The risk of losing power is one that we face every day. If anything, that risk is greater today than it has ever been. Not only is there the potential for a major disaster, such as an EMP, but we are also faced with the fact that our electric infrastructure just isn’t up to the task. Much of the system is old and can’t handle the strain.
We saw a very real example of this in February, when unexpectedly cold temperatures caused blackouts in Texas. We saw the same thing in California last summer, when the local electric company had to use rolling blackouts to help avoid causing forest fires.
Both states public utility commissions have already announced that they are looking at the probability of rolling blackouts again this summer, because utilities are unsure of their ability to produce enough power to meet everyone’s needs.
Part of this problem can rightly be placed at the feet of those who are pushing for a higher percentage of “green energy,” specifically wind and solar power, which are not reliable. State public utility commissions are forced to treat these unreliable electrical sources as if they are reliable, all the while knowing that they are not. This leaves little extra generating capacity for those times when it is needed. Should even one thing go wrong, chances for a blackout are high.
Even so, it’s not fair to lay all of the problem at the feet of green energy. There are other factors involved, such as there being no incentives for electric companies to have emergency power in place, should something happen to one of their power plants. Nor can problems associated with drastic weather events be blamed on green energy. The truth is, we had problems with blackouts before green energy even became a thing and we will continue to have problems with them, as long as mother nature is uncooperative.
The truth is, any of us can be hit with a power outage at any time, even without an obvious cause. How much of a problem those cause for us is another thing altogether and depends largely on how ready we are for it when it happens. Taking the time to do some preparation can make all the difference in the world.
Related: How to Tell in 5 Minutes If It’s a Power Outage or an EMP and Get a Massive Head Start
Installing a Wood-Burning Stove
One of the biggest problems facing us if the power goes out is heating our homes. Of all the electrical power used in the home, heating is the largest, with some families heating accounting for as much as 42% of the energy they use. Yet when the power goes out, our home heating systems are unable to function, even if we’re heating with natural gas.
The most practical solution for heating without electricity is wood. Throughout history, mankind has heated our homes with wood, as it is about the only form of fuel that we can harvest from nature ourselves, with little special equipment.
Installing a wood-burning stove is a better solution than a fireplace, both because it is easier to install and because it provides more heat per lo burned.
There are two main issues in installing any wood-burning stove:
The bigger issue is the chimney. This isn’t too bad in a one-story home, but can be extremely difficult in a two-story one, as the chimney would then have to pass through an upstairs room.
Finding someplace to do that can be very difficult. Chimneys passing through the enclosed spaces and attics need to be triple-walled, so as to prevent the risk of fire.
Once such a location is found, a fireproof pad needs to be installed for the wood-burning stove to sit on. If the stove is close to the wall, then tile or some other fireproof material should be mounted on the wall as well.
Related: Never Throw Away Your Wood Ash! Do This Instead
Making Survival Candles
Compared to heating, lighting uses much less electricity. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to be concerned about it. While most of us are accustomed to depending on flashlights for emergency lighting, batteries only last so long, especially in the modern tactical flashlights.
While there’s nothing wrong with using tactical flashlights, we need something else for low-level lighting, saving the flashlights and batteries for when they’re needed.
Making survival candles is an easy project that can be done in an afternoon. I keep my eye open for candles at garage sales, just for this purpose. Melted down, they can be poured into spaghetti sauce jars to make candles which are protected from having the wicks get wet.
When buying wicking for candles, it’s important to buy a thick one, as that will produce a larger flame, giving more light. The wicks need to be put in the jars before the wax is poured. I use four wicks per candle, or more correctly, two folded over pieces of wicking, giving me four wicks at the surface.
The wicks are weighed down at the bottom end, to keep them in place. Having candles with four wicks produces four times as much light, when extra light is needed.
Building Your Own Solar Panels
Solar panels are the number one means of producing off-grid power. But buying enough solar panels to really do much good can be rather expensive.
Unfortunately, the panels don’t produce a lot of power each, so it requires a lot of panels if you want to be able to run something like a well pump or refrigerator. Fortunately, you can build them yourself for about half the cost of buying them.
Building solar panels is more an exercise in patience than anything else.
The most tedious part is soldering the individual solar cells together. Since they are made of thin glass, extreme care must be taken to keep from breaking them.
But once they are soldered together, then it’s just a matter of mounting them in a moisture-proof, glass-fronted frame.
The Battery Backup System
While solar panels are important, what’s even more important is a battery backup system. This not only provides a place for the electricity that the solar panels are producing to be stored, it also allows storage of electricity before the lights go out, so that you have at least some power to work with.
Any battery backup system consists of three basic items: a solar charge controller (battery charger), batteries, and a voltage inverter. The solar charge controller is intended to take the input from solar panels or a wind turbine and use it to charge 12 volt batteries.
The voltage inverter can then take the power stored in the batteries and boost it to 120 volts AC, so that it can be used to run appliances.
The expensive part here in the batteries themselves. Ideally, they should be 12 volt deep-cycle lead-acid batteries, the same ones used in boats and recreational vehicles.
Related: How to Get Power Out of Your “Dead” Batteries
However, I use used car batteries in my setup as well. They work fine, even if they won’t last as long. But I can buy them cheap, making for a good tradeoff. You’ll want as many batteries as you can afford, as that is what’s going to make the most difference in the system.
A Simple Solar Cooker
With the power out, cooking can be a problem. My go-to cooker in that case, like many people’s, is my barbecue grille. But there are some things that just can’t be cooked well in a barbecue grille. Therefore, I also have a solar cooker to work with. That’s about like cooking with a Crockpot, except that it’s powered by the sun.
While there are several types of solar cookers, a basic solar cooker consists of a box with a glass or plastic cover.
“Wings” made of the same material and covered with aluminum foil reflect more light into the box, allowing the temperature inside the box to heat up even more.
Food being cooked is placed in a pot, inside the box, where it can absorb the heat and cook, albeit slowly.
While a simple solar cooker can be made out of a cardboard box, you’re better off making one out of wood and putting a glass cover/lens on it. The glass should be at about 50 degrees, allowing the sun to enter into it no matter what the time of year.
Make the wings adjustable, with something to hold them in place. That way, they can be adjusted to match the movement of the sun through the sky. When using the solar cooker, always make sure it is pointing due south.
Use a Homemade Root Cellar for Keeping Food Cool
Cooling food is one of the bigger challenges in a power outage. A modern refrigerator/freezer unit will keep the food cold for about 24 hours, without power. But after that, the contents will gradually begin to warm up. We obviously need to cook and eat or otherwise preserve this food as quickly as possible, unless we know the power is coming back on quickly.
For refrigerated items, all we really need is someplace to keep them cool. The average temperature of a refrigerator is about 37°F, which might be a bit difficult to reach. But before refrigerators existed, people would keep fresh food in a root cellar, which would usually maintain a steady 55°F.
Almost anything can be used to make a root cellar. The key is getting the food underground, where it is cooler.
While digging an actual cellar is ideal, the same results can be obtained, on a smaller scale, by burying something in the ground, with the lid at ground level. An old refrigerator works great for this, because it has an insulated door. Bury it laying on its back, in the shade, with the door at ground level.
Cool with a Wind Cooler
Cooling a home when the power is out is even more difficult than heating it. By and large, all we do is open the windows and hope for a cool breeze. But we can do something to help that breeze cool even better and it only takes used soda or water bottles and cardboard.
