Ho, all you gardeners, hole-fillers, rammed earth wall builders, oh ye makers of adobe bricks and other things earthenly: This is your raw Stuff. Rich and clayey soil from the top of the mesa, this earth will retain water in your garden for your plants to feed on and if blended just so with sand will lock your adobe into the hard bricks they are meant to be. It is not to be trifled with by the unwise, not for beginners who ask over and over, "Is this good for my garden?" Oh ye of little faith and less experience, HELL YES it's good for your garden as long as you cut it with some clean sand. For you fortifiers of earthen bunkers and other military positions of redoubt, fear not, this soil is the same mix as that from Afghanistan where entire villages are made of it, walls two feet thick and able to stop all but the heaviest artillery rounds, yea, even the most accurately targeted JDAM will not fully flatten a sturdily built earthen wall. Sons of Zeus and all his immortal cohort, this is the stuff of LIFE! When men of old sailed quickly over the wine-dark sea before a following wind this is the stuff they sailed to, this moist and heavy and fertile soil. As amazing as it sounds, I am giving this valuable material away for *free*! Yep, if you've got a hole to fill or a wall to build or a garden to amend with all-natural all-local totally organic slightly mustanic completely titanic mostly virgin San Diego soil, I've got a mound of it, the vestige of an earlier age, a gift from ancient times...and you can have it. Swing by the house with a wheelbarrow and a shovel and you can take as much as you can carry. Slightly restricted access, no more than 36" wide wheelbarrows (hollow horses welcome) Call 619 *** ****

"The generation behind us is even worse. They don't even want the gear, they just want to do the activity on a video game. Don't bother to learn to play a real guitar, just pretend with guitar hero. Don't actually go out and dance, just pretend with a dancing video game. It's so fucking pathetic." You have no idea how right you are, and it only makes me wonder what the previous generation thinks of us.  Was teaching boats & motors the other day and guys will just sit there and say, "I don't know how to fix this" without getting in there and getting their fucking hands on it.  It's maddening, but it's also what drives me to get in there and fix stuff and run my own show.  I think, "I can do this and NOBODY can tell me I can't."  Because I can. So I show them by jumping in the boat and monkey-fucking it for a while and throwing all my 147 lbs into the motor to get it off tilt and then have one of them stand there and point and say, "I think there's a lever on this side you have to flip."  ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?  GET IN THERE AND FLIP IT, MOTHERFUCKER! It's showing that I DON'T know everything on a boat by heart but I DO know I can figure it all out and I don't mind pinching my fingers or getting dirty or wet or cold or anything other than warm and fuzzy.  That's the attitude that's so precious and awesome and that we want to cultivate:  Unstoppable. "It seems like we've all gotten so far away from actually doing things, and just wanting the gear that allows us to do things." Yeah, I feel like a faker every so often, but then I think, "Fuck it, I AM out there doing stuff."  Maybe not all the time, and not as hard as the real dirt bags, but I get out there and get cold and hurt and sweaty and fucking uncomfortable all for a sunrise on a windy piece of rock or the silver flash of a fish 30' down.  For nothing.  For everything. "So how does one decide if they are "winning" at life? Is it how much you laugh? Or is it how much you learn? Or how much you love? How much you experience, or how deeply you experience? Or is it simply you feeling content with how you've used your time? " I don't think it's "winning", in fact, I don't think either of us think that way but it's an easy word to understand.  All of those are important (to us as individuals), but ultimately there's no scorecard. Really, ultimately, no one gives a fuck.  It doesn't matter if you've grown a garden or been in combat or you like fucking dudes in the ass; all that stuff only really matters to you.  That seems to be one of the open secrets of growing up and living a good life.  You realize no one else gives a shit but you and it doesn't matter to anyone but you what your life is.  If you want to smoke pot, do it.  If you want to put in 1,000,000 feet of vert, good for you.  If you land a contract for the same amount, $1,000,000, who gives a fuck?  You, that's all, and that's all that matters.  Maybe it's inspirational for someone else for a minute or a night or a week, but what drives us is us.  Our thoughts, our minds, our muscles, our will.  