Cabin coming along & Eye doctor visit

Yesterday was a full day! Don't remember if I mentioned that I woke up last... Friday, Saturday??.... and almost couldn't see out of left eye. By Sunday morning it was totally "dark".  So I guess between getting started on the cabin and not seeing out of left eye...very interesting past few days!

I didn't get to help a whole lot! My eldest daughter "abducted" me and off to Birmingham I went! And after a 4+ hour visit to the Callahan Eye Clinic ER I know that I have some version of "Retinitis Pigmentosa". As the doctor said, "it's sorta a 3rd cousin to Macular Degeneration but starts around the outside edges and moves in?! Anyway, what I have is a separation of the retina from the wall of the eye. But it is not detached, it is still attached to the eye, but is "floating" on fluid under the retina, mine caused by a seepage of blood.

Got a shot on the eye, good possibility it will not do much. But there is still the possibility that my body will reabsorb the blood,etc and some vision could possibly come back. Dr Rowsey spent a long time with me looking at the eye. In fact, had 3 doctors looking in my eye. Rowsey told me in his time practicing he had only seen this type of...."edition?"...less than 10 times. And when I asked if it was unusual to happen overnight he said no, but this was a rather extreme result. 

Soooo....got new glasses ordered yesterday...now for both eyes but really just the right! LOL! They should be here in a week...and of course I am going from reading glasses to bifocals!!  😂😉

Now back to the cabin!! I am so excited to see it go up. The floor base got 2 full coats of deck paint so as to make sure if it did rain it would be sealed.  The panels and framing for the cabin have been surprisingly accurate in their cutting and placement of holes. Even Cary was surprised, and quite happy with those two things!

Cary is so worried I won't be pleased with this once it is up and I'm in it. The side walls are maybe an inch shorter than I am tall (gravity keeps pulling me down!  Heheheh). But at least 3/4 of the space between

the walls, which is where I will be standing and walking, are I think an over average of 3-4 inches taller than I am. And after living in Lily for 4 years it already has the feel of "spaciousness" that I have not lived in for, actually, a long time! Even my little motorhomes did not have a very "open" feeling about them! 

This will be an ongoing project for several months but that is good! It will keep me occupied and will ease the "discomfort" of not being on the road on a daily basis!  😀  I have to be honest...I miss the road! I've been on the road for soooo many years that it has almost become a part of my "being"! But...as the years click by and I slowly wear out...it is a good thing to have a place to lay my head down and know it will be there each night!!

It has basically turned into a family project. The kids seem to be having a blast helping dad with it and it is a good experience for them. You need to know that a person can be self-sufficient in today's world and that it really needs to be an imperative that we can do things for ourselves. And helping others is a reward in itself!

 I'm not a lot of help with the cabin going up, I'm slowly learning (admitting?) what age does to & on us and helping with what I'm able. So I am in the process of starting the plans for my area and how to lay it out. Cabin first, make sure it is sealed, then get solar figured out and installed. Then bed, kitchen, shower, water! LOL! Have to shore up where the little wood burning stove will go. Also have to make final decisions on windows (at least a couple), the A/C for cooling, couple of tiny ceiling fans, etc,etc!!

I am still hopeful that the World and us will settle down, but it is not looking to good! Our "leaders" are...well...I won't go into that right now. Let me just say like I always do...I just do not have a lot of hope for our society in it's current condition and direction. So please be in a preparedness mode ALL the time and think about what you will do IF the SHTF! What will you do if in 5-8 weeks there is no fuel for the cars and trucks? What would you be able to do if you got hit by a flood, tornado, etc.?? Always be prepared!

Until next update and/or next video update.....Be Safe, Travel Easy, Go to the Woods often if possible....and live the preparedness mode!!

C'ya - Frog🐸 & Rosie🐶 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rain, rain go away!!

