CalamityJane's Journal

[UrbanHomesteader]

If you pursued Archeology, would you try to attend a field school or otherwise work on a dig?

I studied a bit of Archeology in undergrad, but I did not have the hands on experience. I have day dreamed about pursuing something like that now.

[mountainFrugal]

I was also thinking about this when I read @MountainFrugal’s thoughts about DIY tenure. To me that seems like the academic version of FU money, and I really like the idea of earning your own tenure through financial independence without having to jump through the hoops of academia (which dissuaded me from pursuing a PhD in the first place).

Playing a completely different game by using ERE principles (not just the money aspect) opens up many more possibilities. I look forward to seeing how you work on this using your combined (and growing) skill-set. It might be that once you start in that direction you discover possibilities that are currently unclear or completely unknown to you now. Good luck and get after it!

[calamityjane]

@UrbanHomesteader, yes, I'm sure it would involve field work in various capacities. Since I work primarily with rock art, it would probably be visiting those sites or pueblos associated with them. I've also worked in a lab processing artifacts, so I have some experience there, but I've never been on an excavation so that would be exciting.

@mountainFrugal, thanks! That's kind of what I'm thinking...who knows how it will all unfold.

[calamityjane]

Volunteering
The rock art recording crew has been off for the summer, and now that it’s time to get back into the field everyone is off traveling. Not sure if I mentioned that my co-leader had a heart attack last year and everyone else on the crew is aging and has various physical ailments. We’re at the point of needing to recruit some younger members, but the time commitment makes it difficult for anyone younger than traditional retirement age and the physical requirements make it difficult for anyone with limitations. In the meantime I went through training to be a SiteWatch volunteer to protect archaeological sites, but I haven’t heard back about an assignment.

Homesteading
The frustrating (HOT) summer planting season only has me more determined to expand and improve my growing efforts. The yard I have now is just too sunny. Even with shade cloths the plants were no match for the sun. When I eventually find my off-grid property, shade will be one of the considerations (along with water, of course). I’ve started perusing the property sites to see what’s available out there in terms of off-grid property, not that I will be in a position to buy anytime real soon. New Mexico has relatively few restrictions on land use, so even if I can’t find an existing structure I could live out of a trailer and build something later. I’m also still keeping an eye on intentional communities that are doing a similar off-grid/sustainability thing.

Social
Countdown to ERE Fest! I decided to go for the main 3 days of activities, from Sep 8-11. I’m not generally much of a “festival” person, but I know this group will be considerate of introverted tendencies and share my interests. For those of you also attending, can’t wait to meet you in person!

Dating has been placed on the back burner once again. I have a couple of long-distance pen pals via FIREdating, but I can’t really see that going anywhere. One I’ve been talking to for almost a year and we keep making tentative plans to meet up that fall through. It would probably be fun to meet, but I think our retirement goals are pretty different and neither of us really want to relocate to the other’s part of the country. Besides the fact that there might not be any chemistry in person.

Mental Health
My mood has been pretty stable since I started back on the antidepressant. I’m still doing therapy every couple of weeks and attending the trauma support group. This has been a challenge for me, mostly because I constantly question the legitimacy of my trauma compared to other Traumas. I also feel like there are certain things I can’t share about myself without coming across as privileged and out of touch, namely early retirement. Since I’m still working part time that hasn’t been as much of an issue, but I do feel like I’m hiding things about myself to be accepted by the group (which is one of the issues I’m working on in therapy, so….). I’ve actually come to realize that I feel this way a lot since I retired. Like it’s my dirty little secret that no one will understand. Which is funny (in a not at all funny, demoralizing way), because it was one of the hardest and best accomplishments of my life and I am incredibly proud of it. Dominant society, amiright?

Book recommendations
Wandering Home by Bill McKibben

What Are People For? by Wendell Berry

The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang

[AxelHeyst]

Countdown to ERE Fest! I decided to go for the main 3 days of activities, from Sep 8-11. I’m not generally much of a “festival” person, but I know this group will be considerate of introverted tendencies and share my interests. For those of you also attending, can’t wait to meet you in person!

There is a tree-shaded area with porch that is the designated introvert refuge / quiet zone.

Can't wait to see you there!

[calamityjane]

ERE Fest was a fantastic experience. I met so many amazing and inspiring people, and never have I felt so immediately at home in a group of strangers. Nor have I ever hung out in a group where 25% of us were INFJ's!

Financial musings

The end of the year is fast approaching, and I need to decide if I will continue my work arrangement or fully retire. For some reason it was less difficult for me to turn off the firehose than this dripping faucet of money.

