No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

I agree with this review:

https://youtu.be/4sIP_yq55v4

sky
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Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2011 2:20 am

Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

Here are a few maps I put together using QGIS:

https://postimg.cc/gallery/v4Xwtck

Image

guitarplayer
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Cool looking visualisation @sky

mathiverse
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by mathiverse »

Why are those two blue counties so cheap? Are there well known reasons?

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

Those counties are in the coldest climate areas of the state, with poor soil and shortest growing season. Cloudy, limited potential for solar power. Remote in the case of the northern county in the upper peninsula. Surrounded by national forest. Not a lot of employment.

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

Image

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

Image

theanimal
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by theanimal »

That hardiness zone map is wild. I am more or less in between zone 3 a/b in Interior Alaska. I guess the advantage in MI is more light throughout the entire year and longer spring/fall.

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

What latitude are you located at? What is the average date of the first frost in your area?

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

Note, I did not make the Hardiness Zone map, or this one: Image

theanimal
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by theanimal »

I am at latitude 65. I am in the indigo/dark purple on the frost map. First frost generally occurs sometime between the last 2 weeks of August and the first week of September here. This past week was the first in which we had multiple nights below freezing.

Also, I don't remember if you were the one who I heard this resource from but if not you may find it useful in your housing research. https://www.airdna.co/ provides an overview of short term rental market (AirBnB and VRBO) in a given area. There may be other similar sites, this is the only one I have used.

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

My caregiving days are over, my "patient" is recovering well from a medical procedure. We had been limited in what we could do for about 2 years.

We took a van camping trip to celebrate our regained freedom, following the Great River Road along the Mississippi River from south to north in Iowa, then across northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and back down to southern Michigan where we live. A circumnavigation of Lake Michigan.

The trip started out in warm sunny weather, shorts and flip flops, but ended up in rainy, windy weather with a bit of snow thrown at us now and then. Once again we proved that you can sleep well in freezing temperatures with enough blankets. I used a sheet, a soft blanket and an old sleeping bag as a quilt and slept very warm. The down side of van camping in cold is that the only really comfortable place to relax is under the blankets. Either walk around, exert yourself somehow or hide in bed, those are your choices.

My goal was to do short driving distances every day, and find interesting destinations to take short detours to. My natural tendency is to drive on and on as far as possible until exhaustion; it takes extra effort to get the driver (me) to stop and look at things. I did a good job of doing side trips to see historic buildings, neighborhoods and points of interest, at least until it got cold. Some areas did not have anything interesting to stop at, which made it difficult to do slow travel.

The highlight of the trip was the area north of Dubuque to the Minnesota state line, a very beautiful area along the Mississippi. We may tour the area again in Spring, heading west from the Mississippi River into the Iowa Driftless Region, which is a hilly area where glacial drift did not flatten the terrain. Lots of traditional American small towns far away from anything. And by "anything" I mean larger metro areas such as Minneapolis or Chicago. Lots of places to buy a $100k home and live comfortably.

I read "Eat For Health" by Joel Fuhrmann. I found it quite helpful in improving my diet. Fuhrmann recommends eating a variety of high nutrient per calorie foods, a practice he calls the Nutritarian Diet. The foods he recommends are similar to those recommended by Dr. Greger's "How Not to Diet". Fuhrmann's approach is more complex than this, but here is a simple example:
Eat only at breakfast, lunch and dinner, do not snack between. Breakfast: 4 to 6 pieces or servings of fruit and a small portion of raw almonds. Lunch: A large salad, raw vegetables, and anything else you would like to eat in addition. Dinner: A large salad, a vegetable bean soup, and anything else you would like to eat in addition. Of course, Fuhrmann has a lot of advice on what to eat in addition, and what not to eat.

I find the vegetable bean soup recipes convenient: you can meal prep by cooking a pot of soup and freezing individual portions. The soups are made up of a combination of vegetables, greens, mushrooms and beans. The soup recipes vary, common themes are a savory soup, curry flavored or chili flavored soups. The main goal of the soup seems to be to get as much high nutrient greens (kale, swiss chard, collard greens) into the soup as possible. The soups are quite thick and are really more of a stew than a soup. I have made a few soups which were quite good and some not that great but still edible. My favorite so far: vegetable broth, leek, garlic, carrots, celery, broccoli, mushrooms, kidney beans and swiss chard, with ground pepper, rosemary, thyme and Italian seasoning.

