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Month: March 2022

Mon. Mar. 21, 2022 – stuff to do, stuff to do, stuff to do…

Supposed to be nice in Houston today, but some possibility of rain.  The week at the BOL was very nice.  It warm in the sun, and cool at night.  Perfect for campfires and getting out on the water.  Not great for getting IN the water, but the kids managed to have a splash-fest anyway.

Between the work and the unfamiliar bed, I’m pretty sore.  Kinda late in life to be starting another project like this with a body in the condition mine is in, but sweat equity is the only way to make it work.  And hey, now I get to learn about alternative sewage disposal, and I’ll be ahead of the game when city services stop….    Or I’ll dig a slit trench.

Houses are a lot of work.  Houses in a distant location are more work.  Houses in a distant location that is also rural are a LOT more work.

So, accomplishments so far…

– provide some of own comms infrastructure.

– mop up sewer water.

– paint, and a lot of scraping.

Still to do…

-everything.

Water and food are next while working the other issues, primarily sewage and foundation.  For food, I will move some buckets of bulk up there, and some cases of cans.  Just enough to get started.   I’ll be looking for a chest freezer too.

I’ve already started thinking about rain collection.  The gutters need to be redone anyway, so why not have them dump into a collection system?   The roof is metal and smooth, relatively clean.   Sure there is a whole lake of water, but it’s 40 or more feet lower than the house and the garden.    It would be a good idea to have some potable water barrels in place too, in case the lake got contaminated with radiation or a chemical agent.  Having some water in tanks would be a good hedge against that.  They’d be closer to the house too.  And as it happens, I’ve got a couple of tanks that I have empty at the moment.  More stuff for the ‘transfer it to the BOL’ list.  Oh, and filters.  Need more filters.

The BOL will be a long term project, but there is a need to get some short term solutions in place.

Speaking of water filters, there was a BigBerkey in one of the amazon returns auctions locally.  It ended up selling for $110.   Deals and gear are out there.

Of course, I’m a week behind on every thing here that I was supposed to be doing too.  So there is that.  Like the title says, stuff to do.

 

I’m behind in the news, but I’m sure we’re not further from world conflict, economic collapse, and all the  troubles of the world.   So stack, stack, and restack.  You’ll be glad you did.

nick

 

 

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Sun. Mar. 20, 2022 – well, we knew there were issues

We probably should have met with the septic guy right away…..

Beautiful day yesterday.  Kids and wife all got out on the water. I played lawn Jarts with D2.

Much work was done.

Then we played the Lord of the Rings version of Monopoly. More fun than regular Monopoly.  The tokens are movie character minis in metal. Neat.

Today is cleanup and secure for departure.  And I’ll be back up here to meet with the septic guy as soon as he’s available.   And a foundation guy.   No surprises, but I was hoping we had some time before needing septic service.   We did get the propane filled, and system inspected.

We’ll be upgrading gas stuff as we go too.

More good neighbors.  They have a plan to isolate the development for the zombie apocalypse.  They are thinking about it and at least jokingly planning… Which is a good thing.

Keep stacking my friends.

n

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Fri. Mar. 18, 2022 – got some internet…

Weather here is variable.  Could be nice, could be a cold front later today.

I put today’s update in the comments last night.

Work progresses.

I’ll be doing a round trip to Houston today, weather permitting.

I would like to get at least some basic long term food up here asap.  Makes me nervous not having it close to hand.

 

On another front, radio reception is awesome.  Shortwave is strong and plentiful.  Ham bands were alive last night.  I can’t wait to get a radio up here and spin the dial.

Work on your own escape plan.  Stack some things.

n

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Thur. Mar. 17, 2022 – St. Patrick’s Day. Faith and begora!

Starting the day at the BOL, where we are on the edge of a storm system.  No idea two days in advance what it will look like, or if it will materialize.

For those of you on the roads today and tonight, be careful.  Lot of amateurs on the road today.

 

Time to wear out my only Irish joke–

What’s the definition of oral sex in Ireland?

– Two paddies standing on opposite street corners yelling at each other “Oy, FOCK You!”  “No, FOCK YOU!”

 

 

See?  I can bring the funny when I want to!

Stack up some good times today.

n

 

Bonus joke–

-Two irishmen walk into a bar……………… of course they do, they’re irish….

 

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Wed. Mar. 16, 2022 – get ready for amateur hour

Cool and clear again in Houston.   I’ll be headed north though.

As soon as I get all my stuff in one bag and loaded up, I’ll be headed out.  Might be a bit later as I need to pick up a toilet on the way, and they may not be available at the first crack of morning’s light….  or something.

 

I feel a couple of big posts coming up but I think I’ll just prime the pump by asking you to do this.

Start thinking about what you can and will do to supplement or replace failing systems.   For example, water only comes out of the tap sporadically and is of dubious quality.   This is the case for the Yucatan Peninsula and yet they cope…

Or power is subject to random outages.

Or emergency services are limited.

Figure out what you can do, what you need, and plan to stack it up soon.

n

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Tues. Mar. 15, 2022 – The Ides of March. Beware! If you’re Caesar.

The rest of us can probably not worry much.

Cool and wet in Houston.   Last I heard from up north a storm was rolling in at the lake…  but because of the complete lack of comms there, I’ll find out when I get back up there later today.

