The Great Moving Adventure

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Published on the Doomstead Diner on October 19, 2014

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Note: If you are not a fan of LONG personal stories of Life in the Age of Doom, you should probably skip reading this article.

For a variety of reasons, in the last week I moved out of the domicile I have been living in basically since moving up here to the Last Great Frontier nearly a Decade ago now.  What follows is a Diary/Chronicle of this Moving Adventure, published over the last couple of weeks inside the Diner Forum.

Once I determined to move, I pondered on several possibilities, including moving in full time to my Bugout Machine, pictured above.  However, the problems with living full time in one of these contraptions are LEGION, even in temperate climates, so this concept has always been a “Last Resort” idea for me, and as nasty as things look these days with Ebola and a Crashing Stock Market and Oil Prices, at least up here we are nowhere NEAR the “Last Resort” scenario…YET!

Figuring out just where to move to and what the parameters are for decent resilience had me pondering for a few weeks before I made the move, and then finding the right place also took some time, and a certain amount of LUCK as well.  It all came together very well in the end, but the process has had a few glitches along the way also.  Ths particular story does have a HAPPY ENDING, so if you ARE a fan of personal stories, microwave some popcorn, crack open a Beer and ENJOY!  At least with this one you won’t leave thoroughly depressed and hopeless.

RE

Moving Week!

I’ll probably be a little scarce this week as I am moving out of the cabin over to new digs closer to work.

I’ve been packing up preps the last couple of hours and taking a break here for a few minutes.  It’s amazing how many cans of beans you can store in a few kitchen cabinets!  The containers I bought weigh a ton, so I hired professional movers to do all the heavy lifting next week between locations.

The new place is a whole lot more resilient and SAFE, with security cameras and an overall better location.  It’s actually its own little community and it sits right on a stream so water supply is good.  It’s a good location for riding out minor disruptions in supply chains, power outtages etc.  I’m looking at it as a SUN  community in the making!

Hopefully, Ebola won’t make it up here and Alaska can work on becoming locally self sufficient in food, which should be doable between the already existing farms, the local fishing and then adding in more hydroponics and aquaculture.

Once I am in place, I look forward to doing my first Commute to work on the EWz if the weather cooperates.  It’s not ridiculously cold yet, but it has been pretty wet and rainy, and I’m not that desperate at the moment that I will ride a scooter in cold rain.  LOL.

I may not have time to do cross posting articles so hopefully Surly will pick up the slack with that until I get settled in and back to the routine.

OK, break over, back to Prep Packing! 

Re: Moving Week!

More Packing tonight, and I’m just about done with the Kitchen and taking another break.

Tonight’s first project was the Junk Drawer.  I think just about everyone has one of these, all sorts of stuff gets thrown in them, batteries, keys, pens, screws, adapters, small tools, scissors etc etc etc.  Also in mine are a lot of old ID Cards, my first CDL Permit is in there, IDs from college and Grad Skule, numerous pay stubs etc, so it’s another one of those nostalgia trips when you clear it out.

There’s also a lot of stuff you wonder why you kept it and shoved it in the drawer.  Badges from various conferences I attended for instance.  I am such a pack rat that I can’t throw these things out which don’t even have that much nostalgia value.  I figure I forked over $300-500 for the conference, I should keep SOMETHING from it.  LOL.  In this case though, I finally pulled the plug on those and trashed them.

Another thing which is astounding me as I pack up is just how much STUFF you can accumulate over a decade which becomes baggage you need to drag around with you when you make a move. When I came up here, I had my 5 Bags/Containers from my trucking years,which contained everything I needed to live the Nomadic Lifestyle.

A Decade Later after living in one location, at the moment I have over a dozen large containers already filled with stuff, another dozen Bags and Suitcases also filled with STUFF, and another Dozen or so Cardboard Moving Boxes full of STUFF!  This is not including additional clothing and Bedding Materials which I am not Boxing or putting in suitcases, just gonna shove them in 30 Gallon Trash Bags!  then I am also not including DOZENS of still original packaged Prep Items in their own boxes with stuff from Sleeping Bags to Tents to Propane Cooking stoves to Ammo etc etc etc.

