Have you always dreamed of living in a lovely, clean home that lets you wander in and out to a gorgeous outdoor space from just about any room? Perhaps you love modernly styled homes but you’re careful about which pieces you pick out so that your home doesn’t become modernized to the extent that it feels cold or unlived in? Then prepare to be inspired by a home that fits..
The post Matt Fajkus Architecture Designs a Home Incorporating Its Local Landscape in Austin, Texas appeared first on HomeDSGN.
I wonder what my parents were thinking the day I came home from college and said, “I want to put my education to work. I want to homestead!”
There may have been a long pause — I can’t remember now — followed by some expertly crafted support rhetoric.
I do remember, though, how that passion was sparked in what seemed like an instant. It was as if there was an unfinished puzzle sitting in front of me, and I had finally put enough of the pieces in to figure out what the picture was.
I was entranced by the idea that I could work, live without clutter and noise, eat well, be sustainable, and stay healthy, all without driving anywhere. I knew it was for me, but not everyone who finds happiness in simplicity does in overnight, and happiness isn’t a permanent state.
Exploring what happiness and simplicity really are helps to appreciate how a simple life, while maybe less convenient, can be a happy life.
It’s what your grand-pappy used to say right? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
I’m not going to pretend that fixing broken fences in the snow and rain is hella fun! It is not.
Knowing yourself, though, is an unparalleled reward and there isn’t a better time to get to know yourself than when you are giving something your all. Real satisfaction is achieved in creating something with blood, sweat, and tears and there’s a lot to be learned from failure, like perseverance.
An integrated, agrarian life combines problem-solving with physical ability, research with experimentation. It occupies both your head space and your body. That is what I call a complete workout.
“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”
― Thomas Jefferson
I often speak with creative professionals who express concern that living simply is a boring, day-to-day exercise in the mundane; a cyclical ceremony honoring obsolete traditions. This is why my husband and I strive to make every act on the homestead an act of art. We don’t have to go out of our way either.
When I design the year’s garden and then watch my beans, squash, and corn all grow into an expression of my intention; that is creativity. Crafting a new design for a gate, fence, or feeder fills the creative cup.
Living simply buys you back time that would otherwise be spent in the car, at the office, restaurant, shop, club or movie. So, I have time to take photos, stretch canvas and actually paint. Not to mention the inspiration that bubbles over when surrounded by happy animals and rich gardens.
“My wish simply is to live my life as fully as I can. In both our work and our leisure, I think, we should be so employed. And in our time this means that we must save ourselves from the products that we are asked to buy in order, ultimately, to replace ourselves.”
― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
A very happy time in my life was when I lived in a small apartment the city and literally walked 15-20 blocks to work every day. Every morning, the city came alive. Each day felt like I was a part of this organism. I was a cog in this machine that was propelling humanity toward future grandeur, and being a part of that something-bigger felt amazing.
It feels great until you are faced with the fragility of it all, the wastefulness, and the reality that unless something changes, it will all collapse. The ultimate organism that we are all a part of is Earth, not the city.
Knowing what is good for us takes reflection, and a life of simplicity allows for that. Watching nature come alive each morning is a sense of awe beyond any, and you don’t have to live in the country. An urban homestead still awakens to the sounds of its birds and gardens, and to the smell of home cooked meals.
“We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride and greed the standard of our behavior toward the world – to the incalculable disadvantage of the world and every living thing in it. And now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has become clear. It is not only our own creativity – our own capacity for life – that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself is stifled.”
― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
My childhood in the 80’s and 90’s was a series of rides to scheduled blocks of time. Ride the bus to school, ride the van to volleyball practice, ride in the car to piano lesson, ride with mom to do errands, ride to doctors office, and ride to the assisted living facility to visit grandma.
It just seemed very compartmentalized, like those professional organizers who want you to have a plastic bin for every item you own. A simple life is an integrated life which means that the homestead is the school, and the grocery store, and the workplace, and the doctor’s office (within reason). Each act of living becomes an act of teaching, working, and learning. There is intention and information in something as simple as taking a shower when you’ve plumbed your greywater through a greenhouse where it waters year-round salad greens.
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.”
― Bill Mollison
We’re used to depending upon utilities and retail stores so much, we place our sense of security in them. Pulling in a year’s worth of garlic, onions, and potatoes always gives me the deepest sense of stability, a ‘we’re going to be alright’ feeling.
Imagine never paying a utility company again. As long as the sun is shining or the wind is blowing you will have lights, hot water, and telephone.
Even if your homestead isn’t totally off-grid, with each step toward sustainability, you gain security. In the gales of a winter storm, knowing that your Rocket-Mass-Heater keeps you toasty warm with the slightest amount of wood is enough to have you singing “let it snow.”
Our current system of production, distribution, and consumption is not sustainable. It is totally dependent on fossil fuels, the exploitation of animals, and dwindling free resources from the Earth. It will fail, and withdrawing our investments in it now not only protects us, but it encourages the larger system to change for the better.
“A sacred way of life connects us to the people and places around us. That means that a sacred economy must be in large part a local economy, in which we have multidimensional, personal relationships with the land and people who meet our needs, and whose needs are met in turn.”
― Juliana Birnbaum Fox, Sustainable Revolution: Permaculture in Ecovillages, Urban Farms, and Communities Worldwide
See Also: Why Simple Living is the key to Finding your Life Purpose
The post 5 Little-Known Reasons Why a Simple Life is a Happy Life appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
Often when we see residences and homes that are heavy on wooden decor, we think of cottages, lodges, and beautifully rustic chic aesthetics. Every once in a while, however, a contemporary designer comes along and changes things up, putting a twist on rich wooden features that comes off modern above all else. At this point, we’d like to introduce you to The Hermitage! This gorgeous home is a private residence..
