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team-free-will-oneshots · 5 years

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Homecoming

Title: Homecoming (part three in the ‘Reckless’ series) Request: Hi, can I request a Dean x reader, where he makes her angry so she decides to leave him while on a hunt… But when she gets back to the bunker, she doesn’t realize a month has gone by. Pairing: Dean x Fem!Reader Warnings: swearing, mentions of blood Word Count: 2,500ish

note; so this was going to be the last part... but then i felt like it was a bit anti-climatic for a finale and it didn’t quite feel over yet SO there’s gonna two more parts!! enjoy ;)

Part One | Part Two

You awoke face down on the ground. Gravel dug into your cheek and bit into the palms of your hands, and you groaned as you sat up, joints stiff and aching. Your shoulder was killing you, and your ribs were definitely bruised, if not fractured. Blinking sluggishly, the darkness around you became discernible as your eyes adjusted - trees. A long driveway. You were still disoriented, but something about this was oddly familiar…

The witch! The realisation hit you like a brick to the head and you jumped to your feet, ignoring your protesting injuries. Spinning around, you realised with a start that the house was dark, cordoned off with police tape. Frowning, you slunk under the weak barrier and looked through the window. The scene that awaited you was far different from the one in your most recent memory.

The candles that had previously circled the witch were now nothing but dried pools of melted wax staining the wooden floors. The witch’s body was gone, though a disturbingly large amount of dried blood was smeared across the floor and walls. Her other victim’s body had disappeared also, leaving nothing but the collapsed china cabinet and an abundance of evidence markers placed around the scene.

Mind reeling and head throbbing, you sat and leaned against the side of the house, glancing at your injured shoulder and deciding now was as good a time as any to assess the extent of your injuries. It hurt like hell, but the bleeding from your shoulder had mostly stopped, and you’d definitely had worse. You were sure that, given enough time, it would heal. You could taste blood in your mouth from the boot to the face you’d received, but thankfully you still had all your teeth, even if your gums were split. All in all, you could survive without rushing to the hospital.

Now that you knew you weren’t bleeding out, a more pressing concern was raised - what the hell had happened here? You could only guess it had something to do with the window the witch had sent you flying through - some kind of portal, maybe?

Though your brain still rattled with confusion, you managed to shake yourself out of your stupor and decided to get back to the motel as quickly as possible - maybe the boys would have some clue as to what had happened. Ha - Dean’s face when he realised you’d taken the witch on your own would be priceless, you couldn’t wait to shove your competence in his face.

You walked down the long drive, ducking under another round of police tape stationed at the foot of the driveway. Your hands fumbled in your pockets for your keys as you walked, but you’d gotten halfway down the street before you froze. Wait…

“Where the hell is my car?” you muttered, glancing back the way you came. You were sure you’d parked it here… Are you kidding? Someone stole your fucking car. Great - just what you needed, tonight of all nights.

You huffed an annoyed sigh as you pulled out your phone, brows shooting up in surprise as you saw the notification - 154 missed calls from Dean Winchester. 82 missed calls from Sam Winchester. Jesus.

Opening Dean’s contact, your thumb hovered over the call button… but then you thought of his smug face when you called asking for help, and thought better. Goddammit, you were Ubering - you were too stubborn to ask for help after all this.

You leaned back against a fence as you waited for your Uber to arrive, scrolling mindlessly through your phone until they did. You slid into the back seat, ready to finally find some answers.

---

When you were dropped off you headed straight for your motel room, surprised to find it locked. You patted your pockets, but realised you must’ve left the room key with the boys. You pounded on the door.

“Hello? Dean? Sam?” you called expectantly. “I took care of her! She’s dead! Can you guys let me in?”

Silence. Then muffled whispering. You groaned.

“Look, I’m sorry if I worried you, but can you guys please let me in? It’s cold out here!” you yelled, kicking the door once before turning around with an irritated sigh. You rolled your eyes as you heard the door creak open.

“It’s about ti-” you began, turning back, but froze when you saw a bleary-eyed middle-aged woman you definitely didn’t recognise. You opened your mouth, brow furrowing in confusion as you glanced around furtively. Had you got the wrong room?

“You… are not Sam and Dean,” you said slowly. She looked at you with fear in her eyes, and you felt your own widen in panic as you realised what you looked like - a bruised and bloody mess - and exactly what she had heard - “I took care of her! She’s dead!” Shit.

“N-no, who are you? What do you want?” she cried.

“Don’t worry, honey, I’ve got the police on the phone!” a male’s voice called from inside. You laughed nervously.

“Look, this is all a big misunderstanding,” you tried, but when you raised your hands the woman screamed. The man was at her side in less than a moment, a frying pan gripped in his shaking hands.

“Get back! The police are on their way!” he shouted, and you sighed. Great. Just what you needed. You spun on your heel and strode away, the couple clearly too shaken to try and follow you. In a tiny town like this, you gave it at least twenty minutes before the cops arrived. Plenty of time to get out.

You walked a block over, finally relinquishing your stubbornness as you tried to call Dean for a ride. It went to voicemail. Eight times.

Great. Just great, you thought, finally giving in and calling another Uber, this time for the bunker. The same driver you had before pulled up, shooting you an irritated look. You glanced at your phone - 5am, in a tiny place like this? God, you were lucky to even get an Uber.

“Lebanon? Are you fucking kidding?” he demanded. “Do you know how far that is? You’re fucking lucky my cat’s with my ex-wife this weekend, or else you’d be finding another goddamn ride. Lebanon!” he scoffed.

You tried a sheepish smile. “Sorry?” You felt a pang of guilt, but knew your chances of getting picked up by a hitchhiker at this hour were zero to one, especially when you looked as bad as you did, in addition to your pending status as a fugitive.

With a very frustrated sigh, the driver pulled from the curb and you cast your gaze out the window as you settled in for the long trip ahead.

A seven-hour drive with Dean’s driving became a ten-hour drive with the Uber driver, whose name was Darren, behind the wheel. You slept on and off, your dreams filled with blood, candles and 1-star passenger ratings. Your waking hours were spent talking - Darren told you about his kids who he was trying to put through college, hence the uber driving, the custody battle for his cat following his messy divorce, that dick Billy from accounting who, in Darren’s words, “Just didn’t know when to quit it!” Quit what, you weren’t certain, but the more he ranted the more your hatred for ‘Billy’ grew.

When you were finally delivered home - or rather, about a twenty-minute walk from home, as you didn’t give the Men of Letters bunker location to just anyone - you were quick to give Darren a good rating. He huffed. Apparently, any comradeship you may have gained as you bitched with him about his coworkers was eradicated the moment you stepped out the door, even with the fortune you paid to get here. You waved half-heartedly as he drove away, waiting until the car was completely out of sight before beginning the trek to the bunker.

The afternoon sun beat down on the back of your neck, drawing beads of sweat that clung to your hair and moistened the dried blood crusted on your skin. When you wiped your forehead, the back of your hand came away stained with dirt. God, Darren hadn’t asked a lot of questions about your appearance, had he? Maybe he had his secrets, too. Like why he was willing to drive ten hours for an absolute stranger, even if he was getting paid… maybe you weren’t the only one running from something.

An eternity seemed to pass until you finally saw the bunker’s entrance up ahead. Finally. As you approached the door you dug through your pockets for your keys, only to find them empty. They must’ve dropped out in Darren’s car. You swore, making a mental note to remind Dean to change the locks, just in case.

Without any other option, you rapped your knuckles softly on the door, knowing the sound would echo throughout the bunker. You heard Dean’s annoyed voice growing closer from the other side, paired with a pair of heavy footsteps.

“Sam, I can’t believe you forgot your keys again, get it togeth-” Dean’s words fell short as the door swung open, and he froze, mouth agape as he stared at you.

“Y/N?” he breathed in disbelief.

“Hey,” you greeted, casually strolling inside and shedding your jacket, draping it over the bannister. “You will not believe the day I’ve had. Dude, someone stole my car! I had to Uber all the way back here! Do you know how expensive a ten hour Uber ride is? Cos now I do, and I’m not pleased about it, either. You could’ve answered your phone, you know!” you accused, striding down the stairs and ready to head for a shower. You paused as you saw the state of the library; chairs broken, desks overturned, splinters coating the floor.

“Jesus Christ, Dean, what the hell happened?” you demanded, spinning around in shock. That was when you finally got a good look at him - at his unshaven beard, the bags under his red-rimmed eyes, the way he was staring at you like you were some kind of ghost…

“Dude, you look like shit,” you informed him, but felt your stomach drop in concern. “What happened? Is everyone okay? Jody? Cas?” you asked, suddenly panicked. The only reason Dean would be like this is if someone had died.

Dean’s gaze hardened, and suddenly he was throwing you up against a wall and tossing holy water over your face, then cutting your arm with a silver knife. You sputtered, blinking in shock. “Dean, what the hell? It’s me!” you insisted, and he pulled away, shaking his head.

“No, no, it can’t be, you’re- Y/N, you’re dead!” His voice shook and his lip trembled, and you wanted nothing more than to take him into your arms and soothe him. But right now, you were far too confused to do anything of the sort.

“Well, obviously I’m not,” you said slowly. “That witch was powerful, but I’m not as weak as you think. I killed her! Weirdest thing, though, she was doing some weird spell and talked about getting a head start away from you guys, and she ended up knocking me through some portal to the next day or something because when I woke up, the place was totally abandoned. And someone else was in your motel room! I can’t believe you guys gave up looking for me after one night!” you cried. Dean’s eyes widened and he looked absolutely furious.

“One night? One night? Y/N, you’ve been gone for a month!” he yelled. “We stayed there a whole fucking week and there was no trace of you!”

You froze. “What? A month? No way, that- that can’t be right,” you stammered, pulling out your phone to check. Holy shit - he was right. You hadn’t paid much attention to the date on the little calendar icon earlier, but… he was right.

“You mean- you thought I was dead?” you asked, voice small. “Is that why- all this-” You beckoned vaguely to the mess surrounding you, and he nodded, exhaling shakily. His rage seemed to drain away, leaving an empty shell of the man you once knew. “Dean…” you breathed, and he shook his head, stepping forwards to pull you into his arms.

His grip on you was bone-crushingly tight, sending pain shooting through your ribs and shoulder, and his breath reeked of alcohol, but you didn’t pull away. He held you like there was no tomorrow, like you might disappear if he loosened his grip for even a split second. His face was buried in the crook of your neck as he breathed you in, assuring himself you were real as he clung to you desperately. You felt something damp on your skin, and realised he was crying.

“Hey… it’s okay, I’m here,” you soothed. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay.”

You felt Dean breathe shakily as he nodded. He swallowed, pulling away but not losing his grip on you for a second. And suddenly, he was kissing you.

His lips were chapped and his beard scratched your chin and his breath could definitely have been better, but none of that seemed to matter as you leaned in closer, your wrists locking around his neck as his mouth moved urgently on yours.

You were interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Y/N?” Sam’s breathless tone was tainted with disbelief. You reluctantly pulled back from the kiss, but Dean held fast to you, his hands shaking as they found purchase on the small of your back. Sam jogged down the stairs, clad in his workout gear as he appraised you with unbelieving eyes.

“Yeah. It’s me,” you told him with a tentative smile.

