mooretrees journal

[theanimal]

@theanimal. A visit is in order to check out AK. Maybe summer?

Definitely! Summer would be a good starting point. We'd love to see you all.

[mooretrees]

Project no buy quarter:

DH and I are on a mission to save money for some future property/home and to that end we’re trying out a no-buy quarter. Neither of us could commit to a year. Me because I believe that will be difficult and DH (I think) because he’s hoping to be able to buy some property this year.

It might be better termed a ‘low buy’ (thanks YouTube for introducing me to this term) but that doesn’t sound as cool. Low buy might be more accurate because we’ve got a few exceptions to the no buy rule. DH and DS are taking a trip to see his parents, we can buy food out at our favorite cafe after we sell them our coffee (monthly), medical related stuff (medications and as needed dr visits) and one or two after school activities for DS. I broke the no buy rule very early as I didn’t get presents (coffee and homemade biscotti) to family mailed before Jan. I’m ok with that failure. We’re going to spend some unexpected money on our second car, but that is in preparation to sell it, so overall that will be a win.

So far, I’ve been surprised by both how often I think about buying something AND how relaxing it is to know I can’t buy something. Both are so unexpected! I thought I was a better non-consumer than I actually have been. And now that I have this restriction on buying, I’m so at ease with finding a different solution to whatever problem there is.

I’m still navigating social situations with my friends that so far haven’t caused any problems. One friend group pivoted to a gift of service for our friend after I said I was going to do my own present for her. That was a cool shift. Another friend situation that could have involved eating out was also managed to be just a hang session with just a little bit of effort on my part. Some of the effort was telling the friend that I’m not spending money, and then more effort to ignore her halfhearted attempts to go out to dinner. That sounds worse in writing than what I hope happened in person.

Despite the no buy start, we will have an expensive January. We hired a friend to work on the bus. DH and I decided to have him bring back our bathroom inside. I really wanted him to work on putting in a booth as I’m tired of eating dinner on a bed. But, DH felt more comfortable with him doing the bathroom. He put the bathroom together and a closet in a week or so. So speedy! And now that we can just pop into a bathroom without gearing up to deal with rain or snow, I’m SO SO SO happy. I didn’t realize that I was dreading going outside to go to the bathroom so much, it was just part of the deal. We initially had a bathroom inside, but it wasn’t vented well and got sorta gross. So, as a temporary (over a year ago) solution, we moved into our canvas wall tent. And then just lived with it.

Our buddy gave us a deal on his labor costs and we had most of the lumber already so it could have been more expensive. Now I’m ready to hire him to do the kitchen booth area once summer hits.

I also had a few medical bills for our son. He had two emergency room visits last month. One was strept throat and really happened because I got scared that he wasn’t recovering well from hand, foot and mouth disease. I am happy we went to the emergency room, but I wonder if I could have done it differently? The other was a wild accident that involved a shoelace and two baby teeth. Somehow DH managed to pull out one baby tooth with a shoelace in his mouth, and partially pull out a second tooth. I am not making this up. It was a weekend and our dentist was out of town. Urgent care doesn’t do teeth pulling, so to the ER we went.

Other stuff:

I’ve got a newish friend that is turning out to be a great fermentation partner! She had a baby a while ago and I brought her dinner a month or so after she had her baby. It was fun to hang with her and the baby and then I asked if I could bake bread at her house. Yes, I can. So, then I baked a few loaves of sourdough at her place, hung out with her and the baby and gave them a loaf each time. They weren’t amazing to look at, but they tasted delicious. And now she’s making her own bread and we’ve done one fermentation project (carrots for bahn mi sandwich’s) and another one planned in a few days. She’s a stay at home mom now, so it’s really easy to just pop over and hang with her for a bit. I am really happy with how this friendship is blossoming, I’ve thought she was a cool lady for years.


Fire starter:
Our builder friend made us some fire starters as a present. I have never used them before, and I love them now. I don’t like making kindling and I am often the first person up in a cold home. Our wood stove is pretty small and depending on the wood we use, the fires can easily go out over night. Now that we’re using larch, that is happening less often. DS and I collected cones, lichens and other stuff on a hike recently to make our own fire starters. I have a lot of old candle nubs around as I can’t throw them away when I know how much energy it took the honeybee to make them. Now I have a use for them! This morning I got one of our fire starters, a few small leftover construction scraps and a few minutes later, I’ve got a fire. I am sold.

Thanks for reading!

