looking back

2016 In Retrospect

current project- ignore time stamp

   This hasn’t been a year for me to write a lot, apparently. In comparison to previous years I was keeping up with the writing and even feeling guilty about missing a couple of days here and there. That hasn’t been the case in the last year. What I did focus on was my priorities, whether I write or not won’t keep me warm in the winter. As of yet I haven’t received any compensation for my writing thus far. Maybe I need to change that and start submitting. Guess that would be a New Year’s resolut6ion I need to work on.

       According to rule 657. 321 of the wc code, it states, there are no rules to blogs and it is yours to do with as you please. I think I have fulfilled my obligation to you as a reader by doing just that, and not following any rules and in fact and although I shouldn’t allow you too, I still feel as if I owe you the reader more. so in an attempt at brevity, I will just get on with what I didn’t write about , that I thought was relevant to where I am at here on the farm.

     I am still trying to manage my pain and at times it feels as if my right hip is just going to drop off as I walk away, with my hip dangling in the air and blood pumping through arteries as I hop around in circles trying to miss stepping on a cat or a dog or a chicken. This would be my luck, and if the dr. would ask me what my pain level is after I get done throttling him I would say easily a 9. 9.  Not knowing if a 10 would be that same leg landing in a mud puddle and then having it reattached and walking on it again only realizing that they forgot to wash it off first. So not only would have gang green and festering union of two organic surfaces coming together and having dirt and debris in the juncture , and maybe a couple gum wrappers and a cigarette butt wandering around inside. This would be close as I can possibly think one could get to 10. Needless to say I have had to make adjustments for this in my life. Also when you are in pain it is hard to concentrate on what you are writing as I am usually trying to figure out what tyo say as early as possible before I am even writing. And rarely have to stop writing except for mistakes as it should be.

      Sentence structure and all that stuff they taught you go to heck in a sec as I, myself need to keep moving as if I am talking. This is hard and frustrating to do when I am hurting so bad. Oh well  back to my plans and accomplishments for 2016.

     I have had to change my plans as of recently as to the design of my house. I need to build something I can build by myself and using logs is hard and so I have been thinking of using the same floor plan but doing it in a post and beam structure. I can buy 8x8 dimension lumber and notch accordingly and install by myself fairly easy this will give me more free span distance and better control of dimensions. I might still do this with a smaller band-saw mill as I haven’t completely given up on that idea. I still plan on using logs and carvings but more as support posts that are carved and more for aesthetics lending itself to a more rustic charm

     My wine worked as far as I know. I sent one bottle to the neighbors and still have 2 bottles in reserve for what I don’t know. My sauerkraut didn’t do so good and although it may have been ok, I just wasn’t comfortable with it. I made app-le sauce and canned it, as well I canned my own spaghetti sauce, and it is a little hot but still very flavorful. I bought a freezer and from sales and other sources have managed to fill it completely and have the one over the refrigerator an average half full most of the time. I didn’t make hay but instead rented it out and that didn’t go the best in the world as they still left half or better to be brushhogged, so I still haven’t figured out what I am going to do this year for sure. Maybe make myself a bio mass furnace I can drop a whole hay bale into at a time. That way I can use my hay to burn and make hot water to heat my house. Would be easier to handle than wood, would. Might have to burn a bale to see how long they last. I can always take the ashes out and spread on field or include in compost to make better compost.

     I started the drainage around the back room and that has made a difference in my current place as I also included good downspout hooked into a regular drainage system . I covered the whole are with pea gravel and it seems to have cut down on mud in the house. I am working on stuff inside the trailer also as it will still be a couple of years before I remove it , so I need to try and improve and also get it ready to be dismantled when the time comes. When it is cold like this it isn’t hard to try and get things done inside. With my back the way iut is I spend time sitting more than I want top. I now kneel and avoid as much as possible just bending over at waist. I try to keep five gallon buckets close to where I am working or just take breaks when I can’t stand the pain. It sucks, and so does the pain, but I need to persevere to get myself in a better place.

     I am focusing more time on important things that will pay me back in the future. Or paying me forward, as it may be. 2017 will be here shortly so I will go for now and post this and tell everyone happy New Year , only 4 more to go with trump as president. We haven’t impeached him yet? Damn.

guess who?