The principle is this: air or any other gas, passing through an orifice and then expanding will cool. This is actually the principle an air conditioner operates by. The difference here is that we’re not using Freon and we’re not compressing the gas to make it expand super-rapidly. So we’re not going to get super-cooling, although the air coming out the other side should be about five degrees cooler.
To make the wind cooler, cut off the top, funnel-shaped portion of the bottles. Then, using those as a pattern, cut holes in the cardboard to match their diameter, putting them close together.
Glue or tape the bottle parts in the cardboard, with the edge of the bottle part flush with the cardboard, and without the lids in place. Set it in a window, with the lid end of the bottles facing in. as the wind comes through the bottles, it will be cooled.
The cooling effect of these bottles can be improved by hanging a damp piece of thin cloth over the cooler. That way, the evaporation of the water from that fabric can work to increase the cooling action that the cooler provides.
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This new green deal is just another horse shit deal. A “dam lie” just like they are.
Hell just look at this jack ass idiot that is and can’t run this country. talibiden is a DAMMED FOOL just like all of these other dam fools that WE let in to destroy the United States OR is it just states now. because WE are NOT united at all.
Hey remember the titanic. we hit the iceberg when the ELECTION was STOLDEN from the Real American people.
NOW remember all the people that died that day on the ship. They were just like you and me. But where were the scum bag rich ass holes that think they should live while the common person should just die.
They were in the life boats.
This is america and I’m ashamed that I am an american. Just look at this contry, in 10 months we went from the top all the way to the bottom. lower then a third world country. The laughing stock of the EARTH… THANK YOU STUPID PEOPLE THAT VOTED FOR THIS HELL.
just remember “YOU” don’t mean horse shit to those scum bags and y’all are like a dung beetle. just in the shit NOW!!!!!!!!
I hope everything stops working, then we can go back to the good way of living.
The Old Ways…
I’ll trade my fortune for that kind of life style. The Old Ways. humm.
Thanks yall
You’re free to find some cheap land now, go off the grid, plow with a mule and 18th homestead to your heart’s content. The best part of you being off grid is you won’t be able to post your whining complaints.
NW Arkansas is trying to get people to move there. It’s supposed to be inexpensive. niio
@ Judge
are my post any different then your complaints. NO!!! You forget that you also have whining post on here or somewhere.
SO DON’T CALL THE KETTLE BLACK.
The reason for my whining complaints are that I lost some good american friends in Afghanistan. Because of the same elite ass holes that are making us go thru this shit. So ya I”m pissed off at the bull shit going on in this country.
Then we have some ass person like you, blowing some crap about some whining complaints because some person is pissed because my friends death was for “NOTHING” .
So, sorry if I went a little off the deep end.
YOU SHOULD AND EVERY ONE ELSES SHOULD BE JUST AS PISSED….
Thanks for your post. Again it was Encouraging. See you off grid… LOL
We should care more about each other and ask if they are okay. Not just be an ass to them. it just might be YOU next time that just might need an Encouraging word.
It would have help. thanks Bud…
I miss my friend. 🙁
Easy judge. We’re all frustrated and worried about the future. All of our nerves have been stretched to the breaking point. I consider myself a fairly level-headed individual but even I snapped at LCC the other day and I shouldn’t have done that. Right now we need to make the effort to come together instead of splitting apart. We really need to try our best to be MORE compassionate and kind to others. Especially our extended family on this page.
Be careful what you wish for, red ant. If “everything” stopped working we’d have no electricity, no water, no natural gas to heat our homes in the winter. In your case when you have unusually cold periods in Texas. Even that relatively short cold snap strained the infrastructure beyond it’s design limits. If everything stopped working suddenly the hardest hit would be the urban dwellers. Are you advocating genocide? If you’re a true Christian then you have enough love in your heart for everyone on this planet. If everything stopped working we’d have anarchy on a massive scale. So much unnecessary suffering and hardship. Is that what you want? Most people these days take all their services for granted. I don’t think most realize just how difficult life would be without electricity, water and heat. I love the idea of a wood stove. I grew up with one so I know the work involved in keeping it “fed”. Even at 12 I was doing a man’s work cutting and splitting logs to keep my parents warm while they slaved like mad men to keep a roof over our heads. These days, unless you have your own woodlot, it’s not practical to have a wood stove as your primary heat source. Better to put in a natural gas fireplace and unless you have a continent-wide EMP event your NG fireplace will still continue to work even if the local power is disrupted. The future is going to be bad enough for us, red ant. We are witness to the collapse of the American empire. I’m sure you’re already starting to see empty shelves. I am. Inflation keeps rising. Our supply chain, among many other things, is broken and the FED fiddles while America burns.
Plant trees.
@ Armin
are you a “true” christian ?
Funny that you ask if I’m a true Christian. Why do you think that I am the way I am.
No, I do not have love for all the people on this earth. why would I want to love a homosexual or a murderer or a pervert or an elite person. You tell me why would I…
No. I’m not advocating for genocide. That will be the antichrist job, not mine.
Hey be so kind as to not put words in my mouth like that… Thanks.
I can see most of the Human race “could not” live with out the finer things of life.
I still would take the old days. Always…
I to have slaved my whole life and the only thing I would change would be to be born in the 1800’s way out in the country far away from stupid people like I see today.
I don’t think any one is ready for what’s to come. It might not be tomorrow or a year from now, BUT it is and will be here soon.
O got your passport ready. you cant live with out it.. they will make sure you can’t live with out it.
Penny: Food forest! Honey mesquite all over the yard for food, shade, wind breaks, and if needed, firewood. Next is fig varieties which here can give 2 crops a year. Pomegranates which flower several times each summer. Same with kumquats and calamondin. Moringa, grape vines, dates and a pindo (jelly) palm, getting started on pistachios, Want to try other tings like almonds, peaches. 2 Mexican plum whips. Self-sowing Tarahumara amaranth for greens and grain, self-sowing wild sunflowers (a native here), Columbian blackberries (new vine, and doesn’t care for our gentle summers without a wind shelter). Tree cactus for fruit and nopales, and a dozen Peruvian apple cactus, something the javalina pigs like to chew the blooms off, at least till they grow out of range, wolfberries and 1 goji. niio
I understand your frustration. I am in the first stages of caring for my aging parents as they live under my roof now. They can still, by the grace of God, take care of themselves, drive, work in the yard, travel some and live their best lives. It is scary to me to think of any catastrophic event happening. We are doing what I can to prepare, but I for sure desire (in most cases) a more simple way of life. We are currently working on becoming somewhat self sufficient. Be of good cheer and let not your heart not be troubled. As I saw on a homesteader’s YouTube channel the lady said some very wise words word for preparing yourself… “all a person needs to survive is (Water), Beans, Rice and Jesus Christ”. Blessings to you 🙂
Krystal: Thanks for posting something without all the foul language, let alone the foul intent!!! HOW REFRESHING!!
