Reverse first-world problems: What *good* thing happened to you today?

[Red Squirrel]

Went to explore my land further in that I have been so far and found lot of really neat rock formations. Didn't take many pictures but this is one of them. I've been on lot of rocks like that when hiking and such, it's kind of cool to know that this is on land that I own. Crazy to see no snow in the bush at this time of year too.

I've been in contact with a logging company to clear a road and an open area. It really feels like I'm getting somewhere now. Once I have an area cleared I can focus on actually building structures. I tried to do it myself but it's futile without heavy equipment especially when having to work. Only get so many days where I can go out there.

 

[lxskllr]

Calling a logging company?! You're gonna let someone else do all the fun stuff?! Saws, a skidder, a nice mill... You have a lifetime of stuff to keep you busy there!

 

[highland145]

We have several Hi8 videos of the kid. I bought the Diamond capture kit several years ago but just got around to trying it. And....our handy cam has crapped out. Borrowed one...and the Diamond kit doesn't work. Shit, the boss is going to beat my ass. Bought the elgato, works like a champ, thankfully. Might have been cheaper but didn't want to trust one of the duplicating companies or the USPS.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Went to explore my land further in that I have been so far and found lot of really neat rock formations.

When are you installing a live cam so anyone of us can keep an eye on your land and inform you of a trespassing bear. Then you can send a legal notice to the offending bear

 

[Red Squirrel]

Calling a logging company?! You're gonna let someone else do all the fun stuff?! Saws, a skidder, a nice mill... You have a lifetime of stuff to keep you busy there!

If I had the time and equipment, I would definitely do it. I had thought of renting an excavator but it will probably cost me just as much to do that than to hire it out and then I have to try to make it work out so I get it when I'm off. The company I got is charging like $150 per hour if I heard them right (was just verbal over the phone) and I'm pretty sure that's about the rate to rent an excavator. I presume they have a minimum they charge just to float the equipment there as well but I would be paying that too if I rented. They will probably have it done in like a day.

Once I have a pole barn built I do want to start looking at used equipment though. A Kubota tractor or backhoe would probably be the most versatile for me. Has the front end loader part and the digger part in the back. Once I'm better setup to sleep there I'll also be able to spend more time there too. As is, it's just so much work to pack everything each time I go. Once I have an area cleared I'll probably buy a camper. I think this summer I will focus on firewood and general cleanup of the area that I got cleared. I will get them to just toss the trees aside to try to maximize groundwork time and I'll go back to cut up the trees after.

 

[Red Squirrel]

When are you installing a live cam so anyone of us can keep an eye on your land and inform you of a trespassing bear. Then you can send a legal notice to the offending bear

That's crossed my mind actually. If I get around to installing my permanent solar setup I do want to setup security cameras and telemetry so I can keep eye on voltage etc so I may also throw in a live web cam. I'd probably do something that takes a picture every minute or so and uploads it somewhere. Bandwidth would be limited. Could also make it motion activated.

 

[highland145]

28 years ago, today, she said,Yes.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I don't like driving in rain or bad weather. Checked the forecast this morning before I intended to leave, just to see if I should go another day. All looked OK, said storms would hold off until later. Went ahead aa did my run of just under 200 miles. Only hit one small-ish shower when almost home. Got backed in and unloaded, then backed into the garage and closed the door. Then the big rain hit within minutes.

 

[highland145]

Nice, low humidity, no skeeters...yet. Spotify music. Beer. Win.

@lxskllr. We love that tree. Amazing when the full moon shines through.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I've got this NVR thing with 8 outdoor cameras that usually works well, but sometimes does weird things, locks up, or reboots itself.

I needed to make a change to one camera channel, but I flubbed and changed the wrong camera channel. When I tried to go back and fix what I did nothing happened. It had been working fine while I was making other changes. But this time it locked up and would do anything at all. On screen main clock kept running, but the images were all frozen and all of the clocks on the camera insets were frozen.

There is no power button, so you either have to sit it out and wait for it to reboot itself eventually or do the power plug thing which is what I went for.

Once the screens came back and the camera positions populated, I found that it did not remember my flub and and displayed everything correctly.

 

[lxskllr]

Nice, low humidity, no skeeters...yet. Spotify music. Beer. Win.

View attachment 100835@lxskllr. We love that tree. Amazing when the full moon shines through.

What kind of tree is that? What I can see of the leaves it kinda looks like blackjack oak, but the bark doesn't so much.

 

[highland145]

You'd think after 28 years of cleaning up after it that I'd know. I'll get a better pic.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I won every fencing match at practice last night except the ones against my friend. He's been fencing 6+ years. I've been fencing 7 months

 

[lxskllr]

Fencing is fun. That was one of things I'd get suited up for at highschool gym. I almost failed gym a couple times cause I didn't want to do most of it. If it wasn't for floor hockey, fencing, and archery, I'd have probably failed :^D Haven't fenced since then either.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Trip to Lowes today paid off.

We always need batteries, right?