This diet means you are eating a lot of vegetable fiber. If you still want to increase nutrient intake without adding more fiber, juice vegetables and just drink the juice without the fiber. I have found that it is important to portion the food in a way that gives you as much nutrient level as possible while not eating too much fiber which becomes somewhat uncomfortable to digest.

I started walking to the grocery store, one mile there, one mile back, to get my fresh fruit and salads. I like the fact that I am walking to get something done rather than just doing a loop around the neighborhood.

guitarplayer
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

I enjoy your updates. Looking at your first post in the journal, there is a curious parallel. This year I can in some sense say, that I am starting working a full time professional job. In 19 years I will be 54.

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

Here is a video explaining the nutritarian diet:

https://youtu.be/HYxeWdvKlLo

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

Health based goals

Goal: Nutritarian diet to improve health and longevity
Eat high nutrient density, plant based food
Breakfast: 1/2 cup muesli, 1/4 cup blueberries, 1/4 cup raspberries
Additional fruit at breakfast, choose 2: kiwi, banana, apple, 6 prunes, pear, grapes
Lunch: Vegetable-bean soup, raw carrots and celery
Dinner: Large salad and vegetable-bean soup

I followed this diet during the beginning of November but the harvest holiday made things difficult. I also have a beautiful little devil in my house who tempts me with things like: "Would you like cake with your tea?" and who puts chocolate candies through out the house in festive decorative bowls. Not an easy time to be diet conscious.

Here is one of my favorite nutritarian recipes, a traditional pea soup with the addition of a large amount of pureed greens, a pureed leek, a half pound of chopped mushroom and two cans of kidney beans. I eat it with triscuit crackers to give it some crunch and chewy texture.

Vegetable-bean Soup
Simmer 1 cup split peas in 4 cups water for 30 minutes
Puree split peas in food processor
Add to 2 cups water in soup pot
Chop and puree in food processor:
1 onion
6 garlic cloves
1 leek
1/2 to 1 bunch of kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, spinach, bok choy or cabbage, as much as will fit in soup pot
2 carrots
a few celery stalks
Add pureed vegetables to soup
Chop 1/2 pound mushrooms and add to soup
Simmer 2 hours
In last half hour, add about a half teaspoon each:
Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Ground Pepper
Add 2 cans rinsed and drained kidney beans

I find that this soup makes a satisfying evening meal. It is low cost and allows me to cook once for 4 or 5 meals.

Goal: Fasting to improve health and longevity
Level 1 No snacks, eat only at breakfast, lunch and dinner
Level 2 Delay breakfast until 11 am to increase overnight fast duration
Level 3 Fast 18 hours, skip lunch, eat breakfast at 11 am and dinner early
Level 4 One meal a day, fast 24 hours
Level 5 Fast 43 hours, from evening meal at 4 pm to the second day breakfast

I am new to fasting and am still learning. I have heard that there are health benefits to fasting but I am not an expert. I was surprised that One Meal a Day fasting was so easy. I ignored the growling noises in my stomach and resisted the panic hunger attacks and was able to fast from one evening meal to the next. I have done this twice so far and may try to do One Meal a Day once a week or so. Other that that, I started to delay breakfast until noon, which was also easy. My main goal is heart health, but losing weight would also be nice. Once again, the holiday season makes it difficult to fast, with lots of snacks and leftovers just waiting to be eaten. I am still trying to work out how to combine a nutritarian diet with fasting. I have mainly used fasting when I need to eat "normal" food for social reasons, then I stop eating for as long as possible before and after eating a meal.

Goal: Cardiofitness
Walk 1 to 2 hours a day

I was doing pretty good until it snowed and then went into walking hibernation. I was up to more than one hour of walking per day, going longer and longer distances. I need to restart this and prepare for winter exercise.

Goal: Limber movement
Stretch each morning

Failed at this goal completely. It is a shame, all it takes is a little motivation to do it and one feels much better all day.

Other goals

Goal: Declutter and lighten
Garage: identify things to throw in trash, fill trash bin each week
Garage: identify things to sell at garage sale, separate for sale
Garage: organize tools and hobby materials, move to storage bins
House: identify things to throw in trash, fill trash bin
House: identify clothes to donate, give them away
House: organize clothes and things
House: look for old food to throw in trash

So far this year I have decluttered my basement, garage and bedroom. I have organized my camping gear and tools. I have donated or disposed of unused clothing. I still have quite a bit of organizing to do, but that is an ongoing task. I find going through my stuff and throwing away trash to be depressing while doing it. Even when I knew I was close to the end it caused depression. I had no ideas for new projects or things to do and no motivation to do anything. I just pushed through it with sadness. However, now that the trash is gone, I have a lot more energy and ambition. I have a lot of ideas bubbling up about things to do or make. The sadness has gone away.

