The presence of the old-school Stanley thermos with the closed cap means that hot water has been prepared and is available for anyone (guest, visitor, long-term resident) to use.
(If the hot water gets used up, the thermos gets emptied and left to drain in the drying rack till someone wants to boil more water.)
The presence of the little pot with the reusable filter in there means that coffee is available for first come first served for anyone to drink.
(When the coffee gets used up, the little pot gets rinsed out and put to drain in the drying rack. The filter gets dumped into the worm compost area, and rinsed out and left to dry in the drying rack next to the little pot.)
The Stanley thermos was purchased at a UU rummage sale some years ago, I think I maybe paid five bucks for it. Or maybe I found it at a yard sale and paid three bucks, I can’t remember. Either way it’s a true friend.
The pot with a little spout was being thrown away, I think I got it in a decluttering gig or else it was at the curbside. Either way it’s a true friend. And somebody for a long time obviously cared enough to repair it – see the close-up of the handle. This only endeared it to me more.
Or did it endear me to it, I always forget how the expression goes. Same as “substitute me for him.” … For an English major and extreme language-stan I’m not always on top of these things.
The chest freezer is one we inherited from a neighbor who was cleaning out her garage to move after her husband passed, and didn’t want it anymore. It works fine, but our outdoor electrics are janky so we keep it unplugged and basically just use it as an outdoor horizontal surface. It can & will be pressed into service as a community freezer if needed.
StarshineHouse is a Nature-based learning and on learning space. In addition to us long-term residence, we also accommodate visitors both overnight and day visitors. It’s not a public facility in any kind of commercial way, just make a friend connection with us online or via other channels to arrange your stay. Winter is a great time of year in Daytona Beach.
I don’t recommend summertime here for civilians, unless you’re really up for the full hot steamy Monty including extremely bold palmetto bugs.
As part of the education mission, we live a very rugged life and it’s not everybody’s cup of tea.
Speaking of teacups, I still have so many left from my grandmother’s china set that I have started using one as my morning face-wash cup. A little bit of warm water poured from the little top overflow cup of the thermos, and scrubby-dubby with my miniature beach-towel washcloth (which i hand-cut & hemmed from someone’s hotel towel abandoned by the ocean, a frequent occurrence At least frequent enough to keep us perennially in wash cloths which are furthermore classically attractive in a beachy way), and my favorite locally made oil-based moisturizer — and my face is good to go for the day.
We wouldn’t be considered off grid, we are an urban house and connected to utilities. However, the amount we consume is so negligible that we are basically an off-grid “training wheels” homesite.
We are also a training ground for living in close community and choosing to stay present instead of running away when conflicts arise.
And: We make beach trash into useful objects and wacky art, and have a heck of a lot of fun on top of navigating / unpacking / channeling deep trauma (our own, and the adjacent and the collective) and related difficult stuff.
A world without joy and laughter will not survive. We are carrying the seeds of the future, and it’s not going to happen by enacting some modern EA cultural-appropriation Viking dreadlock version of the American Gothic painting ha ha.
We get goofy and we stay goofy. We believe in the power of weird.
See pics here on my DG FB page (for as long as the grid and the will of the almighy tech-BROligarchs shall allow).
#DoomsterPrepperHomeEc #StarshineHouse #Trailhead501 #HousekeepingMemo #FromYourFaeriePodmother