Alphaville wrote:so if im visualizing this right you have fence on 2 sides (east and southeast) belonging to neighbors, and open property line on north, west, and southwest. yes?
The strong curve in the road doesn't really get curving until south of my property line, plot is only slightly off of rectangular, so I would only need to add fence to west/front and north/side. Still, that would be a hecka lot of fencing. Even chain link is going to be much more than I would like to spend. If the barrier is just going to be an impediment rather than a true obstacle, it would be much less expensive and much more attractive to plant something(s.)
One of the approximately 7 "bibles" I currently consult (obviously, inclusive of "ERE") when planning my lifestyle is "A Pattern Language" by Alexander/Ishakawa/Silverstein. The overall gist is that you need to consider what human emotions or core needs you might be evoking or serving when you engage in architectural or garden design at various levels and these core needs/preferred emotional states can be described as a series of modules or patterns such as "window overlooking life", "network of learning", "quiet backs", "sheltering roofs", "compost", "sitting circle"...
So, when I was at the Money Dimple yesterday, I tried to think how I might best solve my feelings of anxiety through improved pattern. I should note that my last urban permaculture project* was in a neighborhood that was objectively just as semi-sketchy as my new neighborhood, but I didn't experience "flashback" in that context, so I tried to think about what was different. First difference would be that I already had some level of social connection prior to buying the property, because I was living with my sister in an apartment she had already had for a while, and I had started part-time substitute teaching in the neighborhood. So, for each sketchy interaction I experienced, I had a balance of more positive interactions. The second difference, more directly related to attempt to decode notes from "A Pattern Language" is that the extent to which the house and even the garage is still boarded up gives me a feeling of being trapped, because relatively dark space with only 1 means of egress. This was also true of my prior workspace in which I was assaulted because it was a warehouse/garage type space which had been broken into rental workspace units with floor to ceiling modular walling. It was not a legal living space, but I frequently spent the night there on a couch after my divorce, because the tiny apartment I had rented so my daughter could finish high school in the same small town she started kindergarten was an hour away through deer country.
Therefore, given that the actual probability of being physically attacked in broad daylight by a random home invader is pretty darn low, even in semi-sketchy neighborhood in fairly dangerous city (The odds that I will be mangled in car wreck driving to the Money Dimple due to fail of steel cage of my tiny Smart vehicle is much higher, yet still within my range of acceptability, because I do not want to live a cotton ball coated life. The odds of ending up belly down with a tube in my throat due to Covid if I wandered about in public without a mask were beyond my range of acceptability prior to vaccination. Internet dating only semi-vetted gentleman is within my range of acceptability. etc. etc.), and the fact that I'm not very concerned about the possibility/likelihood of theft/vandalism (humans who do stuff like that aren't really any worse to deal with than groundhogs, rats, roaches or powdery mildew, and I don't own/flaunt expensive stuff), my feelings of anxiety are left as the primary problem (fearing fear itself.) So, MMV, but for me, surrounding myself with stuff like metal bars, guns, ugly fences would subliminally make me feel more anxious. So, yesterday, I went out of my way to introduce myself to another neighbor and her dog, I mostly worked outside in the sunshine, and I made plans to facilitate a second functional door at the rear of the house and greater ease in taking down and putting back up more of the boarding on the windows when I work inside the house.
*My last rural permaculture project was in dark at night "the pines, the pines, where the sun it does not shine, I shiver the whole night through" bear territory near militia shooting area, so not entirely without danger or known human primal phobic elements, but didn't trigger "flashback" at all, because very different setting.
