experiences - Andy Arthur.org

June

Andy | June 1, 2021

The first official month of summer is upon us, with the Summer Solstice occurring on June 21st. It is the month when summer activities get fully underway, when the crops and gardens are planted, with primary and secondary schools recess for the summertime.

By the 21st of the month, we will have seen the longest day come and go for the year. Sunsets will occur as late as 8:37 PM, with it not being totally dark until after 9:10 PM most nights. The long summer nights will be a pleasure.

Folks will camp, they will fish, they will picnic and enjoy the beautiful weather. The wildflowers will cover the fields, first the daisies, then the black-eyed susans. We will explore the hay fields looking for Juneberries, those ever so small, but wonderfully tasting “wild strawberries”.

One of three months of wonderful summer weather, there will be much to enjoy as nature starts to mature into it’s full born of beauty of summer time.

Sticking with WordPress for Now

Andy | December 22, 2013

There’s a lot to like about WordPress, but there also is some limitations I really did not like.

What I Didn’t Like About WordPress

The standard category manager built into WordPress is awful, it can be slow, and clunky with many categories. It simply slows down and malfunctions a lot with many categories.

This is not a problem navigating the site, but the way it works internally, the category navigator creates excessive SQL queries and is slow. It turns out a simple re-write of the category editor, using plugins greatly speeded it up, and is much easier to use. That fixed that problem, and at some point, I may release my replacement category editor.

I also wrote a plugin to replace the default categories widget in the post authoring section. Rather then use a navigation pane to look for categories, the new category box now use auto-complete to select the category. So rather then search for the blogging post, it now provides me with an autocomplete box.

Another speed and reliability issue comes in with 404 errors. It turns out that when WordPress can’t find a particular post, it tends to do a lot of searching in different places for the proper post — regardless of whether or not you want it do that. Part of that was the fault of the 404 Redirected Plugin I had installed, and some has to do with the unique permalinks set-up I currently use — but it’s still an occasional problem, only faced by people who follow a bad link. It can sometimes bleed over and cause the entire site to go down over, but that’s pretty rare problem.

The 404 problem goes away entirely if I disable permalinks entirely, but not if the permalinks are left on in one form or another — even in preferred ID-based structures. I don’t really understand the issue, but it seems only slow down a small number of page views, so at this point, it’s been put on back burner.

Been Exploring Drupal 7

I spent several weeks reading up about the internals of Drupal 7, and trying to decide if that was the blogging product right for me to replace my WordPress installation. I was surprised how much work it would be to make the switch, and retain many of the unique features of my blog that I currently enjoy.

Drupal 7, at least it out of the box design, is very bare-bones. There are limited quality, free modules for it compared to all-popular WordPress. But there was some things I liked a lot about it — namely the robustness of it’s module structure. I got a couple of books out of the library, and started hacking away at it. It was really difficult to get my head around though, as the whole system is very abstract, and getting it molded into my vision of how my blog should work, proved much more difficult then I expected — at which point I abandoned my efforts with Drupal for now.

I also did not like how much Drupal breaks between major release versions. It’s true that WordPress sometimes breaks it’s API — sometimes even in minor versions, but it seems like the whole WordPress platform is more stable than Drupal.

Back to WordPress for Now

Re-writing the category editor and category selector in the WordPress post editor, made things a lot nicer for now. It made the site immediately more maintainable, and made the whole back end work smoother. It convinced me that it would be easier to stay with WordPress for now, and focus on content and improvements to WordPress, rather then moving away from it.

I made some adjustments to infinite-scroll, to speed up the automatic loading of pages. Little things, but they kind of made a big difference.

I also spent some time fixing the categorization of posts, adopting a County-based system for places.

Right now, maps and photos are tied to the blog via shortcodes and automagically-generated posts via the API. This is not a perfect solution, as it sometimes breaks the permalinks by regenerating the WordPress page, every time a photo is updated. It also can be a bit sluggish in the back end, and cause weird problems from time-to time.

The media (maps, photos, google maps) is stored in a custom table, totally seperate from the WordPress tables. It uses a seperate interface to maintain it all, while connected via a menu, and relying on WordPress API calls and categories, it really is only minimally integrated into WordPress. But it works fairly well.

