Last Friday in June 2026 😶🌫️
Rain held off until fairly late last night, now it’s cloudy but supposed to be clearing out. I was hoping to have more sunlight early as I wanted to check the solar to make sure all is good with the meter because I left for work, but it should be good after testing the connections last night.
The solar and batteries are hooked up now on the truck, 🔋 as of last night everything is charging. Wiring up a battery cable last night, it slipped and there was a massive arc flash when I accidentally touched a hot battery cable to the frame until a fuse popped. It was bright, 💥 especially as it was getting dark and it was inside my truck cap when it happened. Things now should be charging well.
Still need to wire up some lights and USB ports in the truck cap, 💡 but other then that, things are ready to go. Sunday I’ll move over my camping gear 🏕️ and clean out the old truck, get pictures and get it listed in a few places next week, or maybe I’ll wait until the 7th once I’m back so I don’t have to worry about it while I’m out of town, as I’m leaving Tuesday.
I plan to take off Tuesday afternoon, along with Wednesday and Thursday, and head up to the Adirondacks from June 30th to July 6th. 🎇 I want to do the second half of the weekend up at Moose River Plains, but the half will be either Speculator or maybe Piseco-Powley, though I’m kind of tired of Potholers. I might need to work remote on Wednesday or Thursday, so it might very well be Speculator. We’ll see how things play out.
Continuing to figure out the MapLibre GL API, 🖥️ I want to start using that more and more to do maps on the blog, and eventually replace leaflet with it, but the API is much different then what I’m used to. But the power of 3D Maps offers a lot of potential and is kind of cool. It depends how much downtime I have at work this summer. Need to look at get getting some e-books and audio books to enjoy on my six-night wilderness adventure 📚 starting next Tuesday.
On this most sultry of afternoons I got reading more about Missouri… 🗻
On this most sultry of afternoons I got reading more about Missouri… 🗻
Missouri has long been on my short list of states to check out and considering moving to. It’s supposedly quite hot and humid in the summer and the winters can get quite frigid, although I’ve told it’s as cold as the Albany area in the winter.
Missouri fascinates me as it’s very Midwestern but they still have vast forests and mountains. It’s super cheap to live there compared to New York and the people are laid back and permits, regulations and taxes are far less than New York. It makes it quite possible to own a good piece of land and be able to afford so much more than what one can obtain in New York. It’s usually said to be one of the best states for off grid living, hunting, trapping and enjoying the outdoors.
That said, it is hot there all summer long. In an off grid property, that can make it hard to cool as air conditioning takes a lot of energy, although a well designed structure probably is livable with good fans and drinking lots of water.
COR TEN Steel
I wonder if the Statue of Liberty would have survived as long as it has, if it had been made from COR-TEN steel rather than Copper in the harsh marine environment it exists in. COR-TEN is a wonderful material (besides leaving rust stains) but it doesn’t hold up well in areas exposed salt and moisture continously.