Buying forest land, implementing solar

[swbluto]

Got a model drawn to scale.

The garden looks like it'll actually extend from 60-135', from front to back. So 75'x75' = 5625 sq. ft.

The back 20 feet of the garden allotted to trees (Assuming 10 foot center to center spacing), the left side a bunch of bushes, the right side next to the trees being bushes, and the front will be the garden. The actual vegetable/dirt-patch (Excluding the fruit/nut trees and the bushes) will be about 55'x70' or 3850 sq. ft.; The house/turn-around is designed to be private, the garden itself 'mostly private'. (One might be able to see a little bit of the garden from the entrance of the driveway with the 20' of cover. I could thicken it to 30', but that'd reduce the size of the vegetable/dirt-patch which is undesirable at its current size.)

Have a second 'final design'. Looks a bit nicer / elegantly designed (it "flows"/is aligned), and has easy 'expansion possibilities', both in the back row and in the front, depending on the sacrifices one wants to make/accept. I'm thinking one could put in a fountain in the turn around(smaller footprint) and it should be easy placing statues at the entrance (More practical with a permanent dwelling in place). It also looks entirely wooded from the front door (Regardless of what the neighbors do, the area looks completely wooded all around in the 'main area'.), which is nice. One of the 'frontward' expansion possibilities means removing the treecover separating the main area from 'the garden', which would expose a view of the garden from 'the main area'. May or may not be desirable. Probably would look nicer if fruit/nut trees partially blocked the view of the gardens from the main area.

As for solar, the work building will likely have to be out in the field where the sun is, unless I figure something else out.

My bigger issue at the moment is how Texas seems to block just about every imported/shipped fruit/nut tree in existence. (I guess I'll be forced to buy some commercial Texas varieties from /someone/. I'm guessing there's more than a few options around Houston ; even fast-growing-trees.com appears to have a nursery location in Houston, if only they let me know where it was exactly.)

For being a "pro business freedom" state, they certainly don't seem to be when it comes to trees.

 

[swbluto]

I was seeing a recent article on Hurricane Matthew and I saw how it was (probably) going to hit Charleston, and I became so jelly. I envied my former classmates thinking they were going to experience this hurricane and I wasn't.

Then... after taking a nap... I just remembered... the last time I talked to my friend was a year ago in October 2015, and he was in the middle of prototype. He would've been finished and shipped out by April-May 2016, so my former classmates also wouldn't have been experiencing this hurricane (Unless they had already experienced it aboard an aircraft carrier in the ocean or something - Or they transitioned to DTP and they've miraculously stuck around for 6+ months.). So, nope, I'm no longer envious of my former classmates. However, I'm hypothetically envious of the current students, just that I don't have meaningful envy of them due to a lack of emotional bonding since they weren't my classmates.

I guess I can look to the bright side; I'll be in a good location for hurricane hunting (I can easily travel to experience hurricanes from New Orleans to Corpus Christi). And, flights to the east coast aren't that expensive from Houston... but, it would be a 'next day' flight at the latest... which does tend to be double/triple the cost... so, nevermind. Just a hypothetical possibility.

I suppose New Orleans to Corpus Christi is a pretty good range, I'd imagine a severe hurricane about every 3-4 years in that area.

 

[swbluto]

I googled "80s music is the best music", and I found someone claim that new wave was definitely among the creme de la creme. I googled "New wave music" and, sure enough, googled provided me a curated playlist of sorts at the top. Found an interesting one, interesting because there was une femme francaise in the video who parlez la francais. She was also a sensual dancer, like many of those dancers you see... in... final fantasy games, lol.

[youtube]vMPR6Ujop4k[/youtube]

The lyrics around an "english summer" intrigued me, so I checked the lyrics.

One man on a lonely platform
One case sitting by his side
Two eyes staring cold and silent
Show fear as he turns to hide
Aaah, we fade to grey (fade to grey)
Aaah, we fade to grey (fade to grey)
Un homme dans une gare isolée
Une valise a ses cotés
Des yeux fixes et froids
Montre de la peur lorsqu'il
Se tourne pour se cacher
Aaah, we fade to grey (fade to grey)
Aaah, we fade to grey (fade to grey)
Sent la pluie comme un été Anglais
Entends les notes d'une chanson lointaine
Sortant de derriere d'un poster
Espérant que la vie ne fut aussi longue
Aaah, we fade to grey (fade to grey)
Aaah, we fade to grey (fade to grey)
Feel the rain like an English summer
Hear the notes from a distant song
Stepping out from a back shop poster
Wishing life wouldn't be so long

Oh, poor lad, he's a depressed guy. Kind of ironic the part "Wishing life wouldn't be so long", since depression ups your risk of heart attack by 4x - a higher multipler than smoking (2x) and diabetes (2x) - the highest multiplier I've ever seen was Borderline Personality Disorder (The "Nobody loves me"/"Hopeless" personality disorder)(13x). I guess, in a way, these types tend to get their wish (Whether, in the end, they find out they /really/ wanted it or not.)

It's interesting that 'the emotions' seem to far more strongly influence heart attack risks more than chemical/sugar insults. (At least based on the research)

Kind of romantic in a way. Except not, when it's actually happening to you.

Anyway, I never found out an official 'closing date' (She made a "funding date", which is close enough I guess), but I guess it's all said and done when I get the deed in hand. I'm thinking Oct 28th is probably the more ideal time to set off. And, I need to finalize and make my "major equipment purchase" within 4 days. Getting a bit excited. I liked this article on land clearing (Okay, didn't exactly have the 'recommended set of handtools' list I was looking for, but insightful nonetheless into what the entire process entails.).

http://www.homestead.org/NeilShelton/LandClearing/ClearingLand.htm

Liked this part.

Practically speaking, there’s not a great deal you can do for such land that doesn’t involve hours upon costly hours of heavy equipment work, or back-breaking toil for perhaps the rest of your life unless you’re young and very energetic, and maybe even then.

"Young and very energetic", oh... THAT'S ME!!! lol.

Some nuke school people liked to claim I was 'old', but I had far more physical vigor and enthusiasm than those pansies (On average. You did have 'that muscular guy' and 'that fast short dude', but they were not the norm.). I'm just hoping my body can keep up.

And, I did find an exciting new market to enter and I'm entering it, made the major equipment purchases today.

 

[Dauntless]

Health issues create the problem your emotions set the dominoes falling. I had an allergic reaction recently which touched off a few hacking fits that would have killed me if my heat was vulnerable. I'm sure the emotional problems are just the trigger, not the cause.

