I forgot how wet they get in the summer. I’m sure that’s why the old refrigerator got so rusty and why the walls have seen the paint peel so much but then again I’ve been living here for 18 years and it’s not like it had been freshly painted when I moved in.
It’s not real hot out but it is humid here. đ° Tomorrow is going to be a lot hotter. I did get the box fan out but I don’t have air conditioning though my neighbor figured out how to get around the prohibition of no window air conditioning with a floor unit. But I don’t like air conditioning. I don’t want to spend excessive time indoors. Plus why spend $10 on electricity when you spend $100 taking your big jacked up truck to the Adirondacks a couple of weekends each month to escape the heat. And when it cools down, I’ll get out the ammonia and tackle the mold. I used to use bleach back in the day but I hated how that tended to get on clothes and leave stains. đ
Sitting out back swatting the mosquitoes đĻ on this muggy evening. I was out at Five Rivers đ¸ for a while but left before 8:30 as I’m awaiting that new front bike light I ordered in the mail âī¸. I liked the one I had and I had two but lost one riding in the Adirondacks and then the second one stopped taking a charge đ after it got wet the say it poured on the way down to the express bus stop. đ I hate leaving early from Five Rivers but I don’t want to ride back home in the dark without a headlight. Taillights are good but no headlight is illegal plus it’s dark, especially in the woods. No mail tomorrow but I’m hoping it arrives Friday so I have it for riding back to camp from the Potholers after dark.
Still undecided if I will head up north on Friday evening or early Saturday morning. đ I’m worried about the cooler lasting for four days in the heat. Maybe it doesn’t if I eat the perishables up before Tuesday. âī¸ I could leave things in the freezer and grab them after work. But then it’s four nights so I’ll have to change campsites đī¸ or get a permit. I could stay like up the Powley Place or even just campsite five on the hill and then grab the House Pond campsite on Sunday afternoon and spend Monday and Tuesday in that swimming đ hole. What’s the worse thing that could happen – I have to fill out a permit or camp somewhere else. Also kind of anxious about driving north after work. It’s silly but I’m always so tired after work, traffic is heavy and my truck is old. I still get so anxious at times. A morning trip, even early in the morning is so much more relaxing đ and if I get there early I still have all day. It’s just one less night drinking by the fire. đĨ đē
I keep studying the latest generation of inverters, charge controllers and other off-grid equipment đĄ and also cabin designs and things people have built themselves and contracted out. There are a lot books and YouTube videos, nowadays you really aren’t going on it alone with no answers. But obviously the best way to see what is out there is to drive around. đ đŽ I do see a lot what I like up in the Adirondacks and some of the more rural areas. Because ultimately that’s where I want to live. I don’t want some woke, perfect place in a book, but I place where mud and manure is fine, where nobody cares if you have have a burn barrel or hogs out back. But for now, my apartment, with all the mold, wet floors, hot sweltering summer days is fine. I keep investing everything I can, both in retirement and non-retirement accounts, and I can buy and build it when I’m ready.
Really the issue now is more health insurance and income to sustain my life after I move. đĻ And where to build. If I stopped working now, I’d run out of money relatively quickly after I moved out to the property, so I really need to wait until at least age 55 or maybe later. Rural jobs are tough. đ¤ I don’t want one of those fancy cabins you see in some of the books, I much more like the simple hunting cabins with T11 siding board and steel roofs, maybe combined with some homestead features like goats and pigs and other livestock. đ But at this point, I still want to travel and not be hauling slop buckets back to the hogs and be stuck at home. Even if I do like bacon. đĨ I still enjoy my brief weekends up in the wilderness, away from it all. I can take the compost and cans to my parents house for recycling and rotting. âģī¸
It will be good to be away from it all. đģ My portable radio quit working sometime ago, so if I will be totally off the news grid for four days, but that’s quite fine with me. Maybe we will be at War with Iran by the time I head back into cell service. đ Or maybe a loved one like John Wolcott will have passed away like happened a few summer back now. âšī¸ The world moves on when you’re totally away from it all. But I need a rest, I’m tired of what seems like an increasingly crazy and confusing world. đ And to think I voted for that joker on the conservative line, because I like my guns. đĢ Despite being a liberal Democrat! Honestly, I do think it’s good they’re rolling back some of those solar and electric car subsidies – while once essential, cutting subsidies will encourage prices to come down and technology to become more practical without all the scams and scheming for government money that is currently going on. âī¸ Some of the cuts to government spending, âī¸ while painful may ultimately be good for all regardless.
I’m tired. Tomorrow is Juneteenth, I might go out paddling and I will go packing and shopping, so I’m ready to head north either Friday night or very early Saturday so I can get some rays and float on the East Canada Creek.