to BYU-I either. I need a miracle. Bad. In the mean time I will just listen to Death of a Salesman by Low over and over. I think it's my favorite, followed by California.

The Illegal Kitten

Before you read this you have to promise not to tell any one what you about to read. Especially no one who lives in my town. Okay, that being said I will now tell you about Buster.

Buster is our kitten. We got him for free near the end of April. Mom saw the flyer about town, but said nothing because we can not have pets in the apartment that we live in. Sarah saw the flyer and told me about and we decided to go ask the current owner if there were any left, there were (ten) and so we shot off to acquire one for our selves with very thought on anything other than our insatiable desire to have a pet.

We stood and looked in the big box swarming with kittens ranging from 6 to 8 weeks old. After much deliberation we decided on the second biggest kitten because he looked healthy, didn't seem to mind us, and for me, I liked the tan fur behind his ears.

It wasn't until after we drove off with him that we realized that we did not know the sex of our new family member. Oh well, nothing a little Internet research couldn't fix! So the the next day I looked up way to know and followed the directions of lifting the tail and looking to see if the "holes" were far apart. They are, so we are 99% sure he is a boy. Mother came up with the name Buster and we eventually flipped a coin to decided if his name was to Buster or Bandit. And Buster suits him perfectly.

Buster is wild. He likes to run around as if possessed and latch onto our feet and attack our hands with claws flailing about. Sarah helps to encourage this somewhat undesirable behavior. He likes to sleep on my chest between my face and book, which I artfully work around so as not to disturb him. (I would have him sleeping on me than biting or scratching me.) He also likes to lick my face. I am not sure how I feel about this. It tickles and is SO cute, but then again he likes himself and eats mice whole and I am always afraid that at any moment he is going to release his claws on my face.

He is meant to live at the homestead and he spent about two and a half days there this week but then we brought him back home for fear will go crazy with no one to interact with. We will however take him back some time soon. While we were working on the house the second time with Buster there (the first time he spent a good deal of the time on Mom's back beneath her jacket trying to keep out the wind) he caught at least four baby mice and it was most fascinating to watch how he would torture the poor things and then crush their bones and swallow them whole. What a kitten! We are very glad that he catches mice, one of the main reasons we got him.

Mom at first kept saying that "we can't have that" but by day two she was in love like the rest of us and as I said before even came up with the winning name!

So we love Buster and he loves us and it is just great having a little companion...except for when you are trying to eat or when his claws are in you.

The Pond, My Biggest Joy In Life

From Top to Bottom:
The East "Wing" of the Pond (Above)
The Middle Section of the Pond
The South "Wing" of the Pond

Details

From Top to Bottom:
Livingroom Wall Straw Bales which Mother, Sarah, and I have built up ourselves! (Above)
The Front Door
Close up of Bales on East Wall

Pictures of the Homestead

From Top To Bottom:
Front (East wall) of House (Above)
South Wall
West Wall
North Wall
View of House and Pond from the "West Bank"

Dietary Worker

So I finally got my first "real" job. This means that my paycheck now gets raided by the government. I work at the local nursing home (or convalescent center as it is really called). I work the dinner shift so I have most of the day to do with what I will and then a wee bit o' evening to fool around in before going to bed to rest up for the paper route, yippee!

My job is fairly simple. I start out by pouring juice (grape, apple, orange, cranberry, prune, and some random drink for one of the lady residents). I then put that in the fridge and proceed to gather milk. Eleven 2%, three whole, and two skim. I put that in the fridge. I then prepare a bowl of mandarin oranges for one lady and a bowl of cottage cheese for her husband...now two other male residents want CC so I do that too. I get the snack drinks out and when those come back I refill and clean the pitchers up and put that in the fridge. (As you can see, I spend a great deal of time with the fridge. We getting to know each other quite well.) Now there is nothing to do for an hour until I have to pour the ice water, ice tea, put out the juices, milks, and special oranges and cottage cheese. I also dish up the fruit or dessert and puree that for the four people who need it pureed. Then we serve up dinner (usually some pre-frozen/pre-made meat dish or soup and a side dish or sorts, all of which is from low quality food, it can't be good). Then once the dishes start coming in I wash them and run them through the dishwasher. The dishwasher uses all sorts of chemicals which are hard on my hands. As Sarah so lovingly said the other day, my right hand looks like "old lady's hands." I am now attempting to wear gloves. I hope it helps to relieve the allergic reaction. Of course, how could any one's skin not be affected, apparently there is a corrosive mixed in with the water!

Then I reset the trays for morning shift.

