Mostly foliage.

I haven't done much this week.  I did get up to Pinnacle View.  They are still doing servicing despite their service building being struck by lightning and being burned down, they are just a bit more backed up than normal.  So my tractor is scheduled to go in next week.  I will have to take the grading blade off, but that isn't a big deal.  

Fall is definitely here.  We had a good frost last night.  I had to scrape my windshield this morning.

I went out to visit Matt when he went by on his bike tour earlier this week.  Other than that nothing really notable has happened.  Here are some foliage pictures though.  

Still nothing from the town.  At this point, they might sit on it so long that I don't care.  While I was up getting my tractor set up for servicing, I took a quick peak at their snowblowers.  They only had a couple and none that would fit on my tractor though.  Right now I am leaning towards just buying a slightly less awful used walk behind and delaying the issue for another few years.  So the method of clearing snow is in progress, as is the tractor winterization.  

Before winter:

• Deal with town and get the variance.
• Finish distributing pile of dirt.
• Determine method of clearing snow. 
• Driveway winter prep.
• Clean off the slab.  
• Clean out the carport.  Decide what to do with the power center.
  
• Mulch the leaves.
• Ensure the shed will make it through the winter.  Shed pilings
• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• Winterize equipment.  
• Run mowers out of gas, put diesel treatment in the tractor, change oil in snowblower, rearrange the carport, put weight in the back of the truck, prep heat pump (clean filter), disconnect hose.  Fire up generator.  Take down bug zapper.
  
• Also note that my tractor is due for its first servicing.
  
• Install the driveway markers.

Winter projects: 

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.

Crisp fall weekend.

Saturday was kind of a lazy day.  It was another nice crisp fall day.  I did most of my chores in the morning while it was warming up, and I went out for a bike ride in the afternoon when it warmed up a bit.  It was a bit breezy, but the rail trail is fairly well protected from wind.  I didn't take any pictures (I left my phone in the truck), but it is the same one I used to ride.

I was kind of tired when I got back (I am not in as good a shape as I had hoped), but I did some other minor odds and ends.  The new cupholders for the truck came in while I was hanging my laundry in the morning, so I got that installed.  I kind of wish the holders themselves were a bit taller, a tall bottle will flop over, but they are better than nothing.  

This is how it latches into the center seat.

I also went and took a poke around the shed.  The main piling I was concerned about was this one, and it hasn't been undermined or anything, so the shed should be good for the winter.  I checked the other ones to be sure, but the rest are actual concrete pilings, this is the only one that is still blocks on dirt.

 

While I was up there I noticed that apparently this is still water tight.  This was the thing I had made for a plow to hook on the wheeler all those years ago. I generally use it as a cover to keep the rain off of stuff.  It was covering the jack that I used to jack up the floor joists in the shed, but when I took the jack back down to change tires on the Tundra right before I got rid of it, I just flipped it over and out of the way.

Sunday I went back to yard work.  It took me most of the morning, but I got all the carpets and tarps dug out.  

Or at least most of them.  The rest are deep enough that I am just going to bury them.

I got that area smoothed out and since I had my old missing chunk machete down there (I was using it to hack up the tarp), I also went through and chopped down the knotweed stalks in the next area as well.  I stopped shortly after stepping in an ant nest, whereupon I spent the next ten minutes killing ants on my legs and I left my shoes outside.

Right at the end of my finger there is a rock that was too large to move with the shovel.  I might still need to build that up a bit more around that, but otherwise it is good.  

I stopped when it started drizzling on me.  Still no word from the town or the zoning board.  At this point I don't think it will be the October meeting, I am guessing I will get the November meeting.  The shed pilings are done for the year.  I intended to start the slab and carport on Sunday, but got lazy and didn't.  Most of the stuff on the slab though goes in the carport, so I have to do that first.

Before winter:

• Deal with town and get the variance.
• Finish distributing pile of dirt.
• Determine method of clearing snow. 
• Driveway winter prep.
• Clean off the slab.  
• Clean out the carport.  Decide what to do with the power center.
  