 

We succeeded in getting a pretty good coat of paint on the floor. I still had deck paint left over from when I painted the back porch on Lily. It "might" have  been just a little past its prime!  LOL!  But it is on just to protect the floor from all the rain we keep having pass through here on almost a daily basis for the past few weeks! But we had to unload the building box from truck and tarp it so it will be ready for use by tomorrow...hopefully!

The good thing is...it is looking like we will have very small chances of rain over the next couple of weeks. The downside to that statement is temperatures here, in a couple of days and going for a couple of weeks, from the forecast as of now, our Hi's are going to be bouncing in the Lo to Mid 90's. 😕 

So I'm still hopeful to be in the cabin working on the interior within a couple of weeks. I might still be sleeping in Lily but I'll be "settling in" to my tiny mini-homestead cabin!! I'm going to do a video this weekend, or so I plan on it, about what we've accomplished so far. And in the video I'll explain some of the changes I will be making from my "original" plans on the interior. 😉

 All that being said, this life changing experience is coming together quite well. Maybe not as quickly as expected...well...definitely not as fast as wanted! LOL! But they say patience is next to something! Forget what, but I'm being given a very large dose of learning patience...especially when it comes to MY timetable!!  Heheheheh

That covers things for the moment here at "Frog's Tiny Mini-homestead" project and life changing event!!

Hope everyone is still doing well. I really hope you guys are taking the time to prepare yourselves and you families for some rocky times coming at us possibly sooner than most expect. Please try your best to live in a mode of preparedness!!

Til my next update...Be Safe, Travel Easy, Go to the Woods Often.....and Live the Prearedness Mode!!

C'ya - Frog🐸 & Rosie🐶

Have You Thought About The Gas?

Hi gang! I have been thinking about this "Middle East" thing. And listening to reports, Bloomberg, Goldman Sacs...etc, etc. And all the numbers that keep being bandied about! Almost all the information that seems to be coming out of our "news" channels keeps talking about the price of oil. But I do not see/hear much, if any, talking about the amount of oil that is here, in the US, in storage. Basically nothing and it seems the public is not interested.

 

 

 

 

I asked Google AI....As of May 29, the level in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was 357.1 million barrels. But that report was dated May 22. Tank bottom is 159 million barrels. I heard today that it is at 279 or so million. Last week we drew down approximately 9-10 million barrels.  

 

At this rate we will hit "tank bottom" sometime in August from what my math says. "Tank bottom" is 159 million barrels due to the fact that the oil is stored in salt mines/caves, and the last 150 million barrels or so has dirt, rocks, "trash" in it and can not be pumped out. 

All this does not take into consideration the fact that we are exporting oil AND importing oil also. We use "heavy oil" in our refineries, "sweet oil" (the light stuff) is what we ship out to other countries that refine it. So you can chase numbers all day and it still seems a guessing game. 

But let it suffice to say that at the current rate, the situation in the Middle East, etc.....even if "peace reigns" tomorrow....it will take several months to get that oil here and processed into the fuels we need to keep our economy running.

I will not go into the numbers being thrown around for a barrel of oil if tank bottom is reached...both here and in Europe and all the other countries that are already almost out of oil/fuel. Let me just say that IF regular gas hits $7 or more a gallon, we will probably not be in a good spot! And if gas gets that high....diesel fuel....well, $12-15/gal is being talked about if not higher. Apparently for every $10 increase in the cost of a barrel of oil, gas from the pump goes up .25 cents. Diesel goes up .29 cents. And for those that don't really think about it....everything in our economy rides on/in a semi (tractor trailer) that we take for granted in the grocery stores, online shopping, pet supplies....EVERYTHING....will slow way down or could just stop getting to the stores or wherever you shop from. And those shipping costs have to be paid....and the products that they carry is what we see as the price increases at the pump. Which means....WE will pay for the increases in the prices we pay for everything! It could make the bare shelves of COVID not look as bad as they did.