All this crap is contained inside around 800 square feet of space!  It’s hard for me to imagine how much STUFF someone who lives in the same McHovel for 20 years or more might accumulate!  I remember when my sister went back to NY to help my mom pack up the McMansion, I think it took her something like 2 weeks to sort through it all, decide what to keep and what to ditch as mom was moving to a much smaller apartment in Springfield for the Retirement Years.

One of the main things ditched was some fabulous hand carved Jacaranda wood furniture from Brasil, which was shipped back from there to NY once the Mcmansion was bought.  Part of the search for the right place to live involved finding a NY McMansion with rooms big enough to fit these oversized pieces of furniture.  The issues with moving furniture bugged me so much when I started going nomadic that eventually I ditched all of the stuff I bought while I was married and just bought old stuff wherever I moved to and then got rid of it when I moved again.  This was way cheaper then renting a big Penske or Uhaul or Ryder to be able to move everything, which I did twice before finally dumping it all.

The other pain in the ass is the vehicles.  In those days I only had one, so I rented a trailer for the Car and towed it behind the Ryder.  Now I got 3 here to move in Alaska, which I will do with a friend who will shuttle me back and forth between locations to pick up each one and drive it over to the new place.  It’s not far, but it will still take a good 2 hours to get this done.

Realizing how non-portable I am now bothers me a LOT.  In the process of moving in to the new Digs, I am going to sort through all the preps and figure out just what I can really fit into the Bugout Machine, and have an “Abandon as necessary” bunch of STUFF, and a much smaller “Keeper” bunch of STUFF.  This is going to be a very difficult decision making process.

OK, that’s the Moving Update for tonight.  My movers are supposed to be here at 8AM tomorrow and I still have a lot of packing to do tonight.  Tomorrow night, I should be reporting in from the new RE Digs. 

Moving Week Notes 3

OK, got the Bathroom Medicine Cabinet and Under the Sink hodgepodge of chemicals for cleaning, Rubber Gloves, Sponges and extra soap, razor etc DONE.  3 more Cardboard Shipping Boxes.

Also got the Bedroom mostly done, emptying the closet and getting all the clothes into 30 gallon trash bags for EZ hauling out.  Way quicker just to throw the stuff in trash bags than fold it all up and get it into suitcases, which are mostly filled with other stuff now anyhow.

All that is left is the Linen Closet which has mostly preps in it, and the Front Entry closet with all my Winter Gear and a decent amount of preps as well.  I am kind of out of gas now and will probably leave these two closets for the Pros to Pack Up in the morning.  Also need to unload the Fridge and Freezer tomorrow, I will do that while the Moving Beef is carting the Boxes and Bags and Containers into their truck.  They are due at 8AM and its 1:30 AM now here, and I wanna get up an hour before they arrive to take my last shower here and get the last of the Bathroom stuff packed away.

A few notes of merit here in this session.

First one is a Note of Sadness.

In clearing out the bedroom closet, I turned up an Unopened letter my mom sent to me, dated from 2010.  In it she mentioned being worried about me, she had not heard from me in weeks.  I was not always so good with checking in with Mom over the years, and now that she is gone it saddens me that I was so negligent so often.  I did make the important dates though, I was down there for her 80th Birthday in 2009, and again in 2012 I think it was shortly before she died.  Boy, I sure do miss her. 

Next a note of Curiousity.

One of my habits is to empty Change out of my pocket onto a small dresser I have in the closet when I have some, which is not THAT often since like most folks these days I use a Debit card most of the time for purchases instead of Cash, but it is often enough that I do tend to accumulate some change each week.  This can grow to a decent size pile over a decade!  LOL.  So after sorting and clearing various other things piled on top of this dresser, I swept all this change into a Glad Container, it’s now full of Pennies, Nickels, Dimes & Quarters.  I haven’t looked through them to see if any are old enough to actually have some Silver in them of any quantity, but I do wonder if this “Junk Coinage” will hold any value if/when the Paper Fiat of the Dollar collapses?

