Mountain Dream Blog

It is October 2008 and the race is on to save the very fast changing world we live in. We have been at war for over 6 years now and I don’t see a change coming any time soon. With war comes an unbalanced economy and we have seen a direct impact on the national debt and the state of the union. We basically piled debt on top of debt and the poor are getting poorer as you read this. We have also seen huge increases in the price of gas and that causes the price of everything to go up!I have been sitting around thinking how can I make a change for the better and start giving more respect to the world that surrounds us! How can I lower the impact that my life has on mother earth? So last week I decided to start a list of things that I can do to help the world rather than hurt it. I also thought about the beneficial rewards that I would get like lower bills and better quality of life.The first questions I thought about was food! How to eat cheaper and throw less away!So I pretty made a rule for myself!1. Buy fresh food and stay away from boxed and food shipped from far away!2. Buy Food in containers that you can reuse for food storage or use them as Plant containers or for other storage.3. Make fewer trips to the store and try to stock up on longer lasting veggies. I buy potatoes and onions , oranges, sweet potatoes, peanut butter, asparagus, green beans, spinach.4. I buy fresh to reduce garbage and use the bags for trash bags or for shipping stuff(they make great stuffing and protections for shipped goods)5. I stopped drinking sodas and drink water and coffee.6. I reuse coffee grounds as fertilizer for plants!7. Take short showers and don’t use water just to waste it. Lets keep things cheaper and conserve when there are watches and warnings. This includes carwashes during draughts and over watering lawns. Not only does this produce molds and spreads disease it is a practice. Just watch the weather channel and they will tell you everything that is going on and if it is ok to water or wait!8. Make sure your toilet isn’t leaking. If you hear it refill after a while it has a leak!9. No dripping faucets!10.Use candles for light and heat11.Try not to run the heat and use more candles, be careful though. You’re playing with fire!12.Use that toilet a few times between flushes if it is just you and no poi.13.Plant your own Herbs and Plants to eat and use the coffee grounds for fertilizer.14.Walk more and drive less. Carpool when possible?15.Don’t eat out too much, sure eating out is good for the economy! Take your leftovers home and eat them tomorrow!16.Check your tires often. The environment is always changing and you can save gas money this way and help lower pollution. You can find this info on a label either on the door, fuse box, or in the manual. I also ask a few different tire guys to make sure you are using the right pressure for the brand you have.17. Make sure your oil and car fluids are at the right level.18.Don’t leave on lights throughout the house. Use environmental friendly lighting. According to CNN lighting is a 40-billions dollar a year industry and there are huge fears of changing the format that we use to light! You better bet you grapes that the big dogs in corporate America Power are praying to god that led doesn’t take over and become the new standard! Just think all the money that can be saved using this method of lighting. They are called light omitting diodes and are eco friendly and have no mercury unlike CFLS and last over a decade! IT is by far the best method of lighting and is being used in towns and business all the world for various causes. Over 95% of the energy that is used incandescent bulbs is wasted into heat energy!19. Don’t buy new things, burn up the thrift stores and find those hidden deals. I got a 50-dollar microwave for 15 and it was in great shape! I got a toaster for 4 and it rocks, rah yeah a coffee maker for 3$, what a deal and I saved a whopping 100! If I had shopped at Wal-Mart it would have been 4 times as much. I bought a desk chair for 10 bucks and saved 20 on the deal! You just have to be patient and keep you eye open for roadside deals.20.Go to the Thrift store buy and old record player and flip it on EBay! Not only are yousupporting the store you are supporting EBay and you making money and helping someone find that dream lost treasure. I have been flipping Junk store goods for about 5 years now and love the process. I love when you find that perfect EBay hit and you get offered more than you dreamed for the item. Also buy used things from the net, it works in the same process and you help keep the earth a greener place!21.Make sure you keep good wires and plugs on your car! It saves a great deal of gas money and keeps pollution down.22 Don’t use anything with Aspartame in it, not only is it bad for your body but it gets put back into to the watershed. I know some of you just got mad and may have decided to stop reading, but wait read this!! I did a little research and this is what I figured out. This is just opinion but this makes me yonder! Aspartame is made from two amino acids, or protein components, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. I looked up Phenylalanine and was upset at what I saw!IF you have phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare birth defect in which an enzyme needed to process phenylalanine is missing. If you consume too much you could die very suddenly. Diet sodas and other foods may contain Aspartame, which is roughly 50% phenylalanine. They say 1-15,000 are born with this disorder. Lets take Aspartame out of the picture and out of the water table!23.Think before you buy and don’t be a buy now guy. Make a list of things you need and keep on the wall!24.Get an LCd monitor they are cheaper to run and better for earth.25.Stay in environmental friendly Hotels and use eco companies as much as often.26.Shop at yard sales! Every Saturday you can great sales all over the south and great state of Alabama! There are even yard sale festivals all over the country.27. US reusable products as often as possible!28. Donate your old stuff to thrift stores and let someone have a brighter future.29. Don’t buy new books, go to library if you don’t have the money! Plus they may have wifi and records that you need!30. Use natural Fertilizer on plants(organic), it is good for the plants and good for you.31.Don’t pay 8 for shampoo, get the cheap stuff and try to get natural.32. Don’t shave as much, guys grow a beard!33. Slow down on the road 40-60 is around the optimum speed to save money and varies from car to car. (source howstuffworks.com) General rule Bigger gets betters mileage the slower you go and the more aerodynamic the vehicle the higher speed(Go here bookmark and check this site out! http://www.globalstewards.org34. Try to use recycles things always!35. Use Hemp products and natural products36. Carry a water bottle and keep it full and stop stopping at the store.37.I used to smoke cigarettes and wasted much of my money on them and stopped a few years ago. IT makes you feel so much better after you lose the toxins from them. IT is choice and will not get into this. Roll your own it is cheaper and natural!38. Carry snacks from home like fruit with you, healthy and smart too.39. Are you addicted to the Gum? Cut down and watch out for new gums and candies.40 .Turn off your computer or put it to sleep. Putting it to sleep when you’re not using it. Same thing with your TV also.41. Today I bought compact fluorescent lightbulbs. 13 watts at 800 lumens verses 60 watts at 850. That is a huge difference in power consumption and you can find compact fluorescent at your local dollar store. I bought two for $5 bucks and they are supposed to last 5 years. I will let you know how long they last. I really do think the light is brighter than other light sources. Led is nice but cost around double the price the compact fluorescent.Thanks for Reading my life saving tips for the environment I hope I made someone think and start practicing the art of conservation. More environmental tips coming soon. Leave a comment and I may add your suggestion!Please Donate and support me and environmental campaign. Donate down below! I plan to make a short film this year and enter it in a few contest next year! I want to share a story of life and use the camera to capture and tell the tail of Earth. Please help me get there thanks for your support!Thanks Chandler www.mountaindreamrentals.com www.AlabamaRockCompany.com Start Building your web Empire today!

