I felt crappy when I got home after work yesterday. I felt crappy when I went to bed and crappy when I woke up at 4 AM. I felt crappy when I woke up at 6 AM and again at 8 AM. I feel crappy now.
It would seem I’ve picked up some crappy bug. Just in time for Christmas!
So instead of an actual post, which would require thought process I’m not currently capable of, I’m going to put up a few links I’ve accumulated from here and there over the last few days. I’ll try to give credit where it’s due, but I may miss one or two.
Let’s say you get caught in a bad winter storm, and the electricity goes out, and stays out for a few days. If you’re like me and have wood-fired auxiliary heat and a copious stack of firewood, it’s an inconvenience. If you’re like too many folks, it’s going to be getting damn cold in a few hours. This little handout might be the difference between being chilly and being frozen. You might want to print out a few dozen for the neighbors.
Speaking of wood burning heat, if you have it, you’ve got to cut wood. You’ll need a fair bit of hardware, but you need some software as well–as in protective chaps. Labonville has them at a good price.
On Survivalblog there have been some interesting articles of late. One in particular mentioned the old Audels series of “how to do it” books. If you can stand the left-leaning twits at eBay, they’re available cheap. I’m told you want to stick to the older ones from the 30s – 60s.
Military manuals can be highly useful. Steve’s Pages has quite a few military manuals that are difficult to find elsewhere (as in, since the military decided to lock them down on their sites). Also from Survivalblog
Got an older Ruger Mini-14 or Mini-30? They aren’t a bad gun, provided you can find decent magazines. And that you can put up the the vertical stringing as you shoot. Gunblast has an article on the Har-Bar for these guns that is said to minimize the problem. Now maybe that Mini-30 in the safe can assume the role of trunk gun–after all, that’s why I bought it.
From an email reflector that must stay nameless…if things go casters up and you find yourself living in close quarters, having taken in relatives, friends or neighbors, sanitation is going to be a big issue. The “Guidelines for the Use of Chlorine Bleach as a Sanitizer in Food Processing Operations” may come in handy in that event. (So will a 5 gallon bucket, and old toilet seat and a big supply of kitchen trash bags.)
From that same reflector, if you can stand a website that looked good in 1996 (you know, kind of like this blog), Better Times has a bunch of things you ought to know in bad times.
Lastly, something to think about during the dreary winter months is spring and gardening. Good exercise, good food and some measure of independence are all Good Things. Square Foot Gardening is an easy way to approach it. I have the book and I’m scouting around the yard for a few spots to try it out on next spring.