Category: Blog

Timing

Amusingly, just days after posting about my Dad and the lawnmower, today he put it out on the front lawn for free. It died while he was cutting the grass, and combined with the other problems it had been giving him, stopped being worth it. I guess there’s always a line to draw.

Bit by bit

Slowly getting things done. Yesterday we finished deconstructing the majority of the interior of the bus. All that is left are the captain’s chairs and the veggie system. I wrote a post about it on Anne Marie’s very own website.

Same can be said for the Landshark reboot. I have a bit of a mental block keeping me from just sitting down and hammering out as much as I possibly can in an evening, so I just do bits and bits as I can, and it’s slowly coming together. It’s scary to be embarking on a risky business venture when I’m right on the verge of taking control of my life. I have considerable savings built up, and I’m ready to make my bus a home. If I can make myself a job at the same time, all the better.

Looking ahead

I’m trying to figure out a few things before winter hits. I’m not sure if I just wasn’t ready for it or if the air got cooler quicker this fall, but I feel like I’m running out of project-weather. There have been a lot of days recently that were too cool or rainy when we would have otherwise worked but didn’t. Today Nishi and I got a lot of oil strained and buckets washed. I won’t be able to keep straining and storing oil like I do now when winter comes, so I need to be ready. Last winter I filled a 55 gallon drum, and I think I’m going to do that same strategy this year. I may buy an additional drum to be safe. As a backup, I have 12 five gallon buckets that can be filled, holding about three months worth of oil. The New England Emporium only produces about 5 gallons a week in waste oil, and I need to be on top of servicing them or they’ll get someone else to do it. I’ve been that someone else too often in my day job.

Whenever I question the amount of work I put into veggie, I do a little math in my head to make me feel better. It takes me about three hours to strain 150 gallons of oil. It will still need to be run though a centrifuge, and will take approximately another six hours. Add another hour for picking up the oil from the restaurant (might be overshooting that a bit, but it makes for easier math). That means I’m rendering approximately 15 gallons of waste cooking oil into usable fuel each hour. Each gallon of waste cooking oil offsets one gallon of petroleum diesel, which is currently $4.20somethingish at the pump. Working one hour on veggie saves me $60ish dollars in fuel. I don’t make $60 an hour, so I think it’s a pretty good deal.

This math didn’t work so well on the bus trip. Not only did we not have a reliable filtering time, but we didn’t have a steady supply of oil. That made a huge difference. Finding oil was a big process, and took entire days. I think we figured out once that if we had each worked somewhere at minimum wage for the time we spent looking for oil, we could have just paid for diesel.

Anyway, after today, I’m just about ready for winter.

Punch Brothers Punch

Went to go see a Punch Brothers show at the Jorgensen tonight.
Successfully surprised Nishi.

On the way out, I overheard someone say “Great show, but why didn’t they play Wagon Wheel?” I’m not sure whether they were serious or not.

An Example

On the same note as yesterday’s post, I’ve been thinking a bit about makers. That’s “Makers” in the modern American sense. Suburbanites who have realized they can opt out of consumer culture and fix things or make them for themselves. Obviously this isn’t novel in many parts of the world, and is only recently novel here. It’s kind of strange that I fall into this group, since I grew up with a father who could do anything.

My dad built our back deck. And the pergola above it. And front porch. He installed radiant heat in the addition to our garage, and the tile flooring on top of it. Then he built the deck outside of that. He got an old riding lawnmower someone was giving away, tinkered, bought a $4 part, and it was good as new. He still uses it. He takes a certain pride in it, being from the 80s with zero safety features. I’ve heard our neighbor talking with him about how ridiculously and needlessly complicated modern lawnmowers are, and him just being able to laugh. He falls trees and splits the wood, keeping us warm all winter. He’s tackled all manner of repairs in our house, from construction to electrical. He’s always had advice on how to get something done.

I was numb to most of that growing up. It just wasn’t my thing. I was nerdy, and defined myself that way. Those skills were outside of what I was comfortable doing. That board is too heavy for me to lift. My tool of choice is a keyboard. I helped on many of these projects, but I was mostly an extra hand. Hold here, hammer this, cut that. If I was paying attention I could have absorbed a lot, but I mostly let it slide. Anyway, I’m playing catch-up now. I’m sure that exposure helped me a bit, but I regret those missed opportunities.

Off to a good start

I’ve gotten a lot accomplished on my vehicles lately, and it has made me proud – just a few years ago I wouldn’t have known where to start under the hood of a car. Now I have a Mercedes that is ready to run on 100% vegetable oil, and I did it largely on my own – or I should say, without instructive help, I had many helpers. I’m tinkering with electronics, fixing things on my own. It feels great. Changing in such a short span of time from something that was wholly foreign to something accessible makes me aware of the things I’m already proficient in. It also reminds me of how easy that jump can be.

