Tuesday, August 28, 2018

weekend prepper 2 of 2


WEEKEND PREPPER 2
Yesterday we talked about how almost all advise about prepping is based on half century old conditions that haven’t existed for almost as long.  Preppers who like history scoff and point quivering fingers of hatred and disappointment at the idiots who fought WWI as if Napoleon was still on God’s side, using tactics outdated since at least the Crimean War, and yet they prepare for the apocalypse like it is 1958.  These are probably the same folks who groan and Tweet all their FLIR mounted AR packing buddies that I’m spouting off about Peak Oil again and they should all run over to any site that features Fracking Fags Forever, instead.  I won’t be eating your dead body the first day of the die-off, as it was formed off of Pespsi, Pringles and MRE’s, and hence will be disease ridden, but I will kick your corpse and spit on it for the sin of being obtuse.
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Sorry, back to the subject you thought was at hand, the weekend activities as a prepper, to really get you ready.  It isn’t turning a one time turning off your electricity and other utilities, to test your equipment on hand.  That only teaches you to buy more alternatives.  Gasoline for the generator and propane for the grill are NOT what is going to help you survive long term.  The same preppers that claim you must buy a quarter million dollar rural retreat, so as to have food from a garden because “eventually it will run out”, are the same folks that prep for everything else, using items that will quickly run out.  Gasoline and oil for chainsaws.  Motor vehicles.  Propane for the cook stove. 
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You need to spend the weekend living without hoarded Carbon Age fuels.  No gasoline, propane, coal, kerosene, paraffin candles and etcetera.  Now, granted, you cannot use everything that is renewable.  You can’t expect to adequately guard your home with a flintlock rifle ( well, maybe you can-I just don’t think the average prepper will ).  If you have enough rechargeable AAA batteries to keep LED lanterns running for twenty years, it would be silly to not use them.  I trust you see my point that you are testing the more robust and long term items.  Not very quickly depleted carbon fuels and not the Forever Items from the Stone Age but somewhere in between those two.
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You cannot plan of surviving with modern camping equipment, but with Old Timey items and skills.  Far better to make yourself a solar oven and learn to cook in that ( not rocket science.  Start early in the day to compensate for failed efforts so as to be able to add time to the endeavor.  It can be pretty hard to actually burn and ruin the food ), rather than pulling out the propane stove.  Need coffee first thing in the morning before the sun comes out?  A mud rocket stove is easy to make and a few twigs will boil water ( and friggin DUH, have some way of storing fuel within reach if you are bugging in, not exposing yourself to danger by going out to collect it ). 
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The solar oven obviously used modern material.  This isn’t a purist pursuit.  The point is to have the tools that are used to make things without modern consumables.  The tools themselves are going to be modern.  You do understand that this weekend role playing serves multiple purposes, right?  It isn’t just about a hypothetical civilization collapse and die-off.  That solar oven can be used in times after imported fuel is choked off and your electric use goes from 15cents a kilowatt hour to $1.  That bicycle you use to go anywhere on the weekend is great for upcoming gas shortages as our JIT system breaks down even more.
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On the weekend, only use the Solar Cloths Dryer ( they used to call it a rope and some clothespins ).  The next time the $1500 clothes dryer breaks, you’ll already know how easy and smart it is to use a clothesline instead of an energy pig machine.  When the sudden gasoline shortages materialize, there won’t be one new or used bicycle to be had nationally, but you already have one AND you are fit enough to use one, a kind of important detail.  This is what the Weekend Prepping is all about.  Getting you used to the tools you’ll need to use not just for the collapse but also for the decline. 
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Did I mention this was an every weekend kind of thing?  It doesn’t do much good otherwise.  You won’t give up suburbia, or on-grid living, so at least you can get the needed practice part time ( rather than None At All ).  Hell, it doesn’t even have to be the full weekend.  I’m sure a lot of you will refuse to miss your Sunday Football & Beer.  Start Friday night and go through Sunday morning.  The point is to practice using a wide range of off-grid tools, because you cannot use them effectively without practice.
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No running water lets you practice living off of the rain catchments system.  Any moron can pour from a jug rather than turn on the tap, the practice comes in the form of learning to bath in less, cook with less, and a bit harder than it sounds, wash dishes and clothes with less.  No TV lets you learn what board games or card games the whole family enjoys using.  You need the practice not having the Internet ( such as, do you have sufficient paper reference books? ).  You need to know what kind of non-electric entertainment fills your day between manual chores.  How about a manual reel mower?  Get in practice now ( it doesn’t save you much money over a gas motor mower, you just need practice pushing that bitch in the heat ).
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You need practice learning how little light the LED’s give you at night.  You need practice using a manual drill and screwdriver and saw, again.  You don’t have to return to a more primitive life.  You can just practice living it a little each week.  It is better than permanently moving to the boonies ( I don’t agree, but I understand how you are thinking ), right?  But far better than just storing off grid non carbon fuel tools and assuming you can use them after things go dark permanently.  Sure, you could do that.  It will work after a fashion.  But look at it this way.  Your world just ended ( even if it is just the electric price skyrocketing, the end of hair driers and deep fryers IS the end of some folks world ).  You are so stressed you are practically crapping blood.  If you are already practiced on your new tools, your stress level is reduced instead of elevated.
( .Y. )
( today's related link https://amzn.to/2nYflDQ )
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note: free book.  PA road trip https://amzn.to/2wrWB3e .  
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31 comments:

  1. Excellent follow up Lord Bison. As per usual, you've given us some great food for thought! Well done Sir.

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  2. Does anyone have any 1st hand experience with the parabolic mirrors used for solar cooking ? Saw an episode of TRU channel 'Hack My Life' where a frying pan was able to cook hamburger meat in a timely fashion using a parabolic mirror (appeared to be approximately 18" - 24" in diameter). That would rock where I live.

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    1. Anyone have a frugal source, or is it all outlandishly expensive. I agree, a rockin cook source for most of the year.

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    2. Got a space blanket?
      Handy with tools?
      Like to experiment?
      Sure you do.
      Make one yourself, this will help you get started:
      https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a21833/diy-parabolic-mirror/

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    3. Lots of YouTube stuff showing how to inexpensively build parabolic reflector cookers using cardboard and aluminum foil or space blankets. Simple box reflectors can also be effective and are a little easier to build. Also, look into scavenging big Fresnel lenses from screens of old projection TVs. I have one of these and its great for melting metal but I think the cardboard option is probably better for cooking. Suggest using the cardboard approach to get some experience and when you find the design you like, make one out of something a little more durable for the long haul.

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    4. With the winds here, I hate cardboard and tinfoil, but I see the point.

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    5. My twin and I built a parabolic solar hot dog type cooker in late 70s for cub scouts. We were like 9 or 10.
      A curved piece of thin, shiny aluminum sheet metal off a roll. About 24"x 18". Wood end pieces supported and held the metals curved shape. Coat hanger skewer ran along length of cooker. Wooden base allowed the relective half tube shape of cooker to pivot for aiming.
      I'm going to dig around my Mom's attic and find it for chili dogs during End Times.
      S

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    6. To help with the nature/nurture debate, did your twin also get into preparedness?

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    7. Twin question reply: Yes. Although he is the first born extrovert and I am second born introvert. I have seen this hold true for 90% of identical twins I have met.
      He has guns/food/metal/skepticism about sustainability of current situation. Yet more of a business man and slightly more main-stream than me.
      I am better read and more creative. I generally lead the way with ideas and actually practising and perfecting skills. I am the driving force for survivalism in our extended family.
      He is no slouch though. Just more of a type A than me.
      We are identical mirror twins. I'm left-handed he right. Right brain versus his left brain. We have had two fillings for cavities in our life. They are in exact spots in molar crevices but on opposite sides. Swirl of hair growth pattern on top of our heads is opposite. Jesus, sorry to go on about stuff only a mom generally cares about, but I'm a believer that nature is the big contributor over nuture.
      S

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    8. No-don't be sorry. This kind of stuff fascinates me which is why I ask. And I don't believe I've run across the "same but opposite side" data before. So you've taught me as well as intrigued me. Thank you! I agree with you that nature is predominate over nurture. If for no other reason it infuriates LibTards! :) Same with "different races are subspecies". Leftist humps are the biggest reasons the social sciences will never be considered real science ( well, neither can Gore Warming, but I drift afar ), as they subverted the fields as soon as they were formed. Nazi's had better sense than Leftists, and I say that well aware of a lot of the occult leanings ( or at least, REPORTS of occult leanings. You can't even accept one percent of gov run indoctrination center teaching as factual ). Again, thanks. I learn more from the comments section than I think most minions learn from my blatherings.

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    9. " I learn more from the comments section than I think most minions learn from my blatherings. "

      But Jim, you are but one,
      while we are LEGION..

      Keep on blathering, the comments are cool, too

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    10. Now I feel like I'm surrounded by hoards of coolies with sharp farm tools :)

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    11. Gawd - what an image - the birth of the new PWP party - Peasants With Pitchforks!

      Another droplet of wisdom from JimmyD's everflowing font!

