hammondB3

I’m bought 20 acres in northern Mi and my plans are to build a cabin on it. My thought was to build a small 300sq ft to start with and build the real deal in 5 or so years once it’s paid off. To my dismay I can’t build anything that I can sleep in legally without building permits, no less then 720sq feet. I’m not ready for that yet because I want to pay the land off 1st. But I don’t want to not use it for 5 years either.

The zoning allow for a travel trailer. That’s the legal lodging I can have on my property. This discouraged me because I’m not into dropping a travel trailer on my property for a few reasons. One they don’t pleasing to the eye in the woods, two low ceilings, windows don’t let enough light in, the feel cramped, plus I want a cottage feel not a camper feel.

As I thought about it, it dawned on me I could build a cabin on a trailer. I researched it and found a whole movement of people building tiny houses on trailer beds. This to me seems like the temporary answer until I can build for real. They have taller ceilings, sleeping lofts, you can lay it out the way you want and it they look cool. Plus they are legal provided you build them within the legal limits of travel trailers. I’m excited about this. Searching just about everyday on line dreaming up ideas for my tiny house.

Check out tinyhouseblog.com or http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com

It was cool to see the entrance made for Yellowstone years ago.

Cool blue.

My family went to Yellowstone this summer for a vacation. Pulled my pop-up camper from Michigan. This is the prettiest place I had ever been in my whole life. To awesome for words. I’ll post some photos.

I just purchased 20 Acres in northern Michigan. It’s about 4 1/2 hours away from home. Our plans are to build a cabin/cottage on it the next 5-10 years. Right now we are planning on building a “tinyhouse” on a travel trailer until then. Check out tinyhouseblog.com.

The property is mostly wooded and touches 1000’s and 1000’s of acres of state land. We’ll use it to go up relax, camp, hunt and fish. We never hear cars or sounds of the city. It’s the Elk capital of Michigan.

This will be our 2nd season with our little pop up. We are planning two big trips this summer, plus some miscellaneous weekend trips.

Our 1st trip will be Pictured Rocks in the U.P. of Michigan in June and our 2nd will be Yellowstone National Park this August. I’ll try to write about them this summer.

i have taught another FPU (Dave Ramsey) class this last fall (08). We are down to a credit card with about 900.00. from $13,000.00. feels good to own my cars, save money and help others because now i’m in a position where i can.

i still fight the urge to spend.

this has proven to be harder then i thought. i “do” music for a living. i’m a music director for the church i attend, i own my own studio and travel some performing. there are 2 things that slow the song writing down. 1 is time. finding the time and 2 when i do find the time i hit a brick wall and have nothing to say.

i talked with a friend of mine, who is a very successful songwriter and he says the trick is sitting down for 3 or so hours a day and just play/sing and out of that songs start to birth. i’m not able to spend that much time a day but i’m doing that once or twice a week and it’s working. he also told read fiction, listen to others songs, sermons, conversations, radio, and write down everything that has potential in a song. i’m reading more, listening more and they are starting to come.

I have written a handful of songs since i’ve been on 43things. more are coming and i’m feeling very inspired.

having a hard time staying the course with this. not sure where to get the will power from.

Curtis and I took a trip to the State Capital with his 4th grade class. I wasn’t sure what to expect be we had fun. We spent an hour or so touring the Capital and then an hour or more in the museum. The part that was huge for me was hanging with Curtis. I needed to do something like that with him. Laid down on floor in the state capital with him and class. While we were laying down Curt was telling me “Dad, you don’t have to lay down, just the kids.” But I wanted to be in his world doing what he was doing not just chaperoning. He thought it was cool that I laid down with him and his class and together we looked up at the dome in the center of the capital laying on our back while strangers walked by. As we were riding back on the bus he asked me “So, what songs are you doing tonight at practice.” That touched me because I felt like he was reaching into my world. He never asks about my work. I had a great time.

I found a 2000 Starcraft pop-up camper for only $1500.00. We brought it home the last weekend in May. Tried it out close to home in early June. No kidding we had to leave the camp ground because of a tornado! Pretty scary. But that did not stop us from making plans for the rest of the summer. Right now we are renting a spot for a month at a seasonal campground. This is growing on us. The kids love the place, it’s quite, has fishing, swimming, canoes and boat rentals, everything is there. We’ll be done here mid August and then we are going to take it up to the upper peninsula for a week. Can’t wait. Love this!

There’s always this awesome unexplainable feeling I get when I help others. It gives me a sense of fulfillment and contribution.

