mountainFrugal Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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# 5 year project goals
Many of these have detailed sub goals or at minimum "time spent" on each project sub goals. I omit them here to keep it tidy. As an example, the general rule of thumb for sequential art projects is that you do not do a project that is more than the accumulated total previous pages you have done. I have made various single page comics and guides so I now would qualify for a 5 page story, then 10, then a few 20s then an 80 pager! TBH that terrifies me, but the same with all these things is you just work up to them. This is the best generalization to take away from doing endurance sports for a long time. Break a large goal down into manageable sub goals and put in the work for building your base. Move into specialized training later, taper, and come back strong as shit to take on your goal/challenge!

Most of these goals are aiming at having some sort of tangible product at the end. Not that these WILL be sold, but the skills or products COULD be sold (if high quality enough). Not only do all of these projects sound incredibly fun to me personally, but they will all have huge positive side effects in that they could turn into pro/am sources of income. Work or Play? YES!

# Make
Local graphic watershed ecology project- plants, mammals, insects, aquatic, geology, disturbance (fire potential?)
DIY Art School- 4 rounds + challenges completed. Online resources and books focusing on fundamentals of drawing/rendering.
5 page sequential art/story 1 - BW
5 page sequential art/story 1 - Color
10 page sequential art/story 1 - BW
10 page sequential art/story 2 - Color
20 page sequential art/story 1 - BW
20 page sequential art/story 2 - Color
20 page sequential art/story 3 - Color
Collect sequential art/story development into personal book for printing

80 page sequential art/story - BW - KICKSTARTER (multiyear project!)
Have full sequential art Portfolio for freelance work- e.g ~$25 pp of comics flatting/coloring. Goes up from there with skill.

Travel Sketches scanned, combined with photos, and cross referenced to journal entries into personal typeset travel book.

# Live
1 impromptu dinner a month with friends
1 Epicurean dinner on 20th of each month
Illustrated recipe book with 20 recipes
Interior of Van wall illustrations
RaspberryPi based van diagnostics display- embedded linux
Illustrated instruction manual for all major van systems
Illustrated instruction manual for all major home components and systems (e.g washer, heating, stove, solar loads, waste, etc.)
Illustrated gardening guide for home raised beds, fruit trees, berry bushes, herbs, compost, acorn processing
Start local nature journal/illustration/observation/recording(iNaturalist) meetup club

# Think
Data blogging website with weekly posts for job (15% time)
Develop open-source data analysis package in Python/R for job (60% of the time for this category)
Smaller open-source data science package for analyzing long term endurance training data (20% time, see below)
Build data science consulting side hustle
Make net positive cashflow on KICKSTARTER campaign (even $10)- manage small art business?

# Explore
Backcountry skills research and illustrations (see sequential art above)
Backcountry gear raw material sourcing, maintenance, use guides illustrations
2 cycles of Training for the Uphill Athlete per year (excellent endurance training book) per year with increasing goals
2 cycles of supple leopard per year to maintain flexibility and mobility
Hatch charts of 5 major rivers, corresponding insect life cycles and ecology, tie fly pattern matches, test!
Save at least 60-75%% of salary towards unlimited adventuring fund- AKA FI/ERE etc.

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mountainFrugal
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The Five whys method applied to a few items. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys

Why am I so tired? I only slept last night for 6.5 hours.
Why did you sleep for 6.5 hours? I had to get up at 7 for work, but went to bed at 12:30.
Why did you go to bed at 12:30? I got in bed at 11 pm, but was scrolling reddit woodworking on my phone.
Why did you have your phone in bed? Initially I did not, but I got a notification.
Why did you get a notification so late? I did not set limits on when notifications can happen.

Once you trace back a few steps you can then ask other questions or come up with other solutions. In this case I turned off all notifications an hour before going to bed and implemented a phone rule after 830 pm. Analog books in bedroom only.

Does not always have to go 5 steps back:
Why are you not drawing first thing in the morning? I am always foggy after waking up and do not want to make decisions.
Set out drawing supplies on a clear desk with a book open to the page you will start on the night before.

