No Trailers

I was doing some research on my lovely wife's little car, a 2015 Nissan Versa Note. With the van on its last legs, I was wondering if maybe I could put a trailer hitch on the car. Of course, it was too small to tow a boat, but the thinking was that maybe it could pull my small utility trailer. In short, nope.

The car is so light that even a few hundred pounds of trailer would seriously affect its handling. Not only that, a trailer hitch would adversely affect its ability to withstand a rear end collision. When driving such a small car, you want all the crash protection you can get. Sometimes it's not worth taking chances.

You have to pay attention to those safety ratings. My cousin once borrowed an enclosed utility trailer to move stuff from Virginia to New Hampshire. The guy was using a small Jeep. He loaded up the trailer and headed out. At the first stop sign he blew right through it as the brakes weren't nearly strong enough. He successfully completely the trip, but it was a slow and dangerous journey. Only later did he figure out that the trailer exceeded the Jeep's towing capacity -while empty.

One of the people who we camped next to had a nice little pull behind camper. It was one of those ultra light designs that could be pulled by smaller vehicles. The owner wasn't very happy with it. His car pulled it just fine, but he didn't dare go over fifty miles per hour. The camper trailer was so light that at higher speeds it would get blown all over the road.

Pay attention to the tow ratings and leave yourself some slack. One guy told me his boat and trailer could be pulled by his vehicle, but only if the boat was absolutely empty. Forget about filling the water tank, gas tanks, and loading it with fishing gear. Not only that, there's a difference on the type of towing being done. Are you making short trips on level ground at low speeds? Maybe you plan on climbing mountains all day at highway speeds.

In our travels we see a lot of bad mismatches between tow vehicle and trailer. There's a lot of disasters waiting to happen going down the highway. Sometimes they even have the right vehicle for the job, but the wrong hitch. Those things matter. The roads are scary enough out there without taking unnecessary chances.

-Sixbears

Some Travel Possibilities

My lovely wife and I are currently thinking of not replacing the van but getting a larger sailboat instead. Not that we want a huge sailboat, just one somewhat larger than our Oday 19. A 19 foot boat is a tad small for two adults and a dog. Especially since one of those adults, me, is about the size of two normal adults.

Currently we are thinking of picking up a boat somewhere in New England. Boats in the Northeast spend more time out of the water than in it. As long as they were winterized properly, they get a lot less wear than a southern boat.

I plan to single hand the boat down to Florida in the fall. Sometime before Christmas I'd find a safe place to keep the boat and fly home. After the holidays, my lovely wife, the sailor dog, and myself would drive back south. We'd sail southern waters until sometime in the spring. At that point we'd have the boat hauled out and stored for the summer.

There are advantages to not towing a boat. Our economy car uses about a third the fuel a tow vehicle would. It's a heck of a lot easier to drive and park too. In fact, we could decided at some point not to drive at all, but take a plane, bus or train instead. After seeing how crazy the highways were last winter, that's a tempting option.

There are different variations of this basic theme, but that's the general idea. While we'd have the expense of storing a boat, we would not be maintaining a large tow vehicle. Everything has trade offs. I would not mind selling off some of my other toys to make this happen. (Don't tell my lovely wife that.)

-Sixbears

Mobility

Studies have show that people are less likely to move to a new job than they have in the past. Economists like to think that if people would just move from high unemployment areas to low unemployment areas, everything would be fine. That ignores a lot of factors.

Of course, unemployed steel workers aren't going to move to the Northwest to write computer code. Now if there was a steel mill somewhere that was hiring, maybe they'd do that. The problem is that whole sections of the economy go down at the same time. Your job isn't being lost to someone across the country, but across oceans.

There's another factor that I don't see in any of these articles about how people should go where the jobs are. Frankly, many of those jobs don't pay enough to make it worth the move. Moving across the country is expensive. Then there's the problem that selling your house in a down market may be impossible without taking a huge loss. At one time companies were willing to pay people to move. While that still happens, it's not as often nor are the companies as generous.

So you have people who are out of work, but they are in a place where they have roots. They have an extended social network. They don't have money, but have a lot of family and friends. Being able to rely on other people is a big deal. It takes a substantial increase in pay to replace that free help with paid help. For example, a friend of mine took a cut in pay to move his family back to his hometown. He made up the loss in pay by having family willing to babysit for free. Child care is expensive.

If you've already lost your job to a changing economy, you are less likely to take a chance in a new area. Everyone knows of someone who moved to a new job only to be laid off soon after. Then they are stuck with no job, no money, and no support system. It's no wonder people are staying put these days. In spite of what the economists say, it makes sense.

-Sixbears

Fuel prices and vehicle choices

Fuel prices are on the rise again. We were in a period of unusually low prices, in my opinion. Gas prices under three dollars a gallon came as a surprise to me, so I'm no expert. That being said, my guess is that prices will go up in the short term and be volatile in the long run. That's a concern when looking for a vehicle that is expected to last for years.