 

Regarding Barbara… I put up a post on her site and did an update comment late yesterday.  Long story short, her knee got infected (some MRSA variant) the knee replacement implant was removed, and she’s at a facility where they are both managing the infection and doing PT to get her strong enough to return home.  She is doing ok, better than the last time this happened, almost exactly 2 years ago.   She expects to be at home in a couple of weeks, and will probably not post until then.  If I have any news I’ll post here and at her site.

 

Regarding my adventures in BOL land… no comms.   My older cell booster couldn’t see anything.  The neighbor says his booster works ok, but only with verizon.  I’ll try my newer booster, but even if it works, someone in the family will be getting a verizon phone plan.   The neighbor is amenable to sharing his starlink service if it ever arrives, so that should ease things a great deal.

My wife spent the day painting out 70s plywood paneling.   I was messing with the antenna and booster most of the afternoon.   We got a late start, and wanted to take the first full day there a bit easy.   Kids were inflating stand up paddle boards, and kayaks.  Maybe we’ll get out on the lake today, if the weather opens up.   It was cool in the morning but got uncomfortable in the sun by afternoon.

I came home to reload the trailer and make a second run.   I also brought a bunch of scrap home to dispose of here.  No trash service up there.   I spent the evening loading up, and will load a bunch more stuff before leaving this morning.  I’ll unload and head back to Houston in the afternoon.  I have to return the trailer before 6pm.  I will probably spend tonight in Houston like last night, and head back up Wednesday morning.   I’ll load some more in the pickup, if it’s not raining.

It’s very unnerving to be completely without news up at the BOL.  No AM radio during the day, only a few FM stations, mostly church stations, and a country station.  No news breaks that I heard all morning.  I’m taking a shortwave with me today.  Funny if that works better than local.   I can also take my XM radio.   I will be putting up a tower at some point, for TV, cell, and ham radio.    We don’t have to watch or listen, but that’s a bit different than not being able to.    At some point I might try my DirecTV “camping” system.  It’s a dish on a ground supported tripod with 50ft of cable.   I’ve got plenty of DirecTV gear, but no active subscription.   It didn’t occur to me yesterday morning to try the XM in the car.  In any case, the world survived another day.  Gnu willing that will continue.

 

Busy days, lots of driving, and WWIII rumbling in the distance…  interesting times.

Stack something new today.

n

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Sun. Mar. 13, 2022 – off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of odd…

Cold again, and clear.  Got pretty chilly last night, it was 40F at 11pm and got colder.  Which is good, as I had food in coolers outside, because I don’t have room for it in the freezers or fridges.  All pre-cooked, nothing raw.

HUGE pile of stuff moving to the BOL, and it’s only the beginning and the basics.

HUGE pile of stuff still to move.    Current plan is wife takes the loaded minivan, I load tools in my pickup and pull a small trailer (5×8) that is loaded up.  I’ll either try to make another round trip, coming home Sunday night, then loading and driving with the trailer back up Monday, only to return the trailer in Houston Monday afternoon, and drive up with the loaded pickup on Tuesday, or I’ll call for an extra day and stretch that out by a day.  Either way, I’m back and forth a couple of times in the next few days.

I don’t know why anyone (**wife** **cough**) is surprised by the amount of stuff, it’s like moving a whole household (eventually).   I think in her mind it’s like going to a B&B, or a vacation rental, where all the stuff is already there.  Nope.  They did leave some stuff, but we won’t be sure what until we get there, and it’s not going to be linens and silverware.

Add the tools to do the work needed, and the beginning of some preps, and it’s a HUGE pile of stuff.

It doesn’t all have to go up this week but we are supposed to live there for that time.

No internet or cell service on site is going to make posting here problematic.

My current plan is to set up some automatic posts to get the day started.   If I can, I’ll edit those to be more relevant but they’ll at least be up.   I won’t be commenting during the day much, so play nice.  I should be able to get some internet at some point, and when I’m home between trips.  One of the first things I will be doing is trying out a couple of cell boosters and that may solve the issue.  We’ll see, I guess.

 

I’m dreading the work, but excited for the opportunity.

Y’all get your stuff stacked up!

 

nick

 

Oh yeah, since it’s been almost exactly two years, I’m dropping the wuflu tag from here on, unless the post or comments actually have something to do with wuflu.  Like maybe Justin Bieber’s young and fit wife being hospitalized with a sudden ‘brain injury’.

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Sat. Mar. 12, 2022- non-prepping hobby meeting today

COLD.  Windy last night, cold today.  40F when I went to bed with temps falling.  Hopefully clear and warming later.

Short shrift today as I was very tired and went to bed early.

I’ve got my hobby meeting today, then loading the vehicles, and then possibly heading up  to the BOL.  I say possibly because I’d like to do the driving on Sunday instead.   I might have to ‘stub out’ all the week’s posts too, in case I don’t find any internet, so that at least the door gets opened and the light’s turned on…

 

Spent yesterday doing errands to get ready for next week, and finishing up at my client’s.   Stopped at the bank to do some business too.  This time there wasn’t a line.  Needed cashier’s checks for an application with an agency.  In this day and age, no internet payment option, no credit cards accepted.    Pain in the backside.

(See, I’m living as if there will be a tomorrow, following the rules, because most often there IS a tomorrow.)

I really want somewhere outside the city to go, if I have to go, and this is all working toward that.

So stack what you can, learn what you can, and get ready for whatever comes.

nick

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