But it’s off to a slow start. Cool and moist to start anyway, but supposed to drop rapidly at some point. It was about 62F most of yesterday, and dripping wet. Gross. Had to run the defroster in the Ranger to see once the sun went down. It’ll probably be like that until the cold front gets here.
Spent the morning doing domestic bliss, then headed to my pickups. That took a couple hours out of my afternoon. I did stop and get 15 gallons of diesel fuel to run in my diesel heater, if needed. It’ll stay good for a long time if not used. I went by my LP Gas guy, but he had 20+ people in line. I’ll try him today if I feel motivated. I’ve got 4 full bottles here.
I then spent a couple hours at the shop moving stuff, throwing stuff out, and setting up shelves. I also got some sorting done. Then home for takeout with the Wife. Both Daughters had stuff to do. I’m the least social by a large margin.
Today I’ll do a couple more things to get ready for winter. Maybe I will pull a chuck roast out for the crockpot. That’s always good on a blustery day.
I will say, I have a hard time getting excited about a cold front. It’s not going to last 2 weeks, only a couple of days. Hurricanes are a bigger threat, and even strong winds like the ‘derecho’ we got last year are more likely to create lasting issues.
I guess I’ve got a bit of disaster fatigue. And maybe the disasters are not so impressive anymore.
That’s kinda the idea behind prepping though, and living a prepping lifestyle. You shouldn’t have to do much, other than shifting some stores around, to be ready for most things. Especially something like cold in winter.
Given all the hype and the constant need to give your attention to some hugely important thing, which changes daily, you might think we were being manipulated, and constantly kept off balance. But that would just be a conspiracy theory, right??
Stack. Then calmly live your life.
nick
Piffle! Tosh! Codswallop! You spend all your time on the internet with (both) your friends. Plus playing the bodhrán.
Saturday. Apples and bananas consumed. Tea half-empty. Time to find out if the valet scratched my car…
Have a good Saturday. Stay warm.
A lot of modern music is like that. Back when I was in a choir, we performed for a composer’s CD. His music was full of weird, sometimes painful harmonies. It was technically challenging to sing, and interesting for that reason. But who would want to listen to it?
That’s not uncommon here at all – there are still some local butchers who process their own meat. The problem, of course, is that it is *much* more expensive than the industrial stuff. We buy locally for a few things, but for the big masses of meat in the freezer, well, price matters…
– – – – –
For anyone in the storm’s path – stay warm, stay safe!
Too much of that makes you go blind, Lynn!
Beef. Our BOL is in a rural area. Several of my friends keep a couple of beef cattle each for slaughter at the beginning of winter. It is possible to keep up to two animals for personal use without thereby having a “herd”, a threshold which triggers all kinds of red tape.
I should probably ask around, who might have a side of beef surplus to their own requirements. I need to do some research, though, as I don’t like the meat from the Belgian Blue cattle that most people there keep. I did notice a few happy-looking Highland Cattle in a nearby field. I should perhaps find out who owns those…
Atmos cut gas to a few Fancy Lad developments in Leander in Feb. 2021 when freakishly unusual demand curves threatened the stability of that grid.
The company has never really explained the outage, but given the military retiree demographics of that part of the metro – Tulsi Gabbard’s house is located there – my guess is that the houses had generators activating all at once which overwhelmed the capacity of the lines.
Atmos has since been working on revamping their network, giving every house in their service area a “smart” meter which can be controlled remotely.
https://thetacticalhermit.substack.com/p/friday-pre-winter-apocalypse-memery
Well, it dropped to 44F at some point.
I was restless and not tired at all, so I read until about 330. That meant sleeping in. Woke several times, but like the groundhog, didn’t see anything but uniform grey thru the window, so I went back to sleep.
Up now. Ground the weeks coffee beans, and started today’s bean broth. It’ll be ready by the time I hit ‘post’.
