Yesterday, Nova talked for half an hour, about how Sonny used to be. When she was 11 or 12, she was offered a full time job that paid 1500 pesos a month. About $35. This was far more money than she had ever had. Working 7 hours a day while going to school, paid $0.25 which wasn't enough for transportation both ways and her lunch. So it was tempting. All of them started jobs when they were six years old. Sonny is 5 years older and was working full time, also earning a pittance. He strongly discouraged his sister's quitting school to work full time and he brought them money whenever he could, so that they could eat well. Nova was not to eat anything expensive like chicken or fish at her restaurant job. Instead she was expected to live on rice and whatever she could glean from the tables as she cleaned up the mess. Many times her employer wouldn't give her the 10 pesos she was owed each day. Sonny brought her food and gave her money during five years where she was essentially a slave... He was a top student and an aspiring boxer. He had friends and lots of ambitions for a guy who was raised around people who had seemingly none. Once his mental problems started , he moved back to the village with his mother, and has been with her ever since. Nova wants the old Sonny back , and I have promised to do my best.

Yes, nutrition is very important and nutritional knowledge almost non-existent even amongst educated Filipinos. Many believe that rice is very essential, although it's mostly empty calories. There have been many times when Sunny may have had enough calories but it was all starch. I totally understand the trigger thing. One of my brothers allowed his children to run rampant and do drugs as young as 13. They now have what is believed to be a lifelong schizophrenic condition. There's bits of mania in there but it's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. Nova is the only member of the family who seems to have a good grasp on nutrition and on the importance of being very consistent, with medication, sleep and behavioral expectations. The others are simply into putting out fires when they come up.

We will eventually leave Sonny in the hands of his youngest sister , Isabel. The older sister is done with him.

We tried education 7 months ago and it was a complete failure. Sonny has seen enough failure in his life. That's part of why I want to come up with something simple for him, where he is likely to succeed. Once we get some land, I will put thousands of stakes in the ground and it will be his job to dig holes to a certain depth, for tree planting. It will later be his job to make sure the trees are all watered. Being paid anything will be contingent on survival.

When Sonny is thinking clearly , he has a burning desire to get a job that will allow him to get a motorcycle and to buy animals. I want to provide him with the animals to look after and once he can show that he's stable enough, he will be able to ride a motorcycle that I already own. I'd like him to get good enough at it that he can either become a farm manager for me, or we could set him up with a small acreage nearby. His sister would need to own that land, because I wouldn't want to risk him being duped out of it. Anyone with a condition like his, is easy prey for those looking to take advantage. We were in a small town on Bohol, where a guy living at the market, obviously had mental issues. The culture of this town is not so dog eat dog, as it is where Sunny is from. Everyone at the market gets that man to do little tasks, and they make sure that he is fed and clothed and has other things that he needs. It's amazing the difference in cultures one Island over, or even within the same island. My wife's family have the misfortune of coming from a village dominated by drunkards. We are seeking land in the better places, and I expect that Sonny will remain with us for quite a while. no matter where we go

I'm glad this thread is in the cider press. I didn't see the need for that when I first posted the thread, that was rolled into this one, but something has come up. Decisions have been made based on that. These are my decisions to make, since I'm the one paying for it all. I won't be forcing anyone to do anything, just in case someone wants to get all uptight over that. I will simply make my financial  contribution, contingent on doing as I say.
.............
I think we may have gotten to the root of Sonny's mental condition.

Sonny appears to be a victim of religion. Catholicism specifically. A jungle version, that probably incorporates some of what was going on, in Mindanao, in prehistoric times. He was a normal functioning young man until he joined a bush cult that encouraged members to go up into the mountains on various quests. They were not to eat during this time. He was encouraged to go weeks without eating. Water was also sometimes withheld and they did drugs. Visions and apparitions were considered good things. His mission was to find a white bird, bring it back, and sacrifice it. I'm not sure what that was supposed to accomplish. This group practices crucifixion, self-flagellation, starvation and treks into the wilderness similar to the story of Jesus in the wilderness. Nova's grandmother has been a long-term member of a group like that. She hasn't seen her in five years and isn't sure if she will see her again. They have a mixture of peace and love Jesus stuff, and lots of evil spirits stuff.

Sonny has never been right since his trek. The villagers took this to mean that he had picked up a demon along the way. That's why they killed the pig in front of him, two years ago. The demon was supposed to enter the pig.

 A thinking person might conclude that it could be starvation and drug-induced psychosis. There are drugs that can help with this. During starvation events, the body can consume essential proteins that the brain needs. So we are going to pursue that.

