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Month: July 2023

Mon. July 31, 2023 – worka while you can monkey boy…

Hot. Humid. Scorching hot in the sun. Like Sunday.

At one point yesterday afternoon, the outdoor thermometer said 114F, but it was in part sun. The inside one, with the sensor in shade, said 104F. Either way it was hot. My head was in part sun after all.

I spend Sunday afternoon working on the deck, after going to Lowe’s for more plywood and screws and paint in the color the boss ™ specified.

The Lowe’s trip ended up taking almost 3 hours between driving and waiting for staff to help. My wife finished the painting by work light. Stock continues to be spotty. This Lowes had the breakers I need, including the GFCI, but not the panel box. They only had one kind of rigid foam board, and it was the cheap nasty EPS white stuff. Not as dense or durable as the stuff I used for most of the deck. It’ll work though, for what I need. The plywood and screws were a little less than Houston, so that was nice.

This whole project should be less than $1000, which is pretty good for an almost 500 sqft deck. Even if it is “temporary”. Scare quotes because I expect it to be more than a year before we do something permanent. The staircase from Habitat adds another $800. Still pretty good for a stair made from metal and wood that is 13 ft long and has about 8 ft of rise. I think it looks like a lot more money than it cost.

I’ll be doing some remaining trim and steps to the doors today. And waiting for the appliance guy.

The appliance repair guy is supposed to fix the dishwasher. We described the symptoms, and error codes, but I’ll be shocked if he has the parts with him. I hope he does, but I’ll be shocked… I’ll be doing small jobs all day to fit in as much stuff as I can before heading home.

Then it’s time to pull stuff for the auction. Which is great. I might have mentioned that I have stuff. Lots of stuff.

All in all, a good weekend’s worth of work, even in the crazy heat, and with only the half day Saturday and Sunday.

It’s not stacking, but it is needful. If you can’t work on improving your situation, you can still stack.

nick

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Sun. July 30, 2023 – Oh, my it is hot. Must be global warming. Or summer.

Hot ah, so hot. And drippy wet humid. Yesterday too. Got to 107F in the late afternoon, and I looked twice to be sure the sensor wasn’t in the sun. Dropped off pretty quickly and was down to 79F by the time I went to bed.

Got up here a bit later than I wanted to. Had to stop in town and pick up my order at Tractor Supply. They still have lots of empty spots on the shelves where they just haven’t been restocked. They are getting seasonal from corporate but not plumbing fittings.

Jumped right into my deck project, and then it got hot… kept going, eventually my friendly neighbor made me take a break. I needed it. Then finished what I could do with the materials I had. Since the design changed, I didn’t have everything I needed. Did some small things like weedwhacking with the trimmer, and cleaning up.

Today I’ll head into a nearby town and pickup what I need at Lowe’s. The online tool says they have plenty in stock. Still a 2 hour round trip… If they have the electrical stuff I need, I will just buy it there too. That will give me more stuff to do if I finish the deck project. Ha. WHEN I finish…

I didn’t bring much up with me, some instant coffee for the long term freeze dried food boxes, and some medical supplies and OTC meds. I’m adding stuff to the stacks up here as I can. My main focus remains on improvements though. Whichever you choose, stacking or improvements, get to it!

nick

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Sat. July 29, 2023 – got a late start, but hey, I’m trying…

Hot and humid, again. Still. Like yesterday, and we got a bit of rain, like yesterday. Nothing really wet though.

Did my pickups, went by my auctioneer. He wasn’t there. He was home recuperating from a quad bypass. Yikes. The upside for me is that they need inventory to fill the gap while he recovers, and I’ve got inventory. Lots of inventory. So next week I’ll finally be getting some bins out of the house and out of storage. Yay me.

Then I went to unload some stuff at my secondary location. Got a couple of things for the BOL. Went to Lowes and loaded up the truck. All this took way too long and I didn’t get done until dark. So I decided to spend the night and head up to the BOL today. Plenty to do, and I’d have preferred to start the day there, but I also didn’t want to drive at night, while tired. Been there, narrowly missed dying. More than once. So now I try to not be stupid. Well….