Checking the display, I find a pack of RayoVac Alkaline High Energy AA, 60 count priced at $24.98, down from $26.98. Grabbed them and as I was starting away, I see this big sign taped to the display (don't know why I didn't see it before). So I call an employee over to make sure I had the correct item in my hand. Yes, she says, but she scans the item just to be sure. Price pops up at $24.98. She rechecks the sign, bar code, dates, and so on. Says ' if it doesn't ring right at checkout, have them call me.' In the mean time, I snap this picture.

Well of course, it rings up at the higher price, so we have to go though the dance routine to get a manager to authorize the markdown.

But here's the fun part. I also get 10% off most items most of the time, so the $14.38 becomes $12.94 on the receipt.

However, US Bank is running a promo where you get 20% off at Home Improvement Stores if you use your CC and have activated the special offer, which I did. Then, they are running a special 3 day double bonus offer, so I should be getting another 20% off (40% total)

I bought a few other things also, but just for this item, I should be getting 60 AAA Alkaline batteries for about $8 after it all pays out.






Of course, now I'm kicking myself that I didn't grab a pack of AAAs also.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Got my land cleared, had been wanting to do this for a while and pretty happy that it's done. Cha ching... a little over 10k all in, but worth it in the end. Would have taken me years to do it myself manually without equipment. They brought in a 30 ton excavator so that was doing quick work.

At the end there's a big rock formation too. Will make a cool backdrop.

In progress:

Final:

Lots more pics here.

The ground is very solid, mostly all rock, which is going to make building foundations easier, but will also make things like septic harder. I'm not at that point yet, but that will be my next major expense. Probably end up doing a mound system.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I don't get it. The end game is to retire on this piece of land with a shotgun and wait for someone to trespass on your property and shoot them? Because isn't that all you would be doing on a property miles from civilization? Also, at night, are you going to sleep in a panic room or something? Yes, human communities may not be that great but being all alone in the middle of nowhere is kinda worst, no?

There's something you are not telling us...

 

[lxskllr]

being all alone in the middle of nowhere is kinda worst, no?

That's called heaven. I think he cleared too much, but it isn't my property. I'd have cleared just enough to squeak whatever I wanted in there, in, and leave the rest of the trees in place.

 

[igor_kavinski]

That's called heaven.

I'm not sure. Has he thought everything through? What if a bunch of losers decide, hey, let's pay a visit to that house in the middle of nowhere and if no one's inside, we'll break in and have a nice vacation for a while but if someone's already there or if they return, we'll just get rid of them. Plenty of land all around to hide a dead body. If he reports an intruder in the middle of the night to the nearest police station, are they gonna get in their helicopter and come to his aid?

 

[pmv]

I don't get it. The end game is to retire on this piece of land with a shotgun and wait for someone to trespass on your property and shoot them? Because isn't that all you would be doing on a property miles from civilization? Also, at night, are you going to sleep in a panic room or something? Yes, human communities may not be that great but being all alone in the middle of nowhere is kinda worst, no?

There's something you are not telling us...

That's pretty much the chain-of-thought I sometimes go through.

I decide (after yet more unpleasant issues with neighbours) that I can't stand living in this insanely crowded environment any more, and start daydreaming about isolated cottages in the Scottish highlands or a moor somewhere (the sort of thing that certain newspapers *cough* The Daily Mail *cough* occasionally highlight as "property porn" - it seems one can buy entire islands complete with residences for the cost of a cramped inner London flat).

But then I start thinking if I lived there I'd suffer a different kind of anxiety - maybe not so many annoying neighbours cheek-by-jowl, but if a ne'er-do-well _did_ decide to make trouble, help would be a very long way away. It seems like it would be very all-or-nothing. Supremely peaceful right up to the moment when it suddenly isn't - and would one lie awake every night worrying about the possibility of that?

One such "idyllic" residence that was on sale a few years back was a remote Scottish island with an old lighthouse, though the history of the lighthouse included an occasion when one lighthouse keeper murdered the other (don't know if either of them resembled Willem Dafoe)

Little Ross - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't get it. The end game is to retire on this piece of land with a shotgun and wait for someone to trespass on your property and shoot them? Because isn't that all you would be doing on a property miles from civilization? Also, at night, are you going to sleep in a panic room or something? Yes, human communities may not be that great but being all alone in the middle of nowhere is kinda worst, no?

There's something you are not telling us...

Chances are nobody is going to show up here. There is a small chance, but I would have plenty of alarms going off and pre warning, I wouldn't be living in panic mode. I'll probably have 2 gates, one at the very entrance that has no lock, but triggers an alarm when opened, and then the other one with locks. Most of the crackheads seem to stay in town but they have been expanding out as they are hitting our fibre optic lines and cell towers now. But overall it's way safer out there than in the city, and also way cheaper.

