North Korea set off a very large either A bomb or an H bomb today. I don’t think one will ever be aimed at Crivitz, Wi. but I would not put any money on LA.TomC
3 Likes
North Korea has no delivery system. China, on the other hand, launched an ICBM off the coast of Los Angeles; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rOssVrhQmg
Their submarine drifted in undetected for weeks. The missile landed in China.
The collapse is ongoing. When the cascade of default hits, it is expected to circle the globe in less than 24 hrs. So, the grand finale may very well be overnight but, there will still be a window of opportunity to travel. I expect it to be 3 days, max. Grid down for some other cause is a different story. it will get dangerous very fast.
Here is a little instructive story from Florida. A huricane hits and the grid goes down. A guy whips out his trusty generator and places it next to his electrical panel. He can hear it humming away. After dark, his lights suddenly go out BUT, he can still hear the generator running. No big deal so, he takes his time looking for a flashlight and tools.
He goes out to find an old lawnmower running away where his generator was.
2 Likes
Steve, those are live numbers. Today I see two of them beeing exporters and Sweden importing. Northern parts of Sweden had -42,8 C this morning, even lower temps expected to night.
But you are right that the 3 Baltic states (former Sovjet union states) are hurting. “Flow-map” shows they pay more than twice the price for their electricity. Salaries only 1/4 - 1/3 of ours. Also dependent on Russian heating propane does not help. We’re not living in a just world.
Finland caught my eye beeing a constant huge importer. I guess it has to do with them not having their newest nuclear plant up and running yet. It has been a 15 year on going project, lots of delays and extra expenses. I’ve read that elecrtricity prices has to tripple to brake even. Might not be a startup at all in near future. Not a very good investment.
Living in central parts of Sweden I see only a modest -23 C today. A couple of birch lumps will do the trick. BBB
2 Likes
I agree 150 percent with SU that whatever your preparedness plan is, it better include a network of trustworthy people to share and be shared with. Also the part about being as independant NOW as possible.
One thought I haven’t seen mentioned is that the small branch type pallet type wood that we will need for our gasifiers will be in high demand when it gets tough. Present wood heaters don’t want to fool with this little stuff, but when there is no fuel for chainsaws, or they have been left behind, this easy to gather and break up by hand if needed for Hobo warming and cooking will be gathered up in a hurry.
5 Likes
As we drift ever further from Steve’s thread I feel obliged to say I am no prepper. There is no end out there just long overdue economic rebalancing. There is a blogger out there called the Archdruid who I agree with 60% of the time whose’s saying is “Collapse now avoid the rush”. In a nutshell that is us. Slowly tuning our life for a lower energy future where money is scarce credit unavailable and all you have are the skills and relationships you have built up over YEARS. I follow the collapsoshere from a distance but I fail to understand why people stay in a world they are convinced is failing. Everyone gets to choose though. I decided over a decade ago that it was much easier relocating while things were good with less money but a functioning economy then waiting to accumulate an ever larger nest egg and “escaping” later. Now entrenched I cannot imagine how you would do it with failed banks, crumbling roads, retreating government services that would inevitably follow economic hard times. There have been downsides but the good far out weighs the bad. All this explains why I love this site so much, those who I listen to are mostly rural, mostly already here doing it if not perfectly then at least better.
Best regards to all, David Baillie
9 Likes
I like that David.
I started buying into the ‘what ifs’ which most can very well happen. The cummulation of the what ifs opened my eyes to how my existence was dependant on the outside world. All solutions pointed in the direction the way my grandparents lived of which I’ve always admired.
In my head I want to set our place up to handle whatever financial level we are capable of. Today we can afford to drive a 2012 Chevy Equinox, have satellite Internet and TV, and we are able to go to the grocery store. I am investing my money in tools and other items that will enhance a comfortable existence should we experience a personal financial collapse and can’t find a reasonable way to make an income. The Equinox gets parked, the TV and internet go away and cell phones get shut off. Hopefully a garden will already be established from the heritage seeds that have already been purchased and wood gas projects are all on top of the priority lists.
I feel this way the fear mongers don’t have a any grip on my serenity. My quality of life will have minimal peaks and valleys. Maybe my ideals are a mere rough draft and reality will different way of playing out but it feels to be an obtainable direction to work with.
Most of what gets posted on here is all great info. It all gives me things to take in consideration.
Great thread Steve.
6 Likes
Yes We all have some fear of what is coming. It may come next year or the following or maybe in 10 years. If it comes in the distant future, what do you do about your health. I am at that stage in my life where if I have my wood truck and make my generator run on charcoal and heat my house with wood and grow my own garden, I would only last 6 months without medicines.TomC
4 Likes
And in that six months TomC you would be use-proof showing/training friends, family and neighbors.
As minimum have a bit of real needful things to leave for those really needing it.
Pa’ died in 2005 sitting under his yard apple tree, chair sitting, filing saw chains for me. Having just eaten a piece of snitched fresh cake I got us from the wife’s cooling rack. It was a sunny autumn Sunday. “It was a good day”. He was 1/4 Cherokee. One of his sayings.
