Snips - Thoughts from Jim

posted by Jim on Jun 20

Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.
Michael  Jordan

A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.
Richard Brandson

I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.
Charles R. Swindoll

Environmental protection doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You can’t separate the impact on the environment from the impact on our families and communities.
Jim Clyburn

Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love.
Saul Bellow

Thoughts from Jim:

Living small….is it right for you?

The 1^st thing that I hear a lot about is that a Tiny House being so small, it must be a breeze keeping it clean. Let us explode this myth right here. Living large in a large space allows a dish to be left out, a paper left by the chair, and the coffee cup unattended by the laptop.

My first learning experience: In small spaces, every dirty dish left on the counter, every pile of bills you set on a tabletop upon return from the Post Office, becomes-proportionally-a big mess. Unlike in a large house, they’re right there in your face. They might be taking up your only work space or eating area. Also, when all your activities are confined to one small space, that space will get dusty and dirty more quickly than when your activities are spread around 2,000 square feet.

While my ankle was mending after the cast was taken off, I used fir oil on the ankle for healing purposes. A friend commented that the aroma from the fir oil was an air freshener for the whole cabin!

So …

Ø  Plan to cultivate neatnik habits. Find a place for everything and put everything in its place as soon as you’re done with it.

Ø  If you can’t immediately put things away, then have a transitional junk drawer or cabinet where you stash stuff until you can file, fold, sort, or dispose of it. (This is in addition to your usual junk drawer where you keep odds and ends on a long-term basis. I know you have one; everybody does.)

Ø  Above all, banish clutter from your kitchen countertops. Eliminate small appliances you don’t need. Stash those you do need inside cabinets. Buy the under-cabinet mounting types of appliances where feasible. Buy or construct a countertop “appliance garage.” An uncluttered kitchen is the biggest step toward small-space sanity.

Ø  Don’t own a lot of stuff. If you can do without it, do without it.

Ø  If you can’t do without it - Cheat! Rent some other space to hold some of the stuff you absolutely feel you need, or build yourself a garden shed, poetry shed, or a garden bin.

posted by Jim on Jun 15

“Measure Twice-Cut Once”
-carpenter law

“Carpentry is the Illusion of Perfection”
-anonymous

“The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it by the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house”
-The Bible-Isiah 44

“Every nail driven should be as another rivet in the machine of the universe”
-Thoreau

That hand saw marks time
with the sound of poverty
late on a winter night
-haiku by Buson

“The self, though one, takes the shape of every object in which it dwells”
-Upanishads

“Make it simple to last your whole life long. Don’t worry that it’s not enough for anyone else to hear. Just sing, sing a song”
-Karen Carpenter

Thoughts from Jim;

Carpenter Gothic?

By definition from Wikipedia

Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter’s Gothic, and Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures built by house-carpenters. The abundance of North American timber and the carpenter-built vernacular architectures based upon it made a picturesque improvisation upon Gothic a natural evolution. Carpenter Gothic improvises upon features that were carved in stone in authentic Gothic architecture, whether original or in more scholarly revival styles; however, in the absence of the restraining influence of genuine Gothic structures, the style was freed to improvise and emphasize charm and quaintness rather than fidelity to received models.

We did mention Carpenter Gothic possibility yesterday, and Tiny Green Cabins has a preliminary plan for a Carpenter Gothic cabin.  to read more click Here

posted by Jim on Jun 9

The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn’t simple.
Doris Janzen Longacre

Everything is both simpler than we can imagine and more entangled than we can conceive.
Goethe

Joys come from simple and natural things: mists over meadows, sunlight on leaves, the path of the moon over water.
Sigurd F. Olson

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.
Plato

Our life is frittered away by detail…simplify, simplify.
Henry David Thoreau

Thoughts from Jim;

A well-designed little house is like a larger house with the unusable parts removed. Such refinement is achieved through subtractive design - the systematic elimination of all that does not contribute to the intended function of a composition. In the case of residential architecture, everything not enhancing the quality of life within a dwelling must go. Anything not working to this end works against it. Extra bathrooms, bedrooms, gables and extra space require extra money, time and energy from the occupant(s). Unessential luxury items are a burden. A simple home, unfettered by extraneous gadgets, is the most effective labor-saving device there is.  This is a Tiny Green Cabin

Subtractive design is used in processes ranging from industrial design to civil engineering. In machine design, its primary purpose is demonstrated with particular clarity. The more parts there are in a piece of machinery, the more inefficient it will be. This is no less true of a home than it is of an engine.

posted by Jim on Jun 7

We never know what strengths and revelations might be on the other side of our fears until we face them and feel them all the way through. True positive thinking is the mental stance of surrender, simply trusting the process. We learn to accept what is.
Jacquelyn Small

It was validation that others would subscribe to our dream.
Bob Akins

I think people confuse fame with validation or love. But fame is not the reward. The reward is getting fulfilment out of doing the thing you love.
Claire Danes

“What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.”
Confucius

Thoughts from Jim;

In business, we are always looking for some form of external validation that we are on the right or correct path. A client places an order, people read our articles or click through to websites through our links, or some other form of measurement or data collection is all means of validation.  On our snips links, we can tell how many readers click through.

For Tiny Green Cabins, the links and clicks are what create an attraction factor for search engines. The more hits, links etc. get noticed by search engines and they send more people to your site. This again ratchets up the hit counts, which then attracts more search engine interest from potential customers. Tiny Green Cabins has taken its hit count from 1000 place to the top 10 in the last 6 months.

In the end, it is all customers placing orders for your product, be it a Tiny Green Cabin or shed, organic furniture, or services offered. Moving the hit count to 1^st page puts your product in the best possible position for people that search via the net for your product.