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It’s about to be springtime once again in Birmingham, Alabama and time to start fighting the allergies!  Coming from the country allergies was something you got used to and could easily be helped with a little whisky, naww that’s just an old wise tell! Anyway I have found that in the city, allergies can be a huge battle! Sometimes I just have to getaway to get some fresh air to clear my head!  The only relief seems to be an occasional trip to the country.

           It was just over 4 years ago that I moved to Birmingham from Nashville and it has been a lot of fun. On any given day you can ride around the ham and see the beautiful smoke stacks just puffing away!  One of the best places to see this is up at the canon near Altamont school. If you look straight ahead you will see the huge orange flame that dominates the smoggy Birmingham sky. The best view is in the wintertime, with no leaves to block the way!  Go right before sunset and you can watch the city transform and light up the night clouds.

The flame is located near the Avondale area and burns non-stop 24-7 is what I understand.  If you drive near it at night you will sense the power and have a better understanding of the size.  Every time I see it I wonder the same thing,   “humm I wonder what’s being burnt?” It even burns during the rain.  There are many other flames that are burning across Jefferson county everyday as well. I was totally overwhelmed by how many smoke stacks there are in Birmingham! I would there are more in Birmingham than any other city I have been to.

            My buddy Chuck lives on the side of Red Mountain near Vulcan and has great view of downtown and surrounding areas!  You can look off in the distance and see at least 4 smoke stacks on any given day, not to mention many planes flying through downtown to get to the airport. I often have to do a double take and realize that I am in Birmingham and not some nuclear wasteland on the path to death. If you look off to the NW you will see several huge smoke stacks that I understand to belong to Alabama Power.  If you drive west on 59 you will several other stacks around the Hueytown area.