Anyhow, headed up today, and will probably stay through Monday. The appliance repair guy can meet me then. Or maybe the tree guy. In any case, someone will, and if not, I’ve got plenty to do.

Working to improve my situation. A change from stacking, but just as vital.

Stack something, or work to make it better.

nick

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Fri. July 28, 2023 – ‘this indecision’s buggin’ me…’

Ho ho ho, it’s hotter than Hades, and sweatier than a linebacker’s jock. And it was the same yesterday too. Even sprinkled a bit of rain, but it ‘didn’t stick’. Just enough to have me scrambling to get stuff in the back of the truck covered.

Other than that scramble, I hid indoors and did cleaning and paperwork. Found a partial tub with stuff from the ‘bins’ so I sorted that too. Doesn’t feel like I got much done.

Today will be more active, one way or another. I’ve got a couple of pickups, then I’m headed to Lowes to get what I need for the BOL. Don’t know if I’ll head up today, but that is the plan. The other thing I’m waiting for is my irrigation supplies from amazon. I’d really like to take those with me too.

Can’t decide at the moment what to do. Guess I’ll play it by ear, and hope the stars align.

I’d like to keep moving forward with improvements at the BOL. If I can’t, I’ll keep working on stuff here. I have decided to rearrange my stored food to get it into the garage, and off the shelves on the patio. I still want it near to hand, but I want it in cabinets, not just on the shelves. So I’ll be bringing two metal cabinets back from the BOL when I come back. I’ll have some rearranging to do in the garage first, but I think this will work out better. I don’t need all the food to be accessible at the same time and I need a better way to protect it from rats and rust. I’ll have to move some drawer units and some shelves on the wall, and relocate some tools and supplies, but it makes sense to have the food closer to the kitchen, and the rarely used supplies deeper in the garage. It was not on my radar at all, or my list of things to do, but since I’ve packed it all in milk crates and cleared the shelves, this would be a good time to do it. It will make my wife happier to have the stuff off the patio. And that’s important too.

Take a look at your stacks. Do they still serve you? or would a change make more sense. Is the stuff you are stacking the right stuff for your current situation? Have your tastes or needs changed? Don’t be afraid to correct or revise. It’s not wasted effort if it results in being better prepared.

Make a plan, then stack it up.

nick

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Thur. July 27, 2023 – not getting as much done as I should…

Hot, humid, hot, and yeah, humid. So it has been, so it shall be. With maybe a bit of rain depending on where in Houston you are. Probably none for me though. It got right up to the edge of 100F in the shade at my house yesterday. Well past that in the sun.

Spent the day doing paperwork and web stuff. Spent part of it doing budget comparisons for various deck surfaces for the BOL. I’m looking for a cheap, fast, temporary solution that gets me 80% of the way. I want to live with the size and shape for a while before committing to a more expensive solution. And it has to be removable for the hill stabilization. I think I’m going with rigid foam to level everything out, then housewrap to keep it dry, then 3/8″ plywood, to be painted. Even that isn’t “cheap” but it’s cheaper than anything else I can find, it’s easier, and there are fewer pieces to handle. Maybe I’ll even be able to reuse the materials in the shed when I replace it with a real deck.

That will be the next project, along with sprinklers.

Spent some time on the phone catching up with a good friend.

Spent some time going through bills and paperwork.

Today will be more of the same, bills, paperwork, and maybe a pickup or two, maybe shopping for the deck materials. Definitely housecleaning. Tons of stuff has built up over the last month or two and the house is getting crowded. Wife is getting frazzled. Not good. I’ve got to get some stuff out of the house, and some stuff put back where it belongs. The kids have pulled a bunch of stuff for resale or donation too, and that can leave the house. Ordinary stuff from an ordinary life, but needs doing.

