For you and TomH I’d like to give you my winter shop “discovery”.
I/we got a 16 foot; dual wheeled axle box van to do our bad weather and long stuff moving with.
Ha! Holiday family doings I fell behind filling up the 1.5 cubic yards dumpster before scheduled picking up.
So last night in the pouring down cold raining an old dishwasher and fouled, stinking recliner char got boned out by me while the family was cozy in the house.
Great factory LED lighting inside the van box. An HD grounded power cord from the house. Powered the plug-in saws-all. The cordless drill speed-disassembler charger. And a glowing electric radiant heater.
Darn. A transportable 120 square foot, dry, warm, shop by golly.
Ahh . . . the garbage company says no “furniture” or “appliances” (or wooden wastes) allowed going into the dumpster.
Ha! Just a plastic tub. Garbage’s filled. And cushions then. And adds to the plastic bottles of types and sizes sorted nuts and screws.
S.U.
Did I mention that I don’t throw anything away Mr S.? I have an old dishwasher in my root cellar, built into a nook. Very handy for storing all the crap like bone meal or gypsum or all the other potions I use. I like the slide out racks.
Ha! Ha! Yes. I do believe you.
I had a stacked up accumulative of two pulled out dead built-in’s. And one once was perfectly fine portable.
Portable has a work top; enamel steel outer housing; and wheels. Moved that one up to the new place.
Moving 90 years of the folks accumulation; and 26 years of the wife’s and mine . . . multiple duplicates just have to go.
Got one neighbor buying up U-Haul box take-off’s for his collection’s hording storages
He has six now and adding. Theses plywood sandwiched composite boxes do not sweat nearly as much as the CONEX all steel containers.
S.U.
Fired up the wood burner to help get the forklift unstuck at the wood lot. The bobcat and some of the guys went with the Amish to Mayfield, Ky. to help with their tornado clean-up. The dump truck and the 8n are working elsewhere. Just hoped when they called it was not completely buried. The wood burner was just enough help. I gave up on trying to lighten up the truck (1998) and reduce the wind drag. It’s still a great truck to tow a bit with and run the two-lane roads. (Kevin DeLonay took the guts out of the 4x4 drive on his 1997 to try and reduce weight to increase speed.) This is a time where the 4x4 came in handy. I was able to enjoy a relaxing country drive on wood after the forklift rescue.
One of the best things I did was convince Donnie at the wood lot was to replace as many of the small engines on the hydraulic splitters with electric motors as possible. They were always calling needing help with the small engines before. The electric Speed Splitters (impact) have been great for average splitting. One is six years old and still runs without problems. Those impact splitters like Gary Gilmore built are real workhorses. At the wood lot they run eight hours a day and 360 days a year. That’s really good for a unit intended for home use.
I, we, had a great day yesterday.
We all loaded up and went for the day to the Evergreen Aircraft/Aerospace Museum and Waterpark. Cold wet and windy outside, why not.
Huh. I cannot find a good pictured link showing the Water Park building. They water slide from out of a building top 747 Boeing.
Where the ladies spent the day. Ha! I did my Cabana security, purses sitting while they were changing then boogied out out from all of the humidity, steam and chlorine.
Rockets; helicopters; and aircraft . . .Oh My!
S.U.
Didn’t want to keep violating the skoda thread with talk about geography. You guys in Washington should stay aware and up on your preps. A 6.3 quake in Northern Ca and a 6.2 in Alaska yesterday. There has been almost constant quake swarms from the Juan de Fuca fault that have moved toward the Cascadia. I think Jerry Lee Lewis said it best.
Hi TomH.
I am just finishing up re-reading for the third time H.W. Buzz Bernard’s “Cascadia” written 2016.
I want to gift it away for Christmas to a new neighbor.
The recent tornado folks should have read his “SuperCell”.
You? His “Blizzard”?
We all know our particular Hammer-Flat is coming. Do what you can ahead then live with it.
Move away and then have to learn another gonna’happen Someday. Even in Hawaii. With then different truths & consequences to learn.
Being resilient is the key to sleeping well.
Steve Unruh
I agree SteveU. We know dramatic things are going on. At best we can roll with the punches, but it makes no sense for a person to be in a position where they have to go to a market everyday for food and essentials. Very few take it to the extent I do, but at least a couple of weeks of food in a pantry and a supply of clean drinking water and heating fuel is fairly logical. Of course I wouldn’t want to be very close to west of Mt Rainier or Mt St Helens. Hard to prep for pyroclastic flows or tons of ash.
Yep. Foods, water and a bit of power making is the Universal. Then add in one years’ worth of hard-wearing seasonal clothing and footwear. Developed multiple levels of back up housing. With your basics spread in between them.
I never figured the Penske truck for a hunker-in-place back-up. Now I do.
Realistically learn your local area’s true hazards.
TomH a within 30-50 miles a Nuclear plant can spew as bad as any volcanoes. Volcanic ash is a pita, but just protect the lungs and the engines. Wetside here it gets grown-in within 2-3 years.
Actually volcanic pyroclastic flows have relatively short run-outs. Mud flows can go 50-70 miles out river and valley drainages. Don’t live there.