            What is even scarier is the statistics you can read in the paper of the top polluters in Birmingham.    For some strange reason they keep polluting and releasing chemicals into the watershed. What is really sad is that they pay their fine and do it again and again.  I hear a lot of people say, “The Earth will heal itself!”  That may be true to a degree, but all the long-term damage that is done to our eco-system is not reversible!  What about the effect it will have on genetic code and all the organisms that start the cycle of life.   What is really crazy is that it all can be prevented if we stand up and take control of this computerised corporate world. It all starts here and now today and not tomorrow!

You can be a leader and change what is happening in around your area by reading the newspaper and watching the news! Look in magazines and find reports that are issued yearly and even monthly!  Join your local protection agency!  For the Alabama area click here..   http://www.aeconline.ws/    If you ever see something that is not right in your community you should mail them and let them know what is up!

            If we all decide today to make a change and start using more alternative Energy sources we may all face a much cleaner and greener future.  I started recycling a few years ago and have never stopped. That is the quickest and easiest thing that you can do to change this world today! I have a friend who learned that she could make money from the cans she had been throwing away for years. Now she enjoys the extra cash she makes every couple of months. It is amazing the feeling of positive Energy that flows through you when you realize how you become a part of the change for the better.

            There are many other things that you can do to help the earth as well as save a ton in the wallet!  You would be surprised how cutting the lights off when not needed and not wasting hot water can add up to a lot of cash.  Also don’t forget about carpooling, a simple and effective act that can save you money and save earth.  Hey that TV, throw it out the door!  There are better things you can spend your time doing! For yawl that have to watch some tv, just turn it off when you are not using it!  Anyway until next time catch my new Blog  “ Pave the Grass then Paint it Green!” Coming next week……….

IF you have any stories with pics , would love to post them! Of course i am only interested in environmental problems!

www.mountaindreamrentals.com www.AlabamaRockCompany.com Start Building your web Empire today!

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It is almost that time of the year again! The Bears are about to wake out of their wintertime hibernation. You better believe those guys are going to be hungry when they get up. They will be on the prowl throughout the mountains and will be hanging out near the creek looking for an easy meal!

Every spring when the bears wake there is the possibility of human contact and if you are wise you will walk away without any incident. Never incite a bear or he might just come and show how tough he really is! And you my friend are no competition for an 800 pound bear or even a 300 pound bear!  You got to remember they fight to live everyday and with huge claws that cut through a salmon with precision, you are no match.

Bears are found all over the world and can walk on their heels like a human. They have large bodies, small round ears, with a short stubby tail. Bears are classified carnivores and each species varies amounts of herbivorous behavior. The Polar bear is mostly a meat eaters and the Panda likes plants.

There are many species of bear! You have the, Brown bear, Asiatic black bear, Sloth Bear, Giant panda, Polar bear, Spectacled Bear, Sun Bear, Black bear!

1. The Brown Bears can weight anywhere from 300-860 and the females 200-450. They can be aggressive; it is ironic that children have stuffed bears for animals! There are several kinds in the Ursus actos species; Alaska brown bear, Asiatic Brown Bear, European Brown bear, Grizzly bear, Himalayian Snow Bear, Kodiak Bear  and the Syrian
2. Asiatic Black Bear-Selenarctos thibetanus als known as Black beast, doh bear. Formosa Bear, Giant Cat Bear in Japan. They are medium sized and have huge ears for their body. The males weigh 220-440 and the females 110-275. They are found throughout Southern Asia. They are in Northern India, Northeast china, Nepal, Sikkim, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taiwan, Southeast Russia, Shikoko, and Honshu. They are mostly veggie eaters and some have been know to eat small animals.
3. Sloth Bear-  Melursus Ursinus -They are Termite eaters and pretty small animals. Adults may weigh from  110-320. The are also known as Aswail, Ball(Kipling), Honey bear, Jungle Joker, and Lip bear!
4. Giant Panda-Ailuropoda melanoleuca- Also known as  Fiery Fox, Shi Ti Shou (Iron Eating Beast), Black and White Bear, Shining Cat, Cat Bear, Bai Bao(white Leapord). Pandas males grow to about 190-275 pounds and females 155-220. Bamboo is 99% of their diet and they eat from 26-33 pounds of it a day!
5. Polar Bear-Ursus maritimus aldo known as Ice Bear, Nanook Bear, Polar Bear, Sea Bear, White Bear, Walking Bear. They love to eat Seals and they are no feat for those huge claws! They are a very aggressive animal with the male weighing as much as 1,300 pounds and the females are smaller at about 600 pounds. They away from these bears they don’t play!
6. Spectacled bear- Tremarctos ornatus-short faced Bear. It gets its named from it rings around its eyes. The males weigh from 220-340 and females 140-180. They are found in South America-Peru, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, and Bolivia. They eat wide range of food and like to build nest high in trees.
7. Sun Bear-Ursus malayanus- Maylay Bear, Dog Bear (Thailand), Ape man, Bruang (Sumatra). IT is a small bear in the lowland tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. This bear can be found in Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangledesh, Cambodia, and many other countries in the Southeastern. They have a balanced diet and love termites, birds,  and plam oil. They only weigh up to 145 pounds. Much of their habitat has been ruined by deforestation and they have been over hunted. They are in Danger!
8. Black bear- Ursus americanus- American Black Bear, Florida Black Bear Cinnamon Bear, Glacier  Bear, Kermode Bear. These guys are found all North American and Canada! They estimated around 750,000 of them and near 7,000 just in the great state of Pennsylvania. They have been known to come in different colors- brown black bear, white black bear, and even the Blue Glacier Bear. They are great climbers and use trees often for protection. There are 18 known sub-species of bear and you can say they are the most successful bear.

