What MH SHOULD Be Writing About - Tiny Houses

Mesquite Hugger Page Views

 

The clicks say it all. Check out the number after Tiny House Posts. The page has more than double the views of any other page. People love tiny houses and visit the tiny house posts often on Mesquite Hugger. Strangely, I write very little about them. Tiny houses are very appealing to me in theory, but not very realistic. Living in less than 400 square feet sounds very do-able for a single human being and it sounds like a pretty good way to cut down on one's expenses, but there's a bit of a hole in that logic. I keep seeing different amounts of money and time frames for building a tiny house.

 

$30,000 is not rare, and very few seem to be built in less than 1 year.

 

So, let's hop over to the Lubbock Craigslist for a second:

 

$30,000 will buy you four used travel trailers

 

Tiny houses make very little sense if your first goal is to save money. If you buy a $10,000 travel trailer you can move in immediately. Save $20,000 on the initial investment and save the money from a year of spending all your time and money trying to build a tiny house. And the trailer already has a title - so there's a lot less bureaucracy in making it legal.

Does the tiny house appeal to you because of mobility? Then check out a bus or a motor home. It's all about mobility. Again, you can get into one for very little money. You can even go off grid pretty easily. Many RV's already have 12 volt DC appliances, so the transition to solar is pretty easy. Tired of supporting oil companies? Convert your diesel to run on used veggie oil. If you get tired of the scenery, start her up and head over to greener pastures.

Now, for the pieces I cannot argue against. The value of building something with your own hands and from your own designs is immeasurable, and having the ability to choose reclaimed/recycled/green materials is amazing.

 

A few questions you might want to ask yourself before you start building:

How good are you at working with your hands?

How well do you persevere on big projects?

Whose nerves and toes will you be stepping on to make this happen?

 

A tiny house can be an amazing project and a worthwhile investment if you are the right person. On the other hand, for many of us (myself definitely included) the tiny house could easily be an unfinished money pit sadly hunkering under a big tarp in the backyard of the larger house you pay for every month. Sometimes the greenest option is the thing already built, the one that allows you to spend time pursuing things that matter most to you.

 

So how about it, tiny house dreamers? Where do you want to spend your time and money? What do you want to be doing?

 

May you find your answer and may it enrich your life and the lives of those around me.

 

Tempted by a Suzuki (No actual motorcycle or pictures in this post)

Self, if you want to avoid temptation, avoid temptation. I have to remind myself often.

Is there a shop where you just like to browse, one you stop by when you have nothing better to do?

I stay out of motorcycle shops these days. But I hauled a friend's scooter to a local motorcycle shop last week so that he could have new tires installed. His back tire had reached a point where you could see the air inside. While we were there, I looked around a lot. It was strange to be back in that familiar foreign place.

To preface all of this, I need to tell you that I used to go to motorcycle stores a lot. Once a week was not rare. Whether I was buying parts or just browsing to see what had come in, it was a regular stop. I have been a consumer all my life. Bookstores. Bicycle shops. Hardware stores. Pet shops. The Thrifty Nickel. Craigslist. Ebay. Scoot.net. Amazon. Swap meets. Antique stores. Garage sales. Ralph's Records. I am not a heavy spender, but I am a heavy browser. Twenty dollars here, ten dollars there...

At the motorcycle shop I found a Suzuki TU250X. $4300. And I wanted it. Which is funny. I have sworn off buying new, gas-powered vehicles. And I strongly resist the urge to buy used, gas-powered vehicles. But this motorcycle crept up on me. At first, I just thought to myself, That's a cool little bike. Then I went to the website and checked out the stats. I read the on-line reviews. I looked around for a used one. And I have had motorcycles on the brain since.

I have been working at giving stuff up. You can blame it on my bank account, Annie Leonard, and a coffee swiller named Joe. You can blame it on a lack of space and the idea that stuff seems to own me these days. Maybe it's all those tiny house videos.

So I'm dreaming about this stupid motorcycle, and the voice pops up. You know where you went wrong. You went in. And the voice was right. I went into the land of temptation and was tempted. It is something I have struggled with over the last few years. If you don't want more stuff, stop looking at more stuff.

But it's not enough (yet) to stop looking at stuff. For a while I felt a bit lost. I felt a need to fill that void. I have been working on that. Instead of spending money, I try to go for a bike ride, walk the dogs, work around the house, read, write, build. I try to do something. Plant a garden.

May we both stop browsing and build something better - a life!

Arlo Guthrie - The Motorcycle Song

Squeeze - Tempted

Walking, Coffee, Stuff, Minimalism Challenge, Saturday Mornings, etc.