There are stacks of food to restock too. Rats are no longer in evidence, so it’s time for stuff to go back on the shelves. And to be sorted for transfer to secondary or BOL. In any case, to be organized again, instead of just stored in milk crates.

This is not a good time to slack off, so I really need to get busy. Stack something, anything, and then stack some more.

nick

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Wed. July 26, 2023 – wow stuff got expensive…

Hot and humid and more of each. Highest I saw yesterday was 94F in the shade, but it was hotter in the sun. Since it happened away from my thermometer, I’m ignoring it. Hah. Just like the rain. I only personally saw a very light spatter of rain. I know it rained heavily in some parts of town, because I saw the puddles and I asked people. But I’m ignoring that too. I can definitively state, from my own lived experience, that yesterday was hot at 94F but cooler than it has been, and that it only rained a tiny amount. That this is wrong is of no concern. Please fully fund my climate change study grant. I’m your kind of people.

Spent most of the day filling the back of my pickup with auction items. Then I dumped most of them at my secondary location. Took the rest home. Did a bit of troubleshooting on some items that didn’t immediately work, and got some results.

Cooked a couple of several-years-old steaks for dinner. Couldn’t tell them apart, despite being frozen for 2 and 4 years respectively. And they were delicious. Served them with canned corn from 2014, frozen naan bread, and pasta from a couple years ago. Those were all normal looking and delicious too.

Spent the evening looking at prices online to find cheap decking material for my temporary deck at the BOL. That led to the post title. There isn’t anything “cheap”. Sheets of OSB, plywood, and rigid foam are all 1-1/2 to 2 times more than they were. Prices have come down from their highs of a year ago, but they are still high. Even furring strips are expensive. More redneck engineering is going to be needed…

Today I’ve got a couple more pickups, and more domestic bliss. So I’ll be busy, and yet not feel like I’m getting stuff done. And compared to some, I’m a piker. Talked to someone in my circle of acquaintances that is slowly revealing more of their preps. Their family group is about 35 people, and they’ve got a shared ranch as a BOL. With a full surgical suite set up. That was the bit he shared yesterday. His pockets are deep, and his group is committed. He has access to a wide range of stuff.

He urged me to stack salt. We talked about the novel Alas Babylon, where the little town is coping well with their end of the world situation, except for the lack of dietary salt. THAT is killing people. I took that message to heart when I read it, and stacked salt some time ago. Not sure what I have in total, but I’ve got 5 gallons (30-40 pounds) of pink himilayan salt, and at least one other bucket of normal salt, as well as boxes of canning and pickling salt. I’ve got a smaller amount of iodized salt for the table too. Salt can be used for cleaning, and for preserving food as well as for eating. We also talked briefly about my “bread kit” buckets – one bucket with flour, salt, yeast packets, and a bottle or two of oil, and storing and using fat to “pot” or preserve meat.

The discussion was a nice validation of my own preps, with a good reminder of a basic prep item for long term survival, and some more exotic thinking about things getting worse than most people might consider. There are others out there doing what we do. They are planning, and executing. You are not alone, and there are serious people who are taking it farther than you…

So stack a few things. Consider your gaps, and fill them. Know that others are too.

nick

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Tues. July 25, 2023 – time to do some pickups.

Hot and humid. Can’t get much more humid than raining, and it did rain a little bit yesterday. That’s despite my comment about being on the edge of the predicted area. Didn’t stick, and the temp went right back up. I’m guessing more of the same for today. 100F or more, 80% RH or more.

Spent most of the day on auction stuff, and digging through paper on my desk. I’ve been neglecting paperwork and mail because I’ve been out of town, and busy. I’m also going through stuff I’ve piled around the office and the house. I’ve got a lot of stuff.

So today I’m going to get more! Yeah, but some is for my upcoming sale, some is for the BOL, some for household use, and there are a couple of things for future projects. I’ll stack those. It would be great if it didn’t rain today as I’ll be driving around with a truckbed full of stuff. I got medical supplies (burn gel lidocaine dressings and trauma pad dressings, OTC meds), stuff for the dock, a backup for the propane tankless hot water heater, stuff to sell, food items, cleaning supplies, and some ham radio stuff (antennas). Even got some sprinkler parts. Everything comes through the auctions eventually.

