As an aging acrobat and CrossFit enthusiast (I drank the koolaid), I've an ongoing affair with anti-inflammatories. Just check out the snazzy knee brace in this photo.
Can you relate? Got any lingering high school sports injuries? Formerly broken wrists an ankles that now predict the weather? Are you getting older and remembering a younger body that didn't ache all the time? Me too!
Imma get real with you right now and reveal my tumultuous affair, my longterm on-again off-again romance: Ibuprofen. I love you. I hate you. I love to hate you.
Relationship status: It's complicated.
Dextre likes to joke, How can you tell you're an antique acrobat? You have a favorite pain killer! And we do. Vitamin I.
I felt this relationship deserved some bad poetry. If you like bad poetry, you're in luck, here it is.
Ibuprofen my old friend
I must rely on you again
Because my joints they are creaking
It’s your comfort I am seeking
To relieve all these aches & pains
But they remain
And the pain
Settles in, gets cozy
In careful steps I hobble on
Haven’t had a dose since dawn
Anti inflammatory properties
Are exactly what I need
But your side-effects scary
So be wary
Stomach ulcers, why bother?
Sweet relief it comes to me
4-6 hours I am free
Of the swollen, aching throb
That all too often comes to rob
Us of our peace and clarity
Listen to me
Advil PM
For the win
And a brief look, throwing it way back to this first person aerial silk routine and one of the many reasons I rely on NSAIDs
I also wrote a poem about poop bags, you can find that here you glutton for punishment you! If you'd like to support the blog and our family circus, just click through any of our links to get to Amazon and then do your regular shopping and we'll receive a kickback. Thanks!
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It's done! That is, it's as done as it's going to be for this Circus Stella tour. We're going to enjoy the van this season and then decide if there's more to be added.
Mabel may or may not sleep in my nook!
The van is insulated and solar powered with LED lighting, floor ventilation and an exhaust fan to keep it cooler on the inside than it is on the outside! There are 7 beds, one for each dog and bunk beds for us humans. My inner child is thrilled with this arrangement. We've already spent several nights in the van when otherwise we'd have had to buy a hotel room. It's great to sleep directly next to our circus show, so we can be sure our things are secure overnight.
The Nissan NV 3500 is a beast capable of hauling 9,400 pounds. Our long term plan will see it doing just that. For now, we'll continue to tour in our 5th wheel trailer and diesel truck with the van as a second vehicle to transport the dogs. Trailers don't last forever, so when it's time to trade in, we'll downsize to something the van can tow and we'll be back to a one vehicle touring show. At least that's the plan.
Here's our van build video part two! If you missed part one, it's in this post, go back and check it out!
If you're interested in building out a van, or if you'd like to support our blog at no cost to you, here are the relevant links. They'll take you to Amazon, and once there, you can shop for anything you like and Circus Stella will receive a small commission when you check out. Thank you for the help!
I'll have one more van post before this series is complete. In the interest of sharing information and helping other people who might be considering a similar project, I'm working on a complete tally of how much this conversion cost; from the price of the van down to the price of the last screw!
So I bought a Venus Fly Trap on a whim the other day. This after my article on being financial responsible. They were conveniently located in the impulse buy section at Aldi for the reasonable (I thought) price of $4.99. I'm only human! I couldn't resist! I didn't realize I'd have to feed it. I thought it would do that for itself. Fortunately, a friend clued me in. Hesitant to kill bugs for a vegetable, I lucked upon a dead ant. Gave it to the plant... nothing happened. How anticlimactic? I went about my day, checked on the plant in an hour or so, and low and behold, the trap had closed! I found out later that feeding the plant a dead bug like that shouldn't have worked. I have a gruesome theory on why it did. See, you have to tickle the little feeler hairs for the trap to close, and neither I nor the dead ant had done as much. That's why the trap didn't close right away. But why was it closed an hour later? I think the poor little guy wasn't dead. I found him soaking wet and seemingly lifeless, but I think maybe he woke up when he dried out, wriggled about, tickled the hairs, and that's why the plant sprung. The world may never know. A moment of silence for the not-dead ant who woke up in a Venus Fly Trap and now is surely dead. My second error was obviously not filming this for the internet. Don't worry, I didn't make that mistake twice. Without further ado, here is what my plant did when I lucked upon a dead fly in the windowsill.