Coinage from the Mint is NOT debt money, its the only stuff that isn’t now really.  However, the Intrinsic Value of these coins is pretty low, just the fact they are made of some metal as opposed to paper IMHO does not make 10 Dimes or 4 Quarters any more worthfull than a Paper Dollar, and I wonder if they will hold any more worth than the paper dollars in the event of a Dollar Crash?

Diner thoughts on this question are welcome.

The process of moving is very cathartic in many ways, you clear out old baggage and it renews your life in many ways.  I am really looking forward to the move to the new Digs, and it will be quite different to once again be in Apartment style housing with many other people around.  I really like the layout of this place, its just about ideal for a SUN  Community.  Not that I think it is possible to organize this until TSHTF more seriously, but I will sow some seeds and see if they Grow there.  Plenty of property to set up Grow Domes, plenty of Water, good security overall.

Life is a Great Adventure, and each time I make one of these changes I feel Renewed.  I have been so blessed in being able to make my way through the world in this way, and hopefully my health holds up a while longer for yet another Life Experiment. 

Moving Week Notes 4: Mr. Lightbulb Conservationist!

When I moved in here, the owner had 3 “designer” Incandescent Bulbs in the Bathroom, then another 2 regular lighbulbs in the recessed sockets in the ceiling in the living room.

I immediately unscrewed all 3 of the designer bulbs and stored them below the bathroom sink, where they have been esconced for the last decade.  I also unscrewed the two regular bulbs in the living room and stored them.  I replaced these 5 bulbs at that time with the screw in Flourescent Bulbs that have much longer life span and consume much less power.

I don’t use them very much, and have never replaced them in the last decade.  They still are working fine.  I unscrewed all these bulbs, and replaced the original Incandescants that were here before I arrived.  They also still work.  I took the flourescent bulbs and put them back into the Original Packaging for transport, which I also kept for the last decade.  They will travel with me to the new digs for lighting there.

Bottom line, in a DECADE, I still have yet to use up the lifespan of 5 Lightbulbs!  I have not bought a new lightbulb in 10 years!

Of course, I have added some rechargeable diode lights which I use often rather than turning on the regular lights, since I do not really need much lighting beyond what it takes to illuminate the keyboard on the laptop.

My guess is that as long as I have access to some electricity, my current set of lights will last the rest of my lifetime.  The diode lights take very little power, the flourescents only a bit more, I can run all of them off my PV panels and a Car battery, so I am not worried about lighting as the collapse progresses at the moment.  The only other major is the power for Refrigeration, but in winter that is not an issue up here at all.  In summer, if I can’t refrigerate for some reason, I’ll just either consume it or salt and dry the frozen fish and game.  All the rest of the stored food does not need refrigeration.

Only other electricity needs are for the Laptop and Cell Phone which are negligible, and the EWz if I am using it for regular transport.

Electrical Grid issues are no longer much worry for me.  If I cannot get enough electrical power for the piddling amount I use each day, the state of the society would be so bad that I would have much bigger problems to worry about.

Moving Week Notes 5: IN THE NEW DIGS!

After an adventure filled 24 hours, I am now completely transferred over to the New Digs with all the Preps and Vehicles save 1, the Bugout Machine.  More on that catastrophe in a bit.

First off, I got no sleep last night, I ended up staying up all night to keep packing as well as taking periodic breaks to post on the Diner.  I was wrecked when the Moving Beef arrived, but it was good that I got as much done as I did, because if they had had to do it it would have taken much longer, even though they were faster with packing up what was left than I was.

As it was, they got the cabin emptied out in around 2 hours, helped me clean a little before leaving, then got all the stuff in the ND in about an hour.  I am really glad I hired people and didn’t take the offers of some friends to do it with their pickup trucks, many boxes were big and heavy, and the dude who moved them was a gorilla who loaded his dolly up 7′ high and still did a shit load of trips.  It never would have got done so fast and well with friends, and I would have felt too indebted to them.  Total cost, $412.50.  A bargain.

