Chapter 2- GAN

OK, too chilly to start working outside, so starting to work on my stream of conciousness ramblings, chapter two.  It comes off less insane manifesto when you label the chapters.

A week and a day after the layoff. Finally got signed up for unemployment after a friend said I need to sign up for it in the state where I worked, not where I live. Compared to the Ohio web site, the WV web site actually worked.

The last few days I have been recovering stuff from the little storage building. Other than a couple of boxes of books and some ancient computers I saved from the dumpster where I used to work, there is not much damage. 


The books I probably have in pdf. Funny how books you spend hundreds of dollars for a college class aren't worth 10 bucks by the time the semester is over.

The two metal shelves I have are going to need new wood shelves cut to replace the sawdust shelves that expanded to 10 times its thickness and crumbled like... well, like sawdust. I will use dryply for round 2 of shelving. That stuff is very near waterproof.
What I don't understand is why I can't sit a box or bag down without it flipping upside down and spilling everything out. Comeon, just once I need to get a break.

But today I am working on the 12 foot wide shelves for the green house.  I am calling the big southern facing plastic window on the end of my workshop "The Greenhouse." Sounds classier than whatever it actually is.

I plan on just having a couple of big shelves about three foot deep by 12 feet wide right in front of the window.  With space underneath for my big water bottles to act as thermal mass to keep the plants warm at night until it stops frosting at night in about 3 months. 

This is ohio after all, we could still get 3 feet of snow, or it could be 120 degrees tomorrow. Only state where I have had to run a snow blower and lawn mower on the same day.

It is great to have the workshop now. I was planning on being this far along about 6 months ago. But I had the stroke and it took months for me to heal.  Still feel the weakness when I work hard all day long.  I am a very tired puppy by the end of the day.

I had to drive the company box truck down to Cincinati, pick up a bunch of big copiers and then drive back. Had to drop one copier off, and pickup the one I replaced.  That is about a 10 hour day with no lunch, with my day starting at 4 am. Mid-afternoon I had made the prison stop and began feeling my entire right side start to tingle. I didn't have a clue what to do so I pounded down 4 aspirins from a truck stop and drove another 2 hours back.  Immediate went to the ER and they admitted me.

A bunch of scans and they found the stroke after they did an MRI with constrast. Or something like that. It was 12x7x7mm.  All my numbers were within range, except sugar was 126 that day. But my worst number is the long term sugar number that came out at 9.

I lost 30 pounds and started eating a lot of salads.  Just had to cancel my next appointment because I have no insurance now.  Isn't it awesome that if you don't have a job you can just die and nobody cares? Heaven forbid we don't have a single payer system that is not associated with work and covers everyone, even when they are between jobs or self employed.  This from a life long Republican and former enlisted and officer in the US Air Force and US Army.  Former nuke bomb loader.  Nuke'm til they glow!

Funny thing happened in the hospital.  After mom saw me in the hospital she gave out my phone number to everyone she knows.  My unlisted number. Thanks mom.  My older brother tried to call me, and texted me. Said he was coming over to visit. I told him I never wanted to see him again even if this was my last day on earth.  Never talk to me again for the rest of my life.

Lots of reasons why that I might go into later, but the last straw was several of my family members telling me to my face that my dead Muslim wife was burning in hell because she didn't convert. Great family cookout.  My devout Muslim wife.  Who would have burned to death before she gave up her religion and who never judged a Christian once in her life. 

If you tell me my dead wife is burning in hell, don't be shocked when I no longer come around.

I am an atheist, so I don't care what you believe, just don't tell me that someone else is wrong for believing something different than you.  Especially when you have jack shit for proof. 

Another problem I have noticed lately is I can be standing in the same place, set something down and lose it.  It is just gone.  Just now I was looking for a little bag of ends for a multimeter to put flat pin connectors in it. I know I had it yesterday. No clue where it is now. 

