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Welp....Firewood guy was a no show.
I don't want to speak badly about the guy because we've had weather and it's been freezing cold.
The guy would have back orders as long as his arm.
I could make all the excuses for him not turning up for the last 3 week-ends in a row.
What IS annoying is there's been no communication to say he wasn't coming.
He only accepted text messages and would hang up if you rang.

Oh well I still have the cash in my pocket and now it's time to find another source AND buy a decent saw.
My old bow saw has seen better days.
 
The way the Lord blesses you when you are patient.
Not in the ways you want or expect.

I remembered a Brick yard that sells landscaping materials AND firewood.
I rang him up and he had a lot of pre-wrapped 25 kg bundles in his yard for $16.95 each.
Obviously word hadn't gotten out he had large stocks of wood during the freezing cold weather because the large hardware store is out and so is the display at a major petrol station.

The Boss of the brickworks was in a mood because his yard hand simply didn't turn up for work on this morning
and so when I went to buy 10 bundles he threw in an extra for free.

I want to point out the obvious here -
1) Yes. It was dearer to buy it this way - and here is the BUT - it's only "cheap" if you can get a hold of it.
The wood from the firewood guy would have been cheap but he didn't deliver for 3 weekends running with no explanations at all. Waiting on flakey unreliable people isn't cheap. Cut them loose and find another source.

2) And I'm kicking myself for this one. I made the rookie mistake and I paid the price for it. I left my run too late in regards to firewood. It's cold and wet. Everyone wants firewood. Demand is sky high. Basic prepper principals state that you stock up NOW so that when people are fighting over those last tins of tuna on the shelves you've already got a cupboard full. If I had waited till Summer I prob would have been able to get back to back loads with no issues.
The only excuse is come Summer I reckon the place will look like Sri Lanka and I'm not getting into ruckus for firewood or tuna.
 
Tank-Girl said:
The way the Lord blesses you when you are patient.
Not in the ways you want or expect.

I remembered a Brick yard that sells landscaping materials AND firewood.
I rang him up and he had a lot of pre-wrapped 25 kg bundles in his yard for $16.95 each.
Obviously word hadn't gotten out he had large stocks of wood during the freezing cold weather because the large hardware store is out and so is the display at a major petrol station.

The Boss of the brickworks was in a mood because his yard hand simply didn't turn up for work on this morning
and so when I went to buy 10 bundles he threw in an extra for free.

I want to point out the obvious here -
1) Yes. It was dearer to buy it this way - and here is the BUT - it's only "cheap" if you can get a hold of it.
The wood from the firewood guy would have been cheap but he didn't deliver for 3 weekends running with no explanations at all. Waiting on flakey unreliable people isn't cheap. Cut them loose and find another source.

2) And I'm kicking myself for this one. I made the rookie mistake and I paid the price for it. I left my run too late in regards to firewood. It's cold and wet. Everyone wants firewood. Demand is sky high. Basic prepper principals state that you stock up NOW so that when people are fighting over those last tins of tuna on the shelves you've already got a cupboard full. If I had waited till Summer I prob would have been able to get back to back loads with no issues.
The only excuse is come Summer I reckon the place will look like Sri Lanka and I'm not getting into ruckus for firewood or tuna.
Click to expand...
A wise person reflects on their faults an corrects them. ? (Ben circa 2022)

I am not without sin. I have 10 year old gasoline that needs restored. Yikes!

Ben
 
Tank-Girl said:
The way the Lord blesses you when you are patient.
Not in the ways you want or expect.

I remembered a Brick yard that sells landscaping materials AND firewood.
I rang him up and he had a lot of pre-wrapped 25 kg bundles in his yard for $16.95 each.
Obviously word hadn't gotten out he had large stocks of wood during the freezing cold weather because the large hardware store is out and so is the display at a major petrol station.

The Boss of the brickworks was in a mood because his yard hand simply didn't turn up for work on this morning
and so when I went to buy 10 bundles he threw in an extra for free.

I want to point out the obvious here -
1) Yes. It was dearer to buy it this way - and here is the BUT - it's only "cheap" if you can get a hold of it.
The wood from the firewood guy would have been cheap but he didn't deliver for 3 weekends running with no explanations at all. Waiting on flakey unreliable people isn't cheap. Cut them loose and find another source.

2) And I'm kicking myself for this one. I made the rookie mistake and I paid the price for it. I left my run too late in regards to firewood. It's cold and wet. Everyone wants firewood. Demand is sky high. Basic prepper principals state that you stock up NOW so that when people are fighting over those last tins of tuna on the shelves you've already got a cupboard full. If I had waited till Summer I prob would have been able to get back to back loads with no issues.
The only excuse is come Summer I reckon the place will look like Sri Lanka and I'm not getting into ruckus for firewood or tuna.
Click to expand...
The whole no responding thing drives me crazy! It's rude and unprofessional. Glad to hear you found some and that your shake mix arrived 😊
 
Neb said:
A wise person reflects on their faults an corrects them. ? (Ben circa 2022)

I am not without sin. I have 10 year old gasoline that needs restored. Yikes!

