Is the cinnamon helping with your seedlings, or can't you tell yet?
Your egg production makes me yearn for an ERE city again. I'd love to trade goods with like-minded people.
cmonkey's journal
Re: cmonkey's journal
Hmm I don't recall mentioning cinnamon on the forums... 
It seems to be yes we don't have any mold growth yet. I think only time will tell for sure as damping off usually takes a couple weeks after they've sprouted. Nothing has sprouted quite yet but its only been 4 days I think.
I would love to trade eggs with folks. I used to trade eggs for deer meat with my supervisor but he has since changed positions and I have a new supervisor now. No one else seems interested.
It seems to be yes we don't have any mold growth yet. I think only time will tell for sure as damping off usually takes a couple weeks after they've sprouted. Nothing has sprouted quite yet but its only been 4 days I think.I would love to trade eggs with folks. I used to trade eggs for deer meat with my supervisor but he has since changed positions and I have a new supervisor now. No one else seems interested.
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jennypenny
- Posts: 6856
- Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2011 2:20 pm
Re: cmonkey's journal
Sorry! I should know better.
Re: cmonkey's journal
Ha I didn't mean like that...more like 'yay someone is reading my blog'. I probably should advertise it more. I did put under my profile if anyone wants to dig...
Re: cmonkey's journal
I must have missed the blog mention somewhere, I love to see what others are getting up to in the garden!
Re: cmonkey's journal
I haven't mentioned it until now, but I had shared with jp a week or two back. She alluded to reading it.
Being as it's out now I see no harm in sharing and I had been thinking about it. If you didn't find it in my profile here is a link to our blog. We also have an etsy shop linked on the blog. Facebook. Instagram. Instagram is becoming my new favorite posting medium, I really enjoy it.
You'll find a lot of pictures of our homestead and some of the things we're doing, especially a few years ago. We tapered off in 2014/2015. I'm making an effort to start again since I really enjoy it and I like using it to log when I do certain things. I'm turning it into more of a 'this is what I'm doing right now' type blog as opposed to the popular style 'this is what you should be doing' type. Its much easier to write in that format at least for me.
Being as it's out now I see no harm in sharing and I had been thinking about it. If you didn't find it in my profile here is a link to our blog. We also have an etsy shop linked on the blog. Facebook. Instagram. Instagram is becoming my new favorite posting medium, I really enjoy it.
You'll find a lot of pictures of our homestead and some of the things we're doing, especially a few years ago. We tapered off in 2014/2015. I'm making an effort to start again since I really enjoy it and I like using it to log when I do certain things. I'm turning it into more of a 'this is what I'm doing right now' type blog as opposed to the popular style 'this is what you should be doing' type. Its much easier to write in that format at least for me.
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George the original one
- Posts: 5406
- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
- Location: Wettest corner of Orygun
Re: cmonkey's journal
Now that you have more than a year of received income, consider adding a moving average line to the chart. Something along the line of 3-mo to 12-mo moving average.
Re: cmonkey's journal
Lots of fun goings on today!
We primed and painted behind the basement throne and it is installed, functional and leak free.
I cut out the stack going to the upstairs plumbing. It took about an hour to cut through with a sawsall and metal cutting blades. It was a huge pain because the pipe was so close to the concrete block.
It then took another 10-15 minutes to get the pipe out of the room.
4" Cast iron pipe is frickin' heavy!! A quick look up of weight per foot for 4 " heavy duty cast iron puts this section of pipe at roughly 90-100 pounds. We managed to get it out of the framing by swinging it up and sliding it over....without killing ourselves or destroying the tub and new toilet. I really didn't want to spend another hour sawing it in half, especially as I had already rounded down 3 of the 5 blades I had.
Tomorrow is another big day. We are renting a wet saw and I have nothing in my way for getting all the tiling up. In any case, there's no going back now! It's either I tile tomorrow and get the faucet in, or its sponge baths for the both of us at the kitchen sink next week.
