Vladimir

Yeah, that doesn't work with a "habituated" bear. For what it is worth throwing an onion at him at five feet at 2:00 am in the morning didn't work either. Lots of bear stories on my part. The best thing is do not "habituate" a bear. After that, the only thing that works doesn't bode well for the bear's lifespan. RV'ers are usually fine. Just keep all your food and garbage inside the RV. Bears do learn how to open windows and trunks in cars, but RV's are different enough that the word doesn't get around the bear community as quickly.

I had a Datsun 1600 truck and it was real useful due to the low truck bed. Sorry I sold it after 15 years. The current 1-ton Dodge Ram truck is pretty much worthless for hauling stuff around. I did buy a boat hook to yank and remove items from the truck bed without having to climb into the stupid thing. My daughter was putting on a concert and needed to move a small sound stage. She wanted to borrow the Ram truck and I said, no you want to borrow the Honda Pilot, which takes a sheet of plywood and is low enough to easily get stuff in and out. The 2004 Pilot fit the entire sound stage in one trip. She now calls it the BEAST. It is better than any pickup I have owned for backroads travel. The only thing Honda did wrong was it is impossible to put chains on it easily. The new Pilot's are worthless, however. When I bought my RAM it was 3,000 dollars for the worthless truck bed. I almost did buy a flatbed, but on short notice I had a hard time finding a custom bed design I liked. Next time I will shop for the truck bed first, and buy the truck later!!!

Well, what were pick-up beds designed to haul?? Remember they first showed up a 100 years ago or so. I heard that it was for hauling manure in those days. That is my story and I am sticking to it!!!

As someone that bought ONE GM truck and then had long discussions with GM, your still out 9,000 dollars. On a serious note, pickup beds were designed for farmers and ranchers to haul manure. As a forester, for 50 years, I have never hauled manure in one of my trucks. Most of the time, they were just useless, and really a good SUV was much better as a work truck. Later in my career, I got my dream job and needed to haul motorcycles, snowmobiles, bicycles, in a pick-up bed designed for hauling manure. That didn't work very well. In my personal life, kayaks, canoes, fly-fishing boats, bicycles, telescopes, and towing all sorts of stuff from large 5th wheels to small trailers. A place to house all the "accessories" would be very helpful. The concept of a truck bed needs a serious rethink. I would buy a flat-bed, and then have a custom "bed" installed that allowed me to haul all my toys!! Really folks, manure is just a fancy word for....

Your in a "different league" than normal drivers, and even those of us that drove those roads every day working. It is a great explanation. Thanks for that. Late in my Forest Service career, someone told me that "WE, Forest Service" had people that could out hike, out hunt, out horse ride, out snowmobile, out x-country ski, out motorcycle, etc, etc. anybody in the public. That is no longer true. Just before I retired I got a phone call from a jeeper that wanted the Forest Service to layout "trails that low-pressure tiire jeeps could use in the winter time". I told him that if the area was open to motorized use in winter go out and enjoy your National Forests. BUT you really don't want the Forest Service to lay out trails for you....those will come with regulations. Just be careful and don't draw attention to yourself by getting stuck and requiring help. Thanks again, for your explanation of washboards. All the current Forest Service employees wish the public would read your post.

AGM batteries in Casita. Do they off-gass??

Airing down on washboard roads?? Is the cure worst than the disease??? In my entire professional career nobody has ever discussed OR suggested airing down to drive on a washboard road. I know lots of 4wd and other "club" users did it for situations other than washboard roads. But I view those folks as "extreme" sports folks. The Federal government was not paying me to test the limits. I just drove slow. It was only actually after I retired and was towing a light trailer on a washboard road that I slipped the truck into 4wd. THAT REALLY helped. Your retired, why do you care if it takes you a few more minutes to arrive at your destination?? Oh, you do know that washboard roads are caused by excessive speed for the road surface???

Had dog. Dog died, detector continued going off. I thought it was the hot water heater, but today nothing on all THREE sensors with the hot water heater running. The sensor has done this from day one. I think the issue is that the Casita is so small. So everything reacts quickly. It was a sobering experience to watch a digital CO2 meter run while I cooked dinner with the entire unit CLOSED UP. So I was not ready to dismiss the propane detector as "faulty". I do sleep with the window cracked no matter the weather in the unit. The propane detector goes off anyway in the middle of the night!!

