If you are under stress for whatever reason, try to deal with the frustrations as soon as possible. Take a time out for yourself when you feel stressed, even if it is just closing your eyes and counting to 20 or going to a restroom and spending a moment in peace. Whatever you can hold onto that will give you peace of mind, think on that, relieve yourself of that stress until you can better take care of it.

I don’t think we notice a lot of times what stresses our children out. A lot of times, their behaviours and emotional reactions are in direct reply to stresses and frustrations that they just aren’t equipped to deal with. The idea that children are resilient is true, because the human body and mind have the ability to handle so much stress. That doesn’t mean it is a good thing, and it doesn’t mean that it is something that we should teach the body and brain to accept as normal. A lot isn’t normal in this world. Kids deal with way too much stress.

If there is stress from people in your life you may need to take a more drastic action to rid yourself of that stress. Don’t let others ruin your health and peace of mind. Don’t let them make your life toxic. Don’t let them create a toxic environment for your children. It isn’t worth it to be unhealthy because of stress, and it isn’t worth it for your children to grow up thinking that a stressful environment is normal. Teach them how to deal with stress properly and remove unnecessary stressful things from their lives as well.

To your health!

This property is located on 5+ Acres in gorgeous, rural, Marbury, Alabama. The home was built in 2002, and has a year round creek with a natural spring that feeds into it, with much of the land having been cleared. Over 80 fruit trees have been planted and there are 7 raised beds.

This beautiful and very large home consists of three levels in the home with a total square footage of the house, including porches and the garage, measuring at 7,688. The house is three stories, which includes a partially-finished basement.  The heated and cooled square footage is 6,082. The garage is 500 square feet (two car) and the porches are 1,106.

• County: Chilton
• Subdivision: NONE
• Listing Price: $469,400
• Year Built: 2002
• Bedrooms: 5
• Bathrooms: 3 Full / 0 Half
• All appliances go with the home.
• Construction: 4Brick
• Siding:Vinyl

Starting at the main floor of this spacious home, you will find the living room, a kitchen with a large 6×12 pantry, three bedrooms with very large closets, three baths, and three very large hall closets.  Beautiful crown molding is found throughout most of this floor with both ceramic flooring and carpeting as well. All bathtubs and showers on the main floor also have the lights built into them because they are enclosed.

The 19 1/2 x 17 living room size on this main floor has a built-in corner gas fireplace, and you will also find two long hallways on the main floor.

In the kitchen, measuring 23 1/2 x 14, are durable Corian counters and custom made cabinets. There is an island with two sinks, one being a vegetable sink, and both being molded into the counter tops. The flooring in the kitchen, entrance hall and master bath is ceramic. Another wonderful kitchen amenity is the Wolf commercial stove. The 48″ stove  has a 22″ griddle, two ovens, one is convection, four burners with auto re-light, two heat lamps with two warming shelves and a stainless commercial hood to match. This beautiful range alone,the stove of choice for this home, is valued at over $10,000 due to its construction having specific insulation for safety reasons.
Also in this middle floor kitchen is a dishwasher and a side by side refrigerator with the freezer on bottom.

The bedrooms are very nice-sized, each with large closets and their own baths. The master bedroom measures a spacious 15×17. This bedroom boasts an L shaped closet, measuring approximately 6×14 and also the bath measuring 6×13.
Bedroom #2 is 13 1/2 x 11 1/2  with a 6×10 closet and a 5×10 bath.
Bedroom #3 is 15 1/2 x 13 1/2 with an 8×10 closet and a 5×10 bath.

The bottom floor of the home is a very nice partially finished basement. On this level, you will find a dining room, living room, school room and bedroom. It also has an unfinished kitchen area with walls and flooring in, but lacking all of the cabinets. The majority of the floors in the basement are hardwood with just the school room and bedroom being shag carpet.  What makes the basement special is that the walls were poured (not block like most) by a company who builds bridges so they are built really well and don’t leak so the basement can be used as living space without the fear of leaking. The basement walls were poured to a thickness of 12″, were reinforced with rebar and sealed and waterproofed in order to insure there is no leakage. In the basement is also a safe room in the back corner with the same specifications as the walls. It measures at 8′x8′.

The basement does contain an unfinished space, approximately a 40′x14′ area. This is the area in which the safe room is located.

Outside of the basement, you will find a poured porch the length of the house.

Moving to the top floor, we find two bedrooms, a sitting area and a full bath and also an unfinished room. This would make a lovely bedroom or a study.
All the flooring upstairs is hardwood.