But there is more to the story! The day after filming the trap had mysteriously opened, revealing my rejected gift. Straight to the internet I hurried! I found this article, which taught me how to trick the plant into thinking the dead bug was actually a live bug. Tried that, and low and behold, the plant is busily digesting the deceased fly right now! Sweet victory! I still haven't named the little bugger. I'm open to any suggestion that isn't Audrey, so if you've got a good name for my carnivorous plant, drop it in the comments for me. Thanks! If you want your own killer vegetable, or anything from Amazon really, it would be awesome if you clicked through this link: BAM! It's an affiliate link which means Circus Stella will get a small commission from whatever you purchase, even if you don't want a high maintenance plant in your life.
If we would talk about the particulars of how we make, manage, spend, and save our money with each other, maybe we'd all be better at it. I've never understood why personal finances aren't discussed openly. The topic is super interesting, vital to our ongoing economic success, & applicable to all of us; but it's essentially considered rude to bring it up.
I probably spent too much on this halloween costume for my dog.
#WorthIt Shark Costume for Dogs
I intend to post an itemized list of exactly how much money we spent on our van conversion, including the purchase price of the van itself. Other bloggers who've published data like this helped me along the way, and I'd like the information to be public to help someone else with dreams of a van fort someday.
Furthermore, I read several personal finance blogs wherein the author completely discloses their income, spending, bills, investments, etc. Analyzing another person's financial life in this manner has helped broaden my perspective on my own finances. I'm not sure that I'll ever be brave enough to post so openly about my own situation and choices, but even just considering it changes the way I think about money. Would you consider posting your financial situation for anyone to see? It's daunting. I'm not sure if it's a good idea. But I sure like reading about it when other people do it.
My favorite blog of this type is The Frugalwoods. They disclose monthly spending only, not income, but seeing how they choose to employ their money has taught me a lot over the years. For instance, I no longer pay for haircuts. The Frugalwoods cut each other's hair, and I thought that was awesome. For a while, Dextre cut my hair for me. Now I cut it myself. Is the back always perfect? Certainly not. I can't see the back of my own head anyway, so I figure that's not my problem!
Circus-ing for the first time with short hair!
Roughly half of American's can't cover a $400 emergency. Most of us live paycheck to paycheck. 60% of us can't cover a $1000 emergency. Predatory loan businesses know this and take advantage of us. So we definitely need to talk about money.
I intend to write about many subjects with this blog, one of them will be personal finance because I'm so passionate about it. If there are any topics you'd like me to post about, please let me know in the comments section below.
If you'd like to support this blog, you can do that by clicking through any of my Amazonlinks to get to the Amazon site. Circus Stella will receive a small kickback on anything you buy at absolutely no cost to you. Or if you'd like a free trial of AmazonFresh, Kindle Unlimited, or even Amazon Prime, please remember to use our links! Thank you friends.
Stella obliges a photoshoot mid-walk.
You don't have to buy the item in our link, just make your regular purchase and voila! Awesome, right? To make this more interesting, I'll post the blog's earnings periodically so we can all see how it works. Rad!
Again, you don't have to buy the item our link goes to... but you might want to because I may or may not have found some hilariously random stuff just now. ;)
I use Personal Capital to track my income, expenses, and net worth. Useful to see all account one one page. It's free to use and this is my personal referral link. Theoretically, we each get $20 if you decide to use it. Cheers! Want to be our internet friends? Here ya go!
I like to joke with Dextre, that if he ever wrote a memoire it should be called, The Broken Van. Stories from his youth about living in vans, traveling across the country and performing his balancing act have always been my favorites. He's had LOTS of shitty vans, but he's never had a new one.
Until now!
Say goodbye to our old faithful Chevy and meet Falkor!
