A few weeks ago I dropped him off at the campus which was a really cool experience. I have wanted one of my kids to go “away to college” so that I can selfishly live through that experience. Also I love my children and want the best for them … it’s not all about me. Just mostly. Anyway, a ton of kids surrounded the truck and grabbed all his stuff and ran it to his dorm, and that was it. Done. He did not really want me around for the day since he already has friends and they had plans on what they wanted to attend together … I was just going to be in the way. LOL! Love it.
The campus is close, about 15 minutes from home. Even though it’s close, he is living on campus in the dorms. I wanted him to have the full experience. He is evern rooming with a good buddy from church. Since this is a Christian University, I think it’s really valuable for him to live there and thrive in that academic community.
His major is Kinesiology since he wants to be a P.E. Teacher when all is said and done, at least at this point in his life. I have a feeling he may want to switch to the seminary, but that’s just my dad intuition. From what I hear he is having a blast. I get texts when he needs things, but other than that, he is being an 18 year old young adult and does not need me. So I did something right. 🙂
It’s been over a year since my daughter started playing Hockey. When she started she could Hardly skate or handle the puck very well. Heck, she could hardly hold the stick correctly – and she fell down a lot! That’s one of the things I have noticed the most about her current performance. She almost never falls now, she can go a whole game without falling.
Tonight she started her 4th season of In House Hockey and it’s kind of a big deal. We almost did not do it because the games are on Sunday during church, but they moved the time (not sure if my complaining helped or not) to early enough to catch church after. Now it sounds like they will be moving the game days to Saturday’s which is even better.
I am so impressed with her tenacity. I mentioned before she just decided to start hockey out of the blue. It was rough, expensive to start (and is still horribly expensive for each 10 week season), and I had a lot of doubts about it all. But she has done really well. I’d like for her to make more connections here, but that’s been an issue since we moved here. This is a difficult place to break into as most of these families have know each other for generations, or they just have no interest in being open to knew folks, but hey … we will wear them down – I mean we will win them over with kindness and always being around. 🙂
I am not convinced that walking is a hobby. If it is a hobby, it’s probably safe to say that it’s lame. But if we were to call it hiking, or speed walking, then I think I could possibly start to accept it as something cool I tell people I do.
As it stands I do walk, just about every day, a 5 mile route near our house. I have done this for about 6 years now. We are in the country, so it’s a bit of a risky walk. Does danger make it cooler to say I take the daily hikes? Stray dogs (sometimes vicious, sometimes I rescue them), vineyards sprayed with death chemicals, random shady cars parked on the path I use. Out this far in the country, you are not out here unless you have a reason to be, there are no pedestrians, just idiots adventurous people like me.
Walking takes longer
I used to run, like a lot. But after a back injury and a visit to the chiropractor, I now limit to jogging and walking, I mean flat ground hiking. The change of pace was rough at first, but now I would not trade it for anything because during these hikes I listen to audio books, sermons and podcasts. These times have become times of active rest, recharging my batteries, peace and growth. It’s hard to describe the mode I go into. It does not matter if it’s in the 100’s or if it’s freezing, raining, light or twilight. Something special happens out there.
For the longest time I would listen to sermons by Tim Keller. I can fit in 2.3 sermons in a walk. Listening to Tim’s sermons is nothing new, I’ve been doing it for 20+ years, but being out and active versus being in a car or listening at home, unlocks a “next level” of engagement.
About 6 months ago I started listening to a string of Audio books on growth topics. I have been putting off writing this post because words can’t really do justice to the transformation inside and the fellowship I experience on these walks, but I decided to attempt it anyway so I could share a list of books that have helped me to change my thinking and habits.
I sought out these books from a place urgency as I was looking for direction and hungry for wisdom. My desire was permanent change. I wanted to shed what I knew to be some horribly annoying immaturity and brokenness that was getting in the way of a good life. The saying that easy decisions make for a hard life and hard decision make for a good life, was ringing in my ears.
The Books
The first book I listened to was a book I had listened to years ago. Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. In full transparency, I started this book on my hikes, but most of it was listened to on the plane to and from Oxford. It still counts. This is a classic text on boundaries and how to establish and keep them. This book applies to everyone, regardless of where you are with your own boundaries. We can all use some work, and we also need to be patient with our friends and family that also need to read this book.
After that came some key sermons from Tim Keller, I started going through the Podcast instead of digging through my MP3 library. So I was not in control of what was played, and that turned out to be really beneficial.
The next book was 9 Thing You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life by Henry Cloud. Incredibly practical, this book can be life changing if you want it to be. While it is foundational, “101” kinds of things, they are also profound and easily missed. Up next I decided to read Boundaries in Marriage by Henry Cloud and John Townsend for the first time. If you are married or ever plan on being married, or have friends who are married, this book is almost a requirement. I followed that with Who’s Pushing Your Buttons by John Townsend. This book is incredible, we all have people who push our buttons and dealing with them in love and truth is difficult. This book helps. After Pushing Buttons I took a small break from books and switched back to Keller and David Platt for a bit. Needed to let that all sink in and process for awhile.
