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Category: prepping

Mon. Dec. 28, 2020 – counting them down…

Cool, damp, overcast.  That’s my best guess for the day.

Sunday was nice.  A bit on the damp side, but shirtsleeves and sunglasses weather.

So naturally I was at my secondary cutting up shipping crates and throwing out obsolete trade show booth parts.  I got there and my neighbor had a huge commercial style grill set up and was getting meat ready… For the next 4 hours my brain was marinaded in the smell of grilling meat.   Neighbor had some sort of party/family get together that involved a dozen kids, a whole lot of chicken, really loud tejano music, and a tiny bouncy house, with appropriate numbers of adults.   Looked like a parole meeting for the parents honestly.   Not a mask anywhere to be seen, not even worn badly.  It was in a space open to the outside, but it was typical hispanic get together.  They are not, in general, stand offish or ‘reserved’ when in family groups.

On my drive home I saw several other large groups having outdoor parties.

I made a bunch of space but still have a long way to go.  Forklift could fit if I had to move it today.  There is still a lot to be gone through and gotten rid of, and there is a whole bunch of shuffling around that needs to be done, but progress was made.

Progress being made is good.  Groups gathering is bad.  Yes, I’m saying that flat out.  Take the time to read Aesop’s report from the front line.  He’s ground truth/boots on the ground in Cali.  Yes, he can be an alarmist.  Yes, his language is ‘salty’ and he doesn’t suffer fools gladly.   But you can either believe he’s making the whole thing up (which doesn’t fit with the previous 6-7 years I’ve been reading him) or he’s telling the truth and it’s grim.  Not seeing it where you are?  Awesome.  Hope that continues to be true.  Remember though back a few months when all the rural and semi-rural areas were saying it was a nothing burger?  Most of those same areas are seeing plenty of cases now.  Sooner or later, it does get to where you are.  I don’t usually put pull quotes in my actual post but here are a couple…

“Nameless SoCal Hospital is full, bottom to top, wall to wall. “

“ER is holding ICU patients, now for multiple days. Entire ER is now set up for COVID isolation, which is running 75-90% of patients seen, 24/7. And those are only the ones too sick to send home. “

“Morgue overflow conex cold storage is now full of corpses. “

“We ran out of body bags day before yesterday, so until we got more, deceased patients had to stay in occupied rooms. Even with getting decedents out, new dead are piling up faster than we’re getting old ones off to coroner or mortuaries. “

“Between staff shortages and actual sick staff, we’re starting the day with 50% staffing in some units, and it’s virtually impossible to get hired guns to come in. Everyone is over this, and all they get by picking up registry work or extra shifts where they work, is more sh*t sandwich, every day, into infinity. And you can’t spend bonuses if you’re dead.

And in L.A. County, everything I just wrote? Worse. Squared.”

“We’re all dreading what happens when we get the Christmas/New Year’s Stupidity Surge, 3-5 weeks from now, but it’s definitely coming.

Things are spiffy where you are? Outstanding. Goody for you. No, really. Hope your luck holds.

Meanwhile, I’m hearing from nurses who blog in other states, e.g. Texas, that they’re getting, now, what we had here in Apr-July, and hospital manglement (not a typo. -A.) there learned nothing from what happened in NYFS, NJ, Atlanta, Nawlins, or CA, and accordingly planned for no such thing.”

Ordinary care is not available at his hospital anymore.  They are one step away from disaster triage and rationing care.

Say whatever about whatever.  Masks, Fauci, overreach, lies, models, whatever.  For SoCal at least, the disaster is HERE.  All the other stuff no longer matters.  Once the hurricane arrives, all the models, storm tracks, colored charts, mean nothing.  All that matters is getting through and then the recovery.  That’s where SoCal (LA and probably Riverside) is right now.  Everyone else is probably going to get there sooner or later.  Knowing what we know from round one, even if it happened only to ‘other people’ and not you, what are you doing to be ready when the storm gets to your area?

I hope everyone here has been using the hiatus to build up their stocks.  There is zero reason to be caught short again.  It’s time to be ready to pull back in, limit your exposure, and get ready to ride out the next wave.  Cali is leading the way- and not in a good way.  There is very little reason to think your zip code will protect you.

Avoid crowds.  And keep stacking.

 

n

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Sat. Dec. 12, 2020 – getting close to Christmas….

Cool, wet, maybe rain.

