Rob Dooley

thomas rubino wrote:The pumps are working, and the Black and White is still under power!
The list is almost all gone!  
My cheese is no longer in danger of sliding off!
This is as good as it gets. I will still need to do some repair work, but it can wait until 2026 before making it to the top of the list!

Thomas, that is a joy to behold - I am so glad to see you can still use that beautiful oven without worry for now!
I am pretty gimped up, but still functional - if you need help with that next year, let me know, I will do my best to come help - you are so helpful on this forum, payback is in order!

Dang, I go on a road trip and out of touch, and I miss this!
so sorry to see that Thomas. I think all my thoughts have been covered - but welcome to retirement - I agree, I have never been busier.
I am trying to figure out if I have anything that could help to offer - but at least if you need something, let us know - I am willing to bet there are lots of people that would try to find stuff/help somehow. my new place (I haven't rocked all of the road yet) is a wee bit of an accessibility issue - but where I put the 20 yards of 1 1/2 rock was a hero last trip out. not tempting fate until the ground thaws out enough to let what has thawed drain out. unusual storm made a mess.
anyway - I am catching up around here, and could put some time and energy into finding/sourcing if you need something!
Rob

Jen, funny, I forgot that PO part of it myself - the property is  nka - "no known Address" - seems to be peculiar in that county - but even the people in the municipal cluster - no mail delivery. the PO boxes takes years on the wait list, so "general delivery" is all we will get. apparently the DMV is willing to use RTS (range, Section,Township, and then lot) for drivers license. but good luck getting things delivered.

Nancy - if your radios can be computer programmed, sometimes you have to use the factory software, lots but not always a Program called "Chirp" will be able to work it, and makes it very easy to setup what you want. I have several (many, most hams have a fetish for collecting them all!) different brands and models of radios - I really like that it is basically in an excel style - so one can copy and paste into another radio file.
other than very specific event programs, I have every radio setup identical - I don't use "channel" much, but every data entry location is the same - so if I am out remote from my gear, I can tell someone at my base to go to a channel on my base to get where we have better coverage.
biggest thing to remember - antenna is the most important part. the best radio can't get out without a decent antenna, but a crappy radio can get out good with a good antenna. the factory rubber duck style that come on most HT's usually need an upgrade....

out where I am going the people will share water out of their well with you if they have one - for a while at least, until you can get setup. I have three places that have already offered. I have found a community of people that I should have landed in many years ago. seems like the best of people have escaped out there.

Nancy Gardner wrote:I have been looking for a place. Real estate prices went crazy so I am waiting to see what happens.  Hopefully I will find someone needing to sell a part of their land.
I live in a small city that has its own power and water.  I store about 300 gallons of water in barrels, have a sun oven, a laundry station,  a solar generator and started raising quail.   Last year I made the decision to start getting use to using these things.  It was a good decision.  Found I lacked a cable that went to the solar panels to recharge the generator.  Also figured I needed to get a few more panels for my energy needs.  
I just got a radio for communications and am learning how to use it as well as networking with others to practice using them.  
Using what I have when it’s not an emergency has taught me where I need to improve.

Nancy -you are spot on with getting used to things prior to emergencies - and how you train will become how you respond very quickly with practice. I am a Ham operator plus GMRS as well. I have a couple repeaters and help people whenever I can with radio. I will never claim to be an expert, but I do work a lot of events - for practice, and I just worked a 200 mile dogsled race - that was the most awesome thing I have ever done!
I might be able to answer some radio questions - and I am sure there are others, but it is a field I am pretty strong in.
also, land is fairly cheap still where I am going - maybe a pm if you are interested. if you don't like high desert and sagebrush, might not be "the Place"

John C Daley wrote:Rob, lots of rain and yet you run a well.
Was it habit or lack of confidence with rainwater  to use just rainwater?
I actively encourage use of rainwater alone since I believe its cleaner and better value than well water.