I think largely it’s a cashflow issue. I have yet to draw down anything in my investment portfolio, and have been able to continue funding everything with my small work income and dividends. Whether I continue working or not, I will start spending from my investments in 2024. I want to have the cash available in case the right opportunity comes along to purchase an off-grid property. Not only would I likely not qualify for a mortgage with my current employment status, but also the rates are less than favorable. Anyway, most off-grid properties require cash to purchase. Taking out a HELOC on my current property also very much does not appeal.

I also struggle with the feeling that I am allowing myself way too much of a comfort zone. While my current spending levels would represent deprivation and struggle to many in mainstream society, by ERE standards I am in a position where I could be pretty soft and lazy and still be financially fine (i.e. $20,000 a year). I don’t want to be soft and lazy, I want to be challenged and self-reliant and constantly optimizing and simplifying my conditions towards greater overall fulfillment and creativity.

As things stand now, I am somewhat surprised and disappointed to find myself still spending close to $18,000. Obviously I “can” - this pretty much represents what I bring in from my very part time work - but I don’t really want to. If I cut out home improvements and travel I could get it down to $15,000, but this would require a quality of life decrease. The only way I see to change it significantly is to move off the grid. My current housing costs (PITI + utilities) are around $600 a month. Certainly cheaper than most, but still a significant chunk.

Ironically, to get to the conditions where I am spending significantly less, first I will need to spend more (cash). I could rent out my house, but a) I don't particularly want to be a landlord, and b) that doesn't solve my cashflow problem. In the meantime, I also need a place to live! Especially if I end up building something from scratch.

[calamityjane]

Current budget for reference

Monthly - regular expenses:
PITI - $407
Utilities (Gas, water, electric, sewer, internet, phone) - $150-$200
Pets - $50-$100
Groceries - $150
Discretionary - $150
Total ~ $950

Annual - Irregular expenses:
Pets (vet/kennel/medication) - $400
Car insurance & registration - $800
Car maintenance & repair - $400
Gas - $1200
Additional travel/opportunity fund - $2500
Medical/health/personal - $200
House - $800
Charitable - $500

Total ~ $6,800

Annual total ~ $18,000

[Jin+Guice]

You are pretty low on expenses. You've got $4.5k in there that is discretionary/ travel/ opportunity/ charity. Otherwise most of your expenses are house or car, so you'd need to change houses or get rid of your car to reduce those.

Depending on your reasons for ERE, I don't think discretionary spending is that big of a deal. It seems like you are already free of work you don't want to do, so you don't have to consider the work/ discretionary spending trade off.

How negatively would dropping all discretionary spending impact your life if disaster struck? Is this spending truly discretionary or is some important part of your life secretly stuffed into that category?

The final question is environmental impact... tough to justify that category. My personal slight of hand is that environmental disaster is likely imminent whether or not I buy/ do XYZ. I also accept that I am living imperfectly with my values and hope to rectify this in the future. Like all tradeoffs, the environmental impact/ discretionary spending one comes down to personal belief.

Personally I think it's a fun game to try to get expenses as low as possible. I spend a lot more effort getting recurrent expenses low than one time discretionary purchases, though it is a game I like to play for both. Allowing myself to look for a novel solution while knowing that I can afford something is the most fun for me.

[calamityjane]

I totally agree that optimizing spending to the lowest level possible is a pretty fun game, as long as it doesn't cross the line into deprivation from things that I prioritize or allow me to socialize. I might spend money on dining out or getting a beer because it allows me to spend time with my friends, for example. I've been a talented frugalizer all my life and that's a skillset I want to continue improving. Most of my entertainment achieves this - e.g. yesterday I went to see the movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road for free at the local theater, and they were also giving out free popcorn and soda. Otherwise, I haven't paid to see a movie in more than 3 years. The general discretionary spending category includes a lot of things that many people might put in other categories, such as clothes (all second-hand). I could probably get it down to $0 if I had good reason to, but then I would probably start feeling cheap rather than frugal.

The car definitely falls under the category of discretionary spending, but it's one I continue to choose because my great joys in life are hiking, camping, and protecting remote archaeological sites. The environmental impact is certainly a consideration and a trade-off. I inherited this car from my mom and will probably drive it into the ground because it gets great gas mileage. I would consider an electric vehicle, but as things stand right now, I probably wouldn't be able to charge it in most of the places I go. I have vastly decreased the amount of air travel I do and the places I'm willing to fly. I very much wish train and bus travel in this country were more viable options. Yes, I could choose to sell my car, and turn down opportunities such as ERE Fest or ever seeing my family because all of these things increase my carbon footprint. The same case can be made for all sorts of decisions that each of us make on a daily basis.

So yes, TLDR: I could cut these expenses drastically if shit hit the fan.

[anticonsumerist]

ERE Fest was a fantastic experience. I met so many amazing and inspiring people, and never have I felt so immediately at home in a group of strangers. Nor have I ever hung out in a group where 25% of us were INFJ's!