As I get a bit older, I keep thinking differently about stuff and busy-ness.

Some of that fancy latté art

Let's talk about Saturday mornings. I love Saturday mornings. I sleep in a little on Saturdays, almost an hour longer than normal. I get up quietly, throw on some clothes, grab a few things, and walk over to the local coffeehouse. Besides clothes, I have my ever-present phone, wallet, and keys. I also carry a grocery bag, my journal, my bible, a pen, and some cheater glasses. The grocery bag I fill up with trash as I walk the neighborhood and drop it in a dumpster near the coffeehouse. I am usually one of the first to arrive at the coffeehouse. I order a single coffee drink and a whole-wheat cinnamon roll. I sit in the back corner reading, writing, sipping, munching, and sometimes planning blog posts. I am usually there about an hour. As I walk home, I pick recyclables up. When I get home, I usually climb back in bed with my lovely wife - she is not a morning person, and that is probably a good thing.

The thing about these particular Saturday mornings, I have everything I need. I usually spend around five dollars. In our world of stuff and hurry, this is a time of little stuff and little hurry. Weather does not affect it. I can walk in snow, rain, fog, heat, wind. The coffee can be hot, cold, good, terrible. The cinnamon roll can be the same. The temperature inside the building also matters little.

The only variable that ever messes things up for me is noise level. If the music is too loud and distracting or the patrons are too loud and distracting, then I get nervous and don't enjoy the morning so much. I go there seeking a reverential contentment, but noise can melt that away. (I should probably re-think the ever-present cell phone too.)

For me, contentment is the important word. I am not seeking joy or happiness. On Saturday mornings, I work at being content. When I find that - happiness, joy, patience, even a tiny bit of wisdom - things all seem to fall in place. The week is better, and I have more resilience to face it and to care for those who need me.

After having read this far - pat yourself on the back for attention-span endurance - here is a nifty little pair of links to help you if you are trying to slow down a bit to seek a bit of contentment:

Green Livivng Ideas article about the minimalism challenge

The 30-day Minimalism Challenge

I am a big fan of days 1, 4, 10, and 24. I dont think I will struggle much with days 9, 17, and 23.

May you find some contentment in your days. Thank you, as always, for reading this blog!

Simple Conservation Tips for Lubbock: Bottles and Bags

Bottles and cans: plastic, tin, aluminum, or glass?

My favorite brewery favors aluminum cans!

When aluminum is available, it is my favorite option. It is lightweight, transports and recycles easily, and end consumers can save cans and sell them by the pound or donate them to charities that sell aluminum to support their operations. Aluminum is almost infinitely recyclable. Tin has many of the same virtues; however, there is a lot less money in selling it to recyclers. Recycling aluminum and tin lessens the need for mining and the environmental destruction that comes with it.

Choose glass only if you choose to reuse the container for another purpose. Glass does recycle well, but it is expensive to haul and to recycle. It is often cheaper to make new glass than it is to recycle old glass. Plus, Lubbock's glass tumbler is broken - our city no longer recycles glass at all.

Plastic - while plastic has the virtues of light weight and recyclability, it has two big flaws. First, plastic degrades with each recycling, so it cannot be recycled over and over like aluminum, tin, and glass can. Second, plastic is almost always a petroleum-based product that comes at a high carbon cost to the environment and increases our country's dependence on others for petroleum. We are seeing more and more plant-based plastics, but these can still be environmentally destructive because they are very water intensive and also divert farmers from growing food crops - which can lead to higher food prices and food shortages.

Bags: Paper or Plastic?

The most obvious answer is neither. The best option avaialable is to take your own reusable bag. It is even worth it to invest a few more dollars in cotton or canvas bags that hold up longer and that tolerate frequent laundering. Stash a few in your car or backpack so that you always have extras for those unexpected shopping trips (or the windfall veggies from your coworker who overplanted this year's garden.)

You will look eco-sexy shopping with bags like these!

Next in line I choose paper. While both are recyclable, the paper bags are also biodegradable and are not petroleum-based. Do not be afraid to reuse either paper or plastic bags on your shopping trips. You may get a funny look from a cashier, but I have never had a cashier refuse to use a shopping bag I brought with me. Just be mindful that a retailer may not be happy to see your Target or Walmart bag in their store.

May your simple steps make great strides!

Infographic for this Morn's Coffee Conversation: Big Backyards

Cluckers need room too!

Grizz and JB were talking this morning about that little chunk of land where they could (separately) raise their own food. Grizz had recently looked at an acre east of Lubbock and JB had looked at land in roughly the same area.

