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Sunday, October 27, 2019

The regular job trap



My lovely wife was finally able to find a home for some glass blowing equipment we had kicking around the house. Our youngest daughter had once been into that art and was putting together a studio. Then some other stuff happened. Such is life. I was ready to haul the remaining equipment to the dump, but my spouse found a young man from downstate who was a professional glass blower and could use the stuff.

I’m glad she found someone who needed the equipment. My lovely wife praised the guy for following his dreams and working on his art. Unfortunately, he and his girlfriend are “on a break” because she wants a regular job. Right now she’s training for one of those 9 to 5 positions. She was unwilling to put up with the uncertainties of being an artist.

Regular jobs sound good, but they can be a trap. The consistent paycheck sounds like a good idea. It’s great for your credit rating. With good credit you can buy nice things like cars, furniture and even houses. However, that could be a trap. Once you have those nice things the payments need to be made. For that you have to keep going to that regular job, even when it is no longer any fun at all.

Once could always change jobs they say, but it’s not that easy for most. Even if you find a job you’d enjoy more, it had better pay enough to cover those regular bills.

When you follow your dreams it may or may not pay. A few days ago we were talking to a young married couple we know. He’s avoided regular dreams most of his life. She works as a potter. They were struggling with a problem. He had a job interview for a state mechanic job. It was 40 hours a week with decent pay and benefits. The problem is that he’d have to have a regular schedule and do the same type of work over and over again.

He’s very talented when it comes to mechanical devices. While he could do the job, he said what he really wants to do is things like build rocket powered skateboards. Fortunately, his wife is very supportive of his dreams so I’m sure they’ll work something out.

Another problem with working non-traditional jobs is that it spoils you. After a number of years of that you become unfit for the shackles of the normal working world.

-Sixbears

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Lost Technology



My niece and I were talking the other day I happened to mention that we used to use an acoustic coupler to connect a laptop to the Internet.

She had no idea what the heck I was talking about. My lovely wife and I started traveling during the winters about 20 years ago. We had to do a certain amount of business remotely. It’s hard to believe right now, but cell phones weren’t all that common.

Back then I used to carry a bunch of prepaid calling cards to make long distance calls. I’d do my banking over pay phones. Getting e-mail was an issue. That was back in the day of phone modems. Some places had phone jacks customers could plug into to connect to the Internet at dial up speeds.

A number of places only had pay phones. There was no way to connect directly to a phone line. For that I used an acoustic coupler. It looked sorta like a old school phone handset. It would attach to the phone with a velcro strap. Since it worked by actually making tones, it was even slower than regular phone modems. Often it would take 15 or 20 minutes to download my e-mail.

The best thing that could be said about them is that they worked . . . sorta. Old beat up pay phones didn’t have the best audio quality and that degraded speeds even more. Most of the time we made it work. Sometimes we’d connect late at night when it was quieter out as even outside noise could mess up the signal. Since we were tying up one of a handful of payphones, it was best to do it when most people were sleeping.

Why did we even bother? As clunky as the system was, it worked just enough to make doing our business possible. That allowed us to travel and have adventures so it was worth the hassle.

-Sixbears

Friday, October 25, 2019

Winter Boat Preparations



West Marine keeps sending me notifications about sales on things used to winterize one’s boat. There are local businesses advertising their winter boat wrapping services.

I’ve been prepping my boat too, but for a different sort of winter. My boat is ready to be sailed in warm southern waters. A lot more gear and equipment has been loaded onto the boat, but not too much. The single axle trailer shouldn’t be overloaded. Some of the boat stuff has been loaded directly into the Blazer.

My lovely wife and I will be closing down the house for the season. Most of November will be spent on a train trip out to California. I hope we don’t get too much snow while we are gone. Once we get back to New Hampshire we’ll do a final load up on the Blazer and head south. It would be a pain to have to dig the boat and Blazer out of the snow first.

One year The boat was encased in ice. It didn’t all melt until we were almost in Georgia. To prevent that happening a large tarp will cover the boat for a month.

Before we had a sailboat we used to haul a large Old Town canoe down south. One year it was left down by the beach and we had a lot of snow. I had to snowshoe a trail 350 feet down to the beach and haul it up the hill. On our trip south we stopped for fuel in New York State. The attendant asked what the heck I was doing with a canoe in the snow. I told him I was going to drive south until it didn’t look silly -and that’s what we did.

One major preparation for the winter was buying boat insurance. It’s an essential part of my winter boating plans. Towing insurance is part of that too, both on land and on water. You never know.

-Sixbears


Thursday, October 24, 2019

Wrong store for the right things



Sometimes the best place to buy something is not in the proper specialty store. Back when I was in the Fire Service one of the officers had a plumbing business on the side. He pointed out that you could take a valve from a plumbing supply house, slap some red paint on it, and sell it for five times the price in the Fire catalog.

