Shearing Day and Other Disasters...

Shearing day was Saturday. Before shearing, the alpacas looked like this:

         Fluffy Alapacas

 Afterwards.....not so much!

Alarmingly not-so-fluffy alpacas

Unflattering rear view

Yes, they make me giggle a bit, too.

Shearing day started out just fine.
The guy we bought the alpacas from generously offered to put our 3 in his trailer with his and drive them all to the shearers. He would arrive at noon on Saturday. My son, The Girl and myself would be going, the Darlin' Man is on a field exercise.
He arrived at noon, we loaded up our three with little problem (okay, Ana pitched a fit)  and then it was noticed the trailer had a flat tire. So, we unloaded ours and got water for his while he drove back to his house to get an air compressor.
Oh crap....the valve stem is busted....gotta go get another tire. Check all trailer tires...another tire has a busted valve stem.
So, he leaves to get new tires.
Returns, gets new tires on trailer, call shearers...they are okay with us being two HOURS late.
Reload my annoyed alpacas (Ana really pitched a conniption fit this time!).
He tells me to follow him over in my car. He has a friend and his son with him in his pick-up.
On TransMountain  Highway.
One third of the way up the mountain....my car blows up. Well, the radiator and every hose blows up.
With such force that it blew out part of the dash and scalding coolant sprays all over the interior of the car.
I get the car pulled over safely and put on the emergency brake and we all bail out.
I have no cell phone. Well, I have an old one, but it's broke, so, yeah.
It takes 30 minutes to flag someone down to get them to call me a tow truck.
An hour after that with no tow truck in sight, a policeman pulls over. HE calls the tow truck company who tells him they "got backed up". So he calls a different towing company and they show up in 15 minutes! (Thank you Officer Salazzar!)
The tow truck driver does a great job and gets us home about a half hour after that. (Thanks J.R.!)
I call the alpaca guy's cell phone and tell him the situation. He thought he lost us on the road!
And not only are the alpaca's sheared, he is almost all the way back to our place!
So....that was shearing day.

The ONLY bright spot in the day.....
Guess who was waiting for us when we got home?

NUGGET IS BACK!!!!

Trying to Understand it all...the Gulf Oil Spill

Okay...here's what I do know, between press releases from BP and the US gov't., the main stream media, various web sites I go to and forums I visit.....

BP has lied consistently about the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf.
So has the gov't.
The disaster is MUCH bigger than we are being led to believe.

Fishing and seafood harvesting of anything is done--as is D-O-N-E---from Louisiana's barrier islands to the coastlines of La., Ms. Al. and probably the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Seafood industry in the entire Gulf is either threatened, shut down or will be shortly.
The economic impact of this will be catastrophic--and NOT just in the Gulf.
Fishermen, oystermen, charter sport fishing ship captains/crews, seafood processors, tourist industry workers and employers, pleasure ship builders, restaurant owners/workers, etc and so on will all be affected. They can't make money, they can't pay their bills, mortgages, car payments, etc., which translates to more folks defaulting on mortgages, declaring bankruptcy or just walking the hell away from their debts because there is nothing else they can do. Those that have vacation homes on the Gulf Coast may well walk away from those properties as well. Who wants a view of a beach covered with blobs of oil and dead fish and marine mammals?

This will be a HUGE financial impact on the south-eastern United States.
And like the oil spill, that impact will spread..faster in some sectors of the national economy, slower in others, but it WILL spread.

Additionally, if you are not aware, the "Top Kill" solution will be attempted tomorrow morning by BP. It is estimated (by THEIR engineers) that it only has a 60 to 70 % chance of success. The back-up plans include a *debris dump and cover* and the side wells to draw off pressure (which cannot be attempted until August according to all reports).

There was a meeting in Houston, consisting of a group of men including Richard Garwin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garwin ) and four other nuclear physicists mulling over the Deep Water Horizon oil spill/leak and the possibility/advisability of using a nuclear device to stop/seal the torrential leak. They were gathered to this meeting by Stephen Chu (Obama's Energy Secretary).
That's right, they are considering a nuclear solution.
FEMA, by reports I have read, is poised to direct mass evacuations of Tampa and other populated areas of Florida's Gulf Coast in the event that a more extensive "burn off" of the oil on the surface is attempted. The cloud of toxic smoke would, (if current climate and tidal conditions continue) drift directly into the Tampa area.

We are expecting severe thunderstorms to pass through Beaumont Thursday...the storms are expected to go through the weekend and to pass across the southeast and the Gulf as well. What effect this will have on the efforts to contain the spill are unknown.

I am personally thinking that this event...the oil spill, may be the last straw on the financial camels back as far as the US economy is concerned.

This is bigger than Katrina in the financial whammy it will deal to the economy and yet, I don't hear people screaming about it.

Where will the money come from for clean up?
Where will the money come from for the tourist and fishing industries?
Where will the money come from for evacuations?

BP will not be able to cover all this...and even if the US gov't. sues for monies expended to handle this disaster, it will take YEARS for it to be negotiated and/or move through the courts.