Life During Wartime

I went through my emergency food and supplies. I need to add a few extra headlamps and a few more cans of food. My target is 30 days of food that requires no cooking or water, at the moment I have 16 days of emergency food. I will start buying about 7 days of food each January to replace outdated food. My main focus is to keep cans of refried beans, triscuit crackers, canned soup and fruit. No cooking needed, just a can opener and spoon. I will probably never eat this food, it is only purchased as insurance. I also have a lot of other food in storage, but that is intended to be used up as we need it.

I need to buy some wood for the woodstove, and maybe another bottle of lamp oil. I thought about getting a generator or rooftop solar with a battery bank, but being able to live without any electricity indefinitely is more resilient, and for me is much cheaper than emergency electric power generation. The main danger of this method is the loss of food in the freezer and fridge when power goes out. As long as we keep a supply of nonperishable food on the shelf, we can overcome the loss of frozen food. I have a generator in my camper van and I probably should figure out how to power the freezer with a long extension cord from the camper van to the basement.

I have about 40 gallons of water jugs that I keep empty, and at the first notice of an emergency, I will fill them with drinking water. I do keep about 5 gallons of water at all times, but that water gets old, years old, so in case of emergency I would dump it and refill if I could.

Skills

I learned to identify the bird species that come to my bird feeder by name. There are only a few that I can't identify, and I suspect they are juveniles or females without full coloring.

I fixed a dripping shower mixer valve.

I am researching a trip to explore the Great Plains next Summer: Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska.

MBBboy
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by MBBboy »

For what it's worth, there was a pretty big sale on Amazon of generators yesterday - some or all of them might be ongoing. I saved about $300 on the one I was planning on buying for the ranch cabin. Dumb luck that I hadn't bought it already and happened to look at it in my list yesterday

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mountainFrugal
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

sky wrote:
Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:46 pm
I learned to identify the bird species that come to my bird feeder by name. There are only a few that I can't identify, and I suspect they are juveniles or females without full coloring.
They have a smartphone app as well (https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/), but https://www.allaboutbirds.org/ is an excellent resource.

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

@MBBboy Which generator did you end up with?

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grundomatic
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by grundomatic »

I, too, struggle hard getting rid of things. I might need it one day. I of course remember the one thing I got rid of and needed, and forget the space and even $ generated by the 99 other things I ditched and never needed. Toughest are the personal things nobody else is going to want. Stupid sentiment, first causing clutter then distress in dealing with it. I get inspired for projects but can't start without first purging/cleaning/organizing. You can guess what happens with those projects. Well, I think I'll leave the computer and go deal with some "stuff". Hopefully make room for new year projects.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by Western Red Cedar »

sky wrote:
Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:46 pm
Here is one of my favorite nutritarian recipes, a traditional pea soup with the addition of a large amount of pureed greens, a pureed leek, a half pound of chopped mushroom and two cans of kidney beans. I eat it with triscuit crackers to give it some crunch and chewy texture.

Vegetable-bean Soup
Simmer 1 cup split peas in 4 cups water for 30 minutes
Puree split peas in food processor
Add to 2 cups water in soup pot
Chop and puree in food processor:
1 onion
6 garlic cloves
1 leek
1/2 to 1 bunch of kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, spinach, bok choy or cabbage, as much as will fit in soup pot
2 carrots
a few celery stalks
Add pureed vegetables to soup
Chop 1/2 pound mushrooms and add to soup
Simmer 2 hours
In last half hour, add about a half teaspoon each:
Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Ground Pepper
Add 2 cans rinsed and drained kidney beans
I made a very similar soup last week. I added a couple different kind of lentils to add more protein (though I didn't add any beans). I find pureed soups give you a little more flexibility in terms of the different textures of lentils and vegetables. I'll often add some diced radish on top after reheating to add the crunch.

Are you tracking how many different varieties of plants you eat in a week? I typically target at least 30-40 different plant based foods to support a healthy microbiome. I find soups like these are a good approach to hit those goals.

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