The Cost of Winter

Like many of other New Englanders I have an oil furnace -and a woodstove, of course. Nights have been cool so we decided to get the oil tank filled. That’s always a good chunk of change. I shamelessly switched oil companies for one that gives a senior discount. Just call me an entitled Baby Boomer. 

The furnace had run empty so it had to be primed again. I keep the correct sized wrench right on the side of the furnace. There’s also a container with a tight cover for catching the primed fuel oil. If the furnace has to be bled during the deep cold of winter I don’t want to be hunting for the right tools. 

We’ve some fuel for the woodstove but we’ll probably burn more oil this coming winter. My niece will have the house to herself a lot this coming winter and we don’t want her worrying about the woodstove. Now I don’t have to worry about her being worried. 

There’s not a lot of winter prep left to do and the essentials are ready.

-Sixbears

Out it goes

I’m somewhat of a pack rat. Throwing stuff out is hard for me. So much junk has potential to be rebuilt into something useful. In spite of my desire to hold onto stuff I’ve been filling up heavy duty trash bags. 

Half my mud room is full of tools and materials. It’s been long overdue for a complete overhaul. I’ve been stuck at home recently and tackling the mud room has been a good way to pass the time. On the bright side I’ve found some tools I thought were lost and gone forever. 

There’s also a lot of just plain garbage. There are tubes of glues and gasket cement that probably solidified years ago. Why did I keep so many empty bags and packaging? Maybe I just need to keep a trash container in the mud room so useless stuff can be easily thrown away? 

Then there is the weird stuff that isn’t exactly junk, but it’s stuff I’ll never use. Things like 1980s Mercedes Benz alternator brushes, ambulance light bar motors and reflectors, and the center console insert for a 1994 Ford pickup truck. Why did I save a bunch of office chair wheels that were replaced with better ones? Who knows?

There’s also a small fortune of nuts, bolts, electrical fixtures, plumbing connectors, and whatnot in serious need of organization. Have you priced that stuff lately? I’m pretty glad I didn’t throw that stuff away. Good thing I saved up a lot of containers. 

-Sixbears

Too Many Gizmos

Sometimes I go down the rabbit hole of YouTube prepper channels. Ho boy. There’s a lot of gizmos for sale. A number of these channels are little more than commercials. (check the affiliate links below!) 

I love gadgets but even I know better than to stock up on all the prepper toys out there. 

What people really need is knowledge and skills. Then they have to practice to keep those skills sharp. 

Focus on the essentials. Fire to keep warm and to cook. Pure water to drink. Food. Decent clothing and shelter to protect from the elements. Know your environment. What conditions are you likely to have to deal with? Rain? Cold? Heat? Wind? You get the idea. Those basic needs can be satisfied fairly cheaply. Heck, if you have the skills it’s possible to go into the forest with basically nothing and survive. 

However, there are a few tools that make things a lot easier. A decent knife is a big one. Keep it sharp. 

You might need to cut some cordage, so let’s add paracord to the list. It’s useful for so many things -if you’ve learned a few basic knots. 

Being able to boil water is a big deal. Get something big enough to at least heat a couple of cups of water. Not only is it useful for cooking, boiled water is much safer to drink. 

Making fire is essential. I happen to like larger sized ferro rods. They can be soaking wet and still be able to put out a spark. Turning that spark into a blazing fire is another of those skill things. Don’t just throw one in your go bag and call it good. Practice. 

Personally, I like a good sized heavy duty rain poncho. I’ve even successfully strung one up with some  paracord and made a decent shelter out of mine. It kept the rain off and I got a decent night’s sleep. 

As you can see my choices tend to be fairly simple. I didn’t include stuff like the stove that also charges your cell phone or other gizmos like that. 

-Sixbears

Smoke Detector

Just before heading to bed my smoke detector gave out a couple of loud bleeps. Whatever it had detected wasn’t putting out all that much smoke. In fact, I couldn’t really smell anything myself. 

The thing about smoke detectors is that you have to trust them. This one had a new battery only days old so I was pretty sure it wasn’t a problem with the detector. One thing for sure, I wasn’t going to go to bed until I found out what the problem was.

It took a while but eventually I found the culprit. A table lamp was malfunctioning. The bulb was still putting out the normal amount of light but the base of the lamp was too hot to touch. That ain’t normal, especially with energy efficient lights. 

The lamp was shut down and unplugged. Windows were opened to air out the house. Only after an hour or so did I truly feel it was safe to go to bed. 

Smoke detectors and especially carbon monoxide detectors are things you have to take seriously. For me they are in the same category as a compass. You have to trust the tool -not your hunches. 

-Sixbears

Wrenching on the Scoot

The drive belt on my 2013 Honda PCX was original. Considering how hard it’s been working hauling me around it seemed like a good time to change it. 

