When it's time to stop.

[Morgana]

I suppose that if a will can be challenged a POA can be challenged too... we can't possibly imagine all the different document types and personal circumstances that could exist.

The main takeaway, IMO, is that the more you take the trouble now to work out your own choices and put them on the record, the less likely it is that, later on, someone might impose a choice on you that's not what you would have wanted.

The best time to do this was 10 years ago. The second-best time is now. You'll feel better after. (At least, I did.)

 

[eDJ_]

Exactly Morgana. This is where having a good "Family Lawyer" (or lawyer who does family practice) is so important. Then taking time with the Lawyer on a day that isn't too busy and lay out what you are thinking and allow them to mentor and guide you.

How do you find such a lawyer ? Generally people get referrals from trusted friends, but others just drive down the street looking for signs on offices around the Court House. But....you can find out all about Lawyers in your area (or any other area) by using the Martindale Hubble you can learn all about any Lawyer, what kind of law he/she practices, where they went to school, where they graduated in their class, if they have held political office, if they have businesses that they represent being on their retainer, and a host of other stuff.

One of the first questions a Lawyer will ask a new client when they meet at their law office is "How did you learn about me" ? (looking to see if you are a referral from a former client, you just saw their sign, or something else. If you tell them you found them while researching for a Lawyer in the Martindale-Hubell there may hear a deep gulp followed by an "Oh"! They may ask you what you learned about them......just to make sure you aren't throwing a curve ball. If you mention some things you learned then you may be taken more seriously than the person who only saw the sign by the door. (something Lawyers call a shingle)

This is now more commonly called the "Martindale".

Martindale-Hubell database of legal professionals

 

[eDJ_]

A few post back we were talking about whether to get a condo or buy an RV and such. How deep to be invested in in property, taxes, & utilities.

I had figured on building a simple structure outside the city limits where I could live off grid. (perhaps with a propane tank, battery bank & generator that uses propane. Something like in these sketches.

This would be something like a passive solar garage that would be built into a south facing bank of earth.





This would be summer time digs and use geothermal air conditioning. Set up something like in the diagram below.


And I think I would like to have a small garden space to sit in during the cool of the evening.



A lot of people in my area are buying these Barn Sheds and fixing them up like "Tiny Homes" and living in them comfortably and affordably.



These are mostly on grid, with mini-split heat pumps and a propane ventless tile space heater with blower. Many are on wells and septic tanks. I don't know anyone living in these that are snowbirds or nomads. But it could work for a snowbird or nomad in the north or south. If you live in the south...leave the rig in the north (in storage) to use in the summer....or vice versa. It's just a matter of how resourceful you can be with your resources.

 

[user 22017]

eDJ, I think you would love my "bible". When my kids were young, I read this book over and over while daydreaming about living off the land. It never happened for me, but I like your ideas

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76998.Reader_s_Digest_Back_to_Basics

 

[abnorm]

^ I have that one in the van......................I grew up with Ideas from the Mother Earth News !

 

[bullfrog !]

There is a single room version of an “earthship” but like many labor intensive projects I’m too old to get them done. An Arizona company named Green Rino is using thick foam blocks coated with an epoxy stucco coating to make a super insulated space for less than conventional frame building. The handicap Boxable floor plan would work really well with this type construction in my opinion to build a combination garage living space for not much more than the price of a new van build out. With many counties allowing Additional Dwelling Units (ADU) on single family properties to be legally built it begins to make sense using something like an AirBnb property to pay the mortgage with an ADU for a van dweller to live in. The Boxable if the manufacturer ever can get their back orders caught up is probably the best deal at $50k set up in hours with all major appliances included. The utilities hookup pretty much like an RV and it can be moved. There are several possible housing solutions and situations as I stated before but you need to plan well ahead.

 

[user 22017]

^ I have that one in the van......................I grew up with Ideas from the Mother Earth News !

When my kids were young I subscribed to Mother Earth News. Ironically, that is how I became a web designer. They had an article about jobs you could do at home and one was web designer. This was in 1999. So I taught myself HTML and built sites for about six years. Wasn't long before HTML wasn't nearly enough code to know. There went that career, lol.

 

[eDJ_]

I at my local Library now and just found 3 copies of "Back To Basics" on the "union listing"......so I placed a hold on one.

