Notes — Andy Arthur.org

Substantially complete 🚛

Andy | June 22, 2026

That’s what I said about my truck build when I got the solar panels mounted and the wires routed back to the bed. I noticed a loose battery lug and misplaced my hex key so I didn’t connect it up but that’s a 10 minute job from within the bed when I hook up the lights and USB charger in the bed probably on Tuesday evening.

Yesterday I went to the Gas Up 🚜 though dad didn’t join me as he was too tired. 😩 He was working in the garden 🫜 and other projects all day and I was disappointed because you never know how many more chances you have. Time lasts forever before it’s gone. I also finally got the solar panel mounted and wired, though I did not connect the fuse as I wanted to make sure all the battery connections were good and snug before I burned down the truck. And now it’s mostly doing the low amperage stuff in the cap, like the lights and USB chargers. Probably do less lights then I did in the past, as I just need enough to see at night.

I was hoping to get out of town next weekend and it’s still possible 🏕️ but the weekend weather look marginal and I’m thinking of just extending the Independence Day Weekend longer and leaving a week from Tuesday. I need to finish up wiring and I want to clean up the old truck so I can sell it some point over the month, and move all my camping gear over to my new rig. My new truck with the cap, kayak racks and solar on it now really is starting to feel like my truck. Without the cap, the SuperDuty didn’t feel like my old truck. But now it looks and feels a lot more the same like the old rig. Many people had advice on how I should change things, but ultimately I chose the option of the more things change, the more stay the same.

Going to be a rainy day, so I’ll be taking the bus in. 🚌 Hasn”t started yet but it’s definately coming. I guess I could take the SuperDuty in but I don’t like driving, and this gives me a chance to walk laps in the Plaza after work, and maybe walk in Knickerbocker Arena Walkway down to Broadway to get some more steps in. ♻️ Gives me a chance to donate one of those plastic milk bottles for recycling in the Empire Plaza bin on my way in too. Being green for a bit longer until I get the SuperDuty up and running. Then I want to get some Greek Yougurt too. Been avoiding it as No 5 Recycling is fake. 🌧 I think the high is going to be in the low sixties for today, unusual for early summer but it happens..

I am just kind of tired today. 😫 The weekend went by like a flash with all the work wiring up the truck. Maybe it’s rain or something groing around. Then again, dad was also tired yesterday. Now that I have the truck up and running, I really should plan out my summer, though so much of it depends on the weather.

Do I just want a burn barrel out back? 🛢️

Andy | June 21, 2026

You know one year into the journey about looking at home – actually a homestead – I often think a lot about what I really want in being a landowner which obviously has to include a house. I want land and a burning barrel out back, or at least some kind of incinerator that I can take care of my own burnable waste.

It would be so nice to only have to go to the transfer station once a year with a few bags of tin cans and glass for recycling, some scrap metal and a few other broken things that can’t be burnt. To not have to clean out or sort those inevitably discarded plastic yogurt cups and milk jugs, the junk mail and plastic wrappers that frozen fruit and vegatables that are just plain garbage with not even a possibility of being recycled.

I get tired of looking at the endless mounds of garbage in the city. It seems like every job I’ve had is overlooking a garbage dump, whether it’s in the sky scraper downtown, out in suburban buildings in Pine Bush or now in the data department in Menands. I really don’t want to be part of mine-buy-consume-landfill system. And I note with a burn barrel or incinerator you can break part of the cycle.

Truth is that Iike fire and it’s wonderful to be able to burn debris rather then haul it off your land. Sure is nice when you have a roaring fire up in the woods, to be able to toss that empty yogurt container or onion wrapper in the fire, and it disappears into smoke. Fire is great, it not only disposes of material, it warms you and provides light and entertainment.

But also I don’t just want land to have a burn barrel – I want to be able to homestead, produce as much of my energy and food on site without reliance on the primarily natural gas and coal-fired grid, instead primarily making electricity with solar and heating with wood.

I also want to turn my compost into chicken and hog feed, and rich soil to grow things, rather then keep buying things packaged in plastic, sending my money off-my-land and into the mound on the outskirts of town rather. And to the extent possible, return poop and urine to soil using an outhouse, composting toilet or humanure system.

Truth is I have a real problem with the buy – consume – landfill way of doing things that removes one entirely from the costs of production and disposal, which isolates you from the smells and pollution, which makes everything so fake.

What do I want my summer vacation to actually look like? 🏕️

Andy | June 20, 2026

New adventures or relaxed and laid back?