 If he is able to get right in his head, I will make a complete abstinence from religion, a condition of further help with education, housing and everything else. It will not be allowed. It's always going to be a bit of a challenge, because the minute I turn my back on anyone except Nova, they go running right back to the Stone Age.

 I bought him a tablet last year. Sometimes he walked around the apartment chanting things that he saw on religious sites. I'm going to see what I can do, to block religious content on the internet. He needs to not involve himself in any of that. Once he's a self sustaining adult, he can decide if he wants to go back to religion.

Those tractors were the first to be built without a frame. The engine, transmission and rear axle are in very strong  housings, all bolted together into one giant mass. Orchard managers want them because they sit so low and can go under branches that larger tractors would hit.

I'm not sure if it was these ones or the Fordson, but one or more of the tractors put out by Henry Ford, were built to be the exact width of a railcar, in order to minimize shipping cost.

I find hundreds of photographs that I have put in this forum and I find many replies to various threads. Not much else since the majority of what I've ever written is within the forum. I do everything in my own name. I use my own phone number and address. I don't hide anything except for my password for my bank account.

If somebody wants to kill me, all they have to do is phone me up, and tell me they have a bunch of free building materials in some desolate location, and I will show up alone. I'm just not going to live in fear of the internet.

This stuff is all discoverable for well known celebrities and politicians , so my guess is that nut jobs, will go after them instead of me.
........
I often find extremely insightful answers to pressing questions, only to discover that I authored them. It's nice to find something you agree with. It can be worse than the way Facebook tailors things to fit with a person's previous activity.

I don't think most people are built to be giddy with happiness most of the time. If they were, I doubt that many would get much done.

Constant craving and working towards goals, is what drives progress. My dog Peggy was a Labrador Retriever and she was seemingly, happy all the time. She didn't achieve anything in her 14 years, as is expected for dogs. If a human behaved like that, we might call him lazy.

Perhaps it's better to ask ourselves, am I happy, or pleased or satisfied with how things are going in my life? I could be pleased with how the job is progressing, although portions of it may not be pleasant. Being satisfied or somewhat satisfied or just a little bit satisfied might be easier to quantify than being happy.

Happiness can be very fleeting. Children in particular will be over the top happy, if you tell them you're going somewhere where there's a ferris wheel, roller coasters and candy floss. Those same kids might be overtired on the way home, start bickering and before you know it, one of them's crying and he's forgotten all about being happy at his good fortune, of being taken on this excursion.

Some will find out that you're going on this trip and that they each get $20, and they may try to negotiate that up to 25 or $30. When this doesn't happen, they may pout, all the way to the amusement park. So for them, happiness was very fleeting. It's probably best if we ask, whether the child's needs are being met and they are getting along with others most of the time. You can't necessarily make them happy.

I've decided to pay a little extra to bring them back sooner. I don't know why Isabelle bought the tickets as she was leaving the terminal upon her arrival, but that's what she did. I'm bringing them back early because we don't know what will happen with Sonny.

The plan had been for Isabel to go there and monitor her brother, while being sure to administer his medicine daily. She arrived at just about the same time as her older sister. After one day, that sister , the one who is the most fed up and embarrassed by her family, headed back to the comfort of her employer's house in the city. Then, after another day, Isabel took off to visit her boyfriend's family. I don't know what was done with the medication, but the only thing that could have worked, would have been to give it to one of her aunts, so they could make sure it was taken. Within 2 days of her departure, Sonny was naked again and he had run off to visit other villages where he is not welcome. This time they rounded him up after only one day, and Isabel again administered medication. She has been with him since that time, and she's anxious to leave the hell hole of her birth.

Once he arrives in Cebu, Nova will administer medication daily. I've instructed her to make it a condition of being fed. If he won't take his pill, he is not to eat. We will see how that goes. I have no trouble being firm on something like that, but Nova has always wanted to feed the multitudes. :-)

Do you do this out of financial necessity, or is it just that you are highly driven?

I think sometimes it's important to look at what we're doing and ask, what would happen if I just stopped? Or what would happen if I quit this, and did something else? My guess, is that the sky wouldn't fall and that you'll be just fine. But I don't know the details of it.

Sometimes, other people's expectations get in the way. My ex-wife and one brother were very insistent that the sky would fall and my life would be destroyed, if I pursued the woman I married. I'm still here, and if you look over head , you'll see that the sky is intact.

I think that what makes a person happy can change quite a bit throughout their lifetime. When I was 15, I knew that being a billionaire would make me happy. It still would, but I can be happy without being a billionaire. So, there's not a single path. There could be multiple paths for the same individual.