[mooretrees]

Project no buy is continuing, though without a perfect record of sticking with it. Each paycheck lasts a long time and it’s really taking a low level stressor off the table. We do make lists of things that we want to buy, but nothing feels pressing and since we don’t write them down, I’m sure we‘ll forget them.

Health continues to be a huge focus for me, specifically diving deeply into increasing mobility in my hips, neck, lower back…really everywhere. I’ve turned to my old stand by book, Pain Free by Pete Ecoscue for direct exercises to reduce neck kyphosis, redirect hip compensating muscle back to their correct uses, and addressing anterior pelvic tilt. I haven’t had a migraine since early February and hope that continues. I am seeing a massage therapist who is very familiar with the above mentioned Pain Free method and comfortable assessing postural imbalances/impingements. Insurance pays for some of this and I see it as a short term investment into recovering to a fully functional body, albeit with an ongoing practice of working on myself. He is helping me learn how to assess myself which should make a difference in the long term. I recently started doing Kelly Starrett’s 9 minute hip mobility (thanks for writing about this @Lemur!) and it’s challenging in a good way. I think my pelvis is titled sideways and has the anterior tilt too. I feel good after doing it so it’s an easy one to continue doing.


DH had a recent MRI and it confirmed that he partially torn his ACL. He is seeing a PT and has been really bummed to realize that this injury has lead to a significant drop in leg strength. I hope he can regain it with assistance. It’s a new dynamic that he is taking more control of his health. I am resolved to not interfere (too much!) and it seems like I don’t really need to push him. I appreciate that.

A friend upgraded his adjustable dumbbells and gave me his old, totally still functional set. I had set the goal of lifting again starting in March, after doing a lot of yoga and exercises for my neck and hip in February. I did my first lift at home yesterday and it went great! I’ve missed lifting. I’ll lift two - three times a week, continue to bike to work and take longer walks on my days off.

New bus spot:
DS takes aikido classes at this funky dojo set in an old orchard tucked away in the ‘bad’ part of town. The aikido teacher is very focused on working with emotions, teamwork, problem solving and some aikido. DS loves it. One of the owners of the orchard has given me fruit over the years and we’re friendly. We got to talking a class recently and I jokingly asked if she wanted a hippie school bus on the property. I’ve used this line over years with little success. This time it worked! She said they had been thinking a tiny house would be cool, but not actively looking for someone. She also said that they two things they hadn’t been able to bring to the orchard were culinary mushrooms and honeybees. She was delighted to hear I’m a beekeeper.

More conversations happened, and it’s looking like we’ll move there in mid-April. When she asked what we were looking for out of the orchard, I said I wanted a place that we could be a part of the community, with people who weren’t doing us a favor. She said that’s what they wanted to. We then had a long conversation with the four adults. It was amazing. They have lived as renters, landlords, lived in intentional communities, deep in the country and worked their adult lives in education and domestic violence. She has been into permaculture for decades and the orchard is really a burgeoning food forest. They don’t care to charge us a lot of money as the property is paid off and they have several other renters, the dojo and a small fruit CSA to help pay for the property taxes. They will charge is $25/month and then we’ll see what we need for electricity.

They’d like us to help on the property IF WE REALLY WANT TO. No chore wheel or prescribed weekly hours helping, just an honest assessment of what we’d like to do if we want to help. They are emotional adults. THey’ve seen the way those sorts of arrangements fall apart when people are assigned tasks that they don’t really care about. They want it to be natural and driven by our interests. They know our son too, and made a point to include him in the conversation. They are open to us being there long term, providing it works out. DH and I biked away in shock. This is what I want to offer to other people at some point. They weren’t being generous, they were living by a different rule book. Enlightened self-interest is what he called it.

I am absolutely stoked to see how this goes. I don’t think we’ll have much contact with the husband, outside of aikido classes as he seems very introverted and his mobility is limited. I’m excited to spend time in the orchard with her, she knows so much! There are many fruits I’ve never tried there, mulberries, sea berries and more. This feels like a new chapter in our life.

[NewBlood]

That sounds like such an awesome set-up, Mooretrees! I hope it works out for all of you!

[birding]

Hi Mooretrees, I just stumbled across your journal and the new bus spot sounds amazing. Aikido on an orchard! Best of luck. Also, good stuff with your focus on health - I've had my own journeys with physical pain. I'll be reading more of your journal.