One of the worse places to shop for boating supplies is at a marine store. One example, they sell a bosun's chair for ascending the mast. It’s possible to get better and cheaper gear from mountaineering stores. If you have to get marine stuff look at places that sell to fishermen. Often they’ll have the same products for a lot less money. Other things like foul weather gear might not be as pretty, but will probably work better.

I’ve even found stuff for my boat while shopping in craft stores with my lovely wife.

The little solar panel on my sailboat has been working fine for years. That came out of the garden supply section. The price was right and it’s held up perfectly in the marine environment.

If you want to see a huge price difference, look at a marine alcohol one burner stove. Then check out alcohol stoves designed for backpacking. One year I was cooking on my Oday 19. It’s too small to cook inside the cabin so I cooked out in the cockpit. Since it was outside I could use a MSR hiking stove that ran off regular gasoline. I put a fitting on my fuel line for filling the stove tank. It worked out just fine.

My local hardware store has gotten used to me wandering around their store seemingly aimlessly. The manager asked me if he could help.

I told him, “No, I’m looking for the wrong parts for the right job.”

“Oh,” he said, “You’re an inventor.”

He left me alone after that. The hardware store is where I bought 90% of the parts I needed to convert diesel engines to run on waste vegetable oil. That was much much cheaper than the kits available out there.

A lot of money can be saved with a little creativity.

-Sixbears



Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Helping hand



There I was driving down a back road out in the woods, not far from my house. In the distance there was this truck that was half in the ditch. At first I was thinking that maybe my Blazer, in four wheel drive low range, could pull him out. There was a tow strap in the back. Back home there was some scrap wood that could be used for a ramp if needed.

When I got close I saw the back of the truck was full of beer cases and there were empties scattered all over the ground. My interest in getting them out of the ditch disappeared. In fact, I was kinda glad they were stuck in the ditch rather than driving drunk on the roads.

I like to help people. It’s good to feel useful. There are limits to my generosity. Heck, often I don’t mind helping people who are just plain stupid, but enough is enough. Those guys who drank too much and ran in the ditch? They are on their own. I didn’t force those beers into them. If that makes me a bad person, so be it.

Later that afternoon the truck had been removed. Maybe once they sobered up they figured it out.

-Sixbears

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Less than a week



It’s less than a week before we close the house down until sometime in the spring. We’ve been concentrating on the nuts and bolts stuff, like getting the boat and our camping gear ready. My lovely wife is almost done sewing new covers for the boat cushions. I’ve a transponder to mount, but that’s about the last of it.

There’s still a fair sized list of the business stuff that needs doing. I just made a list so as not to forgot anything. Monday it was my New Hampshire DMV day. My state allows residents to renew driver’s licenses up to six months ahead of time. Since mine was going to expire before we plan on getting home, it had to be done. Overall, it went fairly well. The lady who did the eye test seemed surprised when I passed. She asked in an angry voice if I had contacts on. Guess I look too old to see without glasses.

My Internet company allows me to suspend service while I’m gone, so that’ll save a few dollars. No sense spending money when I don’t have to. My mobile hotspot needs to be sorted out. The company says it’s activated, but there’s some sort of password issue that may require customer support. I hate talking to those people, but the clock is running.

By the way, after my little woodstove creosote incident, I ended up taking the woodstove all apart and removing all the soot. Since it’s a cookstove there are channels for the hot smoke to circulate around the oven. Those tend to soot up and need cleaning now and then. It’s in great shape now.

You never really get everything done before a big trip. The main thing is to make sure the essential items are ticked off the list.

-Sixbears

Monday, October 21, 2019

Fire and Police



Some days do not go as expected. My lovely wife and I had a nice breakfast planned. My oldest daughter, my son-in-law and two grandkids were staying with us. It was a 20 degree morning and the woodstove was putting out some heat. Then it was putting out too much heat.

Creosote buildup in the stovepipe ignited. It became cherry red all of a sudden. I woke up the household and told them to get out. Then I called 911 to report a chimney fire to the local volunteer fire department.

I was able to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher. It had been contained to the stovepipe and the chimney was fine. The firefighters inspected my chimney and it was clear from top to bottom. All the creosote had been confined to the stovepipe. When it came right down to it, I’d successfully put the fire out before the firefighters got here, but I’m glad they checked everything out for me. You never assume you got it all.

With the stove and the house cold, we all went out to a local restaurant for their Sunday brunch. My lovely wife asked if I was going to change the stovepipe and I was happy to oblige. I left brunch a bit early to find new stovepipe before the local hardware stores closed at noon.

While changing out the stovepipe, my neighbor came over. She’d had a restraining order on her husband -which he violated. Now he’s in jail. They’ve been married for a little over a year. She was shocked to learn he had a felony conviction. The police were impressed with his firearm collection, especially his sawed off shotgun. My guess is that those violations alone will keep him out of circulation for a bit.