If you buy a gas hog and get stuck with high prices, that's bad. On the flip side, buying a vehicle with good mileage doesn't hurt you if fuel prices come down. What might happen is that you are stuck with a vehicle that's not large enough to do the job that needs to be done.

However, people do a lot of dumb things with it comes to buying cars. Let's say that 99% of the time they only need a smaller vehicle that gets good gas mileage. Instead of buying that, they get a huge pickup truck because they make a couple of trips to the garden store each spring. They'd be way ahead to get the smaller vehicle and renting a truck the few times they need one.

I could get away with driving larger vehicles because they were converted to run on waste vegetable oil that I picked up free from a local restaurant. It was a hassle, but the cost savings were significant. For various reasons that's not going to be an option for me in the future.

A few years ago we picked up a little Nissan Versa Note for my lovely wife. The hatchback allows us to carry quite a few things. With good Thule racks on the roof the car can carry everything from lumber to canoes. It gets real world mileage of 39 mpg. Not bad for a heavily loaded car traveling in the mountains.

That car was cheap, and after three years still problem free. The problem is that very soon we'll be down to only one vehicle. We can make that work, but it's often not convenient and will put more wear and tear on the car than would happen otherwise. For example, next month I've a commitment for a few days in Maine. During those same days there's an event in Vermont my lovely wife wants to go to. What to do, what to do?

I think that in the next few days I'll see if I'll be able to get my old motorcycle on the road. Its restoration was set back when my leg got injured. Now that I'm doing better, it might be time to see if the old bike can be fixed up. It would at least solve our short term transportation issues at the end of June. (assuming, that is, that the bike runs and passes inspection.)

Then there's issue of what to do for next winter. We had planned on towing our Oday 19 behind the van and doing a mixture of sailing and camping. With the van out of the picture, that's not going to happen. Of course, our budget is limited, so the problem can't be solved by throwing money at it. People with unlimited funds never get the joy of figuring out solutions on a tight budget. It's very intellectually stimulating.

Right now I'm putting together a lot of possible ideas. By not locking myself into one path, I'll be able to take advantage of random opportunities that come my way. This is called, “luck” by the uninitiated.

-Sixbears

Uncampering?

I've decided to strip the van of all the camping stuff I added to it. The bed and tables are out. Yesterday the house battery, 1000 watt inverter and charge controller were removed. The solar panel will come off when it stops raining. There's still a microwave to remove and plenty of miscellaneous gear.

The whole waste veggie tank and system will stay. That's a technology that's run its course for me. In the past, I've salvaged veggie components to use in the next veggie vehicle conversion. There won't be a next veggie vehicle. There's a couple of reasons for that. Waste veggie use to be readily available. Now it's harder to find free sources as there's a commercial bio-fuels market. The second reason is that diesel engines have become too complicated to easily convert over to waste veggie oil.

I had a good long run with waste veggie vehicles, two Mercedes cars, a Ford F-250 truck, and now this E-350 van. The van's 7.3 turbo diesel powerstroke engine has just enough electronic gizmos to be finicky. I had to be extra careful on the veggie I used and the temperature of the oil. A couple of rather expensive electric pumps burned out before I figured that out. Still, over the years, I've saved thousands of dollars on fuel.

The van will be sold on the cheap. I'm going to be very clear about its problems. It could be fixed up and registered again, but I don't have the time, money, or energy for that. Perhaps it would be a good source of parts. The tires alone will probably be worth what I'll ask for it.

My lovely wife and I have a camping trip planned for early July. Looks like we'll just throw a tent in the back of the car and call it good. No problems. My lovely wife never lost her love of tents. It's all good.

-Sixbears

Post Travel Depression

It's a fairly common thing for people who travel. They have an amazing trip. The highs are higher. The lows are lower. Life is more intense. Then you get back home. It feels good to connect with people. You might kick back a few days. You take some hot showers and eat some good meals. All is good, right?

Maybe not. Life become pretty bland. At first people may be interested in the things you've done, but interest soon wanes. After a while nobody wants to keep hearing about the amazing things you've seen. They heard about it once or twice, and really, that's enough. Life goes on.

You can feel pretty empty at that point, especially if you've had to step back into a normal life. Some people find the only way to deal is to head out on another adventure. That's how you get people who circumnavigate the planet six times. Some people hike the Appalachian Trail, come back, then soon are planning their next big hike. Many cannot go back to their old lives at all.

Let's assume, however, that you choose to continue with your old life, at least for a while. How do you deal with the depression? How do I keep it at bay? I've got a few things in my favor.

The first is that my lovely wife and I were gone for three and a half months. That's long enough that taking a break doesn't feel too bad. It's those who do something for a week or two, then have to go right back to work that have real difficulty. They had just settled into adventure mode and then find themselves back in the mundane world. Some people, near the end of their adventure, are already getting depressed as they aren't ready to return.

When we got back, we took some time to connect with family and friends. That was a good transition. Electronic communication is nice, but doesn't replace human contact. Hugs don't transmit well over the air waves.

For a while, I was too busy getting the house up and running to get depressed. Then we both dove into a lot of home projects that have been piling up. We are at the point now where all the critical stuff has been dealt with. There's time to think, and maybe time to start feeling a bit down. One can't work full speed all the time.

