Why I Quit Facebook?

My new dog team - seven females!

Last night I "deactivated" my facebook account. I planned on deleting it, but that's not an option. I "can" return and reactivate my account at any time. How's that for information retention? During my deactivation session, the fb gods insisted I explain "why" I was leaving. I chose "other" from their list of reasons and then a popup box made me go back and explain further details. So I switched reasons and chose the box that said "Privacy Reason" and another popup stopped me and directed me to study more about my fb privacy. Then I still had to check another box so that I would not continue to receive emails from my closed account!

I'm doing some notes for an article based on a woman who has been an ACL supporter for years. She's also been an active Ron Paul supporter and fights daily for Liberty. I know many people like her, genuine and concerned, exist all around our nation and probably in every other nation. We are a very small, unaffiliated group of people who have chosen to accept communitarianism as REALITY. But the similarities pretty much stop there. I have never been a Ron Paul supporter, I gave up on the Libertarians within the first year of my ACL work. I have actually been very open in my opinion of Paul and his refusal to mention the words communitarianism or Agenda 21. I don't trust him because of it. I have been watching and listening to the Tea Party people, and the way I saw it develop the last couple years, I thought Gigi Bowman was at the center of that movement. Over the past few months (and thanks to fb) I realized she is not only not part of it, she openly opposes it! I'll be interviewing her in a series of written questions, it's the first time I've tried this and I think it'll be fun.

Terrain Depot plans coming together quickly, we will be open before June 1, shooting for Memorial Day Weekend. Almost everything is thawed in the yard, only a few chunks of ice here and there. My wood supply sucks again, burning green SAPA slab, but it was 38 above when I woke up at 8am so it's not life threatening anymore. I will need to find a more reliable source before next winter. My chainsaw broke down last month and I can't describe how that felt. Then my cart's wheel bearing broke and I saw my little supply of tools falling apart before my very eyes. It's a miracle I made it through the winter without any serious mishaps. After three winters camping I've used the hell out of everything. I have depended on that saw since I bought it the first summer I built gertee here, when Fred was born. I went from being terrified of chainsaws to loving them, and learning how to use saws changed my world.

Been having a blast "camping" in the new 10' gertee I put up in my backyard. I love going out there at night and experiementing with ways to make heat and fires inside. Last night I dragged a 12" metal stand in and put 2 pieces of 6" stack above it. Made the fire in the inside rim of a tire with 6" sides. Tim's got a new welder coming so I'm going to ask him to cut me a 6" hole in one of my big bread bowls and weld it to the bottom of the stack over the fire. I think it will catch ALL the smoke if I do that. Seems like it wouldn't cost that much or be that heavy either to make a hanging aluminum smoke cover for an open fire. Also thinking those Mexican stoves with the short stacks would work too. I can't seem to get the smoke to flow up and out the way it should with just the wall covers. It may be that I have to seal the floor with rugs and pull the outside walls up so the dang air can get underneath it! Cut the roofhole bigger to fit the roofring better and worked on ways to use safety pins to put up my inside fabrics. Borrowed the new materials I ordered for the 20' facelift, and I'm just going to have to include interior fabrics in the basic kit. It really does change it when you cover the inside frame with cloth, and I've got to when when I see open khana and roof poles it looks unfinished to me, even when the wood is pretty. I do like the modern classic yurt look, the beige canvas and white fabrics, beautiful wood floors and finish. That kind of yurt spells class and money and so yeah, why wouldn't I like them? My gertee is just more festive, she likes wearing different colors and textures during different seasons. And just like the woman who owns it, my gertees are always changing their clothes.

A special hello! to Sylvia in New Zealand, another gertee lover who builds her own too! I was going to upload pictures of her cute little yurts during one of my no pc times. Now I'm designing an entirely new gertee website and I'd be honored if I had permission to put them in our gallery.

It's been interesting and really uplifting to meet people from the "yurt community." It seems to be a very friendly, supportive bunch. I thought they'd all be full on communitarians because of the way the enviros write about them and the appeal yurts have in the sustainable "movement." I was wrong, as usual, because I'm meeting women and men, just like me, who only want to build a sweet little space they can call their own. Sylvia says she likes to keep hers at 8 to 10 feet max because then she can put it up herself. I know what she means by that because I have a "real" 10' gertee now too! I laughed the entire time I put the ring and roof poles up for the 3rd time in 2 days. After I stood the walls up and added the tension cable, I screwed 4 roofpoles into the roofring in the 4 directions and slipped it over the walls. It's so light this was nothing! Then I walked around the outside attaching each pole to the walls. Took five minutes. Yeah.

Oh happy spring!