The Roof Repair

Hmmmm… This seems kinda odd! Here I am, with my shovel in hand, and yet it doesn’t look like I’m in my vegetable garden! They say, “Give a man a shovel and he can do anything!” I think that ‘they’ might be right!!!!


This is one of the reasons why my garage roof is in need of repair. Extreme heat on the south side of the building has caused the shingles to lift and curl – not a good thing!


This is the other reason why my garage roof is in need of repair. Extreme moisture build-up on the north side has caused the roof supports to rot – not a good thing, either!


The biggest reason for both of these extreme conditions is poor air circulation. One of the causes is the many overhanging branches from my big maple tree.


There! Now air will move easily in any direction the wind may blow.


Now, my working area is filled with all of these branches – getting in my way!


I decided to use these in ways that will benefit my garden. First, the leaves are stripped from the branches. The branches are broken into small lengths and over the course of the next several months they will dry in preparation of my Autumn garden fire – which will add nitrogen to my soil for next year’s tomato plants!


I put the leaves through my ‘leaf shredder’ (my most favourite garden tool to date!!) and then this mulch is added to my vegetable garden. The mulch will dry up and decompose adding nutrients to the soil and the mulch will discourage weeds from growing while retaining moisture in the soil.

I think it’s great that things that could be considered to be ‘garbage’ can actually be used in many useful ways around my garden. Talk about recycling – eh!


The joint between the roof’s north slope and the awning that was later added by the previous owner of my house was not constructed properly – thus all the water damage! The shingles were damaged, the roof sheathing was damaged and all the chipboard ceiling panels, underneath, collected all of the water and were rotting away.


I added a few 2” x 4” roof beams to steady the structure…


… and then I added some stronger pine boards to strengthen the roof itself. I forgot to take a picture showing the metal valley that was also added to this area. With all of this new structural support, I’m sure that I won’t be having any water problems for many many years.


The materials that I would need to continue on with the top part of this roof weren’t due to arrive until the next day, so I continued working away on the underside of the awning. The red, rotted chipboard ceiling was removed and then I began adding nailer strips between each beam that will support the new ceiling I will soon be adding.


One problem that we had with the old awning was that bees and wasps were finding their way into the openings in the awning and building their hives. I do love bees and I appreciate that without them I wouldn’t be able to enjoy any fruits or vegetables, but I figure there are better places for them to build their homes.


A fresh coat of outdoor paint was added, along with some more nailer strips of wood. It’s hard to see, but I added window screen to each opening – between the roof beams to keep out the bees and wasps.


Man! Was I ever tired after all of this work. It was time to take a load off and enjoy the evening sunshine!!! While I was doing that, I noticed something very special. Can you see what I saw?


Let’s take a closer look…


Wow!!! How cool is this?! This is the very last day lily in my garden and because of the time of day and the angle of the sun, this flower glowed like a spark of intense light! I was definitely at the right place at the right time.


Even though my body ached, I was inspired to get off my butt and snap a few pictures before the moment passed. This is my favourite one!


The next day, the delivery truck filled my driveway with the materials I would need to complete my job. By the end of this day, the roof was covered in a protective layer of roofing felt – very strong and durable.

I got this roof protection on just in time, cuz it rained lightly throughout this evening and into the next morning. Even though I couldn’t continue with the topside of the roof…


… the underside of the awning was nice and dry and so I continued working in this area. I decided to use vinyl siding to create the ceiling for this area. If, for some strange reason, water did get into this area again, it won’t be able to collect on wood boards and rot. Vinyl won’t rot. If water does get in, it will collect in smaller quantities and eventually it will evaporate.


A little while later, I decided to try out my brand new toy! A Circle Hole Saw. I felt like Tim-The-Toolman-Taylor – LOL!!!!


By cutting many holes along the underside of the roof’s soffits and adding these metal vents, I am able to increase (by many times) the amount of air circulation within the garage. This will take care of the problem of having my shingles bend and curl due to the extreme heat.