“Dean, did you do the tests-”

“Of course I did, Sammy! That was the first thing I did!” Dean snapped, pulling away from you long enough to shoot his brother a glare. You kissed Dean’s cheek, running your hand down his arm and feeling him relax minisculely under your touch. His grip loosened, letting you pull away and be wrapped in Sam’s arms. He hugged you tightly, and when he drew back you saw there were tears in his eyes. He gave you a tiny smile.

“Good to have you back, Y/N,” he managed, and you nodded, offering a comforting smile. He stared at you a moment longer, drinking in the sight of you, alive, before leaving to give you and Dean some space.

“You have no idea how incredible it is to see you,” Dean breathed. “I-I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for saying you couldn’t handle it. I knew you could, I just- I didn’t want to lose you. I got scared, and- and I almost lost you anyway, so- you can come on any hunt you goddamn please, okay? I promise. Just- just not alone.” His pained whisper tugged at your heartstrings, and you nodded, running your fingers lightly through his hair. He closed his eyes at the sensation, his breathing slowing as he finally began to relax.

“So… is this a bad time to mention that I’m possibly a fugitive?”

Dean’s eyes snapped open.

“You’re a what?!”

__________

Click here to read part four!

Reckless series tags: @tmiships4life @justagirlinafandomworld @galileeooh @a-fan-fighting-for-equality @sasbb23 @avengersgirllorianna @thewaywarddaughterblog @2dreamcatcher8 @xlplx @spaghettiwoes @gay-ghost-fights @shut-ur-face-and-get-in-the-car @mrspeacem1nusone

Forever tags: @stealingheartsswift13 @babygirloreo @calaofnoldor @lmpala97 @sebastianshoe

Dean tags: @polina-93

If you’d like to be added to any of my tag lists just let me know!

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emunenen · 4 years

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Makao Bora

New Post has been published on https://wp.me/paK8na-3TY

Area Code - Buru Buru, The Commonwealth model estate

In the early ’80s, Buru Buru was an enviable middle-class estate in Nairobi, where many people wished to live, and those already living there were proud to be associated with.

The estate was characterised by beautifully lined white maisonettes with orange brick tiles housed in sizable compounds designed in courts, with each compound having a low, neatly trimmed hedge. It was clean, serene and secure.

Built in the ’70s and ’80s, the estate was designed as a middle-income Commonwealth estate whose design was meant to be replicated in other Commonwealth countries in Africa. It was mostly inhabited by business people, government officials, professionals and a few expatriates on short-term assignments in the country.

Located in the midst of the ever-growing Eastlands, Buru Buru gradually started going the way of most estates in the populous area, with haphazardly built extensions coming up every year. This also saw the once beautiful flower hedges replaced with concrete walls.

In the recent past, things have become increasingly bad, what with an upsurge of informal businesses, which have set up unsightly temporary structures on every available foot path near the main road, along routes within the estate and above drains.

They go as far as hanging their wares on the walls of people’s houses and even in front of businesses, institutions and churches in a chaotic manner.

Others display their wares along the footpaths near the main road at the shopping centre, making it difficult for the large number of people using the footpaths to move. Heaps of garbage, noise and air pollution, not to mention the huge population comprising residents, hawkers and people in transit to the nearby Umoja estate, have changed the once peaceful and serene estate into a chaotic mess.

The roads are riddled with potholes, and the infrastructure is severely strained. The drainage system is clogged by garbage recklessly thrown by the hawkers, such that when it rains, the roads, and even some houses, get flooded.

The once beautifully lined maisonettes are no longer the estate’s defining characteristic, as residential and commercial extensions to the buildings, original main houses, have transformed it into a veritable concrete jungle, with very few of the houses maintaining their original look.

Both legal and illegal businesses are run side by side in Buru Buru, with some businessmen even selling liquefied petroleum gas and petrol within residential buildings.

Besides, the noise from the close to 70 bars operating in the estate makes it impossible for residents to enjoy peace and quiet in their homes, with the music sometimes so loud that it makes the house vibrate. An increase in prostitution, insecurity, animal keeping and water vending are other problems afflicting the once peaceful estate.

So bad has the situation become that recently, the Buru Buru Residents’ Welfare Association (BRWA) approached Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero to help them restore the estate to its former glory.

“We have tried to reason with the hawkers, mechanics and even landlords building extensions, to no avail. We are not against people conducting their businesses, but as residents, we have the right to live in good conditions, something that has become impossible because of the many illegal structures built on footpaths, road reserves and above the drainage systems that are changing the face of Buru Buru,” says David Konchella, the association’s chairman.

“I am a resident of Rabai Road Estate, which is surrounded by mushrooming mabati (corrugated iron sheet) houses that have become dens of insecurity and immorality, and are an environmental eyesore. Our environment is turning into a slum, yet I pay rent and taxes for a secure, clean and quiet surrounding,” says Susan Muli.

The major negative changes in Buru Buru began when landlords started building extensions to their houses to rent out.

The politicians are also not helping the situation, as they are encouraging more people, who they believe are potential voters, to move to Buru Buru, says Stephen Ndegwa, the executive director of the Centre for Climate Change Awareness, who has lived in the estate for 11 years.

Meanwhile, George Nderitu says the value of the houses in the estate has dropped significantly due to the filth and illegal structures.

And Mr Konchella agrees. “We are tired of what is happening in Buru Buru,” he says. “The value of the houses in Buru Buru, especially those that border roads, are falling. The value of our houses are going down so fast that some landlords are selling their houses and moving out of the estate before the values fall further.

“A three-bedroom main house that was going for Sh16 million two years ago, is now going for Sh14 million, and the value is still dropping.” he says.

Those who have rented out their houses have been equally hard hit

“The rent for a three-bedroom main house was in the range of Sh40,000 to Sh45,000 in 2015. Today, you cannot rent out the same house for more than Sh30,000,” Mr Konchella adds.

Some courts are so run down that there is no difference between them and those in some unplanned estate. Many of the houses need a facelift, but the owners do not care to refurbish them to maintain the decent look of the estate, says Mr Ndegwa.

The turnover of tenants is also very high, as one will live in a house for about three months and move out because of the insecurity and filth. Those living in houses bordering the man roads have to contend with the noise and garbage from hawkers.

Food vendors who prepare githeri throw out the water they strain from the food just where they prepare it near the residences, while the garages operating in the estate leave oil spills everywhere.

“Worse still, since many of these informal businessmen and women have no toilets, [they] relieve themselves behind the walls of their business “premises”, and this mess is left for the resident living there to contend with, says Duncan Ogweno, who lives in Buru Buru Phase Five.

“There are areas in Buru Buru where one drives through a perpetually stinky environment. The stench only goes away during the rainy season, a time that also causes flooding in some of the houses,” says Raymond Kipchumba, chairman of the management committee of Buru Buru Phase One.

When it comes to renting out houses in Buru Buru, many are the instances where the landlord will get a percentage less in rent than was paid by the previous tenant, says Joseph Ochieng’, the BRWA vice-chairman.

In Pioneer estate, there is a house that has become unsellable, says Mr Ochieng’. “When it is advertised and potential tenants come to view it, they promise to come back but never do. They do not even make a rent offer.”

“The house is the first one of a block of houses, and is surrounded by kiosks, and hawkers selling charcoal, vegetables and other food items, and it is pretty obvious that they also relieve themselves near there. The house has been reduced to zero value because of the hawking menace,” says Mr Ochieng’.

Each court in Buru Buru estate has contracted a private garbage collector, who is paid per month. But that is only a partial solution because, while the garbage generated by the residents is disposed of, that generated by hawkers is left strewn all over when they leave after the day’s work since they do not live in Buru Buru.

When it rains, the garbage is swept into the drainage systems and clogs it. As a result, the water meant to go through the drains overflows onto the road and into people’s houses when it rains since its path is blocked.

There are even containers that have been transformed into business premises and placed on top of drains, thereby blocking them completely.

“There are residents who have woken up at night during the rainy season to find their furniture floating in rain water that has seeped into their house.

“There is an entire court of almost 20 houses that were flooded in Phase One during the recent rains, and they had to leave because the flood water made it impossible for them to stay in the house,” says Mr Konchella.

There are residents in Phase One who had to open the front and back doors for the rain water to pass since there was nothing much they could do.

“The owners of the houses that flood rarely get any rent because no tenant is willing to live in a house that floods every time it rains,” says Mr Kipchumba.

Then there is the issue of insecurity. Some of the illegal structures and garages serve as dens for thieves and prostitutes at night. The situation has become so serious that some residents fear going to the nearby shops after 8pm for fear of being mugged.

There are also thieves who ride motorcycles and snatch people’s shopping bags, while others hide in the illegal structures and pounce on unsuspecting residents. There have even been cases of women being raped in the garages and makeshift structures, says Mr Konchella.

The estate has become a dangerous place for children, as they can no longer walk unaccompanied by an adult, says Mr Ndegwa.

Walking in Buru Buru is practically impossible as the sidewalks have been completely taken up by hawkers, posing a great danger to children using the roads, says the Reverend Paul Machira, a resident.

“When I lived in Buru Buru as a little child in the ’70s and early ’80, it was clean, safe and well managed. I went to school and church without any fear, and we had a playground right next to our home. Garbage was collected regularly every week, and I would like to see this neighbourhood restored to that state,” says Maria Mbeneka, a resident.

Basic facts about Buruburu

Coordinates: 1°17’18″S 36°52’46″E

Time zone: East Africa Time change from UTC*UTC+0300

Location: East of Nairobi City about 12 km

Markets in Buruburu: Jericho markets, Mtindwa, Mesora, Fairlane shopping complex, the new Quickmart supermarket, Tuskys supermarket, and Naivas supermarket,Pizza Inn.

Online markets in Buruburu: Buruburu Online

Main languages: Kiswahili, English, slang and Sheng

Bus companies: Kenya Bus Service (KBS), 2M or Double M; Citi Hoppa ,buruburu 58 sacco

Matatu routes 58 and 23

Bus fare: 50 kshs at ordinary times and up to 60 kshs at extraordinary times

Infrastructure

Medical Centres

SOS Medical Centre

Jamaa medical hospital (maternity)

Meridian medical

Metropolitan hospital

Aga Khan

Mater

Avenue Health

Roads

Rabai Road

Jogoo Road

Mumias South Road

Banks

Kenya Commercial Bank

Co-operative

K-rep, Equity

Stanbic

Chase Bank

NIC

Barclays have branches

Mobile coverage

Orange

Safaricom

Airtel

Ericsson

Digital broadcast

DSTV, GoTV, Zuku, and Startimes

Education Institutions

Preschools

There are many private preschools in Buruburu

Primary

Bidii primary, Harambee Estate Primary, Rabai Road Primary, Shepherds Junior School, Wanja and Kim School, Thomas Burke Primary School, Happyland Primary School, River Road Primary, Buruburu One Primary, SOS Primary School, and other small private schools.

