Worth It….7 dollar buffet vs. 95 dollar buffet… (over 12 million people have watched this….so far)

Posted on by September 7, 2017

Here’s a couple of dudes who go to three different buffets at three different price points in Las Vegas, NV.

That’s what they do.

They eat…they film it…they talk about it….and…then….they decide what’s the best value….at a lot of different restaurants all over the place.

And….a lot of people watch them do it on YouTube.

Over 12 million people (so far) for this video alone.

I would freak out if I spent 95.00 on a buffet….but, wait until you see this 95 dollar buffet.

It’s outrageous.

O-U-T-RAGEOUS! WITH A CAPITAL “O”!

Of course, the 8 dollar buffet is pretty good looking, too, so that’s probably the one that Cheap Daddy would steer his family towards.

But….it would be hilarious to pull up in our Beverly Hillbilly automobile….hop out, slam into the genteel world of the high roller, and go visit the 95.00 dollar buffet to eat lobster tails, drink champagne, and gorge on choclate covered strawberries.

That would be fun to do with my family.

These guys are consistently entertaining….and it makes me hungry to watch their show.

Even at 5 in the morning, drinking coffee while the house is quiet…typing…it makes me hungry to watch these dudes eat this good stuff.

Thanks for the show, Dudes!

You make good food look good!

Here’s a link to their YouTube channel…. BuzzFeed Video  ….the show is called “Worth It” .

How he does it….bicycle touring with ForestyForest.

Posted on by September 5, 2017

This is a pretty fascinating overview of how to use Google Maps to plan a cycle touring route.

In addition to seeing and planning a route, he shows how to find grocery stores…libraries…street views for potential cycling conditions, etc.

Man, it’s a brave new world with all this information at our fingertips.

You can find out just about anything….if you know how to do it.

That’s why a video like this is so handy.

I didn’t know that you could do all this with Google Maps.

He talks about using something called “Zoom Earth” to get a potentially different or more recent satellite images of a potential route.

His methods are useful for any kind of trip, too….you don’t have to be on a bike.

I didn’t know how to use Google Maps before watching this.

Pretty cool.

quit talking….produce

Posted on by September 4, 2017

Competence is a good thing to see.

This dude is competent.

Now, I don’t find employment as a taxidermist.

I don’t want to kill a bunch of animals and stuff them so that I can display them in my house like so many furry tchotchkes.

That’s not how I roll.

But….I eat meat.

I eat meat….but don’t kill what I eat.

I buy it at the grocery store.

What a wuss I am…

If you can’t kill it or grow it….don’t eat it.

If it bothers you to eat something that can look you in the eye, don’t eat it.

Awwwww, I’ll eat it.

I still like meat.

What a wuss.

One thing that this guy said was that we need to talk less and produce more.

Good on you, Dude!

I like seeing competence and FOCUS in action.

There’s lots of stuffed animals in this video….and that’s something that triggers the “that’s kind of strange and wrong” reaction in my head….but it was interesting to see this guy’s taxidermy shop.

Out in Idaho….living the outdoor life.

Good.

Esther Emery at TedX-Boise

Posted on by September 2, 2017

This is Esther Emery giving a Ted talk in Idaho.

It’s a good one….thoughts on our dependency on the Internet and the power grid….and cell phones….and debit and credit cards….and….anything digital or connected to the electric grid.

There are so many different ways to live…but, at this point in history at least, it’s strange to live “off the grid”.

It’s strange to live without the electronic noise.

It is strange to live without being “connected”.

And, like Esther mentions, living without the distraction of electronic entertainment is a jarring void that, initially, at least, is hard to fill.

I fill my world with electronic distraction.

I know how I roll.

I flip the switch every chance I get….and it’s involuntary.

I can relate to what an addiction is.

In the end, she goes back to limited involvement with the Internet….but with the new awareness of how it feels to change an addiction.

After 6 years of “no internet”, she goes back…and realizes that letting go of the dependency on the internet…and that letting go of the need for validation …was the real lesson.

We continue to exist even if other people don’t notice us.

Esther Emery is Carla Emery’s daughter.

If you don’t know anything about Carla, here’s an Amazon link to a book she wrote back in the ’70’s….. The Encyclopedia of Country Living .

Here’s a link to Esther’s blog: EstherEmery.com/blog

And, finally, here’s a link to her book “What Falls From the Sky”…..

 

ForestyForest!

Posted on by September 1, 2017

Here’s the latest from ForestyForest….

Man.

This stuff is all so good….and, if I’m going to be doing some “armchair adventuring”, this is what I want to see.

This time, he’s in Newfoundland, touring around on his fatbike.

I’m not the most adventurous guy around sometimes, but the times when I remember being happiest are when I’m out in the big and strange….different…new.

I’m happiest….and scared, sometimes….when I don’t know where I am.

