How to Shed Stuff (Part 2)

(See Part 1 for benefits of de-accessioning)

Part 2:  Action Plan for de-accessioning:

This article is for people who find it difficult to organize or get rid of accumulated items.  It includes helpful hints for how to get started.  

Note:  As you get started, you CAN postpone decisions on any items.  But as you take action, you:
a) will free up space for other things/activities you value more
b) may make money from items other people will pay for
c) may make people happy to whom you give or sell items you don't use or value
d) may shed old prescriptions and foods that are no longer healthy

e) will give you a reality check about actual market value for items you have assumed had value.
f) may save money by discovering you have 18 of this or 10 of that item you forgot about.

(If you want to start with shedding large furniture, scroll to the bottom of this article)

 Pick a limited time frame and space

Make it easy on yourself by designating a short time and focus, like one hour. Do NOT start with emotion-rich objects or rooms. Pick something unemotional like your bathroom cabinets. Throw out old prescriptions and cosmetics you don’t wear.  Mark the expiration dates for current medicines in big, dark writing ( a Sharpie or Magic Marker) so you won’t over-purchase in the future. Consolidate multiple bottles of the same mouthwash or cleaning supplies. Cut up and store those frayed towels for excellent rags.   Suddenly you realize that you need only 5 shelves instead of  8 and that you had a lot more of “X” than you thought, buried in the back.  You will save money and free up space for what you need and want. 

For small items, (which is where many people start, like clothes, CDs, book cases, or desk drawers), have three, sturdy, good size boxes, a marker, tape, a garbage bag or box, and a dust rag or two.

Label each box as follows:  Box 1:  Keep.  Box 2:  Donate (or sell or recycle).   Box 3:  Postpone decision making.   

The garbage bag or garbage box is not only for trash but for anything broken (because if you haven’t fixed it by now, you won’t). 

Review each item. Toss it in a box.  Review next item; toss it in a box. Even "postpone decision" means that you touch and move something out of the drawer or closet. How hard is that? Even if you put everything back, you'll clean the bottom surface and reorganize the contents more usefully.  You may make room for stuff you value more than the dead pens, batteries, bugs, light bulbs mismatched socks, and outdated electrical devices.

This process will reveal multiples of items you bought to replace items you could not find, like umbrellas and sun screen. Does that potpourri have any scent left? If not, toss it.  Soap shards?  Out.  When you are close to the end of your time allocation, start to clean up.  Toss the garbage bag. Move the Donate Box to your car or next to the back door.  Clean the drawer or shelf or floor space with a rag.   Either restock that space or just tuck away the “Keep” and “Postpone” boxes for another time.  Good job!  Now you have more space for what you currently value and can more easily find the things you want to use.  

Make it fun: 

The delightful Mary Poppins movie had a song about “every job has an element of fun.”  If this connection eludes you, create one.  Associate a special treat with the task.  For example, I found that cleaning and organizing crowded walk-in closets was particularly boring.  So that was the only time that I carried my computer into the closet to play old Perry Mason episodes.  By association, if I wanted to watch another, I needed to DO ANOTHER CLOSET!  I found that an hour long show was a good period for me in a stultifying environment, but I would work 2 hours in a pleasant.  Figure out what works for you.  Another friend does her deep cleaning to a favorite radio show once a week.  Maybe you have a friend or relative who routinely calls to monologue.  Plan a task for that next call. Put him or her on speaker phone while you put those old phone books in a recycle box or gather together those dry, hard paint cans; or put all those piles of pennies and nickels and dimes into a jar.   By the time he/she winds up her call with the inevitable, “Next time we’ll have to catch up about you,” you will have accomplished something for yourself (as well as being the designated listener to your self-absorbed friend or relative). 

Reorganize: 

An alternative to the three box approach above is simply to reorganize (and perhaps label) items.  I do this every time I visit my parents.  For example, my mother had 66 pairs of shoes still in boxes.  I organized them by color, style, and preference.  I reorganize bookshelves so she can find the books she likes most.  I put all her loose recipes into a neat file. 

My husband had clothes (that his mother bought him) that I had never seen him wear. EVER.  Rather than force decision making, I simply segregated those small, dated, and dusty items on one side of the closet, away from the clothes he favored.  By doing so, his favorites were no longer hidden by clothes he did not like.  Within a week, he tossed a sizeable pile in a handy box labeled “donate,” which I then whisked off to the Salvation Army.  His  action freed up space for the clothes he valued.  With the extra room, they were no longer wrinkled!  