So we already know the story of the guy that cant get their attention, but what about us guys that all the women just HAVE to talk to but. . . ?

I mean, you start wanting to be LESS interesting.

 

[marty]

handtools

I have been having some real lopper issues. Fiskars is going to send me new loopers. I need to choose which loopers I like. Long sad looper story. I am now using the ones shown in the picture above. PowerGear2™ Lopper (32") Lifetime Warranty.

Long sad looper story has ended. Fiskars sent me new loopers. [PowerGear2™ Lopper (32")] Been using them. They work, but the old one that broke was better. Not real happy with the gear design. Need big handle motion for small cutter movement. Read Amazon reviews for a better description of my complaint.

 

[swbluto]

Oh, poor lad, he's a depressed guy. Kind of ironic the part "Wishing life wouldn't be so long", since depression ups your risk of heart attack by 4x - a higher multipler than smoking (2x) and diabetes (2x) - the highest multiplier I've ever seen was Borderline Personality Disorder (The "Nobody loves me"/"Hopeless" personality disorder)(13x). I guess, in a way, these types tend to get their wish (Whether, in the end, they find out they /really/ wanted it or not.)

It's interesting that 'the emotions' seem to far more strongly influence heart attack risks more than chemical/sugar insults. (At least based on the research)

I actually started wondering what happened to this guy in the music video, and found...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visage_(band)

The band's fifth and final album, Demons to Diamonds, was released in 2015, nine months after Strange had died following a heart attack.

Wow, just as the statistics portended. Age 55. If he was actually 'flinging it' with that girl, I'd say he had a good life.

 

[Dauntless]

Ah, so you are believing that the girls can bring happiness. Is that what this desperate death watch is all about? Trying to convince yourself it'll all be over soon? What if it turns out Hell is full of women? I mean, wouldn't that make sense? Perhaps If I regale you with a tale of how having the women after you ain't all it's cracked up to be (Or ain't anything it's cracked up to be) you can get over it and count your blessings.

So I was in the 7th grade. Catholic school. Almost summer, hold out just another maybe two weeks and I'll have dodged the bullet. here. So the nun sends several girls to the front of the class to sing the particular song in the socalled music class. I remember it well , 'Red River Valley.' Gawd, why did the nun have to have HER up there. (Some resemblance to that pic from my last post.) So she's singing the song while I'm losing the battle. Seems I picked out the biggest goodie two shoes of the class to develop my first crush on. (Imagine me at that age, eh?)

All hope of ten weeks to recover was dashed. All summer, wondering what she's doing, WHO she might be doing it with. Seeing her at church a few times. Arrgh. Sometimes I'd ride past her house and she'd be doing yard work out front. She'd call 'Hi Doug' and run to the curb waving. Amazing I never hit any parked cars. So I'm thinking I should go to her house and talk to her, get a head start on fall when I was picturing some very intense competition. I think there was like 35 girls and 16 guys who would all be after the same one, right?

Oh, and this went well. Or dare I say beyond my wildest imagination? She was doing yard work and came running over so excited. How were you hoping the girl would behave back then? So this is supposed to be perfect and all my dreams are coming true, just 2 days before 8th grade started.

And when I see her the first day I walk over to talk to her. I can still feel that glower burning into me. What happened? I wanted to ask her if maybe she had a twin sister that didn't come to school with us, she just stayed home and did yardwork. Bad enough her best friend was trying to unfriend her and used this to really torment her, but dang, why did all the guys have to be so sympathetic? I think I'd rather they had just been loudmouths. And of course the whole mean girl contingent had to take the opportunity acting like they were chasing after me. Years later the boys and the better behaved girls remembered it all wrong, they thought I really did have half the girls in class after me.

The worst was the one crazy girl who'd been pulled out of class and spent several years at a school for the kids that just can't learn to behave themselves. (Or as I liked to say, a school for the painfully screwed up.) So when she'd returned in the 7th grade, (Much to the disappointment of the entire class) that teacher had taught my older brothers and sisters and HATED my family, so she felt free to stick that nut behind me. Talk about needing to watch my back. She bored a hole in the seatback and started poking me with a pencil. When I yelled at her I wasn't ready for double entendres yet when she said "You're gonna go poking at me real soon and you won't here me complaining." It was going to be a while before I figured out that one. This wasn't about me personally, I was just the boy sitting in front of her when SOMEONE was going to be the target. But she's playing bigshot for the other girls when she walks past my desk and moons me, etc. The teacher, retiring at the end of the year asks what she thought the boys would think if she was doing what this girl was doing, to the response "You're old and dried up, they wouldn't like it." And this was the best looking girl in the class, though none of the boys would go near her if they could avoid it. I'd be sitting there and she'd suddenly lean in and kiss my ear or something, followed by a decided underreaction by the teacher to her acting out. I mean, where's all the catholic school strictness when I need it?

Of course as all this behavior becomes more and more intense, (And less PG 13 right there in the classroom) the actual object of my affections is just glowering harder and harder. And while the psycho obviously started off doing it as a joke, I think the sheer excitement of telling the nuns and lay teachers to go to hell when they occasionally DID say something and the basquing in the, oh, envy I guess of the girls who wished they had the guts overwhelmed her; she starts trying to get me to go off with her after school, etc. Like that was going to happen. The other girl had just one other guy that I know of trying to make inroads with her, which she ignored altogether. She was too busy making a big deal about the psychos' behavior toward me. Hey, she'd had the opportunity to get me started in the right direction. . . .

SO. Graduation means I'm free of them both, right? Guess who became the baby sitter that summer for the divorced woman next door for her several nights a week out. So the nut would walk the 5 blocks maybe to come over to my house and tell me "I'll have the kids in bed about 9, you can come over then." (No I can't.) This was the ritual for two years. The grade school kids next door would tell me that she'd talk on and on about me. But they'd agree she was insane and I was right to stay away from her. Meanwhile there was something about the long blonde hair, the shorts, the tied off top; (Pretty much every time she went to babysit.) my friend developed a crush on her. If he was there when she came over to talk to me he'd be trying to talk to her, which she basically humored him on to stick around me. I'd walk away to let them be alone and she'd follow me. He never seemed to get it, especially when she'd be talking about me coming over and he'd start about HE could come over and she was discouraging THAT.

