March 19th, 2016
Hello everyone, this will be my last post until April 4th. My family and I are leaving for Florida tomorrow and I will be enjoying our time away together without technology. I am sure I will feel inspired to write about new topics when we return.
Right now, everyone is asleep and we are all packed. I am reading over my to-do list and I am satisfied with my progress. I feel excited about our trip. My husband's clients will be house sitting and pet sitting for us. That makes all the difference for me.
In the past, we had neighbors check on the cat, scoop his litter, fill his food bowl and give him some love every day but no one lived in our home. When we got our dog, this was no longer an option. We tried two different kennels. The people were nice but our dog is more of a human-lover, not so much a dog-lover. The last year that she was in a kennel, when we returned, the owner gave us a photo of our dog as a souvenir of her stay. Our dog was being sniffed by dogs on either side, her ears were back and her tail was curled down between her legs. It broke my heart. She looked so unhappy.
Last year, a friend of ours stayed with our pets. It was a completely different experience. Our dog was able to stay in her environment where everything is familiar and comfortable. She received great care by this loving woman who absolutely adores dogs and bakes her own treats. We could check in with her by e-mail throughout the holiday. She even sent footage of our pets when the girls were missing them. We returned to a happy, slightly slimmer from the extra exercise dog and a satisfied, calm cat. Our home had been carde for and there were fresh flowers on the table.
Our friend has her own dog now so she couldn't be here this year. Luckily, my husband has many clients and we have more pet lovers coming to spoil our animals and keep our home cozy while we are away.
As silly as it may seem, I feel more excited about our trip knowing that our pets will be happy. It's hard to go away and relax when you are worried about your dog, wondering if she is stressed. That is no longer an issue. It's also a relief to know that, when the children inevitably start missing the pets, we can share photos e-mailed to my husband's phone (which he will be taking with him).
Thank you pet sitters everyone for offering love to our pets, important members of our family, and for providing peace of mind for the family members who love them.
See you on April 4th!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 March 2016
Thursday, 3 March 2016
Solar Systems
March 2nd, 2016
I have been determined to find a way to harvest enough solar energy to run our home off the grid since we moved out to this home in 2006. We have a big beautiful home but our intention when we moved was to simplify. I was thinking we would move to the country and live in a cottage by the lake. I was imagining a downsize but we fell in love with a beautiful home, bigger than our previous home but cheaper due to its location. I figured we could still live a simpler life by having chickens, growing veggies in the garden and using solar and geothermal energy to run our home.
We purchased a geothermal system, we do grow herbs and veggies during the summer and, we hope to have chickens this Spring. However, the solar system still eludes me. We met with a gentleman a few years ago about having solar panels in the field in front of the barn. They took enormous space, it was a long term investment and we were responsible for monitoring the amount of energy generated by our panels through a computer system. We were still paying off our geothermal system so we decided to hold off.
A month ago, my husband was talking about replacing our roof. I visited a local business to discuss the possibility of installing a solar system on our roof. We have a lot of space on our roof and we are a south-facing property. It seemed like a good fit. The estimate came back and, apparently, the best location would be the barn rough. Again, the up-front investment was huge and the return on investment, negligible. I felt very discouraged.
Earlier this week, I saw a Facebook post about Tesla's Powerwall, a battery that hangs like a painting on the wall of your home. I did some research. Could this be a solution? Turns out, you still need solar panels on your roof or on your property to harvest the solar energy, then the battery allows you to use this stored energy during peak hours in the evening. The batteries are meant to last about ten years and their storage capacity is impressive. However, their output is insufficient. You can get about 2KW per Powerball.
I tuned into some Ted Talks about solar energy. The amount of competition among universities to invent the next generation of solar systems reminded me of the race to the moon.
Dave Follett in Solar Energy At The Gigawatt Scale explains that the main issue with solar energy is that the sun is diffuse. We need large solar panels to harvest enough energy which makes this venture very expensive. Dave's solution is to concentrate the sun using mirrors. He demonstrated his model at the University of Arizona which looks like a ferris wheel composed of a steel frame and eight mirrors which magnifies the sun onto photovoltaic cells. He states that you can get the same power from 3 sq inches as you normally get from a 4 by 4 foot area because the solar energy is magnified 1000 times.
Next, I watched a speech by a professor at MIT, Donald Sadoway, The Missing Link to Renewable Energy. He believes the battery is the key to solving the issue of capitalizing on solar energy. He and his team of students invented a liquid metal battery. He was looking for a battery composed of elements that are abundant. His battery uses a low density liquid metal on top (magnesium), a high density liquid metal at the bottom (anemone) and molten salts in the centre. He presented cells stacked into modules then piled into a 40 ft container which creates 2MW hours. Donald says this could support 200 households. Very interesting.
