Moving Forward

After work I’m planning to go over to Lowe’s to see if they have power and to see if a fresh truckload of things like lamp oil might have come in.  I would be very surprised if they still had any of their stock from before we started with all this fun.  While I’m there I also plan on looking at prices for the components to build a Mother Earth News style passive solar heater.  I’ve decided where I can mount one (or two or three) at home and I’d like to get the planning stages started.  One thing I might buy while I’m there is a better transfer pump to give me easier access to my kerosene.

After that hopefully the Gouge Station – I mean Gas Station – will still have some (way over priced) regular unleaded in stock.  Galileo has gotten much lower than I usually let him.  Timing is everything!  * eyeroll *

So among other things this little practice run has reminded me of is that I really need to get going on my back-up power system. 

I actually have a generator.  I bought it used at a yard sale.  I was told that there was an issue with the engine not wanting to run at a constant speed.  I’ve been meaning to check into that but haven’t gotten ‘round to it. 

A couple of weeks ago I picked up, for very short money at another yard sale, a pair of good sized storage batteries that would work well with an inverter – if I had a way to charge them.  I even have an inverter around somewhere!  Come to think of it, it’s probably over in storage with all of the stuff I pulled out of the van when I was getting ready to sell it.

Another thing I want to set up is a photovoltaic system that can, among other things, be used to charge those batteries.  Harbor Freight has just such a system, though they are almost certainly out of stock.  (Assuming the store has power and is actually open…)

One small thing I can do without purchasing anything else is to continue putting up the plastic over the windows.  Mum may not realize it (until she reads this) but I am deliberately holding off on that to allow some air exchange into the house so we don’t croak from smoke inhalation what with R2 acting up a bit at the moment.

I have also decided that the black plastic shelf just outside the door in the pantry part of our enclosed porch is going to have all of the storage junk removed and boxed to go to storage to make room for fuel storage.  Both 5 gallon kerosene cans will be filled and put on the bottom shelf along with one can of gasoline.  The next shelf up will house our cash of fuel for our oil lamps along with some citronella torch fuel and lighter fluid..  There will be a box or tote of oil lamp parts.  I have quite a bit of that sort of thing scattered around various cabinets and boxes and such.  It all needs to be gathered in one place.

I have a barrel on hand just waiting for me to set up my rain water catchment system.  That’s another of those projects that’s been waiting for me to have the time to actually decide how I want to implement.

So I have a pile of work around the house to get to – much of which will have to wait for the power to come back on.  I’ll try to make a point of documenting each of these projects and post updates as things progress.  So check in from time to time to see how (if?) things are going.  I can use all the encouragement I can get as well as your suggestions for better ways to accomplish the stuff that needs doing.

Brief Update

‘Step 1’ is coming along nicely while ‘Step 2’ is still in development…  Oh, wait!  Not that kind of brief!  ;-)

The power is still out.  This is now Day 3, not counting Saturday since power went out around 10:30pm.

Last night Mum fixed supper on R2 for the first time.  Spaghetti O’s augmented with cut up hotdogs. 

As of today I am declaring ALL refrigerated food in the house unfit for human consumption.  We coasted with some of it as the fridge kept its cool reasonably well and was not opened much to help it at that.  Some items were moved to a large plastic tote in our enclosed but unheated porch.  It’s been too warm for that to work for two days now, so I’m putting my foot down.  Mum actually wanted to use the milk we bought Saturday for breakfast.  You see Mum is a depression baby and is loath to throw anything out.  I would rather chuck food that may be still good than spend a couple of days chucking myself, if you know what I mean…   I will make an exception for the cheese as long as there’s no visible mold, although I probably shouldn’t.  Everything else will go out with the trash Friday morning.

We still have plenty of things like pasta, ramen noodle soup, dry beans and canned goods that don’t need refrigeration. 

