Ready to anchor.

I actually did some stuff during the week for a change.  I got some stuff ordered for the trip.  These are nasal dilators.  They are basically the nose strips on steroids.  They don't seem to do much when I am at home, but they do help when I am sleeping in the car.  They need to work on their packaging though, I had to re-bend them back into their proper shape.  They are all supposed to be like the top one.  These ones are softer than the last ones I got too which likely means that they aren't going to work as well, even though they are the same brand.

 

I finished up the wiring harness.  This is so I can run both coolers off the Jackery without using a splitter that I can kick in the middle of the night and cause them both to shut off.

 

Saturday was surprisingly nice.  It was rather cool, and while the clouds looked scary it was dry.  So I finished up the bottom support bars on the carport.  I understand now why people hate universal joints so much.  Every time I have tried to use mine, it has left me disappointed.  It kept binding up.  I ended up using a wobbler extension. 

 

The bottom supports didn't stiffen and straighten things up as much as I had wanted.  They are all in and tight now though.  The anchoring will help.  All that is left is the metal roofing.  And the gravel.  

 

I decided on how I want to anchor it.  I took a video, but apparently blogger doesn't allow me to upload videos anymore.  

 

Sunday was wet and rainy, but I took the truck out before it got too bad and picked up the lumber for it, as well as some survey tape and lag bolts to fasten it.  I did manage to find a couple dry hours in the afternoon to go out and mark the trees.  The green ones are definitely going, the orange I would leave it up to Barry whether he thinks they are a threat to the carport or worth taking down.

 

I also did a bunch of other trip stuff.  The first chunk of the trip is now reserved.  I ended up opting out of campsites because for some reason the cluster of them in Wisconsin I was looking at all had 2 day minimums, which made them as expensive as a hotel.  I will hopefully finish up making reservations tonight before shopping or tomorrow though.

 

I also decided to try toasting in my air fryer.  It actually turned out okay.  I am not planning on taking the toaster into the box truck, so it is good to know I can still make toast.

 

 

I noticed today that there are a couple of trees that are just starting to change.  A touch early, but not moreso than normal I suppose.  There are always a few freaky ones that start in August.   

 

I also realized when I was chatting with Matt about batteries that I never actually formally wrote up what my 5 year plan was.  You can see why I have been grumbling about not getting any of the project work done.  It is now two years behind.  Everything else is proceeding apace though.  And unless I get laid off, I might push it to 6 just to build up more cash buffer.

 

 

I also wrote up the contingency plan, and one part of the truck house idea that hadn't been fleshed out yet; what happens when the truck dies.  Having my house be in/on a truck that will age out and break down or wear out means that the underlying vehicle needs to be replaced every so often.  I originally had a line item for I think it was $200 a month to squirrel away for this eventuality.  This ended up getting removed from the final budget because there was no good way to balance the budget with it in there.  

The plan instead is when the truck starts getting less reliable or getting to the point where replacement is a need, I will need to take a year off from traveling and pick up side work.  Originally when I came up with the 5 year plan the idea was to pick up remote contract work and put extra time into the side business, but if that is untenable due to the emergence of AI, either the side business will have to grow an extra branch (handyman work?) or even just pick up an unskilled labor job for a summer or so until I can afford to either rebuild the vehicle or replace it.  I wrote up a much more detailed thing on it, but don't want to turn this post into a lecture, but I can send it if anyone is curious.

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.