JB said he'd like five acres, but he thought one acre would work. And that got me to wondering. How much land would they need? Apparently, there is an infographic to help just that question, so here you guys go!

1 Block Off the Grid - How Big a Backyard?

May your backyard be big enough!

Last-Minute Mesquite Hugger Gifts - Texas Wildlife Conservation

Does anyone else see a resemblance to Smaug?

For those of you looking for a last-minute gift for the nature-loving mesquite-hugging wonderful people in your life, here are some suggestions.

Donate money in their name or buy a membership to one of their favorite wildlife conservation groups. Below are some of my faves:

Attwater Prairie Chickens

Bat Sanctuary in Texas

Horned Lizard Conservation Society

Texas Land Conservation

Now, some of you are thinking, "That's great and all, but I want to give a REAL gift, something they can hold in their hands. Come on, Mesquite Hugger, man, be for real!" (My inner voice has a some strange speech patterns.) Well, you are in luck, many of these organizations actually sell tangible gifts. One of my favorite gifts from last Christmas is a black t-shirt from the Horned Lizard Conservation Society. I love to wear that shirt because people ask about it often and I have a chance to talk to others about the ongoing struggle to save these wonderful creatures.

Horned Lizards Store

Or let's say that you share an office with someone who talks about wine all the time. Wine, wine, whine! What better way to let them know they are driving you batty than a bottle of Bat Wine! (Just kidding, JG!)

Bat World Wines

May this list help you in your shopping dilemmas, and may your purchase help to create a better world.

An Overlooked Piece of Recycling

You may be at that point where you are thinking, "Hey Mesquite Hugger, I sort my recycling and I take it all to the recycling center. What's next? How do I step up the recycling from here?"

There are lots of answers to that question, but one overlooked answer is to start seeking out recycled products for your own consumption.

One of the biggest goals in recycling is to stop using up natural resources by reusing the ones we have already harvested. Instead of cutting down more trees, squeezing more oil from the ground, or mining more metal from the earth, we need to reuse what we have already extracted. And one of the best ways to do that is to support the companies who specialize in reusing. This helps them to thrive and reuse more of your recycling. It also encourages their competitors to start looking at more recycling.

So, the next time you are out consuming shopping, look to see if there is a recycled version available.

Here are two quick examples we had lying around the house:

 

Paper goods are a prime example and an easy one to adopt. We have given up paper towels in our home, but I am not about to ask the family to give up toilet paper! So, the next best thing for us is to use toilet paper that is manufactured from recycled paper products. Locally, this particular brand can be found at Market Street and some United Supermarkets, but there are several other brands to be found in other places as well.

 

This one was a little surprising to find locally, but here is what can be created from used motor oil - more motor oil. Yes, it's a far from perfect solution - (insert shameless plug for electric car here), but if you are still running a gasoline engine, this is a great way to go. It is very competitively priced and can often be found on sale. And it gets high ratings. Unfortunately, it is a very slow mover. People are hesitant to buy an oil that is 50% recycled. As a consumer, this is where we can step it up. Encourage the companies who are trying to do a better job of conserving our resources.

 

If you have any favorite recycled products, please share them with us. And please keep your eyes open for new opportunities to support recycling efforts.

 

May your day be filled with recycled goodness! Take care, my friends!

 

(PS. An even better option for conserving resources is finding ways to consume less, but every little bit helps.)

 

 

Did I mention that I love infographics?

Some days it's a tough love affair. Take for instance yesterday. I ran across an infographic on plastic...

The keyboard upon which I type this is mostly plastic. As I glance around my desk, I notice that almost everything on the desk has a plastic component. Indeed, the desk itself has a significant amount of plastic. The stuff is everywhere.

 

So, if I am indeed average, I will throw away 75 tons of plastic over my lifetime. And I am middle-aged, so I have already thrown 33 tons away.

 

 

I walk a fair amount. Some days I carry a bag when I walk. The trash on the street is almost always recyclable. Paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic. Plastic is by far the most common trash I find - drink bottles.

Lots of drink bottles - Americans use 60 Billion per day.

 

 

So, how about that bag I carry?

 

It is truly staggering when you sit back and realize how many of us there are and how much each of us consumes.

 

 

[More tomorrow.]

 

May your day be filled with hope and may your actions reinforce that feeling.

 

 

An Infographic for Modern Life

I guess my attention span

keeps getting shorter.

I love info-

grahics

which feature simple

fisher-price style

people.

Get out there

and shop!


Honey, we need a bigger house!

Have a great

day!