Category: General

Last night I looked out to see the moon eclipsing.   I opened a window, snuggled down in my sleeping bag, and watched the eclipse from my couch.

I have been using Google Reader to read blogs all winter. I can easily keep up with hundreds of blogs this way. I just subscribe to the blog and then when the blog is updated, Google Reader tells me and I read all of the blogs on one page. So I don’t need to keep going to a website to see if someone has updated. Google does it for me and delivers the new entry to my reader which I can read from any computer.

Problem is, some people only send a partial feed to the reader. Which means, I know that they have updated but I have to go to their site to read the whole entry. It’s really annoying and usually I just unsubscribe and push those blogs back into the abyss.

I have written to sites requesting that they send out a full feed. So far I have not been too successful with my full feed campaign.

I’m plotting my escape from cabin life. I can’t stand it any longer. The Pacific Crest Trail(PCT) is too far off to wait on, so, I’m thinking of doing the Grand Enchantment Trail first. It’s 700 miles and runs from Phoenix to Albuquerque. Then when I’m done with it, I can take the train to San Diego and hit the PCT.

I went to town a few days ago. It had been 7 or 8 weeks since I was there. The road down from my cabin is a slick steep glacier that probably won’t recede till April. I have a small rear wheel drive pickup. I know from past years that if I try to go down that hill with chains only on the rear, I have little breaking or steering. I bought a set of chains for the front tires and that helps a great deal. One of the chains broke, though, so I had to go down with only three tires chained. I was worried about how that would affect my steering but I made it down okay…and back up.

Everyone in town is antsy for spring to get here. The snow is receding.

My failing solar batteries haven’t limited my computer use by as much as I would have wanted; there has been sun most days.  I may have to instigate rules to limit my computer use.

I’m thinking of going to town soon–maybe in a few days.    I’m out of my favorite foods: oatmeal, brown rice, garlic,  canned pineapple and apples.   Lots of beans left, though.  I don’t know why I buy beans.   Seems like a good food to have in ones cabin but I rarely eat them.

All I think about, is being back on the trail.   The trail is a long way off but I can’t seem to commit to this winter.

There is a mountain lion hanging around.  I have only seen it’s prints but my neighbor said that he saw it.   When he saw me on the road, he said, “You better get you some pepper spray.”

It has been sunny here lately. So, not a big adjustment to my computer use, but it’s suppose to snow for the next week. I like having failing batteries in my solar system. I like being constrained by the sun. It puts me in contact.

When I first moved here, I tried to get a well, but the well guy said I would have to build a better road up to my cabin. I didn’t want to spend my summer messing around with road building and well guys so I  left it for another year. However, I found I really liked carrying my water from the spring. It put me in contact with my needs. I put some empty 1 gallon jugs in my back pack when I head out for my walk and get some.

Now, if I want electricity I have to wait for the sun to shine. When I first set up my system, I tried to get this Human Powered Generator but it was right after a hurricane and they were all sold out. If I get some new batteries I may get it yet. Because it puts me in contact with the energy that I’m using. However, if the 2 watt laptop works out I could power it with a much smaller and more portable crank generator.

It’s what makes life good. If I want heat–I build a fire, If I want water– I go get it. If I want to use the computer–I can wait for the sun.

I didn’t call the solar guy about my malfunctioning solar system. The charger is dead. The batteries aren’t taking or holding a full charge.

My laptop battery has been blinking with a code that means “replace soon�; it only holds ½ the charge it used to.

I just can’t make myself buy new stuff. The winter is about over and I don’t know if I’ll be here next winter so I’m not going to throw a bunch of money at the system. I’m not even sure I want a system.

My son is setting up everything on my two-watt OLPC laptop, and will send it back to me for my birthday.

When the sun shines, I can use my laptop. If there is something, I want to do and the sun isn’t shining, I can run the laptop off the generator. Just no more days spent aimlessly wandering on the computer; do what I want on it and get off.

I feel relief, like I’m getting my life back. Once again, I have time.

This morning when I was charging up my storage batteries my battery charger started to smell and  smoke and flashed and….quit.  I have been told, by a reliable source,  that once the magic smoke escapes, it’s all over for electronics.

I don’t know if maybe my problem all along has been with the charger and not the batteries.   The solar guy opens up his business for a few hours today, I’ll call him and see what he thinks.

Stupid computer–Again, this computer sucks prosperity from me.    Electronics are right up there with animals and big old gas guzzling vehicles as one of the top prosperity suckers.

I think it’s cold here. I’m not sure because my digital thermometer quite recording outside temperature and I haven’t got around to finding the manual to reset it. The woman at the little store said it was -17F (-27C) a few days ago.

This morning seemed cold because I couldn’t raise the temperature of the cabin past 45F(7C) and all the windows were iced over. I put the thermometer outside to see how cold it was, but after it was outside for awhile, it quite registering numbers…just figures that looked like L’s. I brought the thermometer back inside and now it doesn’t work at all. It’s just a blank screen.

The little dog is back with it’s owners. She is smarter and stronger from her visit with me.

My batteries for my solar system are failing fast. I don’t care. I think I would be able to use my laptop as long as the sun shines and when it doesn’t, I could still use it if I started the Honda generator, so no big deal.

