Within 48 hours of returning home to our stick house for the summer, we had used a blender, bread machine, waffle iron, food processor and panini grill – all appliances we left behind when hitting the road six months ago.
With limited space in our 24′ fifth wheel, the only kitchen gadget we take with us when we head south for the winter is a toaster. We survived with a camp stove toaster when we first left, but that novelty wore off long ago, along with a lot of burnt crumbs.
Every RVer has that one gotta-have gizmo they just can’t live without, right? What’s yours?
During the first NüRver Bartender Wars, we discovered Kevin’s is a Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker. Those Technomads had a soda maker, the Happy Jansens had an industrial strength juicer, and Ben had one of the finest commercial grade espresso machines I had seen since my busboy days at Graziano’s.
For those of us without a basement in our rig, storage space comes at a premium. We keep our toaster in the oven when we roll. Kinda gives new meaning to the term toaster oven, eh? Too bad a margarita machine won’t fit inside our Magic Chef oven! Guess we’ll stick to making Republic Texas Tea.
Weather is crazy everywhere right now but apparently in Northern Colorado, springtime weather extremes are a way of life.
We arrived here naively thinking we had beat Mother Nature at her own game. The sun was out, the snow was melting and it was almost warm.
But Gaia had other plans. Instead of warmer days ahead, we’ve been pelted with snow, hail, thunder and rain since we arrived.
Tips for Flying South
The first question a lot of people ask us when we tell them we shut down the homestead and fly south is “Aren’t you afraid of what you’ll come home to?”
My answer is….not really. I do my best not to invite negativity into my life by thinking the worst. I hope for the best and do what I can to prevent mishaps in my life.
What Not to Leave Inside
Our place is in bear country and right about the time we come home, the bears are waking up. Leaving any edibles inside would be stupid. And, as this picture shows, messy.
We left a stash of wine here and are really lucky it didn’t uncork! This is the worst situation we’ve encountered after returning to Jerry’s Acres (find me some wood, quick!).
It says a lot about a place when the inside of an unheated house can get so cold that soda cans explode.
I can’t imagine living here during winter, even with the heater running.
Other things we do to protect the house from weather include winterizing the plumbing and setting out bear un-welcome mats.
That’s about it. There’s not a lot to think about when we fly south for the winter, except trying to find warm weather and figuring out how we’re going to pay for our adventure.
Had we chosen a place in a more populated area, I’m not sure we could live this lifestyle. I wouldn’t want to leave a vacant house with more people around.
But up here in the sticks, things sit untouched all winter while the snow falls.
Would you want to visit?
Summer Beckons
Home Cheapo isn’t getting our business the summer. The only business we’ll be taking care of is work that will help generate more income.
That’s because we’re hitting the road again in August for another Hay Chronicles at Vickers Ranch over in Lake City, one of our favorite places in the world. Jim’s getting even more fit for some heavy hay lifting and I suppose I should try to recall how to clean cabins again.
Until then, can someone please tell me, where the heck is spring?
Sixteen years ago, a co-worker kept insisting, “You gotta meet my roommate.” Later that week, on the 18th of May, he set us up at the Gold Cane. It turns out Spoonie just wanted your room.
Exactly two years later (almost) on the 17th, we were married. It was the happiest day of my life. Really.
Every day together is a reminder of just how happy. Thank you. For everything. Really.
Here’s that informative post I promised before i got distracted by those great steaks and cocktails at the AA. I hope at least, that anyone who publishes an RV blog – or any website for that matter – will find this information, well… informative!
A while back, fellow Nü RVers those tech nomads informed us that a certain website was repurposing blog posts, not only from this site, but theirs and those of a number of other RVers.
Sure enough, a simple search revealed that entire posts of ours, including photos, were being republished in their entirely without our permission. Furthermore, we discovered that the site in question was a paid membership site, so it was using our content for profit!
The infringing website’s owner argued that because we make our posts available via rss feed, that the content was free to use as he wished. A bogus claim from someone who hadn’t done his homework, but a slightly grey area nonetheless.
TIP: To search a specific website for something you wrote, use Google and enter a distinct phrase followed by “site:” and the domain, like this…
Replace domain.com and the phrase or keywords to meet your needs.
While we were able to remove all existing and future content of ours from the website in question with one request, it got me thinking. I decided to do my own homework regarding the rights of web publishers, and gladly share what I found out here.
Ownership Rights of Web Content Publishers
According to the The Berne Copyright Convention, everything on the internet is considered copyrighted the moment it is written. Under the Berne Convention, copyright is automatic upon publication and does not require formal registration. When the United States joined the Convention in 1988, however, statutory damages and attorney’s fees continued to be available available only for registered works.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty of 1996, “compilations of data or other material (databases), in any form, which by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents constitute intellectual creations.” All blog content is stored in a database and is therefore an intellectual creation.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (title 17, U. S. Code) states that “Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.”
