Buying forest land, implementing solar

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Oh, wow, 2x4s are up in price.

2x4x8 was 2.62 from dec15-jan15, now sitting at 3.05 as of mar7.

I should've loaded up on 2x4s too, drats, lol.

Well, I guess it's not that bad. 7/16 osb went up 50%, while the 2x4s went up just 20%.

Someone online mentioned it was 25cents for a board foot from the local sawmill, so that'd be $2 per 4x8.

I'd have to call the sawmill to see what can be done.

 

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Early 80s would've been a great time to be a teenager, someone commented.

I noticed a lot of great hits came out of the UK around that time, not surprising in light of how the 82 recession was hitting Britain judging from that queen song "under pressure". Some saw music at the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, obtainable by the common Britain man, as one way out.

[youtube]KSGWsmR4ipM[/youtube]

[youtube]AjPau5QYtYs[/youtube]

[youtube]CdqoNKCCt7A[/youtube]

Then all of tears for fears.

Thinking economically, you've been an adult then in the later 1980s, which would've given you a good stretch from 1985 to 2009, about 24 years of a great f'ing American economy, to really strike it rich. That's almost ones entire career and those who eventually learned to be cautious of the stock market and had sizable fortunes in it might've been able to keep it. And cautious of real estate, seems like plenty didn't see that one coming, but the owners of rental properties, landlords, made out fine during the time, they did especially well with so many locked out of the mortgage markets.

Debt conscious millenials, I see this trend to "avoid a mortgage" as part of this debt consciousness, and I shared this trait with that portland gal in terms of home ownership. Not hard to be conscious of it when existing living expenses take up all of ones service-job income, "an especially fast growing industry" according to that "boom time" article. What's funny is that, while they highlighted that such a thing as a "income distribution" existed within that category (This includes the bankers, accountants,engineers,etc.), they didn't really talk about the "distribution" itself in terms of the median and percentiles. The majority of the sub-80 percentiles, including median, is substantially lower than the other job sectors.

It's great to talk about being banker, when there's only a handful of those people in a town, lol. Depending on the town, engineers too.

(Such as Spokane. Big cities, like Houston, have plenty in comparison).

I thought it was always appealing all those "high paying jobs" they talk about the BLS, but they typically represent the top 5% of jobs within their respective categories, and most aren't all that realistic as a sub-40-year-old job position or a "heavily indebted position"(medical).

On the portland gal, I thought about her geography, and there's a lot of moutainous terrain in that area. The economic areas to develop are mostly the flat terrain near the rivers that happens in spots. So, that's why, she has to pay so much to live 60 miles from the big city, whereas I pay only so much to live 16 miles from mine, and about 30-40 miles from the employment hotspots. Houston has a lot of flat terrain all around it, so many can afford getting pretty close to it, and Texas in general doesn't have a lot of federal land in it.

(This isn't true of the west coast, putting supply pressures on LA, San Fran, Portland and Seattle with the federal owned mountain lands. Also puts pressures on the development of highways, with the resulting traffic jams that don't happen /as badly/ in Houston.)

This is why getting within 60 miles of Charleston SC is not affordable either. The Atlantic ocean takes away half of the direction in terms of development potential.

So what about getting close to Dallas and Austin...

Seems like county laws were restrictive in those areas, pushing the "free areas" to 100 miles away.

But, in terms of low development costs in terms of permit fees and whatnot and affordable vacant suburban lots not too far away that's not ruled by a HOA... they might exist somewhere. I'd have to look. I'd probably start the search from satellite, looking for clusters of houses in the ranch areas, that are obviously not fully developed like developer neighborhoods.

Haven't figured out the development strategy in "remote areas". it's easy here, can commute from my current residence...

but there...

without camping out...

can you sleep in a shed... lol...

I'd probably in a nearby camping opportunity, blessed are the federal forests, lol, and might focus on getting the shed in the back up quickly. And just hope no one bothers me while I'm constructing the house, lol. I'd get needed permits cleared ahead of time.

 

[Dauntless]

I thought it was always appealing all those "high pacing jobs" they talk about the BLS, but they typically represent the top 5% of jobs within their respective categories, and most aren't all that realistic as a sub-40-year-old job position or a "heavily indebted position"(medical).

