Through the World Barefooted -- Gerda's LBS Guide

[Rita]

Hallo, DnJ. I think you forgot some of my sitch. I went through three lawyers so far. The last one I even got one who charged more, thinking he'd be better and he was terrified of the judge. They all charged a lot to do almost nothing. They didn't understand MLC and kept trying to settle and responding to attacks instead of filing motions to protect me and the kids. I have made much more progress by myself! I have a judge who is notoriously lazy and known for not caring about children. A lawyer from the abuse survivor's clinic told me to get out of her courtroom as fast as possible so I could get into family court and get a better set up for my kids. A friend here who went through an equally insane MLC divorce had a caring judge who asked about the kids every time and always made sure they were taken care of. My judge is not even concerned that I get no child support and refuses to read my papers or documents esp those about the kids. I've been referred to trial but she won't let us go, I can't figure out why.

Anyway it is always good to have you stop by here, so don't apologize, it's always helpful.

And it's very much fall here, but the temperatures that make me put on four sweaters are those that you consider tropical up there. I don't know how you do it without fear but it must be your green cape. I am a very petite lady and always shivering as soon as the temp goes below 65 except for the ol' hot flashes which force me to wear tank tops and cardigans all winter so I can take the sweater on and off nine thousand times a day.

OK I do need some other house advice and if you have a chance to just stop by my mountain cabin, I would gladly trade you all the naiiimmooosammiiioo bars you can eat in exchange for some work around the place.

1. I need a new roof. I will not be able to afford this but there are mice getting into holes because the logs holding up the roof are rotted in parts and there is only so much foam a girl can spray there. You should ahve seen my log cabin chinking attempt last time, mixing the sand and lime and portland cement as incorrectly as possible though I did manage to seal a few holes with it, it sure didn't look like the old-timey log look I was goin' for. ANYWAY i have been doing research on the possibilities and thought that SIP's could be a good choice because my ceiling up there isn't even insulated except these heat reflector things my H put, he never knew anything about eco issues or R value and never cared so it is FREEZING and inefficient there. I was thinking that SIP's could be better than insulating and and replacing all the logs, etc., but I have read some issues with water vapor and rot so I wasn't sure I should even keep reading about those. What do you think?

2. All my propane heaters (the kind that vent through an outer wall) are broken or dying. They are from the year we married and bought the place, so I guess it's part of the general disintegration. I have been watching videos about DIY radiant heat kits, and half of my place is over a basement so it would be really easy to put those tubes under the floorboards from the basement. My hot water heater is on demand so I don't know if I would have to get a new boiler of some kind. What do you think of that idea though of doing that instead of replacing those other heaters. I sure wish I had geothermal like my friend The Green Caped Even-Keeled Wonder, Electric Man.