Once I became an adult, I had a burning desire to own property. I would not have been happy, if I was not able to achieve this. For me, success at my endeavours makes me happy and failure does not.

At some point, the well-being and education and everything else concerning my children, was one of the more important things. Now they are both adults with good jobs, so I don't actually have to provide anything anymore. Knowing that my kids are both self sustaining, is satisfying and a relief at the same time. Some people keep shoveling money to the kids until they're in their thirties. My youngest graduated with her teacher's degree at 21 1/2 and this ended my need to supply her or her mother with money.

So, for a few years , it was just me and therefore all attention was paid to my business and land. I was happy to keep plugging away at that, but knew I wanted more. I went in search of a wife, and found her.

After getting married, I became responsible for the happiness of two people. They say that you can't really make someone else happy, but I disagree. We each make the other very happy. But every rose has its thorns. Some of her family are a thorn in the side. I knew going into it, that I was taking on a whole family. It's like I'm raising teenagers, although only the youngest sister is actually a teenager. I have four young adults, who are all quite behind academically, due to lifelong poverty, and one mother-in-law, with a mental disorder. Not western world, wrong side of the tracks poverty. Your family owns two spoons and a scrap metal cook pot poverty. And you could possibly starve to death, be raped, murdered etc... So now, the happiness and well-being of this family, is one of my chief projects. Success will be measured in how quickly all of them are able to get back on track academically, and make their own way in the world, well above the poverty line.

It seems pretty simple. Get everybody back in school and then help them get some sort of business or job that pays well. But everyone has a poverty mindset. All, except for my wife and her oldest sister, concentrate on very short term goals. They are mostly concerned with achieving financial returns, a bit higher than was happening before my arrival. The youngest sister is living with my wife, but instead of taking me up on the offer of full-time education, she is leaving behind a job that paid $100 a month and included housing , so that she can work at the mall, making $150 a month. Without food and housing expenses, this leaves her with a huge amount of disposable income for someone her age in the Philippines. Perhaps this looks like success and happiness to someone who just turned 18. I have tried to impress it upon her, that with the right education, she could seek overseas employment and earn that monthly income, every day. All of the siblings have heard this, but only my wife truly understands the vast income gap that exists between those scraping away in the villages, and those who take overseas employment. If all goes really well, they will all be self-sustaining within 4 years. I'd be happy with that.

Within the next 15 years, I may want to semi-retire. I'm 55. At that point, happiness will mean being financially secure enough to do that, while living mostly on my spice plantation and young rainforest. I won't need to make much money at all, once all of this is in place. But I'd like to have money, because to me, it's society's number one way of measuring success. I don't know if I'll ever be old enough to not have this desire for money, and for money to be a big marker for how happy I am. I'm not interested in personal growth, in this regard. That's how I am and I've accepted it.

I think linseed oil would give it a leathery look and would prevent material from dusting off every time the kids touch it. Probably best to be an outdoor summer project, since it takes a while to dry and if you put too much, there's the spontaneous combustion thing. I doubt that could happen with something like this, so let's just say we're going outside because of the nice sunny days. Linseed oil is often used on cob benches , to give it a durable finish and avoid everyone having clay dust on their clothing.

I like the heavy cardboard that comes as refrigerator boxes and other boxes for new appliances.

Cardboard can be difficult to join, if you don't want to use a lot of duct tape and glue. My solution is to use small dimension lumber, at joints, and a stapler. The kind of stapler you would use in construction, not a paper stapler. Wood as small as 1 x 1 or as large as 2 x 2 can be used in the corners.

The amount of wood sawing is very minimal, and the cardboard can be cut with a box cutter knife. This makes for a very stiff structure, due to the wood, and very light, because of the cardboard. I've actually seen very cheaply built stuffed furniture, that uses this type of skeleton.

Cardboard can almost always be obtained for free , so it's just a matter of some very cheap spruce or pine, and the staples.
........
Edit ..... Earlier today, I was planning how to build a sort of sleeping coffin, out of plywood , so that my bed can be encased within a box, in the back of a cargo van. This serves the purpose of keeping the bed clean and allowing a very small electric heater, to have a chance of being enough. Now, I'm thinking that only the base needs to be plywood. The large lid could be this combination of 2 x 2 and  cardboard. So, now I'm working out an alternative plan. Glad we had this chat.
......
I'm not sure what the reinforcement is in the picture below, but just imagine that thin, light wood runs along the same spots. It would really stiffen things up, without adding a lot of expense or weight

I dump pee just about everywhere. When there is number 2, to dispose of, it is either buried at the point of production, or it's in the form of relatively dry chunks in a dry soil and sawdust toilet. I never pee in it.