 Today a "War Resolution" was passed in the House of Reps, now goes to the Senate. So it could be a way to "gracefully" get out of this conflict. Or maybe there will be a signed agreement that brings this to a close.

But whatever is in the coming days the one thing you can be sure of....we are going to pay for this in more ways than one.

So I again say that I hope you have put back some basic food stuffs. That you have some gas stored away just in case. Might not be a bad idea to have some bottled water tucked away, extra meds, fashlights....etc, etc.

Rosie and I are stocked up, looking down the road, prepared for flood, rain, heavy rains, high winds, power failure....all those great things! I hope all of you are also!

Til later and brighter days to come.....

Frog 🐸 & Rosie 🐶

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still clearing stuff!

 The tree is officially down all the way!

And it has given a lot of firewood already....

 

But there still quite a bit of clearing & stacking to be done....

 

Not to mention the amount of splitting that will have to be done!! But the worst of it is over with and now comes the "ugh" part of the job! 

And my little handheld chainsaw have been hard at it the past 2 days. And the little saw has been a real trooper!

 

The next part of the job is more clearing and stacking...And....burning the brush piles I keep making! Lol 

So that covers the past 2 days! Oh.....

Today was also Rosie's spa day! 

She is all clean,

smells purty, and, 

looks almost like the terrier she is! 🐶

 

 

Tomorrow more of the same! I went and priced wood today....That was an eyeopener for me! It has been quite a few years since I last bought lumber.....Good Lord! It is ridiculous! Soooo....It might be a couple of months before I get to settle into my cabin! 🙁

But it will happen all in good time!

Hope this finds everybody healthy & living in the Preparedness Mode!

Until our next visit....

Be Safe, Travel Easy, Go To The Woods (At least a little bit) & Keep In Preparedness Mode Always!!

C'ya, Frog🐸 & Rosie🐶

 

Are YOU in preparedness mode?? Might want to think about it!

 

 

Have you been listening to the news...if you are able to find TRUTH in news reporting anywhere now-a-days. Folks, there is a major happening going on right now, and it is only getting deeper!

If you are not up to speed with all that is happening in the "Iran Conflict" you might want to think about maybe trying to get some honest information and....putting something back for what could be a very trying few months. If not longer than just a few months. 

WTI (West Texas Intermediate) oil hit $115/bbl today. As I write this it has dropped back down to $96.78. The real issue is that with all the infrastructure damage done to the oil production capabilities of that area, it will/can take weeks or even months to actually get the oil flowing out of the area!

And so the price of fuel keeps going up...for the time being at least. Today, in N Alabama, as I drove around, gas here is $3.79-3.99 per gallon. Diesel is much higher...and trucks that being all the goodies and groceries to the stores....run on diesel. And as the price goes up, so do our prices at the register. And there are so many countries that are actually running out of fuel, mandating odd/even driving days, the amount of gas that you can buy, cutting work days/hours, remote working, etc, etc.

 

Have you put back gas for your generator? Hopefully you have at least a small one.

 

And do not forget that it takes approximately 1 gal minimum daily for each person for water needed by the body.

 

 

Do you have extra propane for just in case you need to cook outdoors if the grid does take a big hit and the power goes on the fritz?

 

Folks, for years I have told folks when asked where my political/emotional stance is...my response is.....

I am a pessimistic realist 

I am a very strongly committed person to try to look at what is all happening in today's world...or country with hopefully open eyes and that I'm ready to do my best to make sure my family has a chance to come thru all the issues of the day. 

I just had the feeling that I needed to put out some thoughts on today. And I'm sure that there will be folks that will drop off the follower list. And so be it. But folks, everyone needs to look around and see what is going on.  If you look below the smoke screen being propagated in the media....what you see will not be "fun". It will be scary. 

Be Safe, Travel Easy, Go To The Woods....and Be In Preparedness Mode!

 Ray 🐸 & Rosie 🐶

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Weather is just Nuts!