By the next day, the roof was dry and I was able to start adding the shingles. I found myself in many awkward positions and even now, my body aches from the strain I’ve put on all my muscles. I’m not complaining tho’ – it feels invigorating when you can feel every single muscle in your body!


There! Not bad for a day’s work!!


The next morning, I began by bracing the inside structure of my roof rafters so that I could add two vents to the upper portion of the roof. These, along with the soffit vents I added two days before, will ensure that the whole garage will get lots of air circulation.


Now, the one side of my roof has been completed! The valley between the garage roof and the awning has never looked better and the added roof vent went in without a hitch! I guess that’s why Joanne keeps me around – I’m a pretty handy guy!!!

During this whole process, I had lots of time to think about things. One train of thought led me to compare this roof repair to the task of bringing peace to our planet…

The roof is like our Industrial society. Both were created by humans and both are in need of repair.

My roof was rotting and if left to continue on its present course it would soon find itself in ruin. Our world’s environment is in a very critical state and if we don’t correct our present course we will soon find ourselves in ruin.

Something had to be done to heal my roof. Something needs to be done to heal the Earth.

At first I was a bit overwhelmed with the scope of the work that needed to be done. I had never done anything quite like this before. The scope of the work needed to change our relationship with our world is quite overwhelming, as well. We need to completely change our attitudes and ways of doing things if humanity is to remain on the Earth. Humans have never done anything quite like this before, either!

I started by examining the many problems facing the future of my garage roof. We need to start questioning our actions to realize the consequences that they will have for future generations.

I started to understand what needed to be done. We need to start understanding what it is that we need to do.

I began the work… slowly, taking my time to think and plan - to ensure success. We have also begun… slowly, taking our time as we learn more about ecosystems and how they have a greater value than savings found in the aisles of Wal-mart!

The roof structure was built very soundly, but mistakes were made in its design. Our societies have also been built very soundly, but mistakes were made in their design.

My roof needed a new change, one that incorporated the idea of working with Nature to ensure adequate air circulation. Our world needs a new change, one that incorporates ideas of working in harmony with Nature to ensure the quality of the air that we circulate.

While completing my roof, small mistakes were made, but I continued to forge ahead. As we work towards building a peaceful world mistakes will be made, but we will need to continue forging ahead.

Nearing the end of these thoughts I came to realize that there is indeed one significant difference when comparing my roof repair to the Earth repair…

I have the ability to repair my garage roof unassisted.

Jim

PS – I couldn’t think of a better way to end this story than with a fun and inspirational song about roofs… and being up on them!

Up On The Roof – The Drifters 1962
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_opWg9_qI

The Peacebus In The News

It’s hard to believe that something as simple as The Peacebus should gain sooooo much attention – but it’s true. Maybe because The Peacebus is not so simple.

Just last month, a photo of many of The Peacebus students surrounding an amazing peace of artwork hit the pages of The London Free Press…

http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/07/their-home-too.html

… and just yesterday, an article about my adventures on The Peacebus made headlines again!


This time appearing in London’s second daily newspaper The Metro. Jill Ellis and I had a great chat about The Peacebus, Meadowlily Woods, protests surrounding the Mega-Quarry in Melanthon township and of course, my vegetable garden. All of these subjects have also been written about in this blog, over the last few months.

I just found this link to the above newstory, as found in the online version of London Metro - http://www.metronews.ca/london/comment/article/925413--a-new-peace-of-artwork-hits-the-road#commentbox - so that you can read the story about The Peacebus and the many other exciting events happening throughout the city. But for those of you who want to continue reading on this page, I’ve copied the story for you here. I’ve also added a few other artworks created by my students to add a splash of colour to your computer screen…


A NEW ‘PEACE’ OF ARTWORK HITS THE ROAD

Written by Jill Ellis

Greenwashing has become vogue in these days of nearly universal concern about global warming. There’s a lot of talk, but not many who walk their talk. One of those who does is Jim Kogelheide.


