A Month's Worth of Heat
In my strange personal belief system, we humans are born as imperfect material beings so that we might accrue experience. If we are open minded about where we find true satisfaction within this world, we will discover that experience adds up and is never lost. It is the only permanent possession any of us will carry, forever...should we choose to go onto the next world. There is only one time frame and place to have human experience. The time is now, in the flesh, and the place (in our cases) is upon a small sin-smeared, evolutionary world. While the Gods, if there are any, are existentially perfect, we are to be experientially perfected.
Those of us who are handed everything we need in the material world, if we are not challenged with diverse and strong experiences--both good and bad, and have never felt the crushing weight of failure in order to appreciate the stratospheric heights of success, are probably too spiritually immature to gain much from the only time we will be human. Being pampered is a form of coddling spiritual retardation.
It is not necessary to actually suffer in order to achieve a unique experience worthy of eternal value. But, because of the period our generations have been born into along the planetary timeline, suffering is more the rule than the exception. Nevertheless, my individual take on all this is that if we can even partially understand "why bad things happen," and are also able to realize (hopefully by about the age of 40) that the human-made world is a piss poor excuse for a stage upon which to start one's eternal program of perfecting, much can still be achieved toward this end even in later life.
It is not necessary to actually suffer in order to achieve a unique experience worthy of eternal value. But, because of the period our generations have been born into along the planetary timeline, suffering is more the rule than the exception. Nevertheless, my individual take on all this is that if we can even partially understand "why bad things happen," and are also able to realize (hopefully by about the age of 40) that the human-made world is a piss poor excuse for a stage upon which to start one's eternal program of perfecting, much can still be achieved toward this end even in later life.
So many times when I first started the long distance wallking, I was called "crazy." That doesn't happen as much anymore. People still think I'm crazy of course, but few people are secure enough in their own supposedly well thought out lifestyle choices to put that label on me anymore--at least to my face.
All the while, I know with absolute certainty just how fickle, shallow, and primitive American conventionalism is. Large houses, gas guzzling SUV's, mass electric power, water, and sewage grids... Hate to tell those who value these THINGS, but the future is not going to be filled with three car garages, endless fossil fuel reserves to exploit, 300 horsepower engines, rusty transmission power poles, fluoride infused water reservoirs, and waste treatment plants. There are not enough natural resources left in the ground to provide these things to every individual. I'm not trying to get all NPRish. My point is simply this... All that we consider to be our innovative, "convenience" based mechanisms are already ancient missteps now that our culture is capable of moving beyond them, while having no will to do so. When viewed from the perspective of our great grandchildren, looking back from the year 2100, we should be blushingly embarrassed.
All the while, I know with absolute certainty just how fickle, shallow, and primitive American conventionalism is. Large houses, gas guzzling SUV's, mass electric power, water, and sewage grids... Hate to tell those who value these THINGS, but the future is not going to be filled with three car garages, endless fossil fuel reserves to exploit, 300 horsepower engines, rusty transmission power poles, fluoride infused water reservoirs, and waste treatment plants. There are not enough natural resources left in the ground to provide these things to every individual. I'm not trying to get all NPRish. My point is simply this... All that we consider to be our innovative, "convenience" based mechanisms are already ancient missteps now that our culture is capable of moving beyond them, while having no will to do so. When viewed from the perspective of our great grandchildren, looking back from the year 2100, we should be blushingly embarrassed.
Now, for God sake, what does any of this have to do with sleeping in the extreme cold? Well, really only one thing. It is a challenge. It is uncomfortable. It is potentially dangerous. Is this what we have evolved to do? Humans invent a thousand ways to stay warm, just to end up in the woods, sleeping in the cold? YES! But why?
The longer I live outside the norms, the wider my perceptions of human civilization stretch. I observe most of society as would a biologist studying the behavior of some kind of wild animal in its own habitat. Not the best analogy, since for the most part, no animal cruelly hurts members of its own species just for the fun of it. No animal makes a common habit out off fouling its own nest so fully that it must then move on to fouling the nests of others. No other animal has the means to completely examine and carefully scrutinize both its environment and its own motives, onky to ignore its own facts findings, in order to preserve the false security of wishful thinking. Only choosing to push one's way out of the willfully constructed stupidity bubble and then seeing one's own behavior and ignorance for what it is, affords the opportunity for gaining real wisdom. In general, although people seem to care, in a lazy, superstitious, anti-intellectual way, no one cares enough to even have a glimpse for themself, of themself, from the other side of the veil. But that's where I live now.
For example: To walk where I need to go, eliminates the limitations of owning a vehicle. What do I mean? whenever I have the ability to use a car, I cannot stop myself from doing so. It's a viral infection. The "convenience" of such a means of transit makes the option of walking laughable, by comparison--"crazy." But the joke is on all of us. We have jobs 50 miles away from our homes, because we have cars to get us there by 9:00 am. We don't grow gardens, because we have cars to bring us to the store. Our complacency in the face of information telling us that we need to change NOW, makes society look to me like a bunch of mentally disabled people stopping to look for shiny things as the madhouse burns down around them. Meanwhile, this convenience is changing the environment in ways our wishful thinking blinders keep us from even processing.