Secondary

Buruburu Girls, Npc Secondary School, Buruburu High School, Apostolic Carmel Girls’ School

Tertiary

East African school of Theology, IAT, Shepherds college, AUSI, Buruburu Institute of Fine Arts, SOS Technical Institute, Unity College

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dybdahltravels · 5 years

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Salaam from Ouazazate

Bonjour and Salaam,

The name of the city we are in today is prounced "Whaza-zot” and I confess that i just love saying it. Ouazazate is the Hollywood of Morocco. By that I mean this place is filled with movie studios - and not just Moroccan movie studios, but studios from America and Europe in addition to the Moroccan studios. It is a super modern city - where you can still see a donkey cart - or a person riding a donkey. Many famous movies have been made in this city for years. Almost without fail, if the movie is about Ancient Rome, Troy, Greece or Biblical lands - it is made in this city. Many Science Fiction and Fantasy movies are also filmed here and we met many people who have jobs as “extras” in movies or security or something to do with the movie industry. At one time it was estimated that more than 50% of the town people have worked as extras. Movies include Ben Hur, Game of Thrones (Season 3), Prince of Persia and a whole lot more. This city has been a movie studio center since the 1920 and many city people have had many jobs - BUT in the last 18 years most of the significant jobs for men involve playing terrorists and really bad people. That made me sad and disappointed. If people have never met people from Morocco and only know them as villains in movies - soon they will think of Moroccans as being bad people and believe me they are not! We have found Moroccans to be kind, friendly, generous and welcoming.

This picture below is the city square of Ouazazate. We have seen many city squares or neighborhood parks with these cute little electric cars. They are a hit!

We had a little adventure getting to Ouazazate because our bus decided it needed a little rest. On our way to the Sahara we had had a little bus problem when suddenly our bus didn’t want to go. We pulled over that after revving the engine - it final began to move. Mark said “dirty fuel.” But we got to our drop-off place and while we transferred to our 4-wheelers, our bus went for some maintenance. Filters got changed and some other stuff as well - so when were reunited with our bus - the bus was given a clean bill of health. Mark said “ still has dirty fuel.”

Just outside of Tinghir - about half was to Ouazazate-- our bus slowed down and then just stopped. (Dirty fuel)

Our guide jumped off the bus and hailed a taxi while our bus driver and his assistant began working on the bus. Tinghir has yellow taxies, FYI. The taxi left and returned with 3 other taxies and Zouhair sent us a couple of miles up the road to a coffee/tea shop in the center of Tinghir. It was a sweet place - right on the main road - but before we got our drinks - Zouhair whispered to me that our bus was fixed and on its way.

We enjoyed our beverages and being in the middle of town - and surely the talk of the town. Then we walked about a block to our bus. We got on the bus and continued on our way to Ouazazate.

The land between our desert camp and Tinghir was very dry and we passed many, many small villages made of adobe bricks. The bricks are made with soil, straw and animal dung (poop). This is all mixed up with with and put in a mold. The mold is removed and the bricks dry in the sun for a couple of weeks. Below, our friend is getting instruction on how to make bricks from the brick maker, Mohammed and his son. Look behind Mohammed to see a wall made of brick and behind our friend to see a pile of bricks,

Then they are used to build walls. Once the walls are tall enough palm wood is played across the roof.

The roof is covered with plastic and then more adobe. This works great - because this area is very, very dry and gets very, very hot in the summer. The walls are thick and that means it keeps the houses cool. The houses do need some repair every few of years - especially if the area gets a heavy rain - but that WAS rare. Because of climate change, it is no longer rare and the houses are having to change since the rains are causing major damage. The people who can afford it are now buying cement blocks and making a house of concrete. This is great because concrete will not fall apart when it gets wet BUT this area is super hot in the summer, 45- 47 degrees C. (113-116 degrees F) The adobe houses stay cool but the concrete houses do not - easily reaching 100 degrees inside. There is no air-conditioning and most people do not even have electric fans nor could they afford the electricity to run it. You can see that this will be a big problem for the villages.

Below is a community built with bigger bricks - but it still mud based. They were repairing the wall.

We had 2 wonderful events while staying in Ouzazote and both involved the people of the area.

On our second morning we boarded our bus (still doing just fine - thank you!) and headed to a nearby village. On our way we saw this very beautiful little village that has turned into a tourist stop. The Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou is an example of a traditional pre-Saharan habitat in southern Morocco, surrounded by high walls and reinforced with corner towers. I get it - because it is beautiful, and I would have liked to visit - but we passed it by and headed to a tiny village a few miles away. Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou is a UNESCO site after all.

We were going there to meet a family that would share their world with us for the entire day. More about that next.

Loving the people of Morocco!

Stay tuned!

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recommendedlisten · 5 years

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The battle wounds of a DIY music blogger are directly reflected in the eye strain due to excessive screen time that such a human is subjected to, and this week, this writer is definitely seeing stars. This isn’t just because Solange and Carly Rae Jepsen are once again turning their sights toward global domination, or the fact that highly anticipated releases from folktale aliens Big Thief, blushing dreamweaver Hatchie, or hardcore angels Fury made great first impressions with their newly-announced albums. There was also scene heroes Emily Reo, Kitty and Potty Mouth doing things on their own terms, too, all the while up and comers BRUTUS and Jackie Mendoza continued to impress with intriguing new dimensions in their respective sounds. In short, this week’s music was very extra, and there’s still a heavy order left to discuss.

Here’s the best of the rest from the week of February 24th, 2019…

American Football feat. Elizabeth Powell - “Every Wave to Ever Rise” [Polyvinyl Records]

On March 22nd, American Football will release their third self-titled effort, and remarkably so, despite the long stretch between their 1999 genre-molding classic and the now, the Midwestern emo pioneers have evolved with the times rather than just rummaging through nostalgia in their sound. A major factor in that on this outing has been the inclusion of guest vocals beyond Mike Knsella’s own hum, as we recently heard third wave emo icon Hayley Williams of Paramore serenade the growing pains on “Uncomfortably Numb”. The LP’s latest preview “Every Wave to Ever Rise” is further proof of both, as it features Land of Talk’s Elizabeth Powell joining the quartet for a gorgeous listen of ghostly arpeggios that sparkles at the surface like refracted water, as Powell’s soft presence co-mingle a faint spell in layered langued. “Truth or dare / Love is the cross you bear / J'ai mal au cœur, c'est la faute de l'amour,” she sings in its chorus. American Football have also tacked on west coast dates to their North American tour, bringing along emotive next-gens Illumanati Hotties, Tomberlin, and Pure Bathing Culture with them.

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Control Top - “Chain Reaction” [Get Better Records]

It’s not very common for a band to have announced an album and its first single well into a year in advance of when it actually becomes slated on the release calendar, but that’s what Philly punks Control Top managed to do when they set “Type A”, off their forthcoming debut full-length Covert Contracts, into the wild last March. Despite the passing of time since, the trio -- comprised of frontperson and bassist Ali Carter, drummer Alex Lichtenauer of HIRS / Get Better Records’ and Bleeding Rainbows guitarist Al Creedon -- remain fiercely awake and confrontational on the LP’s second preview “Chain Reaction”. As Carter tells Stereogum, “The song takes place in the middle of an argument... Vitriol is flying and emotions are running high. With our culture’s growing appetite for anger and conflict, a petty disagreement can easily escalate into a full-out shouting match.” Knife-like guitar riffs daggering over even sharper angles are the vehicle for her choice words as thumping rhythm mimics the non-stop adrenaline drip that ensures emotions remain high and heated. “I'm looking for an open door / But all I see is a broken mirror I can't take it anymore / I wish I could disappear / What start,” Carter shouts, hurling herself at the edge of a point of no return. The album, by the way, officially arrives on April 5th, and they’ll be supporting Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers on the road this spring.

Covert Contracts by CONTROL TOP

Deafheaven - “Black Brick” [ANTI-]

It would seem that for every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction in Deafheaven’s catalog. Last year, the band released the listmaker Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, a listen that you could arguably consider their most accessible work to date in the way they focused on elements of slowcore, shoegaze, and even some gothic balladry thanks to an assist from Chelsea Wolfe, but make no mistake about it -- Deafheaven can be depended upon delivering a reminder that they’re still a metal band despite what the purists hate on them with whenever they push the genre’s corners out a little further into the experimental unknown. “Black Brick”, a new one-off single, is a sharp-toothed epic doing just that by ferociously pulverizing itself up through a scorched earth as George Clarke’s black metal howls damn us all to their intense hellscape. The listen will come in use beginning next week when the band heads out on a co-headlining tour with fellow metal outliers Baroness and avant outfit Zeal & Ardor.

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Ex Hex - “Rainbow Shiner” [Merge Records]

Mary Timony’s Ex Hex is another one of the many artists with new music out on March 22nd, as the glammed out indie rock trio led by the former Helium frontwoman will break their five year stretch of silence since 2014′s debut Rip very loudly with the release of its sophomore follow-up It’s Real. So far, we’ve heard Timony, bassist Betsey Wright and drummer Laura Harris spin us through an intergalactic romance and toughened us up with a pep talk with their power-pop licks, but with the album’s latest advance listen “Rainbow Shiner”, the trio go full-on Detroit Rock City with a hair metal twist in their glittering of arena-sized riffs that’s got a big swagger to it. Cheap faux leather, studded vests, tatted arms, and chipped nail polish white-knuckling a vintage muscle car with the windows down may come to mind when taking this one in, which is to say, it’s smashes through the stereo with an effortless, dangerous cool.

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Nothing - “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping” [Relapse Records]

Shoegazing shape-shifters Nothing outdid themselves once again with one of last year’s best heavy albums in their third studio effort Dance On the Blacktop. Over the years, however, the Philly punk band has amassed an impressive string of covers released in the interim between albums, showcasing a malleable side to their sound in applying textures of loud echoes in the dark to listens you may not originally deem adjacent to Nothing’s own sonic vortex. If you ever wanted to have them all in one place, then you’re in luck, as Nothing’s takes on Concrete Blonde, Low, New Order, Ride, and their latest, a feedback-drenched interpretation of Grouper’s “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping”, will appear on Spirit Of The Stairs – B-Sides & Rarities, due out on March 6th. The compilation includes those listens alongside B-sides, demos, and live versions of songs that stretch the full span of their catalog, making for an essential listen for anyone who considers them a completist. Like many, Nothing heads into SXSW as they tour throughout the entire spring, with one leg featuring CANDY and Tony Molina, and another co-headlining with Basement, supported by Gouge Away and Teenage Wrist.

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PUP - “Free At Last” [Little Dipper / Rise Records]

Stefan Babcock is upping his Debbie Downer game for PUP’s upcoming third studio effort Morbid Stuff. Now that he’s made it perfectly clear to the “Kids” that life is meaningless (but it’s what you make out of it), he’s piling on the self-loathing and destructive habits with the album’s second preview “Free At Last”. The listen is characteristically wild and reckless in axe-edged riffs and beefed up drum crashes that topple charging versus into big chorus sing-a-long -- in this case, the deprecating, “Just ’cause you’re sad again, it doesn’t make you special at all...” -- that lifts Babcock’s gloomy sneer of reality into a comforting rallying cry of a punk anthem. Preceding its debut, the band released the lyrics and a basic chord chart to its fans asking them to record the song without hearing it, and those results are now the now the basis of its music video. Charly Bliss’ Eva Hendricks and celebrity stan Finn Wolfhard make guest appearances throughout the altered edit final instructional as well.

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Show Me the Body - “Madonna Rocket” [Loma Vista]

Art-minded hardcore trio Show Me the Body have signed on with major indie Loma Vista for the release of their forthcoming Chris Coady-produced sophomore effort Dog Whistle, due out on March 29th. A slicker side of the studio as well as a cohesiveness in the trio’s carnage has already been defined through the crunchy static of the album’s lead single “Camp Orchestre” and again resurfaces through the collision of fast moving walls of ‘80s-era British post-punk and NYC hardcore of its second preview “Madonna Rocket”. It’s a dash that barely makes the three-minute mark over wiry guitars, relentless drumming and frontman Julian Cashwan Pratt snarling over the sea-sawing teetering that intensifies as the listen wears on. “When I meet someone that’s good, I want to die with them / Dead friends / I still want to say goodbye to them / Aside from me, aside from them / All I have is family / I will die with them” his words thrash into bodies. That he finds in the track’s accompanying visuals, a dual shot performance clip recorded at the band’s Corpus DIY spaces in LA and New York City.

