Lets Talk: Adopt don’t Shop

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I love animals of all shapes & sizes but when my spouse & I were looking at adding a new fur baby to our family he desperately wanted a German Shepherd and had a list of breeders his family had bought dogs from. He was all for buying from a breeder for many of the reasons listed on this website.

• A pedigree of three generations or more
  • pedigree doesn’t mean a dog is good quality
• Titled Champions within the first two generations listed (parents or grandparents)
  • Really?!?! This isn’t a show dog it’s a pet
• OFA certified hips and elbows (a score of “Good” or “Excellent” on both parents)
  • Not all health certificates are accurate and many factors beyond heritage can affect joints.
• Eyes have been CERFed and free of genetic abnormalities
  • All dogs get vet checked & try to make sure there are no genetic issues but they can and still happen
• A guarantee that your dog is free from inheritable diseases and conditions, with replacement (not exchange) or refund terms, should something happen.
  • Who “replaces” their dog for getting ill it’s a part of life

• Right of first refusal should you need to relinquish the dog for any reason
  • The shelter will take a dog back as well
• Care and grooming information
  • Google (enough said)
• A good, even temperament, usually well-matched to the family/home he is being placed into
  • individual dogs vary, and personality can be hard to determine at a young age)

We looked for several months waiting for a German Shepard puppy to be available at a local shelter. Adopting was cheaper, we still met her mom and we know that her temperament and personality has a lot more to do with how we raise her then who her parents are. She may have health issues at some point in her life but who doesn’t we will love her no matter what. Isn’t that the point of getting a pet to be able to love and care for them unconditionally. Why intentionally contribute to the number of animals in the world when there are so many waiting to find homes. It was a long wait but so worth it, we pick her up tonight and I will update with pictures of our new fur baby.

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Lets Talk: Tiny Houses

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If you’ve watched HGTV in the last couple years you will have noticed the major boom in people looking for or building tiny houses. Both younger people looking for their first home or even families looking to downsize so they can do more of what they love. I started my own tiny house journey back in September. I had been looking for an apartment for a while but hated the idea of spending 800-1000 dollars a month on rent and live with a roommate. When I could be saving up for a down payment on a house and invest in something.

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So I scoured for the perfect vintage travel trailer I could gut and make into a custom tiny house that I could later use for camping or a guest house when I moved on to a bigger home. Finally in October I found “THE ONE” … a 1970’s 36ft Safari Travel Trailer. It was well maintained, had a updated plumbing system and plenty of closet space. I drove to Taylors Falls paid the man $1200 and drove away with my new home on wheels. Thankfully my parents have a large home with a spot that was poured by the previous owners for their RV. So I had my home and a place to park it with electric, water & sewer hook ups. I then started the gutting process. I brought the old couch and dining set to a vintage shop for a store credit of $25, not much but hey I didn’t want it. I ripped out the old shag carpet, the bed frame, ripped the front shelf doors off, and removed the back bunk leaving another shelf. Once demolition was done I re-insulated the walls and moved onto paint. I naively bought 3 gallons thinking, my home is small how much could I need… But I was covering old 70’s wood panelling & orange cabinet doors. I painted coat after coat after coat. When all was said and done I had 5 gallons of high coverage paint used in a 290 sq. ft house, then I began laying the peel & stick laminate flooring over the newly cleaned and sealed subfloor and covered the yellowing plastic cabinet inserts with a faux marble contact paper. Once I was done with the basics,  I started making the space better fit my needs, I moved some of the plumbing and tanks to allow more storage space, I installed 2 cabinets and a counter I purchased from IKEA. I moved in my couch, entertainment system and huge TV, then my bed frame and mattresses. finished decorating and moved in. It’s my first home and I can resell it for way more then I have put in to it or keep it for camping or as a guest space.

Lets Talk: Self Care

Everyone in our class is or has been a college student, the majority if not all juggle jobs, home life, social time and of course school. Yet rarely do we stop to give ourselves the much needed TLC that we so desperately need. My anthropology professor at NDSU told us the first day of class “You all have a little bot of ‘I want to save the world’ in you, that’s why your here in college. I want you to know that it’s okay if you only save one person, and it’s okay if that person is you.” He had heard it from another colleague. It was a helpful reminder to take care of myself once in a while.

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Self-care can come in a number of forms but the point is to take some time wether it’s 5 minutes or several hours to focus on something you love that brings you joy. This Ted talk discuss the importance of self-care.  I like to take a bath with bath bomb and a cold glass of mascato while listening to a podcast of “The Splendid Table”.  But truthfully it only happens once a month if I am lucky. However there are tons of little things you or I could do for self-care.

