Riparian's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
riparian
Posts: 650
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

So, I broke my hand bone and I couldn't go make my $2400 for the IRS in a weekend like I'd planned. But I pulled it together and made:
$685 from my regular internet stuff

$429 from a CSA type hobby biz I started and

$1504 from a lady I do homecare for sometimes

and a moose
Most of the time I stayed home and couldn't even do most of my chores. Enforced vacation is kinda awesome.
Also I came out of it with zero medical bills and learned a whole bunch (I basically did what the doctor did here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g75mGxbk ... re=related - except I didn't have to irradiate myself to do it!). And finished butchering the moose before casting my hand.
Expenses:
$12 groceries (onions, carrots, garlic)

$60 phone/internet

$114 paper stuff for new biz

$80 containers for new biz

$2422 IRS
And my thermostat seems fine! I think my waterpump is going, but it should last till I have my hand back from the cast.


jacob
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Post by jacob »

"And finished butchering the moose before casting my hand."
Now that's badass!! (Especially if you broke the hand from punching out the moose :)
You make Dick Proenneke look like an amateur.


riparian
Posts: 650
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

Haha no, it was a road kill moose for my mom (elders get on a list for roadkill here) but she was out of the state. I butchered it in the comfort of her heated garage and then got my hand in the way of a door I was unsticking with my shoulder. Good woods hermits pay attention to what they're doing so they don't break themselves.


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jennypenny
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Post by jennypenny »

Can I be impressed anyway?
Don't forget to do some PT when your hand comes out of the cast. You don't need a PT. Just look it up online. (basically exercising your hand in a bucket of dry rice for resistance)


riparian
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Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

Thanks Jenny, I'll definitely look into that.


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jennypenny
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Post by jennypenny »

Yeah, you'll see when you take the cast off. The tendons can tighten up really fast for some people. You'll feel like your hand is asleep. Fanning and fisting your hand in a bucket of rice every time you think of it for a couple of weeks will take care of it. The easiest thing to do is leave the bucket next to the toilet and use it every time you use the bathroom.


riparian
Posts: 650
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

I'll for sure do that, thanks! Finally a use for that crappy white rice. I assume the tendons are why they recommend the weird hand position for the cast? (wrist 45 degrees, fingers 90). Do you know if it's adviseable to go right back to doing pull ups? Or should I avoid stressing the bone for a few more weeks?


riparian
Posts: 650
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

In more ERE-ish news I spent $47 on beets, onions, garlic, eggplants, etc, (ahh, I remember getting a whole bag of fruit and veggies in Cali for like $5..) and turned my thawing box of cabbage and broccoli shoots and turnip greens into 52 jars of vegetable soup. The last batch is in the canner now and then the bones go in. I just had a most excellent breakfast of salty bacon my friends made and I've got a whole cooler of beaver and moose and snow I'm trying to keep cold. I guess it's eat faster or fire up the smoke house soon. I was intending to do extreme IFing (24 hr fast mwf, 16hr other days) for the six weeks of the cast but now the more strategic thing seems to be stuffing my face with meat. Ah, life.


Bytta
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Post by Bytta »

Hi Riparian,

When I first read your journal, I thought you were a guy with a badass lifestyle. And then I clicked your other welcome thread, read about getting knocked up (??) and I thought... WOW! Even more badass!! :) Kept reading about your gig and figured out the nature of your videos before you revealed it, even more awesome!!
I checked out your website and find it professional and safe. I imagine the work involved is more complex than run-of-the-mill kim k's video ;). If voice is one of the indicators of success in your field, then you must sound super sexy. I remember some girls from my old high school (over a decade ago, sigh hahahaha) who purposefully smoked cigarettes to create sexy, husky voice to the detriment of their lungs' health.
As for investment, for me it's better to invest the majority of your money in the field you are good and familiar with; which in your case is property. While diversification is important, I wouldn't risk too much fund in a foreign asset class just because people tell me to.
Anyway, just wanna drop by and say hi :) and I think it's also great that in your solitary lifestyle, you still go out of your way to take care of the people you love. More power to you, girl! Cheers.


riparian
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Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

I grow some vegetables. Many don't grow well. I'm not gonna haul manure out here, so I bury compost and fish heads under the garden. This year I'm finally going to make cold frames. It seems what grows the best here is greens, but the native greens are more nutrient rich. Mostly I eat a lot of fish, snowshoe hare, and moose.