———
About the only thing I really have to do is set up the windbreak and heat lamp for the on demand water heater. I’ll double check the sprinkler system is off and the valves open…
Maybe I’ll set up the small inverter gennie and run that for a bit? Dunno.
“Out of an abundance of caution” I will ask my buddy at the BOL to shut off the water to the house. It’s just a valve on the side of the garage.
Oh, and I’ll see what setting up and running the diesel heaters looks like. Probably there are pieces missing or something is broken, so it’s worth the time if I think we might use them.
Maybe I’ll get one of the big batteries on a charger..
I guess there are some things I can do.
n
But first- coffee.
n
Another PLT down:
Federal agents shoot and kill ‘armed man’ in Minneapolis as video shows struggle before deadly blasts
The details should be out soon. I doesn’t matter if the guy is a thug or not. The PLTs will flip out and make it worse.
REPORT: ‘Border Patrol Involved’ Shooting in Minneapolis
https://redstate.com/joesquire/2026/01/24/report-border-patrol-involved-shooting-in-minneapolis-n2198467
BREAKING: Another Shooting in Minneapolis at ICE Arrest
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/01/24/breaking-another-shooting-in-minneapolis-at-ice-arrest-n3811191
Reported to be DFD.
The second link also has discussion about the media lying about the 5-year-old who was abandoned by his father.
Below zero in Minneapolis today.
Do the good guys have any access to water cannons?
We could call them ICE Guns.
hmmm…
Air temperature, water temperature and pressure, droplet size, time in flight…
calculating furiously…
Screw it.
Just play with the settings until you can hit the PLT’s in the face with actual water.
Mix in a little yellow dye.
Report is decedent in Minneapolis was carrying loaded 9mm, had two extra mags, and no ID.
Watching live feed of City of Minneapolis press conference.
Jacob Frey is a piece of flaming shit.
The Progs don’t venture out in that kind of weather.
If they do, they’re easy to spot because they tend to favor pricey outerwear with four figure price tags.
What is really going on in Minneapolis? Are the people getting shot migrants? Protesters? Bystanders? How justified is lethal force?
I’m finding it difficult to pick through the obviously biased reporting. Apparently no one in the press understands how to objectively report anything.
Windows 11 systems ship with Bitlocker enabled, but I always turn off the “feature” in order to resize the NTFS partition and dual boot Linux.j
Again, Windows 11 was about making Hollywood and the streamers happy.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/23/microsoft-gave-fbi-a-set-of-bitlocker-encryption-keys-to-unlock-suspects-laptops-reports/
Gen X Progs have harbored fantasies about “going Wolverine” against the Reagan fascists for over 40 years. The “Trump tho” era is their last chance.
Despite being regarded as one of the most violent films released in the 80s, “Red Dawn” carried a PG-13 rating – the first film to receive that classification – and played on HBO endlessly in the afternoon during the “Ferris Bueller” generation’s high school years, fueling a lot of fantasies on both sides.
Ironically, the Reagans saw the film and enjoyed it if reports are accurate.
@Nick:
Simple and kind of fun, really.
You will probably want to pull the cover off and make sure there’s no pinched lines or things that aren’t tight when you run it the first time.
There is a bit of odor as the manufacturing oils burn off so you really want to run it outside for a couple hours. It isn’t bad but if you’re sensitive to some smells it’ll probably make you queasy.
A old truck battery (from my old 2019 Ram 1500) ran mine for 12hrs, until the tank was nearly dry. I don’t know how long it would’ve run before it needed recharging.
Since I set mine up I’ve only run the propane heater a couple times indoors, mainly because I wanted to feel the radiant heat, not because I needed it.
Unlike propane there is no added moisture to the house air.
@brad
There have been three shootings in Minneapolis so far this month.