(Speaking of….we went up to Asheville the other day to ride a trail that Jenny had heard was finished. 5 bikes on the 5 bike carrier on the back of the minivan….helmets….water bottles….a long drive up to Asheville….and we were ready.

It turned out that only about 1 mile of the trail was done…..and we had to ride a good bit on the road.

Having Nate with us and being on the road made us kind of nervous….so Jenny told me (after we’d ridden for a while looking for the rest of the greenway) that I could ride back to the car and bring it to them so that they wouldn’t have to ride with all the traffic.

Anyway, after clarifying the directions with her, I rode off and made a wrong turn and got lost….rode around Asheville….backtracked….found the car….loaded up my bike….started out and….got lost driving for a while….found the guys and helped them load their bikes.

I told Jenny that I got lost (something she’d already figured out after the long wait)….and she showed me where the parking lot where the minivan had been was.

You could see it from where we were.

It was right across the river.

Seeing where you need to go makes it all easier.

And, you know? Not knowing how to get to where you need to be makes everything “new”….makes everything an adventure.

Maybe that’s what makes me nervous….that most of my adventures come because I don’t know what I’m doing?

Who knows?)

These videos from ForestyForest are great.

I turned down the soundtrack for this one….the techno beat detracted from the meditative aspects of the bicycling….

Off Grid Horsebox

Posted on by August 31, 2017

I don’t know what a “horsebox” is.

A horsebox is kind of cool, though.

This thing is a horsebox, right?

I’d hate to say that something was cool if it wasn’t quite “right”.

I’d hate to call the wrong thing “cool”.

I like seeing what people reconfigure to turn into places to live.

Are the Mongolian people more “Real”?

Posted on by August 30, 2017

Can you plop yourself…drive yourself….deep into another culture like some sort of under-funded and overly curious astronaut….and see what you came to try to understand…and then leave without disturbing things too much?

It’s an old story.

Maybe whether or not you mess up a culture is irrelevant.

Nobody’s an island, these days, anyway.

The  (consumeristic) world can find you anyplace you live.

Get a satellite dish! You can find out about the things you “need” wherever you are.

1,000 km from a Walmart, you can still find out about what you didn’t know you needed and not have a way to get it.

(What the heck? Sitting drinking coffee, watching a video about some hipsters going to see the Mongolian people, writing….writing…writing…about stuff I don’t really understand….maybe.)

This is a pretty good video….and I do like the Mongolian people.

All this stuff that I surround myself with…and I respond to these Mongolian people and the “simple life” in a good and strong way.

That’s not my life, though.

I’m the monkey with his hand stuck in the jar….not letting go of the thing I’ve grabbed….trapped.

Maybe I need to break the jar?

Maybe I need to get rid of a lot of stuff?

Even figuring out the stuff you don’t need….is a need.

What an adventure these guys had!

Go, Mongolia!

South Dakota? Why not?

Posted on by August 29, 2017

South Dakota?

Who knew?

We own property….but check this video out for information about establishing South Dakota residency.

Pretty darn cool.

South Dakota has no vehicle inspections, no state income tax, and it looks like it’s very easy to establish residency there.

If you are spending most of your time on the road, it might be good to have residency in a state that would be beneficial for that kind of nomadic lifestyle.

More information can be found at:

http://www.mydakotaaddress.com/

More info about the author of this post at http://www.elementvanlife.com/

 

come fly with me….

Posted on by August 29, 2017

Here’s another great video from Dylan Magaster….this time about a guy who converted a retired airplane into a home.

Bruce Campbell has a lot of ideas about why rescuing one of these planes is a good idea.

And, really, why shouldn’t we rescue them?

They’re a pretty tight structure…built to withstand some pretty unique circumstances…made out of a material that won’t degrade.

Why wouldn’t that make some sort of house?

Man, though….it sure takes a lot of forest to move a plane onto your homesite.

A plane is a big thing.

Still….it’s pretty interesting, I guess.

Read more about Bruce Campbell and his plane at http://AirplaneHome.com .

not exactly…but…close

Posted on by August 28, 2017

This isn’t exactly what we have to do over at the old barn.

Not exactly…but…close.

The barn roof was messed up on one corner and the sill plate is rotted out….so we need to jack it up some to hold the whole mess up….and then replace it….and reside the corner with some good rough sawn oak.

We worked on the roof this past weekend….so that might be a project for sometime in the near future.

It’s a learning curve to be around all this old and broken stuff.

I don’t know how much of that corner we’ll have to replace. Sometimes you can’t see all the rot before you start tearing into it.

I appreciate all these videos, though.  When they speed it all up, it makes me think that maybe the job won’t take as long as I thought.

We’ll see.

Oh….I almost forgot to remember that the other side of the barn needs the sill replaced all the way down the wall….not just the corner.

That should be a little harder to do.

I don’t want to remember that part right now, though.

I choose to forget that part for the moment.