this is a continuation of Sondays poast, sorta kinda, mehbe sumpin-like. You decide.
I’m still reading it, more later, comments are open
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Hard sellin’ a hot idea
Talkin’ the rocket mass stoves here. I really think that this is going to be something of a feature in homes in the future. The downsides to it right now are that everything going into a new buildin , must be “approved” and Listed, as in UL listed or one of the other testing places. That is expensive and the real problem in getting RMH stoves tested being they are also rather ‘artsy’: each being built on site for the particular home they are going into. No one is going to build the stove then dismantle it to send it Underwriters laboratories for testing, to the tune of 25grand or more. Not each and every stove.
Luckily, there are states that are making exemptions to such things. (I don’t recall which ones, though I seem to remember one being New England: shocked I was!)
Permies has been doing research into different builds techniques and materials, and even does particulate testing on their stoves. Their stoves, again, not mass produced therefore untestable by a standards company, have been besting the EPA recommendations on orders of magnitude. EPA suggests .4% particulate matter on a running stove. Permies has been producing less than a 10th of that.
And they use 1/4 the fuel of a standard wood burner for the same result in house.
There are all sorts of reasons why some people want this style of stove. They may be buying into the Carbon Myth, wanting to reduce carbon and particulate emissions. They may be trying to do similar to me, going off grid and want as efficient as you can get. Or the other side of the coin, that I am on, wanting the heat, but no one makes a stove that fits my house. It either runs too hot, or won’t put out the heat I need and ends up creating soot issues and always ends up pumping more heat OUT of the house than what remains in.
And then there are those that just want to supplement what they already have in place to help reduce costs overall. IE A heat pump that works, but want to reduce its duty cycle and use less electricity.
https://youtu.be/QY4mnYc0Mgc?si=ZHUkt0GxPV6qlIjZ. (One the groups trying for a modular unit, no affiliation, but a good explanationof function.)
And the choices are growing fast thanks to the internet and curious kittehs like myself. Rocket style stoves (J-tube top feeding downdraft stoves) Batch style heaters (typical front loader like most accepted wood burners). Russian and Swedish styled ceramic tile stoves (similar concepts of re-routing hot gasses through a maze of brick to collect more heat for slow release)
The concept is simple. Capture as much heat as you can before it leaves the house. Thats the whole purpose of these stoves. The Rocket stoves produce incredible amounts of heat, running at peak efficiency reducing emissions to base components of CO2 and H2O with minimal particulates. They generate ash in the ash bin, and some fly ash that accumulates over time in the chambers (and why they have clean out ports.) Everything else is normal and IMO non-pollutants. (the CO2 was gathered by the trees, and will be again. Perfect circle!)
Imagine the actual fire pit being close to 2000F and by the time the exhaust gasses leave the building, they are around 100F and clear with no particulates (or nearly so). Thats 1900F thats been captured by the stove to release out over time. No need to run a fire in the stove 24-7 to keep a house almost warm. Radiant heat feels better than forced air heat (and yes, thats a subjective statement) that definitely lasts longer. Load the hopper once every 12 hours or so, burn hot and fast for a couple of hours and forget about it. Better than waking every couple of hours to feed a beast that only sort of does the trick.
So here I am, Not in consideration mode anymore, but active ‘I’m doin’ this’ mode. But I hit a snag, one I need to resolve. Do I cut out the floor and run the stone all the way to the ground instead of ‘pumping up my floor joists’, or just reinforce. It really doesn’t make a difference in the performance of the stove, but I am thinking longevity of the building. Were I to build again, I already know, Build the base for the stove FIRST, and sort of build the house around it. Much like they used to do hereabouts. I have found three old fallen down houses built back in the early 1900’s and ALL of them had a chimney dead center of the house that went to the ground and the house was built around that. Some had two fireplaces on opposing sides, but all went to the ground.
And despite the word on the nets, all of them were built with locally gathered sandstone and slate, and only one had any firebrick in it. That fire brick was the ‘floor’ of the fireplace, No lime mortar though,,, That I can see. They did use the refractory cement over mortar except on the outside where they went with the cheaper stuff. In one case, no mortar at all: they used Cobb, clay and sand mix. And thats cheap around here if you are willing to do a little digging or swinging a shovel. River sand is very clean after a flood and usually piled several feet deep before you hit the mud. Clay is readily found near any creek, and like in my case, my house sits on a clay formation thats almost 2 feet thick and several hundred feet wide.(and it’s only 2′ down to it.) For the record: I will be using fire brick in the main combustion chamber as the temperatures get quite a bit higher than a normal fireplace would see.
