and Dio hits the ‘so how do I?’

been doing a lot of re-assessment of things, not just in my head, but looking at what/where I shifted course (and yes, some of it, maybe most of it, stemmed from discovering Kayaks,,,, more on that in a moment)

kinda fell behind on my off-grid living thing, and with this winter being as cloud covered as it is, and mild to boot, my battery bank is struggling,,, Or I should say, I am needing to be frugal as hell on my power usage. So theres one ‘how do I?’ as in, ‘how do I increase the size of my batterybank/solar array, AND not break the bank????’

and of course now is a pretty crappy time to be looking at things like that since everybody and their brother is looking at similar stuff and the demand is growing, along with the inflation of things (IE, our dollar is growing more worthless everyday,,,)

The two areas where I am comfortable as heck are heat and water. Even my propane situation is well in hand with 120# of propane in 5 tanks: 3-30# and 2-15# tanks. Only use it for heating water and my stove, and during the summer to run the fridge (which works just fine on ambient air from the house in cold weather: gotta love the ammonia based cooling systems.) (and I DO need to replace that fridge in the future since it does get kind of flaky when the outside temps get close to 100. NOT CHEAP, believe me!!!)

The recent pay raise is helping, only two paychecks into the year and I can already feel a little ‘relief’, and bills are getting paid (over-paid 😀 ) and I will start rolling payments together as they get paid off. This is mostly playing catch-up from the last two years with the lowered hours I have had to accept due to slow-downs. I am hoping that this year will see some uptick, and so far hasn’t disappointed.

AND that, is where I am going to start getting that ‘How can I?’ sorted out. Not praying for good weather, or the hand of God to intervene, just pure dogged stubborn “I ain’t givin’ up!” and nose to the grindstone.

And still keep on kayaking in between. If I ain’t home but on a lake, I ain’t spending money or burning electrons. The kids have the kibble bowls and Unk keeps ’em full when I am off and about,,, So no worries there. (yeah, you could say I AM spending money, it takes fuel to get to the lake, but once I am there, not a penny,,,) If things get real tight, I have the river down the hill,,, (I just don’t like to use it since its also the dumping ground for the destitute around here,,, lots of trash, and sometimes, the losers of the dog and cock fights,,, GROSS!!!)

Lots going on here on my end, lots of thinking too. and not all of its serious. I shared an idea for a milkshake with B tonight and his only response was ‘you need to spend less time alone,,,’ LOL. yeah, I have LOADS of time to think, and other than furries wanting lap or kibble, not many distractions.

as for the kayaks ‘causing me’ to lose direction, thats more like an occupational hazard from being an INTJ. Obssessive compulsive is probably not an inaccurate description when we find something interesting. I’ve mentioned before that my EX would shut off the power to the garage to make me come to dinner: especially when I was rebuilding the engine in that little rollerskate I called a car. (oh that was fun build though. 30 thou off the heads, 9.5:1 pistons, 4-2-1 exhaust system, custom bent and welded by yours truly, and FOUR carbs, robbed from 2 motorcycles (vertical twins) and custom bracket. She was a beast!)

where was I?? oh yeah, Kayaks, distractions, Short attention span introvert,, (grin) Ain’t gonna give up my boats, even if I found a FAR103 frame tomorrow. I have even thought of ways that I could make the two work together. and still maintain the weight limit of that regulation.

Nope, ain’t given up on finding my wings yet either. I has dreams, and they aren’t all castles in the air,,, may be kinda out there for the average Joe, but they ARE obtainable.

And I ain’t ded yet!!!! (though if you keep at it Dio, you are gonna get your ass kilt!!!)