Bill Gross believes the key to achieving more from your solar system is to harvest more solar energy. In, A Solar Energy System That Tracks The Sun, he explains the process he used to come up with his design, a 12 petal unit that tracks the sun for 6.5 hours per day. His system has a modern Stirling engine in the centre. There are sensors on the petals that search for the sun, the petals move to be in the best position to receive solar energy, once they are hot enough, the engine starts, converting the sun energy to electricity.
Finally, I watched Rusty Towell who was inspired by his trip to India where he witnessed the need to simplify how we generate electricity in order to make it accessible. His answer was Thorium. He claims Thorium is present in earth all over the world and we only need a small amount. He uses a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) to produce electricity. The key is to changing the nuclear structure of an atom instead of changing the electron energy levels. By focusing on the nucleus, you produce one million times more energy.
All of these systems are promising. As each inventor is inspired by another, I am hoping that one final version can be invented that is affordable and effective.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
I have been determined to find a way to harvest enough solar energy to run our home off the grid since we moved out to this home in 2006. We have a big beautiful home but our intention when we moved was to simplify. I was thinking we would move to the country and live in a cottage by the lake. I was imagining a downsize but we fell in love with a beautiful home, bigger than our previous home but cheaper due to its location. I figured we could still live a simpler life by having chickens, growing veggies in the garden and using solar and geothermal energy to run our home.
We purchased a geothermal system, we do grow herbs and veggies during the summer and, we hope to have chickens this Spring. However, the solar system still eludes me. We met with a gentleman a few years ago about having solar panels in the field in front of the barn. They took enormous space, it was a long term investment and we were responsible for monitoring the amount of energy generated by our panels through a computer system. We were still paying off our geothermal system so we decided to hold off.
A month ago, my husband was talking about replacing our roof. I visited a local business to discuss the possibility of installing a solar system on our roof. We have a lot of space on our roof and we are a south-facing property. It seemed like a good fit. The estimate came back and, apparently, the best location would be the barn rough. Again, the up-front investment was huge and the return on investment, negligible. I felt very discouraged.
Earlier this week, I saw a Facebook post about Tesla's Powerwall, a battery that hangs like a painting on the wall of your home. I did some research. Could this be a solution? Turns out, you still need solar panels on your roof or on your property to harvest the solar energy, then the battery allows you to use this stored energy during peak hours in the evening. The batteries are meant to last about ten years and their storage capacity is impressive. However, their output is insufficient. You can get about 2KW per Powerball.
I tuned into some Ted Talks about solar energy. The amount of competition among universities to invent the next generation of solar systems reminded me of the race to the moon.
Dave Follett in Solar Energy At The Gigawatt Scale explains that the main issue with solar energy is that the sun is diffuse. We need large solar panels to harvest enough energy which makes this venture very expensive. Dave's solution is to concentrate the sun using mirrors. He demonstrated his model at the University of Arizona which looks like a ferris wheel composed of a steel frame and eight mirrors which magnifies the sun onto photovoltaic cells. He states that you can get the same power from 3 sq inches as you normally get from a 4 by 4 foot area because the solar energy is magnified 1000 times.
Next, I watched a speech by a professor at MIT, Donald Sadoway, The Missing Link to Renewable Energy. He believes the battery is the key to solving the issue of capitalizing on solar energy. He and his team of students invented a liquid metal battery. He was looking for a battery composed of elements that are abundant. His battery uses a low density liquid metal on top (magnesium), a high density liquid metal at the bottom (anemone) and molten salts in the centre. He presented cells stacked into modules then piled into a 40 ft container which creates 2MW hours. Donald says this could support 200 households. Very interesting.
Bill Gross believes the key to achieving more from your solar system is to harvest more solar energy. In, A Solar Energy System That Tracks The Sun, he explains the process he used to come up with his design, a 12 petal unit that tracks the sun for 6.5 hours per day. His system has a modern Stirling engine in the centre. There are sensors on the petals that search for the sun, the petals move to be in the best position to receive solar energy, once they are hot enough, the engine starts, converting the sun energy to electricity.
Finally, I watched Rusty Towell who was inspired by his trip to India where he witnessed the need to simplify how we generate electricity in order to make it accessible. His answer was Thorium. He claims Thorium is present in earth all over the world and we only need a small amount. He uses a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) to produce electricity. The key is to changing the nuclear structure of an atom instead of changing the electron energy levels. By focusing on the nucleus, you produce one million times more energy.
