cmonkey's journal

[cmonkey]

The place we bought is 100% private which is the biggest reason we bought it. It's completely surrounded by 5 acres of woods so this winter we are heating during the day with wood and propane at night in the bedrooms. I managed to collect about 1.5 to 2 cords of dead wood between Thanksgiving and Christmas before we got snow on the ground. Most of the 5 acres is pretty sloped, as we live on the edge of the Minnesota River valley, but there is a very nice way to get to the bottom. Working on the slope is very doable also. It makes for good exercise lugging all the wood up.

In the future though we are going to collect all our wood from the city burn site. The city tree workers bring all their cut down trees there for getting rid of and anyone can take what they want if they cut it up and haul it away. I also collected about 2 cords from that before it snowed so we have a good start on next year's heat.

Here are some photos. It's snowy here today!

Our front yard. You can sorta make out the driveway on the right side. It curves around the shed off in the distance before connecting to the road about 1000 feet down.



Here's our backyard with the valley in the distance. We are planning to clear out a lot of the trees to make the view better.



This is a view to the east of our house. Most of land is out here and you can kind of make out the sheer drop off. We actually live on the edge of the valley and also a large ravine which goes down into the valley, so we have a nice view to the north and the east. You can also make out a large frozen lake in the distance through the trees.

[theanimal]

Nice! You have some big trees. That's great that you found an easy source to get wood from that community site. My stepdad was telling me about wood prices a little further east of you in the Chicago suburbs where they charge $750/cord . Any idea on what it goes for in your area bought? Here it's right around $300/cord (softwood). And as someone who also lives in a snowy place with a long driveway I shudder at shoveling that length! Although, I'm sure with being FI and having the homestead you could just find yourself content at home until it melts away for you.

[cmonkey]

A quick craigslist search only found one supplier and they are an hour away. Their price is 250/cord, which seems pretty good. I've never looked into it. Really glad to know I have that free source though. I plan to treat my 5 acres like an investment account which I don't touch and just let it keep building up so that if the free source dries up I'll still have that. When I walked out into the woods the first time I couldn't believe all the dead on the ground. It would take many years of using that before I'd even have to cut something down.

What amazes me is just how quickly a fireplace (a supposedly eco friendly model) can go through wood. I'm really looking forward to getting either a wood stove or a rocket heater in the basement.

I have a riding lawn mower with a blower which works well enough but yea I don't prioritize blowing it out. It takes over an hour to do!

[chenda]

Great! Looks like a great place to hunker down in an uncertain world. Are you still car free ? Either way I think its sound investment for your cash.

Yes its amazing how much wood a fire can guzzle through. My parents have a big open range in their house and we burned through a huge pile just over Christmas.

[cmonkey]

During good weather, I personally am car free yes. We are 2 miles from a Walmart. The road is busy but the shoulders are as wide as the lanes so I can bike there. In the winter I just drive though.

We drive under 1K miles per year but it might be a little more now as I'm not going to walk on a busy highway with a toddler.

[George the original one]

I like it!

[SavingWithBabies]

The views are amazing. What a wonderful place.

[cmonkey]

I've been feeling the need to starting writing here again, not least which because I just finished my last (for now) work-Monday. My last day of work is this Friday and I have nothing planned for employment after that! I've had some emails with my last employer but it's just a list of things I'd want with a position if I went back. I don't really want to though, at least for now. I'm ready for some FI time off.

My current position is ending because the company decided (pre-covid) that all IT teams need to be co-located. They are now going through the transformation after covid delayed everything and I have told them I won't be moving back to Illinois. Of course not! My boss knew that going into the remote work and was totally fine with me being remote, but executives ya know? They get an idea and don't budge. Until they do after a few more years. I told my supervisor to contact me if the remote work situation changes and he seems bent on it.

Our finances are pretty solid at this point, but market valuations make me nervous. Nothing I can do about it though. I invest exclusively in sub 20 P/E dividend stocks which have paid out for at least 25 years. Our WR is 2.7% currently, TTM expenses are 13K and forward income is about 12.5K once I invest some cash and my 401K next month. TTM expenses are on the high end of a range they tend to flucuate around and will probably drop 500 or so in the coming months so we are basically covered. Plus our income should grow about 600-800 a year going forward.