We've taken a few short trips, and that helps. Time sailing on the lake helps. It's good to get out of the house, even if just for a day or two.

One of the big things that keeps me going is planning the next adventure. With our camping rig heading for the boneyard, we have to figure out a lot of stuff from scratch. We can't just do what we did last year. I'm filling up notebooks with ideas, and doing a lot of research.

That's great, but I have to find a balance. Somehow I have to divide my time between my responsibilities and my adventures. Lately I may have been avoiding certain responsibilities for mental health reasons. I could justify putting some more boring things to the back burner as there was plenty of other projects in need of doing. Now it's time to buckle down and knock off some of those things I've been avoiding. It might be safe to do so, without those things driving me crazy.

-Sixbears

New Neighbors

Looks like I'm going to have new neighbors. The place across the street has finally sold. The previous owner used the property for a gravel pit. It's in serious need of remedial landscaping. To satisfy the insurance, the new owner had to throw up some plywood on the porch to block off the open railings. He's got two weeks to put siding on the place.

The new owners plan on living there full time, so are looking to fix it up. They have their work cut out for them. The guy seems nice enough. I hope they'll be good neighbors. They are probably wishing that about me too.

It's the original piece of property that my dad owned on the lake. He bought it back in the early '70s for $4000. Back then it included the land my place is sitting on, so had water access. The new owners don't have that. My dad sold the camp to my uncle and used the money to build the original camp that's now the first floor of my house. After my uncle sold it, the place changed hands a number of times. The new neighbors paid over $80,000 for the place.

When I first moved up to the lake, there were only a handful of year round residents. There are more now, but it's still mostly seasonal cottages. Once the kids get out of school for the summer, it will be a busy place. It dies down to nothing again by September.

I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll get along with the new people.

-Sixbears

Lake sailing

If you are going to live on a lake, you'd better play in the water from time to time. Otherwise, you are paying a lot of tax money for nothing.

My intent was to do some work on the boat. The depth gauge hadn't been working for some time. The exact same model was on sale at Amazon so replacement was easy. No need to drill any new holes. After changing the display, it still didn't work. The device lit up but wouldn't give a reading.

The transponder had been epoxied to the inside of the hull deep in the bilge. It looked fine, but once I got my hands on it, (working upside through a hatch) the unit was loose. I rebedded it to see if that was the problem. If that doesn't work, I'll install the new transponder.

That project really didn't take too long. What I really wanted to do is to go sailing. It feels good to be on a sailboat again, even on a small lake. Later my lovely wife and the dog joined me. Once she came aboard I gave up the tiller.

Here's a pro tip, if you sail, make sure your spouse knows how to operate the boat. Should you fall overboard, they'll be able to turn around and come back for you. Over the years a number of captains have been lost because their crew had no idea what to do. The problem is made worse if there's an auto helm or a wind vane. The boat will continue to sail away all on its own. Imagine falling overboard and watching your boat disappear over the horizon.

Giving up the tiller to your spouse so they can become experienced is a good safety procedure. Almost as important is the fact that your significant other will enjoy boating a lot more if they aren't just a passenger. They won't resent time on the boat and won't resent your hobby. Not only will they be able to come back and get you, they'll want you back.

-Sixbears

Pizza

I was at a friend's house in Maine the other day. He lives in what's considered a rural area. However, there's rural and there's rural. His house is near a busy cross roads that, for whatever reason, has attracted a number of businesses. Within five minutes of his house, there's four places that make decent pizza.

It's funny the things you miss living out in the country. When I moved to my rural area there was nobody that made pizza. We are just far enough out of town that a pizza is guaranteed to be stone cold on arrival. I love pizza,but it has to be fresh.

One person in town missed pizza so much that bought a commercial pizza oven for his home. While I didn't go that far, I learned how to make a pretty good pizza -fresh dough crust and everything. You've got to start with fresh dough, or it's a waste of toppings. I can make pizza in everything from a woodstove to a toaster oven. I can even make it in a cast iron frying pan while camping.

Since then, there a two places in opposite sides of my town that sell pizza. One has your basic gas station pizza. It will keep you alive but tastes like . . . something from a gas station. On the other side of town is a gas station/grocery store/restaurant that makes good pizza. It's close enough that the pizza gets home still warm, as long as there's no snow on the roads. The place always seems to be for sale and on the verge of closing. It's been like that for years now, but continues to crank out pretty darn good pizza.

I used to say that civilization is hot showers and cold beer. To that I've got to add pizza. When you think about it, there's a lot of stuff that has to come together to make a decent pizza. There are long distribution lines for the ingredients. Conditions have to be right for a business to bring everything together and deliver the product to the customer.

If pizza ever becomes a rare thing, I'll know that collapse is well advanced.

-Sixbears

Successful trip

The van survived the first firewood trip. It's still running a bit rough, but better than it was. The van was able to climb through Pinkam Notch in the White Mountains. That's with about a cord and a half of firewood and while burning fryer grease. Not bad. Glad to make it home in one piece. My buddy's got another load for me, but we can't get together until next week.