It was an emotionally trying day. It does feel good right now to have my feet up, the woodstove running well, and a good cup of coffee.

-Sixbears

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Safety on the docks



There are some boaters who only stay at Marinas. Others prefer to anchor out. The pros and cons are well known. Marina people can easily access land and all it’s amenities. Those who anchor out need some sort of dingy to get to shore. Marina boats can tie directly into grid power. Anchored boats must rely on their own systems, be they solar, wind, generator or a mix of sources.

Another big concern is safety. There are two kinds of safety I’m going to address here. One is security. How easy is it for thieves and bad people to get on your boat? The other is general boating safety. How safe is your boat from collisions, fire, and other boating hazards?

One would think that a very high end marina would be very secure. They have security guards and access to the docks generally requires a key code. My lovely wife and I stayed at a pretty high end marina while outfitting a boat. The sailboat was based in the marina when we bought it and they cut us a deal to stay there.

While they had full time security, the guard was a jack of all trades. Security was an incidental responsibility to his many other duties. There were gates with a keypad, but it would not take a lot of agility to get around them. That wasn’t really necessary though. Just follow someone going onto the docks and have them hold the gate open for you. After going past the security gate day in day out, you tend to think of it as more of an annoyance than anything else. You could just say you forgot the code and someone will probably shout it out to you.

Anchored out you are protected from casual thieves who don’t have a boat. If someone shady comes by, help is often just a shout away on the radio. However, that might be a problem in more remote anchorages. Personally, I feel pretty safe in a remote area. Most problems happen where there are a lot of people.

With your boat tied up at a dock you’d think it was safe. While we were at that fancy marina we saw a number of collisions. Often it was power boats going out of control. Alcohol is often a factor. Not only that, some people just aren’t very skillful at the helm. Real estate at a marina is expensive so boats are really packed in tight. Current and wind can really mess up docking maneuvers.

Anchored out, your main concern is the quality of your anchoring system and the bottom conditions. Even if you are secure, it’s common for other people to drag anchor and collide with other boats. During a storm it’s necessary to be concerned with everything going on around you.

So there are pros and cons to both staying at a dock and anchoring out. One of the big factors for me is that anchoring is free. Often that’s what tips the balance. It’s safer for my wallet.

-Sixbears

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Annoyance Exercise Plan



There are times when I think it’s the annoyances in my life that keep me healthy. Lately I’ve been out splitting firewood at least once or twice a day. I’m burning the stuff that’s been set aside for being too knotty or twisted to spit easily. Just breaking up enough for the day’s heat can be a workout involving wedges, axes, and a chainsaw.

It got me thinking about how much exercise I’m getting just living day to day. My land is steep and hilly. A trip from one end to the other can be a hike. My house has three levels so there’s a lot of stair climbing involved. Often I’m carrying stuff like baskets of laundry.

It’s seems I’m always lugging tools around and doing projects. There’s always something heavy that needs moving. It was worse when I was collecting waste veggie oil for my converted diesel engines. A 4.5 gallon jug weighed about 35 pounds. You pump 18 gallons of fuel into your car without even thinking much about it. For me that was 4 jugs hauled from the restaurant, to my basement, then back to the vehicle. That’s a 140 pounds of stuff lugged around. Frankly, that’s one part of the whole veggie diesel thing I don’t miss.

In my home town there used to be a lot of four and five story tenement blocks. A lot of them were built back during the depression when labor was cheap. Invariably there’d be little old ladies living on the top floors. Not only did they go up and down those stairs all the time, they’d haul their groceries long distances in little two wheel carts. Those old ladies were too tough to die.

Exercise is good for us, but going to the gym is hard. If there are enough annoyances in your life you can get by without one.

-Sixbears




Friday, October 18, 2019

Coming Home



This was a quick photo taken through the dirty windshield of moving vehicle. I was just coming to the southern end of the White Mountains on rt. 93. After spending the night downstate, home was calling me. No time to stop for proper pictures.


I had a meeting with some good people for one of my side endeavors. Part of what was discussed was how to keep in touch and do business while I’m on the road. Even though getting ready for travel has taken up a lot of time, it was definitely worth taking a couple days to sort out some plans.

Once again this year my lovely wife and I missed the big boat show in Annapolis. Months ago we’d done some preliminary planning and research. Like so much else, time and money issues killed that idea. We’d even looked at possibly going to smaller and closer boat shows. There we ran into two problems. Once was scheduling conflicts. The other was that the boat shows we could make mostly concerned powerboats and not sailing.

When it come right down to it, instead of going to shows, we should save our money for the next boat. To be honest, we really can’t afford much of anything at those shows. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun to look. There are usually interesting talks and discussions that are worthwhile at these shows. By themselves they are often worth the price of admission.