Same goes for down valley to hydroelectric dams. Multiple upstream landslides can slosh out a reservoir or a lake. Don’t live there. The coastal Tsunami zones; hillside and view houses; and below slopes . . . do not live there.
True Cascadia 9.0 dangers are landslides. Ground liquification. The shakers made fires.
Whole different story if this happens mid-dry-drought season versus in the Wet season.
And most important: where you did choose to live. You know this. You, I, others here know best to be in lower density populated areas.
We can foods, clothing, housing accommodate our basic five for up to one year. Have to take in others the math’s divide. We actually plan for that. Only O.K. if they can seasonally labor contribute. Ha! Have the extra hand tools. Growing seeds. And plenty of practical, wide interests’ books.
S.U.
Yes, nature stays in control, no matter what we people build/ think.
About supermarket and taking care of yourself. The way Dutch John builds his gasifiers is the way he lives his life. If he wants to live self sufficient, he will. But even he went to the supermarket for a few things. I tried to follow his lifestyle but couldnt. You have to be very very commited to life that life now, if you dont have to. Respect if someone succeeds!
Was told about a sale on sportsmansguide. They’re selling 5 Colombian surplus machetes for 34 dollars. Ordered a set today, I hope I get one of the Bush hook style machetes would be great for delimbing.
As usual we are operating out of the same playbook SteveU. I am in total agreement. I mainly want to put myself in a position where I do not have to rely on anyone else for my basic necessities. I’m not going to bullshit anyone and pretend I"ve achieved those goals but I have made significant in-roads. I think I’ve been back on the site going on two years now. It has made a big difference in my ability to close in on some of those goals. I do not plan to live back in the 1890’s even it things took the worst turn. I am a huge fan of wire and electrons.
Regardless of geological events forthcoming, people’s biggest problem will always be a food supply. Folks that are paying attention can see that our normal modes of food production are systematically failing. Add supply line issues, senseless government interference and the idea that Kroger or where ever you shop is going to meet your needs becomes highly unlikely. I have made a true effort to determine just how much of my yearly food needs could be met by my own hands. In all honesty I doubt it would be as much as 60 per cent. A fact that weights heavily on me.
So in a complete societal collapse I have decided that a years worth of food and supplies will give me time to see how things shake out. As you inferred, we will have unexpected, unpredictable drains on those supplies. After all, a man is his brothers keeper or else he has no place in what the Hopi call the fifth world. Also as you mentioned there is no perfect place of a man to dwell. Everyone has advantages and disadvantages and the smart person adapts himself to those conditions by studying possible pitfalls and working around them.
I’m not aware of Dutch John’s lifestyle is Joep, but every thing you do to make yourself less dependent is a huge plus. Even one small seed can produce bushels of tomatoes.
IV been late to the prep party for some time but since I do subscribe to the notion that it takes a village, I have put together a small group of like minded individuals and have plans in place. Come to find out I am miles ahead of most in being ready for whatever may come with solar power multiple generators woodgas chainsaws tools gasoline on hand white gas cooking stoves weapons ammo trapping supplies the knowledge of how to aquire wild meat in many different ways. My strong lacking is in greens production, and if time allows meaning things don’t get ugly by next summer I plan to start more heavily gardening including aquaponics system green house with catfish and tilapia and meat rabbits. Each little thing adds up, but it is very hard to do yourself. Have one friend that is the tech guru with security cameras and 3d printing and the like. Wife and a close friend are registered nurses with medical supplies and knowledge, both with food storage canning type knowledge. Few friends that are ex-military from army and marines with vast knowledge. Going more in depth with learning wild edibles in my area and foraging. Baby steps in, and as Tom so well stated
Invest in heirloom seeds or any seed that produces viable seeds. I think the most important lesson in subsistence farming is knowing how to propagate the next grow season’s seeds. A YouTube channel I really like is David The Good. He doesn’t subscribe to just one type of niche/fad gardening trend and he’s even now showcasing the proven old time style of single row wide spaced crops.
I’ve always heard that there’s a decent triad of plants for a rotation, corn squash and beans. Not sure how true that is. I know beans will nitrate the soil.
One big thing for using any biochar is to charge it in a compost or compost juice first or else the charcoal will suck all the nutrients from the soil and the plants won’t be able to readily absorb it that year.
They call that the three sisters garden. I did that one year but I don’t remember the planting sequence because the corn has to have a head start on the pole beans so that the beans have something to climb on. The squash has to see the sun before the corn gets too tall. This way 3 crops can grow in tha same space.
I am at an age where my parents and grandparents lived through the great depression. Then came WWII and the rationing of food and supplies. Untainted, first hand information was available for the asking of a question. My family lived thought the depression without electricity because it wasn’t available in rural areas at that time at least in these parts. The hard times came and went and being hundreds of miles from an actual urban area they never even had the wanderers come around begging. In short they hardly knew anything bad was going on unless they got a newspaper or someone had a battery operated radio. Prepping is just making yourself less vulnerable. There are a lot more people now and they easily panic. The biggest surprise for me from the pandemic was how fast all the seeds and gardening supplies disappeared when the Lock downs started. A lot of people are not quite as oblivious as they seem.
