Kayak fail, transitioning to vacation mode.

I actually wrote this update last week, but apparently never published it.  Oops.  This is the update from last week.  

 

Didn't do too much during the week, it has been a long couple weeks at work, but I have actually enjoyed it; I am building stuff with my hands again.

 

Saturday I started to cut down knotweed, but quickly started to get rained on.  It was only a 25% chance, but it rained a good chunk of the day.  Sigh.  Instead I finished up the itinerary and where I am staying.  I am ready to start making reservations, which I will probably do this week.

 

Sunday started off with some fails.  I went to Highland Lake with my inflatable kayak, and forgot the paddles (doh!) and more importantly, discovered that my inflator thingy that is supposed to stay in the car was not in there (major doh!).  So that didn't go well.  At Voyageurs I will be taking boat tours because it is so large,  but I am staying at Sylvan Lake in South Dakota and will want it there, so I do kind of want to get it out once or twice first just to see what it is like.  

 

I did do a little bit of work on the carport.  I got it shifted a foot or two over so it didn't roll down the hill, and got the last leg installed.  I also started installing the leg braces.  I still need to get Barry up there to remove some firewood from there so it doesn't get pummeled.

At this point I am more shifting towards vacation mode.  I will say though it is pretty sad the lack of meaningful project progress I have made this year; once I get back from vacation I will be in the usual winter panic mode.  

 

This is the update from this week: Not too much during the week.  I  really need to start doing more during the week, but I typically get home, start making dinner, and then by the time I get motivated to do stuff, the sun is behind the trees and I decide "nah, not enough time left to make it worthwhile".  I did see something amusing shopping Monday though.  Apparently Bounty laid off/outsourced all their English speaking QA people.

 

Saturday started off a bit sluggish, but I did motivate myself to get some stuff done.  It was a gorgeous day, so I went for a walk in my woods.  I then got some trip stuff done.  I tore apart my house until I found my toiletry bag.  I am not sure how, but it somehow got pinned between the box spring and the wall.

 

I also went through my kitchen and started culling all the oversaturated stuff.  This is the basis for the food I will be bringing on the trip.   I still have a bunch of frozen meals to take, but I think instead of planning meals to the letter (and then having it be all hosed up after 3 days like last trip), I am just going to bring a stock and make things as I see fit on the road.  It is a bit more like wingin' it, but it isn't like any of my food planning has ever resembled reality when all is said and done.

I also went through and cut the wires for the custom fridge wiring harness.  We have nicer special crimpers at work for the splices, so I should finish it up today at work.

 

I also wanted to take advantage of the nice day and went up the fire tower.  While there isn't going to be a lot of climbing on this trip, it still felt good to awaken those long-dormant muscles.  Visibility was good, the temperature was perfect (I went in the evening, and it had fallen to the 60s by then), and I saw one person at the trail head and that was it, I otherwise had the place to myself.  These were taken with the big camera.  I am not sure why Google uploaded them in reverse order (the first taken is at the bottom)

 

I have never found a summit marker, but this will have to do.

I also took a short video from the tower.

I still had a tiny bit of daylight left, so I went into town for a few things.  My phone kind of killed the color in it, but it was a pretty sunset. 

 

One other thing I noticed this weekend is that my water now has visibly sized shavings in it.  I have procrastinated too long on calling the water company out it appears.

 

I still haven't made the reservations, I will definitely get that done this week, it should have been done last week (that is something I can do during the week that doesn't require daylight). 

Lazy summer update.

I know I didn't post an update last weekend.  Quite frankly, I didn't really do much.  Last week though I started to learn how to bake in the air fryer.  It needs work.  Not hockey pucks, but more well done than desired.

 

The only other thing from that week was that I got the mortgage statement from after making the first big payment for this year (it is actually the second payment in 2026, but the first back in February was catch up from 2025).  To my surprise, I only need to pay another 6k to get to my mortgage principal target for this year.  The regular payments (which were not included in my 20k a year figure) are actually significant now. 

 

This weekend I decided to not put the mowing off any more.  It was at the edge of needing to slow down to mow it.  It was still really wet, but oh well.  There was rain coming, so waiting was not really an option.  As expected, the mower battery needed a little help.  It turned it over, but slowly.  This is what happens when you only mow once every 2+ months.  

 

I noticed while I was mowing the back that a bunch of my moss is dying.  Not sure what causes that.

 

Since Saturday turned out to be chores day, I also finally decided to bite the bullet and cut my hair.  This is another thing I will need to learn how to do when I am on the road.  The last time I cut my own hair it came out dreadful, but that was decades ago at this point, when I had a ton more hair than I do now.  

