Oh my, hot hot and more hot. Yesterday started at 78F with a breeze off the lake that felt nice in the shade. Eventually it got to 100F in the shade, and humidity in the high 80s. It was 84F at 11pm, so I skipped radio and dock time.
I did get a lot of progress made. The decision to start backfilling the patio area was a good one. It’s filling in, and the mounds of dirt in the yard are going away which is win-win. My productivity was dropping, so it was a good time to change things up a bit. The heat is draining, and climbing in and out of the machines is taking a toll.
I even stopped at 8pm so I could use the remaining light to figure out what broke and how to fix the washing machine drain line. I ripped it up good getting that root ball out… I’m going to call the septic guy and see if he wants to take a look. Where the pipe enters the tank is loose, and I think it should be tight. Otherwise, I’d just replace the elbows and repair the pipe myself. I’m going to have to start stocking 2″ pvc if I keep digging. What a maroon. Eh Doc?
—————————
Water. Water and prepping. You can’t have too much. Our new septic system is sized for 750 gallons A DAY. Obviously during a disaster or grid down, you won’t be using that much, but it takes far more than people think. Standard prepper lore is 1 gallon per person per day, and half for each pet. That is SURVIVAL. NOT living. Figure more like 5 gallons each to maintain some little bit of normality. You need drinking water, hygiene water, cooking water, washing up water, and if the event lasts long enough, clothes washing water…
Store lots. As much as you have room for, in different containers. Have multiple ways to treat and make water potable. Your plan should include stored drinking water, stored clean water that can be used for washing, food prep, and made into drinking water.
You should have a filter that will supply your whole family’s needs every day. You should have the means to capture and store water in a long term event. I’ve got a kiddie pool to capture rain water. But I have stored water in case the rainwater or surface water is contaminated. My rainwater capture for the garden doubles as stored “can be made drinkable” water. Counting the rain barrels I’ve got over 500 gallons stored. Over 100 gallons are supposedly ‘ready to drink’ but I usually run it through a Britta filter just for taste. If there was any issue visible or smellable, I’d filter or treat with bleach.
Water treatment plans should include everything from liquid bleach (unsented, plain bleach), Porta-aqua tablets, iodine, the ability to filter and to boil, UV sterilization (there were some neat pen style sterilizers but I never bought one) but systems designed for drinking water aren’t uncommon, and even distillers or reverse osmosis systems (like on a boat) are available.
Know the theory of building a solar still as bushcraft, survival lore, or camping, just in case. Better to practice it but I’m somewhat realistic… at least stack a roll of clear plastic, and a roll of black- they have MANY other uses too.
Water is your first need, and should be treated accordingly. Have choices, fallbacks, alternatives, and ‘just in case’.
So much to stack. So little time. If I only had one choice to make, I’d probably get two Sawyer Mini filters. Because two is one, and one is none. And five new food safe 5 gallon buckets with lids. Put paper cups and the filters in two of the buckets, keep the others to fill as needed.
Stack it up.
n
Adjunct. “Historically black” community college. San Antonio is far left within the city limits anymore. Who knows what really happened. We’ll probably never know.
The African American community in the US is not keen on having the LGBTQXYZ12345 co-opt the language of the civil rights struggle to advance the agenda. About 15 years ago in Atlanta, when … Howard (?) … University was debating tightening the dress code on campus to prohibit men wearing dresses/skirts, I was in town for something and remember seeing an older black woman on the local news commenting, “This isn’t civil rights. You can take off that dress.”
And even within the African American gay/lesbian community, Trans is viewed dimly. IIRC, the Gay Student Association of the school voted that morning to support the new dress code 100-2.
78F and sunny, with fluffy clouds. I’m going to say, same as yesterday, weatherwise.
Low back and hip are very sore today. They were sore yesterday, very sore today. I need my inversion table but it’s in Houston. I thought about bringing it up here. It would have to live out on the covered patio though. Wife would probably think that was an improvement from the library room. (used to call it the ‘toy room’ when the kids were little, seems pretentious to call it a library. Not a dining or living room in the traditional sense. Has most of our books, so ‘library’ I guess.)
Plan for the day is to continue filling in the patio. Fix the plumbing. Clean up more debris.
