Well, the title pretty much says the story, but this is a plant that we pulled out of the hole in the floor under a client's toilet. Who knows how it got there. Maybe someone had way too much Shredded Wheat? Just another day in the adventurous life of a CHRPA volunteer!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
I pulled this out of a client's toilet
Well, the title pretty much says the story, but this is a plant that we pulled out of the hole in the floor under a client's toilet. Who knows how it got there. Maybe someone had way too much Shredded Wheat? Just another day in the adventurous life of a CHRPA volunteer!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Our crazy house...
Man, it's been quite a while since the last time I posted anything on this blog! On one of my recent entries I said that I was excited about getting into a routine and getting familiar with it so I can focus on deepening my experiences. I've definitely gotten into a routine, but may need to back off a bit on the number of things I have in that routine. So much has happened since the last time I updated this blog, and it will take multiple entries to get all those thoughts and experiences in writing, so I'll just focus on a couple interesting things that have happened recently.
One of the focuses of our house is to live a lifestyle that limits our impact on the environment as much as possible. The animals around us must have picked up on the fact that we're an environmentally-friendly house, because they are making frequent visits. First we noticed several small, furry friends scurrying around our floors at night. After much discussion and lamenting, we concluded that our little friends must die. We tried to think of ways that were humane, but killing mice is pretty much inherently dirty work. We set up mouse traps with peanut butter as the bait and caught five of the little guys over the next few days. Each morning before breakfast we'd check the traps and whenever we found that one of our visitors had taken the bait, he/she had his/her eyes wide open, gazing upward as if to say, "et tu, YAVs?" It's okay, though. They had to go.
Another animal experience happened in those same few days. I came home and walked in my room to find a Cactus Wren (the state bird of Arizona) perched above my chamber door. Perched, and sat, and nothing more. He asked if my soul was in pain over the mice we had tempted and slain. Then he looked at me and said "nevermore."
Actually he was just hopping around the floor, looking for a window or door. I'm not sure how he got in, but it was strange to have so many animal visitors in our house during this time.
Another interesting experience happened just today when I decided to try and wash my clothes by hand. There is a concrete wash basin in our backyard and it was a struggle to figure out how to get the clothes clean and rinsed without losing all the water in the basin from the drain. I ended up plugging the drain by duct taping an old bike inner tube to the drain and elevating the other end to keep the water from flowing out. I used Oasis detergent, which is biodegradable and filled up a bucket from the outside spicket to transfer wash and rinse water to the basin. It took forever to get my clothes clean and I now have a great respect for the people who have to do this all the time.
These are just a couple interesting and humorous things that have happened very recently, but I plan on writing about all the other things and thoughts that have happened in the past month shortly. I have started thinking about plans for next year, have attended a couple protest events, have continued to learn about home repair (especially involving furnaces) and got the chance to attend a cultural event in Tucson known as the Day of the Dead procession. What a crazy month! I'm looking forwarding to getting my thoughts out to you soon.
One of the focuses of our house is to live a lifestyle that limits our impact on the environment as much as possible. The animals around us must have picked up on the fact that we're an environmentally-friendly house, because they are making frequent visits. First we noticed several small, furry friends scurrying around our floors at night. After much discussion and lamenting, we concluded that our little friends must die. We tried to think of ways that were humane, but killing mice is pretty much inherently dirty work. We set up mouse traps with peanut butter as the bait and caught five of the little guys over the next few days. Each morning before breakfast we'd check the traps and whenever we found that one of our visitors had taken the bait, he/she had his/her eyes wide open, gazing upward as if to say, "et tu, YAVs?" It's okay, though. They had to go.
Another animal experience happened in those same few days. I came home and walked in my room to find a Cactus Wren (the state bird of Arizona) perched above my chamber door. Perched, and sat, and nothing more. He asked if my soul was in pain over the mice we had tempted and slain. Then he looked at me and said "nevermore."
Actually he was just hopping around the floor, looking for a window or door. I'm not sure how he got in, but it was strange to have so many animal visitors in our house during this time.
Another interesting experience happened just today when I decided to try and wash my clothes by hand. There is a concrete wash basin in our backyard and it was a struggle to figure out how to get the clothes clean and rinsed without losing all the water in the basin from the drain. I ended up plugging the drain by duct taping an old bike inner tube to the drain and elevating the other end to keep the water from flowing out. I used Oasis detergent, which is biodegradable and filled up a bucket from the outside spicket to transfer wash and rinse water to the basin. It took forever to get my clothes clean and I now have a great respect for the people who have to do this all the time.
These are just a couple interesting and humorous things that have happened very recently, but I plan on writing about all the other things and thoughts that have happened in the past month shortly. I have started thinking about plans for next year, have attended a couple protest events, have continued to learn about home repair (especially involving furnaces) and got the chance to attend a cultural event in Tucson known as the Day of the Dead procession. What a crazy month! I'm looking forwarding to getting my thoughts out to you soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
