The Random Ramblings Category
Living your life by your own standards
As I am sitting here listening to Rammstein, the title song by Rammstein, I have been thinking about my life, and what has been expected of me.
When I was in my early years and in school, I was expected to do my school work and do my homework. The question I always had was “why?”. Why did I “have” to do homework just because some teacher said I had to? During school hours I was required to sit at my desk, be quit, and do my work. But what gave the teacher the right to intrude into my life after school?
In sharp contrast to school, my full time job does not interfere with my life outside of work, unless I am paid for the work.
With homework, why didn’t I get comp time so that summer vacation started early? Students are supposed to attend X number of hours during the course of a school year, so why isn’t homework counted towards that time?
It appears to me that school is one step above child labor. Work was sent home with the students and we were not compensated for our time.
Save as much money as possible
And I do not mean for retirement (saving for retirement helps, but most of us are not there yet). From news about food prices going up 18.5% from January – September 2011, the Bank of America laying off 30,000 employees, to the new reports on credit card debt owed buy the average American,,,, I do not think we are going to pull out of this recession anytime soon.
The US government has spent so much money, that we will never be able to pay it off. Our great-grand children have been saddled with such a great tax burden, that there is no hope for the future generations.
This Bank of America is a troubling sign. Banks do not like to lose money. In fact there are all kinds of laws to protect banks from losing money. It was just a few months ago that the Federal government cut the banks a blank check, most of which went to performance bonuses.
If you judge the health of a nation but how stable its banks are, and one of the largest banks is laying people off, what does that say? It says the USA is in some deep crap.
Remembering Hurricane Ike Three Years Later
Its simple amazing how much time has passed under the bridge in the last 3 years. On September 13, 2008 Hurricane Ike made landfall, and changed the lives of tens of thousands of people forever.
Mom and Dads house was totaled, sold to the insurance company and demolished.
One of my best friends has rebuilt and now has a nice place.
My brother has rebuilt and seems to be no worse for the wear.
It was somewhere around 10:00pm or 10:30 that I lost phone contact with my kids who were riding out Hurricane Ike in Houston. I figured they were ok, but I worried about them until I knew for sure they were safe.
The winds with Ike were not near as bad as Rita, but the storm surge with Ike was probably 10X worse the Rita. With Rita southeast Texas got a little storm surge, but nothing like what came in with Ike.
The next morning after Ike passed through, my family and I left the shelter we were staying at and went home. I hooked to pit up to my truck and pulled the pit around to the front of my house. I wanted to pit fired up and cooking something, so that the people driving down the street would be assured that life would return to normal.
Most Americans not prepared for a disaster
Personally, I think government has been pushed into so many parts of our lives, people have developed an attitude that government will “always” be there. We call 911 and someone answers, we call the police and someone answers, we see the police patrolling in their cars, we see the news TV about arrest being made,,,…
Shortsighted Survival Plans
After watching Hurricane Irene hit the east coast, the fires in Texas, and the earthquake in the northeast,,,, do you think people will go into a long term panic buying mode? Meaning, will people start stockpiling food, guns, water and ammunition more then usual?
When there is a disaster, people usually kick into some kind of short term panic buying mode for a few weeks. People will buy all of the batteries, flashlights, camp stoves, 1 pound propane bottles,,, and even ice chest stores have in stock. But after the disaster passes, people seem to forget about the disaster and return to what their life was before anything happened.
With the recent events, do you plan on changing your spending habits to buy a few more canned canned goods then normal.
After Hurricane Rita, there were people complaining they did not have gas to drive to the food lines. Even though they had several days warning, they did not gas up their vehicles. The local radio station would have a talk show where people could call in, and important information was broadcast to the community. There were people calling in and asking how they were supposed to get to the food lines? the radio host asked them if they had been watching the news before Rita made landfall. The people that called in to the radio station usually had some kind of excuse to justify their actions.
What is wrong with people, the news says there is a major storm on the way, and they do not even buy some basic canned goods and gas up their car. I guess they think the government will be there to help them within a few hours after the storm passes.
Video about stockpiling LED Flashlights, Seeds and Lithium Batteries
Posting stuff on the internet
When you’re talking to someone in real life, words are like dust in the wind. But when you post stuff on the internet, its like etching your words in stone. The difference is, people can go back and read what you posted. Once your words are spread to the wind, they can not be retrieved,…
Holy crap its hot
And not only is it hot, its dry. Its not that “oh, we did not get any rain in the past week” kinda dry, its like “we are in a SERIOUS kind of drought” type of dry.
Where is the rain?
Our lakes dry up, and no rain falls.
Our creeks dry up, and no rain falls.
Our crops wither away, and no rain falls.
Our tree sheds their leaves and start to die, and still no rain falls.
Back in February 2011 my kids and I went to the Bug Out Location and planted some trees. the trees included some oak trees, a plum tree and a peach tree. One of the oak trees had been grown from an oak that fell from the tree in my front yard. When the oak tree was planted, it might have been maybe 5 years old.
Over the past 6 months my family and I have been making trips to the camp to make sure the trees have been getting plenty of water. Well, over the past few weeks it looked like we had been getting some rain at the camp, so I did not bother checking on the trees. The problem is, the rain was a little of nothing.
August 20, 2011 my wife and I go to check on the trees, and they were in bad shape. Most of the leaves had turned brown and fallen off. There were a few green leaves, but not many. My wife and I put 2 gallons of water on the tree, waited about 30 – 45 minutes, and then put 2 more gallons on the tree.
Video about climate change and long term survival plans.
Bug out bag topics
Over the years I have seen one topic that has been repeated over and over, and that is the topic of the bug out bag.
In reality, a bug out bag should contain copies of important papers, house title, car title, insurance policies, change of clothes, snack, or even 2 – 3 days worth of food, change of clothes, phone number contact list, and any prescription medicines you might be taking. The list will vary depending on the person and what they want to bring with them.
People that live close to railroad tracks or chemical plants might be asked to flee their homes due to a chemical release accident. The bug out bag is for people to grab, run, and have some basic supplies with them.
In fantasy, the bug out bag will be used to bug out to the wilderness when society collapses.
This video pokes fun at the different viewpoints on bug out bags.
Phases of life
When I was in school, the teachers talked about the phases of life – such as birth, growth, decline and death. I only wish it were that simple. Over the past few years I have come to realize that there are lots of phases in life, and a lot of them revolve around family. The…
What a survivalist does on a weekend
Tentative plans, nothing set in stone right now. Friday night my wife and I are having a couple of friends over for a movie. Saturday morning I have a meeting for my Master Naturalist class at Martin Dies State Park Saturday evening supposed to go to my parents farm to help my cousin build a…
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