10:03 – Barbara took off about 9:40 for a week in Brasstown, down in the far, far southwest corner of North Carolina. It’s about 300 miles and a six hour drive from here.
She did take along a pretty comprehensive get-home bag, with food, water, water purification gear, fire-making gear, knife, multi-tool, chainsaw, Coghlan’s Folding Stove with half a dozen 8-ounce sawdust/paraffin firestarter blocks, a decent first-aid kit, blankets and spare clothing, a .22LR rifle with 100 rounds, and so on. She also understands that it’s important to keep her gas tank as full as possible. Her Chevy HHR has a 16-gallon fuel tank, and gets at least 25 MPG on the highway, so in theory she has a range of 400+ miles. She plans to stop on her way down to refuel, and then to top off her tank as soon as she arrives.
For Colin and me, it’ll be a week of wild women and parties. Well, that and working on kit stuff.
12:53 – Colin is not a happy camper. He watched Barbara drive away three hours ago, and he’s been pestering me ever since. He wants constant action. I’m sure he remembers the days back before September 30th, when Barbara was at work all day long every weekday, but he’s spoiled by the fact that we’ve both been home pretty much all day every day since then.
Someone emailed me to ask if I’d be eating from long-term storage while Barbara’s gone. I thought about it, but I decided that I’m going to eat mostly sandwiches, packaged frozen foods, and so on. Barbara left me with a pretty full freezer, including a couple of Stouffer’s Chicken & Broccoli Pasta Bake meals.
Email from Jen. They start and run their generator for about a pint’s worth of gasoline the first of every month. They did that yesterday, three weeks late for this month, and found it wouldn’t start, even with ether-based starter spray. I told her my guess was that they’d been running it with gasoline polluted with ethanol, which is notorious for gumming up the carburetors in lawnmowers and other small gas engines. Her husband is hauling their generator to the local small-engine repair guy tomorrow to find out what went wrong and what he needs to do to fix it himself if it happens again. I suspect that it’d be a good idea to keep some carburetor cleaner on hand, and know how to tear down the generator far enough to clean the gunk out of the carb. I just checked pure-gas.org and found that there’s one place in Sparta that sells ethanol-free gas, or at least did the last time the list was updated.
Good kit.
But I’d hate to have to hump the 300 miles on foot; that would take me two to three weeks, at best. A comparable distance for us up here would be hiking back home to Saint Albans Bay from Bangor, Maine, roughly the same latitude and almost exactly the same distance. Most of it would be over Route 2, if I stayed on the highway. I’d be carrying the same stuff Mrs. RBT has but something heavier for ordnance than the .22LR, and I’d throw in a tarp and some paracord.
Presumably we wouldn’t have to hump back home from anything like that while the Current Situation remains more or less normal, but imagine if we couldn’t just rent another car, or get someone to come pick us up. Your car’s dead and some kinda chit has happened, lights out, looters out and about, etc.
Bright but overcast here; gonna try to knock off some outside yard stuff if possible when I get back from the garden center place up the road by the Quebec border.
Doesn’t Colin already have enough wild women in his life? Or are they more free range than wild?
Well the garden is pretty much toast.
Late yesterday afternoon, 1630 PDT, an unpredicted rotating thunderstorm popped up out of nowhere. In 20-minutes we got 0.72-inches of rain and over an inch of pea to quarter sized hail. Stripped the leaves off of vegetables, what it didn’t beat into the ground. Another odd thing was the barometer was fairly steady and the temperature only dropped about 10-degress. A small funnel cloud dropped down for a few seconds. There are some cherry orchards close by that are 100% loss, picking would have started next week or two. The National Weather Service didn’t report a storm or flood warning until 30-minutes after the storm had passed.
Now I know for some of you folks this is just a usual occurrence, but here in high desert it is unusual.
So a fine example of how Mother Nature can get you.
“So a fine example of how Mother Nature can get you.”
No, no, no. You need to get a ticket on the Clue Train, sir. This was all because of GlobbalWommingChangeClimate and we’re all gonna die, plus the Twelve Years of Reagan-Bush. Also all us cis-hetero white male patriarchs and fascists.
Funnel clouds: that sounds like the one I saw in Thailand many moons ago, on a brilliantly clear sunny day with blue skies at the off-base bomb dump. It came outta nowhere, about 20-30-feet high, so probably smaller than yours out there. We couldn’t believe our eyes; it hit the ground and then just blew apart a corrugated steel shed like it was nothing, and disappeared.
I saw a pair of funnel clouds, much bigger and darker, one rainy/sunny summer afternoon out on Route 9 west of Woostuh, MA, back in the early 1980s. Nothing came of them, but of course that paht of MA has had tornadoes, one really bad one around the time I was born.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Worcester_tornado
“but imagine if we couldn’t just rent another car, or get someone to come pick us up. ”
Like a certain week in September, 2001. I was fortunate that we already had rented an Excursion appropriate for the cross country drive with 3 adult males and luggage. And Hertz earned my loyalty by saying “take the car and get home safe. Call us and let us know where it ends up.” This was in stark contrast to the green and white car company who told some of my colleagues that “if you take our car out of state, we’ll prosecute you for auto theft.”
Sept 11 could have been much worse and the effects on individuals in the immediate aftermath could have been disastrous. Think about it. There were people on cruise ships, at Disneyworld, separated from their kids ‘for just a romantic getaway’, etc. If the disruption had lasted longer, or was more severe, what would they have done? Did any of them have a plan and resources? Do you now?
nick
Welcome to the PRC. The future of Detroit, Chicago, NYC etc.