Stop twisting what I say, red ant. I’m just asking the questions. I didn’t put any words in your mouth. You’re misconstruing what I say. As to what a true Christian is, I have no idea. More people have been killed in the name of Christianity than in both world wars. Frankly I don’t want to be one. I don’t need to call myself a special name or be part of cult to treat others as I want to be treated. Is that not the essence of the 10 commandments? It’s natural for me to treat others with some small modicum of kindness and compassion and respect. Unless they’re a complete assjack or fanatic. There are also Christian fanatics. 😉 I have no idea why you are the way you are, red ant. People are complicated. So what I’m hearing is that you’re saying God is selective in its love for people. It only loves the good people. Not the gays, perverts, murderers, etc. By definition the ultimate being has to be neutral and have unconditional love for ALL sentient beings throughout the universe or the multiverse whichever truth applies. This world isn’t anything special. And the beings on this world are still at a very low stage of evolution. We’re primitive and violent. We’re very good at making new humans and increasingly making bigger and better weapons. And for us to think that this world or us have a special place in God’s heart is the height of hubris. We’re just a dust mote in God’s eye careening through the universe along with an infinite number of other dust motes. Do you not realize that we’re also aspiring to unconditional love for all beings. That this is one of the biggest reasons for our existence. That and keeping the human race going. To understand and practise unconditional love is one of the most difficult challenges that we can overcome in this short life. And we keep failing over and over again but we always keep trying. If you’re really serious about going back to the old ways, red ant, find a Mennonite or Amish community and live with them. Or become a Mennonite and start your own community. I agree with you that many aren’t ready for what’s about to happen. Especially the urbanites. It’s going to be like the mother of all economic tsunamis washing away the detritus of humanity. They’re woefully unprepared living their semi-awake lives in a world of instant gratification. I’m not worried about any covid passport. There’s not much they can do to me to force me to get vaccinated. They can’t shut off my water and heat. That would be inhumane. I have a very good lawyer. The hysteria and fear surrounding covid 19 will have dissipated within a few years. And then it’ll be just like the flu. We’ll have reached herd immunity by then. It’ll come around once or twice a year. Kill a few of us and then be gone again. And they’ll still try and force the vaccine on everyone. I don’t get the vaccine for the flu and I don’t get sick. And I’m certainly not getting the vaccine for covid. I drink tea with lemon every morning. I have cayenne every day. Need to eat more garlic and onions. I have plenty of honey on hand. Give me your best shot covid. Up here one of the things they’re doing to tighten control is that starting next Wednesday you have to be able to prove that you’ve had the jab if you want to eat in a restaurant dining room. Go to the gym or to concerts and theatres. I don’t care about any of that. I don’t have a lot of disposable income anyways. It may be better to err on the side of caution if a large number of people are in a dining room. You can’t eat and drink with a mask on. You’ll be breathing each other’s air in an enclosed space. Will be worse in the winter when the air is being circulated by the heating system. This is a very strange vaccine and virus. The latest is that 75% of the new cases in Massachusetts are in people that have already been vaccinated. Careful, Kit. Stay safe. xoxo
Armin:
Thanks for the shout out.
Taking my vitamins like a good girl, trying to get more exercise and stay away from people.
May everyone here be safe and healthy going forward.
@ Armin
Okay, sorry if I offended you and if I did, witch it seems that I did, then I’m sorry.
But putting those two words together and putting them on some one in not good. Those words mean that you are not a person, you are a destroyer and that I’m not. So yes, it was a horse bite to me, when I saw that. Again I apologize.
Our walk in life: You be what you want to be and I will do the same.
Just keep your eye’s focused on the sky, because that’s where all the answer will be.
The time is near…
I’m glad that we can disagree and agree and still get to talk about how we need to prep. So keep on prepping.
PS: if we butt heads again, then lets come back and read this. Thanks brother…
it’s just hard right now. WE will get thru it.
And I don’t like those kind of people. there good people I hope, but not my type, sorry.
it dose not matter where I would like to be. I’m right here, where GOD wants me.
Thank You.
Wood stoves are great but how do you feed them without gas for your chainsaw.I don’t think most people would know how to chop a tree down of had a hand saw to cut one down.
Well put, Armin. The definition of a “true Christian” is someone who earnestly tries to be Christ-like. To love UNCONDITIONALLY is the first and most important endeavor. You have to learn the difference between liking someone and loving someone. You CAN love someone and not like their lifestyle or life choices. Kindness ALWAYS. Thinking of others first and how you can help them will divert feeling sorry for yourself. Start with those that you can feel good about helping and go from there. Just a smile and a hello can go a lot farther than you realize. It may be the nicest thing that happens to them all day. We all struggle to get it right. Sending a hug and a prayer and some love to you Red Ant.
I agree with most of what you say, but I am still proud to be a American and living in the USA.
RL: amen to that. niio
@ RL
Not saying that I’m not an American or Patriotic or Hate this land. If you do something stupid and your mom says she is ashamed, dose it mean that she dose not still love you or want you to be there with her. NO, she is just ashamed that you made an “ASS” out of your self and the people that saw you, Then they look at ALL of US as what you are acting like. AN ASS… I’m still here to fight for this land in the name of the Creator, GOD almighty. He is the real owner of all this that there is.
So don’t think I’m not ready. BUT, I am so proud of this country, That’s why I’M ashamed. 🙁
To all of you. There will come a time, when you will be “forced” to LOVE or HATE. When that time comes just remember that Jesus Christ died on a tree cut in to a cross for all of our sins and I think him for that every day. Thank you PAPA for that.
Build a bridge for heavens sake!
“You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be” Admiral James Stockdale
Words to live by, Jim. I agree with you. Better to build bridges than to put up obstacles. As to our current reality it’s going to get much more interesting. Not in a good way. Hopefully you’re prepared for what’s coming our way. Daily the economic news coming from the US seems to be getting worse. And because America is the world’s largest single economy as America goes so does the rest of the world. There’s also something strange going on in China. Apparently they’re having a housing crisis. There’s many events seemingly coming together at the same time. Some have said that the 20’s could end up being a lost decade. We WILL prevail. We can’t afford to do otherwise. All the best to you.
Don’t be ashamed to be an American, Red Ant. The people that should be ashamed are those trying to overthrow the United States. The traitors with their treasonous acts that they miraculously get away with will answer to God one day. Hold your head high as a true American Patriot, and do what Americans do when the shit hits the fan…they roll up their sleeves and get to work. Helping others, which in turn helps themselves. The true American people have always been generous to other countries in need when disaster strikes. This time it’s the United States of America that needs the help. Don’t let the people running this country crush your spirit.
I’m sorry about the loss of your friend.
