Everyone tells me my truck bed is too short. It isn’t; at 6′ 8″, it’s actually longer than “Big Red” and plenty comfortable to sleep in. The bed only looks small because it’s sitting on a one-ton chassis, which typically sports a long bed and a quad cab. While a long bed might be nice, I don’t miss the headache of parking or turning a truck that size.
This specific configuration is perfect for the backcountry. The one-ton straight axle is nearly impossible to knock out of alignment, which is exactly why the Forest Service and DEC rely on them. The shorter wheelbase also makes it much easier to navigate tight forest roads and small campsites. Plus, the higher cab height allows me to use a streamlined, flat-roof camper shell without hitting my head. To top it off, the 410-amp dual alternators can handle a heavy electrical load and extra batteries without breaking a sweat.
The first wilderness part of the Northville Placid Trail is remarkably steep for this part of Adirondacks, climbing 700 feet over a ridge on the first mile, then dropping down 100 feet to Mud Lake over a half mile, then over the next four miles you lose about 550 feet elevation until you reach West Stoney Creek and the lean-to.
“This cute and realistic bunny robot toy is perfect for Easter.“
That’s what the advertising seen on my blog and other websites like New York Times wants to let me know about. It’s a cheap, likely Chinese-made with slave labor, robot toy controlled by an inexpensive microcontrollers and DC brushed motors designed to give a child a few hours of joy before quickly tossed into a garbage can, crushed and hauled to the local garbage heap on the outskirts of town. Found based on scam advertising sites you can pay upwards of $60 for a toy that can be found on AliExpress for about $4.50 in bulk.
Many parents might think this is a wonderful gift compared to giving a live rabbit to a child. At least in popular press, it is reported that animal shelters are flooded with unwanted pet rabbits after the Easter holiday. The press also reports extensively on how children and their parents are burdened to feed, water, and empty manure out of the rabbit’s cage for years after the gift of a live rabbit, as if it’s their moral obligation to keep the pet alive.
This is a prime example of what is wrong with society today.
The truth is domestic rabbits are prolific breeders, they are not endangered species. They are easily dispatched by dislocation of the neck or a blow to skull. They provide quality meat that is extremely low fat and nutritious and are easy to gut and dress. The carcass can be fed to chickens or pigs or buried and quickly will rot away, providing valuable nutrition to the soil. Compared to being a lump of toxic chemicals and plastic, it will not harm the environment while providing a meal.
But instead, too people have this cute, radical animals rights notion about livestock and nature that they would rather buy a polluting plastic rabbit robot then something they can kill and cook.
If Jesus Christ was brought up on trial today for the crime of treason, I often wonder how would the media cover the trial. Would he be portrayed as an angry mad-man, leader of an angry cult that committing unthinkable crimes against the state? Somebody declared a menace to God and man, most deserving of his painful death on cross? I am sure the District Attorney would be featured in a press conference, discussing how long-sought after justice was finally served against Jesus Christ — and that his death on the cross would deliver long-needed closure for the victims.
The television would also bring on voices of people who were victimized by Jesus Christ, for his acts of treason, organizing people against the lawful orders of the state. They might briefly mention his work on behalf of the common man, but argue that the way he went around confronting the Alderman and the rich power brokers, isn’t the way forward. The media would attach all of the bad actions of his followers to Jesus Christ, the violence, the hatred, all of which Jesus was not responsible for as the leader of the common man against the rich.
As they say, Christ has risen after Pontus Pilas declared him a menace to God and man, nailed him to a cross in what he said was a just persuit, buried him a cave, until he pushed the stone away and either he went to heaven or was grave robbed with his body dumped in a municipal landfill somewhere. But yeah, the story about the labor leader buried in a mound of garbage on the outskirts of town, isn’t the story the teach in church with the Easter bunny and colored eggs. At least they’re affordable now.