John,
I bought this place in 1992 after getting a divorce and needing a place to at least store what I had left.
Now, I grew up on what would be called a homestead nowadays, and I never knew people didn't process their own food.
As in: at 10 years old I had to feed the horses before I could have breakfast. I had to process the meat birds every spring -completely. also the meat rabbits. it was my job to make sure we had enough kindling for the next week before I could go play on the weekends. at 12 I was handed a chainsaw and then it was also my job to put up 3 cords of firewood before I got summer break. as a kid, having the the rest of summer completely free to just go, and having as far as I could walk in the coast range available to explore, I think i was pretty spoiled.
and motivated to fill the woodshed!
and no, if I was out exploring and not home, I didn't have to feed any animals. at 11, I was gone for a couple weeks at a time, by myself, "backpacking/exploring. I have actually woken up to being surrounded by a herd of elk.
 so - after the divorce in  92, I bought 10 wooded acres- already had a manufactured home, already had the well. my job had me on the road for a week or two at a time. so until I was getting close to retirement, I didn't have much time to make this what I wanted.
I have had tanks to catch rainwater for the garden - but most of the buildings had asphalt shingles and I am not about to try and poison myself when the well costs me about $1.85 a month on the electric bill. convenience, for the most part.
roofs got replaced with steel as it came about, also, the 50 acre grass seed field to the south of me is a well established Canadian goose zone during their migrations. so for a little over a week twice a year, it is a given that everything - including vertical walls and windows - will get strafed with goose poop. extremely covered.
Now that I have neighbors on the other three sides - across the road for two of those sides sides, I have a 20 mph corner and  road on two sides -I no longer have the tranquil place I wanted to retire to - I have purchased 20 acres out where there is no one, in the high desert that gets about 1 foot of rain a year. 4386 feet, it shows on the gps and the county records.
I will still do as much rain catch as I can - everything will have steel roofs - but I will still have to supplement, and as I get more attached to this 20, I don't even want to leave, even to haul water.
I can haul 700 gallons at a time, so with the catch at certain times of the year, I will only have to haul once a month. Summer - keeping the garden (mostly greenhouse) as well as my needs - will be twice a month.
I have two 550 tanks I was using to catch, and transport legal I have a 325 and a 425. and before the flaming starts on vehicle capabilities, I have a one ton dually truck and a 14k 18' flatbed trailer. I could haul over 1200 gallons and not be overloaded legally. common sense tells me not to consistently load a live load to capacity.
 the 1550 tanks will be for water storage, be it clean rain catch or hauled.
but if I ever find a well driller with an "on sale special" I will get a well drilled, as I don't want to beat my truck and trailer up on the incredibly rough roads hauling water for the rest of my life. directions to my 20 include "turn off the paved road 11 miles out of the unincorporated town, go down that gravel road to my un-named county dirt road and go 1/2 mile on the barely wide enough for a pickup road.  I was out there last week and it is frozen hard - and the dirt road is fill of puddles (currently frozen - 1 degree F when I arrived) - only one of the puddles of ice broke for that half a mile - so it was mini ice road truckin'. LOL
short answer, I was never home long enough to do the current place any justice, and with the very restrictive county I am currently in - one MUST mow grass/vegetation over 6" tall, or they will come in with their machines and destroy it all, and then bill you for three people and two machines at an extremely high rate. so instead of trying to fight it all, I am escaping.
I hope the long version doesn't make you sorry you asked!

I currently have electricity and internet, but the place is up for sale - and our 20 acres of bliss we are moving to is completely off-grid. super quiet, and a 360 degree mountain view.
we use a 720 watt 12 volt solar array here to power my Ham radios, and make some 120 stuff run with an 1800 watt true sine inverter - all of this is 25 years old, so probably update to 48 volts and a wind-turbine, since the new place has a bit more air movement. - we normally hit around $52 a month for the electric at this place. a 120 foot deep well. and lots of rain!

OK, I am always late to the party - but this might help the next sunburn.
an essential oil with oregano is amazing. I have been told the best is from the Mediterranean, but it was what I spotted first in my medicine chest one time many years ago after welding for a number of hours, and having forgotten to cover my arms and button my shirt up all the way - I was pretty much glowing red. the next day after using the oil, I actually forgot about the burns until dinner time.
so, then next sunburn I managed to get, I remembered that experiment, and did a test stripe with it across my chest and on my arms. amazing difference. Did get a lot of laughs at the stripes.... at least I hope it was the stripes? if the sunburn is mild, I find it to be a better tan the next day.
Anyway, it is now my go-to for any mild burns.
but the stripes stayed for a while - apparently the sooner it gets applied, the better it helps.