I've owned a copy of "The Last Whole Earth Catelog" for some years now. I call it, my first internet. My grandad even looked at it and found "DR's Trip" and read it thru. This was at a time I was traveling in my first rig and looking for work in my career field. (Industrial Design)

Mother Earth News is an old favorite of mine. The young woman I was dating when I lived in central Ohio and working in Design had about every copy of Mother Earth News that had been printed. We were both interested in Passive Solar homes such as a salt box style house with the south facing wall having an add on green house or just lots of windows. My present home has the east exposure being almost all glass so that in the winter mornings I can get up and open the draperies and with solar gain raise the inside temp as much as 20 degrees.

Mentioning Michael Reynold's Earth Ship's designs is something I've been following for some time. I went up to central Ohio to tour thru one there in Philo. An amazing place. That's where I drew from to design the quasi "Earth Ship Garage" for a rig. I figured I would use recycled sliding glass doors for the glazing of the southern exposure. The rest could be built of concrete block on a concrete pad. Then to use prefab trusses for the roof. In some parts of my area as long as you can say the building is under construction....you can live in it without having to pay any taxes on it. (again, as long as you can claim it is under construction)

I've imagined something on the order of a military Quonset Hut that would be prefabbed to sit on a concrete slab and then earth bermed. It would be half shrouded in a rubber roof after erected and then earth bermed. Just something to think about. If this could be perfected and mass produced I could see having an area with many of these for snowbirding nomads. It is an abstract idea at this time.

As for the geothermal heating & cooling, the earth temp is supposed to hover around 55 degrees F. If one used the closed loop cooling as shown above.....but needed to moderate the temp a bit to be comfortable....there are "air to air" heat exchangers which could be used in this practice. They are quite efficient and do bring in fresh air. But if you can operate a place that stays at 55 degrees F....then it would only take heating it up another 15 to to 20 degrees to be comfortable.

But in this the idea is to have a dwelling that could see a person thru the years that they can take care of themselves which would be relatively inexpensive to set up. Approximately 45 feet long (depending on size of rig) 20 ft wide, and 10 ft in height. If in one end a bed & bath were constructed a wall could divide for a kitchen. The ceiling could be 8 ft high thus allowing for some storage area above.

As for web design, I think it is why so many people have chosen to use editors like "Dream Weaver" and "Contribute". (The designer can produce the bulk of the site and leave areas where the owner can add their information directly into those allocated areas) Still marking it up with HTML 5 and CSS 3 will leave a site that any other designer can log into and edit provided they have the skills with HTML/CSS. Using editors tends to tie a customer to your software. (whatever that happens to be) Then if you and the customer part ways, the customer is without their site and will have to find another designer. So a lot of designers offer a contingency plan where they pay for the set up of the site and a monthly fee which allows for updates, edits, or redesigns with the oprtion to discontinue. They are responsible for the "domain name" primarily and the designer charges/covers for other specialized features such as designing and providing an app. (just depends on those bells and whistles)

 

[Morgana]

It is a lot easier and cheaper, though, to train in + use HTML/CSS than it is to train in + use Dreamweaver and the like. That's not just a skill hurdle, it's a financial hurdle.

I watched some similar things happen on the print side (professional editor, wannabe/occasional part-time designer), starting 10+ years ago. It seems like the design field has gotten increasingly unwelcoming to small operators.

I don't think it was ever easy to get training -- I remember feeling very frustrated in the 90s that you could get "workforce development" type training in all the admin software but not in the design/creativity software. Well, it's the market I guess \_(**)_/. I eventually got past that hurdle, but when Adobe went to the "subscription model" (where you had to shell out serious bucks every month, instead of somehow scraping together bigger bucks once every 3-4 years), it was the end of the design line for me (still do it sometimes for fun, using a cheaper software brand, but stopped going after paying gigs).

There's really wonderful HTML/CSS training available online for free. I'm in awe of people who put up those kinds of resources for others to enjoy. I agree with the earlier posters that that's not enough in today's market. Still, good to be able to check under the hood and understand what's going on, when you use programs like Dreamweaver!

 

[RvNaut]

Housing is or should be a concern for everyone. Not just people currently living in sticks and bricks and not just those living on the

Myplan is to stop when I die. This is my last home and I hope to be in it until I pass on.... there is no backup plan as this is the backup plan. I hope I can get to medicare next year before anything breaks...

