I am a single mother of a beautiful 14 yr old daughter. I am also an artist. My daughter and I started an animal rescue in 2005, but I have rescued animals all of my life. I have been a kennel worker, a reptile wholesaler, a zookeeper, a sanctuary worker, a farm hand and a vet tech. I love animals. I love creating art. And yes! I love house work:)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I have always entertained travelers if my heart spoke to me to shelter them. I am especially fond of a large number of new family I have been blessed with... the Rainbow Family, whom I have met as they gather in our local Ocala National Forest. A good friend of mine has couch surfed and speaks so highly of it, I feel the time has come to look into it. I am hoping to travel soon, and I think it would be amazing to meet new people from new places.... and even pitch in on their home front, lend my artistic flair or just generally be a blessing to my new friends... whoever they are.

Interests

i enjoy making my own clothing , but I enjoy wearing it even more. I love patchwork. i like to go hiking. i love to be barefoot. I love kids and animals and nice people. I even love the not~nice people. I make jewelry with gemstones. I am a woodburner, also known as pyrography. I also collect trash from the parks and beaches. Some of it I keep for art. Repurposing and upcycling is a passion that i meld with art!

• animals
• arts
• running
• gardening
• clothing
• technology
• traveling
• house work
• animal care
• hiking
• soccer
• beaches
• parks

Music, Movies, and Books

joni mitchell, grateful dead, bob dylan, led zeplin, james taylor, old and in the way, Cat stevens, pearl jam, nirvana, old crow medicine show, bluegrass, harmonica, banjo, violin, drums, reggae...

i love the movie "the notebook", i enjoy all movies but not so much the shoot em up movies, or action, or the fast car movies.

I love Watership Down. I greatly enjoyed reading This Seasons People By Stephen Gaskins. I am re-reading Walden now, and before that I read Divine Right's Trip. I am also reading a book about codependency because I needed to:)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

My crowning achievement is my beautiful daughter, though I feel it is more her own achievement in simply growing up in this wild world. I have owned my own home for almost 18 years, and I am proud of myself for that. Prouder, still, that I have provided a stable home for my child's entire life. we rescue animals and that is pretty awesome too!
Lets see... I was attacked and mauled by two coyotes and managed to saved myself.
I have a 3 legged leopard tortoise that's the size of a football helmet (but longer)!
Been bitten by an anaconda! Cared for an 18 foot long python named Pandora.

Teach, Learn, Share

I enjoy teaching people/children about making art out of everyday items. We decorate old vinyl albums, we make paper with dryer lint... pretty much anything we can make something out of that was just going to be thrown away. :)

I also teach the kids and grown ups about animal care and rescue. as a guest here, you would have to be ok with animals. We run our rescue from our home, and have several foster animals at any given time. But we are super nice people, and all of our animals are friendly.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share any of my artistic flair with my hosts. I can help my hosts with gardening , animal care, housework, really just about anything.

Countries I’ve Visited

United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States