Hi,
I recently watched a video of a young man living in a tiny house. The guy was trying to live "sustainably", and seemed to be doing a good job of it. I will post video below.
The man mentioned living in someone's backyard, taking care of 6 gardens in his area in Florida. Either he had a job, or earned through his gardening efforts. Last year he earned $8,000, and the previous year $5,000. I did some math, and $8,000/52 weeks is $153/week. I'm pretty sure my family makes $153/week in POOR eating choices. Wasted money.
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I don't live in Florida, but western West Virginia is considered a southern state, indeed our Winters are half and half warm and cold. But not northwest Iowa cold.
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I have a three, maybe 4 bedroom house, a wife and teenage son. I am gone most of the time as I drive truck over the road.
I have a nice backyard that would support a great garden.
My wife had a mini stroke a few years ago and no longer is comfortable with cooking meals, and her doctor doesn't want her to drive.
Our son is currently being homeschooled, but he, and more importantly we, suck at it. The county's alternative school sucks too. The kid is bright, just needs hands-on direction.
We have a car, if you're licenseable.
More opportunity; our house needs some remodeling, but we have at least one working bathroom. The roof is getting either shingles, or metal roofing in the near future. The kitchen needs updated as the cabinets and countertops came over on the Mayflower, maybe. We have a nice glass top stove, and two year old side-by-side fridge, we're not total neanderthals.
Yes there's handyman, preferably handywoman things to do. These would all be attempted as funds permit.
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My questions to you all would be:
If room and board is provided, how much might a stipend need to be?
I saw something talking about insurance, heck if I could afford that I would hire a contractor. West Virginia has a pretty good program for the weak of purse.
What am I not considering?
I'm not looking for a couple, that brings it's own problems.
Here's the link to that video
Nicole,
Thank you for this post, I know it's a couple years old, but very relevant to why I am at permies today.
I was looking for a certain individual, and thought permies people might be very good candidates.
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Hi Raven,
I don't understand the photo, but I don't get out much. :/
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I was up by the Canadian border today, I think you are on the opposite side of the country though.
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Mike
Raven,
I never thought about testing the buying more than one, I did think it would be great if it would.
It did seem to make a bit of a difference.
Since I want you to succeed, I went ahead with the order. Money in your pocket can make a guy dangerous.
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Best of luck with your endeavors.
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P.S.
On money changing hands, I owed a friend some money. Ed showed me Zelle, a bank to bank platform that had zero charges. I don't know if it would work for you, I am sure you would need cash in hand before sending products, I would.
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Mike
Hi Raven,
I just placed an order for one of your calendars, that shipping and handling is a sticker-shock-moment.
I was thinking of sending one to each of my four sisters, two in Iowa, two in Arizona, but at 40 dollars for shipping.... Not too sure now.
You evidently need a method of getting orders fulfilled on this side of the border.
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On marketing, I always have ideas there.
My mind just went off a tangent... Seems to me one of the permie people's was a contributor to Mother Earth magazine.
On that idea, I was thinking an interesting article talking about the hurdles of money-making down on the farm might pique an editor into publishing it. Hence getting your products in the limelight. Same with that Grit magazine.
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I am always going back to Jay Abraham's host-beneficiary relationships. Your products, someone else who has the counter space(maybe a few at your local convenience store), the customers, the rabid buyers.
My niece has a blog where she features items she likes, or has been sent for her to hawk.
There's countless blogs, and businesses that might like to trade their mention for a percentage of the profit.
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In the meantime, I want to skip the Etsy middleman, deal directly with you. How do I send you the $$ for 8 of these, and I will ship from here... Maybe at book rate. I'm the West Virginia order on Etsy.
I have my own old house that I need to remodel.
I liked the idea of your open kitchen model, and I am wondering if it is working out for you?
I have a new sink to install, but the counter is in need of updating, as well as the cabinets. It's amazing how one thing leads to another, and another.
Holy smokes!
You sure have created a beautiful project.
My internet is a bit slow, so I only have seen a small fraction of pictures and videos.
I think you have more artsy skill in your pinky, than I have in my whole body.
Especially liked the king bed with kid area at foot of bed, I really hated our previous home as the baby's room was three rooms away. Now that he's almost a teenager, I can appreciate separation. Definitely will check out your YouTube channel.
Paul Wheaton,
I know I am not very consistent with my "flavor of the day" mindset. Awhile ago I came looking for my Kickstarter stuff. You had pretty much got me squared away, I had used a different email for my Kickstarter login, so I wasn't getting my stuff. It's hard to remember two years ago, but I think I saw the candy. It's nowhere to be found now.
I don't know if DVD's ever showed up, I read where you said you sent them all out.
I know I have two logins, tried both for candy.
Mike
Dale Hodgins wrote:I was listening to the radio and someone mentioned getting out of the rat race. It occurred to me that rats set their own hours and aren't really part of that race.
I had my wife draw the cartoon below. I think my words need to go in a little caption thing or maybe it's called a word bubble to show what the rat is thinking.
Maybe he needs a briefcase or something else to indicate that he quit a job. Cartoon animals often have jobs usually reserved for humans. :-)
I thought of this idea before. Finally figured you might be able to use it as an income stream.
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I see those missing person alerts, Amber alerts, they give the make, model and color of vehicle, plus the plate number.
What if you created an app that people could speak the description into?
"Oh. That's what a green Toyota Celica looks like."
Raven,
What I see here is a future "How to" or a "Guess What I Learned About Selling Stock Photos"(I kinda like that title, but it's yours if you want it.)
Between the hands on, and the chatrooms, and all the studying, I think you probably already can write the 2.0 version. Give it a year and you will have the encyclopedia version. Seriously, sell an electronic copy that gets all updates. A hard copy that includes photos you uploaded, with watermarks. And access to the updated digital version.
I was racking my brain for possible host beneficiary ideas. You mentioned electrical outlets. What if you went looking for electrical product companies, electricians, etcetera that have blogs? What do they already use for photos? Do they have a Facebook following?
It would be really easy to do research on these types, then see what they like by what they already have/use. Then go to your stock photo outlets to see what they already have, and what gaps you could fill.
I'm not really, have just taken to sleeping alone of late. Perhaps something that happens when you have been together most of your life, the kids are gone and you just want to listen to a book before you sleep...then hear no snoring and feel no movement. It's been rather lovely here alone in this little room.
Hi Cris,
I was looking back through the photos posted in here, your background picture made me think of a "picture harp". I don't know if there is such a thing, but I could see it as great fun for adults and kids alike.
Maybe make them as a picture frame, customers add their own photos. Probably better be a plexiglass cover.
;)
