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I would purchase this book.
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Nov 12, 2020 21:37
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I made it maybe a third of the way through that before I had to scroll through. Jesus Christ
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Nov 12, 2020 21:52
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BonerGhost posted:I lost my poo poo laughing at "twerking alone will not trigger the motion light" imagining you out there in your front yard trying to refill the genny, the light goes out midstream, and you standing there booty poppin trying to turn it back on. Mission accomplished, friend. 
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Nov 12, 2020 21:53
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Dareon posted:I absolutely expected a storm of very brief jesus christs (A christeor shower?), it's even hard for me to accept how bad some of these places were, and I lived in them. You tend to develop coping mechanisms, like when I'm in town or otherwise in an actual pocket of civilization, I try not to leave before I've had the opportunity to use an actual working toilet. And like, I've been living in lovely trailers since I was old enough to remember, I've gotten used to some of the stopgap bullshit. If it's a decently installed metal roof, it shouldn't leak for quite some time, if they didn't do it during installation you can help it out by caulking over all the screws, since the little crush washers on them tend to dessicate and will be your first spot of failure. Caulk in general is great, make sure any holes or cracks are caulked to keep moisture out and heat in. That's a crazy loving set of stories by the way, jesus.
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Nov 12, 2020 22:03
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   800 pages behind , here is some crappy construction that I currently have to deal with.
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Nov 12, 2020 23:06
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That's a lot of orbs. Have you called in a priest or are you going dyi-ing and praying for the best? Tbh I've always left it to the landlords to deal with it and wore a sleeping mask when those floaty fuckers got too bright at night.
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Nov 13, 2020 00:01
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DIY the cabin modifications, put it on a YouTube channel, get $$ from goon subscriptions. May I ask what your daily schedule is like?
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Nov 13, 2020 00:06
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Dareon posted:So I have to tell you about the previous I would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Great writing that kept my attention from start to finish. How old are you? What do you do for work? What are your ambitions? Please ask any and all questions you have. Making do with little is hard and can be clever or lazy.
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Nov 13, 2020 00:52
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That strange guy posted:
The one with the outlet made me physically cringe.
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Nov 13, 2020 02:04
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Dareon posted:Oh, yeah, I know enough about building techniques that I can frame up decently solid structures. Like, just from that I can tell that this place is decently built. The walls are solid and well-insulated, the roof doesn't leak (yet), the only real problems are historical and aesthetic. And it's small. And has no utilities. That's what's on my next really big project list, get a well dug down to the potable aquifer, maybe set up a pressure tank and water heater in an external shed and plumb the sink (It currently drains into a 2-gallon bucket underneath I have the same questions as other goons. That story made me really want to know more about you. Why not just leave Alaska? What do you do for work? Why not use that money to leave? How is there internet but no utilities? If you have internet why not book a flight to basically anywhere that doesn't require the poor to live in "I almost died because of normal weather here" conditions? Why would you invest in living in this place rather than leaving?
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Nov 13, 2020 02:35
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Lots of places up there have cellular only. If you’re on the right side of <whatever chunk of terrain>
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Nov 13, 2020 02:49
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Dareon posted:I absolutely expected a storm of very brief jesus christs (A christeor shower?), it's even hard for me to accept how bad some of these places were, and I lived in them. Almost any single sentence in that post would, in a vacuum, qualify as the worst living situation I have (not) experienced.
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Nov 13, 2020 03:01
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CarForumPoster posted:I have the same questions as other goons. That story made me really want to know more about you. Not to speak for the OP, but a lot of people underestimate the cost of moving and the amount of resources available to many people. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, you can maybe afford to go to a library for internet but you sure can't afford a plane ticket. Plus Alaska can be super expensive just because of how remote everything is. IIRC something simple like a bag of chips can cost $10 or more, let alone halfway decent produce.