She at least finally vanished when she outgrew babysitting. Senior year I was finally out of catholic schools and in the public school with the subject of my grade school crush, who had become your basic cheerleader 'Girl most likely to.' As in she went out with half the guys in school. The first time I encountered her she suddenly took off running to over to there, where there wasn't so much anything waiting for her besides some distance from me. After so much avoiding me suddenly we were in the same class the second semester, so she gave in and started acting normal toward me.

I should have quit while I was ahead and not let her start talking to me. Though I admit I still had ideas. She signed this phony number in my annual that obviously wasn't from around town. Then she made a mascot of the guy across the street from me, who spent years as all mascots do: Telling himself that he's not just a friend, he's the boyfriend in waiting. Of course she ignored me whenever she turns up in the neighborhood. I could go on but you should get the idea by now.

So think of just how bad it could have gotten if I'd been, er, 'Flinging it' with either one. The psycho I HOPE requires no explanation of the potential hazards. Just because she's so good looking.

Meanwhile, what if I got all stupid and was carrying on that I was in love with the girl from the crush and she really was my gf while I was off out of town at that evil catholic high school? What about when I find out, already in the depths of despair in that horrible place, l find out she has two new boyfriends every week? Heavens, what if she had suddenly told me I was just a mascot? You see how you're better off? Do you see?

So I'll bet you're already experiencing new found health just reading this and realizing all that you've been spared. I think if I was moving I wouldn't want to take much of this with me either. Dang, I wish I could just have my next house built for me.

 

[swbluto]

Cool story, bro. I have my share of experiences with crazy catholic school girls, kind of ironic I 'found them' while never having been in catholic school myself. (And, by them, I really mean 'her'. But the site we found each other is gone, has been gone, and so has our communication. Part of a distant past. I do know she 'owns a house' in Chicago (She told me). I... could... never live in Chicago. Awful city IMO. I consider 'location' to be much more valuable than the housing one lives in, and I have one of the best locations in America in my humble opinion. I could be saying that simply because I've been too exposed to living in shared tiny college/military dorms, so pretty much anything else is a substantial 'upgrade'.)

Anyway, I did find that finding hand tools for 'the task at hand', while being difficult using regular google searches, was exceptionally easy using google image searches.

BUSHES: https://www.google.com/search?q=hand+tools+for+clearing+bushes&biw=1112&bih=624&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwip4JzW1tTPAhVLwGMKHeEiCAkQ_AUIBigB

BRUSH: https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&q=hand+tools+for+clearing+brush&oq=hand+tools+for+clearin&gs_l=img.3.0.0.2920.9057.0.9452.22.14.0.8.8.0.149.1093.12j2.14.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.22.1106...0i7i30k1j0i30k1j0i24k1.QcpmaeCoFtU

FOREST: https://www.google.com/search?q=hand+tools+for+forest+clearing&biw=1112&bih=624&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIk4HF1tTPAhVU4mMKHasVANUQ_AUICCgB

I need to fully compile my list before submitting my order (Will do so from these searches). I think I might hold off on ordering the solar panels until I arrive there, since I don't know how long it'll take to arrive here, I won't need them for some time, and they're kind of bulky to transport.

Anyway, I thought about another advantage of my design. Since the work building is only accessible by going by my house/property (And the work building and solar panels themselves aren't visible from the road) and going through the forest path into the fields, no one will ever know I own solar panels and getting access to them will be risky business to would be thieves. It'll also be easy, with the multiple chokepoints, to detect thieves in my midst.

Came up with this list from the above searches:

Brush axe (long and handheld)
weed whip
Pole saw
Felling axe (larger trees)
Pulaski axe (mattock/axe all in one)] (used for cutting down smaller trees, removing brush, chopping root systems and chopping wood into logs and splitting them)
24" Machete (Used with 'gancho'/hook, made in the field from a branch)
Loppers & Hand Pruners
Bow Saw (Creating logs)
Brush saw/Folding saw/Pruning saw (Thin curved saw)
Shovel
Rock bar/Long pry bar
Come Along (Hand winch device)
Wheel barrow
Bow Rake
Leaf rake

-------------------
MISC
-------------------
Sledge Hammer
McCleod fire rake tool (Clearing trails of rocks/etc.)
Hard Hat
Eye protection
Gloves

---------------------
Tools to be used with the truck
---------------------

Chain with hook (50' chain or greater) [Also used with the Come Along]
Brush Grubber

 

[swbluto]

Made the first stage of the order - The 'portable tools/devices'(Not wheelbarrows or 250w solar panels, lol), total came to $2200. When shopping for the Fiskar Loppers, and doing last minute comprehensive price comparisons with Home Depot, I noticed that Home Depot had the "Quantum Loppers" and was intrigued about the difference between that and the PowerGear2 I saw on Amazon. Search amazon, and found the "Quantum loppers". The top reviewers were all like, "These things are functionally identical to these old ones I've had forever. The only difference is they look more stylish.".

Yeah, well, I have a best kept secret for shopping on amazon. Well, a couple, but one of them aptly applies here.

For comparison shopping products with nearly identical overall scores (The 4.2-4.7 range or whatever - 4.5 stars), I look at the sum of the percentages of the bottom 2 ratings and use that for comparison. 1 or 2 star ratings are almost always "This piece of junk broke!" or "Didn't last more than a day!" or some such, so this gives a good idea into the overall quality/quality-control of a product, which I care a lot about since I don't really like waiting another 2 weeks for a replacement, especially something time critical like this.

Well, the "Quantum loppers" had a 1+2 sum of 0%, while the PowerGear2 had a 1+2 sum of 7%. Looking into the powerGear2, they complained of "junk metal that broke", exactly what wasn't on the quantum loppers, it being advertised as the "Premium European Steel", and further confirmed by the fact there was no one complaining of broken Quantum Loppers. So, the 'top reviewers' in my opinion, were completely dead wrong to assume the cutters were identical quality wise. Anyway, this is especially critical for me because I'm not just taking care of a few branches around the house (What most people using the standard fiskar loppers might be doing), I'm taking care OF AN ENTIRE FOREST. With the amount of work that entails, quality tools/metal matters! I didn't mind paying an extra $10 to (help ensure) it's not going to break for the extensive work ahead.

The actual tools (Not including the electronics+food+beekeeper-suit) was about $700. I don't consider buying these handtools 'false economy' compared with renting a front loader, because most of them I would've needed anyways. There's probably $100 in tools I wouldn't have purchased if I had rented a front-loader or excavator or some such.

