Donate Bitcoin

Donate Paypal


PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

Happy Talk

General discussions of the systemic, societal and civilisational effects of depletion.

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby vtsnowedin » Thu 21 Jul 2022, 21:27:43

Newfie wrote:
Agreed. I have nearly the same years over 2 marriages. One was hell on Earth.

My current marriage had its tough spots which we worked through, barely. But we did work through, and work it was. The results have been well worth the effort. We are happy together, satisfied. It is a wonderful feeling.

Yes I think all truly successful marriages require a lot of work by both partners. We are 45 years into ours so I think if I keep up my end its all good. :)
User avatar
vtsnowedin
Fusion
Fusion
 
Posts: 14897
Joined: Fri 11 Jul 2008, 03:00:00

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Shaved Monkey » Thu 21 Jul 2022, 23:42:54

We just had some massive rains over 100 mm in a day.
and when it stopped every bird in the town came out to play and feast on insects or seeds
Under our washing line was 5 local wild quails I vent seen any in the wild around here for 20 years

Image
Ready to turn Zombies into WWOOFers
User avatar
Shaved Monkey
Intermediate Crude
Intermediate Crude
 
Posts: 2486
Joined: Wed 30 Mar 2011, 01:43:28

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Fri 22 Jul 2022, 06:05:15

That is heartening.
User avatar
Newfie
Forum Moderator
Forum Moderator
 
Posts: 18458
Joined: Thu 15 Nov 2007, 04:00:00
Location: Between Canada and Carribean

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby The_Toecutter » Sat 30 Jul 2022, 14:50:55

Here's pictures of the glorified tricycle with the body and safety removed. It is indeed a tricycle.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Now that the rear suspension is operational and works, it's time to re-design the body around it. That Milan SL velomobile in the background is being used as a template for the next body shell. I'm scaling the shape to fit my own parameters an vehicle requirements. It's getting a tubed roll cage of about 15-20 lbs to go with the next body shell.

I'm considering in the longer term my ideal pack for this vehicle. A 24S5P pack of Molicel P45B might be the ticket. Would give me 88.8Vnom, and if I set them to 30A peak per string, sustained max discharge for minutes would never harm them and I'd be able to dump 10 kW peak to my Leafbike 3T wind motor. The pack itself would provide about 2 kWh usable capacity and only weigh 8,016g(at least in cells alone). If the Leafbike motor can handle 10 kW peaks just fine, I may decide to try to crank things up to even 12 kW. That would be good for 0-60 mph in < 7 seconds with a top speed over 90 mph... The full charge voltage would also still be below the 103V limit of my Satiator charger, and unlike going to higher voltages than 24S, I can still find readily available and affordable BMS for that setup. Sure, it may not do triple digits like I originally dreamed about, but it would be close enough.

If I go to a higher voltage, say somewhere near 130V, the above stays the same with the exception of increasing top speed to somewhere near 120 mph. But I add considerable additional expense to do such, in the low 4-figures. Might be worth it, if I can make the vehicle stable enough at that speed, which will be a challenge without compromising too greatly the low drag given how little laden mass it will have at speed.

It will be a while before that dream pack is built, and by then, better batteries might be available, plus I need to a higher voltage controller suited to my application, given the 72V limitation of the ASI BAC4000 I'm using. I wouldn't dare try either of the above without a completed body shell and integrated roll cage, and the entire rest of the trike upgraded to handle this(wheels, tires, brakes, hubs, roll cage, ect). Even then it would be a death machine.

If it's going to be a death machine, I'll make sure that aesthetically it looks the part, like it came out of some Mad Max film. Silver Baphomet hood ornamet, rust colored paint job, sloppily-painted red anarchy sign on the left side, a real Fallout Shelter sign bolted onto the right side as a derailleur access hatch, pentagram wheel covers, maybe even orange LEDs in the front wheels to make them look like they are on fire when the vehicle is in motion, are all part of the plan... So are solar panels, about 150W worth is all I really need or can fit. I will adorn it well. The "Bike Life" crowd would approve. They already saw the iteration of what I posted here last year with the previous body.

For those who aren't familiar with "Bike Life":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypv940k9u-I

Whenever I've encountered these groups, the participants thought my last design iteration was interesting. I don't know where I'd find footage of it, but I'm sure someone was recording me doing donuts with it because people had their phones out when I was doing them. Lots of people thought it was a hilarious vehicle, especially after learning it was technically legal(unlike most of theirs). Coming ahead of or even matching their vehicles at stoplight drag races up to about 20 mph garnered lots of amusement. So if I can up the ponies from 4 to 15, it will become faster than most of their vehicles outright!