Really, not counting labor times, building one of these should be doable by even the poorest of people, and work 10 times better than a UL listed store bought EPA approved steel and brick monster.
Ah, but Dio,, that means less money flowing and the money has to flow to keep the economy together.
Yeah,, that’s true, but what happens when the economy is no longer functional, but people still need to keep warm? One summer of some hard work and little expenditure but a warm house for years after, and repairs can be done the same way it was built: locally furnished material.
By the way, this is a DEEP deep rabbit hole if you start digging. Some people building J-tube rockets that don’t feed a box, but run through tunnels under the house, venting on the opposite side. The original ‘floor heating’ arrangement. (and that idea is OLD! Korea had a system like it, as did the roman bath houses.). Seriously, if you are thinking of building, consider how you want to heat and cool the house before you ever lift hammer or push saw. That will make the rest of the build so much easier, unlike where I am, thinking about dismantling part of my floor.
Go, be creative, learn something new, and fly the birds of freedom at those that want us to buy systems that need replaced every 10 years or so. (but be advised, getting homeowners insurance might be tricky!)
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BLoo update: Good tidings at that. took her for a run Sonday to the tune of 150 miles (152 to be exact) and did a fill up on return. 9.98 gallons. 15mpg on a 25 yo SBC? No, I ain’ta complainin’! (and roughly 40 of that was here in town the day prior so its likely closer to 13/16 town/highway. Still no complaints.
sober Sonday, a thinkers poast.
I’m gonna open this with someone else’s work. Some of y’uns may already follow her and if so, this is old hat ferya. DO watch the whole of it, even if ya find something you don’t agree with (A point I disagree with will be dealt with below)
Those that have been here awhile-ish know my ‘standard’ living arrangement: semi-offgrid☆, self sufficient, provide for your needs so you are able to provide for others. I lean towards service orientation in my skillsets. My mindset is ‘if you are dependent on everyone/thing else, you arent able to provide for others’ or ‘take care of number one so number one can take care of others’.
and y’all know I am a Seeker. Always looking for the ULTIMATE TRUTHS about Life, the universe and everything. (I believe they were once called philosophers,,,lmao)
PatriotNurse spells it out in the first minutr or so: The paradigm you know? Forget it, thats dying. Look backwards for the path forward.
Where she and I disagree is that the labor market is gonna get wiped out by AI. And there is a mushy grey area in that disagreement. The labor market “as we know it”,, yeah, thats gonna take a hit, especially when it comes to management and desk jobs. Hard, hands on, in the dirt stuff? Not so much. There is a large portion of our FUSA society that are gonna be left in the dust and confused while they watch guys like me flourish.
and they are gonna get MAD.
They are gonna get pissed when all the promises of Goverment dry up, and start looking for someone to blame (and they NEVER look at the real problem child! )
And we are already seeing Rule of Law getting sidelined,,,,
i don’t know what our future holds, as a people or as a nation; but history says this nation is, IS! on the ropes. Our currency situation and the growing diaspora from the petrodollar, despite our GOVs efforts to rein it in (which seems only to spur the diaspora more) with the conflict in the Persian Gulf and other actions.(and I believe that whole Persian Gulf fiasco is part and parcel of a dying currency/empire spurred by certain banking Cartels,,, but Hey, I’m the Conspiracy nut, right?)
And I haven’t even mentioned the ‘barbarians inside the walls’ thing. It all adds up if you take only a few minutes to connect the dots. Rural is gonna be fine, though it might be touch and go for awhile as the adjustment takes place (growing seasons don’t follow societal collapse scenarios) Urban life is gonna take on whole new meanings, and I don’t even want to think about the metropoli where people live in towers and packed in like rats. I do not see the ‘golden hordes’ of many popular stories, but I do see serious breakdown of social order and warlords become the ‘new mayor’ so to speak. Think Zimbabwe or similar, on a micro localized format.
globally cheap energy is going away, and not for the reasons once cited. They aren’t gone: but they are going to become scarce due to dueliing governments and the global trade routes becoming war zones. Just as the robber barons of yore collected wealth and power, the world powers are using energy. The carbon footprint and gorebalwarmening coolingclimatechange hulabaloo are tools they use to sway populi to their whims. And further thier taxation efforts
and the wheels come off at some point, and we never ever learn as a species.
