Sunday, July 19, 2009 - Red Rock, East Chatham NY
< previous day | archives | next day >
Water Under the Mattress, July 19, 2009
It's time for another lap in the barrel
Who could be so naive as to think all the leaks in their rig were sealed!
There was a bit of a paradigm shift in Red Rock today. I've been debating with myself for a long time how to drag a proper workshop along with me on my travels about the country. These debates were focused on my perception that the rig is pretty heavily loaded already and adding workshop tools would surely overload it. Which means offloading the workshop into a cargo trailer to pull with me. I have been trying to convince myself I would be happy with the extra complexity of pulling a trailer. Yesterday I was browsing Backpacker magazine at Barnes & Noble. Today I was surfing around looking at blogs dealing with the Tiny House movement. Backpackers are seriously focused on living light. Tiny House people are seriously focused on living with less. Bingo!
Well now, I'm perfectly happy with the space I have available in this rig. It's the weight, stupid. If I give up the idea of keeping the original features and functions that maintain this rig's resale value I can toss out a lot of weight. I don't plan to sell this rig before I wear it out so what do I care about resale value? Bingo!
One rule of downsizing is to look at what you have and toss anything you haven't used in two years. There's a lot of stuff in this rig I haven't used in two years. Like the overcab bedroom. Like the shower stall. Like the water heater. Like the dinette pullout extensions.
First thing to go was the overcab bed. What do we have here? Two, count them, two leaks - one at each side, hidden under the mattress! Aaaarghhhh - I'd really rather be working on this new weight reduction plan.
Night camp
On my property off Less Traveled Road - The Home Place, Red Rock, East Chatham NY
- I used to camp in a few locations on what little I had left of the family farm
- In the driveway by the house
- Across the road where the barn once stood
- On the 20 acre piece off Less Traveled Road
- Now, with the kind support of the friends who now own the place, I camp across the road where the barn once stood.
- Verizon cell phone service - Terrible, barely usable with an amplifier
- Verizon EVDO service - Terrible, barely usable with an amplifier
- Find other references to Home Place
- List the nights I've camped here
- Check the weather here
Rice Toss
After the dinner our hosts conducted us to the beach. Among the presents was a large supply rice for the fleet. It was put up in straw sacks or bales containing about 125 pounds each. By the pile stood a company of athletes or gymnasts chosen from the peasantry for their strength and size and trained for the service and entertainment of the court. At a signal from their leader, who was himself a giant of muscle and fat, a sort of human Jumbo, they began transporting the rice to the boats. It was more frolic than work. Some of thembore a bale on each hand above their heads, some would carry two laid crosswise on the shoulders and head, while others performed dextrous feats of tossing, catching, balancing them, or turning somersaults with them. I saw one nimble Titan fasten his talons in a sack, throw it down on the sand still keeping his hold, turn a somersault over it, throw it over him as he revolved, and come down sitting on the beach with the sack in his lap. Beat that who can. If you imagine it "as easy as preaching," try it the next time in a gymnasium. But let me advise you, first make your will.
The Logbook of the Captains Clerk, John J. Sewell, Lakeside Press, 1995 pg 256