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November 2025 Canlife Correspondence - Slow Travel, Self-Heating Batteries, Stellar S'Mores, & Solar Tax Rebates!

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Back in the Familiar & Strange... There's this hike near the town of St Anthony on the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, and we can't get it out of our minds.  It strikes exactly  the  right balance between  input   effort and visual payoff as it winds through green rolling hills, and towering cliffs above the sea.  Like many hikes in the province, the views remain unobstructed by the quirky happenstance of soil biology, growing season, and ocean climate.  The few trees that do grow along this boggy shore are stunted and stubborn.  We summertime visitors only know the fleeting sunshine season while they scratch out a determined existence making the most of what they can.  In the distance, islands and capes peek through ocean mist, and at the right time of year, icebergs float by on the Labrador current  like moving skyscrapers .   Every corner and hilltop offers another chance to prove the inadequacy of our cameras....
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Full-Time RV Lifestyle -- Which Rig To Buy?

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You don't want to end up like these folks that we saw at a Flying J Travel Plaza along I-10 in the New Mexico. Seriously, what's going on here...Man Cave? She Shed? Mobile Office? In-Laws Suite? We'll never know... If you are new to RVing, or  considering going full-time , there are many options, styles, and opinions out there, but the most important factor is how YOU plan to use YOUR home-on-wheels. Ask yourself... Are you going to travel nearly every day?  Are you going to select a region and stay put for several weeks before moving on?  Do you plan on exploring national parks in the U.S. or Canada?  Will you be working from the road?  Will you need internet and/or a dedicated workspace? Do you plan to be plugged in at an RV resort or boondock with solar in the desert? Do you want to be able to live in both freezing temperatures as well as hot summer weather? While our first RV is still our only RV (after 13+ years of full-time use), let's just say that...
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Maintaining Off-Grid Power Systems Through an Ice Storm

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Over the past 12 years of off-grid living, we’ve encountered some significant weather extremes during our travels across the continent.  Believe it or not, we’re writing this blog during an ice storm that has knocked out grid power all over the High Country of North Carolina, so our timing could not be more poignant!  While our system has been fine, we’ve needed to rely on just about every trick we have to stay powered up in the cold. Last winter, North America saw some pretty weird weather; snow on the ground for days in New Orleans, Louisiana, icy blizzards across the mid-Atlantic states.  As severe storms become stronger and more difficult to predict, the obvious questions arise:  Will the solar panels keep up, will the batteries get too cold, what if the system goes down?   With just a few strategies and the right equipment, you can be prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws at you.  Winter’s Impact on Solar Systems Solar powered systems don't really...
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Winter Adventures Made Easy: How Self-Heating Batteries Keeps Your Power Going

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Since we’ve been traveling in our solar powered vintage camper full-time since the fall of 2012, we’ve chosen a different region in which to basecamp each winter. We typically try to stay in warmer climates so we can spend more time outside. Some winters we’ve enjoyed the California coast, others we’ve explored the deserts of the southwest, and we spent one holiday season on the beach of Padre Island National Seashore in Texas. Even with our attempts to avoid cold temperatures, we’ve always encountered some unexpected winter weather events along the way – the southwestern deserts in 2019, the two-week Texas “deep freeze” in 2021, and this past winter we were hit with snowstorms, ice storms, and several weeks of below freezing temps in the southeast!  Being able to roll with these changes is part of living life on the road, but it can be hard on both you and your deep cycle batteries.   We first learned this lesson the hard way a couple of years ago when we woke up to 6 in...
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