During the Winter Months Will Continue to Explore

I enjoy writing PHP code. WordPress coding is a lot of fun too, because there are so many great APIs to call and easily accomplish things without doing much work.

I recently started using NetBeans IDE, rather then the much more minimal GEdit text-editor to code — which is great, because it provides many more helpful hints including integrating the WordPress API and PHP documentation, provides easy roll-back and tracking of changes, and makes finding coding errors much faster.

We will see where this all leads. I have a lot of free time during the long, boring winter, to explore WordPress and take blogging into a new direction.

There's a lot to like about Wordpress, but there also is some limitations I really did not like.

4 months later… my thoughts on dual battery setup

Andy | July 23, 2012

My dual battery setup works decently on my Silverado pickup truck for producing camp power for use under the truck cap. For the first night at camp, it provides more then enough power at night, including lots of lights, alarm clock, and moderate use of a portable fan, and 90 watt laptop charger.

After the first night, the deep cycle battery starts to wear down. The inverter will show lower and lower voltage, until it starts beeping every 15 seconds, and eventually shuts off at around 11 volts, to protect the battery. Yet, it can be continued to be run, all you have to do is turn on the engine, and let the truck run at idle speed for like 10 minutes, every 1-4 hours, depending on how heavy your electrical load is. I used an average of 1/3 gallon of fuel for every night after the first night parked, without driving.

As the battery is isolated from the starting battery, running the deep cycle down to the point where the inverter shuts it off is not a big deal. Your starting battery is still fully charged, and the deep cycle will after all get recharged as soon as truck restarts, and the inverter prevents you from going below 10.9-11 volts, a point where damage can occur, even with a good deep cycle.

For most moderate lighting demands — let’s say 75-100 watts — enough to run a couple 26 watt florecents, your pretty close to the 4 hours. But when you start adding a laptop charger or fan, and after the third day without the truck moving, you start to drop things down closer to once an hour. Reducing the load when charging, also helps the truck charge faster, as does swapping out the 60 amp fuse between the batteries with a 100 amp fuse, to send any excess amperage to the deep cycle as fast as possible.

The system originally came with a 80 amp fuse, but I cracked that fuse, when I was re-tightening the connections on fuse holders. Apparently, the fuse holder between the deep cycle battery and the starting battery was loose, and on the bumps of dirt roads would become disconnected. While ultimately, I fixed it by retightening the connections, I ended up breaking the 80 amp fuse, and could only get a 60 amp fuse locally. I plan to buy a 100 amp fuse over the internet at some point.

I rarely stay in the same campsite more then one night, at least without driving somewheres in the truck. Even relatively short periods of charging the battery at above idle speed, e.g. driving rapidly increases the rate of charge. It does however use much more fuel to drive the truck then staying idled.

Truck Camping in Pictures

Andy | May 4, 2011

In recent months I have done a series of articles about truck camping and my set up. This time I decided to do an article with pictures, showing my set up over the years and some of the equipment I currently use.

My Truck.

This picture was taken camping down by Betty Brook in the Burnt Rossman State Forest. This is one of my favorite places for camping. No fancy gear set up here, just unloaded the things I needed from the back, started a campfire, and enjoying the afternoon sunshine on this cold fall afternoon.

Electricity Generation.

Lanterns are okay for camping in the back country. I however like being able to camp with electrical lighting and small electrical appliances when I am truck camping, as I have a ready source of energy — the truck’s battery. My current inverter (Vector 800-watt inverter) has voltage meter that displays how much power the truck’s battery is putting out, so as it gets lower, I simply just turn on the engine for 10-15 minutes to recharge the battery. At idle speed, especially in summer months, the truck uses minimal gasoline to recharge the battery.

In this picture, you can see the wires coming out of the cab, from the inverter, out to Christmas Lights, and to the regular old power strip I have in the bed of pickup, which provides places to plug in the lead lamps, the alarm clock, more Christmas Lights, and anything else that needs juice like my camera battery charger or even my laptop.

Lighting the Campsite.

I use a set of 9-watt, 12-watt or 26-watt compact floresecent lamps in conventional lead lamps to light the campsite. I swap out light bulbs depending on my need for light, choosing smaller bulbs to conserve energy whenever possible. These compact lamps put out the equalivent of a 40-watt, 60-watt, or 100-watt conventional light bulb respectively.