Invite a friend:

If you are going to ask a friend to help you do this, order a pizza or plan to take him/her out to lunch. Let's face it.  Organizing other people's stuff is so daunting (or boring) that there are professionals that do this - before or after the funeral, who are paid by the hour.  If you find a friend to help, you will see that your attachments to all that crapola are in your head and not intrinsic to many of the things cluttering up your home.  A friend (or paid professional) won’t be emotionally involved with this old purse or that dusty kitchen appliance. Maybe paying someone is a motivational.  At $xxx per hour, how much time do you want to spend reminiscing about those old sneakers?

Besides, additional make faster work (as long as you can avoid telling a story about each item!).  When I help friends, they are in charge of allocating items to respective “keep, donate, or postpone” boxes.  I hand down the items on a top shelf or open a neglected box and put it at eye level.  There’s nothing like waving an old attaché case in the air to force a decision.  I also make sure that we have pertinent boxes, bubble wrap or whatever at the beginning of the task so that the friend (who has engaged me because of difficulty making decisions in this regard, obviously) doesn’t wander off and get distracted from a task they have successfully avoided for years.    

Have a Swapping Bee Party: 

My sisters and I used to trade Christmas gifts.  Similarly, as an adult, I had a fun, regifting party.   I invited friends to come for a cocktail party and bring smallish items in good condition that they would be happy to give away to other friends attending.  We all laid out small things, like table games, jewelry, scarves, paperback books, coffee cups, unused cosmetics, travel umbrellas, etc.  Anyone was welcome to anything.  This “swapping bee” was much more fun than dropping things off at Goodwill.  It was nice to hear someone say, “my grand-daughter will love this!”  or “this is really nice, Laura; are you sure you won’t wear it again?” 

Rearrange:
My general impression (isn't this yours) is that most people’s homes are over-crowded due, to accumulation and lack of selectivity.  By looking at your furniture with an eye to how you use your space, you may find ways to better use what you have and (get rid of the extras). 

When professionals "stage" a house for sale, they routinely remove 1/3 of everything from closets, and about 1/3 of the furniture in a room.  This not only makes the space seem more inviting/useful, but bigger, too.  

Be vigilant about purging the array of collectibles crowding every horizontal surface including kitchen and bathroom counters, tables and mantle pieces.   Let's say that you love your knick knacks and memorabilia.  Start by putting one third of them in a box for seasonal trade outs (just like you would with holiday decorations).  Can many of your framed or loose photos be consolidated in an album instead?  Now rearrange the best of the rest.  Might the four prettiest candlesticks be more eye catching than the dusty baker’s dozen? Can you store additional items neatly by rearranging your bookcases, closets, or shelves. Yes.  I guarantee that you can.

Think about how you can re-purpose pieces you currently own in different ways for the life you want to lead.  For example, if you plan to move to a smaller home or want to free up space in your current one, consider trades.  Maybe that big sideboard can be replaced by the narrow console table behind your couch.  A slim quilt rack can display the quilts currently stored in a huge storage chest.  If more than two people never sit together on your 9 foot couch, would love seats and chairs suit that space better?  Perhaps you keep your favorite reading chair but nix the enormous ottoman. If your dining room table takes up a lot of room, consider pushing it against a wall, with chairs along the other two or three sides.   
Maybe you need to position chairs of comparable height to encourage conversation.   

Here is an example of how furniture shiftin can enhance one's life:  Two extroverted friends/relatives (one a man and one a woman)  had been unable, despite their stated desires, to sustain any romances.  As soon as I visited both homes, I understood why. Their homes were dusty museums to collections/hobbies. Both dining room tables were so covered with stuff that no one could eat there.  In fact, there wasn't a single horizontal surface inviting two (or more) people to sit, talk, put down a drink, or reach for a canape.  When I moved items in order to put a coaster for a cup of coffee, one person became anxious. Both homes spelled out, "I am more interested in my things than I am in people, even when I have invited you here."  And yet, those prized items were languishing in dust. Those two will never have an intimate relationship - at least at their homes.  

