Category: prepping

No idea what the forecast is calling for, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say “hot and humid.”

It was nice at the lake yesterday morning.   Even a bit cooler than the day before.   It got much warmer in the afternoon.  Kind of a theme, cooler mornings, but afternoon still scorching.  Eventually it will be merely warm in the afternoon, and we’ll call that “Fall”.  But I natter on …

Did some work on the gas line to the kitchen and getting stuff back together before I had to leave the BOL yesterday.   Neglected to clean everything, and pick up.   DID run 2 loads of laundry including towels.

THAT WAS AWESOME!  Laundry robots.   Put the dirty in, take the clean out.   Western civ ROCKS.  Laundry and keeping clean used to take an inordinate amount of time, by anyone’s standards.   Industrialization, wealth, and civilization gave us indoor plumbing, potable water delivered to the faucet, sewers, and robots to clean our clothes.  Clothes that are so cheap, we buy some that we NEVER WEAR until we GIVE THEM AWAY!  Don’t forget how amazing this is.  Don’t forget that a large part of the world does NOT live this way, and that we are more likely to “revert to the mean” than they are to install washers and dryers.

Make a plan to gradually step down the ladder.  Get the pieces in place.

And stack the things.

nick

Hot and humid because, well, because Houston in the summertime.   Even a couple hours north it was butt sweaty hot yesterday.   It was 104F in the shade at my BOL.  Fortunately it was cooler than that here by the time I got home, but it was still 85F at 11pm.   Same for today I think… although it keeps threatening rain.  It would be nice to get some rain, but maybe AFTER I’m done running errands.

Spent the day at the BOL with contractors.   We’ve got a tentative plan to spend a bunch of money and do a bunch of work.   It’s not happening instantly but to have it finally happening at all is a good thing.   We really must be in a recession as people are beginning to work again… or be available for work (although the guys I talked to this time all seem busy and hard at work.)  Something about if you want something done, get a busy man to do it, mumble mumble…

Today, I’m the busy man.  Or that is the plan anyway.   Tires for the truck, pickups, a drop off, and the normal shenanigans should keep me occupied all day.  And if not, I’m sure something will jump up and demand attention.

Prepping advice for today, check your tires.  Check your spare and jack.  While you’re at it, look at your brakes, and your fluids.   Check your stock of expendable maintenance stuff, like wipers, headlights, tire repair, and fluids.  I was able to find some tires that suited me, but many others have reported some difficulty getting what they wanted.   Tires will ‘age out’ so stockpiling them might not be indicated, but if you are close to needing them, you might want to go ahead and replace them.  You can even keep the take offs if they have any life left in them, just in case.  If you plan to drive around in an area affected by a hurricane or tornado, you  will want mounted spares, probably a full set, and a repair kit with a compressor.  Roofing nails go everywhere.

Stack up some spares, for all your important things.   Take a systems approach, not just a ‘things’ approach.   And commonality and redundancy are Good Things ™.

n

Hot, humid, but less of both if we are lucky.   Got some rain late in the day yesterday and it did clear the air and cool off a bit.  Not much mind you, but a bit.

And it was hot during the day.  I know because I cut the grass in it.  Yes I am that dumb.  Or motivated.  Or guilty.   But in any case the yard hadn’t been cut in a couple of weeks and it looked like it.  In furtherance of that, I also did a bit of work on the gas string trimmer.   I replaced the bump head, and tried it out.   The string I have on hand is too thin.   The thing still starves for gas and dies.   I have thicker string at the BOL and some will come home with me, and I think the issue with fuel is related to the filter stone I replaced to get the thing running in the first place.   Specifically, I think it is too small.   Looking at the package, it has a picture of a chainsaw and a hand held blower.  I’m thinking the trimmer engine needs a higher flow rate.   I’ll pick up a new kit at the store today.

I’m going to the store for more plumbing fittings.   I will be at the lake doing plumbing this weekend, and I’ve got a list.   Since it’s so hot, I think I’ll just get new ends on the pipes for the hall bath sink and wait to do the pex lines until it either leaks again, or gets cooler out.   With the hall bath working again, I can strip the master bath, and then that job can get started.

Or maybe I’ll do something completely different.  I might be using the camp toilet, but I’m staying all weekend, just me and the dog.  Everyone else is sailing.

Then I’m home for a day or two, then back out to meet with the engineer, and also the septic guy to see what we can move forward on.   Suddenly stuff might be breaking loose.   I  hope so, because stuff is breaking loose out there in the world too.   I need to keep working on the house as a BOL.

