Hi there,

I just got back from Montevideo, where we were working on our greenhouse. We were very lucky to have our good friend Anna as an extra helper this weekend and we had no qualms about putting her to work. We’re glad to have her help as temperatures in the greenhouse hovered around 100 degrees F. What we were working on was the beginning of insulating our walls, which is starting to look daunting as I can only imagine the temperatures increasing as we add insulation. Our ventilation has been minimal up until now, but soon we’re going to have to get the proper fans installed to making working in there tolerable. It was a bright sunny day, and I can imagine how nice it will be to be in there on a cold sunny winter day.

First we stuffed the gaps with insulation. We used two layers of R-11 insulation which is meant for 2×4 studs. This is a bit of a no-no as you loose some insulation value when you overstuff the insulation, but we have a bunch of it laying around thanks to my Grandfather, and it makes to much sense to just use it anyway. We covered it with vapor barrier (plastic sheets) and sealed all the seams with some Tyvek tape we had laying around. Then we cut some 3/8” plywood to fit the space, which takes some patience, because our concrete pad isn’t perfectly level. Anna and Michelle really went to town on this and did most of the work. It was really nice having the separate drill and driver as Anna could predrill a small hole and Michelle could follow right behind and drive the screw in. Predrilling really seems to make it easier. You only have to drill a really shallow hole to give the screw something to bite into. Another thing which makes life easier is Torx head screws and bits. They just work. The only issue I had is that after a day of work, the regular grade bits we were using ended up twisting under the torque of the impact driver (see picture below). I ordered a 25 pack of the Milwaukee Shockwave bits (T25) which are designed for impact driver use and we’ll see if they hold up better. If not at least, I’ll have a bunch of replacements.

Given the heat inside the greenhouse, we could only spend so much time in there, so we also got some external work done. I put in some framing for where our ventilation is going to go. Michelle and I put some screws into our external siding to help hold it in place better. Anna used a grinder and ground down some bolts in the concrete that used to be used for some fencing, but now are just in the way. My Mom put some primer on the siding. The thing I’m most happy with (besides the wall we finished) is that we (my grandfather and I) solidified our plan for finishing the end walls. I was putting off doing the walls for a while because I didn’t understand how it all was going to fit together at the top where the insulated portion of the wall intersects the glazing, but we hashed out a plan. Knowing where we are going really helps the process along as a lot of our time is spent figuring out how to do everything, but once we get going we can move at a brisker pace. I feel like I’m learning an incredible amount of stuff about construction that I never would have gotten had we not undertaken this project and for that I’m very grateful.

Update on Reese

Another thing I’m very grateful for is that my boxer Reese has been making incredible strides lately. We got Reese a year and a half ago as a rescue from Minnesota Boxer Rescue and he came with some issues such as fear of men and some weird form of dog aggression that was in-between overaggresive playing and fear based aggression that would often end in a fight. A month or two ago, Reese and Honey (my sister Nikole’s dog) became friends. This past Thursday, we went over to my friend John’s house and he played with Hilde. This weekend, Reese successfully coexisted with my mom’s dogs, Cody and Sadie, both of whom have been very defensive around Reese. While, I wouldn’t say they played together, they definitely were in each other’s company without having to be on leashes and with out constant supervision. I’m really grateful for this.

We’ve been very conscious in our actions heading in this direction. Here are some things that we’ve found have helped. First, it’s important to know your dog’s limits and only put them in situations where they will most likely succeed. Secondly, be patient and kind with them, even when they fail. Lastly, we’ve found that loading Reese up with his doggy backpack helps weigh him down and slow him down significantly and that helps other dogs accept him when his high energy and over-exuberance would put them on the defensive otherwise.

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Check out these awesome bocce balls from Michelle’s league play at the Nomad World Pub.

These past couple years, I’ve been exposed to so much information over the Internet that has broadened my perspective of life. Recently, I came across an interview with Ian Crane on One Radio Network which really resonated with what I’ve been feeling lately and inspired me to try and solidify my thoughts on life and why we (or at least me) are here on this planet. So bear with me as I try to make sense out of this and communicate it in some legible manner.

As I was growing up, I was well aware of the homogenizing forces that society places on its individuals that dull us to a uniform state of mediocrity. Society has little understanding for the purpose of life. It is posed as one of life’s eternal mysteries. One that will never be answered. With all the information I’ve absorbed, I feel like I’m in a place where it makes sense why I’m here. I hope you gain something from this whether it be exposure to new ideas, a deeper understanding of me and my motivations, or further solidification of your own view on life.

As a society, we’ve been pushed away from religion and towards science. Religion is no saint and has many flaws, but this movement towards science has resulted in the move towards agnosticism and away from spirituality or a belief in a greater power. There has been discussion that consciousness is a byproduct of evolution. This concept that consciousness springs forth from matter doesn’t feel right to me. Instead, I believe that consciousness comes first, and that from this consciousness matter is created. Another way to say it is I believe we all have souls, and that our souls are bigger than our lives on Earth. Before we are born, we still exist as souls. After we die, we still exist as souls. We choose to inhabit these bodies for our brief existence intentionally and with purpose. One of the main purposes is so that we can have certain experiences that our soul would like to experience that can be most readily accomplished through our time on Earth in a physical format.

Right now, it feels to me, that we are in a unique transitioning period. Before the transition, we are more or less powerless, or more precisely we give a lot of our power away. The result of this is that in many areas of our life, a relatively small amount of people are making decisions for the rest of us that benefit them at our expense. After the transition, we have consciously chosen to reclaim our own power to create for ourselves the lives that we wish to live and the world that we wish to live in. This is the experience that my soul wishes to experience. It is clearly evident by where it drags me and the motivations I intrinsically have. I strongly suspect that the world we live in is setup in such a manner, so as to promote the motivations in large numbers of people to progress through this same transition from a mindset of victimhood and powerlessness to one of power and the ability and desire to consciously create our lives as we see fit.

Let’s briefly examine how we give our power away in a few areas of our lives. In politics our influence on society is reduced to the ability to participate in a political voting system in which only those who are backed by large campaign contributions are able to finish the process. With regards to food, the most readily available forms of food are created by large corporations which are devoid of nutrition and loaded with chemicals. Our education and economy are based on systems which corral people into jobs with bosses and management rather than entrepreneurial businesses. Our legal system is a convoluted mess where only the rich can afford the experts to navigate the system successfully. Our laws are created by lobbyists, through politicians, to strengthen big businesses and eliminate competition.

What happens is that people start experiencing pain-related emotions that are caused by the world/lives they create through their own inaction. They are creating worlds where they are serving others, rather than themselves. This dissonance between what they (un)consciously feel they should be experiencing and what they are actually experiencing creates unsatisfied emotions in a person which drive them to seek out remedies and methods for rectifying their situations. This sets them on the path of personal not-affluent/responsibility in that area of their life.

We are in a period of time where, as a society, we have given away so much of our power to a select few, that as a a society we are causing ourselves the pain necessary to inspire us towards personal responsibility. I feel innately drawn towards living only the best life for me, so I step ever closer towards that. I also feel innately drawn towards helping others live their own lives the best they can. This is a task that none of us can ignore, because deep inside we all want to be surrounded by amazing happy people, and we can only achieve that if we help them to become that rather than pushing others down to try to move ourselves forward. This blog is part of my steps forward on the goal of helping myself and others achieve more and more personal responsibility over the world we are creating. I hope you are willing to support this cause as your own as well.

One thing that I think is interesting, is that even if this worldview isn’t perfect, it is still a worldview that is conducive to getting good results because it is own that is geared towards action and obtaining happiness, rather than staying inactive and receiving what you get.