• Mulch the leaves.
• Ensure the shed will make it through the winter.  Shed pilings
• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• Winterize equipment.  
• Run mowers out of gas, put diesel treatment in the tractor, change oil in snowblower, rearrange the carport, put weight in the back of the truck, prep heat pump (clean filter), disconnect hose.  Fire up generator.  Take down bug zapper.
  
• Also note that my tractor is due for its first servicing.
  
• Install the driveway markers.

Winter projects: 

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.

Applesauce

Just a short update.  It is apple season so I made some applesauce.  It won't be quite as sweet as normal since I used up all my sugar making drinks (mostly margaritas) on my last vacation and never replenished it.  It isn't tart (the reason I normally sweeten it) because the apples themselves were smaller and sweeter than normal so it is still good, and has a little stronger apple flavor than normal. 

Some of the apples are really small this year.  

They weren't juicy (a product of the drought I would assume), so they cooked down quickly.  Cider has also been hard to find.  I ended up using Hannaford brand cider which is pretty meh and expensive (they only carry the organic stuff) since the Champlain Valley Orchard cider they normally carry wasn't available this year.  We have local orchards in the area, perhaps next year I will just go pick the apples myself and get cider directly at the orchard.

It was chilly (56F) in my house this morning; fall is definitely here.  Courtesy of the large amounts of rain we have gotten the last couple of weeks though, the fall colors have stalled.  Hopefully this means we will have a normal foliage season.  The really early changers pretty much went to straight brown and fell off.  We have even been degraded from severe drought to just drought.  Still no word from the zoning board.  The weekend is supposed to be nice, albeit cool, so hopefully I can get one or two things done.

Before winter:

• Deal with town and get the variance.
• Finish distributing pile of dirt.
• Determine method of clearing snow. 
• Driveway winter prep.
• Clean off the slab.  
• Clean out the carport.  Decide what to do with the power center.
  
• Mulch the leaves.
• Ensure the shed will make it through the winter.  Shed pilings
• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• Winterize equipment.  
• Run mowers out of gas, put diesel treatment in the tractor, change oil in snowblower, rearrange the carport, put weight in the back of the truck, prep heat pump (clean filter), disconnect hose.  Fire up generator.  Take down bug zapper.
  
• Also note that my tractor is due for its first servicing.
  
• Install the driveway markers.

Winter projects: 

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.

Odds and ends.

I haven't done too much the last couple of days, but I had a casualty.  I appear to have lost another mouse, this one was of the electronic variety (though I have lost a few fuzzy ones lately too).  It just simply stopped moving.  The buttons still work.  So instead I just put my travel trackball on my computer.  Hopefully it does better, this trackball has now outlived almost the last half dozen mice.  The AA battery in this trackball has now outlived my last two mice (the Performance MX and the MX Master) which is kind of sad.

I also finally figured out how to remove the center headrests.  I don't understand why Ford thought it was a good idea to put a button in the middle where you can't really get your hands in order to even raise it, but it is off now, which improves the visibility a little bit.

I also used the heat in my truck the other day.  I figured it would be a cold winter because the truck doesn't heat up, but apparently the cab is the first thing that gets heat.  I haven't dug too much into how Ford implemented it, some use auxiliary heating, some use heat pumps instead of AC, some just redirect any heat from the engine to the cab first.  I would hope it is the heat pump from a technical standpoint, auxiliary heating is hard on the alternator, and redirecting the engine heat would make the issue of it not getting to temperature worse.  But at least I won't be cold.  Given how quickly I got heat though, I think it has to be auxiliary or a heat pump, I can get heat shortly after leaving my driveway, and that is without idling it.

Greg's birthday was yesterday, so I went to that, and I also ordered a cup holder for the front seat that should snap into the bottom of the center seat.  It used to be a standard part on older F150s, but it looks like it should snap into the clips under the middle seat.  We shall see.  I haven't started anything new, but the variance and using the pile of dirt is already in progress.  

Before winter:

• Deal with town and get the variance.
• Finish distributing pile of dirt.
• Determine method of clearing snow. 
• Driveway winter prep.
• Clean off the slab.  
• Clean out the carport.  Decide what to do with the power center.
  
