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Fri. Apr. 19, 2024 – and another week rolls by, the world gets crazier…

By on April 19th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war, personal, rats

Warm, moist, dark. Some chance of rain later in the day. So say the liars. Dunno what we’ll get but I’ll be sure to be inconvenienced by it… I spent most of yesterday doing indoor stuff anyway, but it was nice in the afternoon.

Did a bunch of sorting, cleaning, and work avoidance techniques to keep from crawling around in the attic. That is going to change today, as D1 saw something skitter across the kitchen floor last night. Small and fast. Attic I can live with. In the house? No. HeII no. More traps, more poison, more wire mesh covering holes. Whatever it takes.

So that is the mission for today. And doing a pickup or two. And sorting and putting away, with a stop at my secondary to get Bounty paper towels while dropping some stuff off. Costco was completely out of Bounty paper towels yesterday. I’ve got some in deep storage and I’m going by there anyway…

Later there is some kid stuff to do at her school. Then the wife and D2 head to the BOL with friends for a girls’ weekend while I stay home and catch up on the list.

I have to pull my head out and get some stuff done. I’m falling behind and it isn’t good.

Oh, the freezers are full, and the pantry is in good shape, but other stuff needs attention too. So stack, but don’t forget the other stuff…

nick

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Thur. Apr. 18, 2024 – getting stuff done, slowly, and in fits and starts…

By on April 18th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, march to war, personal, rats

Warm, damp, and dark. Should start the day in the mid 70s, and with overcast or clouds. The ‘damp’ part is just Houston. That’s how yesterday played out too, always on the verge of rain, but never delivering.

I did my big loop of auction houses, and got all the stuff I wanted to pick up picked up… did my drop off at my local auctioneer too. Even stopped at HEB to see if they had meat on sale. The did, so I bought some steak, and some pork ribs. My receipt said my savings were about $50 with spending of $200. I’m still buying stuff that isn’t just basics (like snacks for the kids’ lunches, soda, treats) but it’s starting to add up. I know there are others who feel the pinch more than I do. If I wasn’t able to save on all the stuff I buy at deep discounts, I’d be cutting way back on those relatively expensive items. My wife has expressed her shock and dismay several times lately when I came home with the grocery bills…

30 to 50% increases aren’t just happening to other people.

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Today should be more domestic bliss. I’m going to make a more indepth attempt to find the invaders in the attic. I want to shut down their access, but can’t find it. I don’t see evidence in the attic itself, so I’ll look more closely at the soffits or ‘eves’ which are below the floor level in the attic. They are like wide open highways around the house, and I suspect that is the main path for rodents. They do cross the open attic, as I can hear them occasionally. I wonder if they are tunneling through the insulation, so their path isn’t obvious. If it’s rats, they’ve learned not to eat the poison bait, or the bait has somehow become ineffective. They used to love the stuff, eating through the packaging in the garage to get to it. Now it has been sitting in the boxes for months.

If they are using the soffits, they can enter through the garage. I’m not sure how I’ll stop them physically as the garage has several large openings and the garage attic is completely open to the framing and soffits. I’ve been counting on the poison for the last couple of years and it was working. Something changed, as I can hear the movement, even if I can’t figure out where they are.

My wife has been more patient than anyone could expect as I’ve tried to get rid of the problem, but that is wearing thin.

Guess I have a new issue at the top of my list…

Plans. I make them. Then I break them.

One thing is constant though, accumulating resources– stacking. At least we can all do that.

nick

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Wed. Apr. 17, 2024 – ah, “hump” day. Never was much interested in that.

By on April 17th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Not so cool in the am, warming later. Should be clear. It was nice yesterday although it did get into the mid 80s. Breeze was nice too.

Although I didn’t get out much in the nice weather, I did get a bunch of small things done or underway in the house. About half way through the day, I found out my Wednesday obligation got moved to Tuesday… which makes my day very short. That meant trouble doing my pickups. BUT when I looked at them, I found I could delay all of them to today. So today I’ve got a bunch of stuff to pick up in a bunch of places. I will be making a BIG loop as I hit all the auctioneers. It also adds two pickups to the loop that I would have had to go back for today. Saves a trip and gas…

Gas is averaging around $3.30/ gallon last week and this week. You can find it cheaper, but that’s what I see most often. I’m also noticing more “small” fills at the pump, seeing round dollar amounts as people add just enough gas to get by… $10 and even $20 doesn’t buy much mobility any more.