PN mentions the coming times will look like preWW1, The Terminator, and Roman collapse, all rolled into a nasty shit pastry (elaborated by me) the Terminator part,,, I have reservations on that prognostication. Yes, AI and drones are reaching new highs in sophistry, but they have a serious achilles heel: power. And the infrastructure won’t support that level of sophistication without a really big jump in tech/power ratios. We are at the 7Nm wall of development in chip technology. And Quantum computing is, so far, still very much in the basement and not yet portable. Power storage needs to take another great leap forward as well. At least if that machine Master of the Terminator were to become more than ‘just’ prophecy. In other words, there is still and will be a HUMAN behind all of the horrors if it even looks remotely “Terminator”.
But use of drones in warfare has taken us well past the wars of yore. Things become much more surgical and that lends to more and worse effects. The travesties of WW2 will pale in light of what may come. And in many ways, already do. That ‘boots on ground’ troops are so easily defeated by a single group working remotely: the evolution of how we kill each other has reached new lows.
Ok, Ok Dio,,, you’re running the depression narrative again,,,
Well, sorta. I needed that opening to give you a good whomp on the rear to look at things, so you can see OTHER things in clear light.
So what is really going on? Fact be, world powers, of the old skool nature, much like those that ran the whole Cold War era, are dying. And the crap we are seeing is very much reckless grabbing at what they think will keep them afloat. I firmly believe that Russia and China have seen the writing on the wall. Russia has made no overt moves to storm the European penninsula: their efforts in Ukraine are to mostly retain a warm water port for year round global shipping, and yes, for year round Militant Naval stuff. There was also mention by Putin that the Donbass is originally Russian Territory (see below concerning China) But they aren’t making noise about conquering the world. Can same be said for the FUSA? And I could list many things/actions that ARE saying such, even ifthe words don’t match.
And China? China is one of those empires that flares and dies with a regularity. Ancient back further then the Roman Empire; even Ancient Persia had records of trade routes to China and those empires of that time. The whole stink with China and Taiwan goes back to ancient maps, not political intrigue. Granted, the Taiwanese might say otherwise as they have a more western type government running things and don’t wanna give that up.
And Iran? Similar history as that of China. Conquered many times, but every time, the conquerer was eventually absorbed into Persian Culture and the whole she-bang began again. The culture remains, even under the mullahs.
The superpowers are pulling things in tight, with one exception. Nationalism in many places is taking off despite the Socialist/Communist speals against it. The WEF and SOROS crowds blew Their wad early (or, if you consider the information age, they missed the boat.)and things for them are falling apart.
Even the Oligarchs are in for a shock, and this I see on a daily basis here and there. People are sick of the Modern Day robber Barons, but this time around, we have all of this beautiful information at our fingertips, even despite the algorithm trying to suppress REAL information. (Click bait used to be sorta funnly, Like getting RickRolled. NOW, its become a business model. Patriot Nurse discussed this in the above video.)
People are sick of working the 9-5 for a gold watch and a pension that was designed before the Great Depression. People are more and more choosing to work on THEIR terms and screw the after effects. Some of those may be Unlicensed Pharmacists, some might be Mechanics that saw the direction the big Makers are taking and walked away with thier pride that they aren’t a part of that problem. I see in some Doctor types, opening private practice for a select group (Concierge Docs.) or opening a small area type clinic setup, removed from the SICK CARE SYSTEM. Or how about that guy, the Geeky one that likes playing with 3D printers and other stuff, the one that has FedEx and UPS showing up twice daily morning and eve? That guy is gettting his materials to work, then shipping them out later in the day and his entire business is spread GLOBALLY. Think he wants to go back to working for the Robber Barons? He’ll hire their services for his needs (delivery services) but tell them to Fuck Off! for anything else.
Everything is Changing, EVERYTHING.
Look to the Past for the map to the future, but keep the clues of current tech for your declination changes.
