out in the country, there is no net (internet wifi)
the kids have no access to internet at our place in the country. our place is smaller there. they end up playing together, like kids did in the olden days.
out in the country, families play board games together...
out in the country, boys make slime balls from blanco river muck...
out in the country, we plant basil under our windmill. then make a barbed wire, rock, and wine bottle fence around it (hoping we can make pesto before armadillo get to it).
out in the country, kids can enterntain themselves with a stump and a 2x6. #2 son called it a "weight checker".
out in the country, shiner bock is enjoyed in the blanco river.
out in the country, we shower outdoors. I built a new solid shower door with leftover polygal from construction of AustinModHouse.
out in the country, we flush with rain water. we finally replaced the old toilet in the A-frame (tear-down) in wimberley. the OLD toilet was SO inefficient. it took almost 3 gallons to flush, and wasn't that great with the actual flushing. we flush using rain water from the roof catchment, all those extra gallons down the hole resulted in a lot of extra work filling jugs.
the new low-flow dual flush toilet works SO much better and uses a LOT less water. the light in there is also via solar power (solar charged 12v battery).
out in the country, dogs like to play in the river and fetch sticks (not our dogs though, they are busy watching our home in austin)
and when the sun sets out in the country, and that golden light illuminates oak tree trunks... it's awesome. our home is up on a bluff 50 ft above the blanco, so we get that last bit of golden light before night provides the darkness.
and when the darkness arrives, we enjoy time around the fire when we are out in the country. HEY! notice the hole in the table is gone! I've made a solid walnut piece to fill it, OR....
remove the walnut lid, and we have a recessed ice or wine bucket in the middle of the table. this will get more use now that summer is on the way.
out in the country, I don't shave but I do have sunshine on my shoulder...
out in the country, we DJ...
a few weeks ago, at the Urban Outfitter's SXSW party, they gave me a gift bag with this slussen iphone device. it's supposed to split the audio out so you can separate headphone and speaker output. they also have a free slussen app that brings up two songs on virtual turntables with DJ features to queue, synch and adjust BPM. you can even scratch using the app. I was demonstrating my DJ technique when the boys became interested. #1 son was VERY interested while I was mixing Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes) with Elephant (Tame Impala Todd Rundgren mix).
hours later, we found #1 son was up WAY past his bed time, had those two songs repeating because "they sound so good on my headphones". he (we) paid for his lack of sleep the next morning.
while the kids may not have internet via wifi out in the country, we do have a mobile wifi media server. this clever mobile hard drive has its own battery and local wifi. it has plenty of space for the entire itunes library and movies. it can serve several devices at the same time. (purple U device is the iphone DJ slussen thing).