Another perspective on the problem

You can buy a system, or build one from scratch.  What I've done so far is to outline what it would cost, and what it would take to build from scratch.  What if you could just buy an RV?  Well, I've looked into that, and I looked again today.

There may be a possible deal for an RV.  It may take some fancy footwork still to make this happen, but it is now within the realm of possibility.  Before the little expedition, I drew another diagram for the quonsets.

Even if I get the RV, I will still need to build the quonsets.  Fortunately, that is relatively easy.

Now that an RV is contemplated, I made a few changes:

Update:

Revised the drawing directly above with this one.  What I'm trying to accomplish is to cover the RV with tarps so as to assist in climate control.  Want to be able to shield from sun and wind, while collecting rainwater.

Water storage?  Will use these bad boys.

Fine tuning the plans, part 2

This is a revised version of the last post( see prev link at bottom of page ) .  Or was it this one?  It has been abbreviated and simplified as much as possible.


Review:  The idea is to get something up quickly.  Must simplify.   Start small, as opposed to trying to get everything in place all at once.

Revisions:  The fence should go in Later.   Strongly considering a move to the Berkey system, as opposed to reverse osmosis.  Bare bones electrical system gets pared down a bit further.  I envision a modular system that can expand as circumstances warrant.  Toilet system will be "go anywhere toilet system."

Greenhouse location: must have sun during growing season.  Solarium is for the winter months, which is to provide passive solar warmth in the winter.  Solarium will have to double as a work area.  Begin as a quonset work area, then change it to a solarium for the winter.  Idea:  Staggering the location can get wind blockage that I"m seeking, while not having to change locations.  Or breaking up the things into smaller pieces.

Greenhouse flooring:  Will use plywood.  The plastic tarp will go over the ground and the plywood would fit on top of it.  The dirt must be leveled first.

Finish the canopy:  Drilling the holes could be attempted, and then stick some rebar down in it.  The hole with the rebar in it can be filled with concrete.  The PVC piping I have will fit over the rebar.  It may still need some strengthening, so I will consider added 5 gallon buckets of dirt that goes around the rebar with the PVC going over the rebar, and the dirt going over them both.

Canopy location may have to be changed, or altered.  It is not in the best position to collect rainwater.

Electrical system.  Perhaps a couple of 42 amp hour batteries.  The system can be expanded later.  The little generator can charge them both with a gallon of gasoline.  Solar panels can eventually be installed.  Perhaps the sooner, the better.

Battery education must improve.  I saw some deep cycle batteries at a delivery location today.  It amazed me how powerful the battery appeared to be for its size.  I need to learn more about batteries.

Might consider buying one of these jump starter gizmos.

Design of complete system ( 400 watt/hr )  that could be ordered today, if I wish:
solar panel ($243) , batteries ( 2 @ $134) , charge controller ($207) , inverter ($500)  total $ 1220

Not all hardware is included.  Price may run up a bit more.

May be time to consider Honda 1800 watt generator conversion to propane.  Work this with a small 175 watt dehumidifier and swamp cooler combo or working singly.  Perhaps another $1500

Here's a tentative materials list and tools list:

materials:

6  four foot tall rebar for finishing canopy
10 ten pound bags of concrete ( the same concrete I used the last time)

8 heavy duty stakes for plywood to hold down quonsets
8 cattle panels
8 four by eight plywood
20 two by four wood studs
2 rolls of greenhouse film and associated materials
2 pkgs of nails and assorted hardware and fasteners

2 forty two amp hours batteries
1 rope

lower priority items:

16 five gallon buckets for growing plants, sufficient soils and fertilizers
1 rain barrel to get started, more to add later

tools:

corded drill :  No cordless drill if batteries are already present
bits
pick, ax, heavy mallet, plus all the tools I already possess
something that can be used as a workstand

finally,  food and water to last a week or longer


This one goes into the construction subseries of the off-the-grid posts.

Update:  This post will stay at the top of the heap because I want to keep it fresh in mind.  It will be updated from time to time.  No other posts will take place.  I have to get serious about this, or forget it.  Plans should be getting finalized and I am already getting late in that.


Things to remember:

• I'm going out West to live, not to die.
• The lifestyle I am living now is killing me before my time.  If I survive this, I will live longer for it.  It is healthier because of more exercise, better food, and I will probably lose a lot of weight.
• There is a risk that I won't make it, and the risk is significant.  I have a high risk of heart disease and stroke.  But that can actually be prevented by lifestyle choices.  That's what I'm trying to do, for heavens sake.  Why can't people appreciate that???????????????????????????????  Evidently, it is the social circle I'm in with that doesn't understand these things, and it is better to separate from them.

