Sodatrain's Journal

[sodatrain]

@AH - thanks for the poke! Just this morning was just lamenting the challenges of wanting to be active in this very important community and forcing myself in-front of my laptop to post and engage!

Let's see.....

* Life is frickin great. Just on my way back south after 10-ish days in the states. Oh my the consumerism hit me extra hard this time around. Duck and run!
* I'm unemployed for nearly 5 months. I'm looking for work but it's tough going for my demographic and historical line of work. I think the economy, AI and automation and my age are impacting things more than I thought they would.
* Colorado Dept of Labor and their Unemployment program is absolutely despicable. It's been nearly 5 months and they are so overwhelmed/understaffed/undertrained/who knows what that they haven't even been able to unlock my account so I can file for unemployment. Its astonishing. Thankfully I don't need it to feed myself/my family. I could rant for a couple pages about this. Including how they are asking for 7 or 8 identify verification things, some of which don't even exist. Not to mention my social security card. Thankfully I've had plenty of time to request a new one. puta!
* I'm building a 10x12 make that 11x12 studio (using an awesome mobile app called Magic Plan that is very simple to use/learn!) that I can live in and rent out my main house. It's also a practice run/prototype for a 14x16 in the future. Some pics of work in process
* Working on some goals for 2024. Will post em here about Jan 1. One of them is "attend EREFest 24"
* Skillathon sounds awesome. Need to read the thread on that and think about it.
* Went to Peru. Swam in the Amazon, played with monkeys, had some intense ceremonies with the local shamans, saw Machu Picchu, ate killer ceviche at the coast. Great 2 weeks.
* Went to the beach, drank beer, ate shrimp, fish and lobster, maybe accidentally watched a gorgeous sunset with narcos.
* crushed some roasted vegetables
* It seems I'll be hosting my first EREFest visitor in early Jan!
* Finished reading How To Want What You Have - thanks to @theanimal and am currently reading Radical Simplicity. Great stuff.
* Joined a MMG - made 2 of 3 meetings so far!
* Answered "Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker" when asked for my favorite book of the year! Made "good book" jokes.

[AxelHeyst]

Whoa, epic update! Keep em coming. That studio looks great. Thanks for all the pics.

[grundomatic]

We read Radical Simplicity in our MMG book club. Let me know if you want to discuss it after you finish it.

[sodatrain]

If you enjoyed 180 degrees South, I'd encourage you to check out Mountain of Storms. This was the trip that inspired Jeff Johnson's journey and film. Still free on Youtube:

viewtopic.php?p=234446#p234446

Oh geez. @WRC - thank you. I really love 180 degrees south and Mountain of Storms felt like a warm hug almost. I love Doug and Yvon and seeing more of their stuff is always welcome! Thank you for the suggestion.

[sodatrain]

We read Radical Simplicity in our MMG book club. Let me know if you want to discuss it after you finish it.

I would! I'm done!

[sodatrain]

so.... one of my goals for 2024 was to make sausages. Skillathon credits?! Late last year I procured a refurbished sausage stuffer, and a meat grinder. Recently braved my way to the local market in Guatemala to find the meat I needed (my Spanish is basic, and the cuts of meats here are different - not to mention just hanging on a hook in the market. You cant walk in and buy a 'pork shoulder' and 'brisket')

I took the plunge the other day and spent the better part of a day cutting, grinding, mixing, stuffing, twisting, and cold smoking 10-ish lbs of pork and beef. I made bratwursts, some smoked bratwurst, and jalapeno cheddar (and some jalapeno cheddar with some honey) sausages. It was a rewarding process. The sausages turned out OK for my first time. It was quite a bit of work and I was tired after it all. Future batches should be easier and tastier. (My scale was giving me grief of when trying to measure single digits of grams of spices).

.Fresh off the smoker
.Final product

It was a satisfying project! I'll certainly do it again. I'm tracking the cost per lb of sausage making (with equipment, supplies etc) and also using this opportunity to use my smoker and track my cost of smoking meat per lb... haha is that like stacking functions but different? Double accounting?

[Western Red Cedar]

Oh geez. @WRC - thank you. I really love 180 degrees south and Mountain of Storms felt like a warm hug almost. I love Doug and Yvon and seeing more of their stuff is always welcome! Thank you for the suggestion.

Glad you enjoyed it. That whole thread is a field of rabbit holes waiting to entertain, educate, and inspire.

[Cam]

I was already going to comment just after seeing the photos of your sausages But then I scrolled up further and saw your plans for your studio.

1) Your sausages look more than OK. I just finished breakfast, and you made me hungry all over again.

2) Please keep the updates going on your studio - I'm very excited for you. I'm curious: are you DIYing completely or having contractors do some of the work for you? Or something else entirely?