The exterior construction of the of the home is built stronger than the usual home, as they construction consists of  2×6 rather than the usual 2×4. The floors are 2×12. There are two additional porches which run almost the length of the house and are 8′x69′.

Outside, there is a little building or shop that measures approximately 12×16 with an 8×16 porch. This building was hand constructed using wood from the property. It was made to look antiqued ,using the wood to make a board and batten rough cut siding on it.

This property is located dead center of the state, right in between to major cities, Montgomery and Birmingham. It is approximately 45 minutes from Birmingham and 30 minutes from Montgomery. Though rural, this county is not too far from the two big cities both with airports, military base, one of the top hospitals in the country located in Birmingham, shopping and city life are not far away.

Please contact us for further information by email at mjdixonATdixonhomesteadDOTcom

flo·ra/ˈflôrə/
Noun:
1. The plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period: “the desert flora give way to oak woodlands”.
2. the bacteria and fungi, both normally occurring and pathological, found in or on an organ.
**intestinal flora: the bacteria normally within the lumen of the intestine.

I love gardening. and here is another reason to love it: Digging in the dirt may be good for your health. I first heard about this when I read Jordan Rubin’s book, The Maker’s Diet. He was, at one point during his bout with the deadly illness, given some dirt, chock-full of organic material, to actually help heal his body! They are called Homeostatic Soil Organisms (HSOs), and they support Immune System Functions from the ground up.

And here is yet another benefit in dirt: the bacteria called Mycobacterium vaccae that acts like an antidepressant once it gets into your system. Here we have a living organism that acts like a mood-booster on the human brain, increasing serotonin and norepinephrine levels and making people feel happier.

This common dirt bacteria may also increase your toddler’s ability to learn, and help them be more relaxed while doing so. Mice that are regularly exposed to soil were able to master mazes twice as fast and did it with less anxiety.

Jordan Rubin, founder of Beyond Organic, and also a survivor of Crohn’s Disease, a chronic digestive illness that affects the immune system, discovered these beneficial organism when he was wheelchair-bound and 104 pounds, with one doctor’s grim diagnosis was that it was “the worst case of Crohn’s” he had ever seen and he did not expect Jordan to live. However, there were other plans for Jordan Rubin. You can read more about him here.

If you are interested in adding more probiotics to your natural flora and other beneficial immunity-building organisms and enzymes to your diet, there are several ways to do it. One is, obviously, get out into the soil and let the natural bacteria work on your body. You can also do things such as fermenting dairy, fruits, and veggies, and making sourdough or another fermented bread. Please feel free to leave links of your fave sites in the comments.

Some links of interest:

My Beyond Organic site, where you will find whole organic foods infused with probiotics, such as:

• SueroViv: a whole food cultured whey beverage alive with probiotics and enzymes
• Amasai: GreenFed – cattle intensely graze on grasses and greens – no grains; Cultured – with over 30 probiotics, creating an easy-to-digest, smoothie-like beverage; True Whole Milk – never skimmed, always teeming with protein, healthy fats and fat-soluble vitamins
• Feel free to email me with any questions as well.

The Kultured Karaite – The Probiotic Power of Fermented Food

Welcome to Cultured Food Life

So, go ahead, get dirty and stay healthy!! It all adds new meaning to “become as a little child”, since they already know it’s good to play in the dirt!

originally posted at A City on A Hill

September 16, 2011

Conocer Sol, Da Gallo

Hiya, everybody. I’m Sol, da gallo of the flock. [Gallo means rooster in Spanish, in case you didn't know that already. And yes, I know that da isn't the proper word here... it would el, but I had to add that into my title.]

Aren’t I some handsome stuff? I’ve got all my feathers now, tail, hackles, and all!

Yeah, I know my comb and waddles aren’t all that big, but hey… I can do da dance.

I’m spiffy, ain’t I?

Look at those awesome feathers hanging over the side there… spectacular!

Whoops! gotta run for a second! be back in a minute!

Who’s causin’ trouble over here?

*Clementine [red hen]: Aw, go away, Sol.

*Midnight [black hen]: Sol, give it a rest.

*Sol: You two! How dare you speak to me in such manner. I’m going to make a complaint of this to the boss.

*Clementine: Aren’t you the boss?

*Midnight: He thinks he is.

*Sol: HMPH!

and… just for fun:

Hope you enjoyed the post. Sol’s somethin’ else.

14 Comments | Posted by Miss Ra’chel | Filed under: Daily Happenings, Livin’ In Costa Rica, Our Homestead, Photos

There are two properties for sale here in this gated community, located near Arenal Lake in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. The perfect Costa Rican home.  Easy, cost effective and beautiful with views!