If you are still awake and reading this then you can plainly see that my job takes no special skills and is relatively easy. So why they wanted me to train for eight days I'll never know. Luckily I got it cut back to only six days. I have had this job now for about three weeks now. Probably the best thing about this job is that I have gotten my TB shot for free which I need to have in order to go to college, so that worked out great.

So really I am a dishwasher, but nowadays they always give such fancy names to "lowly" jobs.

Straw Bale House

(This is my house blog from my Myspace page which I have been writing for some time now.)

I've decided to keep a record of the progress of our straw bale house. Over the Summer this is some of what we've done.
We (Sarah, Mom, and I) laid drain pipe in the foundation trench (sounds easy, but it was hot, labor intensive work that took a couple of days) then we shoveled gravel into the trench which is about three feet deep, 20 some inches wide and makes up the perimeter of the house. This was the most terrible thing ever (worse then building a cob wall in the heat). We did three sides, but by the time that was done it was time to go back to Albs to do some stuff so people from church helped out. Thank goodness!
Then the foundation was poured. Then what felt like an eternity passed and our carpenter finally got started on framing the floor. (This framing began middle of last week.)
Today Sarah and I began filling garbage bags with scrap sheep's wool. This is for insulation underneath part of the floor boards. It's fairly fun, but slow, like everything that happens with this house. We got four very large bags of wool for free from a local factory here that makes sheep's wool dusters and such. (So handy for us!) We fill the bags around half full and then try to squeeze out most if not all the air possible. Due to high wind (as usual, can't wait to start harvesting that with our wind mill) we filled the bags in our newly built carport. Once we had a goodly number of bags filled we would the few yards to to the house site and put the bags on top of the foundation between boards that will eventually support the floor. However, Sarah felt that we were doing something wrong so we came home to eat dinner and contact our carpenter for more details. We are yet to go back, and the sun should set soon, so we will probably have to go out there early in the morning tomorrow, hope I sleep well tonight!
Also today our windows were delivered! Sarah and helped the delivery guy unload them, some were around 300 lbs, but most of the boxes were light. Sarah and have also overseen the delivery of our batteries for our power system and parts of our wind-turbine (I like to call it our windmill, feels more Dutch).
I will be updating this regularly now for those of you who are interested. I'm doing this partly for myself and family so we have a good record; something I should have began a long time ago, but I've always been poor at keeping journal, so hopefully this will help. I will also put up pictures once we have some (never been a good one for the picture taking).

Sept. 27th
Much progress has been made on the house lately. All the window bucks have been put in place. The Kitchen wall (the North East corner) has been framed. This is the only part of the exterior wall that will not be built of straw bales. This was done to give more space to the kitchen. Friday we went to St. Joe and ordered our bathtub. Most exciting. So that should arrive soon and will be placed in the bathroom before the straw bales go up. We have taken some pictures of this point of progression, but it will be awhile before they get developed.

Oct. 1st
The Roof Trusses have been put into place! This was finished on Friday afternoon. Now we can see our roof as we crest the western hill and come out of the woods on our road. It is so exciting! On Saturday we had our straw bales delivered. An Amish man and his many sons picked them up and then delivered them to us. They did this with the help of their driver and his trailer, because they of course do not drive. Anyway we three watched them stack our bales in our carport. Sarah and I were afraid that there wouldn't be enough room for all 360 bales, but they all just fit inside. Thank goodness because if they had to sit outside they would be harder to keep dry and would then start to rot, and you can't build a sturdy house with rotten straw bales. So that is where we are as of now.

October 29th, 2007
Not a lot has happened this month due to rain and our construction guy working on his own place. But over the month some things did get done. Holes were dug all along side the house where the porch will end (our porch will be a wrap around). Those holes were then filled with concrete and posts set on them that attach to the roof for support.(The porch will have roof cover all around.) Inside, all the interior walls have been framed so now we have a good idea of the space inside. Also, our bathtub is now in the bathroom, which is quite spacious.
When we went to the property on Saturday I was pleasantly surprised with a drive-way! I hadn't realized we were getting it so soon, I knew we had the pipe to go in the ditch for drainage, but I didn't know we had ordered gravel and all that. It looks so nice, so final. I can't wait to plant trees and flowers on either side. We should be getting the tin roof put on in the next few weeks and then the windows and doors...I can't wait till all is done and we can move in, I don't like living on the square.
Side note, there were four ducks in our pond while we were there Saturday, I love it when water fowl comes to visit. I love it here!