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Water Filter Review & Comparison

LDSPrepper

Strongly recommends the Berkey filter.  May be best to use this with rainwater in order to get potable drinking water.




This goes into the water subseries of the off-the-grid series.

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No work today

Yeah, pretty unproductive day.  Not many posts, no work, no nothing.

Just 3 more weeks, and I am to go on my adventure.  Am I ready for this?  Not a chance.  But off I go anyway.  Tomorrow will be a new day.  Today bummed me out.

As for ObamaCare, the reason I've turned four square against it is this:  there's no proper incentives.  What reason does Blue Cross have in treating me right?  To the contrary:  They have every incentive to abuse their "customers".  After all, where are you going to go?  How are you going to get along without them?  That's how they are thinking, I'm sure.  There's no way this was an honest dealing here.  They are refusing to service the  problems they caused for me because they believe they can, and can get away with it; not because they are unable to do so, while keeping me happy as a "customer".

I never liked ObamaCare anyway.  But I can see how they hook you in.  Now they've set the hook and are reeling people in.  Purely manipulative strategy.  It was very cheap---in the beginning.  The service for the first year was pretty good.  It is how it always starts with something that's wrong.  Always good at first, but there's a catch.  The catch here is that the prices won't stay this low and the service won't be as good.  Yes, it has become rather bad this year.  This can not be any accident.  All in the plan.

I'm going back to my old doctor.  I suppose I'll still make payments to Blue Cross.  Not sure if I will, though.  I'm wondering if they even care if you make payments.  I was late this month, but the feds paid them for April already, and then some.  Does anybody in DC care if the policy holders make their payments?  Blue Cross should be quite happy to receive payments for no service rendered.  Not a word about being late.  They're not about to drop me from their accounts.  snicker snicker

I've been thinking and fuming about this all day.  Not good to be out there working with this train of thought.

ObamaCare should be repealed

It's a scam.  Yessir, it is a scam.

I went to the doctor and they still list my PCP's incorrectly.  I was told that this would be fixed, and it wasn't.

Why can't Blue Cross fix this?  I suspect that they don't want to fix this.  They just want to cash in on the government subsidy.  The way things are fixed on this account now, I cannot see a doctor and get treatment.  This despite paying hundreds of dollars per month in premiums, almost all of which is being subsidized by the government.  I suspect that they are doing this deliberately.  Look, I changed PCP's before on their website, why would it not work now?

I cannot get medical service ( without paying in advance ) because Blue Cross won't change over the doctors.  As I mentioned, they did this before with no problems.  Now, when I go in the doctor that they list, that doctor won't treat ( without advance payment ) because it has me listed under the PCP that I wanted.  I go to the doctor that I want, and they won't treat me because I am listed under the other doctor.  I went over all this with somebody at Blue Cross a couple weeks ago, and was told that it would be fixed, and that I would get a new card.  I never got any new card, and I suspect that I won't get a new card.

I didn't even get a card under their doctor before I changed to doctor I wanted.  I've also requested cards by the internet.  They are unresponsive.  Trying to talk to them is like talking to a wall.

Tell ya what.  I'm not using the system anymore.  If they want to steal money, then let em steal it.

Just went in and looked around on the billing and so forth.  They are getting paid, so the account is not in arrears.  As a matter of fact, they were sent extra money for some strange reason.

This has nothing to do with me doing something wrong.  If this was a legitimate operation,  I should be able to get my money back and seek business elsewhere.  I am wondering if I can do that here.  Probably not.

Where's the GOP on this?  What GOP?  They aren't going to do anything about anything.

Why vote for Democrat if you are a conservative?

It seems unthinkable to do this.  For that reason, you should do it.  It's like war.  You don't behave the way your enemy thinks you are going to behave.  You do what he thinks you won't do.  The so-called conservatives are way, way too predictable.  Secondly, they don't recognize themselves in a conflict situation, much like a war.  In a war, you have to follow the rules of warfare, which means NO RULES.

Because of what the "moderates" just did, the so-called conservatives should recognize that all bets are off.  The sooner you recognize this, the better off you will be when the dust settles.  Better to fight the seen enemy than the unseen one.  At the moment, the "moderates" act more like an enemy than a friend.  Time for an attitude adjustment.

There's precedent for this in politics.  Why did LBJ win in such a big landslide?  Because a lot of the GOP rejected Goldwater and bolted to the Democrats that year.  Four years later, Nixon won the Presidency.  No, it wasn't because of Reagan or Goldwater as Limbaugh says.  It was because the "moderates" chastised the "conservatives" with a devastating loss.  It's payback time, I say.