That's what makes you and me and anyone special, that we drive our own train.  That is it, and that is all. Reminds me of (yet another) Epictetus quote: "Everybody should play the game of life--the best play it with skill, speed, form, and grace."  Those qualities are all we can strive for, and thank god they're ephemeral, enjoyed only in the moment. Those same qualities are what sell lots of product because they've been captured in video or pictures or whatever and then you don't realize until you buy the jeans or bite into the cookie that it's not hard work you're wearing or eating, it's just CHNOPS.  It'll keep you alive and sheltered and fed but unless you put anything into it your heart is still empty. Indian talk.  I better go do something else for a while. Ok for now, NFH

tough sense of humor/levity show generosity conscious of diction/vocabulary Justifiable self confidence and belief in self read for professional development Joy in their work care for others Respect for blue collar work and craftsmen Attention to detail Integrity Self awareness of ability/capability Understands the place of physicality Willingness to face facts List makers Written goals Talking to yourself Lack of patience when it comes to self improvement Taking the job seriously Desire/excitement to learn new things Willingness to eat new ideas Willing to put in time to increase competence

Just got back from a 9 day / 8 night 70 mile trek with Lee in Torres Del Paine National Park down in southern Chile. This was the longest hike I've done, both in duration and distance.  Temps were mostly in the 50s during the day and dipped down to the low 30s at night.  The wind was constant and heavy.  Lots of scattered showers, one day of heavy rain, and we ran into snow and hail and sleet going over the John Gardner Pass at 4,000 ft.  Daily hikes were usually 4-6 hours with a max day of 12.5 hours going over the Pass.  Starting pack weights were 22 lbs for Lee and 30 lbs for me.  By the end we were probably down to 16 & 22, respectively.  We had the lightest packs by far on the trail and saw lots of other relatively unprepared people with way too much shit.  Listening to Dave H.'s sage counsel on all things ultra-light weight was super helpful. For food we each brought 11 dehydrated meals and supplemented that with eating 5 dinners and 3 or 4 breakfasts at the various refugios/huts along the way.  Also ate Halvah bars (my fave trail food) and salami/cheese/crackers/crushed up pringles/cookies that we bought either at the supermarket in town before we started or at various refugios along the way. We were lucky enough to have excellent recommendations and borrowed gear from friends like Brad B and Greg C.  Brad especially was helpful.  He recommended a book called "Allen & Mike's Really Cool Backpacking Book" which, despite it's silly title was worth twice it's weight in gold for the good solid advice inside.  Highly recommend this read to any backpacker.  Brad also lent us a tent, kettle, poles, sleeping bags and pads.  Having his years of outdoor living in our backpacks was incredibly helpful and probably made the difference between a highly enjoyable trip and one that would have been downright fucking miserable.  Lesson one:  Have good friends with expertise help you. On to lessons learned (written down on the trail): -better, more organized med kit.  Nice that it was in a little red nylon pouch, would like to see it a little easier to sort through.  Not sure yet how to do that.  Things we definitely will add include:  arnicare/traumed (soft tissue injuries/overuse stuff), more ibuprofen, ace bandage -earplugs and eyecovers worked really well in crowded campgrounds and were also useful getting to sleep at night with so much daylight (4:30 am - 11:00 pm) -Patagonia brand R1 hoody and Nanopuff combo were the fucking heat.  T-shirt on bottom followed by those two layers and a raincoat up top kept us warm in everything but the freezing temps of the Pass, and I think if we'd just had better gloves and I'd have had rainproof bottoms with thermal underwear we would have been good to go. -Lee's backpack, a Gossamer Gear Mariposa, worked really well with all the mesh pouches on the outside for easy access.  Her time to get anything was 1/5 of mine as I had an old (and bombproof) Arc'teryx Bora 40.  40 liter pack is just enough to carry gear and food for one, but had we not had easy and continuous access to water I would have had to bump up a size. -we lined our packs with trash compactor bags, folded over at the top and then covered with another (backup) folded TC bag as a cap.  That seemed to be totally waterproof and neither of us had wet anything inside our bag despite a full day of Patagonia rain. -use of glacial melt as ice baths saved the day for both of us coming off the Pass.  