BLS?
Basic Life Support?
Bureau of Labor Statistics?
Blown Like Shit?

I don't think there's anything special about the 80's for European bands thinking its a good time for their music. They came from Norway in the 80's (Aha, 'Take On Me) in the 70's (The Mouth and McNeil 'How Do You Do') and more.

In the 60's Belgium offered up Sister Soirree "The Singing Nun," (And a real nun she was at the time) the Jokers, oh they ALWAYS think its a good time for their music. And they're RIGHT, at least when its good. The Beatles were part of the "British Invasion."

There was no 1985-2009 boom time. There were several recessionary periods, people lost their homes, look at the dot.bomb people getting a short time on the job then a long stretch on the street.

Concerns about mortgages, etc. are universal, nothing special about it now. California has been legislated to be an increasingly tough place with all the driving up the minimum wage and lost jobs while the rents just keep rising. If I didn't have a house would I have become homeless by now?

[youtube]h6aIXf-yupQ[/youtube]

 

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Guy in spokane was telling me about that, himself working for Microsoft before the dotcom bomb. He told me that tech works in booms/busts, don't expect stability.

Although, I think it also depends on the particular company and sector you're working for. I'd imagine a tech position for a hospital would have greater stability than from a "pure" technology company. Luckily for my father, these are the only tech positions offered in Spokane, so he had a pretty stable job from the get-go. He found him forced to use a headhunter to quickly find a position around the time of the dot.com bust, not much luck finding one on his own. Power companies and dominant telephone companies would also likely have tech stability. Insurance companies too, maybe.

The seller alluded to an existing survey on the property (she was trying to find the paperwork), so if this is true... well then... the survey pins are likely still in there and they just need to be found. Maybe I'll start looking around for them with my metal detector, mhmm.

Not only would it be useful for the fence, I think it might be required for the loggers.

The first thing the surveyor does, I've noticed, is that he metal detects for existing survey pins. I think he's hoping to get lucky, the work is already done for him, lol.

 

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Trying to figure out how to do cost estimates for monthly cost estimating.

I figured out one for food, $/day * 30.

With just bananas and peanut butter, it's $5/day and would be $150/month.

But, I also add a $2 taco, so that'd be $7/day -> $210/month.

I suspect I might be able to trim taco costs making them myself, but that'll have to wait for the kitchen/refrigerator.

Then for vehicle gasoline, I think it's normally $10/week when I'm not "busy doing things". $40/month.

Then drinking water, now $14/month. They raised it to 40 cents/gallon up from 35 cents/gallon, last year.

Then internet, $15/month.

Looks like baseline is $280/month. $3500/year.

 

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Looks like I'd need gardisil if I wanted to prevent HPV-originated sexually transmitted oral cancers.

This group of cancers has exploded in the last 30 years according to one radiation technologist.

Suggestive oral sex has become more popular in the last couple decades. (The HEB chick sure did seem like she wanted to suck my dick, lol.)

Unless smoking and heavy drinking rates are up... I don't think they are though...

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/m/9536f43e-a63b-3bd2-8156-00a3883aaedb/ss_hpv-is-causing-an-oral-cancer.html

A thorough evaluation of the comments, some of whom actually did the research, shows the mortality rate for gardisil is extremely low bordering on non-existent. Might be an issue with people with immune thrombocytopenic purpura, immune system attacking platelets, intracranial hemmorage followed 82 days later in one 18 year old female.

This research deserves more scrutiny. In particular...

HPV oral cancer rates
Gardisil death rates

 

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Found this comment from anonymous (whom is a retired stockbroker with sound financial practices advice; like first house, buy a fixer upper.).

[I don't know if anonymous's comments are all from the same guy... maybe not, lol]

Only interested in creating, not destroying (like most artists)

What? So most CNC people and home builders are artists at heart? lol, okay, that's some kind of logical error, I bet it has a name.

Maybe that was the problem. I'm an artist at heart and the military hates those types.

Let's see... what are the values of an artist...

Freedom of expression, creativity, creation, adventurous.

What are the values of the military.

Strict control of expression, compliance to routine and orders (Creativity is only valued in certain scenarios, like emergency situations where routine alone can't solve), destruction, not adventurous.