 

[Morgana]

I seem to remember people here talking about Escapees having some kind of care facility?

 

[user 22017]

I at my local Library now and just found 3 copies of "Back To Basics" on the "union listing"......so I placed a hold on one.

There are many copies on eBay for under $8.00. I've bought several off eBay for my kids. Look for Reader's Digest...

Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills​

 

[eDJ_]

Morgana, here are some freeware clones of popular (expensive) web editors. You may or may not have heard of these but I'd share them with you.

Nvu a free Dreamweaver clone

Kompozer (see above link)

SeaMonkey a free GoLive clone

Bluefish a free editor similar to MS Front Page

Blue Dragon is a free clone of Cold Fusion

NetObjects Fusion Essentials is a free offer of their editor

Open Laszlo is a free clone of Adobe Flash

Amaya is a free browser based editor from the W3C

If you find any of this interesting or know anyone else who would.

 

[Morgana]

Thanks eDJ, someone might find these very helpful. But I was mostly on the print (not web) side. (I'm not sure that's even considered to exist anymore!)

I actually like the less expensive software I ended up with (Affinity and Quoppa) very much. I think it can do about 90% of everything the corresponding Adobe products can, and it seems stable and reliable. But the problem is, clients want the alpha gorilla (Adobe). In a way I don't blame them. It's a corporate-dominated world anymore! Anyway I am barely keeping the "semi" in "semi-retired" and don't intend to get in the trenches on this again.

But it is fun to think about.

 

[rruff]

I had figured on building a simple structure outside the city limits where I could live off grid. (perhaps with a propane tank, battery bank & generator that uses propane.
This would be something like a passive solar garage that would be built into a south facing bank of earth.

This would be summer time digs and use geothermal air conditioning. Set up something like in the diagram below.

These ideas were popular in the 70s. Earth tubes do not work since low-conductivity soil around them changes to meet the air temperature, and heat transfer drops to nearly nothing. Earth berming isn't that great either, as the temperature moderating effect is small.

Passive solar can work well if it's properly designed. Places with sunny winters with modest temperatures like much of the SW are the best places for this. Forget the sloping window; make them vertical. And it's most important for the sun to shine directly on concrete or stone inside your house, so make a narrow "sun-room" for this purpose. My plan for this was to have a concrete floor and a low wall about 5' in on the south side.

In the SW an offgrid setup can be pretty simple and comfortable all year. Solar electric, solar hot water, passive solar heat with wood stove backup, and a swamp cooler if it's particularly hot in summer.

 

[eDJ_]

I can understand that Morgana and don't blame you. As for people wanting the "Professional Grade" software they may believe they are safer with those. (from cyber criminals) And they may believe a designer who has a licensed business would have the tax advantage to own those tools. (and not be a fly by night working with freeware) But a lot of small business startup's will "bootstrap" their venture with that stuff long enough to move up to bigger, better, safer stuff.

As for the Quonset Hut buildings, this site shows some smaller sized products that I would use to design with. The width & height are about right and I think it can be ordered to whatever length one would want. As for earth berming this stuff, it is used to build culverts for water shed so it should be able to hold up to earth breming perhaps with some reinforcement.

As for openings for windows and passive solar heating, if living in the north in the summer, that may not be so necessary and could invite breakin's during the winter when the owner would be in the south.

Steel Master Building Systems

This may be well suited to inexpensive property that most people wouldn't consider.

 

[lonerwolf52]

Im planning to go deep south in Me I o for 3 to 6 months to see how I do there. Tell you soon.

 

[bullfrog !]

Escapee’s Care Center is in Livingston Texas next to their Rainbow’s End park It is well worth looking into as an asset to help you even if you are only temporarily out of action. They do take good care of volunteers as well!

 

[VanFan]

Escapee’s Care Center is in Livingston Texas next to their Rainbow’s End park It is well worth looking into...

And the on-site thrift store (proceeds benefit the Care Center) is a fun place to shop!

 

[user 22017]

Morgana, here are some freeware clones of popular (expensive) web editors. You may or may not have heard of these but I'd share them with you.

Coffee Cup makes a great WYSIWYG editor and it is only $29. I liked all their products. They are a small company out of Texas, IIRC.

https://www.coffeecup.com/