Renee Good was shot an killed January 9. She was driving a 4400-lb Honda Pilot and actively blocking a city street to impede federal law enforcement. When officers approached the car she cut the wheel and backed up, bringing Officer Ross directly in front of the vehicle. Her “spouse, who had been out of the vehicle for some time taunting and filming officers, shouted ”Drive, baby, drive!” Then she floored it, spinning the wheels on slippery pavement. As the car got purchase and started forward toward Ross, he drew his service weapon and fired three times. He was attempting to move out of the way as he fired, but was hit by the vehicle hard enough to be diagnosed with internal bleeding. Good was hit multiple times and firf of her injuries.
The initial claim that Good and her partner were just driving home after dropping a child at school were immediately shown to be falsehoods when multiple videos showed theri vehicle stopped crosswise blocking traffice for at least three minutes as Renee Good honked the horn and at one point exited the vehicle and danced in the street. It also came out that Renee Good was a professional trainer for a group seeking to disrupt ICE operations.
It’s also worth noting that Officer Ross became entangled in a vehicle last year and was dragged, getting woulds that put him in the hospital with 33 stitches.
I posted multiple times on Jan 9 and in the days following as more video and details came out, but close examination of the first video, only 37-seconds long, made it clear that the Honda Pilot backed up, cut the wheels to aim toward Officer Ross, and spun it’s tires before lurching forward. You can find all those posts by searching “drwilliams” and “Good”.
The second shooting involved a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who fled an attempt at arrest, crashed his vehicle, and when officers caught up to him was aided by two other Venezuelan illegal immigrants who brought a shovel and a broom handle to the party.
Reporting on the third shooting this morning is still evolving. The DHS statement is that an individual engaged with officers while they were making a targeted arrest of a violent illegal alien. What escalated the action is not clear, but when officers attempted to take him down he had a weapon on him which was later shown in a photo as a 9mm semi-auto pistol with a laser sight and two magazines. He resisted arrest and at some point made a threatening move that got him shot and killed. From the still photo I saw he was a bearded white man in his 30’s and although his name has not been released he is claimed to be a Minneapolis resident with a concealed carry permit.
Minnesota and Minneapolis have refused to assist federal law enforcement in apprehending violent criminal illegal aliens. Minneapolis police commanders have been shown (by screen captures) to be ordering their officers not to respond to requests for assistance. It’s worthwhile to note again that Minneapolis is required by city charter to have over 900 police officers but have only about 600, with reports of another 90 or so applying for Minnesota’s new “family leave” program (aka Somali Scam VI or VII).
The United States LSM hasn’t helped the situation in MN. Any one of the cretin “protestors” goes on CNN, the host just believes whatever is said. No challenges at all. Throw in Tampon Tim and Fukstik Frey, and all you hear from the LSM is FACIST! HITLER! KING! DICTATOR!
The Kamel was just on the LSM sqawking how ICE snatched a kid off the street and they are deporting US Citizens. Yes, she said on national TV that ICE was capturing US Citizens and deporting them. Complete lies, but she was this close to being POTUS. The sheeple believe this, but fewer and fewer do.
Thank God for the internet.
It rained a bit this morning. The temp was 32 down to 30 Cold enough for the rain to “glaze” the trees. One of the frying pans I use to feed the cats had an inch of mostly frozen water at noon. I don’t think they care if their food is wet.
The dogs had no interest in going out until noon. It’s windy and a great day to wear a raincoat to block the wind. No walk to the gate today. Just head towards the EDC and both left processed food lumps in places that are out of the wind. We were out for all of 20 minutes. Then I went back out to feed the cats and get the faucet in the EDC trickling.
The temp is currently 22f. Or 24f. Or 23f. Three thermometers and well, close enough. The heat pump ain’t pumping so the system is using the back-up heat.
I don’t have quite enough back-up heat installed. The new system wanted another circuit from the breaker box and the box is full. So, just 10K of heat. But that’s ok. It’s not enough to make the house bare feet toasty but at the same time the old system, which had enough heating coils for bare feet installed, would make the transformer on the pole sound like the warp core on Star Trek. That’s a spooky noise.