They do seem to be somewhat diametrically opposed.

A pretty good analogy to the sand castle builder and the sand castle kicker, lol.

The military is filled with angry-at-life sand castle kickers.

You'd guess that much from the severe widespread resentment of women when the nuke school class was coming with adjectives for them, lol.

This county is purportedly popular with artists too.

And there's definitely a lot of construction workers in this area. Maybe there is overlap between the artist and construction worker.

I think it's ironic this guy in Ecuador was paying more for the land then myself in Houston. $12000 for .5 acres, and it looked like in the country side.... I paid like $5000. (Granted, the market value is probably around $12,000 BUUUTTTT.... the seller didn't know that. )

 

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Tried a different approach to the plungecut technique. Started off biting into the wood at an angle, and then curved it so it was pointing straight in, and it worked. Problem seemed to be it didn't have enough power and/or cutting power for the technique, so it pretty much stopped after getting 1 inch in and refused to go any deeper.

Think I'll replace the chain, maybe that'll help.

But maybe that's not the biggest issue.

I've noticed these commercial gassers are rated at 6kw, what I typically see in videos, and mine is effectively 1 kw, so they literally have 6x more power concentrated at the tip of the chainsaw, and I bet our chainsaw tips aren't significantly different in size, so I bet that underlies their ability to do the plungecut and why I cannot. I'm betting I don't have enough power.

 

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Look what I found... Nick Cruz's google reviews.

https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/114120571379965317469/reviews/@26.3018161,-80.2377617,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m3!8m2!3m1!1e1?hl=en-US

Just basically 2 reviews of him badmouthing gunshops that wouldn't sell him a weapon.

One storeowner replied:

This P.O.S. came in our shop 4 months ago and we refused to sell him a rifle so he posted a bad review on our site, Saying we were "Not so friendly". That's Okay with us... We won't sell to anyone under 21 and who is not acting correctly in our shop. #MSDStrong

"Not acting correctly in our shop", oh, I wonder what that means. How exactly was Cruz not "not acting correctly"? A bit hotheaded and irritated, I'm guessing?

Both shops are within 2 miles of parkland, FL. Seems very plausible he didn't have a car.

 

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I find it's the other way around. Most of my friends married psycho idiot loser women.

Probably because they're the most permissive and gratifying, lol. I didn't think the HEB chick was a loser, but she sure seemed to think she was, lol.

Maybe I've been confusing "psychopathic" with "psycho". Maybe...

Hot & Crazy... Well, I'd think she was more "Hot & Weird" more than anything, but maybe I'm just splitting hairs.

Sure have been sleeping a lot lately. 2 hours naps since 8 p.m. yesterday.

8pm-10pm. (Unusually early for me, concerned maybe something was wrong, but chalked it upto "falling asleep an hour after sun down", entirely natural.)
Then 1-5 a.m.
Then from 9a.m. -11a.m. today.

A nearly unquenchable thirst... hmmmm....

diabetes?

Except that was quenchable I think.

 

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Sggt griggs has throat cancer which he's taking chemo and radiation for. Hmmm...

smoker?
heavy drinker?
kitty licker?
snake sucker?

Apparently some guy got a "broken" chainsaw for cheap, added a chain oiler, and went to resell it for $800, paid $40 for the chainsaw and parts.

His brother was telling me "He knows how to make money, he just doesn't do longterm financial planning. He spends it as soon as he gets it.".

He was the same guy driving around the backhoe on his property.

Apparently this area used to be comprised of 'drug clans' back in the day. Whenever the backhoe is running, that's none of your business. (Burying bodies)

I think it still is!!! lol. My illegal neighbors suggest that much.

Apparently the area of forest in front of my property is used as a drug dropoff according to him.

Was telling me of a free networking training program in college station, part of training the future security professionals for America's future cyberwars, part of Trump's initiative. And had job placement as part of the program. Sounds possibly interesting. So mon ami was telling me.