[Smashter]

What a cool new adventure. Kudos to you for putting yourself out there despite limited success in the past. I bet you've received some funny looks when floating the idea of parking a hippy school bus on someone's property . As someone who loves fruit and so often finds the grocery store options unsatisfying, I think it'd be great to grow some of my own. For now, I'll live vicariously through the moortrees clan

[frugaldoc]

I have just started reading your journal after hearing about your story on the "Advanced Retroadaptics" podcast. It will take a while to get caught up, but I wanted to say that if your bus ever finds its way up in the NE Kingdom of VT there are 26 acres sitting unused for the next few years.

[Western Red Cedar]

This sounds like a really promising opportunity. I look forward to reading about how things evolve over the rest of the year.

[mooretrees]

That sounds like such an awesome set-up, Mooretrees! I hope it works out for all of you!

Thanks! We’re cautiously excited. Now on to prepping the bus for moving…..

[mooretrees]

What a cool new adventure. Kudos to you for putting yourself out there despite limited success in the past. I bet you've received some funny looks when floating the idea of parking a hippy school bus on someone's property . As someone who loves fruit and so often finds the grocery store options unsatisfying, I think it'd be great to grow some of my own. For now, I'll live vicariously through the moortrees clan

I can’t remember where you live, Vancouver? I’m positive there is free fruit out there if you start paying attention. Anyone one who has more than one fruit tree in their yard probably can’t handle all the fruit. I have been biking around our small city for years noting fruit trees and tracking their fruit. One time I knocked on the door of a house to ask about the ripe peaches that were dropping on the street. The renters were cool me harvesting them and bam, 40 pounds of peaches later! All this to say, I bet there are tons of non-grocery store fruit out there for you. Best of luck future gleaner!

[mooretrees]

I have just started reading your journal after hearing about your story on the "Advanced Retroadaptics" podcast. It will take a while to get caught up, but I wanted to say that if your bus ever finds its way up in the NE Kingdom of VT there are 26 acres sitting unused for the next few years.

Sweet, love the invite. I hope we can do that someday. That podcast was so fun to record, any chance to hang with Axel is worth it. I’ve found the his podcasts are worth relistening too. Especially when I need some support to adjust my spending norms!

[mooretrees]

This sounds like a really promising opportunity. I look forward to reading about how things evolve over the rest of the year.

Thanks buddy! Mutual admiration society here, I’ve loved your travel journal entries.

[mooretrees]

The low buy quarter has started to be a pain in the ass. Which I guess means I’m entering the ‘good’ learning phase? Ugh. I have been meaning to try and write about why it’s getting hard and I haven’t yet. Here goes I guess. It’s annoying not to have the normal solutions available to me. That’s the heart of it really. I have patterns of solving all sorts of problems with the one solution, money. And since we’re not spending it, we have lots of it lying around! Waiting to be spent!!! Or moved in to a CD ladder and starting to earn us money. Boring. Just kidding!

OK, the things I’m wanting to solve with money are: private swim lessons for my son, storage stuff for organizing our crap, BOOKs I can’t find at the library, and running shoes that don’t rub my heels, protein powder for da gainz, some pretty natural fabric for curtains, and tung oil to work on sealing the wood inside the bus.

Private swim lessons: My son can swim safely, but he’s not good enough for swim team; which he doesn’t want to do, but is a good marker that he’s a good enough swimmer. I don’t feel an urgent need to do the swim lessons, but it feels like a long term ‘good’ parent thing to do. Is that just the middle class parent in me???

Organizing material for our crap: obviously getting free boxes is gonna happen, after I do a massive purge and then I won’t need any storage boxes. Not going to buy them, but it does tempt me to think of the future me that is ‘totally organized and perfect in every way’. Totally a nice daydream to drop into when I’m overwhelmed with our stuff.

Books: I will be buying a few books next month, Deep Response and “At Work In the Ruins” by Dougald Hine. I am not worried about this expense, I’ve done a great job not spending money on books over the years.

Running shoes: I’ve got tape on the inside heels of my running shoes currently. It’s a fine fix that reduces the rubbing. I’m not actually running so it’s ok to wait to replace these for when I’m actually a trail runner again (Fall??).

Protein powder: I actually dislike buying this stuff, so I’m just gonna eat more meat and dairy. I know, I know, it’s not be all end all perfect for the earth. But I’m tired of the stupid plastic bins that we can’t recycle locally, and probably are not truly recyclable if we could toss them into the recycling bin. I’ve got a friend who pays extra for recycling and I’m saving all of our extra tubs and such to take to her. Totally ridiculous considering how little space we have to have that stuff building up. I’ve been reducing what we buy in that stuff, but it is hard to convince the family that tortilla chips are something we can’t buy.