 

[Adverse Effects]

hehehe you just need to make a lawn mower like i made but dont put a blade guard on it

my one can cut a 3" trunk off and not really know its there

[youtube]rEsIP9WaSo0[/youtube]

 

[swbluto]

I wish this job was entirely weeds. I'd have a fun day with a scythe! I'll show you guys what I'm dealing with when I get there; I'm guessing it might be a little worse than some might be imagining.

Anyway, just confirmed securing the ability to buy gas. I really don't want payment hiccups in buying gas.

With the equipment I've purchased so far and securing the ability to buy gas (And having enough cash to buy an RV), it looks like this is going to happen. Just need to figure out a charging solution for lead acid batteries. Getting dedicated 12v ~500w battery chargers looks a weebit expensive, seems like I could probably adapt the (12V 40A) 500w power supplies somehow (Just need to effectively limit the current so OC isn't tripped. Thinking a 160W .1 ohm power resistor array could probably pull it off, assuming 14V output. I should do more exact calcs based on the actual float voltage.)



Assuming 100-109 degrees (Houston), it looks like somewhere between 13V and 13.3V for the power supply output would be ideal. I'd probably opt for 13.1V. During the winter (60-70 degrees December-February), it looks like 13.5V would be ideal.

I'm assuming the lowest operating voltage output on the battery of 10V for my calculations. Hopefully, with proper maintenance of the batteries, it'll never get that low.

 

[swbluto]

Well... Putin is telling the elites to bring back the children... seems like he's been threatening war if Clinton wins since this July, looking at the internet.

Let's see, if I was in a war with Russia, I wouldn't want to be where the majority of the oil is refined, especially the refineries that supply the East coast. So, I probably wouldn't choose to live near Houston nor Corpus Christy.

Well, I guess my location is not incredibly bad. Houston proper would certainly be worse, considering the refineries are right along the Bayou going through downtown. If that day ever comes, it might get a little toasty in my neck of the woods, but nothing a properly designed bunker with adequate ventilation and sufficient supplies can't help mitigate. :lol:

 

[swbluto]

Oh man, forgot the tree wedges! lol.

Edit: Oh, I guess I don't need them.

http://diytimberframe.com/how-to-cut-down-a-tree-2/

With an axe we have to cut big wedge shape out of the tree. There isn’t room for wedges so you have less control to fall the tree against it’s natural lean. With an axe, work with the lean of the tree.

I guess it's going to be the Come Along and Chain that I'll use for directing the fall.

 

[swbluto]

The last 12 days of my stay in this house are going to include close relatives and neighbors living with us, with absolutely no breaks up until the day I leave. (The last 10 days will be the neighbors)

I could interpret this in multiple ways:

1) They're trying to kill me before my plan comes to fruition.
2) It's going to make leaving seem that much sweeter. (Considering the extensive work ahead, additional motivation can only help.)
3) It's the last time I'm going to see them for (possibly) the rest of my life, so make the best of it.

I guess it's best to assume 3), though my inner voice is telling me 1). [The trend-lines seem to be pointing in that direction.]

Should be getting much of my equipment this week. Still need to design a power supply + power resistor charge network for the batteries and order the equipment. I should do that, as well as look over my designs to see what I could do to accommodate a second RV. [My parents are going YIPPEE, now we'll have one of the best free snowbird locations around.]

I also want to look over the performance characteristics of the power supply+resistor-charge-network just to make sure it's performing to expectations. Ideally, I'd want a Constant-Current device (Upto the CV), which a series resistor would decidedly not make it.I would ideally let the power supplies supply much of the power demanded by the inverter, and not the batteries, which it wouldn't do when the battery is near full charged, as the series resistor is designed for the lowest battery voltage expected.

Anyway, can't wait until I get my "Brush axe" (Ditch bank blade) this Tuesday. That looks like it's going to be some bad ass fun swinging that around.

 

[Dauntless]

1) They're trying to kill me before my plan comes to fruition.
2) It's going to make leaving seem that much sweeter. (Considering the extensive work ahead, additional motivation can only help.)
3) It's the last time I'm going to see them for (possibly) the rest of my life, so make the best of it.

I guess it's best to assume 3), though my inner voice is telling me 1). [The trend-lines seem to be pointing in that direction.]

You can safely assume all of the above. I grew up dreaming of getting away from the junkies. There's the quaint community of Whittier not so far away but---FAR ENOUGH! Before I can finish high school my father tells me he's terminally ill, so I wouldn't be getting away as quick as I'd hoped. But when he was gone ma moved away, leaving me with older brothers and sisters to raise. Me not old enough to drink yet.

I kicked a brother out but he wouldn't stay away and even kept things at my place as well as regularly stealing. Paid $1,000 for a sister to get her own place with her kids but she turned around and remarried and redivorced real quick and came back. Another brother was determined to deal drugs out of my place, another sister who didn't even live with me came and built some strange pot growing structure and raged when I destroyed it. The one sane brother was moving away and was going to stay a bit before he went but decided to get going ahead of schedule, hard to guess why.

You ARE going to have room for all to come live with you, right?

 

[swbluto]

1) They're trying to kill me before my plan comes to fruition.
2) It's going to make leaving seem that much sweeter. (Considering the extensive work ahead, additional motivation can only help.)
3) It's the last time I'm going to see them for (possibly) the rest of my life, so make the best of it.

I guess it's best to assume 3), though my inner voice is telling me 1). [The trend-lines seem to be pointing in that direction.]

You can safely assume all of the above. I grew up dreaming of getting away from the junkies. There's the quaint community of Whittier not so far away but---FAR ENOUGH! Before I can finish high school my father tells me he's terminally ill, so I wouldn't be getting away as quick as I'd hoped. But when he was gone ma moved away, leaving me with older brothers and sisters to raise. Me not old enough to drink yet.

I kicked a brother out but he wouldn't stay away and even kept things at my place as well as regularly stealing. Paid $1,000 for a sister to get her own place with her kids but she turned around and remarried and redivorced real quick and came back. Another brother was determined to deal drugs out of my place, another sister who didn't even live with me came and built some strange pot growing structure and raged when I destroyed it. The one sane brother was moving away and was going to stay a bit before he went but decided to get going ahead of schedule, hard to guess why.

You ARE going to have room for all to come live with you, right?