So now I am really exhausted, but I do call up my friend who volunteered to shuttle me to the cabin to pick up the Bugout Machine and the SUV.  We drive over to the cabin and I decide to take the Bugout Machine on the first trip.  It looks low on gas and I think about stopping, but we were under time constraint and I want to have enough time to do the second run and be DONE.

Unfortunately, about 2 miles from the ND, the BM runs OUTTA GAS.  So my friend now goes to buy a gas can and gas while I wait by the side of the road in the BM.  Another friend sees me tooling around and stops to help.  We wait for Friend 1 to get back with the gas.  Unfortunately, the first place she goes for gas, a Tesoro about a mile up the road is under reconstruction, all the pumps are closed.  She heads to another station a few miles down the road, this one not under contstruction but again NO GAS, all pumps closed.  Think this has anything to do with the crashing Oil Prices?  So now she heads for the highway about another 3 miles, and this time finds Open Pumps and fills the gas can.  Finally returns half hour later and has to bolt to go pick up her kids from skule.

So now me and Friend 2 go to pour the gas into the Bugout machine, and it promptly comes spilling out from under the BM!  I go under to look, and sure enough there is a hole punctured in the gas line!

This is my own stupidity at work.  A while back if you recall both my other vehicles were siphoned, and one had the gas line cut which was a costly fixup.  I never checked under the BM to see if that was cut.  Unlike the SUV, the cut hose was not sitting on the ground under the vehicle to be spied from standing up.  It was just punctured.

So now we try to fix it temporarily with Duct Tape just to make the 2-3 miles to the ND, but this doesn’t work because it is crappy duct tape and the glue won’t hold well enough.  Gorrilla Tape might have worked.  However, Friend 2 is now out of time also, so Final Solution, TOW TRUCK!

First towing company I call has no available trucks for pulling big vehicles, they are booked solid for the day.  They give me the number of a second company, and these guys do have a truck available, but he is 45min-1hr away.  So I cool my heels for another hour waiting for him, after which it takes another half hour or so to get hooked and drag it up the road to the Biz Parking Lot of Friend 2, where it is sitting right now.  The TT driver was nice, he could have charged me for 2 hours, but he only charged me for 1 @ $125.  KaChing!

I’m hoping we can fix this one without my having to bring it in to a shop, because that will be at least another $500 bill.  The only positive out of this bizness is that I found out about the problem so I can fix it up and have the BM ready for action if/when TSHTF, which is looking sooner by the minute as the price of Crude drops like a stone here.

After this while hanging out, Friend 3 drops in and she is heading in the direction of the Cabin, so I hitch a ride with her to go pick up the SUV.  Fortunately nobody has cut the gas line on that AGAIN, and I drive back to the ND with it, where I am now with the two cars and all the preps.  Of course, the place is just full of boxes, containers and 30 gallon trash bags at the moment, its not too livable yet.

I did take the EWz out of the Mazda and drove it into the ND, plugged it in and it is showing Full Charge, despite not having been run for over a week.  If the weather is good tomorrow, I will ride it to work for the first time!

A few notes on the ND before I sign off.  I just noticed the Oven/Stove is GAS, not ELECTRIC!  I haven’t had a Gas stove in any place I lived since the McMansion mom got in the divorce.  Gas is MUCH better for cooking on, your hardware reacts much quicker to changing heat and you can see visually how big the flame is as you adjust.  This is another plus here, though to be honest I don’t do much cooking for myself anymore.

The Bathroom is also Handicap Accessible!  Great as I sink further into decrepitude! 

The one issue is that Smoking is not permitted in the apartments.  This is probably good for me, but it’s a pain in the ass.  At least though I have the Porch in the back to go out for a smoke though in reasonable privacy.  I’m going to see if I can’t cobble together some means to set up an Outdoor Desk there with some heating so I can work on the Diner out there even in winter. 

OK, gotta do some unpacking so I can get some much needed sleep tonight.  I’m wiped!

