This has lately become one of my favorite phrases to mock the ever so common home for sale posting I see on Zillow and other sites – buy this rural house with a long commute on one acre of land!
You might ask where I came up with such a phrase, but it really go back to my days in my youth as a Boy Scout in Clarksville, that small hamlet in the Town of New Scotland off NY 443. We met at Clarksville Church, and during times in spring and the fall when either Meadow Brook Dairy’s Van Wie or Tommell Cattle where spreading, it could definately be pungent at times from the dairy-air. I just remember the look at that farm kid whose dad picked them up, after quite apparently working with silage and not showering after. Now pungent! As boy scouts, and young people we made a lot of jokes, mostly very mean spirited about farm folks and smell of cattle.
Clarksville is very much a small town, hamlet. It smells like cow shit at times, and it is quite small and walkable, though there are few businesses one can actually walk to as general store is long gone and they’ve struggled to even keep a pizza place open. But truth is there is probably some appeal to living in a small town, like you probably know your neighbors and there aren’t the issues of big cities like homeless and drug addicted people. Not that you see much of them outside of downtown. But also so many of those houses, especially in the hamlet, are so close together. Rural living but not without a lot of land.
Rural hamlets reminds me a lot of campgrounds. I guess it’s camping to sleep in a tent or a camper on a driveway packed right in next to another camper. I mean, I guess camping in a campground in strictest sense is camping, it’s not the same as sitting in a house or an apartment downtown, though many of the tow-behind campers are essential miniature homes on wheels. And in many cases, people who build their own homes, or need inexpensive living in a rural location live in those RVs.
But at least in my mind, that’s not camping. It’s certainly not the kind of camping I enjoy, where in most cases the nearest campsite is a 1/4 mile or farther away, per the requirements of the Adirondack State Land Master Plan, or just the general terrain of the back country. Places where I can shoot guns, listen to music, have a roaring fire and even burn a plastic trash or smoke some grass without anybody caring one way or the other. I have to say all my time camping in remote back country, far away from people kind of informs how I want to live, and even 5 acres, much less 3 or less acres, just seems much too close to live to anybody else. Yet, it’s hard to find places like that – just like it’s hard to find places that I like camp at that are less then hour, and often as much as two hours away from home.
The thing is so many even rural houses, are essentially suburban these days with high-speed internet, large televisions, propane or oil climate control, curbside weekly garbage pick-up and of course essentially unlimited grid-powered electriciiy. If a rural house is not actively homesteading or farming, it is almost completely divorced from landscape, except maybe when they step out their door and take a deep breathe of the dairy air in spring time. And much like camping in a crowded campground, with RVs and tents back to back, what do you get with such living, besides a long commute, quickly tired and junked automobiles and large gas bills for your 4×4 pickup driven to city every day?
It’s fine, that was the forecast and tomorrow I can’t ride in either as it’s going to a meeting after work with Save the Pine Bush. Wednesday through Friday I should be able to ride in and possibly this weekend I’ll ride trail and maybe do an overnight in wilderness 
if the weather is good. Nice not having to work evenings or weekends in March. 
Obviously the farmers have faith in the changing seasons and so should I. I still want to get a night in the wilderness and have a big fire 
and I know those days aren’t that far away. 
Maybe I could ride in but I don’t want to risk getting soaked. 
Lots of rain on the radar. Plus there are the drunks to deal with on the roads in the evening. 
It’s fine, I’ll bus it in. 
though I wanted to wait until to tonight for a couple of reasons. 
I am thinking of washing my truck tonight, and I figured it would be good to do after the salt is off the roads. Plus it breaks up the week going shopping after work, and Monday nights are often slower at the grocery store, with better stock 
and less crowds. Especially on Saint Patrick’s Day. Hopefully get home before dark after shopping, so there aren’t drunks on the road, though it’s not like it’s a long trip to the supermarket. 
I’ll drive carefully and if there are drunks on the road this evening, give them lots of room.
It sounds silly but I’m trying to get away from packaging, as much as possible in my life, especially those thick plastic packages that burn black and are noxious. 
Recycling is such a scam, but I also want to avoid glass which never goes away and metals which don’t burn though probably actually have some value in recycling. There is some disadvantages to traditional laundry powder, like it’s not as effective on difficult stains, but it seem so much less wasteful then those big plastic jugs. 
all of the time at camp — and even in summer at home — and burnt them up, but truth is it kind of stinks and those chemicals are nasty. 
But I’ve really tried to get away from so much plastic, especially now that I’m looking more at my own land, and I don’t want to make a mess of it even if I don’t want to go to dump with bags and bags of garbage every week. 
Used to think it was fine if it burnt up completely — silly greenies — but I think it’s better to avoid consuming such things in the first place. 
I might drive a big jacked up truck, but I do try to be more sustainable even if I don’t have that off-grid property yet and still buy some things in plastic. Still, I prefer to have more compost then things to burn these days, no matter how much fun watching dripping plastic might be.
from the summit a few years back. I also was curious to see how windy it was at the top and get some exercise in after the corn beef and cabbage 
. Got to enjoy it while I can still can because I know such things aren’t long in the world. With so many older people, they are with you forever until they aren’t. Less windy 
than I expected, there was some pretty good gusts out there. The whole weekend has been windy. Not good for my parents though, the weeping willow tree that overhangs their house is in bad shape, and all it needs to come down before it takes the house. Hopefully it won’t come down before they can have someone take it down not on their head. I would never plant a soft-wood like a weeping willow near a house, or any structure I cared about.
surveying the shape their woodlot and land is currently in. Been reading a library book about managing wood lots. Their wood lot could use a work for sure — getting rid of all the trash species and brambles and getting more light in there for desirable species. I don’t know if I’ll eventually end up owning it when they pass away but my sister has her house up in Saratoga and I’ve been looking at a homestead, and they have 5 acres barns and forests that could be restored with goats, pigs and chainsaws. 
Might be who I end up selling it to if I do decide to move out west after I retire and my parents pass.
that I ended up turning on the portable electric heater and my heating pad. Then I dosed off 
apparently because sleeping into six o’clock wasn’t enough. Been in bed 
and asleep most nights by eight. Truck seems to be running good. I am excited to get out of town, maybe sooner then later. 
Between the wind and dryness, I decided this was not a good weekend to camp. And I was not wrong on that fact – 
not only was it gusty both days but also kind of gray and not nice. Rained a bit while I was driving but to folks but not a big washout yet but rain and potentially severe storms is coming later. 
but I did get a fair amount of reading done, more work on my taxes, got that new shifter lever on my bike and chain. 
I am not happy with chain skipping but I’ll have to decide if I will need to put the old chain back on or replace the cassette. Crankset is a bit sticky with the new chain, but it’s rapidly getting better as the chain stretches. Maybe I should put the old chain on, but it’s not that bad and once I break the new chain in a bit more maybe it will be good. Kind of don’t want to wear on the crankset more as that’s expensive but I’m kind of hoping it will stretch enough to keep the old cassette. I can always swing by Steiners to get a new cassettee and have it on in five minutes myself, but I only swapped the chain thinking it good maintenance. 
With the rain though, I’m not planning to ride in tomorrow at any rate. I’m annoyed, what can I say.
