10:21 – When I took Colin out to get the paper this morning, it was 14F (-10C). It had warmed up a bit by the time I took him out half an hour ago for his morning constitutional. As we walked down around the back of the house, he noticed something new in the back yard and pulled his way over to it, shouting, “Bob, Bob! There’s a submarine in our back yard!” Apparently, the submarine showed proper deference, so he just sniffed its rear end and then peed on it.
I did learn one interesting thing about our new propane cooktop. I just assumed that it would have a bi-metal strip that prevented gas from flowing until it heated up. That’s not the case. If we turn on a burner, gas comes out whether or not we ignite the burner. Good to know.
When I commented about it to Eric, he said that only gas appliances that have pilot lights use a bi-metal strip. The manufacturers assume that appliances that are supervised, including cooktops, don’t require such a safety mechanism. Which is complete reasonable. In this day and age, it surprises me that anyone would be completely reasonable about something like this.
Eric did mention one woman who nearly blew herself up. She’d left a burner spewing gas, and eventually noticed the foul odor of unburned gas. She called them to report the problem and as it was an emergency they sent Eric out immediately. When he arrived, the home stunk of gas. But the woman had decided to do something about the odor, so she set out and lit scented candles all over the house. Fortunately, he got there in time and aired out the house, or it might have exploded.
We’re re-watching The Irish R:M: on DVD, and just started watching the Netflix Original Medicis. I have problems with a lot of the historical series we watch because I actually know the real history. It’s sometimes painful to see the historical inaccuracies the writers introduce, usually for no good reason at all. I don’t have that problem with this series, because I remember almost nothing about 15th-century Italy.
We have kit stuff to do, including filling chemical bottles, but it’s too cold to work out in the garage. Fortunately, the previous owners insulated the garage when they built the house, but even so it gets a bit chilly out there. This morning, when it had gotten up to 16.8F on our outdoor thermometer, it was 42.3F in the garage.
That garage is the perfect place to try out one of your preps- your backup heat. kerosene heater? Ceramic electric space heater? Gotta have something….
Low of 39 last night according to the weather station log. I didn’t have time to put the stuff under cover, so that’s a good thing. I did put a row of bubble wrap over my window boxes. Wouldn’t keep non-existent heat in, but would keep the frost off, if there was frost. It was cheap and handy. I’m not looking forward to keeping frost off my garden so I’m hoping for a warmish winter.
Hit a sale yesterday that was a massive ‘collection’ of military stuff. Collection in quotes because it was really a militaria hoarder. Collections are organized and displayed. Not this stuff. The prices were nuts too. He had a bucket of those heater tablets for the little folding survival stoves, but he priced them like they were collectables. Same for the mess kits and canteens. Huge heaps of uniforms, web gear, decorations, photos, all just piled on the driveway. He seemed surprised that after 2 days he still had all the stuff. I watched several browsers leave empty handed. I didn’t see anyone buy. I found some stuff, but put almost all of it back when he priced it. Waste of time…
Gotta couple of sales today, we’ll see what’s up. Need Christmas present for the spouse too- and that can’t be a case of Mountain House 🙂
nick
“That garage is the perfect place to try out one of your preps- your backup heat. kerosene heater? Ceramic electric space heater? Gotta have something….”
Backup heat is a wood-burning stove in the basement and a pile of firewood. It’s rated at 70,000 BTU/hr, and should be enough to keep the house livable even in 0F weather. I also have a 3,000 BTU bottle-top propane heater, which we could also run from the three 20-pound propane tanks with an adapter hose I bought.
One of the items that’s on my to-buy list (although far down) is one of those adapter kits that lets you turn a 55-gallon drum into a wood stove. If TSHTF and we end up with a dozen or more people living here, I’d want to turn the garage into living space, which is why I want to get one of those Lehman’s adapter kits, a clean 55-gallon drum, and the necessary stovepipe and fittings. I already have what we need to build an ad-hoc toilet out there, along with most of what I need to provide a solar-powered shower.
As a matter of fact, I just added a 100-foot spool of 5/16″ ID food-grade PVC tubing to my supplies. Another one of those items that cause Barbara to look at me strangely when I open the shipping box. I actually ordered that to make a whole bunch of speed loaders for the three .22LR autoloader rifles I used to have before I lost them in the lake. They were all tube magazines, two Marlin Model 60s and one 1965-era Mossberg (I think) that I bought at Sears when I was 12.
