Sunday, September 30, 2007

Lisa Marie Ludwig's Lazy Susan Cottage



The Lazy Susan Cottage
Designed by Lisa Marie Ludwig

Building a dream home, for most is building with a view. Waking up in your bed to a spectacular horizon, cooking directly onto an outdoor dinning area, or having a vast perspective from a child's playroom, are just a few of the fantasies for a home with a view. How can one accomplish all of this? Made with lightweight materials, such as recycled bamboo flooring, the Lazy Susan Cottage is designed to move any room you like to face any direction you desire. With little effort the Lazy susan Cottage rotates for a view in every room.

A stationary deck adds to each room, allowing the indoors-out, and a stationary "anything" room with bathroom, gives all the rooms in the cottage that needed addition. When rotated the "anything" room connects to the kitchen, creating extra space for preparing preserves, or a continuation into an indoor dinning room. Also when rotated, the bedroom becomes a Master Suite, great for cold winter nights, giving way to a bedroom snug as a bug. The "anything" room has an attractable ceiling which when open creates a natural skylight.

With solar powered lights, cellphones, and laptop, the Lazy Susan Cottage can be a great retreat for work or business. The upstairs playroom can be used for sleeping additional guest, or be used for storing ski gear or seasonal items. A rain barrel supplies water to indoor sinks and indoor/outdoor showers. The compost toilet requires a small amount of maintenance, but adds to the beauty of your surroundings. A wood burning stove heats the house while creating an exceptional cooking stove for all your favorite meals.

The Lazy Susan Cottage total surface area is as little as 12 feet by 12 feet , and can easily be constructed almost anywhere. A home with a point of view. A home basically maintenance free. A home requiring no electricity, plumbing, or gas. A home you can feel good about.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Town of catskill



Here is the town of Catskill
as viewed from the Amtrak train to Hudson.

Power lines


This is the view of B land from the entrance, it reaches to the top of the hill starting at the left of the power lines and crossing to the right of the power lines to the very top of the hill. At the top of the hill we have a great view of the Berkshire mountains and the Catskill mountains. Under those power lines are blue berries, black berries, raspberries, and wild flowers.

Friday, September 7, 2007

the top of b-Home is the peak of Vedder Mounain


www.vedderlibrary.org
Vedder Mountain Name History

Lineage: Annatie3, Johannes2, Harmanus Albertse1
VEDDER, c.1635-aft.1742
Related Families: Van Der Fort | Becker
Migration: Holland>N. Neth.>Albany, NY>Schenectady Co., NY


(1) Harmanus Albertse Vedder, born about 1635 in Holland, died about 1715 in Schenectady, New York; married twice but names are unknown. He emigrated to New Netherlands before 1657.
Harmen was one of the original settlers of Beverwyck, which later became Albany, New York. It is known that he lived there in 1657, and probably before that, because historical records indicate that in 1657 he sold his house and lot for 2,325 guilders to Rutger Jacobsen that year and returned to the Netherlands. He was at Coney Island in 1661 where he had a salt kettle. In 1663 he leased his farm at Schenectady to Symon Groot. In 1667 he was again living in Albany. Harmanus was named as a brother-in-law by Johannes Provoost on 9 April 1668 when he made over 830 guilders to Harmanus who was returning to Holland. Harmanus made the trip with other New York merchants to buy food.
Schenectady, New York was founded by a group of fifteen colonists from Beverwyck in 1662. In 1672 Harmanus bought a farm there and the next year he was one of the magistrates and appointed Schout. In The History of the First Dutch Reformed Church of Schenectady: 1680-1880, by Jonathan Pearson, the founders of Schenectady are listed as being:
Arent Van Curler
Philip Hendricks Brouwer
Marten Cornelise Van Esselstyn
Catalyntje De Vas (or De Vos), widow of Arent Andriese Bratt
Pieter Danielse Van Olinda
Jacques Cornelise Van Slyck
Symon Volkers Veeder
Sander Leendertse Gleen
Harmen Albertse Vedder
Teunis Cornelise Swart
William Teller
Pieter Jacobse Borsboone
Jan Barentse Wemp
Gerrit Bancker
Pieter Adriaense, alias Soegemakelyk
Many of the early Dutch owned slaves. Thomas Burke in his book Mohawk Frontier: The Dutch Community of Schenectady, NY 1661-1710 gives a list of slaveholders and numbers of slaves owned in 1690 and 1697; Harmanus Vedder is listed as owning one slave in 1697.
Children by first wife:
1 child, died 6 Dec 1662 in Albany, New York
2 child, died 22 April 1665 Albany, New York
3 Albert, born 10 May 1671, died 1 August 1753; married 17 November or December 1669 in Schenectady, New York, Maria Glen. He was taken prisoner during the massacre at Schenectady in 1690.
4 Harmanus, born about 1672, died before 13 August 1785; married first 10 December 1691 Albany, New York, Grietje Van Slyck Bratt; married second in Schenectady, New York, Ariantje Van der Volgen De Graff
Children by first or second wife:
1 Arent, born about 1674, died between 1746 and 1755 in Schenectady, New York; married Sara Groot
Children by second wife:
1 Angenietje, born about 1684, died April 1756; married 24 November 1700 in Schenectady, New York, Jan Van Antwerpen
2 Johannes, mentioned below
3 Corset, born about 1686, died between 1745 and 1748; married first on 3 March 1709 in Albany, New York, Margarita Berrit; married second on 11 March 1711 in Albany, New York, Neeltie Christianns




