Barn Owl
“As part of my work I’m lucky that I get to work all over the UK but I very much enjoy finding wildlife thats local to me and on the way to doing a workshop for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust I noticed a barn owl flying over a field. I drove down a country lane and parked up alone a fence line and sure enough the barn owl landed metres from me an amazing sight that was totally unplanned and still made it in time for my workshop.”
https://jackswildlifephotography.blogspot.com/
One of the best things about doing this blog is the feedback. In the “comments” section, I’ve had people recommend all kinds of things: tools, movies, music, remedies that I have found useful. So here I’m throwing out a question about hearing aids. I need to get them, but hate to spend $2-$3000 on each one. I think it’s a racket, maybe an oligopoly of sorts. They shouldn’t cost that much. Also, I don’t need all the latest bells and whistles.
I’ve seen $3-$500 hearing aids, but one problem is that I need them to be waterproof because I know I can’t remember to take them out each time I get in the water. I’m just not that consistently conscious with the requirement of daily life.
Any tips?
Went there a few days ago, made me realize how much I miss building. The smell, texture, colors make me want to put on my tool belt.
On Mark and Meg’s NorCal homestead
I fractured my wrist two months ago. Once I got the cast off, I took these steps to hasten bone healing and restoration of hand strength:
Comfrey
a) compresses with fresh leaves and/or roots, wrapped in Saranwrap, then velcro bandage, then heat pad for a few hours. You can also purchase dried comfrey leaves and roots.
b) Dr Christopher’s Tissue and Bone Ointment; check out the 400 customer reviews on Amazon here.
Comfrey is a magical plant. It’s also called Knitbone. I used it years ago on cracked ribs and made me feel better instantly.
Medical Marijuana
Another miracle: Mary’s Transdermal patches — cannabidol, CBD (the type marijuana that has healing properties, but does not get you stoned). They cost $20 each, but boy, have they worked for me. Left on for 12 hours. Took away pain. The next morning I forgot I’d had an injury. With about 5 days of these two remedies I’ve gone from maybe 50% to 80% of full recovery. https://www.marysmedicinals.com/
Calcium citrate and vitamin D3
My doc recommended.
Prunes
Yes, check them out. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/2015/06/23/07152c22-1909-11e5-ab92-c75ae6ab94b5_story.html
Bone broth
I’ve sort of done a blitz with these treatments and it’s wonderful to get my hand working again. I haven’t actually gone to rehab yet, because there is so much I do naturally in my daily life with my hands that I’m not sure I need “exercises.” Each day I do more.
Our software StretchWare is now free. StretchWare is the ergonomic software that reminds you to stretch, developed by Bob Anderson, author of our book, Stretching.
It’s a great program; every hour or two hours, or certain number of keystrokes, a Tibetan bell rings and a window pops up asking if you have time to stretch. If you do, you click okay, and the stretches pop up on the screen. When you roll your mouse over an individual stretch, instructions pop up in a window.
It works on both Mac and Windows computers. Go here to download:
https://www.shelterpub.com/stretchware/
BTW, we were kind of amazed to learn this week that our book Stretching sold 38,000 copies in China last year.
For some years I was really into blogging. These days I post a lot less, what with doing Instagram, contributing to theshelterblog, Tumblr, Twitter, and reluctantly, Facebook. A blizzard of internet activity.
The idea is to get our “content” out in digital form to compliment our publishing of hold-in-your-hands books. All this with “build it and they will come” approach. We’re working at having theshelterblog be more and more of our original material as opposed to stuff already on the web.
We’ve also upgraded our website in the process.
I’m also posting less because I’m immersed in production of our next book, Small Homes. Which is looking, ahem, incredibly good. This may end up being our most relevant building book ever, with a variety of simple homes and lifestyles that will give lots of people ideas and inspiration to create their own shelters.
Sure, tiny homes are wonderful and photogenic and a welcome relief from homes that are too big and expensive and rents that are too high. But small homes are relevant for way more people.
So far we’ve done 97 (out of approx. 200) pages. A sample we just completed today:
So onward I go with the book, posting less. But hey, 5000 posts is a body of work (along with all time history page views of 7,448,979)…
