Another desert dweller here

vonu · Aug 1, 2011

cyndi said:
Zap, You may want to post your general where-abouts, you may find some business there.  I, for one, would love to know someone in my area that could help me out with ods and ends. When it comes to finding general help in my area our choices are limited... basically tweekers looking to burn you.  I'd love to be paying someone from here for some of the stuff I need done.   Also, if you post your blog and website links I know more than a couple people who visit friends' blogs and click links to add to the penny earned or make their purchases from friends' amazon stores.   You might also find a ride to Quartzsite and there are jobs to be had there in the snow bunny months.  Maybe I should say there MAY BE jobs in the winter months.  Times they are a changin'

<div> </div><div>Especially with the coup de tete being staged by the chief of police.</div>

Zap · Aug 1, 2011

The lucrative HVAC market has changed.  I left the scene 15 years ago. When I started in the HVAC market in 1977, I was pigeon-holed into installer and remodel work. There was -and still is- a certain attitude among tradesmen in a right to work state. A helper is hired and kept as a helper because the journeyman is fearful of being replaced or  the higher paid service techs were almost always a childhood buddy or relative of the owner of the business. It was an endless cycle of being hired, and then laid off when the building of the stucco hut community contract neared completion.That's just the facts of life in a right to work place like Tucson. The metal crafting part of the business has been reduced to prefabricated, mass produced pieces that can be installed like a monkey with Tinkertoys and involves very little of the old school skills or income. I took a year of schooling nonetheless and did do some service work. Age, and now government inflicted regulation has left me behind. A federal EPA card (read $$$) is now required to handle refrigerants. A "free lance" HVAC entrepreneur cannot purchase refrigerants anymore and  is quickly reported by the established contractors, fined and run out of business. That's just the way it is and is why I decided to leave that "career" field. The trap I put myself in is akin to the classic tale "Gift of the Magi" and in order to obtain permits and federal permission I have only my tools necessary to do the work as liquidate-able assets.  In the past I continued schooling and learned NDI and metallurgy. The only contractor in Tucson, Hughes Aircraft, eliminated their NDI and heat treat a few months after I completed school. I then worked as an installer again and when the first aircraft structure repair school started I applied for and was accepted into the program. We were told we would be in great demand and make long dollars. The two big FBO facilities packed up and left Tucson a few years after I graduated. The structures only skill set never caught on anyway and nowadays the huge majority of structure mechanics are accepted from the military only. I worked in the pool and spa business and spotted a niche. I learned the skills, invented tools and techniques that no one else possessed, started earning good income and competeing and winning against a worldwide franchise based competitor. I'm still proud of the fact that I kick their butt in all aspects of what I do. So, after all that experience I learned to never count on any government, industry or job and during the heated rhetoric of the last presidential election I was accused of being hateful of change. Imagine that! Enough crying, I gotta bicycle to refurbish. Edit: For what its worth here is my website. I'm not soliciting business here. No one here wants a swimming pool and I don't blame them. I wouldn't want one either. www.budgetleakdetection.com My lovely wife writes about the paranormal. She isn't a psychic and doesn't claim to talk to dead people either, she reports from a mostly objective perspective. www.paranormaloldpueblo.com