Lol. I would love to just purchase land for the sole purpose of a "free place to stay" to whoever wants it. But, I need to make more money for that to happen, lol. (And, gosh, I can just imagine the levels of crime in that kind of area. Need to make sure it's nowhere near where I live, lol.) And, obviously, there'd be issues with almost every county out there, and even possibly the county I'm in (Found out there's 'building restrictions' according to my survey, probably should check those out.), especially if it was a crime hotspot. I'd make sure the owner of the property was some anonymous corporation with my name nowhere on it, lol.

Anyway, I thought about water storage for collecting the rainwater. And, I thought, hey, I'll collect rainwater to fill my swimming pool. And then I thought, wait, wouldn't that be a great way to store rainwater? In a swimming pool? lol. (For reference, the 1000+ gallon water storage containers are 50cents/gallon (1000gallon=$500), but a 16,000 gallon 24ft. circular pool is $800.)

Seems like it'd be kind of cool to swim in rainwater while also using the water for my plants. Obviously, I'd have to treat the water to keep it sanitary. I'm hoping something that'd be compatible with watering plants (Chlorine free pool, should google it.)

Now, for the winter, I'll have to figure out how to keep the water warm. I'm thinking I might be able to get away with keeping it in a sunny area and putting some kind of solar absorptive material inside (or paint it with a solar absorptive color/material). Putting it in a sunny area though... that's some precious sunlight the plants could use...

Sacrifices, sacrifices.

Update: Okay, one plausible method is to use a chlorinated system. In conjunction with UV irradiation, chlorine levels can be lowered to more tolerable levels. There'd be a need for a separate container for watering the plants, and the chlorinated water would have to sit it in for at least a couple of days before use (Chlorine breaks down), and then once ph and chlorine levels are 'normal', it's ready to water the plants.

I guess I could also keep the 'watering barrels' and the 'pool' separate (I'll need at least one barrel for watering, anyway), and only draw on the pool when the watering barrel(s) go[es] empty.

Drinking water would be distilled. I was thinking about remineralizing the water but... it seems like all the minerals I'm seeing can be easily obtained from food. In fact, it would seem that the vast majority of minerals one should obtain would be almost all obtained from food.

I can't really figure out a way to use salt, since I'd imagine you might need to remove the salt. Salting the fields was a popular tactic to inhibit crop growth back in the Roman days. Perhaps a "low salt system" wouldn't be a problem? Distilling the water just seems like a ridiculous waste of resources.

Update: I figured out with a UV system, I could also use a lower concentration of salt. And, when thinking of salt, I thought if you mixed a little magnesium,potassium and... (I think that's it? Maybe a little calcium and iron.]... you could directly water the plants with it. It's rather obvious if you just kept watering with slightly salt water, the salt would just accumulate in the ground and the soil would become minerally unbalanced, but if you added minerals to it to balance out the salt (Especially its antagonist, potassium), it seems like you wouldn't necessarily make the soil unbalanced. It almost seems like, in fact, you'd be essentially fertilizing the soil.

I'm not sure the best way to add these minerals back in. Buying magnesium and potassium citrate seems like an unnecessary expense, but just mixing soil in the water doesn't really seem to achieve the desired aims, since the soil already has the natural balance of sodium in it. Might just have to buy the citrates...

C6H6MgO7

Look at that formula, doesn't that just look plant friendly? (Almost looks like it has the building blocks for sugar/cellulose/plant-material.)

(I guess another way is to buy magnesium/potassium fertilizer, and add that to water.)

 

[Dauntless]

Dang, over 24 hours with no ailments, no talk of sticking 40 square yards in a 10 square yard space, no nothing. You don't suppose he spent the day getting ready SERIOUSLY, do you?

 

[swbluto]

You're right, I was seriously getting ready! I just received my "Ditch Bank Blade" and the Pulaski Axe and I've been having fun perfecting my swing. That ditch bank blade is some serious bad assery, like I thought it would.

I'm trying to figure out how to swing it quickly enough for the more flexible thinner stuff. I'm seeing room for a machete, but I'll see how long I can go without one.

And, I've been having some serious symptoms today, more serious than in the past (Luckily, it's still transient in nature, for the most part). But, I've found out what I probably need to do to try to minimize them, so that's a big plus. In the mean time, I'm hoping this aspirin can help prevent/minimize any soon-to-be incidents from my latest meal mistake that I promise I will never make in the future. (It's a good thing I've been making them, however: It makes it rather obvious what I should /not/ be doing, guidelines I've never really knew about in the past that would apply to me. Of course, I'd still prefer never having problems, regardless of what I consumed.)

Also traded my Mig welder for a badass metal detector. That's like one of those things i probably will end up keeping, lol. :lol:

I found some treasure in the yard, but I want to get a pinpointer first. By the time I get the pinpointer, however, I will have moved. (And, I'm really trying not to spend money right now; I figure moving will do much of that for me.)

 

[swbluto]

Just got two of these guys. https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Poweredge-Power-Supply-NPS-700AB/dp/B00AUILIW6

Got it off of eBay, cheaper and faster. (Priority mail service for $45 for two, instead of Amazon's $100+. If Amazon was a little faster with its 'free shipping', I might have ordered it off of there, but they usually take forever to ship things off, at least recently. Average time to ship after ordering - 4 days. Recent max time to ship - 10 days. Ridiculous.)

I'm going to hook directly upto the batteries. With a 77A ceiling, these guys should have no problem supplying the amperage required. And, in the rare case the batteries get too low, I could hook up a 'precharge resistor array' or sorts.

The tradeoff is that the peak tunable voltage is 12.9Volts, but that seems like something I could do. This is for use with the generator, so the solar panels in the longterm would have a separate MPPT charge controller that would 'top the batteries' off at the right float voltage (13.1V(summer)-13.5V(winter)). I'm probably going to get those soon after I clear out an area and expose the sunlight; I really don't have a solid idea of how long that might take.

For the 'back row of trees' in the front, I'm contemplating taking down only the tall trees in the area so to reduce the shading in the field. The tall trees don't really contribute much to the privacy of the bottom 10 feet, whereas they cast the longest/fullest shadows in the field (The smaller trees are like 10-20 feet and provide the vast majority of the bottom 10 feet's privacy). When I'm down there, I'm thinking I'll probably eventually get an electric chainsaw to get everything chopped down to size. I'm not going to use an electric chainsaw initially, because it'll most likely be raining (rainy season), but I'll probably use it later once the rain abates.

 

[swbluto]

Was looking at Bing Maps (Wow, is it a noticeable improvement over Google Maps), and they had street-level imagery of my neighborhood that google maps didn't.