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• Listen to a song you love
• Play with a furry friend
• Take 3 deep meaningful breaths
• Watch a funny movie
• Write down 3 things your grateful for
• Eat a something you enjoy
• Read a magazine
• Play a video game
• Visit a coffee shop
• Have a social media free day
• Put on fresh comfy clothes

Remember you can’t take care of others if you don’t take care of yourself…

Lets Talk About: Microtransactions

Some of you may have heard the news about the new Star Wars Battlefront II game that was released today. If you haven’t let me catch you up… so early this week EA (The company that created the game) announced that on top of the cost to buy the game ($60-$80) you would have to spend thousands more to unlock the primary character (Think Luke & Darth Vader) or decent weapons. They then took to Reddit in order to defend and try to promote the game. In response to the outrage the EA community Team responded…

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It quickly became the most down voted comment in Reddit history. EA started back tracking after that. First they said they would discount the characters by 75%. But the backlash was still strong. The cost or time associated was calculated… “There is a grand total of 324 cards. Upgrading these will require a total of 155,520 crafting parts,” according to Soeren Kamper of fan site SWTOR Strategies. “This requires opening a grand total of 3,111 loot crates which will require 4,528 hours of gameplay.” Thats 189 days of straight game play. If you wanted to make that more reasonable you would have to pay $2,100, to buy enough crystals to get the loot crates. Even then every loot crate is a gamble with no guarantee you will get the character or items you want. As a gamer with a life and job I’m pretty ticked… in order to have the full experience of the game I would have to trade life & limb and even then there is no guarantee.   Games are meant to be a fun escape and bring amusement. However the increasing number of micro-transactions being placed in games of all kinds is making gaming a expensive form of entertainment.

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Even the simple games on my phone require micro transactions unless you want to spend 3 days in order to place a single bush in a tiger enclosure.  Micro-transactions need to be used in moderation and the time required to “unlock” a game should never exceed 1000 hours of game play.

 

Lets Talk: Black Gold

 

Composting is a way to break down unused food and paper into a nutrient rich soil additive. It’s also known as black gold.

There are lots of reasons to compost;

1. Composting turns what would have been added to a landfills into valuable nutrients.
2. Composting builds soil; we lose roughly 3 tons each year.
3. Creates healthy plants with diverse “life” in soil.
4. Composte helps eliminate the need for chemicals because it helps feed plants like synthetic fertilizer does.
5. Composting helps divert waste from landfills
6. Composting saves money on garbage removal in both homes & businesses.
7. Composting helps conserve water and maintain water retention
8. Compost yields nutrient rich food, its found to have a higher nutritional content then food grown in industrial soil.
9. Composting is simple enough to do at home or can be brought to a city based composting site.

The city of Saint Paul has developed a organics recycling program.

They will take:

• All food scraps including vegetables, fruits, meats (including fats, oils and grease), poultry, fish, bones, grains, dairy, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags etc.
• Non-recyclable paper including greasy pizza boxes, paper towels, tissues, wrapping paper, dirty paper bags, etc.
• Compostable cups, plates, utensils, bags etc. Check that it has the “Compostable” logo from the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) on the item or packaging to ensure it is compostable.

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You can even pick up free compostable bags at one of six yard waste sites and bring them back full of your unused or rotting food and paper. You can even bring your yard waste at the same time. Then pick up some of that black gold for your own garden.How could you not compost when there are so many benefits and it’s already set up by both Saint Paul & Minneapolis? Do yourself and the earth a favor and compost!

Lets Talk About: Minimalist Living

My brother has a pair of jeans he bought in high school he is now 37 and they are still his favorite pair of jeans. They have a hole or two that has been mended and they are beginning to fade but they still look great and have lots of life left. But when I look in my dresser I don’t have a single pair of jeans I have had for more then a year. I never out grow them, heck I haven’t grown since 6th grade yet my wardrobe is basically disposable, I keep buying new rather then use what I already own.

We spend the majority of their lives being told that in order to be successful & happy you needed to fill your life and home with as many things as possible. The bigger & more expensive the better, even if it is beyond your means. We are taught to be consumers; to buy into the latest fad & purchase the newest technology the day it is released. A large home filled with tech and things is a status symbol. We begin spending our time & energy on things rather then on the people and activities we love. The bigger the home the more time you spend cleaning. The more clothes someone owns the longer it takes to pick a outfit and get out the door.  We often buy things and rarely or never use them. If I found a great deal on something I had a difficult time not purchasing it.

This life filled with things that weren’t contributing to my happiness encouraged me to begin living a more minimal life. I began focusing on how to live more minimally and surround myself with things that had a purpose and/or brought me joy. Once I began doing that I had so much more time to spend on the people and activities I enjoy. Living minimally has so many additional benefits it’s a life hack of it’s own…

#Blog1 #Minimalist #Joy&Purpose #Fulfilling #MomentsNotThings

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