I've been pointing and shouting about this for some time now. US Power Grid Vulnerable to Just About Everything This report has been out since 2007 and just now was declassified. It confirms everything that preppers have been saying about the extreme vulnerability of our power grid. It is why I have spent the time and treasure I have to build my own back up power supply.

As Rodger said, "Oh My..."


(yeah yeah it's a T-Mobile ad in the end. So?)

Since it 'tis the season, this too, from a couple years ago:

While waiting for the fixin's to finish cooking, Daisycat, Momcat and I went through my corn field and harvested the cobs.  Here is the haul:


There is a thick blanket of vetch that self-seeded under the corn from last year. I will let that grow on its own, rather than trying to seed in the winter pea mix that I had planned. It will climb the corn stalks over the winter and into next spring. I will till it all under prior to planting next summer.


Many of the cobs were still damp. I'm somewhat eager to get them shucked in order to weigh the harvest. All told, it was a fairly small harvest for the plot size, because of the poverty of the soil. This year will make a good baseline to compare subsequent year's harvests as the soil improves. So to speed the drying, I packed my dehydrator full of cobs and set it on the lowest setting for a couple days.

By the end of the weekend, some cobs were still not dry enough to shuck, so I left them to air dry for a week.

Thomas the cat--desktop model.


The rest of the weekend I spent working on priming the plywood panels that will become my storage cabinets.


Watching paint dry...

Because these panels are so heavy, I decided that after I got both sides painted, I would cut them into the required 16" strips before stacking them for further trimming to size.


I get accustomed to how fast paint dries in the heat of summer. This weekend was a balmy Indian Summer kind of day, with light breeze, temperatures in the upper 70's, crystal clear skies, etc. ("shut up DC". yea yea...), but the paint was taking an hour to dry per side anyway. I couldn't very well move them until they were dry, and I only had room to lay out one at a time.

So in between waiting for each panel to dry, I did other things, like replacing the power supply on Momcat's computer, gathering up tools from various locales and finding them homes in the workshop, and...getting into that west bedroom.

"Why the dread, DC?" It's deep in there. This has become the repository for stuff that did not otherwise find an immediate home, plus a whole lot of construction supplies and tools that wandered in there during other phases of other projects. Behold:


Somewhere about mid-Sunday afternoon, I realized (D'Oh!) that the panels would dry faster if I put a fan on them. Yeah, Desert Cat--Sooper Genius! I swear sometimes, if I hadn't been born with such an excess intellectual capacity, I'd really be hurting for brainpower by now. At the rate I seem to be losing it, I ought to have a normal intelligence by the time I die...

So between about 2 PM and 5 PM Sunday, I got more panels painted, cut up and stacked than I did the rest of the weekend prior.


Next week: The continuing adventures of the bumbling idiot savant.

...said Pooh, as Tigger pounced again.

Seven sheets of three-quarter inch plywood, plus two sheets of 1/4" were muscled onto the roof of my Mitsubishi Friday, hauled out here, and unloaded today. I don't know how far I will get on the cabinets. I just started priming the sheets as evening set in.

My last diet day on the hCG cycle was supposed to be today, the third day after discontinuing the hCG. I could not function. I had to give up the diet early to get anything started. What an amazing difference the drug makes! Day 3 is supposed to be when the last of it exits my system, and BOY, could I tell! So I had a fat ribeye steak for supper, plus peanut butter and honey for dessert. I'm now on my second martini and feeling fine. :)

Tomorrow I will continue painting plywood panels and digging into cleaning in the bathroom and west bedroom. I have to go into town early Sunday evening to address a power problem at the router and modem in the Dogpoop Acres apartment.

Meanwhile here at the farm I am cleaning up and reconfiguring an old computer for possible deployment to Momcat, as her computer is fritzing on a semi-regular basis. Possibly a power supply replacement pending, but in the mean time I am prepping a machine to swap in, in case it is required.

So...maybe I'll take a pic of plywood being painted, if it matters, and call it "progress pics".

Laterz.

I downloaded a copy of Linux Mint 13 and burned a DVD this evening. After rebooting from the DVD, I am now writing this via Firefox running on Linux Mint.

Just. That. Simple.

Finally after years of development, it appears there are flavors of Linux ready for the casual user.

I've been frustrated with the performance of my laptop computer at the apartment for some time now, and I have been inclined to blame Windows rather than any hardware issues. This is the first step of an experiment to determine whether I need a hardware replacement or if it is time, finally, to ditch the statist, authoritarian Microsoft for the heady freedom of Linux. I need to partition my drive and actually install this in a partition, in order to have a full go at the Linux world, but that comes next. At least it should keep me distracted for a few evenings.

