Sorry about yesterday's negative tone, I'm usually positive, but was having a bad day.
Here is a little more about me. Less than a year ago I was working as a mechanical engineer at a large fitness company designing treadmills, exercise bikes, and ellipticals. The job was good and I really liked the people that I worked with day to day. But I didn't really find it fulfilling and I didn't like the corporate culture that existed there.
I was working on starting an ecommerce store to try to get some freedom when my wife came across an opportunity. She found a health supportive culinary arts school that was offering a full ride scholarship to one lucky person. It was half way across the country down in Austin, Texas. To do it would require me to quit my job, sell our house, and move down there for 9 months. It sounded crazy, but we went for it. What differentiates lucky people from non-lucky people is that lucky people tend to take opportunities or are open to more possibilities. We had no idea if she would get it or not, but she applied and got it!
We are now 8 months in to that 9 month stay in Austin. It has been great. My wife really enjoyed the school and did really well at it. As for me, being a stay at home dad has been fun, but my wife thinks I'm rather poor at house work :). I've been interested in and learning about permaculture and sustainable buildings for awhile. While we were at home visiting family over the holidays I was flipping through a book about sustainable architecture and there was a picture of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, http://www.cmpbs.org/, and it was right here in Austin. When we got back I looked it up and went to an open house they were having that week and signed up as a volunteer. It has been awesome. I've learned so much and met people that are doing some world changing work. After seeing all the things they are doing I don't think I could ever go back to a job like my corporate job. I would if I absolutely had to, to support my family, but it would be the last resort. I've also been taking Geoff Lawton's permaculture design course and loving it.
As for my ecommerce venture it was a flop, but I learned a lot. I'm actually working on the second one now. We'll see how it pans out.
I'm also starting a podcast about sustainable buildings, development, and living. I haven't come up with a good name yet. I liked the 'Treebuilders' because a sustainable building should function like a tree. e.g. harvest its own water, benefit its surroundings, clean the air, etc. But that can be easily confused with tree houses. Which are cool, but not the focus of the podcast. Other names I've been thinking of are Gramophone or Good Earth Gramophone. We will see. I have my first interview next week, but there is a possibility of another interview happening tomorrow. Which brings me to today.
Today, I'm going to meet Brad Kittel aka 'Darby', founder of Tiny Texas Houses and the Pure Salvage Living Renaissance, (http://tinytexashouses.com). My wife actually found him and it was quite serendipitous. We were looking for one more weekend getaway before we move. We wanted to go to the Texas coast again, but it turns out that it is spring break and everything is booked. So we looked into another town that we liked, but it was all booked too. My wife broadened the search to just about anywhere near here and found a tiny house on AirBNB. When she booked it she had no idea who the owner was, but she soon noticed that he had a lot of tiny houses on AirBNB. I did a little more searching and found his website. Brad is more than a tiny house builder, he has started a movement of building tiny homes out of salvage materials. The homes he builds are 95-99% constructed of materials salvaged from demolitions. While we are staying in his tiny house I'm going to try to convince him to be on my podcast. I went through his website and YouTube channel and came up with some questions/discussion items. I think he will be game, as long as he has a free hour while we are there. Wish me luck!