Once it's finished, I would LOVE to take this thing to "Wasteland Weekend" out in California. I'd totally ride in on that thing and walk around wearing my cloak and plague doctor mask looking like I crawled out of some neo-Dark Age. I could carry a Geiger counter with my bucket of leeches and fit right in. Might even be able to get rich hipsters there to pay me money to build them one of these vehicles or something similar to it, the appeal being that it would truly be functional in the sort of energy and resource-scarce scenarios depicted in the post apocalyptic films that inspired this festival, AND would also be practical to use in the real world as it is today. Grid electricity, generator electricity, solar power, and pedal power could all run such a thing, either by themselves or as any combination thereof, and it would be extremely efficient no matter what is used to fuel it, besting a car in miles travelled per unit of energy input by 2 whole orders of magnitude, a motorcycle by at least one order of magnitude, and beating out a normal unmotorized bicycle by a massive but smaller margin as well when it comes to miles per food calorie. By choosing 16" moto rims, it would even be able to use 20" BMX tires/tubes in a pinch which are about the most common bicycle tire and tube size you can find in the U.S.(every child's bike has them), albeit it would be suicide to do more than 35 mph on BMX tires. In SHTF scenario, it's not like you'll be able to order new DOT rubber off Amazon, and 35 mph is still better than walking, so it's still a way to keep mobile if tire availability becomes a bottleneck for most vehicles! Can't go wrong there...

AdamB wrote:Missouri is an interesting tour along I-70 (I can name the fuel stops, hotels, rest areas, along most of that stretch from memory) and gives you the impression that for a Bible thumping state, they sure like porn. :)


I don't reckon' dims folk call it the "Show Me State" for nothin'!

Well, that I can agree with. I've found the people of Missouri basic, and down to earth, and quite reasonable to deal with, and I love the farm country in the north of the state, and the northern part of the Ozarks in the south. Quick check on my travel records indicates I've visited 87% of the county seats in Missouri. Like I said, it doesn't all look as bad as some of your photos, which is why I asked.


These are urban environments in my photos, not rural. It can get very dangerous at night. Some places, you can buy a house for a few hundred dollars, but you won't be allowed to move into it without six-figures worth of work and materials invested, and there's plenty of cops to enforce codes, but they're never there when you actually need or want them nor do they reduce violence in the streets(they actually increase it). There are rural areas that are every bit as decayed in the surrounding area. At least Constitutional Carry is a thing here, sort of. Missouri still has lots of arcane gun laws that run afoul of the concept, but the 2nd amendment has not been as eroded overall in this state when compared to most of the rest of the U.S.

I've been to many other urban areas in the U.S. that have looked the same for large sections. Maybe someday I'll get to see Detroit. That one has got to have a much larger blight section than all of the cities I've seen.

Where I'm at, the blight is a network of patches and corridors having the spatial dimensions of multiple city blocks, most of the time, but there are sections of blight that are square miles in size, and they crisscross around or patch the general region within a 30 mile radius, with islands of middle class interspersed about clustering around all the strip malls and chain stores, and the rich often in gated communities. By blight, I mean all of the ghettos, decaying areas, homeless encampments, superfund sites, abandoned areas, basically all places you generally wouldn't want to live in or adjacent to. Places that have little of anything desirable or needed. THOSE places are rapidly growing, all over the U.S., and where I live is no exception.

Many other large cities I've seen have a similar issue, especially in the rust belt, but also some in the midwest and deep south. Mississippi was a very interesting state.

Like I said before, get that A/C thing and add seating for another 4 and I'd be interested! Seating for only 1 more if you could make it as fun as any 2-wheeler larger than 250cc's.


Any off-the-shelf solution for air conditioning that would work adds an amount of mass that would make it noticeably and greatly more difficult to pedal the vehicle with the motor disabled. The amount of time and research it would take to develop an inexpensive and reliable system of such that keep the mass sufficiently low enough for use in this vehicle would be as much time and research as the rest of the vehicle. That's why it isn't a priority. I could make something "good enough" that isn't an AC system. It would be a small bottle of ice water in a refillable thermos, that periodically mists the cabin area, could provide hours of cooling while weighing well under 5 lbs. But that's only useful for a one-seater, and you have to fill it before each use. Simple, almost as effective, if mildly inconvenient to prepare before use.

Which brings us to a 2+ seater vehicle needed to justify an air conditioning unit specially designed for it. Two or more occupants as opposed to one occupant increases the loading that the chassis has to support. This requires more mass, sufficiently so that the vehicle becomes inoperable by one rider with the motor disabled. Making the bicycle drivetrain useless. So now you have a microcar. And an AC system is not as crippling of a mass penalty for the application, so off the shelf solutions might be viable.