I was a proud American retired vet.but now have lost all faith in america.with stolen votes open borders and a government that doesn’t care about it’s citizens and more about illegals.It is sad that so many have died to protect our country.I am now ashamed to be a American
For goodness sakes, red ant, in no way did you offend me. I’m not that fragile. And you certainly don’t need to apologize to me. And remember I’m over 70 years old. Unfortunately in my head I’m in my thirties and that can get me into trouble if I’m not careful. I’ve been through a lot in this life and it has made me stronger. Just because we’re having a spirited discussion doesn’t mean we’re any less friends. But even those kinds of discussions can still be civil and fun. We need humour more than ever these days. This space, kindly provided by Claude, lets us of like mind basically discuss anything with each other that we choose. Whether it’s on topic or not. This is our space and I’m talking the collective us not just you and I. I’d like to think of it as a tight knit family being free to discuss any topic with each other. And sometimes those discussions can become heated. Which happens in families. And I think it was Kit that said just because certain things may happen doesn’t mean I’m going to throw you under the bus. Here is the place where we can have our own opinions without rancor. If we’re going to express our own opinions this is the place to do it. Your opinions and beliefs are just as valid as anyone else’s. Doesn’t mean we’re always right. There’s always room to learn and grow. Sometimes we agree. Sometimes we don’t but it’s all good. When we communicate we learn from each other. And isn’t that part of what it’s all about. That we’re here to help each other up the ladder. Not pull the other down and climb over their bodies to get to the top of the ladder faster. I enjoy “butting heads” with you, red ant. That’s when the most interesting discussions happen. When we learn the most from each other. We are what we are, red ant. But we can always grow and become more than what we are. And if in some small way I insulted you that wasn’t my intention. I’m just a straight shooter. I’m a realist. My feet are firmly planted on the ground. I agree that the time is indeed near. Not quite sure near what or to but we can all agree that there are certainly some very strange goings on happening. Perhaps these are the birth pangs of a new earth. And as with any birth there is always some pain, discomfort and blood involved. As the saying goes; even this shall pass. It’s VERY difficult right now for so many people and more the reason for us to stick together even more firmly. Figuratively speaking. I’ve said this many times before.The ruling elite would like nothing better than for all of us to be at each other’s throats and save them the trouble of wiping us out themselves. I refuse to give them that satisfaction. Yes, red ant, we CAN disagree. Sometimes those kinds of discussions can yield the sweetest fruit. If we agreed all the time that would be really strange. Unnatural. It would also make for some very lame and boring discussions. I’m not adverse to controversy. I too still have my prejudices and biases but that’s the way we were programmed by our parents. It can be done but it’s difficult to break out of that kind of inculcated programming. I’m not saying that I think a lot about gays. I don’t. Obviously. I have worked with them. They are what they are. It’s just their sexual preference. I don’t understand it and personally don’t agree with it. I don’t think it’s right or healthy for two men to engage in those kinds of activities necessary to maintain an intimate relationship. And the bible does speak out against sodomy. And that I do agree with. As you say, red ant, the time grows near. We should keep prepping as long as we can until rising inflation makes it impossible for us to afford many more preps. Prices are starting to rise even here. And as they say where we are now is where we’re supposed to be. Remember, red ant. BE. HERE. NOW. I am that I am. We are that we are. If God is everything then we are part and parcel of God. I look forward to having many more interesting conversations with you. Peace brother.
@red ant I couldn’t agree with you more regarding this administration’s incompetence, and it’s frustrating that many Americans still stand behind Biden’s decisions. I hear it all the time, “At least he’s not Trump.” Really? What was so wrong with the Trump administration? They put more effort in trying to impeach him and get in the way of progress then they did doing their jobs. Disgraceful! In regards to Afghanistan and your friend, I’m sorry for your loss and can understand why you feel so angry. I too have friends that didn’t come back from a tour. Sadly the majority of today’s generation has been indoctrinated with socialist/communist ideals, a sense of entitlement instead of self accountability or responsibility. I’m glad my kids understand what’s going on and are an exception to the majority. Have a good day and God bless.
Highly knowledgeable people bring their experience to this site. Some would say religion and politics should not be a part of this site. Maybe. But I think most of us have high morals and want our great country to not disappear.
But…history tells us great civilizations rise and fall. And when they fall, it is not pretty. If you care about your children and grandchildren we need to elect the right people to somehow stop the crisis facing our country. Prepping is our backup plan.
Red Ant makes a very good point in the analogy about the Titanic, the Mega Rich, and their Life-Boats.
In a total melt down of society and government, whether due to sudden EMP or other near sudden SHTF. There will be a estimated 2-year (two winters) reckoning in a worst-case scenario that impacts the entire world.
Only a very lucky few preppers will survive the 2-year window to the other side (unless nuclear war radiation is the crisis, then it might be an Extinction Level Event of the human race). If not an ELE, but bad enough that only highly prepped survivors come out the other side…my question is who would that be?
The answer is obvious, as Red Ant stated.
The wealthy preppers who have invested at least 5 million dollars in a highly engineered underground facility (Life-Boat).
None of us want to go there…seriously. It will be very ugly.
As we know, the game has changed in our government because the people we elected, let it happen. Get them out and get people in there who will beat them at their own game.
Good Luck to Us All
Voting is pointless and dead
Raven: so like many in Kali who rarely voted, they can steal your vote. The more votes, the better chance a politician has of declaring a mandate from the people. dems are claiming that. As the saying goes, you’re either part of the process or part of the problem. Thousands of American Indians woke up to that when they found out they were registered to vote by someone. and had voted for the only they hate. niio
Red ant,
I’m sorry you lost your friend. May you find peace.
MadFab
I don’t disagree that this administration is tanking this country (probably intentionally), but don’t fool yourself into thinking we’re a 3rd world country. Our poor still live better than the middle class is most of the world. Most of us have never seen real hardship, and probably never will.
No need to be ashamed , just be strong , determined , with purpose and a vision
Dont follow the villiage full of idiots and world of The oligargarky of the Damned who will suffer thru the last judgement
They will cry out for the rocks to fall on them and they wont be able to die from the pain and agony of the judgement s
Plan , Protect , purpose for your familys , neighbors , friends who yu need to survive the coming koas
chin up for God is Still on the thrown and will always be , no matter what
Those voters don’t mean horse sh..t to us., either.
“Wow” red ant
Settle down. it’s going to be okay. We just have to hang in there.
Just have a good day.
Well, there it is knowledge to survive. But the real lession we have to address is which side am I going to be on? For survival means not just doing these things as pointed out to us but in the real picture , complete survival. Remember , for some of you, saying the ” Lord’s Prayer “? Simply when you prayed that, you were asking for divine intervention here on earth. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name ( So God has a name ), thy kingdom come , ON EARTH, as it is in heaven. Notice that point, we prayed for God’s Kingdom to come here and be as it is in heaven. That would mean peace here, no crime, hunger, politicians, wars, ( no more diseases because when Jesus’ was on earth he literally healed people and even brought several back from the dead ), pollution, etc. ( Just as it was in the beginning, no police, fire dept. In Eden ) Now show me a man who can do that ? In 6000 years of our existence, no one has done that, except God’s Representative , Christ Jesus……so what now. READ YOUR BIBLE, Mathew 24th chapter, Mark 13th chapter, Luke 21th chapter ( notice vs 11, pestilences ). These are all descriptions of the Last Days of this System of things. Remember the sheep & the goats parable, it’s happening right now, to survive the end of this ugly mess Satan has created ( he is the ruler of this world 1 John 5:19 ) we need to follow the survival plan the bible outlines. You might be saying ‘ right ‘ about now, but you only get to say that because 8 people , only 8 out of possibly millions LISTENED TO THEIR CREATOR , AND DID WHAT HE INSTRUCTED THEM TO DO. ( Hebrews 11:7) NOAH, HIS WIFE AND 3 SONS AND THEIR WIVES ). He did everything contrary to society at that time. He was a preacher of righteousness, so others could make their own choices and respond. ( Mathew 24: 37-39 ) And because they did, we are here, now, today….period. So now we face another end of bad mankind’s existence. Will you be a survivor of what you asked for in prayer? OR , Will you not choose to walk the narrow path that leads to eternal life, but tread on the wide road that leads off into destruction? We all have that choice. Read those 3 passages and see if those are not the same problems that are now existing and happening WORLD WIDE, as we speak. Psalms 37:10,11/ Revelation 21: 3+4/ Isaiah 25:8/ Isaiah 65:21,22 and so many other scriptures point to what God’s Kingdom will do. So there is hope, good to learn these things in this article but developing a relationship with the true God, following his sons spiritual footsteps, praying to the God Jesus did, hallowing his name Hebrew Elohim, YHWH, or in English as found in Psalms 83:18, Jehovah. It’s your choice, but the only hope for mankind IS God’s Kingdom, the one you prayed for, maybe without even knowing, so now we can see the rest is just fluff….I hope you open your bible to verify what has just been said. Take Care, one and all.