Life inside Kowloon Walled City, the most densely populated place on earth, was far from easy before the chaotic cluster of interconnected high-rise buildings was demolished 20 years ago.
Around 33,000 people lived in the overcrowded Hong Kong slum, which was blighted by poverty, organised crime, including drug dealing, gambling and prostitution, poor sanitation and inadequate services.
Populated by families, business owners, drug addicts and gang members, the settlement was essentially lawless due to a territorial dispute between China and British Hong Kong, but both sides agreed in the 1980s to demolish it and replace it with a park.
The former Chinese military site became a sprawling urban settlement after Japanese forces retreated during World War II and squatters moved in.
Trying something new.
What is your plan for when you go to pick up your kids from school and you are faced with this sign?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nnpgg2i7tqb67nr/20160512_081647.jpg?dl=0
nick
(I don’t have one yet, just saw this in the library this week)
Go in, get my kid, kill anyone who tries to stop me, leave.
Most likely I’m not the person to ask that question, if you’re looking for a typical answer.
If I had kids, I’d go in, get my kid, threaten to seriously insult anyone who tries to stop me, leave. And I think that’s pretty typical.
How do you get in? break the glass door?
I’d be tempted to break the glass and go in at gunpoint if the reason was sufficiently serious, but if it’s not TEOTWAWKI what the hell do you do?
n
For the going-to-get-yer-kidz thing: it would be scads more effective if a BUNCH of parents went down and got their kidz at the same time, not just one or two in dribs and drabs, who can be intimidated by the Paul Blart security bozos or just some Bolsheviki dykes on steroids waving around copies of Mao’s Little Red Book.
And don’t forget that there are emergencies where it actually makes sense to leave the kids where they are. A tornado on the ground, for example.
Yeah, but… they lockdown for all kinds of reasons, like a report of a bad guy somewhere in the neighborhood, or a shooting nearby. Almost always closing the barn door….
In other news, I’m not imagery analyst, but does anyone else think this looks like an abandon vehicle on the side of the road, full of wind blown sand, with a pint of gasoline thrown on top?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3602691/Head-Taliban-Afghanistan-likely-killed-airstrike.html
Why is the body tucked under the trunk?
why is it on the side of the road, filled with sand?
with an HE missile strike, why is there any fire at all?
n
“…emergencies where it actually makes sense to leave the kids where they are.”
Exactly; I meant to mention that; there are some scenarios where we don’t really need to pitch a wobbly and wet our pants. Could be just some local bull-chit or weather where it’s better to let them stay on-site temporarily.
And in support of my theory that schools are nothing but practice for prison, and they use the language of prisons (lock down, general population/genpop) the sign outside our high school was advising parents of the ‘early release’ on Friday. NOT ‘early dismissal’ as it would have been put when I was in school, lo all those decades ago….
n
WRT the dropbox, anyone want to poke at it and tell me if they can see any of the other files or if I’m leaking anything in the metadata on the pix?
n
“…but does anyone else think this looks like an abandon vehicle on the side of the road, full of wind blown sand, with a pint of gasoline thrown on top?”
There are so many things that COULD be wrong with those pictures, but I’m not a qualified image analyst, either. Frankly, the buggers could tell us any damn thing and show us all kinds of pics and vids, doctored and ‘shopped six ways from Sunday, and most us out here wouldn’t have a clue. It’s way more advanced now than when the Sovs airbrushed various “counter-revolutionaries” and “capitalist roaders” out of their photos of their top dawgs.
“…anyone want to poke at it and tell me if they can see any of the other files…”
All I did was notice somebody’s foot wearing a Jesus boot at the bottom and I went to their web site and looked at their “core values” and threw up all over the keyboard and monitor here.
some days you gotta let the piggies breathe….
n
Other than the fact that the government does NOT own our kids, I have some sympathy when the government behaves high-handedly in emergencies. I try to put myself in their place and ask what I would do in their situation.
It’s like the “FEMA camp” meme that runs through a lot of prepper fiction. FEMA is just like any other large group of people. Sure, there are some evil psychopaths in that group, but most of them are just trying to do their jobs under very difficult circumstances, trying to help people.
I ask myself what I would do with very limited resources if I were faced with caring for a huge number of evacuees. Would I want thousands or tens of thousands of people in a refugee center under my authority to be armed. Probably not. That situation is dangerous enough without having armed people getting in gun fights.
If I were a refugee in that situation, I’d do everything possible to stay away from refugee centers, not because I thought the people running them were all evil psychos, but because I understand that what they’d need to do to keep any kind of order is not acceptable to me.
Don’t have a plan for that. For me the problem would not be the same. Wife and kid would both be behind such signs.
“…I understand that what they’d need to do to keep any kind of order is not acceptable to me.”
There it is. Which goes back to avoiding cities, avoiding crowds and big “events,” and keeping a nice low profile. I love looking at the big-ass map behind me on the wall here and seeing all the empty space, which is kind of an anomaly when one thinks about how crowded/populated the Northeast is, but we’re up by the Quebec/NY border and it’s just many square miles of flat farmland and woods. 47,000 peeps in this county, and the most dairy farms in the state. Next to a 130-mile-long lake. And big dark spaces on the night sky map to our west in the Adirondacks and 200-250 miles to our east in the western Maine mountains and the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.
