07:59 – We stopped over at Barbara’s sister’s house yesterday to shoot HD video and stills for a home inventory for insurance purposes. On the way home we did a small Costco run. In addition to the regular food, the only long-term storage supplies we picked up were a couple 7-pound boxes of assorted pasta, an 8-pound box of spaghetti, and a 6-gallon pack of bottled water. Call it 38,000 calories total, or about two person-weeks.
We’re continuing to build kit inventory to meet the flood of orders we can expect over the next couple of months. Barbara is going to take Friday off so that we can spend a three-day weekend building kits. We’re at comfortable inventory levels on all kits for the moment, but that’ll change quickly as orders start to come in in batches.
15:15 – Back from the dentist. He wrote me a prescription for Augmentin, which I carefully carried home and up the stairs. I can’t find it now. I was holding it and my Kindle in one hand as I came up the stairs, and somehow the paper just disappeared.
Your post today and the recent one about having a firearms/food balance has got me thinking. Other than potable water, what simple food items should one consider stocking up on at once in order to have truly *basic* emergency nutrition on hand, and in what quantities (mass per person per week, or whatever)?
I can envisage taking a trip to the cash and carry for a list along the lines of
white flour, dried yeast, white rice, pasta, vegetable oil, sugar, UHT milk and canned/preserved meats. I suppose powdered milk and eggs would also be desirable, but I don’t know whether the cash & carry sells those, or they’re a special-order proposition.
Perhaps you’ve already posted along these lines, in which case, a pointer/reminder would be most helpful! Thanks.
My own inclination here on that score is to keep piling up canned goods of stuff that we are used to eating and kinda like, to the tune of having several months on hand, while also stocking the basics, like flour, salt, rice, beans, pasta, etc. Water is a big priority, though; we have a well but with the electric pump we need to rig up a manual alternative ASAP. And in our climate, heat is also a big priority; we’ve got the wood stove and we try to keep three to five cords on hand through the cold seasons. Light is also big; we’ve got some FLASHLIGHTS but tend to accumulate old-school lanterns and lamps that run on lamp oil and/or kerosene, and candles.
Commo is a work-in-progress here; the hardware is on-site and I’m fiddling with programming and antennas at this point.
Random question for y’all…
First, some background: When we bought this house, the family that lived here left (with our permission) an antique dining set and a couple of antique beds. All of the family’s “children” were retired, and certainly didn’t need it; apparently, the grandchildren didn’t either.
So, we finally hauled it all down, cleaned it up, and got an expert to have a look. It’s all 1930s, made from walnut by a very respectable English furniture company (Maple & Co.). However, it was used for 60 years, and the wear shows – it would require basically complete refinishing plus a good bit of restoration work. For the complete dining set: hutch, table with extensions, and 10 chairs, this would cost over $7500. Which the furniture theoretically would be worth, at that point. (It’s very similar to this set, but with more pieces.)
Much too much money, given that we don’t actually want to keep and use the furniture, because it’s not really our style. On the other hand, I don’t have the feeling there’s much market for unrestored antique furniture. On the gripping hand, it would pain me to break it up and use it for firewood.
So, my question: what would y’all do with the stuff?
I’d have a furniture person come and take a look at it and see what they have to say, first; but I’d be inclined to just put it up on Craigslist and be done with it. Restoring it would likely cost significantly more than it’s gonna be worth. We have a bunch of much older heavy furniture here that wife and Grandma accumulated over nearly a century and it and we aren’t going anywhere, so it stays, but wife has told me it’s probably worth tens of thousands. Cleaned up and restored, of course, and meanwhile it gets USED like it was meant to be.
If the furniture has actual value as an antique, my understanding is that the less you do to it the better in terms of value as the collectors that pay the bucks want the patina. They also want to be the one that gets the big bargain too, of course.
@Denis
This is a link to Bob’s post about the minimal food for one person for one year. If I were buying all that stuff at once, I would be inclined to make a trip to the local Mormon cannery if there is one in your area. It may cost more, but it will actually be in shelf stable packaging.
It’s all 1930s…
If the furniture has actual value as an antique…
1930’s antique. Craig’s list sounds about right.
Dave B., many thanks for the link! No convenient LDS canneries around here unfortunately – I’m in Europe. I suspect I’ll have to do the long-term packaging myself. Once I get some basic staples in, I’ll go shopping and see what’s available in the way of canned goods. I have found in the past that middle-eastern, Asian and Turkish supermarkets usually have a good selection of canned foods which I actually like to eat.
Don’t assume there are no LDS Home Storage Centers near you. They’re scattered all over the world.
https://www.lds.org/countries/region?lang=eng®ion=europe
we’ve got some FLASHLIGHTS but tend to accumulate
You just couldn’t resist, could you Sir.
