Harold in CR
100 kW
Bluto, how does one go about purchasing one of your mystery business items ?? You can PM me, if necessary. I won't spill the beans, I promise. I live in Costa Rica and would like it sent to Florida 32967. Thank you.
Buying forest land, implementing solar
- Thread starter swbluto
- Start date
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Dauntless
100 TW
So you really think you could keep that secret, eh?
So, I've figured out how to take pictures with my new cellphone and get them on my computer. Here they are
Here's looking down the road.
This is the what trees/foliage looks like in the area.
Here's what I've cleared so far, I originally intended this area to be an area to park my RV but you'll see why that didn't happen soon enough, and decided instead to use it as temporary storage for the items inside the RV that I didn't need. (This should be cleaned up once I set up a shed and find out where the local dump is. No trash collection in this area, I have to make a trip to 'the dump' every so often.)
Here's the mud tracks you can my van made when it got stuck immediately after it left the thin road. (There's evidence it was paved about 35 years ago judging by black tarry remnants down the center, but most of it has disintegrated into sand and rocks.)
After I realized that the previous area I cleared out would be an awful place for a driveway (Too much altitude difference between the road and the ditch), I looked for a more ideal location and happened upon this area. Coincidentally, it looks raised right here and 15 feet to the right, suggesting they intended this to be a typical suburban neighborhood driveway when they created the area 35 years ago. It's clear the roads were paved at one time, and the trees were cleared out upto 20 feet away from the road when they created the ditch (All the trees within the area between the road and the ditch are small, young trees), so something didn't happen as intended.
Anyway, I think I need to clear out the trees, remove the topsoil, and put in an appropriate driveway subgrade soil and rocks ontop. Packed clay or sand, I think. If I'm lucky, the existing 'driveway' might have a suitable driveway grade subsoil just 1"-2" below.
Here's looking down the road.
This is the what trees/foliage looks like in the area.
Here's what I've cleared so far, I originally intended this area to be an area to park my RV but you'll see why that didn't happen soon enough, and decided instead to use it as temporary storage for the items inside the RV that I didn't need. (This should be cleaned up once I set up a shed and find out where the local dump is. No trash collection in this area, I have to make a trip to 'the dump' every so often.)
Here's the mud tracks you can my van made when it got stuck immediately after it left the thin road. (There's evidence it was paved about 35 years ago judging by black tarry remnants down the center, but most of it has disintegrated into sand and rocks.)
After I realized that the previous area I cleared out would be an awful place for a driveway (Too much altitude difference between the road and the ditch), I looked for a more ideal location and happened upon this area. Coincidentally, it looks raised right here and 15 feet to the right, suggesting they intended this to be a typical suburban neighborhood driveway when they created the area 35 years ago. It's clear the roads were paved at one time, and the trees were cleared out upto 20 feet away from the road when they created the ditch (All the trees within the area between the road and the ditch are small, young trees), so something didn't happen as intended.
Anyway, I think I need to clear out the trees, remove the topsoil, and put in an appropriate driveway subgrade soil and rocks ontop. Packed clay or sand, I think. If I'm lucky, the existing 'driveway' might have a suitable driveway grade subsoil just 1"-2" below.
Harold in CR
100 kW
In the businesses I had, I had to go out and find the customers. Maybe that's why I never got rich. ?? Forget about your products, Explain to me how people find YOU. I definitely missed that part about them looking for MY mysterious product lines. 
This such a diverse crowd, I can't understand how NO ONE here could not want what you have, unless it is an illicit business idea.
I can just imagine where you are, everybody and their uncle should have a tractor and rotary cutter " Bush-Hog", that would clear a half acre for you in less than an hour. THEN, you cut the few trees you don't want.
This such a diverse crowd, I can't understand how NO ONE here could not want what you have, unless it is an illicit business idea.
I can just imagine where you are, everybody and their uncle should have a tractor and rotary cutter " Bush-Hog", that would clear a half acre for you in less than an hour. THEN, you cut the few trees you don't want.
Harold in CR said:In the businesses I had, I had to go out and find the customers. Maybe that's why I never got rich. ?? Forget about your products, Explain to me how people find YOU. I definitely missed that part about them looking for MY mysterious product lines.
People find me because they're looking for me. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not the like the entire world is looking for me, it's usually just 30-40 people a month (About 150 people this month given the holidays), but that's more than enough for a modest income with the prices I charge. Anyway, I basically looked at the competitors in my 'field' who were doing brisk business, figured out why, and then did something similar in vein and created a more impressive advertising and provided a superior product. And, with the search engine e-commerce sites, I paid attention to keywords and the keywords my competitors were using and used as many of the most popular ones I could. I took out all the traditional words a regular person would use ("An awesome little thingamigger!", I would remove the "an awesome little" because no one is searching using those words when looking for my particular product.), and used strictly the words people used to search. Keyword arbitrage - heh. Yeah, basically that. Do what my successful competitors did, except maximized the keyword potential so I got more traffic than they did. People would find my products but not theirs, because they weren't using their particular keywords, so I'd be the only one (Or among the few) they knew about.
It's like that in the real world, by the way. Putting yourself in a location with 'traffic' so people would know about you. Except, the 'location' on search engine based sites is whatever keywords you use. When setting up a shop/business that benefits from traffic(hotel,food,etc.), it pays to buy trafficked locations, not necessarily cheap locations. I guess that's not necessarily true if people are looking for you (i.e., Walmart), but even traffic benefits them.
Anyway, I'm busy at the moment with business, but I'm definitely expanding once things get settled back into their slower pace. But, yes, getting the RV on my property is the first priority once things die down.
And, oh yeah, I wouldn't recommend the Burger King in the Walmart inside The Woodlands. I stood at the front counter for about a minute and no approached me, so I announced "I'm ready to order", and still no one approached for 20 seconds or so... (Long enough to realize that, despite the workers there hearing me, they didn't do anything about it.)... and so I gave up and said "Los sientos. Adios!" because these were obviously mexican workers who worked this joint and it's questionable whether they understood English. Would explain why they didn't act on my announcement and they didn't seem to indicate they understood the importance of it. I really just wanted to try one of their fish burgers, to compare it to mcDonald's fish burgers. But, these spanish chaps didn't seem to understood english and the one english speaking cashier, I'm guessing, was on a break or something. It's hard to believe that a Burger King inside a white suburb wouldn't serve English speaking customers normally. I didn't get the sense this was a mexican neighborhood looking at Walmart's clientele.
And, the lady inside the "Flaming Wok" place that offers Sesame Chicken (A delicious alternative to Orange Chicken, more of a honey flavor.), charged me for a 2-side combo meal when I ordered a 1-side meal. Granted, the price difference was negligible (50 cents), but I'm not going to stand someone knowingly cheating me (That is, it's the intention that matters way more). Besides, the sesame chicken wasn't that compellingly good that time like it was the first time. Oh, it's always the first time that matters. And, really, they're just too far away (2.5 gallons of gas.); I really aim to keep my trip expenses under 1.5 gallons of gas, unless it's a combo trip (Which yesterday was, since I had to go get groceries, and a trimmer, and a cheap heater. I have to go cheap because I have potential refunds looming by the end of the month, and this time of the month is slow and my cash reserves are kind of low at this moment. I'm trying to keep my ongoing expenses low - I do realize my expense problem was largely the hotels, but that was unavoidable since it took so long trying to source an RV. Granted, I did stay out of the RV more than I could have, but that's really only a $150 savings I'm talking about there. The other major unexpected/unbudgeted expenses were the used generator($750) and car repair($930), and the unexpected high expense for an RV ($1200 vs $sub-800 expected. Really, everyone with RVs under $1000 either didn't respond or already sold and I couldn't really wait the market out staying in hotels; it would've been more expensive waiting for a cheap RV, then paying full price for an RV ASAP. And, obviously, I had to get my business running fast since that meant even more expenses in the "refunds" and "negative reviews" column.)