Anyway, I was looking around and getting to know the neighborhood, and it appears there's two different sub-neighborhoods even in this neighborhood. There's the northern 'nice' neighborhood, and the southern 'shady' neighborhood. I'm in the northern neighborhood, so that's kind of cool. Anyway, I saw a vacant lot /here/ and /there/, and I wondered a bit about its history. Possibly repossessed property, or maybe creditors took his possessions. Or maybe he moved. Or maybe it's just a winter vacation spot (Not a bad spot, I must say.).

It's interesting, because I had absolutely no idea there was a 'nice neighborhood' in this neighborhood, but apparently there is, lol. I only preferred the northern neighborhood because it's closest to the post office, and that's a pretty big advantage for my line of work. I also figured that the roads were probably better the closer you were to the entrance, since it seems like they narrowed considerably the further south you went, looking at satellite imagery. And, the guy was making it sound like the roads were 'horrible'. Lol, they look better than the neighborhood roads in my city, lol. (The main roads are nice, mostly, but the neighorhood roads I think were probably last paved in the 90s and have long been neglected, so potholes and huge cracks everywhere.)

Anyway, I'm currently set up for 1 line of business, but I'm planning on branching off into 2 more. It's just that right now is a pretty poor time to be putting all my resources into pursuing a new business (And, Amazon is taking SO FREAKING LONG to get me my equipment, lol.), so I'm kind of semi-addled with the 1 line of business that was effectively crippled last month. It's doing fine, actually, but I want more, lol. I should be in a better position to pursue new business lines when I get base camp set up. The whole idea 'getting a job' to make up for the temporary income shortfalls is kind of foolhardy since I'm moving in a month, so I have to just tighten the belt and persist.

Anyway, I see the road leading to my property has bushes left and right and it looks so green everywhere. I was thinking about trimming the branches back off the road, but it appears it's more bushes than tree branches, so I'm thinking I might be cleaning up with a hedge trimmer, lol. Then the road would effectively become a neatly trimmed driveway with a neat little hedgerow on the left and right upto my place, lol. It looks like I have about 800-900 feet of road to trim back. I wonder how long that might take?

[On another note, I was thinking perhaps I would create a hole in the road to my right, and fill in the ones on the left so the road leading to my place effectively becomes /my/ driveway and the road, /my/ road. The road graders had obviously abandoned this particular road and no one uses it because of the impassable holes, so might as well make it my own. No one else is using it. (Of course, if I repaired all the holes, and didn't create new ones... someone would. And, quite probably, development of the nearby properties would happen. Of course, development is probable regardless if the new hole is created. Development is thwarted if I don't repair the existing holes.

Anyway, I need to repair the road and maintain it for the UPS/Fedex delivery vehicles. So, that's not really an option.]

Anyway, found out I'm doing it right.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/8b167a5e-6bdf-3f70-b496-f6fdab7fc4fe/ss_this-japanese-secret-to.html

Want to feel better, improve your mood, boost your brain function, and lessen the chances of contracting a disease, including cancer? The Japanese have discovered and incredibly simple and enjoyable way to do all these things: Take a stroll in the woods. That's a stroll--not a hike, not a rock climb and not even a guided educational nature walk. To get the full benefits, you have to give up the American tendency to be goal-oriented and just be in in the middle of nature, letting it fill up your senses.

Lol, you don't have to 'give up your goal-oriented nature' to take a stroll in the woods. Maybe just for an hour or so.

Update: 10:24 p.m. - Loading up the truck and choosing the items for the garage sale starts tomorrow. The garage sale will be on Saturday, Sunday and then Monday(Blowout day - name your price.). Would be getting more excited if it didn't feel like I was wigging out today (Dizzy spells following the chest discomfort event in bed last night; one such dizzy spell happened during exercise, and I almost felt like I was going to faceplant on the treadmill; worrying, that. These dizzy spells are notable because... I've never had them before until after last night, and they started (What I could identify/remember) in earnest this morning. I drank water and ate more carbs and they seem to be so far staying away; however, it does feel like not enough blood is flowing to my brain. And, my left face started going numb for a few seconds in a way that was much more noticeable than normal, so it's quite possible there's some kind of blockage in the right internal carotid. Seems confirmed by the occasional appearance of pulsatile tinnitus in the right ear during a bath. And, my right ear just generally hurts.).

Anyway, it seemed like my HR during exercise followed historical norms. So, I wasn't too concerned, until the HR started decreasing (From 139/140 to 132/133) towards the last 7 minutes, coincidentally shortly after the 3 second dizzy spell. That's a bit weird, never observed that before; usually, it goes in the opposite direction. But, maybe I was feeling a bit relaxed towards the end.

Anyway, having a tough time sourcing an RV. Appears I'm moving right before hunting season, which means finding one is practically impossible. I guess this might mean I might be without an RV for a little while more than I expected. So, I was thinking about moving my operations into a triage tent of sorts (Like the army kind), but then I thought I could just move them into some greenhouses I know I'll eventually get. (That way I won't be wasting money on triage tents I'll use, like, once.) Thinking about bugs, though; maybe a structure with a bug screen would be more ideal? Nah, it needs to be enclosed to minimize air currents.

Anyway, thought about the greenhouses. Setup right, I can grow herbs year-round. Isn't that pretty cool? Fresh herbs whenever.

Anyway, I like this millet I got. It tastes great /by itself/ (not so true of rice, usually needs additional flavoring to 'taste good'), and it's pretty high in magnesium and protein. The fact it's high in magnesium is one of those super important benefits because, I'm not sure if anybody else has noticed this, but magnesium seems to be a pretty hard to source mineral from food which is alarming considering its widely known importance. Anyway, iodine can be naturally sourced from seaweed and fish. Vitamin D from fish and mushrooms. And, vitamin C from citrus vegetables/fruits helps with vitamin/mineral absorption in the beans/nuts/grains. Bell peppers are a great source.

 

[swbluto]

Got done with today's errands. Mainly fixing my rear truck window (I ended up creating a tool to manually open it. I want independence from failure-prone electronics. Has usage criteria.) which took practically the entire day, picking up more food supplies from Target (Waiting for a shipment of salmon to come in. The guy said "It can't be 3 cans, must be cases". I lol'd, because when I cleared them out, there was 4 cans, and just about every other store I've seen that's ever stocked them only had like 3 cans of this particular kind available. You can get it from Vietnam/China in abundance, but getting it from the cleaner parts of the USA seems to come with strict limits.), and paid for my greenhouse. I chose to get it shipped to Walmart, since Amazon couldn't guarantee it in time (Slow frockers), and ebay was vastly more expensive. Walmart had both cheap/fast going for it, since they just load it on the next delivery truck, and they get frequent deliveries as it is. I might opt for the Home-depot/Walmart site solutions in the future where speed is of the essence and price is often equivalent (Sometimes significantly cheaper) to Amazon/Ebay. Walmart's 'rush' prices are also usually /way/ cheaper than Amazon's.