 

Sunday morning I started off weed whacking.  I got the path to the tiny home cleared, around the trailer.  Apparently though when I ran the battery dead last year I never actually plugged it in.  Oops.  I finally killed the one in it, swapped it out, and the other one died in about 2 minutes, so it was probably never charged.  Oops.  

 

It quickly clouded over and we got a few drizzles, but they were spotty throughout the day, so I went to Otter Brook.  It felt nice to get out.  I was curious what the water levels were like.  On one hand, the last week has had a lot of rain.  On the other hand, prior to that we were bone dry for several weeks.  Turns out there was a fair amount of water, but not excessive.

 

I kind of have split feelings on this park.  On one hand, it is really nice to have a place to go walk around, a disc golf course, and all that kind of stuff really close by and it is usually empty.  On the other hand, it seems a shame that there is a really nice park slowly deteriorating and falling apart basically due to the city's neglect.  Of course, if they did still take care of it and keep it open, it would be crowded.

 

The reason they closed the beach was poor water tests.  Now they don't bother to test anymore.

This tree was confused what season it was 

I did briefly play around with the carport when I got back but it started to rain on me again.  I did do a second run over my hair, and it looks like I missed a few spots.  Not too bad though. 

 

I did also come up with a 4th option for the structural panel.  This would give me R16.5, and be more solid too.  It is more of a pain to build (a lot more layers), but the extra R value might be worth it.

 

Smokey (not the bear)

I didn't do too much last week, since most of last week it looked like a post-apocolyptic movie outside.  It was actually kind of surreal when I go from my normally dingy poorly lit office and look outside and it isn't brighter and cars I know to be white are orange.  Then you walk outside and look up, trying to find the sun, and the sky is perfectly uniform since it is completely bereft of detail except for one circle that is a lighter color than its surroundings. 

 

For those who have read the book that I wrote, add a bit of dust, and it is almost exactly how I envisioned the future atmosphere.

It felt like late fall; it was getting dark when I got home.  On the plus side, the yard didn't grow, so I didn't have to mow.  It does need it, but it doesn't need it any worse than it did a week ago.  

 

Deciding I didn't really want to work outside in the storms or that, I decided to go visit Aunt and Uncle for the weekend.  Fortunately between the change in winds and the storms, it was actually really nice Sunday on the drive back.  

 

During some of the lulls at work, I also started looking at tool systems.  I currently have a Bosch cordless drill and driver.  While I love the Bosch drill, Bosch doesn't make a lot of the stuff I would want to have with me on the road, things like a pruning chainsaw for when I inevitably drive somewhere I didn't have quite enough clearance for as an example.  But if I am going to invest thousands of dollars into a tool system, I will want to make sure it has all the pieces I want both on the road and in the workshop.  So I have started enumerating what those requirements are.  Makita is fairly universally regarded as the best of the best, but cost (and interestingly availability) might drive me to look at other acceptable brands like Milwaukee and DeWalt.  I might poke around at some like Ryobi based solely on cost too, but most of the non-premium brands are missing pieces.

 

At least for the time being the smoke isn't blowing this way anymore, so I can resume working on the carport.

 

It has legs

Not too much went on last week.  Some of my new stuff to hopefully convince me to go outside more came in.  I got new insoles for my walking shoes.  I bought these shoes because they were cheap, and were basically mostly mesh so a lot cooler than my heavier leather Merrels.  Having to replace the insoles after a couple of months though doesn't bode well for them though.  

 

I have been looking for the computer that fell off the bike.  I can't seem to find it anywhere, which is kind of disappointing.  That probably means it fell off in the carport, and is buried in the leaves somewhere.

 

Even the deer chilling in the back yard was chuckling at me. 

 

I also got the bike carrier put back on the car since it is the nicest way to work on the bike. 

 

The reason I was working on the bike was I got a new seat.  The old one the gel pack was getting lumpy.  

 

This is the original seat (the gel thing was just a cover) if anyone likes this type.  I personally never found it comfortable.  I have all the mounting hardware for it too.  Given that I didn't roll out of bed until double digits on Saturday, that took a good chunk of the afternoon.  I missed the parade in Sullivan.  Oh well.   

 

Sunday was carport day.  My first plan was to use my bug zapper stand to hold things up while I attached the legs.  Unfortunately not being pressure treated has finally taken its toll on it though.  It was never intended to last this long, but you know how temporary measures that work become permanent.  Whoops.

 

I ended up just using a 2x3.  

 

I got all the legs on but one.  I think I need to move it into place now, and finish building the retaining wall for the side, it tried to roll down the hill when I was attaching the last couple.  It is g ood to have solid progress on it though.

I have also started fine tuning my trip and picking out hotels, though I haven't made reservations yet.