A similar example:
Why did you not exercise a two days in a row? It is cold and rainy out, hard to find the motivation.
You have rain gear for this exact purpose, why are you not using it? It is buried somewhere in the depths of van storage.
Why can you not just go grab it for tomorrow and lay it out ahead of time? Damn you 5 whys!

Running in cold rain or snow is actually pretty fun if you have a warm dry place to come back to. Especially if a few inches of snow have accumulated. Snow fall brings peace with little/no traffic noise. All local sound is dampened leaving your foot steps crunching snow. Also, when else can you run in the middle of the road? Despite this adventure, I need to remind myself every fall/winter.
Last edited by mountainFrugal on Thu May 13, 2021 9:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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Sketch Notes for quick ideas to spend time doing relatively simple things that contribute to my goals.

Image

Western Red Cedar
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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mountainFrugal wrote:
Tue May 11, 2021 10:20 pm
@WRC Thanks for the welcome. I have to admit that reading through your journal was an inspiration for me to just go for it, make an account, and start posting. Thanks! I am glad my ideas/goals might help you in anyway.
Glad I could offer some inspiration. I've found that journaling here pushed me much more quickly towards my goals. The small sense of public accountability, encouragement, and ideas gleaned from others all provide a nice boost.

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mountainFrugal
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I am nearing the 5 year anniversary of my wife passing away. As you will see below, I do not necessarily view death as a sad thing and in the end it IS the ultimate teacher. I am not posting this for sympathy, but to give more of my backstory. Through all the hard work I have found a new confidence in pursuing everything that I do with 100% effort, or just not doing it all. I have done a lot of thinking, meditating, writing, crying, laughing, exercise, adventure, and working since DW passed away. The pace of it all makes time go fast and slow at the same time. All of this blends together into equilibrium. I have tried to remain present. I am currently in a committed long term relationship with a new partner who is equally strong, beautiful and smart, but different in many ways. I love them both. :).

I have made observations about the arising of different emotions and what they might be caused by. Through this I have learned a great deal about what it means to be me. Maybe you will glean something from what I have learned or at least introspect a little about what makes you, you.

(1) Human relationships are the most important "things" we can have. I kept a (semi)daily gratitude journal for a long time. DW and our dog were always a reoccurring theme. In these reflections I would sometimes think about what the absence of our relationship would mean. This thought process deepened my love for DW and strengthened our relationship. Of course I would not have guessed that I would actually have to face this, but I am so thankful that we worked towards a deeper understanding of each other by not taking our time together for granted.

(2) We all will die, but we are currently alive. Death is sad because we can no longer make new memories. When you loss someone close it cuts deeply because memories help give us identity. However, we are not just our memories. Memories are an object of the past. Our minds help us take memories of the past to make decisions in the present to plan for the future. To me grief is not being able to project amazing memories of someone into the future. DW's death is a single negative memory in a vast ocean of positive ones. You can always live in memories and you can choose which ones. I mostly choose the 99% positive memories of DW, she was awesome. Right now we are alive. We are just the beings reading this sentence, listening to the noises of the room, feeling the sensations of where your body is positioned in space, smelling the odors of your immediate environment. You are alive. You will not always be alive so mind the details of your moments.

(3) Material things matter only in as much as they can provide profound new experiences. Really think about the material things that you own. Material things take away from (1) through time, organization, space, attention, money. If you are going to spend money on material things you will get far more joy in the long run if the money is spent on experiences with people you love. DW and I's honeymoon to Costa Rica has some of my most cherished memories of her. I am so glad we chose a honeymoon registry over material things.

(4) Talk less, write more. It is impossible to hear when you are talking at the same time! One of your five ways to interact with the physical world is impaired by talking. Do less talking and more listening. This includes listening to yourself. Journaling is a good way to wrangle ideas in and make sure you are clear on how you think about things. The bonus is you get to see your growth, especially if you follow (5).

