What I have been thinking about recently

What I have been thinking about recently:

What I got when I looked up "pretty pictures"

Has anyone else experienced that tangled-brain that comes from trying to think about too much at once? When your circuits go haywire and you can't logic anymore? It usually happens to me when I am tired, or when I take too much on at once, or when I consume things I am allergic to. For a person who thinks all the time, this is a really hard state to function in. Also, it usually produces really bad ideas.

How much stuff does a person actually need? I am narrowing down my possessions, as I redo my house, and I have a lot of books and do-dads that I probably don't need. If I was sentimental I might keep them. Is a set of 3D puzzles going to get used? How much historically-accurate clothing do I need for my work? How many pairs of shoes do I need? So many decisions.

Loneliness is part of being a grown up. An immature person goes around begging for friendship and for their needs to be fulfilled, a mature person realizes that they must stand on their own two feet. Everyone outside of you has their own lives to live, and if you are strong and wise enough to understand it, you will... "mind your own business" in the best of ways.

 No one else can actually make you ok. That is why God does it. Making you ok is the whole point of our faith. So in a very real way, God IS a substitute for people, in that he has provided for it. I don't think he is the same as having people. It isn't like you are going to take God to lunch or play frisbee with God, or even have a back and forth conversation out loud. And I think humans do need those physical things. God is more core than that need.

Discipline or something. Mostly an interesting picture to break up the monotony.

Leading a disciplined life is something I need to do. I am not doing it. Darn. What is a disciplined life? My awesome definition was this: a disciplined life is when you curb the most destructive desires of the flesh, and moderate the desires that are good and fulfill them in proper proportion. As such, it is in accordance with walking by faith, and is not inherently legalistic... I think. How you actually do the curbing and moderating is a work in progress. Theoretically it is different for everyone. For me I think it is making my body do stuff. At least that is what my parents tell me, and I think I agree. There is, at least, an 85% chance that they are right. Also, going to bed on time and getting up early and doing chores regularly and brushing my hair daily and washing my clothes and stuff. :-|

I am working on armor for a costume (!) and it is going well, but the planishing takes FOREVERRRRR. And the original in the movie had a front and a back out of metal, but in real life the costume was made out of some sort of foam or plastic, so the back actually would have to be more flexible than the stainless I have. Hence, I am not making the back, or (for that matter) the double shoulder armor ("pauldron") because of the planishing. I am going to do a good job on the etching though, and my version is better than any other version I have seen on the internet so far. And it is my first time making armor, so it is all awesome. :-)

I have three sisters, a brother, myself, Jolena,and Cameron to sew for, if nothing else comes up, when it comes to costumes. And I am making two for myself if possible, because the folk dance costume with the armor is cool, but I also wanted to make a Spiderman dress, and there is a costume swing dance so now I am totally making the Spiderman dress. Booya.

Also everyone I know (<exaggeration) is getting married. Or they have beaux. Or interested parties. And I get to sew some wedding stuff! Like a whole wedding dress! ISN'T IT JUST THE MOST EXCITINGEST THING EVER?! 

That is the most macro things. I am also doing school. Lots of school.

Emily wishes me to make a post

For Emily!

What is up?

ALIENS!

Like this:

Humanity loves it's alien invasion stories. I am thinking of writing one myself.

A fond farewell to a very dear tent.

My tent, it is sad to say, must go. At least, the sides are going. SO, this is it's last few days as a tent.

In case I forget, or one of you who reads this hasn't heard this story, this is a brief history of why I sleep in a tent, and how it came to be here:

When I was 18, I had my own room inside my parents house. I was the only child that had their own room, and it was great. It even had a secret passage to my sisters room. But I wanted/needed to start phasing out of the house, so I was going to get/make a tiny house. You know, the ones on the trailer, with a loft for a bed and a super small living space? Well, Dad said, "You should try out something a little cheaper before buying a tiny house." So, I bought a tent for $350 and built a wooden platform for it, with posts in the ground.

I built the bed too, with help from Zack again. Custom day bed from recycled wood...

