8 Broadway Brewing: Another rendition of a Grand Marais Microbrewery

Ok, so I got sidetracked on the brewery situation.  Admittedly things have been a little crazy in my life for the past year.  One thing has stayed constant in my conversations with people though; Grand Marais needs a microbrewery!

This Stuff is Expensive!

When I was putting together the idea for the brewery I got some really great support from some statewide organizations who offer investments to rural businesses so that the communities they exist in can benefit.  This rolled out to mean that I could find funding for the brewing equipment, which was not a small amount of money, but I couldn't find $1.00 to help with the costs of finding/buying/leasing a LOCATION. for the brewery.  Given, real estate in Grand Marais is neither cheap nor plentiful, but there are a few locations that would be ideal.  No dice.  Soooo, when a new piece of property came up for sale my interest was piqued yet again.  I started up the conversation with a few fellow beer aficionados again and got a rough idea put together.  Bear with me, but I think that you will like this!

The idea:
Grand Marais lacks a micro-brewery to serve as the area's hub for local flavors and beer snobs alike.  The night life in town is wildly underserved not by the fault of any of the area businesses, they are actually doing a lot and are doing it well, but because there just aren't that many venues, nor are there venues that are open late enough for the local folks to use them.  Now, with that said, there has to be some market research done here to make sure that what I am saying is completely true!  Everyone that I have talked to about it agrees though: Grand Marais needs a casual, affordable, comfortable night spot.

The property:

Needs some TLC; use your imagination!

8 Broadway.  This building is a historic "downtown" building that needs some love, but that has quietly hosted an art gallery for several years.  The first floor of the building is one large, open room with a low ceiling and a loose herringbone wooden floor.  With that right encouragement and handy people, this first floor could become something beautiful, dark wood on the walls, classy light fixtures to promote a shaded yet bright environment.  There are several little nooks on the first floor right now, which would be great to build into seating areas or just to give you a little privacy in an otherwise completely open room.  On one side you have the bar, at the back corner you have a stage for performers.  It would be beautiful and awesome.  Total seating?  I would guess about 30 people.

Yes, I'll take a Scotch...

Upstairs there are currently two apartments.  Good income potential there as well, but I think it would be awesome to convert one of them into the "Scotch Room," a nicely done conference room that could be rented out for everything from weddings to local meetings to even fantasy football players wanting to watch games and the other could be an apartment, a vacation rental, an office, you name it...
In the back of the building there are a few studio spaces that could easily be converted into the kitchen and brewery area for the business.  This would allow for some major publicity as people would love to walk in the back door from the East Bay Suites to get a beer and a sandwich... which gets me to the next item!

The Menu:

So, what do people want?  A nice place, a decent price.  What else have people wanted in this community for some time?
1. A bakery--I have talked to AT LEAST 50 people who want a bread bakery in town.  The coop wants this too.
2. A sausage maker-- The grocery stores have picked up the slack with this, but there was once "The Sausage Guy" in Shroeder who did tremendous business providing gourmet brats and sausages to the restaurants on the North Shore... Time to start it up!
*So, we do this:  A simple menu, some appetizers, nice sandwiches on fresh baked bread, designer brats and sausages along with delicious locally brewed beers.  Sounds pretty good, huh?

The Price:
Well, again, as with any good idea there is a catch.  The building is worth about $300,000 at the absolute max, probably more like $250,000, but it is listed for almost $600,000.  That is the first hurdle.  Second hurdle would be getting the spaces ready to be used for the restaurant and brewery.  We are talking maybe $50,000 for that too.  Brewing and baking equipment: another $250,000+.  This all crunched out means that we would have to earn about $7000/month in order to service the loan on the building, not to mention operating capital and payroll.  So, we would need to roll about $120,000/year minimum to make it fly.  Can we do that?  I think so.  One of the other night spots in town turned almost $2,000,000 in revenues last year, I think that we could get some of that, especially if our products were good.

Who is involved:
Well, at this point no one is really involved because this is a bit of a pipe dream!  I spoke with a fellow beer lover who has a background in financial planning who said that we would need to either find some kind of an angel investor or we would have to organize a consortium of investors who would be interested in taking responsibility for part of the overall debt, kind of like a co-signer on a mortgage.  Any ideas guys?  Any takers??