I’ll have more about silly stuff like RMH/BatchMass heaters, and more specifically, WHY you may see them become a feature, not something the oddball hermit does. (yes, I am going to do a hard sell on them,, )
☆ Semi-offgrid: I still use the grocery store for my food source. I have not YET started a garden/livestock scenario, though this year has me considering Chickens and a couple raised bed options.
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Micro-economies
Burnout learned about FAIR TRADE today. I contacted him last night to let him know Da wanted him to show up today (satyrday) for mowing services. This was an arrangement we set up when Da was starting PhysTherapy and I was hip deep in everything else with little time to for other stuff. Da was willing, Burnout needed some extra income, so I put the two together and it worked.
Today, Burnout shows up in my Driveway with his car and a box full of new parts with that pleading look,,,, Sure,,,, coils Plugs, vavle covers and gaskets, not hateful really, and while I had other plans, this would work for my benefit too.
(obviously NOT his car, but the pic fits with the last few weeks, even if that is a 318, not a 350.)(and I could be wrong, it may be a big block but I am not familiar with BB’s)
He mosey’s on down to Da’s, does his thing, I unlock Bloo’s boxes and get bizzy. Hour or so,, nothing rough.
And about the time I was sitting back for an adult beverage, Burnout comes out of the woods between Da and my places. The $50 Da gave him goes into my pocket. No extra money in his world, but his ‘hicle is running better and more reliable again and everyone is happy for the exchange.
No Grumps Satyrday,,,
I still need to get under the house and work on reinforcing the joists so I can get started on that mass heater for the upcoming winter. Idid get some slate and sandstone (good flat stuff, easily worked.) this morning before the mek-a-nickin’ stuff arrived.
Life continues forward,,, fits and starts, but forward.
More tomorrow as I think of something to talk about.
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(, ‘)
let me explain the OOF
Here was my work week (weak)
4.5 hr Monday
5.5 hrs Tuesday
7 hr Wednesday
4 hr Thursday
4 hrs today (friday)
25 hours total. Thats not even part time work in todays day and age.
That OOF! was quite literally 1/4th of my paycheck this week.
Did it to meself. HAD to have a fullsized 1ton truck, with a monster fuel tank. And, that was a fill up, but was not on full empty yet. (learned long ago, running on fumes is bad ju-ju) Full tank is 32 gallons. At the prices today, thats $120 fill up from dead empty.
Here is what I DID do today. I passed on some business cards to Son of Bossman. I figure he may see places to pass them along to, AND, I had an alterior motive in mind: Let him know what I am doing on the side because what I do ‘full time’ (it ain’t) isn’t cutting it. Kind of a “the mule turns the whip around” move. It was also to show him that what I am doing will NOT be encroaching on his market in anyway.
kinda sorta,,, I’ve already been approached by a couple of his clients to ‘be on call’ becasue they don’t like the wait times for repairs. Not fencing: powered gate controllers. I really do not want to go that route: fact, I want to get away from that mess all together as it’s overly frustrating, and most of our current clients are nitpicky as hell about what they want a sub-par unit to do. The ones that pay for the top end stuff we have no issues with: its the low-ball clients that expect $10000 operation from a $1000 unit. And I have heard some stories about same clients and getting paid,,, Sorry, you call me and I come out, CASH UP FRONT before I touch a single tool.
Easier to let that mess slide on by, focus on the other aspects more, the ones that don’t cross territory with ‘my dayjob’. Welding fabrication included on my ‘ok’ list, as thats a pretty wide open description.
Bills are getting paid, that is what I CAN say. It may not be pretty but I am getting by. And once I knock down the lions share of debt I incurred getting BLoo roadworthy, things will get even easier. (I say that with fingers crossed and toes crossed that I am not jinxing myself.)
Open schedule this week. No clients lined up (as in, no one has called yet) but I have stuff to do around the homestead, that won’t take any money out of pocket to do. re-locate both engines (5.7 and 4.3) to a location out of weather until such time as I can do something with them. Go be rock hound to get material for the Rocket Mass heater system I want to build for the upcoming winter (months off, but best get started NOW) And I need to clear a spot for the outbuilding Da is buying to store stuff in. Gotta be here as his property is ‘sold’ (closing is upcoming, but the deal is essentially done.). He has a couple of months to get his dope on a rope yet (written into the closing contract) and that building will be getting filled quick like. Long weekends on my part: some of that stuff is HEAVY!