Oh well, can’t be at all the places doing all the things. As it is we do an awful lot with very little and sometimes in life there are rainbows.

-Sixberars

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Procrastinating Preppers



Sometimes I get these weird thoughts. Think back to your school days. Wasn’t there always some guy or girl who always procrastinated . . . and got away with it? You could be up half the night studying. They skim the textbook ten minutes before class and get a better grade than you.

I had this crazy idea that the world will be full of people who prep at the very last second and it all works out for them. That’s not as crazy as it seems. The world is full of potential problems, disasters and general craziness. There’s a lot of potential madness to prepare for. That in itself can be paralyzing.

The last minute prepper only has to focus on what’s really going down right in front of them. Instead of trying to prepare for everything from nuclear war to economic collapse, they have just the one big immediate problem to deal with. Their preparation, while hurried, can be laser focused.

Most preppers think in terms of scenarios. They imagine what could happen and prepare for those things. You ever notice how different preppers focus on different things? For some it’s all about defense and they absolutely need their AR-15s. For others it’s about food and their pantries and root cellars are stocked to overflowing. Other’s might focus on economic collapse and stockpile precious metals. The problem is that when something bad really is about to go down, these people will try to fit the problem into what they’ve prepared for, not what it really is.

Am I advocating preparing at the last minute? Not exactly. For all those folks back in school who could pull off procrastinating, there are many more who failed because of it. We can’t all trust to luck and winging it. However, survival is more than being ready for anything. That’s impossible. What is possible is having the basics for survival squared away and developing a diverse skill set. Keep your eyes open on what’s really happening. Don’t let your preconceived notions get in the way.

Class dismissed.

-Sixbears

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Waste of time and money?



At age 61, I just had my first visit to the eye doctor. Well that was interesting, but I probably could have skipped the whole thing.

I’ve been using reading glasses for a few years. With my driver’s license renewal coming up I figured I’d better get my eyes tested. Last time I was at the DMV I saw some poor woman flunk the eye test. She didn’t know she needed glasses and couldn’t get her license renewed.

Long story short, I’m not going to have any problem getting my license without glasses. The eye doctor showed me what glasses could do for me and it wasn’t much. Without glasses there was the very slightest blur to the letters -nothing to worry about. She admitted that people with my vision don’t normally bother with glasses.

So was it a waste of money? Not really. Now I know for sure how good my eyes are. Even more importantly, the doctor dilated my eyes and examined them for disease. They checked out fine. The dilation messed up my eyes for the rest of the afternoon, and I couldn’t get anything else done. Oh well. That wraps up the last of my medical visits before we go traveling.

-Sixbears

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Odds and Ends



Sometimes you sleep on a problem and wake up with a solution. I was able to paint most of the bottom of the sailboat while it was on the trailer. The parts I couldn’t reach were where the boat sat on the carpeted skids.

In the past I’ve dealt with that in two different ways. One way was to just beach the boat and heel it over on its side. The time I did that at the lake a number of people called to ask what was wrong with my sailboat. Another way that works is to float the boat off the trailer and load it off center by about four or five inches. This time around I happened to have a huge piece of an oak log, a jack and some scrap wood. By lifting the stern of the boat it had enough clearance to do the last of the painting.

A lot of people don’t even bother with bottom paint on a trailer sailor. If I’d only sail in New England I probably wouldn’t worry too much about it either. Down to Florida, marine growth is very aggressive. Just a few weeks in the water is enough to cause a barnacle problem.

Yesterday while working on the boat, three police officers showed up at the neighbor’s across the street. Looks like their constant fighting led to a restraining order. While I got along well enough with them, they didn’t get along very well with each other. The neighbors haven’t been married much longer than a year. I am curious to see who, if anyone, will be living there when we get back in the spring.

This afternoon I’ve an eye exam scheduled, just in case I need glasses. Rather find out now than at the DMV. That’ll be one more thing off the list. There’s some other business that needs to be dealt with yet. I can suspend my Internet service for when I’m gone and save a few dollars there. My hotspot for Internet connection isn’t working right yet. The list of little annoyances goes on and on. There’s no way to do them all so one has to set priorities.

-Sixbears







Monday, October 14, 2019

Another job done



It was finally dry enough and warm enough to apply bottom paint to my sailboat. This late in the year that’s not a given. Big boats are nice, but when it comes time to paint the bottom, a small boat on a trailer has its charm.

While under the boat I discovered some fiberglass wear on the swing keel. Since there was still some epoxy lying around the house, it wasn’t too big a deal to mix up some filler and take care of that. The job was a bit awkward and messy, but that’s what old shirts are for, right? Felt pretty good about that until after I changed. Right then a glob of thickened epoxy fell out of my beard onto my good shirt. So it looks like this job cost me a good shirt and about a half inch of beard.