Good morning from the "Lilypad Homestead in Progress"! 😉🐸🐶

The temperatures here have been on a bungee cord basically! The lo temps have bounced from mid-forties to high's in the upper 70s to low's 80s. Between the temp swings and the pollen in the air....my sinuses and seemingly Rosie's....have been in an uproar for the past  +/- 2 weeks! 

 

 I have "completely" settled on my plans for a cabin that is 10'X10'. Have just about gotten the concrete area cleared for the beginning of putting a floor down.

 

I found a guy on YouTube that I have actually started to follow. He apparently was in the home construction business and has started a "channel" where he shares his skills and ideas. The series I'm watching right now makes me feel like I could very possibly construct  the cabin myself! And that is just short of a miracle in itself!! 😜 When you have a chance and think you want to do some "building" yourself, check him out....

@JessedoesDIY  

His main tools are a circular saw, a power drill, level, tape! It is really amazing! So check him out sometime!

 

This week I will be working on a couple of videos for those of you that follow me. Nothing real fancy...but hopefully of interest to you. They are of interest to me and I want to share some things with you.

We as humans will rarely if ever agree on everything. That is just a fact that has to be accepted. And I know there are folks that will probably hear one thing that I talk about and promptly "uncheck" me from their list of links to take looks at! And so be it! It will disappoint me, but that is just a fact of life!

 

About time to get out of the house and get to doing something. And the WiFi connection seems to either be SLOW or just messed up, so I'm hoping that this will save and also upload sometime soon! Going to let it sit here and see if after a while it will "update" and save!! Oh, how I have such a gigantic "love/hate relationship" with technology!! 

 

So for now, I hope you have a great day and stay healthy and in a preparedness mode!!

 

C'ya - Frog 🐸 & Rosie 🐶

Settling In!!

 

Hi Folks! And welcome back! And settle in to follow Frog as I build my "tiny cabin/house"!

I have curbed my travels quite a lot. It is time to not be on the road as much! Between the cost of fuel, Lily's age (and mine) and the general condition of our current society...I'm just tired of dealing with a lot of it. And the overall cost of just daily living has almost gotten out of hand! 

So I'm parked on the kids land, have drawn up plans, chasing prices for lumber currently...and waiting for some decent weather!!! Which I am hopeful will start arriving in the next couple of weeks! But this is Alabama spring...in the last 36 hours we had a daily high of 72* at midnight Monday. By 8am it was 40*, it was snowing at 10:30am, sleeting at 12:45pm and sunny at 3:30pm!! You have to keep a sense of humor when you live here as far as the weather is concerned!!

We're in the 20's the next 2 mornings, highs in the upper 40s and Sunday we could have high temps of 80!

Anyway...I just wanted to get rid of the cobwebs from not doing much video over the past few months and also to let you know what is going on with Travels with Frog!

Hope you like the video! 

The TwF website is no more!

Good morning gang! Well I have made the changes and www.thetruckingfrog now points to my original blog. Which, as I mentioned before....is still in existence!! And this morning I had my URL, thetruckingfrog.com,  transferred over to direct everyone to the Blog. And it is up and working!

 Also during the past few days I have been thinking out my cabin plans. Like I've said, I've lived in less than 60 sq ft "spaces" for the better part of the last 20+ years! And I do truly live the typical "tiny house" lifestyle....a very large part of the time I'm outside, my needs (i.e. - electric, water, propane/gas, lights (most are rechargeable, etc..) are very minimal. Plus I want to be as close to totally off-grid as I possibly can. Not only that, I'm planning on repurposing as many of the items needed for the cabin as I possibly can.

That being said, I sat down a few nights ago and worked on another floor plan for the cabin. And it is probably going to be the plan we work with. I'll almost double living space, up to 100 sq ft inside. It will have a 10'x10' porch with roof. It will also in the very near future become a screened in porch at which time I should have enough of the area around the house cleared to start putting together a patio and garden area. 🐸🐶 This plan will also allow me to use/repurpose more lumber which means less money out the door and out of my budget! 