These can be stored a long time without smell. Eventually I either get them to the farm, or to a spot where I have holes that can be filled. Usually it's somewhere near the property line on job sites, where big plants have been dug up. I put it in the bottom and cover it up. There's almost always a new house being started within a couple months of my departure. There's some chance that someone might dig in that area in a year or so, once the house is finished. I try to pick spots where bushes are mature enough to gobble up the nutrients, but not so far gone that they are likely to be replaced.

I did some tree work for a yoga teacher. He asked if I do yoga, and I told him, no.

An hour later, I was standing on a post, similar to where your bird is, on one leg with the other leg stretched out behind me, to balance the weight of the pole saw. He informed me that , I do in fact do yoga, I've just found a way to get people to pay for it.

It's always funny when birds or squirrels arrive without noticing that I'm up there. They seem to really get startled. A peregrine falcon definitely saw me, but that didn't stop him from landing on a nearby butt that I had just cut off, to eat his pigeon.

Ravens can be quite vocal with their displeasure, if you do tree work too close to the nest. Crows can be major assholes, guarding a piece of territory for no apparent reason. I've had them knock my hat off.

The owner of this nest made sure that I saw it as he buzzed around my head. I was about to cut the branch, but later put a rope on it and lifted it above the driveway.

Mike Barkley wrote: A man went to visit his 90 year old grandfather. While eating the breakfast of eggs and bacon prepared for him, he notices his plate isn't clean. So he says, "Grandfather, are these plates clean?"

His grandfather replies, "Those plates are as clean as cold water can get them, so go on and finish your meal."

That afternoon, while eating the hamburgers his grandfather made for lunch, he noticed many little black specks around the edge of his plate so again he asked, "Grandfather are you sure these plates are clean?"

Without looking up from his burger, the grandfather says, "I told you those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them, now don't ask me about it anymore."

Later that day, they went out to get dinner. As he was leaving the house, the man's grandfather's dog who was lying on the floor started to growl and would not let him pass.

His grandfather shouts, "Coldwater, get out of the way!"

I have told this one 20 times. I've made it a story about my grandfather, when I was a kid. I put on a scruffy old man voice and I have the dog guarding his bed as we try to walk past it, to go out to feed the pigs. I tried another version where we get to the barn and grandfather has brought the leftovers out. He calls over the boar, pets it, and says "here's your snack, Coldwater."

There's probably some high drama in that manual.

I was on Google, looking at the most popular sayings by Christopher Hitchens. Lots of them are quite biting, but sometimes they are just funny.

He was not fond of people who don't really care, asking, "how's it going?" So he habitually responded, "a bit early to tell."

That's an admirable goal Kc.

Just in the last couple years, I've been making plans concerning my long-term health and viability. I'm 55 and have never really had a serious health problem. But Time Marches On. So part of my reasoning, in choosing to give up Demolition and Salvage, in favour of running a plantation with mostly hired labour, is that I will no longer have to rely on my muscles and joints, to provide myself with money.

My wife is far younger than me, and she will almost certainly inherit most of whatever we own, when the time comes. She is constantly questioning me about my eating, and the amount of danger I'm exposed to at work and any other thing that could affect my well being. It's kind of funny because a year ago , she thought rice was a good thing to eat a lot of. Now that she's much better educated on what people need to eat, to stay healthy, she checks on a daily basis, to make sure that I've eaten those things.

I remember hearing about the book, Happy Wife, Happy Life. And I can certainly see how that works. I have been involved with women who are generally unhappy. Not unhappy about a particular thing that I am to blame for, just unhappy generally, about the state of their work and life and family. When people are in that state of mind, they will drag you down. And people like that don't have to be your significant other. I have also worked with people who consistently voice all the reasons why they are unhappy. Some people, might state some challenge they are going through and that they are unhappy with how things are going right now, but they have some hope for the future. The ones that really drag me down, are those who have no plan for change and don't necessarily recognize that something must change, for their condition to change. I avoid those ones whenever I can. When I get down to zero on that count, I'll know that one of my metrics has been met.

