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It Would Be Fun to Live Off the Grid All of the Time

My Part Time Off the Grid Life.

Basically during most of the weeks of the summer, I live off-the-grid in the form of camping in the Adirondack backcountry at various roadside campsites. In the back country, your pretty much up to doing it all yourself, with gear you have brought. It is a rare thing for a campsite to even have an outhouse, much less a picnic table. The best you can expect for is a fire ring. All else, you must bring in or implement yourself.

When I roadside camp, I generate my own electricity using a 800-watt inverter to power lights, my laptop, and other small appliances. The electricity, generated by the alternator, is stored in a deep cycle battery, and turned into 120 volt AC current with an inverter, much like it would work in an off-the-grid set up. While I’m basically converting gasoline to electricity, the principles are the same as solar or wind energy in an off-the-grid system. There is no power grid to keep the lights on.

In the backcountry, you have to cook your meals and clean up after without the benefits of running water or centralized electricity. You learn how to be self-reliant and learn to do without. Most campsites lack outhouses, so your stuck digging a hole in the woods and burning your toilet paper. Showers involve taking a dip in a creek, or hauling water up into woods, and taking a shower under a shower bag. Okay maybe that part isn’t as much fun.

There is no trash pickup, so you burn the burnable garbage, and bring the unburnable waste back home for recycling. If you choose to use stryofoam plates, you don’t have to worry about them sitting in a landfill for the next millennium — they burn just fine. You get to build camp fires to stay warm, for enjoyment, and to watch things burn. Fire is fun.

Daylight matters in woods, and you can here the birds and wildlife back there. There isn’t the traffic noise. It can be darn quite. In the wilderness there is non-stop beauty, as the natural world works it’s way around the cycle known as the year — as the world continues to evolve through each and every flood, hurricane, and tornado.

Traveling to the backcountry usually involves visiting a lot of out of the way places. Many beautiful small towns, and spending time in and around them. Small towns are really a world away from living in Albany, where people are connected to the land. When your in a small town in the mountains or in farmscape of Rural America, it really feels like your a world away from the city.

Someday to Live Off the Grid All of the Time.

Camping is a fun adventure in summer time, but I think it would be fun adventure to basically do all of the time. While certainly I would want to have running water, and good way to take hot showers, I really don’t want to be part of the grid, but instead be responsible to meeting my own needs by physical means. Rather then paying a distant corporation to generate electricity or pump water to my place, I’d rather be able to generate it on my own means — either by petroleum or wind, water, or solar.

Unlike some people, I do not have as much as a moral objection to the grid or even civilized society, but I think it would be a lot of fun to work directly with the technologies that power’s one life — and to live fairly minimally without all the gizmos and energy sucking gadgets that are common when people are connected to the grid, and get virtually unlimited electricity for very low prices. It is nice to have a system under one’s control — and not dependent on the grid beyond your control.

I like the idea of living off the grid, because you would get to use fire in almost every facet of your life. One of the things I like most about camping is the fires, watching the woods (and trash) burn up in the fire pit. I like cutting and splitting my own wood, and I’d rather be in control of my heat energy supply rather then sending a check off every month to some distant utility. I want to minimize my waste, then be able to burn my burnable trash, and haul my recyclables to the recycling center, rather then depend on a centralized service that promotes wasteful behavior.

I want to live in outside a small town, away from the big city. I don’t want to have to deal with big city traffic, public transit, criminals, and the sensationalization of the media on how life in the city must be.

Why I’m a Democrat

I turned 18 in January 2001. I watched the 2000 Election with intense interest, read newspapers and books about the various candidates. While I couldn’t vote in the 2000 Election, I tried to be informed about the issues, so when the time came to register to vote, I thought it would have a good idea on which political party I wanted to join.

I really was less then thrilled President Clinton. I didn’t like the loss of our civil liberties post Columbine, nor did I like Internet censorship or the gun-control legislation he was pushing. I also thought he was too close to environmentalists and many of the left-wing special interests.

In the same vein, I kind of liked President George Bush. I thought he was a refreshing change, after growing up in the 1990s under President Clinton. He was willing to bring in some new ideas, that where sadly lacking in the debate. He certainly was a new direction for the country.

But then I started to read about both parties. I read a lot about the New Deal and the Great Society, and what it meant to our country. I learned about the importance of having a strong safety net for the poor, and investing in our colleges, our parks, and our public places.

Now, I’ve never been a fan of the style of big-city liberalism that many Democrats like to embrace. I’m not out there screaming for more flamboyant gays or demanding free abortions for all women. I think people should dress and act conservatively, and that there has been too much of a loosening of people’s moral compasses in recent years, including the promotion of out-of-wedlock sex.

Yet, I also believe there is a important role in government protecting the individual’s rights and getting a fair deal from business. People should know they are getting safe products, that they are working in a safe working environment, and are a minimum getting a living wage from their job. Every employee should be represented by organized labor to allow them fairly negotiate with their employer. We need unions.

We need government to rein in business to control pollution, and to ensure the products they sell are as environmentally benign as possible. Democrats have long been the champions of clean water and air, especially in recent years. But we also need a government that balances those needs with human desires and freedom — the government shouldn’t prevent you from owning that sports car — they should just ensure that the car is crash-worthy and has good pollution controls.

I don’t believe in creating vast new wilderness areas in places that have been previously logged or mined and contain existing roads. But I do think we do need to keep many wild spaces and acquire new public lands, and we need to control pollution from large power plants. But I’m not particularly worried about pollution from campfires and bonfires in rural places.

If anything, my ideology is one calling for balance. Not excessive government or a libertarian paradise. But instead a government that works for the people, but mostly stays out of their day-to-day business.