It's going to be fun unloading the firewood, but I've got all day. Right now I'm pretty beat and calling it a day.

-Sixbears

Wood Hauler

Yesterday I was checking over the trailer before using it to haul wood. The bearings didn't have any extra slop in them. I topped off the bearing buddies with grease. The tire pressure looked good, but that was going to be checked next anyway. However, what came to light next put the brakes on the whole project. About six inches of the tire tread had lifted away from the inner core, right down to the inner canvas. How the whole thing made it to the transfer station and back the other day was a mystery to me. Sometimes you get lucky and don't even know it at the time.

Today I'm on my way to pick up wood with just the van. By removing all the camping stuff, there's room for at least a cord of wood. My buddy claims he has at least three cords of wood for me, so that's at least three trips.

The engine was running a bit rough after I changed the diesel fuel filter. Something wasn't quite right. After sleeping on it, the though came into my head that I might have forgotten to reconnect something. It took some digging around, but eventually I found a plug that had been shoved to the back of the motor and out of sight. Reconnecting it should smooth out the engine. I got too busy to give it a test run, so I'm going to find out today.

Hopefully the van holds together long enough for me to haul stuff around. After the firewood trips I'd like to make a run to the building supply store fifty miles away. While a lot of stuff can be tired onto the roof racks of the car, things like full sheets of plywood and twelve foot lumber fits right inside the van.

I'm going to miss it when it's gone, but it will need more work than I care to put into a seventeen year old vehicle.

Sixbears

Planning for winter

Planning for winter never stops. I'm both piling up firewood and trying to figure out how to snowbird next winter. If something happens and I can't travel, I'm going to need the house totally squared away. Besides, even when we don't spend the bulk of the winter here, it's still cold on the shoulder seasons. Right now temperatures often still hover around freezing at night.

I've a friend who cut down a lot of oak and all I have to do is to get it home. The van should last long enough to bring the wood over. Normally, I like the convenience of getting pallets of compressed fire blocks dropped off. However, free wood is free wood. Lots of exercise, but hey, I don't have to belong to a gym.

We've hit the ground running since we got back. The house is showing improvements so I'm encouraged. Connecting with family has been great. I find myself traveling all over New England to family events, but it's worth it.

My lovely wife and I are debating on what to do next winter. We could make things work with what we've got. It is tempting to reorganize our finances and get a bigger boat. I may be more tempted than she is, but I suffer more in the winter.

Having damaged lungs is no joke. I was injured while working as a firefighter, so it drives me nuts when I see young people smoking. Why do that to yourself for no reason? They should know better and they'll miss their lungs when they are gone. Respiratory problems affect your whole life, if they don't kill you outright.

Had my lungs never been injured, I'd probably have never become a snowbird. Frankly, I miss cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and ice fishing. On the flip side, I'd probably never have learned the joys of sailing either.

-Sixbears

Lost to the electronic screens

I think the world would be a better place if people got out in nature more. Too many people spend all day, every day, looking at screens. The simulation of reality is better than reality itself. Of course, if you live in a dirty city, I suppose it could be.

Sometimes my lovely wife and I walk down to the lake to sit quietly and look out over the water. This last time we watched loons, osprey, ducks, and a kingfisher do their stuff. We listened to the wind in the trees and breathed in the air. Small fish came right up to the shore. Insects buzzed lazily around. The sun reflected off the water, illuminating it like a field of diamonds.

It beat the heck out of looking at a screens all day. Of course, the real world also involves the hike down the hill to the water. There's the occasional black fly trying to steal a little blood. The real world is a mix of breath taking beauty, with the occasional spice of danger and petty annoyances. One learns to take the bad with the good.

One thing about my little nature walks: It usually does me a lot of good, both physically and mentally. Hard to get that from the flashing lights on the screens.

-Sixbears

Last of the van trips

There were a couple of things I wanted to do with the van before getting rid of it. One was launching the sailboat in the lake. That went well enough. The second thing was bringing a utility trailer full of junk to the transfer station.

That was a fiasco. First of all, I never liked going there. It's always a hassle. You need a permit to dump stuff. Everything goes to different places at the transfer station. Some of the people who work there are little tyrants.

We've been slowly adding junk to the trailer since last summer. Because of that, everything was well mixed together. I knew I'd have to sort everything out by hand. The place was packed. They were doing everything by the book. There's a weigh station where you are supposed to get weighed coming in and going out. That was total confusion as people kept trying to enter from both sides at the same time. The attendant was alone and trying to be three places at once.

Eventually the guy waved me in. My permit checked out. The worker studied my load and told me where to put everything. So far, so good. Everything had to be unloaded, sorted, and then the van driven to the next area. By the time I got to the end of the line, the other attendant didn't agree with the first guy on where stuff should go. Some of my load had to be hauled back to an earlier station. While this is going on, other people are trying to maneuver their trucks and trailers around. It felt good to get out of there.