Between the war drums in the middle East, and our own strife here at home, I am surprised gas isn’t more expensive. I know it’s an election year and TPTB want to keep gas low, but the tool for them to do that, selling the SPR to drive down prices, isn’t an option anymore. Pressuring OPEC is another tactic but the war parties need OPEC more than OPEC needs them at the moment. Sh!te is about to get real for a lot of people who have been just ‘getting by’ and using credit cards to make up the difference. There is about to be a serious contraction in discretionary spending. I don’t think the summer driving season it going to be very big this year.

I wouldn’t want to be in the Hospitality or Travel sectors either. I could be wrong. The people with covid campers might see it as a cheap getaway. And some people might figure that blowing the last of their remaining credit before throwing in the towel is the way to go out with a bang. People are funny, and trying to predict the future is hard. Spending more money to get what you need leaves less for what you want. The prudent already know this. Fix it up, wear it out, or do without. The profligate are going to learn at some point.

Still time to stack some reserves though. Put a little by for later, while you can.

nick

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Tues. Apr. 16, 2026 – more messing around to do

By on April 16th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, march to war, personal, rats

Cool and cloudy to start, then warming later. And some wind- “fresh” in the words of openweathermap.org. It was blowing all over last night.

Yesterday I did my doctor appointment. I like him, he’s just a bit younger than me, but the current nonsense over any meds used to treat pain is nuts. I take a simple med for chronic back pain. It’s not abuse-able, has a long and well understood history, is cheap, and is an NSAID with minimal side effects. I’ve been on it every day for about 15 years. It works for me. So why change? Why the intrusive nonsense about renewal? The office wanted a contract like I was a barely under control junkie mandating monitoring, blood tests, when and how I could refill, all sorts of nonsense for a drug that ISN’T controlled, ISN’T abuse-able, and technically ISN’T a painkiller. I pushed back with increasing firmness until he admitted all the above, and agreed I didn’t need the stupid contract.

I’m going back to the way I got it for years. F this S, I will not have my ability to control my pain and ability to work and do stuff at the mercy of a just in time delivery system, especially considering that it’s essentially Motrin, and in any sane place would be over the counter. I thought this guy was more reasonable. Guess not.

After that, I did some shopping and one pickup. Did a bunch of cleaning and moving stuff around while waiting for my chauffeur duty to be called upon. Did some more after. Tripped and fell over the child gate we use to keep the dog out of the bedrooms. Smashed myself and the gate up. Bought another in the auction last night. They always have child gates for some reason. So it was a mixed bag yesterday. I did get some stuff done, but was frustrated and stomping around, both metaphorically and in reality.

Today I’ve got several pickups to do. That should keep me busy until I have to get the kid from school. STAAR testing this week so no afterschool activities. That means a short day for me too.

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Traps in the attic haven’t caught anything. I’ll have to try some different bait. The poison boxes are untouched too, but I still hear scurrying at times. SOMETHING is up there. Possums usually go for the traps, rats usually eat the poison. I guess it could be squirrels…

Stack some poison, traps, insecticide, and the like. You may not be able to get them when you need them. Stack the other things you need to be comfortable too.

nick

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Mon. Apr. 15, 2024 – Uncle Sam says, “Pay up sucker!”

By on April 15th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, gardening, lakehouse, march to war, personal

Should start cool and warm later, maybe even into the 80s. It was nice at the BOL in the afternoon, following the somewhat grey and windy morning. Sun even came out around 4pm.

I got some stuff done while I was there. Because of issues with the drive belt coming off the PTO, when I went out to mow yesterday I decided to go ahead and replace the belt before mowing, despite the lowering sky. Because my life is fractal, you can probably guess at the sequence of events…

I had three new 42″ belts, because they were a dollar in an auction, but I had mis-remembered as what I needed was a 46″ mower deck belt. Gah. So I figured that instead of a new belt, I’d take a look at it and see if I could figure out what changed and why the belt is coming off… And I did. Wear. LOTS of wear. Holes that were wallowed out, bolts that weren’t tight, guides in the wrong place. So I took apart, cleaned, greased, and replaced what parts I could. Last year my buddy gave me his old mower, because the deck was shot, but it turned out to have lots of stuff I could use to rebuild mine. Some washers for spacing, some grease instead of rust, some parts that weren’t half worn through, and some time, about 3 hours, and I had the deck back together and in better shape than it’s been in in years. Seems to run better too.