Our addiction to stuff is just another strain of this virus. If you live in a house so large that there are rooms you don't use, or have so much stuff that you need to pay the equivalent of extra apartment rent to provide a space for it (maybe also 50 miles away?), AND YOU KNOW IT, then I'm sorry my friend, but you are a big-assed part of the problem.
Would one of you walk in to town one day a week instead of driving? Would one of you downsize to a place where every room is useful? Would one of you who complain about paying taxes eliminate the money-sucking storage space filled with all the shit you never use and have even forgotten you own? Would you do these things just because a "crazy" fool on the hill told you there is peace of mind in such simplification? Not a fucking chance. I know, because I would not have changed unless I was forced to, because the hypocrisy of knowing I was terminally buying into the cult of Wasteful First Worldism, and my heart was literally unable to handle the contradictions between knowing what was True, versus following the herd's wishful thinking denials of that Truth.
Isn't sleeping in the extreme cold, in order to use only what I need, a great metaphor for being what one does when one can't stand the fake, ideologically driven, mindless conformity? Okay, you can't see it... I guarantee that if you see yourself in my admonitions, you have probably been trying to think of arguments against what I have been saying. It makes you feel better. I get it. And doubtless, it is probable that the person next to you would also defend your doing things that are fuzzy and not rational, against my sharp paring blades of need over want (aka wishful thinking). "But I might need it someday!" Take it from the son of the worst hoarder on the planet... "Someday" isn't ever going to come. Sometimes just hearing the details of the metaphor is much more useful...
I knew the temps at night would be brutal when I got back to the shelter two nights ago, the temperature was dropping from about 20 F, and would settle in at about 5 F. I clicked on the little propane heater, and through a routine of then switching it on off at 65 F at on again at 40 F, I cooked my meal, worked on some technical design innovations I'd been thinking about...
...and watched a Youtube video. Around 9:00 pm I took off my pants and put on my pajama pants. I left my t-shirt and sweater on and crawled into bed. Bed consists of a cot, with a military sleeping bag on it, covered by a large queen-sized comforter, folded up, covered by a fitted sheet, covered by a 40 F minimum sleeping bag, into which I have stuffed my old IWALLK sleeping bag (with the failed zipper cut off). This is plenty of layering for temperature preservation.
The issue then is exposed skin. I hate to breath in warm air from within the sleeping bag. So, that means sticking my dumbassed face out into the cold. People don't realize that if the head is exposed, the rest of the body will heat up to make up for the difference. This makes you sweat. and, there is nothing more dangerous that being wet AND cold. This combined with the fact that your breath accumulates as moisture on the inside of the room. This will eventually cover the entire inner surface of a small shelter with frost. In my case, much of the moisture is exuded out into the surrounding outer shelter. That's a good thing, eliminating moisture in the living space. It is truly odd to turn on the heat in the morning and hearing the melted frost drip like rain upon the outside of my tent. Wearing a hat - as long as it stays on my head - stops the night sweats (although angina can extend them sometimes).
There really is no big difference between sleeping in my shelter and sleeping in your cozy heated bedroom, while in bed. The nice thing is that I don't waste heat when I don't need it. Others can afford to apparently. I also have no pipes that will freeze. Food and drink in the tent never needs a refrigerator, and usually does not freeze, because just not enough time goes by in between my heating (even if I'm gone all day). Given a second chance, I would have rigged up a small room for the water barrel (connected to the air on the inside of the inner tent). Because water freezes from the top down, the environment around the barrel can be so manipulated as to prevent a solid freeze.
Another thing that makes some aspects of living in the winter a bit easier than living in the summer, is that there is no need to harvest rainwater. The water (in the form of snow) basically harvests itself by sitting on top of the ground instead of sinking into it. There is always water available as long as there is heat available to melt snow. And, I will say that it is the freshest, cleanest, most refreshing water possible.
Just as with any circumstance where extreme environmental conditions are to be taken into account, much of the processes of survival are still available. They just need tweaking.
Here are some extra pictures from the last couple weeks...
The longer I live outside the norms, the wider my perceptions of human civilization stretch. I observe most of society as would a biologist studying the behavior of some kind of wild animal in its own habitat. Not the best analogy, since for the most part, no animal cruelly hurts members of its own species just for the fun of it. No animal makes a common habit out off fouling its own nest so fully that it must then move on to fouling the nests of others. No other animal has the means to completely examine and carefully scrutinize both its environment and its own motives, onky to ignore its own facts findings, in order to preserve the false security of wishful thinking. Only choosing to push one's way out of the willfully constructed stupidity bubble and then seeing one's own behavior and ignorance for what it is, affords the opportunity for gaining real wisdom. In general, although people seem to care, in a lazy, superstitious, anti-intellectual way, no one cares enough to even have a glimpse for themself, of themself, from the other side of the veil. But that's where I live now.