AFTER breakfast.
n
And coffee.
2 measured cups, filtered cold water.
⅓ cup strong dark roasted coffee, plus one tablespoon (approx)
Drip maker, paper filter.
6 teaspoon sugar or equiv.
2 oz fresh heavy whipping cream.
Enjoy in large wide mug.
n
Morning Coffee. Because the heavy equipment Operator should be awake.
Ford circling the drain?
“The planned layoffs are concentrated in the engineering ranks”
EV doesn’t make any engineering sense, so why have engineers?
Besides, the new ones are taught that 2+2 = 4 is racist and oppressive, so they’re much more flexible.
>> I did get a lot of progress made. The decision to start backfilling the patio area was a good one. It’s filling in, and the mounds of dirt in the yard are going away which is win-win.
Does all the dirt fill need to be compacted?
Tommy Boy just received a loan from the Feds equal to approximately 20% of the company’s market cap. I‘d call that a bailout, but it isn’t being spun that way.
Say, it just occurred to me that someone on this place is another year older. I won’t name names but does the number 63 have any special meaning to anyone? Happy birthday you old fart.
Speaking of farts, it is just as fun to fart going up an escalator in Germany as in an aisle of an airplane. Captive audience, forced to go through the obnoxious cloud with no clue who to blame.
It’s a bailout if it is recompense for something the company did wrong. It’s not if it is to meet a mandated thing that doesn’t exist, ie it’s a magic spell to conjure something into existence, like EVs for the masses, or battery factories, or it supports a federal mandate. My 2c. Didn’t read anything about it, so I don’t know which.
————–
I’m compacting by track rolling the fill. It doesn’t have to support anything, the deck will be on helical piers like the house. Fwiw, the biaxial geogrid REALLY supports the weight. Once I have the clay soil on top of it, and compacted, it’s like concrete. 6500 pound track loader doesn’t even dent it. I couldn’t even drive the track loader on the sand alone. The ramp I had to build to get down to the new level is solid, with two layers of geogrid, one under- between the clay and the sand, and one about six inches down from the surface that extends up and off the ramp to tie it in place.
———
had my lunch. now I better get back to it. I’m at the stage of just leveling, grading and compacting the area I excavated. Couple more hours and I should be able to move on to breaking concrete again.
n
It’s a bailout if the President is a Republican.
It’s support of an industry of strategic importance if the President is a Democrat, or if there’s no President but only a *resident.
Had to look that up. I learned something new today. Thanks for the rabbit hole!
A while ago I was asked “When will my new PC be ready?” which is a valid question. “I don’t feel like messing with it” seemed to be a good answer.
The current PC is running fine, it’s just old. The new PC is running great and Win11 has been beaten into submission. I’m just not in the mood to dig through the old PC to find and transfer stuff like e-mail and all the rest and get it working.
This is suppose to be fun, not work. So maybe tomorrow. Maybe Sunday while sipping a Bloody Mary. Or this time next week. Soon. Just not today or tomorrow.
Likewise, paul. My current main laptop is old and the battery is about shot but it’s Good Enough for writing and email and goofing around on the web. I have its replacement sitting in arms’ reach, about ⅔ set up in terms of apps, but with no documents and bookmarks and version control repository and what-not transferred over. It’ll wait until I have a bit of a breather.
… which will be in a couple-three weeks. Wife, daughter, and Spare Kid are going on a vacation for a week and a half. I’ll be working my day job, keeping the yard and house going, keeping an eye on Grandma, and taking care of the chickens. Compared to the usual interruptions, neediness, and screaming, this will be a vacation for me, too.
Hah, I didn’t talk about it but this was my vacation in the same sense. Wife and kids were on a school trip to AK to see the sights. Dog was in the kennel. That left me 12 hrs a day uninterrupted to grind on this project. Fun vacation huh?
n
Taking my 4pm break. Soda, energy bar, fresh electrolyte drink. Living the dream.
Likewise, as Paul and SteveF.
The new M2 Mini is up and running fine, but despite porting over the credentials from the old machine something is borked with Apple and I can’t publish to my iPad yet.
Not really an issue right now, so whatever…
It is supposed to be 107F by the weekend, so I have been putting in the window a/c units, awnings, and sunscreens since about Friday.
