Another example of Pure Salvage Living from Tiny Texas Houses. The Vesper Casa has a balcony and many repurposed amenities . Take the video tour and spark your imagine.

The company that commissioned the world’s first 800 kilovolt UHVDC systems, the longest overhead HVDC link to go into commercial operation, and the world’s longest underwater and underground HVDC links, is now writing the next chapter in the evolution of this technology.

ABB has successfully designed and developed a hybrid DC breaker after years of research, functional testing, and simulation in the R&D laboratories. This breaker is a breakthrough that solves a technical challenge that has been unresolved for over a hundred years and was perhaps one of the main influencers in the ‘war of currents‘ outcome. The ‘hybrid’ breaker combines mechanical and power electronics switching that enables it to interrupt power flows equivalent to the output of a nuclear power station within 5 milliseconds – that’s as fast as a honey bee takes per flap of its wing – and more than 30 times faster than the reaction time of an Olympic 100-meter medalist to react to the starter’s gun!

The challenge was to do it ‘ultra-fast’ with minimal operational losses and this has been achieved by combining advanced ultrafast mechanical actuators with ABB’s inhouse semiconductor IGBT valve technologies or power electronics.

The new breaker is a ‘game changer’. It removes a significant stumbling block in the development of HVDC transmission grids. These grids will enable interconnection and load balancing between HVDC power superhighways integrating renewables and transporting bulk power across long distances with minimal losses. DC grids will enable sharing of resources like lines and converter stations that provides reliability and redundancy in a power network in an economically viable manner with minimal losses. It will enable the transmission system to maintain power flow even if there is a fault on one of the lines.

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

When we align our objectives with the Divine will, when we strive for the attainment of a worthy goal, when we begin our work with a well defined plan, and when we have ability to work together with others effectively, we have already achieved the trajectory for success. For we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Learn how to enjoy boundless opportunity and unlimited progress!

A teacher built a tiny house in the forest. Brian Schulz recently completed his forest house in the Oregon Woods. He built the home himself, and the design and concept of it were inspired by the traditional Japanese Minka homes, which are built using local materials and steeply sloped roofs to create affordable, open structures. For his house, Schulz used salvaged materials, along with those sourced from within 10 miles of his new home.

The finished tiny house is a 14-by-16-foot home, which coexists perfectly with its woodland surroundings. It cost only $11,000 to build, which was mostly spent on concrete, shakes and insulation. Schulz, who teaches traditional wood kayak building for a living, completed the house in about a year and a half, working in his spare time.

Schulz salvaged a lot of the wood he used to build the house from the bay while kayaking, which he then milled on-site by himself. For the corner posts he repurposed blowdown trees from a friend’s forest. Inside the house, the kitchen counters were milled from a fallen tree he’d collected and kept for 8 years, while the stair railing is made from alder poles that were cut from beside the house.

There are three tables in the house, which were all cut from cedar found on the beach and made in 2 hours. The flooring was made from low-grade reject fir, and using various bits of scrap wood for the trimmings. The house also has several large windows, which Shultz purchased for $40 from the local dump.

The home is also fitted with several traditional Japanese lanterns made from paper that was handmade only 7 miles from his home. Using only recycled or repurposed materials to build his home was about more than just saving money for Schultz. The Minka tradition that inspired him to build the home holds that by turning a log from beside the house into the house itself gives the house certain mystical qualities. But Schultz thinks that even if this is not something you believe, the search for local materials from which to build the home nevertheless connects a person more deeply to the world around them.

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

“The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” and so it is today for many of his followers. Despite all the warnings about the snares laid by moneylenders, despite the fact that gage mort is literally translated as a pledge to give up one’s life, millions have lost their homes through mortgage exploits, and their quality of life through the service of debt.

Find Out How to Get Your Life Back!

Brian Schulz recently completed his forest house in the Oregon Woods. He built the home himself, and the design and concept of it were inspired by the traditional Japanese Minka homes, which are built using local materials and steeply sloped roofs to create affordable, open structures. For his house, Schulz used salvaged materials, along with those sourced from within 10 miles of his new home.