The so called conservatives are always reminded about Goldwater.  The "moderates" need to have something to remember, just in case they forget.

General gripe session about government

There's a lot going wrong in our government now.  It appeared that things might improve somewhat when the Democrats lost last November, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.

Actually, I didn't believe that it would improve.  No, it was a number of other people who call themselves conservatives who actually believed things were going to be better.  Well, how do you like it so far?

I'm not just griping, I'm offering solutions.  With respect to the elections, I suggested NOT VOTING for the guy who wins the primary, but for the opponent, PROVIDED THAT YOU ARE UNHAPPY WITH THAT CONGRESSCRITTER.  If you are unhappy today, then what exactly happened that made you unhappy, and why does it make you unhappy?  In my own case, Texas Senator John Cornyn needed to go.  I said as much, and I acted as such.  I VOTED AGAINST CORNYN.  This is the kind of thing you must do if you are unhappy with your representative.  It doesn't work if you do otherwise.

You might say, but I can't vote for THOSE guys.  They are the enemy.  What's the difference if they act like an enemy anyway?  You can punish the office holder by removing him from office.  No matter how corrupt he may well be, he'd rather be a member of Congress than not be one, or, otherwise, he would not run for the office.  PUNISH HIS ASS.  Vote him out.

What I don't get is why are so-called conservatives unhappy with what has just happened?  If they are telling the truth, and they are really, really unhappy, they'd do what I suggest.  I'd be willing to bet that not one in a million would do as I suggest.  You sure as hell don't vote for the guy who has just screwed you over for the upteenth time, but you get conned and you do it anyway.  Refusing to vote ain't the answer either.  You have to do something positive, which is to vote against what annoys, frustrates, or angers you.

Allowing yourself to be conned into voting against yourself is really a masterpiece of deception.  That's how the politicians make their bones.  Why do you ever believe them in the first place?

As for that post about Vertigo

It might need some clearing up.  My writing is not that good sometimes.  Poor proofreading, I suppose.

Okay, I relate strongly to that movie because something similar happen to me in my own life.  It is not "just a movie" to me.  There's something quite authentic about it.

So, what I wrote about one's troubles being mostly in one's own head--- is very, very true as far as I'm concerned.  That's what this movie is largely about.  Scottie goes insane over something that wasn't even true.  All in his head.  Did I go insane like that?  No, not quite like that.  It was a very, very, very painful point in my life and it had to do with some personal failure, or a failure perceived by me as such, and taken very, very hard.  Fortunately, I snapped out of it.  I can see where someone never snaps out of it and it gets worse until that person dies.

I'm fond of saying that the truth is a slippery thing.  This isn't the same as the post modernists who claim no truth at all.  All I'm saying is that truth is hard to find and possess.  Even if you think you've got it, you may not.  If you are going to die over something, don't let it be over something that you perceive to be true, because your mind can fool you.  Also, people lie their asses off all the damned time.  You could be dying over something that may not even be true.  Try at least to find the truth, and if death must arise from it, at least it was over what was the best that you could do with regards to the truth.  Lots and lots of ambiguity there, but that's the way it is.

As for insanity, I always regarded it as the inability to accept or perceive reality.  Well, that includes just about everyone at some point, or maybe just about all the damned time with every damned body.

It's not a pleasant thought to contemplate, but that may be just the way it is.  Insanity may be the rule, not the exception.

Update:

I should clarify once again.  In the movie, Scottie is lied to by his chum, Gavin Elster, about the identity of Elster's wife.  Scottie should have checked out Elster and his wife before his swallowed Elster's stories.  That's what I mean.  Get your facts straight before you start making sweeping conclusions about situations.  You could be making a big mistake.

Blue Cross Blue Shield and Obamacare

There's something screwy going on with my account.

I'm signed up, and up until the end of last month, I understood that I was paid up.  But now, I go on the website and it shows I owe a lot more money.  Hmmm.   How is this so?  Well, after some checking, it looks like they received some sort of payment??? in the middle of February????  From who?????  Not from me.

Anyway, they are trying to forward bill me to April, which isn't here yet.  I sent in a payment ( late, yes ), and we'll see what happens next.  Real screwball stuff here.

Also, it looks like they didn't change my PCP the way they promised.  I don't know if my PCP will see me.  Not the one they indicate on their own website, nor the one that I thought that I had changed it to.  It looks to me that neither doctor trusts them for payment.

I'm guessing there's some sort of money issue with Blue Cross, but it isn't coming out of my pocket any further than what I've already agreed to.  I agreed to a certain amount and that's what I sent in.  So, we shall see.