@Stasher@Alphaville:
I'm familiar with Curtis Stone. He's extremely cool, but I do not want to run a $100,000 a year, high churn business dealing in highly perishable limited inventory. At the peak of my rare book dealing, we were churning well over $100,000/year, my sister/partner and I were drawing around $30,000 each, and I was employing my two teenage kids and two or three of their friends as part-time shipping/hauling/data entry staff. So, I pretty well know the level of hassle running Curtis Stone's business would entail, and I know it would be much worse with perishable goods. There would have to be high level of daily routine maintained/managed and also regulations pertaining to food sales, and dealing with routines and regulations is definitely not my flow zone. If I was going to plan for a cash crop, it would likely be slow growing ornamental. The grouchy old man and I planted ginseng as cash crop on his rural site, but he could also sell timber; low maintenance, slow growth, high profit. Or another way to look at it would be that I want my lifestyle moving forward to be more in the Renaissance Man quadrant than in the Business man quadrant, even if that requires some balance in the Working Man quadrant in the form of doing something like very part-time substitute teaching in addition to running a very, very small business. I do plan on joining the very active local urban gardening organization post-Covid.
This relates to more general puzzle that has been semi-obsessing me lately. Let's assume that the $6000 (and growing
) that I have invested in the Money Dimple is towards starting a business rather than providing me with very inexpensive housing. My already entailed overhead would be property taxes approximating $40/month (less if/when I declare it as homestead, more if my repairs cause doubling of current assessment), insurance if/when I am able/choose to procure it, and city demanded minimal safety, blight, and lawn/snow maintenance (which is WAAAAY more hassle/expense on 1/3 acre of residential in city vs even huge rural timber acreage) inclusive of possibility that the buildings on my property might be condemned if I don't move forward with repairs and permits in timely fashion. Since we are positing this as business rather than personal/household spending, let's say my micro-corporation takes out a loan from my investment account or a bank for $40,000 at 5% to get buildings up to code, and paying somebody else (if I was passive, absentee owner) to mow lawn, change furnace filters, etc (all regular maintenance) would run $200/month. That would make monthly overhead about $300-$400. Putting aside potential for underlying real estate value growth/decline, 3% of $46,000 (if fully self-funded) would equal owner draw of $1380/year plus the theoretical wage I might pay myself for active work hours beyond those I might spend managing more passive "business" of managing financial market investments. Obviously, the wage I theoretically would be willing to work for at this business would depend on how much I enjoy/value the activity vs. other activities at which I might self-employ myself or other-employ myself and how much I would have to pay others to render the business more passive in activities I don't enjoy or excel (why I paid teenage boys to haul heavy boxes in cold barn with my book business, but always attended auctions myself.) So, to justify investing $46,000 of my own funds in this business, given that I enjoy doing my own maintenance, and I hire no employees, I would have to generate approximately $400 + total willing work wage to self + monthly rolling costs/inputs in gross post-tax income from business per month. So, for instance, if the work is enjoyable enough that I am willing to self-employ myself at wage of $15/hr for 40 hours/month = $600/month = approximately 1 Jacob spending, monthly gross would only have to be approximately $1000 plus rolling expenses/taxes. IOW, extreme micro-micro business. Highly likely that I didn't connect the dots very well, because largely reflecting on my own unique experience, but the point I am attempting to make is that to me there is a huge realm of potentially unexplored possibilities between the "business" of being your own financial manager of relatively large amount of capital and relatively high hourly wage vs. the "business" of engaging in frugal home economics which requires very low capital investment and "pays" increasingly lower wage at margin. I know this reads like I am harkening back to simple notion of comparative advantage, but really I am doing the opposite because the range of activities that a human can engage in that lie in the realm between frugal home economics and managing stock market investments is HUUUUUUGE! I mean, anything you could possible do for a hobby, you could also possibly do as a business given some degree of attention*time (skill) and capital (tool) investment. IOW, think fewer people would feel at loose ends after achieving FI if they had more perspective or experience in the Business Man and/or to some extent Working Man quadrant prior to leaving the Salary Man quadrant, especially experience with hands-on, material/inventory/space/tool requiring businesses or working man gigs that weren't entirely modern minimalist style ("nothing but the internet") skill based such as consulting, writing or blogging and/or something like an idealized permaculture primitive technology permaculture project starting with "nothing but the land." Just think how the possibilities immediately start to exponentially expand if you add investment in any other random tool or resource to the mix. Land, internet, lithography equipment, microscope. Land, internet, truck, piano. Land, internet, sewing machine, row boat.