Wendy Tremayne and the Good Life Lab

I met Wendy Tremayne through my wife who participated in a Swap o Rama Rama event at the San Mateo Makers Faire.  The Swap o Rama Rama idea was Wendys and the concept is based on the calculus of what it takes to live a Good Life.  Is it better to be a wage slave and live a crummy life so you can buy commodities with money or is it better to live the life you want and get your commodities by some other means.  Wendy and her partner Mikey did the math and concluded that it was better for them to live the life they wanted and get their commodities by means that involved as little money as possible.
So thats what the book is all about, the math on what it takes to have a decent life when you have a job and money but little time vs. having a decent life when you have no job and little money but all the time to do what you want. Plus, having done the math and concluding that youd rather have a good life and little money, how to tap into the waste stream to get the commodities you need and developing skills to do stuff on your own that you used to pay other people to do when you had money but no time.
And having had some time to talk to Wendy, I also found out that she is one of those genuinely authentic human beings that radiate a goodness that outshines any ego that might still be clinging to their bodies.
Quitting your job to live the good life is obviously not for everyone, but if by some stroke of luck you get fired and cant find another job, you should maybe get this book and look at some alternatives.
For a more in depth review of the book you might also want to look here. The review also has an interview with Wendy.
Perhaps the best part of the Wendy approach to the good life is that is not a fixed prescription but rather a more general approach, that is, living off the waste stream of our culture is not a permanent solution, but rather a way to live right now while there is a large waste stream.  If that waste stream were to dry up, then some other way of living will be needed, but for now, its a good way to go.

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Life goes on

The end of summer brought with it a devastating personal loss. My boatbuilding work suffered in the aftermath. So did a whole lot of other things. But, as they say, life goes on. Im finally back to working on the boats, so here is a little update:

The Utility
After sanding, filling in holes and low spots, more sanding, more filling, and yet more sanding... the hull was finally ready for encapsulation. Taking advice from more experienced builders, I applied the epoxy (System Three Silvertip) with the special thin foam rollers from Glen-L. This made application much faster and easier than trying to do it with a chip brush. And if youre thinking about using the "regular" paint rollers for this... DONT. I made that mistake. I regretted it. So will you, in all likelihood.

Glen-L Utility hull, encapsulated with 1 layer of System Three Silvertip epoxy.

On the transom, after rolling on the epoxy, I squeegied it meticulously to remove all excess epoxy. This gives the transom a very attractive "stained" look, accenting the grain that I want to show.

I was very happy with how the transom turned out.

The hull is now ready to be fiberglassed.

The ZIP
Yes, I am enjoying building the Utility. I even got to drive one recently, and its a neat little boat. However, I want that Zip in the water. Theres a long, long way to go before that can happen. So, I built frame 5-1/2 over the weekend. I built it out of 4/4 African Mahogany, lapped with 1/4" Douglas Fir gussets and 3/4" Douglas Fir floor member. It is ready to be disassembled and epoxied. Hopefully, I can get that done sometime this week. 

Glen-L Zip frame # 5-1/2

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