Hi calamityjane! Great journal!
Sorry to hijack it a bit, but I saw this post mentioning an ERE Fest and got excited . Was this a US/local thing? Is there something similar in Europe/UK?

Also - unrelated, what is PITI?

[AxelHeyst]

Sorry to hijack it a bit, but I saw this post mentioning an ERE Fest and got excited . Was this a US/local thing? Is there something similar in Europe/UK?

We had it at my place in California. Hopefully the idea will catch on and spread everywhere.

viewtopic.php?t=12684

[calamityjane]

Thanks, @anticonsumerist! @AxelHeyst beat me to it . Hopefully it will become an annual event. There were at least a couple of attendees from Europe, so the interest is there as well.

PITI might be an American thing? It stands for principal, interest, taxes, and insurance if you take a mortgage out to purchase a house. In other words, it is the amount I pay each month for my mortgage loan, the interest on the loan (3.125%), property taxes, and homeowner's insurance (required by the mortgage company). My actual mortgage is only $250 - the rest is taxes and insurance. This is after putting 20% cash down on it.

[anticonsumerist]

Thanks @calamityjane, @axelheyst!

Read the ERE Fest thread just now, sorry to have missed this! Sounded like a lot of fun. Will watch out for next year’s version.

[calamityjane]

I had this all ready to post last week, whoops! Somehow time’s been getting away from me lately.

Volunteering
I just started a new volunteer position with the local homeless shelter. This is work I’ve done in the past and found very rewarding. I’d describe the organization as barely controlled chaos, but it is nice to feel helpful and interact with this segment of the population that deserves all the compassion and respect I can give. I’m only going in one day a week so far and probably just helping out with what they need on any given day. It is a day shelter, but they open up as a warming shelter at night when the temps fall below freezing.

It’s been a frustrating few months trying to get back to working on our rock art recording project. Our former contact person at the Refuge was suddenly incommunicado, and there was no way to contact their office by phone or email. Eventually I remembered that my neighbor also volunteers for the Refuge, and was able to get a contact number for the director. It turns out our contact person left their position rather suddenly without letting us know. So now we don’t really have an advocate, which will make things much more difficult. We also need access to a particular gate that is controlled by yet another governmental agency, requiring additional intervention. The director is ostensibly supportive of the project and willing to let us use a government vehicle, but the coordination is already proving difficult and I am somewhat pessimistic that we will make any more progress at all this year.

More foster puppies! I had three last month who had to go back early after their sibling tested positive for parvo. I happened to be in the city when another request went out, so I have two new little guys for the next couple weeks. Then I think I’ll take a break for the rest of the year to give my cat a chance to forgive me.

Homestead
After the punishingly hot summer, I did manage to recoup some tomatoes over the past couple months. Then it froze last week and I had to pick them all, leaving me with a huge bowl of green tomatoes.]. Leafy greens have been producing well lately, so there are many salads in my near future.

Travel
I booked an Airbnb down near the Mexican border for the week of Christmas as a home base for my long-anticipated trip down to the Paquime archaeological site (also known as Casas Grandes). I’ve been wanting to go down there for more than a decade, but am somewhat hesitant to drive alone through Chihuahua State. I thought about riding the bus from El Paso, but those arrangements got pretty complicated. From where I’m staying, it’s less than a 3-hour drive, so as long as I stick to the main highway in the daytime I’m sure it will be fine.

Social
My FIRE pen pal is thinking of coming for a visit this winter. I am excited and a little nervous about this possibility. What if we don’t connect in person? What if our intentions are different in meeting? I think he wants to see if there is the potential for a romantic relationship, but I’m not even sure how feasible that is between Seattle and New Mexico. Ah well. If nothing else, hopefully it will result in a lasting friendship.

I also reconnected with an old friend I hadn’t seen for 20 years, since we both lived in Nebraska. She was renting a house a little north of me for the summer, so we were able to meet for lunch and then again to walk our dogs in the bosque along the Rio Grande. We get along great, and I’m pretty bummed that she is leaving soon to move back to Nebraska.

[calamityjane]

Year in review

As I mentioned previously, I started the year with some ambitious but vague and practically unactionable resolutions/goals that ended up mostly getting scrapped early on. As a goal-oriented person, I found this demoralizing, particularly in combination with the acute depression I experienced early in the year. In the end I think the experience was a net positive, and has forced me to take a new perspective to both my goals and my attitudes. Getting on top of my mental health struggles was by far the best accomplishment of the year.