Although very uncomfortable I went from hobbling to striding in a matter of minutes.  Should have done them again the next day but didn't, trading short-term avoidance for slightly longer term pain. -I ordered the wrong size rain pants before we left and delayed in returning them, resulting in not having them in time for my trip.  I took the light weight Patagonia brand Guide pant which flat-out wasn't enough for the rain.  Soaked right through, and I learned my lesson the best way, which is the hard way:  Always bring full rain gear. -Lee wrote down a bandanna for face/head covering, more streamlined leggings (she wore regular cotton pants from the Gap,which left her super cold coming down from the Pass) and some kind of open-air camp/shower shoes for the various nasty bathing facilities.  I won't bring any of that shit, but that's just me. -We didn't prepare enough and should have rested on day 3 instead of charging.  2-3 days of hiking and 1 day of rest is bombproof for injury prevention, but you don't always have the time.  We did have the time but didn't stop until forced to by injury.  Should have been more disciplined about stopping before it got bad.  Again, learned the hard way.  Solid. -Need to figure out a better way to carry/organize socks.  It's a little thing but knowing which socks are fresh and/or used only once would be helpful.  Not essential, just helpful. -Slamming 2 liters of water at the start of the day worked phenomenally well to avoid dehydration and carrying excess water in the ruck.  Lots of piss stops, but those were good mini rest stops as well.  I will follow the morning 2-liter H2O slam protocol from here on out. -our tent (a BD single wall hiLight borrowed from Brad) was awesome for weatherproof-ness.  Shed water well, let in a little wind but we had NO problems with condensation.  It is billed as a cozy 2 person assault style tent, and that's what it is.  Will look for a slightly larger tent with a vestibule as we ended up just chucking all our extra shit into the trash compactor bags and leaving them outside the tent.  Not as secure as I'd like, but it worked well.  Also, a vestibule for cooking in inclement weather seems like a good call.  Didn't have to use ours but thought about it. -hydropel worked well for any hot spots on our feet, and taping toes worked well too.  Neither of us had any real foot problems due to being super pro-active about foot care. -Dave H. recommended I take a hard case for sunglasses and like a fool I blew him off.  Will bring a small hard case next time. -the small primus kettle and cat can stove worked really well, need to build a better windscreen then the white trash aluminum foil that I used.  The windscreen worked, but it's a little too lightweight, and I think I could get better performance out of something slightly beefier. -cat can stove: good to go.  I brought way too much fuel, that thing is a sipper, not a gulper.  Filling it up to the bottom holes with fuel was enough to get the water bubbling but not boiling, which was all I needed.  Some issues:  it's got a hot bottom so can't use it inside tent without some kind of stand, which I didn't have.  I think vestibule cooking would be fine if you're careful.  Excellent hobo skill. -Brought a windjacket which worked well but was unnecessary because I had my light shell rain jacket (Patagonia Torrentshell) -need to get warmer and more waterproof gloves.  Once your hands are soaked you can get fuct quickly. -Down bags were good to go.  We used sea-to-summit eVent compression sacks and those kept our bags dry and compressed.  Will continue to use this system.  Am SUPER impressed with the Big Agnes sleep system, was very warm and comfortable at night.  Thanks again, Brad. -natural bug spray was useless.  Better off with a headnet and long clothes. -the spyderco and benchmade knives were heavy and I don't remember using them.  Could probably carry a light utility knife or just a few razor blades for same effect. -should have carried more tea, instant soups (miso) and ramen.  Nothing like a fast hot meal to make a cold wet day a whole lot better. -need lighter tent stakes.  The beefy plastic orange ones I had from high school were too much weight and not enough strength, esp. in cold.  Cracked one on day 2 from pounding. -Lee says more soap and hair ties.  Absence of both did not bother me. Most of these are little issues, minor tweaks in an effort at perfection.  Overall it was a very comfortable and enjoyable trip despite some incredibly inclement weather.  Having top-level gear really made a difference in our ability to enjoy the surroundings vs. battling environmentals.  