Some writers and artists write book after book, paint picture after picture and  like to see orders placed, how many copies are sold and how successful their work is. And while this is true, for some…others write, paint, speak for the love of doing what they enjoy doing. And they are amazed that they are paid for what they do.

When I left the field as a carpenter and started a new career path as a cost estimator, it was difficult to believe that my pay scale was the same if not a little more. I so enjoyed the new job, the learning, and the challenges that it was difficult to comprehend being compensated at the same rate.  For some, the joy of learning new stuff and more knowledge brings a gratification and validation for what they are doing; they have discovered their passion and what makes them come alive.

What makes you come alive?

posted by Jim on May 31

posted by Jim on Jan 13

When you love your work, God goes to work with you.   When you love your home, God resides there with you.  When you love your partner or spouse, God is present as the love that binds you together.  When you love your body, God lives inside of it renewing and regenerating health.  Anything and everything you love brings the full Power and Presence of God into being!
Chris Michaels

When we stop trying to make ourselves great and simply realize our greatness, it is easy to fall in love with who we are. The greatness that we try so desperately to conjure up is effectively buried beneath our best efforts to make ourselves acceptable. When we give up on the stuff, realizing that it doesn’t make us feel the way that we were hoping it would, we dig a little deeper. And under all the stuff, we are exactly who we want to be.
Jan Denise

There must be doubt before there can be conflict. And every doubt must be about myself.

A Course in Miracles

If I am in conflict with someone then I am necessarily experiencing doubt or guilt within myself. The conflict is NOT about the other person. It is about me! When I recognize this, then I can begin to change my mind and my life experience. If I make it about the other person than I am stuck because the other person has to change for me to have happiness.

When I approach my job with the attitude of serving, my perspective changes to being joyful, helpful, and loving. My day flies by, and I am energized in each moment. I am here to serve, I am the answer to someones prayer and there are people that are meant to work with me, it is part of their Divine plan as much as it is encoded into me. Life is Great.

I love my job and the work I do, whether it is pushing a broom, or helping build someones dream small home or Tiny Green Cabin.

Jim

posted by Jim on Nov 27

Each day that passes, I learn something new. I learn from the people around me. I learn about patience, love, courage, wisdom, kindness, perseverance, strength, laughter, endurance, faith, and oneness. I learn to be still…..and listen to that small voice within. With each lesson that I learn I feel something tugging gently on my heart. It whispers to me promises of a secret so profound and wonderfully waiting for us.

Autumn brings with it a change in seasons, a hint of color here, a splash of dazzling brightness there, the solitude of a small cabin on a lake or in the midst of a forest glade. As the season moves into full bloom, the winds move thru the branches whispering thoughts of endings and new beginnings. The leaves fall to the ground in a deep and colorfully quilted blanket covering the earth in preparation for colder days ahead and deep snows. Under the snows, the leaves continue doing what is required, releasing nutrients to the soil for the spring and rebirth that is already whispering its arrival. It is a season of change.

My thoughts take me to another time when I skied at night across the winter snows, hearing the whisper of the skis on the snow, much like lovers whispering sweet thoughts in the night, speaking promises of things unseen and secrets to be revealed.

“The Master would often say that Silence brought transformation. But no one could get him to define what Silence was. When asked he would laugh, then hold his forefinger up against his tightened lips - which only increased the bewilderment of his disciples. One day there was a breakthrough when someone asked, “And how is one to arrive at this Silence that you speak of? “The Master said something so simple that his disciples studied his face for a sign that he might be joking. He wasn’t. He said, “Wherever you may be, look where there is apparently nothing to see; listen when all is seemingly quiet.”"
Anthony de Mello, SJ

Some days I become so caught up in the whirl of life that when I finally get a moment to be calm and quiet I don’t know what to do with myself. My mind quickly becomes filled. At these times, I forget and resist, fighting the whirl of life and expending energy and do not listen to the whispers in the gifts and challenges; thinking sometimes it would be nice to see beyond the veil, into the future so I can plot my course…then the “whispers” remind me that all my needs have been taken care of. Yet, I cannot help but ask, especially when riding the wave to new places and change.

At these times, I remember that I need I slip away into a quiet world, away from all the noise and chaos, away from designing small house plans, building small cabins, and tiny cabins, away from the whirl of life; and listen for the “whispers” beckoning me forward. I know that my heart is filled to the brim overflowing as remembrance of all the many blessings in my life flood my being. Yet, there are so many things that I hope and long for. It’s difficult to be patient, especially when my heart keeps pulling me toward some strange new future.

What “whispers” in life are you missing?

Jim<-->

posted by Jim on Nov 26

“Remember that whatever you want to know or accomplish in your life is possible if you are truly ready to trust in your divine powers to manifest it. You will find that the appropriate teachers will appear for you, and that you will be guided in the right direction.”
Wayne Dyer

When you are “locked on” to your dream - your vision of what you desire to accomplish and create, the universe will aid you in the creation process. I have learned that when my focus is on a given subject, I will spend time researching, asking questions, and being a student of what I have chosen to “lock on” to. By asking questions and stating my intent, I have found that teachers come forth to share in their knowledge and that my dream is also their dream/vision.

My dream as I start my life a new, is to build small spaces, small cabins, and small houses, and start a business as Tiny Green Cabins LLC. The 1st model will be “The Wildflower” to honor a great friendship and my best friend that I have found. Living green is living lean and The Wildflower will be much like the Thoreau cabin at Walden. It will be in harmony with nature and be earth friendly.