The Eco Dad

While I continue to bitch about my left knee, I'm not sitting still. I'm steadily building my garage gym out of scrap wood. While the wife was away in the nation's capital, my sons and I built a bench for my bench press as well as a weight rack of sorts. They ain't pretty, they just look that way. How'd we build the bench? Well, here's a look at the cut list: 2 @ 2"x 6"x 48" (top part where you lay down) 1 @ 4"x 6"x 48" (base where you'll attach the legs; here I used 4 @ 2"x4"x 48" because I'm using scrap wood) 4 @ 2"x 6"x 18.5" (legs) 2 @ 2"x 6"x 20.5" (top and bottom of the base to stabilize) 2 @ 2"x 6"x 12" (joins the legs and holds the top planks you lay upon) This is what your bench will look like, minus the 4 year old.  I drilled the 20.5" stabilizers to the base to start, giving me an 'I' like shape. Next, I attached the 18.5...

My first DIY Garage gym piece was a pull-up bar made of 3 pieces of 1.5" pipe, 2 elbows and 2 floor flanges. Not very technical, not very fancy, but in terms of doing pull-ups it's quite efficient. The unfortunate part is that I'm a bit limited by the exercises I can do with a single purpose pull-up bar. Solution? Build another piece for my garage gym. Now, I don't have a lot of money or a tonne of know-how when it comes to construction. I need simple and efficient - just like my pull-up bar. I also want something a little more versatile. Recently I bought a used Olympic barbell and 265 lbs worth of weight, so hopefully my new DIY piece will allow me to incorporate that second hand purchase. Given my affinity for squats (despite a bum left knee) the decision is easy: build a dual purpose squat and bench press rack! What you'll need: 9 - 2x4's (8') 40 - #8 2.5" wood screws 2 - 5 gallon pails 2 - bags of quick setting cement Doesn't l...

In an earlier post I discussed my internal debate between a home gym and a low-cost gym. I ultimately chose the low-cost gym for a variety of reasons, but as I sit here on weekends, with the low cost gym closed, I wish I had something more than running at my disposal. Now, I'm not going to invest in a home gym. I don't have the money or the space. With a little ingenuity though, I can create something that doesn't take up any floor space and still lends itself to working out. I'm not much of a handyman, but off the top of my head I can redneck something together. I don't normally workout in sandals.  What did I slap together? A pull up station! All this pull up apparatus took was 3 pieces of 1" pipe, 2 threaded elbows and 2 floor flanges. I'm actually a bit impressed at how easy this was to do. I'm already trying to draft a fold away dip station in this head of mine. If companies can create fold away tables and beds, surely I can create somewhe...

Over the past two days, little by little, I have endeavoured to make my best friend a trophy. Why? Because she deserves it. She has served her country for twenty years and I am fortunate to have been her partner (officially and unofficially, on and off) for almost the last four of them. I could go on and on about how awesome she is, but that's not the purpose of this blog. The trophy I made - that's why I'm writing today. So yeah, she's served her country for twenty years as an officer and there will be no pin, no plaque, no handshake, nothing. In fact she had to plan her own celebratory lunch. While I'm up for that, I wanted her to have something other than a full belly. My immediate thought was a gag gift - a used softball trophy from Value Village, likely a 1997 Pee Wee 'AA' Championship. It wasn't that I was looking for a softball trophy, I just figure that's the sorta trophy that gets thrown out. Having it used also keeps in step with my year ...

While I've pledged to refrain from buying new things for a year, my wife has not, and that's okay. She spends enough time with a start-up company and mothering our kids that she doesn't have the same amount of time I do to research and find second hand clothes, especially when she needs an emergency pair of shoes. I did make the absolute most out of the situation though. I took some time and sat down with my three year old this morning and made him a garage for his cars ... from mom's shoe box. Waste not, want not? Constructing/decorating the garage didn't take much time. I think I got 15 minutes of quality time with the boy on this one, but it was 15 minutes of him and I working together. He got to place some stickers and then park his cars in the garage. Lately we've been playing a lot of cars, so I thought this particular craft would be fun ... and it was. We'll likely be playing with it this afternoon when he gets up from his nap. Time to use th...