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Nov 13, 2020 03:16
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Plus Alaska can be super expensive just because of how remote everything is. IIRC something simple like a bag of chips can cost $10 or more, let alone halfway decent produce. This is correct, AK’s cost of living is only beaten out by a few states, and even that is only considering the few population centers. If you go rural (which for AK is way more rural than you may think) it’ll easily double or triple, and if you REALLY live out in the bush, it’s like 10x or whatever because you’re flying your poo poo in on a chartered plane, and you’re for sure doing actual subsistence living out there. e: Consider:  That red splotch midway along the southern coast is Anchorage, where half the state lives. The blotch just south of halfway up the state is Fairbanks, the second biggest population center, with roughly an order of magnitude fewer people in the city proper (300,000 (400k metro) in Anchorage, 30,000 (100k metro) in Fairbanks). It is a 6 hour drive between them, with little along the way. Leave that highway and there’s really...just...nobody, and nothing but wilderness. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Nov 13, 2020 |
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Nov 13, 2020 03:34
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This is a map of the boroughs of Alaska: All of the yellow parts aren't actually part of any borough. They're collectively known as the Unorganized Borough, and they have a total land area larger than Texas.
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Nov 13, 2020 03:56
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Here are a couple Imgur posts with grocery prices from some places in Alaska: Hooper Bay: https://imgur.com/gallery/1ZCfy Barrow: https://imgur.com/gallery/jRL32 Unknown location: https://imgur.com/gallery/yVdpi
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Nov 13, 2020 04:01
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Sounds like he should leave that expensive, freezing cold place.
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Nov 13, 2020 04:25
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Bad Munki posted:Here are a couple Imgur posts with grocery prices from some places in Alaska: You know those two, probably three places are really way freaking different from "an hour 45 outside Anchorage" that is being discussed here, right? You can DRIVE THERE. The places you are posting prices from have no or only occasional roads and might as well be a remote island. I'm not trying to minimize anything, but this is just a bridge too far. Motronic fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Nov 13, 2020 |
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Nov 13, 2020 04:27
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Sure. I was highlighting the extremes that are to be found, I suppose I wasn’t clear about that. Although even Talkeetna area is going to be ramped up from Anchorage itself, which will be ramped up from the lower 48. I compare areas like that to, say, rural gas station prices down south. e: And, of course, a lot of the price difference depends on the perishability of the item, and the bulkiness of it. It’s not a consistent hike across the board. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Nov 13, 2020 |
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Nov 13, 2020 04:30
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Dareon posted:...disaster post... If you're off-grid anyway and don't need UL-listed stuff, there's stuff like Santan solar (https://www.ebay.com/str/santansolar) which will sell their used stuff that works almost as well as new for a pretty steep discount. Even just a couple of 240w panels might help a lot, if your solar charge control has spare voltage capacity
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Nov 13, 2020 04:52
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Bad Munki posted:Sure. I was highlighting the extremes that are to be found, I suppose I wasn’t clear about that. I guess not. My point is you don't need to. This story is sad enough in it's own reality without $8 apples.
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Nov 13, 2020 04:59
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CarForumPoster posted:I have the same questions as other goons. That story made me really want to know more about you. Most of the answers to these and questions like them can be summed up with "A long chain of bad decisions and inertia." Which would make a good thread title. So first things first, I have no work. I was tempted to bullshit and say I have occasional gig money as a freelance writer, but no, I don't even have that because my last gig loving ghosted me and soured me on the concept. At my most cynical I insist I have no marketable skills. The job I feel most suited for is "ideas guy," which generally requires more people skills and/or less ethics than I have. I have a high school education, a broad array of very generalist knowledge (My most focused topic is feline behavioral psychology), an immense creative drive, good crisis response, and weak noodly muscles. And that creative drive is almost entirely due to unmedicated ADHD, so if I medicate I gain the ability to do basic tasks, but lose most of my self. And more weight than is healthy, going by the last time I medicated. There are three things keeping me in Alaska: Breathtaking natural beauty (Admittedly much diminished locally because we had a loving forest fire), the fact that we actually own this land with no mortgages or loans, and my mother. She's past 75 (And I, her youngest child, am approaching 40), and her medical issues required my care while I was still in high school and have only worsened since then. We're living on her Social Security