Tung oil: I will buy this after we move, as I’m not really ready to work on this project. It is very smelly and I’d like to have the windows open when I do this.

Curtains: I don’t know what to do about this one…especially since we’ve lived without curtains for a few years now and it’s been mostly fine. But, I’d like it to be prettier and have some more privacy. This might be something that I try and find a friend who has a sewing machine and start checking out the thrift stores to find sheets that might work. I might compromise on the ‘natural’ fabric as that will definitely mean buying new (I think?). Ok waiting until next month to address this after our move.

So, that’s it. So far anyway. Appreciate any thoughts and suggestions…….

[J_]

Suggestion one: don’t push your son to become a race swimmer.
Sugestion two: protein is plenty in grains, seeds, in legumes and beans. Stop with the foods you mention. I have a splendid physical condition, (like others on the forum) on plantbased food. (You will feel much better.. physical and social I suppose) Cheers.

[mathiverse]

Nice work on doing a no buy quarter! I'm always inspired by how you are leading your family towards ERE by challenges like this.

Swimming lesson thoughts:
* You're pretty good with social capital. Maybe waiting on this, but advertising/socializing about looking for bartered lessons or something will lead to an opportunity?
* What does "swim team level" mean? Is this a speed thing? Or a comfort and happiness in the water thing? Or an ability to swim for two hours with few breaks during a practice thing? A lack of knowledge of the four strokes? Some of these you can work on without a coach (eg a lot more pool time, parent-designed "workouts" that you make fun so he gets stamina, more cardio in general to improve pool cardio, etc). So yeah, maybe, one solution is spending a lot more time at the pool, so he develops more on his own (with maybe some video/book guidance from you) rather than getting a specialized teacher.
* I'm also with J_ a bit here though. Are you sure his level of swimming isn't adequate? Swim team level is a bar that the majority of water-safe-confident humans don't meet. I wonder how you set the "bar" for where you'd be happy to have your child be with swimming. Maybe looking more into that and what's adequate would settle your fears (looking at expert source recommendations that aren't trying to sell you pool/swim classes/teams/lessons/etc vs your feelings on it? I don't know.).

[AxelHeyst]

re: protein - do you have a line on meat and dairy that doesn't come in packaging? I wouldn't be surprised based on where you're at, just checking. You can find protein powder in bags vs. the tubs, although I have yet to find whey in paper recyclable bags. I may have missed what your criteria rules for the low-buy are, curious on what basis the whey is a no and the meat/dairy is a yes.

ETA: I also use lentil flour to up my daily protein count. Soak red lentils overnight with 2x volume of water, then immersion blend and mix into e.g. pancake batter or flatbread something-or-other. 1/4c lentils is something like 13g pro.

re: swimming - just a random thought to earmark "look into wild swimming adventures with moorecub" as a potentially more stoke-centric vector for ensuring his swimming ability makes you comfortable and stack other functions like time in the mountains, minimize lifetime exposure to chlorine, building unique family memories, etc.

+1 what mathiverse said, your inspiring! And congrats on your attitude towards it being a PITA. Sometimes it feels like people assume something 'sucking' or 'being hard' means it's a sign that it "isn't for me" or "doesn't work, as if everything is always supposed to be easy. Awesome.

[7Wannabe5]

Just suggestions...

Private Swim Lessons: if you aren't a good enough swimmer to coach him yourself, maybe team up with somebody who is a good swimmer by chipping in some of your medical skills towards offering something like an advanced swim safety course at your community pool?

Organizing Stuff: A lot of things you may be able to find discarded could work for this purpose if you could first come up with a way to create a unified aesthetic theme. For example, cut up discarded textiles into strips, dye them all brownish with tea, then weave them into baskets around shapes formed with discarded hangers. Or use patterns from discarded junk mail to wheat paste decoupage discarded cardboard boxes.

Books: See if your library will order them in for you. Read one chapter at a time sitting in chair at your local large chain bookstore.

Running Shoes: There are videos on the internet on the topic of how to make your own running shoes. If you have small feet, check out the lost and found box at local elementary school for a pair in your size.

Protein Powder: Insect or very small organism protein. Lentil-based tofu.

Tung Oil: Linseed oil can often be substituted for tung oil. Linseed is the same thing as flaxseed, so falls under grocery purchase dispensation.

