Warmer and damp. Probably.
I have a class in my non-prepping hobby today so I’ll be out of touch most of the day.
The slow suicide of western culture may be continuing, but some individuals are fighting back…
But then–
A bleedin’ NARWHAL tusk!
n
Cool and damp. probably. [76F and 98%RH]
Yesterday was a fair fall day. Comfortable in shirtsleeves, but not the kind of day that makes you want to run through piles of leaves and smoke a pipe… nice enough though.
I haven’t looked too hard at the bargains in my inbox, but I’m sure there are some. If there are things you are short on, double check pricing, then jump if you need to.
I actually hit the grocery store yesterday for a couple of items. I was not alone. Lots of stuff was on sale too, so I ended up buying a couple flats of canned goods and 10 pounds of pasta. They had a great coupon for the breakfast sausage my kids like, first I’ve seen in a year, so OF COURSE they were mostly sold out. I did get 4 packages, and 10 pounds of bacon. I’ll check again today and see if I can get more. There is room in the freezer at the moment.
Lots of leftovers waiting to get in my belly too. Yum.
n
Cool and damp. Like always. Unless it’s hot and damp. [64F and 40%RH at 10]
It’s Thanksgiving Day, in the US anyway, and I don’t have a lot to add to some very well written posts around the ‘net. I’m thankful for friends and family, for having the resources I need to live a fulfilling life and provide the foundation for the same for my kids. I’m thankful that there is still enough of the culture that made this country great left alive for my kids to learn it in their bones. I’m thankful for those who have gone before and shown us the way.
I’m thankful for your continuing support here and in real life.
And here’s to absent friends,
Thank you,
Nick
Another warm day, with plenty of moisture is a safe bet…. [after getting rain spatters through the night, it’s currently 64F and 40%RH with sunshine and wind]
And I’ll be home with the kids. Wife saw a chance to get out of the house, and earn some points at work by going in today, when the chances of working were slim. That means I’ve got the kids. And that usually means I’m trying to do stuff around the house while they watch how-to vids on youtube, or play minecraft. I know, not recommended.
For peace in the house, I need to keep plugging away at the pile. Can’t take a day off.
And the world continues on its way toward upheaval and madness. I just watched a vid from REI, where I used to be proud to be a coop member, with a (drag queen?) very queer in every sense of the word, actor scolding us for not doing enough about plastic in the ocean. Presented as a poem and very dramatic reading it felt like a parody but wasn’t. I’m not gonna link, google Patty Gonia if you want to see it. It ended with credits and a bizarre message about Hawaii and native peoples and implies much more than it said- about a whole ‘nuther bucket o crazy that must be out there.
People have truly lost their minds. They have no sense of proportion or history. They are easily swayed by emotion and dismiss fact as unimportant. We cannot continue to support a high tech society without science and fact-based reasoning. We cannot feed our current population without a high tech society and all that comes with it. Once broken, it will take a long time to get it back, if it’s even possible. What would it take for the Midwest to look like sub-Saharan africa? For Detroit to look like Lagos?
How far down the path are we already?
n
Not so cold, and of course, damp. [76F and 97%RH at 9]
I finally got out of the house yesterday to drop my shipping at the post office and do a couple of auction pickups. Lots of buying for myself (stuff from magpul and camping/fishing gear) but also a couple of resale items that should pay for all the rest and more.
Today’s pickup is just resale, and I’m going to try for a local flip using my wife’s FB trading group. I’ll let you know how that goes… Still not ready to get on FB myownself…
In completely other news, when did this happen?
and
I for one welcome our robot overlords.
And like Christmas lights and wallpaper, Jeffrey Epstein didn’t hang himself.
n
cool and damp. [64F and 99%RH at 9]
Yesterday was nicely cool during the day. I wore a sweatshirt with my shorts. Good working weather.
Kids decided they wanted to have a couple of friends over for a sleepover so I ended up making dinner, and then we had a fire in the pit. They made s’mores and I made a cherry hobo pie. Good stuff. This morning will be pancakes or waffles with sausage and maybe eggs for my wife.
I worked in the garage and driveway most of the afternoon but you couldn’t tell by looking. I actually did make progress, but there is still a long slog ahead.
In the process of digging out one corner of the garage I found some stuff I’d misplaced, so that was good. Found the item I sold on ebay, and got that ready to ship. Sometimes I’m selling items that are more than a year old. Sometimes I have a hard time finding them when they do finally sell. Fortunately I remembered where this one was and got it right out. I tend to ‘clump’ things. I may not remember exactly where an item or tool or supply is, but I know where I stack those sorts of things and that usually narrows it down.
I’ve got several pickups today, so hopefully my wife will find something to do with the kids while I’m out. And I hope it’s not throwing out my stuff…..
I better get to it.
n
Cold and damp. Of course. [40s and saturated, but sunny! so basically nice fall weather]
Watching youtube and listening to the shortwave playing music, and stayed up long past my bedtime. Gonna be a weary day today.