Known to his thousands of Facebook friends as Peaceman Jim and to hundreds of London school children as Mr. Jim, Kogelheide is a peace activist, artist, art teacher and environmentalist all wrapped up in the guise of a bus driver.

For the past couple of years, he’s driven the ‘peacebus’, which is a regular Murphy Lines school bus decorated with art created by the kids who ride it every day to and from school.


Having studied graphic design at Fanshawe College, Kogelheide traveled around the country for five years with wife Joanne Custy, working on the Canada: Glorious To Be national mural project. The duo spent their time creating their art and talking to school kids and community groups about art, peace and the environment. Kogelheide and Custy returned to the city they loved and settled down here in 2004.


Though his Stikman series (stick figures spreading the peace message) has enjoyed some notoriety as he distributed it through the country during his travels, Kogelheide realized that being a full-time artist is a hard way to make a living. But a serendipitous moment came when he was gazing out the window of his Byron home one day, contemplating his next move down his winding life’s journey, when a school bus passed by. An epiphany occurred: as a school bus driver, he’d make a steady income and still have time for his twin passions of gardening his veggie patch and volunteering in community organizations that promote sustainable living and environmental causes.


After driving his plain bus for a while, Kogelheide noticed another driver had butterfly drawings all over hers. After checking with the boss, he posted some of his own peace-based artwork. The kids were intrigued. He threw it out as a challenge and got the kids excited about making art about peace and the environment. He offered a contest to up the ante a bit.


The kids love having their artwork displayed on the windows and ceilings of the peace bus, but none are displayed on windows that obstruct sightlines.


The peace bus rocks with kids’ voices raised in song and is one of the most colourful on the road. Give it a wave or thumbs up next time the peace bus rolls your way.


_ _ _ _ _ _

I wouldn’t even want to guess how much it would cost if I had to pay for one third of an entire page of newspaper, so I’m very grateful for this free publicity. It brings a smile to my face thinking that a few of my students and co-workers will see this story and keep it as a wonderful memory. It also makes me smile to think that many other bus drivers may read this story and be inspired to have their kids decorate their buses.

If I had to guess conservatively, I’d say that over 40, 000 Londoners read this story yesterday, seeing the words ‘peace’ and ‘environment’ used together in several sentences. I hope that this story sparked open a few of those minds to realize that these two words may be the most important words for this century!

Mr. Jim

God’s Glue

About fifteen years ago, I was gathering and organizing my thoughts to understand why our world is in such a dilapidated state of environmental care, so that I could best choose my path forward in such a way that my actions would help to create a better world for future generations.

I started defining words like karma and destiny. Somehow or other I came across the word ‘providence’ and I included it in an essay I was writing. I wrote, “When a person has made a decision to act as an inspiration or true steward for the Earth, providence will move!” This is similar to the philosophy of ‘Positive Attraction’. If one is dedicated to positive action then positive results will prevail. Providence is – according to my dictionary – ‘God’s protective care’, and with providence one will achieve positive results.

Over time, I’ve come to notice that providence seems to thread its existence through synchronistic occurrences. Synchronicities may be involved in karmic activities that will aid in one’s pursuits to flow through life as one embraces destiny, but sometimes synchronicities just happen – with no apparent affect on a soul other than simple appreciation for this phenomenon.

Today’s story revolves around this idea…


This is one of the Red Currant bushes that I planted in my berry patch, last spring. You can tell that this photo was also taken in the spring cuz the ground is littered with freshly fallen Maple tree keys. You’d be correct in thinking that this is not a very big deal – it’s just a berry bush, but let’s take a closer look…


Hmmmmm… what’s this? I can see one or two Maple keys stuck to one of the Red Currant bush’s leaves. Interesting! Let’s take a closer look…


Oh! In fact there are three Maple keys somehow hanging on to one of the berry bush’s leaves. Unbelievable… but true!


It’s really hard to see this clearly in a two-dimensional photo, so I took a few pics from different angles. While I was moving around the bush, snapping these photos, my mind wandered around – wherever it tends to wander – searching for an explanation.