If I disappear for a few days, it is because I crashed the whole nine yards and will have to start over with new (or salvaged used) hardware.

Vox Popoli: 675,000 secessionists

I wonder if the United Nations will be as interested in helping those seeking the right to self-determination in Texas and Louisiana as they are in so many other countries around the world? It will also be interesting to see if the Obama administration will continue to argue that Libyan and Syrian separatists need to be armed even as it wonders if it dares try to disarm American separatists.

Granny Miller is back!

Some of you may recall I had grand plans to highlight a "best of" webpage of her posts after she decided to take it all down a couple years ago. I never did get around to that...

No worries. She is in the process of reconstituting her site herself.

...per se. This has been a housecleaning weekend.

"Again?" you say.

No.

"Still?!" she shrieks into the phone.

Yes, still. The natural consequence of your failure to participate.

I am not done. I got through all the boxes, and all the sorting, cleaning and disposing. The bedroom is done. As far as it is going to get. I have plans to purchase plywood and paint and will be constructing some tall cabinets to better organize supplies and stuff. This may come next weekend. Or later.

I had to take part of the afternoon today for some auto maintenance tasks. A battery replacement, some wiring repairs and a repair of the manual choke. Next weekend I get into the west bedroom. It is my goal to at least gather up all tools and supplies, organize the stuff I'm using next, and clear out the stuff that is in the way of the next work ahead.

I am thoroughly exhausted, "again".

Update: Forgot to mention, we butchered three roosters yesterday--the first of this year's roasters plus last year's top cock. We have two more butchering weekends planned--the old hens and then the remainder of the spring chickens. It is easier for Momcat to clean and prepare a few at a time. As usual I serve as executioner and plucking assistant. Momcat eviscerates, cleans and preps them for freezing.

Just in time for Thanksgiving. Mm yum!

Woo! I'm outta here!

All we're left with is the "spandex jacket"...

Fred On Everything--Eye-balling the Fifth Century
 
Disengage, cut your expenses, seek the interstices, and don't believe in anything unless you are sure it was your idea to believe in it. What is coming looks to be ugly. If so, it will be every man for himself, his family, his friends, and what principles he believes. The government doesn’t give a wan, eitolated damn about you.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

― Alexis de Tocqueville

The People have spoken.

They demand a socialist dictatorship.  Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Looks like it will be a powerboat ride over the waterfall after all...

I could not help but be reminded of this passage last night:

6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. 8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. 9 Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”

10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. 11 And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. 12 He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. 14 And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. 16 And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men,[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. 18 And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”

19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
I Samuel 8:6-20

Look at the stupidity of Europe. Look at the people rioting over the "austerity" that is required to save their sorry asses from total collapse. Look at their socialist governments clinging to their sinking ship because they can do nothing else. Those pathetic Europeans crying for their lost bread and circuses are what America has now become. The Free Shit Army has triumphed. America will get her socialist dictatorship, and it will crush us as surely as socialist dictatorships crush the souls of men everywhere and at all times, eventually.

...WHERE'S MY 'BAMAFONE?!!!!11!

What the HELL is wrong with the people of this country?!

MARANATHA!

Liberal media, White House owes preppers and survivalists a massive apology in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy



Not that any will be forthcoming. They still consider us "terr-rr-rists" (go figure).

...per se. This has been a housecleaning weekend.

Daisycat will be making her semi-annual pilgrimage to visit the Cat Farm in a couple of weeks. I made an executive decision last week, that the house needs some serious taming of the chaos beyond the simple vacuuming, mopping and cleaning that a visit by the, er..."other" half would require.

I am not done. Today I finally got to the bedroom/computer room, where I tore everything apart and rearranged, in order to get at the deep layers of filth that had collected in the out of the way places. In the process, I've left myself a half dozen boxes of crap to sort through, clean, and find new homes for, next weekend.

I am thoroughly exhausted however.

The waters, they flow over my head
I swim.  Undulating current rips.
The torrent flows. Whither.

Where is my rock?  My stable place?
He is here.
Blind.
Invisible.
But present.

Grasping for bottom, gasping for top,
There is a place in the middle
Beneath the waves, above the bottom
Safe

From Heidi: Five Minute Friday: Roots -- Pebblechaser

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

Yeah yeah, it's Saturday. So I didn't see it until today.

Daisycat had bought several bags of "Kirkland Signature" cat food a few weeks ago. I noticed the food not being eaten very fast, and two of the cats losing weight.



I'm coming out there today with the "good stuff". Cats will be happy again.