Charities:  
To donate large furniture, appliances and multiple boxes:

Some donation shops are open on Sundays.  Others will pick up furniture and working appliances from your home by appointment or schedule.  (Fewer take mattresses, but I found one that did).  Check websites and then call to find out their schedule.  For example, one service provider trolled my neighborhood two days of the week, but was committed for the next two weeks.  With that deadline in mind, I stripped the extra bed and piled it with increasing numbers of donation boxes.   Note:  the workmen lacked the logical tools for dismantling the bed frame.  Have your tool box handy.  Foster care, women’s centers, and immigrant service charities often welcome household items.     

Family/sentimental attachments: 

The hardest items for me to address in my own downsizing were family heirlooms, photos, and memorabilia.  I carted them with me for several moves until I finally parted with them.  Many parents hold on to their children’s school stuff with the intention of passing them along to Junior one day.  Why not now?   If you haven’t framed that artwork for daily viewing, if the items are languishing in a saggy, cobwebbed cardboard box in the garage or basement, repack them and send them off to the intended recipients.  I divided pictures, cards, trophies, and school items of my sons into two boxes, and shipped them off.  In many families, one person is the keeper of genealogy documents.   That was my husband.  Before we moved, I had my son scan scores of photos, contracts, resumes, graduation cards onto the computer.  Then we sent the boxes of originals to particular relatives and the CDs of images to others.  Done.

If you plan to give to relatives a sentimentally valuable collection of yellowed doilies or that nicked oak table from the family farm, have you asked whether they even want them?  For example, neither of my sons wanted any of my china.  So I sold one set and donated another.  If they do want items that you aren’t using, why wait?  Send them on.  Every relative HATES going through a dead relative’s home to ready it for sale.  By controlling the process yourself, you may benefit, but you will also be doing your heirs a favor.  Otherwise, your indecisiveness about your own accumulation stuff makes work, not pleasure, for relatives after you go to the great beyond… without your doilies, which will likely end up at a Goodwill store not in a relative's living room.  

When we downsized to our cabin in Alaska,  I did not feel it was my place to sell family and inherited art, china, and silver.  So I picked family members whose lifestyle and space seemed best suited to those items.  First I sent digital photos so they could assess interest. Then I shipped them off.  Depending on the size and insurance, this can be expensive, so plan ahead.  In some cases, the recipients value them as much as I did.  In other cases, the items were no longer visible last time I visited.  Out of my hands.  

Make money?  Maybe: 

To get an idea of market pricing, look up items on www.craigslist.com  and www.ebay.com ,  or visit consignment stores or auction company websites.  The fact that you paid $xx for it 40 years ago may not be indicative of current trends and styles. That Japanese WWII gun is selling for $129.  That bulbous 1960’s lamp is offered for $60.  That expensive armoire and charming Hoosier cabinet are not “in” anymore.  By assessing the interest of both relatives and the market, you can then decide to keep, sell, or donate the items.  I constantly hear collectors and hoarders say, “it will be valuable one day.”  A real collector finds out.  A hoarder does not. Surely anything you don’t use at all– like the furniture relegated to the basement, the third dresser crammed in the guest room, or any neglected, bulky kitchen appliances like pasta makers, bread makers, juice squeezers, can be moved along for sale or donation without much emotional turmoil.   Use them or shed them.  Do you have some art work piled on the floor or leaning against a wall in a closet?  Hang it up.  Or kiss it goodbye.   Enjoy what you have accumulated, but why pay for a larger home or a storeroom to warehouse items you don’t even look at, much less use?  Gain space or maybe even money to put toward something you DO value.  I have a friend who "can't afford to travel." Does paying for a storage unit for 20 years have any bearing on that?   

Useful websites: 

Craig’s List (www.craigslist.com) is most suitable for low priced, quick, local sales (the listings are only posted for seven days at a time).  The site makes it very easy to post offers, and it is free.  I recommend this website for items you would otherwise donate to charities, but where you would consider yourself “ahead” if you could reap even a low price in exchange for a buyer who picks it up and carts it off.  I sold big bulky dining and living room furniture on Craig’s List to young couples.  They were excited and so was I!  My father-in-law sold a toboggan that had been left in the attic by prior owners 20 years before.  That’s found money!  On E-Bay (www.ebay.com ), we sold most of a set of collectible seasonal china and some other decoratives, but few practical items.  Note:  for remote E-Bay sales, you will have to pay to pack and ship, which, in our experience, cost more than the E-bay suggested price, so you might “test the water” with a few items first in order to set an appropriate price. 