My children have good careers and are completely ready to face the world without me. My wife has only had one year of relative security, in her life, and I think it will be quite a while before she is at a point where everything would go well in my absence. So that's one of my goals. I'm not sure how that would be measured, but there will be a time when she understands why I make certain financial choices. She's already got a very good idea of why I avoid certain people. That ability is very important for females in her society, to learn at a very early age. Once she is able to manage our land, and business, and all of the people associated, I will be free to retire, should I choose to. I can't actually imagine retiring, unless I'm not physically or mentally capable of going on. You don't have to be super strong and agile to be a good foreman. One of the best ones I know is in his 80s, and he still gets good production from his crew.

The number one metric that will be pretty easy to see, will be weather my goal of turning scrubland to farmland and rainforest, is consistently moving forward. Height and survival rate of trees, along with profit or at least break even with the farming portion, will be indicative of success.

There's also a touristy angle to my plans, in that I want to attract foreigners to visit, and they will pay to stay and eat. That one's pretty easy to measure. If they show up, it is successful and if they don't, it looks like I built a bunch of housing for my wife's extended family. The space will be turned into something.

One measure that I've had since my teens, would be a usefulness score for whatever it is I'm doing. It has ranged from very high to very low. Most of the really useless stuff I did for a living, was very early on, when I had no money and few options.

I had a couple really useless sales jobs and a few construction jobs where I was working for someone, of low character and we produced things of low-quality.

The bulk of my work-life has been self-employed and the majority of that doing useful things. Building or otherwise creating high-value things and recycling thousands of tons a building materials and other products.
.......
I suppose there could also be a score for who you are spending time with. I would have had a very low score during most of my early life, because the type of jobs I was doing meant that I was in the company of the wrong people. I consider many people in my parents circle at that time to have very low scores, and kids generally lack options. We had some babysitters and other acquaintances that I would never allow near my own child.

Now, I spend most of my time with people that I choose to be around, both at work and socially. I still deal with nimrods, because every family has some, but I have eliminated most really troublesome people from my life, and interaction with those I can't completely avoid, is minimized.
......
I recently got married, to the most consistently pleasant and happy person I know. It's been more than 20 years since the happiness quotient of someone else has really affected me much. And then it was almost always on the negative side. Her entire family is part of my current and future projects. There's poverty, low education and two with mental problems. A bit of a project, but something I'm tackling without getting too much on me. We have a rule, that we will help them, but they can't be in our faces or cause a whole lot of unpleasantness, if they want to continue to receive help.

My next big project, beyond the family, will be purchasing scrubland in the Philippines and turning it into a productive farm and back into some version of the rainforest that used to exist. It's a society, where I am likely to meet many people who are lower on the happiness scale and many other scales, due to poverty, ignorance and alcohol. So part of my job is to navigate that without getting too much on me. This means hiring some people and greatly increasing their happiness and economic quotient, but also avoiding the difficult ones and sometimes cutting people off completely, so that they don't suck my energy and resources. So long as things are moving forward and progress is being made, I will consider that success, economically and personally.

The way to measure that, would be to look at my land, money and other resources, along with the health and happiness of myself and family, to make sure it's always headed in the right direction. Constant vigilance and adjustment to the plan, will be necessary.

Short and spark are probably the most likely way that a blanket could ignite. But you might also have a situation where most of the blanket is nestled within other blankets, while the thermostat is in the cold air and not insulated. I think that could allow the unit to just keep adding more and more heat, since the thermostat would not sense that heat buildup. I haven't had one apart. I'm guessing a unit with multiple thermostats would be safer, if it shuts down whenever the first one reaches a certain threshold.

When things burn , it's always difficult to figure out exactly what happened.

I'm going to check out the statistics on this. If it's one in a million , I'm okay with that. I've laid in front of a fire, while wrapped in blankets. I'm pretty sure my chances of being set ablaze, were considerably more than one in a million.
.......
Here is a very safe alternative. I have had a miniature oil-filled radiator. The type that look like an old hot-water radiator but they plug in and are filled with oil. If one of these is preheated, and then shut off, it can be placed along the side of the bed with one blanket going to either side of it, so that heat rises up between the two blankets. Not a perfect system. It is just about a perfect system for heating a very small enclosed space like I described earlier. A blanket tent or other enclosed sleeping area would be heated with one of those, quite safely. And you don't have to listen to fans or something that buzzes all night.

The money that was to last until early January, is gone. Her mother called through a relative yesterday. We said no. Their tickets are already purchased and they wanted to change them to today, which would also be another expense. Food is very cheap there. If they are truly out of money it's because it was spent on other things. She can gather coconuts or something from the river.