We primed and painted behind the basement throne and it is installed, functional and leak free.
I cut out the stack going to the upstairs plumbing. It took about an hour to cut through with a sawsall and metal cutting blades. It was a huge pain because the pipe was so close to the concrete block.
It then took another 10-15 minutes to get the pipe out of the room.4" Cast iron pipe is frickin' heavy!! A quick look up of weight per foot for 4 " heavy duty cast iron puts this section of pipe at roughly 90-100 pounds. We managed to get it out of the framing by swinging it up and sliding it over....without killing ourselves or destroying the tub and new toilet. I really didn't want to spend another hour sawing it in half, especially as I had already rounded down 3 of the 5 blades I had.
Tomorrow is another big day. We are renting a wet saw and I have nothing in my way for getting all the tiling up. In any case, there's no going back now! It's either I tile tomorrow and get the faucet in, or its sponge baths for the both of us at the kitchen sink next week.
Re: cmonkey's journal
should have got one of these:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/04/ ... 847403.jpg
Well done, you are making quick progress!!
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/04/ ... 847403.jpg
Well done, you are making quick progress!!
Re: cmonkey's journal
Haha! Well the color wouldn't be TOO off from our style. Somehow I think fumbling in the dark for the toilet...wouldn't go so well.
If there was ever a time when I can say I bit off more than I could chew, today was it. This was definitely the most difficult day of the remodel simply because I had time working against me the whole time and I hate having that feeling. I like taking my time. Not only did I have only 4 hours for the rental (didn't even come close to staying under that) but we barely made it back to the store by 8 pm when they closed. On top of that my mortar was thickening up pretty bad by the end so we just called it a night at about 7 pm with about 95% of the tile up around the tub. It was also dark and I couldn't even see where I was cutting the tile anymore. We didn't get to the floor. Pretty stressful overall but the result is turning out very well considering I've never done this type of work before. I never did get to the faucets so we are sponge bathing it this week (or at least for a few days).
I shattered a couple of tiles trying to drill out the hole before the mortar had set up. I'm hoping it goes better with it nice and solid. I can get to the plumbing from the back thankfully.
We also ran out of mosaic tiling so that's not quite done yet either.
The plan now is to finish the tiling next weekend. We'll go earlier in the morning Saturday and will have much less to do. This week I have other things I can continue on including putting up all the drywall, running the electric line for the tub and (most importantly!) installing the faucets.
If there was ever a time when I can say I bit off more than I could chew, today was it. This was definitely the most difficult day of the remodel simply because I had time working against me the whole time and I hate having that feeling. I like taking my time. Not only did I have only 4 hours for the rental (didn't even come close to staying under that) but we barely made it back to the store by 8 pm when they closed. On top of that my mortar was thickening up pretty bad by the end so we just called it a night at about 7 pm with about 95% of the tile up around the tub. It was also dark and I couldn't even see where I was cutting the tile anymore. We didn't get to the floor. Pretty stressful overall but the result is turning out very well considering I've never done this type of work before. I never did get to the faucets so we are sponge bathing it this week (or at least for a few days).
I shattered a couple of tiles trying to drill out the hole before the mortar had set up. I'm hoping it goes better with it nice and solid. I can get to the plumbing from the back thankfully.We also ran out of mosaic tiling so that's not quite done yet either.
The plan now is to finish the tiling next weekend. We'll go earlier in the morning Saturday and will have much less to do. This week I have other things I can continue on including putting up all the drywall, running the electric line for the tub and (most importantly!) installing the faucets.
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Riggerjack
- Posts: 3191
- Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:09 am
Re: cmonkey's journal
Again, I wish I'd brought this up sooner.
I remodeled a basement bathroom, and did it similar to your setup. Raised the tub, rather than cutting the slab.
Things I would do differently:
i have the access panel for the Jacuzzi, but rather than use GFCI outlet, I would use a GFCI breaker. It only tripped once, but it's still a pain to access.