In slow motion, my mind played back for me a possible scenario that could have happened to create this natural phenomenon. It was a very rainy Spring, here in London, Ontario and so the Red Currant leaf and the three Maple keys – along with everything else in my garden – was covered in tiny beads of moisture. The wind might have been blowing a slight breeze through the air at the time when these three individual Maple keys had fallen off the tree to begin their swirling decent to the ground. In my mind I could picture these three keys swirling about as they descended, drawing ever closer to each other and to the very small leaf on the berry bush. Then, in one flash of an instance all three keys magically touched – each other and the leaf on the bush! Synchronicity!!!

Had there been no breeze – these three keys would have never met. Had there been a stronger breeze – these three keys would have never met. Had it been a wetter day, the keys may have had too much moisture on them and again, they would not have met. Had it been a drier Spring, then there would have been no moisture and these keys would not have been able to stick together. See the magic, now?!

Thousands of different variables came into action throughout the brief history of this event and had one single variable been just slightly different then this phenomenon would not have happened.

While I marveled at this, a song started playing in my head and I could hear Bono singing, “Stuck together with God’s glue”. I smiled as I appreciated this most excellent tune drifting through my mind as I appreciated this most synchronistic Earthly phenomenon!!!

Nature is continuously swirling around us and if we had a way of identifying the millions of synchronistic Earthly phenomena that are continuously occurring I’m sure that we would be awestruck with lack of definition. I think that this is a good thing!!! Nature should always delight us with fascination. Nature should always thrill our investigative minds. Nature should be honoured for its fierceness and gentleness…

… but it sure is hard to do these things while we surround ourselves in technologies that have become blasé. So, get off that couch, put down that remote and go for a walk in a park full of grasses, bushes and trees and you, too, may witness a most synchronistic Earthly phenomenon that was created just for you.

Jim

PS – For your enjoyment, I have included a link to the U2 song mentioned above, as well as a Beatles classic that elaborates on the subject matter of this short story…

U2 – Staring At The Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3jzvVPWy2I

The Beatles – Within You and Without You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4G2RlBKbrM

Here’s a little treat for my newest readers, who don’t know that I have a few (5) Youtube videos of my very own….

Jim Kogelheide – The Bricks of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVcQiXq9qhI

ENJOY!!!!

Gifts From The Earth

Over the last many months I’ve been happily snapping lots of photos of the flowers that I’ve planted around my house. Instead of telling the stories about how I planted them and the things I’ve observed during their growing and flowering stages, I thought that I’d do something a bit more fun. For today’s blog I’ll simply be showing my favourite garden photos in and around the lyrics of a song that I wrote a few years ago.

Please enjoy!

Our Only Friend


Can you feel my heartbeat
Pounding thro’ the strings



Of my guitar?
Oh! The joy it brings.


I’m singing simple songs
For the world to hear


About ‘Peace and Love’
Laced with a little bit of fear.


Can you feel your spirit
Raising in the air?


As you’re floating above life
You can go anywhere.


You can scale a mountain
Or forge the great divide.


You can dive in with the whales
And now you’re coming out the other side.



You can hug the moon
And kiss a brand new day
Cuz you’re young and wild.


Could you be a tree
With branches waving at the sky?


Once you were a seed
But then, you grew so high.


You’re changing with the weather
And the seasons, too.


White is your winter crown
And the summer brings the morning dew.


When you hug the moon
The night dissolves away,
Then your heart can smile.


Can you see the sunshine
Through the acid rain?


Dark clouds usher in
Ten thousand years of pain!


It’s not to late
If we find a peace to lend


We’ve got to learn
That the Earth is our only friend


You can hug the moon
And kiss both night and day
Cuz you’re Nature’s child……

Until next time – see the Earth, smell the Earth, touch the Earth and love the Earth! Appreciate all beauty that she brings into our lives and look for ways to share this inspiration with others!!

Jim