Ben
Click to expand...
You can restore gas! Please, share. My big truck with 3 tanks has 2 with old gas. I thought I’d have to pay to have it drained. Saddle tanks, 10 gallons, big one, maybe 50. Thank you!!
 
Neb said:
A wise person reflects on their faults an corrects them. ? (Ben circa 2022)

I am not without sin. I have 10 year old gasoline that needs restored. Yikes!

Ben
Click to expand...

Mind you I "had" 2 tons of the stuff before the crack heads helped themselves to half of it and the other half was taken when the landlord scaped my garden off the face of the earth and threw it in a skip.

God gives.
God takes away.

This load is going in the crawl space under the house.
There's a little access gate so you can "access" it.
Once I drag all my firewood under the house the access gate is getting a honking great padlock.
 
Tank-Girl said:
The way the Lord blesses you when you are patient.
Not in the ways you want or expect.

I remembered a Brick yard that sells landscaping materials AND firewood.
I rang him up and he had a lot of pre-wrapped 25 kg bundles in his yard for $16.95 each.
Obviously word hadn't gotten out he had large stocks of wood during the freezing cold weather because the large hardware store is out and so is the display at a major petrol station.

The Boss of the brickworks was in a mood because his yard hand simply didn't turn up for work on this morning
and so when I went to buy 10 bundles he threw in an extra for free.

I want to point out the obvious here -
1) Yes. It was dearer to buy it this way - and here is the BUT - it's only "cheap" if you can get a hold of it.
The wood from the firewood guy would have been cheap but he didn't deliver for 3 weekends running with no explanations at all. Waiting on flakey unreliable people isn't cheap. Cut them loose and find another source.

2) And I'm kicking myself for this one. I made the rookie mistake and I paid the price for it. I left my run too late in regards to firewood. It's cold and wet. Everyone wants firewood. Demand is sky high. Basic prepper principals state that you stock up NOW so that when people are fighting over those last tins of tuna on the shelves you've already got a cupboard full. If I had waited till Summer I prob would have been able to get back to back loads with no issues.
The only excuse is come Summer I reckon the place will look like Sri Lanka and I'm not getting into ruckus for firewood or tuna.
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing, an experienced prepper anticipates and prepares based on their knowledge, that knowledge often comes at the expense of the prepper, cold and dark are great teachers. Having someone like you share their experiences helps the un-experienced preppers learn from your experience and this helps them be better prepared. So again thank you for sharing, it is summer in the northern hemisphere so your wood story should be a timely reminder for us northerners to get our heating fuel in while the weather is warm...

I have been watching the water things in the USA West, and using that to identify crops that will be in short supply come winter. I have been growing those crops both indoors and out trying to learn how to grow them before everyone realizes there is a shortage.

I have also been trying to learn how to collect seeds and make my gardening sustainable because I don't think the coming storm is going to be a single season event.
 
Tootsie said:
You can restore gas! Please, share. My big truck with 3 tanks has 2 with old gas. I thought I’d have to pay to have it drained. Saddle tanks, 10 gallons, big one, maybe 50. Thank you!!
Click to expand...
I have 2-3 year old gas at home and at least another year before I get to use it. I plan to add Sta-Bil and mix it 50-50 with new gas.
 
Caribou said:
I have 2-3 year old gas at home and at least another year before I get to use it. I plan to add Sta-Bil and mix it 50-50 with new gas.
Click to expand...
A significant part of gas deterioration is decrease in octane rating (as the most volatile parts of gas are those used to raise octane rating to an acceptable value during manufacture).

Add some octane booster (like BOOSTane or similar) and the octane issue will be addressed. It takes a bit of playing around with blend ratio (with fresh gas) and octane booster dose to get a satisfactory mix. The main priority is to prevent "pinging" (which sounds like a rattling noise that gets worse the more you stomp on the gas pedal). Don't let your vehicle ping - it does damage to the combustion chamber quite quickly. The more fresh gas you dilute into and octane booster you dose, the safer old gas becomes.

The above will work with moderately deteriorate gas, but really badly deteriorated gas (like when it starts to smell like varnish) will have other additional organic chemistry problems too.
 
Bugger!
The unflavored low carb shake that I was going to use as a low carb beverage whitener in my coffee turns into rock hard curds that don't dissolve or melt with time.
I'll use it as a shake still and add fruit to it but this stuff doesn't like being heated at all.
JUst as well I only brought 1 kilo of it and not 10.
 
