The Grand Experiment: aka the dissonance of existence...

Ok, so forgive me if my title waxes a bit long-winded and melancholy, but the past weeks have been more than a journey, they have been a trip!

Let me explain a little about what I mean.  My time working at the hotel has truly come to an end.  I pulled the plug for a few reasons, not the least being that I felt my soul was being sucked through my eyeballs because I did not see the purpose of the work that I was doing.  I was not doing the things that I feel called to do and although my physical and financial needs were being met, my spiritual and emotional ones were not... not in the least.

Thus the dissonance:

Do I continue to work my time in exchange for money and security for my family, but not have much space for creativity and growth of my own ideas

OR

Do I take a smaller paid position with much greater "free" time and flexibility so I can pursue other endeavors and engage my creative side, but with greater financial risk?

Everything in me tells me to go with the first option.  My side of the family has always done the responsible thing, worked good solid jobs, saved up a lot of money, and had a comfortable life.  This doesn't sound too bad definitely, but I feel that my nomadic spirit doesn't fit in with it very well.

I joke that I should have been a farmer because that vocation would fit me well...

Well, that might just happen.

I have chosen the latter option.  I have gotten a great job working with a community of people in Grand Marais that will be enough to pay our bills and give us a decent amount of saving every year.  It pays twice per hour what I am earning at the hotel, but overall pays less. Our expenses are going to be lower because we are going to be living on the homestead of a wonderful couple who live outside of Grand Marais and have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) garden, chickens, make maple syrup, produce most of their own electricity, and are working on making their own bio-diesel... amongst many other projects.

This was and is my Grand Experiment.  I tried to work in the commercial sector and quickly realized why I have worked for non-profits my entire life.  If you are going to be in the commercial sector the best person to work for is yourself I believe.  In addition, the pace and atmosphere of some of the businesses up here is very unhealthy and overly stressful.  I don't believe that this is necessary for a successful business, but I am not the one to criticize other people's business practices.

The latter part of the experiment is still to come.  Building my own shelter.  Living purposefully without some of the "luxuries" that we have become so accustomed to, but living in the lap of some of the most forgotten "luxuries."  I trade limitless electricity for solitude and the flicker of candle-light.  I trade full flush toilet facilities for the sight of fresh deer tracks in the snow and trees all around.

I am willing to make these trades.

If any of you are wondering, Rose was the one who re-introduced this route to me.  We had been considering doing this immediately when we returned from India, but felt that it was a better idea to work for the hotel.  I don't disagree that it was a better idea to start at the hotel, but I feel that we are finally finding our way to some of our goals and that is a beautiful thing.

You are all invited to come up and stay in the yurt in the sugarbush.  Just don't plan any visits until February because I still need to build the yurt...

See you soon!

Barn to Barn: Journeys through Southern Minnesota...

Happy Thanksgiving to the world!  I hope that your day will be filled with meaningful family traditions or whatever soon to be traditions fill your heart with happiness and, of course, thankfulness.

Rose and I have once again made the trek south to the homelands of southern Minnesota to spend this holiday with our respective families.  My family on Thanksgiving itself, and Rose's family on Friday.

A wrench was thrown into our plans by the bad news that my last remaining grandparent's health is waning and that the prognosis is potentially not very good.  With the members of the DeCoux side of the family it pretty much comes down to stubborness.  I swear that my Grandpa DeCoux stayed alive for about 8 years longer than he should have simply because my grandma told him to.  My grandma, on the other hand, doesn't have that influence in her life any more.  She does have the affection and concern of her children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, but somehow that doesn't seem to work as well as your spouse for 60+ years... go figure...

Anyway, she is in the hospital and that means that instead of the planned dinner (which is in the middle of the day for those of you who did not grow up on a farm) and hangout will become an abbreviated dinner and a trip to the hospital.  Usually not as fun as the other option, but hey, let's give it a go.

So what does this have to do with anything?

I always feel really sleepy when things like this happen.  When my mom passed away I slept for about 6 hours in the middle of the day, waking up to a house full of family and meat and cheese plates (many, many of them).  When my step-mom had a heart attack I slept for 18 hours straight, through the night and half of the way through the next day.  For those of you that don't know me, this is unusual.  Tonight I was feeling very sleepy and decided to lay down, but I couldn't, despite my best efforts and tricks, get my mind to stop.  I wasn't directly thinking about my grandma though, I was thinking about BARNS.

Yes, BARNS.

Driving down today I saw dozens (yes, dozens) of barns that are falling down, nearly falling down, or that are piles of timbers and lumber.  This always makes me feel sad because I know that these buildings were once the backbone of the agricultural system in their areas and now are in the lurch without a direct use or purpose.

Solution:
Re-purpose them.  This idea came while I was laying sleeplessly in bed and I think that it isn't half bad.  Demolish or disassemble the barn, salvage the usable timbers, wood, siding, tin roofing, hardware, windows, and build a new legacy building from the old materials (and a few new materials to help with stability).  My original idea was to build a garden shed of some kind out of the materials, but the options are really very broad: garden shed, guest house, workshop, ANY kind of outbuilding would work.

There are numerous organizations around the country that are dedicated to saving the history present in American barns and I believe that this could be a great way to assist in doing this.  I have a potential taker on this idea that I could do next spring, so if any of you know of any barns or barn owners in Minnesota or Wisconsin that would be good candidates for this kind of a project, let me know!  I am seriously considering this as a hobby profession!

Alright, coming full circle now: What does this have to do with my grandma?  Things falling apart is not a new concept.  It is part of existing.  My grandma said the other day that if she died tomorrow she would have lived a great life and she would be happy.  She will be gone, but her legacy is almost perpetuated through the teaching, loving, (disciplining for some of us), and living that she has done.  Likewise these once grand structures that are now at the dusk of their lives can be perpetuated in a new way, a way that passes on the beauty and meaning that went into them in the first place.  Repurposing is not a new concept either, and one that could help preserve a big chunk of history.

So, in closing, I am thankful for those that have come before, and for those that will come after me.

*There is another post in here that I will tackle soon having to do with the lowly status of the aged amongst us, which is completely wrong if you ask me.  VALUE the aged and everyone will benefit... Anyway, that is for another day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Week As a Single Parent...

