War on Junk - Day 3

I see some other members of the family have tentatively joined in. There was some junk that I didn't recognize when I looked in the box today - Except my 10 lb barbell, formerly one of a pair. How does a 10lb barbell disappear?

Today's haul includes:

1. A telephone cable in a plastic bag
2. A 10 lb barbell
3. A music box/christmas decoration that looks like a miniature record player
4. A brand new cordless phone, still in the box
5. A very interesting and complicated plastic device that may have something to do with wine, or maybe not
6. A cork from a bottle of Aberlour 10 year old scotch whisky
7. A device for smoothing the goop from a vinyl repair kit
8. Some aluminum measuring spoons
9. A plastic vial containing fool's gold from a 'gold panning' exhibition at Old Tucson Arizona
10.A scarf

We have removed thirty items from their former hiding places so far. It hasn't even made a dent. Junk is legion but we are determined.

War on Junk - Day 2

I told my mother-in-law about my war on junk. She was so happy and said "I,ve been waiting to hear that for thirty years!" She is very neat person. She will help us every week when we sort out the week's collection for recycling etc. My family is reluctantly going along with this idea, I'm sure they think it's just a phase. Maybe they are right, time will tell.

Here's today's list of junk.

1. A plastic divider box from the medicine cabinet
2. A small zip lock bag containing $0.22 (1 dime, 1 nickel and 7 pennies)
3. A black poker chip
4. A white poker chip
5. An obsolete computer back-up tape
6. An Allen Key
7. Another Allen Key
8. A Sony Walkman
9. Instruction manual for A Radio Shack Universal remote
10. A ball point pen with no ink

There is so much stuff, I feel like I could do this forever and not make a dent. Of course it is not a static process. Everyday, new junk worms it's way into our house from various sources, so we are not really netting out at -10 pieces per day. Junk is a clever foe, a master of disguises. It often shows up as part of something useful and then hides in the clutter for years after its usefulness has ended.

I Declare War on Junk!

The Lee Homer Household declares War on Junk!

Ok, so here's the deal. We have too much stuff. A lot of it is garbage masquerading as something you might use someday or hiding among useful items. Much of it has been there for years, malevolently cluttering up our lives in a sneaky manner. Hey, - I'm not doing anything, I'm just a piece of junk sitting in your closet that you are never going to use - what's the harm? Or Hey, we're just a bunch of useless items festering in your drawers and getting in the way of finding the few things we actually need and use.

Well it's no more Mr. and Mrs. Nice Guy. Our family is declaring war on junk. It's either us or the junk and at this point the junk is getting the upper hand!

Today is day one and our goal is to get rid of 10 pieces of junk per day. There is so much of it that at this point it takes less than 5 minutes to identify offending detritus.

Once identified they will be placed in a holding area (a superfluous tote) and once a week be sorted into 3 piles:

1. Garbage - unredeemable junk
2. Recyclable
3. Stuff to give away.

If we do this for a year, we will have eliminated 3,650 useless items from our lives and be all the better for it.

Today's haul:

1. Old baseball glove
2. Old 3 ring binder
3. metal pen box
4. Obsolete Name Tag
5. Plastic bag of Screws
6. Unidentified plastic thingamabob
7. Another unidentified plastic thingamabob
8. Another unidentified plastic thingamabob
9. 3 Christmas lights
10. Canuck's Rubik's cube
Labels: de-clutter, junk, recycling

An Encounter with A Gila Monster

Over the years, I have hiked many times in the desert around Tucson. Until yesterday morning, I had never seen a Gila Moster. Yesterday, on my second hike up the Ventana Canyon Trail (I had been unable to rouse my wife for the early morning hike, we spotted a large, stubby lizard lumbering along the trail ahead of us. We were very excited to see this fat Gila (pronounced Hee la) monster. This is the only venomous lizard in the USA. This would account for its slow motion and fearless behaviour. Once we spotted it, the monster casually moved into the undercover for a couple of minutes and then decided to come right back to where we were. It plodded across a dusty trail and climbed over a rock within three feet of where we were standing. I was able to get an number of pretty close photos of this not-so-scary monster.

Tucson Arizona

It's springtime in the Sonoran desertand the cactus is blooming. This is a shot of a prickly pear in bloom. The weather here has been very strange for May according to the locals. When we arrived on the 15th of May the temperature was over 100 degrees F. It stayed that way for about four days and then heavy clouds set in. On Thursday it rained all day long. The desert flora was vibrant but since we were here to be warm and dry, we were only warm. However, the rain and clouds started to lighten and by Saturday it was beautiful and sunny once again.We stayed in Ventana Canyon where there are some great hiking trails that take you up the canyon and into the Santa Catalina mountains. The landscape is dominated by the Saguaro cactus which is an amazing creature. Impossibly huge and alien-looking, it grows in incredible abundance here. The Saguaro may visually dominate the landscape, but it is by no means alone. The desert here is teeming with flora and fauna.The Gila Woodpecker is a key player in Sonoran desert. By creating it's nest in the Saguaro, it also creates a home for many other desert creatures, once the woodpeckers have left the cavity.

Whisky Review - Ardbeg 10 Year Old

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Those who know me well know I love Scotch Whisky. I have decided to include an occasional whiskey (or whisky as the Scots would say). Since I have a few different bottles on hand right now, I will start alphabetically with A for Ardbeg. Ardbeg is a single Islay malt, from the Isle of Islay, Argyll, Scotland. Islay malts are generally peaty and smoky and this is no exception.
Here's a quote from:http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/default.asp
"The last distillery on the road along the south coast from Port Ellen on the magical island of Islay, past Laphroaig and Lagavulin.
The distillery itself dates back to the final years of the eighteenth century. The site's water source, Loch Uigeadail, is superb and has had the honour of having a whisky named after it. Until 1976/'77 Ardbeg still had its own malting floor, but take their heavily peated malt from the Port Ellen maltings. Jim Murray, in his Complete Guide to Whisky, described Ardbeg as the greatest distillery to be found on Earth. This was high praise indeed, given that the distillery was mothballed for most of the 1980's until Glenmorangie took control in 1997 and secured its future. The transformation from neglect to a homely and handsome distillery with a fine restaurant has been heartening to watch. Their first new release, an unchillfiltered 10 year old, has proved to be a huge success."
This is their 10 Year Old and a fine whisky it is. Before you open it up with a few drops of water, there is initially big smoke and peat wafting up to the nose, rich and delicately balanced. With a bit of opening, some caramel floats through. Now I am not blessed with a talented nose so I probably miss a lot of the subtler notes, but it presents itself deliciously. The appearance is deceiving, it is a weak, watery-looking whisky, like a very pale citrine. Judging by looks alone, you might be tempted to think the flavour might likewise be insipid. There you would be wrong. It is wonderful, rich and sweet. It lingers sensuously on the tongue and has beautiful smooth finish. Altogether a very delicious and satisfying single malt that would be welcomed by any aficionado


Rating 8/10

I'm Not Dreaming It's a White Christmas

So here we are on Christmas Day, heading for two feet of snow in our yard. We had an amazing dump of snow where it snowed about one inch per hour for about a day and a half. Big piles of light fluffy snow just kept falling until we were beyond enchanted and all the way to fed up! There was snow fort making and sledding and general messing around but it did get tiresome. Speaking of tires, many people in this city do not understand that when you have two feet of snow on the hilly side streets, your Japanese compact front-wheel drive car will get stuck - guaranteed. Cars were abandoned every where, including in the middle of intersections - I kid you not! Not my trusty truck though. No one was laughing at my SUV this week.

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I must say that I prefer it when our yard looks like this.