I had a couple of those back in the 60’s, when I converted short lengths of steel tubing into speed loaders. Now the only thing I need to remember is that the old Mossberg loads through the butt, bullets toward the open end of the speed loader, while the Marlin Model 60s load at the muzzle, bases toward the open end of the speed loader.
The speed loaders would allow me to reload a tubular magazine .22 just about as fast as I could change magazines.
“But the woman had decided to do something about the odor, so she set out and lit scented candles all over the house.”
Yikes. Darwin Award Nominee
“Need Christmas present for the spouse too- and that can’t be a case of Mountain House.
Not if you plan on domestic tranquility for Xmas Day.
22 here this AM and will stay in the upper 20s and low 30s for the week, sort of normal for this time of year; it’s still fall, of course. Winter, three months of it, is just ahead.
Like father like daughter. Here is Simina Croitoru, a violonist, perfoming the theme from ‘Schiler’s List’. Her father is Gabriel Croitoru, one of the best violonist in Romania.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3z8PetmY1c
Amazing cursivity.
It’s a good time of year to test your gear. I tried my emergency propane gear last week.
This was three devices: a dual lamp Coleman, an old Coleman Force 5 heater, and a small Weber travel BBQ.
Results: The spark igniter worked on the lantern only, the other two required flame. I didn’t actually have matches in the kit, I’ve remedied that now. The heater lit easily, but the regulator for the BBQ required a smart rap on the bench to work.
All three use the 1lb tanks – TO DO: I need to get a refill adapter for 15lb to 1lb and/or a 15lb tank hose/adapter.
PSA: Yard sales are your friend! If you live in an apartment, condo or rental a big storage tank is probably not possible. The smaller 15lb tanks are pricey if you buy them retail – but at a yard sale you can often pick them up for $1-2 and refill/exchange for $10-15, which works out to about 1/4-1/2 retail.
Refillers will gauge the condition of a tank and refuse to refill if it looks old or abused, in my experience Walmart or Home Depot will not blink at exchanging for even the worst shape (as long as it’s intact).
“Amazing cursivity.”
Indeed. Very nice. Princess plays the Celtic fiddle here in New England and in the Maritime Provinces, but her main instrument now is the Celtic harp. She does not yet speak Romanian but I will get on her about this and see that she learns it by Christmas. You laugh? Watch and see.
I”ll get on that ‘trying out stuff’ this month, too. Mainly the FLASHLIGHTS, but we also have to get somebody in to look at the furnace for our oil heat, which is OUR backup here, the main heat source being our woodstove. And I should get up to the range a few times to make sure certain toolz are zeroed and in good working order, and time the draw-and-fire thing for certain other toolz. I gotta organize our pile of batteries more logically, too.
But my main projects this winta are the cellar storage and my attic work space. All that chit should keep me very busy until spring, which up here comes after Mud Season. The attic deal is my fun project (though very serious once it’s up and running) so I wanna get all the boring, tedious and scut work stuff outta the way first.
Doesn’t Princess already speak Latin?
Propane is commonly on boats for cooking and there are small outboard motors which run on propane.Since it is heavier than air, it can collect in bilges and basements. Current industry standards require a propane detector. We have a 5 gallon tank on our boat and another one for our grill. They will provide fuel for cooking in an emergency for a long time used with our Coleman stove. We have a wood stove for heat. One is on the boat which is tied to the house and the other is on our deck. I won’t store them inside.
It’s been slightly below freezing and we have had freezing rain here, so the docks have been covered with ice. Fortunately, we haven’t had to go anywhere.
Rick in Portland
@rick, so you’ve got a nice bug out vehicle! do you have the stores to flee if you need to?
n
We have about 40 feet of shelves which we are filling with supplies. We could be on our way in a short time if we need to and be anchored in a spot not easily reached from land in a couple of hours. Not a perfect plan, but probably better than 98% of locals.
Rick in Portland
Yep. Sounds like you’re in pretty good shape, assuming the Cascadia Fault doesn’t cut loose.
Oooh, FLASHLIGHTS.
I just ordered a pack of these for $12, $4 each.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FGZNI7U
Barbara really, really hates the 3 C-cell Feit Electric flashlights I got at Costco, so I decided to order a few of these.
Yep. Sounds like you’re in pretty good shape, assuming the Cascadia Fault doesn’t cut loose.
We’re in a floating home, so we probably won’t even feel an earthquake if we’re at home. We’re over 100 miles up river from the ocean, so there’s not a huge risk from a tsunami. Unless one of the Columbia dams fails, we should be OK.
Reports about the Cascadia subduction zone is the reason I was able to get my wife to go along with my prepping.
