Category: Random Stuff

50-something and damp. Usually.

Goal for today, get the house cleaned up for my wife’s return. Get some of the Halloween decor up. No more delays!

That is all. And yet it’s soooo much!

n

Cold and damp. [51F and 91%RH at 8am, with gusty wind]

Turned the t-stat to “heat” last night for the first time of the season. Temp in the house was a chilly 71F. At that point my hands get cold and hurt, and my nose gets cold. If my nose stays cold for any length of time, I get sick. I hate being sick. So I turned on the furnace. It was 53F and damp with gusting winds. The wind comes in through the 50 year old windows like they aren’t even there. (the ones I haven’t sealed with heat shrink window film anyway.) A window upgrade has been on my list for years, but the money never works out. And who knows, I might be moving next year.

Yup. Wife informed me that depending on how our middle school lottery goes, we might be moving to get to one of the schools she prefers. Le sigh. We both like this house and want to stay, but we bought it knowing it was not a ‘forever’ home. We figured it would last as long as our kids were in elementary school.

I may defer to her on issues like this, but I did take the opportunity to suggest moving OUT from the city if we were going to move… and I mentioned the article that said 8 of 10 people surveyed believed the US was heading for a Civil War. Her response was “who did they survey”? which is a good response, but irrelevant. It was front page news. Compare and contrast with ANYONE talking about civil war a year ago. When I pointed that out, her next sentence was “we’re not in a good place if there is a Civil War.” She may not be as ‘out’ as me, but she clearly has been thinking about some of the issues. Maybe I’ll be able to move further outside the metro area after all. I sure don’t want to move into the more restrictive areas that feed the “good” schools in our district. (She also doesn’t want to move because she wants to buy a ‘lake house’. Current focus is a log cabin style, on a one acre lakefront lot, in rural TX north of here. I want somewhere that isn’t Houston to retreat to if needed. I’d prefer west of here, but north works too.)

You don’t actually have to get too far out of Houston proper before it starts to get pretty rural, pretty quickly. I’ve thought for a long time that a town that is or was a county seat would be a good choice. Some downtown antique shops, a couple of B&Bs, more churches than bars…

Well, that’s all in the future anyway. Enough stuff to do to fill the present, without spending too much energy on that.

So, what if anything got done here prep-wise?

I bought some vegetable plants but didn’t get them in the ground yet. Bought a ‘garden weasel’ tool for the raised bed prep too. I guess I’ll see if it’s a gimmick or a tool. I’m going to try some ‘shake on’ fertilizer to.

Did some minor repair stuff around the house, have a long list of stuff waiting.

Wasted a bunch of time driving around, but saved a bunch of money on solid prep items in the auctions this week. Short week for doing anything, due to my volunteering at school, but hey, that’s the third short week in a row. It’s getting to be the new normal around here. (which isn’t good)

Picked up a bunch of parts and web gear. Ordered some other stuff that was cheap on sale. It hasn’t arrived yet, but I’m sure I’ll feel better with it here.

My work on the rental house seems to have held up, touch wood…

But I didn’t really get much done to reduce the pile here this week. Still need to do some more of that. At least 2 or three pallets worth need to leave the driveway so my wife knows I’m making progress.

Piling up stuff is a prepper risk. Many of the commentors I’d read at another blog (since sold out) seemed like borderline hoarding. I consider it, and worry about it myself. I am not there, but I could be if I lowered my standards. Organizing the pile and USING it goes a long way to dispelling the hoarding image.

And with that, I’ve got stuff to do. So I better get to it.

n

Cool. Damp. [53F and 99%RH is pretty cool and damp!]

Well, maybe not “finally” as this week went by very quickly. Tons of stuff to do still, so I’ll be avoiding work all day….

Wife and kids will be at Girl Scout camp this weekend, so I’ll be home alone with the dog. Wild women and parties, I guess.

Or maybe more work.

Either way, good times, amirite?

n

Cooler and dryer. For sure.

At school learning the secrets of the Fifth Grade science classes. Electricity and motors this week. This lab is not the guy’s strong suit according to the PTA coordinator. And he doesn’t take kindly to suggestions, or planning.

Fun times.

And so I’m off, to get some edumakation beat into some kids…

n

Cooler and somewhat dryer. Yesterday was very nice outside, as long as I avoided the sun. The sun was scorching my brain…

Today I’ve got my volunteer science class for the Fourth graders, followed by my ham radio lunch. That should keep me busy and out of comms until after 2pm…

I hope the world can watch after itself for a couple of hours, ‘cuz I can’t.

n

Cooler and just as wet as always, probably. [not so much, 76F and 98%RH]

It got HOT and slimy wet yesterday. Really unpleasant. I did get a couple of things done, or at least started.

I am working on moving stuff, putting stuff away, and organizing so I can get rid of a bunch of stuff. I got some of that accomplished. So much more to do though.