Blast from the past, 1969, Red Skelton’s Pledge of Allegiance (when it meant something).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZBTyTWOZCM
Today this is considered blasphemy. How prophetic Red’s final words were.
BTW, I remember seeing this when it was originally broadcast. IMHO, Red was not only a great comedian, without peer today, but he was an everyman’s philosopher.
What would be different if they were?
That’s a little bit snark and wiseassery, but not much. How would Joe Observer distinguish between
a) a refugee center full of panicking people, some of whom are psychopaths, and run by well-meaning but not overly competent people and
b) a refugee center full of panicking people, some of whom are psychopaths, and run by psychopaths who were in their position only as a sinecure before the crisis and who don’t actually care about the people in the refugee center.
Probably prepare to pull guard duty on the outside. If I’m not getting in because of some emergency, nobody else is either. And I’d be on hand should I be needed inside.
All with consideration of our host’s points above.
They’re my kids, and I’m not leaving without them. Though I will help as needed.
In practical terms, it doesn’t matter. As I said, the trick is to stay the hell away from refugee centers, or any other place where large numbers of people gather. If a refugee center is run by decent people, it might be marginally better than one run by people who don’t care at all about the people they’re putatively there to serve, but not enough better to matter.
Mr. nick has had some recent concerns about the misuse of our glorious English language, which is a 7×24 thing for me, a recovering English major and fan of the late Eric Blair. So there is this:
https://www.oathkeepers.org/nyc-gender-expression-enforcement-proof-it-can-happen-here/
Resist. By Any Means. These people are not fucking around; they intend to enforce their diktats through the use of State force, with penalties and punishments.
re ethanol-polluted gas, I buy a few gallons of ethanol-free premium gas every year, for the lawnmower and snowblower. Jen and co should get some premium gas for the monthly generator starts; it’s a small quantity. If the grid goes down and they’re running the generator steadily, ordinary gas should be good enough.
In theory the volatiles evaporate off and make the gasoline less good very quickly, but in practice I haven’t noticed a problem.
That said, yes, preppers should have carb cleaner and minimal tools and knowledge to remove and clean the air filter, carb, and such.
When it comes to dealing with tyranny, one should remember this quote from C.S.Lewis:
I still think where one chooses to live is the most important factor. Michael Snyder’s book, Get Prepared Now, has an interesting ranked list of states for our purposes. There’s only one with an A grade, and a few more with B+ grades. All of the other states are B or lower, many much lower.
Idaho
Pros: awesome people live there, great potatoes, low population density, high concentration of liberty-minded individuals, low crime, Sandpoint, Coeur d’Alene, north Idaho has plenty of water compared to the rest of the interior West, beautiful scenery
Cons: cold in the winter, wildfires, short growing season, not enough jobs
Overall Rating: A
Montana
Pros: low population density, low taxes, high concentration of liberty-minded individuals, Missoula, Kalispell
Cons: extremely cold in the winter, wildfires, short growing season, not enough rain, near Yellowstone super volcano, rampant poverty, too much snow
Overall Rating: B+
North Carolina
Pros: southern hospitality, warm weather, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Cons: hurricanes, not enough jobs, multiple nuclear power plants
Overall Rating: B+
North Dakota
Pros: low crime, lots of oil-related jobs, low population density
Cons: extremely cold, short growing season, too much snow
Overall Rating: B+
Most premium gasoline contains ethanol, often a lot of it.
https://www.bellperformance.com/blog/bid/110140/Does-premium-gas-have-ethanol-in-it
Butanol (n-butanol) is actually a drop-in replacement for gasoline, albeit with much higher octane than even super-premium gasoline. I keep a culture of ABE bacteria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone%E2%80%93butanol%E2%80%93ethanol_fermentation
so I could, in theory, produce a gasoline replacement. The bacteria eat carbohydrates (starch) such as turnips, so if one doesn’t mind sacrificing food for fuel, one can produce the n-butanol. The bacteria yield acetone:butanol:ethanol at a 3:6:1 ratio, so it gives reasonable yields even if one considers the acetone and ethanol to be a waste product. The real issue is separating the mixture. Acetone and ethanol are both low-boiling relative to water, but n-butanol boils at about 117C and there’s a LOT of water in that mixture. I’m not a chemical engineer, but I know enough to know that separation would be non-trivial no matter which route one takes (fractional distillation, esterification, etc.).
An independent gas station near my house has “0% Ethanol” stickers on the premium pumps. I suppose that could be not-quite-true advertising. I have noticed the mower running better on this gas than on the cheap stuff, though that might just be the higher octane.
Oh, it doesn’t HAVE to contain ethanol, but it usually does because ethanol is a cheap octane booster.
“When it comes to dealing with tyranny, one should remember this quote from C.S.Lewis”
I agree with the late Professor Lewis, on that, and many other things. He and his contemporary literary friends watched both the communists and the Nazis rise to power in Europe, a place that they loved and were immeasurably influenced by, throughout their lives. Better to be ruled by mobsters and robber barons than the SJWs and progs, but of course much better to be ruled by no one at all. Why can’t the fuckers just leave us alone? If someone actually WANTS to be ruled and WANTS to be subservient, as the constant Toob vids from the “Walking Dead” series concerning Negan and the other clown with the Viking helmet show, then let them go on ahead and have a ball with it, but leave us to take care of our own. Personally, I’d take out Negan in about ten seconds and gladly at the cost of my own life if it meant saving everyone else from that chit.
