How tiny of a cabin
I am reading Charlie Wings’ The Tiny House Handbook. So much of the book is about tiny houses, as the name would suggest. I find tiny houses appealing though maybe not quite as small as the sub 400 square foot designs, especially those designed to be towed, suggest in much of the book.
Is a tiny home really a home, if it’s designed to be towed? In my mind such a structure is a trailer with a lot of things economized to fit the dimensions and weight limits of the road. The same can be said about many pre-fab structures. There is a lot of benefits to building a structure remotely in a warehouse or a factory – but also disadvantages of weight and size limits on what can be towed on the road, especially to remote sites.
At the same time, something on wheels or constructed off site seems to lack permanence. Truth is no building is permanent though there are many very old buildings still in active use. Obviously that is the most sustainable option. But it’s hard to see the plastic and plywood buildings that dominate the suburbs today having much permanence. Maybe an old house is better – if it hasn’t been hauled off to the local dumping grounds yet – then they must have done something right building it.
Building science is both fascinating and infuriating in my mind. Builders have many good ideas, they know what works and doesn’t. Durable materials aren’t always sustainable or easily disposed on site by burning or burying due to the toxic compounds used in them to provide a long life. Neighbors growing up when they got their new double wide to replace their old trailer burned the debris vinyl , siding scraps, waste materials and that sure burnt black and stunk. Decades before the burn ban! Wood just seems like a better option even if it involves covering it with toxic stains and paints.
I read a lot about sustainable building but I’m not sure what is real and what is woke glossy marketing. The sustainability community sure likes their toxic materials that maximize energy efficiency a lot. Even if it keeps drafts from leaking out, vinyl hardly seems like a good material to be using in building any more than the absolute necessary. What is going to happen to the vinyl eventually? Be burned? Be pushed back into the earth to leach plasticizers into the earth?
In many ways I do embrace the tiny house movement in that I crave simplicity, something like a very rustic hunting cabin. Something lit by a light bulb hung from a cord in the ceiling, heat by a basic woodstove , maybe no inner walls at all, just a simple brass or wooden bed like you might find in an institutional setting. For cooking, a simple camp stove or maybe upgrade to a small, old used gas oven converted to propane. Inexpensive electric refrigerator and freezer like everybody else has powered by solar. Outside shower and outhouse. When it’s too cold to crap outdoors a bucket works to be dumped in the poop hole. Rather than sending all that shit to the landfill.
Truth is that I hate how wires are hidden and even things like garbage cans are hidden in people’s houses. Heat comes from an invisible source, water is pumped in then disappears down a drain to a leach field or sewer with all the scum being collected to be eventually dumped in the landfill. I get how infrastructure is necessary but I hate how it’s all so hidden. If we could only go back to the way it was done 120 years ago, out in the country.
That autumn smell 🌽
There is something wonderful about the autumn smell of the countryside – the silage and hay being chopped – which often rises in the autumn breezes from farms far below the hillsides far above.
Just a weekend trip as I sing along with the Return of the Grievous Angel 🏕️
That’s what I’m reminding myself as I realize that soon enough I’ll have to take down camp and head back home. But it was good to get away. Last year I camped four days here but I also remote worked two of those days.
Sitting up at the logged area near Beaver Pond at the Prospect Mountain Ski trails. 🎿 Didn’t quite catch the sunrise out here though I did at camp sipping my reheated coffee ☕. Just out for a little walk before breakfast 🍳. Not in a real rush to take down camp and head home though I do want to get home relatively early this evening as I’m thinking about my clothes at the laundromat this evening though Monday after work honestly would be better.
Eyes 👀 were a bit irritated last night which is part of the reason I went to bed 🛏️ around ten o’clock plus I wanted to keep the fire 🔥 small so I could drown it with these bone dry conditions. It’s been weeks since they’ve gotten much rain here in Vermont. ☔ Looks like the coming week will remain dry too. Two weeks from now I should be well on the way to recovery from my eye surgery.
No rush to take down camp. 🚶 Out for a little walk along the ski trails, watching as the sun shines over the land. ☀️ I want to read 📖 for a while today, have some breakfast, and hang out. Thinking about visiting the Bennington Battlefield Monument or other preserves on the way home. I am also considering visiting a preserve or two on the way home, I was originally thinking about heading down to the Petersburg Pass ⛰️ and checking out the views that way but I’d think I would rather spend more time at camp and not be rushing home with darkness approaching. Another option would be to check out the covered bridges in North Bennington. Or there was the Robert Frost Stone House and Lake Paran Trail I’ve been meaning to check out. I was going to do it last year but I was remote working then and I didn’t have the time.
Part of it is anxiety too. 😯 It’s stupid but I swear I heard a new sqweak on my truck driving out here on Friday and Mom and Dad are on vacation 🏖️ and my buddies are down in the city. I want extra time in case Red 🛻 breaks down so I can catch a 🚍 or ride home in an emergency. It’s silly but it’s not like I’m that far from home but I’ve been stressing so randomly for a long time about my old truck. I’m going to miss having that big jacked up truck though come next year and having so much room for gear but a compact truck will be so much easier to drive and park in cities and parking 🅿️ lots.
I’m thinking about buying clams and corn on Thursday and taking Friday off for a long weekend at Rennselaerville State Forest. 🦪 Maybe renew my license and shoot some tree rats. 🐿️ Right now though that’s just a thought – got to check the syllabus and the seasons. I do like myself some good fresh protein. And drinking more beer and weed. I do need to see how much vacation time I have left once my time sheets are approved as I need the following Friday off for LASIK plus I want to go to the St Regis Canoe Area 🛶 to paddle and ride the new Adirondack Rail Trail probably on the leading up to Columbus Day Weekend.
What I don’t like about A. I. 🤖
There is a lot of criticism of Artificial Intelligence on grounds that it uses a lot of electricity or that it will take all of the jobs or that it will lead to the singularity and lead to machines taking over the world. But those aren’t the criticisms I find most persuasive – it’s that AI is highly centralized, controlled by a handful of corporations and easily regulated by the government. It’s expensive and it’s true power can be held in the few, artificial intelligence by definition as it is currently implemented is highly elitist and anti-democratic.
Personal computers are continuing to get much more powerful. Some smaller limited capacity artificial intelligence models can operate on them. Indeed, I have very little fear of AI that is locally run and is open source that anybody can download and use for free. Anybody can study the code, make modifications and use as they please with open source, locally run artificial intelligence. Governments and corporations can’t control that form of AI.
However much of what is AI currently isn’t that form – much AI used locally uses a network to connect to that distant government and corporation controlled data centers. And that’s dangerous as government and corporations can limit access at any time or raise prices dramatically. The reliance on external AI services also feeds the corporate and government surveillance networks. Most of the free AI services just feed your data into advertising networks, if not to police surveillance networks.
Web services and APIs sure are convenient. But also incredibly dangerous. They can disappear at any moment, data altered or censored invisibly. Things you do locally using downloaded data and open source software are not only usually faster, they are far more secure and reliable. Nobody can take away something you have locally, and if the open source software uses common libraries and follows the standards it’s likely very future proof. And it’s not leaking your private information right into the hands of corporate and government surveillance networks.
It’s so beautiful!
Out hiking on Prospect Mountain Ski Slopes in Vermont on this beautiful early autumn day. Listening to Pure Prairie League’s Amie, just soaking in all of the color a fraction that my camera can absorb on this Vermont morning!