Say You Saw it in The Monadnock Shopper News, August 20 – August 26, 2014 Fairy Houses – The Epitome Of Green Living When my daughter was two years old, she received a book called Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. It details a little girl’s family vacation to an island off the coast of Maine. She soon discovers that this is no ordinary island, but a place where people take the time to build little houses out in the woods for the fairies. Luckily there is a perfect spot right near her cottage, and over the course of the book she builds a house, embellishing it with treasures she finds in the woods and on the beach. A series of insect and animal visitors come calling. Eventually – spoiler alert! – a charm of fairies (“charm” is evidently one of the accepted collective nouns to describe a fairy group – don’t say you never learned anything while reading my column) pays a visit, and they are very happy with the house she has so carefully made for them. The book is a little advanced for a two year old, so after an initial week of looking at the pictures it was relegated to the shelf for the past 15 months or so. Just recently, I took it down on a whim and read it to my daughter at breakfast. She was instantly hooked, and wanted to know if she could build a fairy house. Of course, was my reply, and there was great excitement amidst the pancakes and peaches. We made plans to go out later that morning while her little brother was napping. But first we had to review the rules for constructing fairy houses, which are pretty simple. Fairies do not like living things to be hurt or disturbed, and they cannot OR abide artificial materials. So when building a house, you can only use with Richard Popovic found materials from nature that are not living – sticks, dry grasses and leaves, acorns, rocks, etc. This is zero impact construction at its best. Location is also important. Quiet places in natural settings are preferred – forests, meadows, beaches, and the like. Armed with this knowledge, we headed out back to get started. We are fortunate enough to live in prime fairy house real estate: an older forest full JACK BEAL PR ACTICE MAKES PERFECT ELECTRICIAN LLC .(,ICs-!,IC-2s64,IC%- Residential & Commercial +EENE.(s357-9253 Email: [email protected] Make Your Dream a Reality 603-354-7740 With Your Own 7INCHESTER3TREETs+EENE.( “Custom-Built” MONADNOCK AmishSHOPPER Structure! Quality Amish Built Structures From Small Sheds to 2 Story Buildings RUN WEEK 1 NEED A CAR? WATER For Pools & Emergency RUN WEEK 2 +#+;NNB?QMY NEED A DEPENDABLE BUY HERE - PAY HERE Rt. 12, Swanzey (Across from Toyota Volvo) 603-357-4347 www.cheshireshedandgazebo.com CAR TRUCK SUV %L??H +IH;>HI=E CAR TRUCK SUV? OR OR KILN-DRIED D LD IT U IL UI DTHE A E E U B EB R TO R R CRT U RO B R O U EP OE R IT YW D FIREWOOD CALL US NOW - DRIVE AWAY NOW of big trees, plenty of rocks and boulders, and an abundance of natural materials on the ground all around us. Step one was gathering supplies like sticks, bark, small stones and larger rocks, acorns, leaves, and pine cones. My daughter then scouted out locations and found a perfect spot at the base of an old oak tree. From there, it was just a matter of designing and building. She started with a walkway lined with rocks, which led to three pine cone couches. She noted that there were little mushrooms already growing inside for stools. Next we made the roof by laying a big piece of bark across the top and placing some sticks on top of that. A table was constructed from a smaller piece of bark and four small sticks, with acorn caps as plates. Speaking of acorns, she was adamant that they have enough to eat, so we made a “pantry” next to the table, which we filled with acorns. A few small red maple leaves and a couple of recently fallen oak branches were found and added as the final touch to decorate the doorway. Just like that, our fairy house was done and we had spent a relaxing and creative hour outside, imagining the many different visitors who might use the new house. If you are looking for a fun way to have your kids get outside and get creative, give fairy houses a look. Happy building! Richard Popovic is a musician and freelance writer who lives in Nelson in an efficient little house he built in 2007 where he spends most of his time attempting to convert run-on sentences into a viable source of clean energy. 25 $%"!2+%$s#,%!.s).3%#4&2%% 2%!$94/"52. 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Swanzey Rd, Swanzey, NH Welcome Commercial & Residential Solar Specialists the Melanson co, inc. www.SolarSourceNE.com ~ Mon.-Fri. 9-5, Sat. 9-1 603-352-4232 FREE HAZARDOUS WASTE COLLECTION A Great Opportunity to Clean Toxic Wastes from your basement, workbench, garage and cupboards. All collections run 8 am to 1 pm KEENE RECYCLING CENTER From Route 12/West Street intersection, travel Route 12 North approximately 4.5 miles. Facility entrance is at the top of the hill on left hand side of road. Collection takes approximately 10 minutes from the time of arrival. QUESTIONS: Please call (603) 352-5739 Sponsored by The City of Keene Limit: 10 gal. per household per collection. 1OGG?L $;FF &IOM?BIF> &;T;L>IOM5;MN? !IFF?=NCIH1=B?>OF? All collections will be held at the Keene Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility, located adjacent to the Keene Recycling Center, 55 Old Summit Rd, Keene from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. (603) 355-2401 Sat. 8/23/14 Acworth Bennington Chesterfield Dublin Fitzwilliam Greenfield Hancock Harrisville Hinsdale Jaffrey Keene Marlborough Nelson Richmond Stoddard Sullivan Surry Swanzey Troy Walpole Sat. 9/13/14 Acworth Bennington Chesterfield Dublin Fitzwilliam Greenfield Hancock Harrisville Hinsdale Jaffrey Keene Marlborough Nelson Richmond Stoddard Sullivan Surry Swanzey Troy Walpole Wed. 9/17/14 Acworth Bennington Chesterfield Dublin Fitzwilliam Greenfield Hancock Harrisville Hinsdale Jaffrey Keene Marlborough Nelson Richmond Stoddard Sullivan Surry Swanzey Troy Walpole WHAT TO BRING: Products marked toxic, poison, corrosive, irritant, hazardous, flammable, danger. If you think it’s hazardous, bring it up. WHAT NOT TO BRING: Empty Containers (can be recycled), Latex Paint, Ammunition, Fireworks, Radioactive Materials, Make-Up & Toiletries. OTHER INFORMATION: Containers must be labeled as to their contents. No containers larger than 10 gallons will be accepted. ALSO: Check out our new reuse center for items such as good quality paint or various cleaning products. Perfect for a small job and, best of all, it’s FREE! 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