 

[Dauntless]

'America the Vulnerable'

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.fpri.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BookAmericatheVulnerable.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiB7r689d3ZAhVCTd8KHc_sBw8QFjAFegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw051MPwUjSvU_8TmVxL3JeU

 

[Dauntless]

Ahh, you're dying to go on about the mortgage market.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/08/news/economy/housing-economics-nonbank-lenders-brookings/index.html

 

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I do not know where the traditional advice that having sex with a man will make him disappear came from, but I can only assume that it singularly applies to people who are extremely bad at sex. In what world would doing something really fun and really gratifying with someone make you never want to see them again? I have no doubt in my mind that the reason my now husband became my then boyfriend was because I decided, on the 23rd of December 2013, that I was going to screw his brains out. Now while I would never suggest that the only way to hook a man is to have sex with him, I am saying that it’s how they did it in the Tudor court, and it’s really, really effective. This anti sex narrative which teaches women that they’ll die alone if they have sex is complete bollocks. It’s being spun by a puritanical agenda which wants you to live a boring, sexless life. Any man who isn’t going to call you back, or who is going to lose respect for you, just because he has already seen you naked is not someone you should be entering in to a relationship with. Decent guys, the kind who might be marriage material, do not write women off because they have had sex with them.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/05/slutty-women-dont-end-up-single-and-alone-actually-6978986/?ito=cbshare

lol, kind of what I was thinking on the topic! Not having sex with a girl thru them denying you the pleasure is one way to NOT WANT to see them again (I LOVE being sexually frustrated, lol), the opposite would tend to have an opposite affect. For example, the bond with the HEB chick wasn't one of "let's leave her quickly", that was easily a 6-month at least kind of pairbond.

I think the pump-and-dump kind of guys tend to be guys who have high libido, they're attracted to anything, and they more than likely have the kind of confidence and entitlement that lets them get it (Might be a wealthy and/or powerful guy,too). Not giving it up to that guy isn't going to hold his attention any longer, I think whether you hold his attention is almost purely if he "loves you" which is either there or not, and most of the time, probably not.

 

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Btw, people talk about 'there was no golden era from 1985-2009'....

What about this?!

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EMRATIO

The employment to population ratio was ALWAYS significantly higher than it is RIGHT NOW from 1985-2009. Economists crow about "200,000" jobs added when that's just a drop in the bucket, we have a longways to go to achieve 90s era kind of prosperity. (I personally don't think it's going to happen, the higher paying manufacturing jobs being long shipped out and increasingly so.)

The affects of the 82-84 recession are clearly visible in this graph.

 

[Dauntless]

The most telling statement being the unemployment is the lowest since the Clinton largesse ended. Amazing on the heels of Obamas' record highs.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/09/news/economy/february-jobs-report/index.html

Meanwhile there was good and bad in the era you keep trying to tout, enough bad streaks to hold it below golden era levels. The whole Dubya presidency was difficult, long before your claimed golden era ended.

There's more than 'Pump and dump guys' out there. There's the guys that think its going to be all perfect but of course it never is so they keep looking. There's the times the woman shipwrecks it all but of says the guy was just using her. And more.

Many, MANY reasons you can't get a date.

 

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lol, I can't get a date. That's funny, since I get girlfriends and EAGER girlfriend applicants without a problem.

I'm getting so much eagerness right now, I just have to ignore them.

The real "problem" is that I CAN'T HOST ONE. Which I'm working on... and there's really no time pressures. The time is right when it's right.

See plenty of late-40s guys walking around their 6 year old child, telling me that the age of first child has been pushed back a bit for males. I would surmise that much from the average age of male marriage being age 30, up from what I'm assuming was age 21 back in 1990.

it's one way to limit the population growth rate, which might be what this economy needs right now.

 

[Dauntless]

lol, I can't get a date. That's funny, since I get girlfriends and EAGER girlfriend applicants without a problem.

Listing it as a job leaves them thinking its a paid gig. Not that they know in advance how bad it could be when they apply for the Job.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/09/us/new-york-joel-rosquette-neighbors-hit-trnd/index.html

 

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My thoughts = HEB chick, lol.

 

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In other news, found wild sweet potatos growing on my property. I threw these guys away after they started spudding in my van, and then they took root and started growing underground or something.

Also got a new chain, and it's able to do the plungecut, albeit slowly compared to the videos. The problem with the plungecut is that it seems to like migrating towards the direction of the notch, so looks like it'd be risky to use, even if i turned over the chainsaw, because then there'd be guess work towards the middle.