Websites have also popped up for donating items.  One is www.freecycle.com  – items are free for people who pick them up, like firewood, pets, or washing machines.  Another is www.yurtle.com , on which you can create circles of acquaintances who can trade things for free.   This is appealing if you don’t want to deal with strangers.

Conclusion:

Much of our accumulated stuff really represents indecisiveness and benign neglect.  By assessing what you have, you can selectively choose what you like best, what means the most to you, and can shed items that are “no longer you.”  I hope these helpful hints make the process easier for you to address on your own time table.  Maybe you’ll make a bit of money.  Maybe you’ll make somebody else happy.  Maybe you’ll just clear out some space for whatever you plan to do next.  You will feel effective.  Good luck!

Why to Shed Stuff (Benefits) (Part 1)

Part 1 (of 2):  Benefits of De-accessioning

For many people, downsizing, de-accessioning, and letting go  is emotionally difficult.  I think this has far less to do with discarding old clothes and far more to do with emotionally wrenching reasons that often prompt the work,   such as the death of a loved one, divorce,  ill health, loss of a job or income, or even “empty nest” syndrome.  Psychologists and doctors recommend NOT making major decisions at such times because it is so stressful (and because the resulting choices may be ill advised or regretted), but unfortunately, it is often those crises that REQUIRE rapid decision making by people who haven’t de-accessioned beforehand. 

When NOT coupled with such wrenching associations, shedding stuff can be liberating and energizing,  You may make money, free up time/money/space for activities you value, or discover that you can comfortably live within far fewer (and cheaper) square feet.

If you find the prospect of purging all those overstuffed rooms and closets daunting, this two part article can help.    

I'm Proud of My Outhouse

I surely have one of the nicest, most women-friendly outhouses in Alaska.

For one thing, it has a door.  A surprising number of such structures lack this feature.  I don’t know if the reason is to increase circulation in order to reduce spiders and flies, or to provide a clear view of a bear approaching at one’s most vulnerable moment, but I insisted on a door.  So, for ventilation, I have two high, screened windows, and additional  vents under the eaves. 

An additional plus is that it is painted.  Most aren’t.  To increase the light load, I painted the interior a cheery, shiny, butter yellow.

Women invariably comment on the décor.  My outhouse lacks magazine pictures of cars, naked women, and animal carcasses tacked to the walls.  Instead, I commissioned two stained glass pieces (of Alaska flowers) from a talented friend to hang within the window frames.  They cast rainbows on the reflective walls. 

Whereas some outhouses just have a hole cut in an increasingly splinter ready plywood bench,  I demanded a real, wooden seat.   You don’t use that in the winter, of course – the wood conducts the cold.  This year, for example, the hoar frost on the inside of the lid didn’t melt until March.  Rather, during the cold season, we keep the seat pitched up in order to sit on a ring of polystyrene, which, by virtue of the air holes, feels, if not warm, at least temperature neutral.

The building includes no magazine racks or funny books.  Let's face it: the building is unheated and uninsulated, so visits tend to be quick and business-like.

Nor does it include potpourri.  Although, come to think of it, I do keep a smoker in there in the summer (to deter black flies).  I wonder if sandalwood would work just as well...

The final advantage is its size.  Compared to some elbow clinging claustrophobic versions I've had to visit, mine is a roomy 4 x 8 with a high ceiling.  It is big enough to accommodate shelves for relevant items, including a jug of water and tin cup in the summer, a cast iron hook shaped like a leaf to hang one’s mittens, and a bin of firewood ash for occasional cupfuls down the hole.

Some people are proud of their cars or their jewelry.  Since I have neither here, I’m pretty darn proud of my outhouse.

        

A Woman's First Ice Fishing Outings

Until I moved to Alaska, the only thing I knew about ice fishing was a scene in the movie, “Grumpy Old Men.” I never thought I would do it. Who would? It seemed like the sort of thing women made their husbands do to get them out of the house on long winter days. Vendors are complicit by selling all sorts of paraphernalia so men would feel that squatting on a frozen lake is more desirable than sitting by the fire in a warm and cozy home.

But now, I have not only been ice fishing (a grand total of two times), but I actually enjoyed it and look forward to going again (as long as ithe weather is sunny and still).

The first time, I went with a group of ladies I've met by virtue of their annual women-only weekend at a cabin in the vicinity. They had mentioned this invitation before and I had hoped it would come to pass, so when I saw them whiz past my property toward their lodging the night before, I gathered together three layers of socks, two layers of pants, three layers of tops, gloves with liners, and a cap I could wear under my snow machine helmet.