Amazon can try to bully me into prime membership as much as it wants, but I adamantly refuse to be bullied into it. It's one thing when they're offering good service as standard service, and then excellent service for a premium, but devolving the standard service into extremely crappy service as a way of pressuring people into excellent service for an annual premium is an entirely another matter. Amazon, I'm not sure if you realize this, but you have competitors who will eat your lunch and I happily use them as needed. It was just easier using you for a 30-item order since it's more organized, but I made sure to do my price comparisons and order at least 3 weeks ahead of time, knowing your typical lethargy.

Anyway, tomorrow, I'm just going to focus on my existing orders and developing some software. I'll probably also pack some things into boxes. I'll focus on loading everything up 3 days before, so that the chance I'll need anything in particular in those last 3 days is low. I said I was going to have a garage sale, but I did not foresee the rear window busting and the amount of energy/time it would take to solve that issue, so I'm pushing the garage sale back at least a day.

 

[swbluto]

Anyway, thinking about my sleeping quarters. The work quarters will be temporarily located in the greenhouse until another solution is found. The point of the RV, at its essence, is that it satisfied the sanitation requirement - septic is not allowed on this property (Would be a possible place to sleep, too.) and looks like it's a long time before sewer will be routed through here.

But, then I thought the sleeping quarters could be separated from the sanitation. Some sheds look okay (A bit small and not quite enough natural light.), but some of these greenhouses looks like they would do the trick. Some greenhouses are completely seethrough at night (Glass greenhouses), so it's possible to see the stars as if you're camping. And, it's insulated when required(Winter), so it's easier to heat and stay warm during the winter.

And it having high insulation implies good sound insulation. It seems that structures good at keeping heat in are also good at keeping the sound out; they seem to travel through the same medium.

So, the ideal greenhouse would be a greenhouse with high quality clear panels and excellent insulation. Research research.

Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. lol



Someone took my idea! lol

I'm still thinking about the kind of sleeping quarters I'm saving up for.

I figure there's a couple of essential functions.

1. Sleeping quarters
2. Sanitation
3. Work quarters

4. Everything else. (Dining, entertainment, etc.) [Dining could be integrated into pretty much any of the essential quarters.]

Edit: Still thinking about the sleeping quarters.

The longterm sleeping quarters is definitely not going to be on this property. I want the longterm sleeping quarters to be like a roman villa with a central garden (Possibly with fountain).

 

[swbluto]

Confirmed the cause of this right ear pain. I always thought it was related to my neck because my neck was causing pains all around my face (Though, never the right side; I just thought perhaps the right ear just had unique nerve paths that the rest of the right side of the face didn't.) and I seem to have a partially dislocated right jaw, so I dismissed it. But..

After taking a bath yesterday, and feeling my ear being particularly painful, noticing it feeling noticeably warmer than the left, and most importantly, the right ear was colored red on the front and back whereas the left ear wasn't.

I had my diagnosis: Otitis Externa. Swimmer's Ear

That's funny, because one google search I did for "My ear hurts when I pull my ear lobe", told me it was Swimmer's Ear, but I dismissed it because the ear wasn't colored red like I saw on the Google Image pictures at the time and I hadn't been swimming in a pool or something. Figured it was my jaw or something. Just confused me how my ear seemed to hurt noticeably more than my jaw did (didn't feel pained at all), so I figured referred pain.

But, I found out the culprit. Taking baths. It's not that taking a bath is particularly dangerous, it's just that the household I'm currently living in exclusively uses homemade soap with questionable disinfectant properties, and so I'm guessing the bacteria have been having a heyday in the bathtub and some of them found residence in my ear. I'm not really sold on natural soap like I am whole foods...

And, these migraines I've had in my right lobe with ischemic symptoms (Noticeably impaired speech), and the transient paralysis on the left side of body, which indicates probable ischemia in the right lobe suggests that this bacteria has found my bloodstream one way or another. And, it's probably not hard to guess it's possibly been affecting my entire cardiovascular system, possibly giving rise to heart ischemia symptoms here and there.

I knew that staphylococcus aureus was one evil frocker, and I had a /strong/ indication it was the cause of most ischemic issues in humans (I.e., ischemic stroke, heart attack, etc.), and it turns I'm living proof of what I've long suspected.

I can just hope this isn't a chronic infection (Even though it's been around a while), and that it would yield to antibiotics. And, I'm moving to Houston soon, which gives me easier access to antibiotics via Mexico. Luckily, I don't have fever and there's no /strong/ indications of sepsis, so if I'm lucky, it's mild and curable with proper treatment.

I think it's funny how I was yelling ontop of my soapbox, somewhat recently, how staphylcoccus aureus was the cause of most human misery, including much of the major illness that people don't normally contribute to staph (heart attack, stroke, diabetes, etc.), and all along, I was being affected by it and it was probably causing some of my more prominent ischemic symptoms and I had absolutely no clue. Jeez, I don't know what they call that? Foreshadowing? Irony?

For now, I'm upping my garlic intake, avoiding the bathtub, and I'm going to see Urgent Care tomorrow. Taking aspirin might not be unwise.

Anyway, yes, I'm apparently living one of the tragedies the 'old days' used to endure that have been all but eradicated by modern technologies/products. And, it's potentially deadly/debilitating. Luckily, modern medicines are fairly powerful, but I'm well aware they might not work 100%, especially if the protective outer layers have been compromised. I can hope that they will.

Googling "Chronic infection and heart attacks", I found this.

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20041215/infections-can-trigger-heart-attack-stroke#1

The study offers some of the first clinical evidence of a direct association between current infection and the inflammation it creates and cardiovascular risk.

"There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence suggesting that acute infection can help trigger heart attack and stroke," researcher Liam Smeeth, PhD, tells WebMD. "But ours is certainly the largest study to show this association."