Finally, by republishing our copyrighted content on a for-profit website I confirmed that the infringing site was in violation of the federal copyright fair use doctrine, as described in sections 107 through 118 of the copyright law (title 17, U. S. Code)
Please note that I am by no means a lawyer, not even close, in any way. So I consulted one. I visited the free legal advice website LawGuru.com and asked:
What law can be cited when notifying someone who has republished original website content without permission, when they insist syndicated content (rss) is in the public domain?
My research proved me correct. Here is the answer I received:
You can cite 17 USC 106 which defines your exclusive rights, including a right of attribution, and 17 USC 501-506 which define your remedies. 505 authorizes recovery of attorneys fees and expenses and 506 may make it a criminal offense, particularly when done via the web.
However, you need to know that for the Court to have jurisdiction to enforce a copyright in the US, you must first apply to register it. It is a simple process for a copyright attorney to do that online. You should use an attorney, so that the attorney can simultaneously write a CDL (cease and desist letter) to this apparent infringer. A letter from you is not likely to have the same effect and not likely to be worded for optimum impact. In fact, most do-it-yourself non-lawyer CDLs are a disaster and some even create grounds for countersuit.
There are numerous blog aggregators on the interwebs that legally republish copyrighted content. They do this by only publishing an excerpt, assigning attribution, and including a link to the original source. But there may be times when one might wish to republish content from another source in its entirety, when it is appropriate to do so. Like when said person owns the copyright to the original content, or has explicit written permission to do so.
I’ve been considering doing just that with a new Tripawds Blog that will republish posts from our five featured blogs, giving readers one location to find all the best news, gear, gifts and nutrition advice for three legged dogs in one convenient site. Just how would I go about doing this?
To republish our own content and consolidate posts from multiple different blogs in one site, I plan to use the Autoblog plugin from WPMU Dev. Should you choose to do the same, of course, we know you’ll be certain you have the rights to do so.
How fitting, that as we left Moab and headed back to our mountain home where we’ll be remaining stationery for the summer, we heard this hilarious parody of the Hank Snow song, I’ve Been Everywhere …
Who woulda thunk the Keymaster of Gozer could create such a funny take on such a classic travel tune, let alone an entire country comedy album. But then again, ever since his Bob McKenzie days I’ve always thought Rick Moranis is one funny guy.
Check out his new Agoraphobic Cowboy album for some fun loving alt country bluegrass with a twist. We especially like I Ain’t goin’ Nowhere because it is full of silly excuses to not enjoy the ramblin’ lifestyle we love so much:
I ain’t goin’ nowhere, man.
I ain’t goin’ nowhere
It’s dangerous out there, man
Might ‘a been a big bomb scare.
Hard to get off of this easy chair.
I ain’t goin’ nowhere
I go
Online, dsl, amazon, buy and sell,
Ebay, layaway, last bid noon today,
Plasma, Judy Judge, broadband, Matt Drudge, J.Crew, B&N, dotcom, CNN
JPEG, e.mail, pop-up she-male
Shower cam, filter spam, slam bam.
I think it’s ma’am
I ain’t goin’ nowhere, man
Never gonna go nowhere
It’s a bungled jungle out there, man
Some kid got mauled by a bear
Surround sound in my own lair
I ain’t goin’ nowhere….
As a full-time road tripper, do people you meet on the road ever say to you “Gee, you travel all the time? What, didja win the lotto?”
What do you say to them?
I hesitate to tell people how Jim and I live because most assume that we’re loaded (with money, that is). Which we are not. Ok, it’s all relative, but still.
We manage to do what we do because we keep our expenses extremely low and stay debt free. Our wallets are thin but our spirits are not.
Of course explaining this to a stranger takes more than a 15-second spiel, so I usually just say “we’re snowbirds.”
One of the ways we can do what we do and still eek out a living is through our Internet connections and by scouring the countryside for freebie spots like this one in Utah.
But before braving the Colorado cold, we stopped near Moab to soak up some sun and camp for a few more days.
Spring has sprung here and we wanted to see more. We also haven’t experienced any warm weather whatsoever since last summer, so I was hoping for high temperatures.
Some fellow road trippers told us about this pretty spot, which I’ve since added to the Escapees Day’s End Directory. (go buy a copy to find out where it is!).
These free spots are widely available to wintertime road trippers in Southwestern deserts. Winter brings many more options for finding solitude on the road.
It’s rare that I actually feel like I’m getting something for my tax dollars, but when we camp on free public land like this, I love knowing that my tax dollars paid for it.
I never thought I would feel any sense of exhilaration over the death of an individual, but I surprised myself with my reaction when Jim screamed “They got Bin Laden!”
“GOOD!” I said. Yes, I was happy that they killed him. Ecstatic that this horrible human being was wiped off the face of the earth. Now it’s really time for the collective “We” to move forward toward better days ahead. Is that so wrong?
When you have the ability to create a new, temporary home somewhere, why not dive into a book about the area? Learning a little about your location will always reveal surprising, colorful stories, even in the most seemingly boring places. You’ll end up with a stronger connection to your surroundings than a two second Kodak moment.