Nova has been quite angry with her older sister, who gave up on her mother a couple years ago and said she would no longer send money. She decided to put all of her resources into getting her teacher's degree. So, for a while, it was just Nova and Isabel sending every spare peso her way. I told Nova that if I were in their situation, I would have done the same thing as her older sister. At some point, I think people in poverty need to decide to save themselves and that may mean leaving the weakest link behind. She feels the need to punish this sister now, over a pragmatic decision that was made out of necessity. In talking to her about it, I compared it to someone struggling desperately to fill a leaky bucket. I was glad yesterday, when Nova was the first one to say that we should not give them anything more, until they arrive in Cebu.

Sometimes we get a brain surgeon who decides to go with all capitals because what they have to say, is more important than anything else. I always skip over those ones and read the next post.

I've never seen anything on these proximity issues, that I would call evidence. The real risk is fire if you get a really cheap one.

Last night I found some 12 volt electric blankets for as little as $12. I'm tempted to go that route, but I would much prefer to find something that runs off an 18 volt Milwaukee battery. I don't want another charger and battery system.

I have had that happen with cheap stuff from Canadian Tire. But I also have really good Fiskars loppers that I have used professionally for several years. Thousands of cuts and a few sharpenings. I had some loppers made in St Catharines Ontario, which is a fruit growing area, that were about 30 years old. I finally sharpened them down to the very end , but they would not break. Wish I could remember the brand name.

It's 4 degrees Celsius in Victoria. I am in a 120 square foot bedroom with 9-foot ceilings. I will run a heater on the 500w setting for about 6 hours tonight. So I will consume 3 kilowatt hours or about $0.30 worth of power.

I'm heating the room to about 16 degrees Celsius.

I don't need all of this space, it's just what this house has as its smallest room. If there were a sleeping area only 1/4 this size, with a 6 foot roof , I could achieve the same temperature with one sixth of the amount of power. So it would cost $0.05 to stay warm for the night.

My bed is 6ft by 3ft. So, I could get by with heating only a 20 square foot area. If it were 6 feet tall, that would be 120 cubic feet. So it would be still quite a bit more than heating clothing, but with the advantage of having warm air. This level of heating might be achieved for 2 or 3 cents a night.

I once had a commercial building where the rooms were far too large to heat with my little electric heater. I built a blanket tent, and was able to stay quite comfortable with it on the lowest setting. It was actually very large curtains hung over top of those cheap metal stacking chairs with the plywood seat and back. Maybe 3 ft feet high. Probably 100 cubic feet or so of total air space. You don't have to worry about suffocating in a spot like this , you'd really have to work at it, to make it airtight.

Kids love blanket tents. If we all had some version of them, everyone could be comfortable at night, with houses kept just a few degrees above freezing. I imagine trips to the bathroom would be quick, and you wouldn't have daughters occupying it for 45 minutes in the morning.

I think 45 degrees is a fine target temperature when trying to save energy. But much more important, is limiting the size of the space you are heating. Suppose you like to stay 20° above the exterior temperature. There's going to be a certain energy need to keep 1000 square feet at that temperature. But if you are just sleeping, a small area of say 30 or 40 square feet could be kept pretty much as warm as you like, and it would still use far less energy than heating up the whole house. The ceiling doesn't need to be 8 feet over your head when you are sleeping. A sleeping enclosure with some sort of roof, would allow you to breathe warm air, within the enclosure. 30 inch or so above the sleeper, is enough room so that heads don't get banged and it wouldn't be claustrophobic for most people.

Heat will leak away from a nice warm sleeping area, but it's not gone, it just heats the rest of the house enough that the pipes don't freeze.

Modern heating systems generally keep all of the space in a house at the same temperature. I actually like the extreme heat gradient that happens when there's a wood stove. When you first come in from outside, stand near the stove. If you're too hot, move away from the stove and make room for Grandma. She's always cold. We used to visit our relatives Earl and June, who had a really nice kitchen wood stove. Old ladies and little kids were usually closest to the stove. Well-dressed mature adults didn't seem to need so much heat. So there would have been no advantage to keeping the whole place the same temperature, and it was also not possible with the radiant set up they had. The heat gradient allowed everyone to find their comfort zone.

When managing moisture, I've found that ventilation is much more important than heating. I usually don't heat my spaces but I always ventilate. A friend was living in his van with a propane heater, which made it very moist. I was in mine with no heat. I was always comfortable and he complained constantly.

Looks like a character from either Star Wars or The Seventh Seal.