The pellet stove is running. The hopper is full and three bags of pellets await next to the stove. Plus 35 more bags in the barn.
Bleh. It’s all good if I don’t have to do any plumbing in the next few days.
In the early ’80’s, Greenpeace protested cruise missile testing in central Alberta in January. Bad choice. The base fire department used them as spray pattern test markers. That protest lasted long enough for the fire truck to arrive plus about 90 seconds.
The forecast for today in Windermere is 79 and sun. Golfing weather.
Tomorrow is 85. Partly cloudy and 70 Monday as a front rolls through.
As noted before, the top earner on MPD last year was a lieutenant that made $500k with overtime. That’s almost as much as a good coder, but his personal expenses for armor and sidearm probably run more than daily skinny double lattes.
Putting up with woke shiite in the workplace is probably a tie.
Well, there weren’t really any herbs I wanted to harvest. They all must have died off last time. I did move the smaller rosemary under the canopy. I put my potted lime in the garage.
Started the propane honda ec3000i. Took a few pulls and a few squirts of propane before the lines were full, but then it started right up. I’m never sure how long to hold the purge button to fill the system.
The gasoline 26 yo generac started on the second pull, after I drained the gunk out of the float bowl. Even with old gas, it’s running. I’m just letting it run to burn off the old gas. Slight varnish smell, and the occasional dip in speed.
The smaller diesel heater got fueled up and I got out an older battery. It showed 12v but died in seconds while trying to start the heater. I put it on the charger. Now that it’s finished charging (according to the ‘smart charger’, I’ll try again. I came in to eat and warm up.
Due to the fractal nature of life, of course it wasn’t really that smooth. Like getting out the DMM to check the generators and batteries. Dead battery. Changed that. Junky mismatched test leads. Changed those. Still dead? Yeah, clean the battery contacts. FINALLY. Just to find a battery that was charged.
Put a second battery on the charger.
Found and repurposed the cable and battery clips from my dead Stanley smart charger and put them on the diesel heater. I’ve actually got extra cable and clips with ring terminals on them. I pick them up when I see them to use on 120v inverters, but reusing stuff is in my blood and makes me feel good.
Put up a windbreak and connected the heat lamp to keep the connections to the on demand heater warm.
Moved some stuff around.
——————-
We got some rain around noon. Soaked everything and hoo boy it was unpleasant being out in that. It didn’t last long but the ground is pretty saturated. BOL weather station says it got over an inch of rain last night. My buddy says it’s 33F right now. He’s gonna turn off the water to the house for me. I don’t expect it to freeze and pop anything, but if it does, at least it won’t flood.
Finished my lunch break, I guess I better find more work to do.
n
Don’t forget that MN is where the somali cop DIE hire shot and killed a white woman.
n
GRAPHIC WARNING: Insane Leftist BITES FINGER OFF OF FEDERAL AGENT During Minneapolis Chaos
holy cr@p.
n
MN Tampon Tim “We’re keeping a log of ICE ”atrocities” for future prosecution of them”: Does he understand they are Federal officers?
Fed gets his finger bit off: ho, hum, nothing to see here.
I am watching the first episode of the Landman series on Paramount. Billy Bob Thorton’s character just shot up with testosterone so he could work in the Patch, the Permian Basin.
The Dresden Files #18 is out. $14.99 for an ebook. No, thank you. After 5 years, I’ll “borrow” it. And just like that, it is available for “borrowing”.
Wait till you get to the episode where he lectures the lady lawyer on how big oil really works. A classic.
If you’re going down the Taylor Sheridan rabbit hole, don’t forget “Tulsa King”.
Yeah, Stallone, but he is smart enough to know that he needs a quality supporting cast.
Sheridan has more series coming featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell.
Ms. Diamond waved the squad car down in the alley. She was dressed in her pajamas. Pathetic POS Noor drew his weapon from the passenger seat and fired out the driver side window, past his partner who did not see any threat at all.