Layering up and down worked really well, and being proactive about not sweating kept us warm and stoked pretty much the whole time. Gear List Worn -heavy prana t-shirt -surf trunks (I don't get cold easily when moving) -inov8 FlyRoc 310 shoes Pack Arcteryx Bora 40 Main Pouch -grey/silver groundcloth, cut to size -grey windbreaker (unnecessary) -cooking kit in kettle (2 pair socks, liquid soap, stormproof matches and striker (could have brought a lighter) therm-a-rest repair kit, sil-fix for tent, cat can stove, tin foil windshield for stove) -nano puff -R1 hoody -long underwear sleep gear, top & bottom -t-shirt -3 x socks -food (11 x organic Mary Janes Farm Outpost dehydrated food packs, just add boiling water. Worked really well.) -tent -sleeping bag in sea-to-summit eVent compression sack -therm a rest sleeping pad as a tube for everything to fit into, then... -trash compactor bag as waterproof inner lining Outside Side Pockets, lower -trash bags for trail trash Top Outside -1 liter platypus, usually 1/4 filled -potable aqua (did not need) -HEED and Perpetuem (Hammer Nutrition) Top Inside Pocket: -toothbrush & paste, integrated into one neat little system -headlamp -spoon, long handled Ti -Toilet paper -more HEED, Recoverite, and Perpetuem Outside Long Pocket -rain jacket & pants -tent poles & stakes -gloves -hat -fuel bottles, 2 x 8 oz and 1 x 4 oz.  Only used 8 oz -40' of 550.  Used as a clothesline. If you're going on this trek or have any questions, hit me up.  Thanks to CR for prodding me to write this all up.

the why talk Purpose: to ignite in the learner a deep and burning desire to become a better man What do I need to know to give this? -history -the Greeks -philosophy -rhetoric -personal accomplishments, physical -speak another language -why do we do what we do? spec ops, cops, border patrol, any physically difficult and challenging job -what is great about America, or, why are we here? The goal?  To perfect the self.  This is the way & the end.  Live for the experience. -greeks -arete -flow state -ethics and morals -peace/love/joy -community -feasting together (feasting over 15,000 years old, pre-dates agriculture) -classical education -farming -problem solving Recommended Reading and source list: -carnage & culture, who killed homer, blood meridian, seneca, devil's highway, epictetus, the odyssey, the warrior's edge, trout bum, performance rock climbing, the right stuff, thoughts of a philosophical fighter pilot, endurance, soldier's load, self reliance, the four agreements "For the soldier's trade, verily and essentially, is not slaying, but being slain.  This without well knowing its own meaning, the world honours it for.  A bravo's trade is slaying; but the world has never respected bravos more than merchants: the reason it honours the soldier is, because he holds his life at the service of the State.  Reckless he may be--fond of pleasure or of adventure--all kinds of bye-motives and mean impulses may have determined the choice of his profession, and may affect (to all appearance exclusively) his daily conduct in it; but our estimate of him is based on this ultimate fact--of which we are well assured--that put him in a fortress breach, with all the pleasures of the world behind him, and only death and his duty in front of him, he will keep his face to the front; and he knows that his choice may be put to him at any moment--and has beforehand taken his part--virtually takes such part continually--does, in reality, die daily." -John Ruskin, The Roots of Honor, Unto This Last Five great intellectual professions, relating to daily necessities of life, have hitherto existed--three exist necessarily, in every civilized nation: The Soldier's profession is to defend it. The Pastor's to teach it. The Physician's to keep it in health. The Lawyer's to enforce justice in it. The Merchant's to provide  for it. -John Ruskin, The Roots of Honor, Unto This Last "The Greek idea of virtue starts with the individual; we are to be stronger, tougher, more outspoken than it is in our nature to be.  We must look to ourselves, not others, for succor in staring down what is fated." "[]Lasting reform is found only through action.  Meaning can only be found in the effort to do what we should not be able to do, in sacrificing life and health in order to paw and scratch at bigger things that do not fade." "[] Men on foot with muscular strength, not horsemen nor even missile men, alone ultimately win wars." "[] Most alien to the Classical spirit is the suppression of argument, the refection of self-criticism, or the idea that incorporating the ideas of others diminishes oneself." "The Greeks have already mapped the paths to individual success and the creation of a stable society: joint decision-making, no astronomical payoffs for an undeserving elite, constant audit and accountability, duties to the community, noblesse oblige towards the less fortunate--what the Greeks called charis" Did not more than one Greek say, "Not finely-roofed houses, nor the well-built walls, nor even canals or dockyards make the polis, but rather men of the type able to meet the job at hand"?  