Description of Property

Buy a beautiful site for only $40,000 or $75,000 or buy a new home. Average cost for a lovely home is $115,000 which includes the house  plans. You can spend more or less depending on size and finishes.  You pick the plan and colors.  Reasonable offers considered and financing is available.

Situated near the Continental Divide, each of two sites offers views of Volcano Arenal while the top part of the property above the house sites offers views of 3 volcanoes and Lake Arenal. The property is unique and very cost effective when it comes to building because the sites are level, ready to build, and water meters are installed.

The property also includes several thousands of dollars of  infrastructure including a large front gate with lighting, concrete driveway, terracing with fruit trees and tropical plants, drainage system, and a water on each terrace of landscaping.

We have developed a very small gated community to share in cost savings and security yet  once you enter the beautiful gate and go to your property, you can make it as private as you want. You can build a high wall or plant a tall hedge around your site if you’d like  but even without, the privacy is yours.

Currently, one of the owner’s of the property lives in her home several months a year and is located below the terraced area, which is the bottom right photo.

Convenience

Living in this rural community, you will:

*Be just a short walking distance from 2 smaller towns, Lake Arenal and Arenal Yacht Club, and a short drive from the major town of Tilaran.
*Live very near restaurants, clinics, and pharmacies.
*Be a manageable distance from major hospitals.
*Enjoy a temperate year-around climate and be surrounded by nature with monkeys, exotic plants, butterflies, and birds galore including toucans!
*Have beautiful winds which help control humidity and heat.
*Be near great hiking, boating, fishing, lake swimming, and a beautiful place for leisurely, easy walks.
*Have access to great roads.

The property is a dream come true for anyone wanting to live or vacation in a temperate climate, be 1.5 hours from beaches and the Liberia International Airport, and 3.5 hours from San Jose International Airport. A new freeway from San Jose makes the drive to the property a breeze.  The property is also a short drive to desert-like warmth, waterfalls and mineral hot springs.  Medical care is easy to access, ambulance service is available, and a major medical center is being built in Liberia, although hospitals already exist within 20 minutes to 1.5 hours from the property.

The property is located within a 15 minute drive to the major town of Tilaran, which offers a medical clinic, pharmacies, and private physicians and dentists. It has hardware stores, bakeries, and major grocery stores, as well as other amenities and services. There is a bus stop at the end of the road making travel to anywhere in Costa Rica convenient.

Though the property is in walking distance of the Lake Arenal Yacht Club and the towns of Puerto San Luis and Tronodora, it is still rural enough to be surrounded by amazing landscape, toucans and other incredible birds, monkeys and an occasional sloth. The neighborhoods are clean and quaint with great neighbors (both permanent and part time) and include a mixture of Tico families and retired as well as working younger folks from other countries.

Bottom-line…great location and benefits!

As pleasurable as living in Costa Rica can be, it can also be difficult and more expensive than you think if you don’t know the most economical, and secure approach to owning property.  The concept of a small gated community reduces many potentially problematic areas simply, cost effectively, and without compromise to the life you want.

In addition to having great people help you who “know the ropes” of building and property ownership in Costa Rica, benefits include:

Flexibility.  Buy for yourself and or your partner, family, or bring a couple of friends together. If your life changes, you can sell at any time.

Pay lower monthly and annual costs.  You won’t have to be solely responsible for corporation fees, taxes and  property maintenance. These costs are equally shared.  Cost of living and fees in Costa Rica can be higher than you have heard or anticipated (even if they are less than in the US and some other countries).  Sharing costs dramatically reduces your monthly and annual expenses.

Construction is easy. Building and using the home for vacationing, rental, and retirement is made painless for you.  Sample house designs are available for your to review and use at no cost. The property is ready to build. Up to a 1800 square foot home including patio and carport areas can be built on each of the single house sites. Buy both sites as a large lot and you can build a larger home. Either way, there is still plenty of room for privacy, and great landscaping. The topography map is available for your review as are the property maps.

The cost to build  depends on the type of home you want; however, construction of an attractive 1,000 square foot home (2 bedroom,  2 bathroom with high ceilings and “turn key” with an additional 700 square foot wrap around porch and carport will cost approximately $65,000.  (Estimate from architect 11/11.) This means you can have a wonderful piece of property with a new home for about $110,000.  If you prefer, you build smaller and pay less!  You can always add more living space later.