Moving Week notes 6

Thanks for the Good Wishes Diners!  More below after I respond to AG, Surly and GO.

Quote from: agelbert on October 14, 2014, 10:04:56 PM

Kids checking out RE’s new smoking lounge! 

Actual construction shot of new smoking lounge.

Actually, I have a space beyond the porch which is level and perfect for building an Igloo, which if/when we get some Snow I may try and find some time to try building this winter!  Would make a fun project and great Article for the Diner!

A bit easier is setting up a Dome Tent right on the porch.  I think it is just a tiny bit too small for my 10′ x 13′ Tent, so I may buy a 9′ X 9′ to drop in there, then equip it with  Desk, Chair, Electric Space Heater and Electric Blanket.  The porch has an outside Electric Outlet so this will be very EZ to do!  Probably don’t even need the electric blanket, I think a 1500 Watt ceramic heater would make a 9X9 tent practically into a Sauna even in pretty cold weather.  An interesting experiment there too.

Quote

In clearing out the bedroom closet, I turned up an Unopened letter my mom sent to me, dated from 2010.  In it she mentioned being worried about me, she had not heard from me in weeks.  I was not always so good with checking in with Mom over the years, and now that she is gone it saddens me that I was so negligent so often.  I did make the important dates though, I was down there for her 80th Birthday in 2009, and again in 2012 I think it was shortly before she died.  Boy, I sure do miss her. 

I feel the same about my mom. When you are fortunate enough to have a mom that loved you, nobody can replace her. Good luck in your new pad. 

Thanks for the thought there AG on Moms.  No substitute for a Mom who loves you and is always there for you when you need her.

Anyhow, I got my bed set up and tried to get some sleep, but even though I am exhausted I couldn’t really fall completely into dreamland, so after resting my eyes for a couple of hours here I am back at the Laptop.

Before getting online though, I did a bit more unpacking.  I got all the frozen and vacuum sealed meat and fish into the new Freezer, which is bigger than the old one and nicer set up Vertical, so everything in there is much more organized now.

Given there is still room, you might think I would now go and buy more Ribeyes to squeeze in there.  No, my major Food Prepping days are over, I have plenty for emergency situations which might last a few months  and after that if we don’t get some kind of local Food Economy running I’ll eventually be history no matter what, so more food would just be delaying the inevitable.

Besides that, I’m less than a 1/4 mile from one of the largest Food Distributors up here, 3 Bears.  The amount of meat and fish they have in their freezers is astonishing, and its hard for me to believe that the local population up here really consumes all this stuff that rapidly.  I mean, how many people buy Cornish Game Hens and cook them up for Dinner in the Mat Valley?

Anyhow, in most situations I think as a Doom Professional I’ll be more aware of when the distribution chain is beginning to fail, and can simply mosey over there them and buy a Final Stock Up of Food Preps.  So I kind of think of 3 Bears now as my Personal Food Storage Warehouse. 

After that, IMPORTANT I found the Trash Bag with the TOILET PAPER in it, so I can now utilize the Commode and wipe my ass too!  Fortunate, because shortly thereafter I got to take my first dump in the New Digs.  LOL.  I’m sure you would like to hear all the details, but it would make this post too long. LOL.

I don’t have a Shower Curtain yet though, as I had the Moving Beef toss the old one which had some mold on the bottom and was pretty decrepit.  I’ll try to get over to Wally World tomorrow for a new one.

I also unloaded one of the bags with Winter Gear to get that stored in the front closet.  I finally took this opportunity to match up a couple of gloves I couldn’t find one of until the whole closet got cleared out, so now all the pairs are complete.  I have a LOT of gloves, in a lot of weights in insulation value, from thin deerskin driving gloves to full blown Red Fox Fur Mittens that go up to your elbow and are meant for mushers.  I may actually use them at some point on the EWz over the winter.  Also have a huge array of Hats, face masks etc.  No problem keeping my head insulated if the heat goes out.