I’m so sorry to hear that you lost some good friends in that clusterf*ck we called the Afghan war, red ant. My sincerest condolences. Another exercise in futility. Obviously you weren’t the only one to lose friends but that doesn’t make it any better nor easier.There is so much terrible stuff going on in the world and from what I can see the process is starting to accelerate. The best that us ordinary jo’s (includes both joes and joannas) can do is prepare the best we can and get ready to ride it out. Because this is a prepper website, MOST of us should be ready by now. For goodness sakes; have we not seen this coming for years? Still not too late to pick up the last of your supplies before rising inflation makes it nigh near impossible. A little lateral move at the end. If any of you are still thinking about picking up some physical gold or silver, silver has just dropped from approx. $30USD to about $22USD per ounce.
Control , so to not create koas
if you paid 35. still a bargon
when the sh.. hits the fan and koas is in place , the bible says it will be as in the days of old before the flood
Trading was Gold , Silver and Food , necessaties
the only thing yu have to do is be smart , who you asociate with
Birds of a feather flock together , think alike and follow each other
beware
I don’t want to be 76 but it’s better than the other choice I have. A couple kids I grew up with didn’t come back from Vietnam, some had their lives ruined, others did 2 or 3 tours and came back and lived full and happy lives, go figure. I will always hate LBJ, Nixon, all the other politicians and Generals that sacrificed so many Americans, and murdered millions of civilians, for a completely useless war fought almost wholly to protect the vanity of the powerful. I thought Americans learned from that war, but 99% of you were so thirsty for revenge on the Arabs you cheered and cheered when W sent the troops off to Af and Iraq to put a boot in their ass. Another illegal war fought for vanity and a foolish dream of Empire held by men like Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bolton. Thousands of beautiful young foolish Americans wasted, hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed, Europe over run by a wave of refugees who will never assimilate. Obama jumping right in to destroy Libya and destabilize Syria, support the Saudis in their mission to kill the innocent in Yemen, and start a wave of illegal killings on the African continent continued by Trump and Biden’s ghost to this day.
I had to come to terms with a great deal of anger and bitterness in 2003 and I did. I’m old enough to have had friends and family who died before their time killed by anger and bitterness. You have to find your own way in life. I can write some angry stuff, but I’m actually sitting here with a drink in my hand and a 25 pound tomcat beside me on the table purring like a tiger, and life is good. Of course I have no faith in the system and doubts about the future, my prayer is that things always get better and never worse.
Red Ant:
I’m sorry you’re going through such pain. My prayers are with you.
It’s OK to get mad, just try not to let it eat you up.
Thank you. BUT, He was not just my friend he was every American’s friend also. They all died proving that,
and for what ?
Re: shout out You’re very welcome, Kit. My pleasure. So good to hear that you’re taking some positive steps to stay safe in these crazy times. I don’t know if you’re starting to see food prices rise in your area but they are in mine. And more empty shelves in Walmart. I don’t want to be any kind of fear monger or “chicken little” type of person but to me this is the true start of our slide into financial collapse. Don’t want to cause any kind of panic but to me it seems as if the ride has started and we need to strap in and hang on for dear life. Most of the stock indices today had quite a significant drop. We’ll see if the trend continues. If you have any extra money buy as much as you can now before the prices skyrocket. We all have to make our own decision concerning these matters. In many ways you are so lucky to be living where you are. Beautiful area. Must be very healthy to live there. Only about 340 sq. miles in total. Just a little bigger than Kiribati so still a relatively small area with less than 20 towns. You must know quite a few people there by now which is a good thing if everything goes sideways. Hopefully you have some really good friends there that you can depend on. Hopefully you’re armed. Lots of ammo. I don’t want you to become just another statistic. Maybe when the hysteria has died down I’ll make a real effort to meet with you. BEFORE I turn 80. AND before the next pass of Apophis in ’29. LOL! Enjoy a coffee and a piece of really good cake or pie with you. A nice talk face to face with you. But right now it’s impossible until they lift the travel restrictions. Hopefully at some point they WILL! The only way they’ll get me to take the vaccine is if they strap me down and forcibly inject me. They can’t do that. Then it’s hammer time. They can’t give us any drugs or perform any medical procedures on us unless we give our consent. Without our consent they can’t do squat. They may try to bully or trick us but without our consent they’re powerless. As always, Kit, I sincerely wish you all the best. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Expect the unexpected. Take care. xoxo
Armin, NG will go away quickly in a grid down situation. While an EMP would shut down the nation quickly there are low tech ways to take down the grid, which would take down everything else. I contacted my senator in 2006 about the low tech danger to the grid and the feds tested my information and proved it accurate then just sat on it and didn’t do the work to protect the grid. They don’t really care about what happens to you or me. They only care about themselves and their families. We are all on our own and need to create our own infrastructures to survive because the government sponsored ones will only protect them as they were truthfully designed. We only benefit from their infrastructure while it suits their agenda.
Agree with you 100%, zeroturnzed. But I did differentiate between a local grid down situation and a global one. If it’s only a local outage your NG WILL continue to flow. Obviously not if we’re hit with a continent-wide EMP burst or multiple bursts. For my situation, having no choice but to bug in, an NG fireplace is still the best option for emergency heating. Barring that I have alternative methods in place for keeping the house temp. above freezing in the winter. If the water doesn’t run anymore and it’s winter we just drain the pipes to keep them from freezing. If no electricity I have a charcoal barbecue that works quite well with wood although that’s not what it was designed for. And I have a fair bit of wood on hand. We humans are quite adaptable in adverse situations and adept at surviving under less than ideal conditions. As long as we don’t lose our humanity in the process. My worst nightmare scenario is if we do have a true extended continent-wide grid down situation. People are starving. Really starving. A young girl in ragged clothes, smudged face with a newborn in her arms comes to my door with tears in her eyes asking for any scraps of food. A horrible moral dilemma. What do I do? Do I give her some food? Send her on her way and tell her this is a one-time deal? Or is she a scout for a gang waiting down the street and once I give her the food the gang breaks into my house. Rapes my wife and daughters. Tortures me. Kills us and takes all of our supplies. I have no choice but to say no to her. As much as it would kill me to do that. To me it would be equivalent to having to shoot my first person. To kill them before they killed me. All human life is precious to me and we are not allowed to kill each other unless there is no other option. I take the 10 commandments quite seriously. Hollywood has romanticized the notion of killing and murder. Having to kill that first person would take something very precious from us. Afterwards we would be less.
If anyone closely followed the news from the Left Coast, about four years ago a power substation near Palo Alto (home of Stanford University and lots of high tech companies) was attacked by 7.62 rifles. The damage was done and the perpetrators were gone in less than 15 minutes. No word ever since then about the damage but the substation was down for a considerable period of time. PG&E was able to cover the missing power from the substation by switching things around.
From what I read of the attack, I personally felt it was a black flag event. There were too many clues pointing to a particular Islamic group, even though they never claimed credit for the attack. Which in my view was another clue that it wasn’t what it was presented as.
If I were to attack a substation with a rifle, I would probably waste 90% of my shots on useless targets. If I hit anything vital it would be by chance. The folks who attacked the Palo Alto substation knew exactly what to shoot at to inflict maximum damage to the substation. That indicates to me they were either (a) very lucky (unlikely), (b) had studied electric substations on line extensively (yeah, maybe. Is there a website that shows all the working parts of a substation on line?) or, (c) at one time had worked at a substation or were electrical engineers who had built substations or had some other expertise in what makes a substation work. I think (c) is the correct answer that wins the cigar. I could be persuaded otherwise, but. . .