Yesterday got pretty wet late in the afternoon.  The forecast called for about .2 inches, and I’m not sure what we ended up getting, but it was cats and dogs for a while.

A couple of things conspired against me and my list.  My wife had errands to run, which I didn’t expect.  That kept me home until 2pm.  I got one pickup and one drop off done.  Didn’t get my settlement from last week’s auction, the auctioneer was having a company meeting.  I should get a check in the mail from the industrial auction some time next week.  That’s good news.

The other thing was the rain.  Pouring rain meant no Christmas decor went up.  Stuff is slipping like Fox’s ratings.

While I was waiting for my wife to get back I wasn’t UN-productive.  I cut my hair.  Went through some more stuff and put it in the auction box.   I pulled two parts and shipped them for an ebay sale.  Tested some stuff with an eye toward listing it or sending it to auction.  Tried to test an XBox360 and discovered I was missing the IEC cordset.  M$ doesn’t use a normal cord, theirs has a ‘key’ at the bottom.  I went through a box of cords and didn’t find one.  But I just need to test it so I got out a gouge and made my own key slot.  FTW!  Didn’t get a chance to use it yet.  I’m sure it will need some additional “adjusting”.

Today is the monthly meeting of my non-prepping hobby.  I think I would like to go.   I’m feeling ok, it’s probably raining so I can’t work outside, and I miss the club.  Seems dumb to have waited until the numbers are all record high to finally break down and meet but that is the state of the state.  Nothing makes sense or feels right.

Later today I need to break down and vac seal and freeze all the meat I bought this week.  Costco was out of turkeys by the time my shopper got there.  They were showing stock when I ordered.  The price was good so I guess they ‘flew’ out of the store.  Instead, I got a lamb roast for Christmas dinner.  I think I’ll cook the whole 6 pounds instead of breaking it down to halves.  Then we’ll have yummy leftovers.  Normally I’d be thinking about a ham, or maybe a ribeye roast, but my wife suggested the lamb.  Since we all love it, it was a no-brainer.  I think there are some traditions that involve lamb at Christmas, just not in our families.   Lamb is a good choice for economy- you can get very good lamb for the same price as mediocre beef, or at least we can get it here.  If we were post-apocalyptic, lamb and sheep would be front and center on the farm, just as they were throughout history.  Very useful animal, your sheep.

Protein in the freezer.  Veg in cans.  Pasta, and the stuff to make bread in buckets.  Ammo in cans.  Gubs in the safe.  That all feels pretty good, but I’m still anxious.  I checked the ammo sales, and nobody had any.  PSA had almost nothing at all in stock.  What they had was really unusual calibers, big game rifle ammo, and blanks.  Some was $5/rnd, most was over $1/rnd.  They might have had one or two boxes of bastard stepchild pistol ammo- cowboy revolvers, and .32 cal.   It’s getting short out there.

And time is getting short too.  The holidays are keeping some stuff under control.  The election stuff hasn’t played out yet, but it’s looking more like Sleepy Joe and the town bike every day.  Legitimate election or not, his policies will not be good for you and I.  That should be terrifying everyone much more than ‘Orangeman bad’.  I can only hope that he’s stymied at every turn, but based on their RINO history and never Trump activism, I bet that ‘in the interest of healing our nation’ there is a flurry of cross aisle cooperation.  If you think “it won’t be that bad, we’ll survive it like everything else”, I’d like to point out that we didn’t ‘survive’ it.  Compare today to 20 years ago, 40, 60.  Culturally and politically we are not living in the same country we were born to. *

Maybe it’s because I’ve got young kids, but I’m appalled at what we’re building for them.   That deserves a whole long post of it’s own, and I’ve got other stuff higher on my list.

Check your list.  Check your assumptions.  Check your stack.  Check your gear.  Check your friends and acquaintances.  And keep stacking.

nick

 

*for a perfect example, consider the band 2livecrew and the massive outcry and censorship of their album and song, ‘Me so horny’.  Now consider the song WAP, for which Cardi B is widely lauded.  The official video on youtube has 300 million views, the audio released first has 181 million.  Dozens of other versions have 10s of millions of views.  The song is flat out obscenity.  There is a radio edit.  It gets airplay.  I’m not linking to the vids, it’s bad enough reading the lyrics.  People think it’s FUNNY.  If you feel compelled to listen to it, watch the vid of the girl signing it.  ‘wap cardi b sign language’ None of it is SFW.  Every aspect of our culture has been degraded.  Every one of our freedoms has been limited.  And it all happened a little bit at a time.

