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Sun. May 2, 2021 – [singing] Do-oo-oomsday, it’s always a day a-way! [music playing]

Moderate, rainy, with periods of clear. Like yesterday.

My wife had periods of good weather at camp too, and the timing worked well with their activities. They have been having a great time. I’ve just been dodging raindrops all day.

I spent the day mostly indoors, other than getting two pickups done. Cleaning supplies, and birthday presents, bought before need. And 8 new in box zippo lighters. Genuine made in the US zippos, for <$2 each. Yeah, I had to drive to get them. Drove to get the other stuff too, though so the marginal cost was low. Our ability to make fire separates us from the animals, right? So anything that helps with that is a good thing. (Although any wick based lighter will dry out if left alone, so they are not good for a 'stock it and leave it' bag or stash- use butane for that.) One thing I had a chance to catch up on is the last couple of essays by Sarah Hoyt. I’ve linked to her before. Her mood seems to fluctuate, and she has written about battles with depression, so there is always that to consider, but she has a way with words, and as an immigrant and naturalized citizen, she’s got a different history and perspective than most people on the right side of the blogosphere. Always worth reading. Anyway, her last two are much more specific and pessimistic than usual, and even I find myself shaking my head and saying “that can’t be right”. But it might be.

Specifically she’s writing about the Biden EO that has gotten a bit of coverage on the right, and how it sets up the ‘legal’ structure to unperson, bankrupt, and starve anyone they can pin the ‘russian agent’ tag on. American Thinker wrote about it too. It’s titled “Executive Order on Blocking Property with Respect to Specified Harmful Foreign Activities of the Government of the Russian Federation “. Consider it in light of this section describing who can be determined to be at fault- “(F) activities that undermine the peace, security, political stability, or territorial integrity of the United States, its allies, or its partners;”.

Couple that with this restriction “Sec. 2. The prohibitions in section 1 of this order include:
(a) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; and
(b) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.”

That is some pretty broad language. We know rule of law is dead, so don’t expect any meaningful challenges to this EO. The penalty for helping or taking money from the unpersoned is to have the order applied to you and your FAMILY too.

Read the whole thing at the Whitehouse . gov. It’s short.

Remember that the people who hid Anne Frank and her family were breaking the law, and the person who turned her in was following it.

Prepare yourself for what will happen when people begin to be affected by this EO. And if it could apply to you, or be MADE to apply to you, prepare for that too.

You probably don’t have enough stuff stacked, or sturdy friends. I am pretty sure I don’t. Keep stacking.

nick

(It’s always a day a-way…. until it’s not. Slowly, then all at once.)

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Wed. April 21, 2021 – and here we go! not in a good way though…

Cool and pleasant ending in downright cold is the forecast, but what do they know? It was beautiful all day on Tuesday. Chamber of Commerce weather. Some of you older guys will recognize that phrase. (Means it was nice out young’uns.)

So naturally I spent the day inside. I thought, “Gee, I better get busy on finding a truck, everything I read says the price is going up and the supply is going down.” And so I resigned myself to paying a little more and figured I’d have some candidates by noon. Not so much. I actually called on 4 or 5 vehicles and they were all in the process of being sold, or had already sold. New strategy will be scan the listings every day and jump if something is right for me. Or I’ll have to pay a lot more, or accept a lot less than I would like. It’s interesting that with the Expeditions I’m looking at, they really don’t sort out consistently. Every other mass market thing I’ve looked at there seemed to be “bins” or clusters of attributes around certain prices. That isn’t so true with the Expedition, it seems that the single most important thing is mileage, and particularly total miles, not necessarily miles per year. I’m going to assume, based on the years I owned my old truck and my experiences with it, that what drives that is limited longevity of the motor. At some point it will cost you a bunch of money, so you want as many miles of use as you can get before that point. A low miles 2017 is worth more than a high miles 2019 for example. Crazy, but now I know better what to look for.

And I want something pretty soon. Things are getting bad quicker than I thought, and getting a newer reliable truck that will hold a bunch of stuff and my whole family is moving to the top of the list, right behind a place out in the country to get away to… And on that front, there is a real fixer upper priced right, on one of the lakes my wife likes, but the agent has been very lax getting back to us. That tells me it’s probably effectively sold already. What I really hope is that in a year I won’t be hating that we passed on the self-sufficient 11 acre property because we’re in real trouble. That would suck mightily.