Raised tub is fine, but the step up is uncomfortable, especially if sore or injured (the best time to have a soaking tub, BTW.) I would build in a step. Something tied to framing. Then tile it. Oh, and a grab bar, maybe. Same reasons.
I have had the same experience as ffj with the shark bite pex fittings. With slightly less rage and comedy. I'll never use one for anything else. But, my whole house is done in the compression fittings, I love em.
I remodeled a basement bathroom, and did it similar to your setup. Raised the tub, rather than cutting the slab.
Things I would do differently:
i have the access panel for the Jacuzzi, but rather than use GFCI outlet, I would use a GFCI breaker. It only tripped once, but it's still a pain to access.
Raised tub is fine, but the step up is uncomfortable, especially if sore or injured (the best time to have a soaking tub, BTW.) I would build in a step. Something tied to framing. Then tile it. Oh, and a grab bar, maybe. Same reasons.
I have had the same experience as ffj with the shark bite pex fittings. With slightly less rage and comedy. I'll never use one for anything else. But, my whole house is done in the compression fittings, I love em.
Re: cmonkey's journal
GFCI isn't going in that access panel, but that's a good point about the breaker. Hmm...
We talked over putting in a step but the bathroom is pretty cramped the way it is and we'd be constantly tripping on it and stubbing the toes. We'll have a nice solid, movable step that we can move out of the way when we need and wouldn't be as slippery as tiling. I am pretty tall and can barely get in without a step.
Oh and we're young and agile. For now.
We talked over putting in a step but the bathroom is pretty cramped the way it is and we'd be constantly tripping on it and stubbing the toes. We'll have a nice solid, movable step that we can move out of the way when we need and wouldn't be as slippery as tiling. I am pretty tall and can barely get in without a step.
Oh and we're young and agile. For now.
Re: cmonkey's journal
New Lending Club Calculations
I am a bit bored today at work so I decided to whip up a small Lending Club spreadsheet showing my XIRR returns. XIRR is regarded as the most accurate way of calculating real 'money in pocket' returns for P2P lending. Lending Club and Prosper both tend to overstate your real return because they include 'accrued interest' and they also make the assumption that your pending cash is earning 100% of the time, which isn't the case. It often takes 2-3 weeks for money to start working which lowers your actual yield by a good chunk. I really wish they would report in pocket returns but they don't. Frankly I think it's a bit dishonest.
Looking at my XIRR returns I am not surprised at all. They fall right in line with expections...about 2-3% points below what Lending Club reports.
The spreadsheet is not hard to understand. The 'Amounts' column starts with my beginning balance as of June 30, 2015. The last value in the 'Amounts' column is my ending balance on February 29, 2016. All the other amounts in between represent the combination of all additions/withdrawls for each month. So in December 2015 we added 1748.45 to our account. Excel's XIRR function takes care of the rest.
The XIRR ROI column represents in pocket returns. The Site ROI is what Lending Club is reporting. XIRR is much more accurate. Charge Offs and Net Income are self explanatory. The 'Age in Months' column represents the average age for all of my notes. As time goes on this will increase and my ROI values will decrease accordingly. It's looking like 9-10% is the new normal for investors but with rising interest rates, we might see returns go back above 10%.
Going forward I'll be sharing this each month. It provides a nice little snippet of how Lending Club is performing.
I am a bit bored today at work so I decided to whip up a small Lending Club spreadsheet showing my XIRR returns. XIRR is regarded as the most accurate way of calculating real 'money in pocket' returns for P2P lending. Lending Club and Prosper both tend to overstate your real return because they include 'accrued interest' and they also make the assumption that your pending cash is earning 100% of the time, which isn't the case. It often takes 2-3 weeks for money to start working which lowers your actual yield by a good chunk. I really wish they would report in pocket returns but they don't. Frankly I think it's a bit dishonest.
Looking at my XIRR returns I am not surprised at all. They fall right in line with expections...about 2-3% points below what Lending Club reports.