2021 has been a year of pretty high stress for all of us, TBH. Our old house had a lot of projects which needed to be finished before we listed it and it took until the beginning of July to get it all wrapped up. It's finally on the market and seems to be getting good attention. We rejected a terrible offer last week.

My MIL also found out she had breast cancer early in the year so we've all been dealing with that too. It's been hard on DW and indirectly hard on me. I have a bad case of health anxiety which comes and goes and the stress of the year has been wearing on me a bit.

On a brighter note, bmonkey is doing extremely well. She had another heart appointment in March and everything is perfectly fine except for a new finding. Her ascending aorta is 1mm out of normal size range so they wanna scan her again in 2023 to see what it does. If it becomes a problem, he said it won't be until she is in late adulthood. She is growing really well and is still 90+% for her marks. Back in March she started saying real words and now she won't ever stop talking! She's so loud! She also speaks in long sentences now. The progress is remarkable, almost every day she stuns us with new words and phrases.

Another good thing about this year is that none of us have caught (symptomatic) covid and we are all vaccinated now with no complications. So there is that too I guess.

I've started expanding my hobbies into electronics repair and vintage electronics/video game thrifting over the past year or so. I've been heavily influenced by a few youtube channels like Adrian's Digital Basement, My Mate Vince and LGR mostly, but also a few others. I haven't had much luck finding cheap old computers (prices are terrible) but last year I found a free old Windows 98 computer sitting out in someone's yard. The computer itself worked perfectly! The monitor didn't work, so I started trying to repair it but I can't find a flyback transformer for it. I found some old CRT monitors this past week at a local store and the guy sold them to me for $5 bucks each. Just the right price!

Anyway, I hope I can start updating more. My updates have been pretty sporadic over the past couple years but we've been so busy with moving twice and dealing with our old house and other stuff it's been hard to remember. I enjoy writing here and the community and have missed it a bit.

[Western Red Cedar]

Congratulations on the last week of work! That is great. It looks like you have an amazing location to enjoy some freedom.

Best wishes to your MIL and DW. That is a scary situation. Hoping they can both find some peace of mind.

[Smashter]

Great update! I'm excited for you to start posting more. What a fun employment-free adventure you're about to embark on.

I bet the old house sells pretty quick if the market in my small-ish midwestern city is any indication.

[cmonkey]

Thanks. I found out in mid May that I couldn't stay past July and initially I started to worry, but have since realized we will never be more ready. This week I'm getting pretty excited.

Raising a kid is pretty hard so I still have a lot of time crunch demands but this should help a ton. I always feel bad when I'm off working on something of my own either outside or otherwise and DW is bearing the brunt of bmonkey's energy.

[theanimal]

Congratulations and welcome back! What's on the docket after works over? New move and some time to reenergize?

[cmonkey]

No moving, we are planning to stay here for a long time, maybe the rest of our lives if we are lucky. It's perfect for us and we own the place outright, no mortgage. I'll share some more photos sometime soon, it's pretty glorious living in the woods.

My first priority will be getting enough wood for this winter so we can burn from Thanksgiving through to March. I have about 2 cords that I prepared last December that is nearly seasoned so hoping that will be ready. My FIL and I went to the city burn site once and hauled about another cord to our splitter so I will be cutting that up and splitting/stacking it.

After that I'd like to get about 2-3 years worth cut/stacked/split this summer and each summer going forward. We have a spot picked out where I need to build a little shelter of sorts.

So basically I'm turning into a lumberjack.

The MIL just finished her treatments yesterday so that should be over now so we all will have a lot more time to spend together also.

There is also gardening, playing with old computers and games, fixing random stuff around the house.... I have a problem of too many projects to do and I get stressed by it. Hoping to work on that also and just accept the backlog of stuff.