There’s a couple of little boat projects to do yet, but nothing major. My lovely wife is sewing up new boat cushion covers. I’m mounting a new transponder for the depth sounder.

We are getting down the last two weeks before shutting down the house. I’m feeling the time crunch. This week already has a number of things scheduled, including an overnight trip downstate. There’s a lot of packing to do. We have to prepare for a cross country train trip. Since the house will be closed up when we get back, our camping and boat stuff will be stored in the Blazer. I hope we don’t get completely buried in snow while I’m gone. It always feels weird to tow a boat through snowstorms.

-Sixbears

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Extremely Cheap Cars



I once bought an old Dodge wagon with the 318 engine for fifty dollars because the junk yard only offered the previous owner thirty five. It had a blown torque converter and the engine had lifter noise. A cheap can of additive solved the hydraulic lifter issue. A buddy at work found a torque converter in a vehicle abandoned in a farmer’s field. I did the work in my dad’s backyard. The car, after repairs, still cost less than one hundred dollars.

Unfortunately the gas gauge never worked. One cold night it left me stranded a long walk from home. That was it, time to trade the car in. We had driven it for two years by then anyway.

My lovely wife and I bought the first new car of our marriage. It wasn’t much of a car, a Dodge Omni with the four speed manual transmission and the gutless 1.6 liter Peuguet engine. The car was cheaply made; it didn’t even have a radio. We drove that thing for 10 years and it was falling apart: rust, broken door handles, and a host of niggling mechanical issues. One day my lovely wife got into an accident with a tractor trailer fuel hauler. She totaled the truck, so you can imagine what the car looked like. She was lucky to survive with minor injuries.

Over the years we’ve owned way too many junk cars. At least we aren’t buying Dodges anymore. Probably the best car we ever owned was an old Mercedes 240 D. It was very old when we bought it with 100,000 miles on the odometer. I converted it to run on waste vegetable oil and we put an additional 400,000 miles on it.

All I ever wanted from a car was transportation. It’s not about ego. I don’t have to have a big fancy lifted 4X4 to compensate for my short comings. Cars just don’t excite me, especially new cars. They cost too much money and are poorly made. While the best car I ever owned was that Mercedes, I would not buy a newer one. They are now over engineered with too many computers and too much cheap plastic.

While I had fun running four different diesel vehicles on waste veggie oil, that’s come to an end too. Newer diesels are too complicated and don’t convert well. Then there’s the issue that waste veggie is no longer free and harder to get.

So what’s in my future? With my budget, maybe walking. My lovely wife is currently driving a very cheap Nissan Versa Note with a manual transmission. I’ve got that 2004 Chevy Blazer for the main purpose of towing my boat. When those are gone, I’m just not sure. Maybe we’ll spend half the year living on a sailboat and not needing a car. For the other half? It’s anyone’s guess. Maybe there will be cheap reliable used electric cars on the market? Maybe the whole car thing will be over and we’ll be back to horses.

-Sixbears

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Some thoughts on California power cuts



A lot of ink has been spilled about the California power cuts. First of all, it’s inconvenient, but not the Armageddon that some people want you to believe. That’s not to say there won’t be some real suffering, especially for those people with medical needs.

There are some things people should know. The first is that the shutdowns were announced a long time ago and there’s been plenty of time to prepare. Western states are a lot drier than eastern states, making for a much higher fire danger. That’s true in years without drought and dry years make it much worse. After being blamed for the death and destruction of last year’s fires, PG&E can’t afford more lawsuits. They are already in deep financial trouble.

LA is in serious danger from major fires. There are no natural fire breaks and no way to really stop a major burn. The only danger more serious to LA is earthquakes. If there is a major earthquake, fire is a major hazard at the same time.

Many fires have been caused by high tension power lines. Personally, it’s my opinion that the nation should be moving away from big interconnected grids. When power is generated near where it’s to be used, there’s no need for high tension wires. A lot of energy is lost in transport and alternative energy is now cheap and clean enough to do the job. Doesn’t that sound like a better idea than shutting down the power every fire season?

California doesn’t normally experience power outages of this scale. Where I live in Northern New England, power outages can be measured in weeks for some people. Winter weather takes its toll, but I’ve lost power on clear sunny days. Such is life out in the country. That’s a major reason why I was an early adopter of solar electricity. It just works.

California is going to have to figure something out. These problems aren’t going away. Remember, what happens in California has a habit of eventually affecting the rest of the country.

-Sixbears

Friday, October 11, 2019

Getting back in the swing of things


Well, the heating oil ran dry. Frankly, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. The nights have been cool. No, they’ve been down right cold. Some of the days haven’t been all that warm either.

So now I’m down to firewood. Since we’ll be closing up the house near the end of the month, I really don’t want to invest in a load of heating oil. That can wait until sometime next year. Firewood will have to do.

