Planting Trees

I found this story on the "About My Planet" website. Apparently there has been a push by a group to plant trees all over the planet.

First I've heard about it. Quoted below is the article. Read it. It's encouraging and surprising about what country has planted the most trees.

From the website:

"It is always nice to mention good news when you are talking about the environment. With so much bad news out there, any good news can brighten up your day, and today there is good news for the environment. This good news does not come out of eco-friendly British Columbia, or the progressive European Union. Nope, it comes from Kenya, a place that has some of the highest poverty levels on the planet.

The United Nations has put forth an initiative to plant billions of trees to help the environment. Called Plant for the Planet: Billion Trees Campaign, it has the goal of planting trees all over the planet over the next few years to reduce greenhouse gases and to help make the world a greener place, like it used to be before humans got chainsaw happy around the planet.

As part of this, Kenya has pledged to plant 5,000 trees in the Karua Forest to fight climate change, promote carbon reduction and to clean up the Karura River, which has suffered in recent years. The UN picked the perfect day for this as well; Valentine's Day. What better day to say you love the Earth by planting a tree, than Valentine's Day?

Thousands attended the event because many of the trees are planted in the memory of loved ones who have died, while other trees are just being planted for the love of the planet; our planet.

So far, the Billion Trees Campaign has been an incredible success. At this point, 2.6 billion trees have been planted around the globe with 4.3 billion trees pledged to be planted this year. However, it is not quite on the mark of planting seven billion trees by the end of 2009, which will represent one tree for every person on the planet. That being said, 2,600,000,000 trees planted is a big step in the right direction. That equates to billions, upon billions of tons of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. It is expected a few billion more trees will be planted before the end of 2009.

Do you want to know what country has planted the most trees of any country on Earth for this UN campaign? If you guess Canada, the European Union or the United States, you would be wrong. Ethiopia is the correct answer. So far in this campaign, this small country has planted an astonishing 700,000,000 trees!"

http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/green-news/kenya-turning-green-trees/

Satan Designed my Jeep's Engine

That's the only explanation I have for why a rocker cover bolt is placed at the back of the cover near the fire wall.  There is NO room to work back there.  If the bolt hadn't already been a little loose, I'd have never gotten it off.

And it's also very obvious that whoever designed this truck had no intentions of a short fat chick ever working on it.  I can't reach JACK without a footstool.  How dignified is that?  I'm doing serious work on my own truck and I have to drag the kitchen stool out to the street just so I can reach all the bolts that need to be removed.

Of course, if one built a car that I could easily and comfortably work on, nobody could fit in it.

Anyway, I changed the rocker cover gasket today.  Took me 4 hours and several colorful expressions to get it done.  Saved a couple hundred dollars.  And I'm going to need that money just to fill up the RV.

Now, I just have to figure out how to get the grossness out from under my fingernails.

Our New RV

Oh
My
God....we bought a used RV yesterday. Can we afford it? Not really but can we not not afford it? With the future uncertain for my SO, we had to do it. I asked a friend for her opinion and she said that tomorrow is not guaranteed.

We had to do it and will love it.

It's an older model which the color scheme reflects. Browns and creams but that's ok. It's functional and in good shape. We took her for a test drive out to Meeman and it worked well. We did a test run of hooking up to services and times how long it took. You ready? 5 minutes to back in and set up. Beats the heck out of a tent. We moved all of our camping gear in which freed up space in the house. I even joked that we could turn it into our oldest's bedroom or a retreat for the adults.

Now, I have to see about claiming it as a second home.

Check out the pictures.

Amazing

How can you NOT tap your foot?

A New Toy

We've been collecting fallen limbs from our neighbors and all around the block to burn in our outdoor fireplace.  Last weekend, we had a BIG limb fall from the tree on the south side of the house.  Now, I got out there last weekend and with my little hand tree limb trimming saw I cut this muther up and threw it over the fence into the back yard. 

The pieces weren't small enough to put in the little fireplace but I told myself that I was in no way shape or form going to cut that limb up any smaller with a hand saw.

So the oldest and I went shopping.  I had no intentions of buying a chainsaw until I saw one on the shelf at Lowe's.  Since the SO chose not to go with us, I didn't have that voice screaming at me "WE CAN'T AFFORD IT."  So guess what?

We are now the proud owners of an electric chain saw.  If there's a limb out there that this saw can't handle then we don't need it.  I'm not heating the house for God's sake.

The oldest and I are driving home and he asks me what I think the youngest will do when we get this home.

I calmly and without censoring said, "He'll get a hard on."

My oldest nearly choked holding back the Dr. Pepper that he was about to spew all over the dashboard and windshield.  I think some even made it out through his nose but at least he didn't get it all over the car.

That might have upset me.

He told me not to do that again and I apologized saying it was a totally inappropriate remark to make to my oldest.  He said it wasn't the remark because it was funny.  It was the timing. 

Apparently Dr. Pepper up the nose is painful. 

I wouldn't know.

Anyway, we get home and spend a couple of hours cutting up limbs into about 9" pieces that will be easily splittable and burnable.  Then, when the limbs run out we start looking for other pieces of wood.

I did draw the line at the fence.  The youngest was disappointed until I reminded him that he would be the one chasing the dogs.

It really is all about the simple things.  A saw.  Wood.  A match and a fire pit made a glorious Sunday afternoon.  All we needed was a big chunk of dead animal to roast and we would have been close to our roots.

We settled for Krystals when the youngest and the SO had to go to Sally Beauty Supply to fix the hair bleach job that they did this afternoon.

He's an enigma.  He's cuts wood with me all afternoon then lets the SO bleach and dye his hair.

Go figure.  It should come as no surprise to anyone that I consider the judicious use of narcotics from time to time.  You try living with these two boys for a while.

Home Ownership Woes

So, the washing machine was leaking. I couldn't figure out where for the longest time until yesterday morning. I'm in my pajamas and barefooted. No bra. Why would I break my momentum to go put on a bra?

I have to crawl up on the washing machine and finally see a drip come down from the hose connections on the back.

This should be a simple repair shouldn't it? Just tighten the connections and all is well.

No. Of course not. I had to unfasten the hoses and notice that the washers are just disintegrating. I'm thinking that I have spares somewhere but can't remember where.

And it wouldn't matter because the youngest just can't leave my things alone. So, I go to the garage in my pajamas, barefooted and braless to find hose washers.

I find my chisels with a big chip in the blade. Youngest.
I find my handsaws laying next to the grill rusted. Youngest.
I find an article on how to tune a weber carb and how to reinstall one. Adult ADD.
I find a broken wooden horse that was my mothers that I start to repair then remember that I'm really working on the washing machine. Adult ADD.

I find a rock hard half of a hotdog. Probably youngest but I can't rule out adult. Not ADD. Lazy.

Finally, I find the hose washers where I keep the sandpaper. I have no idea why or who to blame that on. On the way back to the house I step on three screws and 2 nails. Youngest.

Profanity is a developed talent. I'm fully developed by the time I reach the back door and then the mudroom. It's an art really. A skill not often appreciated by the people around you.

I get the hoses back on the washing machine and so far so good. I don't know that I could take on another "honey do" project because I'm running out of good cuss words.