“You just couldn’t resist, could you Sir.”
True, dat. Although my decades of substance abuse are long over, my lack of any self-control is usually evident to this day.
I can make some specific recommendations for FLASHLIGHTS if you’d like.
Brad, in Australia that stuff probably wouldn’t be worth anything. Our family has a lot of that stuff and nobody (outside the family) wants it. Only a few years ago it was different, you could make a motza selling it to an antique shop, and more privately. Comes and goes. I keep all that stuff, so does my sister, because we like it or it has sentimental value. YMMV, especially as you’re on the other side of the world. I wouldn’t sink a lot of dough into this unless I wanted it myself or had expert opinion that I could makle a lot of dough from it.
“I can make some specific recommendations for FLASHLIGHTS if you’d like.”
Naw, that’s OK: you’re undoubtedly extremely busy now and I sure wouldn’t wanna take up yer valuable time, sir. We’ll just muddle along with candles and lanterns like our ancestors did, good enough for them, good enough for us.
Kinda hot and humid today up here in the north country, and evidently continuing for the next few days, with t-storms likely.
Immigrants are slowly headed your way, Mr. OFD.
A remarkable transformation is underway in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The birthplace and final resting place of George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson—and once one of the most reliably-red of red states—is being rapidly turned into a progressive stronghold.
I imagine there are plenty of crimmigrants in that lot we don’t even have a clue about. Must be too hot in Vegas and Tejas fo’ dem.
OFD ain’t too worried ’bout dat; they won’t dig the six months of cold weather, three or four of which usually involve heavy snowfalls, ice storms, and subzero temps. Not to mention all the redneck types armed to the teeth around here; I get the distinct impression most of them head for the cities anyway.
Water is a big priority, though; we have a well but with the electric pump we need to rig up a manual alternative ASAP.
Just get a long rope and a very deep and narrow bucket. In my case, 200 ft of rope and a 4 inch diameter bucket. That is OD, not ID. And no spitting in the well!
_Islands of Rage and Hope_ (Black Tide Rising) by John Ringo
http://www.amazon.com/Islands-Rage-Hope-Black-Rising/dp/1476780439/
Book number three of a four book series. I do not think that there will be any additional books in the series.
The survivors of the engineered flu virus with the rabies virus payload have fled to the Caribbean because of the millions of zombies inhabiting the mainlands. The work at clearing and salvaging ships is going so well that they move on to Gitmo and a few other islands. But they are running out of vaccine.
Just remember, what happens in the compartment stays in the compartment.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (308 reviews)
I thought Obama’s Iran deal was Neville Chamberlain bad. I am now convinced that I was wrong, and I owe the late Prime Minister of England an apology. Obama’s Iran deal is Revelation bad.
We shall see. The most reliable intel reports that I’ve seen in the past year stipulate/d that Iran was years behind in getting to weapons-level nuke status, but of course that could change overnight with some assistance from our good buddies the Pakis, renegade ex-Soviets, or the Norks. We supposedly have an inspection regime set up, plus drones, satellites, etc., but our own borders and coasts are a joke so how we expect to monitor them accurately is anybody’s guess.
I’m just wondering when we’re gonna put the squeeze on India, Pakistan, the Norks, the Red Chinese, et. al., who are already at weapons-level status with their nukes. I guess they get a free ride, so why not the Iranians, too? In any case, if our other good buddies, the Israelis, think for a nanosecond that they’re about to be attacked, they’ll turn Iran into molten glass, with our air cover and intel, notwithstanding the supposed bad blood between nasty Bibi and nasty Barry.
Makes life interesting, doncha think? Plus we gotta sweat any hadji sleeper cells that have crossed our wide-open southern border and who may be planning dirty nuke attacks on North Murkan cities. To my thinking, such as it is, that’s far more likely than a successful attack from the mullahs.
http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/07/27/ten-indications-iran-wants-business-not-bombs/
Thanks for the inputs. The expert who looked at the furniture clearly wants to make money restoring it for us. Equally clearly, he felt no itch to buy it off of us to restore and sell himself. Which tells the story: the value after restoration isn’t likely to be more than the costs thereof.
Since we have the furniture out, I’ll take some pics and put it up on a local auction site. See what happens. If that doesn’t pan out, I suppose someone like the Salvation Army might be interested in trying to make a buck off of it.
Off-topic:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-27/your-e-mail-font-is-ruining-your-life
I have been using Georgia for many years now, ever after it was first recommended by Jerry P. The experts agree.