• Mulch the leaves.
• Ensure the shed will make it through the winter.  Shed pilings
• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• Winterize equipment.  
• Run mowers out of gas, put diesel treatment in the tractor, change oil in snowblower, rearrange the carport, put weight in the back of the truck, prep heat pump (clean filter), disconnect hose.  Fire up generator.  Take down bug zapper.
  
• Also note that my tractor is due for its first servicing.
  
• Install the driveway markers.

Winter projects: 

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.

Gorgeous Weekend

I wasn't terribly productive over the weekend, but I still got out some.  For whatever reason, I have apparently been running a sleep deficit, and slept in until well past double digits both days.  

Saturday was pretty much perfect.  I went out and sprayed down the knotweed again.  I also spent part of the day doodling outside on the slab enjoying the day.  This was mostly working on the future method of travel.  I measured the bed of my truck, and I will need some lifters.  They make kits like these https://topperezlift.com/  though I will probably have to build my own.  Because the truck is angled, I will need more lift than these things provide.  The bed on my truck is rather shallow; it is only about 20" from the bottom of the bed to the top of the bedrails, and the cap will only offer an extra 20" or so.  Even with a 17" lift kit, I wouldn't even make 5 feet, and if I am going to put a lifter on it, I want to be able to stand.  I will likely need at least a 24", maybe 36".  I will need to do that measurement when I get a cap for it.

I also got a bit restless and went for a long walk around Otter Brook in the afternoon.  The album is here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aSAUfH81Y12MdtpQ7

Some highlights: given how nice it was on Saturday, I was surprised that it was empty.

I didn't know there was a launch there.  The park is closed for the season, so I would have to carry in almost a mile though.

The dam at the far end.

I saw some foliage, but we are still a ways from peak (if we even get a peak this year).

Sunday I went and mowed most of the yard.  I didn't do the downside of the drain field since there was still standing water in it.  While I had the riding mower out, I went and did a few passes over where I have been leveling, and I didn't really need to do as much as I did over there, the slope didn't bother the riding mower at all.

I also realized that this was the first time I had mowed the other side of the front where I had done all the leveling.  It handled it just fine, though there were a few spots that needed some touch up leveling. 

This area was among the worst, the edge of the gravel.

I still had times before the rain came in, so I went and fixed those areas I noted while mowing.

I also worked on the other side a little bit, smoothed out all the piles.  

The dirt pile continues to diminish.  

As an aside, I noticed when I was mowing that there were turkey feathers everywhere.  Kind of makes me wonder if the bobcat got one.

I have also completed the new to-do list for winter, along with some quick blurbs about what it entails/what the goal is.

Before winter:

• Deal with town.  
• Get the variance.
  
• Finish distributing pile of dirt.
• This is just I want it be gone, and it can't be done during the winter.
• Determine method of clearing snow. 
• Am I going to get a new snowblower (3 pt or walk behind)?  Another used one?  Rebuild my POS? Take my chances with my current snowblower?  It runs, but poorly. Etc.
• Driveway prep.
• The new truck has dug up the driveway a bit.  This is some final smoothing so I don't break shear pins like a boss.
• Clean off the slab.  
• Clean out the carport.  Decide what to do with the power center.
  
• Mulch the leaves.
• Ensure the shed will make it through the winter.
• Check the blocks, make sure they aren't undermined or anything.  
• Put in concrete pilings if necessary.
• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• I at least want to knock down the knotweed, even if the land isn't reclaimed for lawn (ie rocks and trash removed).
• To a much lesser degree, this could be done during the winter as long as it isn't buried under feet of snow.
• Winterize equipment.  
• Run mowers out of gas, put diesel treatment in the tractor, change oil in snowblower, rearrange the carport, put weight in the back of the truck, prep heat pump (clean filter), disconnect hose.  Fire up generator.  Take down bug zapper.
  
• Also note that my tractor is due for its first servicing.
  
• Install the driveway markers.

Winter projects: 

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.
  

Short week update.

Not much to update for this week.  The zoning board packet is submitted.  I made nice copies of my floorplans, and drew up the garage part.

The clean version of the house.  I haven't added windows yet.

The garage portion is very simple.  It has a utility room under the stairs (since that is where the septic and well come out of the slab).  The rest is just garage.  I might extend the room to come further towards the front, depending on exactly where things come out of the slab.  This room will be heated and is the one I will be building immediately when the shell gets put up.  