I owned this Casita for about three years now and am totally fed up with the propane alarm. I am about to remove it. However, before doing that I decided to get a couple of items to test for propane leaks. This is the first one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/HOME-FLEX-Electronic-Gas-Leak-Detector-11-810-001/301876827 Runs on two AA batteries and seems to work. Picked up leaks around the propane hose and turning on a burner and not lighting it got the unit to quickly show propane. The second one is: https://www.amazon.com/Techamor-Methane-Propane-Combustible-Detector/dp/B089K9N3YH/ref=asc_df_B089K9N3YH/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459533584708&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14361341121068911619&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033619&hvtargid=pla-1007881374477&psc=1 It is 120 Volt. So all are running and everything including the "fed-up propane detector" are quiet and the digital detector is showing ZERO. Has anybody used these products?? Any advice on dealing with the "fed-up propane detector"?

RV here is my comparison for my "solar" home versus grid connected. Notice the CO2 emissions between the two homes. Yeah, I know eastern Washington is the greenest society on this earth, but still solar just doesn't deliver enough energy to run ANY heating elements. Just got my yearly electrical use summary from my ALL-Electric house. No solar panels. Total Kilowatts Used.............................24,703 Annual Cost of Electricity......................$575.58 Washington taxes on public power.........$160.02 Total cost of Electricity for the entire year.........$735.60. My vacation rental solar home....annual cost. Firewood.......................................... ......$500 Propane..heat, generator, fridge, etc........$1850 Solar system repairs................................$150 Firewood system repairs & maintenance.....$250. Total annual cost of operating the house..............$2750 Replacement fund for solar system (annual cost) $2000 The all-electric house is 2400 square feet and occupied year-round. The solar house is 1800 square feet and occupied for about 100 days a year. I suspect living there full-time would probably add maybe another 1000 to a 2000 dollars primarily for propane. The homes are 10 miles apart with the off-grid house being 2000 feet higher in elevation. The total cost for all electric is $735.60 versus $4,750 for the off-grid home. It really came to be much closer than I thought. Take your electrical rate and multiply it times the number of kilowatts above and it will give you a pretty good comparison if you want to go totally off-grid.

"We are committed to playing a leading role in greenhouse gas reductions consistent with the goals of the Paris agreement...” Thus spoke Exxon (XOM) CEO Darren Woods at Exxon’s investor day this week. For most chief executives, supporting the Paris climate agreement at this point is a no-brainer. For the CEO of Exxon—a company that has spent untold millions over decades lobbying against climate change—to make that statement is nothing less than shocking. It is hardly "shocking" for Exxon CEO to say that. No downside to saying it, and the upside is currying favor with the media and others. A few months ago, I called the Bonneville Power Administration and asked for actual electrical generated by source that made it to their grid. They e-mailed me a large spreadsheet. It is the data that goes into this chart. Remember by law, BPA MUST buy wind power. BTW, that means that county owned electrical generators have to dump electricity at a loss during spring shifting profits from the local counties to the large industrial wind companies. https://transmission.bpa.gov/business/operations/Wind/baltwg.aspx In Washington state, well over 200,000 acres have been destroyed as functioning ecosystems by industrial wind areas. Oregon has a similar acreage. So between the two states about half a million acres. That is larger than Seqouia National Park and a few years will be larger than ALL of Yosemite National Park. The spreadsheet showed that wind topped out a 7% during the spring months when the Northwest has excess electricity. Spring, fall, and winter those 500,000 acres of industrial wind areas generate very little electricity when it is most needed. So little that for 2019 industrial wind areas accounted for just over 1% of the electricity used in the Pacific Northwest. Wind and solar will NEVER be a significant source of electricity in the Northwest. And the load balancing problems make it difficult to see how it will ever became the primary source of electricity. I have owned a off-grid house for over 20 years. Just this year I did a analysis of energy use between it and my grid house. Interesting. Currently most of the CO2 emissions in the United States come from transportation. In fact, if it wasn't for the growth in transportation Washington state would have met its CO2 targets. All the Governor has to do is drop the speed limit to 55 MPH. He alone, has that authority. That would reduce CO2 emissions by 20%. The Europeans are doing it to meet their targets. NOW, the CEO of Exxon should be concerned about a 55 MPH speed limit. That would affect Exxon's bottom line. Wind, not at all.