For example: To walk where I need to go, eliminates the limitations of owning a vehicle. What do I mean? whenever I have the ability to use a car, I cannot stop myself from doing so. It's a viral infection. The "convenience" of such a means of transit makes the option of walking laughable, by comparison--"crazy." But the joke is on all of us. We have jobs 50 miles away from our homes, because we have cars to get us there by 9:00 am. We don't grow gardens, because we have cars to bring us to the store. Our complacency in the face of information telling us that we need to change NOW, makes society look to me like a bunch of mentally disabled people stopping to look for shiny things as the madhouse burns down around them. Meanwhile, this convenience is changing the environment in ways our wishful thinking blinders keep us from even processing.
Our addiction to stuff is just another strain of this virus. If you live in a house so large that there are rooms you don't use, or have so much stuff that you need to pay the equivalent of extra apartment rent to provide a space for it (maybe also 50 miles away?), AND YOU KNOW IT, then I'm sorry my friend, but you are a big-assed part of the problem.
Would one of you walk in to town one day a week instead of driving? Would one of you downsize to a place where every room is useful? Would one of you who complain about paying taxes eliminate the money-sucking storage space filled with all the shit you never use and have even forgotten you own? Would you do these things just because a "crazy" fool on the hill told you there is peace of mind in such simplification? Not a fucking chance. I know, because I would not have changed unless I was forced to, because the hypocrisy of knowing I was terminally buying into the cult of Wasteful First Worldism, and my heart was literally unable to handle the contradictions between knowing what was True, versus following the herd's wishful thinking denials of that Truth.
Isn't sleeping in the extreme cold, in order to use only what I need, a great metaphor for being what one does when one can't stand the fake, ideologically driven, mindless conformity? Okay, you can't see it... I guarantee that if you see yourself in my admonitions, you have probably been trying to think of arguments against what I have been saying. It makes you feel better. I get it. And doubtless, it is probable that the person next to you would also defend your doing things that are fuzzy and not rational, against my sharp paring blades of need over want (aka wishful thinking). "But I might need it someday!" Take it from the son of the worst hoarder on the planet... "Someday" isn't ever going to come. Sometimes just hearing the details of the metaphor is much more useful...
I knew the temps at night would be brutal when I got back to the shelter two nights ago, the temperature was dropping from about 20 F, and would settle in at about 5 F. I clicked on the little propane heater, and through a routine of then switching it on off at 65 F at on again at 40 F, I cooked my meal, worked on some technical design innovations I'd been thinking about...
Working out plans for a modular alternative electrical system, based around the old concept of using
interchangeable stereo audio components. Possible commercial appeal?
The issue then is exposed skin. I hate to breath in warm air from within the sleeping bag. So, that means sticking my dumbassed face out into the cold. People don't realize that if the head is exposed, the rest of the body will heat up to make up for the difference. This makes you sweat. and, there is nothing more dangerous that being wet AND cold. This combined with the fact that your breath accumulates as moisture on the inside of the room. This will eventually cover the entire inner surface of a small shelter with frost. In my case, much of the moisture is exuded out into the surrounding outer shelter. That's a good thing, eliminating moisture in the living space. It is truly odd to turn on the heat in the morning and hearing the melted frost drip like rain upon the outside of my tent. Wearing a hat - as long as it stays on my head - stops the night sweats (although angina can extend them sometimes).
There really is no big difference between sleeping in my shelter and sleeping in your cozy heated bedroom, while in bed. The nice thing is that I don't waste heat when I don't need it. Others can afford to apparently. I also have no pipes that will freeze. Food and drink in the tent never needs a refrigerator, and usually does not freeze, because just not enough time goes by in between my heating (even if I'm gone all day). Given a second chance, I would have rigged up a small room for the water barrel (connected to the air on the inside of the inner tent). Because water freezes from the top down, the environment around the barrel can be so manipulated as to prevent a solid freeze.
Another thing that makes some aspects of living in the winter a bit easier than living in the summer, is that there is no need to harvest rainwater. The water (in the form of snow) basically harvests itself by sitting on top of the ground instead of sinking into it. There is always water available as long as there is heat available to melt snow. And, I will say that it is the freshest, cleanest, most refreshing water possible.
Just as with any circumstance where extreme environmental conditions are to be taken into account, much of the processes of survival are still available. They just need tweaking.
Here are some extra pictures from the last couple weeks...
Eighth snow storm, a month before the start of winter.
The quarter mile path I shovel.
A strange day right before this latest cold streak, I never see fog in this town.
One of the largest coyote prints I've seen.
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