Dust of the Sun · Aug 1, 2011

Damn Zap, you can WRITE!! Some serious and eloquent wordsmanship...I know that don't pay the bills but your story rings of truth, pain, experience and yes, hope. For example, I am a mechanical klutz and if I found an rv I wanted to buy would pay you to check it out...wish you were nearby for that reason...secondly, a guy locally in my rural setting is buying and fixing up motorhomes...flipping them for a profit...to what I believe will be a rising interest among those, like you who've lost their jobs or homes and are downsizing their expenses and going mobile...like vonu said, no mortage, rent or utilities and all associated homeowning costs...ok, so you don't have the money...what you need is a partner...somebody  who is non-mechanical, but has money and ideas, would jump at the chance to partner with the one guy he needs...the mechanically inclined jack of all trades...you see, everything is a business model...EVERYTHING....Foreclosures....Church.... Arizona Wildfires... All of our military being out of the country....People choosing to go mobile... EVERYTHING....you just gotta figure out how to leverage your skills in a non-existent job market. Maybe place some ads (Craigslist/Penny Savers etc) looking for a business partner with some money, paired with your mechanical skills...just brainstorming here so can't flesh this idea out in this venue but I have tons of ideas ...wish you were local to me in Virginia. Maybe start a thread to explore your options...lots of cool, smart, creative people on this site. Entrepreneurial buzzwords for a collapsing economy: Storm/Survival/Tornado Shelters.....Buying & Fixing Up Cheap Motorhomes...Going Off-Grid....Solar Energy for your Homestead....Urban Chicken Coops....depends on WHERE you are but SOMETHING is hot and attracting money even in this financial cesspool that might mesh with your skills...what are you doing right now income-wise??.Keep Hope Alive. Dust

vonu · Aug 1, 2011

Zap said:
The lucrative HVAC market has changed.  I left the scene 15 years ago. When I started in the HVAC market in 1977, I was pigeon-holed into installer and remodel work. There was -and still is- a certain attitude among tradesmen in a right to work state. A helper is hired and kept as a helper because the journeyman is fearful of being replaced or  the higher paid service techs were almost always a childhood buddy or relative of the owner of the business. It was an endless cycle of being hired, and then laid off when the building of the stucco hut community contract neared completion.That's just the facts of life in a right to work place like Tucson. The metal crafting part of the business has been reduced to prefabricated, mass produced pieces that can be installed like a monkey with Tinkertoys and involves very little of the old school skills or income. I took a year of schooling nonetheless and did do some service work. Age, and now government inflicted regulation has left me behind. A federal EPA card (read $$$) is now required to handle refrigerants. A "free lance" HVAC entrepreneur cannot purchase refrigerants anymore and  is quickly reported by the established contractors, fined and run out of business. That's just the way it is and is why I decided to leave that "career" field. The trap I put myself in is akin to the classic tale "Gift of the Magi" and in order to obtain permits and federal permission I have only my tools necessary to do the work as liquidate-able assets.  In the past I continued schooling and learned NDI and metallurgy. The only contractor in Tucson, Hughes Aircraft, eliminated their NDI and heat treat a few months after I completed school. I then worked as an installer again and when the first aircraft structure repair school started I applied for and was accepted into the program. We were told we would be in great demand and make long dollars. The two big FBO facilities packed up and left Tucson a few years after I graduated. The structures only skill set never caught on anyway and nowadays the huge majority of structure mechanics are accepted from the military only. I worked in the pool and spa business and spotted a niche. I learned the skills, invented tools and techniques that no one else possessed, started earning good income and competeing and winning against a worldwide franchise based competitor. I'm still proud of the fact that I kick their butt in all aspects of what I do. So, after all that experience I learned to never count on any government, industry or job and during the heated rhetoric of the last presidential election I was accused of being hateful of change. Imagine that! Enough crying, I gotta bicycle to refurbish. Edit: For what its worth here is my website. I'm not soliciting business here. No one here wants a swimming pool and I don't blame them. I wouldn't want one either. www.budgetleakdetection.com My lovely wife writes about the paranormal. She isn't a psychic and doesn't claim to talk to dead people either, she reports from a mostly objective perspective. www.paranormaloldpueblo.com

<div> </div><div>I heard an ad on the radio yesterday that presents a business model that you could use.  They pointed out that people sometimes replace an older AC because it is weak, because the evaporator coil is plugged up.  I would think that you could unplug something like that with a small shop vac, if you knew where the coil was and how to get to it.  I wouldn't be surprised if they plug up with dust in Tucson.</div><div>Do you and/or your wife do website authoring?</div>