First of all, before I start with this brief story and contemplation, I want to make it clear that I am in no way wanting to be offensive to anyone, whether you be a single parent, a single person, or someone in a committed relationship... well, I might want to be a little offensive to people who abandon children in any way, but that is a different blog post altogether.  All in all, this is MY experience dealing with a week of time spent as not only the main caregiver, but the only caregiver for our little boy, something that taught me a great deal!

Rose has performed at the Hostfest in Minot, North Dakota for over 10 years.  Her roles have changed from Astrid Lindgren's heroine Pippi Longstocking to a tomte (Scandinavian elf), to a seven foot tall troll, to a short old woman troll.  Pretty cool stuff if you ask me; it has been a mainstay of her income as a performer year after year.  This year was no different and she has returned re-invigorated to begin again in the world of story, this time by leading writing workshops and doing personal coaching.  Check out the link to see her upcoming retreats!

She left on a Saturday, during Ennis's nap, so when he woke up it was all guy time from that point onward... We spent days in our underwear eating chips and watching movies, burping whenever we felt the need and only getting up to use the bathroom...

Just kidding.

While Rose was gone I was acting as the sole manager of the hotel, which turned out just fine in the end, but had its moments of angst mainly because when I wanted to move quickly I had to remember that there was a 2.5 year old tagging behind me.  I worked my full share of hours during that week and I think that Ennis wasn't dramatically scarred from working with me (whoofta! Now I have to try not to scar him in other ways...).  I helped out with a significant amount of the work that needed to be done, namely housekeeping and laundry... He was a tremendous helper.  We would sit down at the beginning of the day and I would explain to him what we would be doing, he would acknowledge, and we would go out and do it.  It was magic really.  Ennis would jump on one bed while I was making the other and would help me by carrying the carefully tied shut bags of garbage down the hallway.  I did my managerial duties either during his naps or after he went to bed, making the workday significantly longer and drawn out, but actually not that much more tiring.  I made sure that we had time to go for walks, read a lot of books, play at the playground, really not at the expense of too much of my work time.  Personal "me" time got pretty squished though... Part of how I accommodated this crunch on time was taking on several projects in our apartment that have been waiting... oh, 6 months at least to be done.  I painted our kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom.  I removed the crappy old dishwasher from the kitchen and made a recycling nook.  I replaced all of the towel racks and such in the bathroom and did a few other "tidying" things.  I also found time to touch up the paint on my truck, install a paint-on bedliner (which actually turned out really well!), singled out many items from my life that I am going to downsize, made candles, and cooked a ridiculous amount of food (including a turkey, so many waffles that there still are some in the freezer, and enough stew to feed a small gathering of people who REALLY like stew...).  I enjoyed being the only person to be really interacting with Ennis and giving him instruction/information.  He listened well and asked fun questions and surprised me with his pleasant independence.

This all sound extremely peachy-keen, but there were a few parts of it that made me swallow hard in a comically cartoon-ey fashion.  One of my co-workers kept making comments about how Ennis didn't have anyone to take care of him now and kept giving him candy... That was really annoying.  Also, it seems that when a man is the sole provider for a child that is seen VERY differently than if it is a woman.  It was almost like people were feeling sorry for me even though I was having a great time!  That was an interesting and unexpected reaction... Any thoughts on this one?

The other things was that I realized I was doing this for ONE WEEK and had Rose coming back to share the experience again.  People who are single parents do not have that privilege.  They may employ daycare or babysitters so they can go out and have a life or just get some work done, but by and large... they are the one accountable for just about everything.  That thought made me shudder and made me almost GLOW with respect for single parents who make it work and raise their children to be well-adjusted adults.  These people are un-sung heroes of the highest regard and for those of you out there that may be reading this, I tip my hat to you!

It also made me appreciate the system of parenting that nature and society have raised up.  They say it takes a village to raise a child and I wouldn't necessarily agree, but I wouldn't disagree.  A village of involved, invested, loving, and consistent people could certainly raise a child well, but all that we really need is 2.  Two people, I think, is the minimum to make raising a child easy and safe for everyone (note that I do not specify the gender of either of the parents... this, I feel, isn't very important, but having two dedicated, loving parents is very, very important), especially the child.

So, what about the parents that don't stick around either physically or emotionally?  Well, we all know that this is a great big sticky ball of wax and we all have our own specific feelings about it, but I will touch on it briefly with this frank message:

If I can teach Ennis to keep it in his pants until he both understands and desires ALL of the results of sex, I will consider myself a decent parent.

*I don't want to preach about this because I know that there are quite a few really great parents out there who stumbled into parenthood, but that have fallen in love with it, but I stand by my statement.  I had no idea what I was getting into until the moment that Ennis was born.  When I saw him for the first time something switched inside of me and I knew that I was a father, for once and for all. 

Recently I had a friend send me a message inquiring about good books on fatherhood.  I couldn't think of any because when I did the search for good books on fatherhood I couldn't find any either!  In the conversation that resulted from his question several ideas about fatherhood came out though:

1. If you are looking for books on how to be a good dad, you probably will be one with or without the books.
2. Explaining fatherhood to a man is NOTHING like explaining motherhood to a mother.  (We don't listen in the same way about the subject.)
3. Mothers get about 9 months to get acquainted very intimately with the little one, fathers don't get that physical connection until they are born.
4. The experience of becoming a father is completely different for every man although there are some things that are universal.

Perhaps I will write a book on fatherhood... or at least about the experience of becoming a father.  If you know any good dads, let me know so I can set up some interviews!

I know that my experience as a "single" parent is really in no way valid or even that impressive, but it yielded great insights to me and hopefully it will yield something else that will help to support other parents out there.  Parenting is the most important business that we can involve ourselves in and anything that I can do to encourage people to involve themselves in it I will do!

Timeout! Technology, Business, and Sigrid Olson...

As some of you may have noticed, I have taken a break from my commentary on Thoreau's commentary about life, Walden.  There have been many things happening in my life since I started that project and I have to say that I have been spending more time reading paper books than listening to Walden on my mp3 player and have been spending more time researching market revenues than considering the profitability of solitude.  *It is strange how a "simple" life can include so much complexity!