So, about $2000 in unplanned expenses. That depleted my cash fast. At the moment, it appears I should have enough money for 5-10 cubic yards of pea gravel, lol. My only (planned) ongoing expenses at this moment should be mostly gas and food, so there shouldn't be a lot of surprises there. I might need an AC unit eventually. If a generator goes down, I have a backup which should buy me enough time to get the other repaired. If the van goes down, hopefully it's an issue I can readily fix. If I know there's a fuel pressure problem, most likely I'll have to replace the fuel filter. If there's a "staying on" problem, I'll probably have to clean the EGR valve. I feel like I know enough about cars now to diagnose most problems and /usually/ the parts expense isn't too expensive. Major transmission or motor problem - Time to find a new vehicle! lol I don't actually need a vehicle to go get groceries and deliver my mail to the post office. The only real problem is sourcing car parts, looks like I might have to get it mailed in. Renting a vehicle to go pick up a car part seems absurd. Ideally, I would have a second vehicle, but that's looking more like a longterm goal right now.
And, the lady inside the "Flaming Wok" place that offers Sesame Chicken (A delicious alternative to Orange Chicken, more of a honey flavor.), charged me for a 2-side combo meal when I ordered a 1-side meal. Granted, the price difference was negligible (50 cents), but I'm not going to stand someone knowingly cheating me (That is, it's the intention that matters way more). Besides, the sesame chicken wasn't that compellingly good that time like it was the first time. Oh, it's always the first time that matters. And, really, they're just too far away (2.5 gallons of gas.); I really aim to keep my trip expenses under 1.5 gallons of gas, unless it's a combo trip (Which yesterday was, since I had to go get groceries, and a trimmer, and a cheap heater. I have to go cheap because I have potential refunds looming by the end of the month, and this time of the month is slow and my cash reserves are kind of low at this moment. I'm trying to keep my ongoing expenses low - I do realize my expense problem was largely the hotels, but that was unavoidable since it took so long trying to source an RV. Granted, I did stay out of the RV more than I could have, but that's really only a $150 savings I'm talking about there. The other major unexpected/unbudgeted expenses were the used generator($750) and car repair($930), and the unexpected high expense for an RV ($1200 vs $sub-800 expected. Really, everyone with RVs under $1000 either didn't respond or already sold and I couldn't really wait the market out staying in hotels; it would've been more expensive waiting for a cheap RV, then paying full price for an RV ASAP. And, obviously, I had to get my business running fast since that meant even more expenses in the "refunds" and "negative reviews" column.)
So, about $2000 in unplanned expenses. That depleted my cash fast. At the moment, it appears I should have enough money for 5-10 cubic yards of pea gravel, lol. My only (planned) ongoing expenses at this moment should be mostly gas and food, so there shouldn't be a lot of surprises there. I might need an AC unit eventually. If a generator goes down, I have a backup which should buy me enough time to get the other repaired. If the van goes down, hopefully it's an issue I can readily fix. If I know there's a fuel pressure problem, most likely I'll have to replace the fuel filter. If there's a "staying on" problem, I'll probably have to clean the EGR valve. I feel like I know enough about cars now to diagnose most problems and /usually/ the parts expense isn't too expensive. Major transmission or motor problem - Time to find a new vehicle! lol I don't actually need a vehicle to go get groceries and deliver my mail to the post office. The only real problem is sourcing car parts, looks like I might have to get it mailed in. Renting a vehicle to go pick up a car part seems absurd. Ideally, I would have a second vehicle, but that's looking more like a longterm goal right now.
Driving back home, I was looking around and saw a double wide trailer nestled between the trees in the forest and it looked like there were trees covering his roof. What's that all about?
Two theories; keeps his trailer cooler during the heat here. Or, he's evading the local tax assessor's satellite imagery investigations. Granted, if he was evading the local tax assessor, he's doing a pretty poor job if I could spot his trailer from the road, lol. Or maybe he's just trying to avoid being identified on satellites... interesting person, whoever they are.
The reason why I would never get a trailer is because it's a waste of money. If you're going to buy depreciating assets like RVs/Trailers, might as well minimize your losses as with anything, and a double wide trailer is about as lossy as you can get. "The taller they are, the harder they fall". Prices, too.
I'm guessing most purveyors of trailers buy the land, then purchase a trailer using a mortgage of sorts, comparing it to traditional home mortgage costs. It's true, the monthly payment should be half or less compared to traditional square footage, but you're losing more money over time with depreciation. Granted, maybe they're not planning to ever resell, which makes it a moot point. Perhaps they expect to retire in a trailer, like so many of the retirees around here. I don't personally expect to retire in a trailer. I don't really have retirement expectations, honestly, other than having 'living security' (Owning whatever land/domicile I live in). And, I already have 'living security' /right now/, so I'm good. The only /real/ potential insecurity is food/water insecurity. Not being able to buy the latest gizmo/gadget has never phased me; I've always purchased whatever's reliable/quality and works.
Update; Just bought a motion detector light for the back of my RV. It's the side I'd be most likely to be approached from (And it's the side I have been approached from at least twice so far.), and it's the only side where my windows are exposed, so I thought it'd be a good idea.
OH GOD! I just saw the light turn on and I thought "OH CRAP! IT'S THE SAME SERIAL KILLER FROM YESTERDAY! LOL", so I immediately turned off the light and saw a white/black cat just start running by (presumably as soon as the light turned on). Oh, maybe that's what I heard yesterday... some neighborhood cat. Or dog. Or something. An animal, like I later reasoned/suspected. I definitely can't hear the footsteps of a cat, however, and I definitely heard footsteps yesterday. Hmmm... makes me wonder what it was exactly. It definitely didn't sound like human footsteps, but it was definitely audible and it definitely was footsteps whatever it was.
Two theories; keeps his trailer cooler during the heat here. Or, he's evading the local tax assessor's satellite imagery investigations. Granted, if he was evading the local tax assessor, he's doing a pretty poor job if I could spot his trailer from the road, lol. Or maybe he's just trying to avoid being identified on satellites... interesting person, whoever they are.
The reason why I would never get a trailer is because it's a waste of money. If you're going to buy depreciating assets like RVs/Trailers, might as well minimize your losses as with anything, and a double wide trailer is about as lossy as you can get. "The taller they are, the harder they fall". Prices, too.
I'm guessing most purveyors of trailers buy the land, then purchase a trailer using a mortgage of sorts, comparing it to traditional home mortgage costs. It's true, the monthly payment should be half or less compared to traditional square footage, but you're losing more money over time with depreciation. Granted, maybe they're not planning to ever resell, which makes it a moot point. Perhaps they expect to retire in a trailer, like so many of the retirees around here. I don't personally expect to retire in a trailer. I don't really have retirement expectations, honestly, other than having 'living security' (Owning whatever land/domicile I live in). And, I already have 'living security' /right now/, so I'm good. The only /real/ potential insecurity is food/water insecurity. Not being able to buy the latest gizmo/gadget has never phased me; I've always purchased whatever's reliable/quality and works.
Update; Just bought a motion detector light for the back of my RV. It's the side I'd be most likely to be approached from (And it's the side I have been approached from at least twice so far.), and it's the only side where my windows are exposed, so I thought it'd be a good idea.
OH GOD! I just saw the light turn on and I thought "OH CRAP! IT'S THE SAME SERIAL KILLER FROM YESTERDAY! LOL", so I immediately turned off the light and saw a white/black cat just start running by (presumably as soon as the light turned on). Oh, maybe that's what I heard yesterday... some neighborhood cat. Or dog. Or something. An animal, like I later reasoned/suspected. I definitely can't hear the footsteps of a cat, however, and I definitely heard footsteps yesterday. Hmmm... makes me wonder what it was exactly. It definitely didn't sound like human footsteps, but it was definitely audible and it definitely was footsteps whatever it was.