My wood pile has a fair number of unsplit logs. Last year when I was splitting wood, a lot of the twisty and knotty ones were set aside. Now that’s much of what’s left. Some of them are bad enough that I chainsaw them in half before splitting them smaller.

There I was puttering around the woodpile. It was going fairly well -until I realized how sore and tired the work made me. That long recovery from that nasty infection took more out of me than I realized. That last thing you want to do is swing an ax around when sore and tired. No sense getting injured. Instead of pushing on I took a couple of ibuprofen and had a nap.

Now I’m pacing myself until I get back in the grove of things. I’m not one of those guys who spends a lot of time in the gym. Normally my day to day life gives me a fair bit of exercise. After convalescing for a number of months I really got out of condition. While a lot of progress has been made, now and then some activity knocks me back harder than expected.

A winter of camping and sailing should be just the thing. Looking forward to it.

-Sixbears

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Vehicle to home conversions



There’s a lot of information on the Internet about people who convert vehicles into traveling mini-homes. Having converted an ambulance I’ve some ideas on the practice.

There are some really nice conversions out there. Some people put a lot of time and money into their vehicles. In many cases that’s a mistake. I’ve seen where someone did an amazing conversion: fine wood work, sophisticated water and electrical systems, and great attention to detail. No expense was spared.

Then I see the base vehicle that they started with is something like a 1987 Chevy Van with 200,000 miles on it. No matter how well it was maintained or updated, it’s an old van. It will fail. Then you are stuck with a lot of money sunk into a dead vehicle.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do a conversion on an older vehicle. Just don’t spend a lot of money on it. You could also built it in such a way that the components can easily be removed and installed in something else. For example, when I finally sold my van, the fridge, bed, microwave, tables, and solar electric system were all easy to remove. All of that stuff found new homes.

If you are going to spend crazy money on a van to live in, might as well buy something ready to go. There are quite a few choices based on Mercedes Benz, Ford, GMC, and RAM vehicles.

Of course, some people convert vans for the joy of doing the conversion. Actually using them is secondary. If you are going to really use such a vehicle for extended periods of time I recommend going one of two ways. Either go high end and get something commercial, or go low end and do a quick and dirty conversion. If you take a used older vehicle and put a lot of money into it, it will break your heart when the engine or transmission fails.

-Sixbears

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Final Checkups



The crew is getting ready for travel. One of the things we need to do is to sort out any health issues.

I’ve had two doctor’s appointments so far this month. The first one was with a foot doctor to see how my ingrown toenail surgery worked out. The results were great and the doctor didn’t even schedule any followup. I just had a meeting with the doctor who sent me to the hospital with my leg infection last winter. That went well. He thinks my leg now looks “perfect.”

Next week I have one more appointment. This time it’s with an eye doctor. There are two reasons for an eye exam. Reason number one: I’m sixty-one and never had an eye exam. Reason number two: my driver’s license is due for renewal and an eye test is part of the process. Better to find out if I need glasses before the license test.

Unfortunately, my lovely wife is dealing with a broken toe. She’s determined to not let it slow her down two much but she really needs to rest it right now. Her next appointment is on Thursday and we have a our finger’s crossed that it goes well.

Even Brownie the Sailor Dog went to the vet. She had her annual checkup and her shots brought up to date.

With any luck we won’t have to deal with health problems while we are traveling. All that fresh air and exercise should keep us healthy. All we have to do is avoid injury, disease, and encounters with wild animals. Piece of cake.

-Sixbears

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

So now we have chickens



We’ve got three chickens and a rooster with one bum leg living at our house. They aren’t our chickens but the neighbor's. The chickens go home in the evening to roost, but that’s about it. The rest of the time they hang around our place.

I think the chickens would rather deal with our dog than their owner’s two labs. Brownie listens pretty well and knows better than to hurt the chickens. I’m pretty sure one of the labs is the reason the rooster hops on one leg. The neighbors are also doing a massive landscaping job with heavy equipment running all over the place. That scares the birds and they come running across the street to my place.

My lovely wife and I told the neighbors not to worry about their chickens. We don’t mind having them around. They are amusing to watch. They also eat a lot of bugs. The dog hasn’t come home with a single tick since the chickens have been on patrol.

My lovely wife always wanted to have chickens. The problem with that idea is that we also like to travel. It’s not like we could take a bunch of chickens on the road with us. One chicken, maybe. There is that guy who sailed around the world with his pet chicken. Now we can enjoy watching them without having to worry about them.

-Sixbears

Monday, October 7, 2019

Junk wood season



October is what I call junk wood season. It’s a transition month from warmer to cooler weather. Actually, here in the North Country, some days are quite cold. Last year we got our first snow in October and it didn’t melt until late spring.

This is the season when people really don’t want to spend money heating their house. Those of us with woodstoves hate to burn our quality wood so early in the season. The house tends to overheat. We also run the risk of running out of quality firewood before winter is over.

