Nope! Don't make resolutions, cause I don't want to disappoint myself! I just do better! ;)

Sorry, never bother.

If I had any New year's resolutions clear I would add them. One thing I would like to do is spend more time cooking more intricate dishes. I just crave having different flavoured food. I seem to always end up with the same range of spices.

Another wish...

I can't call them resolutions because that would involve clear commitment.

.. I wish to improve my exercise routine. I would like to end up with a stronger body with more muscles :-) by the end of this year. Wish me luck :-).

Plus Happy New year to you john. I very much enjoy reading about your DD and your adventures A la cuisine and otherwise.

Happy New year to everyone else as well :-).

Not really resolutions. I know myself :) But, I too want to get more exercise and feel healthier and have more energy.

Edit to say : I live on quite a steep hill. A peleton of cyclists has just gone whizzing up the hill.....

Not resolutions, but project plans and schedules for the coming year.

The pandemic, possibilities of more pandemics, men-made "natural" disasters, national and international political conflicts, rising crime waves, inflation, supply chain issues, lack of solid resources for new infrastructures to deal with energy supplies -----------, all are realities in the near future.

With the shutting down of nuclear power plants, elimination of petroleum fuel usages and the rising use of electrification for transportation, I am totally lacking confidence in our preparations for a total overhaul of our national electric grid infrastructure systems.

One of the many projects I am working on: Here is me on the roof installing a 3,000 watt off-grid solar power system. It's entirely possible to DIY, Not that expensive, $80 for one solar panel, 9 panels plus some other components..

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

dcarch

that’s cool, dcarch. will you have battery storage? I thought the storage was the expensive part.

I have looked into PV but being in rainy, cloudy, gray Portland makes it difficult. Not impossible; a friend just six blocks away manages zero utility electricity cost with his grid-tie PV array, though he hasn’t added the storage yet. But his house is a ranch (high ratio of roof area to interior volume) while mine is a four square (low ratio). Anyway, we have too many projects stacked up on this house…

I, too, quit making resolutions several years ago. I now try to set a goal or two. To me resolutsions indicate you absolutely will do. Goals means you will work toward the goal over a period of time. So that fits better for me.

Last night had the traditional P for prosperty meal along with the collard greens. Pork (ham), black-eyed peas, collard greens, and for dessert a portion of a pecan praline.

My resolutions so far are:

- Business: to increase my revenue by a certain percentage, by expanding to a new niche.

- Home: to have the kitchen done by June, and start on another major house need then. Exterior painting, maybe.

- Health: to lose weight, increase flexibility and muscle mass. I need to add another exercise activity to cycling. Cycling is great for cardio and certain lower body muscles but as I get older, that’s far from enough. The problem is that i’m not ready to go near a gym yet.

- Hobbies: to get Ochoco up and running and start working on things. (Explanation below.) To build on this year’s rediscovery of fly fishing, and go camping.

- Cooking: To make more vegetarian dishes and fewer meat dishes. I’m not anti-meat for any philosophical reason, and my enviromental concerns can pretty much be addressed with smaller portions. I just feel like vegetables are something that I should be a lot better at. I’m okay at veg sides, but have no idea what to do if asked to produce a vegetarian dinner.

- Travel: we are going back to Europe in 2022, and no-one is going to be sick, dammit! If we stay in DD’s apartment or with our friends in Marseille, the cost will basically just be airfare which can be pretty affordable. Or, we’re thinking about going to the ’22 Biennale in Venice, which is something DD could do in Sept. That would cost a lot more, but perhaps my ”business” resolution will work out.

Ok, what’s “Ochoco”. It’s a 4000 sf industrial space that I and two others are renting, to be one guy’s machine shop (he makes tattoo equipment), another guy’s cabinet making shop (that what he does for a living), SWMBO’s pottery studio and metalwork/welding station, one kid’s screen printing studio, my darkroom - there’s a lot of distinct spaces, enclosed and mezzanine - and on the full height part of the floor, we’re going to install two car lifts and work on our cars - two of us are kind of gearheads.