(5) #dohardshitmotherfucker The best way to overcome anything is just to try. The anticipation of doing hard shit is often harder than actually doing the hard shit. Prioritize by thinking about the hardest thing emotionally or physically that you have been putting off doing and just go fucking do it. If it is a big thing, break it down into halves until there is some hard shit you can do in the next 20 minutes. Repeat. #dohardshitmotherfucker enough times and then suddenly you are miles away from where you started emotionally or physically. Bonus if you are keeping track using (4). You get to see how much hard shit a motherfucker can do in a relatively short period of time. I am most interested in the hard shit that ya'll do today, next week, next month, next year.

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mountainFrugal
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My partner and I recently bought a house. We are of course beyond excited to have a space of our own and to make a permaculture system in the backyard! Even in this rural town (pop ~3000), we found everything we were looking for and decided to commit. Here is a list of priorities we came up with ahead of even looking for a house. The house we ultimately purchased checked nearly all the boxes.

It shakes out to $106/mo more (incl taxes, insurance, maintenance estimates), than we were paying in rent (~4 year payback period rent vs. own). However, we now have a full garage with small workshop, backyard with raised beds and a few fruit trees (previous owners), our own work spaces (studio was extremely challenging!), large pantry, full kitchen, and a wood burning stove to offset winter heating with found/harvested wood from nearby BLM land ($5 per cord/permit). The home has been very well maintained and a former construction contractor owned the house 2 owners ago and did some good upgrades and put on a new roof. Not planning on an ADU unit (or similar) anytime soon, because lumber and labor have such high prices right now, but would consider in the future as we learn more about the longer term rental market in this small town.

I look forward to getting some ideas about wood harvesting and permaculture/gardening from the various other boards.

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mountainFrugal
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Two weeks ago my partner and I went trail running for an afternoon. When we finished our run, we noticed that a bunch of assholes had left trash everywhere after a party/bonfire at the trailhead (unclear how long ago). What they also left was a bunch of cut and split pine scattered everywhere. We spent some time cleaning up and collected all the wood (~1/10th of a cord estimate). Feeling good because it is going to be in the 30s tonight and we are heating with minimal effort wood. :). If only we could burn regular trash...trails would be much cleaner... haha.

Our woodstove that came with the house is a Country brand T-Top made in 1991. There are much more efficient stoves on the market now (pushing 80-85%), but this was top of the line back then ~70% efficient.

I should also add that the stove takes up the normal "TV" spot in the house. My partner and I loathe TV and did not really have them after high school (my partner grew up without one).

Image
Last edited by mountainFrugal on Thu May 20, 2021 10:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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The feeling of sitting in front of a wood stove on a cold day is unbeatable! Way more mesmerizing than anything one could watch on television.

theanimal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by theanimal »

I really like your sketches. Nice work.

+1 @2B1S- Not much better than watching that cowboy TV.

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mountainFrugal
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@2B1S and @theanimal x1000! Thanks!

The house we just purchased came with an old washer and dryer that were not hooked up. We generally let most of our clothing air dry on a rack, but I suppose there are situations after snow adventures where having a dryer would come in handy. Additionally, last year I did most of my laundry (workout clothing and wool tshirts) in the shower and a bucket (works great!).

We moved the washer and dryer into place, hooked them up and leveled them with the tiny feet. The test run of the washer failed miserably with the worst metal on metal grinding sound once the agitator started. I investigated further thinking there were coins or something inside the drum and the wall, but this was not the case. I drained the tub, popped off the front panel of the washer and tried to recreate the noise. Sure enough once the agitator started the grinding started again. This time I could see all the parts working and noticed that the bolt holding the agitator into the tub was grinding on the stamped metal bottom of the washer. For some reason the metal bottom plate of the washer has raised sections that are very close to the bolt when the tub is filled with water and clothing. Poor design in my opinion. The fix was simply just adding some wooden shims to the back feet to tilt the washer forward and bring the bolt out range of interacting with the bottom metal plate. Illustration below with exaggerated angles to show the fix.

