I am reading yet another book about building a tiny house. Not because I am necessarily planning on building one of those tiny houses on wheels, aka a woke trailer or one of those cute mini-houses that show in magazines – the grandmother cottages and accessory deweling buildings. So much is about so-called beauty of vinyl and other no-maintaince until landfill time materials.
But I’m not interested in any of those things, but I am still interested in learning all about the building process for houses and the benefits and pros and cons of various building materials from a sustainability and livability perspective. Despite all my reading, I find myself incredibly uneducated about what makes up buildings, and what really matters and what is woke glossy crap they show in the magazines.
Truth is not only am I not interested in your typical suburbanite vinyl house, even one that smells like cow shit out in country, but also don’t really care for cute. I want a place that keeps me dry and warm in the winter, and not much then that. Smaller is cheaper to heat and maintain. I much rather spend my money on land, then a roof to protect myself during inclement weather.
Building from the ground up seems awful wasteful and expensive. Indeed, probably what interests me the most is taking over somebody’s else’s failed dream, as long as I know what I am getting into. There are definately run-down hunting cabins and off-grid homesteads that are abandoned or sold for one reason or another. It would be fun to rip out rot, have big bonfires, and restore it to a functional if not beautiful structure. I don’t really care that much about beauty or even shitting in a bucket and showering outdoors, but it’s important to stay warm and dry in winter.
In many ways I don’t know if this all is true, but there is kind of sadness knowing the era of Big Red is coming to an end. That there will be no more of “X” adventure in the future. But I want a controlled decommissioning of him, when I can calmly unpack and take gear off him and preparation of moving to a new rig, while I still have a vehicle in good working order that I can take to car dealerships to learn what vehicles are available and ultimately trade in. I don’t expect to get a lot of money for a rusty-old 14 1/2 year old truck, but that’s not the point – it’s to retire him – before I’m left on the roadside of some rural road with no easy way to get all my equipment home.
Things were different in my late 20s and early 30s. I had the lift kit on the truck 10 years ago this December, I bought Red during early October 2011. I am now in mid-40s, maybe still a bit of a wild cowboy, enjoying many nights in wilderness. And I’m not totally ready to toss my hat, indeed I plan to get a camper shell on my next truck and move the solar and other equipment on the new truck. But it will never be as big or lifted. It was a fun decade – actually decade and a half – yet soon it will just memory and photos. Things will be a lot tighter for packing gear and camping, but it also will more snug and a heck of a lot easier to park in tight little parking lots and narrow city streets. And at least a few years of worry-free driving.
It’s not that I haven’t had sleepless nights with Big Red. Or drank endless amounts of beer and smoked some weed. Or had some fire, burned some wood and other things. And indeed, I will look back with fond memories of times that were. It’s not like I am giving up travel when I get my new rig, which inevitably will be more reliable, more fuel efficent and a heck of a lot easier to drive. Indeed I am planning that trip to Michigan next summer and probably West Virigina and New River Gorge next autumn. But it will not be same. Any new truck I get will be much smaller, not have all memories both good and bad over the years. There will be not another Big Red, just like I will never have enough day in my late 20s through my early 40s. Things just were different back then.
The next truck will likely last through my mid-to-late 50s and my early retirement. While I am still traveling and exploring, possibly doing the furthest and most interesting trips with my new rig, it will be a definite next step in my life. The next rig probably inevitably wll be used for commuting and probably at least starting out my to be built homestead, though eventually even it will get used up and need ot be replaced. New memories, but it won’t be the way it was.
Singing along with a little Aretha Franklin on this cold and dark early autumn morning as the work week is getting underway. I’ve always liked the Dione Warwick version but Open Tunes suggested this version and it’s pretty good groove to start a Monday with. Girly music but who cares.
It seemed like the percolator pot took much too long on the stove to make coffee ☕ this morning, but eventually it was done. I know I should get one of those woke drip coffee pots you have throw away every year but I am quite fine boiling coffee on my stove top like I have done for the past twenty years in an aluminum camp perculator. Maybe it’s all the aluminum I’ve exposed to my brain that causes the rot and makes me hate polyvinyl chloride everything, and not reading more of Edward Abbey but so much of that technology is obnoxious.
