Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil world) 2

kpeavey · Expert Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 1243

I work out of town a great deal. Besides travel expenses I get a $75/day per diem rate. This covers hotels and food. Most of the time I can share a room with a coworker. The first night everyone hits the supermarket. $50 for groceries beats the hell out of dining out every night. I also take some goods with me, keeps it rotated and its handy if I can't get to the supermarket. There are some places I go where the local hotels do not have a fridge, microwave and coffee machine. I have a spare microwave and coffee machine I load into the truck when I head up there.

Every little bit helps.
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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984

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Accept the Facts.

JJ · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 07, 2007 Posts: 348

co-worker told me he thinks he can get me a woodstove (cheap).

Ludi

Realized we have to get up at 5am in order to get anything done, it is so hot these days. Sad

Bluh.
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No original ideas are contained in this post.

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1519

Just got back from Harbor Freight with 4 of their 45 watt solar panel arrays. They come with a charge controller apiece, a couple 12 volt CFL's, sockets, and cables. Just add a battery, and an inverter if you want 120v. On sale for $179.95 per 45 watts, so it is competitive. They have been out of stock for quite a while, so I got a rain check for 4 systems when they were marked down. Called yesterday, and found they had 4 on the truck this morning, so I camped on the doorstep until they opened and made sure I got them all. Said they'd been selling them as fast as they can get theminto the store.....

This is more of my extra-redundant idea, having several small systems that run independently so I can switch them around to keep critical stuff (freezer) running if req'd..

The FNMA and FMAC story was on public radio ALL morning. I think the financial slide just got a lot steeper. I'm expecting retail turmoil, as in stiff inflation (from the bank bailouts paid for with US
Treasuries) and spot shortages of goods, for things that the situation demands-what we call prep items-as retail margins shrink, and the economy slows.
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Local fix-it guy..

AnIowan

AnIowan

mystiek

I have been setting up to collect rainwater-just still need to buy the carbon filters since we have a shingled roof. Today I ordered the "juice box" waters with straw-several month supply that has a 5 year shelf life, one of those radios that can run by electric, battery, cranking, charges cell phones, etc, and several space blankets (use them to cover important electrical gadgets if emp attack).

vilemerchant · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 07, 2008 Posts: 121

girlscout

We just picked up a Marlin Papoose quick-takedown .22 to add to the household arsenal. My husband and I are going to the range this weekend for some target practice, and to fire off some older ammo.

This weekend, I'm hoping that we can find the time to build a proper trellis for the grapevines (Concord) I planted last spring. I had a grapevine on my family's property growing up, and have always missed picking grapes fresh off the vine.

While doing some yardwork this weekend, I was pleased to find that a number of wild raspberry plants had established themselves along our fenceline. Mmm.. free food!

And, I went through the seed catalogs and planned for a more ambitious gardening effort next spring. It will be interesting to see just what we can grow indoors this winter in pots, as we're lucky enough to have a number of sunny windows (though in times like this, I miss living in the south). I'm currently waiting on a number of books on gardening and homesteading from interlibrary loan...

JJ · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 07, 2007 Posts: 348

an PO aware acquaintance with 170 acres of farmland suggested that he might sell me 10 acres.

frankthetank

Looked at 23 acres of land for $2000/acre. Has frontage on a very good trout stream (more of a small river)...too bad its mostly low land and has very little in the way of building spots or even gardening potential. Probably floods occasionally. Good land if you like duck hunting and easy access to all the water you'll ever need! Within 25 minutes of the city.

Ordered a killawatt device.

Spent most of yesterday with the chainsaw cutting up a downed tree at our families 60 acres. VERY HOT/SWEATY. Would never recommend collecting firewood in 80F heat. I know why its smarter to do your cutting in the winter. Was just finishing cutting some big chunks when the chainsaw ran out of gas. Forget to bring oil for it! Won't forget that again. Brother told me he hears a chainsaw down on the Amish guys land from time to time. Thinks he may be cheating.
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"Oil is going up because we use too much oil, and the capacity to replace reserves is dwindling"
-President Bush 11/07/07

Ludi

Got up early (yay! Razz

), worked on the screenporch, garden, cleaned the sheep paddock (collecting mulch), watering trees, going to be cooking some beans in the solar cooker for dinner.
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No original ideas are contained in this post.

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1519

Added 600 lbs. of heavy angle iron to my metal stash, at 12 cents/lb. Now, I'm moving RR ties out of the way so earthmoving can begin on the garden terrace. Backhoe guy is a bit late in coming, but I'm late getting ready, so it's okay.
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Local fix-it guy..

AnIowan

Got caught in that "information overload" cycle today. I read and read and read about the markets and various parts of the economy, but how this actually helped me prep, not a whole lot.

We did purchase the final fence post for our first part of the fence and I'll get that into the ground tomorrow. I've also started some cash withdrawls from on online savings account we have. We'll probably close that out soon and move it local. Not a huge amount of money, but the bank is not a highly rated bank, and the local bank is one.h

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1395

I've spent the last three days canning constantly (and not spending much time here at the forums, unfortunately) - and still have more to go. I canned up about 40 pounds of tomatoes over the weekend and on Monday. Yesterday, we checked out the peach tree down at my grandma's house (nobody lives there now, since my grandparents are both gone) and the peaches were ready to pick. So, between my brother and I, we got about 4 bushels of peaches. So far, I've canned up 15 jars of peach preserves - using about 1/4 of what I have picked. I'll be canning the rest as plain peaches, probably. I'll get started on them this afternoon.

Today we went blackberry picking. There's a million of them around here, but this year's berries are small for some reason. It would take a month to get enough berries to do anything with, so we quit sooner than we should have. We may go back out tomorrow during a cooler part of the day.

The orchard about a half mile down the road should have apples ready for picking soon. We know the owner well, and he always trades apples with us. Last time, we traded him eggs, and a few jars of apple pie filling that I made up, for all the apples we wanted.

I'm not much worried about our local fruit supply as long as the weather cooperates. Within a half mile walk from the house, we have apples, peaches, cherries, blackberries, strawberries, and persimmons in season.

I also found a rechargable flashlight at a yard sale this weekend - for 50 cents. It's already come in handy. More later...
K