Anyway, I have a strong feeling I know how it works. The phagocytes engulf the bacteria, and then they die, and they emit cell signals like TNF-1, some of them find a place to bond on the kidney where they calcify, and others find a place to deposit on the vessel wall where it calcifies. This calcification is also known as atherosclerosis. [I suspect then] The key to minimizing atherosclerosis is minimizing your exposure to bacteria in the teeth, the digestive tract and... apparently... your ear. Knowing the role between the kinds of foods that bacteria ferment (mainly carbs, but not glucose. Also avoiding foods that contain bacteria is important, i.e., 'dirty foods', like old/rotten produce and meats.), and how quickly the carbs are fermented (Refined sugars/grains are fermented much more quickly/easily by bacteria, producing much larger bacteria colony sizes. Foods with intact fiber are fermented more slowly, producing smaller colony sizes.), gives a lot of insight into how the different foods/bacteria/health is all related. Consuming antibiotic foods regularly (garlic, etc.) and probiotic (Fermented foods) is another strategy to keep that gut flora healthy. Especially keeping those staph colony sizes down.

Of course, all of that doesn't really matter if you have a longstanding ear infection. (Ok, maybe it /still/ matters, but it's not completely preventative. At least, that's obvious to me now.)

Anyway, I'm curious even if I resolved this current infection... would I still have the atherosclerotic plaques that are currently causing symptoms, and would they still continue to cause symptoms? Or would the symptoms abate, and perhaps the plaques might slightly regress overtime with proper nutrition/exercise?

In regards to the affects of "The emotions" influencing heart attack risk so strongly, I'm going to assume they strongly affect the immune system. Apparently the immune system goes into overdrive with depression (And presumably Borderline Personality Disorder), and I'm suspecting this might cause both an increased rate of calcification of the phagocytes, higher pulse pressure, and a longer period of time of being exposed to stress-induced(cortisol) more severely constricted vessels - not only does that increase the cumulative risk, it also causes overload and swelling of the vessels, causing the lumen(open space) to shrink. I don't know if the shrinkage is truly permanent... but it might be. It seems like exercise would probably counteract the shrinkage, but I'm not entirely sure.

Not I have to wonder if this outer ear infection and the patent eustachian tube I had in the right ear that one day (Eustachian tube that connects to the inner ear) might be connected? And, how was that snapping sensation in my right head (middle, right, ontop, closer to the center than the ear) might be connected to the patent eustachian tube afterwards? I had a vision/feeling of a pulsing blood vessel the morning (It was actually where two blood vessels merge into one blood vessel; or possibly one split into two, etc.) after, so it seems plausible it was of vascular origin, but what's the connection?

Let's assume bacteria might be key here.

 

[swbluto]

I keep thinking about greenhouses. I wonder if I did what Spain is doing with its fields (Put some kind of plastic over the entire field), if I could grow bananas year round? They do require like 60 inches of rain per year... so I'll have to collect rain and wisely water them.

I should look more into what Spain's doing.

[youtube]IBIpgnxtTpE[/youtube]

Looks like a bunch of poles and plastic spread over them. I would have to route the rainwater that falls on the plastic into the buckets, possibly some into the distribution channels watering the plants. Or maybe I would feed the distribution channels later.

This would certainly detract from the beauty of the backyard. But, hey, I have the beauty of the main area and the street itself is like a forest. And I could certainly remove or trim it down in size if I wanted to.

I wonder if I covered the entire backyard with this... if the county government would be complaining they couldn't easily spy on me, lol.

The idea of growing bananas year-round for consumption is something of a Kuna islander fantasy. Granted, I also need coconuts and fish to complete the illusion. I guess I'll have to... buy those. *sigh* :lol: [I honestly would want to buy coconuts anyhow, they appear particularly difficult to grow, slow to fruition, especially difficult to house (they grow like 40'). It's no surprise the coconut fruit cups at albertsons are like a dollar higher than the rest of them, and target didn't even carry them, probably because they're too expensive. I want to get a couple, as a 'treat', lol. It's just that buying ones that haven't been dipped in formadelyhyde might be challenging. But, I will be in houston; no doubt there's coconuts fresh from Mexico somewhere in town.

Anyway, my swing with the ditch bank blade is getting particularly proficient. I'm noticing that, swinging right to left, the following muscle groups seem particularly engaged.

Left arm - pull muscle, bicep
right arm - push muscle, tricept
Then the legs for swinging. The back itself seems to use marginal muscle; it only seems to /really/ engage during a 270 degree swing or greater, like if you completely missed the plant and it keeps swinging around. But, if you're cutting down a tree or similar, likely the swing will be between 90-180 degrees.

[I honestly don't know if Houston is south enough for year round plant growth; the angle of the sun during January is 50 degrees south. Seems a bit much. Even Alaska has a lower sun angle than that (during the summer) [ankorage - 61 degrees north, sun angle at peak, 41 degrees].

http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/Grand-Naine-Banana-Tree.htm - This is the banana tree I want to use. I wonder why it's the less popular tree among the banana trees on the site?

I like this music.


Starts at 0:40
[youtube]4hitxk3wpmY[/youtube]

Starts at 1:10, good part starts at 2:20
[youtube]dcwtbdZ-kYQ[/youtube]

Anyway, thought about it. I could put the fruit trees here, this mega-greenhouse /there/, the pool /here/. I wouldn't need to cover the entire backyard, just would like to cover most of it. I would probably plant the trees before the greenhouse and smaller trees (Citrus) along the side (I'd leave the side and back accessible). The surrounding forest would then be visible from the back, and the trees in the front would help maximize the appeal of the backyard (With this style of greenhouse in it.)

 

[swbluto]

I started thinking about crop arrangements.

The traditional arrangement appears to have about a 50% density. (Rows upon rows, etc.)

The other day, while I was chopping down ferns for winter preparation, I noticed the fern leaves were fractals. The fern leaf consisted of smaller leaves, which themselves had smaller leaves on them, and then even smaller leaves on them. This mystified me a bit, because usually leaves are solid to maximize the overall area. But, this plant appeared to sacrifice a little bit of area in order to achieve maximum edge length. Why did it need maximum edge length? I have no idea, but that seemed to be its intent. And, at that moment, I realized that fractals help maximized edge length in a given space. (Never thought about fractals in that way before)

Anyway, so I came up with this design based on that principle. It's a one depth 'kind of a' recursion.



You can see that, at its most basic function block (The white plus sign and surrounding green squares), that their are 5 white blocks and 10 green blocks. Planting density of 66%.

I'd have to play around with a much larger grid to see what kind of maximum planting density I could achieve, but it's clear fractals are key.