 

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Fri. Dec. 11, 2020 – week went by so fast I missed a day…

Cool, getting warmer, breezy and sunny.  Until the rain comes.

Got some stuff done yesterday.   Not what I was hoping but that’s the story of my life at the moment.

Today I’ve got a couple of pickups about as far apart as you can get in the metro area.  Conroe to League City.  And then I have to see my client out on the northwest side of town, at 290 and 99.  Lots of driving in my day.  I could slip one of the pickups to Saturday, but I’ve got my non-prepping hobby meeting and I feel like I really want to go.  I’m feeling healthy, and I’ll mask up.  I miss the guys and the technical sessions.

I have noticed that if I’m tired from not getting enough sleep, I rarely get done even half of what I hoped to.  I’m not as young as I was I guess.  I have trouble focusing too, when I’m tired.  Good reasons to head to bed earlier.

Physical condition is an often overlooked part of prepping.  I’ve been eating less, and I’ve gradually lost about 10 pounds since March.  I hover around 200 now.  At 190 I’m too thin and my skin hangs on my face.  It would be nice and prudent to convert some of the weight to muscle mass instead of spare tire.  Nice, but I haven’t got the interest in spending much time on it.  With the cooler temps, it’s easier to work outside and inside, so I’m hoping to firm up a bit while doing some work.  Either that or it will break me…

Dinner last night was canned beans, canned corn, leftover canned carrots and frozen pork chops on the grill.  As I was opening the cans, I had a thought.  You used to see a can opener as a primary appliance in every kitchen.  Most had some sort of electric opener, some were attached to cabinets, and there were many styles and models to choose from.  It suddenly struck me that was because our parents and grandparents ate a lot of canned food.  It was the only way to get fruit and veg out of season for most people.  Two sides per dinner meant opening two cans at least.  Soup for lunch, and pie for dessert meant a couple more cans.  Jar openers were common gadgets too.  They used enough cans that it made sense to have a faster and easier way to open them right there on the countertop.  Contrast that with our diets now, with any fruit or veg available fresh in any season due to rapid and cheap shipping and handling, and the global nature of our supply chain.

Prepping and the current emergency have shifted my family’s diet back toward canned… even though we get fresh veg and fruit with every grocery order.

If the supply chain faces further disruption, if the cheap peasant labor in far away lands should suffer a population decline or political strife that shuts down commerce, if energy became much more expensive, everyone would be forced to shift toward canned food.  Which would cause shortages.  One more reason to stock up now.   And to work on your gardening skills.

So stack the stuff you’ll need in the spring for your garden, and stack more canned goods in case your garden doesn’t grow.  In fact, keep stacking all the things…

 

nick

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Thur. Dec. 9, 2020 – if I were a rich man, deedle deedle deedle diedle dum..

Cool and windy.  Getting warmer later.  Basically nice.

Wednesday was cool to start but got to 84F in the sun.  Still pretty damp, there was water in the buckets from days ago, and condensation on the concrete.

I started my day with a fresh from the tree grapefruit.  Ruby red and sweet.   Success at last!  There are about a dozen more.  There are a couple of oranges on the other tree that I’m giving a bit more time.  The lemons are ready, but I leave them in place as long as I can.  Broccoli is doing ok, and I might harvest some spears in a couple of days.

I spent a good part of the day going through ebay/auction stuff, moving it from bin to bin and getting some ready for the next auction.  They stood me up on meeting to get my check and do my dropoff so I’ll have to reschedule.  Next week I’ll have stuff in 3 of the local auctions, and it still won’t have made much of a dent.

I didn’t get much else on my list done, so that all slips into today.  If I’m away from the keyboard, I’m working my list.

Interesting thought experiment, what would 2021 look like if there are aliens here?  They have been here for a while, they haven’t dropped rocks on us, they are either in a lifeboat or have some business with us.  What might it be?  What would the confirmed announcement do to current social issues?  I bet they’d get the blame for wuflu…  What the heck would they want?  Botanicals?  Slaves?  Food?  Fuel?  Colonization has always been about resource extraction for us, or later new markets, and cheap labor.  What would prepping look like for benign aliens instead of zombies?

My suspicion is that people would lose their shirt and we’d want to stay quietly at home for a while, just like a lot of other scenarios.  Couldn’t hurt to be prepped up.