I think a 4-seater monocoque that is safe in a crash with a much heavier vehicle could be made somewhere around 800 lbs, lugging around a 10 kWh battery. It's going to be much heavier and wider than a velomobile and have about twice the drag. It would still be slippery, and such a vehicle able to maintain 70 mph on flat ground with only 3 kW is within the realm of possibility. It would have passenger room comparable to a foreign sub-compact car from the 50s, so "good enough", even if not ideal. Think Fiat 500, Trabant, VW Beetle, ect. It could be designed to have at least that basic level of practicality, but as safe as a modern compact car. There's no reason it couldn't have air conditioning either, and a system designed specifically for that size/volume of vehicle can be done, but may not be critically necessary.

A two-seater sports car of about 600 lbs could also be done, and if done right, it would be lunacy. Imagine an enclosed cage with the weight and power of a high-end motorcycle, but with AWD, instant slip detection, vector control, and like the 4-seater proposed in the above paragraph, the aerodynamics could be so slippery that you could hold 160 mph on about 40 horsepower and 70 mph on 4 horsepower? I'd love to scale a model of a Milan SL velomobile to fit into this shape, having 4 wheels each with a hub motor, a rear track more narrow than the front, and more ground clearance. A sports car body styled after the Jaguar D-Type, Ferrari 250GTO Breadvan, and such, but much more slippery and svelte. Offset seating like a VW XL1, to keep frontal area down. Might end up with a CdA of around 0.1 m^2 or less.

THIS is where both versions would get their efficiency from, although the 4-seater might look a lot different.

Because either vehicle(2 or 4 seater) would be so light, standard off-the-shelf ebike parts would be good enough to give it a dangerous level of performance, for cheap and without much added mass over the glider. Once the vehicle is at speed, the drag would be so low that the e-bike parts could cool from being used well below their continuous ratings, and it would accelerate to speed so quickly that the parts wouldn't have a chance to become stressed. There'd be little wind resistance to slow it down when accelerating at highway speeds, and no transmission or differential to sap power so all the power would go directly to the wheels. You'd only need a 10 kWh pack to get some pretty acceptable range in such a vehicle if it did interstate travel(speeding at > 75 mph sometimes reaching 100 mph for passing) at 30-40 Wh/mile, which would also allow for that kind of lightness of the finished product since the vehicles entire traction battery would weigh about as much as a lead acid starter battery in an turbodiesel pickup truck! With off the shelf parts, the entire EV powertrain system including battery could weigh well under 200 lbs.

Then shove like 200 peak horsepower in either. And you don't have to lean it in corners and could drive it in the snow/ice, as it is AWD. I bet 0-60 mph acceleration of under 3 seconds would be doable in such thing for well under $8k in EV parts, high-end electric dragster batteries included.

There's a lot of appeal to that.

My one-seater is a proof of concept that may evolve into something like what is described above. But one occupant vs. 2 or more occupants require a different set of design parameters and opens/closes different vehicle possibilities. For a one-seater, designing it to be pedalable with a disabled motor makes a LOT of sense, especially as SHTF transportation, and the weight can be kept low enough for that to be possible. But the motor and rest of the EV drive system plus all of the mechanicals improved to handle the extra speed can still be there to allow it to out-accelerate most other vehicles and reach well above street-legal highway speeds, without too greatly compromising its pedalability to render that pedalability a mere novelty. Another reason I designed my prototype the way I did. The pedaling is actually functional, by itself, and the aerodynamics make it faster than normal bicycles in most circumstances in spite of the added mass, which allows this vehicle to legally pass as a bicycle in many areas. I wouldn't have that feature for anything with more than one seat, not just because of the lack of usability in such a system(at least by itself), but also expense and complexity.
Last edited by The_Toecutter on Sat 30 Jul 2022, 15:18:53, edited 2 times in total.
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
The_Toecutter
Intermediate Crude
Intermediate Crude
 
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat 18 Jun 2005, 03:00:00

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby AdamB » Sat 30 Jul 2022, 15:10:17

The_Toecutter wrote:I've been to many other urban areas in the U.S. that have looked the same for large sections. Maybe someday I'll get to see Detroit. That one has got to have a much larger blight section than all of the cities I've seen.



oohhh....bad news, Detroit. I haven't ventured far off the beltway near that one, but just getting off the wrong beltway exit....oh boy. The place I was at looked like the pictures you see where the Nazi's had just been defeated and driven out of town and all that was left after the Allies took the joint back was....sort of rubble. With bad roads in between the semi collapsed housing. Much like the south side of Chicago and New York City, I'm preparing a trip there only around dawn on Sunday morning, via motorcycle. I figure most of the crime has petered out for the night, hookers and drug dealers all finally getting to sleep, no traffic that early so on a motorcycle I can just about do a U-turn anywhere and skedaddle. I've done the south side of Chicago just this way, and it worked pretty well.