November 10th
The roof is well underway! The wooden layer has been laid and is now covered with the black tar paper. By end of next week the tin/metal should be in place! So the house is making progress, however slowly.
Every time we go to the property lately there are ducks on our pond! Usually 3 or four.

November 15
We have gutters! Mother and I drove out to the property this morning. We were just going to drive by and not stop when I noticed something green along the edge of the roof. The sun was shinning brightly making it difficult to make it out so we drove up our driveway (!!) and got out and investigated. They had the green gutters on and some of the white steel that goes on the "ceiling" of the porch.
So, the roof is being put on! Who knew you would start a roof from the gutters and work from there? Once the roof is done we can stack straw bales (ahhh!) I can't wait!

December 9th 2007
Roof done, windows and doors in. Glad that part is over. Cold (15 degrees outside) and snowy, not a lot will happen now till spring. Happy I wont have to live through winter for the next few years, seeing as how I will most likely be going to school in Hawai'i!

Friday March 7th 2008
On Saturday March 1st Sarah and I went out to the homestead to do some work. It was a lovely day with temperatures up in to the low 60s! (Don't get your hopes up, by Sunday we had more snow, north winds and freezing temperatures.) Sarah and I spent several hours during the afternoon there moving bales and sweeping snow out of the house and exploring the frozen pond.
We already had some bales in the house (master-bedroom and kitchen). These were stacked in corners (not along the walls). So Sarah and I took the ones in Mom's bedroom and hauled them across the hall into the second or north/west bedroom. There we began to place bales in experimental ways and places to what best worked. We placed one row of bales in the north wall from the NW corner to the N window. A space about 6 feet long. We were only placing and seeing how things looked and worked, what we placed is not permanent, as we still need to notch/re-size many bales. Notching is cutting out a corner or cutting a gap in part of the bale so that fits nicely around a post/beam that goes from floor to ceiling. So we looked and discussed where we should notch and re-size the bales (cutting off and retying the whole bale, not just a small portion like in notching). Then we placed a second row to see how that would need to have notching and resizing done. (You lay straw bales like bricks, with on brick laying over where two bricks meet below it...you know Erin, like how we built with Legos.) Then I drew this and made a little diagram of how it looks for future reference while Sarah moved more bales into the bedroom. I really enjoyed drawing this diagram. Then Sarah and I did some calculations (which was the hardest work we did, neither of us being the very number savvy). Then we rigged up the bales until we had as many as we could get until we came to the rafter/ceiling/window buck boards.
Before we began laying the bales out though we swept out all the snow that had blown into the house and then we banged at the ice that had frozen to the floor until it broke into wee chunks that we could shovel out. Then we scattered the straw bits on the floor where it was still kinda wet to help soak up the moisture and dry out the floor in order to prevent warping. It was most satisfying.
On the south side of the house there is a lot of puddling around the post that are holding up the roof. We do not like this and it cant be good for the house. So later that night when I couldn't sleep I came up with a great plan to drain the water away from the house and to the pond. And now if the ground would only unfreeze long enough so that I could dig my trench and do that...I am very excited about it as it is my own little project to work with and experiment with.
After we were done with our work we went to check out the pond which has been frozen most of this winter. We walked on part of it earlier this winter and on Saturday it was still frozen but with a layer of slushiness on top. We braved it and walked out over some of the deepest parts of the pond. Such a thrill! I love that pond. Well, that's all for now.

Wednesday March 19, 2008
Today all three of us went out to homestead and worked on the living room walls. Over the past few weeks we have purchased a saw which we have been having some trouble starting, but that should get worked out soon. Last week we placed our first permanent bale in the Northwest bedroom. However, we have not gotten any further there as we ran into some problems. Instead we began concentrating on the the living room walls. Today we successfully retied many bales. I proved to be the best at this; I am faster and tie tighter, and get the string tied correctly almost always on my first try! We were there for several hours and it was just lovely. The pond is thawing out and the ice that still covers most of the pond is a brilliant blue color, especially when the sun hits it just right. Today we saw a muskrat swimming on the edge of the pond where there is no ice, our first muskrat of the year. That is all for today.

Thursday March 20th, 2008
Today Sarah and I went to the homestead. There we completed one section of the southern living room wall. Then we worked some on the north wall of the bathroom until a few road blocks popped up. Then we went onto build up the long southern wall in Mother's room. All this work leaves me very tired when I get home, I can barely keep my eyes open! The pond is quickly thawing (today's temperature reached 61 degrees). Almost the whole east end of the pond had thawed out by the time we left. It is so beautiful, co clear!

