Introduce yourself!

[PJ]

Brandon

If there was one knot which I’ve used successfully over and over again it would be the bowline. Once you figure out how to tie it you’ll come up with ways to use it, this I promise you.

[Lux]

Please call me Lux

I have always been ready for the short duration (1 – 2 week) natural disaster since about 1990 but I have been a serious prepper since 2006.

Prepping for some form of grid down (local to continental) also for any sort of breakdown in the supply chain which seems more likely due to the aging infrastructure as well as taxation and corporate business plans and activities based on the continual growth model. Since the money just is not coming in at the rate planned for things get stretched to the limit until there are cascading failures.

The prepping thing really suits me. A few of years ago I was thinking about all the little geeky projects I had worked on over the years and almost all of them since 2006 were applicable to prepping/survival.

Worst mistake. Not rotating food. I have not lost much but I would rather not loose any.

3-5 year plan. On hold due to lack of extra money. So at some point I want to work on some more projects for off grid energy. This is primarily to try to get ahead of the game due to peak oil and some other things that are related.

[Brandon]

PJ,

Just looked into the bowline knot, and it definitely looks useful! Thanks! Now I just need to keep doing that one and the trucker’s knot so that I can use them if I need to.

Lux,

Have you done any particularly interesting geeky projects?

[Lux]

Brandon,

Here is a partial list of geeky projects:

1. Discovered that dead car batteries can still be used for low current 12 volt operation. In other words you can’t start a car with it but you can run some 12 volt LED lights, 12 volt fans and almost any electronic device made to plug into a cigarette lighter socket.

2. Two micro solar set ups (5 watt and 20 watt) utilizing “dead” car batteries.

3. Several super capacitor flashlights (no batteries and these can be charged and discharged half a million times. Tried several drive circuits that convert the 2.4 volt capacitor voltage into about 3.6 volts to drive LEDS including joule thief, the circuit out of a solar lawn light, the circuit out of a pen light.

4. Made one of Dr. Robert Beck’s blood zapper circuits (not my design. I just made one of his).

5. Microphone preamp for outdoor audio surveillance.

6. Bean sprouting set up made from 2 plastic cups and a plastic jar lid.

7. Flash light that can have it’s light beam modulated with an audio signal (headphone level). There are lots of ways to do this. I think mine is the simplest (and may have been done by others. I did not do a search). You start with an eveready 3 LED flash light and add a 600 ohm telecom matching transformer and an audio jack. You can communicate over a light beam.

Note: On my to do list I will be checking to see if a low volume audio signal injected in to the electrical system in my car can modulate the headlight beams. If you are a geek this would be really cool.

8. Discovered I could run audio through the ground in my back yard and pick up audio anywhere in the yard with a battery operated audio amplifier and a fork like connector.

9. Modified some off the shelf LED flash lights for longer run time. One of them can run over 300 hours on a junky carbon zinc 6 volt lantern battery. You just need a resistor.

10 Discovered that you could in effect place a virtual light source right in front of your digital camera lens to take close up pictured with no shadows. The main components are a LED light and a piece of glass.

11. Upgraded several small battery operated devices for long run time by modifying them to run on larger batteries. I used to have my own D cell laser pointer etc. The idea was to have some of the things I might want to use in a major power outage be able to run for days rather than hours.

[Lux]

Brandon,

I have a couple of geeky upcoming projects:

1. A warning device that beeps if a flashlight is pointed at it. It is used as another early warning device to alert you if someone is outside. By the way it may be possible to make it work without batteries.

2. For instructional and entertainment purposes only, a set of projects/devices to turn a hypothetical abandoned house in the neighborhood in to the “decoy house”. Stuff is happening but no one is home.

Thanks for asking.

[PJ]

Lux is our resident mad scientist…:)

[Lux]

Mad? A bit angry at times.

[PJ]

Who isn’t angry? I’m with you on that one 🙂

[Brandon]

Wow, Lux, that stuff is awesome! Really interesting!

I lived in another country for quite a while, where I could get electronic components like resistors and capacitors really cheap. I had started to play around with electronics a little bit, but never got too far into it. But I’ve always been really interested in that kind of stuff. I think it’s great that you do all that stuff!

[Lux]

Thanks Brandon,

It cuts into my TV watching time and that can only be good.

[RangerRick]

My friends call me RangerRick, a name given to me back in the early 70s by the paperboy who was the first to see me walking home after my first tour. He saw my top tab and knew my name and it stuck.

I have been prepping since 1957 when I received my first allowance. I bought a knife, candle and matches.

I prep for all of it. 40 years in D.O.D. and 40 plus years in Emergency Services, I have seen it all.

Trusting folks to much and giving or buying their supplies only to have them move on or sell the goods.

3-5 year plan is teaching for free Survivor Skills and Emergency Preparedness through out the American Redoubt. Scouts, OATH KEEPERS, Churches,Tea Party, Patriots and others.

[PJ]

RangerRIck, welcome and thanks for sharing your story. Look forward to seeing more comments based on your years of experience!

[Clarity Jane]

I’ve been coming to this site since March so I’m now begining to feel at home.

I’m English and female so I’m in a very small minority in this online community!

I’ve always dreamed of owning a smallholding in the countryside and being as self-sufficient as possible but it would require a major lottery win.

Right now I’m gleaning as much as possible on the subject of prepping so I won’t make too many mistakes. I’m getting lots of good pointers from this site and its links, so thank you all.

When I started to really think about prepping, at the begining of this year, I focused on economic collapse, pandemic and social disturbance. Just this last week I’ve added another emergency situation that I (and an increasing number of other people) may have to endure…plain old homelessness.

My full-time job is caring for my elderly parents and recieving government welfare to do so. If either or both of them ever need residential nursing care the house will have to be sold…then what? So many people are in badly paid, insecure jobs these days and rents are so high. I can honestly forsee ‘shanty towns’ of the kind we Westerners are used to seeing in the Third/Developing World springing up all over the place. I don’t ever want to end up sleeping in a shop doorway or syringe strewn alley so i’m going to add basic camping equipment to my prepping list.

By the way, a special “hello” to all the other lady preppers out there.

[Clarity Jane]

P. S. Call me Clarity, folks.

[Brandon]

Clarity, you might be in a very small minority, being English and female, but you probably have a few things in common with some of us, regardless. For instance, I’m a big fan of British comedies. Are you in to those at all? I love shows, from the old classics like Are You Being Served?, Fawlty Towers, and Black Adder, to stuff like The Mighty Boosh.

I’ve also been a long time fan of Old Time Radio– radio shows from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s (all before my time)– and so I love listening to BBC radio shows, particularly comedies. I’m amazed that they stopped making those kinds of shows long ago, here, but you guys still have them! I can’t get enough of them!

[Author]

Posts