Regarding MN and jury intimidation, well, that’s what it looks like from here. I didn’t see the evidence presented in the courtroom, but I would have thought that the official coroner’s report listing the cause of death as pretty much anything BUT the officer’s actions, would have mooted the whole murder charge, and probably the manslaughter as well. If the coroner is so incompetent or politically compromised that his report can’t be trusted, then he needs to be removed immediately. And if it can be trusted, “reasonable doubt” should have taken care of the rest. Since he’s not being removed, and since I saw witness intimidation, and jury intimidation reported widely and in fact GLEEFULLY, that’s what I’m going with. Nothing good will come of this.

Whites will not allow themselves to become second class citizens in the country their ancestors built. I don’t care how much cuckold and BBC pron you shove at them, they just aren’t gonna take it forever. The worst case for what happens is a decimation* of the black population of the US. I don’t think that’s likely btw. I’m not sure when or where the sniping and street fighting will start, or where the old monsters will come out to play, but it will happen now. It’s only a question of how widespread it becomes, and how long it lasts. How it ends, I’ve got no idea. The knock on effects- martial law, oppressive destruction of freedoms, local massacres, roundups- are going to bring the rest down too. Fundamental change, it’s coming alright.

I’m pretty sure that all over America there are people who marked the verdict as just one more step on the countdown. People who are making plans, thinking about contingencies, wondering if it’s too late, or not soon enough. Someone, if there are enough of them, someone will do the math and decide it’s time.

For us, I think it’s certainly time to consider your lifestyle, your public persona, your exposure to the wider world, and to decide how you want to proceed. On the one hand, you can pull in, go ‘grey man’, order your affairs so that you fit in, and arrange to get through the bad stuff as best you can. On the other hand, if you’ve been assuming you had freedom of speech and freedom to act, well, there are people who made a note of that, and no matter what you do, they’ll be ready to denounce you when the time is right. Whether for their own benefit, or because they truly believe they are ‘helping’ you, they’ll do it. History tells us that pretty clearly. Pulling in won’t save you. Going balls out won’t save you either. So what can you do?

On the gripping hand, maybe I’m just feeling hysterical today. Although I’m quite sure there were Germans who felt like it couldn’t get that bad. And Poles. And Russians. And Venezuelans. And Cubans. And Argentinians. And South Africans. And Frenchmen. And even Loyalists in 1776. And they were ALL WRONG at some point in history.

Stack it up.

nick

*decimation in the literal sense won’t be enough. Decimate that data set several times in a row though, and you might get to a point where no one has the will to continue.

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Thur. April 15, 2021 – normally tax day but not this year

Warm and wet. Like yesterday. Only with more wet. Yesterday was classic Houston weather, in that many areas got no rain, but some got a lot. The clouds and rain seemed to chase me from south east, through downtown, and out to the west. That’s the opposite of our normal weather pattern, but that is actually what the weatherunderground.com map showed- rain blowing in from the Gulf.

Anyway, ran errands. Checked out Habitat ReStore and what used to be called the Sears Outlet looking for scratch and dent fridges. They both had some, but not what I wanted, and for too much money. Sears had some upright freezers in stock too, which was a BIG change from 6 months ago. I did pick up a Leatherman Crunch, new in package, for $2 at Habitat. Score!

My industrial auctioneer pushed me off until Monday for my drop off. They were still too full of other stuff.

I got my payment links sorted out at ebay (they changed the way they handle money, getting in the middle of everything and requiring a linked bank account) so I can receive money from ebay again. The couldn’t make the deposit to my business account work. What a charlie foxtrot. I really dislike their new scheme. Unfortunately I have a ton of stuff that is probably best listed there for a national and international customer pool. Otherwise, I’m over their nonsense and have considered just not selling with them over this change in policy. On top of everything else on my list, I have to move the Facebook Marketplace test exploration up the priority list.

Today should be rainy so I’ll do inside stuff. Lots of that to do.

And then I need to get back to stacking, because it looks like the devolution of our society and standing in the world is accelerating. Russia and China are openly sneering at us and poking us in the chest while saying ‘what are you gonna do about it?’… The leftists in our own government have removed the mask and are pushing their destructive agenda HARD. Certain violent and ignorant sections of our society are feeling their oats and looking to seize the moment. I think there will be a backlash and atrocities that will make South African Apartied look like a kid’s birthday party. I’m quite sure there will be people who decide to proactively start addressing the crime and lawlessness, and it won’t be by marching in the street and ‘demanding’ anything. The only limiting factor will be the high cost of ammo.

And that sort of thing will be disruptive as heII. So get to stacking.

n

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Wed. Feb. 10, 2021 – another day another dollar

Cool and damp becoming cold and wet later.  Or so they say.

It was mostly overcast with localized rain in the Houston area.  I never saw more than a sprinkle or two, but I could see it coming down in the distance.