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War On Women - “The Ash Is Not the End” [Bridge Nine Records]

The great feminist punk band War On Women were also among one of the creators of last year’s best heavy-hitting albums with their sophomore effort Capture the Flag, an album built around unabashed socio-political anthems and a controlled grip around melodic hardcore aggression. Their screams for activism and change in a current climate that could stand to be burned to the ground by their plight continues on “The Ash Is Not the End”, the Baltimore quintet’s contribution to Adult Swim’s Singles series. What’s most noticeable about this listen, as opposed to the gritty firestorms of earlier, is how a greater degree in pop heroics akin to Paramore’s rockier moments in turn pronounce Shawna Potter’s time’s up declaration. “It’s all just a matter of time,” she spears through crisp cut riffage. You’ll be able to catch War On Women all over the world this spring and summer, including dates opening for Jawbreaker’s east coast tour.

#the best of the rest #american football #control top #deafheaven #nothing #ex hex #pup #show me the body #war on women #Songs #new music & videos

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mastcomm · 4 years

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The Best and Worst of the Grammys

The 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday were going to take place in the shadow of a scandal: the removal of the Recording Academy chief Deborah Dugan 10 days before the event and the stinging allegations of misconduct at the nonprofit that oversees the awards that she outlined in a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Instead, they took place in the aftermath of tragedy: the death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash at 41. The host Alicia Keys was tasked with responding to the basketball star’s death on-air; she chose to make a statement about “respect” after what she called “a hell of a week,” too.

Here are the show’s highlights and lowlights as we saw them.

Best Coronation: Billie Eilish

It’s been a long time since a phenomenon as talented, authentic, complex and delightfully of-the-moment as Billie Eilish took over the Grammys. She turned five of her six nominations into wins, victorious in all four major categories (album, song and record of the year, plus best new artist), becoming the first artist to sweep since Christopher Cross in 1981. At 18, she’s the youngest person to win album of the year. It is all richly deserved: “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” redefines teen-pop stardom, as Jon Pareles wrote in his review of the album. Eilish (working with her producer brother, Finneas O’Connell) digs her shapely talons into the conflicts that throb in our minds like her meticulously constructed tracks: anxiety and confidence, love and terror, fairy tales and reality. She is a genuine melting pot of pop history — goths, rappers, confessional singer-songwriters, all tucked into baggy clothes that defy all kinds of stereotypes. “Why,” she cried into the microphone as she accepted her first televised award, for song of the year. “Aye yi yi,” she started her second, for best new artist. “Please don’t be me,” she mouthed as album of the year was being announced. Finneas spoke up during their speech for the LP: “We wrote an album about depression and suicidal thoughts and climate change and being the ‘Bad Guy,’ whatever that means,” he said, “and we stand up here confused and grateful.” It was simply proof that sometimes the music industry does get it right. CARYN GANZ

Best Flown-in Flute: Lizzo

Ever the savvy trouper, Lizzo maximized her opening slot. “Tonight is for Kobe!” she proclaimed at the start, then launched into her screaming, rasping, sobbing, pealing “Cuz I Love You,” in a monumental black dress. An orchestral interlude threatened to turn “Truth Hurts” into Grammy kitsch, but it was just long enough for a costume change — then Lizzo was back with rhymes, skintight sequins, dancers and kiss-off sass. A flute descended on a plastic tray; she played just enough showy trills and runs, then growled harder to finish the song. If a prime-time network audience hadn’t already known who Lizzo is, they knew now. JON PARELES

Worst Use of an Award Presentation: Comedy Album

It’s conventional wisdom at this point that the Grammys are more of a concert special than an awards show, but presenting the trophy for best comedy album on a night where only nine awards were given over nearly four hours was absurd. On Sunday, that insult to musicians was compounded when Dave Chappelle won for the third straight year in the category — it’s not like they were giving a new face some shine — and then compounded once again by the fact that Chappelle, who might’ve at least given a speech to remember, did not even show up. (Poor Jim Gaffigan, and also every smaller artist in a genre category whose life would’ve been made by accepting a Grammy onstage.) Tanya Tucker accepted on Chappelle’s behalf, giving a halfhearted “I’m sure he thanks y’all.” Right. Sure. JOE COSCARELLI

Best Call to Arms: Sean (Diddy) Combs

There were only the faintest hints of skepticism at the Grammys on Sunday, only the mildest acknowledgment of the controversies that have been engulfing the Recording Academy for the past two weeks, and really, the past two years. Saturday night, however, Sean Combs received the Salute to Industry Icons Award at the Clive Davis and Recording Academy’s Pre-Grammy Gala, and Diddy did not mince words. “Truth be told, hip-hop has never been respected by the Grammys. Black music has never been respected by the Grammys to the point that it should be,” he said. “For years we’ve allowed institutions that have never had our best interests at heart to judge us. And that stops right now.” He issued a challenge to the Recording Academy to make radical changes in the next year, and urged his fellow artists and executives to be part of the evolution. And if things don’t change, Diddy’s predictions were dire: “We have the power. We decide what’s hot. If we don’t go, nobody goes. We don’t support, nobody supports.” JON CARAMANICA

Best Example of Someone Coming to Play: Tyler, the Creator

Taking the Grammys seriously is usually a fool’s task, yet there was something extremely endearing about the way Tyler, the Creator rose to the occasion, and beyond it. His red carpet look was crisp bellhop. His performance, of “Earfquake” and “New Magic Wand,” was fully engaged and rowdy. His best rap album acceptance speech was pointedly warm. And his backstage pressroom interview was frank. He received a lot from the Grammys last night, but he gave much more. CARAMANICA

Best Rock ’n’ Roll Mess: Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C.

It was not technically good. But it didn’t have to be good: It had to be insane, and on that point, it delivered. Steven Tyler side-skedaddled over to Joe Perry and dragged his scarf-draped mic stand around the Staples Center. Run-D.M.C. broke through a wall of bricks that looked like a prop from a middle school play. Everyone seemed to be yelling, record-scratching and guitar-soloing in the wrong key, at the wrong tempo, in the wrong decade. But the crowd was grinning and dancing, swept up in some magical blend of nostalgia and Tyler’s frontman charisma. (Two younger women in the front row were literally swept up by the latter. Cringe.) This was the party the Grammys have been trying, and failing, to capture for several years: the power of rock ’n’ roll lunacy, compressed into seven minutes of riffing, screaming and nonsense. GANZ

Worst Self-Cover Version: Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C.

Television cameras and headphone listening were merciless to Aerosmith, who paired up with Run-D.M.C. to recreate their shared 1986 remake of “Walk This Way,” which recharged Aerosmith’s career and introduced hip-hop to many rock fans. That was a long time ago. After Aerosmith plodded through “Livin’ on the Edge” — though Tyler playfully dragooned Lizzo for an impromptu audience singalong — Joe Perry fumbled his indelible opening riff for “Walk This Way.” Run-D.M.C. joined in for colliding vocals, overenthusiastic turntable scratching, incoherent solos from Perry and audience-participation high jinks from Tyler. It looked like fun, anyway. PARELES

Best Internet Fever Dream: Lil Nas X and Co.’s ‘Old Town Road’ Medley

Like most of what Lil Nas X has accomplished in the last year, his epic performance of “Old Town Road” at the Grammys was not primarily about the music. Instead, he attempted the magic act of making memeability translate to network television, and he more or less pulled it off, relying on an intricate rotating set where each door led to another layer of winks and smirks: BTS, underutilized but still electric, did its “(Seoul Town Road Remix)”; Mason Ramsey and Billy Ray Cyrus kept their SEO alive; and Diplo pretended to play a banjo, adding about as much as he did to the success of “Old Town Road” in the first place. For the close-watchers and “Road” completists, there was the empty chamber, featuring a green slimy skull, where Young Thug should have been, and rather than detracting from the unity, his absence just gave us all a chance to breathe amid the MDMA explosion. COSCARELLI

Worst Silencing: The Prince Tribute

FKA twigs learned pole dancing to make her video for “Cellophane,” adding it to an already impressive movement vocabulary. She is also, however, a songwriter and singer who explores complex intersections of carnality, power and devotion — as Prince did. So she was an intriguing choice to join a tribute to Prince, billed alongside Usher and Sheila E. But Prince’s music remained a man’s world on Grammy night, with a three-song medley that was a teaser for a full-length Prince tribute planned by the Recording Academy. The band added Vegas embellishments to the basics of Prince’s arrangements, Usher did the lead singing and some Prince moves, Sheila E. added percussion and FKA twigs only danced: lithe and precise, but merely ornamental. “Of course I wanted to sing,” she wrote on Twitter, but she took what she could get. PARELES

Best Combination of People Who Actually Know One Another: The Nipsey Hussle Tribute

In a show that included no shortage of tear-jerking and maybe too many musical/visual/emotional whiplash moments, the tribute to the Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle, who was killed last year, at least had coherence on its side. Meek Mill started things off with a crisp verse that led seamlessly into an appearance by Roddy Ricch, a surging talent from Nipsey’s own neighborhood, before John Legend did his instant-gravitas thing. DJ Khaled shouted some aphorisms, YG showed off his impeccable style and some local inter-gang unity and then the gospel-crossover king Kirk Franklin brought the wave of emotion home with a choir in white and gold. Above the stage, a portrait of Nipsey was set next to one of Kobe Bryant, another hometown hero. All of these things make sense together, which is more than can be said for a lot of Grammys moments. COSCARELLI

Worst Sense of Pacing: Everyone Who Performed a Slow Song

I’ve complained before about the preponderance of ballads at the Grammys and this year was no exception. We get it: you’re a real musician whose songs are sturdy enough to be played on a grand piano. It’s not that, in isolation, any of these belted slow songs were especially bad, but between Camila Cabello, Billie Eilish, Demi Lovato, H.E.R., Tanya Tucker and Alicia Keys, the repeated down moments were just too down for a show that can already feel interminable. And at least half of those women are capable of lighting the place on fire à la Tyler, the Creator, so to see them stick with safety just feels like a missed opportunity, while also preventing any one minimalist performance from being truly showstopping. On the other hand, if ballads are the key to keeping CBS viewers tuned in, skipping over album of the year nominee Lana Del Rey, whose “Norman ___ Rockwell!” was full of modern-day, lightly subversive torch songs, was extra foolish. COSCARELLI

Best Simplicity: Tanya Tucker

The Grammys love their ballads overmuch — see above — but Tanya Tucker’s “Bring My Flowers Now” needed only her leathery twang and co-writer Brandi Carlile’s piano chords and vocal harmony to tell its story. After 20 years between albums, Carlile and collaborators convinced Tucker, now 61, to record again. The song greets looming mortality with pragmatism. “Don’t you spend time, tears or money/On my old breathless body,” she sang, her voice lived-in and completely convincing. PARELES

Worst (and Worst-Timed) Statement of Emotional Fidelity: Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani

The rictus ran heavy throughout “Nobody But You” by the real-life couple Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani. A country singer and a flexible pop singer, they don’t have any natural musical chemistry, and this performance was dry and awkward. That it was the first music played following the musical tribute to Kobe Bryant only made it grimmer. CARAMANICA

Best Guitar Heroics: Gary Clark Jr. and H.E.R.

