My wife is a gifted homemaker. I don't mean this figuratively. She is world-class. We could literally live in a shoe box, and she could make it feel like a Hobbit hole. One of the many reasons I proposed 4 months after meeting her. 13 years later...

Almost done with the shower stall, just soaking up our little mountain while I rested, we've had back to back birthday parties all month, and watching the Hobbit with kids tonight.

Happy Halloween, nostr! Beautiful weather, charlie brown, pumpkin cookie, popcorn, kielbasa, ginger tea, and I'm about an hour away from lighting up the stove! Couldn't ask for a better holiday.

Another off-grid achievement unlocked for the yurts! Indoor fire. 😁

I achieved many things that I believed would make me feel I'd "made it". The feeling that I seek was never on the other side of accomplishment. It's almost always there in the quiet moments with my family, reading, and in prayer. Where does the irresistible urge to accomplish more come from, and why can't I turn it off?

Fall is here in TN! Complete with moody clouds and drizzly rain. We also got some more goats.

I've been working overtime on my novel, so I haven't been posting much, but I've been doing a lot of word-craft and thought I'd share something interesting. The etymology of mortgage is latin and french "mort" and "gage". It literally means "death pledge".

Fought in my first BJJ competition and got silver. A little disappointing but I way underestimated the conditioning requires to maintain high output work during an adrenaline dump but otherwise I felt great. I learned later that one of my defeated opponents was a judo black belt. My whole family was able to watch! Hearing their little voices cheering me on was powerful. As an adult, it's been harder and harder for me to find things that challenge and scare me a but I think it's so important to push that boundary and continue to grow in courage and strength. We also have to set that example for little ones. They learn courage by watching courage, not by being told to be courageous.

My kids invented a game called avalanche with all the walnuts that fall around the yurt! I was particularly proud of them for making a ruleset that includesls the littles! Now fall will always be avalanche season for us. 😁 These kids have my heart...

Anyone else going to be at Nostrville this year in Nashville?

I know there are many health-conscious people on Nostr, so I wanted to share something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I just watched Chris Williamson's YouTube video about his health struggle over the last year. He had significant mold in his house and had no idea. Most people don't know that with enough mold exposure, it can start to grow in your body. This is brutal on the immune system and nervous system. As both a builder and someone with extensive interaction with a large property management company, I would honestly bet that 50% of rentals have significant mold somewhere in the house. Almost nobody remediates mold properly because it is extremely hard and expensive. Big developers are especially bad. This is also a huge reason for my choosing to live in a yurt. Besides mold, most building materials are made with a significant amount of glue and high-VOC products that offgas for years. Modern houses can be really toxic. Not all of them are, but I think this is one of the most unaddressed issues in housing, and a huge reason to consider vernacular traditional housing options. Pro tip: if you think you might be suffering from mold-related health problems, many don't know that you can hire an environmental scientist to come and lab test the spore counts in your house. Many states will also allow you to pause rent if a remediation problem needs to be addressed. I do think this is also partially a fiat problem. People with large rental portfolios view them as cash flow assets, rather than the more important reality that they are places where people live. I think this mentality deprioritizes proper home maintenance.

Fun homestead saga update! I sent my wife into town to do some pampering and all the kids were out adventuring. I got some work done and decided I'd better go check on the kids after waiting a little longer than I probably should have. My girls [10,6,3] were all at the neighbors house baking peanut butter cookies with the neighbor girl [13]. The boys were on the trampoline with the neighbor boy. It's really got me thinking about this idea of deep community. Getting to know your neighbors is great but choosing to live with like-minded people has been a real breakthrough for my family. It's pretty remarkable to think that not too many generations ago, it wouldn't be uncommon for a child who lost a parent, God forbid, to have 3 to 5 other father or mother figures between aunts, uncles, older siblings, etc. I hate that fiat culture has normalized families being so small and geographically far apart. Being in nature has been so freeing for me but living nearby to people I love has been just as powerful! Being deeply embedded in community is so good for the soul.

Inside... but still outside.

I don't just custody my Bitcoin. I custody most my food and water too.

Son (4) : What is this wood for, Dad? Me: A bathhouse. Son (4) : Oh! Cool. I'll help you build it, Dad. It will be like old time. Daughter (6) : That's not what "old times" is. "Old times" if when you are a teenager but you did something a lot of day ago. Son (4) : No it's not. Daughter : Yes it is. Son : *Thinking* Ok. Me: *Big smile*

Gm nostr! Stay humble and stack sats today!

It's a lovely rainy day in TN! Im working from home today and I'm just basking in my family. Ambient piano music on, playing in the rain, coloring, reading. Feeling very grateful but also nervous. I'm beginning a pivot away from construction starting today. I love building but I'm come to accept it's kinda a single man's game and old man's game because of the long hours and travel. I'm still going to continue some small projects (and obviously I'm building almost every day at our property) but I'm going to be actively seeking some remote work so I can stay on the homestead. Prayers needed but trusting that a short term pay cut is a worthwhile sacrifice to reset my career.

Money printing is an attempt to fork reality. If the government is the highest power in your belief system, it is a convincing illusion.