Minnesota “see no BIPOC evil” Supreme Court, led by washed-up NFL lineman, found an excuse in a penumbra in Funks and Wankers outhouse in the dark of the moon.
Saturday bedtime.
The news from the US indicates total chaos, but it is difficult to decide which news liars to believe. I hope you are all safe and warm.
Goodnight!
Hey, where’s Rick?
Minneapolis?
SCOTUS may decide that private places, open to the public, can’t ban weapons:
MAJOR BREAKING NEWS! HUGE 2A SCOTUS WIN INCOMING!
The arguments are right on. The 2A is not a second-tier right.
This would be awesome for Constitutional freedom!
Believe nothing that you read or hear, and 50% or less of what you “see” – given that AI video can sometimes be VERY convincing, and not at all real. The “news” programs exaggerate every bad report, because “if it bleeds, it leads!” They talk up every possibility, no matter how remote. It’s currently 30F here in SOUTH TEXAS, which is a little unusual, but after 4 days of hype, I think we’re prepped for anything. My son near Dallas sent me two “snow day” pictures of his two daughters playing in the 1 inch deep snow. In those snowsuits, they have to be roasting hot! Anywhere north of there ROUTINELY gets snow like that and worse.
Waco has been the snow line since we moved to Texas.
Snow is a lot more common north of Waco on I-35, but, if a storm happens further down, the quantity is usually higher south of Temple, in the marine environment of the Gulf.
I used to see the difference when I worked for CGI in Belton.
Snow, however, isn’t as much of an issue in Austin as the ice accumulation on the overpasses.
The little diesel heater is pretty cool. Lots of smoke as it first started up but then it got really efficient and clear.
Puts out a lot of heat too, but clearly it’s better to have a duct to get the heat away from the unit and keep the unit outside or plumbed to the outside. I have bid on “extension kits” but now that I know it works, I’m willing to be a bit more aggressive with my bid. And I’m happy to have another way to stay warm, and another fuel I can use.
While I was testing it on the patio I did some cleanup and found more Mr Heater things, a couple of bottle top heaters, a Mr Heater Lil Buddy clone, and a hose and filter to adapt to a BBQ bottle. They recommend the filter if you use the big bottle as junk in the lines will damage the heater. I bought a bunch of the hoses and filters at Lowes on seasonal closeout last year or the year before, because winter keeps coming back despite their spiteful wishes to the contrary.
Defense in depth, and resilience. I got ’em.
n
Wow, Paramount is pushing Starfleet Academy very hard. I get a commercial of it ever episode of Landman.
Where is Al Gore when we need him ? He promised us no more freezing in the lower 48 and it has happened every year this decade. Hard freezes down into low 20s F or the teens, not just a light dip below 32 F to 30 F.
They tried to render AlGore for oil to keep the wind turbines turning, but all they got was rancid fat.
“Bravado”
https://areaocho.com/bravado/
“As I said, too many morons like to talk about manpower. The thing is, manpower means exactly nothing when they don’t have supplies or transportation. The US military is quite good at using force multipliers. Once all of the infrastructure is blown up, those million troops on the other side of the ocean are useless, as are the 40 million unarmed civilians sitting less than 100 miles from the US border.”
> The most terrifying thing about the military is the ability to deploy a burger king to any corner of the world in under 24 hours. If you don’t understand why that’s terrifying, you don’t understand anything about conflict.
My former USMC son’s platoon would drive a hundred miles across the Iraq desert to go to the Taco Bell in the US Army base in northern Iraq.
Raining again. 37F.