I also bought a few new flash drives.  My old drive is getting flaky and the port is worn out (it is about 10 years old, it has had a good life).  It won't connect to my work computer at all, and only connects to some ports on my laptop.  I bought 3 cheapo ones and one that was recommended from some reviewers online.  The "recommended" one however is worse than the cheapo ones in both size and speed though, which is disappointing.  I might try to look for a faster one.  The cheapo ones were intended to bring media and stuff with me when I travel.  On the trip to the Grand Canyon, I had a half dozen flash drives with stuff on them with me, I am trying to get that number a bit smaller (thus the huge 512GB size).  Here are the speed results.  The top three are the cheapo Transcend ones, the bottom left is the "recommended" Sandisk Ultra, and the bottom right is my old one.  Flash drives have not been getting faster the last decade it appears.

It was 37 outside when I left this morning, and I think it is going to be a cold commute this winter.  The truck warms up pretty slowly, and didn't get up to operating temperature until I was less than a mile from work.  When it is below zero, I am guessing it won't reach temperature on my trip.  The transmission never got to operating temperature.  

Fall foliage is still in the preliminary stages, but here are some pictures anyways.  It isn't clear how much foliage we will get this year, but I expect it to be short and lamer than normal.

I have started ruminating on a winter checklist, but haven't finished it yet.  The variance from the town could potentially put a crimp on it, though I am not too concerned about getting the extension.  

Dodged a close one.

I dodged a close call yesterday on my way to work yesterday.  There were a bunch of deer standing in the road.  As I normally do, I hit my horn, and they scattered.  Only this time, one ran off into the woods, and then decided my truck looked pretty and wanted a closer look and jumped back out into the road into the side.  Fortunately, I don't see any dents in the truck.

I have noticed since I got back that the trees have started turning already.  It is a bit early, but I assume that is because of the drought.

I saw my turkeys again this morning.

We got a few inches of rain yesterday and last night.  It is really really low, but my creek was running again this morning.

I have everything for the variance ready, I just need to draw up the bottom floor and update the map.  I will finish all that today and turn it in tomorrow.

Not as productive as hoped.

I wasn't as productive as I might have hoped over the weekend.  I started off working on the area of dead knotweed.  I stopped where I did last time because I ran into a pile of crap that I couldn't yank out.  I noticed as I was heading down there though that there were a couple of spots where it has grown back.  Grumble grumble.  I will spray it soon.

Fortunately the area I did clear is still completely clear of it.

I spent a while trying to dig this stuff out. The green thing is a tarp, and the black thing behind is I think a rug.

I came across some new wildlife this weekend, I have a bobcat.  He was quite close too, maybe 15 yards away.  I heard him walking down to the dried up creek bed, watched him for a short bit, and then when he disappeared behind the trees, I decided to take a break.  Bobcats won't attack humans unless they are rabid, but it was lunch time anyways.

At that point it was getting hot and I went and rescued Anx, he had a brake failure on his vehicle.  He went to go hiking and they were smoking when he got there, most likely due to caliper failure.  I didn't particularly feel too motivated when I got back, so I dug out a few rocks and called it a day.

Sunday was cooler, but it got rainy in the afternoon despite the forecast saying it wasn't supposed to get there until the evening.  I went back to trying to dig that stuff out, and this time brought the tractor to assist.  As I was trying to pull the tarp out, I noticed there was a conduit here.  Not sure what it was for, this is on the other side of the old foundation.  Unfortunately the tarp did not survive the tractor.  I will probably just rip out as much as I can, cut it off below the surface and bury it.

I also got some dirt spread out over there.  I used a bit more than I expected, since most of the time over here the tractor was not on 4 wheels when it had a load of dirt in the bucket.  I only really want it flat enough to use the riding mower, but I didn't want to roll the Kubota while doing the smoothing.  

The pile of dirt is starting shrink vertically, so it is nearing the end.  I do want to get all this distributed before winter if possible though.  