Oh interesting, this particular neighborhood looks like it had an evacuation order in 2011 due to fire sweeping the region during one particular drought. Well, thank goodness my home is mobile, lol. (I wonder how often I'll need to move this rig to prevent tire rot; looks like 'they' recommend every 2-3 months.)
Okay, so basic tree removal method until now.
If sapling is thin enough, cut as low to the ground with the lopper. Then dig around it and use the pulaski axe to chop the root below the ground.
If it is larger, cut it down with the hatchet and then use the same procedure for trunk reduction.
But these larger trees that I'm now trying to remove have too large of a base for that method to be effective, so I'm trying out a new method. Dig around the tree, then use the chainsaw to reduce the trunk to below ground and then bury it.
The first bit of land that I cleared didn't really have "larger trees"/I specifically chose a direction that had the puniest trees.
Anyway, I noticed an unusual clearing in the forest for a tent or similar near my encampment (At one time, anyway), and so I climbed back there and noticed a palm plant growing in the middle of the forest. Oh, wasn't that unusual. It almost seems like it was planted there at one time. And, I figured out that this area is likely filled with pine trees because it's vulnerable to periodic drought and periodic freezing temps from arctic blasts. If you removed those periodic events, I have a feeling that average tropical plants or other leafy plants would be the dominant fauna here. (There's plenty of leafy plants here, anyway. Oh my gosh, I found an area west of the appalachians that naturally had leafy trees and I own it, I feel so grateful, lol.)
If sapling is thin enough, cut as low to the ground with the lopper. Then dig around it and use the pulaski axe to chop the root below the ground.
If it is larger, cut it down with the hatchet and then use the same procedure for trunk reduction.
But these larger trees that I'm now trying to remove have too large of a base for that method to be effective, so I'm trying out a new method. Dig around the tree, then use the chainsaw to reduce the trunk to below ground and then bury it.
The first bit of land that I cleared didn't really have "larger trees"/I specifically chose a direction that had the puniest trees.
Anyway, I noticed an unusual clearing in the forest for a tent or similar near my encampment (At one time, anyway), and so I climbed back there and noticed a palm plant growing in the middle of the forest. Oh, wasn't that unusual. It almost seems like it was planted there at one time. And, I figured out that this area is likely filled with pine trees because it's vulnerable to periodic drought and periodic freezing temps from arctic blasts. If you removed those periodic events, I have a feeling that average tropical plants or other leafy plants would be the dominant fauna here. (There's plenty of leafy plants here, anyway. Oh my gosh, I found an area west of the appalachians that naturally had leafy trees and I own it, I feel so grateful, lol.)
DAND214
10 MW
this place sounds like a paradise waiting to happen. Do you wanna sell itswbluto said:
Dan
DAND214 said:this place sounds like a paradise waiting to happen. Do you wanna sell itswbluto said:
Dan
Hehe, yes it does. I was thinking about getting a small pond in here along with some palm plants to surround it, eventually. The local "Big Tex Tree Nursery" seems to be a large supplier of all thing tropical plants here. I'm just now hung up on the idea of buying blue colorant dye to make my pond colored blue. I'm thinking maybe I could source some light blue plastic to line the ground, lol. I just haven't come up with a design yet that meshes with the intended fruit/vegetable gardens.
Anyway, just discovered the HEB in conroe is more expensive than the one is Magnolia. $2 coconuts vs $1.50 coconuts. About 20-50 cents higher regardless of the item I was looking at. So, that's likely not going to my goto HEB.
And, the water from the mexican coconuts was /so much/ better than the packaged coconut water I had. That water tasted slightly soured, the water from the fresh coconut I just split open tasted delicious, better than any packaged coconut water I had. Now my only question is supitable storage methods for the cononut meat; I used to put it in a fridge back home, but no fridge here, not yet anyway. So, I put it in a box to prevent bugs from accessing it; I'll see how long it lasts, lol.
And, the highly rated brent electric heater on Amazon indeed got water boiling very fast. Only problem is, that's the only setting it had - MAX. When the dial was turned to '1' (Out of 9), it was on MAX. When it was on 5, it was on MAX. There was no 'low' or 'medium' setting for this buddy, so he's kind of useless for boiled water foods (What i intended to use it most for; boiling rice, boiling sweet potatos, etc.). If you turned it on and off, and watched it carefully, it did eventually cook the rice but that's kind of bogus.
Anyway, to boil 1/3 cups of rice, it was on MAX for about 3 minutes and then off for about 7 over a 10 minute period. So, 1/3 cup rice -> 1000watts*(3/60hour) = 50 watthours of energy. Wow, that looks like chump change, and it looks like it could easily be provided by for solar (eventually). It's my products that look like the energy suckers ; About 350-500wh per product. A gallon of gas is about 6000 wh via generator, so it's about 1/10 gallon per product or 20 cents via gas. I still have comfortable profit margins, but that does add up.
Harold in CR
100 kW
Put the coconut meat in a paper bag and close it with clothes pins. Hang it in an airy place, out of the sun.
Harold in CR said:
Good advice.
Anyway, went to wallyworld to pick up a new single hotplate because I need to boil this rice and sweet potatos for sustenance. Saw that the walmart brand ("mainstays") looked EXACTLY like my brentwood, so I already knew it was a rebranded piece of chinese crap (And, it was $5 cheaper, to boot.). Saw an ostermann and checked out the reviews online, the worst review was "It cycles on and off during the low setting. Turning the knob only [changes its duty cycle]."; I lol'd, because that's how standard electric burners work on regular stoves, so that told mean this thing would've worked like I might expect to. And it did! It cooked my rice like a champ; my only complaint now is my cheap little boyscout stove, it seems to boil over a bit too easily, with it's low volume/capacity. But, it works, and funds are tight, so I will hold off on a new pot purchases. I might have to delay some refunds since they're pilling up, and it's obvious I'll need to prioritize the most justified ones. I have pending shipping of 15 packages, which is another $35 in pending shipping chargers. And, this time of the month in December is slow in the revenue department (Was like this last year)... so, yep, will probably have to delay a few refunds. Buying soil/rocks for my driveway at this point seems like a laughable idea, lol. I will see if I can use the compact subsoils and stamp it down, maybe that might suffice. The topsoils in this area obviously won't work as they are. I wonder if I could get some thick plywood to create a temporary driveway platform?
I just really need to get the RV off the street and more in the direction of my property, lol. (Maybe not necessarily on the property, but at least off the street right in front of it.)
I'm really curious if the (clay?) soil 24" down is suitable as a subgrade. Might just create a mining pit so I can fill in the front 20' of my property.
Anyway, it's 71 right now with a 66 degree low tonight. And... I have to say... it feels rather warm with the humidity! With night time lows being 78 in the summertime, I wonder how I'll sleep at night in this thing? lol.
Sitting in my van munching on some corn and cheese, I heard someone let out 5 pistol shots in quick succession, and then another 5 about 1 second later. Aha! I located the source of this pistol fire. I couldn't really tell in my RV, but I definitely could inside the van.
Anyway, it sounds like it's down the main avenue. Coincidentally, it seems to be in the general area of that "mexican stronghold" I told you guys about earlier. Ahuh, well... let's see... a road that leads to that 'mexican stronghold' is blocked off by a shuttle van that someone obviously towed into place, I'm hearing pistol shots probably from that property (Though, I can't confirm it, it just sounds like it's coming from his area.)... yeah, I'm thinking my intuition is becoming more and more correct every passing day. And, I'm willing to bet that guy in that blue striped white mustang who tried to intimidate me by aiming his vehicle directly towards mine, is where that guy lives. Because I think I remember seeing a mustang among the vehicles in his driveway... let me go back to the page where I posted of that 'stronghold' and see. It'd be funny if it had the blue stripes, almost like confirmation.