I did get a couple of things done yesterday, but nothing major on the list. I did get the food rotated to and from the secondary, at least for the small amount I just bought. One case baked beans, one case corn, one partial case peas, one bottle kids multivitamin, one shrink wrap bunch of canned chicken from Costco, and a bucket of rice. I didn’t bring bulk rice home. It was a one for one swap though. I’ve been buying the same stuff for years. Also took a case of Mountain House, mixed meals, and a package of starbucks instant, and one case of instant oatmeal packets. Oh, and a bottle of dishsoap.
I identified a bunch more stuff to take to auction. And a couple of things I’ll list on ebay.
Of course I bought some auction stuff too. I won a bunch of bids for supplies and parts to feed or build some things. For some reason, one of the auctions has a bunch of magpul in damaged boxes. Works for me… and you never know what’s going to come out of the drawers or safes at an estate sale. I’ll either flip it, or buy something to use it with…
And now to get back to work.
n
Cooler, and hopefully no rain. Yesterday threatened rain all day and in all the places I went. The sun finally broke through late in the day. I’m hoping for better weather today, but your guess is as good as mine. [51F and 89%RH at 9am, 61F at 11am, sunny]
Mom’s PC got here, so I have to get that sorted out and back to her, but I won’t waste any nice day on it. I’ll fight that demon after dark. No way she needs it before Tgiving anyway. (I can leave it off the network if I have it locally, and prevent any background updating. Maybe get the pagefile sorted out, as I suspect the disk is full and can’t page properly.)
As I’ve noted before, I’m seized with the feeling that time is short. So many pieces are in motion in ways that they haven’t been for decades. So I put some more cans on the shelf and bought another 50# of rice. About 40# fits in a five gallon bucket, so that’s something to consider, even if 50# is cheaper than 40. You might want to buy 2 bags of 20# if you can fit the entire contents into one bucket. It’s kinda like my feeling on #10 cans. No way we can eat a whole can before it goes bad, so I buy normal cans of food. I’d rather pay more per ounce, and use it all than get a deal on the big can but waste it. It also helps me with spoilage to only have smaller cans at risk. Something to consider for your own situation. Another example is the “bachelor” size (single serving) cans. I bought them when I was single, because I wouldn’t even eat a whole 12 – 16 oz can and the smaller cans meant less waste, even though the per ounce cost was higher. For $/oz actually eaten, they were a better deal.
One of the things I’m hoping to do today involves rotating some new cans to my secondary site, and bringing some of those 4 year old cans to the house. And taking the new bucket of rice to the secondary site. It occurs to me that while I’ve got lots of water storage there, I don’t have a potable water hose, or a sediment filter there. I should probably got that set up over there too. And maybe rotate out the fuel I have stored there too. Wouldn’t hurt to have some other ‘supplies’ there as well, but I don’t have a real secure place for them. Off-books supplies shouldn’t be stored with on-books supplies, or what’s the point? It’s always something.
Anything “sticky” in the med kits needs to be checked and replaced as needed. Some loses the sticky, some gets extra sticky. Age and heat (like a car kit) are killers for the sticky and other soft plastics. It’s been a while since I went through the kits.
In meatspace I’m signed up to learn a whole bunch more about how our school district works. Everything the district does impacts my kids directly or indirectly. And even though I think bad times are already started, and will only get worse, I also live as if the future won’t be horrible. So while I’m working on backup food, heat, water, and security, I’m also looking at where the kids will be in school in several years…. under the assumption that history shows us that things mostly stay the same (until they suddenly don’t.) The ‘suddenly don’t’ might not come in my lifetime, and I have to be prepping for that too.
So what have you guys done this week?
n
warm-ish and damp. [71F and 99%RH]
Got a couple more things done yesterday, but still not cranking through them. Today I have to fix the dishwasher… again. Someone pushed the tray back in, when something was sticking out the bottom, and broke the spinning water spray thingy. So not a wear item or a failure, but damage. No one will cop to it, which could mean the cleaning people. In any case, the part was cheap and I think it’s only 2 screws holding it in place. The food on the plates has been in the warm and moist washer for 3 days though….
Another week has blazed by. Kids and wife are home next week, so I don’t know how much I’ll get done anyway. Can’t really afford to not keep plugging away at the pile. But I’ll be doing some cooking and probably some special shopping too. Once we get through Thanksgiving, it’s downhill to the end of the year. FFS, this one only started a couple of months ago… or so it seems.
That means that today is my last free day for more than a week. I better use it.
n
Warm, damp. Rain on the way? [71F and 96%RH]
It never did rain yesterday but it threatened locally most of the day.
I got another thing ready to list which took way longer than it should have but it’s done and ready. While I was working in that part of the driveway, I finished up the paint on the window AC unit I saved from the trash a month or more ago. In the afternoon I sold an item on ebay. Funny, that I’d done a new listing, then I had a sale… My local auction finished and I’m $335 richer. Not as much as I’d hoped, but that’s a couple of pallets gone. Did some hustling and sold a couple items I picked up locally to locals, mainly one of my neighbors, and my gun store buddy.
I’m feeling very short time. And short money. Feels good to be making progress no matter how small.
So that’s the thought for the day. Incrementalism. Make it work for you.
n