[jacob]

Private swim lessons: My son can swim safely, but he’s not good enough for swim team; which he doesn’t want to do, but is a good marker that he’s a good enough swimmer. I don’t feel an urgent need to do the swim lessons, but it feels like a long term ‘good’ parent thing to do. Is that just the middle class parent in me???

I don't know if it's middle class but this could a very effective way to make your son hate water. Pushing might backfire.

(I was on the swim team for many years, ultimately going to regional championships. I hated it for the final 2 years, yet my parents insisted that I stick to it. When I finally quit, I didn't touch water again for years. Ever since I stopped cold, I estimate I've been in a pool less than a handful of times over the past 35 years. I can still swim---quite fast too, it's like riding a bicycle, you never forget---but all my swimming endurance is completely gone!)

As for standards, my local pool (50m with a 1m, 3m, and 5m tower) handed out patches if you could swim a certain distance. I forget the exact rules in terms of whether one was allowed a tiny break at either end or not or whether the distance was just measured at the point where someone gave up. The patches was 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1km, .... something ... up to 10km. IIRC, in order to be allowed into "the deep end" and on the towers was getting either the 100m or 200m patch which almost everybody got, because towers! I was the only one in my class on [a] swim team.

I'd rather suggest pushing for whatever sport he likes (not chess or eSport ) Being physically active as a kid pays off many dividends as an adult because they will know what it feels like to be in good shape and thus know what they've lost should they decline into a state of sedentary fat-assery. If he doesn't want to do any sport at all, ... I would would maybe demand (parents can do that, right?) meeting some minimum physical threshold like the Army or Navy fitness tests. A large and growing fraction of the nation(s) teenagers are too physically unfit to even pass the easiest levels ... and it's not a high bar to pass.

(Basically, treat this in the same way as getting good or bad grades in school. There's homework. There's a test. Maybe there's a reward. Best if parents set a personal example. For swimming, I'd suggest that you lay off the pressure once he can do 200m w/o breaks.)

Ahhh... there's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Fitness_Test ... I believe(?) there are actual numbers somewhere.

[theanimal]

I’ve been reducing what we buy in that stuff, but it is hard to convince the family that tortilla chips are something we can’t buy.

You might have fun making your own. It's not very hard, far cheaper and will almost certainly be healthier than whatever you find in the store. You can buy some masa and follow the instructions on the back to make tortillas. A tortilla press makes it easier but you don't need one. You can form them with your hands, cast iron pans, rolled out with a rolling pin and so on. Cook them in oil on the stovetop or cover them with oil/spices and bake them in the oven.

[mooretrees]

Nice work on doing a no buy quarter! I'm always inspired by how you are leading your family towards ERE by challenges like this.

Swimming lesson thoughts:
* You're pretty good with social capital. Maybe waiting on this, but advertising/socializing about looking for bartered lessons or something will lead to an opportunity?
* What does "swim team level" mean? Is this a speed thing? Or a comfort and happiness in the water thing? Or an ability to swim for two hours with few breaks during a practice thing? A lack of knowledge of the four strokes? Some of these you can work on without a coach (eg a lot more pool time, parent-designed "workouts" that you make fun so he gets stamina, more cardio in general to improve pool cardio, etc). So yeah, maybe, one solution is spending a lot more time at the pool, so he develops more on his own (with maybe some video/book guidance from you) rather than getting a specialized teacher.
* I'm also with J_ a bit here though. Are you sure his level of swimming isn't adequate? Swim team level is a bar that the majority of water-safe-confident humans don't meet. I wonder how you set the "bar" for where you'd be happy to have your child be with swimming. Maybe looking more into that and what's adequate would settle your fears (looking at expert source recommendations that aren't trying to sell you pool/swim classes/teams/lessons/etc vs your feelings on it? I don't know.).

Thanks!

For the swimming, i don’t think his level is really adequate for summer swimming in rivers with currents. We have a local swim hole we love, that gets pretty deep and has a mellow current. I’d like him to be safe in that situation, so that means dealing with a river he can’t touch the bottom, a little current (not at all crazy, but could be a little scary). I have put him in group swim lessons and while they are affordable, he gets very little practice during the lesson. There’s a lot of waiting your turn. I think you are right in that I need to get more clear on what I want for him with swimming. I think to be safe in a river he needs to be able to tread water for some time without tiring out too quickly, he should be able to swim short distances quickly to escape danger and that might be my list so far… thanks for the thoughts!