Two years later Ma’ died with peace and grace n their living room after 15 years Alzheimer. Her German farm-girl genes caught up with her (the book “A Thousand Mile Stare”, Gary Reiswig 2010).
I’d trade back the John Deere tractor, the Ford pickup truck, the boat, couple of shotguns, 700 canning jars a whole house and barn full of stuff, for a few more stories, tips and pointers from them.
They wanted us to have it all to move on forward with.
Expectation is we absorbed enough to carry on the “help others worthy” family ethics.
We try. We try.
Those we will leave will be our judges on this.
Regards
Steve Unruh
Hey DavidB - better get to growing those greenhouse tomatoes, man. YOU want to squirrel away the dried spices to be making that katsup. Virginia State Sara say’s it is a really l-o-n-g involved process. A real labor of love. She say’s learn to love gespachio (sp) instead. Easier on relationships costs. S.U.
1 Like
Hi tom have you checked any herbal medicine remitys, people lived quit long with out pharma before, hard telling what the anti christ bunch are setting up for.They all say one thing too get voted in, than do another after elected,the voteing machines are rigged anyway.If they were religoius,they would twist the sriptures anyway, Like demanding sunday only church’s too somebody.
1 Like
99.9% of all Grid-down events will get resolved in 30-90 days.
The book I gifted out this last Christmas across the family was written by a woman for women with children.
2008 Kathy Harrison’s, “JUST IN CASE: How to to Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens” (chapter 6: Preparedness with Children)
Part 2 Preparedness: Getting your home and family ready to handle the crisis
Part 3 Dealing With Disaster: What to do inan emergency
Part 4 Doing It Yourself: The Arts of Self-Sufficiency
This last part section covers water storing/purification; gardening, cold-storage, heating with wood, then canning foods. Need the heat first for canning, yogurt making, baking, cooking
Last book 35 pages is cheese making, pickling and recipies for dryed, food bases.
Nope DavidB. no catsup recipes here.
I am trying to improve on the one page generator knowledge in this book for my pizza-lover branches of the family and friends.
No joke here. I do mean pizza lovers.
Last cold-dry-wind-blowing Sunday we had the god-child’s mother and sister up to go rock-hounding in the water frozen down Lewis River exposed gravel banks. I am so eveous! She found a bear tooth canine fossil while I was up in the vehicle being a children entertainment toy.
Back home she wanted to treat the wife and I to a pizza-pie.
Well girly we do have pizza at least once every two weeks. Wife brings home fresh bases and adds from there.
The nearest take-out pizza are 15 miles away. What choices? Five. Opps. Wrong brands. Well, that’s 22 miles away.
So she loaded up the older sister and off and away back to her condo 30 miles away picking up her favorite pizza on the way. Mother’s name is Destini.
Just so you will realize that all the names and folks I’m using on this topic thread are real. And important to me. Yes. I had given her this book too. And she IS one of the job require CNA caregivers I’ve given generator training to at one of her employers.
Sigh. Not all of us are on the way to better.
Steve Unruh
1 Like
Makes a lot of sense. Do it now while YOU are in control of the process.
3 Likes
Well for 30 yrs. we farmed, and were self reliant, we bought paper products,heated only with wood, gas for chainsaws,and truck. That was about all we bought, if we didn’t hunt it, raise, or grow it we didn’t eat it. Home schooled kids, Worked the farm with horses, but it took a toll on my body. I am retired now, taking it easy,heating with natural gas. Wife still gardens,and cans, we do buy food now, but I still have the tools,and knowledge to do it again if needed, and to pass down to our boys,they grew up doing, but do not know the value of that education, yet. Al
5 Likes
Watching the show. Life below zero the other night one of the characters said. " the cold doesn’t kill you it’s not being prepared for the cold that kills you"
Thanks Steve for putting this out there. Shows you care about us too.
4 Likes
Bill your birch looks a little spalted. I heated with grey birch a lot 30 years ago and found even green was better than seasoned on the stump. If not split, bark tends to hold in moisture. White, black, and yellow birch are not so fussy.
4 Likes
To clarify that was katsup as a possible trade good. Along with peanut butter and chocolate.I am only minorly addicted to katsup 
. My french Canadian grandmother made a tomato onion cucumber sweet and sour relish she called katsup and that is what I would love to taste again. Good night all…
David Baillie
4 Likes
Hi @SteveUnruh ,
I hadn’t given the little suitcase generators much thought before reading this post. I have a few questions though. You mention using the 2000 watt Honda invertor generators, and that 2000 watts does most of what you NEED. I would agree that 2000 watts would do most of what I would need during a power outage as well. however I did some looking at the Honda and according to some of the reviews continuous is 1850 watts. Still plenty to run a refrigerator, freezer and some lights. But on wood / charcoal gas how much power do you lose? The 30% rule with mean about 1200 - 1300 watts. Is this what you are getting? If you have already covered this just point me in the right direction.
