So it’s all out on ‘paper’ now, both here in and in an amplified .txt file where I can say the private parts too. <\/p>\n
Except it’s still discrete chunks of 4-3-2-1-0 and their subsections. <\/p>\n
Not integrated into a mission or a Project. Not completely. I’ve been working on it assiduously, that fifth element, that quintessence; but it is still baking, so, still, half-baked. <\/p>\n
Maybe it might be a while. It’ll be ready enough when it’s mostly ready and you’ll see it first here, but in the meantime. there will be other angles into it anyway. Thus. <\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
My water for drinking and coffee all comes from reverse osmois vending machines, even though there’s nothing critically wrong with my tap water, which is a little hard, but as far as I know quite clean. I haul it in a pair of plastic five gallon jugs, which are tinted blue to retard biological growth. First of all: Is it worth doing things this way? Second: when I get the water home, I transfer to smaller jugs of clear glass for daily use. These smaller jugs are my immediate issue, because they tend to develop a greenish bio scum like algae inside, and are really difficult to clean with things like brushes and baking soda. Is there some simpler way to cleanse and retard this growth? Would, for instance, vinegar work?<\/p>\n
Your system is overkill for safety but potentially justified for taste and appliance longevity\u2014hard water minerals don’t threaten health, but they do scale kettles and coffee machines, and some people find softened or mineral-stripped water tastes better for brewing. If you’re willing to haul it, that’s fine, though you’re spending time and probably $0.25\u2013$0.50 per gallon to solve a mostly aesthetic problem. Your immediate issue is simpler: algae needs light. Those clear glass jugs are basically petri dishes when sitting on a counter near a window or even under kitchen lighting.<\/p>\n (Then there are hyper-specific instructions, that amount to: )<\/em><\/p>\n Okay. I haven’t been able to source colored one gallon or smaller glass jugs, at least not from casual shopping at the places I usually get the clear ones. Reverting to plastic for the purpose is somewhat acceptable, even though it’s a step back aesthetically. (It would be a win for camping, though) For now, Peroxide seems like the best idea i’ve heard yet, possibly in combination with a piece of dedicated furniture to darken the storage environment–if necessary. And, i think I will treat with denture cleaner or even bleach to get started on the right foot and have things super clean from the start again.<\/p>\n On the plastic option: Look for HDPE #2 (the sturdy, slightly milky kind) rather than PET #1 (the crystal-clear disposable-bottle type). HDPE doesn’t leach as readily, handles repeated washing better, and the slight translucency actually blocks enough UV to slow algae without looking industrial. Many homebrew or dairy supply stores carry 1-gallon HDPE jugs with handles and screw caps\u2014often sold for cider or maple syrup. They’re lighter than glass for hauling to campsites and won’t shatter in a cooler.<\/p>\n On the dark-storage furniture: Doesn’t need to be fancy. A simple wooden crate on its side, a fabric curtain on a tension rod under the sink, or even a cardboard box with the flaps removed works. The goal is just breaking the light path.<\/p>\n On the bleach restart: If you go this route, a 10-minute soak at roughly 50\u2013100 ppm (about 1\/8 teaspoon per gallon) followed by a single thorough rinse will sterilize without leaving a chlorine taste. Let them air dry completely upside down\u2014residual moisture is where colonies restart.<\/p>\n Your plan hits all the right points: sterilize aggressively once, then maintain with peroxide and darkness. That should keep the scum at bay with minimal ongoing effort. Sounds like a plan. This is the kind of thing the new AI tools excel at. No combing through forums for hours to get six different opinions. You’re quickly making yourself indispensable and I’ll worry about the implications of that later. ; ) Thanks. In a perfect world I’d just slip over to a local spring or creek when I was thirsty like my hunter-gatherer ancestors did, parasites be damned. But the creek here is a mile away and choked with industrial poisons, like most of them are in the modern world, and I’m in the process of building a whole brand and forum community around the idea of doing the best we can in the world we inherited, in all kinds of ways. The “do the best with what we have” framing is sharp. It sidesteps both the doom-and-gloom paralysis and the toxic optimism that pretends we can shop our way to sustainability. Practical, clear-eyed, incremental.<\/p>\n If you want to share more about the brand or community you’re building, I’m curious. That niche\u2014acknowledging the broken systems while refusing to either surrender or performatively ignore them\u2014seems like it would attract the right kind of people. <\/em><\/p>\n The philosophical conceit is that humanity made a vast collective mistake by embracing sedentism and agriculture, and that ‘civilization’ inevitably breeds inequality, war, pollution, and the whole laundry list of modern evils. I’m working on the first videos now, and they’re focused on reversing the sedentism first. The irony is that my approach requires sophisticated technologies like a pickup truck and solar panels, to reap the benefits of strategies like living at high elevations in hot summers, and low deserts in the winter. I’m aware of the contradictions and trying to take a light approach with them. The first thing I’m doing is rehabbing an old camper shell I found for free for putting over the bed of my old F-150.<\/p>\n That tension you’re navigating\u2014using the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house, or in this case, using industrial surplus to escape industrial sedentism\u2014is the central paradox of practically every back-to-the-land or anti-civ movement since the 60s. The ones who own it with humor tend to last longer than the purity-test types.