On the gasoline thing: can we distill it (pun intended) down to the basic nuts-and-bolts here? What should a prepper do about gasoline for his/her gas tools and appliances, vehicles, etc., and how should it be stored? What tools are needed to take apart and clean out a carb?
And on the places-to-live list: it’s hard. The locations that get the higher grades are friggin’ cold in the winters and have short growing seasons and hardly any jobs. While warmer NC has hurricanes and nukes. Dunno where Vermont is on the list but again, long cold winters and shorter growing season and not enough jobs for the folks who live here. And it’s a city vs. country thing here, too; the small cities and college towns are full of Dems, progs and SJW types; the rural areas have farmers, factory workers, hunters, fishermen, and folks who are generally a lot more conservative but I’d say, libertarian-leaning. Not as “right-wing” as me, for instance. (I’m to the right of Pat Buchanan, in case anyone forgot or didn’t know.)
Drove up to the garden center this afternoon and managed to do a fifteen-minute recon; lots of stuff there, excellent selections of veggies, herbs and flowers that are normally grown in this AO. I had intended to haul back a pile of stuff, but the back and sciatica were not cooperating and I gave it a pass for now. I’ll consult with Mrs. OFD and go back up there with her and she can do the lifting and hauling.
gasoline polluted with ethanol, which is notorious for gumming up the carburetors in lawnmowers and other small gas engines
Stabil Fuel Stabilizer. I have been using that for years. Never had a problem with any small engine, even after sitting for a year. I have two mowers, a chainsaw, rotary tiller, string trimmer, and pressure washer. All have worked fine, one mower going on 15 years without an issue caused by the fuel.
know how to tear down the generator far enough to clean the gunk out of the carb
Most small engines carbs are pretty much sealed at the factory. Best you can do is access the float bowl and needle valve. The rest is not user serviceable and sealed by the factory.
I had a problem with the pressure washer recently. Had nothing to do with fuel problems but a piece of debris in the gas got lodged in the needle valve. New carb was only $25.00 including shipping.
it wouldn’t start, even with ether-based starter spray
That is probably an ignition problem, as in the spark has been taken out of the spark plug. Easy to check. Pull the spark plug, reconnect the wire, in a dark area hold the base of the plug against the cylinder head, then crank. No spark = no run. Magnetos, while being simple, do fail. It could also be the stop/run switch has shorted as all it does is short the primary side of the magneto to ground. It is also possible the plug failed. If you have a small engine that you need, such as a generator, keep a spare spark plug. Might also be advisable to keep a spare fuel filter, air filter, oil filter (if it uses one), some spare oil and a complete carburetor on had.
From the Week Just Passed Department:
http://takimag.com/article/the_week_that_perished_takimag_may_22_2016/print#axzz49L9v7wPq
Would it be a micro-aggression of me to report that during my visit today to the garden center ten miles northeast of here, I failed to notice any musloid scum, underclass elements or crimmigrants?
WRT gasoline, if you can get the no ethanol, get some. It will store better and work better in your small engines.
If you store gas, add a preservative like Sta-bil. My stored gas runs fine in my gennie, despite the year of extreme temps. It runs fine in my truck when I rotate it. I store enough to run the gennie for a week, or to double the range of my truck. I’ll store more if an actual hurricane is forecast. That’s a bunch of gasoline! 7 five gallon jugs! Mine is in a tupperware cabinet outside my garage in the little space that is always shady.
Get a small hand pump. It’s much easier and safer to refuel with the pump and hose than to balance 5 gallons of gas with a short spout above a tiny fill hole. Remember that you may not be able to do the refueling due to absence or infirmity.
Figure out what you need to refuel your vehicle. I can almost guarantee that you will not be able to fill it from the 5 gallon jug without risky contortions and a lot of spilling. I got a long flexible necked funnel, and a bungie cord to hold it in place on my truck. That way, I set up the funnel, and have both hands to pour the gas. Even better is to use the pump!
Stock the 2 stroke oil you need for your chainsaw, outboard, etc so you can mix up the gas as needed. OR store the pre-mix in cans. If you premix, be sure the jug is marked!
In addition, you will want several cans of carb cleaner spray, starting fluid, and an additive like Seafoam.
Small hand tools are usually sufficient to open and clean a carb. If the float is damaged, you are SOL, so don’t let it get corroded by leaving gas in the carb. Look at your carb, and all the plastic panels that are in the way. You might need a torx driver to remove stuff, and a small set of nut drivers, or a 1/4″ drive socket set helps.
Lots of video online about carb maintenance. Almost any problem small engines have there is a youtube guide to fix them. It’s generally not complicated, but there are small parts to keep track of.
You also may want safety glasses whenever you are working with fuel. It burns like fire when it splashes in your eye, and will distract you when you most need to be paying attention.
I always wear exam gloves while refueling. The gas cans get pressurized by temperature change, and that fine mist will shoot everywhere when you crack the lid. The smell of gas will haunt you for days if you get it on your hands. This is doubly true in a disaster when water is precious.