So the question presents itself: Why would a worker take out a plant and make it look like the Muzzies did it? Angered because management fired him? Angered because he didn’t get the promotion he thought he deserved? A contractor who didn’t get the job he bid on and thought he had the winning bid? We could speculate all day, but the thing of most interest to me as a preppier was how easy it is to take out a power substation if one knows what one is about. It once again brought home to me how vulnerable our grid system is, not only from the sun, an enemy atomic bomb, but also even a small group armed with nothing more than SKSs, AKs, or Ruger mini-30s. A small group — reports from the site of the shooting indicate it was two shooters and possibly a third look-out. When the cops arrived 15 or 20 minutes after the shooting announced itself with the failing substation, the shooters were completely gone. The substation, as I recall, was down for over a year. There was a very small item on page 17 about the station going back on line. I didn’t make a note of it in my calendar book so I could be wrong about how long it was down but I did note that it was a considerable period of time when the notice appeared. That’s presumably with only one substation down and the economy chugging along with no other catastrophes presenting themselves.
Figure what a platoon sized group armed with some of the LAWs we left behind in Iraq and now an even bigger mother lode in Afghanistan could do in an evening.
Am I concerned? Nah, me and Alfred E. Newman (aka Anthony Fauci) have smaller problems we are busy making into mountains to worry about a possible rifle attack on a connected series of power substations.
I remember that attack, it reminded me of being a kid and discovering we could blow up the pole transformers by throwing swingset chains up into the wires. We almost burned our house down before we stopped that nonsense. The electricity arcs out and burns the chains in a huge shower of sparks, I’m glad kids these days just sit home and play video games instead.
Have a feeling an enemy state level of hacker could do more damage than a battalion of riflemen and rocketeers. Not familiar with the LAWS systems but imagine, like more sophisticated systems, launch is enabled with a battery/technology package that has a lifetime of months and can only be replaced by the military it originated with. That’s why terrorists never shot down airliners with all the MANPADS we sent to the Mujahedeen in Af, the launch and guidance package has a finite life and cannot be replaced by a people of stone age technology. Same goes for nukes, any nuke includes a sophisticated tech package stored separately, even if you have the tech it has a finite life. The U238 or plutonium core and the initiators are priceless to a tech capable country like NOKO or Iran, but you can’t make one go boom. Our famous suitcase nukes were 5k demo charges that included a trunk size tech package it took two men to carry. I think the most vulnerable infrastructure targets now are the Port of L.A. and the Texas/Louisiana refineries, shudder shudder, surely the FBI pays more attention to them than they did to the little gymnasts?
Gee, I remember it as well and I shutter to think of it as it just doesn’t set right. LCC. Around the same time, there were reports that our water supply security system was also broached.
LCC: don’t insult Newman, compared to freak-zone fauci, Newman is a genius.
Except for the loony leftist nazis (Hitler told them the earth is man’s only god) Kali would be selling power out of state using geothermal. but, the weirdo freak is back in and all smiles that Klai lost the election to his nazism. Right now, he’s all excited that he can blow more money bringing in homeless to destroy the remains of the cities. Maybe we could send all the Afghanis there…No, they tend to be productive people and wouldn’t fit in. niio
niio
CC: years ago, some lunatic tried to poison the city of Hazleton, PA, by stuffing a body in the intake tank. He/they turned off the chlorine but Hazy has a backup. When one meter went off line, the second kicked on.
No, this was done for a reason or the body would have joined (likely) hundreds of others in abandoned strip mines. It’s not called the mafia graveyard for nothing. Maybe some day they’ll dig up Jimmy Hoffa, but then they’d have to change the name of Jersey state dump from Hoffa Memorial. niio
The Chinese will help maintain the more exotic stuff we left behind. The manpods will be used to shoot down airliners and everything else.
True, ZTZ:
We had a series of gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts, supposedly caused by “human error” over pressurizing the gas lines. Thankfully, there were low fatalities and injuries, but billions of dollars of damages and thousands of people were displaced. Other accidents happen regularly, in large part because the piping systems are old and poorly maintained.
I’d just as soon avoid using it if I possibly can, and really don’t want to be in the same neighborhood with it. If there were a coordinated computer hack of multiple gas delivery companies, the destruction would be on a par with a bombing raid.
Wood might be a lot of work and expensive, but with proper maintenance on chimneys it should be relatively safe to use.
Miz Kitty, Yep, they let things fall apart till they can force up prices to get ahead of taxes. You also have methane seepage under the rivers. That’s caused by peat and muck, but also cracks. Connecticut had a rumbler, in the 50s, I think, where water geysered up from cracks. Penna had a major problem with natural gas in the earth. there are stories of tap water from wells catching fire. niio
You will not be able to count on gas either. From the well head to the consumer there are electric valves, pumps, and motors all ran on computers
Ed: and save the earth for nazis first people eager to save the world for the wealthy by destroying everything. I gave away our electric stove (it came with the house) and bought one made in the 40s for less than a new one. It works great. When I’m feeling healthier, a solar hot water heater is going on the roof, as well, to save money heating water. niio
Not only wells catching on fire, red, but also rivers. Quite a few years back I remember a story about a river spontaneously catching on fire. Forget the details but at the time thought what the heck is going on.
Armin: The river was the Cuyahoga, OH. so much trash was dumped in it it was a sewer. 1969, and not the first time it happened. niiohttps://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cuyahoga_River_Fire
Thank you for that, red. That sounds about right. Couldn’t believe it when I heard it. A river catching on fire!? What the heck next? Peace brother.
I just looked up the article on the Cuyahoga river, red, and I was astounded. All I could do was shake my head as I was reading the article. That river has quite a storied history. Apparently the river has caught on fire 13 times with the first one in 1868. You would think that after the first few times they may have decided to do something about it. Unbelievable. Thanks, red. peace brother.
Any pictures for the wind cooler?
Good ideas, but most are already done. I’m still hunting parts of a woodstove from the 70s. If it’s not completed by SHTF, then we can take adobe and build a stove from that. niio
I’ve looked at great videos on making stoves and ovens from baked clay and adobe, when I have more free time that’s a project I’d love to do. It might be the best way to cook there is. I watched one video were a guy built a beautiful domed oven from dried clay bricks (different than adobe), he built the oven around a stack of firewood, when he fired the wood it gave enough heat to bake the bricks so they would last through the rainy season. Beautiful stuff.
Nothing better than sitting by an old iron woodstove on a cold rainy day with your friends…
Judge: I had the blocks ready, but we had tons of rain this year. the tops ones are dried mud, but I’ll salvage what I can when I can. (Ear infection, fell but caught myself and blew out the shoulder…So much crap going on, do you think I should call it a hobby? 🙂
Russian stoves are likely the best. Blocky, ugly, but for heating or cooking, very good. Here, thank God, we’re more concerned with cooling than heating. niio
We need new “management!” Can’t come soon enough! It’s tough enough to try to develop preppier plans for what if scenarios and try to get materials in place in order to weather a storm, without “management” making it continually more difficult as they roll out the green new scam! The installation of new wood stoves and fireplaces is now illegal here. Gas powered motor vehicles of any kind will not be sold here after 2035. As real estate values fall, taxes are still rising. People are being drowned in government debt and taxed out of their home. Forced to live in efficiency apartments. Our children’s minds are being poisoned in public schools. Violent crime is rampant, the police have been defunded and we are left unable to defend ourselves. This they say is the future. Beware. Prepare. The information in this article is priceless.