-Sixbears

Winter Report

The dog and I were walking down the road and ran into a neighbor. I asked him how his winter was. He was pretty quick to say it was terrible: bitter cold, snow, it would warm up, rain and then everything would freeze. He had to break up a foot of ice with pick and shovel to use his driveway. This guy's in his 70s, rececntly recovered from cancer and has a new hip replacement.

He did have two good weeks where he was down to Florida. He and his wife were tempted to rent a place down there for next winter. However, they decided at the last minute not to. The traffic intimidated him. Worse, he thought he'd be bored down there.

May I never get so set in my ways that I can't find something interesting to do. Retirement is wasted on some people. He and his wife are now in reasonably good health and have plenty of money. They are really starting to suffer from northern winters, but can't figure out a good alternative.

Maybe I'm lucky that I've always had to figure out how to do things on a limited budget. It forces me to think outside of the box.

-Sixbears

Rainy Day Project

My lovely wife and I decided to work inside due to getting some much needed rain. We finished laying down flooring in one of our loft rooms. All the materials were salvaged. It was a bit more time consuming to reuse rather than buy new. However, we saved a bundle of money. The job would not have happened otherwise. All that's left is to install the baseboard.

My adult niece has already been using it as an art studio. She likes the space and it beats working in her room. Her art has started so sell, so that's a good thing. The space is big enough that we can still use it as a guest room.

We are making progress on reorganizing and clearing up clutter. That job is made a bit harder by the ongoing projects. Home improvements tend to make clutter of their own. In spite of that, things are starting to look better.

One of my next indoor projects will be moving the washing machine. It's in an addition of the house that extends past the basement. For years we've been dealing with freezing water lines. My “temporary” solution was to install a heater that could be turned on to thaw the lines. The solution worked well enough, but I was always bothered by having to use a heater. Plus, it was annoying. Our reorganizing has cleared out a space in the house where freezing won't be a problem. Of course, the supply lines and drain line will need to be redone. Such is life.

That will wait a bit, as some sunny days are in the forecast. Looking forward to wrapping up some outside chores.

-Sixbears

The Joys of Home Ownership

Monday, I got to do one of my least favorite jobs. Some projects, by virtue of their necessity, jump to the top of the list. This time it was a plugged septic line. My readers don't need to know the gory details. However, it's as nasty a job as you'd imagine it would be.

That kicked a big hole in my schedule, but other things did get done. At one time my house used a lot of propane, but now the only thing left on propane is the dryer. Rather than pay for a huge tank of propane that would last for years, I changed the system to run on little twenty pound tanks. It was time for more propane.

If you use twenty pound tanks for anything don't use a propane tank exchange. They often short you on the volume. Go to a place that can fill your old tank. That way you get what you pay for. Locally, it's cheaper for me to get refills rather than use an exchange. The only time I'll use an exchange is when my tanks start to look beat up and rusty.

I got to lay down some carpet in an upstairs loft room, but didn't quite have enough time to finish the job. My little sewage fiasco took too long.

The van is slowly getting cleaned out of all my camping stuff. Since we used it as a bug out vehicle, there's a lot of gear to find a new home for. We will miss being able to go camping at the drop of a hat. The key is to have a place to store everything you need to hit the road at a moment's notice. That's what we did before we got the van. We could load up the car for an extended camping trip in 20 minutes. That's not too shabby.

Projects are slowly getting done, even the sudden ugly ones that are unhappy surprises.

-Sixbears

Flexible Plans

It's good to have a plan for dealing with catastrophe. Any prepper worth their salt will have a plan. If you plan on bugging in, you'll have food, shelter, water, and security squared away. If bugging out, you'll have a vehicle, a place to go, supplies and all that.

That's great and all, but while man plans, the gods laugh.

You may have a secure homestead in a rural area and be ready for a whole host of disasters. When something happens, you could be across the country at your Aunt Millie's funeral with no way to get back.

Someone may have a good solid plan on how to escape their area on foot, but end up with a broken leg. Stuff happens.

Not only that, disasters can go on for a lot longer than you may expect. If a disaster is widespread, it is going to take a lot longer to get assistance.

There's no rule that just one thing will happen at a time. Look back to what happened in Japan a few years back. First there was an earthquake. That was followed by a huge tsunami. The water from that caused the Fukushima nuclear power plant to spew radiation. Some people had to deal with all three disasters.

There are preppers who think that it's possible to buy their way out of trouble. While it's nice to have all the latest gadgets and supplies, that's not enough. You could get separated from your preps, or you could lose them in something as simple and common as a fire.

That's where having skills and being flexible will come in handy. It's not necessarily the strongest or the ones with the most gear who survive. It's the ones who can adapt that have the real advantage.

-Sixbears

Filters, filters, filters

I was on a short overnight road trip downstate to take care of some business. I took the van so my lovely wife could have the car while I was gone. Also, I’m using up my stored veggie oil before getting rid of the veggie van.

The trip down was fine. It’s on the way up where the problems started. First it was the veggie side of the fuel situation. Normally, it’s the veggie filter that’s plugged. There were a lot of miles on it so I figured it was due. While it looked dirty, changing it didn’t solve the problem.