Image
Last edited by mountainFrugal on Wed May 26, 2021 9:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

Gilberto de Piento
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Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I like the artwork you've been posting. Congratulations on the house, it sounds great!

ertyu
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Post by ertyu »

yep, i was wondering how it would work when you said you were combining your "art" goal with other goals, and im really enjoying how the things you draw add to your posts. it really adds an extra dimension to understanding, separate from what words or photos can do. v cool

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mountainFrugal
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Thanks @GdP and @ertyu! It has been interesting to have an "audience" for these sketches besides just doing it to understand things better and work on my sketching skills.

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mountainFrugal
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Started our permaculture garden this month. So far some good progress. Will contribute to the general discussion over in the gardening thread, but wanted to add this to my growing list of posts/illustrations for our project.

I built a simple three step compost system in the corner of our lot. I picked up a few pallets in good condition from the local hardware store trash and used a total of 8 wood screws. The microbe party will do the rest with a little help from my shovel to turn it once in a while. We have already noticed a considerable decrease in our waste stream because of the amount of veggies we consume. I had a smaller single bin compost system a decade or so ago, but that was harder to replicate more recently in our studio apartments (not impossible). We hope to generate some additional nutrients for the berries and herbs that are planted outside of our garden beds. The oak tree pictured also drops a bunch of acorns in the fall. We are looking forward to doing some acorn processing this fall, although from what I read it is a ton of work and uses a decent amount of water to leach the tannins out of acorns prior to grinding.


Image

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mountainFrugal
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# MAY 2021 WINDOWS
# WINS
Begin ER Journal
Volunteered 2x trail building with local group
22x Gratitude
20x Meditation
Online Creator Conference
Made first $150 consulting
trail ran with 3 new people

# IMPROVEMENTS
1 page per day - ran out of paper!
Hard no on all meetings in the morning (most productive)

# NEW (directions/projects)
Figure out post-pandemic volunteer schedule (had not considered in year planning)

# DRAWING
Draw 27/31 days
16 full page drawing days

# OUTSIDE (fitness/explore/$ adventure fund)
Signed up for 50K
191 km trial run (total)
14 km hike (total)
36 km gravel ride (total)
12 days core
14 days stretching session

Savings Rate: 68%
FI goal percent: 74.7%
Months to FI at current savings rate/market conditions: 12

# WORK
Refined 2 projects- awaiting approval on projects

# SOCIAL
Friend visit and we visited friends over 2 weekends this month. Great, but introvert exhausted after so much time without seeing folks! Also, volunteer for trail building met some cool people that we hope to hang out with in the future.

Western Red Cedar
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Post by Western Red Cedar »

Loads of great updates here - congrats!

I've meant to volunteer with some local trail-building groups for the last couple of years, but keep putting it off. Well-done! I did it professionally for a short period, and really enjoyed it. Seems like a great way to meet like-minded people.

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mountainFrugal
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thanks @WRC! It is interesting to learn the different approaches to trail building having worked a few different sites now. Gives me a much greater respect for trails that I have ridden/ran/hiked over the years. Thank you for building trails in the past! It is much more organized than when I was a BMX kid building dirt jumps and tracks in the woods....and there is usually beer for the volunteers after which was not always available as a minor ;). I have been exercising before nearby where the trail work is happening and then role/run up right before it starts. Being a little depleted makes even a light beer after exercise/trail work go even further towards a buzz. haha.

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mountainFrugal
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I am the first person in my family to go to college. My family was at or near the "poverty" line until I was in high school. Money was nearly always a stress and major concern of my parents. I have worked many jobs over the years to finally land on a "career" in as a statistics/data science researcher. Not exactly the straightest path and there were times where I would be working 2 jobs and taking college classes. I took summer school nearly every year to spread out the coursework while also working. When I look back at those times I am sort of amazed I could handle it all, but having an insane drive (and a lot of luck) got me to where I am now. A few notes and stories about what I learned from each job in the moment and retrospectively.