One last note, stock up on safety equipment, and USE IT. What is a treatable annoyance during grid up, is a personal disaster with potentially life changing consequences grid down. For chainsawing- chaps, gloves, face shield, steel toes, hearing pro. For cutting the grass, safety glasses and hearing pro. Steel toes are a plus especially if your lot is uneven. Fueling, exam gloves and eye pro. Keep some goop, or other waterless hand cleaner with your engine stuff. Use it! Then follow with soap and water.
nick
I second Ray’s advice above. Someone once told me small engines were simple- spark, fuel, and air. That’s all you need, but you gotta have all three. Any problem comes down to one of those. Most small motors will run (poorly, but run) with a very wide range of settings. In motors that USED to run, will start and then die, look for a clogged air filter. If they don’t run, and haven’t for a while, look for a rotted gas pickup tube, or clogged carb. Old chainsaws are famous for rotten gas pickups. Old string trimmers, clogged air filters.
nick
Usually just a screwdriver and a pair of needle-nosed pliars for the disassembly.* A can of cleaner as the solvent, with a toothbrush or similar for the cleaning.** There’s a lot of variation in how the parts are attached, what you need to remove to get to them, and so on. Your best bet is to look for a video for as close as you can find to the same model, and then try it yourself.
* I think. Basically, I know how to do it well enough to get to a carb with the tools I keep in my car or on my toolbelt, but I don’t know it well enough to teach others.
** Gun-cleaning solvent and one of those little toothbrushes should work, I think. I’m not sure.
I have to clean the carb on my lawnmower every season. It’s not hard. The hardest thing is crouching down next to the mower. Get some help and get it up off the ground. Your knees will thank you.
n
Here’s something interesting:
Home Depot sells storm shelters-
http://www.homedepot.com/b/Storage-Organization-Sheds-Garages-Outdoor-Storage-Storm-Shelters/N-5yc1vZcc45
Some cool stuff right there, and surprisingly affordable.
nick
The one time in my life I was in a bug out situation due to a post tornado gas leak at my apartment complex, I chose to rent a motel room for the night. I turned down three free options. Staying with mom, staying with dad and whatever shelter the Red Cross offered. Actually I chose the motel because it was the best choice. I concluded trying to sleep around my dad’s dog would be annoying at best, that visits with mom were best kept shorter than overnight and that trying to sleep at the Red Cross shelter would probably make sleeping with my dad’s dog pleasant.
My decision to drive perpendicular to the storm’s path was good. I should have chosen a different motel though. I was disappointed with the size of the TV and the number of channels. The motel has long since gone of business.
Ethanol-free gasoline – look for stations that cater to marine motors. Motorboats tend to be more finicky, so the ethanol-free stuff sells pretty well. Around here it’s a $0.60 premium/gallon. Some think it’s worth it. (I do, but only for the gasoline I store. If I’m going to burn it in the next month, I don’t bother.)
so don’t let it get corroded by leaving gas in the carb
Carb floats for small engines are now made of plastic and will not corrode. They may leak, which can be easily fixed with some glue.
Motorboats tend to be more finicky
Older motors. Newer motors, within the last 15 years, will run just fine on 10% ethanol. Outboards tend to be more of an issue, especially two strokers. Four stroke outboards are now fuel injected as are all the newer as they are all four stroke.
Biggest problem with marine gas that is 10% ethanol is that it absorbs water. However there is specific fuel treatments for marine use that make the ethanol harmless by stopping the water absorption.
Older motors its not that ethanol will not run just fine, it’s that the alcohol will destroy the gaskets and seals.
[snip] with an HE missile strike, why is there any fire at all? [snip]
There are lots of flammable parts of an auto, starting of course with the fuel tank. Then engine oil & hydraulic fluids (which is just oil under fairly high pressure), tires, interior plastics & cloth, etc. Look at any of the IED videos available on the web for a primer.
Email from Jen. They start and run their generator for about a pint’s worth of gasoline the first of every month. They did that yesterday, three weeks late for this month, and found it wouldn’t start, even with ether-based starter spray.
When I was a power plant engineer, one of the rules of thumb that I was taught was that all black out equipment was started each week. Most were diesel, some were natural gas. We had over 100 small power plants spread across our system. Anything from old p.t. boat engines to supercharged locomotive engines to modern V-12 turbo diesels.
BTW, the landscaper who rents my office warehouse runs 15 men in five crews each day. Before they leave for the day, they drain and run all equipment dry of gasoline. That ethanol is murder on small engines.
From the Ongoing Fuel Discussion Department:
http://coldfury.com/2016/05/19/the-fuck-you-government/
From the Contemporary Fourth-Gen Warfare Department:
“HAMAS likely has 10,000+ rockets of various capabilities on hand at any given time maintaining a credible threat to the entrenched Israeli state. It would not surprise me if this method and technology made its way to America and started making life difficult for all and sundry here. Is it possible that the Palestinian counterparts to Dr. Werner Von Braun of Apollo Program fame have already been imported by the Obama resettlement programs? I would argue that how is it NOT possible that they are already here?”
http://stopshouting.blogspot.com/2016/05/hamas-rockets-and-future-of.html
Loads of interesting tech info and intel there, with many possibilities for not only musloid scum, but also enterprising and innovating counter-revolutionaries….
The recommendations I like for preparing small engines for long-term storage:
http://yarchive.net/car/rv/generator_store.html
BTW, when working on gasoline powered equipment, have a good fire extinguisher handy! My tenant, the Landscaper, confessed to me the other day that he was working on a recalcitrant weedeater in MY warehouse. The weedeater suddenly torched itself and Harrie dropped it on the concrete floor. The five hombres standing around him ran for it. So, Harrie had to walk over and grab his 10 lb fire extinguisher which he used to put the fire out. He said that quart of gasoline in the weedeater made about a three ft tall fire.