Thursday May 8th
Bad weather has put a hold on our house building for the month of April. But this past week we were able to get some work done. We built up the living room walls on Monday with Mom and then on Tuesday Sarah and I went out and did some work on the bathroom walls. Now all that is left is the area around the window in that room. We are having trouble with the south wall in Mom's bedroom. It keeps falling over in the wind. That's not quite what we want from our wall, so we are working on some different ideas to correct that. Our kitten that we got near the end of April has proven his worth by catching four (possibly five) baby mice that were living in the future kitchen in some piles of loose straw. Little devils. It was fascinating watching him catch and kill them. He ate them whole! I had no idea cats did that. It was really awesome. A little sad too because we could hear the baby mice squeaking while being tortured. But I don't want mice in my house, so they had to go.

Yahoo!'s Top Ten Searches

At Yahoo.com there is this thing at the bottom of the page that lists the top ten searches for the day at Yahoo (though I never search at yahoo, always Google). Earlier today number three was Elisha Cuthbert. I have no idea who this is, but I just had to click on her name because of Anne of Green Gables and Marilla and Mathew Cuthbert. Boy was I disappointed, not that I expected anything great. All I saw was some female with a lot of chest showing. No need to see that, so I promptly left with out trying to find anything else out about her. Knowing that she is a slut is sufficient enough for me. Sorry Elisha. (I think I have the first name right though I hardly think it matters if I do.)

This My First Real Blog for Sherri Lynn's Thoughts

Currently all I think about is money. Not so much because I am greedy or full of avarice but because I have none and really need some. I am around $8,000 short for the college education that I am desperately trying to obtain. I am attempting to go to the University of Hawaii at Hilo to major in geology and become a vulcanologist. (Side note, if any of you reading this care to donate to my cause, feel free, I'm not above taking hand outs!)

If I can't get out there than I will probably go to BYU-Idaho. Oh joy. I used to really want to go there, up until a year or so ago. And even then I still would have loved to go, but this week I feel like calling them up and saying a whole slew of things I know must be banned from speaking on that “holy” campus. Why? Because they close down every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour for devotional. Of course this is the time that is most convenient for me to call them. Also I can never find my I-number and only today was given a concrete place in which to find it, a little web page just for me like I have with Hilo. Why was I not made aware of this place months ago!? Another thing, they won't have my financial aid award decided until June! I need to know now!!! (I need to have $3,000+ for my housing costs in Hilo by the beginning of June and I don't know how I am going to get this money and I would like to have some concrete money info from BYU-Idaho before then, oh well I guess.) Also, I kept trying to call the financial aid office today and kept getting a busy signal! What kind of place is this? Don't they have multiple lines and a hold system or something? Okay, I'll stop ranting about that now, but if you are reading this BYU-Idaho, shape up! Pretty much the best thing going for BYU-Idaho right now is the price and their meal plan which makes much more sense to me than Hilo's plans. Oh well, I could stand to lose a bit of weight.

I desperately want to go to school in Hawaii. I have my wee heart set on it. I want to be so close to one of the worlds most active volcano, the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, they have a great sounding geology department, are close to all that space telescope stuff, and it is in such a beautiful place. However, I would like to state for the record that I did not decide to go to a Hawaii school solely or in any capacity because of the location. It is really just a bonus, a GREAT bonus.

If you have any helpful ideas about how to get some money for college, all ideas are welcome except for FAFSA, Fastweb, or student loans. (I have already done FAFSA, have a loan offer from that, and I am working on scholarships.) If you know of a scholarship opportunity though, do tell all! I am also working three jobs: delivering the daily newspaper with the family, babysitting, and working at the nursing home. I have time for another job so I might...Who knows!

So I continue to think about money, about going to college, and about other all related fields. Wish me luck, but if you want to be even more helpful, pray for me. Thank you.

Dinner

I made myself such a lovely dinner and I just have to share it. I made a beautiful salad with romaine lettuce with sliced strawberries and a little onion mixed in. I then added just the right amount (for me...a little less then a table spoon) of a strawberry chardonnay dressing (don't worry, not alcohol, still following the WoW). I then sprinkled it with some shredded Swiss cheese. Oh, it was just lovely. But lets not stop there. I also had a hard boiled egg lightly sprinkled with salt and green olives stuffed with pimento on the side. To drink I had a "long glass of charged water*" from the filtered tap. It was just so beautiful and delicious.



*Quote from the film "White Christmas"

Friday, March 28th, 2008

(I originally wrote this for my Facebook page)

My Man

Downtown

Waterloo

The M.T.A.

New Mexico Memories