The spreadsheet is not hard to understand. The 'Amounts' column starts with my beginning balance as of June 30, 2015. The last value in the 'Amounts' column is my ending balance on February 29, 2016. All the other amounts in between represent the combination of all additions/withdrawls for each month. So in December 2015 we added 1748.45 to our account. Excel's XIRR function takes care of the rest.
The XIRR ROI column represents in pocket returns. The Site ROI is what Lending Club is reporting. XIRR is much more accurate. Charge Offs and Net Income are self explanatory. The 'Age in Months' column represents the average age for all of my notes. As time goes on this will increase and my ROI values will decrease accordingly. It's looking like 9-10% is the new normal for investors but with rising interest rates, we might see returns go back above 10%.
Going forward I'll be sharing this each month. It provides a nice little snippet of how Lending Club is performing.
Re: cmonkey's journal
Wow thats a pretty awesome return!
I want to get into P2P. A little concerned with economic matters atm though as I know how tied it is to unemployment rates. But USA seems to be doing well, I would be more confident there than here
I want to get into P2P. A little concerned with economic matters atm though as I know how tied it is to unemployment rates. But USA seems to be doing well, I would be more confident there than here
Re: cmonkey's journal
Decided to take the day off work today and get the tiling done. Mission accomplished.
We both love how it turned out with one small exception. That small strip in front of the tub. If I could do it over I would have cut the first row in half. I was originally just thinking about the easiest way to get around the toilet. Guess we'll just throw down a rug.
I also got the faucets in on Wednesday and we were able to use the tub that day. The hot side had a small leak that I fixed today, or at least so far. No it was not the pex! It was a threaded brass connection with pipe dope.
Last night I ripped all the plumbing from the ceiling and also got all the electric pulled out so I have nothing in my way for putting up the ceiling and the rest of the walls.
I see a light at the end of this bathroom-less tunnel! Tomorrow I'm doing the grouting and Sunday I'll caulk all the corners and edges. Then we can utilize the jets. DW bought some bubble bath today in preparation.
We both love how it turned out with one small exception. That small strip in front of the tub.
If I could do it over I would have cut the first row in half. I was originally just thinking about the easiest way to get around the toilet. Guess we'll just throw down a rug. I also got the faucets in on Wednesday and we were able to use the tub that day. The hot side had a small leak that I fixed today, or at least so far. No it was not the pex! It was a threaded brass connection with pipe dope.
Last night I ripped all the plumbing from the ceiling and also got all the electric pulled out so I have nothing in my way for putting up the ceiling and the rest of the walls.
I see a light at the end of this bathroom-less tunnel! Tomorrow I'm doing the grouting and Sunday I'll caulk all the corners and edges. Then we can utilize the jets. DW bought some bubble bath today in preparation.
Re: cmonkey's journal
Today is a very special day and I wanted to note it in my journal. We received an egg from every single one of our hens for the first time today. 
We've hit 9 a few times but never managed all before now.
Our current oversupply of eggs. This is about 1.5 weeks worth. So far we are keeping up...sort of.
I also thought I'd put some photos up as I haven't for a while. Winter tends to force you indoors.
Here's how little ole Bee turned out. Very handsome guy.
Stanley giving me the stink eye. He can be fiesty at times. If you move to quick he'll attack your leg.
Gem still loves sitting on my arm, even after 5 months of not doing it.
What's in his hand??
We planted winter rye on some of our beds as a cover crop. It doubles as chicken feed when nothing else is growing! It's been growing like crazy for the past week and so I've started digging it up, leaving the mass of roots to rot down while the chickens get the greens.
We've hit 9 a few times but never managed all before now. Our current oversupply of eggs. This is about 1.5 weeks worth. So far we are keeping up...sort of.
I also thought I'd put some photos up as I haven't for a while. Winter tends to force you indoors.
Here's how little ole Bee turned out. Very handsome guy.
Stanley giving me the stink eye. He can be fiesty at times. If you move to quick he'll attack your leg.