It was the first time I built any kind of building thing, and I did it almost all on my own (Dad used the skill saw for me, cutting the flooring and the tops of the posts, and my brother helped with the two-person bits. Zack rocks.) So, besides being "my own" it is rather a special part of my growing up, that I am sadly/nostalgically improving upon. One last sentimental thought: I will always love the smell of tarred canvas, which is what my clothes and bed have smelled like for two years now.

BUT, it is by no means perfect. The floor plan is hexagonal, and (while trying not to go into too many specifics) I can tell you that every part of the building shows my.... neophyte skills. The posts are not square to the walls, the stud framing is hilarious, and the flooring is uneven. That said, the basic frame is in good enough shape to keep for a while, even though the canvas is wearing out. So, I am taking off the canvas and putting board and batten siding and a roof on the thing.

I have many talents, but photography and housekeeping are not on the list.

I am so excited to work on this: one of my favorite things to do is build. 

For my own satisfaction, here is the basic idea of what I am doing:

The hexagonal floor plan is based off the tent's shape, and I am keeping that shape. The tent is designed to have eight posts, one at each corner and one in the middle of each of the "door" sides, which face eachother. Basically, and extruded hexagon with a pointed roof, with two of the roof facets being divided in half and peaked. Like this:

So, what I currently have is a post at each corner and a stud-wall kind of structure on the peaked sides. Then there is a truss going from two posts and a couple supports from the peaked ridge to support the roof.

What I am doing is putting boards on the sides that don't have a peak, and then roofing the whole thing. :-)

Really quick...

Becca told me to post 7 lines from the 7th page of something I wrote.

I never have a long enough attention span to write 7 pages, apparently, so here is a random (and only approximately) 7 lines:

He meditatively gulped from his tankard, then choked. “Well, your first blessing will be that your wine will always be better than this. In fact, lets make it interesting; you will have the finest spiced wine, so fine that it will be something entirely on its own. Yes, that seems like a good blessing. You should call it something good. Come up with a good name, will you? I will think of two more blessings.” They sat meditating for a while, until Tobligundaremusartolimew XVII stated, “I have the name. The drink should be called after someone, and since Tobligundaremusartolimew XVII is a little too mu-” “TOBLI-WHAT? Well I know what your second blessing will be…” “-too much, I will call it Throob.”

A question

What is heaven?

Dear blog

Dear Blog,

I have been thinking about you a lot recently. Even though I have not seen you in a while, the things I want to say to you are always on my mind.

School and work have kept me from writing. Although it has been too long, maybe you will agree with me that sewing for 9 hour stints does not provide excessive time or energy to form words into sentences. At least the 9 new petticoats are done, and the bonnets are almost there too. I do not know if I already told you, but my last three college tests went well: I got credit on all of them.  Excuses are never lacking; I now have federal taxation, advertising, and another marketing test to study for.

Maybe sometime soon I will write some more to you. I want to rant about alien invasions, individuality, zombie apocalypses, heaven(s), and what I ate for lunch.

Until that happy time, I remain, yours sincerely,

Cassie

What I have been working on

It has been a bit, but there are some good reasons for it.

First of all, we went to Mother Earth News Fair with our wood-fired forges (http://whitloxhomestead.com/) and that was a lot of fun. Cori blacksmithed all day every day. I went through the fair, and Becca bought chicks. If you have any interest in homesteading etc. you should check out Mother Earth News and their fairs!

I got a book there (Mom and Dad bought it for me) about edible plants. Of course, that means today's lunch was a chickweed salad, with some mallow, sheep sorrel, and daisies.

I am also doing school, college as I am sure you have seen, and I am buckling down to do three tests in a week. I am in chapter 5 of my text books, on average, so I need to get cracking.

It is also starting to be hay season, and though I don't do nearly as much as the rest of the family in this season, there is enough work for everyone. Yesterday we got the equipment out and sharpened and oiled. I was replacing old mower blades with Becca, finding and puting away tools (I tend to be the one that organizes the toolboxes), moving the skidsteer, hitching equipment, and my personal favorite: riding the skidsteer bucket up in the rafters to bring down the accumulator. Fun stuff.

This accumulator is like ours, but I found the pic on the internet

And finally, I have also been working on compiling a Bible study on our hope. It is very hard. Very, very hard. I will post the draft soon, after I edit it and make it somewhat clearer (instead of mere notes that I cannot understand afterwards.