Mini splits are the future, and a better evaporative system, and a hard patio cover, but summer is here NOW.
Plus I needed enough shade that the loaner Yip of Chihuahua’s don’t die from heat stroke.
“Fort Bend County missed out on 16,000 jobs and nearly $10 billion, data shows”
https://abc13.com/texas-businesses-fort-bend-county-jobs-commissioner-andy-meyers-investment-money/13434136/
“RICHMOND, Texas (KTRK) — More than 15,000 jobs and nearly $10 billion in investment is what Fort Bend County leaders say the area has lost out on recently.”
“A look of frustration flushed Commissioner Andy Meyers’ face when a proposal to try and attract new companies stalled. During Tuesday’s Fort Bend County Commissioners Court meeting, leaders learned companies aren’t choosing the area.”
This is what happens when your county converts to dumbrocrats.
“Why we could easily see $5,000+ gold”
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/why-we-could-easily-see-5000-gold-147743/
“China is obviously a major player in global trade and one of the largest economies in the world. They’re big. They’re powerful. And at this point, they’re able to force many of their trading partners to start using yuan for trade.”
“Think about it like this: Australia currently exports around $150 billion each year to China. And right now, most of that trade takes place in US dollars… because the US dollar is STILL the world’s primary reserve currency.”
“This means that the central banks in both China and Australia have to stockpile large amounts of US dollars in order to facilitate this trade. And this is an ENORMOUS benefit for the US economy; the rest of the world is essentially forced to invest in America.”
“But what if China demands that all trade with Australia now be denominated in yuan, instead of dollars. Australia certainly wouldn’t want to alienate its biggest trading partner, so they might happily agree.”
Water. Water and prepping. You can’t have too much. Our new septic system is sized for 750 gallons A DAY.
I am not sure what my two septic systems are designed for per day. The house septic system is 500 gallons trash tank, 500 gallons separation tank, and 750 gallons finishing tank (1,750 gallons) with chlorine tablets and a four sprinkler system. I have the system set to run the sprinklers any time the finishing tank hits 500 gallons.
The office septic system is 2,500 gallons and has four tanks with two sprinklers. I am not sure what the individual tank sizes are. I also have it set to run when the finishing tank is almost full.
My neighbor just replaced his 750 gallon system with a 4,000 gallon system. I am not sure why so big but that is what he wanted.
All of these septic systems are aerobic (air pumped in the trash and separation tanks) systems with chlorination in the finishing tank.
“Thinking Smartly About Climate Change” by Bjorn Lomborg
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/thinking-smartly-about-climate-change/
“To begin to think smartly about climate change, we have to understand climate-related economics. There are costly damages associated with climate change. But there are also costly damages associated with climate policies. Too many politicians and the media focus only on the former. They are constantly telling us that we have costly climate problems, and that is true. But they don’t tell us about or report the fact that the policies we enact also have costs.”
“But there is another side of the story—the economic cost of climate policy. The policy cost of no climate policy is of course zero. But what would be the cost of reducing the temperature rise from 7.4 to 6.75 degrees Fahrenheit? Even assuming that China, India, and Africa all participate, a very big assumption, the realistic cost is about $20 trillion. To reduce it slightly more, to 5.3 degrees Fahrenheit, would cost five times that amount—about $100 trillion. And so on: with every degree reduction in temperature, the costs scale up very rapidly.”
I do not know a single person willing to pay a single penny to reduce their climate footprint. Not a single person.
“”Why Exactly Are We At War With Russia?””
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/06/why-exactly-are-we-at-war-with-russia.html
“Tucker Carlson asks that question in his latest video podcast. You can watch it here on Twitter, or read the transcript below (courtesy of Zero Hedge, to whom my grateful thanks for making it available). The transcript doesn’t read smoothly – I suspect it’s a computer-generated voice-to-text product that needs an editor’s review – but it’ll do to get the gist of what Mr. Carlson is saying.”
How long until we officially send in USA troops ?