I guess what I want to discuss, is this event *the* event that will start the domino's falling? Yes, I know, other events in the past may have actually started the domino's falling, but I guess I mean--Is this the event that is irrecoverable from...is this the event that will start the spiraling down into the SHTF?


Prepping for this scenario boggles the mind.
If you are in the Gulf Coast area (as I am) MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR BUG-OUT-BAG READY!!!
Have ample drinking water stored in case you have to "bug in".
Get ahold of some gold or silver (junk silver, i.e., old US coins are a good form) in case there is a sudden currency collapse.
Check and re-check your home security, especially if you have to "bug in".
If you have fire arms, make sure they are cleaned and ready for use. Store a little extra ammo---just in case.


Get respiratory masks for all members of your family. Even doubling up "painters masks" are better than nothing.
Watch news reports carefully. Pay attention to details around you...are you seeing FEMA vehicles in your area? Has the National Guard in your area been called in suddenly? Are you seeing more military vehicles in your area?


Am I being paranoid?
Maybe...but an ounce of paranoia is worth a few tons of cure right now!
Prepare yourself, prepare yourself, PREPARE YOURSELF!

Chilean Earthquake, Haiti Earthquake, Argentine Earthquake, Japanese Earthquake..

First Haiti.
Then Japan last week (not a HUGE one, but big enough)
Then Chile and Argentina within 24 hours of each other.

If you do not have water and food stored for emergencies:
WHY NOT!???
Do you think you somehow live a charmed life and nothing that bad will happen to you and your loved ones?
Do you shrug off the responsibility of preparing for yourself and your family because "The government or our church or our family or SOMEBODY" will take care of you?

It does NOT work that way.
What  will you do when there is no drinkable water and one of your kids tells you he/she is so very thirsty?
Have you ever gone hungry? I mean REALLY gone hungry...three, four, five days or a week with no food at all?
Many people in the countries above are experiencing that RIGHT NOW.
As you read this, in the comfort of your warm home, with a flushing toilet, a cabinet stocked with snacks and a phone to call Dominos, people are sleeping in the street in those countries. Some are dying of thirst or hunger.
Yet some of you out there still don't have food or water storage to insure your own families well being. You don't have a tent or, at least, tarps and para-cord to make shelter. No water filter. No 72 hour (bug out) bag.
Do you have a way to boil water or cook food if the power and natural gas from your local friendly utility company is n longer flowing?
Do you have an adequate first aid kit? Back-up medications or medical equipment for family members that may need it?

I knowing I am beating a dead horse here (and preaching to the choir for some of you, if we want to keep going down cliche' road)

If you watched the news today, you saw what happened when they issued the tsunami warning in Hawaii. Did you see the people buying anything and everything out of the grocery stores?
Did you hear the comment that Hawaii (the ENTIRE state) has, at best, a FIVE DAY supply of food for it's citizens? That includes everything  in the stores, everything in warehouses and so on. They also said the average household in Hawaii has only a TWO DAY supply of food in their home.

Here's an assignment for next week, if you care to take the challenge.
No shopping. You live with what you have. Monday until next Saturday. No shopping after you read this, either!
At least 4 meals have to made SOLELY out of what you have in your food storage.
That's right, roll out a #10 can of wheat and get to grinding...or just soak and cook in a crockpot...or even start sprouting. I hope you have some tasty food storage...wheat, all by itself, can get boring!
If you have no *food storage* in place, then just live with what is currently in your cabinets, fridge and freezer.
Oh...I am going to go easy on you and not insist you use up your stored water...or if you have none, go without. That would just be cruel. But at least THINK about how difficult it would be not to have water at the turn of a tap.
If some of you break down and call Domino's by Thursday afternoon, I'll understand. I won't be happy about it, but I will understand.

Remember...we have many earthquake faults in this country, too.

Long time between posts

Reason for the long hiatus was Hurricane Ike, various work related things and I lost my blasted account info

Hurricane Ike was interesting. I watched with interest the weather reports and warnings leading up to it. I saw people nail plywood up to their windows and dash out of town. And I saw people that really didn't seem to care.
Well, Hurricane Ike blew into town and left it powerless.
Actually, left a damn huge area of South East Texas powerless.

So, we were here without power, no water (the surge contaminated our treatment plant) and limited police protection.
Never fear...I was prepared (of course!)
Approximately 150 gallons of water, properly stored. (2 liter bottles, rinsed out with scalding water, filled with cool water and 5 drops of bleach in each).
BBQ grill and 4 bags of charcoal and 2 bottles of charcoal lighter.
Food, much of it freeze dried or dry canned, plus canned meats.
My nice new shotgun and plenty of ammo.