and a few other government support programs. I am absolutely terrified for my future after she dies. There's a minor fourth thing keeping me here with the Permanent Fund Dividend, they are literally paying me to live here. A job, any job, would provide more money, though. There's internet because there are phone lines. Phone service up here was considered vital, and the phone company had government subsidies to wire up practically everyone. There's no power because there's no poles in the vicinity. We looked into getting hooked up after the fire, but the power company wanted 25 loving thousand to install new poles. This was after admitting fault in the wildfire and pledging to restore power to those affected, so if I ever want to make myself angry I just have a good think on that. And municipal water and sewage only happens in, you know, municipalities. TooMuchAbstraction has the right of it for why we don't leave, though. While living here sucks, moving would absolutely wipe out our savings and there's no guarantee we'd end up in better living conditions. I mean, it would be difficult to wind up in worse, but my mother spent some time living in a converted chicken coop. There's room to go downhill. And environment is a big part of it, we'd need to be somewhere out of town, where the smog wouldn't aggravate her emphysema. Before you ask, yes, cold air does aggravate emphysema, she doesn't go out much in winter. To keep this post from just being disaster tourism (Be honest, I know some of you do want to help and I appreciate that, but we're goons, there's a sick fascination in watching someone's life trainwreck in slow motion), DIY questions. -We don't have a vent for the range. While it's not essential, I would like to limit the amount of flying grease coating everything in our one-room hovel. Is there a decently strong extractor fan, that can seal shut to limit the heat loss from a big hole in the wall, that runs on batteries? I'm thinking 9-volts, because line loss in the 12v system was apparently so high that the electrician couldn't actually run a light over the range. One that just plugs in would work as well, although that would mean we could only use it while the generator was running. -I know propane water heaters exist, but I assume none of them are robust enough to survive well outside in subzero winters. If, heaven forbid, you had the task of designing a water system for this cabin, would you attempt to add a water heater? Would a water system even be a good idea, with all the piping external and no consistent power for heat wrap? We've hauled water in jugs and heated it atop the stove for over three decades (At Mark's and the old trailer, we had pots full of water atop the woodstove, gave us hot water on demand and helped with the dry winter air), doing it from a hand pump in the yard would still be an upgrade. Mind you, I would not be DIYing the well itself (Unfortunate, means we lose out on the possibility to make goon-in-a-well jokes and post pictures of me standing vacantly in a wet hole while a shed toots in the background), there's big high-tech machines and trained operators to do that for us. -I want to disable the motion detector on the yard light so when I flip the switch it turns on and stays on. I did get a look at the controls on the sensor, but it looked like those just affected range, time, and sensitivity, no discreet positions labeled "off." If it came with documentation and the electrician left them here, I could look through that and maybe see if there's a way to set it properly, but failing that I'm probably going to need to go up a ladder with a screwdriver and some wire tools. I haven't done a whole lot of electrical work before (My previous experience was limited to an electronics science experiment kit), but could it be as simple as cutting and splicing a few wires together? I'm always a little antsy making changes to the only instance of a thing we have, but the light's not terribly useful in its current condition, so if I gently caress it up there's no great loss. None of those are winter projects, though.
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Nov 13, 2020 15:41
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Dareon posted:-I want to disable the motion detector on the yard light so when I flip the switch it turns on and stays on. I did get a look at the controls on the sensor, but it looked like those just affected range, time, and sensitivity, no discreet positions labeled "off." If it came with documentation and the electrician left them here, I could look through that and maybe see if there's a way to set it properly, but failing that I'm probably going to need to go up a ladder with a screwdriver and some wire tools. I haven't done a whole lot of electrical work before (My previous experience was limited to an electronics science experiment kit), but could it be as simple as cutting and splicing a few wires together? I'm always a little antsy making changes to the only instance of a thing we have, but the light's not terribly useful in its current condition, so if I gently caress it up there's no great loss. I don't have any first-hand experience with motion detector lights, but from some quick googling it looks like most of them have some kind of override where if you switch the light on or off in some pattern, the light stays on. It's worth checking in the fixture manual if you still have it.
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Nov 13, 2020 16:22
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Why not store propane inside the house or an insulated shed? If it's already next to the wall, safety doesn't really change inside or outside. I think (small) tanks are kept outside because it's easier (for delivery guys) to swap them. OP, have you considered getting certified in plumbing or wiring? It sounds like there's a lot of demand.