The Entitlement Cure by John Townsend was next, just like all the books this was excellent. The title threw me a bit, I did not think myself entitled, but the symptoms matched my own, so I dove in. I am really glad I did. Then came People Fuel by Townsend, which I found to be great, as usual, but I had a hard time focusing during this one. I will need to revisit at some point. The next to last book was one of the most practical books, How to Have That Difficult Conversation by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. I listened to this one 3 times through, taking lots of notes. This book touches every domain in life and wow, was I doing it so wrong!
The final and most recent book that I completed is Changes That Heal by Henry Cloud. This one is the most intense of all of them. It felt like a 1 on 1 counseling session. If I had to choose to just read one of these, this would be the one. It’s a close tie with the Difficult Conversations though.
You may have picked up on the fact that all of these books are by Dr. Cloud, John Townsend, or both. Good job! You get a gold star. This was not intentional at all, it just happened. As I tried other books by the “Boundaries” authors, I was impressed more and more. Practical, Biblical, and direct. These books draw on some deep wisdom and years and years of theological and psychological experience.
I am done with these authors for awhile, and with these topics. I am switching back to Cybersecurity and AI with the books, at least for awhile, and of course mixing in my podcasts.
I have heard time and time again that people don’t change. But that’s not true, I am proof. It’s difficult, it’s painful, it’s constant hard work, it takes a lot of focus and energy, and it takes a community. It’s worth it, you will thank yourself later and your friends and family will be grateful too.
It’s been snowing like crazy at our house in Reno. Of course it totally waited until we left a few weeks ago. I’ll share some photos from our outside cameras of the action. I am really tempted to go for a few days, but the videos I am seeing of the pass (California to Nevada) are a nightmare. Even with my 4X4 and aggressive tires, it would take hours to get there and I would get stuck for sure.
The coyotes are a problem now. For years they have been content to pace our fence and drool over the animals. I built an 8 foot fence around a few acres with my buddy Rick and his son Phear several years ago. This keeps them at bay. But it does not protect against the animals that are dumb enough to leave the safety of our yard. Yeah, I am looking at you chickens. They have mixed it up with a few of the dogs as well and have made snacks of our outside cats.
The problem is that by the time I get out there with my gun, they are gone. They hear me, smell me, whatever, they split or hide. What I needed was a solution that let me take them out from far away. I decided to purchase a rifle. I had no idea what to get, so I went to the Range in Fresno and asked a lot of questions. I decided on the Ruger 9MM Carbine PC. Powerful enough to put them down quickly and in the most humane manner, but agile enough for someone like me that is still learning to shoot a rifle.
So very, very different from a handgun, which I am pretty decent with now.
Before I attempt to shoot one, I’ll need to spend some time dialing in the sights (red dot) and getting good with handling the rifle. I don’t want to cause suffering for the coyotes, I just want to stop them from killing our animals. Do do that, I need to be proficient so I can get a kill with one shot. There are 2-3 times as many as usual, and they are coming up to our property during the day now. We have vineyards all around us and they hide and wait for a chicken to jump the fence and scratch for bugs in the fields.
About 8 months ago Camee started her transformation into a monster. Well a Jr. Monster. She is not quite there yet, but has come a very long way. When she started she did not have any experience on the ice at all, and certainly no hockey experience. (She does have one San Jose Sharks game under her belt!) She just got it in her head that she wanted to play hockey, and through sheer will and determination, she has made a way for herself.
She started with Try Hockey For Free and then moved to Learn to Play. She has just now started on the In House team! Try Hockey for Free was just that, a great way to get started to see if it was a good fit. Basically just borrow all the needed gear and get out on the ice. The rest is up to you. The next step was Learn to Play. It’s basically the same as Try Hockey, but with the payment you get a few additional things. You get a jersey that allows you free admission to skate times during the week, which is a huge savings, and it allows you to track your progress and start to build on your skills. Camee will continue in this class for the foreseeable future in addition to the In House team.
The In House Team really steps things up. There is a practice each week for an hour, and then a game each week as well. Just like with coaching the boys soccer team, I am able to help out, not coach of course, I don’t know what I am doing and I can’t skate, but I can volunteer. Just took a course for safety and got a background check. Easy peasy. It was $500 for the 10 weeks of in house, which I think will be totally worth it.
The next step is Travel Team, which is being an actual Jr. Monster. Camee is driven to get better, she says she wants to go to college on a Hockey scholarship. I believe she can, I am more than happy to invest in this with time and money. The gear is not cheap and the time commitment is no small thing with my career and side business, as well as the other 8 kids, but it’s totally doable.
