The internet quit working on my laptop. I think I broke the kernel with the new driver module I inserted. Its been funky for a while now, especially on the library wifi. So I’m stuck using my phone for internet until I can fix it. Kind of frustrating.
Been thinking more about my off grid dream and what it would cost to get there. It’s very capital intensive up front, requiring a decade or two of saving and investing every penny I can get my hands on but I believe that I will eventually reach that goal.
My plan is to buy my off grid property entirely with cash. I believe based on my current estimates, assuming I earn more money in future years, after 10-15 years of investing and saving I will be in good shape to that. It turns out that in a rural area, a small off grid cabin can be had with 100 plus acres of hunting land for around $150k. In the Albany area, outside of the ghetto that only buys a run down shack. Things are a lot cheaper especially land wise in rural areas.
That said, I expect to need a fair amount more money – maybe an additional $50k to cover needed upgrades to make it a home like possible solar upgrades and new solar batteries (or starting from scratch if the cabin lacks it), generator, a tractor, four wheeler, upgrades for a hot shower, more guns and hunting equipment, etc. Plus I would want to have some other money in reserve. I’d probably also want a new truck paid off before I started out on this adventure to avoid this expense going forward.
Without rent and utilities I’d probably save a lot on a monthly monthly basis. I doubt that I would have any subscription service except for my smartphone. No television or high speed internet for me. Never had it, don’t want it. I probably would stay away from getting a large utility owned propane tank, preferring smaller 20 or 30 lb ones that I could get filled anywhere, so I’m not locked into any one supplier. I’d try to minimize my propane use as much as possible limiting it to instant on hot water and cooking, using the woodstove and locally harvested wood to the greatest extent possible.
In the next 10-15 years I also plan to continue to save aggressively for retirement. Even if I can’t tap into those funds for the first decade in my off-grid experience, they will help cover the necessities in my later years when I’m fully retired. At this point a decade plus out, I’ll be in my late 40s, if I retire at 55, there really isn’t that big of gap – although I might put it off longer just to keep busy and keep more money flowing in so I can buy more toys to use on my land.
Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Five weeks to Christmas 🎅. Wet sloppy snow, one degree above freezing in our favorite socialist Delmar. ❄ There is a north-northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. There is a dusting of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Frosty is having a melt down with the warmer temperatures. At least the roads aren’t super shitty this morning but every driveway is a slushy wet mess. It’s climate change, stupid. And I’m blaming Trump.
Today will rain showers and snow likely before 11am, then a chance of rain showers between 11am and 4pm. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 39 degrees at 1pm. Seven degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 6th. Northwest wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Yuck. When we will get nice weather? Maybe in six months with the hundreds of black flies. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 42 degrees. The record high of 72 was set in 1991. 3.4 inches of snow fell back in 1961.❄
Yeap, today is a pretty cold, wet and gray day. ☁ Only going to get worse come Thanksgiving although we will have lots of sun come those days. But very cold. At least the roads are fine locally.
The sun will set at 4:28 pm with dusk around 4:59 pm, which is 43 seconds earlier than yesterday. Not even losing a minute at this point. 🌇 Remember the latest sunset of the year is around December 9th I believe. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 38 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph. Melty, melt snow. Today will have 9 hours and 34 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 56 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 24 degrees at 6am. Six degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around December 8th. West wind 6 to 9 mph. Shits going to freeze up tonight. In 2017, we had cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of 7 occurred back in 1879.
This morning I want to call about getting my truck state inspected on Saturday or maybe Friday morning. I figure I would drop it off and then get breakfast with my parents. 🍳 That’s all that is needed for now, I did the oil change and tire rotation in a September. It’s horse shit that New York requires inspections when relatively few states do anymore. Smog inspections yes in smog areas but safety inspections are rare because modern cars are rarely unsafe ✔ and things like broken tail lights are generally enforced by police.
I need to go to the store after work today, 🍞and buy a handful of supplies before the big rush of Thanksgiving grocery shoppers and Black Friday shoppers are underway. Not a lot of things I need but I’m missing certain ingredients that I need for cooking. I don’t plan to shop again until next week as I’m trying to use whatever I have at home right now to save money.
Today I’m going to look at getting a 12 volt power supply for the smart light over my bed that I’m building. I’m going to get a good quality power supply that is UL or Intertek certified because if it’s going to be plugged in all of the time I want something safe that’s unlikely to cause a fire, waste power or fail. 🔌 It’s really not that much more expensive to buy a safe model compared to a cheap one.
I’m also continuing to experiment with Bluetooth and the Arduino Nano. I’ve built a working model now at least I think, I just need to download the software I need for my laptop and phone to control it. 📺 Once I do that I will work on the code and eventually building the board that will control the lamp over my bed. I don’t expect it to be complicated, it will basically be a slave to the other LED strip across the room, and just be able to accept Bluetooth commands to turn on and off (with a nice fade or course) and dim to a certain value. As it’s a warm white, it is only one channel so the PWM commands are simple. The colored led strips across the room will manage timing and reading the remote, sending over Bluetooth to turn on and off.
Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until Christmas 🎅 when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:59 pm. Fat man comes down the chimney and leaves all that pretty wrapping paper to burn. On that day in 2017, we had snow, heavy fog, freezing fog, mist, squalls, partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 33 and 17 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1889. Well before my time.
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