The_ToeCutter wrote:
A two-seater sports car of about 600 lbs could also be done, and if done right, it would be lunacy. Imagine an enclosed cage with the weight and power of a high-end motorcycle, but with AWD, instant slip detection, vector control, and like the 4-seater proposed in the above paragraph, the aerodynamics could be so slippery that you could hold 160 mph on about 40 horsepower and 70 mph on 4 horsepower?


The instant you get into the electronics that cagers, and even modern motorcyclists use to save themselves from their own incompetence, I lose interest. Sure...strap us all into computers running pods, I get it. Yes, all those things are safer, but that is because incompetence is the general rule when it comes to caging or straight line 2 wheel riders like our local mining colony resident.

The_ToeCutter wrote:Then shove like 200 peak horsepower in either. And you don't have to lean it in corners and could drive it in the snow/ice, as it is AWD. I bet 0-60 mph acceleration of under 3 seconds would be doable in such thing for well under $8k in EV parts, high-end electric dragster batteries included.

There's a lot of appeal to that.


There has always been appeal for performance.
Plant Thu 27 Jul 2023 "Personally I think the IEA is exactly right when they predict peak oil in the 2020s, especially because it matches my own predictions."

Plant Wed 11 Apr 2007 "I think Deffeyes might have nailed it, and we are just past the overall peak in oil production. (Thanksgiving 2005)"
User avatar
AdamB
Volunteer
Volunteer
 
Posts: 9292
Joined: Mon 28 Dec 2015, 17:10:26

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby The_Toecutter » Sun 31 Jul 2022, 02:07:10

AdamB wrote:oohhh....bad news, Detroit. I haven't ventured far off the beltway near that one, but just getting off the wrong beltway exit....oh boy. The place I was at looked like the pictures you see where the Nazi's had just been defeated and driven out of town and all that was left after the Allies took the joint back was....sort of rubble. With bad roads in between the semi collapsed housing. Much like the south side of Chicago and New York City, I'm preparing a trip there only around dawn on Sunday morning, via motorcycle. I figure most of the crime has petered out for the night, hookers and drug dealers all finally getting to sleep, no traffic that early so on a motorcycle I can just about do a U-turn anywhere and skedaddle. I've done the south side of Chicago just this way, and it worked pretty well.


Sounds like you're describing East St. Louis, IL. It's an interesting place, especially at night. Awesome block parties there too. But a lot of the things you may have heard about this place are probably true. I have friends that are outright afraid to drive through there, even armed. Their reasons are valid.

The instant you get into the electronics that cagers, and even modern motorcyclists use to save themselves from their own incompetence, I lose interest. Sure...strap us all into computers running pods, I get it. Yes, all those things are safer, but that is because incompetence is the general rule when it comes to caging or straight line 2 wheel riders like our local mining colony resident.


Even the most competent operator is limited by their reaction time. When used for a racing application, these systems aren't meant to aid the incompetent nearly as much as they are meant to augment the capabilities of the operator, whatever those capabilities may be. Whatever vehicle I built pertaining to the above description, if sold, would be tuned/programmed for racing, not for "street-legal" use, but it would still be perfectly viable as a daily driver and dirt cheap to operate as well as technically street legal(if only barely so). I'm not looking to build luxury, feature-laden things that virtually ALL new cars available in the U.S. have become. I want to return the raw sort of driving dynamics pioneered by cars almost a century old, but coupled with modern powertrains and control systems. There'd be no power steering, no drive/brake/steer by wire(although there would be computer-controlled regen), no magnetic suspension or suspension computers/controls. It would be kept simple and provide direct feedback to the operator. The electronic aids used would be solely to maximize performance, not to protect stupid people from themselves or to make the car "easy" to drive like a dumbass.