Zap · Aug 1, 2011

Gawd I seem depressing! There are some things I could do still. I have to sell some of my stuff, like every other broke worker in Tucson. Stuff is cheap here and getting cheaper. Look at the CL ads for yard sales here. I heard recently that Arizona and Tucson in particular is nearly at the bottom for reasonable job opportunities. We are also blessed with the cheapest gasoline in the entire country, probably because  we are all so destitute. Yes vonu, I've cleaned many a evap coil. They usually get gunked up with a sticky residue that requires a stout surfactant and a "fin comb" to dislodge the nearly solidified crud. Then the condensate line (a drain line for condensation) needs to be blown out or snaked with a cable; something like an old speedometer cable. The other major reason unsuspecting homeowners buy a new system is a simple condenser fan motor failure. An unscrupulous repair tech will deliver the grim news like its a death sentence and convince the customer to invest in an entirely new system. Edit: I missed your question. Yes we can author. My wife has a degree in creative writing and I have been blessed with a reading and writing skill from a very early age. I've been told on numerous occasions that I should be a journalist. I appreciate the compliments I get. Real journalism comes from living the story and boy have I lived some stories. So far, the online "editing" jobs I've seen are scams.

vonu · Aug 1, 2011

Zap said:
Gawd I seem depressing! There are some things I could do still. I have to sell some of my stuff, like every other broke worker in Tucson. Stuff is cheap here and getting cheaper. Look at the CL ads for yard sales here. I heard recently that Arizona and Tucson in particular is nearly at the bottom for reasonable job opportunities. We are also blessed with the cheapest gasoline in the entire country, probably because  we are all so destitute. Yes vonu, I've cleaned many a evap coil. They usually get gunked up with a sticky residue that requires a stout surfactant and a "fin comb" to dislodge the nearly solidified crud. Then the condensate line (a drain line for condensation) needs to be blown out or snaked with a cable; something like an old speedometer cable. The other major reason unsuspecting homeowners buy a new system is a simple condenser fan motor failure. An unscrupulous repair tech will deliver the grim news like its a death sentence and convince the customer to invest in an entirely new system.

<div> </div><div>Given all of that, I would think that there is quite a bit of remediation which can be done without dealing with refrigerant.  Maybe you could work out an arrangement with a local contractor to do the diagnostics and simple repairs in return for sending them the ones that require refrigerant.  I'd look for small concerns that get loaded up with simple stuff and would be willing to consider your experience as a simple way to multiply their workflow.  As a consultant, you would be an inexpensive 'employee' and they'd get to 1099 you. </div>

Zap · Aug 1, 2011

That's an idea that may be worth pursuing. I've run into similar opportunities like that in the plumbing and HVAC business. The challenge, once again, is government intrusion and insurance requirements imposed by the owners of commercial properties. I've had to turn down recent work because of insurance. The commercial property owners are commonly out of town investors that hire management company pimps to take care of maintenance issues. The pimps then hire eager inexperienced people, often times legal immigrants that haven't a clue. The investors charge a lot of money for the privilege of renting from them and then hire unqualified workers at minimum wage and expect those same workers to be able to afford living in their beehive complexes. and so it goes

sl1966 · Aug 1, 2011

Too much to read while I'm at work. Suffice it to say, you had me at HVAC Zap!<div> </div>

vonu · Aug 1, 2011

Zap said:
That's an idea that may be worth pursuing. I've run into similar opportunities like that in the plumbing and HVAC business. The challenge, once again, is government intrusion and insurance requirements imposed by the owners of commercial properties. I've had to turn down recent work because of insurance. The commercial property owners are commonly out of town investors that hire management company pimps to take care of maintenance issues. The pimps then hire eager inexperienced people, often times legal immigrants that haven't a clue. The investors charge a lot of money for the privilege of renting from them and then hire unqualified workers at minimum wage and expect those same workers to be able to afford living in their beehive complexes. and so it goes

<div> </div><div>Unemployed private homeowners are likely to be a lot more flexible than commercial property managers, although you might do well with those who buy and flip properties.</div>

Zap · Aug 1, 2011

Within the constraints of this forum and all the self restraint I can muster, I can only state that house flippers are the bane of my existence. They usually want a $1 dollar fix on an $80,000 item and then expect to pay at their leisure in 30 or so days. Many, many times I've been asked to walk them through a repair process over the phone FOR FREE. The flippers and investors are roundly despised by nearly all of the small independent contractors and skilled craftsmen. They drive up rents and expect cheap labor in return. There are a few exceptions, but very few. As far as unemployed homeowners- I've never been hired by a broke homeowner.