Gem still loves sitting on my arm, even after 5 months of not doing it.
What's in his hand??
We planted winter rye on some of our beds as a cover crop. It doubles as chicken feed when nothing else is growing! It's been growing like crazy for the past week and so I've started digging it up, leaving the mass of roots to rot down while the chickens get the greens.
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steelerfan
- Posts: 127
- Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2013 3:33 pm
Re: cmonkey's journal
Thanks for sharing your LC spreadsheet. I have always thought my returns were optimistic at best! I will be running my numbers as well. As you know it can take a while for your loans to fund. Last month I had committed cash in a loan that sat unfunded for 40 days. I complained and mysteriously it was back in available. Between the week lag to put your deposit in play, and the lag to get late payments posted and other things LC has the use of our money for free for a significant time. That plus the .01 service fee (2 to 5%) per payment. They are making a killing LOL.cmonkey wrote:New Lending Club Calculations
I am a bit bored today at work so I decided to whip up a small Lending Club spreadsheet showing my XIRR returns. XIRR is regarded as the most accurate way of calculating real 'money in pocket' returns for P2P lending. Lending Club and Prosper both tend to overstate your real return because they include 'accrued interest' and they also make the assumption that your pending cash is earning 100% of the time, which isn't the case. It often takes 2-3 weeks for money to start working which lowers your actual yield by a good chunk. I really wish they would report in pocket returns but they don't. Frankly I think it's a bit dishonest.
Looking at my XIRR returns I am not surprised at all. They fall right in line with expections...about 2-3% points below what Lending Club reports.
The spreadsheet is not hard to understand. The 'Amounts' column starts with my beginning balance as of June 30, 2015. The last value in the 'Amounts' column is my ending balance on February 29, 2016. All the other amounts in between represent the combination of all additions/withdrawls for each month. So in December 2015 we added 1748.45 to our account. Excel's XIRR function takes care of the rest.
The XIRR ROI column represents in pocket returns. The Site ROI is what Lending Club is reporting. XIRR is much more accurate. Charge Offs and Net Income are self explanatory. The 'Age in Months' column represents the average age for all of my notes. As time goes on this will increase and my ROI values will decrease accordingly. It's looking like 9-10% is the new normal for investors but with rising interest rates, we might see returns go back above 10%.
Going forward I'll be sharing this each month. It provides a nice little snippet of how Lending Club is performing.
Re: cmonkey's journal
Last month was bad for unfunded loans. There was a huge surge in available loans for some reason and many never even got funded. Thankfully I noticed this and decided to do my order myself rather than let the automated tool do it, so I didn't get a bunch of loans that were 10% funded with 1 day left.
Things are looking much better now! Keeping that balance of supply and demand in equilibrium is something Lending Club has gotten very good at. Normally my money is in play within a day and I'd say 75%+ of the loan eventually issue within a couple weeks. But that difference between site reported return and XIRR is pretty big and it's all due to the 'pending cash' delay.
Lending Club is such a new company and they have been putting in quite innovative stuff, I am hopeful they will speed up their pending cash problem in the coming years. Maybe its dependent on third parties though.
You can download that spreadsheet from that Lend Academy article I believe.
Things are looking much better now! Keeping that balance of supply and demand in equilibrium is something Lending Club has gotten very good at. Normally my money is in play within a day and I'd say 75%+ of the loan eventually issue within a couple weeks. But that difference between site reported return and XIRR is pretty big and it's all due to the 'pending cash' delay.
Lending Club is such a new company and they have been putting in quite innovative stuff, I am hopeful they will speed up their pending cash problem in the coming years. Maybe its dependent on third parties though.
You can download that spreadsheet from that Lend Academy article I believe.
Re: cmonkey's journal
It has been a hell of a long couple of weeks. Not just with all I have going on with renovations and work but Monty got sick last week. He developed a blocked urinary track last Wednesday and we had to take him in to get a catheter on Thursday. He seems to be recovering well but is still a bit leaky. 