The next day, at noon, I heard them snow machining across the lake and toward my cabin so I scurried into my clothes and followed them in my snow machine. Our destination was not far, as the crow flies, but we took a 45 minute route shaped like a giant “U” in order to stay on flat trails rather than hazard crossing a creek with steep sides and boulders perched in the middle of the frozen stream. We arrived at a hammer shaped lake that I never would have found otherwise. Despite no marked trail, three men and a woman were already set up, monitoring several holes. They watched as we four women unloaded a trailer of supplies.

Easter: What Did Early Christians Believe?

(It may not be what you think or believe today).

Easter is the high holy day of Christianity and deservedly so.  It defines the relationship between humanity and the divine, life and death, sin and redemption in a complicated faith story.  Believers hold that God sacrificed his only Son, to take away the sins of the world, as the ultimate scapegoat, who then ascended to heaven in his human form.  By doing so, he enabled humans to follow, and participate in everlasting life.

 Naturally, other religions don’t share this view, and, more to the point, are puzzled by it.  Maybe you are, too. Monotheists, like Jews and Muslims, see a vast, impassable chasm between God and humanity.  God is other.  The combination of man and God in one being is incomprehensible.  

Polytheistic traditions, however, are very familiar with gods popping down to earth in human form, procreating, fighting, blessing, miracle making.  Think of Zeus fathering most of the heroes, like Perseus, Theseus, and Heracles, by young virgins, like Alcmene and Danae. They don’t see anything particularly unusual about these trips back and forth between heaven and earth, or of Jesus being both god and man. 

 What may interest you, and you have surely inferred this from the readings of the Canonical and non-Canonical Gospels and the title of today’s service, is that for hundreds of years, people who considered themselves Christians didn’t believe the Easter story as we currently know it, either.  The range of interpretations of Jesus’s death and resurrection stories encompasses the full range of monotheistic and polytheistic views – not unlike the range of beliefs represented by Unitarian Universalists in this or any congregation. 

A Detective Story... What Happened to Jesus's Body?

Pretend that you are a detective.  Pick your favorite: Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, Miss Marple.  Think about how they think; how they gather and sift information.  Now plunk that person down in a year around 30 CE.  

Now imagine that grieving family and friends of Jesus appeal to you with the startling news that his newly dead body, that of a convict, executed by the Romans - is missing from its tomb.  They want your help in figuring out what happened.  What questions will you ask?  What conclusions will you draw from what you do hear and what you don't hear, from the consistencies and the discrepancies of your sources and the evidence? Bear in mind, that as a contemporary witness, you know nothing about the later theologies of the Resurrection or the Trinity.  You just know that an itinerant Jewish teacher, seen by some authorities as a rabble-rouser, was arrested and rapidly condemned to a particularly ignominious death, and now his family and friends say his body is missing.  Hmmmmm!

Now, fast forward 2000 years.  You are still a detective, but this time, a sociological, religious detective.  You sift through the early Christian documents (the canonical gospels and the apocryphal ones and various letters that were circulating then as well), and Jewish documents and political ones.  These writers had choices about what to include and what to leave out.  What do you notice about the choices that the writers made?  What conclusions do you draw about the documents, the writers, and the believers? 

We will play both of these roles, first as contemporary detective and then as literary/historical detective. We will look at many of the same passages, first in one light and then in the other.  What do you conclude?  What questions remain?  Do they matter to you?  

Winter Treks 42 miles to a town from our cabin

Like Little Red Riding Hood, our winter commute is along serpentine trails through the woods, over ridges and down frozen river beds. Depending on the distance, we travel by snow machine (snowmobile), cross country skis, or snow shoes.  When we are going slowly, I notice tracks of animals that are fox and coyote size and larger. We descend down shallow access points to river basins along with many moose tracks, since they like that gentle trajectory, too. In fact, the hard snow machine trails are pockmarked by the moose's deep tread, since walking on the hard surface is easier for them than wallowing in the soft snow or the thin ice. At this time of year, at least, there is a reciprocating benefit of man to beast.

