The Great Moving Adventure II

Off the keyboard of RE

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Published on the Doomstead Diner on October 26, 2014

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Moving Week Notes 10

Got a bunch of cleanup and organization done so I can at least move around the New Digs pretty well now, although there is still a long way to go in organization, particularly clothes which are still just piled in trash bags in the bedroom.  I’ll probably work on that next.

I Unboxed the new Yamaha AP 2000 iq Inverter Generator, filled it with engine oil and some gas and took it for its first test spin.

Actually, I accidentally overfilled the Oil spout, because you can’t really see how much is in there with a funnel in place.  I made a nice mess out on the back porch.  Anybody got suggestions on how to get Oil Stains out of porous concrete paving stones?  Next time I put in Oil I have to remember to put the unit on newspapers. 

It wouldn’t start on the first few pulls and for a minute I was worried I got a lemon, but then realized I hadn’t pulled out the Choke for a cold start.  Once I did that, it started in two fairly EZ pulls.  I took one of my lamps outside and plugged it in, it WORKS!    Noise wise, it sounds like a fairly quiet lawnmower, out on the porch with the door closed you barely hear it.

I am now Fully Resilient for the typical short term disaster, like say an Ice Storm which took down power lines and NG lines or a medium size quake that knocked some power plants offline, long as it did not knock down the New Digs of course.  In this case though, I go collect the Bugout machine and then sort through the rubble for my STUFF.  I am close to 2 gas stations so in the event of gas shortages I can be there first when a delivery comes in.  I have plenty of propane for cooking for weeks if not months.  Plus I can also collect wood, there is plenty around here and cook on the porch on a grill.  Food no issues, and I am currently refilling all my Drinking Water Bottles that I emptied for the move.  Toilet Flushing and cleaning/washing water I can collect from the stream nearby.

Utilizing the Direct 12 V 8 A output, I can recharge the EWz batteries directly in about 4 hours, which I think would use around 1/2 gallon of gas, not sure though.  If that is about right, then with a 12 mile range it gets 24 mpg, not great but since mostly you charge off the grid not with a small generator, good in a pinch.

So, good for Short Term collapse now.  For Long Term collapse, the local community will have to pull together, only time will tell if that occurs or if we go Mad Max, in which case I have a lifespan measured in nano-seconds so I am not worrying about that.

Moving Week Notes 11

I napped earlier tonight then got up around 1AM and have been tooling around doing more organizing and have the main living area getting closer to normal (for me) living arrangement.  However, what this means is rather than the typical Furniture, I have mostly containers of preps stacked in various places in ways that make them sort of like furniture, like End Tables and additional Desk Space etc.

Since I will probably get the GCI Cable/Internet Package, I am considering hooking up a TV.  I have a large screen LCD TV I used while teaching on loan to a friend I could collect back.  You can’t get the internet without the cable also, so if I have it might as well have a TV hooked to it.  I can hold a Super Bowl Party!  LOL.

Over in the parallel thread on TBP I got in a row with a Rewilding type named John who thinks prepping in an Apartment Complex is the height of stupidity, which it might be but IMHO is better for me than being out by myself in a remote cabin.  It’s DEFINITELY better than living out in the bush for as long as it lasts.

I don’t have such a negative view of people that I don’t think it is possible that faced with collapse, the local community here won’t pull together instead of going Mad Max.  This is not a Big Shity and there are local options for develop a food economy.

Besides that, even when the Dollar collapses, I think for a while there will be Goobermint Rationing, if not from the Federal level then from State and Local Level.  Even Greece has not gone complete Mad Max yet far as I know.

Does this mean I am in the JMG “Slow Catabolic Collapse” camp now?  To an extent yes, at least on my personal remaining lifespan timescale.  When I look at how long the downspin is taking in Greece and Spain for instance, it has been deteriorating for 6 or 7 years here now, but not completely off the cliff yet.  I figure we are trailing them by about the same amount of time.

On the Grand Scale though, even a 20 year long descent off the Fossil Fuel driven lifestyle is quite rapid, considering it took several hundred years starting with Coal to climb up the hill.

Mainly, I just want to keep chronicling Collapse as long as I can, and this appears to me to be a pretty good location to do that from.  When the Internet craps out, if that happens before I buy my Ticket to the Great Beyond, the story telling and analysis is OVAH, and my life is essentially a WRAP.  Nobody will ever read any of this again after that, and most of the Diners will never hear from or see each other ever again.

If things go well, I’ll live a few more years in my locale as the community tries to reform in a more local fashion.  If things go poorly, Zombies will break down the door, Torture me for a while and then Feast on my Flesh.  I shall endeavor to off myself quick enough before that occurs to avoid the Torture.  The Zombies are then welcome to barbecue me, basted in the Krafft BBQ Sauce I have stored in containers here.

Anyhow, the End of the Line is not here yet, and a SUN Community  still remains a possible if unlikely endgame.  Until that happens, I am quite happy with my New Digs and will keep Broadcasting Doom from here until the Internet Goes Dark.

Moving Week Notes 12: Celebration Barbecue!

Today was productive in getting the New Digs set up with the local Gas and Electric providers, MEA and EnStar.

MEA (Matanuska Electric Association) is a Cooperative set up I believe during the New Deal era of FDR, and members of the coop get to vote on the officers and so forth.  It was EZ to get my account switched over to the ND, did it on the phone this morning.