Rick in Portland
May it hold until our many-times great-grandchildren are dead and buried. It and the New Madrid Fault.
“Doesn’t Princess already speak Latin?”
Nobody really speaks Latin now, other than real fans of the language and academics; it’s the text that’s important. She took it briefly but lost interest; I have more than she does. But she does speak all the other Romance languages (except Romanian) and also German, Russian, Greek, Turkish and Mandarin Chinese. I’m gonna browbeat her this Xmas into learning Romanian, Magyar, Polish, Czech and Slovakian. By Saint Patrick’s Day.
“May it hold until our many-times great-grandchildren are dead and buried. It and the New Madrid Fault.”
From your lips to the FSM’s ear!
Interesting article on Israeli cyber war strategy.
https://strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20161210.aspx
“I just ordered a pack of these for $12, $4 each.”
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FGZNI7U
So any advantage to the 1 x 18650 3.7v battery vs the usual 3 x AAA batteries that can be used in these?
Our oldest (32) speaks German, French, Spanish, Hebrew and Mandarin. He has studied Norwegian, Japanese, modern Greek, Latin and Chinook. I’ve probably missed a couple. He has been mostly self supporting since he graduated from college with a degree in comparative languages. After he graduated, he decided to change fields and got a second undergraduate degree in math and then a masters in math, all on his dime. He lived at home and we didn’t charge him rent until he had income.
Three years ago he got a job teaching math in English in Beijing in a private middle and high school English immersion program. They pay him a decent salary and provide him with an apartment and most of his meals, so he has a lot of disposable income. He has paid off his student loans, travels all over the world and has substantial savings.
Son number two speaks English and some Hebrew. He’s been self supporting since he graduated from college.
Daughter (our princess) is in her second year in college. She is fluent in English and Spanish and has studied French and Hebrew. She understands that we will help with college (one degree), but, like her brothers, she is on her own after that.
I understand some French. That’s it. My wife is fluent in French and is working on Spanish.
Rick in Portland
I can get along in English if people speak slowly and distinctly.
My Latin teacher in the late Eighties had a PhD in Pure Maths, then decided to get into the classics, she started on a second PhD, don’t know if she finished it.
I probably know enough French and Latin to get my face slapped in Paris or the Vatican. I sometimes try to convince my German speaking sister that I know German by making loud throat clearing noises. I don’t think she believes me… 🙂
I speak enough French to get slapped. I can swear in French as well.
“I can get along in English if people speak slowly and distinctly.”
Ditto. Especially during phone conversations; so many peeps rattle away like that Federal Express commercial guy.
“I probably know enough French and Latin to get my face slapped in Paris or the Vatican.”
Same here.
“I sometimes try to convince my German speaking sister that I know German by making loud throat clearing noises.”
Good one. Isn’t that what those actors are doing during those phony Hitler parodies on the Toob? It’s not German, I know that much.
“I can swear in French as well.”
Well yeah, that’s among the first things we learn in foreign languages, isn’t it? I can or could swear in Vietnamese, Thai and Khmer, and can do mild swearing in French and German, not up to our English standards, though, which are Legion.
Not sure I understand why a propane stove would not have an automatic ‘spark-clicker’ that would ignite the burners when the knob is turned.
Doesn’t seem very safe to me. Inadvertent gas leakage doesn’t seem very safe to me.
For instance, that dog-pizza-gas-stove commercial for Farmer’s Insurance is based on a real-life occurence: http://creativity-online.com/work/farmers-insurance-we-know-from-experience/46955 .
(All of those series of commercials make me giggle… more are here: https://www.farmers.com/hall-of-claims/#/ )
Why someone would want to learn Romanian? Turists might, business men might,… but normal people wouldn’t..
Yep. Sounds like you’re in pretty good shape, assuming the Cascadia Fault doesn’t cut loose.
Then there’s the little matter of that volcano sitting there…
If it makes you feel better, Eugen, I never learned Romanian. Most of the languages I learned, about a dozen (though none except German fluently), were selected for their military usefulness because I might be fighting people speaking that language.
“Not sure I understand why a propane stove would not have an automatic ‘spark-clicker’ that would ignite the burners when the knob is turned”
It does, if the knob is turned one direction, but if you turn it the other way you release gas without getting the igniter going. More importantly, if there’s no power the gas flows without being lit regardless of which direction you turn the knob.
So any advantage to the 1 x 18650 3.7v battery vs the usual 3 x AAA batteries that can be used in these?