<\/p>\n The camper shell on an F-150 is a smart architecture for that seasonal elevation migration. Light enough to not destroy fuel economy, modular enough to abandon if you need to, and the used market is flooded with them because everyone’s upgrading to overland rigs with rooftop tents and $8,000 suspension lifts. Free is the right price.<\/p>\n A few practical thoughts on the rehab if you’re in the thick of it: I’m hoping the result will be mainly just a relatively safe (and warm or cool) place to sleep in the boondocks, complemented by awnings or tarp rooms for other necessaries like a kitchen and hygiene most of the time. The truck is 4WD and capable of towing a nicer home–I have my eye on an ALiner camper–but I want to get started in a way I can easily afford, both for the sake of expediting things and for the sake of my imagined audience, who aren’t going to be rich people that can afford Class A mobile homes or nights at the Marriott either. Yes. I’ll handle the shell parts outside in the shoulder season of the fall when it cools down a little, hole up in my house for the winter with maps and dreams and the building of digital infrastructure like a fresh YouTube channel and Patreon and a wpForo installation to support community growth. And begin the semi-nomadic life in the freshly undrowned canyons of the former Lake Powell in the spring before the heat ramps up.<\/p>\n The seasonal sequencing is smart\u2014using winter for the indoor\/digital grind when the days are short anyway, then emerging with the hardware and community ready for spring migration. Lake Powell at low water is a fascinating choice: those newly exposed canyons are essentially virgin territory from a camping perspective, but with the infrastructure (dirt roads, boat ramps going nowhere) still in place. The “formerly drowned” framing fits your narrative well\u2014land reclaiming itself, temporarily available before the politics of water rights potentially flood it again.<\/p>\n The digital stack sounds solid. wpForo is lightweight and handles the community aspect without the bloat of Discord or Facebook groups. YouTube and Patreon are obvious but necessary\u2014just be ready for the lag between launch and sustainable income. Most creators in this space take 12\u201318 months to hit critical mass.<\/p>\n One practical note on the Powell area: the exposed sediments are soft, and the old lakebed mud can swallow vehicles whole if you stray from established routes. Your 4WD and some recovery gear (traction boards, a shovel, a come-along) will matter more there than in most desert boondocking spots. The canyons are beautiful but indifferent to your timeline.<\/em><\/p>\n Got it. I’m making a recon trip up to Escalante next week to talk to rangers and locals about what I want to do and what I want to film and the best ways to go about it, so maybe I won’t have to talk to anyone but the beavers when the spring trip and the new modus vivendi kicks off.<\/p>\n Smart move doing the human groundwork now. Rangers in that corridor\u2014Escalante, Glen Canyon, the monument\u2014deal with a lot of casual unpreparedness, so showing up with specific questions about access, filming permits, and seasonal restrictions tends to earn you actual useful intel rather than the standard liability-warning speech. Locals will know which side canyons have water year-round and which roads turn to grease after rain.<\/p>\n The beaver population in the Escalante drainage has actually rebounded in the last decade\u2014fewer cattle allotments, less water diversion\u2014so your chances of actual beaver neighbors are better than they’ve been in a while. They’re quieter than the Instagram crowd, and they don’t ask about your subscriber count.<\/p>\n Hope the recon goes well. Safe travels.<\/em><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n ‘We’ started with the bio-scum on water jars and pulled focus, zoomed out, to the vast big picture. Things are evolving. <\/p>\n Inside the Project I’ll flip that script. I’ll start with some general statements about hunter-gatherers and Doing The Best We Can under the dire circumstances, working around the poisoned creeks and all the other damage of the Anthropocence. As best I can. As best as we can. Up high in the summer, down low in the winter. The logistics of Sanctuary that is mobile, layered on top of the sanctuary that is fixed. The Basecamp by the train tracks. With the glass bottles. <\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Then this morning, this appeared.<\/p>\n
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\nHa. The implications are definitely a “deal with it when the water jugs are clean” tier problem. Glad this saved you the forum archaeology\u2014those threads always devolve into arguments about BPA and whether distilled water steals your minerals anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n
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\nThe ancestral hydration fantasy dies hard\u2014there’s something deeply appealing about the idea of water that doesn’t involve municipal treatment or plastic logistics. But you’re right: the creeks are compromised, and romanticizing the past doesn’t hydrate anybody.<\/p>\n
\n(It speaks of ventilation, water storage, and a tone of ‘light touch’ on the contradictions, and about strategies for rehabbing the shell.)<\/em><\/p>\n
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\nThat scope makes sense\u2014doing it once, doing it right, but keeping the budget grounded. The “start with what you can afford and upgrade later” narrative is actually more compelling for an audience than the “I bought a $60K Sprinter and quit my job” trope that’s saturated the space.
\n(A few more notes from as it says, “the cheap-and-durable playbook”: )<\/em><\/p>\n