The light is largely flicker free, much brighter and higher quality then white-gas lanterns, and is superior for reading. I frequently read late into the night when I am out camping.

Tarp and Polls.

I originally bought this inexpensive tarp from Walmart for privacy while taking “showers” from my portable shower bag. I use it far more to keep the rain off my head on rainy days when camping. Usually it’s just attached to surrounding trees with bungee cords, other times I use a mixture of poles, trees, stakes, and occassionally the kayak.

In this picture, the tarp is held up entirely by trees and long bungee cords, when I was camping up at Moose River Plains down by the Otter Brook.

In the Cab

I frequently store one or more plastic tubs in the cab of my truck at night, usually with food and other things that I want to keep away from animals and don’t want back where I am sleeping.

Under the Cap.

This picture shows some of the wires, camping gear, and box full of beer I had when I was camping up at the Allegheny National Forest.

Camping at Sugar Hill, with my wooden table in my pickup, a little bit before the un was up. I have a table lamp up there, and below the table is all the blankets I brought to stay warm this time of year.

Using my tailgate as a table as I have breakfast when I was camping up at Stoney Pond.

Hanging Out at the Campsite.

Camping up on Leonard Hill last summer. The beer is chilling on the bumper, and the campfire in the front, along with Christmas light.

Camping up at Allegenheny National Forest. Getting ready and packed up for the morning, burning off some trash before I head out for the day’s events.

My Idea of the Perfect Day

Andy | March 8, 2011

There is a lot of talk these days about the trendy resorts where everything is provided for you. The kind of place where they offer structure for your complete day, including defined recreation areas and supervision. That couldn’t be farther from what I would view the perfect day. I hate structure, I hate acting like an adult, I hate following schedules–especially on vacation.

I’d rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth.
— Steve McQueen

Have no firm schedule or plans, just limited by the rhythms of nature and daylight.
Drive somewheres up in the woods where I could hike up a fairly remote mountain, starting before most people are even awake.
Arrive up to the top of the mountain, peer down into the valleys below.

Spend some time looking down into the wilderness or farmland below.
Take lots of pictures for my scrapbook to look back at.
Descend the mountain and enjoy the fresh air of the afternoon.

Paddle around on a lake or flatwater stream in my kayak for a couple of hours into the evening, while sipping a beer and enjoying the wilderness around.
Snaps some pictures, maybe even toss a fishing line over and do some fishing.
When I get too hot, hop out of the kayak and go for a swim for a while.

Find a roadside campsites along the way, somewhere far away from anybody else, where I won’t be bothered by anyone else or noise of other groups.
Park my truck with it’s fiberglass cap/shell, unload my gear.
Set up my lights, Christmas lights and other appliances.
Build a campfire and cook some dinner on it.

Enjoy the flickering fire, listen to some music as the night goes by.
Drink some beer, look up at the stars.
Read a book, stay up as late as I want, listen to music as loud as I want to.

… my perfect day is not expensive or formalized,
it’s just wild and free.

Camping at Polliwog Pond, Aug 13

Andy | August 14, 2010

Fish Creek Ponds is a series of largely connected ponds in Northern Adirondacks, North of Tupper Lake. On Floodwood Road, there are series of 15 free drive in campsites one can camp at, with about half of them located on various lakes along Floodwood Road. On Friday night, August 13, I camped out at Poliwog Pond, and then paddled around it a bit in the evening, and then again in the morning. I also drove out around Floodwood Road, to look at the ponds and other campsites along it.

Camping Only At Designated Sites. This sign is found along the beginning of Floodwood Road, prior to the blacktop running out. There are 15 sites, that appear not to be fully used, on this lake.

Campsite on Polliwog Pond that I stayed at on August 13th. This site would be truly the most perfect in the world, except for being so close to another one and the fact that the beach area next to the site was kind of swampy and not nice.

Under the Tarp. While when I was up at Poliwog Pond I didn’t really need the tarp, I set up a tarp. It was a beautiful day out for sure down here, right on the pond. The tarp was easy to set up, with the plentiful trees to make it easy to tie up.

Laying Back in Truck Cap. Ah, mornings. Lazy times. But then again, I got to paddle around the lake, get some pictures, pack up and head north. So be it.