I was about to start raking it smooth when it started raining on me, so I instead went and started working on the shed.  I got another wire rack set up before I remembered that my mallet was no more.  I broke it when I was working on the utility trailer.  Given the age of these racks and the fact that the plastic clips don't hold as well as they did 15 years ago, I decided I should get another mallet and solidify the shelves before loading it up.  I tried using a regular hammer once many years ago, and broke the welds even using a buffer board.  So I will be making either a Harbor Freight or Home Depot run this week. 

I got the abutter's list done and started writing a short blurb for the variance before I realized I don't really know what to put in it, but I will come up with something today since I wanted to turn it in and get that process rolling tomorrow when the clerk's office re-opens.  I have been trying to find my old packet, since they want maps and stuff, none of which would have changed, but I can't find the flash drive that held them, though I do still have paper copies in my filing box somewhere.  I will probably have to give Anx a ride to pick up his car tonight as well.  

We are supposed to be in the 30s later this week, so I am definitely transitioning to winter mode.  It is only one night, but it is still a sign to start thinking about it.  Things like the shed floor can be done during the winter if push comes to shove, but concrete can't, so I might switch to the pilings, though I did the bad ones last year and it could wait until spring if need be.

Back from trip. Lengthy truck review.

I got back from my trip last night.  One of the things that we did while I was down there was Heather and I visited the Saltpeter caves.  This cave was very different from the other caves I have visited.  There weren't many geological formations in this cave, it was more of a mine.  The rocks were mostly dirt/sandstone (saltpeter, which is used to make gunpowder) which is why it looks like they dug out the path (because they did).  In addition, the cave was mostly a dry cave.  The water is what brings in the minerals that creates the stalactites and stalagmites, so outside of a couple of very small features, there wasn't much in the way of that in this cave.  It was a fun learning experience, and is definitely unique among the caves I have visited.

The pictures can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WvDE9AZWoxn5QmQd6 

I did something a little different this time to minimize the amount of vacation time I had to expend.  I drove down on Wednesday after work, and then worked remotely Thursday half day (I flexed the other half day off).  I worked from a truck stop in Maryland.  While the remote work from the truck stop was less than ideal, I at least had a nice view (except for the bug splats).  It got really hot in the truck though.

I also got a picture of a sunrise while I was there that was quite pretty.

The other big project was replacing the dishwasher.  I had installed mine, but it was a countertop unit that I put in a cabinet and hard-plumbed in, so not quite the same thing.  The old one was a real pain to get out.  The fake wood flooring was a lip that we had to lift the dishwasher over (which of course meant lifting the counter).  

The dishwasher was a bit of a fiasco.  It started with the electric.  When the breaker labeled dishwasher was turned off, the display on the dishwasher died.  I then went to cut the wire (this one was hardwired in) and got a reminder on why you always double check with a meter.  Fortunately the insulation on the handles of the wire cutters did their job and I didn't get zapped.  I might buy new crimpers, though they survived the surprise short without serious damage.  

The next fiasco is that apparently the drain pipe on the sink, which has a barb on it to attach the drain  hose to was pretty much flat.  I have never seen a flat one; they are normally (I would have said always before this trip) angled up so that water from the sink doesn't backfeed into the dishwasher.  So my foot got a boiling bath.  

It didn't install nicely, but the new one is in.  The cabinets are kinda wimpy, so it isn't held in real well, but should be fine as long as the cabinets hold up.  Just for amusement I still play the scene from Fifth Element in my head every time I see Auto-wash.

The other thing I did while I was down there was pick up the last cabinet.  I got my Dad some cabinets for Father's day, but they didn't have the large base cabinet when I got them delivered, so I went and picked one up while I was there.  The one I picked up though was from Lowes, and the ordered ones were from Home Depot.  Cabinets are supposed to be standardized sizes.  Apparently Lowes and Home Depot have other ideas though, thus the gap under the countertop.  So much for standards.  Fortunately the packaging boards from the dishwasher are the perfect thickness to shim the countertop, so we have shim boards for it.

I got home last night.  Not too much to see, it was raining most of the drive home, but before it started yesterday, I at least got to see some interesting mist on the mountains in Maryland and Pennsylvania.  