Which raises another issue.  If you didn’t have to worry about budget, beyond some reasonable amount (no buying Yard Moose Mountain) what would a serious prepper look like and be stacking?  Vs an ‘ordinary’ prepper, or a beginning prepper?  What do you start stacking when you realize that 2 weeks while waiting for FEMA and the outside aid to get there isn’t going to be enough?

What makes one serious?  Is it building a “Rebuild society” library?  Or stocking fish meds?  A suture kit?  Injectable drugs?  Having a stocked root cellar?  Livestock? A garden measured in fractions of an acre?  Bushcraft knowledge?  Foraging for food?  Hunting/fishing/trapping?  Butchering your own food?  A pantry measured in “person-years”?  More than one gun safe?  Off grid power?  Off grid property?

I consider myself pretty serious, but there are things in that list I don’t even have plans for.    Ok that’s a lie.  But there are things in that list I don’t have serious plans for 😉

Get to work.  Stack something today.  Even if it’s just knowledge.

nick

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Thur. Oct. 29, 2020 – getting so close I can taste the candy

Cold.  Damp.  Winter in Houston.

Tuesday it was high 40s most of the day, with overcast and misty drizzle.  The sun did come out briefly in the late afternoon.

I turned on the heat for the first time last night.  It was still 74F inside at 7pm, but by 11pm it had fallen to 72F.  That’s too cold for everyone here.  My hands get really stiff when it’s cold.  I know it is winter coming because the skin at the end of my thumbs and side of my first finger gets thick and starts to crack.  My dad’s fingers did the same thing.  I’ll probably have cracks for the next couple of months, most of the time.  Sealing them with superglue can help, as can packing them with AB gel overnight.

I had a fairly productive day, although mostly on a personal level.  I got some more stuff moved and organized in the garage.  Dug out some more stuff for ebay and auctions.  Tested a couple of things.  Got the basic shape cut out for my daughter’s COVID costume (she’s going as the virus, wife will be in yellow tyvek, daughter one will have her ‘I’m smart’ glasses, a lab coat, metal clipboard, and stethoscope.  I don’t dress up, but I might throw on some tyvek and my new chainsaw hardhat and face shield…

I got my candy dispenser working.  It’s a 5 foot long by one foot wide conveyor belt.  It started life as some sort of UV curing tunnel, but the UV light was missing.  It sat in my storage for years, waiting for me to use the motor and controller for something… so I’m using it as a conveyor belt.  Whodathunkit?  I need to dress it up a bit so it looks like a fantasy candy maker.  I’ve got a little tiny fog machine, some blinking lights, a plasma ball, and if I have time, I’ll do some sort of moving thing on top.  I’ll sit behind it and feed candy into it, which will then be conveyed to the kids…Fun!  I hope the rain stops before Halloween.

I’ve got a couple of other things I want to add this year too, but that will be dependent on time…

And all the normal life things don’t stop while I’m making Halloween decor…

Like disasters, fortunately not happening to me, but unfortunate for Louisiana and Mississippi.  Cat 2 hurricane, historic number of storms, 3rd in a row for New Orleans, aaannnndddd….. WAY down the page on news sites.    I miss the 3 days of breathless modeling and speculation.  Anyone here who is affected, reach out to us.

What a year when a Cat 2 hurricane barely rates a mention.

Keep stacking.  If this is normal, think about what ‘worse’ looks like.

 

nick

 

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Mon. Oct. 12, 2020 – Columbus Day.

Hot and humid.  Because why not?

Happy Columbus Day.  Without whom we might still be serfs in Europe.  And because FYTW.

The air was saturated all day Sunday, to the point that water in the driveway didn’t dry.

I worked on little things all day.  Got ready for the roofers.  Did some stuff in the house to make my wife happier.   Did a little bit of stuff in the garage.  Set another rat trap for whatever is roaming my food shelves.  There was gnawing on a bucket overnight so the visitor is still coming.  Nothing in the glue traps, so I moved them around a bit.  I’ll add more if the problem doesn’t resolve itself in a day or two.  I may add more anyway.

Spent an hour in the pool with the family.  It was a good day.

I’m starting to see stuff online that is adding to my concerns about the insurgency.  People are noticing and identifying the Command and Control structure for the socialists driving the protests and riots.  Well, not the structure, but that there is one.  Things are starting to show up in the live streams, and during the incidents that are clear indicators to people who know what to look for.   There is an organization at work.   They are training.  They are supplying.  They are escalating.  They are exploring tactics.   The latest incident is the “security guard” shooting a ‘patriot’ protester in the face and killing him.