Enjoy your privacy yet have a great community living space when you want.  There is almost 2 acres of a beautifully manicured property to share with only 2 other parties in the top area. One home is located on the bottom part of the property at a considerable distance from the top part.  and one who live on the property on a part time basis. This leaves ample room for a home, privacy, and private garden and patios.  The layout of the house sites allows for ample space between homes in which you have the flexibility to determine how you will give yourself the privacy you want, e.g. walls, fencing, plant hedges.

A common area at the top of the property with amazing views is for all to enjoy.

Pay less to create the quality of property you deserve.  Water meters, security, drainage and irrigation systems, and a beautiful fully lit front gate with large wrought iron lights, and volcanic rock walls combined with wrought iron fencing are in place.  Terraced gardens with a variety of mature fruit-bearing trees and tropical plants are also in place.

No worry about oversight and property maintenance.  One of the owners lives on the property for several months of the year while a property manager facilitates the care of the property, pays utilities, and takes care of emergencies.  The property manager can offer your personal property services as you need them.  A nearby nursery provides maintenance of property.

Support.  Should you be here and experience any kind of emergency, you have people you can trust to come to your aid.

Leave for a few weeks or a few months and not worry.  Rental management and maintenance through the property manager is available for a small percentage of the income your home will generate if you decide to rent it at any time.

Approximate Monthly and Annual Costs

Pay only approximately $2200 per year for gated community related expenses including water, electric, corporation fees, property taxes, maintenance, and property management fee.

About the owners

The property is owned by two women from Southern California, one of whom is living on the property about 75% time and is a health care professional.  The other owner, an accomplished artist, anticipates building her home next year as a vacation home.  Both are accepting of people from all walks of life and whose goal is to enjoy all Costa Rica has to offer.

For more information:

For additional information, please email Jacque Dixon at mjdixonATdixonhomesteadDOTcom. In Costa Rica, call 8960-9588 or 8616-1771. In the US, please call 574-307-0188.

If you have property or Real Estate you would like to advertise on our site, please use the contact information above as well.

• Napkins and Towels
• Pillow Covers 18 X 18
• Pillow Covers 16 X 16
• Handkerchiefs
• Burlap Table Runners
• Coffee Filters/Tea Bags

They have recently introduced items made with organic cotton from a fair trade source. If you don’t see what you are looking for, please email  at naturallinens.tx.rr.com. They do offer custom orders.

If you would like to read about the benefits of linen, here are some articles that might interest you:
Benefits of Linen
Organic Linen Clothing For That Light, Fresh Feeling
Our Raw Life: Linen for Your Health!
Benefits of Pure Linen Sheets: 8 Reasons to Love Them
What Are the Benefits of Organic Linen Fabric?
Linen 4 Life

You can also see more products from the makers of Natural Linens at Pebble Crossing.

Shalom!

Jess, of Titus Keepers Natural living supplies for heart and home, has graciously put up a fund raiser on her site to help the families on Gleaning the Harvest. She is giving 100% of profits from all sales from October 15, 2011 through November 20, 2011 to Gleaning the Harvest families.

We are fast-approaching that Nov. 20th date!! Time is running out! Be sure to take a look at her Personal Care and her Natural Cleaning supplies and see what you might be interested in for your own home or for gifts.

Here are the Personal Items she has in her shoppe:
Facial Astringent
Miracle Cream
Facial Steam Herbs
Wonder Grains
Hand Sanitizer
Lip Balm
Bath Cookies
Deodorant Cream
Toothpaste
Molded Soap
Cloth Menstrual Pads
Nail Oil
Tinctures

Laundry Soap
Oxygen Bleach
Fabric Softener
All-Purpose Cleaning Spray
Stain Spray
Dishwasher Powder
Carpet Deodorizer

I have a Wish List of my own!! Her Personal Items look like something I could go crazy picking out. And Laundry Soap and Oxygen Bleach! We are always looking for a natural economical way to get all of this laundry here done!

Please spend some time on her site and check out her items and pass around the information to all of your friends. Be sure to remind them that purchasing between now and November 20 will benefit the families here on Gleaning the Harvest.

If you are looking for a good place to give your offerings to families in need, please take a look at the sidebar on the Gleaning the Harvest website.

Thanks!

There is much evidence FOR foods and how eating a proper diet can allow the body to be healthy enough to boost the immune system and heal itself against disease.
On the other hand, there is too much evidence against the use of vaccines. It is also proven that vaccines only catch the tail-end of the effects of an outbreak as it is on its way down anyway, and usually, after a mass vaccination, the disease then goes up due to vaccines, not an actual outbreak of any real disease. Vaccines do more harm than good. It has been proven by now. We need to dispel the myths and expose the lies and stop this craziness of vaccinations.

