Ben House

There is a definite difference in the way a homesteader or farmer handles dogs and a "pet owner". I've had many dogs over the years, and just about every kind of livestock imaginable, some dogs are more disposed to hunting than others and that can be a factor; but all animals are trainable.

Years ago I had a Catahoula Leopard Dog, he was bound and determined to get into the chicken coop. One day while I was out he ended up chewing through the chicken wire (one reason I switched to welded wire), I had a flock of about 12 hens and a really good BIG rooster in there.

When I got home the hens were safe inside the elevated hen house, the dog was sitting terrified on one end of the enclosure and the rooster was dead on the other end. That rooster had absolutely no feathers, he must have fought to the bitter end. And the dog was still scared of his corpse!

Anyway, I put the dog on a chain as punishment and whooped him for about 3 or 4 minutes with the carcass of my good old rooster.

He never went after a chickens again, now was it the rooster's legendary fighting ability or the whooping? Who knows, I only know he understood implicitly that the chickens were off limits.

Pinning a dog is also a great way to let them know they are out of bounds, and it beats whipping them.

My wife and I got married when she was 18 and I was 22. We have been married more than 15 years, and we've known each other since I was 13 or 14. Marriage can be hard sometimes, we have certainly had our ups and downs, fights and hard times.

Nothing in life that is really worth doing is easy.

My wife and I are different people, we have different interests, and different personality types, she is a night owl, and I am a morning person. There are a few things that keep us together, we absolutely love each other. We are both Christians. And both of us give more than 50%, and what I mean by that is this: when things are tough and you are both fighting like cats and dogs do you cross to the other side and forgive, do you apologize when you are actually wrong.

I have learned the hard way to go the extra mile and extend the olive branch in peace, and so has my wife. I was not always the person I am today. Nobody is perfect, and I was much further from perfection when I was younger.

As long as you are both working together, to love each other and care for each other, you do not need to be the same person. In fact I cherish that my wife has an apposing viewpoint, many times her advice has helped me to see clearly on an issue that was cloudy to me.

I hope you make it.

Ben

I bought an acre of land at a tax sale here in TN for $500 a few years back. Tax sales are cheap, cash only auctions... Mostly.

Find an area you like and explore the tax sales in the area, usually only once a year.

I buy, sell and trade all the time. Recently I swapped a pistol for a classic car, I responded to an ad in the local paper that read something like: "1971 blah blah blah, $950 or trade for anything that doesn't eat." So I swapped him a $600 pistol for the car.

Swapping isn't necessarily about monetary value, its about what each of the participants value the other persons item at. He valued the pistol more than the car, I didn't have the cash to spend on the car, but I did have an extra pistol. The cash value didn't matter at all.

Haggling is sort of the same, when I get to bargaining for something I have an idea of what the top dollar I would pay for that item is. Also you can make observations about the item in question, not insults. Such as "I'm gonna have to replace the tires", or "this things a little rusty", but I am always careful to keep from insulting the seller.

I like to offer less than I actually want to pay and let the seller work me back up to my price, but with that you need to be a bit more careful because if you go to low on the offer they might look at it as "low-balling" or an insult.

Have fun, and remember the easiest bargain to make is for items you don't need. Because you can walk away, that's a strong bargaining tool as well.

Short answer: yes, if you don't want it to leak. However I usually use the purple primer before I glue, it makes the PVC tacky and the glue will hold better. Paint the purple primer on the pipe, let it dry, then glue both the pipe and the fitting and push together. There may be some back pressure on the fitting as you push them together, hold them for a second. Let everything dry for 30 minutes or so before putting pressure back on.

A lot of the manner in which a town accepts you is based on where you came from and how friendly you are, I've lived lots of places; including just outside of El Paso in the desert off-grid. Most of the locals had a dim outlook on the "homesteaders" that lived off grid in the desert. Probably much like you describe, I did notice that I didn't have much trouble assimilating because I am originally from the South. Most of the outsiders that didn't make it seemed to be from "up north".

Welcome!

Sister a second wall right up against the noisy wall and add some sound dampening insulation, it'll only take up about 4-5 inches but it will significantly reduce noise.

Also keep in mind that bedrooms don't have to be huge, as most older folks only sleep in the bedroom and spend most of their waking time in the living room or dining room.

If you don't need an oven you could simply put a cooktop in the counter to save space instead of having a full size stove.

I built a small house for my Grandmother a little while back, for similar reasons. She could no longer safely stay by herself but is very independent and butts heads with my aunt and uncle. So I built I small "Grandma's House" behind my uncle's house. Your room looks almost the same size! The floor plan I came up with is attached.

I am using LinuxMint on my laptop, and so I use programs that are not available to Windows typically. I use Kdenlive, its simple to get started but also has many advanced features once you get used to the program. I usually import a clip, drop it into the timeline, and play through while cutting and moving all the bits I want. When I am done I render to the video format and resolution of my choice. Takes some getting used to, but not really to difficult.

I advise choosing a free video editor that seems simple and look up a tutorial on how to use it, youtube is your friend.