If the one-seater idea once built ended up capable of 0-120 mph in 4.5 seconds, it could get one in a LOT of trouble really quickly. Imagine flooring it and running into an unseen/unanticipated 3" speed bump after 120 mph was reached within just one and a half football fields of distance from a stop. The driver aids will be necessary to achieve that kind of acceleration, but an incompetent behind the wheel will still eliminate themselves from the gene pool in very short order. The vehicle would be so light, it would be of little threat to occupants of most cars even when travelling at such a speed, as total kinetic energy at 120 mph of a 300 lb laden vehicle would be almost the same as that of a 4,500 lb sedan travelling at 30 mph, which also means greatly less structural material is needed to absorb the impact of a high-speed crash.

What's nice about EVs is that you can make driving them fast a deliciously simple task. No gears to change, less stuff to break. The operator can focus on taking the corners as fast as possible, without killing themselves, instead of having to worry about so much other parameters(downshifting, throttle modulation, leaning, ect). It would be like taking an over-powered RC toy car and scaling it up into something you can drive on the street, acceleration and speed also scaled accordingly. Gasoline can't really compete with that in the longer term, simply because controlling its use won't ever be as precise nor would it be possible to achieve the same weight distribution and center of gravity that an EV can. Per pound, EV drivetrains can deliver greatly more power than an ICE drivetrain in a more precisely controlled fashion, which is what opens up such a light weight design as a possibility, when it didn't exist before with ICE vehicles. There's also the issue that 2-wheeled vehicles are comparatively traction limited compared to 4-wheeled vehicles as well, which ultimately limits lateral G-forces that can be sustained when riding the 2-wheelers, while a properly-designed 4-wheeled EV could reach 3Gs without skidding, and even more with vacuum assist technology(see the McMurtry Speiring), which is at the limits of what the human body can take.

I only went with 3 wheels on my existing design to keep my vehicle legally a "bicycle". But 4 is the ideal. And an actual car built around this one-seater idea as a guiding design principle would be something so outrageously fast, that there will be some sort of niche market for it. We're looking at slightly quicker than Tesla Model S PLAID performance, for the cost of a cheap motorcycle or a high-end moped/scooter if mass produced, and it would also get comparable range to a Model S when driven sanely even on such a small battery pack. But if not able to be mass produced, there'd probably be a market for it hand built if priced in the low 6-figures or less. And it would be dirt cheap to operate and maintain, going from major city to major city for hundreds of miles at interstate speeds for less than $1.00 of electricity.

The 2 and 4 seater versions wouldn't be nearly as fast, but they'd be "fast enough". Many supercars that are priced out of most people's affordability range would still be significantly slower to accelerate than this thing, which if mass produced could be priced like a decent quality-built moped and still less expensive to operate than a moped.

Less really is a lot more. Making a cheap vehicle designed for ascetics and environmentalists ALSO go really fast is one way to actually make it desirable to large numbers of people who otherwise would avoid it. It would offer a value proposition that nothing else on the market could touch, no matter how much more the compared alternative cost.

At the same time, if all one wants to do is get from A to B and back as inexpensively as possible and for as little ecological footprint as possible(being less carbon-footprint generating per passenger mile than even mass transit), it would be a brutally functional and logical vehicle for that purpose, even if its performance is never tapped. But its performance would also appeal to many peoples' irrational side every bit as strongly, if not moreso. You'd be able to easily and quickly embarrass Hellcats with such a thing, and it would also be trivially easy and quick to die while attempting to do so, leaving the element of operator skill every bit as much engaged with controlling the vehicle as any electronic aids.
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
The_Toecutter
Intermediate Crude
Intermediate Crude
 
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat 18 Jun 2005, 03:00:00

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby vtsnowedin » Sun 31 Jul 2022, 08:33:51

When considering any ultra light EV design or concept I immediately think about how it would do climbing uphill in six inches of snow or spring mud. AC or no AC would be my last consideration.
User avatar
vtsnowedin
Fusion
Fusion
 
Posts: 14897
Joined: Fri 11 Jul 2008, 03:00:00

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby AdamB » Sun 31 Jul 2022, 11:14:04

vtsnowedin wrote:When considering any ultra light EV design or concept I immediately think about how it would do climbing uphill in six inches of snow or spring mud. AC or no AC would be my last consideration.


i'm a right tool for the job kind of guy. If I had to deal with Mud Season in Vermont my current 5 car combo would shift slightly I imagine. I have only 1 vehicle that would qualify as all weather, all surface, decent ground clearance type use. It is used the least in the fleet, and will probably leave when the boy leaves and takes it with him. I will then be short of this type of vehicle. I'll still have the snowmobile as a specific capability type, but everything else is either cross continent long distance with towing capabilities (but not all weather), and short distance, non-snow non-mud but microscopic running costs and inside the beltway daily yeomans work. I miss my old North American spanning, long range, all weather and towing 4WD truck, but no one subsidizes the cost of it anymore. So I substitute caution and weather apps for my more youthful approach of "I dare mother nature to stop me".
Plant Thu 27 Jul 2023 "Personally I think the IEA is exactly right when they predict peak oil in the 2020s, especially because it matches my own predictions."