With my last entry I gave a little spiel about giving back. I chose to support a friend of mine in her efforts to raise funds for the World Wildlife Foundation. Good friend. Good cause. Money well spent. I've donated a good amount of my clothes, my wife's clothes and, tomorrow, I'm donating my kids' old sleep sacks to a friend with a baby. These are actions I can feel good about. But rather than wait for the Karma express to come rolling my way, I'm being proactive and doing good by me as well. If I don't invest in me, who will?  I think I already made mention that I joined a gym that carries a minimal cost of $4.99/bi-weekly.  Not bad. I made the decision to join that gym rather than source out used gym equipment for a home gym, because a home gym is generally never used. I'd end up with an oversized, overpriced set of clothes racks. How do I know? I had a treadmill, but sold it for roughly $100 before I started this journey. I had adjustable barbells, a...

With all the cost cutting and selling stuff around the house, I've mentioned before about supporting a friend who has undertaken a charitable endeavour. The cause I've chosen to support is the World Wildlife Foundation, and the friend I'm supporting is Lindsay. She climbs the CN Tower every year to support this worthwhile initiative. And really, why wouldn't I support her? I like animals. I like Lindsay. It seems a no brainer. That said, I'm going to post the link to her fundraising efforts right here ,  Who knows, maybe I can push a couple extra bucks in her (WWF's) direction. I feel this shark would totally high five me for donating to Lindsay and the WWF! I once read that no one has ever gone poor by giving to charity. I believe it. Now, I'm not saying to throw all your money at a charitable cause, but try giving a bit if you haven't already. You'll feel better for it. If you do give, you know it's true. Know who else feels good? The fr...

I've sorta fallen off the blogging wagon, but I've had a pretty sweet weekend in terms of family, decluttering and continuing the 'not buying anything new' streak. The problem with the blogging wagon is that Blogger won't let me post pictures from my phone and if I try it just fails to post. I couldn't use my Chromebook either because, well, I left it at home while the family and I spent the weekend at the mountains. Decluttering, however, was pretty profitable. I just sold my old snowboard for $100 and used a gift card for booze. Scratch that, I used two gift cards for booze.  Now, I hadn't planned on buying any liquor until I drank what I have (and I have a small collection), but most of it wasn't even for me. I grabbed myself a couple ciders and a seasonal beer. Not exactly partying it up, but I suppose parenthood puts a bit of a damper on drinking like a freshman at a frat house. I'm surprised sometimes how many gift cards people carry a...

Not only have I refrained from purchasing stuff since I gave up stuff, I also sold my old Kobo eReader. That's $50 in my pocket and one more electronic device out of the house. I can comfortably sell my Kobo because all my Android devices (all two of them) have the Kobo app on them. I don't need a dedicated device when I have a Nexus 7" tablet (albeit, old and on it's last legs) that does the same thing, minus the amazing battery life. Looking around the house it's easy to start identifying duplicates. That little point and click camera? Easily replaced by my phone. My four spatulas? Who needs four spatulas? No really, I have four and each one seems to be specialized. I have one for eggs in the little pan, one for pancakes on the griddle ... I wish I was kidding. Sad as my spatula situation is, the point is that duplication exists and only adds to clutter. Perhaps it'd make a good starting point for someone who wants to start minimizing. I imagine it'd b...

I said I wasn't going to do second hand food, but I suppose if it's my second hand food, that's okay. Just before I started to try batch cooking / meal prepping I had some amazing (and healthy) taco bowls. The benefit of making taco bowls is the inevitable taco meat leftovers. Seriously, that shit is amazing! I thought I had a problem when I ran out of wraps and was low on toppings, but you know what doesn't require wraps and toppings? Scrambled eggs infused with leftover taco meat. Sweet Jesus they were delicious. I think I even threw in the last of the sliced jalapenos, you know the ones, the butts no one wants to eat. Diced those bad boys up and tossed them in too. Know what else I saw in the fridge? Half a sausage that no one was going to eat. Guess what happened to that? Diced, pan friend and added to my eggs-trodinary creation. What? You thought there'd be no lame ass dad puns? I'm a dad ... of two ... I'm surprised it's taken this long. I as...