Oh, I did remember to fill one of our storage jugs with filtered tap water last night.  A couple of months ago I picked up a little Britta filter that mounts to the kitchen faucet.  I think our water at what I’m still calling the new house is fine.  But still, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Here we go again…

After surviving the Great Ice Storm of 2008 Mum and I were in much better shape to deal with the Halloween Nor’easter of 2011.  (And I was griping about a little dusting on my van’s windshield just the other day…)

The basics everyone needs just to survive:

Food & Water

Shelter

Warmth

Our pantry is not in as good a condition for this kind of situation as I would prefer.  That said, we have enough to eat.  The water supply is still working.  (Remind me to grab some in a container when I get home just incase that changes…)  And I have devised an improvised way of cooking.  So we are okay there.

Our home is undamaged and just as livable as if there wasn’t a ‘situation’ in progress – except for our electric supply being out.  That right there is the problem.  Because the electricity is out several key systems are also down.

The furnace.  (Kerosene, but requires an electric fuel pump and blowers to run.)

The hot water heater.  (Propane, but requires an electric blower and ignition to run.)

The refrigerator.  (Electric, 110/115 volts.)  We don’t have a chest freezer – yet.

The stove.  (Electric, 220 volts.)

Naturally the lights and computer are also on that list.  But those are convenience items not required for basic survival.  Other things we have come to depend on are the laundry equipment and the dishwasher.  Our voip phone system survived for several hours without power on its battery back-up, but is now dead.  There is apparently no power to the local cell tower so even while my cell phone had juice there is no service.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am writing this on my lunch break on my work computer since the building has emergency generators and the area may have power from the grid.

So our food situation is tolerable and our home is livable.  What about warmth? 

We’ve got that covered too.  Our pall R2 is back in service.  I wrote at length about the odyssey we went through finding him during the ice storm.  R2, who got his name because he resembles an “R2 unit” (though not R2-D2 so much) from Star Wars, is a portable kerosene space heater.  One of the larger upright cylindrical ones that have a cage-work surrounding the top 4/5ths of his body.  I have to siphon fuel from our primary oil tank out back of the house to fill him.  But at least we have some to siphon!  For cooking I’ve found that if I place our kettle on top of the cage-work it doesn’t boil to make the kettle whistle, but it still gets hot enough to make tea.  We could also probably cook pasta or make soup or stew that way as well.

For lights we have my collection of vintage oil lamps and lanterns.  They can burn standard lamp oil or citronella torch fuel.  In a pinch they could probably also use kerosene the same as R2, but that is a last resort.

I have also set up the prototype passive solar heaters that I built last year.  I don’t know how many BTU’s they contribute, but they do seem to help.  I would very much like to build a bigger badder better version this year – if finances will allow.

So we’ve got the basics covered.

A couple of things we don’t have covered as well as I’d like are back-up electricity storage/generation and refrigerated food storage.  I’ll go into those and other preparedness projects in more detail in future posts. 

As you can no doubt tell I’m not a big-time survivalist guru mentor.  But I am more than happy to share my journey into the land of preparedness and self sufficiency. 

One thing I will recommend is that you get your hands on my favorite magazine: The Backwoodsman.  The guys who write the articles in that publication know what they are talking about and have developed the information from personal use.  (The Eclectic Dragonfly is in no way connected to BWM, its publisher or any of its authors or contributors.  This is simply my personal endorsement.)

Bleck!

Finally got a round tuit...

Well, no.  (Those things are dangerous!)  What I finally got around to was posting the suit at Craigslist.

If you can read that, more power to you!  European sizing and in Italian to boot...

Two too good not to share!

Pink Floyd - Echoes

It is a bit on the long side, so be sure you remember to breath…

Oh, you will want to go full screen on both of these.

Animusic – Pipe Dream

The Brass Ring

I know, in general terms, what I want to do.

I know I can make it work.

I have several related ideas any one of which can turn my life around.

I’ve written several very specific business plans to get me there.

I am certain it will work!

This latest is simplicity itself!

But it seems that the Universe is just toying with me.

I can see the brass ring.  It’s right there!

Yet every time I reach for it, my fingers just brush the edge.

Then it scoots away.  Out of reach again.

All I need is one thing to break my way for a change.

With just a little traction I can make truly great things happen.

Brush.  Scoot…

There it goes again.