We finally got home with the baby and it was such a triumphant moment! Our family was reunited after so long and I got a kidney stone at 3am. Back from the ER passing it now on pain killers... when it rains it pours. Just can't catch a break...

Everything that could go wrong did. But baby pulled through and made it. Finally breathing on her own!

Several people expressed concerns when we moved into yurts before winter. Now that a winter storm is coming, they are asking if they can come stay if it becomes an emergency. 😆 We have solar, generators, propane heat, a wood burner, and plenty of food. We will basically be completely unaffected.

I'm struggling to not feel like career progress toward fiat goals was a colossal waste of a decade for me. I didn't even realize I was a fish out of water. The life I wanted deep down was not in the tax bracket I thought it would be in. I stepped away from production construction recently and took a job as a ranch hand in my local community to have more time for family and writing. Stepping so far out of the mainstream lifestyle has given me perspective. This is the most vibrant day-to-day life I've ever experienced. I'd encourage anyone thinking about an alternative lifestyle to go for it. There is a whole glorious world out there beyond the mirage of internet culture.

GN Nostr!

Merry Christmas , Nostr! 🌲☃️

One of the most influential books I have ever read was Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

🍻🌲

Birthday gifts this year: Old-school brass handle knife Wool coat Logger boots A good robe [very important for yurt life]

Got the rims done for a little landing and deck we are putting on the front of the yurt after church today.

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. 😁

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.

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.

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

Absolutely enchanting foggy morning in TN today. Can't get enough. This is the good life!

New friends regularly learn we have 6 kids and comment, "I don't know how you do it". I'll let my nostr friends in on a little secret. Kids don't have to be a burden. Our culture keeps people infantilised into their thirties now. This is my young daughter. Every day she walks across our property, fetches our goats, milks them, filters the milk, cleans up, and brings it home, rain or shine. You want to know the craziest part... She loves it and takes pride in it. Everyone in our household has responsibilities from a young age. If you ever read this, I'm proud of you , baby! Daddy always loves you.

Our family cat passed away the day before yesterday. I wanted to share a few takeaways. Honestly, I wasn't attached to the cat, but this was the first time I witnessed my kids collectively grieving, and it hit me hard. I tried to make a little video about this, but kept getting choked up. When my wife called me on the phone to tell me, all I could hear was wailing in the background. When I returned to the property, I assumed that I would have to hold the household together for a little while. What I found surprised me. The kids were comforting each other... It absolutely overwhelmed me with emotion. Any of them could have been overwhelmed, but they were ok together. They had each other. When I brought the cat to its grave, they lost it, but despite their usual content fighting, they naturally held each other. After the burial, my youngest boy was having a moment, and the oldest daughter got herself together enough to hold him and tell him, "It's ok, you did such a good job feeding her every day." 😫 Family is so important when life is hard. It doesn't have to be blood, but protect what family you have at all costs. Our fiat society wants nothing less than the dissolution of the nuclear family, and I understand why. It is such a a powerful bulwark against hopelessness. We must build, protect, and heal our families! RIP Dewey