Questions about survival

OK, Harry, what if…?

What if it happens tonight? Shouldn’t we be prepared right now, right here, where we are, to live off the grid?

Do we stay or go?

What if we lose electricity?

Can we still flush?

Do we still have water?

How long does food stay good in the refrigerator and freezer with no electricity?

Do we have gas in the car?

Do you still have access to a bank? All electric?

Can you still go to a gas station? All electric?

Does a diesel generator solve these problems?

Do the banks, gas, electric, water, and sewer companies have back-up generators?

Stove is electric. We do have a propane camp stove that uses propane canisters and we have plenty of those.

Also, we can use the barbecue grill.

Water heater is gas but it won’t fill up when there’s no water.

No heat.

No A/C.

We need a prioritized checklist and a plan.

A personal plan

A family plan

Water for drinking

Bottled water

Water for flushing

Food that doesn’t require refrigeration

Cars with full gas tanks

Guns

Ammo

Cash

What we do have:

Water

Food

Grill and propane stove

Guns

Ammo

Cash

Speaking of survival...

Fairy and I just sort of drifted into this here “survival” dialog. So, naturally, everywhere I look now I see survival stories. Fascinating how that happens.

A CBS station in St. Louis reported how a chain of three stores that sells survival food and gear has seen a jump in sales to people who are getting prepared for the “possible collapse” of society.

This is in Webster Groves, a St. Louis suburb. The owner said the stores have had to order 50 cases of meals-ready-to-eat in the past three months. That's far from normal. The stores usually sell 20 to 30 cases in an entire year.

He said some people are spending thousands of dollars just on backpacks that they fill with survival gear, one for each person of their family. They want something they can just grab and get out of Dodge is how he described it.

Some folks are stashing supplies at home, while others are storing them at remote locations where they can go in an emergency. Some have gone together with 20 or 30 others to prepare one spot where they can meet and, if necessary, defend themselves.

The stores don't sell guns but the owner said a lot of people have been asking advice on where they can buy one.

That brings me to another story I saw written by John Fricke and carried by American Thinker. John is 51 and has never owned a gun and has never wanted to own a gun. Now, he finds himself thinking he needs to buy one.

He's been checking them out, concentrating on pump action shotguns for home defense. In the process, he discovered that his stepmother has been taking shooting lessons and is going to buy her first gun.

Fricke described it as a tenor of the times. The Occupy this and Occupy that movement helped create this feeling of unrest in the air that Fricke fears will grow into greater unrest.

He said he was “very concerned” about the potential for violence coming from the seed of the Occupy movements and its “hoodlums, thugs, gangs, Marxists and general lowlifes.”

He described them as violence-seeking mobs.

“If they want a fight, they had darn well be ready for what punching back looks like,” Fricke wrote.

“I have never quite felt this way...these are unique times...”

Fairy and I have talked over the years about surviving in the most drastic of times if the need would ever arise. Our search for a safe harbor will continue. The desire seems more urgent.

The fun is in the looking

There you go, Harry, pushing my buttons again.

I love real estate. You know I can stay very busy looking for just the right place in the right climate that has the survival requirements in place.

Since we’ve narrowed down the state, it will be easier. Before we were always trying to decide which continent to live on.

I will search and search and we will go on “field trips” to check out what I find. I will try to be more practical than I have been in the past.

Regardless, we always have fun looking no matter where the search takes us. We eat in restaurants and I don’t have to make the bed.

Back to reality.

The weather here is perfect and has been for the past couple of weeks. I can’t complain about 72 degrees…and neither can you…can you?? OK, well you do have on layers and long pants and I have on my Mexican gauze ensemble.

I am thankful that we have a home and that we have our health and our sense of humor. I am also thankful that if anything catastrophic happens, you will take care of me…won’t you?

I’ve forgiven you for the hurricane thing in Puerto Vallarta.

See you at dinner. It’s thin spaghetti with turkey meatballs. Do you think thin spaghetti will make us thin?

“There is one thing more exasperating than a wife who can cook and won’t, and that’s a wife who can’t cook and will” ~Robert Frost

A place to survive

I'm glad Fairy brought up survival. It gives me a chance to change the subject.

In case of a BIG emergency in which all basic services are lost, a city is not the place to be. I'm not talking here of some act of nature that sends people scurrying for an emergency shelter set up by government agencies or the Red Cross.

I'm talking here of the really big deal that puts everyone on their own for an extended period of time.