So, I'm going to try a normal backcut and insert the wedges early and see how effective that is, later today. It should be cooler around 6.

If all looks good, should be able to cut down the three that need to come down the day after tomorrow, then I'll need to clear the fallen trees from the construction site, and proceed with the foundation.

 

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/these-cities-may-be-your-best-bet-if-youre-buying-your-first-home/

Houston is one of the top three cities for a first-time homebuyer, that's not too surprising. Land values aren't that outrageous in Houston and plenty of illegal construction laborers to push down local home prices.

 

[swbluto]

The local farm and market is where you sell produce, eh...

With my new land that could effectively become a little boutique farm, I think I could specialize in some things. A local niche farmer.

Wonder if I could pull off some year round watermelons? And other year round tropicals?

Thought I'd offer watermelons because they'd no doubt be popular, but I thought about the problem of supply and demand. I'll have watermelons when EVERYONE ELSE has watermelons.

What if I was the only one that had watermelons year round?

Then I'd be their only watermelon supplier at the farm and market for those buyers.

Anyway, it's just an idea, because of disease concerns with greenhouse produce and I don't even know if it can be cost-effectively done.

Looks like watermelons prefer dry climates, well, that would reduce the diseases.

Chemical dehumidifiers look pretty cost effective.

 

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Okay, just tried out the notch and backcut leaving an appropriate hinge width technique using wedges to reverse the lean on the tree.

I took a very slow and measured approach to ensure the hinge width was the correct width on both sides.

Well, kept pounding the wedges, the tree hinge cracked and then the tree fell in the direction of its lean and NOT in the direction the wedges was pushing it.

So, this technique completely failed in taking care of a leaner.

It seems when a 100 foot tall tree is leaning too much, the wedges are useless in reversing the tree against its lean.

That's what I questioned too, because of the leverage involved with the height and severity of the lean. All these videos I see of them taking down trees using wedges against the lean show either a minor lean or a relatively short tree.

So this isn't very reassuring, I can't control the direction of the fall of a tall tree (using wedges alone).

 

[swbluto]

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Falling%20In%20Love

If your in love with someone, don't ever let them go, if you messed up or she screwed up, just try to work things out, because the truth is you only fall in love once and if you lose it, your never gonna get it back. So cherish the moments you have with her and never let her go...

Dear god, I hope this isn't true.

I will admit, I did have "my feelers out there", until I met her. And despite the time and distance, it doesn't seem like I'm getting "the feelers" back, at least not anytime soon.

Despite all these eager applicants, there's just no feelers.

It almost seems like "the void" has been filled, and it doesn't need anymore filling.

This image isn't reassuring, either.

This can't really be true. All those old guys have said "I love you" to many young girls as part of their notorious amorous personal history, granted, that's no guarantee they "fell in love", could just be manipulation...

Kind of makes me wish I was a player at heart... lol...

No, this isn't true at all. I've definitely felt strong attraction to certain individuals, just not most. Like that anorexic 20-something mother.

It is true 'the feelers' are gone, but I can still feel strong attraction to certain people.

"The feelers" could be gone for other reasons, like my having a dog.

YES! There it is, that FALLING IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE'S VOICE phenomena.

IT IS ESTABLISHED.

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I believe myths like this get perpetuated because it "romanticizes" the concept of love, as way of making it seem super special. It is super special, don't get me wrong, but I really doubt it "only happens once".

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Now doesn't that seem familiar...

I bet he hasn't given it enough time.

Time heals all wounds.

Although... because they remind me of you...

Isn't that a familiar trend in my posts...

"She reminds of the HEB chick"
"Just like the HEB chick"

The anorexic girl didn't remind me of the HEB chick. And though I saw similarities with the Walmart gal, I wasn't explicitly reminded of the HEB chick.

 

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Just thought about the implications of a recession happening now.

All the past recessions had the employment population ratio drop by 2 percent... (The great recession caused it to drop by 5)

If that happened now, we'd be back at 2010 levels... the worst of the great recession.

I think that'd imply the American economy is looking at a longterm downhill from its 90s glory.