Plant Wed 11 Apr 2007 "I think Deffeyes might have nailed it, and we are just past the overall peak in oil production. (Thanksgiving 2005)"
User avatar
AdamB
Volunteer
Volunteer
 
Posts: 9292
Joined: Mon 28 Dec 2015, 17:10:26

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby vtsnowedin » Sun 31 Jul 2022, 12:02:59

Post retirement I have had a used Ford Ranger and both a new and a used Nissan Frontier pickup All three have served my needs well and were reasonably economical ( I was working seasonally at good wages when I had the new Nissan). I will not be without such a vehicle in the driveway as long as I live on this hill.
User avatar
vtsnowedin
Fusion
Fusion
 
Posts: 14897
Joined: Fri 11 Jul 2008, 03:00:00

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Doly » Sun 31 Jul 2022, 16:08:24

Yes I think all truly successful marriages require a lot of work by both partners.


I suppose that depends on what you mean by "truly successful". I was married once and I'm now in a long-term relationship that isn't a marriage only because he won't get married (and since we don't want children, I can live with that). I wouldn't call my marriage a success, though I wouldn't call it a failure, either. It was complicated. I would call my current relationship a success, in that we're both happy with it. And we don't put a lot of work into it, we both find it easy.
User avatar
Doly
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 4366
Joined: Fri 03 Dec 2004, 04:00:00

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby AdamB » Sun 31 Jul 2022, 17:00:17

vtsnowedin wrote:Post retirement I have had a used Ford Ranger and both a new and a used Nissan Frontier pickup All three have served my needs well and were reasonably economical ( I was working seasonally at good wages when I had the new Nissan). I will not be without such a vehicle in the driveway as long as I live on this hill.


I took my Ranger 2WD to Prudhoe Bay, towed or carried motorcycles to tracks all around the country for about 5 years, it was reliable and economical and I had no complaints. My main 200k mile Toyota 4WD was bought when i began working in drilling, and traded off about 6 months after my research career began. The Ranger was a replacement for the Toyota, the utility being having a bed, towing stuff, hauling stuff, better fuel mileage, without the need to be off road capable in all weather or terrain.
Plant Thu 27 Jul 2023 "Personally I think the IEA is exactly right when they predict peak oil in the 2020s, especially because it matches my own predictions."

Plant Wed 11 Apr 2007 "I think Deffeyes might have nailed it, and we are just past the overall peak in oil production. (Thanksgiving 2005)"
User avatar
AdamB
Volunteer
Volunteer
 
Posts: 9292
Joined: Mon 28 Dec 2015, 17:10:26

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby vtsnowedin » Sun 31 Jul 2022, 17:10:39

Doly wrote:
Yes I think all truly successful marriages require a lot of work by both partners.


I suppose that depends on what you mean by "truly successful". I was married once and I'm now in a long-term relationship that isn't a marriage only because he won't get married (and since we don't want children, I can live with that). I wouldn't call my marriage a success, though I wouldn't call it a failure, either. It was complicated. I would call my current relationship a success, in that we're both happy with it. And we don't put a lot of work into it, we both find it easy.

A cautionary note on that type of relationship. If you haven't thought it through and executed a bit of paper work if one of you dies suddenly his or her relatives may own everything from you bank accounts to houses and cars. That might be how you want it to be but if you want your partner to keep some of it a quick claim deed on the house and a dual registration on a car can make your intent cast in stone. Bank accounts can also be joint or "payable on death" to a designated person that does not have to be a relative.
I had a son come in looking for his deceased fathers land deeds thinking he had an inheritance coming to him only to find the Father had deeded it all to his sister who had provided long term care for him in his final years.
Just a heads up.
User avatar
vtsnowedin
Fusion
Fusion
 
Posts: 14897
Joined: Fri 11 Jul 2008, 03:00:00

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Tue 02 Aug 2022, 19:38:01

Sometimes life just happens to you, and sometimes it is a good thing.

As some of you known we lead a somewhat nomadic life style between Canada and the Caribbean. We recently sold our house in Philadelphia. But also our Son is going through this very odd domestic situation and needs some help. The bottom line is we ended up buying a house, to meet our needs when passing through and our Son will be our care taker/house sitter. This all evolved over less than 3 weeks and we ended up with a perfectly adequate house in a decent town on a 1 acre wooded lot. And this all occurred with us in Canada, we have not physically seen the place, just pictures. The BIG draw is the wooded lot. My Son and Wife are very, very happy about the situation.