That is about it for today! For a day that was supposed to not rain or have a "sprinkle or two"....we had a good storm blow thru! Literally! The rain was sideways which means my  being under the canopy was an act in futility!! It did cool things down here about 13 degrees!

So until more news from N Alabama, 

Be Safe, Travel Easy, Go To The Woods...and...work on Preparedness!!

 

C'ya!  Frog & Rosie  🐸🐶 

TwF D-day nears - 03/06/2026 - Website Ends! Having Preparedness is a NOW thing!!

 The "thetruckingfrog.com" will still link to me....but it will be to my blog that I started about 12 years ago. So you'll be able to keep the same link you have used these past years, no domain name change, just a landing change!

 

The TwF Blog D-Day is getting close! In fact, it is just 7 (seven) days away! As I posted a week or so ago, I will be canceling my website as of 3/6/2026. I have spent the past few weeks canceling quite a few "subscriptions" that I just either don't need any longer or are just a waste of my budget dollars! As I've gone thru the list of subscriptions I realize that I really do not use very many of them, which translates to I have just been giving money to these big corporations without a real good reason to be adding to their deep pockets. So they are no longer in my budget...and still have several more to drop!

The thing  that I  have learned doing these cancellations is....these companies/groups will do work their hardest to NOT have you cancel. There are several that I do use/like that cut the subscription price more than 50% to keep me from dropping them. I can make a lot of them work in my budget, especially when they ask what it would take to keep me and I give them a "price"....it amazes me just how close, or sometimes less, to the price that I say would fit in my budget. And a couple of them have given me a 50% plus cut in cost AND have locked me into that price "for as long as you keep the service"! I must say that I do like those price deals!! :-)

 Now, in all truth, I am having to "relearn" how to make my old blog site layout, work smoothly, notify followers of new posts....all those fun things that you get to do when you want to be "online"! Bah-humbug!! LMAO! But it does let me stay in touch with the folks that check in every so often to see where I'm located/seen/headed to.

Mentioning that - where am I now and upcoming - I am in Alabama for the
foreseeable future. To be totally honest...just getting real...things are getting so stupid, both in the USA and in the Global area, that I honestly just do not want to be on the road much any longer!  It is really sad for me to say that, but there are just too many stupid actions going on and I just do not want to deal with it. SO.......

I'm almost through with the drawings and listing of needs to build myself a little off-grid cabin here in N.E. Alabama on the kids land. I've lived in very small spaces for so many years that "going tiny" is not "a thing" for me. It is a fact of life that if we are to survive and thrive and still have something to pass on to the next generations, then we have to scale back out "wants" and live with our "needs" (and if there's left over $$ then we an add some of the wants to life).

This is the reason that I have been purging for the past...oh let's say....10 years!! YUP! I have been lightening up the load for 10 years. Living in a van for 3+ of them has made it easier, but I still have stuff that I actually rarely, if ever, use in daily life! It is just dumb to have so much crap just because we can afford to buy it and we see all the "social trendsetters" just having to have it to make life easier! Well...to that I say....B*ll$h^t!!! 

 

 

 

This post is getting longer that I expected, but I feel I needed to put this out. I have talked about be in a state of "Preparedness", not with a "prepper" mentality but in a state of mind of being prepared for most any 

situation that might happen to come along. I am working on some videos about that I have done to be as prepared as is possible for just about any "happening" that might crop up. My YouTube channel will stay just like it always has been. And my Patreon page will stay in the same place as it has been. 

I have also been working on my plans for my little cabin. Cleaning out the camper to be able to close it up has shown me just how quickly a person can "acquire" things that they really do not need or even necessarily want! It is almost mind blowing! But I'm wading thru it and still sorting and throwing! I almost have my desk top cleared and actually have an empty storage tub! :-)  My actual goal has been to be able to feed myself and help a few others if needed for at least 45-60 days. My real goal is to get to the point that I do not have to "go to the store" for 3-6 months. But I'll have to be in my cabin before I an really reach that goal. 