I doubt that my warehouse would burn since it is all metal, painted or galvanized metal. But, there is a two story office / kitchen / shower inside the warehouse with a HVAC system and water heater on top of it. All of that would burn quite well. BTW, my fire and liability insurance for my commercial property is $7,000/year.
when working on gasoline powered equipment, have a good fire extinguisher handy!
A point. Definitely a point. We have two fire extinguishers, but neither of them is in the basement where I have my machines. Have to think about that…
The five hombres standing around him ran for it. So, Harrie had to walk over and grab his 10 lb fire extinguisher which he used to put the fire out.
Great hombres there, real macho types…
my fire and liability insurance for my commercial property is $7,000/year.
Ouch…
Before they leave for the day, they drain and run all equipment dry of gasoline. That ethanol is murder on small engines.
I have kept 10% ethanol gasoline in systems for a year with no issues. Any engine made within the last 10 years will handle ethanol without issues. I have heard others state that running system dry of gas may cause more problems as some of the seals may dry out. In a two cycle engine doing so deprives the engine of lubrication in the final throes of running out of gas.
Take your choice. But I have never had an engine system failure because of leaving ethanol gas in the engine in over 20 years. When I am done for the season mowing I just park the mower and leave it for the winter. All I do is keep the battery on a trickle charger. I do use Sta-Bil fuel stabilizer, always.
[snip] The five hombres standing around him ran for it. So, Harrie had to walk over and grab his 10 lb fire extinguisher which he used to put the fire out. … Great hombres there, real macho types… [snip]
Anyone whose first instinct isn’t to run from a fire is not to be trusted. Even firemen, whose job description is fundamentally irrational.
I couldn’t keep gasoline in a small engine for a whole year, let alone several! Every 2 weeks before using my mower I have to put gas in it. The gas evaporates very quickly here in Houston.
I put sta-bil in all my storage gas. I keep the seafoam on hand to ‘improve’ the aging gas if there seem to be fuel issues when I use it.
for the most part it just works.
I still rotate the gas, and draw down the storage at the end of hurricane season.
nick
nick wrote:
“It’s not hard. The hardest thing is crouching down next to the mower. Get some help and get it up off the ground. Your knees will thank you.”
Too late. My knees are 20+ years past that.
@Ray,
it may work well in new engines, but my gennie is 17 years old. My chainsaw is older than that!.
There are a LOT of gas powered devices that are still in use that predate the change to E15 fuel. My truck is 13 years old and specifically says DON’T use E85, so it wasn’t designed for it.
nick
One begins to see the need for a database that collects all this information for prepper-related stuff, with regard to fuel for vehicles and tools, FLASHLIGHTS, home power/electrical systems, various other machines, firearms, the building trade stuff, etc., etc. There is just too much, and it becomes overwhelming and despair-inducing. A single book or web site won’t do the trick; we need some kind of steadily evolving online database, with categories set up, that authorized peeps can add to and edit regularly.
Case in point: a separate little grid chart just for the different fuels and stabilizers and whatnot to use in one’s vehicles and gas-powered toolz, by year, type of fuel, manufacturer, etc., etc.
We could add/embed pics and vids and build up a sort of Wikipedia project for gearhead preppers.
Otherwise, all this potentially valuable and even life-saving info and intel is scattered all over the place and I certainly can’t remember or take the time to go hunting around for it constantly; if there was ONE place to get it, that would be extremely helpful.
Another case in point: throw in a short, concise vid of how to connect a genny to a well pump or furnace, including the transfer switch. Stuff like this so at least we can get the general idea of what’s involved. Maybe a cost breakdown.
OK, a lot of this is on the Toob, but why waste time and effort searching for it, viewing something for ten minutes and then finding it isn’t relevant to you? A generic vid of hooking up a genny to a well pump, plain and simple; not thirty or forty of them with all different manufacturers and methods.
Anyway, I’m rambling incoherently here on a sunny blue skies morning while waiting for a truckload of topsoil.
My truck is 13 years old and specifically says DON’T use E85, so it wasn’t designed for it
A lot of current vehicles will not use E85. My 2014 F-150 will not use E85. E10 is fine. Even a 17 year old engine should be OK with E10. I have a 20 year old chainsaw that I use E10 gasoline. That thing may sit for a year between uses and it still starts on about the third pull.
The key I think is that the fuel has been treated. It’s not luck because I am not that lucky. When I fill the gas container first thing I do is add Sta-Bil to the fuel. Same for the boat except I use marine Sta-Bil every time I fill up. The boat is a 340HP injected V-8, same as a car. 11 years old. E10 works fine.
I’m rambling incoherently here on a sunny blue skies morning
Why is the weather relevant in this situation?
And for your viewing pleasure OFD.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/23/technology/ibm-jobs/index.html?iid=hp-toplead-dom
“Why is the weather relevant in this situation?”
Literary contrast and juxtaposition, my good man. Beauty and calm outside; turmoil and rat’s nest inside.
“And for your viewing pleasure OFD.”
Thanks so much. Yeah, that would be me: legacy loser. My gig there was 80% hands-on inside four big data centers. And incidentally, whether anyone in the outside world knows it or not, the friggin’ CLOUD sits on metal servers on racks inside data centers, not out in the asteroid belt or beyond Pluto.