And I keep losing my leatherman wave.  I had to go back to two different customer sites after work to pick it up.  And I have lost it a dozen times in the workshop.  I spent an hour looking for my dewalt screwdriver last night.  Found it on the table I was sitting at most of the day yesterday. Under a bag of stuff.

I don't know if I have been like this for a while, or it is because of the stroke, but it sucks. I know if I can't find those multimeter terminals I will lose the thing I wanted to put in the bag by the time I run across it again.

When radio shack was going out of business I spent paychecks on parts.  Not big paychecks. It was both awesome and sad, because they were going away.  They are still clinging on as part of another chain of stores.  Not the same at all.

I really hated them when they became a mobile phone sales company. The writing was on the wall at that point.

So, it has warmed up. Going to see how long it takes me to find a tape measure, a speed square, a pencil, and my power saw.  Wish me luck.

Next day.

Got the shelving all built. Got 6 planters filled with dirt.  Had to tear apart 3 more ply board pallets.

Stay tuned for chapter 3 where I continue my meanderings and answer the age old question of why I no longer work on computers anymore. 

My Great American Novel. Chapter 1.

Writing my ( not so ) great American novel after being laid off during the covid 19 pandemic. This is a glimpse into my cluttered mind, stream of concious style.

Personally, I feel like the pandemic could have been really slowed down by every country in the world requiring anyone coming back from China to sit in a 2 week quarantine, but what do I know. I guess it is better having everyone in the entire world sitting in quarantine, right?

I have a tiny little keyboard meant for a pad computer hooked up to my phone. I went to get a picture of my setup and reached for my phone.  Then I was like, that is stupid, I can't get a picture of my phone on the pad keyboard, so just imagine you are seeing my phone with this same paragraph leaning back against the pad.

It really is a neat setup, technology is so great. It's not a flying car, but it is pretty cool. Oh yeah, I was unpacking the little storage building and found a folding table, so the workshop now has a table for my drawing board. And this little typing device too. And probably a few other things.

I have been offgrid for a couple of years now.  Yeah, I am one of "those" people.  But is is really cool to be able to run everything off solar panels.  Of course, I am poor, so everything I need is a lot less than most people.

I mentioned being laid off. But how can I be poor and be  working, you ask.  Let me tell you about struggling on 11 dollars an hour as a single older man with no utilities.

It sucks. Period. End of story. If you pay anybody working for you less than this, I seriously hope you burn in hell. Forever.

Wow, that turned dark quick, sorry about that.

I was falling further and further behind each paycheck. Basically one paycheck each month went to rent and utilities.The other paycheck I used to start building a very tiny little 100 square foot tiny house.  Food was optional.

Now, I had a lot of crap from life that I should have gotten rid of, like a beautiful roll top desk that is over a 100 years old. Can't get rid of it. Only thing left from my old life where I made over $200,000 in a single 12 month period.  Not always poor, I bet you didn't see that coming. Don't worry, I'll get back to that.

You probably noticed the Joose in the picture.  I lovingly refer to this can of wonder as a 5 pack in a can.  It is 23.5 ounces and 14% alcohol in a can.  Spell check just helpfully offered alcoholic as a suggestion.  It may be right.

I mentioned that I now have a workshop right?  I am building my second tiny house right now. A palacial 300 square feet. I finally finished the deck and... hold on a second.

The heater is kicking in right now.  30,000 British Thermal Units of glorious heat.  Very nice. I look at the CO detector and not a beep. No warning me to seek fresh air.

Sorry, where was I, oh right... I finished the deck for the new house,  12x16 feet with R-40 of fiberglass and R6.5 of  reflective foam  board to hold the insulation up. Put 6 sheets of dryply on that.

I can feel the Joose kicking in right now.  Feels nice. A little buzz. I am going to have to wait until morning to upload this little story. Steal some Internet from a friend.

I look around the workshop. I am warm and dry and very comfortable. The heater is clicking behind me as it cools off from shutting back down. I timed it. I runs 5 minutes on and turns off for 15 minutes when it is cold. It has a thermostat so it didn't run all day long today.  It was warm enough and sunny enough that it didn't need to run.  I have a double layer of plastic sheeting 5 feet high by 12 feet long facing south for heat. It works awesome when it is sunny.

