Lonely shoe reuse

What do you do with a bunch of single shoes? Connect with an amputee organization, that's what!

I stumbled across this post from 211 info and thought it was a cool and creative fix to what could have been a "waste" problem.

Earth home tour

Earth homes demonstrate a way to live in more harmony with the planet. Let's take a look at one:

Some of you that know me on a personal level know that I recently* went to Wisconsin for a week. My good friend and former Green Drinks partner, Laura, moved back to her home state about six months ago*.

sunlight shows through a banana leaf
in the solarium of
Ann and Wayne's home.

Awhile ago, we had been discussing her aunt and uncle and the fact that they had built an Earth Home. I've been fascinated with Earth Homes at least since I was in college. I don't remember how I first heard about them, but I do remember this crazy hippy book where someone had basically built themselves a shelter out of whatever they could find in the woods. I've read a ton about them since then but had never actually been inside one. I casually mentioned to Laura that I'd love to see their place if it wasn't too far. It was luckily only about 1/2 an hour from where we were and her Aunt (Ann) and Uncle (Wayne) were gracious enough to let us wander around and take photos of their home.

I took lots of photos, but a few came out blurry and I also somehow neglected to take a photo of what the whole house looks like from outside. (How could I have missed such an important shot? Well, my only defense is that I was so excited about touring my first Earth home, I just plain forgot!) Originally, I was going to post a bunch of shots in this post, but I think it makes more sense to just link you to the web album and let you enjoy the photos at your own pace.

I want to say a very special Thank You to Ann and Wayne. They are such sweet and gracious people. This was one of the highlights of my trip!

Enjoy the tour! If you want a full travelog of our trip, scroll to the very end*.


*Sometimes I suck as a writer. I get an idea in my head of how I want a post to go and then the post ultimately suffers for it, because it never gets published. (Perfectionism, much?) I'm sure this is true of all writers, but I sincerely wish it hadn't happened to this post. I wrote this post I think almost a year ago (sheesh!!!) and am finally posting it today... I had wanted to get it "just right" but ended up just never posting it, period. Shame on me. At least you can now enjoy the photos. Also, the travelog was something I had intended to post as well, but that got dropped half way through the trip (was having too much fun) and it has a bunch of missing data. Anyway, I had a great time in WI-Laura went way out of her way to pack a ton of fun into my trip and I'm happy to say I get to go back at the end of this month to see her again.