Private Bay for Swimming. Once I started to get ready, I put on my swimming trunks, paddled across the lake, around an peninsula, to a very private bay. I took a “bath” using the teapot, soap, and shampoo on the bank, washed the soap off, then went swimming in my own little private beach. Nobody else was around! It was wonderful.

Perfect Area for Swimming. The downed tree blocked the waves, it was sandy beach. I really liked this area a lot.

Across Poliwog Pond. It’s a remarkably hazy summer day. This is from the south bay of the pond, where I was swimming and getting cleaned up in the morning.

Loon. Throughout the night at Poliwog Pond, there was loon calling back and forth. This is located on the western bay of Poliwog Pond.

Western Bay of Poliwog Pond. There was somebody camping up on the banks, but other then that it was relatively quiet.

Long Pond Entrance. While I didn’t get a chance to haul my kayak into Long Pond, and do some paddling around there, this is the access point fo the Saint Regis Canoe area. It looked very popular.

Swamp Across from East Pond. This was located directly across East Pond on Floodwood Road.

East Pond. On Floodwood Road. Looked quite pretty. There is one drive-in campsite in here, along with an accessible boat dock.

Middle Pond. On Floodwood Pond road. There also is a large drive-in campsite on Middle Pond.

Floodwood Road. There are 15 drive in campsites on this very dusty dirt road, that is heavily traveled, mostly by people heading to the Boy Scout Camp and the Saint Regis Canoe Area. This along Middle Pond.

Floodwood Road at Franklin County. This is where you cross from being in very remote Town of Altamont to Santa Clara. Pretty area for sure.

Here is a map of Floodwood Road, Polliwog Pond, and surrounding ponds.

View Larger Map

Coleman Fuel or Gasoline in Dual Fuel Stoves

Andy | August 6, 2010

I have a dual fuel stove and a dual fuel lantern, that can burn either regular automobile gasoline, or Coleman Fuel aka white gas. Being that I spend a lot of time camping, and being that I’m cheap, and thought it was stupid to be buying Coleman Fuel in aluminum containers that ultimately just get discarded in the recycle bin, I figured I would just run the stove and lantern on gasoline.

The problem with gasoline is that contains larger hydrocarbons and more aromatic hydrocarbons then Coleman Fuel. Gasoline is a heavier hydrocarbon, although with the addition of aromatic hydrocarbons allows it be burned in relatively low compression gasoline engines, and not knock when climbing steep hills or other times of heavy load on engines.

Gasoline clogs up dual stoves and lanterns, especially if it’s allowed to sit in the stove, and degrade. It creates a film on the edge of gas tanks, and even worst, forms a film along the edge of the “generator” tube, that when heated, vaporizes the fuel and turns it into a gas, so that stove or lantern can burn it to make heat or light without the use constantly pumping the stove. I ended up having to saturate a generator for the stove with carburetor cleaner, and actually replacing one, due to the use of gasoline plugging it up.

Gasoline also smells, both when you fuel the stove or lantern, and when you burn it. It’s okay when the stove is running at full temperature, and generator is working fine, fully vaporizing the fuel prior to combustion, but if you turn down the stove, or the generator starts to become clogged, you’ll smell the aromatic hydrocarbons and even the sulfur in the gasoline.

After burning pure gasoline in a dual fuel appliance, you’ll want burn only Coleman Fuel. Coleman Fuel burns hotter, and generally better. It does not plug the “generator” tube, it does not nearly smell as bad. It works so much better. Yet, it’s expensive. The first can of Coleman Fuel I bought three years ago was $4.50, then it was $6.60 in 2008, an era of $4.25 gasoline, and now it’s up to an insane $8.80. I use a lot of fuel as I camp a lot, but rarely go through more then a gallon can a year.

I have found Gasoline can be used in a dual fuel appliance, reliably, if it is blended at a rate of 50-50. I’ve had pretty good luck with such a mixture, because the Coleman Fuel seems to dissolve the gasoline residue, and makes gasoline burn hot enough that it does not smell. During the end of camping season, I’ll only use Coleman Fuel, to make sure all the gasoline deposits are dissolved, and it won’t clog the generator up when it sits over the winter.