Paper Route (5th-6th grade)- Up super early work 7 days a week rain/shine/cold/snow. 150 customers. Recurring revenue is the best thing through subscriptions. If only I could endlessly copy the content... o wait that is what the internet allows. Killing local papers by squeezing revenues and relying on cheap click through ads only.

Curb Painter- ran small business curb painting for the city. People have unsolicited opinions about everything, including curb painting.

Gyro Shop- this awesome cook showed me the ropes of short order/line cook when it was not busy. Eventually worked in the kitchen instead of the back making gyro sauce and slicing onions (so many millennial tears). Noticed direct connection between consumption of soda and acne. For my body, they are directly correlated. No more soda after working there. No more gyros either.

Candle Factory- Summer all cash gig paid daily. Packaging candles into plastic boxes with shredded paper to make it look rustic. Imagine your favorite candle scent. Now imagine your least favorite scent. Now imagine there are hundreds of those scents all mixed together in a humid non-air-conditioned factory. There is no removing that scent from your pores.

Telemarketing- lasted 2 evenings at this job. It was for a fitness center that I was hoping to get a job at doing personal training. No such luck without certificates.

Concrete- Summer gig for one summer. Break out concrete with jackhammer, haul away to dumpster, frame out new forms, pour, cure, repeat. My dad was a carpenter. This job was working with a friend of his and the only job I got based on who my parents knew. I think the point was "to use my brain and not my back" as I was contemplating whether to apply to colleges or not.

Car wash/ice cream shop- work for tips mostly. Flexible schedules working with friends during the summer. The dumpster of an ice-cream shop is one of the only smells that will get me to gag. haha. It is also amazing the scents that people want to have in their cars. Baby powder in a limo...WTF?

Sporting goods store- 2 months- terrible management and generally toxic environment. Peaked in high-school jock types that are hyper-competitive about their kids t-ball and generally asshole customers.

Landscaping- Good friend had big jobs I would help on in the summer. Learned proper plant care, landscape design, endless maintenance, nutrient inputs, etc. Good practical job for implementing permaculture garden in current spot.

Electronics Store- Sold computers and digital cameras on commission. Made a decent amount of money for a high schooler. Socked it away for college. Spent some of the savings on personal trainer certificate for potential job in college. Also got really comfortable with computers and started building them.

Personal Trainer- Turns out that 95% of a personal trainer's job is getting people to show up to the gym. Got interested in human motivation.

Climbing Gym- Started working at climbing gym that also had weights and cardio machines. Belayed one too many birthday parties and said F-this. Saved enough from this job to pay for summer school and bought my road bike.

Research Assistant- Pinning tens of thousands of very small insects under a microscope. This is also when I discovered audiobooks from the library. Life changed for my capacity for highly repetitive work. Air-conditioning and learning at the same time.

Field Technician- Finally a job that was physical, I could use my brain in the field and program in the lab.

Researcher (various)- not as interesting just academia. Lots of programming to answer ever more specific questions and publish papers that only a handful of experts will ever read. Completely different field from Jacob, but same story.

University Instructor- students are mostly there for grades. Jacob has written about this a lot in his book and on his blog. I had the same observations independent of him. I got to teach a general education class on climate change. A handful of students were engaged and that made it worth all the work.

If only I had read Jacob's blog years earlier!

Data Scientist Researcher- a much more applied position doing data science for environmental issues. Hopefully more people (general public and policy makers), will read the reports we generate. +1000 if the reports enact policy change.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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# JUNE 2021 WINDOWS

# WINS
Installed inverter in adventure van for small device and laptop charging
Ideal day with drawing/writing/coding/reading/exercise/social - 4x (goal 7x)

# IMPROVEMENTS
Strength workouts have fallen to the wayside with all this trail running. Need to re-implement at least 1x week. Tuesday afternoons at 430 pm.

Simplify number of plans for the month. Monthly goals has most important listed only.

# NEW (directions/projects)
Write comics story 1 pomodoro per day.
2-3 value study thumbnails to warm up for drawing for the day.