Yes, brightness. The 18650, which are lithium, will give you much more brightness at a constant level until the battery is depleted. The light drop off at the end of the battery life is quite rapid. The cells are also expensive.
The AA will give you lower light as internal resistance of the cells will limit the current available and LED’s brightness depends on current, not voltage once the trigger voltage has been reached. AA’s are readily available and are much cheaper. But AA batteries will leak over time unless you get lithium AA batteries.
But I question cheap flashlight’s ability to get rid of heat from the LED. Running the LED at full power without getting rid of the heat will destroy the LED or significantly shorten the life of the LED. Expensive lights have current limiting based on temperature and better heat sinking.
I maintain that having a couple dozen cheap lights around is good. But you should also have at least one quality light on which you can rely in just about all situations. Relative to the cost of the rest of the prep costs a high quality light is not that expensive.
Translation of what Ray said: you need lots of FLASHLIGHTS! … and batteries.
Different kind of FLASHLIGHTS: I have bulb (leftovers), LED (all new purchases are LED), and a couple of batteries with built-in solar rechargers. Emergency ones that plug into the wall and go on when the power is out. Headband ones. Clip-on-my-baseball-cap ones. Big ones and little ones.
And I have lots of batteries. Some folks here have solar-powered battery rechargers.
The Men’s Rule: We never have too many FLASHLIGHTS!
Like Rick I have a boat with propane, one that could take me anywhere in the world with a coastline. Unlike Rick it’s 100 miles away – and on the far side of the San Andreas Fault.
Flashlights? Meh. Like any boat owner in a saltwater environment I’ve bought far far too many over the years to only have corrode out. My favorites right now are Life Gear, similar to these :
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008R72VOG/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1481395559&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Life+Gear&dpPl=1&dpID=414LSpH6GvL&ref=plSrch
Unlike almost every other light, including expensive “marine” brands these just keep working. As lights only: mediocre; as reliable lights that actually *work* after sitting for six months, superb.
The Men’s Rule: We never have too many FLASHLIGHTS!
And hand tools. Hammers and screwdrivers. And razor blades for cutting stuff.
Oh, and READING GLASSES.
Hie thee to the Dollar Tree where they sell readers for $1 a pair.
Ed, those look pretty good.
I have a couple of EverReady LED flashlights that use two D cells. The grocery store had them during Halloween year before last (2014) with a $1 coupon. So, 69¢ for a flashlight. Plus a couple of D cells. Nice light. One has been in the truck, said truck is parked in the Texas sun, and as of last week, still works.
The other gets the most use. Still on the same set of cells. I have a few little flashlights that use 3 AAA cells. Meh. They don’t last long when all I do is use them to get to the car in the morning….. because bovine excrement happens. Sometimes donkey…
long time lurker – minimal poster checking in.
I would strongly recommend a stove kit that uses 2- 55 gallon drums (one on top of the other) – I lived up in North Dakota for many years and the 2 drum kit gets it done in a garage type situation. Not much more money – no more space – way more heat from your wood. That 2nd drum only heats from the flue gas but it adds a lot of capacity to the stove. Need to pay attention to the fouling though (depending on your wood) – don’t want a chimney fire.
Dumb a$$ move on my part – I am a diesel head born in Colorado, lived mostly north of there – and a mechanical engineer so should know better. However, this morning it was around 10F here in mid Wisconsin and I remembered that most of my diesel fuel was “summer” fuel. Started the 2012 VW TDI. It was happy – probably because we recently drove it on a long trip and refueled it with the winter blend. Not so much with the 99 Ford Power Stroke. It would not start and was full of wax when I pulled the filter. Need to get that running asap. I also tried to start the small Kubota with a mechanical injection diesel. It ran fine for about 2 minutes than died…
Winter caught me by surprise mostly this year. It was so nice in November that I checked out on my normal winter regime. Prepping Fail (or maybe too busy at work – yeah – that’s right)!
BTW – I had jobs today for all those vehicles today. Was not just randomly going out and seeing if they would start 🙂
I am a diesel head born in Colorado, lived mostly north of there – and a mechanical engineer so should know better. However, this morning it was around 10F here in mid Wisconsin and I remembered that most of my diesel fuel was “summer” fuel. Started the 2012 VW TDI. It was happy – probably because we recently drove it on a long trip and refueled it with the winter blend. Not so much with the 99 Ford Power Stroke. It would not start and was full of wax when I pulled the filter. Need to get that running asap. I also tried to start the small Kubota with a mechanical injection diesel. It ran fine for about 2 minutes than died…
Welcome !