“This Land,” by the Texas blues-rocker Gary Clark Jr., confronts hostile neighbors with property rights. Backed by the Roots, Clark blasted its blues-reggae riff, snarled the lyrics and played the kind of overdriven solo that drew screams from the audience. It’s what he’s known for; he was back for the show’s “Fame” finale. But it was H.E.R. — a recent Grammy darling for her old-school musicianship — who made the surprise attack. Her song “Sometimes” started, like so many others on the show, as an unadorned piano ballad about overcoming obstacles; a mini-orchestra joined her. But as the song built, suddenly H.E.R. had a guitar in hand and she was making it wail and shred. It was just eight bars, but it made its point completely. PARELES

Worst Encapsulation of the Way It Used to Be (and Hopefully No Longer Will Be): ‘I Sing the Body Electric’

This is the final year of Ken Ehrlich’s 40-year run as the show’s executive producer, which means this might be the final time we see a precision-executed, umpteen-minute-long so-called Grammy Moment that scrambles together rappers, singers, dancers, Grammy stalwarts (Lang Lang! Gary Clark Jr.!) and music students … and that would be just fine. CARAMANICA

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carygarman980 · 6 years

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Business in the Front, Party in the Back: Garage Edition.

I’ve owned my house for over five years now, and I have never—not once—parked a car in my garage. Honestly I often forget that it’s even a potential option, even though it’s right behind the house and I see it everyday. Both online and in real life, people persistently tend to refer to my garage as a “shed” or a “shack,” which for a while confused me. It has a garage door that faces the street and everything! But then I realized…that I use it as a shed-shack…and think of it as a shed-shack…and more than likely talk about it like a shed-shack while I continue to not utilize the ENTIRE SEPARATE BUILDING that I have ON MY VERY PROPERTY built SPECIFICALLY for the ultra-fancy purpose of sheltering THE THIRD MOST EXPENSIVE THING I OWN, behind my house and my debt, and MAYHAPS I should really start thinking of it as a garage?

Which really conflicts with my evident aspiration to also have a personal lumberyard, so it’s a tough call. I don’t know. We don’t need to dwell on it. We’re just talking about what the shed-shack is like right at this moment in time. To do that, let’s look at where we’ve been. Behold:

This is when I bought the house. The great thing about having such dire before photos is that I can never really feel that bad about how things stand today because, well…look! Evidently, there had been some kind of half-baked effort to extend the garage to accommodate a boat, which—speaking as a person who can barely maneuver my small utility trailer into my own driveway (or any kind of space, really)—sounds patently absurd. Clearly the project was abandoned before it had really gotten off the ground, though, leaving this…weed and trash pit?

Additionally, take note of the little door in that first image, because it becomes relevant shortly. OMG HANG ON, we’ll get there.

SO. When ALL THAT ASPHALT got removed from the backyard (prompting the insane summer of dirt-hauling and praying for the sweet relief of death), so did that cinderblock foundation, which left this charming view! There’s something about an old sloppy siding patch that I’m actually kind of fond of, even though I have NO patience for new sloppy patch jobs. I finally made the connection that the missing window on the back of the garage never actually left the premises, but rather got recycled as the old laundry room window! Which has now also been replaced, but anyway. What an odd choice.

Inside the garage, things had gotten a JUST A LITTLE crowded. Demo over at Bluestone Cottage had left me with piles and piles of wood trim to store until it gets cleaned up and re-installed. My first fencing project had left behind an extra panel. Upstairs kitchen demo supplied a kitchen’s worth of base cabinets and formica countertops, poor decisions granted me a bunch of falling-apart shutters that I intercepted at the dump, a twenty-dollar price tag on a cute art deco dresser had saddled me with…an extra dresser. And so on. You get the idea.

I’m not really sure when or exactly why somebody drywalled the whole interior of the garage, and in retrospect it might have been kind of nice…but it wasn’t in good condition, appeared moldy in some spots, and somewhat interfered with the plan to install new electric in here to run power tools, new exterior lighting, etc.

SO! I gutted all the drywall, exposing the unpainted backside of the shiplap siding and the studs. Rustic? Sure. Rustic.

A couple months before, my friends Kim and Scott over at Yellow Brick Home had put some super impressive work into their own detached garage, including adding these simple and strong wood brackets for storing excess lumber. Their garage is what garage dreams are made of. “Great!” I said. “I’ll do that, too!”

So I did that too.

Except I have a lot more wood than Kim and Scott do. And also a much smaller garage. These are two facts you might think I would have considered beforehand, but evidently I’m incapable of thinking this many steps ahead.

Simple brackets. I can build simple brackets. Here I am, building simple brackets as day turns to dusk. Brackets out of scrap wood to hold more scrap wood.

Turns out there is a real compatibility problem between me and these brackets. You also might think I would have foreseen this, but once again. Too many steps ahead. Lower those expectations PLEASE.

See, each one takes up a lot of space. The space that is a particular issue is that diagonal brace, because once your wood pile gets to the base of that diagonal brace, subsequent pieces of wood inch forward, causing your pile to be weird and uneven, and things to fall, and general mishap. The solution here is obviously to not have so much goddamned wood that the piles ever get higher than the bottom of the diagonal brace, but that’s obviously too much to ask of me at this moment in my life. Someday I will have used up a lot of this wood (I SWEAR I HAVE PLANS FOR ALMOST ALL OF IT PROBABLY I THINK) and this might not be an issue anymore. Even still, though, it’s not an especially space-efficient design.

What I SHOULD HAVE DONE (and later did do on one wall) was suck it up and buy these storage racks, because they’re a) made for this very purpose b) well-designed and very sturdy c) pretty macho. Unfortunately once I started building my simple brackets I couldn’t stop building my simple brackets.

Because I simply must tell you EVERYTHING, demo revealed another now-covered window on the other side of the garage, directly opposite the other window!

Siding is patched over on the exterior, and this window faces the fence that divides my property line from the neighbor’s. Maybe someday I’ll restore it but for now it’s kinda not hurting anybody.

SO. Back to the wall opposite the garage door. At this point there is lumber everywhere so I take a break to use a very small amount of it.

Remember when I said to take note of the skinny door on the side of the garage? It’s only 28″ wide—which is fine for just walking in and out, but try carrying a table saw through it. Or a long piece of wood. Or the lawnmower.

YES there’s a big garage door on the opposite end of the garage, but it’s outside of the fence, doesn’t have an electric opener, and stays locked for security…so using it means making sure the dog is in the house, opening the garage door from the inside, out onto the sidewalk with whatever the probably heavy thing is, back into the backyard through the gate, back into the garage to close it, back to the house to let the dog out who has now eaten something I forgot I left on the table…this was a pain.

Long ago I dazzled you with this beautiful SketchUp rendering of my backyard, which is mostly different than anything I’ve done or plan to do anymore, but adding doors to the back of the garage didn’t change! The idea is that it allows more light into the garage, and provides an easy, convenient, and LARGE access to bring big things in and out. In theory you could put a table saw or a planer in the middle of the garage, open up both sides, and feed a long board through. In practice, thusfar there has always been too much stuff for this concept to become a reality, but I HAVE DREAMS, OK?

So, I invited my friends over for a relaxing afternoon of light framing work and demolition. And by friends I mean Edwin and Edgar, the ride-or-die power duo I rope into pretty much everything I do. We built a header with hoarded lumber and supported it with hoarded jack and king studs. Evil plan in action!

Then we cut a big hole! Light streamed in! Angels sang!

Into the opening, we inserted this set of pre-hung french doors. Pre-hung doors are so simple! So drama-free! A few shims, a few screws, and viola! Doors!

Edgar, who is magic with a circular saw, ripped off the ends of the siding around the door to accommodate a new casing.

The hardest part of assembling the new cashing is, luckily, not very hard! A few passes on the table saw and I had a good replica of the drip cap that sits over the other doors and windows on the garage and parts of the house. Some lumber yards have this piece available, too.

Some more scrap wood and a hefty dose of Bondo later…looking pretty good, doors!

Speaking of Bondo: Bondo is a bit tricky and, I find, unreliable for exterior wood repairs, at least in this climate. Some people swear by it, some people won’t touch the stuff—I fall somewhere in the middle. I’ve had repairs fail after just one year on bare wood, although repairs where I’ve used at least 1-2 coats of primer on bare wood before applying Bondo have been fine—for now, at least. A much better product—although more expensive and time-consuming (it takes about a week to cure)— is Abatron WoodEpox. For what it’s worth, although not recommended, I’ve never seen a Bondo repair on interior painted woodwork fail—just outside. It can’t seem to take the expansion and contraction that occurs with exterior woodwork in the upstate NY climate.

SO. Way back when I said I was going to do this, and then a bit later did it, and then neglected to blog about it, there was comment drama about the doors. They are pine. They are made for interior, not exterior use. They are single pane and not particularly weatherproof. I chose them in large part because they were affordable at $377, and I figured worst case scenario, someday I’ll have to replace them into a now-existing standard-sized opening, which isn’t really such a big deal. I stand by it! They’ve been through 3 whole winters at this point and haven’t shifted or shown separation at joints, etc., and I think they should last many more years without issue.

SO. Current Status: TOO MUCH WOOD. In fairness there are many not-wood items like a few large tools, 2 spare cast iron sinks (as one does), various gardening and landscaping accoutrement, roofing shingles for a rainy day (get it?), window sash (pl.), extra corbels, uh…I don’t know, stuff. It’s an overcrowded disaster which I swear is not nearly as disorganized as it might appear. I have a LOT of interior finishing work coming up (THANK GOD. I AM SO TIRED OF FRAMING AND PLUMBING AND ELECTRIC AND INSULATION AND SIDING I COULD SCREAM. I AM SCREAMING.), so I’m kind of perversely excited to see how thinned out I can get this in the coming months. Also, intensely motivated to get this garage back under control because this is driving me nuts. At a certain point the strategy backfires because there’s too much to even see what you have, and fishing it out becomes a big hassle.

Additionally. You may note. That the last two are recent pictures. And I mentioned these doors were installed 3 years ago. There is a simple explanation for this. I never actually finished painting the doors. Because I just did not. The options were to finish painting the doors or do something other than finish painting the doors, and I have consistently chosen the latter option for multiple years now.

Also, they really need hardware. The lack of hardware is an issue.

TA-DA!!!

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billydmacklin · 6 years

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Business in the Front, Party in the Back: Garage Edition.

Additionally, take note of the little door in that first image, because it becomes relevant shortly. OMG HANG ON, we’ll get there.

SO! I gutted all the drywall, exposing the unpainted backside of the shiplap siding and the studs. Rustic? Sure. Rustic.

So I did that too.

Simple brackets. I can build simple brackets. Here I am, building simple brackets as day turns to dusk. Brackets out of scrap wood to hold more scrap wood.

Turns out there is a real compatibility problem between me and these brackets. You also might think I would have foreseen this, but once again. Too many steps ahead. Lower those expectations PLEASE.

Because I simply must tell you EVERYTHING, demo revealed another now-covered window on the other side of the garage, directly opposite the other window!

SO. Back to the wall opposite the garage door. At this point there is lumber everywhere so I take a break to use a very small amount of it.

Then we cut a big hole! Light streamed in! Angels sang!