People, then, matter. Learning comes through pain, reason is checked by fate, men are social creatures, the truth only emerges through dissent and open criticism, human life is tragically short and therefore comes with obligations, character is a matter of matching words with deeds, the most dangerous animal is the natural beast within us, religion is separate from and subordinate to political authority, private property should be immune from government coercion, even aristocratic leaders ignore the will of the assembly at their peril--start with Homer, especially his Illiad. -Victor Davis Hanson, Who Killed Homer? "When you get to the top of a wall, there's nothing there."  -Yvon Chouinard, on why he climbs, from the movie 180 South

CR, I like that first one out by Townsend and this last one.  Obvious differences of quality vs quantity, and we both know the answer to that question.  So with 40 acres and $885k how many folks will you need to make it do-able, and what do you get for your cash? What follows goes against a lot of my thinking over the last few years, but it also makes a lot of sense to me, so I'm putting it out there. $22,125/acre, and I don't think you want to make it so everyone gets their own acre parcel.  Probably better off with 1 or 2 areas sectioned for development (on my little 3k sq ft here in SD we've got enough for a garden and a workable yard/garage etc) and the rest left for single track or wilderness or whatever. I mean fuck, how much space do you really need?  You can build a 2,000 sq ft house on 1,000 sq ft, and anyone who wants more than a 2k sq ft house ain't my kind of people. An acre is 43,500 sq feet.  At 5,000 sq ft/lot (which is small, but you've got the rest of the fucking property plus community facilities like a workshop & gym) then you can get about 8 homes on 1 acre.  High density development is where it's at for efficiencies to start really working (like community level greywater and solar and wind and all the rest of the cool green stuff) and for community itself.  I don't want to live in the middle of nowhere with no one around, I want to live close to nowhere with a good tribe of folks. So, develop 2-5 acres for 16-40 homes and leave the other 35 or so acres open for wilderness stuff.  2 acres and 16 homes sounds way better to me; I don't know 40 kick ass people who I'd be into living in that kind of arrangement with.  That brings it to $55k per for the raw cost, then you've got to factor in building and whatever community bullshit on top of that.  $55k is do-able.  It's plan the fuck ahead money, but it's do-able. Set aside another acre for "town-center" stuff like a gym and a restaurant-grade kitchen and a fully operational wood/metal workshop with plenty of parking space and a range you're starting to get what I'm looking for. Also, figure out how many people will live there full time (not me) and how many people want a place to go to and build a kick ass house and hang out with rad people at different times of the year (most definitely me) and make that info available to buyers-in.  I don't think that many people need to live there full-time for it to be awesome, and it'd be kind of cool to always have fresh blood rotating through with a couple of big ol' potluck motherfucking dinners once or twice a year when everyone shows up. Either way it's the same price to get in.  First right of refusal to the group when selling, and some kind of group fund that gets a little inflow every month to take care of buying back property and maintenance on the community backhoe etc.  Maybe that's only for the first 5 years, I don't know.  Wandering back and forth across that socialist/individualist line, leaning heavily to individualist when I come to my senses and heavily to socialist when I want to maximize efficiency of buying power. How to gather that money together is the next question.  Prob put out a list with a 2 month time requirement and the whole way it'll go, at the end of which you say "I'm in" or "No thanks."  If you've got 16 folks, set up a bank account and give everyone a year (or two, whatever) to contribute their portion.  At the end of which if you've got the money together we pull the trigger on a nice piece of property, and if we don't everyone gets their money back and we drift away. That's my six cents. NFH