My truck now has 2500 miles on it.  Over 2000 of those were this trip.  The computer for the truck seems optimistic for gas mileage, but I was averaging well over 20 for the trip.  The tanks measured 23.9, 22.9, Forgot to measure, 22.7, and TBD (I haven't filled it since I got home, but the computer claims I got 24.7 on the tank that is in progress).  On the way home, I only stopped once for gas which was nice.  I filled up in Maryland and made it home with right around a quarter tank.  

That said, now that I have some significant time and miles on the truck, here is my review:

The good:

• The range.  I haven't pushed it yet, but the 36 gallon tank combined with the excellent mileage (for a pickup) is nice.  Really nice.  I only needed to fill up once on the trip back from KY.  And I still have enough gas to go to work for a week.
• The truck is very quiet and smooth for the most part (outside of the hard transmission shifts).  The Pirelli tires they put on it are excellent at eliminating road noise, and stick to the road really good.
• Despite having fewer seat adjustments, the truck is a whole lot more comfortable.  This combined with the range made it seem like I made a lot better time on the trip than I really did; I hit lots of traffic jams in PA and WV (a lot more than normal) and never set the cruise >72mph, but still got home in about 16 hours driving time which is pretty decent because I was only stopping every 4-5 hours instead of 2-3 hours.
• It doesn't gear hunt (at least while not heavily loaded).  I used cruise the whole trip with no stupid downshifts on the hills in WV.  It seems pretty good when it does downshift at knowing how much to downshift; it can (and does) shift more than one gear at a time. That is a very good thing considering it is a 10-speed transmission and I would think more gears would make that problem worse.
• Despite being among the smaller engines I have owned, it has a lot of pull at the low end.  It didn't downshift for the hills in KY, and it can pull itself and accelerate at 1000RPM even in top gear.
• The truck has a bunch of settings I was surprised to see, things like you can set the fob to open all the doors or just the drivers door.
• The back doors open all the way.
• At first I thought it was rather odd to include a dash screen that has pretty much nothing on it (they call it the calm screen) but on the highway it quickly became my go-to screen because of less distractions.
• The truck doesn't have great driveability feedback, but it is a whole lot better than both the Nissan and the Toyota.  The brakes are excellent, the gas pedal, while soft, isn't too soft, the steering isn't turnable with a feather, things like that.  
• The windows have auto up and down, and it is both of the front windows.
• Ford needs to advertise these things better; the truck came with features I didn't expect.  Some, like the telescoping wheel I planned to just do without, but some I figured I would need to add aftermarket like remote start and the flat four wiring (the website only mentioned the 7 pin RV plug).  There are some other usability ones too, like the clamp pockets in the tailgate.
• So far, all the annoying/broken "safety features" I have found can be disabled; things like the automatic wipers, automatic braking and collision detection.
• Even though I haven't tried most of it yet, the truck supports all the common infotainment things; it supports Android and Apple Auto, has Bluetooth (which really ought to be standard by 2022 but isn't), and supports USB thumb drive audio.
• See the cons about the software behind them, but I like that there are real buttons for all the common things to adjust on the road.  I am one of those people that feel that buttons are better than touch screens.
• It has six post holes in the bed-rails, not four.  That might be an 8' box thing, but it is still good to see should I ever build something to sit over the bed.
• It is nice that all the power stuff isn't immediately dead when you shut the truck off.  The 12V plugs stay live for a while (maybe 20 minutes, and they stay live even if you open the door).  It would be nice if the USB did too, but since it is expected to be used for connection to the infotainment, I understand why the USB is tied to the radio.  Likewise I understand why the AC plug doesn't stay live.  That is a really fast way to kill your battery, since it draws a lot more than the 12v plug.  Since my cooler runs off 12V, that is the most important one anyways.

The meh:

• As you would expect with a blunt nosed pickup, the mileage drops off quickly with speed.  It seems to be like the Tundra, where at 60mph I get 24+mpg, but at 70mph I get ~22mpg and at 75mph it is ~20mpg
• The computer mileage is optimistic, though I have never seen an accurate one. 
• It is purely cosmetic, but their animation of the truck when you start it is inaccurate, the animation is of a different body type.  
• Because the bed liner is a lot thinner and is a softer plastic than my old one, it has mildly deformed already.
• The truck gets really really hot in the sun.  This was expected (thus not a con) but the dark gray was the only interior color option.
• The windows are slow to react.  Not really a problem, but if you go to open the driver window just a little bit (so not hitting the auto), it takes a half second before the window does anything.  It is only the front windows too, the back ones are fine.
• The transmission feels like it shifts hard, though >95% of my driving thus far has been Eco mode, and it might be because it doesn't shift until it really has to in Eco mode.  This might become a con if it slams or shifts hard in other modes.  In general, I like its resiliency to downshift which is good for gas mileage, albeit at the expense of lugging the engine.
• The truck often displays warnings about things that this trim truck won't ever have and isn't available.  Like the backup camera displays something like "full surrounding cameras not available" even though that wasn't even an option on this truck.  
• The backup camera system is unhappy (though it does still work) if the tailgate is down.
• I haven't tried it yet, but I am curious if the tailgate is removable.  With electronics in the tailgate, that isn't a guarantee.
• UPDATE - I went out and looked when I got home, and no, my tailgate isn't removable.  At least not easily.
  
• The tailgate doesn't have the soft down hinges, but is light enough that I don't care and won't hurt anything if it slams. 
• The two speedometers (the digital one and the analog one) don't match and neither match the "your speed is" things.  The digital speedometer was pretty consistently almost 1mph less than the analog one, and it was ~0.5-0.75mph higher than all the displays on the road.  Not a big deal, the speedometer is never perfectly accurate once the original tires are replaced anyways, but it is still a little disappointing that it came from the factory without those lining up and being accurate.

The bad: 

