2015-07-31

It is Summer so time to think about the upcoming Winter:

Weathering the winter in near arctic climates can be done without (or minimal) fossil fuels. 
Just ask the eskimos. 
The tricks are as follows:

  • Acclimate - don't expect to keep your surroundings at 70 degrees, It ain't happening. Instead as it gets colder let your body get used to the cold, don't stand naked in a sudden cold snap but do have a lot of time out in the air and let your home (and if you can office) temperature follow with the outside temperature.

  • Dress for it. Why heat a whole house when you are already heating your own body with food (eat higher calorie food during the winter- fats especially). Putting on a layer of cotton thermals, coat, wool socks, hats, and mittens, is all I need down to -20 for a couple hours at a time, by leaving the socks and thermals on inside the house I can keep the house around 50 to 60 and be not too uncomfortable.

  • Keep unused spaces unheated- ties right into the the dress for it philosophically: insulate and heat the smallest spaces you can and add as little heat as you can.

  • Having running water does take a temperature above freezing, so does running diesel engines, so keeping your body, pipes, and engines, above freezing is a good idea- but do they have to be at a room temperature of 70 degrees???? probably not, reduce the temperature where these things are so that they are stored warm enough to work but not too much more.

  • Solar Gain - even the coldest winter weather at noon on a cloudy day an enclosed space behind a pane of glass facing the sun will be significantly warmer than outside it. 

  • Insulate and prevent air movement. During hot spells even a light breeze makes it seem cooler, same effect during cold spells, so keep the air as still as you can during the cold times, blocking all possible sources of draft. Insulation helps keep the heat in. Blocking all the windows doors and even walls with curtains, blankets, and tapestries, keeps a room much warmer feeling. A rug on the floor, slippers, and super insulated ceiling and a room that felt like it was near freezing is suddenly a lot more comfortable.  This can also be decorative.

  • Burning wood, grass, charcoal, animal dung, etc. will add the little bit of heat a well designed and built house will need. Burning it in a sealed fire proof container, preferably with a high mass to store the heat and control over the air inlet and outlet and you can get efficient hot burns.
Doing all these things can help you survive the coldest of winters. But it does involve more thinking and work than just turning up the thermostat or lighting the furnace- which is why so many people are going to head south when petroleum inputs get too expensive, it is cheaper to be lazy and ignorant where it is warmer.....

2015-07-14

Stormy Weather, whether or not you are ready.


So last evening was another rainstorm where I live. About 35 minutes of pouring pounding rain and howling winds to make the rental house shake. All while it was 80+ degrees F. 

Of course we had planned to do things last evening out on the land, but had to get some stuff out of the bed of the truck first. - Here we are hauling a 300 lb electronic device (big office copier) into our garage. Huh, a drop or two fall while we are just pushing it in under cover. Then with a rush of hurricane force winds came a torrent like a firehose. 

We waited for a little bit in the garage, then made a run for it  to get back to the house. In the 15 yards or so we ran we got SOAKED. We got into the house and the grid electric went out - and back on - and out again 2 minutes later - and so on for about 10 minutes. 

Which is more or less what prepping and living independently is all about. Dealing with the vagaries of the environment (natural and human). 
I leaned the value of having a large sheet of water proof plastic at hand, and reading the local indicators.

What storms are out there on the horizon or overhead, that you might need shelter from? 
How suddenly can those storms hit? 
How will you know they are about to hit?
Is your shelter ready enough to keep you dry and safe?
Political, Social, Economic, fields are all areas with 'human storms, but they are still storms. Even if they only hit your house or if they hit the whole Globe they are storms. Shelter, and warning to take that shelter, are needed. 
The best shelter in the world is useless if you don't take it in time to avoid the worst of the storm. 
But at the same time you cant live you life huddling in a safe room in the bunker on an island. 
You have things to do - besides that bunk wont shelter you from every sort of storm (foreclosure anyone?). 
Reading the indicators for every sort of storm, and having a plan is at least as much a part of prepping as growing a garden or storing food or taking security measures. In fact it is more of a part of prepping than those sort of things. Reading the indicators in 1937 caused a lot of bright people to try and escape the Holocaust; where as, just moving to a farm in the country with a rifle would have not done them any good at all.  
Adapting allows one to Overcome. 

2015-07-13

What do you do if your family isn't on board with your preparing or homesteading, etc.?


DO what you need to do. It is your life, your family and life partners have some vested interest, but in the final analysis you will have to live or die based on the choices you make and the things you do.

DO try and make your 'hobby' seem like a harmless occasional little thing, like buying twice the cans of soup you need, going a little further than the FEMA and American Red Cross recommendations, etc. It is just a little bit of extra insurance a little healthier greener lifestyle after all.