Yep.  Plenty of "ethical shortfalls" in the Teams, and I agree with *** regarding the "you ain't cheatin' you ain't trying" problem.  It sure affected me, and I still struggle with myself (not just the students) every day with that attitude.  The story you told me about not stealing toilet paper from Yosemite has stuck with me as well.  It's such a powerful move, and it seems easier to remain in integrity than to regain it, but it also seems to be like a good diet; you're always only the next meal away from living in integrity. Was just reading Greg Crouch's book where he talks about going to West Point.  Integrity was so important there that professors usually left the room after they'd handed out tests.  One time, the professor left the room and a student opened his book and started working on the test using his book.  The rest of the class was amazed and shocked until one guy leaned over and said, "Hey, this isn't an open book test."  The student who'd been using the book went white in the face, immediately closed his book and ran out of the room to go find the professor and confess his mistake. That story struck me particularly, probably because I've heard so much shit-talking about other services and started to believe it without checking.  That changed for me with the Marines when I read One Bullet Away by Fick, and this second story got me thinking about why I viewed other services with, well, fuck, I'll just say it, disdain.  Totally ignorant of me, but something that I wasn't conscious of.  Def. something I'll start adding in to my duties as an instructor; teaching our students that they ain't the be-all end-all of warrior-dom, and that integrity is not exclusive to the elite. Hope your trip to Africa was fun, sure seems like a lot of folks are heading over there.  I guess it's a good time to be a black dude in the Teams, eh?  Have often thought of doing some kind of business there, something to do with sustainability but then I figure why the fuck should I work over there when I've got neighbors who don't get it? Planed that redwood slab down again today; it got moldy last time as I didn't treat it with any MurderDeathKill type sealers.  I think I've fixed that problem now.  Have been reading 3 of VDH's books, all of them are good reads.  Carnage & Culture, The Land Was Everything, and Who Killed Homer? Yeah, I'm not sure how the whole thing will go down on working with you and other guys I dig, and I want to make sure I actually MOVE on it at some point instead of talking about it, but I still think we're in the best kind of patiently waiting stage, and when the time is right it'll all come together.  In the meantime I'm giving the subject pretty consistent low-intensity thought, and it's nice to think about. Ok for now, NFH

****, Good to hear from you, it has been a while since that fireside chat over at ****'s place many moons ago.  The short version of my long, rambling, and mostly about me answer is:  Grab something you think you like by the balls and do it.  If you don't like it you'll know pretty quick and you've got enough time and money and talent to move on when you need to. Ok, onto the rambling bullshit: I'm teaching for the Navy, small boat handling and diving.  Good money, reasonable (really, fucking phenomenal) time off and a chance to hang around the **** environment without getting sucked in.  It's safe and it's enjoyable, but after 3 years of it I am ready to move on.  I wasn't born to live a safe and enjoyable life, although it's been both lately.  Too little room for creativity and too much of a "box" to be living in. So we're in the same boat in a way, except you've got a timeline and I don't.  The first step is already made for both of us; we've decided to move on to something new. Stuff that I think about for my next activity include job satisfaction and challenge and creativity.  I have a mental list I'm slowly putting together that includes working with my hands, solving real problems, working with people, being outside, being answerable to those who perform at a higher level than me and who can help bring me up, and bringing in a steady enough flow of money that I can meet my obligations. Beyond that, I don't know what to do other than to continue to pursue clarity on it and trim away anything that doesn't need to be there and just let it sit until it grows on its own and I create something awesome and new and custom to me.  Stuff that has helped in the past has included trips to hang out with friends like CR, taking a class or a course, going and checking out totally foreign things, and reading a bunch of new books. To that end Lee & I are heading off to Patagonia for a 16 day trip in December.  