The bottom line:
I see this as an amazing opportunity and a great idea.  Time to get some numbers and maybe do some surveying to find out if people really want/need something like this in town.  It doesn't have to be in the Broadway building, but I think it would be a good fit.

As always, if you have any ideas about this, drop me a line or a comment.  I am always open to conversation, whether it be over a Scotch or not...

Concrete Cloth: Why didn't I think of that!?

Probably because I am not a chemical engineer...

Anyway, have you heard about this stuff?  If you haven't, you should. I stumbled upon concrete canvas when I was looking for another solution for a quickly deployed, minimally structurally intensive low-income housing solution.  Turns out the company designed shelters made out of this stuff so that they could get refugees into suitable housing quickly in the event of a natural disaster.  Weird thing is that when they return to these refugee locations years later they are finding that the concrete canvas shelters are not only still there, but have been continuously inhabited and are standing up to the elements remarkably well.

The beauty of this stuff is that it is basically already reinforced.  It doesn't need any iron bar or mesh to hold it together.  It has two layers of really strong synthetic canvas holding it together and then the rest of the thickness of the product is an interwoven matrix of hollow tubes impregnated with dry concrete mix.  Dang.  That is soooo incredibly smart.  Picture thousands of interwoven pixie sticks... except they are full of concrete.  You get it wet, it cures in the shape that is given and badabing.  You have yourself a finished project!

It is being used in the UK for ditches, water erosion, even putting down foundations for structures... oooh, that sounds intriguing! Since it rolls out like cloth and is moldable, you could use it for just about anything.  

The problem:  well... as with any new technology, there are some costs involved.  

First of all, there is one company making this stuff in the entire world.  Their headquarters is located in a medium sized town in south Wales, and they can only make so much of it.  They have one distributor in the US as of right now even though they are prepping to enter the US market, thus their product is extremely expensive!  One of the shelters that they make, which provides 852 sq ft, costs around $30,000!  Yikes!  Since they mainly get government contracts in England and Wales, they have no need to lower their prices either because the governments get a good deal because it lessens man-power/wages.  

With all of that said though, they have won dozens of awards and are producing this stuff with almost the same invested energy of traditional concrete, which is still a lot, but this product doesn't need any more energy put into it once it is manufactured!  

This stuff also weighs more than a literal ton... actually about two tons for one of the shelters.  A roll of this stuff is so heavy that it requires special loading and rolling equipment to get it to the worksite.  Once it is there though, two workers can pull it off the roll or stake one end down and just drive the loader away and it will unroll itself.

Will this change the game for housing?  Probably not.  Not unless we can find a way to get it locally or manufacture it locally so we don't have to ship it thousands of miles to use it.  Will this change the game for other applications?  I am sure that it already is.  The name of the game is going to be local production though.  So, if Concrete Canvas wants to start up a manufacturing plant in Minnesota I think that would be awesome.

Just think of all of the cool practical jokes you could do with this stuff too!  

The Free Cabin: What, Where, How?

 The other day I saw on the local bulletin board, Boreal, that someone was selling/getting rid of a small 13'x17' cabin up by Devil Track Lake.  It was the original cabin on the lakeshore, but now the family has rebuilt and just need the structure out of there.  I called the person and went out to take a look at it and I was really excited by the structure.  Problem is I can't figure out WHERE to put it that would be a good fit!

A little about the structure:
The building is a pretty solidly built stick-framed (2x6) shed-roofed situation.  It has single glazed windows in it, which would likely have to be replaced, but the inside is just WAITING to be stripped down, insulated, paneled, and beautified!  Imagine your own little sauna shack!  But oh, I am getting ahead of myself...

 It has a shed roof on it, meaning that it has one angle to the roof.  Pretty popular with cabin builders of old because it required less wood and hardware than other methods.  It has a nice rustic aesthetic to it as well.  Because of the shed roof we would be able to trailer it without too much trouble, but to where!?