Zap · Aug 1, 2011

All the suggestions are truly appreciated. We aren't quite finished tho. After my last post on this thread, the phone came alive with work and offers. Is someone here up to something? I posted on the "70s Rv..." thread some of what changed in last few hours. Nothing concrete, but it's a start.

sl1966 · Aug 1, 2011

It was me. I admit it. I sacrificed a live chicken so that work would once again come your way. Ok, so it wasn't a live chicken. It was already dead. Dead in a paper bucket with a lid kind of way. <div> </div><div>Congrats on the ringing phone! I'll keep the good vibes coming your way (dead chicken free even).</div><div> </div>

Zap · Aug 23, 2011

What a ride! After learning here about some of the care-taking opportunities available around the country. We started keeping our eyes open for those types of "jobs" We missed an opportunity to get a free RV space in an industrial area adjacent to a railroad yard. We got a month behind on rent in the small shack we're living in. We kept seeing RVs that were available for trade at the expense of our truck. All of those RVs had some type of major drawback. Now,  after two months of fruitless searching and job seeking everything has changed. A month ago an RV seller has allowed us to take his RV, no money down, and  drive it away on our promise to make payments that we could afford. It is parked 95 miles away and we haven't yet even  had the money to get there to make the small repairs it needs. Yesterday Google called us to inform us of a big increase in our ad sense pay for our little blogs and sites. A big help. This morning a dream "job" came through. We will be living alone on a 14 acre estate in  a 2000 square foot cottage and maintain a 1940s designer mansion with pool. Free rent and utilities and new AC in the cottage. The estate is 5 miles from where we currently live.  No "job" offer has ever been like this. The "job" includes free utilities and use of the estate. The duties are to keep the critters out and make sure the place is ready for the owners' quarterly visits. The "job" may last for years, maybe even for life. It is a dream come true and it started with some of the ideas we've learned here. Our eternal thanks to those RVers that have inspired us to "take the plunge" We won't be "on the road" but will take time off and travel in the RV we will rescue later this month. Thank you all! We hope to make it to some "tramp" events in the future. God Bless America

stude53 · Aug 23, 2011

Congratulations, Zap Sounds like you hit the jackpot!

Zap · Aug 23, 2011

We have been living on donated food boxes and have nearly exhausted the variations on beans and rice. We have also been volunteering our time and skills to those with less.  We applied for the care taker position a month ago and have been undergoing interviews, background checks, more interviews, delays and impending homelessness.  Early this morning I composed an ad, in my head, for our truck and what's left of our worldly possessions. I had given up hope on the impossibly great opportunity we were presented. We had to borrow money for the gas to go 5 miles and meet the owner's rep on the property. After a 2 hour interview and tour we were hopeful but not convinced we were in the running for the position. When the phone rang and the caller ID showed the owner was calling, I dreaded answering to hear that we had been  turned down. In a way it was like winning the lottery and in a way it was vindication. My wife said our horoscopes both predicted big positive changes ahead. I've never believed that stuff and promised her I would believe if the job came through. I also demanded that she never speak of astrology if it didn't. I'm a Sagittarius.

user 423 · Aug 23, 2011

That big box of chocolates offered up a winner for y'all. Sweet...

Khaosinc · Aug 23, 2011

great news. Always good to hear when someone who seems to really need it finds the perfect nitch in the nick of time.

bobbert · Aug 23, 2011

That's great news. Even better timing! Someone's looking out for you all!

dragonflyinthesky · Aug 24, 2011

@ZAP  what i9s you blog, I always click the ads and can click yours too.

Zap · Aug 24, 2011

I blog here: www.bugetleakdetection.com My wife blogs here: www.paranormaloldpueblo.com Sorry I didn't link directly to the blog thingy. I like your stuff. Thank you BTW: I saw a sweet little Shasta on CL here in Troubletown

Another desert dweller here

Help Support Van Living Forum:

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Active member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!