There is evidence that the security guard/ bodyguard is more than he seems, or at least a fellow traveler.   There is some video that looks suspiciously like the event was instigated and controlled and provoked.  What happens with the guy next should be revelatory.  Spicy times are here for some people and in some places.  Don’t be there applies.

What would your life look like if your movements were constrained by real, well considered fear/concern over being physically attacked in public if you just happened to be in the wrong place?  The baying mob can make your supermarket a no-go zone.  Or your bank.  Or the mall where your kid works.  Or your block.  What if they decide your day care or private school has too much ‘privilege’ and mobs it?  Can’t happen?  There are places where the private school kids don’t wear uniforms anymore because it marks them for kidnapping.  There are places where having a sticker for your kids’ school on your vehicle can set you up for all sorts of bad things.

Do you have a company parking sticker or hang tag on your vehicle?  Does your neighborhood have parking stickers?  Do you have a school or team sticker on your car?  What about your license plate trim ring?  A school sign in your yard?  Any political slogans?  Vanity plates that are easy to remember?  How easy would it be to dox you from a picture of you or your car?  There are people on the right making note of campaign signs in people’s yards, I’m certain the left is doing so too.

I don’t want to believe that is the direction we’re headed, but I see escalation wherever I look.  We all know the end state of marxist/socialist government- people kneeling next to an open grave.  As I pointed out at dinner to my kids, it has happened within living memory and on this planet.  100 Million dead.  There are wealthy and powerful forces at work here trying it again.

Yes, resist.  No, don’t stick out.  The best partisan is the guy no one would ever suspect.  It may come to that.  I hope not, but because hope isn’t a strategy, I’ll keep working to improve my situation, and to keep stacking.

nick

 

added- note too that whenever there is an incident like this now, someone finds the pics that link X person to other protests, other gatherings.  Often it’s their own social media that provides the link.  The cops and three letter agencies are using social media as the world’s most pervasive intelligence gathering tool, even our locals mention it on the scanner.   Don’t feed the beast.  And don’t be complacent.  If your smartphone, vizio tv, or alexa can hear you talk about vacations and you start to see targeted ads, it can certainly hear political speech too.  Is anyone doing that today?  Will they be in 6 months?  6 years?  The recordings never go away.

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Sat. Oct. 3, 2020 – stuff to do, so much stuff

Cooler and sunny.

Yesterday was nice.  Even in the sun, there was a nice cooling breeze.

I picked up my auction stuff, mainly shelving.  There was a bit of other stuff including 24 rat snap traps.  I paid 50c each.  I’m stocked up on rat traps now.  Funny thing is, I originally bought rat traps to catch squirrels for dinner if SHTF big time.   Then I used them on rats.   Who knows where we’ll be in a year, but I sure hope squirrel isn’t a staple on the dinner table.

One of the other things I got was a small fire safe.  It’s a little one, about the size of a dorm fridge.  There are videos online showing how to decode and reset the combination.  The door is currently open, so it should be a simple matter to get it working again.  I’ll either resell it, or find a place for another safe.  Maybe at my secondary location, although I’ve got several ‘security containers’ there already…

Today I’m going to continue chipping away at the list.  The flood lights I was waiting to replace have died.  I’ll change them out to LED today.  There will also be some more cleaning and organizing and putting away.

I’ve got the meat to still break down and freeze too.

All after getting my covid test.  Fun times.

There were some disturbing late reports before I went to bed suggesting Trump’s health was deteriorating.  I REALLY hope not.  We do not need the added distraction and uncertainty.   The speculation that there might have been sabotage or deliberate infection is hard to consider, but I’m taking it as a sign of the state of things that it even occurs to so many people.

No matter what happens, it’ll be better if you have big stacks.

nick

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Sun. Sept. 27, 2020 – hey, growing things are growing

Nice and cool compared to just a couple weeks ago, still damp.

Saturday was really nice out.  Cool-ish except in the late afternoon sun, with a light breeze.  I did get some stuff done, but if you sleep through most of the morning, you get a whole lot less done.

I got some more cleaning and organizing done in the garage.  It was only a little bit, but still some progress.  I moved some stuff out of the house,and moved stuff around in the house to put it away, or put it in the ‘to be sold’ pile.