Weird to be so focused on the weather without the gennies running, especially since they were running earlier.
n
“Atlan in Danger (Perry Rhodan #82)” by Kurt Brand
https://www.amazon.com/Atlan-Danger-Perry-Rhodan-82/dp/4411660660?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number eighty-two of a series of one hundred and thirty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands with several spinoffs. The English books started with two translated German stories per book translated by Wendayne Ackerman and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. And then they transition back to two stories in book #109/110. The Ace publisher dropped out at #118, so Forrest and Wendayne Ackerman published books #119 to #136 in pamphlets before stopping in 1978. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted again. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1975 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #106, plus the Atlan books, and some of the Lemuria books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 90 of the original German pamphlets written in 1963. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on the Perrypedia German website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Atlan_in_Not
There is alternate synopsis site at:
https://www.perryrhodan.us/summaries/90#
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in their 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500. It has been over seventy years since then and the Solar Empire has flourished with tens of millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania. Perry Rhodan has been elected by the people of Earth to be the World Administrator and keep them from being taken over by the robot administrator of Arkon.
Perry Rhodan’s son, Thomas Cardif, has joined up with the Springers to help them take over the Arkonide Empire. Atlan deposed the robot administrator of Arkon but no one knows. Cardif has a grand plan to depose Atlan and then depose Perry Rhodan. But, Perry Rhodan has plans of his own and they nvolve the last of the Druufs in the Terran universe.
Two observations:
1. Forrest Ackerman should have put two or three of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome “Mutineer’s Moon” Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856?tag=ttgnet-20/
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars (1 reviews)
Lynn
San Antonio; 28F, and a “wintery mix” of rain, sleet, and some gravel-sized hail.
My son in McKinney sent photos of his two daughters playing in their first snow. In those snowsuits, they have to be fairly hot!
“Up To 25% Of US Colleges May Close Soon, Brandeis President Warns”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/25-us-colleges-may-close-soon-brandeis-president-warns
“Wealthier institutions may have the resources to withstand the transition, but many others do not. Levine said that elite schools, such as Harvard, can afford to wait out disruptions, while smaller institutions face immediate pressure to adapt.”
““Higher education is undergoing a transformation. Our whole society is undergoing a transformation,” Levine said, pointing to the shift from a national, industrial economy to a global, digital, knowledge-based one.”
“That shift, he said, is driving demographic, economic, technological, and political change that universities have been slow to address.”
TAMU will survive.
Teach valuable stuff to people that can benefit from it, and they will line up to pay.
n
If you know where to look and how to see, you’ll know that trad publishing is done, trad media is on the way out, and trad music business is finished.
A video just came up in my “Mix” youtube feature with an artist and song that has had some success and some people would even recognize his name and the song- Rag N Bone Man, and “Human”. Not a number one Billboard song. IT HAS 2 BILLION views in 9 years. And it’s easy to get an accurate count, not like the old days of A&R guys and mob controlled jukeboxes… over 2 BILLION. For a guy that has had some success but isn’t the Rolling Stones or the Beatles.
I’ve been reading mostly LitRPG stories for the last year or so, a category that mixes books with online gaming, and is dominated by authors who started online, and who crank out lots of books a year.
Once the movie industry is democratized, watch out.
And then there is gaming, bigger than all other forms of media COMBINED.
———
and some fools want to throw it all on the dung heap with another global conflict. FFS.
n
– Stop eating bats.
n
32F and wet, although the rain has stopped for now. It got down to 30F on the dock at the BOL, but it’s up to 32F now.
I’m headed to bed.
n
– Stop eating bats.
Eating squirrels is an entry food.
Sunday. Good morning. It feels early, but the sun is up. Temperature outside is a couple or three degrees below freezing. No wind or precipitation. Good driving weather.
Time for honey nut müesli with milk and sultanas and some tea. I might follow that by toasting a leftover bretzel from yesterday’s supper. Maybe even a slice of bread and honey. Mmm.
Fortunately, we still have only the indigenous red squirrel. Cute little fellas. W1 and I like to see them, so I leave them alone, even when they steal all the nuts off my hazel trees, and most of the feed off the bird table.
If the invasive grays show up, tree rat fricassee will be on the menu.
Reminds me of a saying I once heard, back in my military days. Something along the lines of “company grade officers worry about tactics, field grade officers worry about strategy, general officers worry about logistics.”