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    12. Here's easy & simple parabolic - glue space blanket to old satellite dish.
      Done.
      WO-friggin'-LA

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    13. Hmmm...PWP Party sounds better than the Anarchist Party.

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    14. Neilm-now I feel like a complete idiot. Duh. I even saved an old DISH unit for whatever. At the time, I thought a cell phone booster for a Internet signal.

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  3. Jim, your work here is a friggin' national treasure. The combloc used test methods for youth to determine which ones were handy, improvised, thought out problems, etc. Some were academic, most were gear heads and mechanical fixers. It is the ones that can hi-jinks and jerry rig thinks to make a fix that are treasures to keep close to your campfire. The collapse period and post apocalypse will be the test bed for the self proclaimed survivalists to 'attempt' to prove that their shit don't stink. It is total brilliance that Jim is probably the only one to think the problem out long past the "OH MY LORD! A STORM IS COMING" pandemonium that is a-typical of the cattle classes. Yep, it comes down to the nuts and bolts of things really.

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    1. Ah, shucks! :) All I ask is an unbalanced budget from your support and your nagging all your friends to come visit ( the ones you can afford to lose, anyway ) so they may be drawn into my evil web.

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  4. I think the point you raise is excellent about thinking through what level of technology you should be practicing with (e.g., I have a small portable rocket stove and a camping propane burner- try to use both when I go camping even though everyone else I see is using propane only.). This seems to be mostly about how long whatever you have might last when there are no more industrial replacements. I wonder where you, Lord Bison, draw the line on that time frame? If something meets a basic need for a few weeks that clearly to me seems like a waste, but something that might get me by for a year or two might be worth it for some things. It's all just buying yourself more time until you're either dead or living like a bald-headed chimp, picking lice out of your pack-mates hair for a juicy treat.

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    1. I think we are on about the same time line. Two years is a good compromise between not long enough and probably too long to be realistic. I try for five years, good commie plan timeframe, but realize I probably can't count on that long. For instance, I have five years food but it will probably be gone in 2.5 as I must double up on daily calories to be combat effective. So I plan on five but know I'm being optimistic. My tribe and family survival should be longer, if all goes right, but I have a feeling that the gunpowder devolution will throw a monkeywrench in that.

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    2. "...double up on daily calories to be combat effective."

      Can you elaborate on that?
      I've seen that mentioned before but don't know what it means.

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    3. You need a heavy caloric intake daily, even when not directly involved in combat, to be effective on the battlefield. You burn a lot just staying warm outside on guard duty. Your body needs a surplus. I've heard 3-4k, and even 3.5 as a minimum. Of course, all body types are going to vary and that is just the military making One Size Fits All. But it is a good ball park. Rations for the German army in WWI, even mostly standing in a trench at a gun, were something like a pound of bread, a pound of meat, a ration of fat and I think potatoes. I could be wrong, or mixing armies-going by imperfect memory here, but you get the general idea.

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    4. With this in mind, don’t forget to double up on your food storage, particularly in very cold climates. I was watching a special one time on a scientific team in the Arctic. I don’t recall the numbers off hand, but they had to consume an enormous amount of calories just to maintain body weight. I want to say it was around at least 4000 daily?

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    5. That figure wouldn't surprise me. One of the reasons I'm so focused on hoarding enough vegetable shortening. Fat and cold go together wonderfully.

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  5. Try this DIY parabolic mirror
    https://youtu.be/8CLRTa_ocmo

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    1. Not a bad way to go. Probably no more flimsy/damage succeptable than commercial units and you can cheaply stock replacement materials.

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    2. http://www.solarcooker-at-cantinawest.com/parabolic_solar_cooker_solar_burner.html

      This is the second generation parabolic of the one I have (first gen). The larger the diameter, the hotter it gets and the faster it cooks. This one can be dangerous. They say as soon as you're done with it, rotate it out of the way, as it can set your house or vegetation on fire if the beam is focused on it without your pot or pan on the holder.
      Peace out

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    3. That doesn't seen like an unreasonable price, considering what crappy little box ovens sell for commercially. As an aside...Fire! ( Bevis & Butthead laughter inserted here ) Fire!

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  6. Jim I am not sure if this is you under a pen name or your brother from another mother . But I have read this freebie 3/4 already I swear its YOU. https://www.amazon.com/Miserly-Without-Being-Miserable-Preppers by Kevin Layos If its not its plagiarized.

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    1. I have a rough draft copy of the book. I enjoyed it immensely. A similar style of humor-so that is probably why it sounds familiar. I thought it was a very good original trains of thought that were all his own. I disagreed with quite a few things but they were logical and consistent and I couldn't find anything wrong with it. We'll be lucky if this isn't his only effort.

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