What Did You Do Today To Prep?

[Big Chudungus]

I made plans to de-clutter the garage so I can get to tools and other stuff to do deferred oil, brakes, plugs, etc on my three vehicles. Sorta planning on moving out to The Boondocks and buy house, but first step is to get all vehicles in tip-top shape and work on various Micro-Kamper schemes for an epic House Hunting road trip later this year, and the big move.

[twinfin]

Today’s project was bringing down a large tan oak. I stay two years ahead on firewood so there’s some breathing room if injury or some other cause interrupts firewood production. Having firewood for this year and next is just as important to me as having a reserve store of food and water.

The tree was 30” in diameter at the base and had some weird leans to it and an uneven canopy making predictions about which way it would actually fall a challenge. The size of the tree meant any miscalculation could be dangerous so I’d been putting it off until today. This is the biggest oak I’ve cut down; most have been half this size.

I just took my time and thought it through. I marked my cuts on the trunk with chalk to make sure the face cut, hinge and back-cut were exactly where they needed to be. I tried not to rush, checked my cuts then double checked before driving the last back-cut toward the final hinge point. Halfway into the final back-cut, I drove in two wedges to prevent the tree from falling backwards in case my predictions about fall direction were wrong.

As my last cut neared the end, she started to move; I pulled the saw away and scrambled to my safe zone and down she came, exactly where planned! Success!!
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The fun part will be hauling the remains off the hillside and over to my processing site.

[user120312]

Surgery... patient was leaking electrolytes..... capacitors aren't forever and the popped ones were Rubycon and Nichicon and about 15 years old from my last install. Backup computer and DVD burner.
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[TrappedinCalifornia]

I'm in the process of clearing out what most would refer to as 'clutter' and others would see as 'memories.'

It's amazing how much 'stuff' one can collect in a lifetime and when you add the lifetimes of others, with their collections handed down, it can be quite an undertaking simply from a physical standpoint.

It's also a little 'surprising' how much 'survival' stuff I've got squirreled around, including freeze dried food and other supplies, that I didn't necessarily remember having.

[user120312]

The hard part is indeed remembering where everything is, particularly if one has their fingers into nearly everything. I've noticed it gets harder as I get older, part due to age and part due to more 'stuff'.

Forex, finding a number on a particular line of a 200 page tax return from 25 years ago saved my bacon when selling off my CA business location. Knowing where that box and document was among 50 years of tax returns that I filled out was the challenge. Back in CA it wasn't; everything was in one big fire resistent cabinet in the shop office. Then I sold the place, moved and downsized and all that cool space evaporated.

I have the food warehouse on clipboards or else I'd forget what I have and where it's stored since it's in three locations on the property.

Today, to free up some space I went through old boxes of paperwork and set out some stuff from my parent's estate which I settled almost 20 years ago and business customer invoices from 30-40 years ago. All in all close to 100lbs of paper is headed to the burn pile.

[user120312]

Couple things today...

Learned a new technique with stubborn solder holes in a computer board (pictures above) where one can't clear or wick off the old solder.....

ETA picture to underscore how the challenge was evidenced by scratches on the board, this after I figured it out.
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Use the long leads of the new cap as pokers with the desoldering gun or solder iron to soften the solder that one can't get out of the hole and poke the lead through. The leads are tinned and adding just a little flux does the trick. I had about ten holes that were giving me trouble and once I figured it out I cleared them in less than ten minutes.

In other prep work, I've been casting around for an easy to access yet safe place to store larger quantities of ammo, the kind of space that feeding a machine gun requires.

Then this morning I remembered an old equipment cabinet from my prior shop that's just been sitting outside empty and covered since I moved. I used to store parts and tooling for the milling machines in it. Perfect for ammo, steel, lockable, unobtrusive. All I need to do is measure the crates and cans and check for fit on the shelves. Next is where to put it. The cabinet itself weighs a couple hundred pounds so will need the dolly or tractor to move it. Hmm.... I've got a food building, pump house and aluminum walk in trailer box (on the ground) as some options. Any ideas?

[user120312]

With next week marking the 15th anniversary of the Tōhoku earlthquake in Japan, I noticed a bunch of 'remembering 2011' videos popping up on my Youtube page without any prior interest and have been watching a number of citizen videos around the country, particularly at marinas and ports where the tsunami hit.

Why? Because I live pretty much directly east of part of the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the tsunami risk is significant enough that we have warning system over radio as well as air raid sirens repurposed for the alerts. I noticed in Japan at the ports they had alert sirens and very clear public address systems to broadcast warnings, very timely from what I could see, and instructions to citizens.

The power of water is immense. Viewing the videos helped me understand the hydrodynamics and their interaction with the land better. I remember when looking to buy in one port town I was driving along on the highway and saw a concrete wall with sections missing for roads and railroad tracks. I asked a local about it and the answer was flood wall. They can slide in concrete sections to close it off.

I bought on higher ground, a couple hundred feet above sea level. Still, if the Zone goes, that's nothing. Water finds a way.

[twinfin]

Compared to an earthquake, at least you get some warning with a tsunami. If you can feel the earthquake, you’ve got about 10-15 minutes at the low end to get to high ground before the first surge of water arrives. That’s not too bad of a head start as long as you don’t dilly dally and get serious about seeking high ground without delay.

If you can’t feel the earthquake, that means the tsunami is coming from much farther away and there is quite a bit more time (hours) for public warnings to be disseminated. With a local earthquake that you can feel, the earthquake itself is your warning. There will be little or no time for the government to sound the alarm.

A coupe we’re friends with live right on the beach. They’ve twice had to evacuate for tsunami warnings in the last couple of years. They have their escape route and high ground destination all worked out. My only concern for them is that sometimes the roads get wrecked due to the earthquake itself and I worry a little bit about their escape route getting blocked by a slide or major fissure across the road.

[user120312]

I expect we'll get a double whammy, first the shaking, which IME gets intensified with liquifaction of unstable soils which beach sand and gravel generally are, then the waves coming after. Only mitigating factor is the dunes and then the ports which are low areas where water can flow into, kind of like I saw on Japan's coast.

If it's a big wall of water, I doubt being up high near the beach will matter. Getting inland and higher is the prep, so vehicle and bolt bag prep for human and animal. Knowing where the bridges and logging roads are helps avoid choke points of damaged bridges and finding alternative routes.

In other prep areas, I noticed my battery stash depleted and the lithium batteries nearing their use by dates so ordered up some fresh PowerOwl double/triple A's and nine volt ones for the multimeter, plus an 8 pack of alkaline D-cells for the legacy billy club flashlights.

Otherwise, another peaceful quiet Friday morning. Not looking forward to 'springing ahead' Sunday and will not set the electric/mechanical clocks ahead just like last year. There's no place I need to be.

[Sailormilan2]

Installed a Sadlak Picatinny bipod rail on my “Tanker” M14S, and mounted a green laser light. Now to get it sighted in.