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Category: march to war

Mon. Dec. 5, 2022 – ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go…

Sunny and cool, warming later.  I hope.  That describes Sunday pretty well, with highs in the 70s.  To bad I was inside all day.

I did get a bunch done.  Had the water off for 8 hours.  Never could have done that if the kids were here.   I summarized what I got done in comments yesterday.  Despite the late start, and late finish, I feel good about it.

Today should get me that much further along, and maybe I’ll have time to do some cleanup so the bride doesn’t walk into a mess with her folks next weekend.   Working kitchen and bath, oh my.  I’ll give it the old school try…

The sense of urgency hasn’t left me.   I noticed that I haven’t been posting much in the way of prepping.   I think it’s because we’ve been living in the slow motion disaster that was chinkyflu for the last (almost) 3 years.  We were prepping for that, and prepping for it to get worse.   Then we got into a sort of holding pattern where we were just glad it was getting better.  With no clear end, it wasn’t like a storm that passed and now we can cleanly move on.   So it drags.

Meanwhile, I’ve been focused on my personal life, getting the BOL up to speed mainly.   This year flew by.  It’s pretty clear though that we are in an economic downturn (at best) or the beginning stages of an economic collapse, (bad), or the early part of a world changing war (worst).   There is plenty of prepping still to be done for any of those scenarios or all of them.   It just looks different than prepping for a specific event.

Conserve your money and resources.   Accumulate everything you think might be in short supply, including friends.  Plan for a long period of badness, with varying intensity.   Think about WWII on the homefront, the Great Depression, the Carter malaise… all those things were survivable, and most people did.  Some didn’t.  Some people did very well.   Some lives were changed completely.  The WORLD changed, and it will again.

Will some new place become ascendant as the US did after WWII?   We survived with our manufacturing intact, greatly expanded in fact.   And we absolutely killed it in a time when making stuff was the basis of prosperity.   I don’t know what comes next, but I’m pretty sure it will be different, and very few people will see it coming.

Plan to get through what is coming.  Vow to not just survive, but to THRIVE in what comes next.   To my mind, that’s a lot more inspiring than just enduring.   But.  If all you can do is endure, then do that.  Do it better than most, and make it through.   That is key.  Be here for the boom that follows.

Stacks will help.

nick

 

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Fri. Dec. 2, 2022 – just when I’m getting used to typing 2022 …

Cool and damp again, hopefully the clear will hold for another day or two.  We are in the rain zone in the national forecast today and tomorrow, but that will suck for driving to the BOL with a loaded truck. It was clear most of the day yesterday but a front came in very dramatically and it got dark early… no rain but SOLID cloud bank.

I did my errands, and a few other things.  Like starting to put out some decorations.  I got some more of the Halloween stuff put back in the attic too.   Didn’t make sense to put it away in front of the Christmas stuff.

Then in the evening I had a prepper fail.   Wife and kids will be at Girl Scout camp this weekend so she told me to fill up a couple of 1 pound propane bottles.  No problem.   Except that I have one full BBQ tank and 4 empties at the moment.   I’ve been moving tanks to the BOL, and only taking a couple at a time to get refilled.  And I got behind.   Compounding the issue, the full tank leaks when I put the transfer hose on it.  So that was a no-go.   The tank in the grill was almost out and didn’t have enough left to fill even one small bottle.  10 empty small bottles, two part full, no way to refill.   Yeah, I moved about a dozen to the BOL, but I should  have seen that I was leaving home short.

So I need to fill the BBQ bottles I have here.  Then determine if the refill hose is faulty.   Then fill or replace a bunch of 1 pound bottles so we can fuel the stoves and Mr Heater Lil Buddy heaters if needed.   And all in a hurry because I lost track of it.   In my defense, it seems that my wife used the hose to refill some small bottles at some point in the past, without letting me know.  I don’t know if the hose leaked at that point or if something  failed or is missing as a result of it being used.  I’m not happy about the whole mess.  I should probably bite the bullet and buy a case of 1 pounders just to be sure we have some.

Cut my hair and trimmed the beard.   That wahl trimmer kit has paid for itself in money, time, and convenience many times over.   It helps that I wear a crew cut and am comfortable with that.  It’s a straightforward clipper cut.  My barber is asking $20 per cut now.  He was $12 when I started with him in ’03.