Well, I do see a white mustang, just without the blue stripes. It's very possible those were added later...
And, seeing the 10 vehicles in his driveway makes me think there's a very good chance he put that shuttle van in the intersection, because he obviously has a tendency for collecting all types of vehicles near his property, probably many towed there just like that shuttle van.
And, yep, I've been hearing squeaking bats outside. I first thought they were mice... but they sounded like they were up in the air... so, bats are here. Interesting. [Lol, it's just my shoe. Been raining recently]
Anyway, it sounds like it's down the main avenue. Coincidentally, it seems to be in the general area of that "mexican stronghold" I told you guys about earlier. Ahuh, well... let's see... a road that leads to that 'mexican stronghold' is blocked off by a shuttle van that someone obviously towed into place, I'm hearing pistol shots probably from that property (Though, I can't confirm it, it just sounds like it's coming from his area.)... yeah, I'm thinking my intuition is becoming more and more correct every passing day. And, I'm willing to bet that guy in that blue striped white mustang who tried to intimidate me by aiming his vehicle directly towards mine, is where that guy lives. Because I think I remember seeing a mustang among the vehicles in his driveway... let me go back to the page where I posted of that 'stronghold' and see. It'd be funny if it had the blue stripes, almost like confirmation.
Well, I do see a white mustang, just without the blue stripes. It's very possible those were added later...
And, seeing the 10 vehicles in his driveway makes me think there's a very good chance he put that shuttle van in the intersection, because he obviously has a tendency for collecting all types of vehicles near his property, probably many towed there just like that shuttle van.
And, yep, I've been hearing squeaking bats outside. I first thought they were mice... but they sounded like they were up in the air... so, bats are here. Interesting. [Lol, it's just my shoe. Been raining recently]
Will confirm. Coconut will not last inside a box that's been sitting in a vehicle, at least in today's weather. Very warm and humid. The outside temperature is actually 'a little cool', but that afternoon sun is STRONG and the vehicle makes for a great greenhouse. That sun felt great today, unlike the sun back home (The shadows back home are long, the sun is low on the horizon, and the sun feels WEAK). The coconut meat had browned in parts and was slimy all over. The vehicle was warm enough to make my chocolate melt, as if a summer afternoon day back home.
Anyway, went to pick up my generator, yeah it works now. Somehow the spark gap got screwed up somehow so he corrected it.
Anyway, the Southeast Fry's Electronics is pretty darn awesome. You walk inside and there's a NASA theme everywhere. I'll post pics.
And, the NASA Johnson Space Center is definitely not just a little visitor center like the NASA Ames Research Center back in Palo Alto(San Francisco), California. It's a full all-day event, so I skipped that.
And, the 'pet place' that was one of the most popular pet stores that actually sold pets; yes, I will confirm, they all have manners of fish, rodents and lizards. They don't have kittens, but they did have the mainstream small dogs (chihuahuas, pugs, pekingnese, etc.). No large dog varieties. The store itself didn't really seem impressive as the "Seed and Feed" back in Spokane, which surprises me considering it's one of Houston's most popular pet stores that actually sells pets. And, I would expect Houston to do just about everything bigger/better than Spokane.
And, the "memorial city"(West houston) which has all the most popular Yelp malls, ick. Sign me out. Granted, don't get me wrong, the Memorial City Mall had that black/white styling theme that I've long adored (With sparing use of gold/silver), but it was very typical of those so-called 'upscale malls'. Bunch of fashion, makeup and jewelry stores (Mainstream brands primarily), very little else. Not my kind of stores. And, all the malls in the "Memorial City Area"(Which had the 3 most popular Yelp malls) had that kind of diversity (Or lack thereof). I think I need to look at the other malls in Houston to find /my/ mall. There's like 20 of them. O_O
The Fry's in West Houston apparently didn't have a distinctive theme like the I-45 Fry's and Southeast Fry's.
The malls in Seattle were a tad better in my opinion. The had 'diversity' and they were /also/ upscale.
The "China Town" in this area was pretty cool. Basically, a bunch of strip malls centered along a particular street with strong vietname/korean/chinese shop atmosphere. The shops were compact and 'crammed in there'(Inside the strip malls), unlike most strip malls around Houston. That actually seemed pretty neat to me; My favorite town in America is definitely the French Market in New Orleans precisely because all the shops (Hundreds of them) are crammed in 3 walkable street blocks, so there's so much to see regardless of where you are in the neighborhood.
Went to the Hong Kong market (Mall), and there was a strong Vietnamese influence with a sprinkling of Chinese in the shops. The popular grocery store inside there had an expansive vegetable market, which was definitely the most popular part of the store. Had plenty of vegetables I've never seen. The landscaping was nice (Traditional peaceful Chinese landscaping, with plenty of well-cared for greenery,rock gardens and koi ponds.). I noticed that the shops were 'colorful' just like the carribean/cuban/cajun influences. It seems to me most of the cultures near the equator tend to be colorful, whereas the more non-equatorial cultures (europe/etc.) tend to shun color. And, the flora/fauna tends to be more colorful near the equator as well. If I didn't know any better, the equatorial cultures are lively because that's humanity's ancestral environment. And, they obviously get plenty of good sun, like today in Houston, lol.
I also noticed near the coast, like in southeast Houston (Where NASA is), the land tends to be green and there's large swaths of green grass everywhere. Very few trees anywhere. I'm guessing most trees get uprooted during the occasional hurricanes and tropical storms that hit this region near the coast, so forests can't establish themselves here like they can further away from the coast (I.e., where I live), so rather pleasing green pastures everywhere near the coastline in Southeast Houston. The exception seems to be palm trees, which due to their lack of "full branch structures", and flexible trunk, and palm leaves which pretty much minimize their cross-sectional area by swaying in the direction of the wind like a windsock (Those torn off are easily regenerated), they easily survive high winds. They seem to be planted wherever I can see them in SE Houston, otherwise, green pastures everywhere.
And, oh yeah, just thought about it. I'm like judgment proof. I can't be pursued in Texas because I don't have an official residence here (I need a driveway to get a 911 address, so right now I officially live at the local post office, lol) nor do I have a Texas License or Vehicle, and if I'm pursued back home, I'm not going to be attending any debtor hearings back there because I'm too far away to be extradited. Plus, I have a hard time believing a Texas judge would extradite me anyway. Texas, in general, correctly believes the wall street banks are a bunch of thieves that need to be controlled, and they are strongly controlled in Texas compared to other states. For example, wages can't be garnished. Upto $70,000 in personal property is exempt. They aren't going to extradite me because I didn't attend a debtors hearing, lol. Yep, so I'm pretty much uncollectible. (They need me to attend a debtors hearing to levy bank accounts, so until that happens, my accounts are safe.)
Anyway, I've figured out why it seems I'm seeing a tow truck behind every other cop stop. I'm willing to bet they treat uninsured drivers harshly here, judging by how they ask for proof of insurance for just about /anything/ dealing with the DMV, unlike Washington's DMV, and so they catch someone speeding and *pop*, no proof of insurance, your ride is getting towed. And then the tow guy eventually owns your vehicle when it gets to the point you can't pay the tow/impound/storage fees, which you likely can't if you couldn't afford insurance. So that would explain why I see tow trucks everywhere; it's not because there's tons of people here getting stuck in the mud, like I, it's because there's so many traffic stops that lead to a JACKPOT for the tow guys. Wow, it's so different in Texas compared to back home, lol. So moral of the story, never speed/violate-traffic-laws and never get in an accident if you're uninsured in Texas.
