Exploring future options, unlimited

This could also be titled Creative Homesteading DYI 101. I am seeking suggestions, the more the merrier, and nothing is 'too whacked'. Sometimes the zany ideas have a touch of merit in them.

There are rules to this blog, mainly One: I don't want to hear "you can't do that", "that's foolish", "it won't work", "it's too much work". Comments that crush the exploration of all options are unwanted and undercut my 'sussing out' (zen?) possibilities.

Don't do that, and thanks in advance! :)

Situation: Ground heave. I've been aware of this since we moved in here, and I'm wondering if there's ways to minimize it. Depending on the season, the linoleum or tile lies flat or bulges across the floors. This starts breaking before too long then. Doors also warp some depending on the season. Presumed cause is the ground freezing / thawing, i.e. foundation.

One suggestion would potentially help the floors, but I'm not sure if it's adequate or ideal: using the floating, snap-together floor material. I'm not sure it would fully accept the seasonal fluctuations.

Installing heat two feet down around the perimeter might be useful, but does seem extreme, even to me. :)

I do have a shovel, and I'm not afraid to use it. (Fits under Exercise Plan.)

I also think it'd be a bit extreme to run a moat around the house with circulating, heated water year-round (okay, ideally solar-powered). "A friend of the Goldfish" - that'd be me? ... let's try to think of other alternatives! Anyway, one can imagine if that system failed and the consequences thereof, hmm?

How does one create and conduct heat, anyway? How does a cigarette lighter in a car work (except mine, which doesn't)? What does friction have to do with heat, and why did the swirling sand of the Dust Bowl generate electrical charges? (Take a crack at any of them if you have ideas.)

How does composting create heat? (Seems another extreme idea to pass on, but maybe something side-ways will creep into thought.)

If running water doesn't freeze as well as still... then motion? - Okay, so I can see my own small train circling and circling until I got dizzy, warming up the tracks.

Yes, those were all extremes! What about piping circulating through a hot water heater in a narrow barrier between "god-awful cold" and "what I want warm?" Solar thoughts, anyone, or creative use of old tires? Or hydraulics, which I only have a vague concept of?

It's okay... I learned something unusual (a couple things, actually) within the past few days. Talking with one lady, they'd 'added on' to a trailer, including a small basement and room -- next to it! Since I watched my dad dig out a basement under the old farmhouse, bucket by bucket throughout a winter, I've occasionally considered doing the same here.

It's usually a short trip back to sanity, in that it's nasty under this place. Tight, framing, concrete, drains and about enough room for an oiled human snake to slither through. Practical considerations also include fuel lines and stuff I totally don't want to tamper with!

The concept of "putting the basement BY the house" shocked my temporal lobes with the beauty of it. :) Half-breeding this, a storage area 'cut down and long' by one wall would add that air-break between killer-cold and me. And... if I put this under the side where the stairs are, it wouldn't have to be an obvious permit issue, especially if it's banked with dirt and bloomin' plants.

That's a concept I grew up with. My dad believed it of 'government interference' with his property, and I believed it as to Dad: What they don't know won't hurt them, and no sense in telling them. "If you don't ask, they can't say 'no'."

Same time, I could use a tornado shelter here, so that's darn near viable!

Now - I'll let my brain and the Universe chaw on that for awhile. If I trip over a stack of unwanted concrete blocks or anything in my travels, I'll fetch them home in case they have a place in the future.

Wisdom: things are only impossible until they become possible. I try not to limit the universe.

Before you blow off this message, it's not like I'm trying to build the Great Pyramid. And one of my favorite sayings: Professionals built the Titanic, amateurs built the Ark. -- and the Three Little Pigs houses... If the three pigs had got together, they'd have had a brick structure with straw insulation and wood finish inside - nice! :)

A brief detour in conclusion-jumping

(Before I ramble, which I feel is due after a full day, I will also add it's d--d cold again. Which is why there's an advisory for -20 to -35 F. wind chill tonight.)

So - I made it home from various ventures involving earning an income, getting chiropractically unkinked, and peace coalition meeting, shortly before 9:00 p.m., or in other words, in time to watch the newest on Paranormal State. (It's located next to where I live, so it's not much of a gap: Abnormal State.)

And there, on the screen, as the team is scolding a demon away, they're recording the area temperature on their camera. It dropped down to almost -20 for awhile, and when the 'good guys' declared it gone "Amen", the temperature jumped to +25!!!

Conclusion: when it's d--d cold out, it's an accurate description. Evil is lurking around us... I'd always suspected this could be connected, like when creeping cold would wind up my ankles, trying to suck the heat out of my body. It felt like 'cold devoid of life', and now I know why.

I immediately shared this insight with Sera and Valleri, causing Val to yell, "Amen!... Is it summer yet?"

This is about as close to reality-TV I get. :)

Cold facts:
Minnesotans aren't really grinning in the winter pic's - their gritted teeth are frozen that way until Spring happens. If we move our lips, they crack and fall off, and since one's nose tends to become an ice-maker, it's best to freeze said lips cracked so you can breathe. And the face masks? - They freeze up with the steam from exhaling, the theory being that a block of ice on your face is some protection from the wind.

*Fact: Chickadees are on valium. This is why they sound so cheerful when any sane birds would have gritted beaks. (I also suspect the nerves to their brains are frozen, thus creating delusions.)

*Fact: Water freezes, Vodka doesn't. Question: Which one should be in your emergency kit...?

Irony - they suggest keeping chocolate in your emergency kit... good luck with that, because you know you'll raid it before you ever 'need' it, and as soon as a warm day hits - then you gotta lick it out of the wrapper, don't ask how I know.

Minnesota mace: carried for bears, aggressive dogs, attack-killer-deer, cougars, and bears. I know exactly how a bear feels, grumbling out of a good sleep with hunger pains and young ones pestering at it - don't mess with them!

Minnesota mace: last seen in the glove box or trunk, good luck finding it if you ever need it.

Minnesota mace: odds are I'd have it pointed the wrong way, thus distracting myself from whatever was trying to chew me up by blinding myself. Some things are better off left lost.

Minnesota keys: Proper Minnesotans leave them in the ignition where they belong and find it a nuisance to have to have them at all. There's two practical points to this: half the stuff is too rusted and creatively rebuilt to interest anyone with the know-how to figure out how to start it, and anything else has an aggressive dog to guard it. Most of us wouldn't steal our own stuff, since we know the condition it's in, but we're gonna fix it "when Spring comes."

Right now we're looking forward to it, but if you check back in a few months, we'll all be exhausted and mosquito-bit -- "living the good life in God's country."

Delusions happen when your brain freezes. Conclusion: we're all delusional.