I'm not really doing this only to be away from people, but to lower costs of living. Taxes are $100/year vs like $400/mo in town. Also more freedom, no need for permits or any of that BS. No water bill, no hydro bill, no gas bill etc... basically my expenses in town add up to around 3k/mo and out here it might be like 1k/mo. Will probably still want insurance, and still need a vehicle which also needs insurance and gas. And might still buy groceries as I don't plan to grow my own food 100%. In general I'd love to be able to retire at a decent age instead of just working my whole life only to pay bills and watch inflation take more and more of my money each year. Being far from town is actually going to be a tad of a downside due to being so far from family but I will still go for visits often enough when I go to town for supplies. I don't really plan to be 100% self sufficient, just mostly self sufficient as far as utilities go. the master goal really is to save more money, while having more land to do stuff on. I can build a big shop and such and just actually do fun stuff and have room for it, with nobody telling me I can't.

I actually ended up clearing less than I wanted, but it's easier to clear more later than to "unclear", so I erred on side of caution and the road ended up costing more machine hours than I anticipated so decided to focus on that. I have 40 acres to play with so got plenty of trees left. I have firewood for life too. Just from the trees they took down I will probably be chipping away at that pile for years. I will let it sit for a year to dry out a bit and for the rain to clean off the sand off the trees so it's not as hard on the chainsaw.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That's pretty much the chain-of-thought I sometimes go through.

I decide (after yet more unpleasant issues with neighbours) that I can't stand living in this insanely crowded environment any more, and start daydreaming about isolated cottages in the Scottish highlands or a moor somewhere (the sort of thing that certain newspapers *cough* The Daily Mail *cough* occasionally highlight as "property porn" - it seems one can buy entire islands complete with residences for the cost of a cramped inner London flat).

But then I start thinking if I lived there I'd suffer a different kind of anxiety - maybe not so many annoying neighbours cheek-by-jowl, but if a ne'er-do-well _did_ decide to make trouble, help would be a very long way away. It seems like it would be very all-or-nothing. Supremely peaceful right up to the moment when it suddenly isn't - and would one lie awake every night worrying about the possibility of that?

One such "idyllic" residence that was on sale a few years back was a remote Scottish island with an old lighthouse, though the history of the lighthouse included an occasion when one lighthouse keeper murdered the other (don't know if either of them resembled Willem Dafoe)

Little Ross - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Yeah lot of people dreaming of country/off grid living now. Between all the people I talked to such as the ones who cleared my land, and dump truck drivers that showed up, they all mentioned something to the effect that they either want to live off grid due to the direction the world is going, or they already have land themselves that they are working on. Just talking to people in general when I mention off grid living they say they would love to do it too. I consider myself lucky that I got this land since it's already starting to get harder to find now at a decent price.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm not sure. Has he thought everything through? What if a bunch of losers decide, hey, let's pay a visit to that house in the middle of nowhere and if no one's inside, we'll break in and have a nice vacation for a while but if someone's already there or if they return, we'll just get rid of them. Plenty of land all around to hide a dead body. If he reports an intruder in the middle of the night to the nearest police station, are they gonna get in their helicopter and come to his aid?

That can easily happen in town though. Then you are the one that gets in trouble if you defend yourself or your property. Lot of abandoned houses here that have been overtaken already and nothing that can be done. The law seems to protect the criminals more than the victims.

There's a guy in Alberta who got stabbed in his sleep, he managed to grab the knife and stabbed the guy back. Guess which one is in jail. The victim. Off grid, you just make them disappear. Chances are very good the criminal did not advertise to anyone where he was going. I hope I never have to do that though, it's not something I exactly dream of. Kinda like a fire extinguisher, good to have, but hope you never need it.

I really doubt I will run into any problems though. I'm more worried about my house in town being broken into while I'm at the property, then vise versa. I will want to come up with some anti theft measures either way though. I have a few ideas in mind.

 

[mindless1]

Found out that the old walmart automotive batteries that they couldn't issue a core return refund for because purchased online, can be traded at Advance Auto Parts for Gift Cards. Time to clean out the garage, 3 batteries and some old oil.

 

[nOOky]

That can easily happen in town though. Then you are the one that gets in trouble if you defend yourself or your property. Lot of abandoned houses here that have been overtaken already and nothing that can be done. The law seems to protect the criminals more than the victims.

There's a guy in Alberta who got stabbed in his sleep, he managed to grab the knife and stabbed the guy back. Guess which one is in jail. The victim. Off grid, you just make them disappear. Chances are very good the criminal did not advertise to anyone where he was going. I hope I never have to do that though, it's not something I exactly dream of. Kinda like a fire extinguisher, good to have, but hope you never need it.

I really doubt I will run into any problems though. I'm more worried about my house in town being broken into while I'm at the property, then vise versa. I will want to come up with some anti theft measures either way though. I have a few ideas in mind.

We have a small parcel of land and even that is subject to mushroom hunters and other folks that think they can walk on our land and pick wildflowers and stuff. If I had as much land as I wanted I suspect I'd have to spend my time mending fences and prowling the perimeter because people here trespass all the time.

We had a situation in our small rural area where a family moved into someone's home while they were on vacation, and changed the locks and wouldn't let them back in. The home owners didn't call the police, they got help and busted down the door and physically removed them. They figured that once they got them out and they got back in their home they could let the squatters call the cops and try and get back into a home they couldn't legally prove was theirs. Not many people have the balls to do that as they could have had firearms involved etc.