On most days what I did outside would just be ‘piddlefarting’ around, but some things DID get done.  I pruned the grapefruit and orange trees.  I intend to keep them about 10ft tall and 2-3ft thick to fit in the narrow bit of my yard between the house and my  neighbor’s driveway.  I also need them to be small enough I can cover them when it freezes.  The grapefruit has about 10-12 fruits, the orange 5-6.  They are starting to get ripe too.  That will be my best yield to date.  I’m hoping it gets better every year now.

Pruned a bit off the grape vines.  They are basically done for the year anyway.  Never got a single grape this year.

Moved my weather station from the north side of the house (my driveway) to the south side (neighbor’s driveway.)  That puts it in more natural air, and closer to both displays.  It’s still too close to my roof and will continue to read higher than if in shade.  I changed the batteries again, and now I can see it on the displays in my office and bedroom.

I used the Garden Weasel ™ on the bare spots in the lawn and seeded them.

I didn’t get more seed in the garden though.  That is on the agenda for today.  Root veg.  Lots of root veg.

My peas are already sprouted in the side garden!   I better get some steel mesh over them before the tasty sprouts get eaten.  I really hope that I’ll get some viable plants and a crop this year.

Spent some time cleaning the pool.

Went through some stuff I’d squirreled away.  I keep finding stuff tucked here and there.  A lot of it really needs to be sent to auction.

Won a couple of auction items.  Another really nice battery charger.  If I’ve got a forklift to keep charged, I need a good charger to leave with it.  If I end up with a lake house, I’m sure I’ll need at least a charger there.  Having good ones makes a difference.  I’ve really increased my ability to charge batteries lately.  I also won a boat battery selector switch, and some 10gauge jumper cables.  I will look at wiring my inverter into my batteries now, with the AC charger and the switch to choose charge or discharge through the inverter… or something like that.

Found 3 laptops in the trash at my secondary location.  Grabbed them.  I had a charger for one, a dell inspiron with win7 installed.  Someone shut it off during an update and now it’s boot-looping.   It’s a nice widescreen machine in good condition.  I’ll set it aside for now, but will likely get the OS fixed, or use a linux bootable to see if it will run.  There are a lot of ham related things to do with older laptops.  One was an older compaq that probably isn’t worth even booting and I didn’t have a psu handy for it, the other is a really big Toshiba gaming machine.  I might order a psu for that just to see what it’s all about.  I think it has discrete nvidia graphics, and about a 17 or 19″ HD screen.  It’s a giant with full sized keyboard.  Funny that 15 year old machines are still usable for something.

What can I say, I like older stuff that works.  It’s cheap.  I like fixing and using it.  If it lasted this long, it’ll probably last for a while longer.

“Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without!” a plan for the coming unpleasantness.  Keep stacking.

 

nick

 

Today is the two year anniversary of the death of Dave Hardy, or OFD as he was affectionately known here.  There’s not enough Moxie and pretzels in the world for what’s coming.  Miss you.   -Absent friends-

 

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Fri. Sept. 25, 2020 – month and week are almost gone by

Cool and overcast.

Thursday was both cooler and overcast.  I did some cleanup in the driveway, which mostly involved dumping out water from any place it accumulated.  I’m pretty confident that we got slightly more than 12 inches over the last few days.  Three different containers had that much water in them.

I managed to get a bunch of little things done.  Mostly cleaning and organizing, but also ordering some stuff.  I ordered the weird N size batteries for one of my night vision devices, and moved that case out of the house into the garage for storage.  I ordered the switch for the drain cleaner machine I bought.  I have to clear our main kitchen drain line twice a year.  The machine will pay for itself in one year or less.  I’m hoping the current snake is a good size to work with my pipes.  I’ll see when I use it I guess.  One less thing to call a specialist for, or make the trip to the rental yard.

I received the power switch for my new mower, just in time to cut the grass this weekend.  Hope that goes in without difficulty.

The national security situation continues to fluctuate locally.  The rioters in STL went right to shooting and firebombs this time.    That’s an escalation.  Riots in other uninvolved cities too.

I never did hear what our local disturbance was about.  The coppers did chase the guy around my neighborhood, and the FB group says “low speed chase”.     The disturbance at the neighbor’s house a couple of nights ago seems to have been a domestic.  His girlfriend was the one in the squad car, and she hasn’t been back around since.

