Dooms Day Preperation !!!

I can relate to Sam with the JP4 warming our rations in a frozen Germany....not in the DMZ. Our 1967 rations were Korean War era rations, too. Fortunately, 'locals' would 'penetrate the camp' most evenings with ample local beers to satisfy demand.

Damn my secret is out. I can't shoot worth a crap and I am too old to defend myself and I can't afford thousands of dollars for massive piles of MRE. However, he that has huge stocks of beer making stuff and knows how to brew great malts can always penetrate camps to bumm a little food. I am prepared!!!

Ahh yes, the barter system is far from dead. That means trading stuff/skills off, for you younger guys.

Glad I'll be a Zombie then. I've got nothing of value to trade.

freetown fred wrote:Ahh yes, the barter system is far from dead. That means trading stuff/skills off, for you younger guys.

Guess life won't change one bit for me then.

Those who have skills to barter will be just fine. Others, who are without practical skill will be useless....politicians, lawyers and so forth come to mind.

Before a snow storm, the store shelves are empty when it come to milk,eggs, and toilet paper. At least if things get that bad,without food, I don't need to worry about the charmin Why do people panic so when it comes to snow, around here they spread enough salt brine to rust out my car before it can make it to the store. I like to hunt for sport, and don't like to hear of poachers, but if things were to get that bad, that would be my first plan.

Yanche wrote:There is a potential catastrophic event from Sun generated electromagnetic weather. These could shut down he electric power grid and if severe enough cause damage it would take many months to restore. What happens the the strong magnetic fields from space trip the circuit breakers or induce such large currents in substation transformers that they burn up. These are huge 100-200 ton transformers that are custom manufactured, there are no spares. If a substantial number failed it would take years to replace them. Modern life as we know it would be stopped cold. Here's a simulation of a March 1989 magnetic storm that knocked out the Quebec power grid. It only took 92 seconds from the field arrival to complete failure of the power grid.

Magnetic_Storm.jpg

Learn more about the magnetic storms here:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-sma ... oportions/

Tonight's news said the solar storm is going to be tomorrow, 3/8/12 and last into friday. We shall see if the lights stay on

There are a pair of identical satellites call "Stereo" that are making these sun radiation measurements. They were designed and built by JHU/APL a research lab I retired from in 1995. While I worked there it was all in the proposal stage. It was build, launched and designed after I retired. The web site for it is here:

http://stereo.jhuapl.edu/

Put "jhu/apl stereo" into Google search and you will get many "APL Technical Digest Articles" that detail the design, testing and mission. I worked in many of the assembly rooms pictured just not on this particular spacecraft. In my time it was the SDI Star Wars spacecraft. From the public info about the current sun radiation event it's large but not likely the "big one": the predicted strength is just not large or focused enough. It will be interesting to see what happens and how the media plays it. JHU/APL is still the mission control center (Columbia, MD) for operating the spacecraft. I still have a retiree badge and could go back for a show and tell but I've been gone so many years I hardly know anyone there now.

If you have a space science interest or have children that do, this event and the referenced web sites would be good ones to follow. Lots of highly technical information is available. Get your children or grand children interested in a STEM education, this nation surely needs them.

Good info!

I feel like I've had my head in the sand. Been paying more attention to all the political BS & not paying attention to what's happening outside our little sphere here. Didn't even know about the solar storm ...

Mother Nature Will take us out...
Politics is just the laugh track...
Back in the day all the BS about how The 4-Wheel Drive Trucks on the beach did SO MUCH Damage...
Went out and watched a few winter storms while on the beach...
From inside my truck...
Moved it to the BACKSIDE of the dunes...
While the storm took out 20 feet of frontside beach...
Never felt bad about the 8 mpg the truck got after that...
Never believed the Enviro-whacos after that either...
Asteroid or a Solar Storm...
MY bet Solar Storm...

10-4 on that!

I remember when I was in the second grade, we had an school assembly with a left wing speaker. At the time I didn't understand the whole left-right thing -- the guy was an adult, so I believed him ..... that all the trees around MA would be dead if we kept driving, & factories sent smoke in the sky. He said all dramatic like: "THESE ARE OUR LAST FORESTS!"

Well, here we are 30+ years later ......... still plenty of trees around my house!

For the arrival of the cosmic storm, I was tracking the routing that the airlines and the FAA were sending the transcon flight.. and on thursday night, I was outside around midnight, getting a truck with a load of coal moved out of the mud. So I seached the sky,

The sky was clear, and I searched , not a plane in sight, all the routes were many hundreds of miles further south that night. The solar energy can start to disrupt the communication and navigation radios and antenas in the planes. so the routes were planned to say well south of the majority of the solar storm's impact area.

But now that I think of it,, I've flown the northern route to europe many times where the 'northern light's , the aurora borealis was directly over and around the plane.. HMM I wonder if that's why I had the 'early onset' cataracts? The doc's think its likely,, pilots have one of the highest incidences of early cataracts.

Anyway, about Preparing for whatever... I decided to get more coal before the mines get low on quantites or quality, and before diesel hits $8.99/gallon..
so I brought in another TT load. 23 more tons to put away for future burning.


The truck got stuck on level ground, this is very early for a TT delivery for me,, the ground was not yet 'summer' dry and hard.. so when the driver was negotiating around to line up with the coal building,, the truck spun it's drive tires.. and the show was over.. for awhile.

I had charged the batteries and fired up the big loader the day before, but the batteries were flat. . I guess new batteries are on the to-do list.. Anyway, I put the chargers on the batteries, and got the batteries enough of a charge to get the loader started.. Then hooked to the front of the frame of the semi-tractor. With the big old loader in grandma-low, and in reverse, the chain lifting the front of the semi a little, there was no tire slippage with the loader.. and she pulled the 40ton truck and load forward with the help from the semi-tractor.

Later, after most of the coal was unloaded I used the loader alone to pull the truck ahead a few feet,, I never thought the loader could pull that TT rig without help.. amazing..
Sorry for the dark photos,, my little pocket digital doesn't have much of a flash.


With this load, I have probably 6+ years of fuel if I keep heating the shop and house with the remote boiler, if I decide to use a hand feed and heat only the house,, then I probably have 12+ years of coal in storage..

Greg L

Gearing is everything...
If you get it low enough you can move anything...
The '74 F-250 that was the beach truck...
Had a granny 1st super low 6:1...
4.10 rearend with lockers...
I forget what the 4 low added to the party...
The truck in first, locked front and rear low 4-wheel...
would red line at...
3 mph...
Pulled my share of dead rigs off the beach...
for beer...
The tow companies wanted $150 to show at the beginning of the trail then $50 per mile on trail...

Don't forget traction: Gearing AND Traction.

When I drove the loader around to be in front of the TT/semi, I noticed that the loader was compressing the grass by about 3-4".. so I drove back and forth over the area that I would be on when pulling the TT rig.. I packed down the turf.. And thankfully, it worked..

The next option was to go out back and fire up the D6 Cat.. but it hasn't been run since October.. so that would have been a battle.

Greg L

The beach always has traction...
Just have to air down a bit...
Sugar sand was a problem for some but the Ford LOVED the beach...