I am really excited for my daughter! And I am excited to get to know some more people here in Fresno.
This is a collection of posts that I decided to make just one post. Hopefully this prove useful if you are looking to get started with an Airbnb. The posts are arranged from latest to the oldest starting back in March of this year. I’ll keep adding to this page and things develop.
We have an external site for our Airbnb (nvstay.com) but it’s offline at the moment as we are working on getting permission from the HOA and a Permit from Sparks. That’s all in the most recent update. The site is so nice! I took a lot of video and photos which are all integrated into a very slick site. Hopefully I’ll be able to launch it again soon.
October 8th 2022
Some things to consider
Having run an Airbnb for a few months, I can tell you just how great it is to make extra income, but also tell you that the income can get sucked up pretty quick by incidentals even if you are prepared and careful.
We do not live near our Airbnb, it’s in another state. So if the weeds in the driveway (which I have taken care of many times) get a little long, the homeowners association, who seem to have nothing better to do than watch each house in the neighborhood with eagle eyes, sends us a fine. Living on a ranch as we do, with acres of vineyards around us and no neighbors, has many benefits. Like no homeowners association. The homeowners association in Sparks is so aggressive and so unpleasant, we think about selling the house just to lose that stress.
On top of that is property taxes which cost quite a bit per month. We paid cash for this house, but it’s almost like we have a mortgage, alongside the utilities and the association fees, and now, a brand new fine from the county. Turns out you have to have a permit to use your house for an Airbnb. We don’t have one and we did not know we needed one. Our realtor knew this was what we wanted to do with it, and we asked several times if it was okay. We were told it was fine. So now we are trouble and we had to shut things down until we get it sorted. So we are paying fees and not making any income. :sad-dog:
We have a few options. We can sell it and move on. We would make enough off the sale to be worth it. Houses have gone up and we did a lot to it to improve it. We could continue doing what we are doing and keep playing these games with the association. last option, we turn the whole thing over to a management company and we move from all this headache to truly passive income.
I don’t really want to pay a management company, but I am also tired of the 5 hour drives to Reno to take care of things. I also think that might help with getting more business. If we can just one more stay per a month, we will be pretty positive on the income, even with the management company. And there is a huge part of me that wants this to be a big success and I want to overcome these challenges. It’s a beautiful area, we just did not account for permits, associations, and neighbors. We really should have. We are spoiled living the country life and doing whatever we want.
So we will figure out the permit and get things moving. If not, we will try this again, but this time closer to home. I hear this is welcomed in other states, I think we chose a bad place to try and do this.
August 20th 2022
Welcome to our home!
Our first guests are in the house and so far, so good!
We have made a handful of trips over the last few months getting the place ready. From new flooring, to electrical, to very Airbnb specific things like moving some electrical and the internet drop into a closet that locks so we can secure the routers.
This last trip I drove a car up and flew back on Aha! for $100. I spent a few days adding some final touches, as well as getting Covid. Covid finally got me, but after the first 48 hours I am feeling better.
Our first guests are staying 10, the a few days after some guests are staying for 3 days. Just these two visits will net us almost $4500.00 after Airbnb takes their fees. Since we own the house free and clear, that’s money straight into out account. Calculate in utilities and taxes and it’s an incredible bit of passive income. That’s just two sets of guests!
It’s been a very long haul to get here, but I am so glad we did. We estimate that if we can keep it going like this, inside of 1.5 years we will be able to purchase another home and do the same thing. From there it should snowball. Nothing is for sure and this world is anything but stable, but we plan knowing that the future is not in our hands and ultimately we have much deeper riches than money. It does help with raising 9 kids though. 🙂
We spent another several days getting the Airbnb ready to open. We thought we might get it this time, but several unexpected things came up during our time. We also decided to add a few more projects to make this place better before opening for business.
The last time I was here was to take care of some projects and check the 4 rooms that had hardwood flooring installed. I spent 3 days installing, prepping and painting baseboard. It was brutal! This time I was with my wife and our friends (Rick and Katherine who are a huge reason why we bought a house here). There were a ton of trips to Home Depot and Walmart, (and a few to Home Goods), but also lots of fun times with our friends including a few double date nights and a movie. While the work is constant and not always fun, it’s great to be doing this together as a couple and we do feel so very blessed to be able to do this. It takes a lot of effort and investment of time to put off the stress that can come with owning two homes, fully furnishing the second one from scratch, and hitting deadlines and scheduling what needs to get done from 5 hours away. We are doing it! Once we have this down and have forged our way through the difficulties, I can see us doing this again and again.
DONE
We got the Nest Thermostat installed and it’s awesome. Having a way to lock a range in that a guest can use is a huge benefit. For example, I have it locked at the moment so that you can set the temp as low as 72 and as high as 85, and locked into just cooling. No accidental use of the heater.