So anyway, I have the platform insulated to R-46.5, but now I have to keep it dry, can't let the fiberglass insulation get wet so I throw a plastic sheet over it from a roll my friend has. It is for big truck trailers. Those huge trucks that put cracks in your windshields when you follow too closely.

So, I thought, this was before the pandemic, it was just a news story on tv affecting one province in china, I need to build a workshop on top of the platform. I need to keep the insulation dry anyway, so why not create a place to build the roof trusses and to unload the tiny house.

The tiny house is packed full of stuff. I have too much stuff.  I told you before I have too much stuff from my former life.  And I buy a little more stuff every 2 weeks when I get paid. Got paid.

I unloaded a lot of it into a shed whose roof I ignored until it was leaking water into the interior.

I admit it. I'm not perfect.  By the time I realized that the roof was leaking I had no room to move the damage anywhere, and I was having a stroke so I couldn't do anything about it anyway.  Couldn't lift more than 10 pounds.

More on the stroke later. Just so you don't worry all I have left from it is a touch of numbness in my right shoulder an an addiction to statins.

I just finished the Joose and realized it was too quiet. So I turned on the radio. I love 103.1, alternative music.   I have been skipping my statin so I can day drink since I was laid off on Tuesday, or Wednesday, I can't remember.

I almost cussed there, so I think I will sign off for now.  Don't want to offend anyone, and spell check is helping me more than I like to admit.

Stay tuned for chapter two, where you find out about how I made all that money and the stroke. And my coninuing saga of the tiny house.

Next Bigger Tiny House - Temp work area.

Second day.

The weather was perfect. This is where I was starting from the day before. My goal for the day was to get the platform covered for rain that is showing up Tuesday and going on into the next week. I needed the platform to stay dry because it is now insulated and to give me a place to work on building the wall and roof trusses for the tiny house.

I created a trash can by reusing a large bag that a copier came in along with 3 boards to hold it in place, just off the side of the platform. When I put the plastic sheet over this side I went over this trash can so it is accessible from the inside.

Reused pallet straps to brace the plastic sheet. I also put 2x4's across the center 3 walls as bracing.

I finished putting 2x4's as treads on the steps.

Had the plastic sheet up and over the house 3 times and the wind changed directions and I had to get a neighbor to help me.   The plastic sheet is for a big truck trailer and is like 40 feet long by 18 feet wide.

The view from the inside out the side window.  I ran 1x4's that I extended so they would reach from the peak down to the top of the side wall. This was to brace the edge of the roof so the plastic wouldn't tear on the sharp corners of the 2x4.  Taped holes that I made in the sheet having it over the platform to keep it dry.

A 30,000 btu heater.  Was heavy and awkward enough to need 2 people to put on the hanger.

Reused more packing material to create a southern facing window along one side. On a sunny day the entire inside is brightly lit by this window.

Put a tarp up on the other side. Need to trim off a bit from the bottom and put it on that little gap.

Planning on putting in a door. Putting corner braces in the top of the 2x4s that are holding up the plastic sheeting. Hooking up the gas heater. Putting some reflective foil insulation on the inside of the 2x4's for the roof to hold heat inside on a cold day and on a hot day help keep the heat out.

Next Bigger Tiny House, The Platform.

I have been living in a 100 sq ft tiny house for over a year now and I am loving it.  I heat the space with a 8000 btu heater for about a dollar a day all winter long.

The biggest problem has been fighting with the harbor freight solar panels and the cloudy winter to have enough power to run my fridge. If you go with these 100 watt kits, do yourself a favor and water proof the connections with heat shrink tubing. In the process of changing over the connections to standard solar mc4 waterproof connectors, wiring them up to a solar concentrator and convering my battery and inverter over to 24v.