DO be creative in having the family assist you in what ever part of your preparations interests them (shooting and hunting with grandpa, putting up extra food with mom, crafting warm sturdy clothes with sister sue, gardening with the kids, what ever as their interests and inclinations recommend.) 

DON'T let them know the full extent- or any at all about it if they don't need to and if you can, but also see the final note below.  You do not need to go all sneaky or anything, just figure out where you can put things that they wont go investigate.

DO spend only your own money, and such free funds you had been spending on luxuries, on prep things instead. 

DON'T make the mistake of going towards a lot of firearms right away. A single firearm and hundred or thousand or so rounds (stored away safely) is more than enough until you have 7+ years worth of EVERYTHING else. 
But it really depends on your situation. If you are under 18 you cant buy junk land without parental permission, but if you are an adult, you certainly can incorporate an LLC (a couple hundred dollars) and purchase the junk land in that name, stop by it briefly every time you can find an excuse, improve it a little and store some stuff. Etc. Etc.

DON'T ask permission but DO compromise if they have any objections i.e.  
-Them :"You aren't spending enough time with the kids" 
-You :  " Okay, the kids and I will go out fly kits, and shoot sling shots at an empty lot (your junk land) that the owners wont mind us using."
-Them : "Quit spending money on stupid stuff" 
-You : " I guess we can both cut back from our hobbies and shop more conservatively, and work up a fair budget for both of us. " (trust me, you point out something they like to do to cut back on they will either blow up or back off, and spending money on something like food or water filters that you actually USE daily can be waved away as a cost SAVING measure).

And finally:


DON'T LIE- lying about what you are doing just makes them distrust you further. Being a homesteader, prepper, survivalist, doomer, etc. just make people distrust you because of all the bad press out there, out right lying about what you are doing will just make it worse when they finally figure it out. 

Family (and by this I mean the life time significant other too) is one of the most valuable things to have, pull them into your lifestyle without using any of the words the media uses to label things and give them a negative slant (prepper, survivalist, homesteader, off grid, etc.) and you have something to make the life you are living worth it.

2015-07-09

Quote of the Decade:

Bailouts are never about enabling reform–they’re about preserving the Status Quo for the Elites and their vested interests. - The very Status Quo that was broken enough to require a bailout in the first place.

Reform cannot be triggered by borrowing more money–it can only be triggered by defaulting on existing debts that cannot be paid. 


Attribute http://www.dancortes.com/failures-of-fiscal-discipline-the-swiss-exit-and-the-failure-of-the-euro/

some minor modifications made for better quote-ability.

Update.
Dancortes.com is no longer the original site, as it has gone missing and I cant find anything else on the internet about him or his writings.

2015-07-08

Tools

You can never have too many high quality tools that you can use.

You can easily get suckered into thinking that you have the right tool for the job only to find yourself with a real lemon that takes more maintenance time than it saves by using it.

You can occasionally luck into a tool that is more useful and time and labor saving than you ever thought possible.

I still haven't found a good way to tell a good tool from a bad one when you have had little or no prior experience with it.

Older tools that are simple and in good repair seem to often a good idea, and usually work out well for the price spent, the problem is knowing how good of repair they are in as they get more complicated.
Tools designed to do lots of things are often less reliable at all the jobs and more expensive than just getting each type of tool separately.

New tools often work adequately at first but prove they don't have much staying power.
My 1973 'John Deere' garden tractor has required just as much maintenance as my 2013 'Property Master' snow blower/brush mower.  And the cheap-ish regular mower for grass works almost as effectively as both of those combined for clearing the land of brush. What is up with that?!?!

If you don't have previous experience with performing a task, before running off and buying a new tool to perform that task, ask those with experience HOW to do the task, and what tool they would use before asking WHAT to look for in a tool. Heck, they might have a spare they would be willing to part with for a pittance, or know a common 'gotcha' that you might run into.

Back to the tractor, brush mower, and standard mower.
When I asked a couple people who have had experience what I should be using to clear the land they both recommended a whole different tool entirely- a gas powered heavy duty weed whacker (with add on metal blades). The three other tools that I was trying to use set me back between them almost $5000, PLUS maintenance costs. The weed whacker plus metal blades should run about $600 based on the window shopping I did after getting the recommendation. Also since the weed whacker isn't supported on wheels I wont break it by having it fall into brush hidden holes like I almost have with the other tools...

Learn from my mistakes, take it slow, make certain you are getting the right tool for the job (ask those who do to know for sure), and choose simple single purpose tools that will make the task easiest on you. Don't be afraid to pay a little more for quality but don't assume brand name or price necessarily means quality.