I've been playing hockey as a goalie for, good Christ, going on 24 years. Man, that makes me feel old. Playing goalie has likely aged me prematurely, too. My knees. My back. I feel like I'm thirty-something going on eighty. Despite my love of the position, something I've always wanted to try was playing out of the net. The problem is I don't have any player equipment. I have my lacrosse helmet and gloves which can pull double duty, but I lack everything else. So, how am I to realize my dream at the weekly beer league shitshow? Borrow. Luckily I live in Canada. My brother-in-law had equipment to lend me for this week's game. Two of my co-workers are pitching in some used, beater equipment for me to continue pursuing my awesomeness in the weeks to come. I can finally play outside the crease and I don't have to buy a single piece of equipment. I also get an absolutely killer cardio workout at least once a week. Not sure how I feel about that with the whole feeling...

It's funny how walking about a mall when you're not allowed to buy anything new is, well, a bit of an eye opener. I might see something I want, but I immediately think a.) I don't need it or b.) I wonder where I can find it, or something like it, used. It's only been 8 days but I find my resolve has only gotten stronger. I'm also becoming less and less attached to the stuff I still own. I'm starting to see that I don't need all the t-shirts I have. I'm just not excited to wear them. I like them, but I'm not overly enthused when I pull a couple of them out. Okay, so not every piece of clothing I own is going to make me want to throw a celebration at the thought of putting it on, but I'm starting to lose that anxiety at the thought of donating shirts I previously would not have parted with. Same goes with what's left of my DVD collection. Too bad my local library isn't accepting donations. I think I could sleep a little more soundly knowin...

Rooting around I found a free eBook through Kobo  on building a backyard shed/studio. I haven't had a chance to go through it, but so far I think there are only 3 free plans, not the 50 the title would suggest. I'm also not sure of the sizes in the book, but I imagine a backyard studio can be built relatively inexpensively since free plans are just about everywhere and I also found excess/leftover building materials on Kijiji. I'm not ready to buy materials just yet, but the fact of the matter is you can probably find excess (read: heavily discounted) materials online or through Habitat For Humanity's ReStore if you are. I'm not saying I'm building a backyard studio. I certainly like the idea. My wife would appreciate somewhere other than our dining room to have an office. I'm just sharing awesome stuff I've come across. Besides, it's winter. No one is building backyard studios in the winter. Coco out

In keeping with not buying new stuff I managed to purchase a used C-type USB cord. It was $5. I guess with the Samsung Note 7 literally exploding there were a lot of compatible cords for my OnePlus 3T on the market. It may not have even been a Note 7 cord I bought, but it was used and it was compatible. Moral of the story? Even the latest technology can be found used on a site like Kijiji or Craigslist. Just be careful with the more expensive purchases. Knock on wood, but I've had decent enough experiences. I need that streak to continue through 2017, especially with my next endeavour.  Oh the suspense! Coco out.

I have likely spent close to two hours decluttering some of my online presence over at Pinterest (feel free to click  here  and see some of my organizing skills, or lack thereof). I have created new boards, deleted stuff I don't even know why I pinned in the first place and tried making some of the descriptions personal to my experience. I could probably work through an entire weekend organizing that online space. What a disaster! This online, virtual clutter is a lot like physical clutter. I don't even know how many used pallet project pins I deleted. It was ridiculous. Ocean contain home pins? I'm estimating that count to be in the +/- 120 range. When am I ever going to get to building a home out of ocean containers? I'm not even handy. And the half dozen earthship homes? 'Cause that's a reality at this stage in my life. I'm struggling to find ways to retrofit my current house in a fiscally responsible (read: affordable) manner, but I'm posting as th...