So what has been going on:

1. The Brewery-- This has been taking up a lot of my mental energy.  I have been using a lot of my extra time to work on a business plan for starting up a brewery in Grand Marais.  The plan itself is looking pretty good, but there are a lot of questions and specific pieces of information that I lack because, well, I have never started a business before, let alone a brewery.  I have operated several businesses and have done a very good job of cleaning up/organizing the places that I have worked for, but doing the initial research is challenging to say the least.  However, I have been making headway and I will post the business plan up on Cabin Industry when I get it completed!  Wish me luck and send me any advice/help you can!

2. Computers-- *Warning: There is a lot of computer mumbo-jumbo in here, so if you are not of a stout computer person, this could be painful... You have been warned.*
Recently the macbook that I have been using (which was given to me by the author of another riveting blog called opentheory.net) has been showing its age (6+ years) and is likely tired after being lugged around the world and having to put up with the unreliable voltage in India for 9 months.  So, alas, the time has come to replace it!  Here is my conundrum:

Why should I buy a brand new fancy-pants computer when a used one can do all that I want it to do and is much, much cheaper?  The answer for this, of course, is reliability, but I haven't had much trouble with reliability as long as you keep water and explosives away from it...

So used is a possibility... Any ideas?

Then there is the 2 party issue of computers these days... has anyone else noticed that Apple and Microsoft are a lot like the Democrats and Republicans?  I won't delve into which is which and what characteristics each shares, but it is amusing to think about!

Let's put politics aside for a moment, shall we?

I like Macs because they are very intuitive and smooth. I kind of feel like Apple is becoming too "Big Brother" and is becoming such a computing way of life that I want to pull back from it, just like how facebook can start to suck your soul out through your eyeballs after you see the 30th cute kitten update in the timeline... you know that you have been there...

PCs are waaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper.  However, Microsoft hasn't put out an operating system since XP Pro (Service Pack 2) that has made me feel anything but sadness about computers.  I hear that Windows 8 is going to be better, but I just don't think that I trust them anymore... Sorry Windows, we had a nice run, but I am afraid that maybe we should see other people...

Like Android.  This is an interesting new competitor in the laptop operating system game.  A third party so to speak.  Google's upstart is famous for making smart phones smarter and gave the population access to hundreds of thousands of applications that could make your life more productive, but likely will just take more of it up...  Anyway, Android now has a version out (4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich... yum) that is robust enough to run on a full fledged computer, but still integrates all of the things that people love about smart phones.  Coupling this with really snazzy designs and decent prices like the Asus Transformer tablets makes a very good argument for Android... Any thoughts?

The jury is still out, but I am leaning towards previously used computers or something that runs Android...

3. Phones-- Jeez!  Thoreau must be rolling in his grave I am talking about all of these THINGS that he would dismiss as not adding any value to my life.  I can see his bearded head shaking side to side with that look of disappointment on his face... he often wore that expression...

Anyway, my current phone doesn't do me any favors when it comes to work.  It doesn't actually receive calls, but does me the kindness of telling me when I have missed calls.  And then charges me for them even though I didn't receive them.  Hmm.  Time to change.

Does anyone have any experience with Straight Talk?  This, allegedly, is a month to month, no plan cell phone program that is not only much cheaper than most other carriers, but has better reception because it uses just about everyone else's network!  There is a Dark Side here though... Straight Talk is done through Walmart.  I guess that I don't have a huge problem with benefiting from Walmart's buying power in this instance.  I do get a funny feeling about it though...

One cool thing about it is that you can use just about any phone with Straight Talk, so I can, again, use a used phone and won't have to buy a new one...

Anyway, enough about all of that.  It makes me tired.  I hope that I haven't tired you out too much.  I sometimes have to pull back from all of this stuff so that I can realize that I don't need any of that stuff to thrive in my life.  Time for something much more refreshing and that has kept me centered throughout most of this other stuff...

4. Sigurd Olson-- Sig Olson was an amazing man who was instrumental in the forming of many of the National Parks of the United States and their policies.  He is most famous around here (Minnesota) for being the most vocal proponent of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  I have been reading a book of his quotes and writings and it has brought me back from the abyss with all of this mumbo-jumbo I wrote above here.  His writing was aimed at helping people to "feel about the woods and hills and waters as I do." They bring me back to the simplicity that I truly desire, more than a computer or a phone or even a brewery.  This will be forever ingrained in me and his words have a magical way of touching me.  I would like to close not with any of my words, but with his, because I believe that what he has to say will speak well for me:

"Think of the wonder of being able to live on dreams, of being able to do what more than all else in the world you have wanted to do.  Think of the wonder of knowing that you have found yourself." -Journal, January 14th, 1930






"I have stood on top of a windswept hill, waved my hat at the breeze, shouted to the skies that I was alive, and I have fought the waves on gigantic lakes and enjoyed the slap of every one.  I love the rain, the snow, thunder, storms, quiet, every change of the weather. " -Journal, March 4, 1935

Take That Thoreau! I'm Starting a Business!

In my last post I talked a little bit about Thoreau's view of work and how it is integrally connected with the possession of "stuff."  The more "stuff," we have or want, the more we will have to work in order to get it when, according to Thoreau, we actually don't need it at all.

He uses the example of his squatter garden, which he proudly claims profited him $13.44 or around $350 today all told.  He planted and hoed and harvested by himself.  People who walked by often scoffed at him saying that his field will never bear any fruit because he was so late in planting and because he never actually hoed the whole thing.  If he had an ox, he could have gotten it all done earlier, had more leisure time, and would have had more income from a better harvest.  Problem is that an ox in 1850 cost around $30, which would come out to be about $650 today.  He would be working for almost 2 years to pay off the animal and that doesn't count building the animal a stall, feeding it, etc.  The expense adds up without you realizing it!  This is still the case today in many situations.  Thoreau claimed that he was doing better than any farmer in Concorde that year!

Anyway, with all of that said, I am going to try to take the best of both worlds and start a business based on low overhead, a sound idea, a lot of elbow grease, and some serendipitous resources.