And, I think I just kind of figured out how to prevent ants. I need to apply some kind of adhesive/pesticide to my wheels so they can't climb up them. Now, I'm not really sure of the best way to go about that, it just seems doable. I just figured it out, I'll tape inverted tape to my wheels so that it completely surrounds it. Any insect trying to climb up SHALL NOT PASS! lol
I can tell tomorrow is going to be about keeping the insects out.
I saw a /tiny/ spider scaling off my ceiling yesterday. Oh boy, I'm trying keep those suckers out. While I know /his/ type is harmless, I don't want to be sleeping with spiders. Or mosquitos. Or ladybugs. etc. (There's lots of ladybugs here, this forest must have what they eat - insects)
And, I just realized my boyscout stove is actually kind of awesome. I just realized that water seemed to boil so much faster than back home because the hefty pans back home soaked up much of the heat; the smaller, thinner boyscout camping pans don't, so much of the heat goes directly into heating the water, so it heats up much more quickly. Also, this 900 watt burner actually measures at 800 watts according to my 2000w inverter. I'm not complaining, apparently that's more than adequate to quickly boil my water. (Starts to boil in 45 seconds)
And, I just realized my batteries trigger the low voltage cutout on the 2000 watt inverter somewhere at around 1100 watts. I wonder what I can do to cost-effectively stiffen the voltage so that the inverter doesn't cutout?
Anyway, went to pick up my generator, yeah it works now. Somehow the spark gap got screwed up somehow so he corrected it.
Anyway, the Southeast Fry's Electronics is pretty darn awesome. You walk inside and there's a NASA theme everywhere. I'll post pics.
And, the NASA Johnson Space Center is definitely not just a little visitor center like the NASA Ames Research Center back in Palo Alto(San Francisco), California. It's a full all-day event, so I skipped that.
And, the 'pet place' that was one of the most popular pet stores that actually sold pets; yes, I will confirm, they all have manners of fish, rodents and lizards. They don't have kittens, but they did have the mainstream small dogs (chihuahuas, pugs, pekingnese, etc.). No large dog varieties. The store itself didn't really seem impressive as the "Seed and Feed" back in Spokane, which surprises me considering it's one of Houston's most popular pet stores that actually sells pets. And, I would expect Houston to do just about everything bigger/better than Spokane.
And, the "memorial city"(West houston) which has all the most popular Yelp malls, ick. Sign me out. Granted, don't get me wrong, the Memorial City Mall had that black/white styling theme that I've long adored (With sparing use of gold/silver), but it was very typical of those so-called 'upscale malls'. Bunch of fashion, makeup and jewelry stores (Mainstream brands primarily), very little else. Not my kind of stores. And, all the malls in the "Memorial City Area"(Which had the 3 most popular Yelp malls) had that kind of diversity (Or lack thereof). I think I need to look at the other malls in Houston to find /my/ mall. There's like 20 of them. O_O
The Fry's in West Houston apparently didn't have a distinctive theme like the I-45 Fry's and Southeast Fry's.
The malls in Seattle were a tad better in my opinion. The had 'diversity' and they were /also/ upscale.
The "China Town" in this area was pretty cool. Basically, a bunch of strip malls centered along a particular street with strong vietname/korean/chinese shop atmosphere. The shops were compact and 'crammed in there'(Inside the strip malls), unlike most strip malls around Houston. That actually seemed pretty neat to me; My favorite town in America is definitely the French Market in New Orleans precisely because all the shops (Hundreds of them) are crammed in 3 walkable street blocks, so there's so much to see regardless of where you are in the neighborhood.
Went to the Hong Kong market (Mall), and there was a strong Vietnamese influence with a sprinkling of Chinese in the shops. The popular grocery store inside there had an expansive vegetable market, which was definitely the most popular part of the store. Had plenty of vegetables I've never seen. The landscaping was nice (Traditional peaceful Chinese landscaping, with plenty of well-cared for greenery,rock gardens and koi ponds.). I noticed that the shops were 'colorful' just like the carribean/cuban/cajun influences. It seems to me most of the cultures near the equator tend to be colorful, whereas the more non-equatorial cultures (europe/etc.) tend to shun color. And, the flora/fauna tends to be more colorful near the equator as well. If I didn't know any better, the equatorial cultures are lively because that's humanity's ancestral environment. And, they obviously get plenty of good sun, like today in Houston, lol.
I also noticed near the coast, like in southeast Houston (Where NASA is), the land tends to be green and there's large swaths of green grass everywhere. Very few trees anywhere. I'm guessing most trees get uprooted during the occasional hurricanes and tropical storms that hit this region near the coast, so forests can't establish themselves here like they can further away from the coast (I.e., where I live), so rather pleasing green pastures everywhere near the coastline in Southeast Houston. The exception seems to be palm trees, which due to their lack of "full branch structures", and flexible trunk, and palm leaves which pretty much minimize their cross-sectional area by swaying in the direction of the wind like a windsock (Those torn off are easily regenerated), they easily survive high winds. They seem to be planted wherever I can see them in SE Houston, otherwise, green pastures everywhere.
And, oh yeah, just thought about it. I'm like judgment proof. I can't be pursued in Texas because I don't have an official residence here (I need a driveway to get a 911 address, so right now I officially live at the local post office, lol) nor do I have a Texas License or Vehicle, and if I'm pursued back home, I'm not going to be attending any debtor hearings back there because I'm too far away to be extradited. Plus, I have a hard time believing a Texas judge would extradite me anyway. Texas, in general, correctly believes the wall street banks are a bunch of thieves that need to be controlled, and they are strongly controlled in Texas compared to other states. For example, wages can't be garnished. Upto $70,000 in personal property is exempt. They aren't going to extradite me because I didn't attend a debtors hearing, lol. Yep, so I'm pretty much uncollectible. (They need me to attend a debtors hearing to levy bank accounts, so until that happens, my accounts are safe.)
Anyway, I've figured out why it seems I'm seeing a tow truck behind every other cop stop. I'm willing to bet they treat uninsured drivers harshly here, judging by how they ask for proof of insurance for just about /anything/ dealing with the DMV, unlike Washington's DMV, and so they catch someone speeding and *pop*, no proof of insurance, your ride is getting towed. And then the tow guy eventually owns your vehicle when it gets to the point you can't pay the tow/impound/storage fees, which you likely can't if you couldn't afford insurance. So that would explain why I see tow trucks everywhere; it's not because there's tons of people here getting stuck in the mud, like I, it's because there's so many traffic stops that lead to a JACKPOT for the tow guys. Wow, it's so different in Texas compared to back home, lol. So moral of the story, never speed/violate-traffic-laws and never get in an accident if you're uninsured in Texas.
And, I think I just kind of figured out how to prevent ants. I need to apply some kind of adhesive/pesticide to my wheels so they can't climb up them. Now, I'm not really sure of the best way to go about that, it just seems doable. I just figured it out, I'll tape inverted tape to my wheels so that it completely surrounds it. Any insect trying to climb up SHALL NOT PASS! lol
I can tell tomorrow is going to be about keeping the insects out.
I saw a /tiny/ spider scaling off my ceiling yesterday. Oh boy, I'm trying keep those suckers out. While I know /his/ type is harmless, I don't want to be sleeping with spiders. Or mosquitos. Or ladybugs. etc. (There's lots of ladybugs here, this forest must have what they eat - insects)
And, I just realized my boyscout stove is actually kind of awesome. I just realized that water seemed to boil so much faster than back home because the hefty pans back home soaked up much of the heat; the smaller, thinner boyscout camping pans don't, so much of the heat goes directly into heating the water, so it heats up much more quickly. Also, this 900 watt burner actually measures at 800 watts according to my 2000w inverter. I'm not complaining, apparently that's more than adequate to quickly boil my water. (Starts to boil in 45 seconds)
And, I just realized my batteries trigger the low voltage cutout on the 2000 watt inverter somewhere at around 1100 watts. I wonder what I can do to cost-effectively stiffen the voltage so that the inverter doesn't cutout?