So I drive a few miles up the road and discover the same old problem. I turned off the highway once more to tinker with the veggie fuel. It took removing a few connections to find the problem. One of the lines had plugged up with gunk. After clearing that up the veggie ran fine.

However, my problems were not over for the day. Not too many miles later, the van lost power and could barely crawl up the hills. Turns out the diesel fuel filter had to be changed too. It probably should have been changed as a matter of course. In our travels it’s almost inevitable that we’d pick up a bad load of diesel. It was just bad luck that both fuel systems gave me problems on the same day.

Fortunately, I had a spare filter and the tools needed to replace it. Unfortunately, the filter is located deep in the engine. A lot of parts have to be removed to get to it and it’s a tight area to work in. Jut to make things interesting, the engine was good and hot. I was too impatient to wait for it to cool down so it was tough on my hands.

The first time I changed that diesel filter it took me half a day. Since then I figured out a system, and I keep all the tools handy to do the job. Of course, I always carry a replacement filter. The job took about 45 minutes, which wasn’t bad. One thing I haven’t figured out is how to change a filter without getting dirty up to my elbows and messing up a shirt. Oh well, that’s what soap is for.

The new diesel filter did the job and I made it home. Sure felt good to be back.

-Sixbears

Road Trip, the Early Days

Let's go way back to the early days of our traveling, almost twenty years ago. The first winter we traveled in a Dodge Neon. We'd bought it second hand for one of my daughters to use for school in Florida. After her graduation she wanted a better car so we got the Neon.

Dodge Neons were cheap cars known for being unreliable. However, we happened to end up with one of the few that provided good service over many miles. Of course, we didn't know that at the time. It would not have been the vehicle we would have chosen for our travels. It was the one we had.

I put a trailer hitch on it so it could carry a cargo rack for more luggage. To carry our canoe we put on a good set of Thule roof racks. We had a lot of camping gear, our canoeing stuff, a huge cooler and a dog. Somehow we fit it all in.

We left northern New Hampshire and made our way south. In the moutains of Pennsuvania we encounted a freak snowstorm. It was much worse than predicted. The Neon was struggling with the load while fighting through the deep snow of unplowed roads. We were out in the middle of nowhere and running out of gas. To go a few more miles, I poured all our Coleman fuel into the gas tank. Even emptied the cookstove fuel into the tank.

That took us a few more miles down the road where we made it to an open gas station. That solved one problem, but the driving was terrible and we were still out in the middle of nowhere. We were really starting to question this whole traveling thing. Fortunately, about a half hour later we came upon an open hotel with an attached restaurant.

Imagine our relief. We went from horrible driving contions to having a safe place to stay and decent hot food. The whole travling idea was starting to look a lot better. We went on to have an excellent winter of camping.

By the next winter we were still in the Neon, but we'd pared down our gear to the point where the cargo rack could stay at home. It was much smoother going the second time around.

Thinking back, we've traveled with a whole variety of vehicles, including a couple of sailboats. We always figure something out and have a good time.

-Sixbears

Tentative Van Decision

I picked up the van and my mechanic and I went over its issues. In the short term, it's safe to use. He pointed out something that could become a problem down the road. Rather than take a chance that the bad thing happens when I'm two thousand miles from home, I'll probably put it up for sale this summer.

Before I do, I've got a lot of hauling to do. I've a utility trailer full of junk that needs to go to the transfer station. A friend has offered me about three cord of oak firewood for cost of taking it away. I'd also like to make a trip to the lumber yard and pick up materials for some building projects. Once those projects are done, I could let the van go.

We've had it for seven years. Considering it was ten years old when we got it, that's not too bad. Heck, I could drive a new car into the ground in seven years, never mind a used vehicle.

Since we've been back I've been putting in some long days. In fact, I don't think I'm getting enough sleep. There's no excuse for that. After all, I'm supposed to be retired. Really don't know when I found time to go to work.

-Sixbears

Sell the van?

I just put another $430 into the van. It's getting to the point where I'm seriously thinking about selling it. Repairs are starting to add up. My mechanic tells me there are some other potential expenses not that far down the road.

It's a hard decision as I'm not really in a position to buy another tow vehicle. My lovely wife even mentioned selling the sailboat too as we'd have nothing to tow it with. I'm not in too much of a hurry to sell the boat, as we can always keep in the lake for the summer. I've enough family and friends with trucks willing to pull it out of the lake for me. For that matter, I could even build a ramp and winch it onto my beach for the winter. There are options.

We haven't made any firm decisions. In the mean time, I've a lot of hauling to do with it. A friend has offered about three cords of firewood for the cost of taking it away. There's also a lot of junk to trailer to the dump this summer too.

I'm not sure if I'll sell it as a camping rig, or strip all the gear out of it and sell it as a stripped van. Heck, I'm even sure if I'll even sell it at all. Maybe after I have an in depth conversation with my mechanic I'll be in a better position to decided. This information has thrown a monkey wrench into some of our plans. Oh well, life is full of little disruptions.