But I just do not have enough space to live comfortably with all my stuff and be able to get to my art or electric supplies to do projects.  So I am adding another, slightly larger 300 sq ft space right next to the current tiny house. I am going to use a similar construction method, but want the walls to be 9 inches thick and the ceiling to go from 2 feet at the wall  to 3 feet thick as it reaches the peak.

Going to put shelves into the current tiny house and a work table and use this space to work on projects. Will connect the two houses with decks.

I built the 12'x16' platform out of 2x12 boards around the perimeter, with floor trusses that are 2x10 across the 12', with notched 2x4's that are 16' long that are at 90 degres to the floor trusses.  I did this to cross brace everything and so that there would be a thermal break so that the floor is not directly connected to the outside of the house envelop, except through 1.5" squares every couple of feet.

I used metal joist supports on each 2x10 and 2x4, both ends. Because everything was treated I had to use corrosion resistant supports and screws and heavily galvanized joist hanger nails. I painted everything metal that was exposed with rustolem heave rust spray paint. I painted the wood frame to help keep the preservative in the wood and not leach out.  I used lag bolts and corner braces.  Each post is lag bolted in place.  I have a tiny little 12v impact that is fantastical powerful and very light and drove

A friend used a tractor with a digger arm to hold up the frame for me while I ran around putting 4x4's in each corner.  We got it fairly level, but I am planning on fine tuning this one last time before I put the walls and roof in place.

I put 1" R-6.5 foam board underneath to hold the insulation inside the floor trusses, these are screwed up to the trusses with metal screws with large washers to distribute the load. I then taped the seams between 4'x8' foam boards with aluminum coated plastic tape to be air tight.

Once the foam was in place I put another 4x4 in the middle of each side, and in the very middle.  I am planning on digging under each 4x4 and putting in a concrete footer.

I put 9" thick R-30 insulation along the 2x10 boards, under the 2x4's, and saw that I could put another few of inches of insulation in, so I got another roll and pulled the layers apart to make 3" layers and ran in 90 degrees across the first layer of insulation, along the 2x4's.

I added little supports in the middle of each  truss, between the 2x4's to give extra bracing to the floor. Just blocks of 2x4 with a little cut off piece of reclaimed pallet wood to space it right.  I also had to cut 2x4's to fit across the center of the deck where the ends of the flooring met. They were not tongue and groove there, so I had to support them along their whole length down the middle. These 2x4's were about 23" long, were put so their wide side was down, and held up to the bottom of the floor with little chunks of the reclaimed pallet boards to maintain the thermal break.

I missed square by an half an inch, but it was too tough at this point to move things, so I am just planning on using some finishing boards on each end and just trimming the edge of the flooring to fake it.

Future plans for the platform. 

This paragraph is done!  This weekend I am going to build a temporary structure to hold a plastic sheet and a tarp overhead to give me a dry, warm work space to build the wall and roof trusses for the new house. I picked up a 30,000 btu propane heater, and will install this so that I can get it warm first thing in the morning or keep it warm if I work in the evenings after work.  Also build on a set of steps so I can get onto the deck without rolling around on the platform like a worm.

Tape the edges of the foam under the platform to keep out insects.

Install another 16' 2x12 under the length of the middle to brace the entire middle of every floor joist. This way the joists will only be spanning 6 feet.

Install corner bracing underneath the platform on the corners.

Install bracing for each post. Just a couple of 2x4's on each side that goes up to the bottom of the platform.

Put a plastic sheet under the whole platform on the ground to keep moisture from getting under the floor.

Line the ground under the platform with pallets for storage.

Run a  treated 2x4 along the bottom of each side to anchor the bottom .

Figure out how to create doors to get into space under building.  Perhaps have spaces to store different dimension lumber.

Use borox chemicals on everything outside of the platform to fight termites.

Use rigid mineral wool insulation from the outside of the platform to the ground. This will resist insects, especially if it is treated with borox.

Put concrete supports under each 4x4.  I am thinking lift up each side with a jack and bury them about half way under ground, then lower them into place. The middle support could just be on a concrete pad. Note to self, next time put them on these supports as I install the 4x4's.