Well, I certainly have been playing the part of the Prodigal haven't I? Too much riding bike, not enough writing blog posts... (Ennis loves his pink bike by the way).
*I can say for certain that this will be the most boring blog post that I will write this year, but I want to get some groundwork done before I launch into NEW, BEAUTIFUL IDEAS!
Since I last worked on this blog my life has changed significantly to say the least, but many of the ideas and concepts I have had in my head have only gotten weirder! Let me explain:
When I wrote that last post "Update from Up North," I was writing sitting next to a nice warm wood stove and was starting a new adventure of a simple life on a CSA farm living without modern utilities and/or facilities... Very pioneer of me, definitely. Tonight I am writing this post sitting next to a nice warm wood stove in my own house again starting a new adventure!
I can say with certainty that living in the yurt was a great learning experience, one that will color my life for the rest of it... I can also say that living in the yurt was not as much work or hardship as one would think, but what hardship there wasn't was often replaced with anxiety over the unknown. For instance:
The first night that we spent in the yurt the temperature was about -30F with a gusty 30mph wind. Rose and I said many a prayer that the yurt wouldn't blow over and that we wouldn't be swept away into the dark cold of winter... But we were relatively happy and warm.
We starting going to sleep pretty much when Ennis went to sleep; it proved difficult to stay awake in a pitch dark circle when everyone else was asleep... We needed so stop relying on our computers and phones as well because battery power was fleeting. Add all of that up and it looks like a pretty calm, balanced life... with lots of sleep... strange how it never really seemed to be enough, as illustrated by Ennis's "selfie." (I can't believe I just wrote "selfie." Oh I did it again!)
There are many things that weren't quite perfect though... Once we upgraded our woodstove from a metal barrel to an airtight stove I didn't have to stoke it 4 times a nightas many chilly butts. Once we got our food and town routine down we were able to feel like human beings again. But, I had to continually scrounge for firewood and keep a constant vigil on the status of our life to make sure that we didn't lose our health or our investment in the yurt. That was the most exhausting thing!
. Once we got our bathroom situation taken care of there weren't
*This is the philosophical part:
We have all been a part of one of the greatest conspiracies in the world. This conspiracy is to remove so many of the day to day concerns that plagued our ancestors only to replace them with modern concerns that really have no consequence in our greater physical life that we forget our own creative power in living and are willing to settle for whatever standard is on the market and worry about things that don't have any real consequence in our actual lives... More on that later if you would like... (You should put a comment up if you would like to hear more about my thoughts on this or if you would like to broach this topic.)
All of that from living in a yurt? Sure! Mainly because living in the yurt and not having much for resources available to me made me HAVE to look at things a little differently. I got a pretty good job working in a field that I am passionate about, low-income housing, but it is only half time and doesn't pay tremendously well, Rose and I ended up buying a house contract for deed only after convincing the seller that we were worth the risk, and we started up a business in that house because it would be the only way that we could afford to live in it... That was a little thinking outside the box and a LOT of serendipity.
So, where are we? We are now the owners of Art House B&B in Grand Marais (come and stay with us! Blog reader's special!), there are more ideas in my head than ever before, we are still thinking outside the box and trying to apply it to everyday life, we STILL don't have a proper heating situation (the boiler in the house is non-functional), but we are working on that and I am cutting firewood again!
Stay tuned for an update on the Grand Marais Brewing idea, the Cook County Housing Cooperative idea, a sewing company I am starting, MANY tiny home ideas (including a renovated Winnebago), MANY considerations on low-income housing solutions, and some projects I have been working on (Renovating Rose's studio, trying to build myself some work space, etc)!
*By the way, the floating shelter was built by a bunch of Norwegians... Big surprise!
Since I last worked on this blog my life has changed significantly to say the least, but many of the ideas and concepts I have had in my head have only gotten weirder! Let me explain:
When I wrote that last post "Update from Up North," I was writing sitting next to a nice warm wood stove and was starting a new adventure of a simple life on a CSA farm living without modern utilities and/or facilities... Very pioneer of me, definitely. Tonight I am writing this post sitting next to a nice warm wood stove in my own house again starting a new adventure!I can say with certainty that living in the yurt was a great learning experience, one that will color my life for the rest of it... I can also say that living in the yurt was not as much work or hardship as one would think, but what hardship there wasn't was often replaced with anxiety over the unknown. For instance:
The first night that we spent in the yurt the temperature was about -30F with a gusty 30mph wind. Rose and I said many a prayer that the yurt wouldn't blow over and that we wouldn't be swept away into the dark cold of winter... But we were relatively happy and warm.
We starting going to sleep pretty much when Ennis went to sleep; it proved difficult to stay awake in a pitch dark circle when everyone else was asleep... We needed so stop relying on our computers and phones as well because battery power was fleeting. Add all of that up and it looks like a pretty calm, balanced life... with lots of sleep... strange how it never really seemed to be enough, as illustrated by Ennis's "selfie." (I can't believe I just wrote "selfie." Oh I did it again!)There are many things that weren't quite perfect though... Once we upgraded our woodstove from a metal barrel to an airtight stove I didn't have to stoke it 4 times a nightas many chilly butts. Once we got our food and town routine down we were able to feel like human beings again. But, I had to continually scrounge for firewood and keep a constant vigil on the status of our life to make sure that we didn't lose our health or our investment in the yurt. That was the most exhausting thing!
. Once we got our bathroom situation taken care of there weren't
*This is the philosophical part:
We have all been a part of one of the greatest conspiracies in the world. This conspiracy is to remove so many of the day to day concerns that plagued our ancestors only to replace them with modern concerns that really have no consequence in our greater physical life that we forget our own creative power in living and are willing to settle for whatever standard is on the market and worry about things that don't have any real consequence in our actual lives... More on that later if you would like... (You should put a comment up if you would like to hear more about my thoughts on this or if you would like to broach this topic.)
All of that from living in a yurt? Sure! Mainly because living in the yurt and not having much for resources available to me made me HAVE to look at things a little differently. I got a pretty good job working in a field that I am passionate about, low-income housing, but it is only half time and doesn't pay tremendously well, Rose and I ended up buying a house contract for deed only after convincing the seller that we were worth the risk, and we started up a business in that house because it would be the only way that we could afford to live in it... That was a little thinking outside the box and a LOT of serendipity.
So, where are we? We are now the owners of Art House B&B in Grand Marais (come and stay with us! Blog reader's special!), there are more ideas in my head than ever before, we are still thinking outside the box and trying to apply it to everyday life, we STILL don't have a proper heating situation (the boiler in the house is non-functional), but we are working on that and I am cutting firewood again!
Stay tuned for an update on the Grand Marais Brewing idea, the Cook County Housing Cooperative idea, a sewing company I am starting, MANY tiny home ideas (including a renovated Winnebago), MANY considerations on low-income housing solutions, and some projects I have been working on (Renovating Rose's studio, trying to build myself some work space, etc)! *By the way, the floating shelter was built by a bunch of Norwegians... Big surprise!