We did a TON of yard work, both in front and back. In other words we filled 8 trash cans with weeds and clippings. Our neighbors are loaning us some of their trash cans so we can get it all out of here in the next few weeks. All our neighbors are just so awesome. Our friends will help us get those to the curb since we are not there to do it.
The hot tub is filled and running great, all chemicals added and good to go.
Front door lock replaced with Nest digital lock. I love this thing! Looks amazing and works like a charm.
Lots of stuff hung on the walls.
All bedrooms have really nice furniture, beds are built! Brand new high end mattresses and bed frames, dressers, they look great!
Washer and dryer installed and working.
Replace several can lighting with new ones that are LED based.
Replace remaining lights in house with new white bulbs.
Leak under the kitchen sink fixed and new dishwasher installed.
Internet updated, secured second network for guests.
TV’s mounted on the walls.
Installed curtain rod and curtain on back slider.
All bedding washed and put on beds.
A few more security measures installed.
Garage is empty!
Coffee Bar completed.
Fixed back slider lock and added security bar.
Rest of furniture in place.
To Do
Get irrigation figured out! The entire front and back yards have irrigation, but no water. It’s a mystery!
Electrician comes to add electrical to 4 rooms and installs ceiling fans. These rooms have switches, but no lighting. So we are having that added so lights do not have to be lamps and the fans will help with keeping the place cool.
Electrician to add electrical to a lockable closet so I can secure our network equipment.
Replace default router from Spectrum with a Ubiquity UDM just like I have here at home.
Get lawn back to life.
Get a gardener to regularly keep this place looking good.
Add a another TV for game room where the pool table is.
Print signs for guests. Things like rules and how to use stuff.
March 18th 2022
A House
A few weeks ago my wife and I came to Reno Nevada to spend some time with our very good friends. We wanted to catch up because we really miss them, (they moved from Fresno a year ago) do some hiking, and have some fun without the kids. 🙂
We fell in love with this place. It’s beautiful here. The mountains, the snow, the sheer amount of free land you can hike on, camp on, four wheel around … it’s perfect. There are wild horses running around … it’s like a movie. Seriously. So we made a decision to look for a house here. We have been wanting to get into the Airbnb/Vrbo space for awhile, and this presented as a great opportunity.
So I am back this week spending a few days with our friends while we close on a house! It’s been a real adventure just getting the house in this market. We had to do a lot, and it’s definitely a seller’s market, but in a few hours, it’s done! The house is really nice! It’s on a 1/2 acre and has lots of room for entertaining. It backs right up to some huge mountains and unlimited adventures!
I’ll be 100% honest. I could live here. In fact I would prefer to live here over California. We are 30 minutes from South Lake Tahoe, which is my favorite place in California, after my hometown and possibly Yosemite. The laws here make more sense and fit my thinking much more than California ever has. I may even give up my CA license and get a Nevada one. They don’t much care for Californians here, but I think I can change their minds.
I am still building the site, and we have some work to do before we open for business, but check out NVstay.com. We already have a bunch of stuff staged at home for our next trip here with a truck. Furniture and such. Stay tuned!
My youngest daughter is really into hockey. She started playing several months ago. I wanted to encourage her in the sport and have some fun, so I suggested we go to a Sharks game. I reached out to my buddy Sven who has been to many games and is a huge Sharks fan to see where we might get great seats on a budget. He is a season ticket holder and offered to send me some tickets to seats right behind the goal. So we are headed to a game in a few weeks and my daughter is super excited!
Of course we grabbed some fan wear to show our pride.
My two oldest girls went to their high school prom tonight. Juniors and Seniors were at the same location. A lake resort about 40 minutes from our home.
It’s hard to get my head around the fact that they are getting so old. At the same time though, it does feel right, like it’s time to start marking these milestones. Don’t get me wrong, I love them. But I am also ready for them to start being adults and making moves towards their futures. These same two are learning to drive and getting cars and all the cool fun stuff involved in becoming an adult. One is enrolling in Jr. College and the other is going to Cal State East Bay after graduation. I can’t wait to see what they become!
Wow, prom. I am very thankful that both of my older girls are not boy crazy, at least not yet. The Prom was all about their friends and having a good time. Some of their friends have boyfriends and some don’t. I think COVID messed with that whole thing a bit, I hope things get back on track soon.
I am really glad that they had a wonderful time. In order to make it work, I drove most of the day. A trip to the Bay Area and back, then running errands, then taking them to the event and then picking them up at 11PM. Tomorrow it’s another round trip to the Bay Area. My wife was with 5 of the kids at Morro Bay this weekend, enjoying some cooler weather and the ocean. It will be good to reunite tomorrow night and watch some Downton Abbey until we pass out.
