Getting ideas: Two blogs about tiny houses

I read about Tiny Houses years ago and today casually found out about a film that premieres tomorrow in the West Coast and follows the construction process through the eyes of a person without building experience.

Take a look to this movie trailer.

TINY: A Story About Living Small (Teaser Trailer) from TINY on Vimeo.

Watching this short preview I thought that campers may benefit from some ideas that are used in building tiny houses and living frugal. You can find some information in blogs such as of the one maintained by the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company and the Tiny House Blog.

At the end this little houses are sort of small travel trailers with a more permanent twist.

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Trail in Fort Wilderness.
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Exploring shapes the brain!

And apparently there is more: ADVENTURING makes us different.

At least these are new findings published in the US Journal Science after scientists experimented with 40 identical mice.

Ulman Lindenberger, director of the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin said that,

“When viewed from educational and psychological perspectives, the results of our experiment suggest that an enriched environment fosters the development of individuality”

So, let’s keep exploring and learning to help our neurons.

Via an article published in France24

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The “Cramper-Van”: Another ecological camper

If I would need to market this product the selling points would be:

  • Compact profile guarantees ability to camp almost anywhere.
  • Offers bed, table, four seats, stove and sink.
  • Savings in tag and registration.
  • Low cost of operation.
  • Ecological design.
  • Low price.

The hard sell point would be that this camper is pedal powered, so even if this may be good for your health you will need plenty of time to move from campground to campground.

Anyway, I posted before on similar curious vehicles and apparently this model is not for sale but check some photos and an article published by the Mail Online.

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Did the Japanese come to America before Colombus?

Via Archeological.org I found and interesting post published in the Ohio Archaeology Blog that explores the idea that Japanese Fishermen reached America five thousand years ago.

This is a very real possibility, and personally I have been a firm believer that other cultures “discovered” this continent before Colombus).

Read the article here.

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Good advice for setting a camp in bear country

This video comes from a documentary crew shooting in Alaska (grizzly territory), and refers specifically  to a long term base-camp.

Besides the common advice of keeping the kitchen and food storage area separated from the living and sleeping quarters in combination with the use of bear-proof containers, it’s interesting to note how they installed an electric fence around the camp (I pointed to some commercial electric fence solutions in a post from 2011).

These safety measures apparently worked very well, taking in consideration that the person mentions that more than 100 bears were wandering in the area.

I learned about this video through the Good Nature Blog  where you can learn more about the film and check the video of a bear virtually eating a GoPro camera and some others.

Very interesting stuff!

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trails_Jonathan-Dickinson
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National Trails Day and other outdoor activities

Next June 1 the American Hiking Society celebrates the National Trails Day with multiple outdoor events that include hikes, bike and horseback rides, paddling trips, birdwatching, geocaching and more.

For Floridians this may be a good excuse to learn about the Florida Trail Association and the Florida National Scenic Trail under the administration of the U.S, Forest Service.

But there is more to try, if you plan to be around South Florida go for the Tamiami Trail “Triathlon”, an initiative of Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve and the South Florida National Parks Trust. The idea is to engage in hiking, biking, canoeing or kayaking in three different points of the area.

For all the details check this page of the NPS.

Destinations, Sports Shortlink
Video tab settings for You Tube.
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Specifications for You Tube Videos

Just a quick note to remind myself about the specs when encoding with Quicktime Player.

  • Export movie (wrapper): Quicktime 
  • Frame size: 720P (1280 x 720 pixels)
  • Codec: H264
  • Frame rate: 30 fps
  • Frame reordering: OFF
  • Audio: AAC
  • Render Audio Quality: Best
  • Select Constant Bit Rate for the audio (CBR).
  • Check Internet Streaming Fast Start.

Audio settings tab in Quicktime Pro Internet Streaming Tab

If I missed something or someone has a better method add it in a comment.

Images: Screenshots from the program I use for encoding, Quicktime Player 7.

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Video Gallery: Sunset in the Glades

Two days ago my son and some friends decided to have some fun cruising the Everglades at sunset and launched the two canoes west of the Miccosukee Tribe. In the video you will see some gators splashing in the calm waters of the river of grass, many birds and bald cypress trees.

After paddling for close to three miles they decided to return with some help from the outboard motor installed in one of the canoes. I couldn’t join the party because was working…   : (

Destinations, Sports, Video Gallery Shortlink

Video Gallery: My first mud run

Mud runs are trendy now and I just ran my first one. To “document it” and show others what to expect id they are newbies like myself, I attached a Go Pro Camera to my head.

In this case was a 5K running with a swimming portion and many obstacles, all  accompanied by colorful ambushes (more details in the organizers website).

I must confess that the last time I did something like this was in my early 20s during my 3 year as a soldier. Anyway, I did better than expected and really enjoyed the run (now planning and training to repeat the experience). Just would advice to train and be sure of your health condition before signing for these type of events.