So next time you are up in the mountain or driving down the road through Penn State. Be sure to let these guys do what they are doing and never approach a beer. Once you piss a bear off it could be very bad for you. They have been known to rip holes in the tops of cars and they can break a window with no effort! There is no hiding once you make him mad!

The rules:   For whatever reason Do Not Ever Run from a bear! There is no way you could ever run from a bear! They run up to 30 mph and could catch you in no time! Just try to back away slowly and if they come for you, you better find a tall tree you can climb! It is recommended to be as high 35 feet in the air! Remember black bear are great climbers but they can be lazy too, your climbing skills may save your life. Grizzlies aren’t great climbers but they can jump high!

For a Brown Bear you will be safer in the fetal position and play dead and hope that it works. He may leave you alone if he thinks you are not a threat. For a black bear you better be ready to fight and use anything available. Pepper Spray in the eyes or a big stick and fight for your life. Be sure to never drop your backpack and run! You can use it to save your life!

Do not ever provoke a bear! They are wild and will kill you! Never feed a bear or leave food sitting around a camp site! Many bear have become addicted to human food and will kill to have it.

Thanks for reading and hope these tips may save your life one!

Looking to make a spring get-away to the smokies? Thinking about renting a cabin and watching the bear wake up? It is about to be the perfect time of year to make it to the mountains and find a wonderful creek to play in! The snow is about to melt and the animals are about to wake! You need to come by Mountain Dream Rentals and rent a cabin  for summer today! I have a great list of cabins from the Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia area!

 There is nothing like watching all the things come alive in the mountains!  What about all the beautiful birds singing and flowers blooming! IF you like to see blue skies and white clouds with a nice breeze while the deer play in the creek, the mountains are for you!

IF you are planning your getaway come check us out! We have a full list of cabins to choose from!  I woke up three months ago and decided to build a Rental cabin directory and let me tell you. it has been a long journey for me. It was the third site i ever built and i built the pages without a template and decided to use a template. The template made a great improvement but i still am facing the same thing  alot of people face when building a site. I realize that i spend more time trying to change each page in the site and should have built it with html and php! So I am in the process of  learning php and i am going to rebuild the site! I can’t wait until the rebuild and i am going to add a bunch of new sites to the directory!

I am going to  lake chalets and mountain top cabins also! After i get mountain Dream rentals where i want it i am going to lauch  a new site and i will be selling new cabins! So come to the site and bookmark us  an find the perfect cabin today! Rent a cabin for summer today!

About a month ago something started digging through the trash and we thought it was a dog! A few weeks go by and no problems! Then the other night I heard a loud noise in the garage! I quickly went out there to find the bandit! He is a possum and thinks he likes it here!

For the past few weeks I have been hearing noises under the house. I thought it was a cat or a dog! It was that darn possum! When I came up to him he didn’t even know I was there! He had his body in the trash just having a great time! I had to kick the trash can a few times before he realized that he was caught!

            When he saw me looking at him he wasn’t in no big hurry to leave! I tried to run him off and looked at me like I was crazy! Well I went inside and waited a few minutes and went back out! He was into the night! I noticed that he comes around when it gets real cold or when it rains! Which is pretty often up here on the mountain! I do believe I have made a new friend! Anyone else have possum problems like me?  Keep an eye out for the end of the possum returns!