Attachments
The neighbor down the road got a gun for christmas. I could hear ALL THE SHOTS this morning at 7:20 a.m., lol.
Oh wow, it's warmer in Houston today than in Yuma, AZ. 79 H here versus 59H there. I guess it switches off between the two. (That is, no one spot is the 'all around champion' in terms of warm winters except perhaps for southern Florida.)
Did I forget to mention that Texas has a strong gun culture? I have a feeling I don't need to, lol, but just for the record... the gun culture here is even STRONGER than it is South Carolina. There's armories/gun-shops EVERYWHERE and there's gun shows advertised around Houston that seem to be happening at least 1-4x a month. I personally already have a gun, it's a relatively powerful air rifle, it's in storage now. I'll be retrieving it tomorrow as I vacate my storage unit. I feel like I've emptied out the van more than enough so there's plenty of room for the rest (It all originally came in the van to begin with). Plus, now that christmas is over, I would like to have my supplies for my new intended business venture. You know, that "new career path" that the fortune cookie was telling me about? lol
And, I don't think I'll be using my van to haul too much of whatever around here. I just basically need enough spare capacity to hold water jugs, gas cans and two generators. And, all the critical business equipment during extended trips [which most likely won't be happening anytime soon].
I was walking down this local road and saw a clearing in the forest. This clearing with the forest and tall trees in the backdrop set against the sun looked absolutely breathtaking. In front of this clearing, there was a bunch of trees were cut down (No doubt the trees that once inhabited this clearing) and there was a bunch of stone rubble. That was curious, all that stone rubble. It wasn't just a little bit, it was like enough to create a small concrete structure of some sort. It was about 4 inch thick. Anyway, near the area there was a lot for sale, and it apparently sold as I saw the survey stakes. Makes me curious if someone is going to be developing here. Apparently the local town has grown by "leaps and bounds" over the last decade according to the post office, so I get a strong feeling this area will be developing a lot over the next two decades. Not necessarily because it's really close to the town or anything, but because it's already been platted out and it's "close enough" AND... it's a pretty awesome forest. Development like that makes me think I can't really depend on keeping my RV in the middle of the street for... like... a couple more months or anything, lol. Definitely not a year, most definitely not 2-3.
I also noticed there were a couple of fallen trees near the edges of the clearing. It's obvious they were 'blown over', if by wind, because of the characteristic uneven breaking in the middle of the bottom half of the trunk. Yep, that's what happens when you clear out an area. The nearby trees on the edges become vulnerable to being blown over, as they are no longer protected by "The group" from the wind. I think when I make my clearing, it's not going to be large enough to really create a noticeable "wind suction" affect. Even so, I think I might notice how some of the nearby tall trees might conveniently fall down somehow.
And I /have/ to remove the topsoil, bummer.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/202996-installing-new-driveway.html
Here's a guy who didn't.
I think I'm starting to understand the smaller shops i see in places with such treacherous cutouts that connect their parking lot to the street. They didn't/couldn't pay the money to do it properly (Equipment to remove the topsoil, buying the driveway base soil/sand, adding, compacting and leveling, etc.), so they worked with it however the land was originally, even if that meant tracherous dips and bumps. Larger stores seem to have the proper resources to do it ideally.
It seems if I'm doing gravel, I can just remove the topsoil, then add a 6" layer of 3" rock, then add another 6"-12" layer of 3/4" or smaller (pea) gravel. No need to add, level and compact paving base soil/sand. Those, I still need to level/spread-out the rocks/gravel/etc. with a rake.
Edit: It appears I still need to compact the gravel and base rock.
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/build-a-gravel-driveway-5-mistakes-to-avoid
And do I really need to strip the soil down to rock? I don't think I'm going to reach rock here, lol.
UPDATE: It's now 80 degrees here and windy. I LOVE IT!
Just open up the windows and everything feels just right. I'm in the shade and this is no problem. When it reaches 96 degrees here during the summer, I'm thinking I'll have no problems weathering the afternoons out. (*Assuming my business equipment isn't inside my RV generating 500-1000 watts of heat)
This area is way more awesome than I thought it was going to be. I think seeing that gorgeous backdrop earlier has really set the stage.
Oh wow, it's warmer in Houston today than in Yuma, AZ. 79 H here versus 59H there. I guess it switches off between the two. (That is, no one spot is the 'all around champion' in terms of warm winters except perhaps for southern Florida.)
Did I forget to mention that Texas has a strong gun culture? I have a feeling I don't need to, lol, but just for the record... the gun culture here is even STRONGER than it is South Carolina. There's armories/gun-shops EVERYWHERE and there's gun shows advertised around Houston that seem to be happening at least 1-4x a month. I personally already have a gun, it's a relatively powerful air rifle, it's in storage now. I'll be retrieving it tomorrow as I vacate my storage unit. I feel like I've emptied out the van more than enough so there's plenty of room for the rest (It all originally came in the van to begin with). Plus, now that christmas is over, I would like to have my supplies for my new intended business venture. You know, that "new career path" that the fortune cookie was telling me about? lol
And, I don't think I'll be using my van to haul too much of whatever around here. I just basically need enough spare capacity to hold water jugs, gas cans and two generators. And, all the critical business equipment during extended trips [which most likely won't be happening anytime soon].
I was walking down this local road and saw a clearing in the forest. This clearing with the forest and tall trees in the backdrop set against the sun looked absolutely breathtaking. In front of this clearing, there was a bunch of trees were cut down (No doubt the trees that once inhabited this clearing) and there was a bunch of stone rubble. That was curious, all that stone rubble. It wasn't just a little bit, it was like enough to create a small concrete structure of some sort. It was about 4 inch thick. Anyway, near the area there was a lot for sale, and it apparently sold as I saw the survey stakes. Makes me curious if someone is going to be developing here. Apparently the local town has grown by "leaps and bounds" over the last decade according to the post office, so I get a strong feeling this area will be developing a lot over the next two decades. Not necessarily because it's really close to the town or anything, but because it's already been platted out and it's "close enough" AND... it's a pretty awesome forest. Development like that makes me think I can't really depend on keeping my RV in the middle of the street for... like... a couple more months or anything, lol. Definitely not a year, most definitely not 2-3.
I also noticed there were a couple of fallen trees near the edges of the clearing. It's obvious they were 'blown over', if by wind, because of the characteristic uneven breaking in the middle of the bottom half of the trunk. Yep, that's what happens when you clear out an area. The nearby trees on the edges become vulnerable to being blown over, as they are no longer protected by "The group" from the wind. I think when I make my clearing, it's not going to be large enough to really create a noticeable "wind suction" affect. Even so, I think I might notice how some of the nearby tall trees might conveniently fall down somehow.
And I /have/ to remove the topsoil, bummer.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/202996-installing-new-driveway.html
Here's a guy who didn't.
I think I'm starting to understand the smaller shops i see in places with such treacherous cutouts that connect their parking lot to the street. They didn't/couldn't pay the money to do it properly (Equipment to remove the topsoil, buying the driveway base soil/sand, adding, compacting and leveling, etc.), so they worked with it however the land was originally, even if that meant tracherous dips and bumps. Larger stores seem to have the proper resources to do it ideally.
It seems if I'm doing gravel, I can just remove the topsoil, then add a 6" layer of 3" rock, then add another 6"-12" layer of 3/4" or smaller (pea) gravel. No need to add, level and compact paving base soil/sand. Those, I still need to level/spread-out the rocks/gravel/etc. with a rake.