Otherwise, the move is basically complete although it’s going to take me several days of unpacking and reorganizing to get the place into a semi-normal looking living arrangement.  I’m not going to do All Nighters to reverse the deconstruction of the Cabin, I can take my time with this.  It is however just PERFECT for me in size and all the features, and I feel safer now with people around who all will be in the same boat here when the monetary system goes tits up.

The main remaining issue is the Bugout Machine, which I will hopefully get fixed up over the next few days.  Not sure about keeping it around here though, there is not that much spare parking so other residents might get annoyed.  I may have to drop it in a storage lot, which I would not like because I want it immediately available in emergencies, but if necessary I’ll do that.  I could get to it within a few minutes anyhow even parked offsite.  First though, gotta get it fixed up.

I may have a couple of more updates, but mostly the Moving Adventure is done and now to get started on riding the EWz to work, and building SUN    awareness in my Neighbors.

Moving Week Notes 7

Every day I love the New Digs more!  I can’t believe how perfectly this place suits me and is laid out.

My Ground Floor Unit is sandwiched between two other units and a unit above me.  So I figure all these folks probably have their heat on, let me turn off mine and see what happens.  I turned the heat off yesterday.  Guess what?

Today, the temp inside the unit is still a toasty 66F, despite outside temps of around 35F.  It makes ZERO difference if I have my heat on or off, the temp in this unit stays the same as the rest of the ones that surround it. My gas bill should be negligible.

The fact I have to go outside to Smoke has already cut my Cancerette Consumption by HALF!  This is both good for my Health and will save a LOT of money given they are going a $10/pack up here these days.

Part of that saved money though will get used up in buying space in a Storage Facility for the Bugout Machine.  There is no way I can keep it parked here.  Tonight all the Guest spots were full up.  On the upside to that, this will give me another offsite Secure Facility for storage of stuff in a Gated Storage Center with Security Cameras, so I won’t have to worry about the BM getting Siphoned and hoses cut.  I think I can get a spot for it for around $50/month or less.

On the upside to that story, I had a plumber friend who is very mechanically proficient go under and look at it, and he can fix it no problem I just gotta go buy the hose at either Auto Zone or Home Depot and some hose clamps and a bottle of Rum and he’ll fix that up tomorrow.  Friends are your most Valuable Asset.

I didn’t have much time today to do unpacking, but I did get over to Wally World to buy a few more storage containers, and I will start the process of sorting preps that are in some other Drawer style containers that I don’t use and free them up for stuff I actually do use.  Organizing is going to take quite a while, especially since this weekend is booked with a clinic so I won’t have any time to really devote to it until the following week.  I might get an hour or two each night done the most, but I have to get back to Diner Bizness since the ACTION is going down now.

So far my neighbors on both sides and above are very Quiet, and the “Street” with the buildings also Quiet.  It reminds me a lot of a street of Brownstones in NYC when I was a kid, except it is plopped down in the middle of nowhere in the Mat Valley.  LOL.  We actually sit right next door to a small private Airstrip, so if you have a private plane that can land on a dirt runway, you can drop in for a visit easily.  LOL.

All in all, short of getting a Sunstead going with some of the other Diners, this is the ideal location and setup for me, and I will be here until I Buy My Ticket to the Great Beyond or get shipped off to GITMO. 

Moving Week Notes 8

The Adventure that Never Ends! LOL.

Got up this morning to go looking for the right size Downspout Hose to fit the Bugout Machine so I can once again fill it with GAS, while still available at the pump.

Began first with Lowes, the only fuel approved hoses they had were way too narrow guage, and it would be rather dicey to use a non-fuel approved hose, so I kept looking.  Off to Auto Zone.  They also had no hoses in the right Inner Diameter, and recommended I go over to NAPA.  Same story at NAPA, and they recommend i go over to Alaska Rubber, a local joint that just deals with lots of hoses and other rubber items for the local industry.  I was getting tired of running around, so I had them call first to make sure these folks actually HAD the right hose size. 