You know what looks awesome, no matter what? Barn board. That shit looks great regardless of what it is made into. Headboard? Awesome! Table? Awesome. Shelving? Awesome. A neatly stacked pile of wood in the garage? Yep, still awesome looking! Based on availability, how awesome it looks and the cost (wood was free, brackets were less than $2 each) I decided to make barn board shelving. We have some long planks we used in the kids' rooms and we recently re-installed some shelves in our living room. No barnboard? There's always a plethora of pallets! 😕 It's an easy project, really (making the shelving). You can go to a Home Depot (or similar competitor) and just buy some brackets and screws. Aside from a screw driver it's really all you need. You can have amazing looking shelves that compliment or contrast the area you put them in, but whatever they do, they make it look ... you guessed it ... awesome.  You can get all artsy and use a planer, or sand them or w...

Installing and using what you have should be a given, but I'm not so sure it is. I can't be the only person in the world who received something over a year ago and hasn't gotten around to using/installing it. I think I got it last Christmas, but it could have been even longer than that. This safe has been sitting in my closet, empty, and keeping me from being able to functionally use said closet all that time. Today that changed. Today I installed that safe. It now sits empty, on a wall but out of my closet. So, is it being used? No, not yet, but I'm sure I can find some stuff to put in there, or is that counterintuitive to my mission? Meh. I don't care. I've reclaimed space by getting if off the floor and it feels good. I'm not sure what feels better - the space I now have or knowing I finally took care of that task. Regardless, it's less clutter and that makes me feel pretty good. I also installed some other thing in the kitchen. It's part blackb...

When some of the minimalists say the benefits of purging can also be financial, they aren't lying. I sold, perhaps a little cheaper than I should have, a set of dumbbells.  It was a set of 40 lbs I was given, but never used, and I managed to get $25 for them. They moved quickly too - within about an hour of posting them on a Facebook group I already had a buyer lined up. Not only are these things out of my way and off the landing collecting dust, they are no longer stressing me out about what to do with them. I've got $25 in my pocket! Obviously I won't be buying 'stuff' with that money, but I'm free to do with it what I want, be it donating a portion to a friend's charitable endeavours or buying the kids some hot chocolate. Speaking of hot chocolate, the kids and I went tobogganing at a tiny hill that backs on to a school today. They were lured back home with the promise of lunch and hot chocolate. The more I read on minimalism, and similar lifestyles, ...

This letting go thing is harder than I initially thought it would be. I have a bunch of DVD leftovers from a previous purge ( that first step is always the first step toward failure ) that I figured I'd watch. I haven't. I just can't fathom letting go of any of my Guy Ritchie films. They're frigging awesome. I once saved a VHS copy ( if you don't know what that is we likely can't be friends ) of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels from being thrown out by anteing up the $0.50 price tag. I didn't even have a VHS machine to play it on, but it's a Guy Ritchie classic, thus a matter of principal ( of all the principals a man can choose to take a stand on ...). All that being said, I still managed to get rid of half of my DVD's by donating them to the local library. Also of note is that my Guy Ritchie and Kate Beckinsale collections are still intact .. . in my basement ... where they started today off. I'm happy I can oogle Kate Beckinsale whenever...

Happy New  Used Year! Yes, I'm a tad early, but why wait, right? If you're going to shit the bed with an online initiative to document (poorly I might add) a combination of minimalism and anti-consumerism, you may as well start when you have the chance.  I have a wife who runs her own online business and two kids, aged 3 and 2, that don't exactly grant me much leave from my parental responsibilities. So, while the wife goes and gets her hair done and the kids just about finish up their naps (edit, they're both up and crying in their rooms), I'm wasting valuable cleaning/to-do list time writing this vapid initial blog entry. What's the point of this blog space, besides wasting your valuable time? Well, I figure I'm going to try one of those minimalist lifestyles and try to minimize my own personal consumption. I'm giving up on buying new shit in favour of gently used shit. Some conditions apply, mainly, that I won't be buying second-hand food or pay...