Maybe that exploration will yield results, maybe I'll meet someone on the plane, maybe that time away from the Navy job will allow me to release some of those JOB bondages and think up of something new. CR and I have talked lots about different jobs or companies, and some of the ideas we've come up with have sounded pretty awesome; teaching rich people how to act, or teaching rich kids how to act (both of those by surrounding the client with a group of good dudes), or solving funky problems that there are no "experts" for, or building a compound/community where we could be self-reliant and interdependent with folks we dig. I was talking to a buddy of mine, ****, the other day and we thought it would be pretty awesome to start a school for all ages that addressed what seems to be a hunger in this society for the upbringing of men, something that combines stuff you find at the service academies with stuff you'd find at a school like Hampshire or Evergreen.  Boxing and Greek lit. in the morning, gardening and blue collar work in the afternoon.  Lots of outdoor activity and a general disregard for physical comforts, all in the pursuit of human arete.  A basic and unfashionable uniform and a desire to instill a penchant for hard living and a thirsty intellect in our students. So while that simmers and boils and develops on its own I just bought another ATM to put into a local restaurant and that'll build the income stream by a few hundred dollars more a month.  It seems that it's about lots of "dream-time" and an equal amount of "Guns up, let's do this" activity. As far as advice on "the outside"; dude, the sky is the motherfucking limit for you.  There is nothing out there that doesn't satisfy the basics of money and time and the rest of that bullshit that you can't pick up in two weeks, it's whether or not you want to take the ten years to master it and trade those years for other years when you could be doing something else. If any of this helps or if you've got questions write or call anytime.  Keep thinking, keep chargin', keep reading, and if all else fails get under the squat bar or get out on a hard run and just see what kind of push you've still got.  Sometimes those self-imposed moments of intense physical duress create the fastest and hardest and hottest creative juice kick you'll find. Ok for now, NFH

****, For greywater you can't go wrong with Art Ludwig's "Create an Oasis Out of Greywater".  I used it for my system and it was more than enough info. For rainwater check out  "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond" by Brad Lancaster, it's a good overview. If you're going to build a cistern you could look at Volumes 2 and 3 of the Rainwater Harvesting book, but I just bought Art Ludwig's "Water Storage" and that seems to be enough. All told that's about $50-60 on Amazon and it's all the info you'll ever need to build any system you want. Shop around for tanks if you buy one, you can find stuff super cheap if you're patient. The systems are simple and bombproof, the main thing being to spend plenty of time on design.  Think about maintenance.  One thing I'll do with my next greywater hook up (from laundry to front yard) is to install a Jandy 3 way pool valve instead of a 3 way PVC valve.  The Jandy is supposed to be super simple to turn instead of the 3 way PVC that I had to build a special wooden jig to turn it because it's so stiff. The valves are installed so I can switch easily between sending greywater to my garden and sending greywater to the city/septic.  If you're a total hippie and never use any bleach or other nasty chemicals you'll be fine, otherwise install it. As far as soap, Art makes a big deal about bio-compatible suds; I've just used normal soap (Dr. Bronner's or some other semi-natural stuff) and my plants LOVE it. I didn't pay attention to any codes or try to get any permits.  Not sure what the situation is out there but from my limited experience the main thing that the gov't wants out of you is money, and they don't trade you anything for it; no expertise, no knowledge, nada. Bottom line:  This shit is simple to do, just take your time and think it out. If you have any questions feel free to call or email. Cheers, NFH

Yep.  I like the simplicity stuff.  With that said, I did just buy 2 more hand planes off a guy from Craigslist.  I love fine tools. Wrote this the other day for our Paleo Treats FB page: "Had a workout the other day where I had a 1,000 reasons to be anywhere else, and only 1 reason to get under the bar. I want to be stronger. So I didn't walk away, or get a drink, or take one more breath, or go to the bathroom. I got under the bar and squatted the damn thing. It was hard. My form wasn't great. It wasn't my heaviest weight ever. But I fucking did it, and kept doing it until I knocked out all my sets and reps. Get out there and get after it.  This shit ain't complicated, it's just hard." I think I like the last sentence the best; it sums up my attitude about getting shit done in life.  Good to be friends with you, amigo. NFH