Posts Tagged ‘Simple Living’

It can be difficult to make choices sometimes.

There are times when I really want to do two things and I simply can’t, then it comes down to setting priorities. I need to decide which choice to make based on what is important right now rather than what I would really rather do. Sometimes I need to decide what it is that I really need to do.

I have some strong spiritual interests/practises and for some of these practises I have Teachers. My spiritual interests are not church based at all, despite having being raised in a church going family. In fact, like many Irish people of my generation, I have no interest whatsoever in church or it’s dogma however I fully respect the choices of anyone who does.

My spiritual interests are more nature based, spirit based, a little like a “Pick ‘n’ Mix”. I do believe in the power of prayer, I meditate when I am disciplined enough, I ask for help from various sources, I give gratitude for what I have received in my life, I try to live in the moment and to practise self-awareness. I am a strong believer in the power of letting your light shine so that others may be encouraged to do the same.

Recently the opportunity has arisen to attend a workshop being presented by both my teacher and his teacher. This is a wonderful opportunity as the man is held in very high regard and it is the last time that he will travel to Ireland to give one of his five day workshops.

My teacher has gone out of his way to make this workshop available and affordable for me for which I am very grateful and I did think that I would be able to take the time needed.

However I really need to be at home to help put a roof on our house. The house building has already been postponed for a few weeks to allow us both to earn some money and we are ready now to get back to building work.

The winter is coming, Equinox has passed and the nights are getting colder, we have even lit a fire in the last three evenings. We really need to put a roof on the house before the weather deteriorates any further.

The wall frames are already in place so in order to be prepared for winter we need to put on the roof first, then weather-proof the walls. Half of the rafters are in place and we are now getting ready to put up the other half, put a roof decking in place, put on the vapour barrier, battens and the roofing material which in our case is corrugated tin.

I am grateful that we have all the materials that we need to do this next bit of work and we even have offers of help from two good friends, one of whom has experience in roofing his own house.

Does anyone want to volunteer to make soup and sandwiches for us? I think we will have a few days of one-pot dinners cooking away on the stove whilst we are outside hammering away.

Now, I just need to remember to pray for a dry spell of weather….

The Booby Prize for Packaging Waste goes to O2.

We became fed up with the coverage of the Vodafone mobile broadband modem, we had become quite frustrated with the intermittent coverage that we had changed over to O2 and got one of their little modems instead. I have to admit that we are very satisfied with the coverage and glad that we changed.

Recently we needed another modem for a guest that was staying and for my use when I travel by myself that we unlocked it the unused vodafone modem and ordered an O2 mobile modem sim card to use with it instead.

Yesterday a small box came in the post and we wondered what it could be, we weren’t expecting anything, we hadn’t ordered anything big enough for a box.

Imagine our surprise on opening it…..

Open the box to find...

an itty bitty sim card

I know that I have mentioned a few times that we are building a home for ourselves. Usually in Ireland when someone self-builds it either means hiring a contractor to organise the job and supply all the labour or hiring all the builders, carpenters, roofers etc yourself.

Well, we don’t usually do things the “normal” way and building our home is no different! We are doing it by ourselves, with a little help from our friends. We also have not taken the mortgage route, preferring to save the money and buy or salvage materials as we go along. Of course this does mean that we are moving slowly and the build is taking some time.

Right now we want to get the roof on and that is what we have been concentrating on this summer. We have put up most of the wall framing posts and the ridgeboard for the roof.  We are using purlins which are like ridgeborads and do basically the same work – they help to hold up the rafters. The purlins run parallel to the ridgeboard, either side of the ridge equidistant from the outside walls and the ridge and they act to cut the rafter span in half.

Currently we are putting up the northern purlins and rafters. We have five rafters up and are hoping to get a few more up today. The building space is beginning to feel like a house now. For the last year we have had the floor platform up and covered with the floorboards. We have sometimes used the space as a platform for gathering with friends to drum, I have often brought up a garden chair and sat there with a coffee and a book.

Now that we have most of the wall frames up and we are putting up rafters we can feel the shape of the rooms and it is all becoming a little bit more real. It is great to look up now and really see where the roof is going. There are ways in which the slowness of the build is frustrating and there are ways in which the slowness is an advantage.

We are getting to really feel our home become real and we have the time to change wee things as we go along, make adjustments, see where the evening sun shines in, where the summer breezes come from. We will really appreciate it when the house is finished enough for us to move in – everyone says don’t move in until it is finished however our current home is becoming way too small and cluttered and is getting ready to fall apart – it was old when we bought it and really shouldn’t even have lasted as long as it has! We have been reluctant to put any time or money into repairing it as we really need to be concentrating on our new home so I think that as soon as we can we will be moving into the new house.

I am getting a bit ahead of myself though, the moving time is quite some while away yet, today we need to concentrate on getting a few more rafters up…

Do you often find yourself reading web-pages that have lots of ads, tabs, login buttons, animations etc?

I find that some web-pages are distracting and that it takes longer to read the story that brought me there or that it is harder to focus on the story and ignore the background images.

This situation can sometimes lead me to click on other links that lead me astray and then I become frustrated about wasting time or loosing track of what I was researching/reading.

There is a great solution to this distraction and I love it – it is called Readability and works simply by clicking on a button on your shortcut toolbar – and the web-page magically becomes simplified.

First you need to visit the Readability website and make a choice about which page format you prefer – you get to choose from a variety of styles, sizes and margin layouts. Once you have decided which style suits you best you simply add the bookmarklet to your bookmark toolbar and the next time that you are faced with a web-page like this…

Very Busy web page, lots of distraction

and turn it into something much easier to read, like this…

Clearer page, simple with just the relevant text and pictures

A great evening of fun and fashion is happening in Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim on Friday next – yes, it’s the much anticipated Big Clothes Swap Meet.

Come and Swap