Rumors are floating around that we have 300 to 3,000 Special Forces troops in Ukraine. The rumors are very strong that we are running the HIMARS artillery that we sent them. I don’t know if we have shipped an Iron Dome system to Ukraine yet but this article says no.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/senators-say-israel-blocking-transfer-of-us-owned-iron-dome-batteries-to-ukraine/
“Your questions answered on emergency water purification”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/06/your-questions-answered-on-emergency.html
“Following my “Oops, my bad!” article yesterday, I had a number of exchanges with readers and friends. They asked, in so many words, the following questions:
This is Peter’s view colored by growing up in South Africa, a desert, and fighting in a war in central Africa in the 1980s.
Say, it just occurred to me that someone on this place is another year older. I won’t name names but does the number 63 have any special meaning to anyone? Happy birthday you old fart.
Thanks. I feel old today. And the wife’s experience with Medicare so far is not good. I hardly wait two more years. Actually 1 year and 9 months.
The wife is taking me to go see Bryan Adams in the Sugar Land Smart Financial Center tonight. With the special guest of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
https://www.smartfinancialcentre.net/events/bryan-adams/
I bought myself a bunch of new books for my birthday. The wife noticed but did not make any snide remarks. My SBR bookshelf is full and has overflowed onto my nightstand with about 50 books on it.
US crews will have to drive the Abrams tanks if the deployment window is within the next year. My friends who drove those are way off the right end of the IQ bell curve smart.
The one guy who reverse engineered and disabled the speed governor on the tank passed his AC contractor license exam without cracking a book.
Other than today, for example, at 107F in the shade, I don’t see a problem with it being a few degrees warmer in the winter.
I’ve never noticed a cold Winter killing off the bugs. Folks say that but I’ve not seen evidence.
As for Summer being warmer, I’ll get a stock tank or something similar to use as a pool. And not wear much beyond shorts … if you’re lucky.
If they can be spouting off as “Experts”, so can I. Here goes: They don’t want the weather to be warmer because they have dewlaps of fat hanging off of the blubber around their bellies or they have tiny flaccid wee-wees hanging below their pot bellies.
I can do Science, too.
But there are plenty of people willing to spend any amount of your money to reduce your climate footprint.
Remember: Virtue signalling is best done at someone else’s expense.
Have you tried … asking?
In advance of data, I speculate that the 750 was insufficient. When he looked at replacements, the 4000 was only fractionally more expensive than the 1500.
If it does get warmer, what’s the problem with Greenland being like, green?
Have you tried … asking?
In advance of data, I speculate that the 750 was insufficient. When he looked at replacements, the 4000 was only fractionally more expensive than the 1500.
Oh yes, the 750 filled up all the time and back into the house. My question was why the 4,000 over the 1,500. The 4,000 was actually way more expensive to install even with our huge yards.
If it does get warmer so Greenland is green again, hey, look at Greek and Roman statues. Those folks didn’t wear clothes. We have proof.
Sure, a “toga” but call it what it was, a bed sheet to keep the night chill off.
Jett was in Tampa last week.
https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2023/06/21/joan-jett-baltimore-orioles-tropicana-field-amalie-arena-bryan-adams/
Hmm. Are the Orioles in Houston right now?
Writeoff!
Part two of the recent “Dune” flick will be out on the weekend of my birthday. I want to see it at Alamo with a proper pre-show.
The thing that gets me (ok, one of the things) about climate change remediation efforts is, whatever happened to the Precautionary Principle? You know, the one that commies-by-another-name invoke whenever normal people want to try something like build a hydroelectric dam. No, it’s been thrown to the wind because it gets in the way of Progress! That’s why we have hundreds of thousands of GMO mosquitoes released in Florida. Never you mind the malaria now in Florida and Texas. And it’s why we have enough wind turbines and solar farms installed to affect local climates.
Cameron (Texas) and Sarasota (Florida) Counties, the recent malaria hot spots, are poorly drained swamps.
And Cameron County is the border. Malaria would be the least of your worries of potential diseases coming across from points south.
@lynn
Happy Birthday! As it said on a card from my daughter one year:
“It appears that you are at a crossroads in you life…..older than dirt, but still above it ! ”
A couple decades ago, someone I knew got a 50th birthday card with a grumpy-looking doctor on the cover. The inside said “Why aren’t you dead yet?” Niiiice.
Lessons learned? My Medicare coverage starts in October.
We have Medicare supplemented by Humana. Has worked well for us here in WA.