riparian
Posts: 650
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

This broken hand has me doing lots of thinking, not so much doing. Sorry I'm posting in my journal like a million times this month, but I've been thinking! :)
I just calculated that my average earning per customer on my mailing list is $6.25. I have 40 of them now, so my goal is to have 100 by tax time next year, bringing my easy $250/month to an easy $625/month. Then it will grow exponentially and I'll be rich! (Assuming 1 video per month at $20.) (Currently I only add them to the mailing list if they buy something, I think I'll keep that up.) That's retirement plan A.
My other goal is to save $10k this year (which is what I've saved the last two years, but then used it to pay off the land and get a truck that'll last forever) both as an emergency fund and towards investing in a rental property.
Another goal is to take food with me when I go work in town instead of buying it there - I don't include that in my accounting because working in town isn't a post ERE thing, but I spend $10/day on food when I'm in town.
And a conundrum - should I get high speed Internet? It would cost about $3k to set up. They tell me this is because Alaska's further from outer space. Seriously. Then $100/m. Currently I pay $50-60/m for the slowest Internet in the world, and I also sort of intermittently pay $35/m for unlimited talk text and data on a cell phone. The phone is super convenient. I don't have to waste electricity or run the generator to check email cause the phone does it and it hardly uses any electricity. It lets me sign in and out of phone work easily - like I can literally be out checking my rabbit snares and my phone rings and I sit down on the side of the trail and make $100. So I think the phone is worth keeping.
But I'm not sure if the Internet is worth switching to high speed. It would make it a lot easier to upload videos and advertise them and such. Currently I have to go to someone's house, hope their teenage boy isn't home, etc. And sometimes, like now, I can't cross the river so can't upload videos at all. For a while I was paying someone to do all the uploading for me and that was like $45/per (they have to be uploaded to 3 different places and then associated blog post, mailing list on 2 different platforms, tweet, and ads on 2 sites so it's not fast). But is that worth $3k? And what if I decided to travel and wasn't even using it?


ktn
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Post by ktn »

Rather than pay that kind of money for a physical cable, I'd just wait for 4G LTE to come around. It might take a couple of years but if you've already got phone with data working out there now, it is just a matter of time.
4G LTE should mean broadband speeds but wireless via your cellphone network. Once it reaches where you live (deployments have begun in major US cities), you should be able to get yourself a small 4G modem that connects to your laptop's USB port or even just hookup your laptop directly to a 4G cellphone and use the data plan you have on the phone.


riparian
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Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

ktn, that's what I thought about 3G three or four years ago but it's never showed up. They put up a new tower last summer but it seems to be EDGE technology too. I'm within range of a major highway but no cities.
bigato I actually think of it every time someone posts a video that I can't watch or a link to a big site that I can't load and every time I want to make money. The equipment cost is like $2500 and they require that it be installed by a certified tech.


riparian
Posts: 650
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

In April I mostly stayed home with my broken hand and made
967 in Internet/ERE income (about 400 passive) (avg 518)

198 progressive refund
Expenses:
Food $47

ins $39.42

Health $169

AT&T $91.26

Friends kick starter $40
Total 386.68 (avg 379)
I'm still working other hustles but I think I can call it semi ere and just stay home in the woods whenever I want now. Or after saving lots of money.


chenda
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Location: Nether Wallop

Post by chenda »

Congratulations on semi-ERE, looks like your in a great position


Dragline
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Post by Dragline »

Hope your hand feels better.


riparian
Posts: 650
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

Thanks Dragline. It doesn't hurt, just tingles a little sometimes. Two more weeks of cast!


palmera
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Post by palmera »

Please tell me more about your 52 jars of soup:
-recipe?

-storage?

-expiry dates?
etc.


riparian
Posts: 650
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

Recipe:
Everything that was thawing (cabbage, greens, etc)

5lb onion

3 clove garlic

3 bunches beets & greens

Ginger

Seaweed
Storage: gosh, this is a problem in my life, but I just built a new shelf in my shed for canning jars, empty and full.
Expiration: I dunno, does stuff ever expire after you can it? I ate some caribou this winter that I canned 5 years ago and it was great.


riparian
Posts: 650
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:00 am

Post by riparian »

May
Semi ERE income:

643 from the internet

200 from hobby biz
843 TOTAL
Expenses:
Outfit 20.98

Books 7.20

Groceries 72.71 (it was olive oil, vinegar, brandy, etc month)

Insurance 34.42

Internet 51

Dog Food 59

Dog Other 83.41

x-ray film 20
Total 348.72
Lower!
I'm having a fit of non-ERE capitalist endeavors and have saved like $3k this month. Does 90% make up for a run of like 30%? *sigh*
My hand is all better, with x-ray verification (via old bush vet and friend in midwifery school for the image and the reading of it, respectively). Total cost: under $30!
I think I'm going to buy this land for $12k. The payments should be like $60? Then I'll either save up and put a cabin on it next summer or maybe figure out financing for a cabin this summer. I could put something up for around $14k that would rent for $400+/m ($600 is what my landlord acquaintance said, but I like lowball unhatched eggs). I could put up a cabin I would feel way better about for more time and more money, but the rent would be about the same.


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