All of these systems are promising. As each inventor is inspired by another, I am hoping that one final version can be invented that is affordable and effective.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Tuesday, 1 March 2016
Home Ownership Course
February 29th, 2016
Today, I was able to return the art that was created by grades 4,5 and 6 at Oxford-on-Rideau Public School. Their art was produced during my workshop on rural poverty and affordable housing in order to raise awareness about these issues in our community. Their flags were displayed at Geronimo Coffee House for the month of February, during the Share the Love campaign. I was very excited to bring the flags back to the school so the students can bring them home and share them with their parents.
During the Share the Love meeting at The Branch Restaurant on February 22nd, Mario Zambonin, the new manager of our ReStore in Kemptville talked about the importance of home ownership and the stability it provided for children. His feedback really made me think. As a child, we moved every 2-3 years and we always rented. I remember feeling that our living arrangements were temporary. I couldn't paint or decorate my walls in a way that might damage the paint. If something broke, we had to call the landlord. Sometimes, if a neighbour wasn't looking after his or her apartment, all of us had to get fumigated due to an infestation in their house. You could hear the neighbours argue. I recall a particular neighbour when I was seven years old. The man beat his girlfriend. She would hit the wall so hard that our apartment shook. It was upsetting to hear him yell at her and to hear her screams as she tried to get away or as she hit the wall. Hearing a grown woman cry was stressful and confusing to me. There is no privacy when you live in a cheaply built apartment.
The cleanliness of the lobby and hallways is up to the building owner. The landscaping and maintenance also reflect decisions made by the building's owner. The same goes for the maintenance of the building's elevators. You can never just take action and get a situation resolved because it's never your place, you're just passing through. As a child, you are aware that you are living among people. You can't jump too hard or too long because there are neighbours downstairs. You can't play your music too long because the neighbours might complain. Bouncing a ball off the wall? Also a bad idea.
When I moved into my first home, I had to learn to be a homeowner. It wasn't just a matter of paying the down payment, setting money aside for taxes or covering the cost of utilities. It didn't occur to me until winter approached that I would need to hire someone to plough our driveway and that, next Spring, I'd need to find someone to mow the lawn. I had no idea there was a filter that needed to be changed for the furnace in the basement. I learned to maintain our home and develop pride of ownership. If there was something I didn't like about our home, I could change it or hire someone to help me. If there was ice on my driveway, I was the one responsible for coating the ice with salt or sand. If something broke, I had to figure out how to fix it or hire someone to do it.
My husband and I now own our second home and I no longer feel trepidation when I decide to paint my walls or hang a shelf. I have learned to tile floors, paint walls and ceilings, use a lawn mower, shovel a driveway, change the furnace filter, replace the water softener and have taxes included in my mortgage so the tax bill doesn't come as one big chunk. People who grew up with home owning parents are used to this but all of it is new to people like me who lived in run down apartments.
As Mario talked about the importance of home ownership, I reflected on this learning and thought it would be worthwhile to teach a Home Ownership course. It's great to help a family become home owners but it's important to ease the transition to new habits and a different mindset to ensure their comfort and success as a home owning family. Just like you adults can benefit from learning about their cars when they earn their license, skills like changing a tire, checking fluids, boosting a battery etc, home owners can learn how to care for, maintain and perform simple fixes to their home. Food for thought!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Today, I was able to return the art that was created by grades 4,5 and 6 at Oxford-on-Rideau Public School. Their art was produced during my workshop on rural poverty and affordable housing in order to raise awareness about these issues in our community. Their flags were displayed at Geronimo Coffee House for the month of February, during the Share the Love campaign. I was very excited to bring the flags back to the school so the students can bring them home and share them with their parents.
During the Share the Love meeting at The Branch Restaurant on February 22nd, Mario Zambonin, the new manager of our ReStore in Kemptville talked about the importance of home ownership and the stability it provided for children. His feedback really made me think. As a child, we moved every 2-3 years and we always rented. I remember feeling that our living arrangements were temporary. I couldn't paint or decorate my walls in a way that might damage the paint. If something broke, we had to call the landlord. Sometimes, if a neighbour wasn't looking after his or her apartment, all of us had to get fumigated due to an infestation in their house. You could hear the neighbours argue. I recall a particular neighbour when I was seven years old. The man beat his girlfriend. She would hit the wall so hard that our apartment shook. It was upsetting to hear him yell at her and to hear her screams as she tried to get away or as she hit the wall. Hearing a grown woman cry was stressful and confusing to me. There is no privacy when you live in a cheaply built apartment.