# DRAWING
Draw 26/30 days
18 full page drawing days

# OUTSIDE (fitness/explore/$ adventure fund)
244 km total trial run with 8259m of total gain (50K is in September with ~2450 m gain)
14.8 km hike
12.9 km gravel ride

Savings Rate: 41% (purchased some hardwood BIFL furniture for new house)
FI goal percent: 75.5%
Months to FI at current average savings rate/market conditions: 11

# WORK
2 of 3 projects approved at work
Surprised with small raise to get me up to "minimum" for my experience level within the guidelines of the org.

# SOCIAL
Partners Bday celebration weekend van trip with trail running friends. Family visits for the long holiday weekend. 3x cook dinner for friends.

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mountainFrugal
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# JULY 2021 WINDOWS
# WINS
Implemented post run/cycle short weight and strength routine to make sure I was doing it. Original plan was to have day dedicated to this, but it was easier to tack on at end while already sweaty and warmed up.

Van trip to visit family and friends and 2 weeks of working on the road. Successful travel and van trip, moderate (at best) on how much deep work got done constantly switching environmental contexts, cities, etc. especially after 1.5 years of minimal travel.


# IMPROVEMENTS
LOTS!

Had some unexpected purchases. Heat wave + extreme air quality due to wildfire smoke led to choice of sleeping in 85 degree house (at night!) or purchasing small air conditioner for bedroom. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Our house is well insulated which protects during the day for the most part, but the passive solar temperature lags by heating up in the late afternoon and then radiating into the center of the house by 10 pm. Normally it cools down at night to the 50s or 60s, but these two heat waves were different. Stayed hot at night. This was further exacerbated by wildfire smoke from nearby or distant fires. So....open the windows to let 72 degree air in and inhale excessive smoke, or lay inside, sweat, and not sleep. I tried frozen water bottles between my legs, cool towels, cold showers before bed and when I woke up in the middle of the night. So fighting the likely effects of climate change by contributing to energy use towards climate change. Sucks.

Also purchased an indoor bike trainer to be able to keep up some semblance of cardio with all this F'in smoke.

Personal systems are much more tightly coupled then I realized and obviously not resilient to climate related perturbations. Need to deeply think about this.

Hungover after epicurean dinner. Cannot decide if that is the point of getting a little wild once a month or not, but totally sucked missing a long exercise day. Work on "noting" mental states that lead to too much! haha.

Did not have everything completely dialed at the new house to leave. Our older "automated" garden watering system ran out of backup battery right when we left and there was a short power outage (according to neighbor). This system was here when we moved in and has generally worked well. Added that heat and no water kills plants to the backyard nature permaculture journal. Insights YO! Yet another example of a tightly coupled system having a cascading failure brought on by extreme events. Fortunately the blueberries and raspberries in the shaded corner of the yard survived.


# NEW (directions/projects)
25 minutes/day on memory sketches/compositions - specifically work on drawing from imagination not from reference/life

Contemplate - 80/20 rule 3x - you get 1% of effort giving 51% of results. If true, how to frame projects like this to help prioritize.

# DRAWING
27 out of 31 days
22 at least 1 full page days
2 page comic panel layouts and Roughs
panel layout for 5 page comic
refined my color flatting technique and now I am much faster for pages
section of DIY artschool finished
art feedback from 3x from instructors/mentors
Nearly filled entire sketchbook on van trip, lots of downtime and camping socializing

# OUTSIDE (fitness/explore/$ adventure fund)
Boise was awesome! Lot's of trail running and mountain biking to be had and relatively clear skies.
230 km trail run (should be closer to 280 for this part of my training cycle, but smoke and hangover)
40 km MTB/gravel
1.5 hours indoor trainer (just got)

Savings Rate: 38% (bought plane tickets home, bought portable air conditioner for bedroom, indoor bicycle trainer for smoke training)
Months To FI: 11 (same as last month see spending above)
Percent FI: 0.76

# WORK
Finished project website, 2 project collaborations moving along!

# SOCIAL
Family reunion, visited college roommate in Boise, hosted monthly Epicurean dinner, 2 low key outdoor concerts (live music was missed more than expected last year)

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