A little background first:

My acquaintance with the great city (village) of Grand Marais began some 8 years ago when I arrived here on my way to be a canoe guide at the end of the Gunflint.  At that time Grand Marais was already a tourist destination, but hadn't done a lot to polish up its image.  (It has since done a magnificent job of becoming a welcoming destination).  That summer I repeatedly told my co-workers that something that Grand Marais needs is a gym because there is no place to work out in this city!  Behold, 2 years later: The Pump House and a community gym at the high school.

THEN, I was an intern at the North House Folk School and spent pretty much all of my spare time out in the woods doing this or that, hiking, collecting mushrooms, collecting birch bark, you name it.  I told people then, "You know, Grand Marais needs an outdoor sporting good store." Behold, Stone Harbor.

SO, this time I am not going to let my ideas get away from me!  I have already begun discussing business plans and potential investors to get this project off of the ground.

Behold, the Grand Marais Brewery.

No, the brewery is NOT in the lighthouse... I doubt that I could get the Coast Guard to go for that one, but I think that the lighthouse is going to be present in the logo when I get it developed...

Anyway...

Grand Marais is a destination.  People love it here because it is beautiful and it is pretty calm, and there is some really great food around here.  What better to compliment these wonderful things than the ability to quaff some great local beer along with your Lake Superior Trout or Ancho BBQ marinaded pork ribs?  Sit by the Lake and enjoy a Pincushion Porter in the shadow of the mountains that gave it its name.  Watch the loons fishing while tipping back a Loonlight Belgian White.  Dig into a Wild Rice Stout and be transported to a simpler time...

Ok, so that last one was going a little overboard, but I think that you get the point.

I have been brewing since I was an intern at North House.  I haven't done much in the last year (because you can't get good hops in India... or any of the other stuff for that matter!), but I am starting to refresh myself and already feel that I have exceeded the brewing knowledge that I accumulated over those years.  I do have many additional resources to tap (heehee) into to make sure that the product is as good or better than the idea!

Supply would be limited to the North Shore, starting in Grand Marais and branching out.  The recipes are in the works as we speak and if anyone has any name ideas that have to do with things Northern, please send them to me via email!  I would love to hear your ideas!

I have serendipitously met several people who have been interested in helping me get this project started: One person who knows a master brewer who can give advice on the recipes, one person who is looking to start a distillery and could potentially coop, and many people who are excited for this to happen.

The first thing is funding.  I will likely be able to get some startup funding from the Northeast Entrepreneurial Fund (the same organization that helped one of my friends start a coffee roasting business-- Fika Coffee), but am open to grants and other ways of getting funding.  If any of YOU out there in blogger land would be interested in being a part of this, please let me know!

There will be more coming in the future about this, but I just wanted to get the word out more effectively and put some of my ideas down on "paper."  And to see what you all have to say about this idea.

This has truly been an interesting development considering my recent reading of Thoreau and Sigurd Olson, both of whom viewed that their work, writing, was so much more important than anything else that they could possibly be doing.  I am pleased to be pursuing something that I am excited about and see that this could add another layer of strength to Grand Marais's appeal/draw.



It will be a win/win situation!

Walden Part 2: Work or that thing that you do with most of your time...

I have been asking myself questions about work my entire life.  That has been a huge motivator for this blog as well!  I think that there are many, many ways to look at work, but they all fall into a few categories, of which Thoreau digs into right off the bat in Walden.

First of all, Thoreau paints a pretty stark counter-culture picture of himself here.  Picture the 1800s, industry is just starting to really make some progress, people are working hard, building up and developing the world, which is growing steadily larger by the day!  Only 10 years after Thoreau's death is when the play "Around the World in 80 Days" is set, lauding the modern railway and steamship's efficiency to grant one ability to circumnavigate the globe in an astonishing 80 days!

People were working and people were proud to be working!  Amazing things were happening!  Things that were only dreams a few years before!  So, why is this guy holing himself up in a cabin in the woods and badmouthing people that work?  Well, let me paraphrase a little and then move forward.

STUFF.  We all have it, and no matter what we get, we usually want more.  I am guilty of this all of the time.  There is that bike... oh that sweet, sweet bike, or that new tent, or fill in the blank.  This, to Thoreau is the work of the Devil!  He states that we work so hard for things that we don't need so we forfeit the things that we do need, which is time to relax and be free and healthy.  But in order to be free we enslave ourselves to a wage or an identity made up by our employment and thus are handicapped in being who we want to be!  "You make yourselves sick that you might lay something against a sick day..." (Page 1)

This makes a ton of sense to me.  I have always worked doing something that I loved.  I was able to find a solid and respectable identity in my work and was just fine with that.  My employment now (at the hotel), is solid, respectable work that pays well.  I have a good amount of influence in the company and I can make most of the calls that I need to make.  I manage a relatively large staff, oversee a few million dollars worth of real estate, and have the flexibility to set my own schedule.  All of this sounds really great, but Thoreau would scoff and say that I am stuck!  I am mired!  My time is not my own!

What should I do then Henry?

He said that he tried being a teacher, but he was really bad at it because he saw it as a job, not a calling and he just didn't care that much about his students... Whoohoo!  I think he was right to stop doing that one!  My experience with teaching was about as different as possible.  If I would be fed and sheltered, I would have kept teaching.  Someday I hope to be filling that niche again... He tried managing and business, but found that although he earned more money, he was always on call and that was not up to his expectation.  He finally decided that he would be an hourly laborer.  The work isn't particularly hard, it is honest work, and at the end of the day you go home and leave work at work!  I have often wondered what it would be like to be done with work at a specific time and to not have to think about it "after hours."  I am not sure that will ever happen with me though... Anyway, Thoreau calculated that with his lifestyle he would only have to work 40-50 days a YEAR as a laborer to support himself.  Think about what you could do with all of that extra time!

Honestly, what my mind immediately jumps to is something like, "I could get so much WORK done!"  But what kind of work?  Work for pay?  Work for pleasure?  Or work for something else that you aren't quite sure of?  Work for discovery, either personal or public?