I have tried on a Milwaukee hunting jacket. It heats up very quickly. I was looking at it as a sleeping device. A way to warm up the bed quickly, when I sleep in unheated buildings. I move from job to job getting houses ready to move and tearing them down partially or completely. The only time I imagine using something like this, is for 10 or 15 minutes at  bedtime. Then I would probably take it off. My smallest Milwaukee batteries are good for 2 hours in such a jacket. Instead of wearing it, it could be used just like a blanket. That way there's no hassle when taking it off.

This hasn't been an issue for me since I'm quite accustomed to to living in comfort, while cold-weather camping. My wife, from the Philippines has never experienced outdoor temperatures below 70 Fahrenheit or 20 Celsius. About 80 is her comfort zone. So I will get her a jacket and probably an electric blanket that can be run on 110 and on 12 volt. If Milwaukee comes up with a blanket, I will buy it, since I already have lots of batteries and chargers.

It would be nice to have something that would run on 12 volt vehicle power, 18-volt Milwaukee power and regular household power. But probably cheaper to just buy one of each.

My unwrapped Christmas presents went over pretty well. We were doing it at the home of my brother Jeff. Only one other brother was coming because the others are all living at quite a distance.

I got to Jeff's place on time. My older brother got there quite late. At some point I dumped the bag out and got Jeff to try on both pairs of jeans and 3 shirts. They all fit. He was on time , being that he lives there so there was only one possible recipient at that point.

My younger brother has recently moved here and actually needed clothing , while the older one has plenty. But still, when he got there I informed brother number two that he had missed out on these items because I had to wait to eat my turkey. I gave his wife some nice kitchen stuff.

My niece is a procrastinator, so when I picked her up, she had all of her presents and 3 rolls of wrapping paper with her. The plan was to find a private spot and wrap them at my brother's house. Every surface was covered with food and knick-knacks. So after seeing that my very attractive gift bag was now empty, Tara put all of her stuff in nice bags and later dispensed gifts from them.

I got a few nice things that I will never use, so I will be re-gifting them tonight. I'm invited to a friend's house for Christmas number two. Then tomorrow night I go somewhere different, for Christmas number 3.

I was at Starbucks yesterday, and someone mentioned that they had gotten a piece of coal for the other. And this reminded me of my landlady Weng, in the Philippines. Last year, she had some fish and chicken that needed to be grilled on a charcoal burner that I had built from cob. So, we got her the thing that was at the top of her Christmas wish list. A bag of charcoal. Almost everyone in that country would welcome a bag of charcoal for Christmas. It's great for roasting pigs and cooking fish and doing other things that don't work well on the little electric hot plates that many people have.

The reindeer are back in harness and we're getting close to wrapping things up. I figure another half hour and we're done.

There's been a few hiccups. At one point I stood up when I shouldn't have and was blown off the sled, somewhere around Mount Kilimanjaro. It was a little scary coming down, but the landing didn't hurt at all. I was confronted by a group of hyenas almost immediately, but when I threw one of them about half a mile, the others backed off.

The elves were completely oblivious to my absence, until they got to a group of houses and I didn't do anything. So they retraced their path and when I saw them coming, I jumped. Turns out I can jump about 5,000 feet, which comes in pretty handy. On the first jump they swooped down towards me but I had already landed by the time they got to my position. So I jumped again and this time, they pulled the sled in under me for a flawless drop, right onto the seat of the sled. We continued on our way and had to really hurry to make up lost time.

I hit send earlier, but there's no cell service in many parts of rural Africa. We are all done now and I think it went off pretty well.

I was caught by many children, who waited up late to see me. Each time this happened, one of the elves would blow some of that dust into the kids face and then lay them somewhere safe to sleep it off.

I also caught many couples in compromising positions. Turns out that lots of people get up to some hanky panky in front of the fireplace. We went through about 100 kg of magic dust. I found out a few minutes ago that one of the elves has a photo collection, from these incidents. We've talked about how inappropriate that is, being that it's people in their private home, but he's unwilling to part with it. I think I may have to pry it out of his hands.

Another one of the elves has been stealing. We discovered a bag with a variety of things. He doesn't seem to be particular on what he steals , it's just a bit of a compulsion. We found false teeth, keys, Q-tips, several potato chips and a bunch of those little figurines that used to come in tea. He's just a compulsive grabber and doesn't even have any use for this stuff. We'll either return it next year or donate it to a charity. Every one of the little buggers has tried on the false teeth, despite my telling them that this is just not right.

Later we will do a review of what went right, and what went wrong. Millions of deserving people didn't get their gifts, and a good number of undeserving people did quite well. This happens every year, so I have to see where we're getting this list from.

The phone fell out of my pocket and although it bounced around a bit on the way down, I managed to catch it in my ass cheeks.