I have a doctor's appointment today, and if there's a problem, I'm writing it off.  I'll pay Blue Cross what I agreed to, but no more.  I won't use their "services", either.  It's just money down the drain as far as I'm concerned.

ObamaCare should be repealed.  I don't think it is working.

Tough day today

Yes, it was.  It really is hard to swallow everything that is going on.  Not only in the public stage, but a few things going on in my own life.

Yet, there's nothing really wrong.  When there's something really wrong, you'll know it.  Like, if you have a heart attack.  That's something wrong.  Being down in the dumps about something is really just in your head, nothing really wrong, but you do feel as if something is.

I'd rather be hopeful and optimistic because the things that are wrong are really all in our minds.  The mind can be changed in an instant of recognition.

Take one of Alfred Hitchcock's movie, Vertigo.  There is a scene in there in which was quite similar to this picture here.  It allowed him to solve a murder.  No small flash of insight there.

Scotty is being scammed, but he doesn't know it yet.

That flash of insight came after he spent time in a mental institution due to a feeling of deep depression over the death of someone he thought he loved, and that he also thought he was responsible for, but for which he was definitely not responsible.  It was all in his head.

I am always hopeful that people will see the light in this country, because if that were to happen, things would change for the better in an instant.  Just as quickly as for "Scotty".

Haw Haw Haw Haw

Blues Brothers ( 1980 )

John Lee Hooker

Shipping Container Homes Build it for 50K Video On Vimeo $1

Looks like somebody has thought up what I have thought up, but before I did.

But I don't want to spend 50k.  No, a lot less!

Dick & Jane Move A Box

Excellent!  I may be able to use this, but I don't know about the costs of the thing.  Running out of time, so I'll post this and come back to it later.

Dick Morris was wrong about the immigration bill

Morris was gushing in his praise for Boner when he arranged the Cromnibus bill back in December.  So, what did it accomplish?   NOTHING.  Or maybe it did accomplish something.  It made the GOP look ridiculous.  At this point, the GOP deserves to look ridiculous, because that is what it is.

Netanyahu speech

I missed it.  No time to even read all the transcript.

To get my opinion of it, just read my reviews and this blog.  To put it succinctly as possible, I agree with Netanyahu.  He didn't need to convince me of anything.

If there is anything I don't agree with, is his excessive deference to Obama and the Democrats.

All in all, in this culture today, there are way too many of the wrong kind of people in high places.  There are way too many people who listen to what they are told, and do so without any critical examination of what they are being told and why.  There's no doubt that Netanyahu's speech will be criticized by those at the top, but who ever really criticizes them?

There's no need to say a lot about his speech.  His speech wouldn't have been necessary 50 years ago, as it was common knowledge.  Consider John F. Kennedy's address to the nation during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  We then had a bipartisan foreign policy.  It wasn't necessary for their to be any rift between the parties when it came to protecting this nation from a deadly enemy.  The rift in the politics of this country began shortly after Kennedy's assassination, when the left managed to destroy the common ground upon which foreign policy was built.

It was common knowledge that Hitler needed to be stopped and that the effort to appease him failed miserably.  Hitler almost won, and had he have won the Battle of Britain, he might well have won the war, and the world would be a much different place today.  The Islamists tend to admire Hitler.  That ought to tell you everything you need to know about them.  There are those in high places that also, at the very least, know people who admire Hitler.  That thought should be chilling to most Americans, but I wonder how many people are actually aware of that.

There could be more than one reason why Churchill's bust was returned to England.

America, we have a problem, and it is in the White House.  If Netanyahu would have said that, he would have done us a great service.  Nobody is willing to say it.  As long as this man remains in the office, this country is in peril.

Wave of human augmentation is coming

Chairless chair enables sitting while standing.

Yeah, but can you afford it?

The two biggest stumbling blocks

For my project...

One:  getting the cooperation of people.

Two:  money.  If this one could overcome, number one could follow quickly.

Get this:  I could go into debt, sure.  But I don't want to.

Running the numbers on the money just ain't encouraging.  You'd have to get a job in the area to make money, and jobs may not be available there.  One possibility which I keep ignoring.  They don't have many teachers out there.  Yep, be a teacher.  That could do it.

Update:

I really don't like the idea of working for the state as a teacher.  Or for a school district.  One possibility is to teach English to kids who speak Spanish.  Offer to do that as a tutor.  Or tutoring services in general.

I'd better learn Spanish then.

No time!  Oops!