I can’t do most of the pickups until later in the day though, so the morning will be more desk/office/house cleaning and bills. Oh joy. Maybe I’ll even do a load of laundry. Ah, domestic bliss. Well, it’s the reality of being the stay at home dad, and the reality of my life. No axe reviews or free laser cutters for me.

Plenty of stacks though!

No worries about rice. Or wheat. Bugs in my sugar so maybe I’ll pick up 20-50 pounds. India exports sugar too. As times get tough, people and countries will be taking care of home first… and there will be shortages. If you needed a reason to add some bulk food to your stacks, you have only to look to India, and the Ukraine. When the global system of trade breaks down, people will go hungry. Don’t be one of them.

Stack it up.
nick

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Mon. July 24, 2023 – back to work, back to life…

Hot. Yup. Hot and humid. Although we have a forecast that puts us on the edge of some possible storms for the next few days, that usually means we won’t get any rain. We could use some, both to break the hot streak and to water the world…
It was only 94F in the late afternoon, so I cut the grass.

You know it’s hot when 94F is a welcome respite, that allows you to get some work done outside. Of course, I lived in the Phoenix area for 4 years, and it was hot, really hot, but the humidity is lower and that makes a huge difference. When it’s 110F and the humidity rises to 30% from 3%, it’s MISERABLE. We used to know that Fall had arrived when the nighttime temps were finally below 100F. I’ve got some experience living in hot areas… and 20 years in Houston too. Still, this year has been hot.

That is kind of amazing to me, the “20 years in Houston” part. Time flies when you are having fun. And life is what happens to you while you are waiting for something else.

Don’t wait. If I’d kept up my practice, I would have a couple of decades of martial arts study under my belt. If I’d spent just an hour a week, I would be fluent in at least one other language, maybe two. There are many other skills and growth opportunities that I didn’t keep up, and suddenly it’s 20 years later.

I did start preparing to live a robust and resilient life, no matter what happened, and without much help from outside. And I’m years along that path. That, in its various aspects has been a motivating and organizing factor in my day to day life for years. It’s only intensified as time went on and the things we prepped for have happened. I’ve seen earthquakes, riots, terror attacks, fires, floods, hurricanes, financial troubles, personal injury, pandemic, government overreach, urban decay, inflation, social decay, crime, and many other things worth preparing for happen- some more than once. Whatever else happens, we’ll likely see some of those come back again.

You don’t have to devote your life to it, or change your lifestyle significantly. You do need to start, and continue to work at it. Over time, you will build the buffer, the resources, the resiliency, that prepping aspires to. You will have the peace of mind of knowing that you have taken control of what aspects of your life you can control, provided yourself and your family with options, choices, alternatives, and a path forward, even if horrible things happen. Even if ORDINARY things happen.

We still have time. The resources are out there and they are available. There are even bargains to be had, if you are alert and ready. You can improve your situation. You can make a difference in your future. But if you don’t start the journey, you will never get to the destination.

———————————–
Today I’ve got pickups, and shopping to do. I am trying to get a load of stuff to one of my auctioneers, and if not, then I need to sort and bin stuff for another guy that I’ve bought from but not sold through. He’s looking for consignments, and I have stuff to sell. I need to sort it, so that it’s stuff that will sell in his auction, and stuff I don’t need to make a bunch of money on, because he doesn’t get the big money buyers.

I’m also picking up stuff for my non-prepping hobby and our upcoming swapmeet/convention/tradeshow in late August. I can’t keep trying to sell the same old stuff, I need some new stuff. I think I found something that will sell and I got it at a good price. I do need to do a bit of custom work to show it’s potential though. I also need to start going through my stuff and deciding what I really have a chance of selling. It would be nice to see the stuff again before unloading the bins at my tables…

This week should be me catching up on the stuff I didn’t get done last time I had a week at home. We’ll see if that happens.