Financial
Due to significant market rebounding late in the year, I’m finishing well ahead of my projections. Looking at investments alone, I’m below a 4% SWR. Considering that my net worth also includes my home equity (currently about $62,000), cash, and pension value, I feel very comfortable with this number. I was also looking to come in well under budget – closer to $16,000 than $18,000 – up until December, when some unexpected expenses occurred in the form of a phone replacement, vet bill, and flooring project. I still managed to stay slightly under budget. My income for the year was a little over $20,000, and I maxed out my Roth contributions.

Creative
I am frustrated at the moment getting a grasp on where I want to go with my writing projects, and this lack of motivation will be the focus of therapy in the new year. I aimlessly work on poetry when the mood strikes, but there needs to be a better way. I have been pretty satisfied with my artistic progress this year. I’ve been regularly experimenting with watercolor techniques and completed a number of pleasing small sketches, as well as improving my drawing skills.

Research
After deciding not to go forward with the PhD in archaeology, I am again at loose ends with my research goals. I know I have the material to write something substantial, but as with my other writing I continue to feel stuck. When I was in grad school, the goals were so straightforward and tangible, and I had no trouble organizing tasks and meeting deadlines. I know it’s really a matter of breaking things down into smaller components and quilting together the pieces, but without the overarching metastructure of defined project, it’s harder for me to get there.
The other part of this is the work I do at rock art sites, and it was a pretty good year for that. Hopefully progress will continue with the recording project soon.

Homesteading/Sustainability
The biggest focus in 2024 will be where (or whether) to buy rural property. The more I make improvements to my current house, the more I find justifications for simply staying put. I can continue “urban homesteading” here without the difficulties of trying to live off the grid. It also means less driving, and less use of land. But I love the idea of integrating more with the natural environment, making better use of permaculture principles, being more self-sufficient, facing hard challenges, and not dealing with traffic noises and dogs barking constantly.

Self-Actualization
I don’t know that I will make any big changes here. For the most part I really enjoy my routine and my life…taking the dogs for long walks in the bosque (woods near the Rio Grande), hiking in the mountains, reading and philosophizing, creative projects, visiting friends, camping, developing my gardens, and my various volunteer activities. So far part time work does not get in the way of these things, so I will continue to do it for now.

[AxelHeyst]

Would you get the rural property and retain your current place while you develop it, or would you sell current place? I wonder if there's a way to test drive the offgrid path without a full jump, or with retaining an easy bailout option without taking too many steps back in other areas of your life.

Thanks for the update, sounds like a rich dynamic you have. Any updates on the FIRE pen pal?

[Western Red Cedar]

Homesteading/Sustainability
The biggest focus in 2024 will be where (or whether) to buy rural property. The more I make improvements to my current house, the more I find justifications for simply staying put. I can continue “urban homesteading” here without the difficulties of trying to live off the grid. It also means less driving, and less use of land. But I love the idea of integrating more with the natural environment, making better use of permaculture principles, being more self-sufficient, facing hard challenges, and not dealing with traffic noises and dogs barking constantly.

I wouldn't want to discourage you from making a move to a rural lifestyle, but just noting that urban living doesn't preclude applying permaculture principles. Here is a cool example on a lot that is probably half the size of typical US lots:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9ZukMyejLk

[calamityjane]

@AxelHeyst - It is an option. That would probably be preferable, especially if I could rent it out for additional income. But I'm not sure I could cashflow another property, and it's unlikely I would be able to get a mortgage. It also adds an additional degree of hassle that I may want to avoid. I am considering getting some really cheap property that hasn't been developed at all and just parking an RV there for the time being, but that would be a challenge with 3 animals and it would get pretty cold in the winter. I think finding an existing structure with actual insulation would be a better bang for my buck.

No word yet from the pen pal on his possible visit. He is still working full time, so has less flexibility to travel than I do. I would consider going out to Seattle, but not this time of the year!

[calamityjane]

@Western Red Cedar - Cool video, thanks for sharing! I'm also currently reading Extreme Simplicity: Homesteading in the City by Christopher and Dolores Nyerges which has some good ideas. My biggest issue on my lot is the terrible soil, so even though I have 1/4 acre, it's only been practical for me to go one raised bed at a time and xeriscape the rest. It is doable, especially if I build a greenhouse, which is probably the next step if I decide to stay. I also need a better water catchment system.

[Western Red Cedar]

My biggest issue on my lot is the terrible soil, so even though I have 1/4 acre, it's only been practical for me to go one raised bed at a time and xeriscape the rest. It is doable, especially if I build a greenhouse, which is probably the next step if I decide to stay. I also need a better water catchment system.

I think it was a recent interview with a permaculture practitioner where I heard that the biggest barriers are also the biggest opportunities. This was in the context of a conversation about working with Geoff Lawton who is known for his project Greening the Desert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VGHoxpYlWQ

Have you looked into vermiculture? One of my wild, ERE fantasies at one point was starting a vermiculture operation. I really like the idea of producing black gold (the other kind) from waste.