It’s Been Awhile

 

     

         Since I have last written.  I have been lax and at same time just taking a break, re-evaluating what I am doing. Making sure that I am trying to be the person I write about in my blogs. I have no intentions of being fake or unrealistic. I have no one to prove anything to except myself and that can be a task at times.  So I am on a dating site, called POF, Plenty Of Fish  , which I am sure a lot of people have seen or used, in fact I just read a study the other day that said that 30 percent of the people on the dating sites are in fact married.  No wonder you can’t meet anyone on there. Always someone is trying to game someone else. I digress, as what I really want to do from here on out is document my house building. I will take you back to when I started and will hopefully carry you all the way through to a point in time when I have done all that I can do the house , I can possibly do. In those terms I doubt if I will ever reach that point so I guess you could say that my blog will probably go on indefinitely.

        So in that sense I will chronologically bring you up to date with pics and progress I have made to date. I am also finding out as I go along that this is also an exercise in getting my shit together, so to speak. I have had to make changes to my present living situation in order to accommodate my future needs. I have had to install a new wood heater, rebuild the chimney after having it collapse on me. I have installed of all things a clothes line , to dry my clothes and in winter I dry them by the wood stove. It works and it is great because I am sure I am saving AEP American electric power a shit ton of coal every time I cheat them out of a kilowatt of power. I would like to think I am just getting started. Last month’s bill was 1 dollar. Unbelievable but yes it is.

      What it actually amounts to is an estimated bill that was finally brought up to date. They had overestimated my usage and I actually came in with less kw’s than they actually estimated. What gets me is they have the ability to read the meters without even getting out of the vehicle. They just need to get close enough. We have a drive within ten feet of the power pole, and yet they have to estimate. As people say go figure, might as well they didn’t. It cost 41 cents to mail the bill. Hope they don’t get too rich on their 59 cents this month. I am sure the electric will be back up next month. This is the time of the year when AEP threatens all the back due customers so that they can get federal heap dollars to repay back bills. First they have to threaten a shut off before heap will help with emergency funds.  Oh well someday my goal is to not have to buy anything but internet service to keep me on the grid. I have no desire to make a monthly rent payment to AEP or any other utility. It is just like paying rent only with a gun at your forehead. If you don’t pay, your food spoils in the fridge because you have no electricity. You can’t shower or shave, and basically if you were in jail you would be much better off. at least paying rent , it takes 3 months without payment to throw you out of your house. Try living three months without electricity. I am going to try.

      My plan is to invest in solar , wind, bio-gas , or any other technology that will eventually allow me to gain whatever from nature to provide the necessary electricity I need to heat and cool my home as it will exist. What I have to look at is that I have an income from social security that will never increase beyond cost of living allowances. Most times these increases are behind the actual inflationary values, and will fore3ver doom me with less value for my money as I age and need it more. so I need to spend money to eliminate any extra expense I can , so I can do more with what I have. Easily said, harder done.

        So I plan on using the format where I post pictures and directly below the pictures I will give a thorough explanation of what you are looking at. I will try and brief as I have to do all editing myself directly on the blog. And in the main body I will have a discussion and it could be about anything the title might suggest. The title should be an indication of what the discussion is about. It may not always be related to the building of the house, and could include any subject I have covered thus far, and also some new 

just a pretty pic, from somewhere in pennsylvania. 

the above pic of my house is from 7-2015 . at that time i had was still contemplating where to build , design considerations , etc.. this pic is from 10-31-2015 , and i have finally decided that in fact i am just going to add on to what is existing and then subtract what i dont want want after i finish building. in the meantime i will have a place to live . my old place as it still exists today is an old chicken house from sears (the rounded part) and a trailer combined . this is not my doing . instead something that has been bequeathed to me in a manner of speaking. it is nothing i would ever do and that is tie a trailer to anything. i hate trailers. but it is a roof over my head. it is a place to lay my head till i can build better . so here i am using the tractor to excavate out soil in the area where i am going to build. sears and roebuck used to build and sell chicken houses as well as a real house you could buy from their mail order business and have delivered to your building site . the top part of the house part was a chicken house unit , that grandpa bought in late forties and built it on top of the foundation of concrete blocks. peeps at most were kept in there at different times. and people lived there over the years for the most part. we had  an outhouse that served as the toilet for years till my brother jim modernized the house by attaching the trailer. it is an abortion and i hate it. did i say that before?  i will go into why i needed to build here as i add more pics and also describe my considerations i had toi take into account. i will also get into more about how long it is going to take me to finish at least the main part, and some of what i am going to have to do to make it happen . 

 i am going to try and chronicle all changes from the pics i have and bring you up to date.