Ochoco sounds really cool. REALLY cool. Especially if there’s room for a bit of respectful sharing. Having recently parted with some large tools, I’d love to have access to a cabinet shop for an occasional project.

My main resolution has to be about health. I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been by at least ten pounds, several resulting issues, some of which should be at least partially managable with diet. And I need to “get off the pot” and make medical decisions about that which is not.

I also need to find new purpose in life. I’ve had some significant distractions since I stopped working, but I’m now running out of excuses for having nothing to show for my days.

I guess I could say I’m in a general rut, and I’m the only one who can pull me out. So that’s my resolution.

FOAS, it is going to be really cool. The three of us (five counting SWMBO and the one guy's kid) will have to feel our way around sharing the space, but there is so much space we should be ok.

Health has, for most people I know, taken a hit these past two years. Isolation, inactivity, med procedures delayed, etc. For me, there's a weight level above which bad stuff starts happening, sounds like you're in the same boat. Thing is, if one "gains 15 lb" net, that is probably +25 lb fat -10 lb muscle, so the fat gain relative to total body weight is a lot! For me, probably 12% . . .

Most people I know have also seen their social and activity circles shrink, for obvious reasons. That is unhealthy too. So, yeah, most of us have a rut to pull out of.

2022 is, I think and hope, going to be a year of rebirth.

Yep good luck to us all!

What I meant about sharing was not the actual space which it sounds like there’s plenty of, but the ”stuff”. Like could you borrow the tablesaw and jointer for a small project.

John - "-----and on the full height part of the floor, we’re going to install two car lifts and work on our cars - two of us are kind of gearheads.---"

Go to youtube and check out conversion of gasoline car to electric car.

John and FOAS, re. exercise, garden projects are great. Last year, I re-built the chain link fence from 4' to 6' tall because of deer in the area. I also built a 100 foot long zip line for when kids visit.. All together there were 12 poles to be installed for supports. Each pole require digging a hole deep enough for 3 bags of 60 lb cement. All together, digging, pouring cement, transportation, etc. I did more than 6,000 lbs of work.

I am especially satisfied with the zip line.

dcarch

That is quite a project!

I stopped riding my 1974 Vespa several years ago, because I was riding bikes more, the Vespa was unreliable, and I was tired of sitting in a growing cloud of two-stroke smoke at stoplights. I've kept the scooter mouldering in the driveway, and this year I hope to start the project of converting it to EV.

I figure an adapter to mount the electric motor where the ICE motor is (slightly complicated as the motor, gearbox, clutch, and swingarm are all in a single piece), batteries where the fuel tank is, and hopefully a motor controller that supports regeneration. It only needs 20-30 miles of range - this will be a putt-putt or rather hmm-hmm down to the pub sort of vehicle.

If that does well, I will consider trying to convert an old car. Maybe a 2CV!

Great discussion JL! I don't make resolutions, but if I did, it would be to accomplish my 2021 resolutions!! I was supposed to be on a one year sabbatical and it has morphed into two. I am trying to focus and not get distracted, but it is pretty depressing that my progress in that area is one step forward and two steps back. So trying to work on solving that problem.

Like FOAS, I too have to come to terms with a health issue--high cholesterol. So trying to at least partially deal with that through diet. Not easy. One of the distractions is my mentally ill aging father, and he doesn't eat very well, so I have him over for dinner or bring dinner over to his house about three times a week. He hates almost all healthy foods and craves comfort food, which includes his four food groups--meat, fat, salt and sugar. Throw in some empty carbs for fun. For example, one of his favorite lunches is sloppy joes, which includes all of them! I could write a bestselling cookbook I think . . . Last night I made two loaves for dinner, one was meatloaf for my Dad and husband, and one was "wheatloaf" for me. Very time consuming. And I really should not have eaten the mashed potatoes which included butter and cream. I should have kept my serving of boiled potatoes apart from the rest . . . but I was rushing to get it all on the table . . .