[Andy Dufresne]

I enjoy your thread a lot CM! There's a YTer called Shawn James, he built up his remote cabins in Ontario and he has several "shelters" for his wood. I also noticed this requires some careful long term planning on his part to decide where and what to cut as different trees have different seasoning time I gather ... here's a link to his channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ShawnJamesMySelfReliance

Do add pics, they are awesome1

[cmonkey]

There's a YTer called Shawn James

Thanks Andy! I had forgotten about his channel he has some nice videos. His property reminds me of mine to an extent.

My first week off work has been a mixed bag. I mentioned that I've been under and lot of stress this year and it manifested with some bad bowel symptoms back in early July, so much so that I went to urgent care and they gave me the option of getting a colonoscopy done. I spent this week prepping for that and had it done yesterday. It wasn't as bad as I had imagine but not as good as I hoped either. I have mild proctitis and I think it has flared up previously. Back at the beginning of the pandemic the stress of that cause some issues too. My colon was completely healthy though, so I don't think it's UC. In the end, I'm glad I had the scope done as now I know what's going on. I'm modifying my diet some to try help - no more raw kale, broccoli or cauliflower and I've cut out caffeine by 95% too. I've noticed I have a bit more energy without it.

Anyway, not the best entry to my new life but I'm hoping the second half of the year will be quieter. We still haven't sold the house yet and showings have slowed down now. That will probably be my biggest stress now and I'm hopeful I can control it. I know the place will sell eventually but until then the bills are a 3K/year drain on my cash, plus I expect we won't break even on the sale so there is that too.

On to more positive stuff.

Early in the week I converted this -



Into this -



Now I just need to split it up but I'm not allowed to operate dangerous wood splitting equipment until tomorrow. Then I'll go get another big load from the city site.

I also got my free lawn-found computer up and running. It has an AMD K-6 500 MHz processor in it which is perfect for Windows 98.

I found 3 CRT monitors at a local place for $5 each and the keyboard for $1. It's an old Gateway keyboard and feels great for a membrane keyboard. I also had to get a new power supply and RAM for it for a total of $25 off ebay.



Been sneaking around!

[Salathor]

Sorry about your bowel issues. I had really bad reflux (or something?) and gave up caffeine a few years ago after being a pot-a-day coffee drinker (of admittedly mild coffee) for years. Now I drink it only when I need it (driving at 3 am, etc.). I literally don't notice the difference in the mornings from how I used to be.

Why do the raw veggies bother you? Too rough?

[cmonkey]

It's not all raw veggies, just cruciferous. They give me fairly painful bloating if I eat too much of them. Kale is the worst by far, which is unfortunate because it's so easy to grow, tastes good and is fantastic for you. I might try just having a little here and see what the affect is but for now I'm going cold turkey.

It's almost exclusively stress that triggers it I think. I was spending about 6 hours a day working on our old house from mid May to early July on top of working the job and all of life's normal stuff going on. It was just too much. I've been feeling lot better the past 4 weeks other than being pretty nervous about my appointment.

[Salathor]

Yikes. Hope you feel better!

Can you eat the veg cooked at least?

[cmonkey]

Yes, although even cooked kale can cause me issues. It's pretty notorious with a lot of people though.

[cmonkey]

July 2021 Finance Update

I haven't done a finance update in a long time and I thought it would be good to start doing them again now that we are living off investments/savings. Many don't continue past leaving their job so this will act as a show of what works and what doesn't when you actually make the leap.

We are starting with a substantial chunk of locked up $$ in cash ( my 401K and a CD ), thus our income isn't quite where our expenses are at, however, this will all unlock starting this month and the rest in January. My unlocked cash hoard isn't quite what I want it to be either but I was let go 6 months prior to my plan so I didn't get enough saved up. However, we have some tail winds which will help so in the end I don't think I will have to sell any stock to cover our gap years until I can start pulling out IRA money in 5 years.

For anyone who has followed my journal from the start, you might notice my income is nowhere near where it was projected to be even just 3 years ago. There are a couple of reasons - yields aren't what they used to be! More importantly, I stopped chasing yield a couple of years ago. My current yield is 2.41%. So if I re-jiggered things, I'd have higher, potentially more unreliable income.

Here is where we stand, in charts -