cmonkey's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
Gilberto de Piento
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I saw something a while back about companies that would reline a chimney with a concrete type of product. Like this https://thermocrete.com/chimney-lining

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

September 2021 Update

I've been slowly realizing I live in the future far too much and need to bring myself into the present more. Like any other INTJ, I spend a lot of time thinking about things that could happen, particularly bad things, and trying to make plans for them. This has a tendency to be quite unhealthy. For instance, the energy crunch that is happening right now. My mind fills with thoughts of what happens if propane is in short supply this winter and I haven't gotten a wood stove in yet (now that my fireplace is out of commission for the time being). Of course we have options and flexibility and I know we'll be ok but it's hard to pull myself from that. I live in a far further future as well and it's increasingly unhealthy for me to do so. 2020 and 2021 have been transformative years for my mental space because I've actually seen the fragility of the world I depend on start to show itself.

Of course worst case scenarios haven't manifested and may never manifest themselves, at least on a long time scale.

October is going to be all about getting a wood stove installed in our basement. I've ordered the stove and have figured out the chimney. Now I just need to do the work. It's going to be about $1500 in expenses but I'm loathe to count it as a true expense as it will likely pay itself back after 1 to 2 years, particularly with propane prices going where they are.

I currently have about 2 cords of wood ready for this year and have about 2 cords ready for next year. I also have about 2-3 more cords of wood that is not split yet. Getting pretty comfortable with that.

I'm still having a tiny bit of blood in my stool and I figured out one VERY important piece of the puzzle. I have a tendency to get mild sinus headaches maybe once every 10 days or so and have always just reached for ibuprofen usually on an empty stomach. I've done this for as long as I can remember. Come to find out, these NSAID painkillers actually break down the lining of your entire gut, which could have made a path for some sort of bacterial infection or dysbiosis to occur after my food poisoning. Bottom line is that they contribute to and might even be a primary cause of colitis. Of course the doctor didn't mention this at all. He never even asked about painkillers even though they are KNOWN to cause damage to the gut. He just wants me to go on 250/month prescription meds to reduce inflammation. It makes me mad how useless they've been.

I haven't taken any ibuprofen for 3 weeks now so we'll see what happens over time. It may have been a combo of the food poisoning and ibuprofen which contributed to this and so I'm also going to start drinking some kiefer and have been making fermented veggies. I'll report back on whether there is improvement.

Last I checked I've also lost about 5 pounds and have leaned up a little bit while gaining some muscle. All from cutting sugar and carbs down considerably while lugging around 100+ pound hunks of tree.

Financial update for this month is pretty boring. Our TTM expenses seem to be plateauing and I think they will fall as we head into the new year. Next month will jump a little due to incorporation of our new property tax payment which wasn't in last year's numbers.

WR - 2.838%
Organic Dividend Growth - $28.88

Income - $1207.87
Expenses - $1125.96

FAI - $11,356.94
TTM Income - $9,739.03
TTM Expenses - $13,429.24


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jacob
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by jacob »

cmonkey wrote:
Sat Oct 02, 2021 3:21 pm
Of course worst case scenarios haven't manifested and may never manifest themselves, at least on a long time scale.
Key is to avoid overthinking it (rare) but also to avoid underthinking it (common) #Texas

https://www.refrigiwear.com/category/iron-tuff will go a long way. If you want to convince yourself, do a controlled semi-spontaneous "no-X" drill to see what it takes. For example, do you have/know what it takes to deal with -30F for a few days/weeks if natgas is off?

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

jacob wrote:
Sun Oct 03, 2021 2:42 pm
Key is to avoid overthinking it (rare) but also to avoid underthinking it (common) #Texas
That is the balance I need to strike. It's far too easy for me to over think it and I need to reign it in.

We are on a 500 gallon propane tank, which might be better than natural gas in the end because I have flexibility with monitoring the weather and the propane level in the tank. With the wood stove installed in the basement, we'd be just fine as long as we have wood. My goal is to end the winter with a little bit of wood on hand. I estimate how many weeks of wood I have and start counting back from the week of March 1. That's when I can start burning.

zbigi
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by zbigi »

jacob wrote:
Sun Oct 03, 2021 2:42 pm
Key is to avoid overthinking it (rare) but also to avoid underthinking it (common) #Texas

https://www.refrigiwear.com/category/iron-tuff will go a long way. If you want to convince yourself, do a controlled semi-spontaneous "no-X" drill to see what it takes. For example, do you have/know what it takes to deal with -30F for a few days/weeks if natgas is off?
If it's an extreme, once is a lifetime event, why not wait it out in a cheap motel or something?