I enjoy walking and snow machining through the woods more than across the open flats of frozen bogs, lakes or meadows but there is beauty and function in each. The heavily treed areas shield us from the north wind which can be an unwelcome force, and it is rather fun to dip and rise and twist and turn through a pillowy soft winter wonderland. In the open flats, one can see the moutains beyond the trees.  The close ones guide me home by their familiar faces as I wind around them.  The tall, remote ones are treats to see so clearly in the winter air.  They look closer, due to their height above 15,000 feet. The stronger wind is not only cold, but it stirs up the snow, interfering with good visibility, which can be a hazard on a remote trail shared by ornery creatures with five foot legs and a four month hunger. On the other hand, one can drive ten or twenty miles faster per hour along the flats most of the time which is always a plus on a long commute, and it is the only viable route for heavy loads and long supplies, like pipes and boards. My husband often drives TO town (with an empty load) along a woodsy route that is 12 miles and an hour shorter, even at slower speeds. Returning home with a heavy load, he takes a flatter route which is longer. Empty, he can get home in 3.5 hours. A full load decreases speed, increases caution and duration, up to 5 hours. Sometimes, he has to dump a load to get up a hill.  

Small, nimble recreational snow machiners leave trails that are arbitrary, cris-crossing the landscape like fly casting patterns. But the ones we favor for our utilitarian purposes of hauling goods from town to the cabin are more permanent. The trails are marked by small, metal reflective quadrangles nailed into trees every once in a while. But since trees fall and die, the trail is supplemented in winter, with flagging tape tied to branches. Across treeless areas, wooden stakes are marked with flagging ribbons and reflective tape. Some parts of the trails, particularly along major rivers and within about two hours of a town, are maintained by snow machining and mushing clubs and by the nearest municipality or lodge as a regional recreational area. Other trails, particularly remote ones, are maintained by the local residents. In good visibility, well used trails are easy to see, but in flat light, snow storms or after a heavy snow, one can see only the upcoming vertical marker or tree square. As a back up precaution, my husband has recorded the two trails that connect at our cabin on a portable GPS unit that he carries with him. In our vicinity, at least, the driving protocol is to keep the stakes to our right when we are heading from our cabin to town, and keep the stakes to our left when we are returning. In this way, we will stay on the hard surface and not tip over into soft, unpacked snow.

Maintenance is a bit like building a seasonal road and then snow plowing it. As water surfaces like rivers, lakes, and bogs freeze, people need to first check how thick the ice is. Then one can travel across them for the first time in many months! Yea! Mobility! Bogs and still, shallow lakes freeze first, followed by deeper lakes and moving rivers. At this point, one can walk across those surfaces but they still need snow, for the eponymous snowmobile. Locals know where underwater springs are located, and often denote holes of open water with a tall pair of crossed sticks.

Once snow starts to accumulate, interested parties can break trails. This requires some repeat conditioning. One needs to pack down a path in the snow so it will harden and thicken to support more weight than the soft surface on either side. This generally requires two trips: a first one to pack down the soft snow, a lag of a day or two for that to freeze hard, and then a second trip to pack it down further. Some people groom trails after every appreciable snowfall. Others groom shortly before a race or outing or hauling trip. For remote people like us, a snow groomer is a useful attachment that trails behind the snow machine. This passive, fence-like contraption can chop off icy boulders, fill in the pits of moose footfalls, and smooth out dips that would otherwise feel like a washboard across straight aways or be a steep and treacherous impediment for a trailer full of cement blocks or for novice riders. Throughout the hauling season (February and March), my husband and I will often take a Sunday afternoon picnic to a spot an hour or so down the trail. With that timing, we follow any weekend hot doggers who may have eroded the smooth parts of the trail a day or so before my husband plans a weekday trek for heavy supplies. But another reason for these slower, shorter jaunts is the opportunity it gives my husband to enjoy a pretty stretch that otherwise just represents a blur at the beginning or end of long, exhausting days for him. After all, we live here partly for the sheer beauty of the place. It is important to notice it.

Last weekend we tried to combine both utility and pleasure in an outing. Armed with a picnic of tea and pumpkin bread, we drove on our two snow machines (plus a groomer on mine and a sled on his) about an hour to a river's edge. It is a pretty spot, but the reason we stopped there was because several days before, Bryan had been unable to ascend a steep, icy stretch from the river basin to the ridge with two pallet loads of supplies, each weighing about 750 lbs. We had to go retrieve one he had abandoned in the snow. He had gotten a “Man Up! Your machine can take all that weight” sort of speech from the delivery man. However, what we learned that day is that engine capacity is but one element of a successful haul. Another is the condition and angle of the worst segment of the trail. Stuck about one hour from town and two hours from home, afraid of burning out the motor, Bryan was unable to lever the top pallet load off the sled and dreaded cutting the packaging to unload each element one by one. What to do?

