Category: culture

Cool and then warm. Hot even. But overall, cooler. Which is fitting for the times. Late yesterday the light got kinda yellow green and the clouds looked like rain… but it never came.

I did my pickups in the late morning. Then I hit up IKEA for my pantry cabinets. They are heavy. Heavy enough that I was ready to open the box and carry the biggest pieces inside one at a time. I got D1 to help me instead.

I spent the afternoon putting mud on the joints, and assembling one of the two cabinets. The second will have to wait until the wall is repaired, and I don’t have to move the cabinets to get to it. Dinner was a heat and eat meal with rice. Tasty, easy, quick. Not cheap, but cheaper than takeout. Just another tool in the box.

There is a crazy amount of work to do here, and I’m picking at it a little at a time, so of course I want to drive up to the BOL and do stuff there. It’s a lot of work keeping two properties in good shape, especially if you have stacks of stuff everywhere and let things get out of hand. It would be easier to just keep up with it but that ship sailed a long time ago.

So I am working to improve my situation, both at home and at the BOL. Physically and metaphorically.

Do something every chance you get. Try to keep up. Stack.

nick

Cool. Later it’ll be warm to hot. Although the hot isn’t as hot and the cool keeps getting cooler. It was really a very nice day yesterday despite some occasional dark clouds. No rain on my patch.

I slept in and decided to do some work around the house. D2 wasn’t excited about heading to the BOL, and I convinced myself it wasn’t a good use of time. I wouldn’t get an real projects done with the late start. That’s my story anyway.

I did clear out a spot where a pantry cabinet is supposed to go. It’s the corner where the water heater used to be. I haven’t done anything to advance that project because I only tacked up the drywall repair because I needed to do some plumbing and insulating behind there. Then a dark stain appeared on the ceiling and I was sure something died there, which I really didn’t want to disturb.

Turns out, it was just from water coming down the open exhaust vent from the old water heater. Once I close that up, I can fix the ceiling. And once I insulate, I can fix the wall. Of course, the fractal nature of my tasks means that I REALLY want to put some pex in that wall and up into the attic while it’s all open. At some point I’ll need to make the connections, when I pex the whole house, and re-opening the wall would be dumb. Especially if there is a cabinet full of stuff in front of it.

So, I’ll try to stub up into the ceiling for the hot water line to the rest of the house, and the cold water line that feeds the heater. And I’ve got to install some hardware cloth to close up the wall and attic from the open soffit. I know that critters used it as a highway around the house, and they used the open wall to enter the house and eat dog food. That situation needs to be addressed. My tasks are fractal in nature.

So is prepping at an advanced level. Once you have the basics covered, you see that to advance there is always something else than can be done first, or to support the prep, or to leverage the prep. It’s like the first time you write an algorithm in school*. Pretty soon you realize that every task can be broken down farther into tasks which can be broken down farther…

Since there is an infinite number of things to do, you better get to stacking….

nick

*in my school daze, it was “write the algorithm for changing a car tire.” ‘Take the old tire off, put the new tire on’ expands pretty quickly…

Cool and clear, but still humid. Not as humid or as warm later though. It’d definitely Fall, although it’s staying warm later in the day than I expected. Odd weather this year.

Did auction stuff in the morning. Then did pickups. Got home at a reasonable time to work on the list but didn’t get much done. Did some work on my AAR for our non-prepping hobby convention/meeting which I hope to finally get to go through with my fellows this morning.

But first, I’ll be getting up before the butt-crack of dawn to take the kid to her thing. I might get an hour of nap before I have to head to my meeting. I can sleep when I’m dead.

Getting out among real people and engaging the world around us is a critical prep. It’s grounding, gives a reality check on our beliefs, and builds people skills and community. It’s the people that are closest to us that will help us or hurt us the most when times get bad. Knowing who they are is critically important. And getting together with people that share an interest is fun.

So get out there and do stuff with people. And stack. Resources make everything easier.

nick

Cool again. Moist. Then hotter later. It’s kinda boring, but the trend is cooler. We could use some rain though, and I can’t believe I’m even saying that here in the swamp. We do get droughts though.

I did get my major stuff done yesterday, but nothing extra. I spent too much time not working. A sore back is an excuse, but isn’t the whole story.

Today will be a bit different. I have to do some of the things in the morning, so I have to leave the house. Some of the things could happen in the afternoon, but I’d like to have time to do some work around the house. I’ll TRY to get done early.

D2 will be home since this is a four day weekend at school. W and D1 and Xtra1 are at the BOL. D2 is here because of school activity on Saturday. That’s right, in the middle of a 4 day weekend. Who the heII thinks that is ok? They don’t work for our benefit, but I don’t know how it benefits them either.

In any case, I’ve got stuff to do today, then my non-prepping hobby Saturday while D2 does her thing. Not much time for preps or anything else, unless I’m very disciplined. Anyone taking bets??

Stack something.

nick