All my running around is complicated by the freezer and dishwasher in the back of my  truck.  I might have to just run around town with them loaded to get everything done before heading up.

It’s always something.  Need to get some groceries too.  On the plus side, Costco had gas for $2.49/gal.  Filled the Expedition.  THAT ain’t cheap.

And since we’re on the topic of fuel, I need to start rotating my stored gasoline and cleaning up any that has gotten contaminated with water over the summer.   More joy.  I did pick up a new 5 gallon jug for storage.   The 5 gal. plastic Blitz cans have a definite lifespan.  The welded seam at the top of the handle always seems to fail eventually, so I need to start replacing cans too.  Commander Zero likes the nato style metal cans, but they are a bit spendy for my taste.  I’ll make due with plastic, and just replace them when they  fail.

I better get the kids out the door and get started on something.

Stack what you need.   Check your stacks.   Replace what has failed.

 

nick

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Wed. Nov. 30, 2022 – where did the year go?

Cool and damp, maybe even wet.   Had some heavy  condensation last night, with the ground wet but no visible rain.  It did rain yesterday, and in typical Houston fashion, what you got and when depended on where you were.  I was everywhere from the west side up to Conroe, and down to Friendswood, then back, and never got more than occasional light drizzle.  There was plenty of evidence of places that got dumped on, and places that didn’t see a drop.  I’m hoping for dry today… I sure hope I can get some stuff done this week, and not get rained on.   It was 73F when I went to bed, and the air conditioner was running.  Fall in Houston.

Kids are back in school, and all the contaminated water in the pipes somehow got transmuted to clean drinkable water overnight.  Assuming there was any contamination in the first place.  Nothing changed for me.

Did my pickups.   Hit the reStore and the old Sears scratch and dent outlet too.   Ended up with some spray paint (industrial grey, Cat yellow, John Deere green, OSHA blue) for my workshop, and a new dishwasher for the BOL.   Happy wife, etc.  She moved it up my list and I obliged.

Today I’ve got to get the kids out the door for school, the water having been certified non-deadly.  Then my usual round of errands and tasks.

I’ve neglected some preps and I am feeling behind on some stuff.  Water purification at the BOL.   Storage of drinking water at the BOL.   Rotating hurricane supplies here.    Small engine repair day, and gas storage rotation… it’s not all about freezers and food, but that is what I’ve been focused on.   DEFINITELY need to get the defensive tool situation at the BOL sorted out, and stocked.   And the long term medical supplies, etc.

Christmas is coming too, and the prepper in me says, shop early and get it done.  I usually have at least a couple things put by for most of the people in my life by now, but I’ve been focused on other things, namely the BOL, and not on gifts.   I’ll need to look for stuff for that this week and next too.  Oh, Christmas decor needs to get set up here too.   Time is flying by.

So, what does YOUR end of year look like?   Mad dash, or slow fade?   And how’s your stacking going?

I hope you are stacking all the things!

nick

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Tues. Nov. 29, 2022 – still not in school

Cool and damp, but hopefully clear… like yesterday.  It got up into the 80s in the sun.   Not so much in the shade, but nice ‘shirtsleeves’ weather.

Didn’t get much done on the list.  Gotta admit, with the kids home I don’t get a whole lot of outside stuff done.  Did get a bunch of auction stuff caught up.  Bought another freezer.  Used one this time, but $70 out the door.  That’s one of my pickups today.  The other might be some sort of defensive tool.  There are a LOT of them in auctions this month.   Might be people are trying to raise cash.   Ammo too, but mostly single boxes of all different brands and sizes.  The ammo isn’t going cheap, but there isn’t a delivery charge and it won’t show up on the CC bill as what it is.  Tools, well they haven’t been cheap either but the prices are more reasonable than they were.   I was shocked to get what I got, about $100 under retail.  There were a lot of oddball pieces.   Rossi revolvers, no name .25 semiautos… stuff from the 50s…

One whole auction is new gubs.  Like a store went out of business or something.  Starting bids are low, but we’ll see where they end up.  NOT paying $650 for a DelTon that sold for $325 a couple of years ago… but I will keep watching to see where stuff ends up.