This is a good time to burn lower quality stuff. For example, right now I’m burning aspen and some softwood. Lesser grade woods don’t put out the BTUs and they don’t last as long. That’s fine when you only really need a fire in the evening and again in the morning.

The aspen came from my daughter’s place. The trees were growing into the power lines and had to come down. My softwood came from a friend who was cutting down trees for garden space. The wood, while not the highest quality, was free. My son-in-law even delivered the aspen, so you can’t beat that.

I’m also taking down a deck that has too much rot to repair. The wood was never pressure treated so it’s not toxic. The deck boards, once chopped up, will make good kindling.

We are closing the house for the winter in about three weeks. The junk wood should keep us warm enough until then.

-Sixbears

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Cooking Methods



Sometimes I’m amused at my relationship with technology. Yesterday morning I was in a hurry for coffee so I heated the peculator on the induction cooktop. While that was going on I was stoking up the woodstove. The rest of my breakfast was prepared using wood fire. Like much of my life, it’s as if I have one foot in the 21st century and the other stuck in the 19th.

For my camping/sailing trip this winter I’m bringing two campstoves. One uses propane. The other uses gasoline. So why am I bringing two stoves? There’s a chance my lovely wife will be camping while I’m sailing for a bit. Even if that doesn’t happen, it’s always nice to have fuel options.

I also have a Back Country Boiler. It’s a light weight chimney kettle. Basically it looks like a cross between a fat metal water bottle and a rocket stove. Not sure if that particular model is still available, but there are other companies making them. The cool thing is that you can use little bits of scrap wood to boil water. It works fairly fast. I’ve even heated up my tea water using nothing but pine cones.

Maybe saying I have one foot in the 19th century is too modern. Cooking on an open campfire is one of my skills. That means my cooking skills go from caveman to spaceman.

-Sixbears



Saturday, October 5, 2019

Lyme Vaccine



There’s a lyme disease vaccine entering its final trial stages. The last vaccine we had against lyme was pulled over safety concerns. There’s some debate on whether or not that was necessary. At any rate, that’s made getting a new vaccine to market troublesome.


My thoughts on vaccines in general tend to get me in trouble with both pro vaccine and anti vaccine people. I’m not against children getting vaccines. However, I have a problem with how it’s done. They give vaccines for a wide variety of diseases in one massive dose. You can get your child on a different schedule that doesn’t combine everything. That requires that you keep coming back to the doctor’s until all the required vaccines are given. I think that might avoid giving too much too soon to a kid and is easier on the body. I am not a doctor so that’s just my opinion.

I don’t get the flu vaccine. That’s my choice. If I don’t get it I may or may not get the flu. However, if I get the vaccine I will definitely feel sick from the shot. Your mileage may vary. Yes, I know all about herd immunity, but I still think my individual freedom has value too. I knew a person who was in charge of infection control at a hospital. To this day the flu shot is optional for workers there. However, if you don’t get the shot you have to wear a face mask. Last winter I saw a lot of hospital workers with face masks.

So what will I do if the lyme vaccine becomes available? I’m going to get it. Lyme is a nasty disease. I’m out in the woods all the time and have to do constant tick checks. The vaccine probably will be less risky than all the bug repellent I have to wear to go outside.

-Sixbears

Friday, October 4, 2019

Two Automotive Predictions



The first prediction is that electric cars will take over a lot faster than most people think. One day you’ll wake up and they’ll be everywhere. How will that happen?

Electric cars have always had a number of advantages. They are easier to build and have less moving parts. Maintenance will be a lot less frequent. In the long run they’ll be cheaper to own.

There have been a few stumbling blocks to widespread electric adoption: cost, range, and charging infrastructure. Cost and range have been heavily influenced by the state of battery technology. Batteries powerful enough to provide sufficient range have been prohibitively expensive. Large scale manufacture of batteries and improvements in technology have taken place in recent years. It’s now feasible to have reasonably priced cars with a couple hundred miles of range.

Two hundred miles of range, while not perfect, is good enough. It’s enough range for the vast majority of people’s second cars. For many people it’s enough range for their only car. China is heavily committed to electric cars so you’ll see serious downward price pressure. Volvo is now Chinese owned and they’ve stated they are phasing out straight gasoline cars completely. That will be a trend.

Another thing that’s happening is the rapid growth of charging stations. There are more of them around than you’d think. State governments and electric utilities are pushing their expansion. It came as a big surprise to me to see a charging station next to the Mt. Washington Auto Road. There are phone apps for locating charging stations so they are easier to find.

The second prediction concerns self driving cars. If you listen to the hype it sounds like they are just around the corner. While huge progress has been made, they aren’t ready for prime time. It’s one thing to get good results on a prepared course. Out in the wild there are too many variables for safe operation.