Our mountain hideaway had everything to survive: Pure spring water delivered by gravity flow, wood heat, the ability to cook on wood, a never-ending supply of wood, a nearby river filled with fish to be caught, a meadow and forest teeming with wildlife to be harvested, a pantry brimming with canned goods to fill in the gaps.

On the downside was a cold winter that lasted about half the year (Fairy's ideal and the source of my main complaint) and isolation (my ideal and Fairy's main complaint).

So, we have by happenstance ended up in a place where we are too warm, surrounded by people, dependent on a water company, a gas company, an electric company and a grocery store, to name but a few.

Our main occupation seems to be searching for the ideal survival spot in a state (Arizona) that may not have one but a state we are not willing to leave.

We have looked, and continue to look, all over the state. So far, nothing has clicked.

We have found a couple of country places that had their own ponds and water supplies, but were too expensive.

As we're not tied down by jobs at this point, we now seem to be working on a small place in the desert with its own well and the same thing (emphasis on small) higher up.

We have a piece of desert land with a well. No electricity is near, so solar is the best option. We are investigating. There are no fish to catch but plenty of jackrabbits and deer to eat if it gets to that point. There's enough mesquite wood around for cooking and heat

If that works out, we need to find a mountain place to escape the summer's searing heat. It, too, would need water and someplace nearby to harvest Nature's bounty if the need arises.

And who knows. We also could find a year-round affordable place at that 4,950 elevation thing Fairy mentioned.

The search continues.

Survival can be comfortable

Oh-h-h Harry, you are so romantic.

 NOT!!!

We do agree on something. You’re miserable when I’m comfortable. I’m comfortable when you’re miserable.

Is this a symbiotic relationship?

So-o-o-o, my darling, why aren’t we living in a moderate climate? This state has a variety of climates to choose from.

The gauge to use seems to be elevation. We have lived at 8500 ft and at 1400 ft. Each of those offers an extreme in climate. Let’s average those. 4950 ft.

It would seem to me that living at 4950 ft would satisfy you in many areas where you have previously been dissatisfied.

You keep threatening that the Ice Age is imminent, at which time you will be freezing in the desert all year and I will be in my comfort zone.

Though I would welcome it and our property values would be through the roof, I would still be subject to your incessant complaints.

I want you to be happy.

Additionally, I will not base my life on impending doom…real or not.

Let’s deal with NOW.

Two people with two thermostats

The changing of the seasons once again puts the idiocy of assignment editors everywhere on full display.

Don't you just love those seasonal tips they bring us? The ones about staying warm in the winter and keeping your cool in the summer?

You know: Wear a jacket, go inside to get out of the cold, drink warm beverages. On the flip side, it's stay in an air-conditioned place, drink cool beverages, dress lightly. Gee, thanks.

And always. ALWAYS, no matter what the season: Avoid alcohol.

I saw a story once that was headlined: “20 tips to stay cool on a summer run.”

Hello?! How about one tip: Stay home and sip a cold beer.

I used to play golf in the desert in the summer in the afternoon. I did this for two reasons. First, greens fees were cheap. Really cheap. Second, the beer at the 19^th hole tasted extra, extra good.

I played on such a particularly hot day this one time with a fellow who ordered a hot cup of coffee at the end of the round. That was a good one. His other playing companions and I hooted and waited for the punch line.

"Retirement living:" For Fairy a contradiction in terms

On a recent visit to Tucson, a man I’ve known for 45 years, asked me how everything was up north. I supposed he was assuming that we were still living in the mountains. Oddly, we had been living in Tucson for two years and I had seen him on many occasions during that time. Rather than backtrack and bring him up-to-date on our gypsy lifestyle, I simply said that we were in the East Valley now. That we had a home there that we had purchased a few years before in a retirement community and we were sleeping in it…although I wasn’t sure you could call it living.

When I left his store, I took a deep breath and thought about what I’d said.

I have always been blunt and let the thoughts I have flow freely into speech, often to be shocked myself at what comes out. This was one of those times.

I am not living the life I want to be living.

That is a shocking reality as it is something new for me. I have had adventures and misadventures, many unwelcome learning experiences, some hard knocks…but, I always was living where I wanted to be living, doing what I wanted to be doing…with zeal.

I am fading into anonymity.

I have been a lot of things in my life but “anonymous” is not one of them.

I am becoming increasingly aware that so many of the people I encounter are suffering the same dilemma.

We’ve been busy…really busy…doing work that mattered…rearing children…taking care of a home, a family, a community….being pulled in all directions by obligations and responsibilities and wondering if it will ever stop…if there can ever be peace…if we can ever just be left alone.

Yes. You can be alone in a busy world.

Retire.