The cleanliness of the lobby and hallways is up to the building owner. The landscaping and maintenance also reflect decisions made by the building's owner. The same goes for the maintenance of the building's elevators. You can never just take action and get a situation resolved because it's never your place, you're just passing through. As a child, you are aware that you are living among people. You can't jump too hard or too long because there are neighbours downstairs. You can't play your music too long because the neighbours might complain. Bouncing a ball off the wall? Also a bad idea.
When I moved into my first home, I had to learn to be a homeowner. It wasn't just a matter of paying the down payment, setting money aside for taxes or covering the cost of utilities. It didn't occur to me until winter approached that I would need to hire someone to plough our driveway and that, next Spring, I'd need to find someone to mow the lawn. I had no idea there was a filter that needed to be changed for the furnace in the basement. I learned to maintain our home and develop pride of ownership. If there was something I didn't like about our home, I could change it or hire someone to help me. If there was ice on my driveway, I was the one responsible for coating the ice with salt or sand. If something broke, I had to figure out how to fix it or hire someone to do it.
My husband and I now own our second home and I no longer feel trepidation when I decide to paint my walls or hang a shelf. I have learned to tile floors, paint walls and ceilings, use a lawn mower, shovel a driveway, change the furnace filter, replace the water softener and have taxes included in my mortgage so the tax bill doesn't come as one big chunk. People who grew up with home owning parents are used to this but all of it is new to people like me who lived in run down apartments.
As Mario talked about the importance of home ownership, I reflected on this learning and thought it would be worthwhile to teach a Home Ownership course. It's great to help a family become home owners but it's important to ease the transition to new habits and a different mindset to ensure their comfort and success as a home owning family. Just like you adults can benefit from learning about their cars when they earn their license, skills like changing a tire, checking fluids, boosting a battery etc, home owners can learn how to care for, maintain and perform simple fixes to their home. Food for thought!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Monday, 15 February 2016
Clutter
February 15th 2015
Today was family day and I enjoyed spending time with my husband and our two amazing daughters. We ate lunch at a restaurant, prepared for our trip to Florida, finished homework, had supper together, made construction paper hockey jerseys for their barbies as well as a fake arena, all fun. Now everyone has gone to bed and I see all the messes around the house. I have a choice, do I go to bed and deal with it in the morning or, do I stay up an hour later and clean this place up?
Clutter isn't just about the baskets of laundry, piles of paper, stacks of pots and pans, mountains of stuffed toys and bundles of shoes you see as you walk through the house. It's the mental fatigue that comes with seeing everything. It's knowing that it can't stay like this. It takes so much energy to walk past the mess day in and day out and transfer it to tomorrow's to-do list because you ran out of time today.
These days we have loads of articles in magazines, entire books even, devoted to managing the clutter or simplifying your life by getting rid of excess. There are professionals who can help to cut through the clutter and organize your chaos. Here are some of the tips I have read about in the past:
1-If you haven't used an item in the course of a year, donate it
2-For items that you only use on special occasions, like Christmas decorations, buy tupperware bins and label them
3-Divide your home into areas according to the activities you do in each room: cook, eat, sleep, shower, work etc and organize your items to reflect each zone of activity
4-Only keep the items you use daily within reach. Find a storage solution for everything else. You use your toaster every day but not your steamer or food processor therefore, they shouldn't be on the counter
5-Make storage part of your decor by using beautiful woven baskets or shelving made out of barn board and old plumbing pipes
If you are feeling stuck in your life, de-cluttering is a great way to get energy flowing again. It can be really hard to think in a cluttered room. When my children were young, we had a toy room on the email floor and, periodically, I would de-clutter the room and remove toys that were not being used. As soon as the toy room was clean, the girls would be so excited to play with their toys. They had less toys but they could see everything.
The same is true at the office. If your desk is covered with piles of paper, you can't find anything, you're embarrassed when others see your space and, you can't get anything done. Sorting all the papers into piles and filing them so they are out of sight is energizing. It feels good to have a clear, organized work surface where everything you need is within reach and everything else has its place.
Sometimes, we just have too much stuff. It is heavy to be surrounded by excess. Making life simple means donating clothing that no longer fits or suits your style, shredding documents that are ten years old, recycling empty bottles of shampoo and body lotion (you know the drawer full of bottles with an inch of liquid at the bottom), discarding pieces of paper with grocery lists etc. On a bigger scale, it can mean downsizing. There is a trend right now with people living in "tiny houses" where they only have space for necessities.
