Bio

Where’s Wally? Hokkaido University Kosen Judo team and Alumni celebration dinner after winning the 1992 Nana Dai Gakko national championships. (Hint: I am standing next to Yuki Nakai – Pride II Vale Tudo finalist)

Thru my 20s and 30s I was into youth work, mountain biking, and martial arts.  As a urban-based youth worker, I eventually noticed that the greatest benefit occurred when we were abiding in wild natural environments.  The wilder the better.  So I delved into working as a wilderness guide, helping people feel at home in nature as they found ways to dispel intensities.   I kept at it til my own kids came along, and family life called me to put down roots somewhere.  So Sadie and I settled into a little farm house up Cowichan Valley; and here we still our with our boys  Isaiah and Rhys.  I can’t complain…

A big part of the guiding life was creating shelter.  Tipis, lean-to’s, sometimes nothing more than a tarp and some rope; and occasionally less than that,  building debris huts with only whatever one could find on the land.   The other key element was making a hearth fire to gather round and cook with.  So long as we could keep warm via movement, metabolism, and an external heat-source, we experienced great com-fort (with-strength).  And the abundant qi/chi/prana of wild nature was ours to absorb without hindrance.

As my guiding days wound down, Sadie and I first moved into a little cob cabin with a rumford fireplace I had helped build.  The first few mornings of waking up in the cabin I felt great, but something about it had me baffled.  I was feeling refreshed in much the same way I felt when sleeping in the great outdoors.  But I was now surrounded by 4 walls and a roof.  Here I was in a warm comfortable home, feeling virtually all of the vibrant energy I usually only felt outdoors.  This was an altogether new experience, leading to a major ‘AHAAA’.  Being around such health enhancing materials helps us tune into the subtleties of nature – indoors or out….

That moment of realization was over 23 years ago, and I have been building dwellings and wood-fired heaters from natural materials ever since…