Edit: It appears I still need to compact the gravel and base rock.
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/build-a-gravel-driveway-5-mistakes-to-avoid
And do I really need to strip the soil down to rock? I don't think I'm going to reach rock here, lol.
UPDATE: It's now 80 degrees here and windy. I LOVE IT!
Just open up the windows and everything feels just right. I'm in the shade and this is no problem. When it reaches 96 degrees here during the summer, I'm thinking I'll have no problems weathering the afternoons out. (*Assuming my business equipment isn't inside my RV generating 500-1000 watts of heat)
This area is way more awesome than I thought it was going to be. I think seeing that gorgeous backdrop earlier has really set the stage.
marty
10 MW
People who sell stone, gravel, would be good source of information on how to build a driveway in the place where you are. Delivery in a dump truck can cost more then the stone. If you foolish like me and go get stone yourself. Ask for cubic yards, not garbage cans or bushel baskets. Wheel loader dumps into Marty's great collection of garbage cans. Two guys can lift a 1/2 full garbage can into a truck. Don't forget to bring shovels. Crushed concrete could be a option? Good to recycle.
Marty's trick to ask questions and learn from building inspectors. Take drawings of my project to a different neighboring town. Building inspectors just assume the the project is in their town. The larger neighboring town has friendly, older, knowledgeable, engineer type guys who are available inside at the office for questions all day. In smaller towns the inspectors usually are inside only in the morning. Afternoons are when they look at projects.
Good way to build a driveway correctly. Follow local codes.
How about paving stones?
http://unilock.com/
Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukkah!
Marty's trick to ask questions and learn from building inspectors. Take drawings of my project to a different neighboring town. Building inspectors just assume the the project is in their town. The larger neighboring town has friendly, older, knowledgeable, engineer type guys who are available inside at the office for questions all day. In smaller towns the inspectors usually are inside only in the morning. Afternoons are when they look at projects.
Good way to build a driveway correctly. Follow local codes.
How about paving stones?
http://unilock.com/
Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukkah!
marty
10 MW
swbluto said:DAND214 said:You need some pics, we need some pics. All text and no pics
This is a dumb question. Are you sure you are in the right plot? Did they show you it? Just wondering, if there is no markings to what is what. sure would be a bummer if you are in the wrong lot.
PICS!
Dan
Yeah, there's a survey stake as well as a line cut through the forest that marks the left side of my property. There was also a survey stake on the right side, but someone went out of their way to rip it out and throw it on the side of the road, so I only have an inkling where the right side is. Luckily, I have a 150' tape measure I picked up from the pawn shop for $9, so I can just measure it out to get a good idea of where it lands.
Anyway, I don't have my camera accessible to me at the moment. Eventually!
Might you be mixing up left and right? If I was you I would get a second opinion as to where your lot is. Surveyor who drew the survey might be helpful? Do you need a permit to build a driveway? Best to ask before doing. $30 for a permit could be money well spent.
marty said:swbluto said:DAND214 said:You need some pics, we need some pics. All text and no pics
This is a dumb question. Are you sure you are in the right plot? Did they show you it? Just wondering, if there is no markings to what is what. sure would be a bummer if you are in the wrong lot.
PICS!
Dan
Yeah, there's a survey stake as well as a line cut through the forest that marks the left side of my property. There was also a survey stake on the right side, but someone went out of their way to rip it out and throw it on the side of the road, so I only have an inkling where the right side is. Luckily, I have a 150' tape measure I picked up from the pawn shop for $9, so I can just measure it out to get a good idea of where it lands.
Anyway, I don't have my camera accessible to me at the moment. Eventually!
Might you be mixing up left and right? If I was you I would get a second opinion as to where your lot is. Surveyor who drew the survey might be helpful? Do you need a permit to build a driveway? Best to ask before doing. $30 for a permit could be money well spent.
No permits needed. It's apparently HOA property, and not county property, so it's essentially whatever I want to do with it. Even the culvert application doesn't apply to me (I called and got told this).
marty
10 MW
HOA = Homeowner Association? I have worked on Homeowner Association buildings where you have to ask permission to change a exterior paint color. Guess your Homeowner Association might be different? Curious who did you buy the land from? A person or a association?swbluto said:
smarty said:
Yes, it's a little different. Different as in DNE - DOES NOT EXIST, lol. Due to the wording of the HOA contract, it naturally dissolved back in 1999. The contract was worded such that at least 3/4ths of the current owners had to come forward to add an entry to the county's books to continue the HOA agreement and, naturally, collective apathy (Probably a lack of effective leadership) ensured that never happened. Thus, the HOA was born in 1989, and it was effectively dissolved in 1999. So, the land is effectively out of county control (Due to some agreement), and there's no HOA control. It's really just whoever owns the land makes the rules. Granted, there's utility line easements and such that overrides the owner.
These HOAs shouldn't underestimate collective apathy, especially around Houston, lol. Some lazy people here.
Oh god, that must be why I see so many shopping carts not in the shopping cart corral and just littering the parking lot. There's so many lazy people in Texas. I never saw this phenomenon back in Washington state.
The HOAs that are worded as "at least 3/4ths must come together to kill the HOA" tend to be the ones that survive around here.
The people on my street are interesting.
My immediate neighbor has a car, trailer, two small dogs, 7 chickens and keeps his property looking good. Completely fenced in.
There's a trailer on blocks just down from him, I think it's just storage. Seems like there's a long block of property that loops to the neighborhood behind this one that's used for grazing buffalo, I saw the herd over 'on this side' once. Next to them is a small trailer of some sort, the light is always on but I've never seen a vehicle there regardless of the time of the day or day of the week. I'm thinking they don't have one, concerns me a little bit (Thief risk if they're /that/ disadvantaged and live in an area that /almost/ requires a vehicle, especially to get to work.) [or maybe they're just never there? I guess they could get a ride to work or whatever.]. The people next to them is a retired couple with a couple tens of grand in assets, looks like they're doing OK.
Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what was so breathtaking about that experience yesterday. I think it's the fact it looks like you're in a bowl of some sort with a tree canopy all around you, and this opening in the forest's canopy gives you a breathtaking view of the passing clouds, like a window in the forest to the clouds. I think it's part of the reason why those "towns in a bowl(valley)" seem to be so popular.
The amount of random gunfire I'm hearing in this neighborhood worries me a little. Seems like it's a little /too/ common. I've distinctly identified at least 3 different guns going off over the last 2 days.
Vacated my storage unit, so now my van is full. I put the stuff I see myself needing soon towards the back (The new business venture.).
Bananas for a week costs about $7. (About 36 bananas)
Tomato paste for a week costs about $6.16.
The latest coconut I opened was sour inside. It was spoiled. Saw black curds in there, so I threw it away. Since these aren't really 'free' to me, I might just stop buying them.
Rice for a week is ... estimating ... $2.
Fish for a week is $4.
Water for a week is $1.75.
Pickles for a week is $2.
Green veggies for a week is $7.
So, estimated weekly foodbill is $30. I could trim back on the bananas.
In basic necessity mode, the foodbill /could/ be trimmed back to rice/grains/etc. and fish. So $6 weekly. I wouldn't want to give up tomatos, though. So $13 weekly.
Now that I've removed one more reason to travel over 10 miles (No more storage unit to go fetch things from), and most goods can be purchased within 13 miles, that should reduce the gas bill. And, I don't see an immediate need for more department store products, and any products I need I can lump up with my weekly grocery visit (An extra 6 miles ontop).
[I noticed traveling to the opposite side of houston and back used up 3/4th of a tank of gas, 12 gallons.]
So esimated minimum monthly distance is
25*4(groceries)+100(incidentals) = 200 miles. 200miles/20mpg * $2.50/gal + $25 monthly.