Whoever left this at the Slabs Library had no idea how much it would rock my world. Thank you!
Amazon.com Review: Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, the noted author’s most enduring nonfiction work, is an account of Abbey’s seasons as a ranger at Arches National Park outside Moab, Utah.
Abbey reflects on the nature of the Colorado Plateau desert, on the condition of our remaining wilderness, and on the future of a civilization that cannot reconcile itself to living in the natural world. He also recounts adventures with scorpions and snakes, obstinate tourists and entrenched bureaucrats, and, most powerful of all, with his own mortality. Abbey’s account of getting stranded in a rock pool down a side branch of the Grand Canyon is at once hilarious and terrifying.
Road trippers, wanderers and hobos have much in common with Abbey, one of the America’s first radical environmentalists. Anyone who breaks from convention and searches for a different path in life will find validation in their “odd” life choices when reading his work.
“My God! I’m thinking, what incredible shit we put up with most of our lives — the domestic routine (same old wife every night), the stupid and useless and degrading jobs. . . the foul, diseased and hideious cities and towns we live in, the constant petty tyranny of automatic washers and automobiles and TV machines and telephones –! ah Christ! I’m thinking, at the same time that I’m waving goodby to that hollering idiot on the shore, what intolerable garbage and what utterly useless crap we bury ourselves in day by day, while patiently enduring at the same time the creeping strangulation of the clean white collar and the rich but modest four-in-hand garrote!).
. . . That‘s what the first taste of the wild does to a man, after having been too long penned up in the city. No wonder the Authorities are so anxious to smother the wilderness under asphalt and reservoirs.“
This week Jim and I are in Moab, camped around dozens of off-roader jeepers, bikers and dune buggiers who tear up the landscape while leaving swirling contrails of testosterone behind.
As I watch them whiz by on wheels, I can’t help but think of one of my favorite passages:
“What can I tell them? Sealed in their metallic shells like molluscs on wheels, how can I pry the people free? The auto as tin can, the park ranger as opener. Look here, I want to say, for godsake folks get out of them there machines, take off those fucking sunglasses and unpeel both eyeballs, look around; throw away those goddamned idiotic cameras! For chrissake folks what is this life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare? eh?
. . . Yes sir, yes madam, I entreat you, get out of those motorized wheelchairs, get off your foam rubber backsides, stand up straight like men! like women! like human beings! and walk — walk — WALK upon our sweet and blessed land!”
Jim and I love Utah’s landscapes, but we’ve always been slightly freaked out by the Mormon culture that dominates every town we’ve been through. Ever since we rode here on our motorcycles a million years ago and a grocery store clerk snidely called long-haired Jim “Ma’am”, we’ve been more than a little critical of the creepy, stepford-like attitudes we’ve encountered among a lot (but not all) people.
Krakauer’s book sheds loads of light on Mormonism’s growth, their dominance of Utah’s politics and people and how many tiny sects have spun off and created even freakier fundamentalist movements.
From Publishers Weekly: Using as a focal point the chilling story of offshoot Mormon fundamentalist brothers Dan and Ron Lafferty, who in 1984 brutally butchered their sister-in-law and 15-month-old niece in the name of a divine revelation, Krakauer explores what he sees as the nature of radical Mormon sects with Svengali-like leaders.
Using mostly secondary historical texts and some contemporary primary sources, Krakauer compellingly details the history of the Mormon church from its early 19th-century creation by Joseph Smith (whom Krakauer describes as a convicted con man) to its violent journey from upstate New York to the Midwest and finally Utah, where, after the 1890 renunciation of the church’s holy doctrine sanctioning multiple marriages, it transformed itself into one of the world’s fastest-growing religions.
My take is that essentially, there’s no difference between a charismatic religious zealot like Mormon founder Joseph Smith, and other self-proclaimed prophets who mass media portrays as unstable nutbags with criminal tendencies (remember David Koresh?). The only thing separating them was timing. Mormonism grew as fast as it did because there wasn’t much to compete with it back in the 1800s. However, I’m still not sure how that explains the numbers of modern followers it continues to attract.
Perhaps Edward Abbey knows:
“Whatever we cannot easily understand we call God; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues.”
Finally, by republishing our copyrighted content on a for-profit website I confirmed that the infringing site was in violation of the federal copyright 
What do you say to them?
One of the ways we can do what we do and still eek out a living is through 
Spring has sprung here and we wanted to see more. We also haven’t experienced any warm weather whatsoever since last summer, so I was hoping for high temperatures.
It’s rare that I actually feel like I’m getting something for my tax dollars, but when we camp on free public land like this, I love knowing that my tax dollars paid for it.
“GOOD!” I said. Yes, I was happy that they killed him. Ecstatic that this horrible human being was wiped off the face of the earth. Now it’s really time for the collective “We” to move forward toward better days ahead. Is that so wrong?
Entries (RSS)