I not a fan of commercial campgrounds and have found that their internet connections and cell phone signals are generally not worth the money. It is disappointing to drop $40 on overnight site and find poor connectivity. I would just add a couple of points. Don't believe the cell coverage maps in mountain country. My home is in a sea of 4G signal according to their map. It is no service at my house. If your working I would get a phone with a hot spot from both ATT and Verizon. That will generally work in many places out west. I would stay away from T-Mobile. I assume you will be getting a phone amplifier. Generally, the cell phone coverage will get more "spotty" as you move north into the northern Rockies. If you stick to major highways that will be your best bet. The other is to go high. Get up on almost any major ridge line out west and you will have cell service. I would actually stop at BLM and Forest Service offices and ask about places to camp and boondock. I found one of my most favorite boondocks this way. BTW, the lady did mention that she didn't understand why people camped there (no trees). Also ask BLM and Forest Service employees you see working out in the field. These days they know the cell coverage areas, even though they have radio's. They also know great spots to camp in the area. I would get a couple of solar panels for use while working. It doesn't take much electricity to run a office from a RV and that will free you from generator noise during the day. I use this panel setup. Yes it is expensive, but well made and stores easily in a handy carrying case. You can get them in different wattages, but I would check the size of the carrying case and find a place for it in your RV. https://www.etrailer.com/RV-Solar-Panels/Go-Power/34282729.html There are so many great spots in the Rockies, I would hate to limit myself to campgrounds.

Lights do NOT deter packrats. Popping the hood does keep them from nesting on the engine. I put a wildlife camera under RV's and cars that had the solar lights and caught several pack rats out strolling under the lights!!! BTW.....get a wildlife camera and put it out at night. It will solve all sorts of mysteries. Here is a video of lights and packrats filmed by a guy that runs a business eradicating packrats. He is NOT a fan of lights as you can tell by the video. He could make a lot of money selling worthless lights!!! The wildlife camera is infra-red. The flashing white light is a LED a 5000K color temperature. That is why the light appears so faint on the video. It is very bright, but the wildlife camera does not pick up it since the camera is blind in that part of the spectrum. Funny video, well worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOdt4G2uVAQ Nighttime lights are pretty much useless for security as well. We lived in a very rural area with a "security light" on at night. I finally found where to shut it off. When the light was on at night it lit up the house and told everybody that there was a house up that gravel road. Once I shut off the light, that gravel road became hard to find and my house totally disappeared at night. Same when boondocking.

I am off-grid, so heating with electricity doesn't work!! I guess I will just put a on-off switch on it. More troubling, is my lack of view to the north. It is where a couple of yellow bellied ponderosa pines live. Does anybody know if the app needs a internet connection to work?? I have no cell service.

Can you shut off the heater??

Building anything for beginners is tough. They, rightfully, do not want to spend much money, but need better functioning equipment since they don't know how to overcome the problems that come with any technical item. That is why the Celestron StarSense Explorer is such a interesting telescope. Cheap, most of the expense is in the software and your phone!!! And software is relatively cheap and you already own the phone so Celestron doesn't have to make those parts!! Yes, those two high end beginner telescopes stack photos on the run. The reviews in Sky and Telescope are worth reading. They cover pro's and con's of both scopes. It is not a cheap hobby, but the good news it is much, much, much cheaper with better equipment than was around in the 1960's. I ground my own mirror in those days, simply because I could not afford to buy one. BTW...there are so many different facets to the hobby. So once folks settle on what they like doing they go ahead and buy specialized equipment.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. It took awhile to find the information. Might want to go to the library and look up the following issues of Sky and Telescope. August 2020....there is a review of Celestron's StarSense Explorer. Might be some helpful information for you. June 2020.......Exploring the Deep Sky with Video. If you want to use video instead of an eyepiece. Talks about outfitting a regular scope. December 2020.....The Unistellar EVscope review. This is a "video" telescope. 3,000 bucks so pricy, but well suited for RV travel small. March 2020...........The Stellina Observation Station Review.....4,000 bucks. Really cool looking and like above well suited for a RV. If price is no object it seems the two above are what your looking for.... Here is the link for the Stellina: https://vaonis.com/stellina and the link for Unisteller: https://unistellaroptics.com/ I don't know anything about these scopes. But they look interesting for beginners.

Does anybody know what the imput voltage is for StarLink. I know it plugs into 115 VAC, but is that what is delivered to the device??

I suspect the FUTURE when it arrives will be NOTHING like we imagined. I bought a off-grid house in 1997 and put in a solar charging system for electricity. Critical component the batteries. Reading Barron's they assured me that I would in a couple of years have a mini-gas turbine system to provide my electricity. They indicated I shouldn't invest too much money into the gas turbine systems, since they would within FIVE years be replaced by fuel cells. RIGHT!!!. It is 2021. TWENTY-FOUR years later. The gas turbine never arrived. Nope, somehow the fuel cell is missing as well. Yep, had to replace my lead acid batteries.......with lead acid batteries. Worse yet, I am looking to add two sets of solar panels to the existing string. None, of the electricians want to touch it. They want me to replace the entire system...panels, inverter, batteries, and mounts for $50,000. I spent 40,000 over the past twenty-four years for the CURRENT system which works fine. Oh, I did have someone come out to look at my 30 years old generator. They said, keep it, the new generators are a piece of crap. Buy all the points and spark plugs you can for it and keep it running. So instead of the future....I am stuck in the past trying to nurse it along. Yeah, the future isn't all that grand from the perspective of 1997.