Interesting about that workspace. I am tangentally involved in creating a "makers space" in my Mom's home town, which is being sponsored by the Friends of the Library group there. They are turning some library storage space into a creative makers space and they have matching funds from the state so we are helping them raise the remainder. I was talking to a women in the next town up who owns a framing studio, and they have one up and running there. For years I've wanted to use my inheritance to do something for my small town, like buy one of the old buildings, refurbish it, and turn it into a place where "makers" could do their crafts, teach others, and sell stuff. However, unfortunately I am seriously planning on abandoning my small town over the long term, too much rising micro-aggression from racists and fascists. The people who are flying the hate flags and behaving confrontationally in public probably haven't considered how they are hastening the already precipitous decline in the economic and cultural life of this area. Who wants to live surrounded by that on a regular basis?

Anyhoo, I digress. I'm hoping to learn more about how such spaces work, from a management perspective, as things progress in the places I mentioned. I am sadly, however, not much of a maker. I do canning and have toyed with selling some stuff, but would have to make it in a commercial kitchen, which is tricky. A lot of churches have them here, but they have to be inspected and meet inspection standards and a lot of churches have let that slide. I tried growing enough produce this summer to do all my tomato products but it was a PITA in the space I used--a community garden not well managed. I could buy bushels of farm grown tomatoes around here for a fraction of what it cost me to grow my own, when everything was factored in. So my dreams of running a little farmstead for even break even costs have died . . .

So my sort of plan for the next couple of years has been upended. Not so much by the pandemic but the fallout of it. So trying to imagine a new plan, but really, downsizing and "Swedish Death Cleaning" were part of the old plan and since I haven't finished those, and they fit in with any new direction I might be moving in, I am TRYING to stay focused and get that done . . .

You’re a good person, lpink.

My dad will be moving in with us - at least temporarily, if he can’t manage all our stairs (or if I can’t handle sharing a house with him) then I’ll rent him a single-level apartment within a 1/4 mile - and I guess we’ll be dealing with some similar issues.

I initially started looking for a shared space with my friend “M”, who also wanted to create a community resource. We did a little investigation of maker spaces, shared studios, incubators, community workshops, etc. Didn’t get too far into the learning. I pointed out that we both had day jobs ... and M is a computer geek/radical social activist while I’m a gearhead/investment manager, so our needs in a space are pretty different.

One thing I noticed was that maker spaces and community workshops seem unstable, in that they seem to come and go, or convert from open community resources to closed private facilities - at least the privately owned ones, we didn’t look at any publicly owned ones. The other notable thing was the quantity and diversity of tools, supplies, and other equipment needed - like a woodshop needs dozens of different power tools, with multiples of most, and even then only a few people can actually work concurrently because they’re all gonna want the same saw or planer or drill or sander or jointer or planer or whatever at the same moment. Most of the places seemed to rely on volunteers and donations/other support. The ones that were self-supporting commercial operations charged pretty stiff prices which I took as a better reflection of the actual cost of establishing and operating the facility.

One type of community ”maker space” that seems more do-able than most, to me, is what you mentioned: rental commercial kitchen. That is because only a few types of equipment are needed (burner, oven, grill, dishwasher) and they aren’t terribly expensive bought used; the biggest capital expense will be the hvac and fire suppression. Users can supply their own cookware and knives/utensils, that’s all easily transportable. Prep space is just sinks, tables and racks. In fact, most of the users could do the cooking at home - what you’re really providing is the legal status of a ”commercial” kitchen. I’d think the usage could be spread around the clock, with bakers working at night, caterers in the daytime, and folks making packaged products the rest of the time. There’s even niches like kosher or vegan or halal, that might need dedicated facilities. Finally, users will be making money from their cooking, so they can pay more than the hobbyists who often use other types of markerspaces. That’s all my theorizing, anyway.

On your town, I’m really sorry to hear that. I imagine you are a bit tied down because your dad is there? What sort of place would you want to move to, if you did? There is a lot of moving going on now - the pandemic and remote working and tight labor markets have really shaken things loose. Mobility is a good thing. The ultimate rut-breaker!

I’ve a plan to move myself, sort of … I want to get a place in Washington, in a small town on the Olympic peninsula, and make that my primary residence while (hopefully) keeping my Portland house because my friends are here. I’m ready for more open space, more green, less enervating stuff. Trying to figure out how to pull that off.