Fortuitously, two snow machiners happened along. Perhaps because they were good Samaritans or perhaps because Bryan's load was blocking the trail, they helped him push the top pallet off into the soft snow beside the trail, waited for him to retie the lower load, and helped nudge him up past the icy patch to an open meadow, at which point they were able to zoom around him.

On our return trip a few days later, we painstakingly unwrapped and re- loaded 6 cement blocks, 11 – 12 foot dock boards, two 8 foot wooden posts, 8 metal fence posts, and 6 - 32 quart bags of Miracle-Gro that lay in such soft snow that my feet sank to my knees and I had to pull myself up to the hardened path on one knee to pass materials to Bryan. Once loaded, we ratcheted down about 6 cables to hold everything snugly for a bumpy ride ahead. Alas, after all that work, we could not ascend the icy path even with only one pallet load this time. The big machine couldn't get any traction, and my smaller machine couldn't haul the larger plus the sled weight. Over the course of two hours, we unloaded first 1/3 of the weight, tried to leave, then 2/3 of the weight, tried again, and finally headed home with a mere 4 boards, weighing a grand total of about 100 lbs. At least we had two intact machines! But now what?

The third element of a successful haul is weather. We had to wait for the weather to change. Several days later, it snowed heavily for a night and day, covering the ice with about 7 inches of snow and adding some light texture, as well. My husband headed back, this time with a stronger companion than I, to finally bring everything home. Will all this effort be worth it? We'll know that when we start to build the fuel depot and dock extension, which is what the whole commute was for in the first place.

Why No Term Sheets... at all? or "They Just Aren't Into You"

Laura Emerson

laura@starlightcapital.com

March 24, 2013

Raising capital is hard, time consuming, expensive, and sometimes humbling. There are as many reasons that investors do not invest in companies as there are reasons why people who meet choose not to date. Sometimes “they just aren't into you.” On the other hand, if you have done your research and have found that indeed there are investors financing companies in your niche, just not you, it is WAY past time to assess whether you might be doing anything to sabotage your own game plan.

Below are five commonalities among companies that never get any term sheets at all. Do any pertain to you? Also, review the descriptions of unfunded (unfundable?) companies at the end of the article. Do any aspects sound uncomfortably familiar? If so, the most common problems are not difficult to address.

The five categories are: talking too much, talking to the wrong people, talking about the wrong things, a business plan with holes that indicate naivete or obfuscation, and inflated pre-money valuations. Do any of these sound familiar?

1. DO YOU WASTE TIME BY TALKING TOO MUCH?

Every entrepreneur I have ever met is as proud of his/her company as a new parent is of that wrinkly little baby. Both groups often make the mistake of being long winded, without first ascertaining the audience's degree of interest. Someone's polite inquiry at a networking event of “What do you do?” or “Tell me about your company” may welcome a 2 minute soundbite between drinks, not an uninterrupted oration.

Winter Morning Chores Around an Off-Grid Alaska Cabin

Among winter chores, the most important involves keeping warm.

We sleep under the world's fluffiest, warmest down comforter, which is actually too hot most of the year, but a warm bed, in a cool room is very cozy. Waking up in a cold house (mid-40s to mid 50s), however, is not so fun. The first thing we do is start the coffee that I have set up on the stove the night before, and then open the wood stove hoping that some red embers remain. If they do, we can start a fire without a match. To do so, I open the flu, and scrape the embers together. Then I form a sort of chimney shape of dry, friable birch bark and thin slips of kindling to funnel the embers' heat up along these surfaces, which catch and burn. If the embers have gone cold, we generally shovel them into a metal bucket we store in the snow outside and start afresh. (When the ashes are thoroughly chilled, we dump some down the outhouse hole and save the rest for summer gardening).  This slow and steady approach is difficult to do first thing in a cold and dark morning! Many a time my chilly fingers have overloaded the firebox too early and ended up with a smoky fire. Then I either have to wait until that clears or smoke up the cabin while rectifying the situation sooner.

After a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, or pancakes and sausage or bowls of oatmeal, my husband and I have different sets of outdoor chores for which we bundle up in bunny boots, padded Carharrt's overalls, and parkas. 