-Sixbears

Maine Island Trail Association

My lovely wife and I joined the Maine Island Trail Association. There's a whole series of islands off the coast of Maine that people are allowed to use. Some are day use, but many allow camping. They are geared mainly towards sea kayaks, but sailboats are welcome too. Many of the islands have decent moorings or anchorages.

We spent a good part of the evening going over their guidebook and coordinating it with Active Captain. Maine has some of the most interesting sailing in the world, but only a couple months of really good sailing weather. We hope to get out and enjoy it this year.

I went over the solar electric system of the sailboat Monday. It didn't work right away, but the problem was just a corroded connection, an easy fix. Unlike last year, the boat was well covered, keeping snow and water out of the cockpit. The boat only need a few minor touches. A new depth gauge is on order, and the boat could use a good cleaning. After that it'll be ready for launch.

Looking forward to a good season of New England sailing.

-Sixbears

Quality Control

At some point companies came to the conclusion that it's cheaper to give refunds than to do quality control.

The most recent example for me is when I tried to top off the air in my trailer tires. On one tire the valve stem had no threads. There was no way to screw on the air hose from my little compressor. Eventually I used one of those clamp on air hoses. Of course, without the threads to provide grip, it kept popping off. The only way to top off the tire was to hold it onto the valve. I don't know if I'll live with it or get annoyed enough to get the valve replaced. Of course, I bought it over a year ago and the receipt is long gone.

My mechanic says that he loses a lot of money due to parts being defective right out of the box. Sometimes the problem is obvious, like when I discovered Ford brake pads in a Dodge brake pad box. Often it's impossible to know if the part is good or not until it is installed. The parts companies always replace the part, but his labor is lost. His clients aren't too happy with the delays either.

If you live out in the country it's even worse. I order a lot of stuff by mail. If it's bad, days are lost when it's shipped back. Sometimes it's for important things like water pumps or generators -things you are depending on.

Then there is defective safety gear. One time I ordered a battery powered emergency beacon that clips onto a life jacket. The company sent me three defective ones in a row. How does that even happen? As you can imagine, I had zero confidence in that piece of safety gear. Imagine falling overboard at night and your beacon fails. Guess which comapany I'm never dealing with again.


-Sixbears

Thunderstorms

Thunderstorms with high winds took down utility lines over a significant area. My Internet came back not that long ago. There is a lot of damage all around me. Neighbors lost some big trees. One place had a number of large spruce fall on the roof.

Our house is fine, with only small branches scattered about. I've yet to walk the rest of the property and there may be trees down near the lake.

One thing about living in this area is that everybody has a chainsaw. Roads were made passable in short order. I lost a day to the storm and will have to catch up. However, Sunday is a day of rest so I'm not going to overdue it.

-Sixbears

Positive Trends

My previous post concerned the signs of possible systemic collapse. There are some serious problems and I gave a brief overview of a few that merited watching.

However, not all is doom and gloom. There are some positive trends.

Believe it or not, the world is actually a less violent place than it was in the past. That includes everything from major wars to crime. The statistics show a general trend to a more peaceful world. Of course, that could change at the push of a nuclear button, but we've already survived decades of nuclear stand off. So far, so good. There's also the possibility that in a more connected world, it's harder to look at other people as being less than human. That makes it harder to hate them.

We've never been connected to more information and people. That's huge. Really good ideas can easily sweep the world. Best practices can be shared and adopted everywhere. People can see something great and decide they want that for themselves. It's never been easier for people to self educate. No need to hole up in a library when the world's information is available on your phone.

Most people don't realize how quickly we are moving to sustainable energy. Solar and wind are no longer “alternative energy.” In many places they are the cheapest and best solution. Prices keep dropping.

Electric transportation is growing by leaps and bounds. We think of things like electric cars, but electric buses, trucks, and scooters will probably have a faster impact. Electric buses make sense as they travel fairly short routes in urban areas. Electric trucks will be short haul at first, but since their operating cost is lower than fossil fuels, there's incentive to expand as quickly as possible. Electric scooters will have a huge impact in places like India and China, where scooter transportation is common.

Food problems? The world has enough food for everyone. The problems mostly concern storage and transportation.

There will be financial upsets in the future. The business cycle has not be abolished. Fiat currencies have a finite lifespan. Some bad times appear to be unavoidable. A financial crisis just might be the stimulus for the development and implementation of a saner financial system. A system that concentrates most of the world's wealth to fewer and fewer people does not make sense. None of the current economic systems appear to have all the answers. Perhaps pulling the best elements from many systems could do the job.

So there you have it. I'm not totally a doomer. I've got hope . . . and preps, just in case.

-Sixbears

Danger on the horizon?

We live in interesting times. While on the road I didn't follow the news that closely. Now that I'm home, have more inside time, and unlimited Internet data, I'm catching up. Its scary out there.

One the big surprises was discovering the US military battled Russian mercenaries in Syria in February and killed a lot of them, possibly hundreds. Russia downplayed the whole incident. Maybe we should be grateful for that. Looks like they threw their people under the bus to avoid an International incident.