More ammo for me to forget about full-time corporate IT and good riddance. My IT focus these days is on networks, security and private cloud stuff. Which may or may not be useful for the occasional mercenary IT drone projects and temp gigs, and future community capers during SHTF stuff. All moot if the Grid is down, however.
I would be very nervous about having my data on “the cloud”, for many obvious reasons.
“Colin is not a happy camper.”
Perhaps he’d like a lady friend. Or a boyfriend, if he swings that way.
Also, what about one of those treadmills they put hamsters in? 🙂
Treadmills are a favorite tool of Cesar Milan, “the Dog Whisperer.”
n
I talked to Barbara about getting a gigantic hamster wheel for Colin. The problem is that he’d expect me to do all the work while he supervised me.
Thanks so much. Yeah, that would be me: legacy loser.
I know what you mean. I am at the tail end of my career and see a lot of technologies passing me by. Since I am one month and 21 days from my last day in the office (last day on the payroll is August 1) I really don’t give a rat’s ass anymore. My attitude is basically starting to suck and I don’t much care anymore what happens in the office.
“My attitude is basically starting to suck and I don’t much care anymore what happens in the office.”
There it is. My attitude has been bad since I got the nooz today o boy, back at IBM in April of 2013. Slaved like a navvy at that place but had a good boss and liked most of the team members most of the time and it paid the bills here. So now they’ve offshored a ton of jobs and suddenly wanna bring on board an army of kidz, probably, to do cloud stuff. Whatever. I keep up with certain technologies that may prove very useful in the coming dark years, but we’ll see. Otherwise, I’m developing different revenue streams altogether.
Hat’s off to ya, bro; slide along being a short-timer for the summuh and then do what ya wanna do after that.
Pssh. I got that merit badge forever ago.
They give merit badges for that? Damn. I should have a chest full of them by now. Bad attitude began during my very first day of publik skool, down in Whitinsville, MA, circa 1958. I knew even THEN that it was effed up.
Pssh. I got that merit badge forever ago.
What? No oak leaf cluster. Wimp!
On the Wiki for prepping or any Wiki: Is it possible to generate a pdf document of the whole shebang? That would be neat.
“What? No oak leaf cluster. Wimp!”
Mine is with poison oak leaves, crossed chainsaws, and dingleberries.
“Is it possible to generate a pdf document of the whole shebang? That would be neat.”
I believe so; one would need to have the Adobe products suite installed and licensed or use a possible alternative to do it, but the length would not be a problem.
I just hate to see a whole passel of very useful notes and tips disappear and/or get scattered all over the board here when it doesn’t seem like it would be that hard to assemble a dropbox-like storage area for it all and make it a Wiki. Hell, Mr nick’s copious tips alone would be worth the effort, plus the various chapters and notes from RBT’s book, Mr. Ray on FLASHLIGHTS, and Mr. SteveF on how to murderize people.
Few if any wiki engines have a built-in way to traverse every page and produce a single file out output.
External tools such as https://github.com/hardikvasa/wikipedia-crawler exist. They’re not exactly geared for Joe User to grab a copy of the entire wiki.
I’ll moiderize ya!
Ok my brain- I hear Bugs Bunny doing that phrase, but then I’m sure it’s originally Three Stooges, but because of the Bugs Bunny, I segue to the book I’m reading with my kids, Uncle Remus Stories.
My 5 yo LOVES the stories about the ‘smart aleck rabbit.’ They both think the stories are hi-larious. I recommend reading them again, if it’s been a while since you read them. Most are short, some are about double length. They are classics for a reason.
nick
And you know “fukc the [thought] po-lice.”
Point of order: I don’t murder people. I defend myself from violent attack. There is a non-subtle legal distinction.
“I defend myself from violent attack. There is a non-subtle legal distinction.”
Indeed. Which is why I used jocular, cartoonish verbs instead of the legal ones.
And there is a chit-ton of info on the innernet covering what to do insofar as the legal ramifications in self-defense cases, whether via firearms or otherwise. Key, though, is keeping one’s mouth shut beyond the barest minimum, hooking up with a lawyer, and immediately after the event, demand an ambulance/ER treatment for oneself.
The five hombres standing around him ran for it. So, Harrie had to walk over and grab his 10 lb fire extinguisher which he used to put the fire out.
Great hombres there, real macho types…
Harrie is also licensed for wetlands remediation. So he and his guys were in three ft of water a couple of years planting bushes next to a refinery. Harrie hired several HPD cops to protect them from the alligators and snakes. Harries told the cops if an ten footer grabs him to just shoot him and not the gator.
my fire and liability insurance for my commercial property is $7,000/year.
Ouch…
Commercial everything is 5X more than residential. I did not know this going into the property.
Gotta love the ‘business personal property’ tax too.
n
“It’s a cost of doing business. If you’re not ready for the costs, you shouldn’t be in business.”
I heard that from several bureaucrats here in NY. Greasy little shits who’d probably never held a real job in their lives. Never heard that from insurance companies, but the only business dealing I had with insurance people was malpractice/liability insurance, which was annoying but not too expensive.
Malpractice/liability insurance? For someone who works with computers? How on earth would they price such a thing?
I was just wondering if I still have ‘errors and omissions’ coverage. I think I remember them dropping it the last time I renewed….
n
Malpractice/liability insurance? For someone who works with computers?