1 Like
While the GEK is pretty nifty and will run for quite a while unattended, good diesel fuel in a generator is great too. I often find ways to use other people’s discards. That comes to fuel also. Older diesels are far less picky that newer ones. If my drivers put gasoline in an Isuzu, I have to drain it out. If they put gasoline in an IH like a DT 466, i just dump in gallons of drain oil. Old MBZ diesels are rated to run up to 30% gasoline in cold weather.
Diesels run pretty fair on transmission fluid ATF. Not sure how they do on synthetic. If you can accumulate drums of waste oil, you can always find a use as fuel. Simple Centrifuge makes a great unit for cleaning it up; http://www.simplecentrifuge.com/
i’ve run about 5,000 gals. of straignt drain oil in diesel trucks without plugging up a filter. You can also purify oil with just a wick. It’s pretty slow.
I saw the credit collapse coming 10 years ago. i was just going to run off to Chile of Costa Rica but, decided to stay and look out for the kids. I looked around the lower 48. I’ve also made 7 trips to Alaska. I settled on Western Oregon because of the water and growing season. The longer the growing season, the less you have to store. The less likely that you are to lose it.
I stayed in L.A. to make money and buy supplies. Not having anything better to do, I made plans to help other people. The elderly are most at risk. If all labor is manual, the elderly lose out.
The best idea that I came up with was; ROTOTILLING… The old folks all know how to garden, They just don’t have the energy to break up their lawns to make gardens. I figure free rototilling is the best way to help them.
I’ve got a Troy Built, a JD 400 and a Farmall 560 with tillers. I should be able to get into small yards. My river runs salmon and steelhead. i won’t say that I have a net but, I won’t say that I don’t. A 3 x 3 x 6 underground pit bbq has already had a taste of deer. We’ve been culling the mountain lions to keep the deer population up. My neighborhood bear hasn’t been a problem, yet. I have a most wonderful spring up the mountain just enough to provide good head. The fish pond is roughed out.
I don’t have a problem with neighbors;
There is only one neighbor withn rifle-shot range. I can take a kayak all the way to the ocean for crabs and fish. I expect to find a few families who need a base and a plot. Families with kids have the most investment in the future and are reliable. The property is just 10 acres but i can use anything in the vicinity that I want.
3 Likes
On the couch with few T-mobile 3G left so have to be brief.
Gotcha DavidB. I knew you meant trading stocks. Now with your “recipe” know to spell it right as ketsup. Spell checker was confused.
Great picture WilliamB.
Good plan.
Get a chance wonder up the coast to Gold Beach and stop in at the Backwoods Home pulishers. I think you’d like the folks there.
For in depth other oil fuels read into the Fuels Alternatives here:
www.microcogen.info
Say Hi to MobileBob
RobertS I’ve benn doing a lot of direct user asking and Net/youtube veiwing on the 2000 watt inverter/gnerators.
One youtube previous long term Honda 3000 user replace with two Honda 2000’s. He said for better portability and to get the same wattage usage output. Says he has better electrical loads starting/maintaining wattage running both. BETTER fuel consumption running both at the same time than the 3000 solo. Much lower fuel consumption when few watts needed only running one then on low speed “eco” setting.
I am coming up with for my supply to family needs with going either Honda or Yamaha. These both have the real world user proven reliability. Actual servicing dealer parts support. On the Honda 2000’s especially lots of user modifications upgrades programs.
I’ll be posting up youtube links supporting this once on taxpaer “free” wi-fi.
For actual woodgas fuel suppling I see more the problem in drawing enough fuel gas to keep a raw wood fueled gasifer drawn hot enough to be effective. Read Dutch John site about “Tiny’s” trials and tribulations:
www.woodgas.nl the micro gasifier section.
I see for my pellet wood stove branches of the family the solution to this in Doug Brethower’s and “friends” works he talks about above.
Or Stephen Abadessa’s smallest system.
I don’t want to speak up about maybe ArvidO’s or Matt Ryders smallest systems at these very low fuelgas demand levels. They are invited to speak up for themselves. Please.
Oh. The Honda 2000’s are four stroke 98.5 cc OHC single cylinders running at full load ~3000 rpm. For flow rate calculations.
True near four engine horsepower needed at full out 1800-2000 watts electrical. ~1 1/2 engine horsepower needed at the eco 500 watt output. DJ’s Tiny dilemma for his power reel mower.
Night. Night.
Steve Unruh
1 Like
HOW? Just hang a wick over the side of a bucket and let it drip?
1 Like
Painful off grid lesson number 76:
Never, Ever gasify the primary generator…buy a second one with"carb problems" for cheap. Keep you gas or propane unit on a beautiful warm shelf exercise it regularly and that’s all. Beat the crap out of the cheap one… I have a 6.5kw that is my poor tortured one. My 3.5 sits waiting… I will invest in a 2 kw inverter one money permitting. As a reminder Steve’s thread dealt originally with what to do in the first days or weeks after a grid down event. The inverter generators are specialists I would not monkey around with them unless desperate…
Best regards David Baillie
2 Likes