Ok, let's get to the nitty gritty:
I want this thing for a sauna.  It is too big for a sauna i.e. it will NOT fit in my backyard.  Also, in order to get this thing in good enough shape to be a sauna I would have to a.) strip it out b.) insulate it c.) build a drain in the floor d.) put in a chimney (or wire it for electricity, which would likely happen anyway) e.) build a sauna room and changing rooms f.) you get the picture... a lot of work.

What else could it be used for?  Is there anyone out there that needs a project cabin or something to put on some rural land?  I had initially thought that I could put it on a trailer and have it as a "really big tiny house" that I could rent out to people buying land until they have their home built, but it is legally 1 foot 6 inches too wide for that!  I am sure that I could work something out to get that all squared away though!

It is set up on nice square timbers so moving it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but getting it to sit on a trailer and be properly attached?  Umm, that might be a bit of a chore.

Let's talk planning and zoning for a little bit... riveting I know!  You learn a lot about these things when you are living in a yurt... Up here in Cook County you can put a building like this out in the woods without a foundation with only a special use permit.  If you want to live in it full time then you are starting to look at more technicalities (septic, homestead, etc) and thus I think it would be worth your time to put in a foundation and get it registered as a structure.  I am looking for alternatives though!

 So that is the question of the day, friends.  What can this little gem of a historic North Woods cabin be used for?  How can it be reclaimed/repurposed?  If someone comes up with a really good option other than what I mentioned in the blog I would love to help make it happen!

Getting up to Speed... November to November

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!

Update from Up North: Foundations in the snow!

*I just logged into my blog account after not using it for several months only to find this unfinished blog post waiting to be published.  I seem to recognize this ever-hopeful young man who is writing, but feel like he is a few decades removed from where I am right now! 

Needless to say I will work on a "getting up to speed" blog post to cover the time in between yurt life and our current situation, but I thought that I would still post this for humor and reminiscence...
Enjoy!

--
As I write this the wind is blowing about forty miles an hour and the windchill is around -40.  I am sitting on the couch across from a warm woodstove with a cat asleep on my lap.  Not bad for the moment!

If you would have told me a year ago that I would be sitting here right now, I would have told you that you were crazy, but here I am.  Around this time last year I was sitting on the beach in Goa, India watching cows graze across the sand and crabs burrow into it.  Since that time my life has known little stability, except in moments, and I feel like Rose and I are finally making arrangements to provide the stability that I seek and the lifestyle that we have been chasing.

Part of our arrangement to encourage a more stable lifestyle has to do with a previous potential arrangement to move onto the homestead of a few friends of ours in Grand Marais.  In exchange for this privilege we will help them with their community supported agriculture garden, maple syrup production, firewood splitting, producing bio-diesel, and other farm related developments.  Considering that these are all things that I want to be doing anyway, I feel that this is a pretty good arrangement!

The people that we are going to be "re-homesteading" with are old pros with much of the details that make homesteading up here possible.  They produce a good chunk of their electricity with solar panels, they have built their entire homestead around passive solar principles and seek to be as easy on the land as they can be while extracting as much of their living from it as possible.  This sounds as close to an Ox Cart lifestyle as possible for right now.

Rose and I have been making the comment to one another that we would like to live in a yurt for a while, both as an experiment and as a life choice, so we have been exploring that.  I built a 20' square floating (meaning it doesn't have sunken foundations) platform for the proposed yurt and was going to get to building it as soon as possible when we found this 24' yurt for sale on Craigslist!  We talked it over and decided that even though it would be a little more expensive than building a yurt if would be worth it to just be able to set it up and then it would be an asset we could move around no matter where we end up.  So we bought it.

Now we are homestead sitting for our friends while they are sailing down the Baja coastline (rough) and working on getting the yurt set up while trying to re-incorporate ourselves into the community in meaningful and productive ways.

Overall our lifestyle seems to be getting closer to the ideal that we originally planned for and although there will be significant trials on this path, the investment of energy will yield great results both for our family and for our future.  When we get the yurt set up we would love to host anyone who would like to visit.  Let me know and we can set it up!

All of the best from the North Woods!  It isn't that harsh up here by the way.  The weather may be cold, but our hearts are warm!

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