Boehner looks for a life line… from the Democrats

RedState

Quote:

Rarely in the history of representative government has a majority party been so effortlessly emasculated by a minority party...we are saddled with Congressional leadership that no only doesn’t know how to win– or even play the game for that matter — but who seem viscerally opposed to the idea of winning

Comment:

So called conservatives had their chance to get rid of these weaklings and put in the appropriate people.  Everybody who claims to be a patriot should take a very hard look in the mirror and ask themselves what do you see?  We are getting played in so many ways that you can't trust anything any of these people say.

Quickie before I go, 3/2/15

This little featurette may return from time to time, but it won't be slavishly followed every single day.

Anyway, this piece here reminds me of how we have become a version of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.  The weakness being projected comes from both parties, each of which reinforces the other.  There needs to be a solution for that.

The solution has to come within the context of our identities.  We should not go outside of who we are lest we become that which we fight against.

What I see is what I've commented upon frequently, and that is well expressed in the quote below:

Today we as a civilization are far more worried about what people will say if we should object to Cage’s drivel, to the guilt-mongering of the Left.---Richard Fernandez

The so-called right is afraid to channel its inner Savage.  It refuses to be an opposition party.  They are more afraid of being called bad names than in losing our civilization, which is what they are doing by their neglect.

If there's going to be a two-party system, then there needs to be an opposition party.  Duh.

Fine tuning the plans

 Now, what stuff do I want to install first on my homestead?   It may be better to start small, as opposed to trying to get everything in place all at once.

Perhaps the fence should go in first.  The purpose of the fence is not only to delineate an area, but to also block the wind.  At the very least, I would want to build out about 44 feet, according to my plans.  This would be south facing, so as to keep out the hot desert air blowing around out there.  Behind the fence can be the solarium/greenhouse, which would further block the wind from affecting the canopy, which is the most wind vulnerable structure being planned ( and partly executed ).

So, to build the fence, some thought about how to do that is going to be required.  I'd like to try what I was going to do with my canopy, which is to drill holes down about a foot, and then stick some rebar down in it.  The hole with the rebar in it can be filled with concrete.  The rebar could be the shorter variety, which means that I won't be blocking all of the wind.  Maybe about half of the wind gets blocked.  The other half will be blocked by the quonsets/greenhouses.

What to attach to the rebar?  I was thinking some of those metal panels that I was considering for the interior of the greenhouse.  They would be laid down horizontally and upward to provide about 2 feet vertical coverage.  Now, if I were to leave a space between the two panels, I could get more height.  But the rebar is only going to stick about 3 feet up, so maybe that is out.  This may be a problem, which I need to think a bit more about.  I don't want a weak structure, but I have some limitations to consider.  Like my lack of knowledge.

Some folks will say that I don't know what I am doing, and they'd be right.  But you have to learn somehow, and that is by trying it and making some mistakes.

It may be time to buy some of the first elements of an electrical system.  I could use my little generator, or I could use a battery.  Perhaps I could even buy a cordless drill and dispense with the generator and big batteries, and so forth.  That may be worth considering.  If I buy the cordless drill, I could use it until it ran out of juice, and then I would have to stop. Or I could fire up the generator and use the corded drill to do some more work.  Whatever is the cheapest and simplest is probably the best.

Here's a tentative materials list and tools list:

materials:

8 ten foot metal panels
11 four foot tall rebar
10 ten pound bags of concrete ( the same concrete I used the last time)
sufficient connectors to attach rebar to metal panels

tools:

drill (s)
bits
pick axes, maybe a big one and a small one
concrete forms  ( may be able to recycle the ones I used for the canopy )
shovels, containers and other stuff I can't think of right now

This one goes into the construction subseries of the off-the-grid posts.

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useful links,notes, and a drawing

freezer boxes
20 feet shipping container  Idea:  put greenhouse on top of conex in order to shield from hot sun.

10 gallon aquarium tanks  for growing spirulina ( link to how-to's on the subject )

growing bananas

Note: no attempt here to draw to scale.

Update:

There is no need for either conex.  Actually, I just want a windbreak and the conex seemed like a pretty good idea.  Instead of conex, I may think up something else.  Perhaps a fence made of metal and rebar?

Here's an RV park in Sierra Blanca, but I don't think anybody stays there.  The last review was in 2012, for heavens sake.  I think I saw it while I was there, but I wasn't thinking of staying there or anything.  The whole town is pretty depressed.  If it weren't for the fact that it was the county seat, I think it would be a ghost town.

Update:

Version 2.0 of the conex plan.  This includes a lot of fencing.  It should be cheaper than a second conex.

As with other drawing above, not to scale.

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date

No time to say hello or goodbye.  In a big hurry to go nowhere, it seems.