First things first, I turned off or unplugged all light switches, radios, t.v.s, anything electric.
Then I turned off all the breakers. (More about that later)
Then we proceeded to remove all limbs and branches from the lines behind the house and clean all debris out of the yard.
Then we began on the neighbors yard (he evacuated).
I put a local radio station on to keep track of *official announcements* and whatnot.
Fired up the grill, had a lunch of chicken fajita's.
Dinner that night was hamburgers.
We had a good dinner EVERY night. Good lunches, too.(Pork bbq, steak and baked potatos, ribs, beef stew...some of our menu)
I even managed to bake bread on the grill.
Because the water was bad, even my dogs got bottled water.
I did run out of dog food, but made dog food for the assorted critters that they seemed to like.
The first grocery store to reopen was Mercados (a local hispanic grocery)
I had some cash (memo to self, need to have more cash stashed for emergencies)
Every day I would walk over (it is less than a mile away) and buy just enough for the meal that night. Sort of European style!
We got our power back on the fifth day.
Finding a working ATM or a gas station was almost impossible.The radio was taking calls from people and someone would call in with a breathless report that such-and-such gas station was open...within 5 minutes there would be a line 2 miles long.
So, I walked as much as possible to conserve fuel.
When I did find an open gas station, I got fueled up and went home and didn't tell a soul about it.
I figured I'd let someone else think they discovered that little gem.
The radio reported SEVERAL house fires due to the power coming back on and the sudden power surge overloaded circuits.
Generators caused several fires as well. One caused the death of a 19 year old girl. She and her boyfriend had bought one, it was dark by the time they decided to fill it and get it going. Because of a bit of rain, they decided to take it into their house to fill it. As the boyfriend started to fill the generator tank, they decided it was too dark in the house to do so safely. So, the girl lit a candle. The flash fire killed her, she was DOA at a local hospital. The young man has severe burns, but will recover.
.
I found that I went into some sort of *hyper-vigilant* state where I could not sleep over 2 hours at a time. I wasn't tired through all of it, though. When everything was mostly over, I slept a full 8 hours without trouble.

When the power came back on, I saw the neighbors lights go on, so I turned on the main breakers and then each individual breaker, one at a time.
Yeah, I am that cautious.

When all was said and done, I had gone through:
3 bags of charcoal, 1 and a half bottles of lighter.
100 gallons of water.
8 pounds of flour (for bread, flatbread and tortillas)
10 emergency candles.
8 *C* batteries (for the radio)
1 roll of Rolaids.(I get heartburn and usually combat it with a small glass of milk at bedtime, no milk, so I relied on Rolaids)

The other things I noticed;
Despite the fancy cars in my area and the nice houses and the women with the *big hair*, this area of Texas came across as a Third World country during the days after Ike. Very thin veneer of civilization glossing over the whole mess. There were more reports of neighbors robbing neighbors than of neighbors helping neighbors. People turned all their pets out in the streets to fend for themselves. Some people took the opportunity to settle old scores. When FEMA did show up, the lines were 3 to 4 HOURS long to get some water and ice. Fights broke out as people tried to cut in line. Some people got in line EVEN THOUGH THEY DID NOT NEED THE SUPPLIES!
I constantly heard cries of "FEMA needs to do this or FEMA needs to do that", or "The government KNEW this was coming, why didn't they prepare better?"
WHAT!?
Everyone that lives in this area, everyone who watched the news, listened to a radio, picked up a paper or talked to another human being in the entire country KNEW Ike was coming and it was going to be bad!
Why didn't people in the areas about to be hit prepare themselves?
My first answers as to why they didn't: Laziness, *welfare mentality*, conditioned response due to being raised by a *nanny state*.

Here's something to think about...I drove past that line of cars that were waiting for FEMA supplies...what I saw in line...Loads of fancy SUVs, sweet little BMWs, newer Cadillacs, gorgeous new pick-ups....so don't DARE tell me these people cannot afford to put back some water and food for emergencies.
You know who I did NOT see in line?
Damn few Mexicans or Hispanics, for the most part. No members of the large Vietnamese community we have here were in that line, either. The faces I saw were about 70% black, 25% white and 5% other (if you live in Texas, you know what I mean...you just can't identify a few folks here). The 5% looked probably Hispanic, but most of them were loaded up in the same vehicles as blacks or whites.
The Hispanic community and the Vietnamese community took care of their own for the most part.

All in all, I was disgusted with the *gimme* mentality of the majority of people that I encountered...and am still running into.

So...I have replenished my water storage, bought a couple bags of charcoal and tucked it away in the tool shed and cleaned up most of the damage done during the storm. I view my experiences as lessons learned about the practical and about the nature of people.

What storm supplies should YOU have?
You need different things in different geographic areas.
If I were in Montana instead of Texas, I would put more emphasis on supplies to keep me warm.
Extra blankets, battery operated hand and foot warmers with mucho extra batteries. Hats, gloves, etc would all be major components of my emergency *bug in* kit.
Of course, water is my first priority--always!
If you do not have a wood stove, look into emergency kerosene heaters (some of which you can cook on) to add to your emergency supplies.
So, in colder climes, first priority--water, followed very closely by warmth, then food. I am assuming you already have shelter. If you do not, invest in a tent. Not a China-Mart cheapie, a decent tent that will actually withstand your local weather variables.

I will be doing, at the very least, a weekly post from here on out.