I like to think that Thoreau didn't push off work altogether, but just chose to do something that was more natural to him rather than something that was forced.  For example, Rose is a writer.  It is easy for her to write.  It comes naturally.  When she is at the front desk of the hotel she does a good job too, but often she gets really worn down because it isn't natural for her to be on like that all of the time.  I like to be moving, I like to be interacting.  Teaching and coaching were good for me because I was always doing something.  I would like to think that I could start up a business or three and stay busy and happy, not being mired in the "work of the Devil" though I continue to work.  Only time will tell about that last one...

So, what is YOUR natural work?  At St. Olaf the Class of 2005 started a project that assists students in discerning their vocation, which is a complicated word that means who you are, what you do, how you see yourself, how you see the world, how your identity is and isn't associated with what you do... and much more.  That is where I think that Thoreau is heading with his view of work.  You have to do SOMETHING with yourself or you aren't really a self in the first place!  He chose to intellectually brow beat society while working as an hourly laborer 40 days out of the year... Well, that is the cynical view of it.

Maybe I should do something like that... (Not be cynical, but be more like Thoreau...)

But one forgets that Thoreau was a wealthy person and had some serious cushion for his lifestyle.  His father owned a very successful factory that produced, of all things, pencils!  So, as literacy improved, his father's business did too!  The fact that Thoreau is writing against the machine of possession and consumerism is relatively ironic then, but you know how things can get blown out of proportion or exaggerated a little... it IS election season after all...

The question still remains as to whether Thoreau would have been able to come up with these ideas if he had begun his life as a pauper or a laborer.  Would be have the cushion to think these things or would he just be trying to keep his head above water?  Perhaps herein lies the problem.

Poor people have to keep working because they have to keep spending money.  If they didn't spend money and worked, they wouldn't be poor for very long, but the cost of services in the world doesn't seem to match the rate of payment, so people have to work more and more so that they can have more and more.

This harkens back to my previous post on wealth according to the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad.  Could Thoreau have mustered up these thoughts as a poor person or am I missing the point.  Choosing to not be attached to possessions could be the first step to freedom.  What you don't need, you, well, don't need!  Stripping it down to the bare minimum for a productive life looks different for different people, but I am sure that it includes a lot less STUFF than we currently enjoy... but do we enjoy it?

He tells a story about an estate sale at a large farm where they sold everything that this man had after he died.  He thought this appalling as all of that stuff should have been piled up and burned just as the man's body had been burned.  Instead it carries its burden into a new house to fill up someone else's space only to be sold at the next auction after the next death... We can hope for a greater sense of immortality, can't we?

Anyway, next up on the agenda is philanthropy.  When you have a lot of money and you want to be nice to someone or "give back" how do you do that?

If anyone out there has any additional thoughts on work or Thoreau's idea of work, lay it down!  It would be great to hear what you think!

Walden Part 1: Introduction and Segues...

It seems to me that no self-respecting blog concerning anything "cabin" related can exist for very long without having some commentary on Henry David Thoreau's classic work, WALDEN, where Thoreau builds his own shelter and lives/reflects on life and many of its associated afflictions... even though he himself was pretty well taken care of and wasn't all THAT far out in the woods... but I digress...

I have read Walden several times.  This will be the third time in completion, but the umpteenth time I have visited its pages.  I would like to think that Thoreau would forgive me for blogging about his masterpiece of transcendentalist independence, but I am a little nervous that he would shake his bearded head at the fact that I am listening to it as an audiobook on an iPod... Whoops!  Anyway, back to the subject at hand...  To me it seems that one can gauge the complexity and value of a book or work by the diversity of perspective it can elicit in its readers.  For example, I view the Bible as a magnificent work of art, not so much because of any of the messages it propounds, but because it seems that just about every time I read it I learn something more, either about myself, the world around me, or society at large.  That, my friends, is power!  You find different things at different times because of what you bring to the table.  Likewise, the first time I read Walden I was dabbling in Hegelian philosophy and was seeking his system.  How can a man from Thoreau's background get to these conclusions?  Needless to say, I got more questions than answers out of that reading!  The next time I was enthralled in the beauty of relationships (interpersonal, not just romantic...) and ended up being a little upset with how he eschewed interpersonal connectedness.  Well, it turns out that Thoreau doesn't really throw this to the wayside, but he does think about it much differently than I did, which raises the supreme irony of the fact I was upset with him for thinking independently!  So much for interpersonal relations I guess!

This reading has already proven to be vastly different.  My situation coming into it is different and there are a few situations in my life that are influencing it greatly.  One of which I will introduce shortly:

Rose and I have three neighbors.  All of them have proven themselves to be kind and they all appreciate Ennis's toddler-ness, which is GREAT because Ennis can't be anything else right now!  One of our neighbors, Ted, has slowly been watching his wife of 40+ years approach the twilight of her life.  Rose has been more conversant with him than I have been, but the fatigue of this process is plain to see.  Tonight we watched as the ambulance brought Ted's wife up to the hospital; we walked over to talk with him a little and see if we could help out.  As usual in these situations, I was a weepy mess and Rose was the put together one.  It was touching to see someone who had previously seemed so strong and tough become so tender and fragile.  It reminded me of a passage in J.R.R. Tolkien's book of mythology The Silmarillion.        *I know that I am going to sounds SUPER nerdy here, but stick with me!

In this book Tolkien explains the complexities of the world he created for the other books and the origins of the different peoples.  He explains the elves, who are immortal, the men, who are mortal, the dwarves, the goblins, etc... One of his stories has to do with a unique love story and a deep insight into life.  It seems that at some point in the history of Middle Earth an elf woman fell in love with a mortal man.  They got married, had kids, and eventually they all had to make a decision: to be mortal or immortal.  The way that Tolkien pitches both sides is tremendous.  Immortality gives you constancy across the eons, it gives you perspective beyond a doubt, it gives you clarity of mind and temperance of spirit, it gives you perfection in craft and skill, etc, etc...  It seems like a no-brainer!  Immortal it is!

BUT

Mortality gives you passion, mortality gives you the fire of life that burns so hot that it can't help but burn out, mortality gives you intensity, individuality, creativity beyond the sensical, spontaneity, freedom from the chains of time through your own departure, it gives you pain, but it also gives you love and peace and happiness beyond measure.