The forecasts for freezing temps continue to change daily.   I’m not going to worry for a couple of more days.  I’ll cover and heat my citrus trees if it’s going to freeze more than one day at a time.  Otherwise, I might just cover them, or might let the mature trees ride it out.   They’ve had one or two nights with a few hours below freezing already this year.  If you’re currently getting winter, I hope your preps are serving you well.   Do a quick after action report, or ‘lessons learned’ in the comments when you get a chance.

I’m home  this afternoon to pick up daughter two from school so that is going to limit my list of stuff today.  I really need to crank through some stuff around here though.  As usual.  Maybe I’ll start with my Costco order…

The political show trial looks set to continue.  What are we still missing from full on marxist socialism/communism?  We’ve got the confession/self abasement, the two minutes of hate denunciations, a show trial, self censorship and imposed censorship, a privileged group that can commit street violence, and a group to scapegoat.  Secret police?  Hit squads roaming the streets?    We’re pretty close to the first, and I hope it never gets to the second, but we certainly have people being prosecuted mainly on the basis of their political beliefs.

Not looking good for Freefor at the moment.  Still, it’s early days.   I’m afraid that if they go looking for ‘right wing domestic terrorism’ they’re gonna find it in the form of an insurgency.   And I think shooting judges and politicians can certainly be classified as ‘violence’.   That will be a problem for Freefor as they like to think of themselves as ‘the good guys’.   It will take some really ‘bad’ guys to get the ‘good’ guys over that hurdle.  Given what I’m seeing on the national stage, I think it’s a good bet that those bad guys are up to the task and eager for it.  May God have mercy on our souls.

Keep stacking, something bad is bound to happen.  And then you’ll be glad you did.

nick

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Mon. Dec. 21, 2020 – 12212020, kinda cool.

Cool and clear, maybe a chance to dry out.

Yesterday was beautiful.  Clear, sunny, blue sky.

I did get over to my secondary location and threw out a bunch of stuff.  I filled one big dumpster, and part of another.  Took three loads in the Ranger to shuttle it to the trash.  I had to cut it into 2-3 foot pieces to get it out, since I didn’t want to spend more time on the forklift.   I’m making progress.  Slow but still progress.  Of course today I’ll be paying the piper with sore muscles and scrapes that burn.  Both forearms and my shins are scraped up.  I’ll live.

Number one daughter gets her first orthodontia installed today.  Oh my.  Half way through 6th grade.   Seems early to me but I’ll let the pros make that call.  It’s come a long way since I had mine done.

I’ve got a bunch of stuff to pick up today and some to drop off.  About four more bins worth and still barely a difference… but it’s progress.  Pickups are mostly household and Christmas stuff, but there are some gub parts and accessories.   Several boxes of 3m respirator filters.  GOJO dispenser refills.  Some other stuff.

Still need to get some Christmas lights and decor up outside.   I got the ‘base layer’ up, but there is more cool stuff to do, if the weather will just hold for long enough.

There’s something wrong with the wuflu numbers coming out of Cali.  If they were at capacity last time around, and now we’re double that, but still not maxed out, someone is lying, or the reporting sucks.  Or, embrace the power of ‘and’.  Not sure, don’t care enough to dig, but I’m calling shenanigans.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe Aesop as ‘boots on the ground’ about the reality and severity of the problem, but something doesn’t add up.   As I’ve said before, I’m treating this as the disaster is HERE, so do what needs doing to deal with that reality.  No point in looking at storm tracks and models anymore, LOTS of reason to clean up the yard and fuel up the gennie, so to speak.  The pebble is in motion, the avalanche is coming, everything moving will continue to do so until they all come to rest.  I don’t see that happening for a long time.

The election and transfer of government happens next, or doesn’t.  Again, nothing I can do to affect that, so work the things I can.  The vaccine rollout and the surge are going to come crashing together for the next month or three at least.   The possible mutation in Europe and round two of the CV lockdowns will be sloshing around for at least a couple of months, possibly followed by vaccine v.2…  but in any case people are not going to stay home without a LOT of fear, more than anything to date.     That fear is going to have to be based in at least the appearance of truth, and it’s going to have to be convincing.  All this points to more extremism on every front.

If Biden is sworn in all bets are off.  SJW will be emboldened and the cries for blood will be loud.  The right will be very upset.  Whether that will translate into action is a good question.  It depends on the left and what they do.  If Biden doesn’t survive in office past March, expect it to be turned up to 11.

If Trump is sworn in some bets will pay some very long odds.   And the left will explode in rage.  That much I feel confident saying.  The right will say “come get some” and then we risk losing it all.