The funny thing is that beyond coming up with the initial idea and offering some guidance and encouragement this all pretty much went down naturally. My biggest contribution was to actively not interfere. In short, I stifled myself.

It is a nice place, I like it, and we will use it well. But I have zero desire to make this my “home”. First of all it is in NJ and that is as far as I have to go with that explanation.

I am also happy with this result. It is not the best time to buy. But our portfolio is lacking physical assets. So I view this more as moving money from one investment to another. I don’t feel like I have bought something, I just changed the form of something I already had. It is a decent investment, the land itself has intrinsic value not easily destroyed. It has made my loved ones happy. It will make our life easier as we come and go, and a place to store our stuff. And, there remains the possibility that this will also make life easier for extended family.

I feel like I did very little but my life has become better, almost effortlessly.

That is an extremely odd feeling, I like it.
User avatar
Newfie
Forum Moderator
Forum Moderator
 
Posts: 18458
Joined: Thu 15 Nov 2007, 04:00:00
Location: Between Canada and Carribean

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby careinke » Tue 02 Aug 2022, 21:49:52

Yesterday was a glorious day. The temp cooled down to the Mid 80's, Mount Rainier was out in all it's glory. While sitting in the shade on the "Old Peoples" porch, overlooking Mayo Cove, and Carr Inlet., we Spotted the Victoria Clipper barreling down the Inlet, stop turn around and head back. Pre Covaids, the Victoria Clipper used to run passengers from Seattle to Victoria Canada.

Shortly afterwards, a pod of Orcas showed up in the cove. We were able to count 7 surfaced at the same time, including an infant. I'm guessing they probably come from the J pod, and the Victoria Clipper was on a whale watch tour.

Also our local seal "Fred" appeared with a cub in tow. 8O I guess I should of checked on his/her pronouns before naming it. Soon Fred will abandon his pup on a high tide, and I will have to fend off "Do Gooders" trying to save it off of our private beach. Little do they know that could easily be a death sentence for the pup. Better to put up with a few days of the pup screaming for momma.

Peace
Cliff (Start a rEVOLution, grow a garden)
User avatar
careinke
Volunteer
Volunteer
 
Posts: 4668
Joined: Mon 01 Jan 2007, 04:00:00
Location: Pacific Northwest

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Plantagenet » Wed 03 Aug 2022, 01:30:51

Congrats to Newfie and Careinke on the last two posts.

Those are two beautiful little stories.

My happiness today was much more mundane.

I was out driving in my car here in central Alaska.....the day mostly cloudy and in temps in the 60s..... and I looked up at the clouds...some with black penumbras threatening rain and some with golden rims where the sun was hitting them.....and I felt a huge sense of joy.

It was just so nice to be able to have the car window open and look up at mountains of moisture in the sky. The natural hydrologic cycle was operating normally up there.....and it made me really happy.

I'm just back from my annual trip to the Utah Shakespeare Festival....and I combined Shakespeare in Utah with a drive-around down to Las Vegas and back through Death Valley and then northeast through central Nevada. My timing was terrible....I was down there under a massive heat dome, and temps were in the 90s to the 100s in Utah and then well over 100s through Nevada. The hottest temperature on the whole trip was 118° degrees in Death Valley. The trip was fun.....I had an air-conditioned rental car, and the scenery was spectacular in the desert mountains and old mining towns.

But the whole trip had an "end-of-the-world" feel to it. I was under a heat dome with dangerous heat in the SW USA.....Europe was under a heat dome with dangerous heat.....then the east coast was under a heat dome with dangerous heat....and then the Paciif Northwest was under a heat dome with dangerous heat.....then huge forest fires broke out in California....and on and on and on in the same vein....

When I leave Alaska on a trip I tell myself I am checking up on what is happening in the world......this time I got a really good dose of what the record heat under a summer heat dome is like.

All I can say is I am so happy to be back in Alaska, where the sky is filled with rain clouds, just like it should be this time of the year.

Image
Check out those CLOUDS!!! Don't they look great?
Never underestimate the ability of Joe Biden to f#@% things up---Barack Obama
-----------------------------------------------------------
Keep running between the raindrops.
User avatar
Plantagenet
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 26616
Joined: Mon 09 Apr 2007, 03:00:00
Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Wed 03 Aug 2022, 07:27:45

I just watched a Netflix documentary:

“Don’t Look Up”.
User avatar
Newfie
Forum Moderator
Forum Moderator
 
Posts: 18458
Joined: Thu 15 Nov 2007, 04:00:00
Location: Between Canada and Carribean

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby AdamB » Wed 03 Aug 2022, 08:58:20

Plantagenet wrote:When I leave Alaska on a trip I tell myself I am checking up on what is happening in the world......this time I got a really good dose of what the record heat under a summer heat dome is like.