Into the opening, we inserted this set of pre-hung french doors. Pre-hung doors are so simple! So drama-free! A few shims, a few screws, and viola! Doors!

Edgar, who is magic with a circular saw, ripped off the ends of the siding around the door to accommodate a new casing.

Some more scrap wood and a hefty dose of Bondo later…looking pretty good, doors!

Also, they really need hardware. The lack of hardware is an issue.

TA-DA!!!

Business in the Front, Party in the Back: Garage Edition. published first on https://carpetgurus.tumblr.com/

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eliseecacace-blog · 7 years

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Euro tour and more

So this is going to be a long blog update - probably my longest of the year as I have so so much to write! So recently i went on the long awaited Euro tour which I have been counting down the days for ever since I left ski camp! Everyday I wrote a journal entry of what I had been up too, which has come in very handy when writing this blog update as the last three weeks have been so full on and busy that its hard to keep track of what happened when! Sooo without much more, heres the account of Euro tour - the best month of my life.

So at the start of May I woke up suuper early with my bags already packed and headed to the bus stop where I caught the bus to the train station in my town. It was on the train I met up with some of my friends Pedro, Ale and Ivana, then later on Olivia, Gui, Manuela and Sequoia. We took two trains together to Linz haupt bahnhoff and it was there we met up with everyone else! It was so good too see everyone again and meet all the oldies I hadn’t already met yet plus the Bosnian and Croatian exchange students who would be joining us for the trip! It was cool to everybody again after being apart for so long and the train station was absolutely buzzing with 100+ bags, blazers and suitcases and 80+ exchange students all gathering in a frenzy of hugs and happiness! After all the meets and greets, we then loaded the trailer with all our gear and boarded the huge double decker bus that would become our main home and transport for the next few weeks. We traveled through Germany before hitting France and I was super shocked to see how quickly the language and culture changed just from crossing one river (the border). It also made me realise actually how much German I could understand and speak, going from a country where I could say and understand enough to get by in everyday life, to a country where I didn’t even know how to say thank you.

Strasbourg

Our first stop was Strasbourg! We arrived in our hotel in the afternoon, unpacked our rooms and had a few hours to explore the city before heading to the restaurant for dinner and then roaming the city under the streetlights in the dark for a few hours afterwards, trying not to get lost before curfew. The next day we had a great traditional french breakfast of croissants, apple sauce, french bread and pancakes before heading to the bus stop and then being taken on a tour in the bus through the city of Strasbourg. I could have sworn this city was something straight out of Harry Potter as every church, street or building we passed looked like Hogwarts or Diagon Alley. After the tour we had 7 hours free time to explore the city! This was spent going in the Notre Dame cathedral - Strasbourgs oldest (and prettiest) cathedral, eating escargott (snails), playing frisbee in the town square and almost breaking a shop window, exploring the city and just being typical tourists. That night we went out to the restaurant for abend essen then were given some extra free time after dinner to explore the city even further at night. We got lost for about an hour that night trying to find the right hotel but nevertheless it was fun trying to navigate our way home, especially as we were all without internet and google maps which made it even more interesting. How we eventually found our way back I’ll never know.

Lyon

Stop two took us to Lyon, another beautiful city in France! Compared to Strasbourg, Lyon was more of a modern city with huge skyscrapers and buildings. Here we got the whole afternoon as free time to do whatever we wanted so I spent it with my friend Roni trying to figure out ways to get to the top of the skyscrapers for a view of the city, and exploring all the shops. We didn’t manage to get to the top of any of the buildings as we got kicked out before we even got to the second storey but it was fun trying. Lyon is a huge city though with so many people! Then with me being blonde, we walked back to the hotel as I thought dinner was at 6 (turns out it was at 7) so with an hour to spare we asked the hotel receptionist what she reccomended we do, which lead us to the trainstation in search of the zoo! French trains are super different to the Austrian system so we had to stop and ask a few locals where to go but eventually we ended up on the other side of the city and at a super beautiful park type place with lots of foreign plants, ponds, trees, greenhouses and a beautiful field full of deer! There was music playing and lots of young locals hanging out in hammocks, walking ropes they had tied between two trees, yodelling and all this other cool hippie stuff which created such an amazing atmosphere. We spent about 20 minutes there before realising we were going to be late for dinner so with 10 minutes to spare, we sprinted back to the trainstation (only having to stop and ask for directions like twice), working the subway system and then running back to the hotel - still managing to be about 15 minutes late (oops). We had free time to explore the city in the dark and there were lots of cute little outdoor marque restaurants and bar type things all lit up along the river bank with music playing which was super pretty!

Avignon

Next stop was Avignon! Its a really old city with a pretty famous bridge and lots of old castle ruins and walls which were made out of cobble and brick. It looked super ancient and had me in awe with its huge amount of history. We arrived in Avignon in the morning and it was pouring down with rain! But that didn’t stop us all from hiking up lots of steps and along a wall to a cute church ontop of a hill, and then walking to a lookout point which overlooked the whole city. On one side you could see the river, bridge and countryside and on the other side you could see the city and churches. We were all soaking wet by the time we got to this lookout point but that didn’t dampen our spirits and we proceeded to walk into the city and get some famous french crepes which are just as good as they say - if not better! The weather improved as the day did as next I went exploring with some friends around the ruins and through the town which is made up of lots of cute little alleyways and shops tucked away in random corners. There was a huge carrousel in the middle of the french markets which made the whole place feel like something out of a story book! That night after dinner we came back to the same market place for some late night ice cream which just completed my day!

Eze Village - Monaco - Cavi di Lavagna

This day was probably my favourite of Euro tour! In the morning we headed off to the first stop - Eze Village! To start the morning there we were taken on a tour around a local perfume making shop! It was super interesting being shown all the different ways they make perfume and all the different ingredients you can put in the perfume - all made from locally grown flowers and herbs as the climate and landscape of Eze village is perfect for growing flowers. All the girls were also shocked to find out that Leonardo DiCaprio buys his perfume from this shop which made it even more exciting. The whole place also smelt really good as you can imagine! After this we got about an hour of free time which I spent with Roni and Dylan walking up through the mountain shops and markets to an amazing view point and trust me it nearly brought me to tears it was so beautiful. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before! So if you are reading this and you are thinking of taking a holiday in the future, trust me when I say that this is the place to go! It is worth every penny and is guaranteed not to disappoint!! It was truly what I imagined heaven looked like. Their ice creams taste like heaven as well. Many MANY photos later, we set back on the road to our next destination - Monaco! It was cool to find out that Monaco is actually its own little country and a very cool one indeed! It was clear as we arrived that you had to be extremely rich to live there, and was obvious who the tourists were and who the locals were. Monaco had a huge harbour, docked with fancy ships (it costs around $60,000 PER NIGHT to keep your ship there) and then lots of huge fancy buildings and houses. The highlight of my time in Monaco was hands down swimming in the sea for the first time since I left New Zealand. The water surprisingly wasn’t too cold and we all spent a few hours just soaking up the salt water. The crunchy beach hair was certainly welcomed! Although Monaco’s beach was a lot different from the familiar Ohope beach, and the sand was replaced with rocks and stones, I loved it! The water was so clear and there were also alot of scenic viewpoints where alot more photos were taken! The next stop after Monaco was the cute beach side city of Cavi di Lavagna where we could see the ocean from our hotel bedroom! We had dinner straight after we arrived then went out to the beach in the dark afterwards where we found a cool rock path that took us into the ocean. That night we all hung out in our hotel rooms and put facemasks on the boys which was really entertaining and funny for us but probably not so fun for them!

Cinque Terre

A 2 hour bus ride past Cavi di Lavagna lead us too the beautiful Cinque Terre! The weather was miserable in the morning with rain threats and high winds making the boat that was supposed to take us over to one of the islands unable to operate. So instead all 82 of us boarded the train which took us to a cute town with colourful houses, a pretty church and 360 degree views! It was from this town that we began a hike that lasted around 2 1/2 hours. This hike almost sent me into cardiac arrest with the majority of it being uphill and me not having done any proper exercise for about 5 months was not ready. But the struggle to breathe was worth it in the end as the views were to die for and the destination of the hike was something I’d only ever seen on the internet and was super incredible! The weather made a dramatic turn and the sun came out and the clouds all disappeared! The island we arrived on was called Vernazza and our first stop of course was the ice cream shop where we all went back for seconds - and then bought Pizza. Our excuse was that we were just trying to make the most of the Italian culture. After this we walked around the town before setting base on the rocks next to the ocean to relax. With too much excitement and a quick spontaneous decision, three of us decided to jump in the water fully clothed which gave us a few weird glances from the locals sitting on the rocks by us but it was definitely heaps of fun! The water was a lot colder than Monaco so we swam out to a buoy to keep warm and ended up just chilling there for a while before swimming back, drying off and meeting up with the others. This day was the most fun i’d had in a long time (actually thats a lie as everyday has been a lot of fun - but this day was still extremely good) and I have never laughed so much with a group of people in my life! Another Pizza and Ice cream later it was time to take the bus to our next stop - Jesolo.

Jesolo

The place we stayed in Jesolo was the best by far! Each hotel room was double storey and had an ocean view - and the ocean was absolutely incredible! Pure white sand, crystal clear waters and warm temperatures set everyone in a buzzing mood! We all rushed through dinner before running outside to the beach for a sunset swim! If I told myself this time last year that I would be swimming in the sea in Italy at sunset with people i only met 4 months ago who have now become my best friends, I would have never believed it! It was the most incredible feeling and a lot of memories were made! After the sun set and it began to get cold we all walked back to the hotel, taking half the sand on the beach with us.

Pisa - Lucca - Rome

Seeing the leaning tower of Pisa was something I’ve always dreamed of, but actually standing before it and looking at it in real life and not just through a screen was so much better than I could have ever imagined! Of course - Pisa was a huge tourist spot with so many people taking the typical Pisa photo. And because there are so many people that come through this city every day - the ice cream was super expensive... but that didn’t stop me. We spent a while there just soaking it all in and gazing in awe at our surroundings as I don’t think anybody could quite believe we were actually there. After a sad goodbye and a few final photos- we headed to Lucca- Tuscany! Lucca is a rather old city with lots of history and pretty buildings. All the buildings are pretty close together with one main square in the middle containing a huge church. The weather was really good which made exploring the city so enjoyable. That evening we headed to Rome where we would be spending the next three nights.

Okay so Rome. Holy moly where do i even begin. Rome is absolutely incredible! We arrived at night time and didn’t have any time to look around as it was super late so we went straight to the restaurant with all of our suitcases piled outside before heading back to the hotel and getting some much needed sleep. The first day we spent in Rome we all had a morning tour around the city. We took the train from the side of the city where our hotel was to the centre. I was blown away walking out of the train station and seeing the colosseum straight away! The tour lasted about two hours and was super interesting. It took us round the old colonies and view points overlooking the city. At one point me and a few friends spent a little too much time taking photos and staring at the views that we ended up loosing the tour group. Luckily about 10 minutes later we caught up with a few people and were told it was free time so we spent the rest of the day walking around the city. I spent the day with my friend Olivia where we decided not to look at our map for the whole day to “let the fun find us” - which it certainly did! At the start we thought it would be a recipe for disaster as one huge city and two little foreign girls without a map or skills to communicate with anybody could go really wrong but we took our chances and turns out we were actually pretty pro at guessing where to go! We ended up in a different country! Our adventure took us across the bridge and into Vatican city which turns out to be its own country and the smallest country in the world. So now i can say I have been to the top two smallest countries in the world - Vatican city and Monaco. This adventure was incredible and we found the best pizza restaurant (sorry if this blog post is just me talking about ice cream and pizza but if you’ve ever tried Italian pizza and ice cream then you’ll understand!) We also found a cute little square full of markets which was really cute and the very type of thing I love! And then... I found a friend from New Zealand on exchange in Germany at the moment who is on his euro tour as well. I spent four days in LA with him in January, so I was super excited about being re united! It was great catching up with him again and hearing the familiar kiwi accent! So three of us spent the rest of the day together roaming rome (haha) before saying goodbye then heading back to the hotel (i’m not gonna lie - we used the map for this). After dinner we were allowed out again to see rome in the dark. None of us really knew where we were going so a group of us stuck together and ended up in a pretty park where we saw fireflies! Us Australasians were tripping out as we had never seen them before and they looked super cool flying around in the dark, like little shooting stars. We headed back for late night ice cream before bed.

