daybreak, I woke thinking about clothing projects, and just
restarted my fire..
One of my best realizations, is the use of the Neoindigenous concepts
as a focus point...
Materialism is limitless.. And we so often fall victims to our own
limitless vanities.. we walk thru a store and see something we like..
the orgy of lusts runs on such events... And we gayly go thru life
filling our sacks with all kinds of stuff we dont really need...
no vanity is too much for us, we lose our sense of balance, we become
addicted to shopping for the rush; the good feeling of doing things
that get us material items for ourself... and at Christmas, we are
induced by propaganda to be better than we are by doing even more of
it, and giving materialism away to those we have emotional attachments
to....
But what would happen, if we installed a new software application into
our minds? a new mindset, where everything we got had to fit into an
expedition scenario?
Come children, lets use our imaginations..
lets imagine that we're going on an adventure... A change our lives
expedition...
we're going to prepare to go out and live in the brush somewhere,
somewhere nice... And its a ways out there... and we arent coming
back often after we get there, perhaps never...
What would we really need?
Its a small list really.. But bigger than one thinks....
But it is finite, unlike our normal in the system
desires only limited by economics and space in the bank's house, or
the landlord's appartment...
the necessities of life are food, clothing, shelter, and tools, and weapons.....
but its a bit more complicated, food requires preparation, also the
carrying of water, and ways to store our food reserves, and to process
food we grow, gather, & hunt for, into things we can eat now, or
store for later.. We also need to consider transportation... Maybe we
should rent a dump truck to take us out there, and raise the bed &
create a pile of our necessities, and then the driver waves, and
drives off, happy with his fee?
Or would it be better, if our transportation system was more
autonomous? some way to move ouselves & our possessions, and not rely
on others?
what if we realized that one spot in the brush wasnt just as good as
another? and that if we moved a few miles this way or that, we could
obtain advantages for ourselves....
and would it be a good idea to rely on fossil fuel? Or would we be
better off with transportation that relied on enegy sources not
dependent on a terminal technoculture?
I was recently searching on line for pony carts, just curious whats
out there.. I ran into some interesting stuff... And some nice
stuff.. One item was a cart of sorts for some bazaar comepetition
where the owner is his own mule, and yards his cart across a desert
and up a mountain, over a period of days.. of course he has to
practice regularly to be a decent competitor, so I imagine the
deoderant and jogging suit companys do well catering to such heads &
hormones....
I think a human powered cart is a good Idea to own and use, but just
as a minimalistic insurance policy.. Not as my larger plan.. to me
the self pulled cart would be a way to move minimalistic amounts of
refugee gear some distance to a better reality in an emergency.. And
I've put many hours
into designing such carts for personal use...
I also ran into old gypsy wagons that people were restoring, it seems
to be some kind of a fad in Europe... they were interesting and
pretty, and the right size, i.e. Very small, but I'm old enough,
and I've studied enough blacksmithing to know I'm not interested in
wooden wheels.. I'm not a Luddite Retro... I'm a thinking man
looking forward, and realizing some retro concepts are good, but that
if I apply some technology now, and design and make the absolute best
gear I can, that I can avoid problems later, when I least need
them...
I also do metal fabrication, and have done more mechanics work than I
care to think about.. And I know I'd like to avoid laying in the mud,
under some two ton contraption, with greasy dirt falling in my eyes,
busting my knuckles with wrenches, working in tight places, that some
university engineer had designed, with never once in his life having
to fix anything anywhere....
So I try to focus my designs to be simple to work on, as durable as I
can figure out how to make them, and as resistant to the elements as
possible..
I also like to keep things light weight... the pony in my pasture has
real limits to what he can do for how long... Just carrying me on his
back 15 miles in a day is asking alot from the poor critter.. So how
much cart and load do I want to load him down with? And am I going to
want to get out of the flats with it?
you bet...
why? well because I've noticed that up, often equals out, when it
concerns humans...
Some 80% of humanity lives within five meters of sea level, and theyre
busy causing as many problems as they can.... simotainiously 80% of
humanity seems to be urban... And if I go down into a city, its
invariably to get something and then get out.. I never have any urge
to stay there..
I've asked people in cities why they live there, generally the
response is; "For the money."
Well my life isnt made up of money... I'm more addicted to freedom,
tranquility, and adventure...
Anyway, to get up &/or out, I want as light of a cart for Clipper to
pull as possible... if I can, I would build it mostly of aluminum
pipe, fairly thickwall, welded into triangulated trusses, with every
inch of metal doing at least two or three jobs.. And I'd keep overall
weight down.... Way down...
If I cant build of aluminum, and have to build of steel, my cart would
have thinner tubing everywhere possible... here in Zona Sur, the
Latins grow oil palm, and get it out to the road with pony carts...
They've discovered arc welders, and tend to use steel water pipe,
because its what they can weld with an arc welder, anything thinner
and you just blow holes in it even at minimal settings on the welder..
so if I go to steel constrution, I'd gas weld it.. Slower, more
expensive to do, but it would allow me to use thinner tubing, and
save weight...
The palm grower's carts are so heavy, that it takes three guys to roll
them around empty on flat ground... not what I'd want to attach to my
good friend with hoofs, and expect him to haul much in the hills..
they also tend to use old truck bearings... This adds to the weight..
And as the cart might be over loaded with a thousand pounds, using
bearings designed to carry 5 to 10 times that is surely overkill... My
personal favorite choices would be boat trailer hubs, or front hubs
off a 4wd mini truck, or hubs off the aft end of a front wheel drive
car... then I'd want as tall of wheels as possible, and would go
aluminum, and tall fairly wide tires... Say 8 inches wide if
possible..
the reasons I would go tall with wheels and tires are ground
clearance, to go over rocks and stumps etc. And for easier rolling
taller wheels that give better leverage against bearing resistance,
and to get the load higher for better pulling geometry for a horse
who's mass is up a ways from his hoofs.. This is a little understood
fact nowdays, few realize that a load near the ground has a physics
vector for a tall horse, and can add maybe 20% to the amout of force
needed to pull the same mass in line whith the horse's center of
mass... Its one reason old horse drawn carriages etc. Were so high off
the ground.. Lost physics these days...
I would go rubber tires, but a tich on the durable side.. A few more
plys, and put an innertube inside, tubeless or not.. I like tire
work, like I like mechanic's work...
and I also know that I've seen tubed tires hold air for decades...
the reason for the slightly wider tires is floatation, the ability of
the tire to stay higher in soft ground...
When I was a kid, traveling across the US, you could still see the old
wagon ruts from the migrations West a hundred years earlier.. it took
alot of energy to dig those ruts that deep and that far.... wider
tires wouldnt have done as much of that...
--
Sent from my mobile device
No comments:
Post a Comment