Today Nishi and I drove to Miner St to work on the bus a bit. Last week we got the two large benches dismantled and set aside. The inside of the bus is opening up. As I turned off my truck, I went to turn off the lights and the knob popped off. The little mechanism the plastic knob attached to was just hanging by its wires inside the dashboard, and wouldn’t stay put on its own. I unscrewed and popped off the large plastic piece covering the area under the steering wheel, and unbolted the metal plate underneath that. Just screws and bolts. I was then able to reach up and hold the mechanism in place as I re-attached the plastic knob. Fixed! There’s a mental block that needs to be passed, after which it all becomes clear. It’s just screws and bolts.

My mom asked us to stay for dinner. I’ve long asserted when talking with her that the difference between generations in regards to technology is that my generation plays with things, while her generation exercises far more caution. They treat the new computer like a luxury car that needs to be carefully maintained and driven on well paved roads. I’m swapping the engine and installing wings. No one told me I couldn’t. She mentioned her amazement that I was able to do that fix today on my own. I think the only difference between me and her is that I was shown that I could do this.

Before Grey Fox this year, Ali and I were making preparations on the bus. We were getting things packed and sorted and generally figured out. The cast iron propane burner that we’ve been cooking on had suffered a few falls, and a few legs had broken off. As a result it couldn’t sit level anymore, and this needed to be fixed. I grabbed a 2×4, a circular saw, and a drill. I cut four small lengths, screwed them into a small box, and screwed the burner to it. Problem solved. It took maybe five minutes. Ali remarked about how he hadn’t seen something like that before. I can easily remember when I could have said the same. I just had to be shown that it was possible. These are things I could do.

Been a while

No excuse really. It’s been over a month since I posted last, and plenty has happened in that time.

I started writing letters finally, long after their recipients moved away and I said I’d write. As it turns out, this is a hobby I really enjoy, and I’m trying to make it a regular pastime. I like being able to sit down a collect my thoughts on a piece of paper, and then send it off to someone.

I want to be writing more in general, both here and elsewhere. I’m going to keep to a weekly letter writing habit, and I’m thinking I’ll try to update here daily through October. Old entries are a huge resource, but not worth much when I don’t post anything.

This should be made easier by another new development since I last posted – my new phone. I had to finally put down my trusty N95, and grabbed a Galaxy S2. There’s plenty wrong with it, and there’s a lot about my old phone I miss, but I do like being able to use a phone that is actively being supported. In fact, I wrote most of this entry from my phone today while I was on the road (chill out, I was the passenger).

Grey Fox into Tweed River

Grey Fox this year was incredible. Anne Marie is building a real community around her. In addition to the group of people who frequent jams and hang out, we actually had some groupies. There were two neighbors of ours who camped specifically near us, after seeing us last year. I think that’s legitimately fantastic. As always, we made new friends, and visited old friends, and the group grows. We’ve officially overtaken my parents’ camp in number – I’m hoping they’ll join us next year.

There was a week of downtime, in which I tried to focus on work. I tried to remind myself that I’m working so I can not work. But it’s hard to reject that instant gratification that comes with festivals.

Tweed River was this past weekend, and it was marvelous as well. It’s growing, around 1,500 people came this year. We’re meeting more and more of the people who organize and run the festival, and that is definitely a good thing. That festival has an aggressively good vibe. It’s hard to resist.

I’m excited to see what festivals will be like in Anne Marie 2.0.

Waiting

I had yesterday off as a paid holiday. I only get a handful of paid holidays all year, so it was nice to just sit around, and not feel bad about not making money. But it wasn’t a real holiday, at least not in the sense I would like it to be. One of the chief complaints I had about being in school was that downtime was just a period of waiting. You could do some stuff on the side, and even get some interesting stuff achieved, but soon enough you’d have to get back to doing school work and focusing on studies. This kept my mind from seeking larger projects, and kept me thinking and living in the very near future.

Work isn’t quite the same, likely because there is actually less downtime. I don’t have as much time that could otherwise be spent thinking about things I would rather be doing than work. There isn’t the massive summer break which will end. But yesterday just served as a reminder to me of what I’m working towards. I want to be able to get up, and be able to pursue nearly anything, whether it takes 5 minutes or 5 months. Just as school used to loom over my free time, so does work. I want to be free of that, even for a short time.

In between school and work, I was no closer, since the thought of making money to reach both immediate and distant goals was ever present. The last time I felt close to free of things was when we traveled last summer. Though we still had deadlines to meet, and places to be, the time in between festivals was an incredibly free time. Not perfect, but not bad. I think I’ll get there. But in the meantime, I’m not sure I want many more paid vacations.