Routine chores include emptying the night's chamber pot in the outhouse, burning trash in the burn barrel (currently located in a snow hole about 3 feet below the level of snow we walk on), hauling birch logs from our enormous wood corral (we estimate 24,000 lbs of wood, about 8 cords), and collecting additional buckets of snow to melt on the wood stove for washing.


The first thing one of us does is to visit the rabbits with extra water and vegetable ends accumulated the prior day, and perhaps a cardboard toilet paper roll as a chew toy.  They particularly love carrots and bean sprouts. The rabbits are currently housed in the chicken run.  Since that ground is frozen solid, they can't dig their way out. The snow surrounds the chicken wire to the height of the roof. This forms a sort of igloo around the rabbits which they like – it is cold, to which they are well suited - but neither wet nor windy.  To keep the water from freezing,  we have a low wattage water heater for them. They neatly keep their food, sleeping, and pooping areas segregated, so it is easy to feed and clean up after them. Over the course of 3 weeks, these two adolescent Flemish giants have eaten about 10 lbs of pellet food and additional vegetable snacks and alfalfa hay and have excreted about 15 lbs of manure, which we haul to the compost pile. By spring, before the ground thaws and before we bring in a small flock of laying hens, we'll move the rabbits to segregated hutches: one for the male alone and one for the female with what we hope will be a litter of future dinners for us.  (Update:  in subsequent years, we switched to medium sized satins and installed them in hutches, see article on raising rabbits.)

Winter Afternoons Around an Off-grid Alaska Cabin

Although the temperature outside this March is below + 10F degrees in the morning, and above that  in the afternoon, the sun is so extravagantly reflected from the snow into the cabin that by late morning through afternoon (on sunny days) the interior is comfortable without a fire.  So every second or third day, after breakfast/dishes/spit baths, we let the fire die out (if we have enough melted snow for water).  Once the stove is cool, we clear out the ashes and use the embers to burn trash in a snow pit in the back yard.  About once in the spring, fall, and winter, we sweep out the chimney too.   What a dirty job that is!  But we don’t want any uncontrollable creosote based chimney fire in a log cabin in the middle of the woods.  

We tend to have hearty breakfasts and lunches (followed by light dinners). For example, today we had ham and spinach omelets for breakfast.  For lunch, we had salmon salad and crispy cabbage wrapped in a tortilla, browned on the grill, served with stewed apples, followed by  peanut butter cookes topped with Reeces bites and tea.    

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Chicken coop & snow machine commute

After a morning working on business emails and phone calls, Bryan is eager for outdoor energetic projects.  Sometimes he said that he gets into the "zen" of the work, particularly something repetitive like shoveling. Other times he "processes" some business goofball he talked with earlier in the day.  Yesterday, he chopped down a huge birch bough that had crashed into and was hung up in an adjacent tree ( a "widow maker").  Wearing a helmet and Kevlar chaps protected him from most chainsaw depredations, but the snow was so powdery that maneuvering in snow shoes on unstable snow while hefting his Husqvarna 455 seemed less and less prudent so he gave that up (without my having to haul out my widow's weeds). 

Last week he built a chicken coop which we hope to populate next summer with the fluffiest, cold hardy chickens you could ever hope to see.  But I wonder, why am I the only one concerned that the building will fall at a damaging tilt when the 8 feet of ground snow melts in April? 

Winter Logistics with No Electricity or Roads

Anyone living in a cold or variable climate spends a judicious amount of time planning supplies and logistics.  This is not only for seasonal changes, but for the all important Plan B when those changes are extraordinary and when things go awry!  In Alaska, it is not a facile statement to say that the seasonal changes are always extraordinary.

Planning is particularly important for those of us living far from roads and community services, where you can't say, “We're out of eggs, dear.” Bryan and I have whole files devoted to inventory, shopping, future construction projects, and fuel needs. We have back ups for everything we have been able to anticipate so far. What if the propane stove breaks down in winter? (Cook on top of the wood stove). What if the freezer or refrigerator breaks in summer? (Smoke all meats, stuff the cold hole with other foods) What if we run out of food? (We have 128 lbs of long term tofu substitutes, and supplemental freeze dried foods). What if the generator breaks? (I'd say that we'd be screwed, but actually, our wind and solar panels are our primary sources of power, and our heaviest usage is in the summer, when we have more leeway.