Yes, but this telescope has StarSense!! Get your cheap scope working before you move on to a more expensive scope. It is just a VERY SHORT matter of time before the Chinese get really good at programming. And all of it will be based on using a phone, there are some pretty amazing Chinese phones that will hit the US market soon. You will see it in astronomy software.

I don't have a star sense.....but from your description of the problem. It probably is one of the following. Something on the mount is slipping. Your location is set wrong. Your time is set wrong. Or the telescope is doing a "plate-solve" and cannot locate itself in the sky. Does the telescope require a internet connection for it to work?? Try these video's. I briefly scanned them.... Celestron set-up video.... Not a fan of CNET, but the last half of the video talks about PROBLEMS. Finally this video is fairly long, might be more comprehensive. The telescope your looking at is a good telescope. Not sure how much astronomy background you have, but you might have more issues with it particularly if you do not know your way around the night sky. My advice is get the StarSense working. You will learn enough from it in a very short period of time. That will make it much easier for you when you get a larger scope. There are couple of beginner scopes for 3,000 which might be exactly what your looking for. Give me a couple of days and I will see if I can find the reviews of that new scope. It is small enough for traveling in a RV. As someone mentioned previously sign on to CloudyNights.com and they have a beginner section and start a new thread with your questions about StarSense. Vladimir

What Celestron do you have?? What did it say on the box?? Don't do anything quick. Which Celestron scope do you have?? The Chinese have totally taken over the telescope market. That Celestron is an old American brand that was bought by the Chinese. The telescopes are "no longer designed in California". It is all being done in China. The Chinese have some great engineers. Lots of great astronomy gear coming out of China. They are fantastic engineers and will probably beat us back to the moon in a couple of years. The software and manuals are also written in China. They are awful for English readers.. Software particularly. They are called programming languages and I suspect some of it has to do with the different language structure in Mandarin. You won't be fixing anything by buying another scope. Just more frustration. Yes, all mounts today have the capability to connect to a laptop. You don't want to do that right now. Send me your telescope model and I will try and find some easy to understand information to get you started. Don't feel bad, when I started out as a teenager trying to learn the night sky. I couldn't understand why the NORTH STAR was moving. Turns out I though Orion was the Big Dipper!!

I have 11 scopes, three EQ mounts, three camera's for astronomy and one observatory. The good news is I got rid of one observatory, so I am down just to one. Because it is easier to buy stuff, than wait for a clear night. At one point, my wife said...."go buy a fly rod, or shotgun, just not another telescope" You can have great fun with a poor fly rod or shotgun, but with telescopes you want quality. For the first part of your message, what you are looking for is Digital Setting Circles. They will tell you WHERE to point your telescope. Those are now technologically obsolete. You can use your phone. Lots of different ways to use your phone to find things. There are a couple new "telescopes" geared for beginners that incorporate a camera and will meet all your needs regarding mobility limitations. They are in the 2K to 3K range, well under your limit. Where are you, just general area. What telescope do you have now?? Do you know your way around the sky, like the basic contellations? Vladimir

Correct, but the percentage is adjusted upward for diverse communities. As of Jan. 11. Washington state, according to state numbers, have used 32% of their vaccine. It is hard to find ANY meaningful numbers for Washington. From personal experience dealing with the Governor on fire emergencies he does not believe in being transparent or sharing information with the public. To show you how bad Washington state is doing. The state has been vaccinating at the local sports center for the past week. When you try to sign up for a vaccination at the sports center on Washington state web site, you get the message no clinic available. The Costco Pharmacy located in Douglas County is shown as being in Chelan County!!! It is a total mess. Found this comment: "The distribution should have been given to the military or to Amazon, or any entity that is a proven expert at logistics." The Bush2 Administration spent a LOT of taxpayer money training the medical system on the Incident Command System and its use. The Governors and most of the medical community has REFUSED to use OR even ask the agencies like Inter-Agency Fire Center for help in LOGISTICS. There are ICS teams sitting, waiting for fire season with great expertise in LOGISTICS and PUBLIC INFORMATION. The one exception, Governor Inslee used a Federal team last spring to write his press releases. Seattle Times article on the mess in Washington state:https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/here-are-the-roadblocks-facing-many-people-in-the-seattle-area-trying-to-get-covid-19-vaccine/

Where is Cali?? Never heard of the place?? Spelling???