Mowed the rest of the yard, trimmed it too. Then went to check on the garden. Peas are doing well, much better than the variety we planted first. Peppers and tomatoes are doing well. Potatoes are growing like weeds. Something is eating the leaves off the turnips. I thinned out my radishes. Planted the cukes and zukes I brought up there. Went back to my place and planted the blueberry bushes on top of a sand pile. That’ll have to do for now. Decided I didn’t know were to put the mint, or the other herbs, so I brought them home again. I’ll either pot them or put them in dirt here. We’ve been getting over an inch of rain each week up there so irrigation isn’t an issue yet. It will likely be an issue eventually, so I am still moving forward with my plan to make a water wagon to bring lake water to the garden. Plans. I’ve got ’em.

The next thing on the list was more poking at the irrigation pump. I decided that a)the suction pipe wasn’t tight enough in the pump inlet, b) the intake was down in the silt, and c)there was air trapped in the suction pipe preventing the pump from priming. I lifted the intake, cut and rotated the pipe to make it tighter then glued it back together, and adjusted the level of the pipe to “burp” any air trapped in a high section… and that worked. We’ll see if it keeps running this week.

Unloading the truck, putting stuff away, and then prepping to leave took the rest of the day, and part of the night. This was a quick trip and I’m actually surprised that I got as much done as I did.

Today I’ve got catching up to do at home. Auction stuff, domestic bliss, stacking… hopefully I’ll have a somewhat productive day. Oh, doctor’s appointment right in the middle of the morning too.

But it beats working for a living.

Stack stuff. Just ‘cuz.

nick

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Sun. Apr. 14, 2024 – still here? Good.

By on April 14th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, gardening, lakehouse, march to war

Cool and clear. Dunno what the forecast says, but I’m hoping for a nice day. Yesterday certainly was, if a bit windy. Spring is cooler this year, and it’s nice so far…

Spent Saturday morning at my non-prepping hobby meeting, and enjoyed sharing with fellow enthusiasts. A chance encounter at a yard sale has led to half a dozen years of enjoyment with other humans. Get out and meet some people!

Spent longer than I expected loading the truck, and headed up. Got most of the yard mowed before losing the light. I’ll finish up today, then I’ll probably work on the sprinkler pump. I will also probably take some time to weed and thin the garden. Haven’t heard from my buddy yet, so I’m a little concerned that he might be ill… but I’ll find out later today.

Played a few games of eight ball with D1 last night. I’m rusty, but still better than a 14 yo who has only a few dozen games under her belt… Go me!

It was nice having some time with just her around.

The world is going nuts, as it does, and I hope you all take your joy where you can find it.

Stack up some good times. They’ll help later.

And stack all the other stuff too. That’ll help anytime.

nick

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Sat. Apr. 13, 2024 – Friday the 13th falls on a Saturday this month…

By on April 13th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, gardening, lakehouse

Cool and clear again, which is awesome. Yesterday was very nice too. Drove around with windows down. I am hoping for another great day.

Did my pickups yesterday. Put one off until next week, forgot one that I’ll try to get today, and added one that I blew off on Tuesday. Hit the goodwill outlet and got some good stuff while I was north of town. That was in addition to all the domestic bliss of laundry and cleaning. And testing some auction items. Oh, and cycling some of my smaller lead acid batteries through the smart charger. The big ones are always connected to a smart charger/maintainer, but all the smaller ones get topped up when I think about it.

What I didn’t get done was any additional work on my hobby website. I’m suppose to report to the board at today’s meeting. Today is my non-prepping hobby meeting, and then I’m headed to the BOL with D1. D2 and my wife are doing Girl Scout things this weekend. I’ve got a bunch of stuff to load up for the trip, and I’m sure I’ll have more to do there than just cutting the grass. I’m hoping I’ll have some weeding to do in the garden… thinning out the radishes and turnips for sure…

And I’ll have the blueberry bushes to plant that I didn’t get in the ground last time. I’ll be taking some seeds with me and discussing with my buddy if it’s worth putting some of the stuff in the ground. It would be a bit late here, but the BOL is one zone behind.

Or maybe it’s not too late here, as one of our friends is putting in a quite ambitious garden here in town. Interesting to see people taking action… finally.