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Nov 13, 2020 16:23
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HardDiskD posted:I don't have any first-hand experience with motion detector lights, but from some quick googling it looks like most of them have some kind of override where if you switch the light on or off in some pattern, the light stays on. It's worth checking in the fixture manual if you still have it. With mine, flicking the switch off then on will make the light stay on. To get it to motion detect, I have to flip it off for 30s and then turn it back on .
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Nov 13, 2020 16:33
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Dareon posted:the wall between the main room and one of the small bedrooms had been removed entirely, which didn't look load-bearing based on the appearance of the floor and ceiling, but couldn't have been good for structural integrity anyway. Its not load bearing if the load has just rotted away.
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Nov 13, 2020 18:17
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I really think the roof should be gone into more detail, because if the roof goes, the rest of the house will develop all kinds of problems. So a solid roof is very important for the long term health of this house IMO. For cheapness, longevity and durability I'd say a sheet metal roof with a decent amount of tilt so snow doesn't pile up. Not sure what you got now, but knowing would help people advice on that.
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Nov 13, 2020 19:14
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Dareon, do you have a means to take pictures of stuff? That can be really helpful for giving advice. For example if you took a picture of the inside if that light I could tell you how to bypass the motion sensor pretty easy. It's gonna be hard to give advice for you in general though because not a lot of people are going to want to tell you how to do things that aren't 100% correct, and to be frank, it doesn't sound like you have the means to do so.
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Nov 13, 2020 19:28
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Someone earlier said that there should be a lesser of two evils exemption for Dareon advice.
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Nov 13, 2020 19:33
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I think if we trying to help remotely we might also need an inventory of available tools and materials.
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Nov 13, 2020 19:42
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Splicer posted:Someone earlier said that there should be a lesser of two evils exemption for Dareon advice. And that someone has a super bad opinion. Any electrical advice should be in the right thread, where there are people who know what they are talking about paying attention to it. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3090739
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Nov 13, 2020 20:08
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Dareon, don’t sell yourself short, you are an excellent writer. (I say that as someone who gets paid to write things).
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Nov 13, 2020 20:47
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Everyone freaking out at the diy "houses so we didn't freeze to death" saga and I'm just remembering people on the rez doing that, along with some of my homeless friends. Solidarity and good luck.
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Nov 14, 2020 01:06
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Post poste posted:Everyone freaking out at the diy "houses so we didn't freeze to death" saga and I'm just remembering people on the rez doing that, along with some of my homeless friends. Solidarity and good luck. I don't really see anyone "freaking out" and rather more of a discussion on liability and enabling.
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Nov 14, 2020 02:19
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Motronic posted:I don't really see anyone "freaking out" and rather more of a discussion on liability and enabling. Yeah, that's fair. sorry.
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Nov 14, 2020 02:28
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Nothing to see here, just water lines going through the breaker box 3 times, including 2 that won't let you put the cover on. Just someone trying their hardest for a Darwin Award.
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Nov 14, 2020 02:53
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It appears that that is the only 'soft' spot in a masonry wall. I get why they did it, but christ
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Nov 14, 2020 02:59
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Dareon, have you thought about maybe using the goon fund to address some of the more pressing issues you've mentioned in your write-up? I don't know what Alaskan winters are like but frankly it seems like you've spent the better part of your life cheating death by near exposure and maybe taking a few bucks to increase your survival chances wouldn't be a bad thing.
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Nov 14, 2020 03:03
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I just lurk this thread, but seems like Dareon's circumstances merit their own thread - partly for our entertainment but also because it calls for some pretty specific advice and there are some really knowledgeable folks in DIY that could probably help in some way.
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Nov 14, 2020 03:22
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skybolt_1 posted:Dareon, have you thought about maybe using the goon fund to address some of the more pressing issues you've mentioned in your write-up? I don't know what Alaskan winters are like but frankly it seems like you've spent the better part of your life cheating death by near exposure and maybe taking a few bucks to increase your survival chances wouldn't be a bad thing. This is the hard part, because I know absolutely all of these things, save utilities, are easy solutions in almost all of the lower 48. I'm not sure which parts are not feasible based on location.
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Nov 14, 2020 03:28
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