• The climate control system is infuriating.  It doesn't turn the AC off when you turn off the AC (basically switch it to vent), it just runs the AC less (I am guessing only when there is spare power or something because it isn't consistent).  The problem with that is you go from it blowing exterior air (which for the trip home was around 68-73 degrees) and then when there is enough refrigerant pressure to actually air condition built up, it randomly blows air that is 10-15 degrees cooler for several seconds.  Raising the temperature setting didn't change the behavior, it just raised those numbers until you got to the point of heating the air.  As near as I can tell, the only way to actually turn the AC off is to completely turn the climate control system to off.  You can minimize the effect by running with more fan (more volume means less air temperature differential) but it is still at best obnoxious and noticeable.  I have also noticed that the center vents are a lot stronger/get more air than the edge vents.
• Ford's software team isn't good at software. 
• I have found that most of their software only features don't work well.  
• The lane keep assist has alarm and assist modes.  I quickly found out why it defaults to alarm only (which seems odd on its face).  The first time you use it on assist, it becomes crystal clear why; it can see the lanes in the road but it has no algorithm to do the corrections; it turns and badly oversteers the other way.  
• While I don't care too much about this feature, if it worked well, it would be nice to have so that you could eat a slightly messy sub that occasionally needs two hands while driving for example.  The truck pretty clearly has the hardware (sensors/cameras) to do it; it is just the software sucks.
• Their "stop and rest" warnings are obnoxious.  I am not sure how they are programmed (at first blush it appears to go off every time you cross over a line in the road at night, sometimes even if you use your turning signal), but it annoyed me enough to get turned off very quickly.
• The infotainment system is uninspiring.  To be fair, I knew this when I bought the truck; the Ford Sync system is routinely derided by reviewers.
• If you use the steering wheel controls, they routinely take seconds to actually show up on the display, though the effect happens quickly (things like changing the volume).
• Its randomizer certainly didn't feel random.  One of the flash drives had several hundred songs and it seemed to only play maybe 40 or 50 of them over and over and rarely pulled in the others.  This is a common software randomization issue that Ford didn't bother to fix.
• My biggest gripe with the infotainment system though is that the USB cuts out occasionally, which pushes the radio back to FM, but if it does that, the USB drive has to be removed and re-inserted before it can be used again.
• It also isn't clear what the radio supports for file systems and file types.  I saw a lot of "media type not supported" which I assumed was the flac audio, but it played several flac albums on the way home.  I had an NTFS formatted stick which it detected and displayed the name, but when you go to play it there was just simply nothing on it.  No error like unsupported file system or anything, just nothing there.  This can largely be cleared up by reading the manual, but who does that?  It isn't a big software effort to help the users either.
• Just to get a dig on Toyota, a Japanese designed truck that couldn't display Japanese characters, the Ford, an American(ish) designed truck, can display Japanese characters just fine.
• This isn't really a con per se, but I am curious why it has support for playing video files (though it only plays the audio track and not the video) but it doesn't seem to support some common audio formats.  
• It is really inconsistent with what it doesn't allow you to do while driving.  I scrolled four or five screens of songs on the flash drive (looking for a particular song) before it said "for your safety, you can't do that while driving"
• A few things don't remember their settings.
• Some of them look intentional, like the driving mode.  The driving mode is obnoxious because it starts to prompt you when you start the truck if you want to return to the previous mode (it should automatically do it IMO), but that gets preempted by the popup for the screen brightness, and then it pops up again.  It looks and feels very amateurish, and almost like Ford's engineers never actually tested it.
• It is kind of annoying that things like the headlights don't remember their settings.  They go back to auto every time you start the truck.
• Sometimes it is kind of random too, like for example the fog lights which turn on with the headlights just randomly stopped doing that until I manually turn them back on.
• This may not be software (though I would assume it is), but it sometimes won't go into park from reverse, it really fights it.  When it does that, I have found it is easiest to go to neutral and then try to put it in park, but I don't know why park is locked out, and I can't consistently recreate it.
• The fog lights are worthless.  I will need to see if they can be adjusted; they are pointed to the ground below the hood in the road.
• The headlights themselves are pretty mediocre.  I would say the headlights are a downgrade from the Toyota.  I will probably upgrade the bulbs to LEDs to get more lumens on the road.
• The mirrors are disappointing.  The mirrors aren't large (for a pickup anyways) to begin with, but they cut the glass at an angle which means you lose more of it if you keep the edge of the truck in the mirror (I usually do for a reference point).  That means the mirrors are pointed in more than they were on the Toyota.  Add to that the outer edge is cut out for a blind spot mirror (which while a nice feature isn't really one I need and would prefer to not have), and you get a mirror that feels like it is the size of a small car mirror.  It is tolerable for normal driving, but I expect it to really suck when I pull the camper.
• The truck has surprisingly poor visibility because of the way it is sloped.  It is shorter than my prior pickups in the front, but the back end is so high you almost can't step onto the bumper because of how tall it is.  Combined with the mirrors, you have to be more cautious with visibility.
• To add insult to injury, the inside rear view mirror is partially obstructed by the center seat's headrest.  The headrest should be removable, once I figure out how to do it though.
• The mirrors are heated, but the heaters aren't good enough (nor does it stay on long enough when activated) to evaporate water.  It defogs the mirrors OK, but time will tell with their wimpy heaters and the fact that they only stay on for a couple of minutes at a time if they can melt snow.
• You have to fold the middle seat in the front down to have any cupholders.
  

If I were to give it a rating, I am torn between a 7 and 8 out of ten.  While as is typical with my reviews, the cons list is larger than the pros list, the only things that are significant enough to ding my rating are the climate control (which is a pretty large ding) and just poor software in general.  Things like the headlights and mirrors are disappointing, but they aren't really a problem, they are just not good.  Most of the software stuff isn't really stuff I care about too much, it just looks bad and unprofessional for Ford in general and means I have to have a startup sequence, like back in the early 90s with the gold Buick where everything was a manual switch.  I still really like the truck, and thus far it is a notable improvement over the Toyota in all of the important ways that I have tested (I haven't towed with the F-150 yet).  Traveling in this truck will actually be pleasant.  Ford thought of a lot of the little things that are important to trucks (and yes, I count the 36gal gas tank as a truck feature), it is just that their software team needs to be revamped.  I should also note that my software gripes thus far are non-critical systems, unlike the Toyota and its transmission programming woes.  

I have started filling out the form for the variance, but haven't finished it yet, but that is at the top of my priority list.  Given that it is September already, I think it is time to look forward to winterizing, and if they make me do anything this fall, it will have an adverse impact on my ability to do things like buy a snowblower for the tractor.  This winter is supposed to be rough from everything I read, but they said last winter would be snowy and I only cleared the driveway a half dozen times all winter.  I am still on the fence as to whether it is worth paying several grand for a three point snowblower for my tractor is worthwhile.