The popular hashtag #VanLife is relatively new, and millennials are doing terrific things with vans these days, but the van life itself has been around since, well...vans! I skipped my living-in-a-van phase and went directly to trailer life when I hit the road in 2003. I'm overdue for some good old fashioned van forting at its finest!
We bought a Nissan NV 3500 hightop cargo van and we're converting it into a rolling dog fortress/home on wheels! This process involves insulation, solar power, a ventilation system, and crash tested kennels for our five rescued dogs. Why are we doing this really? It's not completely because I want to build a fort in a van, let me explain.
Working on sleeping arrangements for 2 people & 5 dogs in 1 van!
Circus Stella needs a safe way to transport our dogs to shows, on tour, and for adventuring to who knows where. Dogs that travel in secured, crash tested crates are much more likely to survive a car wreck unscathed, so for us, this is a must. We chose Ruff Tough Kennels and installed them inside the cab of our Chevy 3500. Here's a video of that process:
Now don't get me wrong, this has been great, but it limits us to only 5 dogs, and we'd like to expand our family. In order to make room for a 6th dog (7th dog? 8th dog!?) a more suitable vehicle was in order. We chose the Nissan NV for it's interior height and tow capacity. It's capable of hauling a trailer up to 9,400 pounds.
This van will serve many purposes for us. It can haul the circus show, safely transport the dogs, and literally be a back stage and a hotel room if needed (and did I mention, it's a groovy fort?). It's great for work, but it's also ideal for vacations! Finding a good dog sitter when you have your own pack of dogs can be tricky, now they can just come along!
Watch the first half of our build and see for yourself!
Below I've provided links to all the products we chose. If you click through our links to get to amazon, even if you don't purchase what we've recommended, Circus Stella will receive a small commission from anything you buy. The price will stay exactly the same for you. It's a completely free way to support our family circus, so thank you for using our links. Dog food isn't getting any cheaper!
Disclosure; This blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Publishing my first blog post shouldn't be so difficult; nevertheless, I'm consumed with doubt. What should the first topic be? This is too important to mess up.
Wait a minute, no it isn't. It's not important at all. There are a zillion blogs about everything you can imagine, and mine can be about anything I want! Stop overthinking this, Jana, and just write about what you know.
Let's talk about poop bags!
Yes, I stopped mid-blog to scoop this poop and take this photo.
Here at Circus Stella, we have five rescued dogs and let me tell you, they poop. A LOT. So much poop. It's great when they poop in the woods. We can just leave it there to become one with the nature, but it's inevitable they'll poop in places where poop shouldn't be. Then one must employ a trusty poop bag! I wrote a poem about the experience.
When you have a lot of dogs
You’ll have to pick up many logs
As their butts begin to hunch
Pluck a poop bag from the bunch
Be it large or be it dinky
Hold your nose, it’s gonna be stinky
Scoop it up and tie it off
Before the scent begins to waft
If you think you’re done, not so fast
This is your life now, that wasn't the last
Make your peace with all scooping
The dogs are worth it, happy pooping!
Let's get down to it. I'd like to blog about more than poop bags. In fact, I have another poem here if you like that sort of thing, and there are loads of other ideas floating around in my brain: from our camper van conversion, to our circus tour, finances, and our rescue dogs. When it's relevant, I'll share the products we use and link them here. Full disclosure, if you click on these links and purchase something, anything, even if it isn't what we recommended, Circus Stella will get a small kick back! Every penny counts, so thank you for shopping via the links below:
I'll introduce you to our five beloved poop factories, clockwise from left:
Mabel, Stella, Clarice, Louise, and Adrian.
Photo Courtesy of Paws, Pose & Play in Fredericksburg, VA. Thanks Emily!
That's all for my first blog post. Be a responsible pet owner and scoop that poop friends! If you'd like more from Circus Stella, connect with us on Instagram,Facebook,or Youtube! Join our Super Rad Mailing List
Stella teaching Mabel how to dog.
Disclosure; This blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program,
an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees
