Getaway permits sanity (possibly not in that order)

I went downtown today to submit our house plans for review so we can get a building permit. Yep, the plans are finally ready! Woohoo! Only I thought Development Services closed at 4:30. They actually close at 4:00. I arrived at 3:48, and had to get an address. Got the address at 4:02. So they wouldn’t let me apply for the building permit today. We are going to New Mexico all next week on vacation, so we will have to submit the plans after we get back. That might be better, since I can make an appointment and possibly walk them through all in one day.

We are pretty excited about our trip. It’s a much-needed getaway. There’s been a lot of stuff going on in our personal lives plus all the work on house plans (lots of late nights in front of the computer). We need something to recover our sanity and provide some strengthening to our family identity.

We are splitting the trip between camping at City of Rocks State Park and staying at a bed and breakfast. We had hoped to stay at the Wilderness Lodge (we had stayed there last year and had a wonderful time) but they were full up on our travel dates. So we are staying at the Black Range Lodge. That’s a happy thing since it’s Catherine Wanek’s place, and if you are a bale head you probably recognize that name-she’s the author of a number of popular straw bale and natural building books. The area where we are staying is practically straw bale central; Landerland is close by, among other homesteads with straw bale structures and enthusiasts. Should be very interesting!

 

Saving the world

Had lunch with Pastor E today. We talked about saving the world. About how we probably can’t, and that isn’t much the point anyway.

 

Trailers

I had a good conversation last night with a friend. We talked about trailers. Well, mobile homes to be exact. During our conversation I realized that I had feelings about trailers. I feel sad that they are considered an acceptable place to live when really, they aren’t.

 

Building green and cheap means small and simple

Our house is going to demonstrate a lot of sustainable systems and is designed to be affordable. Apparently there is a major perception out there that green homes are only for people with deep pockets: after all, to have a green home you need low-e windows, Energy Star appliances, and solar panels, right? While those things are helpful, being green means having a light footprint on the earth… that comes from simplicity and smallness more than anything.

 

Why do I recycle?

Maybe that’s a silly question, because these days it would be hard to find someone who didn’t think recycling was a good idea. Taking something made for one purpose and finding a way to reuse it or its materials for another purpose once its original purpose is fulfilled, well that just seems like common sense. In and of itself, it is efficient, and to do otherwise seems wasteful.

Continuing the line of thinking from my last post, where I suggest the idea that making sustainable choices is essentially considering the well-being of future generations, recycling seems to take on a bit of a nobler, higher purpose than merely being efficient. I have to confess that when I dump all our paper, cardboard, glass, and number-one-and-two plastics in the big blue recycling can the city provides for us, I’m not thinking to myself ‘This is something I do out of love for my kids and their kids.’ But you know, maybe I should. Because if I didn’t, and I just tossed everything in the big green can for trash, I’m basically contributing to the problem of waste management… eventually all that trash has to be dealt with by somebody, and an awful lot of the consequences wind up in the laps of our kids.

 

Sustainability

It’s a buzzword that gets tossed around a lot these days. So I decided to find out what it actually means, cos you know, I’m a word guy, right?

Some definitions that came up when I Googled the term:

• The characteristic of being able to coexist with another system indefinitely, without either system being damaged.
• The use of ecosystems and their resources in a manner that satisfies current needs without compromising the needs or options of future generations.
• Sustainable development: The concept of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

The definition that I had formed in my head using merely how I hear it used has been a fuzzy sort of ‘Living in a way that allows you to get along materially without ruining the planet in the process.’

 

What’s up?

So it’s been a little while since I posted last. I am going to use the holidays excuse. So here’s what’s been up lately…

 

What do you need?

Do Not Worry

5″Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

28″And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I think much of the damage we North Americans habitually do to the environment is because we don’t really listen to what Jesus is saying when he says ‘Do not worry’.

 

Genesis

Some thoughts on the first three chapters of Genesis.

 

Parables, storms, and pigs in the sea

I was reading Mark last night. I noticed a few things about Jesus.