The finished tiny house is a 14-by-16-foot home, which coexists perfectly with its woodland surroundings. It cost only $11,000 to build, which was mostly spent on concrete, shakes and insulation. Schulz, who teaches traditional wood kayak building for a living, completed the house in about a year and a half, working in his spare time.

Schulz salvaged a lot of the wood he used to build the house from the bay while kayaking, which he then milled on-site by himself. For the corner posts he repurposed blowdown trees from a friend’s forest. Inside the house, the kitchen counters were milled from a fallen tree he’d collected and kept for 8 years, while the stair railing is made from alder poles that were cut from beside the house.

There are three tables in the house, which were all cut from cedar found on the beach and made in 2 hours. The flooring was made from low-grade reject fir, and using various bits of scrap wood for the trimmings.

New reasons, new arguments, new motives . . . all can lead to new goals – new aspirations. — David Brin (1950 – ) Existence, American Author
One need not be a traditional poet to be Poetic. Any alignment with the Universe will do. The greater the cosmic association, the more Dulcet the music of the soul.
Have a peaceful 2014,
Jim
            DULCET
Definitions: (1) melodious to the ear; harmonious; (2) pleasing to the mind; (3) agreeable to the eye or the feelings; soothing
Derivation: Latin, “sweet”
            POETIC
Definitions: (1) possessing the peculiar beauties of harmony; sublime rhythm; (2) imaginative; (3) language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm; written or spoken word formulating a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience
Comment: All poetry is communicative; some is popular and some is evocative. Whatever is wonderful and good can be fused with culture. Words are a way to touch many people at once.
Quote:
Diotima now describes how mortals strive for immortality. In all begetting and bringing forth upon the beautiful, there is a kind of making or poiesis (“poetry” in the wide sense of “creating”). In this genesis there is a movement beyond the temporal cycle of birth and decay. “Such a movement can occur in three kinds of poiesis: (1) Natural poiesis through sexual procreation, (2) poiesis in the city through the attainment of heroic fame, and finally (3) poiesis in the soul through the cultivation of virtue and knowledge.” — Plato (428-328 bc) Symposium
Symbol: words
Historic Figures: 1) Homer (c. 8^th Century BC) The Father of Epic Poetry; 2) Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400) The Father of English Poetry
Mythological Figures: 1) Erato, the Muse who presided over lyric poetry; 2) Bragi, the Scandinavian god of eloquence and poetry; 3) Calliope, Greek and Roman Muse of eloquence and heroic poetry
Consider the Source

Have the rows of organic honey jars at the farmers market got you thinking about starting your own backyard beehive? If you live in a suburban area, you may think that starting a beehive cannot be done. However a common suburban backyard can be a perfect place for beehives if done correctly and you do a bit of research and planning before ordering your bees and supplies. It is actually a very simple and easy process with the right tools.

Mason jars are a staple of the self-sufficient lifestyle. They can be used to serve, grow, or preserve many things, but this is the first time we’ve seen them used as a home for honey bees. It’s easy to turn some scrap wood and quart-sized big mouth jars into unique hives that allow you to watch the bees as they bottle your honey!

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word choreographed an assembly of amino acids into an exquisite array of specific proteins. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” In so doing God demonstrated a penchant for genomic writing, preceeded by an amazing series of prebiotic events, in a highly orchestrated presentation of evolutionary overcontrol.

More about God’s Handiwork!

When you simply don’t have the drive or if you feel you’re on a dead end road, it just may be time for a change. One of the best ways to get motivated is to understand our innermost desires. Some call it taking pride in a job well done. Others think of it as perfection hunger. Whatever you call it, it may be useful to consider how others have chosen to share their thoughts on the matter.

• Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em. — William Shakespeare
• You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. — C. S. Lewis
• Having a dream, living that dream, losing that dream, dreaming again and then having that dream come true again is one of the greatest feelings ever because I`m stronger. — Aaron Carter
• Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over. — Guy Finley
• I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become. — Oprah Winfrey
• That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. — Friedrich Nietzsche
• It is never too late to be what you might have been. — George Eliot
• What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. — Henry Stanley Haskins
• All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them. — Walt Disney
• Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. — Charles R. Swindoll
• There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them. — Denis Waitley
• An obstacle is often a stepping stone. — Prescott
• The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. — Lao Tzu
• The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others. — Hasidic proverb
• Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. — Anonymous
• Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. — Dalai Lama
• After a storm comes a calm. — Matthew Henry
• A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. — Ayn Rand
• If you’re going through hell, keep going. — Winston Churchill
• With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. — Eleanor Roosevelt
• Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice. — Wayne Dyer
• The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence. — Confucius
• Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• As a man sow, shall he reap. and I know that talk is cheap. But the heat of the battle is as sweet as the victory. — Bob Marley
• I don’t believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be. — Ken Venturi
• Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. — Thomas A. Edison
• If you can dream it, you can do it. — Walt Disney
• Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now. — Denis Waitley
• Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward. — Victor Kiam
• Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. — Thomas Jefferson
• When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on. — Thomas Jefferson
• Expect problems and eat them for breakfast. — Alfred A. Montapert
• By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. — Benjamin Franklin
• Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. — William James
• Either you run the day or the day runs you. — Jim Rohn
• Always desire to learn something useful. — Sophocles
• If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success. — John D. Rockefeller
• Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing. — Thomas Jefferson
• Be gentle to all and stern with yourself. — Saint Teresa of Avila
• What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. — Henry David Thoreau
• I’ve worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down and I will not let myself down. — Mia Hamm
• Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door. — Kyle Chandler
• Things do not happen. Things are made to happen. — John F. Kennedy
• Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. — Robert H. Schuller
• Well done is better than well said. — Benjamin Franklin
• Quality is not an act, it is a habit. — Aristotle
• The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. — Thomas Paine
• What you do today can improve all your tomorrows. — Ralph Marston
• Never complain and never explain. — Benjamin Disraeli
• Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there. — Bo Jackson
• You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do. — Henry Ford
• Leap, and the net will appear. — John Burroughs
• The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself. — Mark Caine
• It’s always too early to quit. — Norman Vincent Peale
• Begin to be now what you will be hereafter. — William James
• Crave for a thing, you will get it. Renounce the craving, the object will follow you by itself. — Swami Sivananda
• Who seeks shall find. — Sophocles
• The hardships that I encountered in the past will help me succeed in the future. — Philip Emeagwali
• Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. — Tony Robbins
• When you fail you learn from the mistakes you made and it motivates you to work even harder. — Natalie Gulbis
• You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. — Ted Turner
• The most effective way to do it, is to do it. — Amelia Earhart
• The secret of getting ahead is getting started. — Mark Twain
• Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other. — Walter Elliot
• Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th. — Julie Andrews
• Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. — Jesus

When you’re searching your soul for new resolutions, consult your enthusiasm. And, while you’re at it, think about the origin of of that particular term. Enthusiasm is rooted in the Greek en Theos which means God within!

The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly. — Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976) American Poet
One can be Genteel and yet arrogant. One can have Conviction and yet be bull-headed. The trick is to modify each quality with balancing qualities that either eliminate the possibilities of the negative or at least smooth the rough edges. A willingness to see the other person’s point of view with an open mind often helps. A self study of one’s own prejudices will be of service. An assumption that one will be able to acquire a larger, more objective perspective as we grow is very useful.
Peace,
Jim
            GENTEEL
Definitions: (1) elegant or graceful in manner; polite; (2) refined in style or speech
Derivation: French, “gentle”
Familial Qualities: gentlemanly, ladylike
           CONVICTION
Definition: (1) a strong persuasion or ardent belief; (2) a state of being free from doubt
Comment: Truth and Conviction
The sincere conviction that something is true will allow the individual who holds that conviction to resonate with a power that presents an argument for truth. Yet that person could be wrong. As a matter of fact, the only thing that may be right is the sincerity of the conviction. Therefore the individual will do whatever he or she can to make the belief resonate with truth.
For example, a vessel much larger than described would be needed for Noah to carry two of every species on the planet; but those who believe this “fact” sincerely, do whatever they can to make it true. They try to make it consistent with logic. If it could be proved or disproved by some objective means, then they could rejoice in their accurate belief or would have to readjust their conviction.
Actual facts as well as facts of belief have the resonance of truth when spoken with conviction. The listener must decide what is objective truth or subjectively true.
Consider the Source