Why Do I Hate Albany So Much on Sundays?

albany-sign

Every Sunday evening, when I get back into town from camping and traveling out of the town, I have this sense of dread that sets in as soon as I pass either the Twin Bridges coming south from the Northway, or the “Welcome to Albany: Capital of New York State” sign.

I mean, I really shouldn’t so much of an Albany hater. Albany is where I work, it is what pays the bills, buys beer, and all the good camp-eats, puts gas in my pickup truck, and hell, it even paid for the truck. Albany is where I call home at least during weekdays, the rainy weekends, and the cold and miserable winters. But as soon as I can get out of town, I find myself flying down the Adirondack Northway or the Thruway, trying to escape the city as far as I can.

Maybe it’s because I’m really board with Albany. Or because I just associate Albany with work, and the routine of getting up bright and early every morning, getting dressed up, putting on the tie, and hoping on the bus downtown. All for the all-mighty buck.

But I’m inclined to believe their is more truth to my self-loathing of Albany. Cities, like Albany, seem so containing and limiting, with so many people in so little space. They’re really isn’t much room to roam in a city, and things have to be carefully regulated in all ways to minimize conflict and nuisance. There is always traffic and pressure in city — things you never see in the open spaces that 95% of the population never travel to or see.

That city limit sign seems to have a meaning much greater then just a city boundary were business is transacted. It seems to be the limit of freedom, the place where people reside and go to tell other people how to live their lives. I like getting away to small towns and wilderness, and the city life, with all it’s problems and pollution just really seems to suck.

That and who doesn’t like a good campfire under the stars with some nice cold beers? Now only 5 more days away.

Not Opposed to the Rain

It’s been a relatively wet April compared to recent years.

But I’m not really opposed to all the rain.

Rain is good in April because it means things will green up faster.

Meaning things will have a lower fire risk.

And spring will be upon us sooner.

April

April Showers; Bring May Flowers. —Common Folk Proverb

The month of April is when in Albany we see the last snow showers of the year, and the winter is washed away by the occasional rain showers that dot the days. April in Albany is not a particularly rainy month, and indeed with the rapidly warming temperatures and dry weather leaves us with the highest wildfire danger of year.

By the end of the month, the valleys will start to show the first signs of green, and our world will start to return to it’s “technicolor” beauty. It will largely be a month of browns and grays in the mountains, occasionally with the lack of shade, the weather will be hot and brutal. We will all get bad sunburns in the next month, often the worst sunburns of the year, with no place to hide from the sun that is getting higher over our heads every day.

Over the next month, the daylight will grow by almost 2 hours, with the sun not setting until after 8 PM by the time May rolls around. The sun will start rising an hour earlier to. This bright springtime sunlight will start waking up nature’s cycles and engaging spring time weather by the end of the month. Green will be popping up everywhere.

April is in many ways November in reverse. November takes us from the delightful color of October into the wintry December. April leads us from the cold harsh weather of March back into the delightful color of May. Warm weather is heading our way, as is the beauty of springtime.

Enjoy the month, get out, and enjoy some of the bright clear days that make April such a charming month.

Stand Up Against the Exploitation of Tragedy

Yesterday, when you opened Twitter and Facebook up, it seemed like one post or another was calling for people to “do something” about the “menace of guns” in our country, or improve the accessibility of mental health in our county.

I don’t oppose some of the those suggestions. Indeed, certainly we could probably do more ensure affordable and stigma free counseling was available to all. The President’s health law that passed in 2009, with Mental Health parity and a requirement for all to subscribe to a basic health care plan.

We could also consider some gun control restrictions — but the restrictions have to be reasonable in effort, and need to provide a very high standard against someone owning or possessing a firearm. It would have to require a judge, a jury, and a beyond reasonable doubt standard — as does any restriction of a constitutional right. We can’t just have government officials, on a whim, restricting people’s rights, because they don’t like their politics.

We also can’t just start stigmatizing or persecuting individuals just because we don’t like their views. We saw too much of that after September 11th. Rather then embracing conformity, we should embrace diversity, and encourage people of diverse backgrounds to be active and engaged members of our society. We have to stand up against political persecution. They may not be coming after you today, but your in line next.

What I fear, and already see is the worst coming out of people. People want to do something — regardless of what it means for our civil liberties. They want to stop violence, even if they really can not do anything. Even if it means hurting regular folks, they feel they must do something. This is plain scary.

Day is Done – Peter, Paul and Mary.

I think it’s time to step back, and put an end to this madness — the madness of saying we must do something now.

Hiking Lyon Mountain

Last October I went for a hike up Lyon Mountain. The first 3/4 of a mile you can drive up to the parking lot, then from there, it’s a two mile hike to the summit, or about 3 miles if you take the new trail.

The old trail, following an old woods road is eroded and rough in places, but it well traveled as it much shorter. The new trail, being so twisty is not as well traveled, but it is far less steep and tends to be less wet in the spring time.

Heading up from the parking area, the first part of the trail follows the old trails route, before swinging left near a registration kiosk.

It was very colorful along the new trail as all the maples where at about peak color going up the mountain.

I decided to switch over from the new trail to the old trail, once I reached the point where the trails reached their closest point at the midpoint up the mountain.

As you get about 2/3rds the way up the mountain, you can look back and see Lake Chazy.

The old trail certainly is eroded and in rough sape in some parts. You can understand why they re-routed it.

Ah, finally see the fire tower.

Hazy day, but there’s Lake Chazy and the farms along it.

Wind turbines of the Chazy Highlands…

Lyon Mountain is a popular hike, as seen by all the hikers on the ledge.

Andy Arthur.org

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