Before we see self driving cars in your neighborhood, there will be commercial vehicles driving set routes. It will be easier to do. Trucks that can go from terminal to terminal will be easier to program. There’s also strong financial incentive to figure out commercial trucking first. Until they get that right, don’t expect to see driverless cars everywhere.

Those are my thoughts on the automotive future. Would I buy an electric car? If the price was right, it would be an acceptable choice to replace my small economy car. It will be a while before one can replace a tow vehicle for a reasonable price.

-Sixbears

Thursday, October 3, 2019

GPS and Navigation


GPS has made navigation pretty easy. Just about everyone has a smart phone with Google Maps on it. With smartphone navigation so easy the stand alone GPS devices, like a Tom Tom, appear to be less popular. Maybe that’s just my observation. Even if that’s the case there are still people who like having a stand alone device for car navigation.

For Marine navigation there are a wide range of choices for various GPS mapping devices. Some of them are quite pricey. A good cheaper marine mapping option is a GPS enabled tablet running the Navionics app. There are also marine apps that run on smartphones. If you decided to go that route, make sure they can also run Active Captain at the same time. Active Captain adds additional crowd sourced information like marinas, anchorages, hazards, bridges, locks and other information.

I was looking over my own personal navigation situation. There are four GPS enabled devices in my possession. One is an old car GPS that’s terribly out of date and the company that made it is out of business. It still does a good job with old roads. When driving on newer roads it shows me driving across fields and through the roods.

My cell phone runs Google Maps, of course. It also has a marine navigation app with charts and Active Captain. The phone is waterproof so it’s actually pretty useful on a boat.

My new Garmin Inreach is primarily for the SOS function, text communication outside of cell range, and to let people follow my progress. It does have basic GPS function too. The problem is that the Inreach Mini works best for navigation when paired with a smartphone, so you still need the phone to really use it.

Speaking of basic GPS, I have an old Garmin Etrex. It’s extremely basic. You have to program way points from a paper chart into the unit. There’s no mapping, just a basic pointer system. It’s simple, but pretty reliable.

When it comes right down to it, I still believe in going old school. A compass and a map or charts still have their place. They don’t need batteries and that can make all the difference.

My best navigation while driving is my lovely wife with a decent road atlas. She enjoys telling me where to go.

-Sixbears

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Pet Peeve



Pet Peeve time. Here’s something I’m tired of dealing with. People see the things my lovely wife and I do and say they would love to do something like that.

. . . but . . .

They always have excuses why they couldn’t do it. People say they’d love to go camping like we do. However, they could never do it in a tent. They’d have to have a nice big RV with all the comforts. They can’t or don’t want to spend money on one so they can’t travel. If we were waiting for a perfect camping rig we wouldn’t go anywhere either.

People would love to live on a boat, but . . . yeah, it would have to be a floating apartment. Even a boat we’d be willing to live long term on is too small for these folks to spend a weekend on.

Another good one is the complaint that they could never afford to travel. If I had to have a lot of money I’d be working all the time and not traveling either.

A more valid excuse is that they aren’t healthy enough to travel. Okay, my medical issues kept us close to home last winter. That being said, my lovely wife and I have been living with health issues for years. One of the reasons we travel is that it keeps us moving and healthy. There’s a lot to be said for fresh air and exercise.

People say they want to have adventures, but most don’t really want to. They want to stay in their comfort zones. Even if it’s not fun, it’s familiar. People settle. It’s sad.

-Sixbears

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Freedom travel



People who year for the freedom of travel have two major ways of doing it. One is by land, two is by sea.

A lot of people hit the road in everything from stealth converted vans to monster sized motor homes with a bunch of slide outs.

There are people out on the water in everything from 16 foot trailer sailers to boats so large you could load the 16 foot trailer sailer on top of it -along with the trailer and the tow vehicle.

This winter my lovely wife and I are doing a mixture of camping and sailing so it’s by land and by sea for us.

Nomads have other forms of travel. Just think of all the people who are hiking the Appalachian or Pacific Coast Trails. No giant vehicles for them. In fact, most of those folks carry less than 20 pounds of gear.

People travel the world on bicycles or motorcycles. I bet it would be fun on little scooters.

Then there are people on long trips in kayaks or canoes. One year my lovely wife and I sailed down the west coast of Florida all the way to the Keys. We met a young couple doing basically the same trip. However, they were traveling in a cheap sit on top plastic kayak. Ah, to be young and insane. I told the young man to take very very good care of his girlfriend. Guys willing to have that sort of adventure are a dime a dozen. Women willing to put up with it are one in a million.

A true vagabond will hop a freight train with their tiny bundle of essentials. I was wondering how fun it might be to upscale the experience. How about a coach class rail pass and a backpack with camping gear?

Are there any folks out there having adventures traveling around with amphibian sport planes? Seems like that would be fun.

-Sixbears