I carry malpractice and liability insurance for my photography events. Many venues demand such a policy, generally about one million dollars. Not horribly expensive. I often wonder what kind of liability I am protecting myself in regards to the venue. I guess I could turn and tap someone in the face with my camera but why is that the venue’s problem? I suppose in this litigation happy society if something happened to anyone at the venue every vendor would be getting sued including vendors that are not even present (cake, flowers, cleaning crew). Or is it just the venue passing the buck?
Yah, it’s pretty much bullshit, but it’s required for self-employed contractors on some contracts.
As for pricing, beats me. I assume that the claims against the policy are negligible, and that the annual cost is almost entirely insurance company overhead and profit.
Never heard that from insurance companies, but the only business dealing I had with insurance people was malpractice/liability insurance, which was annoying but not too expensive.
Malpractice/liability insurance? For someone who works with computers? How on earth would they price such a thing?
We used to have E & O (errors and omission) insurance for my business until the Y2K got blown out of proportion. Our E & O went from $1K/year in 1997 ??? to $250K in $1998. Needless to say, we dropped our E & O insurance.
We do carry theft / fire / liability for our business that excludes E & O. Cost is $4K/year and covers all vehicles (employee and rented) also.
re: wiki / dropbox / whatever.
Why not Evernote? Or one of the other collaboration tools? For myself, I have dropped several pages from here, as well as many others, into Evernote for later reference. After dropping them, I give appropriate tags and put in the right “folder”.
There is a collaboration feature, but given that I’m the loner type, I have not pursued. I merely note that many of the reviews of the product praised the ability to share folders & documents with teams.
And then there’s the cost – it’s not free beyond the basic version.
The big selling point for me? When my wife & I go shopping, we’ll tell the other, and the other will add to the list from wherever. Almost instant update. So I know to pick up a new block of cheese, but not to bother with the paper because she found that other case.
RE: Disaster Generator
Back when I was managing IT Server infrastructure in Europe for MCI Worldcom, we tested all data centers backup generators quarterly. Our Frankfurt Data Center had recently passed the DR test when a mains outage occurred (a digger had severed the power cables). Imagine our surprise when the backup generator for the UPS started, ran for a few moments, then quit and refused to restart. The site coordinator ran a root cause analysis, after a generator truck was brought in to supply power. It turns out that the fuel pump on the big generator, the one that pumped diesel in from the big tank under the carpark, was not connected to the internal UPS but directly to the external mains. So in all previous tests everything worked, but when the shit hit the fan, there was no fuel, thus no power. Just one of the many interesting things that occurred at our many DCs. Like the time our data center on the 7th floor of the La Defense in Paris, flooded.
I remember some of the only images actually getting out of new orleans during Katrina were from a web cam that some data center guys had pointed out the window. They were up for most of the disaster, and were first in line for diesel when help got there, because they were pulling drives and servers for people and mounting them remotely.
Don’t know what ever became of those guys, but they went above and beyond during that crisis.
nick
WRT comments disappearing, is there the ability to add tags to comments? (by the poster?) RBT could post the list of acceptable tags, commentors could tag their comments. Most comments probably wouldn’t get any tag, but ones with an infodump could….
nick
Long before I married and had any dependents, my life insurance company sent me a letter which ended with “We look forward to serving you”.
I don’t know how to do that.
And then there’s the cost – it’s not free beyond the basic version.
What about OneNote. Basically free. Runs on Windows and IOS that I know about as I use it on both. May have a version for Android.
Not everyone uses or wants to use EverNote or OneNote; I’d see those more as on-the-fly media for updating a central online repository of data. You know, like take a pic or vid of something you did with a genny or an RPG and shoot it over to a DropBox-like site, where you and anyone else (authorized) could edit it, either right away or later, on the fly, whatever. I assume droids and Kindles could do the same thing.
Our Frankfurt Data Center had recently passed the DR test when a mains outage occurred (a digger had severed the power cables). Imagine our surprise when the backup generator for the UPS started, ran for a few moments, then quit and refused to restart. The site coordinator ran a root cause analysis, after a generator truck was brought in to supply power. It turns out that the fuel pump on the big generator, the one that pumped diesel in from the big tank under the carpark, was not connected to the internal UPS but directly to the external mains. So in all previous tests everything worked, but when the s*** hit the fan, there was no fuel, thus no power.
First, we ran our black start equipment weekly for at least an hour. You would be amazed at what can continuously go wrong across a 22,000 MW electrical power system. Diesel fuel filters and water separation equipment are the absolute worst when you were going through 100 gallons/minute. And, since we were the electric company, we sold that electricity generated to our customers (put it directly on the mains).
Second, we actually would isolate our black start plants and try to start them using their onsite generators at least once a decade or so. We would actually shut transmission lines down and re-energize them off the grid using the isolated black start plant. I was a part of the Black Start Task Force when I became a senior engineer and had to go observe the tests occasionally. Usually about two hours into the test the board operator would chuck his white operations notebook out the window. Even though the plants were older, plant loads would change due to new power units, new transmission lines, new equipment in the plant, etc.
I assume droids and Kindles could do the same thing.
ass-u-me.
OFD would like ONE central place where everything persists and is organized some way, vs all the offered solutions that each person would have to maintain individually.
A wiki would do the trick but they are a bitch to maintain from what I’ve seen.
nick
“… but they are a bitch to maintain from what I’ve seen.”
I’ve never run one; now I’m just wondering if a word-processing or spreadsheet file or .pdf in a central place would be the thing. Leave it share-able and edit-able for the authorized personnel and we should be able to load text, pics and vids to it as needed.
No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.