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Freedom Rider bus firebombed outside Anniston
Unidentified man sits in front of Freedom Rider bus to prevent it from leaving the station
Freedom Rider mural near Greyhound Station in Anniston, Alabama
Brick Church, which is part of the Reconstruction Era National Monument
The Camp Saxton Site will be part of the Reconstruction Era National Monument
Yesterday President Obama designated three new national monuments honoring our country’s civil rights history. The new monuments will protect historic sites in Alabama and South Carolina that played an important role in American history stretching from the Civil War to the civil rights movement. President Obama also expanded the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southwestern Oregon and Northern California, and added six new units to the California Coastal National Monument – protecting critical biodiversity, important cultural resources and vital wildlife habitat. Learn more: https://on.doi.gov/2iMUFdH
Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
In 1963, Birmingham was the epicenter of the American Civil Rights Movement. Activists like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Sr., and countless unnamed heroes gathered there to demand equality for all people. The activists planned nonviolent marches and protests for Project C (for Confrontation), or the Birmingham campaign.
The new Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument includes the A.G. Gaston Motel, the headquarters for Project C. Dr. King and his colleagues announced the negotiated resolution of the campaign in the motel courtyard on May 10, 1963. Hours later, a bomb exploded near the suite where Dr. King had stayed.
Freedom Riders National Monument
On Mother’s Day 1961, a Freedom Riders bus was attacked at the Greyhound Bus Station in Anniston, Alabama. The Freedom Riders remained on board the bus at the station while a mob struck it with bats and pipes and slashed the bus tires. As the bus moved away from the station and out of town, the mob, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, followed. When the bus broke down six miles outside of Anniston on Route 202, the mob resumed terrorizing the Freedom Riders. The bus was firebombed and members of the mob tried holding the doors shut to trap the Freedom Riders inside. Eventually the Freedom Riders were able to make it off the burning bus but continued to be harassed until Alabama State Troopers dispersed the crowd.
The Freedom Riders were a group of civil rights activists, both African American and Caucasian, who tested integration laws on the interstate bus system. The Freedom Riders National Monument includes the former Greyhound Bus Station in Anniston and the bus burning site in Calhoun County.
Reconstruction Era National Monument
The Reconstruction Era began during the Civil War and lasted until the dawn of Jim Crow racial segregation in the 1890s. It remains one of the most complicated and poorly understood periods in American History. During Reconstruction, four million African Americans, newly freed from bondage, sought to integrate themselves into free society, struggling to find their place in the educational, economic and political life of the country.
The new Reconstruction Era National Monument includes four sites in South Carolina’s Beaufort County.
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
Located in southwestern Oregon and established in 2000, Cascade-Siskiyou was the first monument designated solely for the preservation of its biodiversity. The monument is an ecological wonder, home to an incredible variety of rare and endemic plant and animal species, and representing a rich mosaic of forests, grasslands, shrub lands, and wet meadows at the convergence of three mountain ranges. Today’s expansion builds upon the original monument’s goal to protect the area’s extraordinary biodiversity. Photo by @mypubliclands.
California Coastal National Monument
Established in 2000 to protect marine wildlife habitat just offshore of California’s iconic coastline, California Coastal National Monument was expanded in 2014 to include Point Arena-Stornetta – its first onshore unit. Today’s expansion of 6 spectacular places along the coast will preserve important habitat for coastal plants and animals, and protect cultural sites that provide insight into the people who lived along the California coast thousands of years ago. Many of the new sites of the monument are also culturally and spiritually important to local tribes. Photo by @mypubliclands.
In 2016, I practiced mindfulness more than I ever have before, after 10 years of sporadic practice.
I meditated regularly, practiced with a local Zen group, did a great one-day sitting, went on a retreat, took courses, read books, practiced mindful eating and exercise, learned some great new practices, and taught several mindfulness courses.
I learned a lot about how to cultivate a more mindful life, and I’d like to encourage you to try it this year.
Why? A few good reasons:
I could go on about better mental and physical health, better relationships, less fear … but the reasons I’ve given are strong enough. It’s important stuff.
So how do we cultivate a year of mindfulness? I’m glad you asked.
I’m just going to dive in and share my favorite tips for creating a year of mindfulness:
That might seem like a lot of things to do, but you don’t have to do them all at once! Nor do you have to be “perfect” at this (perfection doesn’t exist). Just try one or two things, try another couple things later, and explore with no real desitation or outcome in mind. Play with these practices and tools. See what happens.
To start your year of mindfulness, I challenge you to do a full 30 days of mindfulness, starting today. That means meditating every day, for at least a few minutes (start small), and trying to incorporate mindfulness practices in your life in small ways.
Are you up to the challenge? If so, commit to it by announcing it to your loved ones, on social media, or emailing your friends. It’ll be an amazing way to start this year.
If you’d like to go deeper with mindfulness, sign up for my Sea Change Program. We’re doing a Month of Mindfulness in January, and I’ve issued the same mindfulness challenge to my members (we check in once a week). Don’t worry if you’re starting mid-month … it doesn’t matter. Go on your own schedule, let go of the idea of perfection.
When we think of large lakeside homes, our minds automatically picture a few things. We imagine either small, cozy cottages where nature is the experience rather than the decor, or sprawling woodland lodges that make a distinct but beautiful claim on the countryside. 2Y House in Colico, Chile, however, puts a new spin on hillside lake homes that’s breathtakingly unique and actually quite environmentally friendly. The final effect is nothing..
The post Sebastián Irarrázaval Designs a Cozy Woodland Home in Chile appeared first on HomeDSGN.
Las Vegas – Nevada – USA (by Jim G)
Sig Nordal 