Snips - Thoughts from Jim

“Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.”
Karen Ravn

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
Walter Winchell

“Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you can’t do this or that. That’s nonsense. Make up your mind, you’ll never use crutches or a stick, then have a go at everything. Go to school, join in all the games you can. Go anywhere you want to. But never, never let them persuade you that things are too difficult or impossible.”
Douglas Bader

Thoughts from Jim;

When I was a junior estimator at a framing contractor, several big projects came in, and I volunteered to take them on.  One was Princes’ dream home, another was a large commercial project. A seasoned estimator at another company commented’ “You do not even know what you doing!” and that still did not deter me. That is a fault/strength of mine, some projects may be just too big for me, or too complicated, and surrendering or saying it can’t be done is not an option, yet I admit that I will bite off more than I should at times.

A lot of this trait comes from my childhood of growing up in a farming community of northeastern Wisconsin. We did what we had to do and found a way to get the job done. My sons and family refer to me as a DIY kind of guy and over the years, I have learned that if you really want to do something, finding a way is always possible. I would describe myself as a “do-it-yourselfer” to a fault. And then, it is always wise to remember that calling in a “pro” may be the better discretion of valor. Building a piano, a piece of furniture, a car, running a CAD program, designing a web site, or seeking counseling, it is better to go to the pros.

Take a minute and watch the video, and when your heart is moved to help build a school in Cambodia, help out. It feels good and I am glad to be a part of it. Spread the joy and love to these children. Proceeds from the sale of the download for the CD go to help the children of Cambodia. The download is 99 cents.
Here’s the direct link for the download. Every one helps! http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/DavidAult

Long, beautiful, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen… I adore hair!
James Rado and Gerome Ragni, Hair

The great ages of prose are the ages in which men shave.  The great ages of poetry are those in which they allow their beards to grow.
Robert Lynd

Even a single hair casts its shadow
Publilius Syrus

People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Thoughts from Jim;

This was a good hair day! They always are when you still have some hair left and are called a vintage man. Anyhow, being a good hair day, life is great, I have great friends and lots of work.

A couple of items that made it a great hair day was getting my hair cut, beard trimmed, and a call from Arkansas that is interested in purchasing a Tiny Green Cabin.

And guess what she wants to use it for?

A mobile beauty salon! Well, we have established a list of possibilities for a tiny cabin, and this is a new one and a good one. The cabin would pay for itself in short order in lieu of a lease on a store front building or cubicle.

Years ago, people in business frequently had a small building out in front of their home, Thomas Jefferson’s attorney had a small building out by the street, as well as many doctors, dentist, seamstress to name a few. Now we are seeing part of marketing by tiny house builders for stay at home businesses such as; garden offices for those that commute via internet, writers, poets, artists, lawyers, candlestick makers, etc. When I was in Alaska visiting my son, several years ago there were coffee shops in tiny building all around Anchorage.  Some even sat on trailers so they could be mobile.

What use can you envision for tiny houses?

Speaking of tiny houses, and tiny cabins….Tiny Green Cabins is a custom cabin builder and tiny house builder. We have had several inquiries lately into building playhouses and garden sheds. Yes, we do build playhouses and garden sheds.

I was given by a dear friend, a book for reading titled “The Shadow Effect” and finding it very interesting and enlightening. So, besides my hair day, quotes that mention something about shadow work are interesting to me. After some reading and exploring, it seems to me that our government and businesses have a lot to do with our shadow sides.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
Buddha

I have learned, as a rule of thumb, never to ask whether you can do something. Say, instead, that you are doing it. Then fasten your seat belt. The most remarkable things follow.
Julia Cameron

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
Leonardo da Vinci

Thoughts from Jim;
Are you ready for a quiz?
Here are 4 statements, which one is true.

Living in unusually tiny homes;

(a) Is advisable only for poor people in Third World countries.
(b) Is advisable only for people in the US who lost their homes or jobs.
(c) Is not much better than being homeless.
(d) Can help everyone break away from the debt trap that makes work, not fun, the central focus of our lives.

The answer is “D”
Think about it, living in a tiny house, small home means a radical reduction is expenses; i.e. no mortgage - heck in most cases your 20% down payment will pay for the Tiny House; you would own your home instead of the home owning you  - which would free up your time to really do what you have been dreaming of doing. And think of all the others bills that would be reduced, heating, cooling, groceries, and so much more.

Think about the space in your home that you heat and cool and hardly, if ever use it. Take a formal living room, it  may occupy 7% of your total home space and yet you may use it less than .005% of the time. Yes, I know, it is still nice to have, and yet when you start adding all the other costs associated with keeping that room up, and your energy expended caring for it, wouldn’t a person rather pursue what they really brings them alive. So, is this a wave of the future, like the airplane that everyone scoffed at, or the computers that people thought on a few would have?
What do you think?

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; for happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.

Charles Langbridge Morgan

Cultivate your garden… Do not depend upon teachers to educate you … follow your own bent, pursue your curiosity bravely, express yourself, make your own harmony In the end, education, like happiness, is individual, and must come to us from life and from ourselves. There is no way; each pilgrim must make his own path. “Happiness,” said Chamfort, “is not easily won; it is hard to find it in ourselves, and impossible to find it elsewhere.”

Will Durant

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it half an hour a day. Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Lewis Carroll

It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it.

Soren Kierkegaard

Thoughts from Jim;

The American culture has glorified the benefits of materialism and trivialized the heavy price that many of us pay for unthinkingly going along with the other sheep who perennially strive for ever more stuff. If you travel around the world, or speak to people who’ve done that, you will find folks in other nations who have much less money and stuff than we do, yet they are far happier. I have been involved in service projects in the Appalachians and got to know folks with a lot less stuff that were far happier than a lot of my friends and myself were in Minnesota years ago. So what do you really want? More and more stuff, or more time to enjoy what you have?

Living small in a tiny house, microhome, or tiny green cabin can give you the freedom and time to make some really creative choices. Want to write poetry, a book, take up painting, going back to school, or the freedom to live in the North Country and then move your home south when the snowbirds head south, or follow a whisper from Spirit to see where it leads.

Let your mind explore the possibilities, and maybe, just maybe you will have a lot of fun doing what you always dreamt of doing.

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.

“A land ethic…reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort
to understand and preserve this capacity.”
- Aldo Leopold

“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”
-Loren Eiseley

“The first steps toward stewardship are awareness, appreciation, and the selfish desire to have the things around for our kids to see. Presumably the unselfish motives will follow as we wise up.”
-Barbara Kingsolver

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
-John Muir

“The supreme reality of our time is …the vulnerability of our planet.”
-John F. Kennedy

People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.
St. Augustine

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfful to seek other than itself.
Kahlil Gibran

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius–and a lot of courage–to move in the opposite direction.
E. F. Schumacker

Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
Sir Cecil Beaton

To live your life you need to risk it. And that means taking the chances that make us whole human beings.
Jim Wilkins

“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

“Fundamentally, sustainable development is a notion of discipline. It means humanity must ensure that meeting present needs does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”
Gro Harlem Brundtland

“Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it arises out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life’s further developments.”
Lewis Mumford

“The wise man doesn’t give the right answers - he poses the right questions.”
Claude Levi Strauss

“He who would travel happily must travel lightly.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Thoughts from Jim;

What are Tiny Houses? The Tiny House Movement? Tiny Living?

Simply put it is a social movement where people are downsizing the space that they live in. The typical American home is around 2600 square feet, while the typical small or tiny house is around 400 square feet. Tiny Houses come in all shapes, sizes and forms but they focus on smaller spaces, simplified living, and sometimes living off the grid.
People are joining…to read more click Here