Well I'm glad your most recent "how much can I pollute while jet setting around and enjoying myself" adventure went swell. Sort of highlights your faux concern for the environment, but at least you are making sure you contribute to the problem as much as you can possibly can as an individual.

The desert SW has always been warm as far as I'm concerned, although some of the places you mentioned are particularly so regardless of the recent mid summer heat. I suppose the good news this trip is that you weren't there to club baby seals or engage in dolphin hunting as part of the plan.
Plant Thu 27 Jul 2023 "Personally I think the IEA is exactly right when they predict peak oil in the 2020s, especially because it matches my own predictions."

Plant Wed 11 Apr 2007 "I think Deffeyes might have nailed it, and we are just past the overall peak in oil production. (Thanksgiving 2005)"
User avatar
AdamB
Volunteer
Volunteer
 
Posts: 9292
Joined: Mon 28 Dec 2015, 17:10:26

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Doly » Fri 05 Aug 2022, 13:04:42

Well I'm glad your most recent "how much can I pollute while jet setting around and enjoying myself" adventure went swell. Sort of highlights your faux concern for the environment, but at least you are making sure you contribute to the problem as much as you can possibly can as an individual.


Sometimes we are exactly on the same wavelength, Adam. I knew there was some good reason for your generally rude attitude.

I mean, I've tried being a bit more polite to people, but it doesn't work, so I may as well feel the satisfaction of telling them exactly what I think. It doesn't work, either, but it does make me feel better.
User avatar
Doly
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 4366
Joined: Fri 03 Dec 2004, 04:00:00

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby AdamB » Fri 05 Aug 2022, 19:17:35

Doly wrote:Sometimes we are exactly on the same wavelength, Adam. I knew there was some good reason for your generally rude attitude.

I mean, I've tried being a bit more polite to people, but it doesn't work, so I may as well feel the satisfaction of telling them exactly what I think. It doesn't work, either, but it does make me feel better.


My scientific training is all about telling folks exactly what I think. In writing. And I get paid to do it! Disabusing McPeaksters on what they think they "know" is more of a hobby.
Plant Thu 27 Jul 2023 "Personally I think the IEA is exactly right when they predict peak oil in the 2020s, especially because it matches my own predictions."

Plant Wed 11 Apr 2007 "I think Deffeyes might have nailed it, and we are just past the overall peak in oil production. (Thanksgiving 2005)"
User avatar
AdamB
Volunteer
Volunteer
 
Posts: 9292
Joined: Mon 28 Dec 2015, 17:10:26

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby careinke » Thu 11 Aug 2022, 13:39:24

Well Our dryland wheat crop was quite successful this year with a record harvest and a nice price. :-D

Here is a status report sent to me yesterday by our "Sharecroppers:"

Hello:

What a year. We started with the 4th driest fall and winter (the worst seeding conditions we have experienced), to the second wettest spring, and finished with record yields. So congratulations, we made it through a bit of a nail biter! It is a good lesson in not giving up. We almost did not apply any spring fertilizer as we did not want to harm the crop or over apply. However, we are sure glad we stuck with the plan as we finished harvest last week with the entire farm averaging a new record high at over 125 bushels per acre!

A few pictures from the harvest are included below. We are very proud that each of our harvest team members are all your and our family members – it is a special group that takes time away from their day jobs to come up and be a part of the farm. We have a Phd research doc from OHSU, an owner of a drilling and blasting company, a Tillamook dairy farmer, a college administrator, sixth generation middle/high schoolers, and the resident farm addicts (Tina and I) who bring in the crop. It is our 10th year coming back together to care for your and our land. Uncle Clint and Aunt Karen still help keep us in line as well.

As always, we are thankful for working with each of you. We will send over an advance payment and crop records detail by early September. We just wanted to get you an update to let you know that harvest was complete and what the initial results were.

Thanks and take care,
XXXXXXXXX


Our Wheatland is in Eastern Oregon.

Peace
Cliff (Start a rEVOLution, grow a garden)
User avatar
careinke
Volunteer
Volunteer
 
Posts: 4668
Joined: Mon 01 Jan 2007, 04:00:00
Location: Pacific Northwest

PreviousNext

Return to Peak Oil Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 77 guests