I was really in a bad way, being upside down for so long and getting light-headed. Then someone opened the baffle and started piling firewood and tearing paper. I thought this might be it. I might burn while in this very vulnerable position.

It's a good thing I had those beans last night. The fire was lit and I took a big breath of air before the smoke reached me. Then I waited, until the first sparks came my way. Once sparks were whipping past me, I did it. I let out a glorious fart. This sent fire shooting up the chimney and it sent me down like a jet engine, so fast, that I broke a few bricks and slid through the gap created by a rather large baffle. I know, I'm baffled to. I slid right across the living room and got the worst rug burn of my life. I was naked the last time this happened, but that's another story. An entire family was sitting on the couch, and as you might imagine, they were quite startled. Santa Claus training, I yelled as I ran out of the house and watched the sky, to see what had become of my suit.

I searched and searched, and then suddenly I saw the suit wiggling. Benedict, one of the smaller elves, was trying to put it on, so that he could claim my position as Santa Claus. I climbed up some vines that were attached to the wall, and then clawed my way to where he was. I grabbed him and then threw him hard into the snow, just like football players do when they get a touchdown. We left him there and continued on our way, after I was dressed.

We've stopped in Australia and the reindeer are getting some rest. An alternate team of kangaroos is handling things for the South Pacific run. We're just doing the harness change over and then, I must be on my way again.

This is embarrassing. I had to pee a few minutes ago, and I unzipped the suit. We are doing Englund right now. I just gave most of the Royals their slap. Then I went to the Tower of London and pried off one little jewel from one of the crowns, that I'm sure won't be missed.

Anyway , I should have pulled the zipper back up before doing any more houses. I can slip through the tiniest of cracks, but there was a big old house built in the 1700s with a big chimney, so I decided to go head-first, since that's how the old guy did it. The suit caught on some of the creosote and I went shooting down the chimney naked. Now I'm stuck here, upside down and the suit is about 25 feet above me. I'm only writing this because I need to take a breather. I'm surprised that I'm even getting reception. I shouldn't have had all those beans for supper. This is a confined space. I'm glad they aren't having a fire tonight. Well, I guess I'm going to do my backward crab crawl, but it's incredibly difficult going straight up.

A lot of things have happened since I took over the role of Santa Claus. I had a bit of spare time in the summer so me and the elves did a few laps around the globe, dealing with those on the naughty list. Quite a few flat tires, we unplugged some freezers and took money from the bank accounts of theives. The money thing became necessary, since the elves were talking about unionizing and they want back pay. The last guy hadn't paid them in 250 years. I could see paying them for the time served with me, but 250 years sort of counts as a pre-existing condition.

Last year's deliveries went pretty smoothly. If you didn't get anything, you know why. Some of you may have noticed a cloudiness to your water. The elves pee in cups if someone hasn't been nice.

The Ninja training is going pretty well. We're practicing mostly slapping. I think more serious punishments should be left to the courts. I've instructed them to give all polluters a few dozen slaps, throughout the year when they least expect it. But they still deliver one on Christmas night whenever it is deserved.

We are starting to deliver organic fertilizers. Turns out there was a spare bag. It is being loaded with mega tons of stone dust, meant to help fertility. People on the nice list can expect better growth next year. If you notice some grit on your windshield, that's me. Sorry it's not very accurate from 50,000 ft. We had to go that high because of a few close calls with air traffic.

Well I've got to get going. We start this year's deliveries in a few minutes. Hopefully it will go off without a hitch, but the elves told me that last year was a fluke. Usually, some very strange things go on, especially when we are caught in the act, by children who stay up watching and by those who covet the suit.

I'll let you know soon how it all went.

One nice thing about using a pickup truck is that you can park close and stand on the side of the truck. This is much more stable than a step ladder and you can move along most of the length of the bin, without moving the truck.

Sometimes containers are used for shipping things and it is not garbage at all. I have posted signs when I'm using a container to ship recycled wood to a mill. When someone ignored that sign , I damaged the truck. My container was on private property and I didn't invite them there.

I've also had people bring me garbage. A couple times I've found the address in their garbage. Then it gets loaded up and dumped in their driveway.

I'm not sure if this one counts. I pulled John Dorscheid out of a 40 yard container. He went in after something and then found he couldn't get out again. John was working for me. He had pulled a muscle in his shoulder and didn't think of that when he lowered himself into the bin for some scrap metal. When John was on , he was an awesome worker. When he would go on a Coke binge , I would want to throw him in the bin myself.