Enjoy the video and hope will give you an accurate idea.

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Official Poster of the Exhibition
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New photographic exhibition in Biscayne National Park

 

A new photographic exhibition will open next June 7 at the Dante Fascell Visitor Center Gallery in Biscayne National Park. The photographer this time is Paul Marcellini and the main theme the park’s wildlife.

According to the artist “The project is dedicated to reconnecting people with the wildlife on their own doorsteps – and enriching their lives in the process.” It’s interesting to note in the technical side that the photographer used a pure white background from a portable field studio to take the images.

This show is part of the larger global Meet Your Neighbours initiative (check the link for info and great photos). If you want to explore the work of Paul Marcellini check his website.

The event looks like an interesting excuse for a trip to the park. Don’t you think?

Via: Biscayne National Park. Image Credit: Poster for the event published by Biscayne National Park | Photo: Potugues Man-o-War by Paul Marcellini. 

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Two snapshots of Eco Pond

Follow two of my photos taken from the same vantage point in Eco Pond, Everglades National Park. The first-one is from April 2011 and the second picture is from May 2013.  Big difference in 25 months.

Eco Pond in 2011.

Eco Pond in 2013.

Photo Credit: oncamping.net

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Germans and American fighting together in World War II?

This comes as a curiosity to me from an article published yesterday in The Daily Beast about a battle where American soldiers, French prisoners and Germans joined forces against the attack of an SS Division at the end of the war (Read World War II’s Strangest Battle: When Americans and Germans Fought Together).

Pointed by a comment also found an older page that narrates the event accompanied by some photos published by the Texas Military Forces Museum.

Everything happened in the Austrian Itter castle (click the link to see photos in Wikipedia).

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One of my photos of Tusayan Ruins in the Grand Canyon.
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Do you suffer of Herpetophobia?

 

Herpetophobia means fear of reptiles and if you suffer from it check the website Reptile World from Michael Shwedick. Education and knowledge can go a long way in controlling unfounded fears; what we need to do is to learn to identify the dangerous species that in the case of Florida include the coral snake, copperhead, cottonmouth or water mocassin and timber rattlesnake (also known canebrake of banded rattlesnake) and the pigmy rattlers.

Photo Credit: oncamping.net | One of my photos of the Tusayan Ruins in the Grand Canyon.

 

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Caucasus in Georgia (Photo released under CC3 License by Petrusbarbygere).
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Literature inspired in the Caucasus mountains

The recent terrorist attack in Boston put the Caucasus in the map for many Americans, specially the region of Chechnya where the attackers were born.

According to Pliny the Elder’s Natural History written in the first century, the name Caucasus comes from a Scythian word meaning “ice-shining” in clear reference the snow in the peaks.

I remember a Russian movie named Prisoner of the Mountains  from the late 1990s that was based in the work of Leo Tolstoy A prisoner in the Caucasus (you can read the text here), but casually I found now that exists also a narrative poem written by Alexander Pushkin with a similar name.

Pushkin is considered by many the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature ( check Ruslan and Ludmila, Eugene Onegin, etc). I found his poem published online and can be accessed through this link.

Photo Credit: The photo illustrating this post is from Svanetia, Georgia, and was released under a  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 by his author Petrusbarbygere. 

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The wacky camper of Jay Nelson

His camper may look wacky but it’s a piece of art and at the same time a testimony of what you can do with interest and effort. I learned about the story via one of the blogs I follow, Adventure Journal, where you can read the article accompanied of a nice video (check it here).

An applause to the beauty of imperfection because life is not perfect. Worry less and enjoy more!

Note: You can check more projects in the Jay Nelson website. 

Recreational Vehicles Shortlink

Video Gallery: Anhinga

Enjoy a video montage of some of my Anhinga photos accompanied of some facts about these bird.

Some facts about the bird.

  • Anhinga means devil or snake bird (because its long neck that looks like a snake when swimming) and the word comes from the Brazilian Tupi language that was used as language franca in this country in the early colonial period. 
  • They live near shallow and slow-moving waters (swamps) and can swim underwater to catch fishes.
  • After diving they need to dry their feathers and for that reason you can see many  still on branches with the swings open.

To learn more visit this page of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Video Gallery Shortlink

Oklahoma D-Day 2013

For the scenario paintball fans this is a huge event scheduled for June 15th. What’s all the buzz about? Well, usually has been said that Oklahoma D-Day is the world’s largest paintball event.  Check the following video and if you want  more info go to their website.

Sports Shortlink

Choose the best Swiss Army Knife

The answer may come from a website specialized in the popular compact tool with reviews and information related to their functionality. Check BestSwissArmyKnifeGuide.com.

Note: To complement your search check also the many buyers reviews written in Amazon about this brand.

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