I did a bit more research on the possible lake house, and surrounding area, looked at some historical topo maps and current maps.  There is a 2 acre lot for $24k with lake ‘view’ that also caught my eye.  There are smaller lots for $9-14K 1/4 and 1/2 acre, unimproved, in the same area.  If there are lots still around this lake, there are probably lots around others not too far away.  You might be surprised if you go looking.  Better to have somewhere definite to go, if you have to go…

Speaking of my lake house stay, I had a couple of lessons learned to share.

–the matches I’ve been carrying in a tube in my Dopp kit for the last few years didn’t light.  They weren’t damp exactly, but they weren’t dry either.  I didn’t have a lighter due to air travel restrictions.  I DID have a bunch of fire starting stuff in my wife’s car in the ‘bail out kit’.   The commercial fire lighter sticks that look like square slim jim sausages work very well, even if they are years old.  I will be adding some of the big brick of lighters to all sorts of places, including my carry on bag.

–I have been carrying one of those cheap hotel corkscrews for years.  Used it for the first time last weekend.  It was pretty flimsy, but got the job done.  Happy wife, happy life…

–I like to carry my little shortwave radio on trips to the country.  I forgot it.   I was a tiny bit disappointing.

–one of the neighbors was a ham with a big antenna setup.  They aren’t subtle, if it ever turns out to be a liability.  If I needed help, I would consider a fellow ham before random strangers.  Conversely, I’d be willing to help if approached by another ham.

–I know NOTHING useful about fishing in Texas.  I need someone to help me go through all the fishing gear I’ve accumulated and help set me up for salt and fresh water fishing.  Some lessons would be useful too.  The kids have expressed interest in fishing, and I’d like to be able to encourage that.

–Modern kayaks are inexpensive and fun.  I looked at a map once and discovered that I could get from my folk’s house south of Chicago, all the way to Peoria IL and beyond by water… probably all the way to New Orleans although I didn’t map that.

–there are pipelines everywhere.  If you know what to look for while driving you will see the markers, and the cuts through the forest.  Pipeline rights of way might be an easier and less traveled path if you ever had to walk out, or ride a dirt bike, or atv.  Look for them if you think things might get that bad.

–I had no cell service at all in the rental house, except one room upstairs.  My wife has a wifi calling app so she barely noticed.  I don’t.  It was radio silence for me.  I don’t think I’ll be ebaying the cell booster I have sitting here at the house.

–I’ve been stacking stuff for a second home for a long time.  It would be nice to actually use it.  This lockdown has proven the wisdom of having stuff, and backups to the stuff, to me and to my wife (not that I needed convincing, but she’s always been skeptical past a certain point.)

Well, that’s it for now, I’ve got auction pickups and gardening and repairs to do.  Maybe I’ll get some of it done…

Meanwhile, keep improving your position, and keep stacking.

 

nick

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Thur. Sept. 24, 2020 – Rain seems to have moved through

Warmer and humid.   Some sun.

Sun came out yesterday for a bit, depending on where in town you were.  I was by Hobby Airport and it was grey and looked like rain was imminent, while on the NW side, it was patchy clouds and sun.

I did my auction pickup, 15 lots of mold and virus remover, and a couple of personal items.  Two weeks ago, the lots were going for over $36, this week I got a bunch at $6.  Weird.  I also took some stuff to my secondary location.  If we end up with a lake house, I’ll have another location to stock and maintain.  And secure.  Sweet, more preps.

The kids had MAP testing, which is a measure of how well they are doing for the District.    They were not thrilled.   It’s an adaptive test so it gets harder and harder until you stop succeeding.  In any case the testing messes up the normal school week and the kids come out feeling dumb.

Speaking of dumb, the Brionna riots have started.  STL started off the night with cops getting shot, and the NG in the field.  The guy streaming ends his stream with “that’s tha way ya do it, if you’re gonna do it, that’s the way you do it….”

Riots/protests have broken out in other areas too.

If you aren’t making plans for how you will deal with a variety of likely scenarios, and some unlikely ones too, you are gonna find yourself behind the eight ball if and when things get sporty near you.  I think it’s pretty likely they’ll get sporty.

Today I’ve got a bunch of my normal stuff to do, tomorrow I’ll have some auction pickups.  SKS, ammo commonality, say no more…  and some household supplies.  I’m stacking as it comes to me.

And you need to be gap filling, and stacking it high.  Can’t hurt, might save your life.

nick

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