No matter which happens, it won’t be fun for most of us.

I’m thinking that we need to be ready to pull back, reduce our exposure, keep our heads down, but be ready for when that fails to protect us.

 

Whatever happens, having food in the fridge won’t hurt.  Ditto for lawyers, guns, and money.  And friends.  And skills.  And health.  And stacks.  Keep stacking.

 

nick

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Sat. Dec. 19, 2020 – 2021 ain’t gonna save ya

Cold and wet.  But not freezing.

Yesterday was cool all day but sunny in patches.

I got some stuff done.  Got out to my remaining client’s house and got him all back working.  Combination of failing gear, gear that got reset to initial state, and changing settings.

While there I learned that my client and his wife both got covid.  Mild and short cases, but classic symptoms.  He brought it home, likely from the hospital.  Protocols failed somewhere.  While working through the issues there with my sometimes business partner on the phone I learned that his actual business partner got it and died.  200 pounds overweight was probably the co-morbidity.    He was no longer inclined to joke about covid.  His partner was 42.   That increases the number of people in my circle, one or two degrees of separation, that had it, and it increases the number that died from it.  I’ve never had anyone I know die from flu.

Daughter’s school had a kid and staff member test positive this week.  That’s a small sample but it’s double the week before and 4x the two weeks before that.  IOW, it appears to be increasing in frequency.

The Solarwind penetrations look worse and worse.  NO way to every trust those systems again, the attackers had too much time in them.  And they were in everything important according to first reports.  Given that first reports are almost always wrong, it’s hella early to be calling for war with Russia.  Someone needs to be ‘reprisal-ed’ but we better be sure about the target.

Still two weeks to go in 2020, I’d like to get through them WITHOUT adding “hot war with Russia” to the list of unbelievable bad shirt happening.

It’s a list that includes actual honeypot physical spy stuff and assassination.

All the stuff set in motion this year will still be moving next year.

Anyone still doubt this is one of those times when everything changes?

From the masthead at WRSA–  “How will you improve the survivability of your people this weekend?”

Think about that for a while, then start working on it.  Keep stacking.

 

nick

 

(anyone else think the timing of the Solarwind revelations is just a TAD suspicious?)

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Sun. Nov. 15, 2020 – tomorrow is usually mostly like today. until it isn’t.

Warmer, damp.  Overcast.  But hopefully no rain.

Saturday was overcast and muggy all day.  I was out running around, and my wife was taking down the pool. . . she was running fans to try to dry it out but it wasn’t working.  It was MUGGY.  91%RH at 10am.  The RH did go down as the temperature went into the 80s.   I got a few light sprinkles in various parts of town.  Barely enough to use the wipers though.

I spent some time throwing stuff out at my secondary.  I’m making room for other stuff.  And I’m discovering that I saved a lot of empty boxes, just because I could.  I was using them back in the day, but haven’t in a long time.  B’bye…. can’t afford that now.

Gotta make more room for TP and paper towel stacks.

Today the plan is to head over there and put the forklift to work, attacking from the other end.  If it doesn’t rain that is.

I was reminded of Selco, and SHTFSchool.com by Peter Grant’s post at his site.  Selco is one of the legends of the preppersphere.  He’s also very no nonsense and willing to tell uncomfortable truths to people.  Read what he’s written on the blog, buy the books.   Peter’s post reminded me of how quickly things can deteriorate.  One thing I really don’t want to see in the US is fighting in the streets.  We have been seeing RIOTING in the streets.  Last night at the Million MAGA March in DC it came much closer to FIGHTING.

Real fighting- snipers, roadblocks, burning cars, raping and murder, arson (some parts of Chicago on any given weekend)- hasn’t started yet.  While the left has been running riot, the right has been standing around.  While the left has been working out tactics and support, the right has been mostly posturing.  While the left has been getting their financing in order, the right has been frozen out of crowdfunding, and doesn’t have a deep pockets patron.   I have a feeling the right is going to learn some very hard lessons when the fighting actually kicks off.

I read somewhere that no insurgency has ever  survived long without outside support.  The lefty insurgency has that in spades.  If the right is forced into becoming an insurgency, who do they have?  And what will it cost to get help?

What would victory look like?  What would defeat look like?  Neither looks as good as a week long vacation at Disneyland, but at the moment, one or the other looks more likely.

Keep stacking.

nick

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Fri. Oct. 23, 2020 – home again today

Cooler with a chance of rain.  We got some short but strong downpours yesterday.  Different parts of town had very different weather.