Or so the story goes. 🍫 Kids everywhere are looking forward to their Easter baskets with candy and the plastic grass that is fun to watch melt and burn when tossed on the trash fire. 🔥 All that sugar is good, though I stay away from it a lot more now that I am into getting healthy, though this morning I did have pancakes with so-called wild blueberries, lemon, and lots of shredded carrots. 🥕 Stocked up at Market 32, which was swamped yesterday, 🛒 with people buying shit before the Easter Holiday. 🐰 Definately some signs of spring at the Pine Hollow Arboretum, more to come soon. Also rode out Five Rivers 🐸 via Meads Lane so I could ride past the moo-moos 🐮 and smell that farm dirt. Spring peepers are loud.
Spring is definately coming. 📐 Yesterday, besides recreating in the woods, 🌲 I also spent some time trying to figure out the ins and outs of designing my new camping rig, 🚚 doing some measurements and sitting in the bed of the truck, deciding I can get away with a flat-roof cap on my truck, as the cab height is so much higher – and the bed deeper on a SuperDuty then a half ton truck.
Also discovered the bolts on center dash, 🔩 that I can safely mount the CB radio bracket too. Don’t love how it blocks my windshield view a bit, but I think it’s the best place for the CB. Will need to get some longer bolts and drill new holes in mount, and maybe some washers for spacers, but it should fit close to stock. Wire it to upfitter switch for power. Will need to get a new hood mount for antenna, as it’s different then on Silverado but I should be able to reuse most other components. Also going to order a water-proof amplified speaker so I can use the PA function on CB radio. 📻 Makes a lot of sense if you want to add a PA Speaker to install it in the same run in antenna wire.
As far as the electrical for camp, 🔋 going to mount the two deep-cycle lead acid batteries in the bed of the truck. Will need a plastic battery box for the one currently under the hood of Silverado, but they are inexpensive at Albany Wally World. I want eventually to switch one of batteries over to Lithium Ion Phosphate, but the problem is they can’t charge in cold, which is a problem for winter camping, and LiPo requires a DC-to-DC charge controller, while lead acid can live with being charged in an unregulated fashion from either the solar or alternator. ☀️ Probably always keep at least one of accessory batteries lead acid for that reason. For isolation between the starting batteries and house batteries in the cap, going to use the voltage switch I use for charging the starting batteries from solar on old truck, but will use a diode to monitor the voltage on both sides of relay – and connect the batteries whenever the solar or alternator is producing sufficient voltage. Mounting all the hardware in the bed, on the shelf I built for camping.
Going to order the truck cap next weekend, 🏕️ probably go for an ARE Cap purchased through Ruth’s in Albany Pine Bush, but I could also see if there is a local LEER dealer. ARE certainly offers the most options, and while their build quality is so-so and price not the cheapest, it is nice how you can get a cap built exactly as you want it. I am thinking the flat cap, with the roof tracks, the side windows that slide open and open-out, slide open front window and boot between the cab and cap, to allow air to flow between the two, while keeping out most of rain, moisture, dust. Then I can also run an extension cord into the cab when I want to work on my laptop plugged into the inverter. 🔌 I will move the solar panel and racks to the new truck, I want to add a second solar panel to double the output, probably just do another 100 watt Renology panel. I think my inexpensive PWM charger controller can handle two in parallel. If I have to, I’ll bump up to a MPPT controller, it would certainly improve panel outputs.
So yeah, at least in my head, I’m building out my new rig. ⏰ A lot depends on how long it takes to get my new truck cap, I am thinking 10 weeks, just knowing how these things go, but hopefully that’s a pessimistic number. I don’t remember how long my old cap took to build, I know it was a few weeks or months, but also it will be second week of April soon, certainly the busy season from camper shell manufacturers, and things just take longer now then it used to be. I can’t really do much electrical or move things over until I get the new cap, as I am mounting things primarily in the bed, to avoid cutting or modifying thing too much on the new truck. And that will keep wire runs much shorter, reducing voltage drop and wiring costs. ⚡ I am just trying to keep things much neater, much professionally done, and organized unlike some of mistakes I made when I was younger, and how the old rig evolved over time, as my needs grew and changed.