7Wannabe5
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I have read a good deal of research on link between NSAIDS and colitis and solid conclusions have not yet been reached. For instance, humans who arrive at the emergency room with toxic megacolon are more likely to have recently taken NSAIDS and OTC anti-diarrheal agents than average human, but common sense explanation for correlation is that pain and diarrhea were the symptoms they were experiencing and attempting to subdue.

jacob
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by jacob »

zbigi wrote:
Mon Oct 04, 2021 5:46 am
If it's an extreme, once is a lifetime event, why not wait it out in a cheap motel or something?
Because everybody else will have the same idea. The motel might be down as well. Besides if the snow is bad enough to shut down the power system, chances are that road travel is out too.

Salathor
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Salathor »

As always, I highly recommend reading The Long Winter, one of the Little House on the Prairie books. They weather a brutally long winter in the Dakotas and survive by twisting hay into sticks to burn and grinding wheat in a coffee grinder by hand (Pa didn't buy enough coal when the winter came in so hard). Fortunately I think our systems now are much more resilient, so you're likely to need to only weather a few days/weeks of bitter weather before 'help' comes in.

I'd look into some of @sky's quilts ;-)

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

I'm thinking more along the lines of this.

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

7Wannabe5 wrote:
Mon Oct 04, 2021 6:08 am
I have read a good deal of research on link between NSAIDS and colitis and solid conclusions have not yet been reached.
It's not directly linked at this point, but it is indeed linked to peptic ulcers/stomach damage and also small intestine damage. I think I saw the estimate is that 70% of adults who regularly take NSAIDS have at least minor small intestine inflammation and damage to their mucosa.

white belt
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by white belt »

Salathor wrote:
Mon Oct 04, 2021 1:02 pm
Fortunately I think our systems now are much more resilient, so you're likely to need to only weather a few days/weeks of bitter weather before 'help' comes in.
I think this is where doing your own analysis for your particular situation is critical. Each area has unique weather events that may require unique solutions, but of course there is a lot of stuff that works in just about any situation (e.g. a few days of food and water stored will be helpful in virtually any emergency situation). I would definitely not bank on help coming within days for a serious cold weather event that has regional impacts. Even in my youth growing up in a wealthy suburb of a major northeastern metro area, I remember a power outage that lasted 3-4 days (we started eating all the food in the fridge because it was going to spoil).

How close you are to centers of power/influence can play a huge part in how fast the response will be. I think Jacob’s pointed this out before, but compare the responses to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans vs Sandy in the northeast. More rural areas generally must deal with longer outages, but that also means the people who live there are used to it so they already have made the preparations.

@OP
For extreme cold weather, your combination of propane and wood heat should get you through on the heating front. I’ll 2nd Jacob’s post about wanting some cold weather gear you can wear in the house. I’ve tested living with the thermostat at 55 degrees and I can tell you that it took my extreme cold weather Army gear to keep warm when sedentary.

The next concerns with extreme cold weather will be water, cooking, electricity and sanitation/sewage. It’s possible utility main pipes will freeze or shut off, which means you’ll probably want to have some water storage on hand along with filtering capability in case you have to resort to melting snow. Cooking can be done easily on a wood stove or with a propane stove. Charging electronic devices like phones might be trickier without more equipment like batteries, solar, propane generator, etc. Sewage handling could mean a simple 5 gallon bucket compost system that you empty into a larger outdoor bin (preferably sealed to keep out rats and other critters).