Paint GTT on your door and move to Texas!
Many are already doing it, Judge. There are a number of people that have already had enough of California. I’m not exactly sure where CC lives but I’m assuming New York. If any state is going to be a bulwark against more government interference it’ll surely be Texas. They do love their guns and definitely know how to use them. Bless their hearts. 😉
So true. So true, judge. You have a good sense of humour. Backing up my post before posting has become second nature to me now. Haven’t lost one in quite a while now. 🙂
JH – I’ve got plenty of relatives all over the state of Texas, and I hear it’s not all that great in and around big cities there either, but at least management there is pushing back hard on much of this nonsense, and moving ahead on a number of big fronts too, including closing the gap with state fencing on that big open border! The rest of the country owes a big thank you to Texas! God Bless Texas!
CC: You heard the Judge! 🙂 what happens when biden allows more terrorists in flight school? Clinton did. but, ion all seriousness, you know what to do, where to go, how to handle situations.
BTW, Termite is now the size of a German Shepherd. For some reason he loves to crawl under the bed, but has to wiggle in because it sits close to the floor. Nice deep knee bend in and out. 🙂 niio
What most people do not realize is how the leftist socialist political machine has been skewing elections in big cities once they gained control for many years. Most folks outside of the big city here are anything but leftist socialists. Even in the big city, all the people here are not all leftist socialists. It’s the political machine indoctrination of new dependents. Kickbacks to donors and unions play a big part.
My dad used to build wood stoves for every house we ever lived in and for friends. But the chimney was never a problem he cut a hole in the wall put a pipe through it and hook that pipe to a large pipe that went from the ground to the roof. It usually stuck out from the house about 2 feet. He made some pretty cool long splitters also. Learned a lot just watching him.
I’ve seen pipe chimneys. Best and safest ones are insulated pipe. Good advice, and thank you!
Yeah, the power flickered here, but came right back. Probably some bossy getting made because her favorite (only 🙂 tree in the pasture never grows branches to shade her. niio
Funny story (at least I think it is)
I read this whole story. As soon as I left a comment and sent it. My electric went out. Not for long, just enough to make everything have to reboot. LOL
davisrae: Cue the music from Twilight Zone. It was a warning. Better not put off the final touches to your preps that we all have been procrastinating over.
Hope you’ve forgiven me for yelling at you the other day, Chuck. I shouldn’t have done that. I just lost my temper. I’m better than that. And you certainly didn’t deserve it. You’re just talking about topping up our preps. I was just at Walmart today to pick up a couple of cans of baked beans. For the longest time they were $0.97 cents. Today they were $1.27. That’s approx. a 30% increase. In a week. The “official” inflation rate for August is 4.1%. Unfortunately they’re not factoring in all the other stupid crap that’s going on. The point of all this is that if you guys want to get some things, especially for Christmas, and you have some extra money do it now. Now we’re going to be heading into the serious part of the cycle. Goods will become more scarce. What goods that are still available will become more expensive. We’re now moving out of the honeymoon phase and getting into the serious part of the marriage from hell. US covid unemployment cheques have stopped. There are something like 10 million jobs available but no one wants to work at a dead end job for minimum wage anymore. Don’t blame them. You can’t make a living like that. The moratorium on evictions and foreclosures has ended. So all these people that were on unemployment now have very little money. They’ll probably get evicted. All the people that haven’t been paying rent for the last 18 months or so are going to be tossed out. Landlords are fed up. From what I’ve heard if you want to rent an apartment and maybe more importantly if you can AFFORD to rent an apartment you basically have to promise the landlord your first born. In the next few months it’s going to get quite interesting in America. Be prepared for almost anything.
And backup your posts before you hit send!
LCC:
Glad you’re back…missed you!?
About time you got back. How is the missus? niio
Hey, Chuck. It is nice to see you getting back into the swing of things. No more piques. OK? And more importantly hopefully all the people preparing have told NO ONE what they’re doing. ESPECIALLY their best friends. Take care.
MY FAVORITE TIME IN MY 78 YEARS WAS LISTENING TO THE WAYS HER FAMILY SURVIVGED DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION. For example cutting up old leather boots, leather belts, horse harness’s, ( They already ate the horses) all for the protein in the leather. They also gleaned in the woods everyday for veggies, herbs ans inner bark of trees. Their favorite abundance was cattails,They provided protein, bread, starch and medicanal help.
I didn’t know you could buy individual solar cells and solder them together. Save a lot of money, but have to consider a good quality solar panel is hail proof, in fact you can drive over one in your pickup w/o damaging it. I love solar but am still struggling with it. Bout decided that 4 250w panels, 4 deep charging 12v batteries, can run an RV fridge, some LEDs, and a couple little fans if you have endless sunny days. Our ‘whole house’ solar has no battery storage, it’s not cost effective, it just feeds back into the grid through the meter and the COOP credits it to our bill. The whole thing is break even at best, but kinda cool. If everybody put solar on their house it wouldn’t change the world, but it would create a new class of Billionaires, like we need more Billionaires?
Little extra money is good, Judge. But I’d rather have the love of my life with me. Love trumps all.
How does that work? 8 billion people in the world, and we found that one special person? A greater miracle than raising Lazarus. 10 months ago my wife was infected with neuro-invasive WNV. She has willed herself with me by her side from quadriplegia and profound dementia back to her old feisty self and is taking baby steps with a walker on the way to regaining full mobility. Love to all the people on here caring for a loved one!
Judge: Blessed! niio
Armin:
Actually, I have few close friends, but I am friendly with a few people who seem to have their act together, and that may suffice.
I’m probably one of the few people here who doesn’t own a gun… financial reasons mostly, but I also have had past….anger management issues, shall we say? If you’re likely to use a gun because somebody annoys you, everybody’s probably better off if you don’t have one. Now that I’m out of toxic relationships and toxic jobs, I don’t have these issues so much. Shows that the “geographic cure” actually does work, sometimes.
Hopefully someday we can all get together for a big “family reunion/convention” and meet each other in person. That would be a lot of fun, but as we discussed on one of the other topic threads, it would probably be a signal to the universe for “the BIG one”. With the strong personalities here, it would probably make one heck of a comedy disaster movie, too.
Hopefully, I will be in a position in the next ten years to relocate to a better area… even though it’s geographically small, we have real economic disparity here, and it’s more expensive than a lot of places to live, plus a rising crime rate, but that’s true for everywhere, I guess. We DO have nice weather, though, which makes up for a lot, and a lot of services, but the government is in your face about practically everything. I just nod and smile and do the “surface compliance” stuff.