My brother had a spinet piano given to him this week. He’s had 2 back surgeries and he’s only 27 so he asked me if I could help him move it because he couldn’t. So he gather a group of guys and we moved his piano. I felt happy for him and was glad he had an awesome gift given to him. The last 3 years of his life has sucked. Half of it in a wheel chair because he couldn’t walk the other in a bed recovering from back surgery. He’s a gifted musician and now he has something to help pass the time as he recovers from surgery. It’s a little thing, I know, but to use our energy and muscle for someone else who can’t feels great.

On the way home I was dropping off my neighbor, who was helping move the piano. He mentioned his lawn mower wasn’t working so I helped him fix it. Ended up being a bad battery and cylinoid. I offered him my mower until he got a new battery.

When I think of helping others, I think of going to a 3rd world country and helping someone less fortunate. Building houses and digging wells, something like that. Here’s the thing though, there are simple things we can do for others, right where we are at, in very own back yard. Until I get to go to a 3rd world I’m going to look for opportunities to help others right here big or small.

i’ve been hosting a class called financial peace university. my wife and i are doing this to encourage others to break bad habits financially, with us, and get the heck out of debt. we have over 30 people attending and it’s so fun helping people win with money. our goal (my wife and I)is get out of debt (with others with us) so we can be in a better place financially to help others. right now we are attacking our debt and then we can be in a place to give and help others more.

check out daveramsey.com. he has great idea’s to help beat debt.

i’ve been hosting a class called financial peace university. my wife and i are doing this to encourage others to break bad habits financially with us and get the heck out of debt. we have over 30 people attending and it’s so fun helping people win with money. our goal (my wife and I)is get out of debt (with others with us) so we can be in a better place financially to help others. right now we are attacking our debt and then we can be in a place to give and help others more.

been reading this book by john maxwell called “talent is never enough” great book! this is a incredible for anyone with big ideas or dreams. this book has helped me rethink and learn about my gifting in ways that i hope will bring me to greater levels of success.

a few weeks ago my 13 year old and i were on our way home from church. we had a short conversation about him turning 14 this summer and how in few years he’s going to be 18. so i suggested that he make a list of goals and things he wanted to accomplish by then and over the next few years let’s work at those goals together. kind of like the movie “bucket list”.

my theory is this will give him a sense of achievement and a rite of passage into adulthood. i’m hoping this will bond us together more, extend his life skills through these tasks and bring the best out of him. we’ll see.

it took him a couple of weeks and he gave me the list. i felt proud because i didn’t bug him or nag him about it, he just put it on my night stand one night before bed. he’s into this idea because if he wasn’t he would have never made the list. can’t wait to get started.

here’s the list.
take a road trip together
go to cedar point
go camping
go turkey hunting
fix up a car together
back pack camping
learn how to get money
learn how to handle money
recording project (we are a family of musician’s-it’s what i do for a living.)
form a band
read the bible more
read more books
learn how to write songs

i love this list. i may suggest more as we go but it’s a great start.

we paid off 2 more credit cards this month! they totaled about $1200.00. we only have one credit card left (HSBC Master Card). after that it’s the car and property taxes. it feels better paying something off then making the purchase. we always feel guilty about the purchase because we didn’t have the money for it. but, paying them off feels good because your free and don’t owe them anymore.

we have taken on more debt though. work has gave me a car allowance and purchased me a 05 equinox. they pay the payment but it’s in our name. so, it’s not debt we are paying for but it is OUR debt. it’s bitter, sweet. we are grateful because we were going to purchase a $1000.00 beater but then they pulled me in the office and gave me the equinox.

all debt besides the equinox should be wipe out by fall so our plan is to take all the payments of the debt and add them to the equinox and hopefully we’ll wipe out in about a year or so. at that point we will bank the car allowance.

i’ve been taking vocal lessons for the past 4 months and i can hear and feel a huge improvement. i have never been satisfied with my sound but then again no performer is. the lessons have boosted my performance and stage presence because i’m not worried about blowing out my vocie. i can sing longer without strain or hoarseness, i’ve gained a higher vocal range. for anyone who performs for a living, take lessons it helps a ton.

it’s been a cold winter this year in michigan so, i’m waiting for the weather to warm up before i start running again. mean while i’ve been jump roping. i love it.

jen and i have about $12,000 debt not counting the house. this isn’t a lot but it’s enough to make you hate debt. so we are aggressively working at getting rid of it. we learned about this finance guy dave ramsey and started working his debt reduction plan and it works!

the deal is you pay off your smallest to largest. every bit of extra income goes toward the smallest debt. this way you have victory fast and the feeling of success. it’s that feeling that keeps you motivated.

we paid off our smallest credit card of $474.00 and it felt so good to have something off the list and we can’t wait to attack the next one.