 

As you can see I've gotten my 2-wheeled suitcase ;-) out and cleaned up and reloaded. This does not show the stuff that went into the burn can or into the trashcans! LOL! 

 

I think I have gotten the links on the blog homepage fixed. It is interesting to have to relearn the things that you were able to do so easily a few years back! The learning curve is definitely bigger as I've gotten older! 

 

 But just know that I am not "going anywhere", still going camping in the area (up to 4 hour away) in the Nat'l Forests that are in this part of the country. And the backroads in the South are truly backroads!

 

That's all for now! I hope to get the email notifications working correctly in the next couple of days also. Bear with me as I make this change.

 

Until later....Be Safe, Travel Easy, Go To The Woods & Be Prepared11

 

Frog & Rosie 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparedness! Are You Ready?

 Good Morning Folks! We're still in Alabama...and will probably be here for a while...as in for the foreseeable future! 

 I finally got around to getting the camper 95% emptied out and closed up for the time being. I'll be moving it over to an area to "store" it until a trip out to the forest for a few weeks. The reason for the closing of the camper and moving it is because this spot is where I will be building my "cabin" - or tiny house if you prefer! 😉 

 

I have lived in small spaces actually the majority of my life and still do! Only during the military time of my life I had always had small bedrooms. I'll dig up some pics of all the places I have pics of where "home" was over the years. And when you consider that I "lived" in a semi for over 12 years and have now been in either under 21ft motorhomes or in a van, I really am most comfortable in a small space. AND...the Carlson genes also have a weak point! If there is a flat surface, well, we tend to

make sure that it is covered with something! 😉 This genetic "flaw" is also kept partially in check be limiting the space we live in! LOL! I was doing the same thing n the camper! But I am now back in "purge mode"! It is amazing that in just a few months how much stuff can be gathered around us!

 As you can also see from the pic that I am in preparedness mode to a fairly high degree. The two storage cabinets are basically a pantry. The two milk crates are canned meats or veggies. Heheheh...the 3 small brown boxes are citronella mosquito coils, green spray can tops are mosquito spray (the mosquitoes in Alabama are quite nasty and have an attitude...they are already coming out!) and the box on the bottom middle under the coils is .... of course .... toilet paper!!!  LMAO!  Always think preparedness!! There are things in the tubs that are about to go thru a purge, and some of the things you an see will also go thru the purge!!

 I am finally working on a "Preparedness Series" of both blog posts and a video series. I guess you could say that I am becoming rather passionate about being prepared for anything that could disrupt our daily lives! Folks tend to think that being prepared for weather "happenings" is what you need to think about, as in major storms. And natural disasters is a large part of being prepared. BUT...man made disasters are also in that picture....economic, political, family.....there are many different faces to "disaster"! To be in a proper prepared mindset you have to think outside the box!

We are entering the the time of the year when weather disasters are fore front, especially when you live in the zone I'm in...Tornado Alley! But  this affects a small percentage of the populace. If you don't keep up with the news, at least one or two times each week, then you need to. To be honest, legacy media gives us a very sanitized version of the news. I hear things several days or a week before they appear on news feeds...and they usually do not give the whole story for quite a while after that. 

 Enough of that rabbit trail! Just look around you and think about how long you would be able to have a "normal" daily life if you had no electricity, no cell phone, no internet, maybe no water in the tap. If you really sit down and think about it, from a realistic point of view....you might go thru an unsettling thought time!

I regress! So many thoughts and points that run thru my head to share...time to get busy on my projects!

Don't forget, my website will be no more as of March 6, 2026. So everything will be put out through this blog, YouTube channel and Patreon site.  😉

Until next time.... Be Safe, Travel Easy, Go To The Woods & Think Preparedness!!

C'ya - Frog & Rosie 🐸🐶