Alaska Rubber does have the right diameter fuel approved hoses, so I buy 2 so I will have a spare, cut to the correct length by the Parts Man at the desk.  I picked up the right size Hose Clamps at Lowes, and call my Plumber friend to meet me, in what he figures will be a snappy 1-2-3 install.  No such luck.

The hose is so stiff you can’t bend it to fit between the two metal pipe ends to get it on.  We figure when the original one was installed it went on BEFORE they dropped the body exterior over the chassis.  So today was a Failure in getting it installed.  I think I have come up with an idea that will work though, so I will run it by the Plumber tomorrow.

I did find a Storage facility for it once we do get it fixed, $40/month not too bad, and only about 3 miles from the New Digs.  So hopefully within another couple of days that particular moving headache will be resolved.

On getting home tonight, I spent about 2 hours to start getting unpacked and reorganized properly here.  Getting the Bathroom more organized and finding all the stuff that was in the medicine Cabinet and under the sink was the goal, mostly accomplished.  To do it I had to empty a two tier container arrangement to use for storing the various cleaning products, since this bathroom has no built in under the sink cabinet.  That took some sorting time.  It’s definitely going to take a few weeks before I am completely organized.

One MAJOR CHANGE as far as Internet Access goes, I think I am going to get the Cable hooked up here so I have Unlimited Bandwidth and can stop worrying about watching videos and uploading big stuff to the Diner and hooking up to Google+ Hangouts and Skype.  I’ll also be able to run more regular Collapse Cafes right from DOOM CENTRAL here, with the New Digs being the Official Media Studio and Broadcast Center of the Diner.    However, this may take a little while as I have a whole lot of tasks to do just in getting organized.

The downside of all this personal action is that I have had ZERO time to write anything but these Diary Updates, so I haven’t been able to cover the major action taking place both on the Ebola End and the Market & Oil Price Collapse end.  Fortunately, our Cross Posters are doing a fine job covering this ongoing Clusterfuck, so there is plenty of material to Dine on nightly here still.

OK, time to go surfing and see what the latest Doom is for tomorrow!

Moving Week Notes 9

Successful Day in the GREAT MOVING ADVENTURE! 

I got in to work at Noon today, and shortly after walking through the door my Plumber friend walked in and announced the Bugout machine was FIXED! 

He picked up a more Flexible Hose and fit it in, as well as replacing another hose further up the line the Siphoners had cut as well.  I added the 5 gallons of Gas from the Can, and after a bit of pumping and engine cranking, it finally turned over and ran fine.  The line was pretty bone dry so I was concerned this would be a problem getting it reprimed, but did not turn out to be major issue.

I ran out of time to get it over to the Storage Facility, that will have to wait until Monday as this weekend is booked with other tasks.

In Celebration, I went over to 3 Bears tonight after work and added the New Prep I have been coveting, a Yamaha AP 2000 iq Inverter/generator.

Price at 3 Bears was $705, and online it seems to retail at between $785 and $885, plus I would have shipping costs, so this was a real bargain.  They only had the one, so I was worried the last 2 days since I first saw it another Alaska Doom Prepper would snap it up before me.

Unboxing it tonight, it seems to be a very well constructed device, and it gets high marks for being Quiet and Portable.  A bit heavy at 50 lbs full with gas and oil to be really “portable” other than carrying it a few yards from a vehicle to a campsite, but way better and more compact than the Generac units on wheels.  They had 3 of those available also for $892, putting out a much more powerful max 9000W AND Tri-Fuel ready so you can run it on Gas, NG or Propane, but this is just way more than I need for my purposes.

In unpacking here, I have set up my “Battery Corner” for Power Outtage Readiness, which has a couple of my more powerful Rechargable Diode Lights plugged in all the time, the original BattSet from the EWz plugged in all the time, and a 12V Lawn Tractor Battery which I periodically top off each week with one of my Car Battery chargers.  This corner will also have my Ni-Cad and Li-I AA and AAA battery chargers with a selection of those also charged and ready for keeping various other devices running in a power outtage situation.  Also in this corner is a 500W 12V Stanley inverter which also can plug into a cigarette lighter outlet on a car and put out 100W that way.  To get 500W out of it, you have to clamp directly to the battery.  I’ll use that in conjunction with the Lawn Tractor battery in most power outtage situations that last up to a day or two.

