With hungry hearts through the heat and cold We never much thought we could get very old We thought we could sit forever in fun And our chances really was a million to one
Decided to do a quick hike up at Keheler Preserve up on Wolf Hill overlooking above Clarksville and New Salem. It’s been such a cloudy, cold and rainy night weekend that when the sun peaked out a bit when I went to visit the family that I was ready to get out and at least enjoy a few minutes in the wilderness.
Truth is that except for the Sunday quick visit out to see the family I’ve not spent much time in the hill towns since last autumn. I do miss driving the back roads and seeing the homes and homesteads. The views of the mountains and small towns. I really enjoyed those days last spring when I was exploring the back roads looking at land and homesteads and trying to understand a lot more about the rural landscape I grew up in but then abandoned as I moved to the city and saved towards someday owning my own land.
And what I came to realize was that it was all New York State and any place within a reasonable commuting distance would be fairly suburban with houses all around. Basically all the rural houses I looked at were grid tied, with septic tanks requiring regular pumping to be hauled to the sewage treatment plant and ultimately the landfill. More and more rural homes now have weekly trash pickup, big screen televisions and high speed internet. It’s not to say you can’t have hogs, goats and cattle out in the country but somehow it’s not the same on five acres with a another persons house next door.
Some of it – actually a lot of it – is all the wilderness camping I do far removed from anyone else. There are few rural houses a quarter mile away from other houses like campsites are spread out in the wilderness. While I certainly want the right to be left alone and burn my burnable trash without anybody caring or smelling it if I do toss an occasional piece of plastic debris in the fire – it’s more then just the right to have a burn barrel – though honestly I don’t make that much trash and would rather just have weekly bonfires with lots of wood to avoid the stink and get enjoyment from the the things I’m burning and already paid for the supermarket. To be able to hunt and shoot guns in my backyard. To open carry when and where I want and not have to ask the government for special permission to own a handgun and be treated like some kind of deviant by the government.
Keheler Preserve hasn’t changed much I’ll full admit. But it’s good to be out and seeing a little blue sky and rural country before it’s back to work in the city on Monday. Still some snow left up here from yesterday. Most of the weekend was spent at home , mostly in bed and hanging around home reading and watching YouTube videos and scrolling through social media mocking stupid advertisements and looking at pictures of cabins, hogs and cattle .
I found this YouTube channel of a Southern Missouri promoter and forest firefighter and she was saying what a bad year it’s been for wildfires in Missouri – one week this spring uncontrolled burns acerage exceeded the amount of a typical whole year. Fire – be it burning fields as an essential part of agriculture, burn barrels for that endless stream of packaging that’s part of modern consumerism and bonfires are a big part of the Missouri culture but that smoldering sack of burning garbage in a burn barrel can be awful destructive with the wind and inattention. Still I’m interested in Missouri not just because the right to burn but many of those off grid homesteads remind me both of the places I’ve camped in the wilderness and the homesteads in Greenville where I grew up.
Truth is that I shouldn’t be embarrassed or think about myself as a bad person because many of the politicians and laws that are in New York State don’t agree with what I believe. Just because something is a crime or illegal in New York State doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad or evil thing. There are places that share my values, much bigger open spaces. I also shouldn’t look down at myself for my career choices, I make good money, I live conservatively and some day will have that off grid homestead in a state that suits my values. Truth is that we all need a job and some one’s got to do it.
Keleher Preserve is nice it’s good to be away from it all for a bit. To think and dream even if it’s a cool evening that’s fading fast into darkness. I wish the weekend had been nicer but it was good to stay home and read. Tomorrow I’ll bike to work and get bananas and baking soda on the way in – haven’t done that yet. I will probably wait until Tuesday to grocery shop at Walmart , it’s going to rain that evening. By then I’ll have a better idea if I can get away for Good Friday though I’ll have to be back Saturday as it’s Mom and Dad’s fifth anniversary. That’s a long time to be together, most don’t make it that long. I almost certainly don’t have that many years left in my life. Sigh.
It’s been such a cloudy, cold and rainy night weekend that when the sun peaked out a bit 
when I went to visit the family that I was ready to get out and at least enjoy a few minutes in the wilderness. 
I’ve not spent much time in the hill towns 
since last autumn. 
I do miss driving 
the back roads and seeing the homes and homesteads. The views of the mountains and small towns. 
I really enjoyed those days last spring when I was exploring the back roads looking at land and homesteads and trying to understand a lot more about the rural landscape I grew up in but then abandoned as I moved to the city and saved towards someday owning my own land. 
and any place within a reasonable commuting distance would be fairly suburban with houses all around. Basically all the rural houses I looked at were grid tied, with septic tanks requiring regular pumping to be hauled to the sewage treatment plant and ultimately the landfill. More and more rural homes now have weekly trash pickup, big screen televisions and high speed internet. It’s not to say you can’t have hogs, goats and cattle out in the country but somehow it’s not the same on five acres with a another persons house next door. 
There are few rural houses a quarter mile away from other houses like campsites are spread out in the wilderness. While I certainly want the right to be left alone and burn my burnable trash without anybody caring or smelling it if I do toss an occasional piece of plastic debris in the fire 
– it’s more then just the right to have a burn barrel – though honestly I don’t make that much trash and would rather just have weekly bonfires with lots of wood to avoid the stink and get enjoyment from the the things I’m burning and already paid for the supermarket. To be able to hunt and shoot guns in my backyard. 
To open carry when and where I want and not have to ask the government for special permission to own a handgun and be treated like some kind of deviant by the government.
But it’s good to be out and seeing a little blue sky and rural country before it’s back to work in the city on Monday. 
left up here from yesterday. Most of the weekend was spent at home 
, mostly in bed 
and hanging around home reading 
and watching YouTube videos 
and scrolling through social media 
mocking stupid advertisements and looking at pictures 
of cabins, hogs and cattle 
. 
and she was saying what a bad year it’s been for wildfires in Missouri – one week this spring uncontrolled burns acerage exceeded the amount of a typical whole year. 
that’s part of modern consumerism and bonfires are a big part of the Missouri culture but that smoldering sack of burning garbage in a burn barrel can be awful destructive with the wind and inattention. 
Still I’m interested in Missouri not just because the right to burn but many of those off grid homesteads remind me both of the places I’ve camped in the wilderness and the homesteads in Greenville where I grew up. 
or think about myself as a bad person because many of the politicians and laws 
that are in New York State don’t agree 
with what I believe. Just because something is a crime or illegal in New York State doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad or evil thing. 
There are places that share my values, much bigger open spaces. 
I also shouldn’t look down at myself for my career choices, I make good money, I live conservatively and some day will have that off grid homestead in a state that suits my values. Truth is that we all need a job and some one’s got to do it. 
it’s good to be away from it all for a bit. To think and dream 
even if it’s a cool evening that’s fading fast into darkness. I wish the weekend had been nicer but it was good to stay home and read. Tomorrow I’ll bike 
to work and get bananas 
and baking soda on the way in – haven’t done that yet. I will probably wait until Tuesday to grocery shop at Walmart 
, it’s going to rain that evening. By then I’ll have a better idea if I can get away for Good Friday 
though I’ll have to be back Saturday as it’s Mom and Dad’s fifth anniversary. 
That’s a long time to be together, most don’t make it that long. I almost certainly don’t have that many years left in my life. Sigh.