I’m very glad to hear that you have at least a few good friends. You may have to rely on each other in the coming months and years. Don’t be too proud to either give or accept help if you need it. All the economic news I’m hearing from the US is not good. And the global shipping crisis IS getting worse. Just heard a news item on the radio {I have it on most of the time just so I can keep up with developing news AND better than talking to myself ;)} that if Americans want to get their supplies for Thanksgiving they should get all their stuff NOW! Crazy! You, Kit? Anger management issues? Not possible. You’re such a sweetheart. 😉 All that says to me is that you have passion. Besides I like unconventional. Way more interesting. Damn toxic crap we put up with sometimes. It’s physically and emotionally draining and you’re obviously better off without it. Even women, as good as their instincts are, can also get fooled sometimes. Sandra Bullock is the one case I know the best. She’s smart. She’s strong and yet she still married that jerk, Jesse James. I would have figured the name would have been a dead giveaway. Women do love the bad boys though. That relationship scarred her horribly. That’s just negative thinking, Kit. Unless we have the get together when Apophis is due to come by again. Then things could get dicey. 😉 Can you imagine the fun we would all have if you and LCC and red and CC and some of the others and myself were all able to get together in one place at the same time? A real good old-fashioned geriatric hoedown. LOL! It’s still bring your own walker. LOL! But if you’re not all that keen on it that’s fine too. Right now I’ll leave it in your corner and not bother you with it again. We’ll have to see what the future brings first anyways. There are some challenging times ahead for us all. I think generally speaking you’re gong to see a rising crime rate everywhere. All the stimulus packages have ended. People are going to become more desperate. Too bad it has to show up in YOUR backyard. I’ve watched a few utube videos about the area where you currently live and it IS beautiful. Gov’t does love to poke it’s big schnozz into about everything. That’s probably going to get worse too. Have you thought about Alaska? Now there is pristine beauty. Speaking of music, which is something we both love, if you like good blues and I LOVE good blues then there is a channel on utube called Blues Lounge. Fantastic music. If you want a taste of really good Canadian music then look into a group called Blue Rodeo. Start off with the Outskirts album and listen to the title song first. Very fine album. If you like Neil Young (or want to expand your horizons) then may I suggest the “After the Gold Rush” album. Also his song, “Like a Hurricane” is excellent! The best live version of that song on utube has been deleted. I should have downloaded the video but I did manage to save the audio portion of that song. Really good song. As always, Kit, I wish you the very best. Take care of yourself. Stay safe and have a great weekend. xoxo
Armin:
It WOULD be a fun get together, wouldn’t it?
Alaska? Umm, it IS beautiful, but I would want to be a place that’s a bit warmer and I could grow some real quantities of produce. Also, earthquakes.
If you’ve been following Electroverse at all, they mentioned that the Parma volcano in the Canary Islands may be getting ready to blow, with a real potential for a mega tidalwave. If that happens, I’ll kiss all of you goodbye and grab my snorkel. No, I think when I eventually do relocate it would likely be to the American south somewhere. Warmer climate, longer growing season, a bit cheaper cost of living. And definitely inland! When I was little, we lived in Central Massachusetts, and I miss the glorious springs and I miss the hilly terrain. Springs here on the cape are usually cold and rainy, until about mid June and then it’s suddenly summer. ( This year was an anomaly, and it was beautiful! ) I don’t swim, I don’t have a boat, and I get really bad sunburn, so being on the coast is kind of wasted on me.
Sorry, I don’t really care much for Neil Young’s voice, but I will check out that song, and the other group you mentioned.
Hugs to you!
Miz Kitty: ? You don’t have to grow earthquakes. they do pretty wild on their own. ! 🙂
I agree, Kit. Neil can’t sing worth a crap but man can he ever shred that axe. He’s sort of like Dylan in that respect. Dylan can’t sing very well either but they’re both creative geniuses. Although Dylan doesn’t have the musical talent that Young has. There’s a lot of Dylan music that I like. My favourite album of his is “Blonde on Blonde”. I like most of the album except the first song; “Rainy Day Woman”. To me a stupid song. “Everybody must get stoned”. Over and over again. Give me a break. Dylan did like his bud. Wonder if he and Willie Nelson ever got together. There’s a lot of stories about Nelson and his love affair with leaf. People can do whatever they want as long as they don’t kill my cat. 😉 To me people that smoke pot are stupid. Just so you know, because cannabis is legal in Canada, I neither smoke nor vape. Anything. Don’t inject anything into my veins. Don’t push anything up my nose. Doesn’t mean I’m a little angel. I still get into plenty of trouble. LOL! Have a great weekend. xoxo
Miz Kitty: My parents always said I never met a stranger. As Jesus said, love everybody, like some, trust few.
gun-wise, one pellet gun. Getting another, an airsoft .22 rifle pellet gun. If I wanted, I could have a roomful of guns. The family and my neighbors are like that. As the old saying goes, why buy the cow when the milk is free? On more than a few occasions here and other places, when someone was messing around my property, neighbors would come out armed and ask why.
I’m like a niece, who stopped carrying her .22 short. (She got busted too many time, you ask me. Short girl attitude) she was given a nice snake ring made in the Roaring 20s, silver, and when she gets in trouble, one pop with that and then no more trouble. Pressure makes the tongue stick out, a steel tube loaded with chili oil. That’s life in mining country. Almost as exciting as living in a large port town 🙂 niio
I’ll always extend my hand in friendship, red, but trust and respect have to be earned. I don’t know about loving everyone. I have serious trust issues. I’ll pass on living in either a port city or mining country. Or border towns 😉 My closest border towns are Windsor (with that wonderful tourist destination of Detroit on the other side), Sarnia and Niagara Falls. Peace brother.
Love your neighbor as yourself. The bible is the original book of human psychology. Freud and Jung both attended Hebrew school when young. Even a little resentment or anger at a person will pray on your subconscious. Nowhere does it say you have to like them or trust them. Jesus loved everyone but he still told the 12 to sell their extra cloaks and buy swords. niio
Interesting way to look at things, red. Love my neighbours but not necessarily like them or trust them. H’mmm. It’s almost like I have to split myself in two. If you don’t like your neighbours it can be a lonely existence. It’s no use holding anger, jealousy or resentment inside. It does eat way at you. I’d rather like them than love them. In these times we need our neighbours more than ever. At least I don’t have to worry about them if the stores shutter their doors. They’ve already told me that they have a whole freezer full of meat. So they won’t starve and they won’t come knocking at my door. They have no idea of the extent of my preps. Hopefully they haven’t broadcast that type of news to a lot of people. They don’t realize the sh*t storm coming our way. I have tried to tell them to try and be prepared as best they can for what’s coming but they just dismiss me. They’re all at least 20 years my junior. Speaking of Jesus and swords I remember an interesting quote I came across a long time ago. I haven’t cracked the bible for quite some time now. Maybe it’s time to revisit that old tome. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Interesting thing for a being of peace and love to say. Almost like Jesus is saying he’s bringing war to the world not peace. Sort of goes along with what you’re saying. You can love others as much as you want but be prepared to defend yourself if they turn on you. Peace brother.
No, don’t have a lot of time for electroverse right now, Kit. Trying to keep up with all the economic news coming from the States. Still holding out, though, for that Grand solar minimum to start any time now. I’m really hoping it does. SOON! 😉 Getting so sick and tired of the 40C and sometimes 50C (104F/122F) temps happening way up here in the summer. Those high temps just wipe me out. Let’s hope if Parma does blow it’s top then no mega tidal wave. That would wipe out most of the eastern US. At least you have a plan to go out in style if it happens. Send us some selfies as you’re body surfing back onto the land. 😉 Too bad you don’t like it a little cooler. With your sensitive skin cooler climate might not be so bad. The English girls get their peaches and cream complexion from their climate. I know you’re not going to end up in Alaska but one last thing about that state. Because of their 20 hour days in the summer they ARE able to grow record sized veggies. But I don’t think I could handle the 3 to 4 months or more of complete darkness. That would be so depressing. I like the light. I’m drawn to it. American south? Any particular state that appeals to you? Up here it’s not so much cold and rainy in the spring as more cold and snow. Last few years not much of a spring. Cold up until about April or May and then; BOOM! summer. Annoying. I miss the nice springs. Summer’s getting too darn hot. We get the humidity from the Gulf. They can keep it. Have a great weekend. Enjoy these last days of summer. xoxo