Living off the grid we use solar lanterns, LED headlamps and flashlights for everything. Especially here in Alaska in the winter!!! We wake up hours before the sunrise and then halfway through the day wonder what to vlog about.... So we made this poorly lit video to show you all what goes on around the lodge while it's still dark. The sun is in the sky for less than 4 hours so we have plenty of darkness to test out the good, the bad, and the handiest lighting gadgets.
I don't know, with 20 odd hours of darkness, I think I would want a bigger battery bank, more solar and a generator. Headlamps and solar lights are fine, but I can't imagine spending so much of my day in the darkness, without a little more light, especially a golden warm white light. 💡Maybe you get a bit of it from sitting next to wood stove. Regardless, it has to be a heck of a life living off-grid in Alaska.
The truck purchase is a commitment until 2040 and my retirement. At one level it is not far away, yet it still strikes me as a very distant number. Maybe I’ll junk the new truck before then or stay at my job into my late fifties and early sixties, but that’s really not that plan at this point.
Don’t you know the massive depreciation when you buy a new vehicle?🛻 So people keep telling me, still I don’t want somebody else’s reject, that isn’t going to last very long if I’m spending the time and money to have a truck cap built for it, wire up all the camping equipment and gear in the truck. Still it’s so much fucking money, compared to a 25-year old Honda Civic, which I am sure is great to take your job at the Shopping Maul selling perfume at Teenager Stinks-a-Lot. 🧴 And just the idea of buying a big-block engine pared to a diesel transmission, even with 3.73 gears while the Middle East is blowing up just seems like madness. ⛽ That one-ton axle SuperDuty will look really nice when gas is $15 a gallon, with a 10-gallon limit at your local gas station, by reservation at a set time and prepayment over the internet only. It’s so easy to get your 10-gallons of fuel for $150 – just apply for your spot at the gas station online, pay, drive to the gas station, scan your QR Code from your phone at the pump, and off you go with your 10 gallons for $150, with a 34-gallon tank. I noticed one of the first things advertised when I was researching those big trucks was supplemental gas tanks, as 34-gallons really ain’t enough if your towing a bunch of cows 🐮 and getting 9 MPG.
Maybe I should just become a greenie and buy an electric car. ⚡ though maybe not a Tesla as only fascists drive those cars, and they are full of screens and electronic crap that the SuperDuty I looked at lacked by modern standards of the past decade, even if everything was pretty much computer controlled beyond the keyed ignition and the tiny screens that have probably been in the parts bin at Ford since 2012 or so. Certainly the interior of that truck reminded me more of my 1998 Ford Ranger then mom’s fancy Honda with all the big screens. I kind of hated how hard the steering wheel was and how plasticky everything was in that truck, but it’s a base model. ⚙️ That TorqueShift diesel transmission shifts like a diesel, harder then old 3-on-the-tree manual. Blind spots sucked too, has zero technology like blind spot monitoring, though I think that’s kind of gimmick. And I don’t want something fancy. But yeah, $63.5k OTD, no thanks. I guess if I end up going the SuperDuty route, I should shop around this upcoming week with email quotes. 📧 Maybe nobody will want my business, but honestly, if there are so many of those big trucks rotting on the lots, some dealers are going to be getting tired of paying floorplan interest and getting paid instead.
It’s just something I’ve been thinking about a lot, 💭 it’s more then just the truck. Do I want to keep living in the suburbs, riding my bike to work most days? 🚲 Do I want to buy a house and car commute to work? Build the homestead now, or wait? 🐐 Getting old so quickly. But I still enjoy my adventures in the wilderness, 🏕️ and with the camper shell and a bit more equipment, in my mind a SuperDuty would be perfect. 👌 I get so worn out thinking about and studying trucks, watching these videos about both dealer scams (DON’T YOU KNOW WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IS A 1996 HONDA CIVIC FINANCED AT 28.3% INTEREST OVER 96 MONTHS) and diasater trucks with blown transmissions and engines. I heard somewhere on the internet that 99.999999% of Godzilla engines have expensive lifter problems. Don’t you want an EXTENDED WARRANTY SCAM ? 🛠️
I get so tired, I was asleep by 7:30 PM last night, 🛏️ and then awake by 3:30 AM and found myself cooking down chickpeas this morning by 4 AM, then back in bed for a brief nap listening to another podcast, 📻 and ads for mattresses and BETTER HELP as it’s 5 AM, then carrot 🥕 🍏 and apple pancakes for breakfast. 🥞 Showering, 🚿 and then I guess it will be to work on my mountain bike 🚴, as I’ll probably have meetings downtown this afternoon, and fuck making the bus company rich 🚍 which is forcing me to buy a new bus pass in less then a month, because I’ve been a loyal customer for more then a decade now. I don’t know these days, I just don’t know. I am so confused. 😕
At one level that big F-350 I test drove the other day really would check all the boxes for a camping rig. Great big 8 3/4 foot long bed, dual alternators and batteries for power, remote start, rolldown rear window for heat/air conditioning (to use with a boot and a truck cap that has a front window that opens), off-road package, and without all of crap that I don’t care about like heated seats, big screens, or emergency braking. I could see getting a camper shell for it, installing a 400 to 450-watt large panel, potentially going to a lithium ion battery or batteries I would mount in the bed, adding a cellphone booster and a diesel heater by winter. It would be a pretty awesome camping rig to replace Big Red, which was good for the 14 summers I enjoyed him from 2012 to 2026. By 2040, assuming the Godzilla Holstein lasts as long as Big Red, it will be not just my truck but my own retirement. I really do love these nights spent in the wilderness, and this truck or one similar to it would be an awesome platform to build on.
On the other hand, I just have a lot of doubts in my mind. I didn’t love how it drove. The steering wheel was very plasticiky, the visibility was even worse then my lifted rig. Everything in the interior screams work truck with all the hard plastic. No modern safety features like emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane departure, or blind spot detection. There are some design issues with the 7.3L engine, despite it robust simplicity and widespread application in commercial vehicles. The whole Middle East crisis with the War on Iran is on my mind, as is Climate Change. I am buying a truck that will likely be my primary vehicle through 2040, though if I have to become a car commuter (eww…), I guess I can get a fucking 25-year old Honda Civic to drive to work. Or even a cheap electric car – they are surprisingly affordable on the used market compared to well the Godzilla Holstein. Nobody knows what gas prices well be by summer with the Middle East blowing up – or if even gasoline will be available at local gas stations or subject to rationing. That is short-term thinking, as if gas prices really spike this year, I can just plan shorter trips and travel less in the Godzilla Holstein until thing change. And there’s the cost – big truck cost big bucks. But I make good money, save and invest a lot, and the truck won’t having a meaningful impact on my long-term finances as I put money to replace Big Red in a pot I’ve long planned to burn on a new truck.
There is some risk in taking my time to consider my options further. Could after going on 175 days of rotting on the lot with rusty hubs and patina on the muffler – the Godzilla Holstein I test drive sell? Of course, but I have seen similar spec trucks at least 5 or 6 dealerships within 50 miles of Albany, often sitting on the lot just as long, so I am not that worried. Nobody is going to be rushing out to buy an overpriced big-block truck during an impending fuel crisis and recession. And who knows if I get a price I find acceptable at the local dealership compared to others around. So I have some time to chew this over, and if anything the longer the various trucks rot on dealer lots, prices will only go down, especially if the Middle East continues to burn and economy goes into the tank and fuel prices go through the roof.