Spent yesterday driving around and doing some errands.  Had some auction stuff, a radio for me, some household stuff, and I needed to get my ebay item out of storage and packed up. Everything was very spread out geographically.  Very poor planning on my part.

I had to buy a special box to ship the big ebay item in.  It will eventually end up in Germany so it took a while to safely pack it.  Still, nice profit on a quick flip.  $275 on $25 investment, not counting taxes and fees on both sides.   I sold another case of disinfectant too.  Maybe my sales are picking up?  That would be nice.  The UPS guy seemed happy to see me twice in the same week.

The stuff I put in my local industrial auction went for about a dollar a lot.  It was a blowout.  I’d have been better off dumping it in the trash.  No idea why prices were so low.  They were generally low for all the items in the auction, not just mine, but mine were exceptionally low.  Yikes.  I hope he will accept my next load of stuff for consignment.

I didn’t watch the debate.  I’ll look at clips today if there was anything surprising.  I’m betting ‘not’.

FWIW, far more Trump Pense signs in my area than Biden.  Lots of signs for the Dems in lower and state offices though.  Clearly the battle is local.  Vote.  Even Bob voted in the last Presidential election, and he was pretty convinced of the futility of it.  Vote.   Especially for Sheriff and Judges.  Local.  When everything blows up, local is what’s left.

And keep stacking.

 

n

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Thur. Oct. 15, 2020 – Home with the kids today

Cooler and mostly overcast.  Or raining.

Yesterday was fairly cool, and mostly overcast, but not unpleasant.  Even in the attic doing the last walkthrough with the roofer it was cool.

Knocked off a couple of little things, and did some meatspace relationship maintenance.  Today I’m home so I’ll be working my list.  If it’s cooler, it will make everything go that much easier.

I’d also like to get some more Halloween decor out, and get some of the house cleaned up.  I’m hoping that there won’t be any rain though as I also need to get my antennas back up.

I checked my gardens, and it’s been long enough I should be seeing sprouts if I’m going to get any.  I’m not seeing any.  So I’ll be replanting with a different seed packet.  It won’t take long but it’s another little thing on the list.

Mainly though, I need to get stuff out of the house.  That’s hardest because I’m relying on other people.  I may have to take some interim steps and move stuff twice, just to get it moving.

Meanwhile, out in the bigger world, it sure looks like Biden has a problem to address.    In a normal political cycle, he’d be toast at this point.  Certainly a republican would be falling on his sword and looking to ‘take more time with family’.   In the current bizarro world, I can’t even begin to make predictions other than ‘standard program of denial’ and ‘accuse the opposition of doing what they say I did.’

Every chop at the rule of law, every political prosecution, every new act of violence and I want MOAR!!!!!!11!!! .  More food, more guns, more ammo, more friends, more skills, and most of all, more time.

Work on what you can.  Keep stacking.

nick

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Fri. Oct. 9, 2020 – week FLEW by, 20 days ’til Halloween

Dreary and warm.  Humid and overcast.

Thursday was overcast with scattered showers.  Most parts of town got at least a bit of rain.  I dodged through it mostly as I drove all over town and back.

Picked up the new desk chair to complete my daughter’s room makeover.  It’s purple mesh!!11!!111!11   It’ll match very well.

I also swung by my secondary location and did a small bit of reorganization.

All in all, didn’t get that much done this week.    Not really thrilled about the progress.  I better get something done this weekend.  Oops, probably won’t as we’ll have rain and weather.  And Monday-Tuesday I’ll have roofers messing up everything and making noise.

It was nice eating mostly out of the freezer this week, with a few canned goods.  King’s Hawaiian rolls freeze very well, fwiw.  The new temp monitors give me some peace of mind too.

The peas have sprouted and are currently growing.  None of the other seeds have sprouted yet.   I super suck at gardening.  My wife made the argument that I should just give it up as I’ve only really grown collards and carrots, and a couple of beets.  I’m going to keep at it though.  Eventually I’ll have to find stuff that grows just through blind luck, right?

The oranges and grapefruits continue to ripen.  I’m really hoping for a success there.  Unless they’re ‘woody’ they should be fine as the color is coming in, and they are a good size.  The Meyer Lemons are like weeds, they grown in spite of me.

The second house search continues.  They’re doing land office business for rural properties at the moment.  Lot’s of people planning to GOOD…

And now we’ve got Delta headed across the Gulf.  Fortunately for Texas, it is supposed to turn north, which is un-fortunate for Louisiana.  They are going to get hammered again.

Fires are burning, riots are raging, hurricanes are still coming in, and civil war 2 looks to be heating up.   About all I can say is — keep stacking.

 

n

 

 

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