WRT Ringo’s Black Ride Rising series, recommended! The fourth and last book gets back to story telling, and a lot less”care and feeding of the young officer” nonsense.
For fans, the good news is that he’s letting others play with his toys. There a couple of other authors who have teased upcoming stories.
Not every storyline gets wrapped up in the fourth, but enough to be satisfying.
Nick
It begins:
Obola in Kenya: “I could win a third term”
I’m pretty sure that it’s already been decided that Clinton will be elected next and serve two terms. Obama did as much as he could in two terms to destroy the country, but I think we need at least another two terms of a prog president to complete the destruction.
I don’t hold out any hope for the electoral process at the federal level. The solution, if there is one, is for states to start opting out either in part or simply by seceding from the US. We’re already seeing the partial opt-outs happening across the country, but a complete breakdown of the US into individual states and groupings is the only real hope. When local cops start arresting US federal agents, we’ll know it’s happening.
All of which is good reason to relocate if you’re currently in a large city or other blue-dominated area. I expect eventually to see red states going their own ways, minus the blue population centers in them. Conversely, I expect rural areas of some states to secede, not just from the US but from the states they’re nominally part of. We’re already seeing the first early movement in that direction, as for example with rural Northern Colorado wanting to abandon Colorado and become part of Wyoming.
This is going to be a real mess. I don’t know when or if it will achieve critical mass, but once it does the changes will come fast and furious. It may start happening for real in a year or twenty years, but I don’t think it’ll be longer than that.
I thought Obama’s Iran deal was Neville Chamberlain bad. I am now convinced that I was wrong, and I owe the late Prime Minister of England an apology. Obama’s Iran deal is Revelation bad.
I believed this at first. Then I realized that China was getting ready to veto the Iran restrictions that have existed since 1979. So Obola is just trying to get some mileage out of a bad situation.
The crude oil production in China is dropping. And oil consumption is going sky high. Apparently, China has contracted to purchase all of the oil produced by Iran. Including the 80 super tankers currently anchored off the coast of Iran, all full.
http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=cn
When Israel truly feels threatened, they will take care of Iran. Saudi Arabia has already given them flyover rights and may join the sorties.
This is going to be a real mess. I don’t know when or if it will achieve critical mass, but once it does the changes will come fast and furious. It may start happening for real in a year or twenty years, but I don’t think it’ll be longer than that.
The real question is, will it be Balkans bad? Super-sized of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars
“The Yugoslav Wars were ethnic conflicts fought from 1991 to 2001 inside the territory of the former Yugoslavia. These wars accompanied and/or facilitated the breakup of the country, when its constituent republics declared independence, but the issues of ethnic minorities in the new countries (chiefly Serbs in central parts and Albanians in the southeast) were still unresolved at the time the republics were recognized internationally.”
The USA is the third largest country in the world by population now. The amount of dead could be stupendous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population
“I’m pretty sure that it’s already been decided that Clinton will be elected next and serve two terms. Obama did as much as he could in two terms to destroy the country, but I think we need at least another two terms of a prog president to complete the destruction.”
As the kidz say nowadays: +100
Ditto rest of the post.
“The amount of dead could be stupendous.”
Indeed. 80% mass die-off here, and probably higher in other countries.
This is fine with the global elites, by the way.
My personal religious view is that the Prince of Darkness has been in charge here for quite a while now. Other explanations go only so far.
I’m actually starting to come around to you guys’ point of view. Not that I’ll ever believe in gods of any sort, but I see things bifurcating rapidly, and atheists and non-religious libertarians are too small a group to be a viable faction. Given the choice of siding with you guys, who tend libertarian money-wise and social conservative, I’d much rather have you guys having my back than depend on some proggy-ish drones whom I wouldn’t trust literally farther than I could throw them.
Unfortunately from my point of view, pro-gun and pro-Constitution folks also tend to be religious. I guess I can live with that group, always assuming they’re willing to have me. That’s one of the big reasons I’ve been studying all my life to be a wizard. I want to be too valuable to ignore, and hope that the rest of the group will be willing to overlook my peculiarities religion-wise and otherwise.
Incidentally, that’s one reason why my list of weekly preps often isn’t very long. If I listed what I’d actually been doing, people would look at me funny. Such as figuring out how to produce β-lactamase inhibitors right here in the sink.
Unfortunately from my point of view, pro-gun and pro-Constitution folks also tend to be religious. I guess I can live with that group, always assuming they’re willing to have me.
From my experience with evangelical SoCons, they are more tolerant of non-believers than Progressives are of conservatives/libertarians. (Progressives also can’t seem to differentiate between the two.) There are some extreme religious types that don’t tolerate being with non-believers, but they are in the minority.