Having less in each room creates a calm, simple, open and relaxing ambiance. When you walk into a de-cluttered room, you feel light and serene, every item has a place and a function. There is room for people. You can rest and enjoy the space because your attention is not distracted by the clutter that needs to be organized.
Moving or breaking up from a long term relationship can be perfect opportunities to de-clutter. It feels so good to lighten the load as you get rid of items you don't like or don't need. De-cluttering is an emotional experience. As you sift through your belongings, you are sure to find old photos or receipts, letters and birthday cards. Letting go of old items can help you make space for new adventures or simply grieve the past.
If you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of de-cluttering your home, consider having a de-clutter support group. You can take turns going to each other's homes and undertaking one room at a time. Others are not attached to your things and can help you see that it's time to say goodbye. If a party is not your style, try to work on one space per month (kitchen, living room, bedroom, washroom). Keep a garbage bag in that room for the month. Every time you see something you no longer want or use, toss it into the bag. What is left by the end of the month gets a space assigned to it.
My goal is to de-clutter my home by March Break. Who is with me? Happy de-cluttering!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Today was family day and I enjoyed spending time with my husband and our two amazing daughters. We ate lunch at a restaurant, prepared for our trip to Florida, finished homework, had supper together, made construction paper hockey jerseys for their barbies as well as a fake arena, all fun. Now everyone has gone to bed and I see all the messes around the house. I have a choice, do I go to bed and deal with it in the morning or, do I stay up an hour later and clean this place up?
Clutter isn't just about the baskets of laundry, piles of paper, stacks of pots and pans, mountains of stuffed toys and bundles of shoes you see as you walk through the house. It's the mental fatigue that comes with seeing everything. It's knowing that it can't stay like this. It takes so much energy to walk past the mess day in and day out and transfer it to tomorrow's to-do list because you ran out of time today.
These days we have loads of articles in magazines, entire books even, devoted to managing the clutter or simplifying your life by getting rid of excess. There are professionals who can help to cut through the clutter and organize your chaos. Here are some of the tips I have read about in the past:
1-If you haven't used an item in the course of a year, donate it
2-For items that you only use on special occasions, like Christmas decorations, buy tupperware bins and label them
3-Divide your home into areas according to the activities you do in each room: cook, eat, sleep, shower, work etc and organize your items to reflect each zone of activity
4-Only keep the items you use daily within reach. Find a storage solution for everything else. You use your toaster every day but not your steamer or food processor therefore, they shouldn't be on the counter
5-Make storage part of your decor by using beautiful woven baskets or shelving made out of barn board and old plumbing pipes
If you are feeling stuck in your life, de-cluttering is a great way to get energy flowing again. It can be really hard to think in a cluttered room. When my children were young, we had a toy room on the email floor and, periodically, I would de-clutter the room and remove toys that were not being used. As soon as the toy room was clean, the girls would be so excited to play with their toys. They had less toys but they could see everything.
The same is true at the office. If your desk is covered with piles of paper, you can't find anything, you're embarrassed when others see your space and, you can't get anything done. Sorting all the papers into piles and filing them so they are out of sight is energizing. It feels good to have a clear, organized work surface where everything you need is within reach and everything else has its place.
Sometimes, we just have too much stuff. It is heavy to be surrounded by excess. Making life simple means donating clothing that no longer fits or suits your style, shredding documents that are ten years old, recycling empty bottles of shampoo and body lotion (you know the drawer full of bottles with an inch of liquid at the bottom), discarding pieces of paper with grocery lists etc. On a bigger scale, it can mean downsizing. There is a trend right now with people living in "tiny houses" where they only have space for necessities.
Having less in each room creates a calm, simple, open and relaxing ambiance. When you walk into a de-cluttered room, you feel light and serene, every item has a place and a function. There is room for people. You can rest and enjoy the space because your attention is not distracted by the clutter that needs to be organized.
Moving or breaking up from a long term relationship can be perfect opportunities to de-clutter. It feels so good to lighten the load as you get rid of items you don't like or don't need. De-cluttering is an emotional experience. As you sift through your belongings, you are sure to find old photos or receipts, letters and birthday cards. Letting go of old items can help you make space for new adventures or simply grieve the past.
If you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of de-cluttering your home, consider having a de-clutter support group. You can take turns going to each other's homes and undertaking one room at a time. Others are not attached to your things and can help you see that it's time to say goodbye. If a party is not your style, try to work on one space per month (kitchen, living room, bedroom, washroom). Keep a garbage bag in that room for the month. Every time you see something you no longer want or use, toss it into the bag. What is left by the end of the month gets a space assigned to it.
My goal is to de-clutter my home by March Break. Who is with me? Happy de-cluttering!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
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