February Update
I spent $300, including $100 'capx' of a new inverter* and battery charger since my old one is crapping out. I think I had a consumerism hangover from Japan that lasted through mid January, and then I flipped some kind of anticonsumer switch or dropped into a higher gear by February.
I took the shuttle to town twice for library and groceries, which involves starting my 4mi walk to the bus stop at 0520. Absolutely lovely walk. I didn't drive in Feb, although I rode shotgun with a friend to visit the temporary lake at Badwater in Death Valley.
(My bus stop)
(*On that: I'm experimenting with smaller and smaller scale components for my energy system. My absolute max operating power usage is 150w, and the efficiency of inverters drops rapidly below ~25% rated power. My old inverter was 1000w, which means I was 99% of the time in a very low-efficiency operating range. My new inverter is modified sine wave (cheaper, I think lower tech components?, lower efficiency) and only 600W (so it'll operate closer to the max efficiency point). So far so good.)
Side Hustle. We've booked three clients with the side hustle which feels max what we can handle while we're developing our main product. Once we've gone through at least one 2-4mo cycle we'll be able to handle more simultaneously, because it'll just be tuning. Right now we're building not only the product itself but the internal infrastructure to deal with it all - kickoff decks, email templates, figuring out our internal process, etc. It's going to be a bit of a crankfest for a couple months but then should feel less like we're flying by the seat of our pants.
The good news is that everything we're doing feels entirely in our realm of competence. We're in a weird niche where for whatever reason the number of people who 'get it' and are very good at this stuff are a very small percentage of the industry, and so we're positioned well to provide value for a lot of firms. I've never experienced firsthand having a skillset/service that people are so clearly eager to give me money for.
So far it's still enormous fun. I'm enjoying building the service itself and I'm also really enjoying building the solopreneur infrastructure stuff. It's great having this much freedom to decide exactly what kind of offering to create, and how to communicate it, and how to work with clients... and also the freedom-from having to earn $$$$/mo within X months to be able to pay my bills. What a validation of ERE principles - I'm in the black from month 1 and if it all goes poof, ah well, I'll go back to what I was doing before, which was also awesome.
Skillathon
I am pulling back on my skillathon ambitions due to the side hustle. Not enough space for both. I'm dropping altogether the idea of doing a video on every month, which I was beginning to think was a bad idea from the beginning anyways. And I'm modifying my selections to play better with how I'm organizing my life now - e.g. March is drawing now, instead of pulling my motorcycle apart and putting it back together again. April might be yoga. etc.
New Cooking Skills My bff was here for a week. She has some crazy health stuff going on and can only eat meat, lettuce, citrus, seeds, oats, and one or two other things. She also hates cooking. So I took it as an extension of Skillathon Cooking challenge. I cooked more meat in one week than I think I've eaten in the past six months (including steaks over a wood fire, which has been on my bucket list ever since a weekend camping trip with Argentinians a few years ago), and also learned how to make delicious vegan pancakes (1c oat flour, 1/2 banana, 2/3c coconut milk, 3/4tsp bp) which will make an appearance at fest24.
Quail Haven Infrastructure My friend is a building science nerd, passivhaus certified mechanical engineer, and former residential contractor, and I asked her opinion on The Burrow, my pithouse project that theAnimal and I started. Long story short, what it'd take to 'do it right' made me question the wisdom of making it a living space. It also occurred to me that no one really likes sleeping in a bunkhouse, which was my first plan for it, much less a bunkhouse that is a literal hole in the ground.
My new idea is to make the burrow a greenhouse with a shower in it, and to pursue my capsule/sleeping pod idea for accommodations for guests. Modular, lightweight, moveable, even sellable and trailerable. Way less dumb of an idea.
Longmont in April I'm housesitting for friends in Longmont ~April1 - 16th. Hit me up to hang out (see you there @AE).
My friend and I visited the shallow lake at Badwater, Death Valley. Yep. It's a big damn puddle all right. We also hit one of my favorite short slot canyons. (Hit me up for unmarked and uncrowded slot canyon suggestions if you visit DV by the way. The designated slot canyon hike a mile up the road was swamped with people. We had this one to ourselves. You never have to share a canyon in DV if you don't want to).