Yes. I actually get along pretty well with most religious people, including Southern Baptists. I suggested to Barbara a couple of months ago that we might consider joining a mainstream church like the Presbyterian or Methodist ones in Jefferson once we moved up there, just to fit in. She said NFW. Well, she phrased it a bit more politely, but not much.
“Unfortunately from my point of view, pro-gun and pro-Constitution folks also tend to be religious. I guess I can live with that group, always assuming they’re willing to have me.”
Does that mean you might just haul your arse down to the polling station and vote for Rand, rather than let Hillary get in?
From what I’ve heard, we haven’t really gotten anything out of the deal. I think that letting the international sanctions lapse and leaving US sanctions in place would be a better option than the proposed
treatyagreement.As I keep saying, it doesn’t matter who “gets in” at the federal level. It’ll just be more of the same. I wouldn’t be any happier with Rand Paul as president than I would with Clinton.
The political process at the federal level broke down completely a long time ago. Voting is simply pointless. I remember watching it happening when The Who first sang, “Meet the new boss, the same as the old boss.” And indeed I won’t get fooled again.
The only people who freak me out are those who drag around statues of Baphomet and such:
http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/nancy-kaffer/2015/07/27/why-satanic-statue-really-isnt-devil/30739597/
God really does not like countries who worship idols. I firmly believe that the USA has been blessed and protected. If that blessing is taken away, oh my, life can be much tougher.
From what I’ve heard, we haven’t really gotten anything out of the deal. I think that letting the international sanctions lapse and leaving US sanctions in place would be a better option than the proposed treaty XXXXX agreement.
Me too. But Presidents who just let things happen do not have legacies. And Obola wants a legacy real bad.
I told my wife that this( Michigan) will be one of the places where the revolution starts. All the businesses here are cash only, there are a lot of don’t tread on me flags flying, and a strong militia movement. Outside the urban areas, classic old school Americana dominates.
Nick
“Given the choice of siding with you guys, who tend libertarian money-wise and social conservative, I’d much rather have you guys having my back than depend on some proggy-ish drones whom I wouldn’t trust literally farther than I could throw them.”
I’m a paleoconservative and traditionalist Roman Catholic, but wizards will be needed to work their magic chit for a while, so have no fear from our sector.
Once things settle down, of course, you’ll be burned at the stake.
Just kidding. Wife and I have seen some of the New Oxford Review’s (traditionalist RC magazine) store ads for various tee-shirts, BBQ aprons, and suchlike, and one of the latter had the motto: “We Roast Heretics.” Wife and I didn’t think that was the least bit funny or cute, as we have a pretty good understanding of the historical period involved, esp. in Merry Olde England, and going out that way is extremely unpleasant and it was done by both sides, of course.
I figure that if someone, including me, has some useful skillz that are necessary to the group’s, the community’s and the race’s survival, then a lotta stuff is gonna get overlooked.
As Mr. ech has indicated, however, you won’t find the same sort of tolerance from progs and libturds.
If I were Prez, I’d want to be remembered as having done nothing but prune back the government, kept the foreign wolves at bay, and let the American people get on with their lives and business. But of course, I’m not the kind of person who has crafted his entire adult life to become a national politician.
The drive for attention and a place in history, surely, is as good a reason as any to forbid the entry into politics of anyone who wants the job.
RBT wrote:
“As I keep saying, it doesn’t matter who “gets in” at the federal level. It’ll just be more of the same. I wouldn’t be any happier with Rand Paul as president than I would with Clinton. ”
That’s crazy and you know it. The Clintons and Obola have a proven track record of doing harm to your country and people’s rights. Rand, Scott and some of the others might, or rather almost certainly will do a better job.
What, like Bush and the Republicans in Congress have done a better job? Give me a break.
I fear that our good friend down in Oz still doesn’t get it. Greg, it’s just not working anymore here, simple as that. We’ve tried to explain and you just keep hammering away on how the latest crew of circus clowns will somehow always be better than whichever incumbent or a “threat” like Field Marshal Rodham. But they never are! They’re usually WORSE.
The Repubs, i.e., Stupid Half of the War Party, have stabbed us in the back repeatedly and relentlessly and are doing so right NOW even as we “speak.” It’s gotten so I hate them worse than the Evil Half.
Rand Paul or whoever may tell us neat stuff we love to hear during the campaigns, just like Rodham and Sanders are doing on their side of things, but once they get to Mordor all bets are off IMMEDIATELY.
Now either you need to come live here for a while and watch close-up just how this process works, or you need to find a much better source of information from where you’re at. And you and our Canadian friends are standing on very thin ice indeed when you propose to lecture and correct us on how we should vote and how that will change things for the better.