The next day we started the morning with all of the exchange students heading into the Vatican church which was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. You literally could have fit about 7321940 football stadiums, 657 olympic swimming pools and 14 zoo’s inside this one church it was so huge. Everything inside from the ceiling to the floor was so intricate and detailed the whole time I was just wondering how the heck someone could have created something so magical. Its one of those places everyone just needs to go and see for themselves as no words can describe a place like that. Then Liv and I set out on part 2 of our adventure around Rome. This time we didn’t choose to disregard the map - we lost it instead so we had no choice but to just guess where we were going. But it turned out to be another successful day as we ended up finding Trevi Fountain, another primo pizza place, a 5D dinosaur movie, some funky sunglasses and a church with a free tour in English and a dead body inside it. I threw a few coins into Trevi fountain which legend says it means that you have to come back again one day - I obviously wouldn’t mind that! Overall this day was amazing and full of so many pretty sites, adventures and lots of laughs, good food and memories! If anyone ever goes to Rome and needs two pro tour guides and navigators then give us a call and we will be happy to help :)

Montepulciano - Florence

After leaving Rome ( sad face ) we stopped off for about 5 hours in a place called Montepulciano which was super cool as it was where a few scenes in the movie Twilight were filmed (for those of you who have seen Twilight - New Moon - it was the scene where Edward went to the voultory ). This little town was so cute and did actually look like it was a village run by vampires. It has stunning views of the countryside which I sat and stared at for about an hour. Being from the country back home I do actually kind of miss green fields and paddocks. Then we got pizza for lunch (surprise?) and explored a bit more before heading off to Florence. We arrived in Florence quite late in the night so we had dinner straight away and spent a short time exploring in the city afterwards before realising we all had no clue where we were going and then calling it a night and going back to the hotel. We then packed the bus super early in the morning before walking to the edge of the city of Florence for a tour. Our tour guide was super lit. She was a 70ish year old woman who was super funny - calling us “her darlings” and swearing way too much. She was definitely the best tour guide of our trip. We saw the famous statue of David and the most beautiful church I have ever seen in my whole life with intricate details, patterns and colours all over the outside of the church as well as the inside. Florence is a city full of old statues and beautiful tall churches. Another place I would love to come back to again one day. The only thing I didn’t like about Florence was that one ice cream cost around $12.

Florence - Jesolo

Leaving Florence mid afternoon and heading to Jesolo - we stopped at a really pretty view point overlooking the whole city which was super stunning. Once arriving in Jesolo, much to our happiness we found out that our hotel was a five minute walk from the beach which meant that straight after dinner we were all running down to the water for a night swim. Music playing, people dancing and swimming and playing soccer, the night was filled with so many laughs and good times.

Venice

We took a day trip to Venice which was a day I will remember for the rest of my life! In the morning we took a 45 minute boat ride to the town. If you have read a lot of books then nothing is ever as great as you imagine. But Venice is. Venice is better. Its one of those places where no words or photographs can truly do it justice. The atmosphere, the scenery, everything about it just something you cant capture through a screen or a book. Its a place that everybody really needs to see for themselves because nothing can ever portray how incredible it really is. I spent the day there with my good pals Santi, Roni and Olivia where we took a Gondola ride through the canals of Venice. I found it super funny that all the Gondoliers were dressed in black and white stripes (it almost looked comical) and one boat even had a dog on the front of it! We then wandered round and found a navy ship museum which was incredible! There were so many boats that were suuuuuper old and some used to belong to Kings and princes and carried them from one side of the river to the other. I really enjoyed looking around and reading all the history behind the boats it was very interesting. We then met up with a few other exchange students in the main square in Venice and had a further look around before buying ice cream and heading to the water front. All along the waters edge theres boats and market stalls and outdoor cafes and musicians. Its truly an incredible place and one that I can tick off the bucket list (as well as the twenty billion other things I managed to tick off while on Euro tour.) After heading back and having dinner and another night of swimming and hanging out at the beach we went to bed to get some rest before our next stop - Verona!

Verona

Verona is such a strange place and not at all what i had in mind! Its a super beautiful city with a huge mix of modern and ancient architecture. One minute you’re walking through an alley of old brick buildings dating back to Shakespeare period and the next you’re in the middle of a street of 21st century shops. We had a tour of Verona in the morning where we went and saw Romeo and Juliet’s house including Juliet’s balcony which was super fascinating. You have to walk through an arch bridge thing to get to the balcony which is re painted every 6 months as lots of people sign their names on the walls and write messages to Juliet which I think is beautiful but some people consider it vandalism. After our free time exploring the city it was late so we headed back to the hotel in Jesolo which was like a 2 hour bus ride. Our last night in Jesolo obviously called for more night time swims and time on the beach.

Triest - Slovenia - Croatia (Zagreb)

After loading the bus again and leaving Jesolo, we headed to Triest! We stopped at this really pretty castle type place on the waters edge that used to once be a castle but now its a museum. We had a look around inside then all bought ice cream and sat outside admiring the view and soaking up the sunshine. Was a super stunning day and our last stop in Italy before we moved on. We had a beautiful drive, crossing the boarder into Slovenia where we had lunch and drove through heaps of stunning scenery. Then we crossed another boarder into Croatia where we would be spending the next 2 nights! Croatia was absolutely amazing! The first night we arrived, my room mates and I came up with the bright idea to do the Ouija board which wasn’t actually a bright idea as we all turned super paranoid after hearing creepy noises and all were to scared to go back into the room.

The next day was amazing! In the morning we all walked to a beautiful church we looked around in for a while (it had another dead body in it!) before we were allowed to do what we wanted for the rest of the day. The weather was super boiling and so the first thing we did was went and bought drinks. Then we spend the morning walking through the city and being typical tourists. In the afternoon we came across this epic escape room place where my friends Hannah, Olivia. Lily, Carly and I all were eager to give it a go! It turned out to be a lot better than I imagined. It was pretty much a game that lasted for an hour and you are given a story line at the start that is related to the city and history of Zagreb but there is a mystery behind the story that you need to solve. You are then locked in a series of rooms and you need to search for clues and solve mysteries in order to escape before the time runs out. This was so much fun that when we came out the woman gave us a discount on the second escape room which we obviously couldn’t refuse and was worth being late to dinner for and so 2 hours of my time in Croatia was spent locked in a room - which was well worth it! :D That night after dinner was the Oldie awards which were super entertaining (thanks Jim and Amaris) but also super sad as it means that the oldies will soon be leaving! We then spent the time after that signing journals and flags.

Slovenia - Vienna

The next morning was sad saying goodbye to our fellow Croatian exchange students we had all become so close with throughout the 2 1/2 weeks we were lucky enough to spend together. Then with 15 spare seats on the bus, we all headed off back home to Austria, stopping in Slovenia for a bit! Arriving in Vienna it was good being back in a German speaking country where we were actually able to speak and understand the language but it was also sad knowing that it was soon all coming to an end. We arrived in our hotel in Vienna and then had the whole afternoon free where a few friends and I caught the train to the other side of the city and ended up at a theme park! This was so so epic and Roni and I went on some insane rollercoasters and a ride that went 90meters up in the air over looking the whole city before plummeting back to earth. After running back to the hotel for dinner because we lost track of time, we were then let loose again afterwards so a whole group of us went back to the theme park at night time which was insane! Best night ever! All of us stayed out till late going on way too may rides and all feeling so dizzy by the time we had to take the train back home. It was worth it.

The next day we spent practicing our performances and songs for the District Conference. It was actually pretty fun all singing and dancing together but after a while it got tiring and I think all anybody wanted to do was sleep.

District conference was a blast! It was held in Baden - about an hour and a bit drive from Vienna. Everyone got dressed up into nice clothes and their blazers and we all hopped on the bus ready to represent our countries in front of the Rotary of Baden. The conference started out as a kind of procession with us all walking in waving our countries flags! I was proud to be representing New Zealand. We then stood on the stage for a solid two hours singing and listening to people talk and at the end we got a huge applause and were taken on a tour around Baden before heading to a nice restaurant for dinner. After dinner the Oldies were presented with their completion certificates which was an emotional time for everyone as we have all become so close and its so sad knowing that they are going to leave soon.

The next day was even worse, everyone filled with tears and sadness as we all said goodbye to each other - some of us for the last time - and headed to the train station together. My train was one of the last ones to leave so about a group of 12 of us were all there until mid afternoon chilling in the train station all crying and sleeping and listening to music and going for Mcdonalds runs. The train ride home was sad, each stop dropping off someone else until there were only about 5 of us left and it was my turn to get off the train and head home with Ale and Pedro. It was a sad time saying goodbye to euro tour and everyone else.

I found that probably the hardest part of my exchange so far. And it will probably remain the hardest part of my exchange until the time comes when I have to leave this country myself and say goodbye to this year for good. Words cant describe the emotions I’ve gone through within the last few weeks, all the happiness and joy to all the bad things as well. I fully believe this has changed me as a person and taught me to appreciate every little tiny thing in life as every moment is like gold. Never in my life have I felt time going so fast, not just on Euro tour but my whole exchange. Its coming up 5 months since I left my home for this crazy adventure and yet it still feels like just yesterday I arrived. Its insane how close you can become with a group of people in such little time and how quickly strangers have become a family to me. I know this sounds really cheesy but its honestly such an insane thing to go through and if you’re an exchange student you’ll understand what I’m going on about. Saying goodbye is always going to be hard. Leaving my family and friends back home was hard but its even worse saying goodbye to a group of people you know you may never see again - especially all together in the same place. Ive shared such a huge and amazing part of my life with all the exchange students of Austria, Croatia and Bosnia 2017 and they will forever be in my heart and memories for the rest of my life! I’ve learned so much from this exchange so far, about the world and about myself, and I will continue on this adventure of a life time. I am so grateful for everything I have around me and I look forward to the future and all the great times ahead but I’ll never ever forget the past and all the incredible things I’ve been through.

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shtfandgo · 7 years

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New Post has been published on SHTFandGO Survival and Emergency Supplier

New Post has been published on http://www.shtfandgo.com/2017/05/08/garden-hacks-repurpose-everyday-items/

Garden Hacks – Repurpose Everyday Items

When it comes to preparedness – or life in general – there’s a ton to buy. When we can reuse something, it helps. One, there’s the direct cost application. Two, looking at something and seeing its ability to be something completely different has enormous benefits in opening the mind in general.