He's also now on a permanent wet food diet as the culprit was probably due to eating nothing but dry food. He never drank much and so developed some major mineral deposits.
I am going to wait to show photos of the bathroom until we are totally done, probably this weekend. I did get the grouting and caulking done back on the 13th and have been slowly getting all the drywall done around everything else going on.
I've also started demolition on the main floor. My next project is going to be building the new staircase and that requires tearing apart our spare bedroom which previously held 2 bed sets we inherited. We moved everything out, including setting up the basement bedroom (which is now awesome by the way).
Here are some before photos of the bedroom that we took when we bought the place.
I started demolition on Saturday and have perhaps 1/2 the room ripped out now. I have a problem of trying to manage all the old plaster. For now I'm just piling it outside and will be throwing it in normal trash as it comes. All the paneling and old insulation will be burned. The carpets are going to be saved and used as a pond liner cushion in the coming years.
Here is what my house is "insulated" with. This stuff requires something beyond a hazmat suit to take out. It is definitely original to the house which was built in 1943. This stuff was common back in the 30's-50's.
Truth be told I have been pretty lacking in motivation to do much of anything lately with March being really cool and gloomy interspersed with teasingly warm and sunny days. I'm not making much progress on the FI front with home insurance due this month and then Monty's vet bill. Plus I feel like I have just a mountain of renovation work left to do.
He's also now on a permanent wet food diet as the culprit was probably due to eating nothing but dry food. He never drank much and so developed some major mineral deposits.I am going to wait to show photos of the bathroom until we are totally done, probably this weekend. I did get the grouting and caulking done back on the 13th and have been slowly getting all the drywall done around everything else going on.
I've also started demolition on the main floor. My next project is going to be building the new staircase and that requires tearing apart our spare bedroom which previously held 2 bed sets we inherited. We moved everything out, including setting up the basement bedroom (which is now awesome by the way).
Here are some before photos of the bedroom that we took when we bought the place.
I started demolition on Saturday and have perhaps 1/2 the room ripped out now. I have a problem of trying to manage all the old plaster. For now I'm just piling it outside and will be throwing it in normal trash as it comes. All the paneling and old insulation will be burned. The carpets are going to be saved and used as a pond liner cushion in the coming years.
Here is what my house is "insulated" with. This stuff requires something beyond a hazmat suit to take out. It is definitely original to the house which was built in 1943. This stuff was common back in the 30's-50's.
Truth be told I have been pretty lacking in motivation to do much of anything lately with March being really cool and gloomy interspersed with teasingly warm and sunny days. I'm not making much progress on the FI front with home insurance due this month and then Monty's vet bill. Plus I feel like I have just a mountain of renovation work left to do.
Re: cmonkey's journal
Hehe yes it is going away. The date on the back of the panel was 1993. Definitely a 90's thing.
Burn out is definitely a risk. I'm doing well so far, but life just has this way of saying 'nope!' to the best laid plans. I've been just taking it one to two days and steps at a time and making sure our livable area and our unlivable area have very clear boundaries.
Every once in a while I starting falling into the 'deadline' trap where I start thinking about how I need to have this done by this date and such. Then I start stressing about it. I think its a hazard of working in IT infrastructure where every day I am surrounded by deadlines and dates and things are extremely regimented. I'm trying to actively rebel against this mode of thought...
The jacuzzi is helping with the stress of life too.
Burn out is definitely a risk. I'm doing well so far, but life just has this way of saying 'nope!' to the best laid plans. I've been just taking it one to two days and steps at a time and making sure our livable area and our unlivable area have very clear boundaries.
Every once in a while I starting falling into the 'deadline' trap where I start thinking about how I need to have this done by this date and such. Then I start stressing about it. I think its a hazard of working in IT infrastructure where every day I am surrounded by deadlines and dates and things are extremely regimented. I'm trying to actively rebel against this mode of thought...
The jacuzzi is helping with the stress of life too.