Post:Preparing for Winter
From Fusselman.org
So it's been a few days again since the last post, and I've been spending a lot of time doing crap around the house, getting ready for the 4th (or is it 5th) annual pumpkin carving party. I've also been generally picking up, cleaning up, etc. It seems like we've done a lot of acquisition of stuff recently and that the "stuff" is getting out of control. For example, I put out a [admittedly ugly] candle in the bathroom and Becky ask why. I told her I'd found it in the bathroom cupboard and figured we should use it or something. She was in favor of getting rid of it, instead. That candle has been in the cupboard for over 3 years.
With winter coming, I finally ordered my new glow-plug harness (which I think arrived today)... I've been starting on 3 plugs for months now. While this isn't an issue in the summer, it could easily lead to some very hard starts during the winter.
On a related note, I've been working on our "car kits" (more on those later), refreshing perishables and just generally making improvements, especially in the first aid areas. In this pursuit, I've been doing a lot of reading online for ideas and whatnot. Specifically, the forums over at ZombieHunters has been really useful. Their stuff leans more towards survival in a post-apocalyptic world, which only somewhat applies to my situation.
One thing I've come to realize is that, in a real post apocalyptic world (PAW), we'll be (basically) reverted to medieval technology levels on relatively short order, as there's only so much of anything that you can stockpile. I'm not talking about fuels and foods either, but even durable goods. Eventually your solar panels will wear out, your rechargeable batteries will fail, light bulbs (even LEDs) will burn out... It may take a really long time, in terms of years, but I'd wager that many things would wear out long before society was ready to start making them again.
What this all means to me is that you have to determine what situations you're trying to prepare against, understand that you can't prepare for everything, and do your best to align your preparations with the situations you're likely to face.