Estimated food+gas monthly is about $150. It's too bad I don't have vast cash reserves at the moment, I'd feel a bit easier pulling this off if I did. Anyway, I think I'm going to work on the property during the morning (or all day if weather permits),
On the plus side, I do have about 10K in assets. So I have 'wiggle room' if cash gets desperately low, and I should have enough foresight to see that in advance. Anyway, on the business side, there's quite a few things i could be doing in the near-term to increase income. I'm hoping my neighbor is practicing with his new pistol for self-defense only. I don't like thinking I'm surrounded by trigger-happy could-be murderers in the event of an economic downturn or some such. I could also apply for local work, not necessarily a bad idea (It's a part of why I moved here, it's a viable backup option.), but I'd like to give my ventures a chance.
Anyway, woke up this morning and getting up and moving around, it seemed like I was on the verge of shortness of breath. I remember that morning so well, waking up feeling so anxious, so I was trying to figure out how to reduce this 'morning anxiety', so I was reading online "Reduce your morning anxiety by exercising', so I walked for 30 minutes at 12% incline, took a nap about an hour later, when I woke up... could barely breath, like a hiccup of some sort, except it wasn't. My mom, being a nurse, recognized it as a classic "shortness of breath" and I already recorded impaired left ventricular function on my mini ECG earlier that morning, and she started kind of panicking. Because, she's a nurse and recognizes these things when THEY ARE REAL. That lasted for about a good hour. I didn't do anything about it. Doctors don't do anythig about it, they just tell me to call 911 if it gets real bad. Like, no shit sherlock, what are you for, exactly? I assumed he/she was there for preventative/curative reasons, and he was obviously not doing either. After that happened, it seemed like I started noticing irregular heartbeats on my ECG, whereas I've never had irregular heartbeats before, but I didn't act too much on it... I did suspect heart injury induced atrial fibrillation... but perhaps I'm just assuming the worst and it's really just a device artefact I didn't notice before. And I haven't really recorded anything over the last month or so. Been busy with 'moving'/'setting up'. I have noticed possible cardiac events here and there, but obviously nothing show-stopping.
This morning... wow, this morning. I didn't know what it was, exactly, 'that feeling'. I thought perhaps I was 'feeling lazy', because I really didn't feel like vacating the storage unit and everything else I had to... but I later recognized it while walking around HEB. It was a feeling of "I want to give up", a feeling of despair. Geez, never got the feeling back home or /ever/, which is partially why it was hard to recognize. Maybe it had something to do with the recent morning events, like this morning. The book World War Z covers that topic, how the amount of 'sudden deaths' jumps up as a result of the zombie apocalypse, and it's really just people "giving up" leading to their sudden deaths, and he notes it's always existed just never before medically recognized as a distinct phenomenon before the zombie apocalypse. Other research has actually noticed this, the correlation between 'helplessness' and cardiac events, so it's not actually completely unknown to the medical community like the author presumes; just most doctors are kind of unaware of all the medical research out there.
And, man, this RV feels like I'm sitting in a boiling tin can. I think I need some fans. Opening the windows doesn't seem to do much. I know opening the door would, but the screen is busted and I don't know how it was originally designed (Parts are obviously missing), and the door handle goes through the screen somehow... so it's been 'repaired'(With ducttape) but the repairs don't last long, lol.
Bananas for a week costs about $7. (About 36 bananas)
Tomato paste for a week costs about $6.16.
The latest coconut I opened was sour inside. It was spoiled. Saw black curds in there, so I threw it away. Since these aren't really 'free' to me, I might just stop buying them.
Rice for a week is ... estimating ... $2.
Fish for a week is $4.
Water for a week is $1.75.
Pickles for a week is $2.
Green veggies for a week is $7.
So, estimated weekly foodbill is $30. I could trim back on the bananas.
In basic necessity mode, the foodbill /could/ be trimmed back to rice/grains/etc. and fish. So $6 weekly. I wouldn't want to give up tomatos, though. So $13 weekly.
Now that I've removed one more reason to travel over 10 miles (No more storage unit to go fetch things from), and most goods can be purchased within 13 miles, that should reduce the gas bill. And, I don't see an immediate need for more department store products, and any products I need I can lump up with my weekly grocery visit (An extra 6 miles ontop).
[I noticed traveling to the opposite side of houston and back used up 3/4th of a tank of gas, 12 gallons.]
So esimated minimum monthly distance is
25*4(groceries)+100(incidentals) = 200 miles. 200miles/20mpg * $2.50/gal + $25 monthly.
Estimated food+gas monthly is about $150. It's too bad I don't have vast cash reserves at the moment, I'd feel a bit easier pulling this off if I did. Anyway, I think I'm going to work on the property during the morning (or all day if weather permits),
On the plus side, I do have about 10K in assets. So I have 'wiggle room' if cash gets desperately low, and I should have enough foresight to see that in advance. Anyway, on the business side, there's quite a few things i could be doing in the near-term to increase income. I'm hoping my neighbor is practicing with his new pistol for self-defense only. I don't like thinking I'm surrounded by trigger-happy could-be murderers in the event of an economic downturn or some such. I could also apply for local work, not necessarily a bad idea (It's a part of why I moved here, it's a viable backup option.), but I'd like to give my ventures a chance.
Anyway, woke up this morning and getting up and moving around, it seemed like I was on the verge of shortness of breath. I remember that morning so well, waking up feeling so anxious, so I was trying to figure out how to reduce this 'morning anxiety', so I was reading online "Reduce your morning anxiety by exercising', so I walked for 30 minutes at 12% incline, took a nap about an hour later, when I woke up... could barely breath, like a hiccup of some sort, except it wasn't. My mom, being a nurse, recognized it as a classic "shortness of breath" and I already recorded impaired left ventricular function on my mini ECG earlier that morning, and she started kind of panicking. Because, she's a nurse and recognizes these things when THEY ARE REAL. That lasted for about a good hour. I didn't do anything about it. Doctors don't do anythig about it, they just tell me to call 911 if it gets real bad. Like, no shit sherlock, what are you for, exactly? I assumed he/she was there for preventative/curative reasons, and he was obviously not doing either. After that happened, it seemed like I started noticing irregular heartbeats on my ECG, whereas I've never had irregular heartbeats before, but I didn't act too much on it... I did suspect heart injury induced atrial fibrillation... but perhaps I'm just assuming the worst and it's really just a device artefact I didn't notice before. And I haven't really recorded anything over the last month or so. Been busy with 'moving'/'setting up'. I have noticed possible cardiac events here and there, but obviously nothing show-stopping.
This morning... wow, this morning. I didn't know what it was, exactly, 'that feeling'. I thought perhaps I was 'feeling lazy', because I really didn't feel like vacating the storage unit and everything else I had to... but I later recognized it while walking around HEB. It was a feeling of "I want to give up", a feeling of despair. Geez, never got the feeling back home or /ever/, which is partially why it was hard to recognize. Maybe it had something to do with the recent morning events, like this morning. The book World War Z covers that topic, how the amount of 'sudden deaths' jumps up as a result of the zombie apocalypse, and it's really just people "giving up" leading to their sudden deaths, and he notes it's always existed just never before medically recognized as a distinct phenomenon before the zombie apocalypse. Other research has actually noticed this, the correlation between 'helplessness' and cardiac events, so it's not actually completely unknown to the medical community like the author presumes; just most doctors are kind of unaware of all the medical research out there.
And, man, this RV feels like I'm sitting in a boiling tin can. I think I need some fans. Opening the windows doesn't seem to do much. I know opening the door would, but the screen is busted and I don't know how it was originally designed (Parts are obviously missing), and the door handle goes through the screen somehow... so it's been 'repaired'(With ducttape) but the repairs don't last long, lol.
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