I used to mix 10% unleaded gasoline with my diesel (2 gallons unleaded to 18 gallons diesel) in my 1982 diesel rabbit in winter time back in the 1980s when I lived out in west Texas. That was mechanical injection though. And I had a spare tank so I could go 1,000 miles on a fill-up.
I forgot to tell my father in law about that trick when I sold him my diesel rabbit in 1988 for $600. When it hit -4 F in Dallas in Christmas of 1989, he drove to work as normal and got stranded halfway between work and home. He said that two mile walk home was a bit nippy.
The paraffins start precipitating out of summer diesel at around 45 F. Texas used to be real bad about getting winter diesel. Not sure about these days.
For instance, that dog-pizza-gas-stove commercial for Farmer’s Insurance is based on a real-life occurence: http://creativity-online.com/work/farmers-insurance-we-know-from-experience/46955 .
(All of those series of commercials make me giggle… more are here: https://www.farmers.com/hall-of-claims/#/ )
Those Farmers commercials are muy excelente ! My favorite is the Mer-Mutts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIy_ujPBRP8
Those Farmers commercials are muy excelente
Unfortunately filing a claim will prove to be muy sucko. Claims that are not paid, items nickled and dimed to death, all kinds of questionable exclusions based on an adjusters opinion.
A former co-worker had Farmers and his house burned down. Fire investigator said it was an electrical issue. Farmers investigator said it was intentional and refused to pay. He was current on his mortgage, not behind on any bills, no financial trouble so no reason to burn down the house. Farmers reason that it was arson is that he had removed his computer from the house and taken it with him when he left to visit his friend. Never mind that the reason he took his computer was to play video games at his friend’s house.
Farmers refused to budge and this required the co-worker to take Farmers to court. Even after that Farmers refused to pay some of the items such as some of the temporary lodging. Farmer’s excuse was that temporary housing was obtained before the court order forcing Farmer’s to pay for the house and thus the homeowner did not have Farmers permission to seek temporary housing. Some items that were claimed Farmers said he did not own, such as his extensive video and audio collection, and could not prove ownership thus Farmers was not paying.
I asked my co-worker his advice after going through a fire as to what he would have done differently. His response was to use any company but Farmers. He also had some advice for getting 125% of replacement cost not depreciated cost, photos of everything in the house, etc. But he always went back to avoid Farmers like a painful fatal disease.
What is sad is that such behavior is the industry norm. Travelers was a nightmare when dealing with my last auto wreck (not my fault but other driver’s insurance company was not cooperating). My insurance company was not much better but at least the agent could be contacted face-to-face.
And why are all my comments awaiting moderation?
I’ve been looking for science stuff to do with my daughter. Actually, I’ve been looking for science stuff that I want to do, and trying to use the educational benefits for our daughter to sell it to my wife. I’ve been looking at telescopes for some time, but my daughter is still too young. Anyway, I came across the Skyline 12″ Dobsonian Telescope and came across the line not available for sale or delivery to California. Now I’m wondering why a telescope wouldn’t be California legal. Of course I want one. A six inch Dobsonian would be far more practical for our purposes, but who am I to be practical?
I have no idea why your comments (and a lot of others) are going into moderation. Have you changed your email address or anything else?
Obviously because you might mount it on a rifle and make a deadly high-caliber sniper assault rifle machine gun thingie.
Soon after 9/11, a bunch of us were out on a concrete pad in the middle of a farm up towards Pilot Mountain. There were F-16s patrolling low enough and close enough that I could visually identify the model of plane naked-eye, and it struck me that it might not be the best idea to have them notice us with our big Dobs pointing towards them. Large tubes on mounts that allowed them to swivel in altitude and azimuth. Hmmm.
Have you changed your email address or anything else?
Nope, first thing I checked. Just started a couple of days ago. I also thought maybe you tried to ban me, again.
It’s your own fault, you know, for bringing down the level of discourse.
It’s your own fault, you know, for bringing down the level of discourse.
Agreed. One too many comments about FLASHLIGHTS. I will never learn. And at this point in my life I really don’t want to. I like being a grouchy old fart.
I see your URL is broken. Perhaps that’s the problem.
“I like being a grouchy old fart.”
Ditto. It just feels…right. Somehow.
I see your URL is broken.
Perhaps. I have placed an index.html file at the root directory. I don’t use the web site to promote my photography and instead use sub directories to contain content. That way I avoid indexing of the pictures and minimize stealing of images as you have to know the directory name.
The link is now valid so we can see what happens.
Nope, still awaiting moderation. That link has actually been non-functional for years.