Israel wants to go to war with Iran so bad they can taste it. Of course, they want drag the US into it with them. Israel has some serious domestic issues going on right now. One way to push those aside is to have an outside war for everyone to focus on.

There are some serious financial problems quietly growing behind the scenes. Business as usual isn't going to cut it. Keep an eye on fuel prices, banking, and trade. We may already be in a trade war with China. Apparently they've stopped buying US soybeans. That's going to ripple though the economy as the market is huge.

Speaking of China. Did you know they won the conflict in the South China Sea? They successfully made a grab for more territory and the control of vital trade route. They did it by building basses on contested islands. Recently they added power missiles, that pretty much sealed the deal. The occasional US warship passing through doesn't change things one bit. Basically, those fortified islands are unsinkable aircraft carriers.

Love him or hate him. The President is in legal trouble. There is so much being thrown at him that something will stick. Did his new lawyer, Rudy, just throw Trump under the bus? I was surprised when he went to work for Trump as a lawyer. Rudy was shut out of any role in the new administration. After hearing him undermine Trump's Stormy Daniels case on TV, I had to wonder if Rudy was getting revenge.

Of course, collapse rarely has one cause. We've weathered all these sorts of problems before. Countries and civilizations fail too many problems hit, either at the same time or one after the other.

I don't know if we are looking at serious problems or if we'll weather them fine. However, I'm keeping a eye on developments. While you can't stop the volcano from blowing, you don't have to live on the side of it.

-Sixbears

Weather and plumbing

What a difference a week makes. A week ago it was snowing. Yesterday it was 85 degrees. Heavy rain Monday and Tuesday saturated the ice on the lake. Then Wednesday's warm temperatures plus high winds destroyed the last of the lake ice. We went directly from winter to summer.

I was able to go on a good walk with the dog, but a lot of the day was taken up with a little plumbing project. The hot water faucet for the shower had a bad drip that kept getting worse. It could not be ignored any longer. Just changing the seals wasn't working.

There are shut offs for the hot and cold water in the upstairs bathroom. Unfortunately they are located in the basement. I did a lot of stair climbing as I tried different fixes for the problem. A plumber recommended that I take the cartridge to the hardware store so they could match it. Of course the exact part is discontinued, but they did have something that was supposed to work. It took four trips up and down the stairs, pulling everything apart, reassembling and then testing before it was fixed.

Just to make the job more interesting I was dealing with a sinus headache. I don't get them very often, but when I do, they really hold my attention. It made the job a lot harder. In the end, everything finally worked the way it was supposed to. Sometimes it's not a matter of being clever. It's a matter of being tenacious.

-Sixbears

Three and half months of mail

Tuesday I plowed through three and a half months of mail. The vast majority of it was paper copies of things that I took care of on-line. All I had to do with those was to open envelopes and then file them. Some things I like to have actual paper records of.

There were only two items that probably should have been attended before now. One was a small life insurance bill. They got paid late, but not terribly late. In a week or so I'll get a bill for something like three dollars and fifty cents worth of interest. No biggie.

The other one was a medical bill. Here's the thing, I saw the doctor months before we left. The bill only came in after we'd already hit the road. I called the hospital and they were just about to put my bill into collection. The check is in the mail -really it is.

All in all, it wasn't too bad. I did the vast majority of my business while on the road without too much trouble.

Once that was done I hustled down to town hall to register my boat and trailer. There was only one person ahead of me, and they were wrapping up as I came in. I had a pleasant talk with the town clerk. She had my registration done in five minutes. I love living in a small town.

The ice should finally be off the lake sometime today. The ice has broken into a series of big sheets of pencil ice. A strong wind could finish it off. If that doesn't happen, its supposed to be in the 70s today and that should do it.

I want to launch the boat before my van's appointment at the garage next Tuesday. It's getting an oil change, but I'm also having my mechanic check the brake work that was done in Florida. Things are moving along. We've pretty much gotten back up to speed.

-Sixbears

Private space

The younger generations appear to have no sense of privacy. Their reaction to the revelations that Facebook was selling their information was a resounding, “Meh.” It's what they expected to happen. On the other hand, maybe they are just more realistic of what to expect from corporations.

One thing that drives me nuts is how people have deeply personal phone conversations in public. My lovely wife and I were in a coffee shop. The woman across from us was scolding someone on the phone. It went on and on. At first I thought she was talking to an ex-husband. Only at the end did I realize they are still married. Frankly, I'm pretty sure I was watching a marriage falling apart before my eyes. I did not need to hear that.

The funny thing is, I grew up back when the phone was attached to the wall. Everyone in the house could listen in. Still, we'd do our best to keep our talks private. Now people can take calls anywhere, yet rarely do they bother to step outside to take a call.

I wonder if at some point everyone will stop fighting for privacy rights. Of course, people are a lot more open about a lot of things so maybe they feel they have nothing to hide? Personally, it doesn't matter if I have something to hide or not. Privacy is a right.

-Sixbears