What a fun thread!
we have a building called "The far side" - some trails a riding mower can squeak through on - years ago before the trees got too big, one trail went across the property diagonal, I dubbed it "The Highway".
We have the orchard trail, the cut-off, and one for my wonderful cat - "Bubs Trail". miss him a lot - we would go for walks, they joined up enough to do a squared-off figure 8 - we would spend about an hour or so doing those trails. also the orchard trail, and the cut-off trail.
 we have a section we call Moredor, and we have the dark woods.
buildings have been "the watershed" - "the woodshed" - "The radio shak", and this concept will carry over to the next place.
 "back driveway" is only traversable during the summer with a real vehicle, the carts and mowers are light enough to get over it most of the year,
Chickens seem get get named, despite my objections, most notable was "my favorite" - I didn't name her, but she was a pretty amazing girl. Fluffy butt was the boss on the last crew we had. we would watch her spend the twilight hour rounding up all the other birds and getting them in the coop - and she would really stress when she couldn't find them all. We would laugh until the tears flowed, watching the chicken on the roof watching the "boss" running around the are trying to find her....
I am currently in the process of trying to get this place sold, and setting up in central Oregon - lots of permies influence going into the planning. 20 acres of off grid heaven. just waiting to get out of here now. trying to get the county to let me have some influence on the road name - not sure how well that is going. but the big posts with the top across at the driveway entrance needs to be Lazy something - but still playing with that.... but a rmh warmed,  in the ground greenhouse is probably the second building planned.

unfortunately, this really explains why no one is happy with the system. between the three of us, we have three different scales.
I wouldn't have a number for unconscious, but I don't remember any pain until after they drug me out of the morgue and I came to in ER being x-rayed. I don't usually end up in front of a doctor on any kind of a regular basis.
Since I was in a lot of pain from 16 to 35, I was already well acquainted with just dealing with it.
I will say that since I found pain pills unacceptable, I did( Last 10 years) find that a good acupuncturist can work miracles. I am less impressed with western medicine - that has let the bean counters take over our care.

Pearl Sutton wrote:

Christopher Weeks wrote:So when my back hurt so much I could barely walk two weeks ago and I had to go get muscle relaxers to manage the spasm, it was awful but nothing like that 7, so I told them a five. But they saw me hobbling around and wincing and thought I should have said a higher number. "I don't know...it hurts, give me drugs!"

Thus the lady in John F Dean's post who said it was a 10. She MEANT "I seriously HURT, PAY ATTENTION to my pain!"
There needs to be better words.

I totally agree, Pearl - there needs to be a better way - or training - my PCP has a chart with descriptors under each number in her exam rooms - trying to help people give them an accurate number - now she is one of what I have seen lately as one of the minority - she actually cares and wants to help. I had a back injury at 16. ER wanted to send me to a surgeon to fuse the lower 3 vertebra. Dad said NO.
I never stood up straight again, until age 35. (that fix is another story)
 I got tired of the pain meds by 18, and wanted to be functional enough to enjoy life. pain meds were taking away my quality of life, and so I learned to deal.
2 1/2 years ago, I was in a bad highway speed motorcycle accident that pretty much destroyed me physically - apparently my PCP was in a wreck the same week - but a few months later I hobbled in with a walking stick to keep my balance, and wanted her to tell me why my left leg and especially ankle (one of the distractive injuries on the big day) didn't seem to be getting better.
the nurse pointed to the chart, and asked me where I was. I told her probably 7.
 when the Dr came in, she asked why I chose that number - and I told her it was because I can't even stay focused reading - the pain knocks the thoughts out of my head. she told me she wanted a better system, as she struggled with being on the other side of it as a patient for her ordeal. she then told me that it is all subjective - for the patient and the care provider, and she also said that as soon as someone says 12, then they just have to assume they are exaggerating, as 12 comes after 10 and isn't on the chart.
she knows me well enough that she recognizes my laughs and attempts at humor are how I deal with being nervous or hurting - and yet her nurse assumed I was just trying to get pain pills. there is part of the problem.   I refused them at the ER, and it was on my file - and I wasn't asking for them at that visit.
a better system would sure be nice, but then all of us need to follow the same system........and pain is obviously not the same for everyone. my assumption on the current system is if it is a 10, one wouldn't be able to tell them. but how long does one have to live at 8 or 9 before 10 doesn't seem as bad as it should?
what I run with now - I just tell them (if it is what is going on) that it hurts enough I can't relate it to a number. if it is below what I would call a 5, I probably wouldn't be in front of them.