If we’re preparing for a crisis, gardening and the ability to provide fresh foods in the gulf of winter and spring take on a far greater importance than just a hobby or a passion. Happily, there are some things that can be salvaged for free or found at very low-cost that make a world’s worth of difference. Channel your inner Julie Andrews with me as we look at a few of my favorite things. There’s some non-gardening uses for each listed as well.

DVD Racks

Years ago I picked up a free DVD rack to be a bean trellis for a Rubbermaid tote garden. I have since been in love, and it’s one of the things I consistently watch for at yard sales, curbside pickup listings, and foreclosure cleanup sites.

I got lucky, and mine have a rounded top at the sides. If you find some that don’t, just glue on a milk jug cap for some of its applications.

They go way beyond trellising.

They work for the far ends and sometimes central support “poles” of low poly tunnels or low hoops for garden beds and rows. A little free bamboo or PVC to span distances, some binder clips (Dollar Tree) to clamp the plastic on, and you’re in business.

They can also be set up long-wise down the middle of a bed to form an A-frame style “camping tent” poly cover if desired, which works really well for peas, with roots and salads to the outer verges, and converts well to later tomato beds.

They also form plant racks for inside near windows, against pale walls, or outdoors to keep salads conveniently close or make use of vertical height.

Mine all hold square plastic coffee tubs (they need a length of string along the front unless it’s a really well-protected area), #2.5 cans (the large tomato or peaches can), and V8 bottles without any modification at all. They’ll hold 2L bottles on their sides for longer, shallow containers, or Lipton and Arizona tea jugs of both types and sizes either cut off vertically or horizontally.

I can do square juice jugs as well, but they overhang enough to make the dog tails an issue on their sides, and I’m more comfortable with some twine or wire looping them to the back bar.

I prefer the open-dowel construction type, just because it leaves me options. I can add thin saplings, bamboo or thin sheathing to convert them if needed, but the open frame allows more light and nestles the rounded-bottom containers well.

Outside Gardening the DVD racks have the ability to hold larger canned goods and bottles of water, be used to dry clothes as-is or be half of a frame of dowels or saplings to create a larger drying space, and the poor kid used to have a pair that were hung with a curtain, topped with a chunk of (free) plywood, and outfitted with $2 in hooks to hang her uniform shirts and pants, like a mini closet that was also the mirror and vanity.

Storm Doors & Windows

These guys don’t multipurpose to the same degree as the DVD racks. They’re really handy to run across, though. One, having a backup is never a bad thing. Two, they are ready-made cold frames and pest exclusion frames.

I like a 3’ width for garden beds, permanent or bounded, and they fit pretty perfectly as-is. I can tighten up and use straw bales to create a different kind of cold frame with them laid across the top. I can run them in series or as individual structures.

An A-frame can be pretty quickly mocked up and is one of the easiest builds for getting your feet wet. It’s also handy in that it sluices ice and snow build-up and is more resistant to winds. The doors and windows get hinged at the tops, any stick or tool props them so they don’t flip the frame or ka-bong off your noggin, and cats, dogs and goats are less likely to stand on them.

Just the mesh from storm doors and windows is useful. So is mesh that comes off when you repair those.

It’s going in the garden, so some stitching or a little duct tape on both sides to repair a rip isn’t an issue. All it’s doing is protecting seed-stock squash from cross-pollination or keeping creepy-crawlies from eating the brassicas, lettuce, and beans before you can.

The advantage to taking out the mesh is that it’s an even easier build yet. There’s no hinges (unless you hinge the whole frame) and there’s less weight. That means more materials become potentials for the frame itself. You can tie some loops to go around a brick or post, or add some eye hooks to keep it in place.

Do keep the builds small enough that you can lift or flip by yourself once plants are in there. Some posts to the inside of the bed or rows can create a pivot point for flipping.

Painter’s/Construction Drop Cloth

My first set of drop cloth came from a part-time job in high school. I have been in love ever since.

It’s not super expensive, and it’s a toss-up whether the construction poly or the garden poly is cheaper to buy new, but it’s usually the totally clear construction drop cloth in our area. The 5+ mil I use is fairly durable in Southern wind storms, sun rot, ice and freezing rain, and Mid-Atlantic snow.

Contact handyman type businesses and painting businesses – for these as well as the windows and storm doors, and the mesh from those. Usually they’ll only use them for so long and as with the mesh, a few duct tape patches and the paint stains won’t impede too much structurally or light-wise.

Should you see them pop up cheap or free somewhere, don’t neglect those fancy-people outdoor grill, furniture and sofa covers, or any clear, thick, translucent vehicle covers.

Like the totally clear and colorless painter’s plastic, they all make for great garden hoop houses. Some of them can also be outfitted with sturdier construction to form a more permanent greenhouse.

Outside Gardening drop “cloth” or storm doors and windows can also be assembled into wind and snow-blocking shields around exposed doors at the home, or can enclose part or all of a porch to turn into a mudroom in an emergency or during snowy weather. Doing so creates a buffer chamber so there will be less polar vortex entering the house with every human and pet.

Plastic can also be used to cover windows and doors inside or out to decrease drafts and increase insulation value.

The painter’s plastic has the same value for livestock in extreme environments, especially if a normally warm climate is experiencing sudden return-to-winter weather after flocks or rabbits have adjusted to 60s-70s-80s, or if it’s so rare to have severe weather, coops and hutches were never built for extreme cold.

Drop cloths and poly covers can also be used to line bedding for the young, ill and elderly, so that every sneeze and cough or “mommy, I feel- blech” does not lead to disinfecting a mattress as well as changing bedding.

Wire Shelving

Really, do you ever have enough shelving? I particularly like seeing the simple-frame, open-weave, metal-wire shelving for bathrooms, laundry rooms and closets pop up in junk piles, yard sales, and Craigslist, because it’s super handy, super versatile stuff.

Like the DVD racks, it’s indoor-outdoor tiered plant stands, either year-round or during seed-starting and transplant season(s).

It can also be wrapped in our reclaimed plastic sheets or form part or all of the structure for salvaged windows or poly covers to make a mini greenhouse on a porch, beside a house or garage, for growing later and earlier in the season.

Then it gets even more useful.

Even if the whole is a little rickety, the shelves themselves can be removed and then turned into trellises. They can be rearranged around their original legs-stand or affixed to bamboo or the legs from old tables or chairs to form short garden fences to discourage turtles and rabbits, and limit dogs running through beds.

As an added bonus, if you have a senior gardener or an injury, sinking some of those sturdy table legs or a bundle of 3-4 larger bamboo canes 18” deep and up to hip or rib level can be a major aid in keeping them gardening.

The sturdy supports can then be covered with netting or sections of storm door mesh to act as a further bird and pest exclusions.

Outside Gardening there are endless uses for shelving, from water collection to organizing anything at all. Wire shelves also offer a lot of airflow for drying clothes.

The shelf “planks” of wire units can be used to patch and shore up fences and coops, especially somewhere something dug. They can be used to cover vehicle and house windows to limit damage from thrown bricks or if a storm window is damaged during a crisis.

They can also be reconfigured into a cage or crate for rabbits or small birds, to expand flocks or because they happened to be stacked from Craigslist and Freecycle runs ahead of time and now there’s a puppy to crate train or weather has shifted and we’re worried about the next generation of layers.

The shelves can be used to sift the largest chunks out of compost or soil in some cases, help form a gabion to slow water and keep it from increasing erosion, or can be lined with mesh or cloth for drying foods or seeds.

The shelves can usually be easily reconfigured with larger or smaller gaps than originally intended to facilitate buckets, larger boxes, or drying seeds and grains.

They don’t pop up as much as they used to, but some can still be found on the freebie sites as curbside pickup, or for <$15-20. They also sometimes pop up at Salvation Army/Goodwill, and if you cultivate contacts, sometimes you get your hands on just the shelf parts because the rest of the racks have been lost during multiple transfers or all the pieces weren’t donated.

Garden Reuse-its – My Favorite Things

These are just a few of my favorite things to re-purpose for growing veggies. The world is full of things like laundry bags we can use to prevent caterpillars and squash bugs on our cabbage and beans and zucchini, and old carpeting we can layer deep in garden walkways to cut down on maintenance time.

Any time we can reuse something, it cuts down on waste, making for a better world – not just the world around us. If we’re saving time and money, and if we’re developing some creativity and a new way of looking at things, we increase our preparedness and better our own world directly.

http://www.theprepperjournal.com

#building #Garden #reuse #Advice #Be Prepared #How To

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thecoroutfitters · 7 years

Link

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

DVD Racks

I got lucky, and mine have a rounded top at the sides. If you find some that don’t, just glue on a milk jug cap for some of its applications.

They go way beyond trellising.

They also form plant racks for inside near windows, against pale walls, or outdoors to keep salads conveniently close or make use of vertical height.

I can do square juice jugs as well, but they overhang enough to make the dog tails an issue on their sides, and I’m more comfortable with some twine or wire looping them to the back bar.

Storm Doors & Windows

Just the mesh from storm doors and windows is useful. So is mesh that comes off when you repair those.

Do keep the builds small enough that you can lift or flip by yourself once plants are in there. Some posts to the inside of the bed or rows can create a pivot point for flipping.

Painter’s/Construction Drop Cloth

My first set of drop cloth came from a part-time job in high school. I have been in love ever since.

Should you see them pop up cheap or free somewhere, don’t neglect those fancy-people outdoor grill, furniture and sofa covers, or any clear, thick, translucent vehicle covers.

Plastic can also be used to cover windows and doors inside or out to decrease drafts and increase insulation value.

Wire Shelving

Like the DVD racks, it’s indoor-outdoor tiered plant stands, either year-round or during seed-starting and transplant season(s).

Then it gets even more useful.

The sturdy supports can then be covered with netting or sections of storm door mesh to act as a further bird and pest exclusions.

Outside Gardening there are endless uses for shelving, from water collection to organizing anything at all. Wire shelves also offer a lot of airflow for drying clothes.

The shelves can usually be easily reconfigured with larger or smaller gaps than originally intended to facilitate buckets, larger boxes, or drying seeds and grains.

Garden Reuse-its – My Favorite Things

The post Garden Hacks – Repurpose Everyday Items appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

#SHTF #TEOTWAWKI #MARTIALLAW #BUGOUT #PREPPERBAG #USAF #USSOCOM #ARMY #NAVY #SurvivalFirestarter #Sur

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mastcomm · 4 years

Text

The Best and Worst of the Grammys

Here are the show’s highlights and lowlights as we saw them.

Best Coronation: Billie Eilish

Best Flown-in Flute: Lizzo

Worst Use of an Award Presentation: Comedy Album

Best Call to Arms: Sean (Diddy) Combs

Best Example of Someone Coming to Play: Tyler, the Creator

Best Rock ’n’ Roll Mess: Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C.

Worst Self-Cover Version: Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C.

Best Internet Fever Dream: Lil Nas X and Co.’s ‘Old Town Road’ Medley

Worst Silencing: The Prince Tribute

Best Combination of People Who Actually Know One Another: The Nipsey Hussle Tribute

Worst Sense of Pacing: Everyone Who Performed a Slow Song

Best Simplicity: Tanya Tucker

Worst (and Worst-Timed) Statement of Emotional Fidelity: Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani

Best Guitar Heroics: Gary Clark Jr. and H.E.R.

Worst Encapsulation of the Way It Used to Be (and Hopefully No Longer Will Be): ‘I Sing the Body Electric’

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/entertainment/the-best-and-worst-of-the-grammys/

#Entertainment

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