I’m seeing a lot of cards and sports memorabilia, and a lot of silver coins.   That definitely feels like selling to raise money.  I’ve expected it long before now, but people like their stuff and will try to keep it.

I don’t know who’s buying, but the silver at least is bringing good prices.   Too rich for my blood.

Canned food is what you’d be buying with that junk silver anyway, so why not skip the middle man?

Stack it up folks.

nick

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Tues. Nov. 22, 2022 – 11222022 – maybe today…

Cold again, and damp.  Hopefully not wet.   It was dreary and wet most of yesterday and although the total wasn’t 1 inch it wasn’t 0 either.  I really need a clear day to drive up to the BOL with an open pickup bed full of stuff.

I made 2 of my three pickups yesterday with 2 to do today.  The two today are on my way out of town, so that’s a plus.  I was chatting with one of the auctioneers, an owner in the company, and he is very much a Like Minded Individual.   He’s been prepping for years.  He’s got HUGE stacks of stuff, industrial quantities, due to where he is in the supply chain.  He has been stacking the good stuff for years.   I had a suspicion he was right of center, because of all the Tr ump stuff that is in his auctions, as well as the posted signs about guns being welcome in their facility.   Didn’t expect to see the stacks he quickly showed me… he’s better set up at work than most people are at home or their BOL.  More than that, he’s got TRIBE.  Large family, all on board, pretty much a compound to retreat to.  I’m impressed and a bit envious.

He commented that he thinks everything in the world will be different in 18 months.  I agreed.

We are not alone.   There are a LOT of people out there doing what we’re doing- getting ready to take care of ourselves and our friends.   We will get through whatever is coming.

Being prepped up and having stacks of needful things will help enormously.

And having somewhere to go if things get out of hand locally will help you too.   Which is why I’m dumping huge sums into a place in the country.  You don’t have to go my route, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to figure out where you can go.  There is a lot of property around the small towns that is for sale cheap, and there are sheds, campers, storage buildings, truck trailers, conex boxes, single wides, and even tents to live in cheaply if things fall in the pot.   Better to have something than nothing…

So get to stacking, and find somewhere to go if you have to.

nick

 

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Thur. Nov. 17, 2022 – don’t know about you, but I’m ready for ’22 to be done…

Cold and damp again.  40s to start the day, warming a bit.  Sunny, if we’re lucky.   It was clear yesterday but the sun wasn’t out much.  We might get a high in the low 70s.

Spent the day sorting auction items.   Didn’t get anything dropped off at my auctioneer.  That slipped to today.  I’ve got a pickup this morning, so I’ll be out of the house and moving earlier than usual.  That will help me get my stuff done.

I got some paper work done, and some household stuff done.  Not much, but a little.   Perhaps today will be a bigger work day.

I haven’t been commenting much on the election, the war/ongoing money laundry in Ukraine, or any other politics, because I’m worn out.  My ‘give a flock’ is all used up.   A while ago I mentioned someone observing that people were ‘pulling in’ their circles of friends and attention.   They are focusing on issues and people closer to home.  I think that is what is happening to me too, and I didn’t really notice at the time.   It seems pretty clear now though.

When times get tough, your attention and what you care about condenses.   I once asked my mom what her experience of the Vietnam war was.  She married in 1965 and started having kids.   She replied that she didn’t pay much attention to it.   She had several babies in diapers and then toddlers and young kids for the duration.   Her brother was serving overseas, but not in country, iirc.   To look at media from the time, you’d think everyone was involved in the war in one way or another, but that’s simply not true.   It AFFECTED everyone, but didn’t dominate at home, for a new wife and mother anyway.

Times were tough, and her attention was focused inward.  It’s hard to care about other peoples’ troubles when you have troubles of your own.

I’ve also not been posting a lot of basic prepping stuff.   That’s mainly because at this point, Bob or I said most of it.  Have food, water, shelter, defense, and meds.  As much as you can.   Avoid trouble if you can.   Get your house in order.  That means relationships and networks and circle of friends too.  ESPECIALLY circle of friends.  They are the people who will help you get by, or dime you to the Feds.  VERY important to get that right.  Far more important than I ever thought it was when I started this journey.