One of the children chose to become immortal and became the leader of the elves.  One of the children chose to become mortal and became the greatest king of men ever recorded.  Both chose wisely, both lived honorably, only one died with cause and sacrifice.

That may seem pretty dark and deep, but this came to me again tonight as I watched Ted say goodbye to his beloved and ask himself the question whether he would see her again in this world or in the next. I thought about this tonight as I played with my beautiful family and my little boy who is so full of life.

What does this have to do with Walden you might ask?  Well, honestly, not much, but as I read it this time, I will be filtering it through this as well as many other things.  My filter will help distinguish what I get out of this project, and I believe that it is paramount to taking on a project to know what glass you are looking at it through.

What it does have to do with Walden can be broken down to a few things that are clear to me right now (I am sure that there will be several more things to add later!):  live your life with some sense of freedom and consider your life anew each day.

I will be trying to do these things as I go through the book and I hope to hear your comments on my musings!  I encourage any of you who are reading this post to take up the book (or audiobook) and experience Walden again for the first time.  There are several books I will be working my way through again and hope to be sharing my thoughts with anyone who is willing to listen!

"To be awake is to be alive." -H.D. Thoreau

Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and Me... The secrets of financial mumbo jumbo

A few years ago Rose's dad (let's call him Frank) gave Rose and me a peculiar Christmas present.  A copy of Robert Kiyosaki's books Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Cashflow Quadrant.  This was a strange gift in many regards, one being that Frank has always been pretty tight with his money (the books were purchased used) and that he had never talked about money with either Rose or I at all.  I understood the notion to mean that he was interested in helping us gain an understanding of the use of money so that we would be financially stable or free.  A very nice gesture and one that I very much appreciate...

I sat on the books (not literally) for a few years before cracking them open.  Apart from being a horrendously bad read and illustrating a 9 year old Robert K. as a highly enlightened (or soon to be) burgeoning businessman, Kiyosaki's model for how to be financially liberated is really very simple.  He breaks it down into 4 categories: Income, Expenses, Assets, and Liabilities.  

Income is pretty simple.  Money coming in.  It can come from a steady job, or from dividends from investments... The latter is what he pushes.

Expenses are equally simple.  Money going out... for any reason.  Whether it be that fancy new car or the water bill, these are all expenses, and we all have them!

Assets are things that you own that appreciate in value or produce income.  Mutual funds, a business, a rental property, these are things (other than you personally) that can produce money for you.  This is the literal "money-maker."

Liabilities are things that you own that depreciate in value.  Basically all of your consumer goods that are automatically worth 40% less when you carry them out of the store.

So, what does he say about all of this?  In a nutshell it is to have enough assets to cover your expenses.  

He uses this to define wealth as "Having enough money coming in or in savings that you can pay your monthly liabilities indefinitely."  That is an awesome idea!  Having my assets, things that I don't have to work at or for in order to earn money, produce a seemingly infinite income stream... One question:

HOW?

Well, Robert got rich in the real estate market.  He took advantage of tax loopholes to reinvest his capital gains into other properties that either were worth more money than he paid for them, produced more money than he could spend, or showed signs of potentially increasing in value...

Did I mention that he wrote this book in the late 1990s?

This is when the housing market was exploding and people were finding it easier and easier to get bigger and bigger loans and thus, houses.  

Enter cynicism here.

But to avoid the trap of cynicism and saying that Robert K. is fully of Oscar Meyer weiners (or bologna if you roll that way), I have to say that there is a ton of sense in his model.  Its beauty is in its simplicity and just like a lot of the most powerful philosophies in the world, it is the APPLICATION of the ideas that really make the difference.  

If I were a burned out employee who was working my whole life for my retirement package and read this book, I would likely cuss him out in my head and go back to work, most likely a little less satisfied than I was the previous day.

If I were a young, bright eyed, adventurous soul, I would start working on ways that I could build up unique assets and get them producing money for me asap.  Or if I were a little less motivated I would buy a bunch of lottery tickets.  The jackpot is $250+ million dollars right now!  What?  That is enough to give you a high just thinking what you could do with all of that money.  Maybe THAT is really riches, finding contentment in your mind... But that is a blog post for another day!

If I were a young adult with a family, a solid job, and a lot of good ideas, I would look into how I can use my income to produce more income and thus develop the assets he speaks of while holding down my day job... (This is where I am by the way...)

So he leaves the door open for opportunity and the creativity of the reader.  This way he is off the hook!  He even warns that you will lose money before you make money unless you are an amazing investor.  

The entire basis for these books is that Robert has two dads: his biological dad and his best friend's dad, who teaches little Robbie about money.  Robert's dad is a highly ranked government official in the education department, gets paid a lot of money, but never has enough money.  Robert's friend's dad is a business owner who basically, it seems, runs the island of Hawaii through his holdings.  Robert sides with his friend's dad most of the time as being the one who is right.  This was hard for me to swallow as I owe my entire life and situation to my dad's hard work; he worked a lot like Robert's biological dad.  Robert comes around to admitting that people who work hard for money can still fit his definition of wealth.  They just can't spend their money for 30 years or so.  The rich have the benefit of having their money work for them, basically passively creating cashflow that can be reinvested or spent on other things... like $400 golf clubs or a Mercedes (I am glad that I don't want either of these things!).

So, how does this apply to me?  I WANT to work.  I want to feel my body invested in my daily activities.  Could I create a ton of assets and meet this model?  Sure.  I know that I could.  I could start today if I wanted to.  Would I be satisfied with that?  Maybe, but probably not completely.  I want to live my life in service to something greater than myself.  A cause that it is my generation's privilege and responsibility to effectively address or simply to leave the world in better shape than when I arrived.  Can these things be harmonized?  I am certain that they can.  Do I know how to do that right now?  I have ideas, but I am not quite there yet.  I hope to use this blog to start drilling to the core of these ideas (I am not advocating mining...) and creating some effective models for this.  Wish me luck!

Update: The Journey Home

It has been several months since I have put up a post and I had to chuckle a little when I revisited the blog to see what the last thing I put up was.  That was written in a time when I was increasingly sure that Rose and I would be heading back to the US, but when I was completely uncertain of the terms etc...