So I have a lot to plan out, but I will do it better this time, I tell myself. 👨👨👦 Today in the mean time, it’s off to visit Mom and Dad and visit with the family for Easter. It will be nice to be able to drive on my own for once. Try out driving the big truck, now that I got the mirrors and seat properly adjusted, and I’m figuring out all the controls. In many ways, it’s a chance to build my rig correctly for camping, after years of things being less then perfect 👌 on the old set up. Nobody can predict gas prices ⛽ – the futures markets are calling for a price crash by late summer into autumn and a recession – but only time will tell as the Iran situation is still very fluid. I kind of want to also try out hill descent control, I thought about hiking Bennett Hill 🚶 and after that just playing around on the backroad to see how it works in practice. I bet it would be awesome for some of those dirt roads I drive, especially those long twisty hills in West Virginia. I don’t know though, it’s going to be a rather rainy day. ☔ And there are many nice summer days ahead.
The home of the Holstein Breed Registry, located on a small side-street/driveway in downtown Brattleboro. Any pure-bred Holstein cow in America will have papers filed at this place. https://www.holsteinusa.com/
As winter’s grip begins to loosen, one of nature’s most distinctive and endearing signs of life emerges: the pussy willow. Belonging to the Salix genus, these hardy shrubs and trees are celebrated not for vibrant petals or heavy scents, but for their soft, silvery-gray catkins. More than just a seasonal decoration, the pussy willow is a biological marvel, a cultural icon, and a resilient survivor of the landscape.
Biological Adaptation and Early Bloom
The pussy willow’s most famous feature—its “fur”—is a sophisticated survival mechanism. These fuzzy catkins are actually the plant’s flower clusters, appearing in late winter or early spring before the leaves even unfurl. The dense, silk-like hairs act as insulation, trapping heat and protecting the delicate reproductive organs from the biting frost of a transitional season.
Biologically, pussy willows are dioecious, meaning individual plants are either male or female. The male plants are typically the stars of the garden, producing the large, plush catkins that eventually turn a dusty yellow as they release pollen. The female catkins are generally smaller and more utilitarian in appearance, eventually producing seeds that drift away on the wind like tiny tufts of cotton.
A Global Cultural Icon
Beyond the swampy thickets where they naturally thrive, pussy willows hold deep symbolic meaning across various cultures. In many Eastern European traditions, particularly in Poland and Ukraine, pussy willow branches serve as a substitute for palm fronds on Palm Sunday, representing spiritual renewal and protection.
In East Asian cultures, particularly during the Lunar New Year, the plant is a staple of festive decor. The budding branches symbolize the coming of prosperity and growth, often adorned with red and gold ornaments to invite good fortune into the home. Whether used as a religious token or a secular symbol of luck, the pussy willow universally signals the end of dormancy and the triumph of life over winter.
Environmental Utility and Gardening
For the gardener, the pussy willow is a study in contrasts: it is remarkably easy to grow but requires strategic placement. These plants are “water-seekers,” thriving in damp, poorly drained soils where other species might suffer from root rot. This makes them excellent tools for erosion control near riverbanks and ponds.
However, their thirst is legendary. The root systems of a pussy willow are aggressive and extensive, known to infiltrate sewer pipes and septic lines in their quest for moisture. When managed correctly through “coppicing”—cutting the shrub back to the ground every few years—the plant remains a manageable and productive source of decorative branches.
Conclusion
The pussy willow remains a beloved fixture of the early spring landscape. It bridges the gap between the bleakness of winter and the lushness of summer, offering a tactile and visual reminder that life persists even in the cold. From its specialized biological “fur” to its storied place in human tradition, the pussy willow is far more than a simple shrub; it is a resilient ambassador of the changing seasons.