There is prepping and stacking to do too. It’s hurricane season after all, and the Gulf is warm. We should get at least one big storm this year. That’s in addition to ongoing preparation for our slide into economic collapse. There is always bad stuff out there, coming down the pike. There is the good stuff that happens too. So.

Be of stout heart, but stack some stuff.

nick

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Sun. July 23, 2023 – can’t think of a thing…

Hot and humid. It was 104F in the shade yesterday afternoon when I got home. Told my wife I’d cut the grass when it cooled down. Couple hours later it was still 102F so I gave that nonsense a pass… I’ll cut it when the temps drop, and if that’s December, so be it…

I started the day building my temporary deck at the BOL. It will give us a good feel for size and shape, and keep us out of the red sticky mud when it does finally rain. So far I’ve only got 6hrs of driving, $100 trailer rental, and $120 in material into it. It’s almost 3ft high and about 600 sq ft, so that’s pretty cheap. I spent a couple hours putting down what I have so far. It will need some furring strips and then a plywood skin, so add a few hundred more bucks. That should work for a while and still be easily removable for access by the foundation guys when we get the hill stabilized or the helical piers installed for the real deck. Quick, relatively cheap, and temporary. There are a couple of things like that up there now.

Speaking of temporary, I did manage to win a couple more garden hose sprinkler heads. That’s a good thing for my temporary watering system. Couldn’t find the pipe I needed at Lowes. I’m going to have to find a local irrigation supplier, or hit the web I guess.

I’m about 90% decided how to clean up the electrical supply in the little workshop and what feeds the dock, dockhouse, and another shed… and it won’t be 1950’s salvaged fused disconnects and antique breaker panels that have been on fire. Whatever I do, even if it is using masking tape and bread bag twist ties to replace everything there, it’ll be an improvement, and safer.

I’ll be doing work here at home today. Mostly paperwork, bills, and invoicing, but also the outside stuff if it’s not too hot. I can cut the grass in 20 minutes or less, but even that can see a 10 degree temperature rise. That caught me yesterday morning working on the deck. It was a reasonable low 80s when I started, but 98F when I finished. I had to go inside and cool off at one point. Snuck up on me.

It’ll be worth it in the end. It’s already worth it for the redundancy and backup, as we can live there full time if needed. And if the world somehow avoids the conflagration, we’ll have a nice place to hang out on a beautiful lake in our “golden years.”

Find yourself some place to go if you have to. Work on getting out of the big cities, out of unfriendly communities, away from potential trouble spots. Trouble IS coming. There is no other way out of the hole our ‘betters’ have dug. And the world is going spastic and insane. IN PLACES. In other places, life goes on, mostly the same, and you can point and comment about the other places. But fires have a tendency to spread, and so does the social madness that seems to sweep the world every few decades. EVERY place is going to be affected. Do what you can to minimize the damage.

And stack stuff. Can’t hurt. Will probably help. Might save a life.

nick

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Sat. July 22, 2023 – headed home later today… but work first

Hot, but not as bad as Houston. It was only 88F when I got here, and got down to 78F at midnight. Very pleasant. Only a hint of a breeze but the smoke kept the bugs away.

I did my auction pickups, cruised through the ‘bins’ store near one of them. Picked up some more red ropelight for the dock. I’ve already got some, but needed more. It’s to light the edges when we have the telescopes out… When I got here, the 88F temps and setting sun felt cool. How messed up is that? So I got most of the trailer unloaded. I’ll do the rest today, and might do some of the construction/setup to see what the issues are and if I need more supplies.

Then it’s back to Houston.

Where there is plenty of work waiting for me.

Like always.

Stack up some projects. And stack up some supplies. Hurricane season is here after all. And so might be ‘canned sunshine’ season. If that happens, the panic alone will make you want to hunker down and avoid going out. So stack it up.

nick

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