I’m not an experienced user of Medicare, because I haven’t used much service, but my research told me that I needed help navigating all the choices at enrollment.
Everyone pays the Part B premiums. You have to choose to fly naked, or get an Advantage plan, or get supplemental. There’s no point going without additional coverage, since Advantage plans are cheap or free, they contain some coverages absent in other plans, and may help with deductibles. But, they’re more like HMOs, with limited networks and geographies, and if you want to travel it may become a problem if you need services away from home.
Supplements are more expensive, but they don’t limit your physician choices. They come in a bewildering array of premiums and coverages and deductibles and co-pays.
Part D drug plans are a whole ball game of their own.
That’s why I went to a broker. It doesn’t cost anything, the insurers pay their commissions , and they can walk you through all the choices so you get something right for you.
It pays to do it right the first time. Supplemental plans are required to take you the first time you apply, regardless of pre-existing conditions. If you cancel or switch, the new plan can take those conditions into account.
I have a broker in Katy I trust. I went with a Supplemental G plan from Physician’s Mutual.
They are flying a 20 foot long Ballon car around the theatre now. It is totally cool. The biggest remote controlled flying vehicle that I have ever seen.
Finished my working day, and then headed into town to refill the diesel cans. $66 for 20 gallons. $6 more than Houston. The HEB must have pretty good prices up here, there was a big semi waiting for me to finish. Couple cents a gallon makes a difference to the big boys. REALLY glad we never had to find out what $6/gallon diesel would do to the economy.
Took almost exactly an hour there and back. Picked up McD’s as it was next door to the gas station and I knew I wouldn’t want to cook. $8.31 for a QP with cheese and bacon, and a small fry. Drive thru line was long but moving well. They had HUGE TV monitors for the menu and to show you ads while you waited.
The HEB gas pumps were basically a 32″ monitor/ touch screen placed vertically. Defaulted to ads but you could choose news or the weather radar. It’s getting to be like China was 15 years ago with big screens and video running everywhere.
There is a bit of a cool breeze out in the woods, especially in the low and wet areas. And there is that spicy “green” smell in the air. I think I will take the time to sit on the dock tonight, as I’ll be in Houston tomorrow night and then everyone will be up here.
—
I mentioned the size of my septic as a metric for how much water a household can use during normal times. Don’t remember what the actual tanks are sized at. It’s a three tank system with an aerator, but instead of sprinklers, I have buried drip lines. That means I don’t have a chlorinator or that ongoing hassle as no one can contact the water. Of course we don’t actually use that much water, but if we had guests, and were showering twice a day, I suppose we could.
—
I haven’t had a chance to read Peter’s last few posts, but the fact he’s finally writing about prepping frequently must mean he’s getting concerned. That’s a Good Thing ™
Every prepped person is one less looking to steal my stuff.
n
Happy Birthday Mr. Lynn, many happy returns of the day!
n
Joan Jett was excellent as usual. She asked the audience if anyone had seen her keyboardist as he did not show up for the gig. She sang about four new songs from their album and three songs from the Runaways. She skipped the Light Of Day song from the movie that she and Michael J. Fox made that Bruce Springsteen wrote for her.
Bryan Adams was freaking awesome and played for over two hours. He worked on getting audience participation on every song. All of the 4,000 women were singing with him anyway. It was us 4,000 guys that he was working on. The flying balloon 1966 convertible Corvair was so cool. He has the real car and made a video of it with his 90 year old Mum.
The theatre was packed with over 8,000 people. They oversold the place and put folding chairs in the aisles. I am sure that they barred the fire Marshall from the place.
I am getting old. My son will be 40 next weekend. How do I have a 40 year kid ? I remember that time as a rush of getting home at 8 pm and back to work at 7 am, working six days a week, alternate weekends. And then all of a sudden we had a kid. It all happened so fast.
I haven’t had a chance to read Peter’s last few posts, but the fact he’s finally writing about prepping frequently must mean he’s getting concerned. That’s a Good Thing ™
I am concerned that Tucker Carlson is talking about Canned Sunshine. If some crazy guy blows up three rockets of Canned Sunshine over the USA, the USA is going to have a really bad decade. I’ve read a number of EMP books and none of them ended well.