And I still need to build up stacks.

At the grocery today, some empty shelves.   Pork was up about 10%.  Chicken was the same as last week.  Beef was either nasty or too high.   I did buy two pot roasts that were onsale and looked ok.   The bread I like was in stock.  Limes are 32c each.   They used to be 10/$1.  Avocados were slightly cheaper but still $1 each for small.  Makes me wish I’d planted the tree 10 years ago.  (Thinking about it, I believe I did plant an avocado tree but it died.)  The best time  to have done a lot of things was 5 years ago (or 10), so do them NOW and be glad you did in 5 or 10 years.

Add to your stacks while you can.  Don’t be kicking yourself in a couple of years that you didn’t.

nick

Hot and humid.   Record hot? Maybe.  Maybe not.   Pretty dang hot though.   Yesterday was well into the 100s, even in the shade.

I got part way through cutting the grass in the back yard, ran out of battery.  That is the downside to electrics, not being able to refuel and continue with minimal interruption.   You either need to wait, or exchange the battery.   On the other hand, if I’d paid attention, I’d have pulled the battery and put it on the charger at the end of the last use.  It’s more than enough to do the back and the front  most weeks.

While waiting for the battery to charge or some sense to break into my skull, I fixed a couple of the gas string trimmers I’ve had sitting around.   I usually use the electric one, but that is broken at the moment, and I wanted to finally take a good look at some that I’d gotten cheap, but just put to the side for later.   Well, at 100F, later decided to come.   Air, spark, fuel.   Which aren’t you getting?  Solve that and the thing will run.   On the small gas yard tool engines, it is usually the air filter is so clogged the thing can’t get air, or the gas lines have fallen off or rotted in the tank, or the primer bulb has failed.   I had one with a bad primer bulb AND rotted  hoses.  I had one with rotted hoses. And I have one with a bad spark plug wire.   I replaced hoses and filters, and swapped stuff around until I had two that ran.  Popped on the trimmer head, and… it was fubar’d.    So I didn’t get the yard trimmed.   Oh well, maybe today.  I did feel pretty good about getting two of them running.  Even if the attachment was broken.

I took a break from working in the heat and did pickups.

Picked up a bunch of building materials for the BOL and the attic here.   Chatted with the auctioneer, mentioned I was looking to make some crawdad traps, and he said he had one on the shelf I could have.  Sweet!  Now I’ve got a real one to use as a model for my DIY effort, and I think I’ll buy a couple more as they are only ~$10 with free delivery.   I’ll let you know if I successfully sample nature’s bounty…

Scored another chest freezer (actually two) in last night’s auction.  Half off isn’t bad.  New in box too.  They are only 7 cu ft, but that is a good size for the BOL, to run on battery backup or solar, and I’m unlikely to lose both at the same time, so I wouldn’t lose all my frozen food to a mechanical issue, like I might with one big freezer.

Still didn’t get to lowes or Costco.   Today for sure.  I need PEX and fittings and a variety of hardware for the BOL, and I need to do my normal Costco buys.  I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time getting to the store.

In the wider world, political violence seems to be increasing.  Our own situation is getting more precarious.   Groups are now soliciting the murder of Supreme Court justices.  No other way to look at the offer of “bounties” for real time location info on them.  They’ll claim it was just to harass them and ‘protest’ but it will get someone killed.  They’ve already tried once.

Food insecurity and price inflation is on everyone’s lips this week.   There are people saying it will get better later this year, and better after that.   But there are plenty saying it will be longer than that and far worse.   I’m stacking food. But then you all know that by now.

I’m looking at supply chain for construction and maintenance stuff and I’m stacking that too.

I am even buying new underwear.   I bought a lot of it at the same time, and so I have a lot of it that is all wearing out at the same time too.  Time to do something about that.    That is one risk with one-time, or bulk purchases.   The stuff will either expire, or wear out at about the same time, and you have a bigger whack to replace it.   Better to spread purchases out in time and replace them on a staggered schedule too.   Real Life ™ doesn’t always work out that way though, and better to have it than not.

Clothing is not something that has been hard to get, since our current run of prosperity started decades ago.   But specific items might be out of stock or unavailable in the future.  If it’s been a while since you bought basics, you might want to evaluate the condition of your drawers. 😉

And if called for, stack it up.

nick