I made a couple of trips to the hardware store to try and advance my roof rack project. If I can get it installed, it won’t be in the driveway. Winner winner… I managed to get the bracketry installed on the truck. Maybe I’ll have time to try to get the rack on today.

I have auction pickups, so I might not get to it.

I need to do grocery shopping too. I couldn’t find any spaghetti for dinner Friday. That’s a prepper fail! In my defense, I took a bucket of pasta to my secondary location last week, so that’s where it ended up.

I picked up some veg for the garden. I got broccoli, cabbage, collards, and brussels sprouts. They are mostly supposed to be cold tolerant. I guess we’ll see. I got some shake on veg fertilizer too. I would like to add a couple of bags of dirt to at least 2 of the beds. Maybe I’ll get to that later today. I’ve had brussels sprouts develop a couple of little heads, and one year got a stalk of broccoli, so I’m hoping to get some result this year. For me, collards usually take a year to establish and then I harvest for a whole year. I don’t have any in the ground atm, just peppers, which are still producing. I was thinking of trying a potato tower this year, but I haven’t done anything about it yet. I still have the fence mounted “window boxes” to consider. I think I’ll try some salad greens again. Turnips and beets did well…

It’s easier to focus on the garden/yard/house/holidays, but man o man is it getting crazy in the world. (see the comments late yesterday for some examples) I think we’re on the downhill slide, and it will pick up speed rapidly. Look at Venezuela as a guide. Our post industrial cities aren’t in any better shape, our spending is out of control, the invaders are everywhere, as are the homeless. Trash piles up, and infrastructure falls down. Medieval diseases are returning, and so is the feudal system. Superstition and feelings replace science and rationality. Trump is buying us breathing room, a change to the slope, but I don’t think anyone can reverse the trend any time soon.

I can’t grow enough food. I suck at gardening. That is starting to really bug me.

It occurs to me that some of you might not be willing to share your progress for OPSEC reasons. If so, please consider using a new name and posting about your success or failure. And for any of the couples/families that RBT helped anonymously, I’d love to do an update post on your experiences. Drop me an email to my last name at aol dotcom. I’ll change or summarize whatever you’d like.

I hope I’m wrong. But I bet there were folks sitting in Venezuela hoping the same thing a year ago…

nick flandrey

Not so cool and still humid. [78F and 99%RH @9am]

Got some stuff done yesterday. Cut the grass, blew the leaves and debris. Weedwacked around the driveway, along the fence as part of my cleanup and get rid of stuff plan. Got some camping gear out for my wife to use with the Girl Scouts next weekend.

Didn’t get any decor set up, and left all of Friday night’s stuff in the truck. It was over 90F Sat. afternoon, and I just wasn’t ready for that.

FEMA national forecast calls for Houston to get rain. I hope it holds off for at least a little while. I’ve got to get some decor set up and do some work in the driveway and patio or my wife will finally lose patience and call 1800 Got Junk. Can’t have that.

My apple tree that had fruit this year suddenly looks like it’s dying. The leaves are shriveled and brown. No clue what might have killed it. I’m hoping it’s just fall, but the other tree looks fine, and when the leaves turn they don’t usually shrivel. Dammit, I got ONE golf ball sized apple. ONE! That’s $50 per apple, not counting water…

Maybe I’ll get to the garden today. Hope springs eternal.

n

Cool and humid? yeah, we got that.

Today should be a good day to do yard and house stuff. One volleyball game late morning, and nothing else on the calendar.

I lost three days for the funeral trip, and before that three days for the inlaws anniversary party trip… that’s a week out of this month. No wonder I feel behind.

Time for the weekly round up. What did you guys do to prep? Thanks to pcb_duffer for his update on post hurricane Florida, anyone got anything from the Cali fires and blackouts?

About the only pure prepping thing I did this short week was feeding the family Sweet Sue canned chicken and dumplings over a slice of white bread with white gravy. All but the bread from stores. It wasn’t poison, but it wasn’t a hit either.

So what have you done??

n

Cool and damp? Probably. [54F and 99%RH]

Got a bunch of stuff done yesterday but not anywhere near enough to make TODAY easier….

I’ll start at the rent house installing the craigslist/facebook dryer. If it actually works, I’ll be happy. If not, the number of jailhouse and gang tattoos on the seller will have me pulling parts and putting them on ebay, while trying to find another replacement. Guy and his girlfriend might be completely honorable, but I don’t need to find out for the small change I’ve got invested…

Then some personal care, and placing some items where they might sell locally.

Then to round out the afternoon and evening, I will be installing temporary and fun! lighting for our school’s Fall Festival today. Then I’ll be packing it up, a bit later. No roadies or tour buses for me, but my wife will help. I’ve got a 400w long throw UV floodlight, a rock concert venue sized fog machine, and some colored lights to put the fun! in dis-functional… I can’t wait until my daughters need me to start supplying sound systems or bigger light shows. I’m a one man rental house 😉 and I like my geezer rock LOUD…

n