Since that time there have been many, many developments in our lives to get us to the place we are today and I hope to introduce you to many of them (without boring you into oblivion!).

While in India Rose and I finally agreed after weeks at loggerheads that things were not going the way that we needed them to so that our family could thrive.  Ennis was doing well, learning Hindi, being a very well-behaved young man, and growing increasingly aware of the dangers of strange dogs and monkeys.  I was doing very well, having time for exercise, personal reading, all of my work, and some other adventures on the side.  Rose was struggling through the challenges posed to her of being a white woman in a culture that has a not-so-rosy view of white women, an empowered woman in a culture where women are just starting to gain a foothold for their importance and wellbeing, and a young mother of an active young man starting to take many risks in the world around him.  There were many other things, but I generally boil it down to these things and Rose hasn't said that I am wrong, so I will just leave it at that.

When we starting thinking of coming home my first impression was to start a business or be self-employed.  I looked into the Go-Fer Cabins again, I applied to positions all across the state, I contacted some of my friends who have their own businesses.  The choices we had were:

1. Go-Fer Cabins-- Required investment and a lot of work
2. Wedgewood Motel-- Required MORE investment and a lot of work
3. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm-- We would live on site and work in exchange for rent.
4. Bike Shop-- Do part-time work at the local shop
5. Cook County Visitor's Bureau Marketing Specialist-- Getting people to come north!
6. Grand Marais Parks and Recreation Manager-- Managing the public resources of Grand Marais
7. Maintenance Manager @ Bluefin Bay Resort-- Making sure that all of the properties were working properly
8. Technology Specialist at an outdoor non-profit in the Cities
9. Director of a small non-profit bike shop in the Cities
10. Director of the Bear Center outside of Ely
11. Adventure Curriculum Specialist at Wolf Ridge ELC
12. Marketing Manager for the City of Duluth
13. Teaching at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Faribault
14. Starting a small business in Faribault
15. General Manager of several hotels in Grand Marais

Now, these are all across the board with all kinds of pros and cons.  I believe that I could do all of them well, but I struggled with the same message that I wrote about in an earlier post speaking about working for your lifestyle instead of working for money.  Security won this battle this time and even though I wasn't offered many of the jobs I applied for (there were hundreds of applicants for one of the positions, including people with doctorates and masters degrees... these are NOT high level positions, but I digress), I was offered some of them and they offered us some good opportunities.  We ended up taking the position managing the hotels in Grand Marais because we felt that it would offer us a good amount of co-working time, time together, and time to spend with Ennis while accomplishing something meaningful, being able to do the job very well, and being able to be in the community we feel a deep connection to.

We think that we made the right decision.

So here we are at the Aspen Lodge Hotel in Grand Marais, MN.  I have been starting to brainstorm new ideas for other projects (in posts to come!), reading some good books, working hard, and getting some time with the family.

There are still challenges in this situation, but they are very minor compared to the challenges we faced in India or moving back from India.  The US is a very, very good place to live despite its rough edges, there is a LOT of nice smooth area in the middle.  We are happy to have landed on that smooth area and are ready to start making waves!

But for now, if anyone wants to come up to the North Shore and hang out with us, let me know.  We are running the hotel, so we can give you a "good" deal!  It will be great to reconnect and revisit the past year with everyone!

In the future, keep checking in for new posts on some of the interesting things that I have been learning about Cabin Industries and self-sufficiency...

Life-Style and Business Idea: Go-Fer Community Cabins...

Well, now that I have gotten a little bit of my philosophy and basic ideas put down in this blog it is only natural that I move on to the practical application of these ideas.  This brings me to the thought of the night (sometimes there are several "thoughts of the night," but tonight there is but one!).

After much deliberation and a few intense debates, Rose and I have decided to return home to the US after this academic year.  I met this with trepidation as I have a desire to stay around here, continue to let my ideas (and this blog) develop, and get a tighter grasp on how we can put these ideas into action upon our return.  Well, we are putting those plans in fast forward now and have also been squeezing the accompanying stress into a smaller package in the process.  But great pressure is needed to form diamonds, right?  Well, I hope that the ideas that have come out of this are as good as diamonds.  I believe that there is at least one that is a golden idea none-the-less!  Let me know what you think about it!

Grand Marais.  A beautiful, scenic, eclectic, and expensive place.  There aren't that many places to live in Grand Marais and due to its proximity to Lake Superior, the places that there are to live are hard to come by and usually pretty expensive.  Often times this is overcome by just how COOL Grand Marais is though.  There are adventures for just about any soul in this town: arts, crafts, scenery, hiking, canoeing, fishing, birding... the list just keeps rolling on!  BUT, no matter how cool the town is, if you can't find affordable housing or a job that can sustain you (and your family), then you are kind of out of the running.  Now, before I go any further I feel obligated to mention that there are many young families in Grand Marais that are making it work and there are many pioneering people up there of all ages that have made the Grand Marais lifestyle work despite its challenges.  These people have often adopted at least some elements of a simpler lifestyle, either it be by living in a cabin without water or by passing on many of the material pleasures of the world so that they can enjoy the natural pleasures.  This plays a role in where I am going with this:

If there could be a way for people to live in Grand Marais in a comfortable, cheap place, those people would be free to use their money for other things, probably things in the community... That seems like a pretty good idea, eh?

So this is my idea:

Right now there is a property for sale in Grand Marais.  It is the old Go-Fer Cabins on the eastern side of town.  It used to be an RV park and a small resort, but has gone through many incarnations of this and that, currently ending up as a kind of neglected looking question mark.  My idea involves purchasing this property, renovating the cabins into efficient, intuitive little homes that could be rented out monthly for a relatively low amount, and developing this new little microcosm of Grand Marais into a contributor to the community.

This is my vision:

-There are 8 cabins and 11 RV/trailer spots.  After renovation (can you say container houses?) this could be the new affordable and efficient home for 19 families!  This is a new neighborhood.  If you were to live in these cabins you would agree to be respectful to the other families in the neighborhood and to support local businesses as well as to give some of your time to beautify the area/tend the garden.  We would throw block parties and host events in the neighborhood to get people involved and mainly offer a solution for one of the problems in Grand Marais... but not a solution that would burden the community with a huge increase in population.  There are many people who want a simple life, but also want to have some of the comforts of a modern home.  I see this option as offering both!