It’s not too late to start or to expand your prepping. Until the disaster happens, there is still time. It just gets more expensive and difficult the longer you wait. So don’t wait. Stop coming up with reasons why NOT and start working the problem. I’m blown away by the creativity applied to NOT taking any steps to prepare shown in the comments on some other blogs who have recently started featuring prepping content. Spend that energy on something helpful, something that might make a difference in your life.

Start stacking!

nick

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Fri. Apr. 12, 2024 – “it’s Friday- I’m in love…”

By on April 12th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, gardening, lakehouse, march to war

Cool and clear again. Hooray. Yesterday was nice too, but I spent most of it indoors. I will get out of the house today… if it’s nice. It was in the low 60s when I went to bed.

Spent the day doing domestic bliss. Dishes. Laundry. Cleaning- a little. Mostly moving stuff around and sorting for auction, BOL, and house. It’s slow going to put some of the stuff away, or find new spots for it. My office is a shambles with my non-prepping hobby, my ham radio stuff, and the pipe refurbishment all stacked on top of the other older stuff…

I did manage to do some work in the driveway and patio too. I threw away a bunch of failed cans, mostly soup with pop tops, and the Hill Country Fair canned peaches. I’ve mentioned the peaches before, they failed way early. The other cans were rusted either by rat urine, condensation, or the liquid from the failed peaches and soup. The particular shelves were stocked at the beginning of wuflu lockdowns, so I haven’t messed with them for a while. I did identify that they’d failed some time ago, but couldn’t find the time to sort them out. I’ve still got more cleanup to do there, but I moved some bottles of cleaning supplies there in the mean time.

I also checked the live trap in the attic. No joy. I added a smaller live trap baited with different stuff. I’ll check that today. I didn’t hear the critter so IDK if it was even in the attic while the traps were up there. I’ll leave them until they need re-baiting, or I catch something.

Today I’ll do a couple of pickups, and some more auction organizing. I’m headed to the BOL this weekend, after my non-prepping hobby meeting on Saturday. I’m sure there are lots of things waiting for my attention there. Meanwhile, I’ll do more of the organizing and storing here.

I’ve got some brisket to break down and freeze too, as well as bacon and a chub of hamburger. Freezers are full, so I may have to do some re-stacking to make room. Probably time to rotate some of the deep freezes to the more accessible upright…

There is always stuff to do.

And always stacking.

Get busy.

nick

* I didn’t always like the Cure, but I find I like to hear them now, and I’m a bit surprised that my taste for 80s music has solidified over the years. Back then I mostly listened to the radio, so I heard everything, but preferred rock. Now I mostly listen to Alt Rock and New Wave, with a lot of other stuff mixed in. Rarely do I listen to classic rock, even when it’s bands I loved. One of the good things about getting older, is that like women, I find a broader range of music to be attractive…

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Thur. Apr. 11, 2024 – Just ‘cuz they say it, doesn’t mean it’s true…

By on April 11th, 2024 in cooking/baking, culture, decline and fall, march to war, personal

Cooler, clear, and still damp. But should be nice later. It cleared out yesterday and turned into a nice day. Sunny, a bit gusty, and low 70s. More of that would be nice.

I spent most of yesterday at home. Did some domestic bliss, and will do more today. Put a pot roast in the slow cooker, and fixins in the bread machine and ended up with a fine dinner 6 hours later. And for not much effort. I tried to test the goodwill bread maker, but I’m obviously missing something about how it works. When I hit “start” I got a 6 hour timer. Should have been about 3 1/2 hours, so I dumped the bucket into my tried and true maker, and proceeded. I should d/l the manual and try again. I made “honey french” instead of my usual “old fashioned oatmeal” bread, and it came out great. Could have used a bit more salt, but other than that, soft airy inside, crunchy outside.

I also hit Costco for gas and groceries. Gas was $2.99, so 32c cheaper than Chevron. That makes a difference in an Expedition. Maybe not so much in a Geo Metro. Spent $400 at Costco and didn’t even overflow the cart. Two bales of Charmin, not on sale. It’s definitely not going on sale with the old frequency as I’m running out before the next sale. I have backup at the offsite location, so I am letting the home supply get low, hoping for the sale to stock up. Didn’t work this month so I sucked it up and paid the $30 per bale. Worse, it feels like there are fewer rolls now. I’ll have to check against the deep storage at some point. USED to be $18 on sale.