“All true art must help the-soul to realize it’s inner self. True art must be evidence of the happiness contentment and purity of its authors.” — Ghandi (1869-1948)
“Any scientific interpretation of the material universe is valueless unless it provides due recognition for the scientist. No appreciation of art is genuine unless it accords recognition to the artist. No evaluation of morals is worth while unless it includes the moralist. No recognition of philosophy is edifying if it ignores the philosopher, and religion cannot exist without the real experience of the religionist who, in and through this very experience, is seeking to find God and to know him. Likewise is the universe of universes without significance apart from the I AM, the infinite God who made it and unceasingly manages it.” — The Urantia Book (a leading edge compendium and epochal revelation (195:7.18))

While the dollar skew in science is seemingly all pervasive, the recent declarations concerning the efficacy, or lack thereof, in vitamin and mineral supplements would appear to betray the corporate line. On the one hand, big-agri would like you to believe that nutrient rich foods can be produced from nutrient depleted soils. On the other hand, big-pharma wants you buying supplements and medicines to compensate for poor nutrition. This co-dependency relationship sometimes makes it difficult for their wholly-owned subsidiaries, the FDA and USDA, to remain on step. Our elected “representatives” also find it hard to please their actual owners for the same reason.

Nutrient gaps were rare on the family farm. Raw milk, for example, was never a problem for those consumers who were just a few steps and a few minutes from the cow. That cow was grass fed on a pasture that was not only expansive, it featured an appropriate bovine population density. The cow poop that hit the ground was totally digested in a matter of days on healthy soil that benefitted from a high microbial biomass. Compare that to the pat that only disintegrates because it is dried by the sun, pounded by the rain, fissured by the freeze, and scattered by the wind.

The microbes that once populated the gut were close cousins to those living in the soil. There were no supplements designed to promote “regularity” because traditional farm dwellers didn’t need them. The genetically modified organisms (GMOs), that are designed to resist pests and ripen on the truck, won’t be necessary once the chemical industry has completed its program of sterilizing the soil while also advancing the pick or short-circuiting the physiological drop.

There is very little science being done without funding by interested parties and this causes big gaps in the ongoing research. We’re limited to the research that self-serving special interests want done. The GMO problem, for example,  is rooted in agenda science which is, in itself, a betrayal of true science. The values of one who engineers a food crop for big money, without regard to a paltry nutritional worth, clearly don’t align with the high purpose of the scientific discipline, the cardinal precepts of which are a religious and philosophical proposition.

The integrity of science depends ultimately upon consumer sovereignty. If buyers refuse to buy from packagers or grocery stores that don’t provide GMO labeling, it doesn’t matter who owns the politicians. If we express a preference for foods produced on biodynamic farms, the mammon service will be forced to cannibalize its own corporatocracy. If we push back from the antibiotics, the hormones, the pink slime, and the high fructose corn syrup of the damn pusher man, we can again become arbiters of our own destiny.

Solar is not alternative energy and nutrition is not alternative medicine. Without the sun there would be no fossil fuels or petroleum based fertilizers. Without good nutrition, there would be no health.

The alternative paradigm is at the heart of the deception, and it all maps back to Genesis wherein God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”  Contrast this with a seriously dumbed down “Good News” bible translation that reads: “I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat.” We will henceforth refer to this as the Monsanto Version.

— © 2013 Robert H. Kalk

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word choreographed an assembly of amino acids into an exquisite array of specific proteins. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” In so doing God demonstrated a penchant for genomic writing, preceeded by an amazing series of prebiotic events, in a highly orchestrated presentation of evolutionary overcontrol.

More about God’s Handiwork!