The nice thing about the Yamaha is it also has a DC out which puts out 12V 8A directly which you can use to charge a 12V car or lawn tractor type battery.  So if the power outtage lasted more than a couple of days, rather than using the Generator to directly power lights, laptop etc, I would simply use it to recharge the Lawn Tractor battery periodically.  If I wanted to have more available power than the 2000W Peak the Yamaha will do, what I would do here is to get a couple of large Marine Deep Cycle Batteries and then hook them to a 3000W Inverter, but I don’t need that much power all at once.  2000W is sufficient even to run the full fridge/freezer, so I can periodically use it to bring down the temp in that, and long as I don’t open the doors but once a day to take out what I will use that day, I should be able to keep all the meat and fish frozen for a week or more, long as I have at least say 5 gallons of gas in a can available.  Then of course I could siphon gas out of my OWN vehicles as well, since I would not be driving them in such a situation.  So as long as they both are topped off, that is about 40 Gallons of available gas there.  The further supply of gas is in the tank of the Bugout Machine which is a couple of miles down the road in the storage facility (or it will be on Monday anyhow), I can drive there on the EWz once a week and siphon out of that tank 5 gallons or so for each week.  That tank holds I think around 40 gallons by itself.  So if all tanks and Gas Cans are topped off when Disaster Strikes, I have around 100 Gallons available, @ 5 gallons/week usage that would get me around 5 months.  Both locations are pretty secure with Cameras and Fencing, so unless there is total breakdown of Law and Order, figure I probably can make it 3 months.  If things are not semi back to normal in 3 months, then there will be so many other problems that it is unlikely I will be worried much about charging up my batteries.  LOL.

Another way to get More Juice would be to buy a second one of these units and hook them together in Parallel.  They have kits for doing this.  The other way to improve their resilience is to make them “Tri-Fuel” compatible, so they will run on Gasoline, NG and Propane.  The kits sell for around $120.  Not sure yet if I will invest in one or not.  Probably makes sense to do it, since I have a lot of stored Propane in both Liter Camping Bottles and 5 Gallon Barbecue Propane Tanks, PLUS there is an NG line into the New Digs, which is why I have a Gas Stove here.    Not buying this yet though, need to ponder on it some more.

So, as a result of the move to the ND, my Resilience is already up substantially here.

1- Overall SAFER and better living arrangement in a potential SUN  Community

2- Ability to use the EWz for local Commuting to Work and Grocery

3- Second Offsite Secure Storage Location for additional Preps and Bugout Machine, but not so far I can’t get to it in 15 minutes or so on the EWz.

4- Forced Inventory and Reorganization of Preps to actually have them READY, rather than cluttering up the cabin in boxes

5- Close location to a major Food/Prep Warehouse (3 Bears)

Short of an “Official” SUN  Community, I consider this the BEST possible arrangement right now.  There are between 100-200 units in this complex, in a relatively low population zone that is also nearby local farms.  In a SHTF scanario, everyone in the community would be in the same boat.  I would DEFINITELY share my Preps and throw them all in to a Community Pool, which would gain me Status in the community.  This is much more important than actually having the food to eat myself, because as mentioned, if you cannot get your community to PULL TOGETHER, you are a goner no matter what, it is only a matter of time, and trying to keep your preps to yourself is just asking for a Home Invasion by Zombies.  Total Community Numbers are sufficient to create a Neighborhood Watch Squad working in Shifts.

All that is left to do now is to finish Organizing up the new Doom Central Location with upgraded Communications as a MultiMedia Internet Studio and making the place comfortable and livable otherwise.  It’s a great example of an AFFORDABLE method of getting ready for collapse without spending big money on building a community from scratch.  I will continue to report on the development as time goes by, but for now, this is the last update on the Great Moving Adventure.

…and that’s all the Doom, This Time until Next Time, here on the Doomstead Diner.