Places

The Log Homes of Albany County

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I thought the world needed a map of the Log Homes of Albany County. So I made one up. Some of these are probably a bit fancier then just a log cabin in the woods. Notice how in more built up areas, log homes are uncommon -- it's a style more popular in rural areas.

Simple as Shit Geocoding with SAM

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I like this PHP geocoding script I wrote to use with SAM, as it’s so simple, just six lines. Should I have used Python or Perl? Probably and it would have probably been 3 lines in Python or in case of Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister probably one line. Basically you call this on command line with a text file list of addresses, and spits out a CSV file with the addresses followed by the coordinates from the NY State Address Management system. Most other states have something similar, as it’s kind of important that the fire truck and your Uber show up at the right house. 

$output = "";		
foreach (file($argv[1]) as $address) {
	$json = file_get_contents('https://gisservices.its.ny.gov/arcgis/rest/services/Locators/Street_and_Address_Composite/GeocodeServer/findAddressCandidates?Street=&City=&State=&ZIP=&SingleLine='.urlencode($address).'&outFields=&maxLocations=1&matchOutOfRange=true&langCode=&locationType=&sourceCountry=&category=&location=&distance=&searchExtent=&outSR=4326&magicKey=&f=pjson');
	$coord = json_decode($json); 
	$output .= '"'.str_replace('"','\"', chop($address)).'",'.$coord->candidates[0]->location->y.','.$coord->candidates[0]->location->x."\n";
}
file_put_contents(pathinfo($argv[1], PATHINFO_FILENAME).'-geocoded.csv', $output);

I need to be aware of anchoring myself to specific numbers when looking at building my off-grid homestead 🐐🏡🔥

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I have lately gotten this idea of the parameters of my homestead that I’m putting together.

  • 20 acres
  • Less then 30 miles, 45 minutes to work each way
  • Total of $250k for the build
  • Up to $300k if necessarily with cost-over runs
  • $100k for land
  • $100k for house
  • $50k for infrastructure (road, leach field/septic, water well, possibly solar)

Having these parameters is fine, but in many ways I am pulling these numbers fairly arbitrarily based on some preconceived notions I have i my head that isn’t based on hard data. As a podcast on building an off-grid cabin notes, anchoring oneself to a series of numbers is dangerous because it risks you spending too much or thinking your vision is impossible.

Moreover, I’ve realized many of these numbers might as well be pulled out of thin air and my own biases. But I needed somewhere to start, and as cost and availability data come to be clearer, I will adjust my plan appropriately.