Remember too that life is what happens when you are doing other things.   These are the ‘good ol days’.   Live them.  Pay attention.  Don’t be so focused on the future that you miss the present.   My prepping is so intertwined with my daily life that I barely think of it anymore as something separate that needs to be done.   Equipping and preparing the BOL brings some of it to front of mind, and I try  to share that, but otherwise, it’s just normal every day life.  As I meet more of my neighbors up north and talk with them I see that “prepping” is really just “what we’ve always done” for a whole lot of people.  If you aren’t one of those people, you really need to look for them and learn everything you can from them.

I am convinced more than ever that this is one of those times when everything changes.  There will be disasters along the way, and plenty of strife and hard times.    But there are still Romans in Rome.  We’ll get through this.   It just won’t be pretty or easy.

Preps will help.   Stack ’em up.

nick

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Wed. Nov. 16, 2022 – nothing clever, just work

Cold, clear, and damp.   Or maybe not, but probably.  It was 42F last night, and I expect the same this morning.  The clear sky forecast will help with the chilly…  It was pretty chilly most of the day yesterday.  Oddly the mid 40s at 7am didn’t chill me to the bone like usual.   The wind gusts were pretty unpleasant though.

Spent the day at my client’s home, getting his new AT&T business internet fiber service set up.   We put off doing a bunch of networking stuff, mostly related to the Ubiquiti Unifi gear, until we had a decent connection and a way to use it.  That all came home last week, and yesterday.   I think it’s about 95% done at this point.   Some port forwarding, a DDNS service and a VPN, with maybe a VLAN to get the other vendors’ gear off the main network, and we’ll be complete.  Ok, that looks like 85% done.   I’ll try to get back there this week for a couple of hours to do at least the port forwarding and poke at the VPN.

This stuff is a lot easier if you do it all the time, and not once every couple of years.

There were some other issues at the house, including another dead camera from last year’s lightning strike.   In testing it, I also killed a port on the NVR’s PoE switch, so I’ll have to replace that too.  Supply chain issues mean I still can’t replace a dead piece of control hardware either.

Speaking of supply chain, my wife stopped at the store to get some turnips for a dish she volunteered to bring to her office potluck lunch.   She came home quite angry that there were no turnips to be had.   I talk about it, and she nods along, but until SHE went to the store and couldn’t get what she wanted, it apparently wasn’t quite real that things are DIFFERENT now than they were.  She’s even popped into the store for a couple things, and come home saying “everything seemed normal to me” a few times in the last year.   And they might seem normal, if you don’t look, or don’t know what you are looking at.  But they are not normal.

If you don’t see it, when others do, ask yourself if the reason might be that you don’t look for it or recognize it when you do see it.   This applies to more than just the economy of course, and can be difficult or painful to do.  But it’s worth doing, if you are an adult, and live in the world.

Today’s plan is to do more of the things I’ve been letting slide here at home, and some new things.   We’ll see if I get sidetracked, or derailed.  (Train metaphors, from when they were the new hotness…)  Maybe I won’t have the bandwidth, or my buffers will be full…

But I will be working on improving my situation, and finding things to stack.   Because I’m the adult in the room*, and likely, so are you, so get to it.

nick

 

 

*and isn’t THAT a terrifying thought?

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Wed. Nov. 9, 2022 – not sure if we still have a Republic, too worn out to watch the returns

Cool and damp.  Later warm and damp.  Then cool and damp.   It is a swamp here after all.  And I soaked through my shirt yesterday without even trying.

Did my pickups.   Just a few things, some for resale at my local Hamfest, which is on the calendar!  Hooray.  Some of the items were for the BOL, and some were just in case.   I’ve got two pickups today.  Thought I’d have three, but one of my tried and true auctioneers got good prices for his stuff this week.   Good for him, not good for me.  I was sure I’d be picking up at his place.  Prices are up everywhere, even the secondary market.

I was able to order the clips I need to put more shelves together at my storage unit, and have them overnighted, for no extra cost.  In fact they were a tenth of what Grainger had them for locally, and I’d have had to wait three days for the inter-store transfer.   I don’t really know how a company can stay in business at that rate, but I’ll save the money when I can.

I voted, and hope you all did too.  Don’t know if it matters, but I want to be able to say that we tried everything, before the red tide washes away the corruption.   If it gets bad enough, there will be a red tide.

What follows that won’t be pretty.