There are challenges however.  I believe that this operation would be run very much like (or AS) a non-profit with any and all of the profit from rent being re-invested into the community and the housing situation.  The only way that this would really work is if the cabins were full almost all of the time.  I do not have a finger on the pulse of the community enough to know if this is realistic; if there would be people in Grand Marais who would like to live in a situation similar to this... Anyone have any ideas?

Also, where does the money come from?  The property is selling for $259,000 and this is, um, kind of not in line with my previous conversations about living a life free from debt!  I would be very much willing to take on the financial challenge of this if I had support and the information to know it would work.  The question is whether any self-respecting bank would agree to let me!

So here is my challenge for the blogging community out there:  If you can think of some way that this can become a reality, if you have ANY ideas about funding options or if there is some really simple solution that is beyond my grasp at this point, let me know PLEASE because I do believe that this could happen and it could be pretty amazing.  We just need to get all of the puzzle pieces together!

Economy Post #2: Grain Silos and Shipping Containers = Freedom!

Ok, so maybe I am guilty of being a little bit sensationalist in my title, but from some of my recent investigations and personal considerations, I don’t think that this is far from the truth!

I have been looking at some of the numbers (I won’t bore you with them) for debt in the US per person and have been shocked at what I have found!  Some of the numbers are just plain old disheartening, but the one that I want to share with you is the one having to do with the national mortgage debt. This is the total amount of money that all Americans have pledged in exchange for owning or pursuing the ownership of a home.

If we divided the amount of money owed by the number of people in the US--every single man, woman, and child, that number would be around $23,688.

$23,688 per person.  You have a family of 4?  How does $94,752 sound?  To some of us that doesn’t sound too bad!  But considering that about 1/3 of Americans don’t own nor are trying to own their homes, that number jumps to around $72,000 a person!

So, I was wondering what I could do for $23,688... Travel?  Sure!  Be a high-roller for a week or two in Vegas?  You bet! But how could I invest that to give me a solid and livable home that would last me my lifetime?  $23,688 doesn’t go very far!  

Unless...

You consider alternative homes or alternative materials!

There is a group right now called the “Small House Movement.”  It is a fascinating collection of people who have taken it upon themselves to live without debt and with the smallest environmental footprint possible.  The easiest way to do this, they found, is to live in a teeny-tiny yet incredibly functional home and be satisfied with it...

Just HOW small I can hear you all saying... how about under 500 square feet.  Yikes!  But, from an economic standpoint this is genius!  You can heat these houses literally for pennies a day if that, and building one will cost you under $20,000 even if you want the best materials and accessories... You just have to have fewer of both... and be ok with that...

So, I have passively introduced the main problem with the Small House Movement.  You have to be ok living in a “quaint” home.  When I mentioned this movement to Rose she said something along the lines of, “That would be ok for California or someplace warm where you can be outside all day, but in Minnesota you would go crazy in a house that small.”

There must be some middle ground here!  AND THERE IS!

Have you ever seen one of those enormous metal shipping containers being pulled behind a semi on the freeway?  Or maybe on someone’s property being used as a make-shift storage shed?  Let me tell you a little about those things.

Shipping containers are structural, meaning they are strong!  They have to be able to be stacked a dozen high and be loaded with up to 30 tons of goods each.  That is some impressive strength!  

Shipping containers have to be weather-tight.  They are often stacked on the exposed decks of massive ships so they have to be able to resist the wild weather encountered on long sea voyages.  They are over-protected as there is no sense in risking 30 tons of goods because you didn’t put a good gasket on the door...

Shipping containers are plentiful!  Last year, upwards of 90% of the goods sold in the world encountered a shipping container at one point of their existence.  There were over 105 million shipping containers shipped out of China alone last year.  Put together the global total and you are probably talking close to 1 billion shipping containers.  That is 1 per roughly every 7 people on the planet...

Shipping containers are BIG!  They are usually 8 feet wide, 9.5 feet tall, and either 20 or 40 feet long.  This is either 160sq. ft. or 320 sq. ft. respectively.  That may not sound like a lot, but if you put a few of them together your square footage jumps exponentially.  4 boxes? 740-1280 square feet... We are almost up to the national average of 1700 square feet!

Ok, but how do we get them?  Easy!  Well, not that easy, but they are plentiful.  Depending on where they originate, most shipping containers only have a lifecycle of a  set number of transports.  After a certain number they become a liability and are replaced whether they need it or not since that is MUCH cheaper than wasting 30 tons of product... You can purchase these containers in various conditions for between $1000 and $2500.  See where I am going with this?

Cheap, strong, weatherproof, decent sized housing out of something that would otherwise be thrown away?  Now you are talking!

These are some photos of houses that were built with shipping containers.  Some of them obviously cost more than $23,688, but imagine if you were starting at $4000 for the structure of your home... you’d still have $19,688 to spend on other furnishings and infrastructure!

Another option?  How about metal silos?  Many of the same rules apply to these as to the shipping containers except many times you can get these for free or for scrap metal prices as farmers don’t use them very often anymore!

Rose and I have seriously considered taking on the project of making a home or an auxiliary building out of either of these.  We think that It could be a perfect fit for having a home with a small footprint without having it be tiny.  Also, with the median home price in the US hovering just under $200,000 paying 1/10th of that means you could pay for your home in a period of 5 years easily versus the 30 years most mortgages run.  Imagine the FREEDOM!  (See, I always bring things back together!)

A few business ideas that spring off of this:

1. A Bed and Breakfast on an old farm someplace in the gorgeous countryside or one of the old farms on the North Shore where all of the rooms are in metal silos converted to apartments with straw-bale insulation and a cozy feel...
2. A company that designs, builds, and sells homes made out of silos and shipping containers.  If you hd a few basic designs and finishes, I bet that you could get quite a few people to jump on the complete package cost for one of these of around $20,000! And you could build them for that easily!

Anyone interested?