Johnny C

          It never fails I was heading off to hills to to listen to some new tunes and as I drive through the turning leaves of the Smoky Mountains. Cruising down a hollow I  drive by some cabins on my way to my mountain cabin rental. I saw all kinds of wild animals  as entered the mountain cove.

I would guess that I saw more deer than anything else. I was about to drive by an old cabin when I saw 8 deer standing through the fog from me. It looked like they were eating something bright green grass , maybe clovers! I was really shocked the closer I got to them, they didn’t look at me twice. Here is North Alabama if you see a deer, he is gone running like a bolt of lightning. Except for at Lake Guntersville, they seem to be pretty tame from the all the campers that feed them everyday. They have some  very pretty lake cabins on the Tennessesee river in Guntersville. I  have stayed in them a few times over the years.

          I stopping my car beside the old Chalet and watched the deer for a good 5 minutes and then an 18-wheeler drove by and scared them off into the dark holler. I was on my way on down the road when I saw some kind of cat. I figured it was a mountain lion. It seemed to be 2-3 times larger than your average house cat. It didn’t even give me enough time to get good look at him.Well a few minutes later I arrived at my Mountain Cabin Rental and when I opened the door I was surprised.  I walked in and it had a hot tub the size of my car and they built it where you could watch TV and chill at the same time. The floors were super awesome and you could tell someone built this baby with pride. They had every detail of Rental Villa down to the core.  I have traveled a lot in my life and never seen a cleaner place. The walls of the Rental Cabin were logs and the cement they used looked awesome. It made me want to build me one just like it.          I looked out my window and I could see several other Cabins within a rocks throw. IT didn’t matter though as I was happy with that super hottub to keep me busy.  I soon started to bring in my stuff and decided to leave my cooler outside by the cabin door. It was pretty cool that day, the high only being around 40, so I figured it would be all right outside.  Well that night I fell asleep around midnight and woke up to a horrible noise. I jumped up turned on the light and looked and it was a big old mountain coon just smiling at me. He had managed to rip off the top of the cooler and eat most of my food!  He sat there and looked at me for just a min, enough time to see hi blackbands.    

        I yelled at him and he ran off into the darkness. I put the lid on the cooler and found some heavy logs on top and went back to bed. Well it wasn’t 30 minutes later that I heard him again. So I cut the light on and once again ran between two Cabin Rentals and disappeared into the night.  He had managed to get in there again. I could not believe how strong he was to get inside.       

     Well the next day I went to Wally world and bought some bunjies. I figured this would so the trick. Well that night flew by with no problems but sometime after I left he came back and managed to break one strap. He didn’t get in, he must have gotten tired or someone scared him real good.Through my experience I found that a plastic cooler isn’t too much competition for those crazy Smoky Mountain Coons. If I were you I would buy a metal or aluminum cooler with a locking handle.  That would be tough enough to keep the beers out as well. Well maybe!  If you are in the mountains in the winter they are hibernating until spring. But you never know these days with the weather being crazy like it gets.           The perfect Vacation Rentals always come with a fridge, but just in case always carry a sturdy cooler with you. I have heard stories of hungry bear ripping apart cheap plastic coolers. So when you rent your Mountain Chalet be sure to ask for the amenities they have.  I   have a friend that told me about this story one time He said he found a Cabin site on-line that was advertising Hunting Rental Cabins and the price was right so he took it.          Well about a month runs by and he is on his way to this Alabama Cabin and when he arrives he had the shock of his life. It was really a Primitive Hunting Lodge and didn’t even have a fridge in to. He laughed though; he said it had a microwave and no stove. So there goes to prove that you never know what your going to get till you get it.If you are looking to get closer to nature a Smoky Mountain Cabin is just about as close as your gonna get.                  There are a lot of good Directories out there with mountain cabin rentals from all over. Some people call them Mountain Cabins, Chalets, Rental Villa,  or just lodge. Whatever tickles your fancy call them, there is always a Mountain Cabin Rental perfect for your dream vacation. By a  river or on top of the Mountain it is best way to getaway for a peaceful experience with a little action.    Oh yeah I couldn’t figure out what that crazy Mountain Coon was trying  get to but he sure didn’t want to pass it up.       Sometimes I think he was trying to find more peanut butter sandwiches.  So if you see a Cabin coon with peanut butter face you better watch your cooler and keep it locked up in your rental villa. Coming soon. Don’t feed the bears beer!Until next time.Johnny C