I really hope it can be avoided.

And if not, that my preps are adequate.

I think I’ll stack some more.

n

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Tues. Nov. 8, 2022 – Vote. Make them work for it.

Not really cool, and certainly damp.   Then not really hot, and still damp, although actual cool is supposed to be coming.  Just not today, or yesterday.   It was 93F in the sun at my house in the afternoon, according to my unfortunately placed weather station.   Radio said 80F at 5pm, so I’ll take that as more accurate, but still, 80F!

Oh well.  Mostly caught up on auction stuff.   Fewer bargains as more people find the auctions and bid.   Fewer bargains at the thrift stores too.   The stores have raised prices (as they do periodically, when they get jealous of resellers), and they are FULL of resellers looking for a “come up”.  They are having the same staffing issues as the rest of the working world, and so shelves are a bit bare and the stores are disheveled.   Signs of the times.  Eventually the flow of free stuff to the thrifts will reduce or cut off, and there will be a shakeout in that industry too.   The ‘returns’ reselling space is getting very crowded with some of my long established auctioneers dipping their toes in this month.   The ‘little  guys’ might have a chance if their overhead is low, but the big guys have the capital and the staff, and can gobble up bigger lots.

As a nation, we can’t just open boxes from China, we can’t have an economy based on giving each other massages and haircuts, and we can’t just keep reselling the same cr@p to each other, ’round and ’round.   We have to make stuff, adding value to it as we do.   When I see all the stuff we used to make domestically in these estate auctions, it depresses me no end.   Clocks- we had dozens of manufacturers.  Ditto for radios, tools, household goods, textiles, white goods, appliances.  You could build your house, furnish it, park your car in it, and EVERY SINGLE THING would have been made by your neighbors and your countrymen.

It wasn’t just us.  Even Canada had a domestic industry for housewares, and even TVs.  Now we have chinese drywall, brazilian lumber, iron work imported from INDIA, clothing from vietnam, electronics from china and singapore, gasoline from Norway, and food from Chile.   We enrich the middle men, support virtual and ACTUAL slavery, while impoverishing our neighbors.   What can’t go on won’t.

Big changes coming.  Lots of people will be grist for the mill of change.

Try not to be one of them.   Live through to the other side.

Stack some stuff, then stack some more somewhere else.

nick

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Tues. Nov. 1, 2022 – Seems crazy that it’s November…

Cool and damp.  Hopefully clear, so I can get stuff put away.  Yesterday was nice all day.  Not a lick of wind after dusk though, until 8:30pm when a ghost of a breeze started up.  It was just on the edge of sweaty with a long sleeve khaki shirt on…

Got my stuff done, and my display up.   Looked great, just like I’d hoped.  Pulled back the overall stuff to focus on the pirate ship and it worked well.  Didn’t quite get everything I’d have liked to do done, but that’s the breaks.

Today will be cleaning up and putting away…

Followed by auction stuff all week.  I’ve been letting it slide, but I have to sell some stuff and move some stuff out of here.   Time to start thinking about Thanksgiving (we’re doing it with additional family at the lake) and even Christmas.  Probably not a bad idea to get your shopping done early, if you can.  Avoid the crowds, if there are crowds.

I’m of two minds about that.   One says “crash is coming” and this Holiday season will be a disaster for retailers.  Majors are already cancelling orders and refusing shipments, so they think it will be a poor season too.   That COULD lead to deep discounts on non-core goods, ie deflation, if you’ve got the scratch to be a buyer.  Or it could mean higher prices if demand is more than forecast and there are shortages of things to buy.  Since I don’t have a crystal ball, or Gail for that matter, I’ll do what I always do- buy early for my own reasons.   Consider the possibilities, and act if that’s where your analysis leads you.

Food prices continue to be low for some stuff, high for others, and subject to regional variation too.   If for some reason you are not involved in shopping for yourself and/or your family, it’s still a good idea to be familiar with prices and availability.   Read the weekly ads.   Walk the aisles.   Know the challenges facing whoever does do your shopping.  You can’t spot a good deal, if you don’t know what ‘normal’ is.  Good deals will be increasingly important if you want to maintain your current lifestyle…

And if you find a deal, stack it up!  ‘Cuz those shelves aren’t gonna fill themselves.

nick

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