What the Heck is Zazzle?

In spite of Zazzle's growing popularity, there are still folks out there who ask me what it is. I thought I'd explain it a bit.

Sleeping Bulldog Tote Bag by SpotsDogHouse
See more Bulldog Bags

• Zazzle is a print on demand company. It's main appeal is that you can order as few as one item. Most printing places have a minimum of dozens of a particular design.
• You can design your own product or you can buy one that is already designed for you. You can even customize many ready-made designs.
• The ready-made products are designed by people like me who group them together in a virtual store. When someone buys a product with my design, I get a royalty. It may be only pennies or a dollar or two but it adds up.
• Zazzle offers more than just tee shirts and coffee mugs. There are pendants, trophies, stationary, cell phone cases, mouse pads, jewelry, electronics, housewares, hats, belt buckles and more items than I can list. They come out with new items all the time.
• From a few items I've seen they are high quality products. You can read the reviews to get an idea of what others thought.
• Zazzle products make great gifts. You can even get awards for your club or activity.

Take a look at my stores at
Ragtimelil       
SpotsDogHouse
RagtimelilsMugs         
RagtimeStudio

The Campaign for Land

There's Texas and Then There's Texas

I've been thinking a lot the past couple of days about West Texas. I've never been there except to drive through. I've never really wanted to live in a desert. The thought of not having water always seemed like an insurmountable obstacle. But I found an article about a guy who is doing just that. He's totally off the grid and stores water from the infrequent rains. (to the tune of nine storage tanks.)
It seems that land is still pretty cheap there. All I'd need is 2 or 3 thousand dollars. How I'm going to get that, I have no idea but it almost seems doable.
In the meantime, I can be working on my solar system. No, not THAT solar system. The one that gives me lights, fan and a computer.
I have been reluctant to leave the dogs in the camper in the summer. If the power ever goes off (and it has - for no apparent reason) the dogs would die from the heat. It would be like leaving them in a car in the sun. It finally dawned on me that I could start working on my solar power by getting a deep cycle battery and powering either a 12V fan (expensive for a good one) or getting a (cheaper option) converter to run one of the fans I already have. I don't know if that would be enough, but it would be worth a try. In any case, it would give me a source of light (and a fan) when the power does go off. For now, I could charge it from my AC power.
Now I just need cash for the battery and the converter. I already have a battery charger. So buy lots of stuff from my Zazzle store!

Naps

I've had a bad spell of no energy and too many naps. I also realized I'm feeling a bit shaky when I grocery shop in the morning. I have to go in the morning because it gets too hot to leave the dogs in the camper later in the day. If the power ever went off, it would be like leaving them in a parked car in the sun.
Anyway, I thought it might be my blood sugar. I've had low blood sugar for many years but it seems to be affecting me more as I get older. I started paying more attention and eating a meal or a snack every couple of hours. I was amazed at how much energy I had the past couple of weeks.
Today, though, I was a bit shaky in the grocery store and when I got home, I simply had to lie down and take a nap. I slept really hard and I'm still trying to wake up. I had help with all the noise in the park. People are mowing the grass and weed-wacking and I can hear my neighbor's conversations. I really long for some peace and quiet.

Do I Love It?

Wow. I've actually been cleaning out here. I ask myself two questions - is it useful and/or do I love it. If it's no on both, out it goes.
And I'm doing the "throw one thing out a day" method. I run out of steam if I try to do it all in one day. Still, it's making progress. It's amazing what I hang onto thinking I might use it someday.

I can't stand it anymore. I've decided it's time to rent a full storage space.
The one's at the park are actually boat storage with dirt floors. That makes them less than half the price of other "climate controlled" units around here. I have been renting a half of one with my stuff on pallets. After the last rain, I was putting more stuff in and the mud was awful. I came out one inch of mud on my shoes.

A neighbor just put a floor in his unit. It really made a difference. I thought I'd put some plywood on some pallets and make a floor I could take with me.

I really need to clean out the trailer and have a place to do some work, even if it's only warping a small loom. I simply am too crowded to do anything but sit at the computer or lie down. It's making me nuts!

Step One for Homesteading

I can find tons of info on how to build a house out of just about anything for cheap, how to build solar systems, how to build, well, you name it. What I can't find, is how to get the land to build on! Somehow, I have to get enough money to buy land.

Seems there are two choices - save money from what I have - which is precious little. Or make money - which is coming very slowly. Or the third option would be to win the lottery. Ok, two options.

I am working on increasing my income from my online work. Writing didn't work out for me, but Zazzle hasn't been doing too badly. I do need to put more time in and slow down on the family history stuff.

Another option would be to convert my old camper into solar electric. My electric bill is pretty low, but I could save the money and put it aside for land. Still at about $40 a month, that's $480 a year. It would take about 10 years to even get close to having enough. And that's after spending a lot of money on equipment. Of course it would be good to have on hand in case of emergency. So maybe that is step one.

I'd love to run out and buy the stuff I need, but that is beyond my means. So I will have to collect the stuff as I go. I need to experiment with low-cost systems until I feel ready to jump in with a bigger system. I just saw a tent cooler that ran off of a small rechargeable batter that looked like a battery for a fence charger. Wonder if that would work? If I can start with a small battery, I can charge it with the power from the camper. Or I could just buy a deep cycle battery from Walmart.

I'll have to do some research. All suggestions would be appreciated.