As far as gas, a couple months ago I ran a car with four year old gas to town. It threw a code on start up, knock sensor, which indicates low octane, but other than the code, it ran okay after a little stumbling. I dumped some octane booster in it (it had about half a tank) and drove it until it was down below a quarter, it had no issues, UNTIL I filled it up with new gas, a few hundred feet past the gas station it started bucking and died. Restarted and it drove the rest of the way fine. I think it was the computer re-setting the mix when the new gas hit.
 
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This is a morsel of good news. A while back, I asked my MIL (who's dem.) if she's stocked up on some shelf stable items like rice and beans. Nope! We don't talk politics, but she usually seems to deem me a somewhat informed person and listens to me pretty well (wool over the eyes, I know 😍). I let her know many places were facing shortages and even state of emergency. Today she let me know that she's ordered some rice and beans because I said to. She commented how the prices are going up 🙄 (Yes, I know.) I told her they won't be going down. I love my in-laws but can't prep for everybody when they don't care or try. I'm very thankful she is at least doing something.
 
Tank-Girl said:
My house looks like a hoarders house.
I could buy totes and shelving to organize it pintrest perfect but all I think is how that money could be used to buy more food.
Looks like when I find the energy it'll be stacked into cardboard boxes and labeled with a sharpie.
Click to expand...

Organization and high quality storage is even more important that sheer bulk of goods. This is, in face, the difference between prepping and hoarding. Hoarding is fundamentally nothing more than a malfunctioned prepping instinct.

The point being, using that money to organize and store the food, may actually go further in helping your survival, than the food itself. Obviously this is a balance, which is the key to all prepping and where most preppers go wrong. Whatever your budget is, you need to balance food, water, shelter and security needs. Money spent on security instead of food, is not money wasted, its money invested. A giant hoard of food, is likely to do more harm than good unless properly stored, etc.

Which reminds me...I need to put some time into my storeroom.
 
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goshengirl said:
I think I malfunctioned... :oops:
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Most of us have.....correcting one's imbalances is a constant struggle. This is where taking a systems integration approach to your own preps is really useful. If you can find your problem, its relatively easily to fix as long as your not in a hurry.


If your problem is, for example, too much stored food, but not enough food storage containers (shelves, totes, etc) you simply impose a moratorium on buying new food, until all your existing food is properly stored.

Several times a year I usually realize I've gotten ahead of myself in some aspect, and put one class of preps on hold where its at, until I can catch up with the rest.
 
Organization is not my long suit, that's why I am freeze drying my canned goods and anything else I come across fresh or other wise. This way after I'm gone someone can discover all this food and perhaps have a easier winter or two or three.
Just test ate some freeze dried costco lasagna ...mildly hot water poured over it and oh so delicious.
Looking for a quartermaster to organize things.
 
Organization used to be my strong suit, but I lost it along the way and that messes with me.

Interesting that this topic came up today, because I've spent most of the day working on the food storage in the basement. It takes longer to adjust shelving and getting things into place when I have to step all over things and contort my body to reach certain areas. And after all the time I spent, had a unit go rogue (you know the gawdawful metal frame shelf units in a box that supposedly hold 1000 lbs a shelf?) - managed to get everything off before the collapse. Need to figure out a way to budget for some shelving that has the end pieces that come in one piece rather than stacking two leg pieces on top of each other.

And I hate the thought of a moratorium on stocking up, but I think you're right, @Aerindel. Gotta take care of what I have first.
 
goshengirl said:
Organization used to be my strong suit, but I lost it along the way and that messes with me.
Click to expand...
This is true for me. I can be moving along well with keeping books for my book sales in order, and then that goes off the deep end. For me, it is when I get too much stuff faster than I can organize it. This happened to me with my books. I had to stop getting books, go through books I hadn't yet, and get rid of what wasn't worth selling. My book room was great and then it was so bad you couldn't walk into it. I started at the door, went through them box by box, and got rid of 50 boxes of books.

Food storage is the same. I have to stay on top of it or it becomes a disaster.
 
goshengirl said:
(you know the gawdawful metal frame shelf units in a box that supposedly hold 1000 lbs a shelf?)
Click to expand...
Yep. Those things are such a joke. Its kinda amazing its legal to sell them. Their actual limit is about 1/10th what they advertise. I made the same mistake back when I started. Now I use them to hold only light things, like spices and medical supplies. All the food is in totes or homemade shelves. Back when wood was affordable, I made my can wall shelves from 2x12's stacked between concrete blocks, now those are shelves that could REALLY take 1000lbs per shelf.
 
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