I have this snigglin’ suspicion, Dio is gonna be busier than a 2 peckered puppy this summer, and kayakin’ is gonna take hind teat to all of it.
We write our own stories, can’t point blame anywhere but inwards.
Love y’all
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OOF!!!
that hurt
more later.
T’ursdaze t’inks
Lets talk about money today. Not just those FRN’s, and for the uninitiated, that means “Federal Reserve Notes”, which are FIAT money, IE, Money based on nothing but faith.
Or as one of my past readers put it “Fucked In Ass Thoroughly” money.
Well, the FRN’s have been with us for over 100 years,,, I don’t recall, though it wouldn’t take much to check (lazy right now) when the notes went from stating ‘backed by gold’ to what they say now: “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private” Tender or Tinder,,, doesn’t seem like much of a difference some days, does it? Almost as if the choice in term were intentional misdirection.
We went off the Gold Standard in the early 70’s, right towards the end of the Vietnam War. Prior to that we debased the currency from Constitutionally Prescibed formulations (a set ratio of silver and other metals and by weights.) in 1965.
61 years and our currency is essentially plug nickles and toilet paper, that people take on faith.
And even further, 90+% of transactions these days don’t even use that! 9 outta 10 are ‘put it on the card’ transactions. Paychecks are literal electronic transfers between banks nowdays with a stub being your receipt of that transfer. No actual exchange of anything but imaginary numbers, or Ones and Zeros between computers.
Try to exchange silver coins at market value. Best bet is to find a bullion dealer and hope they give you spot, or near spot. Take the same to a pawn shop or some place that ‘we buy gold and silver’ shop and you will get 50% of spot OR LESS. One place near me give 30% at best (least to say, I do NOT encourage anyone to use that place for anything… They sell at 20% over spot, and they are still doors open tells me there are some seriously math lacking peeps in the area.)
But think about this: The kids today, the ones that were born AFTER 9-11, They have zero clue what real money is. Even I, having been born after the debasing, was clueless to what ‘Real’ Money was until the early Aughts and only because I was having an awakening of the lies and obfuscations slowly dismantling the world as I knew it.
Do you think those kids would understand that the actual value of the silver dollar was MUCH MORE than its face value? (or even understand that the reason for that discrepency is called INFLATION: that the value of that coin is ACTUAL value and the paper simularcum is worth-less?)
How does a society revert to a real money after decades of Three Card Monte by unknown and un-elected bankers?
Obviously there has to be some education factor involved, and anyone that has attended any sort of schooling since 1975 can tell you that such is NOT in the curriculum. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if there weren’t any teachers capable of that line of study. Maybe some History teacher types, but they would be more interested in the parallels between now and what happened in 2nd Century Roman Empire.
It only got worse after Carter created the EA and essentially federalized all funding to public education.
(another forgotten promise from the current admin,,, Hear occasional blurbs about dismantling the EA, but have they? Not that I have heard.)
Nothing is as it appears, or being told. Maps say things the media is not. Actions speak much louder than words. And the words we are being told don’t add up well.
Are we going down as a country? Dunno. I do beleive our currency is in for serious turmoil and that means us, here on the streets are gonna feel it FIRST. Much like that inflation thing. The lenders always feel it last as they are the ones that drive it. I’m hearing rumors of defaulting on National Debt (as if there were any other option,,, We passed the point of no return many many years back, IMO) But look at that Map thingy above and ask yourself one quesiton: Who Benefits?
the world in flux, Super Powers on the ropes. New actors fixing themselves up in new ways. NOTHING will be the same in 10 years, and No one can predict what that will look like.
“prepare accordingly” comes to mind, but what the hell does that even mean anymore?
Well, in my little world, it means regression. Take things back to simpler means. Manual labor sort of stuff. I have not set up my garden this year and that might bite me in the ass later in the year, but I do have means that do not require AI or Internet to function. I have systems in place that, while not replacing the Grid at large, support my meager needs quite well. And I have knowledge: not just ‘book learning’ but real practical hands on stuff.
And the greatest weapon that the PTwB fear: An independent learned brain.
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Dio's Workshop 