Like others have said, don’t go crazy with this stuff. Start with test runs and aim for incrementally building more capacity. Depending on your region, needing to hunker down without any utilities for more than 1-2 weeks might be pretty unlikely.

zbigi
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by zbigi »

jacob wrote:
Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:13 am
Because everybody else will have the same idea. The motel might be down as well. Besides if the snow is bad enough to shut down the power system, chances are that road travel is out too.
Assuming you don't live in some very remote area, and it's not a war or similar crisis, won't the government be there to help the people across the whole afflicted region? Natural disasters relief is one of the reasons why governments have armies and paramilitary forces on standby.
I'd be worried about dying from flood or hurricanes, as they can be so overpowering that even an army can't really help effectively, but getting snowed in? I haven't heard of a single death due to that in my country (Poland - we do get snow). I just don't see it as a real threat - maybe I'm wrong (this assumes that, if I'm living a house, the house has a hearth and some stored wood/coal, which is rather standard here).

sky
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by sky »

A few years ago there was an explosion in a natural gas pump station outside of Detroit. The pump station served to keep pressure in the pipeline network through much of Southeast Michigan, the area with the highest population density in the state. The explosion happened during an extended cold period of about 10F. The government response was to ask all people in Michigan to reduce their thermostat temperature in their buildings to lower demand for gas. Apparently other distant pipeline pump stations in other regions were working to try to maintain pressure in Southeast Michigan. They were able to get the pump station running after a few days, and then people were able to heat their houses again, but it could have been much worse. When an urban area loses natural gas or electric power for an extended time during a cold period, many people could die of hypothermia, and the damage to plumbing due to freezing and bursting could be severe.

My response to this threat is that I have cold weather clothes, warm quilts capable of sleeping in extreme low temperatures, and a woodstove with enough wood for a few weeks. I generally use natural gas to heat my home because it is cheap, clean and easy, but I recognize a power outage or natural gas emergency can take my heat away from me. I also have a valve that lets me turn off my water service and another that lets me drain my home's water system.

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

zbigi wrote:
Mon Oct 04, 2021 3:23 pm
... but getting snowed in? ...
Take a look at that video I posted above. The first 3 minutes basically tell the entire story. I'm not particularly concerned about a single winter storm/blizzard event, more concerned about the 'once a century' events which eventually start turning into 'once a decade' and then into 'once every 5 years' etc....

AxelHeyst
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by AxelHeyst »

Possibly relevant/useful to understand the concept of a "hypowrap", a technique I learned in my Wilderness First Responder course to help bring up body temp of hypothermic people. Stuff whatever insulating stuff you can around the person (blankets, quilts, puffys, whatever's in the laundry basket, etc), and then wrap sheet plastic (or a tent groundsheet would work) around like a burrito. Make sure they have a breathing hole. I once used this to sleep quite comfortably in low 20'sF in the open back of my truck with just a lightweight summer blanket for insulation layer. #skills>stuff Obviously better to have a refrigiwear coveralls in the closet.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I worry about heating in winter too. In the 2021 winter storms in Texas a number of people died: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/arti ... is-county/. Of course up north the infrastructure is more prepared for it but things can still happen. It was -10 to -30 F for a week a few winters back.

If I had it to do over again I'd get a house with a wood stove or fireplace. I have a couple of 20 pound propane tanks I need to fill up and I want to buy a tank top heater or similar before winter.

Edit: sounds like those tank top heaters may not be a good solution, it seems like you have to keep a window or door open for ventilation.
Last edited by Gilberto de Piento on Sun Oct 17, 2021 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

I have a question regarding income taxes. I know @jacob is an expert at doing these on his own, so maybe he'd know the answer here.

As of now, next year my income will be ~30K. ~4.5K of this will be dividend income and the remaining 25.5K will be in the form of interest/roth conversion.

Now the standard deduction is 25.1K next year leaving me with 4.9K in 'taxable income'.

Since dividends are tax free up to 75K for married couples, does this leave me with about $400 (4.9K - 4.5K) in 'true taxable income'? In other words, would the roth conversion count toward the standard deduction? Not sure how the priority of income works here as I haven't gone through the actual tax calcs before.

Locke
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Locke »

Hi CMonkey,

Glad to see that you are back! I am always impressed by your resourcefulness building things and gardening while living super frugally. Two quick random thoughts: First, have you begun to take advantage of the 7.12% yield (guaranteed for only 6 months) on US I-Bonds? If not, please let me know your thoughts on that. Secondly, have you ever read the book Red Rising? It is just a great fiction book, and I think you'd like it.

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