So this will just be the ongoing ramblings of my time living in a van. I didn’t start at the beginning, been living that way for six months now. Thanks.
Still at Tonto creek with no cell reception. Which is the primary reason I’m recording my thoughts.
The water is so cold that I have been dealing with ice on my rod guides in the morning.
Last night I snuck into the campground which is still closed for two more weeks and stole some drinking water. There was a ziptie on the faucet, but a tiny screwdriver got me past that. I filled two gallons and put the ziptie back on.
The big shock came this morning, when I realized the ziptie was cautionary. The water had been highly chlorinated, and I didn’t realize this until I had taken three gulps. Bleah! Or bleach rather. There was a slight burning sensation in my mouth, but that quickly went away. Curse my horrible sense of smell, anyone else would have immediately smelled chlorine.
So I drank a gallon of good water I had laying around to cut the bleach in my stomach, and headed off to a little creek to get more good water. You can reach the spring at the top, so it’s about as clean as it gets
My stomach feels fine at this point thankfully. The worst was that my mouth tasted like bleach for a few hours. Bullet dodged.
I guess this is now a personal goal. It’s not like I’m stocking fish someplace they shouldn’t be. The upper pools of this short creek have a 6-ft waterfall below them, so fish can’t move that far upstream. There’s only about 50 ft of creek above that waterfall, but one of the two pools is about the size of a home swimming pool and it seems a shame not to have fish in it.
I wish I had something better to transport them in. Putting the ziploc in a collapsible bucket would at least make my life easier carrying them up the creek.
The creek is a wild trout stream that most people don’t know about at all. Kind of like Horton Creek was in the ’90s, but much shorter and shallower. It should probably be protected, I’ll have to look into what to file with game and fish.
I’m not sure how many fish I should move, I want to make sure I get one male and one female. The top of the two holes is smaller, four fish is probably plenty there. The larger hole below it can easily support dozens.
A family just started camping next to me today. They seem nice. I gave them three extra gmrs radios I had, and their kids are taking great fun using them to call each other “queer”.
Note to self: taking a swig of Drambuie after eating Sriracha is not a good thing.
Sorted decades of fishing gear today, and a bunch I got from my father and aunt. Took hours, but it is so much easier to find what I need now. Also seems that I have enough hooks, sinkers, and swivels for several lifetimes.
I realized today that my father, my aunt, and my cousin all seem to live their lives around saving money. I guess it works for them, but I’m really glad I don’t worry so much about that. As an example, my aunt would give coupons in Christmas cards.
For some odd reason I am reminded of working for Skidata at Deaconess hospital. At the time I was dating one of their valets. The other employees didn’t know. One day I pull up to valet parking and the woman I was dating was there, along with a rather serious ex-military valet. I tossed her the keys and jokingly said, “Park it bitch.” She smirked and rushed right out to the van, leaving her rather serious associate in a state of shock at both of us.
So far so good with my solar and battery bank. I’m running 400 Watts of panels on the roof of my van, and 200 amp hours of batteries. Even with the heavy trees here I still don’t drop below 98%. It probably helps that it’s cold enough the cooler isn’t running very much, and it’s been very sunny lately. Worst case I have a 20 amp DC charger connected to the alternator in the van.
Tomorrow I will probably take my bicycle up to Kohl’s Ranch and get on the internet for a bit. Drives me nuts being this far off grid.
I suppose I will try the external antenna on my hotspot as well. I have to admit I haven’t been impressed with it at all so far.