Shalom and health to you!

Charles Zeller does door to door shipping. This means that a container will be dropped at your residence and you will pack your things on a pallet and shrinkwrap it per the specifications of the shipping deal you agreed upon. Then they will pick up the container and take it to FL. There is a fee for this.

You can also drop it off at his warehouse near Tampa Bay, FL, and he will get it taken care of for you. There is no fee for this. Shipping time is about 4-6 weeks. At the time of this publication, you pay 1/2 up-front and the balance when it arrives, before delivery. Toll free: 1-886-245-6923
Interview with Charlie Zeller on shipping and info: http://www.costaricatalkradio.com/2007/10/31/costa-rica-talk-radio-16-charlie-zeller-of-ship-to-costa-rica-interview/

Other Shipping Links to look over, but we can’t vouch for or against:

http://www.internationalcarshipping.net/shipping_cars_to_costa_rica.html
http://www.shipping-worldwide.com/costa%20rica.htm
http://www.shippingtocostarica.com/

There are some items you cannot ship or cannot ship too much of, like bleach and detergents. You might also ask about vitamins and/or seeds, if applicable.
We have friends who went with a different shipper, and their items ended up stuck in San Jose, awaiting for them to pay taxes and storage fees for over a month. They also had to go and pick them up from 3 hours away. Check out your shipper.

Mr. Zeller also will not ship compressed wood furniture on the container ship, because the movement of the water will break it apart. If you ship anything like that, it will need to be new in the box.

About our shipping experiences and flying and why we did what we did:
We shipped things from FL to CR, door to door through Zeller. We considered traveling from IN or CHI, but it was less expensive to drive to FL and ship it from there and fly out of FL. We saved $1000 then, driving to Ft. Lauderdale, instead of flying from Tampa, too. From IN, the tix were going to be over $500 ea, but from FL they were $240. So, it may have balanced out, but in the end, we got to ship and saved money on that too. It would have been $1000 to have them come and drop a container for us to fill.

SHIPPING VEHICLES
We rented a trailer. We had one, but we sold it, because it wasn’t a double axle, and it didn’t hold the weight of what we had. So, we sold it and rented one, then switched it out after dropping off all of our shipped items. We did drive our van to FL and sold it. We do not have personal experiences with shipping, but we do know some people who did have their vehicle shipped through Zellers, and they just sent it in a container. They had a 10yo vehicle. The newer a vehicle is that you ship here, the more taxes you pay when it arrives. They paid (Matt thinks) $5000 in duty taxes and $1000 to have it shipped.

Here is good info on shipping a vehicle: http://www.therealcostarica.com/moving_to_costa_rica/bring_buy_car.html

This page will be updated as more information becomes available. Please note that this is not legal advice and only represents the experiences of the author and other information that hat been gathered.

Shalom!

The CR currency is a colon(co-LONE). The exchange rate between the American Dollar and the colon fluxuates, though, for the past several months, it has stayed just under 500c/$1.00. As of 4-1-11, the rate is at 496 colones to one $USD. There are two exchange rates to consider when you are exchanging the US Dollar: Colones you receive for each US dollar and Colones you pay to buy one US dollar.

Currently that difference looks like this:

Colones you receive for each US dollar: 494.63
Colones you pay to buy one US dollar: 505.24

The last we knew, you are only allowed to bring in $10000 cash per person in to the country at one time without declaring it. You will want to exchange your monies soon after arrival to the country. You can check the rate at the airport, but most likely, you will want to do it at the bank elsewhere.
Here is a link to the current exchange rate for colones: http://www.cocori.com/general-information/xchng.htm

Also, most places will not accept over a $20 bill, and online advice is to not bring a $100 bill. And, leave your US coins at home. No one will accept them. Not here and not in Panama or Nicaragua.

That there are certain US coins that are 90% silver and will be worth more money than anything else in the near future. They are doubling and tripling in value every few weeks. These coins will be worth keeping and having as the market starts to crash. Please do the research, until I can get that info. There are certain coins from before? a certain year that are valuable to have.

Another word of advice is to not bring torn or taped bills. They absolutely will NOT take torn or taped bills here. We have had to send some back to the States.
Costa Ricans do not always give correct change. If it is 5 colones, sometimes they don’t worry about giving it to you in change. But they do expect you to pay it.

This page will be updated as more information becomes available. Please note that this is not legal advice and only represents the experiences of the author and other information that hat been gathered.