EnStar is the local NG distributor, I haven’t had an account with them before but this also was not too big a deal to set up, I just had to go out and read the meter.  I am going to keep track of how much NG I actually use over this winter for reference purpose here on the Diner.  This NG is accessed locally, I don’t think it will run out anytime too soon.  After 3 days now with the Heat OFF, the temperature inside is around 62F, it started at around 68F when I shut it off.  Still very tolerable.  However, outside temps are still in the low 30s, so I may have to turn it on again once we are in the teens or so.  The Water Heater of course uses NG, so I will try to keep my showers short in the morning.  I’ll also keep the cooking on the NG stove to a minimum.

I also got the Bugout Machine esconced in its new Parking Spot in a Storage Facility about 3 miles from the ND, and 1 mile from the Workplace.  I can easily get to all these places on the EWz.  The facility has Perimeter Fencing and Alarm Detection, and the owner told me this year so far no thefts or break-ins, although he has had issues in the past.  Mostly teenagers as you might imagine.  I’m also now on the email list for the Auctions he holds twice a year for Abandoned Preps in units that go unpaid for 3 months.

Tomorrow’s project is to go over to GCI and get my cell phone number transferred to them from ATT along with getting High Speed Internet in the ND.    I may not have to sign up for Cable TV after all, based on looking at the types of packages they offer now as opposed to when I arrived here.  I’ve been on ATT since the Trucking years, so this is a major change. ATT is losing a good long term customer here. I am tempted to get the super duper deal, but probably will experiment first with one of the more moderate packages to see if I really need all that speed and bandwidth.  After years of rationing myself on the cell phone connection, probably even a small package will seem like Cornucopia to me.  LOL.

The final stop for the day was at 3 Bears, I’m making a nightly stop there now since it is right on the route, looking for deals and keeping track of what is on the shelves.  Cruising along the Meat Freezers, I spied an absolutely BEAUTIFUL Ribeye, USDA PRIME!  Warehouse type Supermarkets don’t usually carry Prime Beef, it mostly gets sold to Restaraunts, or high end Gourmet Markets.  Usually all you find in these meat freezers is Choice and Select cuts. It came in at $16.79/lb for a 1.5 lb 1.5 inch thick Steak, $23.  More than I will usually spend for a Steak, but in celebration here of the New Digs, I felt it appropriate to buy this one for the 1st BBQ here.    Said Steak at Ruth’s Chris or the now CLOSED Gallagher’s in NY Shitty would run you $100 EZ, and even so is not going to be near as good as this one will be when I flame it up.  I went into the preps and fished out my Dry Rub Spices and BBQ Sauces, and now it is in the Fridge Marinating for the next 2 days to really get the flavor penetrating deep into the meat.  I will BBQ it on a soaked Hickory Plank and then sear it to seal in the juices and flavor.

Most I can eat of it in one sitting these days is probably 1/2 of it, the rest I will slice up to make a couple of Gourmet Steak Sandwiches to enjoy during the rest of the week.

Over on the Parallel Thread on TBP, besides being lambasted by Jeremiah Johnson John, Sensetti mentioned how he was forswearing on Prepping and just is going to enjoy whatever he can here as the spin down proceeds, he bought himself a Jet Ski on Steroids that will do 90 MPH on the water.  Another Prepper AWD on TBP recently Bought the Farm without ever getting to use his Preps or his Gunz, and really you don’t want to completely STOP living here if you don’t have to and have not yet fallen completely off the economic cliff.

Personally, I have no great desire to go 90 MPH on a Jet Ski, but enjoying at least one more Thick, Juicy, USDA Prime Beef STEAK is a pleasure I will allow myself, even if said beef comes from a Cow stuffed with GMO corn in a Chicago Feedlot.  It’s in the Freezer here, SOMEBODY is gonna eat it.  Might as well be ME! 

Re: Frostbite Falls Daily Rant

Only one way to go about this.

Drop what you are doing and IMMEDIATELY paint the walls of your place chromakey green. Run your camera through software that will enable chromakeying and INSERT the set of your dreams.

http://www.virtualsetworks.com/cart.php

or even…

Only one way to go about this.

Drop what you are doing and IMMEDIATELY paint the walls of your place chromakey green. Run your camera through software that will enable chromakeying and INSERT the set of your dreams.

ROFLMAOPIMP. I may fucking do this!  I don’t have to paint the walls chromakey GREEN, I can just roll a drop cloth down behind me!

Hook me up with the right software…WAIT A MINUTE…BETTER IDEA!…

I’ll record the bare rant with the green background and send you the file.  Then YOU can jack in whatever you want in the background!  hahahahahahaha.

Oh MY!!! This could be fun collaboration!

You will rue the day you came up with this idea.  hahahahahahaha   

……………………

To conclude here, at the moment I am not planning on either painting the New Digs Chromakey Green OR buying a Drop Cloth, although it certainly would make for some entertaining ideas to explore on the graphics end.  Too damn time consuming though, and I already put in ridiculous hours covering Civilization Collapse.

Besides, I still have quite a few more mundane items to clean up, I just discovered ANOTHER cut in the gas line of the Ford SUV, which I had fixed up but apparently they missed that the line was cut in another place besides the hose at the bottom.  Whoever did this was not just interested in siphoning Gas, they were doing purposeful Vandalism.  I have a suspicion of who was involved, but I’ll never be able to prove it.

Also tomorrow I am going to enjoy myself a bit and do some Cooking, experimenting with some Doom Recipes and Cooking methods.  I have a nice USDA PRIME Ribeye ready to drop on the BBQ, and I am going to also try cooking some Baby Back Ribs in the Slow Cooker off a Lawn Tractor Battery.

Tasty Food makes Doomerism a lot more palatable.  Next week’s Sunday Bunch article will feature some Doom Recipes to enjoy while you still can.

RE