Between Costco and HEB, I spent about $800 this week on groceries and sundries. That would have been a HUGE week back in the Trump era.

I found the bin of medical supplies I was looking for. It didn’t have the stuff I needed in it. I’ll have to do some more organizing of medical preps at some point. I need to sort, label, and separate home and away kits. My two main home medical bags need to be refreshed too. I built them when the kids were little, and that was some time ago now…

There’s always more to do.

My auctioneer waved me off as they’ve been working on an in-home estate sale this week. I’ll just stack the bins and have more for next week I guess. I didn’t win anything in the last couple of days’ auctions either so I find myself without any pickup pressure today. I still have a couple of things to pickup, but I won’t be rushing all over the place.

Plan for the day is continue cleaning the house and putting stuff away, as well as processing auction wins, and outgoing auction stuff. Maybe plant some stuff in the garden if the soil isn’t too muddy, and I don’t run out of daylight. The water feature pond pump needs to be fixed or replaced soon too. The thing is getting stagnant. It’s part of the house and yard that I’ve been neglecting in favor of the BOL. Too much to do, not enough time or motivation.

All I can do is keep plugging away. At least I don’t have livestock making demands on my time too. Oh, I do have the kids, and they do need an hour or more of ferrying around every day, and it’s right in my most productive part of the day too. Oh well. I’ll miss it when it’s gone, I’m sure of that. Time is flying by as it is.

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Stack, organize, refresh, build, renew, network, upskill, downsize, and monetize… while you can.

nick

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Wed. Apr. 10, 2024 – My name is Bond, Municipal Bond, and I’m here to indenture your children…

By on April 10th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, march to war, personal, polemic

Wet and dreary today, with warm thrown in… it’s almost like we have to pay for all the beautiful days we had recently… or just that there is variation in the weather. Naw, it’s a conspiracy. Stonecutters or Illuminated probably. In any case a little rain started last night and continues…

[yes, I know the ellipse isn’t used in a grammatically correct way in the paragraph above. I use it as a conversational gimmick, to suggest the ‘trailing off’ of a thought, or as a longer than normal pause in the narrative flow. I’m cool like that.]

Anyway…

Did my pickups yesterday. Chatted with one of the auctioneers who I’ve been dropping verbal hints on for a few weeks. I know he’s politically conservative, most small business owners are. Now I know he’s a doomer and a prepper too. He’s working on his BOL. I won a knock off version of the Big Berkey (sp?) filter and that was the opening he needed. He asked me if I meant to use it or flip it, and to share with him how it worked if I used it. That led to a chat about securing drinking water supplies, and other personal infrastructure. He had intended to go full off grid solar, but ended up with a diesel generator solution because in his words, “he doesn’t care about the noise because he’s way the F out in the middle of no where.” I was surprised he didn’t know about the solar company bankruptcy auction that morning, but he’s an auctioneer on the platform, not a buyer. He did think about keeping the filter for himself. This makes three of my auctioneers that are active preppers or getting started increasing their level of preparedness (that I know of.) He also mentioned that he was prepared to defend what is his from those who might want to take it.

I know that this place has a preponderance of “like minded” people especially wrt certain ideas and topics. That’s to be expected given the focus of my life and the blog. I like to think that there are others who visit, that we don’t hear from too often (but of whom I was reminded while going through some old posts and old comments yesterday) that may have differing views or rate the hazards of life differently. And that is great. Right now, I want to encourage EVERYONE who comes here, and through them, everyone they influence, to consider the cost of prepping vs. the cost of NOT prepping, if the future plays out the way I, and many many others, expect it to. Consider that it’s not just those few of us here, or a few other corners of the intarwebs that think bad things are coming, and indeed have already started arriving. Ordinary people from all walks of life and all situations are taking a look around and deciding to make changes to their lives to better prepare for what they have decided might be coming.

Think hard about what you can stack, actually and metaphorically, and then take action. It’s a bit of ‘preaching to the choir’ I know… but I’m specifically preaching to the others not already in the choir today. No matter what happens, even (especially) the normal trials and tribulations of life, stacks and preps will make it better. There are plenty of stories shared here of the minor, and even potentially major, problems overcome more easily and with more style due to having prepared for problems. Come and join us on the journey.

Stack.

nick

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