(2) Johannes Vedder/Veeder, born about 1685, died after 1749; married 8 July 1705 in Schenectady, New York, Maria Van Der Fort. He was one of those taken prisoner, along with his brother Albert, during the 9 February 1690 raid and massacre at Schenectady by Frenchmen, Sault, and Algonquin Indians from Montreal. A poem was written by one of the witnesses to the event.

Children:
1 Annatie, baptized 21 June 1713 at Albany Reformed Church; married on 24 November 1739 at Schoharie Reformed Church, Pieter Becker, born in Rensselaerswyck (near Albany), New York, baptized 26 September 1708 in Albany Reformed Church, widower of Sara Slingerland.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Claudia Newell's Meditation Shed

Prefab Meditation Shed for Catskill NY

Our environment is permeated by Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) in unprecedented amounts. These unseen and often unacknowledged forces contribute to stress and fatigue, and diminish our capacity for insight and reflection. Spending time in a rural environment like Catskill, we find immediate relief away from the grid of a large city, but given the proliferation of cell phone and satellite communications, we may wish to take extra steps. How will we address these modern challenges? Some techniques from the past are in order.

The ancient yogis intuitively recognized the benefits of meditating in caves; this orientation informed the massive stone edifices of Hindu and some Buddhist temples. Although they had no electronic communications, they recognized the massive electromagnetic impacts of the sun and earth, and created an insulating environment. Fast forward to the discovery of the Faraday cage, a chamber that could ward off charges. When we are in an elevator and lose cell phone service, we are essentially experiencing a Faraday cage; these structures are regularly used to protect equipment in industry. Similarly, Wilhelm Reich built Faraday-like Orgone Accumulators, where the body could concentrate life force (chi or prana).
Modern day scientific studies of subjects living underground show the profound changes when one is isolated from the usual earth-surface, geomagnetic influences. See a Faraday cage below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUWxYesR5Wo


There is an efficient way for you to construct your own meditation shed. Purchase an affordable steel 8 x 10 shed at a large home center, (or better yet, from someone who is selling a used structure. A metal shipping container would also be an extra durable solution). Inside, one can use standard framing skills to construct a wood floor inside the shed (floor kits are available for some of these sheds).

A stud wall is constructed – put the wooden sheathing of your choice on the inside, and copper sheeting or mesh on the outside. This will make it comfortable within and provide an extra layer of EMF insulation. For climate control, you will probably want to put some sort of non-conductive, insulating material between the two walls. Discarded insulation from building demolitions comes to mind, although dedicated and deep-pocketed builder s may want to follow Reich’s method of layers of foil and wool insulation.
http://www.orgonics.com/humorac.htm
http://www.orgone.org/articles/ax2001-grnfld-aa.htm

Consult the web for more information and inspiration on these topics.
There is a metal lic fabric bed canopy at http://www.lessemf.com/personal.html
This could provide a fast Prefab solution for the inside of your shed instead of building the walls; of course, the usual inverse relationship between time and $$$ is a factor.

Use the same techniques to fashion a ceiling and complete the faraday cage within.
Your shed will have a door included – it’s up to you if you want to make a screen door to complete the small room-within-a-room. A small window to peer outside on the door does not make a huge difference in the effects.

Remember to use a ground stake on the metal walls to send charges, like those from a thunderstorm, to the earth.
http://www.lessemf.com/ground.html#291


Yogic tradition often recommends sitting on a wool rug or sheep skin. This provides natural, comfortable insulation between you and the earth.

If you need a light inside, run an extension cord from your local source, and use incandescent lights ONLY – fluorescents produce EMFs.

Happy Samadhi, and enjoy the sunshine and refreshed focus when you emerge!






More tales about people taking a few years off to live in caves and below the earths surface:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6047898.stm

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=950DE4D91F3CF937A15756C0A96F948260

http://www.brainsturbator.com/site/comments/maurizio_montalbini_we_salute_you1/