When I got my solar system and I looked at all the ugly wires, batteries, and generator, I told the solar guy, “You see that little spinning pinwheel you have attached to the solar panel outside? That’s what I want my solar system to be like.”

Update: This just in from tecno-wizard Laen Finehack. LCD screens can be destroyed by below freezing temperatures of -4F( -20C). So if ever you’re thinking, “I bet it’s really cold outside. Let me put my digital thermometer outside and see.� Don’t.  That includes your watch that tells the temperature.

I subscribe to the blog Ultralite Skunk Works. He is sort of a mad scientist of ultra-lightweight gear. Here he is, asleep on his balloon bed .

I met a guy at the Gila Cliff Dwellings who had a theory that it is the land and the climate that shape the inhabitants. He said, for instance, people that live in Seattle, now, are like the natives who lived there–introspective and interested in art and culture, because they can’t be more involved in the outer world because of all the rain. Put anyone in a different land and climate and they will begin to change and resemble the people who live there.

He said to understand who inhabited the Cliff Dwellings you would only need to live in the area and hangout at the dwellings, because you would essentially become them.

This worries me, as if it is true, it won’t be long before I’m packing a gun, reading the American Free Press, getting the truth from the Art Bell show, and hanging up a “No government official has the right to come on my property and I have the right to bear arms” sign.

My neighbors dog is staying with me this week. She gets cold easily. I take her for walks and in a quarter of a mile she is shaking. I put a little coat on her and then I put my balaclava over that but she is still cold. At night if she isn’t under the sleeping bag with me, she starts shaking. There ought to be a law against breading a dog that wimpy.

On the up side, she is smart and a quick learner. I have taught her tricks that I learned on http://www.loveyourdog.com/tricks.html

This works out well for everyone. My neighbors get someone to watch their dog, I get a temporary pet, and the dog gets to grow from living in a more harsh environment with good mental stimulation.

We have about 2 feet(.60 meters) of snow here. Yesterday it got down to 5 degrees F (-15 C), but now things are warming up. I was hoping for a, “Oh no, I hope I don’t die” kind of winter. So far things have been too comfortable for my comfort.

I had a little dog stay with me last weekend. She was really sensitive to cold, so she wasn’t much of a walking companion, but she did show an astute appreciation for 800 fill down during the night. She belongs to the neighbor that asked me to house sit. I told him I didn’t want to house sit, but I would take care of his dog at my cabin while he was away. I think the dog will be coming again next week.

I asked the library to mail me some exercise videos. The other night, I was exercising away in my small cabin, to a woman that was so cheerful she seemed to be a satire of an exercise instructor, when–“bang!”– I backed in to the large pot I keep on the wood stove and 8 gallons of hot water soaked my cabin. The pot is now dented and the lid doesn’t fit on it anymore.

Too many Netflix videos and copious hours on the internet have pushed me over the line of being an observer to being a participant. Society is entertaining and interesting but I don’t want to be part of it; I just want to be amused by it. Good thing my solar system is starting to fail; I spend too much time with this laptop.

It’s finally happened, I have tired of movies. I can’t make myself go down and mail movies or pick up the one that has been sitting in my mailbox. I whine, “Nooo, not another movie.” Good thing I have found something else to motivate me to walk–another PCT(Pacific Crest Trail) hike.

Many times a day I find my mind back on the PCT. I try to get excited about other hikes, but when I think about being back on the PCT, my world becomes brighter and starts to sparkle and my body hums. Seems crazy to want to hike the same hike over and over but life is so good out there.

If I had a purpose it wouldn’t seem so crazy, so, Laen Finehack had this idea for a way to create a trail guide using a GPS data logger and a small digital camera. The GPS runs constantly, recording my position. When I see something I want to record for the trail guide, I take a picture of it. The camera puts a date/time stamp on the photo. Put the data from the data logger and the data from the photos together and I have a trail guide.

My cabin in BC is water access only and I don’t own a boat. I usually stay up for between 1-2 months before the water taxi comes back to pick me up.

One of the things I discovered living up there without access to stores is I don’t need anything. If something would break, I would need to fix it with what was at hand. If I couldn’t fix it, I would lie down on my couch, have a hot beverage, look out at the view for a while, and then an idea would come to me as how I could fix it with what was at hand. If that idea didn’t work, I would repeat above steps. If it still didn’t work, I would leave it. Because it’s hard to say anything is a pressing need when you have shelter from the rain, a good view, and a hot beverage.

Some times I would begin to run out of something like coffee and worry, “Oh, no. I’m going to run out of coffee.� When the morning came that there was no coffee, I would wake up, make myself a cup of tea and never think about it. Then I would start to run low on tea and I would think, “Oh no, soon there will be no tea.� When the morning came that there wasn’t any tea, I would wake up and make myself a cup of hot water. Lying on my couch, drinking hot water, and looking out at the view I felt even happier because now I was free from the need of coffee and tea.

After six months, I talked to my sister about my experiences up there. I said it was weird; I didn’t need anything. I told here how strange it was to come back to town and see a whole society built on exchanging money. She told me it was the Sears and Roebuck catalog that finally got farmers to leave the country and go to work in factories.