old life, old books and raccoons



This is an unused photo from my eight years of off grid hard-wall camping. Sure had quite a few wonderful experiences from those years. I think M&M and I were camped an hour or so east of Silver City, NM, for this photo.

Well, I downloaded the next book in the L. Ron Hubbard’s Earth series, ‘Black Genises. $7 for the ebook. Got home and went to open it. The ebook is locked by DRM. Guano. My converter program could not format it into a readable format. Again, guano. It would be nice to inform a buyer before hand if it is locked by DRM. Not the first time this has happened.
Looks like I’ll have to get the paperback, $29. For a 30 year old sci-fi novel?! Eight more to go. I’ll order the book when I get back to Timberon, so I have a place to receive packages.


Remember these books from Stieg Larsson? I checked out, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, when my library in SLC acquired some. I was in Lisbeth Salander’s corner pretty much from the start. Read the second book, but never read the third one. Kind of surprising since the end of the second book certainly ended with a hook.

Last year I saw all three books at either a book exchange or thrift ship. Other than the hook, I did not remember anything, so I got to read the story again. And I got to read the third book too. Simple pleasures.


This is the view out the back window at one the state parks I’ve been staying in.

This park has always had a problem with raccoons. They used to have a scattering of four steel trash bins with lids(!) grouped together in small picked fence areas. You probably guessed that lids were taken off during the night.
One time I was packing up to leave, and found a raccoon in the bed of the pickup. I saw how it got up there by the scratches it left.

In the past three or four years when I did not do the parks, they installed those bear proof trash receptacles that are in National Forest campgrounds.
Reminded me of a short story I uploaded a few years ago.

Two campers were staying in a National Park. While talking with the ranger who was in charge of maintaining order in the campsites, he showed them how to operate the new garbage cans. The complex models had a rotating upper section and a special door designed to keep out hungry bears. One of the ladies asked the ranger whether the fortified cans were working as intended. Not really; we’re finding considerable overlap in the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest campers.

Some of the coldest night temps this winter, since I’ve been wintering in the parks. Timberon is nearly 7,000’ and the parks are around 3,500’. This is low enough since I hook up to power.

The ball is in your court. Pick it up and go.

Just take the next step.


Table of Contents

RVwest article ‘Following a Free Spirit’

RVwest article ‘The Space Between the Places’

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

park model, rick’s ’66, 4 miles an hour,
and a kindle

Image
I’m sure I’ve mentioned somewhere on these pages that I like park model trailers. If I ever regress to wanting a house, this is the route I would go. Park models are built on a trailer chassis, registered as RVs, and are limited to 400 sq. ft. They can be moved from time to time but they are designed to be used, pretty much, in one spot. The photo is of their Wedge model. This site also has some pretty cool units: http://smallhousebliss.com/category/small-prefab-and-modular-houses/ I was reading ‘World Ark,’ the Heifer International magazine, and there was an article about a small village in Nepal. The women make two 3-hour hikes each day, to haul water for their families and animals. There is a 5,000’ elevation difference from down where the water is, back up to the mountaintop village. Unreal. And forget about holidays and sick days. I’ve heard of similar stories—but 5,000’! I bet the husbands in this village never piss-off their wives. Theresa and David ...
Read more

solstice, new tenant, and sci-fi

Image
Hope you had a Stellar Solstice, the Earth’s New Year. “Cultures around the world have long held feasts and celebrated holidays around the winter solstice. Fire and light are traditional symbols of celebrations held on the darkest day of the year. Humans may have observed the winter solstice as early as Neolithic period—the last part of the Stone Age, beginning about 10,200 B.C. Neolithic monuments, such as Newgrange in Ireland and Maeshowe in Scotland, are aligned with sunrise on the winter solstice. Some archaeologists have theorized that these tomb-like structures served a religious purpose in which Stone Age people held rituals to capture the sun on the year’s shortest day. Stonehenge, which is oriented toward the winter solstice sunset, may also have been a place of December rituals for Stone Age people.” We picked up an addition to our household in the last two or three weeks. A mouse. I first became aware of it when I noticed Mesa on-point facing the bottom of a wall. Do...
Read more

chompin' to hit the road - big eyes at night,
homemade trailer, onyx and turkeys

Image
I generally follow the geese south. Now I’m thinking of following the hummingbirds. They left the last week in August. I had to, at least, dig out Wright’s book and the Delorme atlases. Planned a tentative route to New Mexico for whenever this job is over. Went through three 25 pound bags of sugar this summer with the hummingbirds. A handful of birds stuck around for the first two weeks of September but finally left. Sure hope they still found flowers along the way. There have been some transients coming through but I’ve taken most of the feeders down, given them a good scrubbing with bleach, and stored them away for next summer. Guess I’ll try it here one more summer. It’s been pretty slow here since the forest fire. If the weekly take gets any lower, AL&L will probably tell me to wrap things up here. Oh well, so much for working until October 15. Finally hooked up the 50 watt solar panel. Works great. Way more power than I use. Before I head south, I’ll install it up on the roof ...
Read more