Off The Grid

This was my Christmas Eve project, building steps for our milk shed. All we had until now were some temporary concrete blocks. I had to work all day at my "day job" on Christmas Eve, so I got up early and worked on it, then finished after work. I still have to rip down some board to cover the open space between board, but thats all esthetics. The steps are fully functioning now. Also need to throw a railing on the side with a post but I'll get to that later. Not bad for a jackleg carpenter... lol.

Victron split phase rough in today

Fine line between hoarding and prepping. Heres the porch of our icf house and the basement entrance. 8' wide corridor we call the outer ring is used as storage and a mech room. Also keeps termites away from the icf.

I think the gig is up.... the central banks have lost control.

More discussion about ICF. The only concern with ICF is termites. They can tunnel thru the foam to your roof structure and you'd never know it. The house I'm in is slab on grade and what we did was pour the slab 8feet wider on each side of the house and put up a cinder block knee wall to support a wrap around porch. This means the ICF blocks are not sitting in the earth, but rather on the slab. Another method would be to build a 12" wide stem wall a little out of the earth and then build the ICF wall on top of that. As long as it all locks together with rebar and is poured full of concrete, all is well.

You dont have to build a mcmansion out of icf. You can built a tiny house or small house from it.

Can you spot the icf house after a hurricaine?

When the daddy slide hammer and the mommy wedge love each other very much..... https://youtube.com/shorts/dpWWC_-Xbos

Merry Christmas

Some days I'm such a dumb ass.... I spoke with a local german guy here this morning and wished him "froliche weinachten".... and he responded that I'm 12 hours too late. My wheels start turning.... NACHT is night... Jesus born in the evening... DOH!!!! Christmas is the church having a mass about Christ. So I explained this to my wife... she said "those damn Germans are so precise in their language". yes they are.

My tumbler/ball mill polishing knife parts.

Socialism never works.... My bro in law and sister visited yesterday. They recently sold a condo and are looking at selling their current house to move up here and build new. He told me the HOA chair where they had teh condo stole just under a million from the HOA... so the HOA assessed every home $35,000 to make up the shortfall. If you don't pay this, they will put a lien on your house and force the sale (per Georgia law). Additionally the HOA didn't have the money to cover painting the houses or roofing because the costs went up since the HOA was formed and they never adjusted their budgeted numbers. But hey, the place has a nice pool and a nice boat dock on the river. The hoa fees are $550 a month in addition to that one time $35k asessment and the roof and painting. Damned if I understand why people live under such a system. Once upon a time in the 60's and 70's people lived in 1100 and 1200 sq ft houses.