The trip from North Harmony State Forest to Nordhouse Dunes in Michigan is giving me pause. While on paper I can do this leg of the trip in one day, I worry about in practice. Google Maps says it’s 550 miles and 7 hours and 53 minutes which can be done in one day but that ignores the major cities it routes you through with delays and stressful urban traffic. I could overnight somewhere in Ohio or Lower Michigan but the options are pretty limited for quiet dispersed camping as much of the lands around there are either developed or private farm lands.

I’m not totally against staying a few nights in a campground but it seems like just more time lost in the journey and a lot of days on the road. In contrast, just going to the Finger Lakes National Forest might be boring but also quiet and relaxed. Should summer vacation be relaxing but the same old? Or should I create a new exciting journey seeing more of America? It’s the 250th anniversary of America and maybe my best chance to travel before my parents get too old with a brand new and hopefully reliable rig, still I don’t know if I want to spend so much of my vacation cooped up in side of the cab of my truck driving.

Something I want to do more in my forties and into my fifties – travel to new places 🛻

Andy | June 20, 2026

Next year I am thinking of getting a new, small, reliable fuel efficent pickup truck. It won’t be cheap but after 14 years with Big Red I’m due for something newer and more reliable that will open up more options for travel beyond my usual haunts in New York through West Virginia.

In 14 years from now I will be 56, going on 57 years old. It will be 2038, and I will potentially able to take state retirement with more then 25 years in with the system. Maybe it will be meger retirement compared to if I stayed longer, but I if I can focus on building my off-grid homestead full-time and be mostly self-sufficient, in end does money really matter? But that’s something more for the late 2030s.

In the mean time, I want to explore and see more of America. What is it really like living in Rural Midwest tor even the West? I don’t really have much interest in seeing the Grand Canyon or Zion National Park. I much rather spend my time on backroads in my pickup truck, camping on a dirt road in some little pull off along the way in National Forest. Have a fire in an informal stone ring, spend the night in the wilderness. See places that aren’t in the tourist brochures.

People are like buying a new truck is a terrible idea. Depreciating asset! Poorhouse life! Less money to invest! Don’t you want a big house with vinyl siding and an asphalt roof in a suburban neighborhood where people would be horrified at plastic in a burn barrel and smell of hogs? Rundown homesteads are hardly an investment, don’t you want to be a successful professional, a unit director and have a nice place in suburbs so close to work and giant mounds of garbage that are everywhere these days?

Truth is I want to get away from the giant mounds of garbage, even if my old truck of the past decade and a half is soon to be shred and mounded up in one of those piles. I don’t want a plastic picket fence or granite counter tops or all the things that “wealthy folk” have in their house. I want a life that looks like a run down hunting camp, then something invested in. But in the mean time, I want to travel and see more of Real America and not the plastic crap towns and canned tourist parks they advertise in those glossy magazines that aren’t even that great for starting fires.

Don’t you want to …

Andy | June 20, 2026

One of the most annoying things in this world is when people either say, “don’t you want to …” or actually implying a similar thing, suggesting there is a right way to live one’s life, and that any other way is foolish. Often I see this phrase most frequently used in advertising, sometimes that explicitly but also sometimes very subtlety in other, quite obnoxious ways.

1. Expressing an Expectation

In many cases, the speaker already assumes the answer is “yes.” They aren’t asking if you want to; they are subtly telling you that you should want to.

Example: “Don’t you want to go to the party?” implies the speaker thinks it’s a good idea and expects you to agree.
How to respond: Treat it like a regular “Do you want to” question. Answer “Yes” if you do, or “No” if you don’t.

2. Disguising Opinions or Advice

Sometimes this phrase is used to offer unsolicited advice or a nosy opinion without being direct.

Example: “Don’t you want to wear a jacket?” is often a polite way of saying “I think you should wear a jacket because it’s cold.”
Example: “Don’t you want to settle down and have a family?” can be a way of pushing traditional societal expectations.

3. Seeking Validation or Engagement

The phrase can also be a way for someone to prompt you to ask them more questions about a topic they want to discuss.

Example: “Don’t you want to ask about my vacation?” implies the speaker is waiting for your permission to share details they are excited about.

4. Guilt-Tripping or Judgment

In some contexts, it can feel like a judgment on your parenting or personal choices.

Example: Being asked “Don’t you want to hold your baby?” while you are busy preparing formula can feel like an implication that you are being uninvolved or lazy.