Showering 🚿and probably riding in fairlyearly, 🚲 depending how fast I get off my ass and in the shower and make breakfast up. 🍳 There is always work to do in the office and people waiting to stalk me down in my office, and IOI codes to create, and management life. Happy Monday, I wonder what surprises and broken code 🖥️ is waiting for me in the office when I arrive and rush jobs. I mean the woke bus company is no more at least they don’t run the express bus I didn’t ride anymore.
One of the best reasons for changing the oil in your truck 🛠️ besides keeping the engine from seizing up from all that sludge, is how smooth used engine oil makes your hands and that wonderful smell. Manure, grease, diesel smoke all so awesome. 🚜 I mean you can wash the oil off your hangs but it seems to linger about on your skins. But it causes cancer, just like smoking and drinking does and burning all that plastic crap. Plus now I have all that used motor oil 🔥 that I will recycle it with the plastics the way any real country boy does it. ♻️ Don’t tell a liberal.
I’m hoping to get out of town this weekend. 🏕️ Not sure where or what state I’ll end up by the weekend, and I’m saying drunk or stoned poney. The nights as long for a good fire, especially if I can get a pallet to bust up and use with aforementioned items. Maybe tear up some trails with my mountain bike and if I get around to buying my license I can shoot some tree rats and cook them up. 🐿️ That cold sure feels good on the face this morning as do most mornings in the autumn in the wilderness. Vest weather for riding in, along with jeans and long-sleeved shirt.
Got to wear my blaze orange 🔶 while riding this time of year as both the mornings and evening are dark. Didn’t last week but it’s safer with other drivers. Mornings and evenings sure are dark! 🌃 Autumn is coming, can’t you smell the silage being chopped? 🌽 Hoping there will be enough time for a brief ride out to the Fisher Boulevard parcel of Five Rivers after work today 🌸 to read 📖 and observe nature before heading home when darkness comes early!
Really almost intoxicating! Takes me back to the Finger Lakes National Forest and summer vacation. Away from the city, rural. I often question why do I stay as long as I do. I know it won’t be long before I’m traveling again – probably come Friday – still it’s tough living in the land of polyvinyl chloride siding and asphalt shingles in that soul sucking suburban office building next to the sewage treatment plant.
Weeks go by quickly. Maybe too quickly it seems. But soon enough I’ll be away from it all, back in the wilderness. And in the meantime those bike rides to work, the books and videos help to keep my sanity.
That’s the smallest size bag that had at Walmart this week but it’s good price and it’s less garbage. Also got a big jar of Mike’s Hot Sauce because they didn’t have the small bottles of brand I usually like and prefer plastic as it can be tossed into the white bag and disappear with help of a little lighter fluid and used motor oil.
Got motor oil and a filter, 🛠️ I was surprised that Walmart had both. No milk at Walmart though, at least not 1% or fat-free but I’ll either get that later in the week at Stewart’s we’re it’s fresher or at Hannaford if there are other groceries I need. Coffee has gotten made expensive, ☕ I’ll have to make sure to reuse the beans as much as possible, maybe pick some chicory roots along the way. I will change the oil when I get out to folks house. They replaced their washing machine, so I can do my clothes out there and empty out my compost bucket.
But first lunch, maybe read a bit then hike up Bennett Hill. 🏞️ The yellow squash I got at Meads Farm yesterday is good with that hot sauce, onions and a little of Stevia. 🍳 I forgot how good Mike’s Hot Sauce is. Has a lot of salt in it but no calories as it’s peppers, vinegar, and salt. I did add some Stevia for sweetness. Good for a change. The oil change should be easy in the truck, as wit the lift kit I can crawl under it without jacking it up, and I’ve gotten good at doing it over the years. When I get my new truck next year, though I won’t probably keep doing it myself though.
Put fix a flat in the back tire of my bike 🚲 and aired the tires up hard. I really should replace the back tire, next time I get a flat or before at least my extended Columbus Day Weekend in the Adirondacks along the Adirondack Rail Trail. 🚲 That fix a flat really does work well and I always now carry an air pump and spare tube on me.