I thought I had all the tools needed to change it on the road if I had to. Nope. I was wrong about that. Turns out I was missing an 8mm socket. Most of the bolts could have been turned with my other wrenches but two were deeply countersunk and needed a socket. After digging around in my various tool boxes one finally showed up. 

The old belt actually didn’t look too bad. Of course, they can have internal flaws that add up over time. While it was all apart I changed the old roller weights in the variator. They were replaced with Dr. Pulley sliders. The original weights showed wear so I’m glad to have changed them. 

For backup I’m going to buy a complete variator assembly with rollers. The Dr. Pulley ones are an experiment. Worse comes to worse always go back to OEM parts. 

That rain moved in as the last bolts were being tightened. I only did about a half mile test run but it didn’t seem to have any issues. Everything ran smoothly. A complete test can wait until the sun comes out again. 

-Sixbears

Heavy Metal Tools

My cousin has a top notch wood shop with all the expensive toys. We were talking and I happened to mention that my little table saw finally gave up the ghost. It was time to replace it but even crappy ones can be pricey. 

He happened to know someone who had a table saw to give away. He said it was a “portable” saw. I  guess it is -if you have the strength of Sasquatch. It took the two of us to load it in the back of my Escape. The seats had to be folded down to get it in. The saw is all steel and cast iron. 

It also runs really well. The saw could use a new drive belt and maybe a new blade. However, even as is the saw is more capable than the one it replaces. It’s a real find. After I unload it in the morning I’m going to look for the brand name. If it’s like most tools from that time the name is probably cast right into it somewhere. 

My cousin has quite a collection of classic heavily built tools he uses all the time. Lucky for me he already has a couple massive saws in his shop and didn’t need this one. 

-Sixbears

Battery Powered Tools

Thanks to more powerful batteries cordless tools have really come into their own. I really like being able to work beyond the reach of extension cords. 

My big pet peeve is that everyone has a different battery/charger setup. Some standardization would be nice. The number of different chargers hanging around my shop is becoming a problem. I even have two 20 volt tools from the same company that require different chargers.

At least some companies have families of tools that use the same batteries. That’s a help. Personally, I like that Toro’s 60 volt tools can use batteries of different amperage. I could use my chainsaw battery in their snowblower. Stuff like that is handy. The major companies seem to be leaning towards interchangeability. 

It’s the odd tools that can be a pain. I needed a cordless impact wrench for a single job. Amazon had something that looked like it could do the job for cheap. It did. Then it became clear that the tool was pretty useful for a lot of things. Unfortunately, the charger burned out after the warranty had expired. Finding a replacement was a royal pain. Eventually one popped up in my searches that looked like it might work. The problem is they wanted $60 for it. 

It seemed like a lot of money for something that may or may not work. Then Amazon put the whole impact wrench kit on sale for $70. I bought it instead of the just the charger. 

One of my more interesting battery powered tools is a grinder. Those have been a real boost for criminals. They do a pretty good job cutting locks. Of course I would never do anything immoral with mine. 

-Sixbears

Make do mechanic

I just installed a trailer hitch on my Ford Escape.  I get all my towing and trailer stuff at etrailer.com. They aren’t a sponsor, I just like dealing with them.

The instruction video claimed it was a 40 minute job. Maybe it is -with a lift, two people, and air tools. That’s how it was done in the video. By myself, using ramps, and with hand tools it was closer to 2 hours. It doesn’t help that I screwed up and lost a bolt in the frame channel. Fishing that back out took a bit. Then my lovely wife needed me to clean up and go through some paperwork with her. Actually, with all the snafus, two hours probably wasn’t too bad. 

It’s good to have a vehicle with a hitch again. The wiring harness hasn’t been installed yet, but that should be too big a deal. It’s not my first rodeo. 

The next project is my utility trailer. The bearings and springs are new but the tires are shot. I’ve replacements for those so that shouldn’t take too long. Of course, the registration is expired so that’s one more hassle. 

Country living pretty much requires the ability to tow things. There’s firewood to be moved, trips to the dump, boats to haul, and sometimes I even tow a wood splitter. Urban tow hitches usually don’t handle anything heavier than a bike rack. 

-Sixbears

They came from out of the wasteland

The whole North Country of New Hampshire looks like a Mad Max movie right now. There’s a big ATV festival in Berlin, NH and the machines are everywhere. 

One of the things that often surprises visitors is the fact that it’s legal to run ATVs on most city and town roads. There are locals who actually own ATVs and never take them in the woods. They use them as their city car. 

Reviews from the locals are mixed. If you own a restaurant, bar, ATV rental, campground or an Air B&B you are happy. If want to have some peace and quiet -not so happy. Between the ATVs, trailers and tow vehicles parking is limited areas. Lines at gas stations are long. 

I don’t own an ATV. Sure, they can be fun, but I probably ride one about once a year. That’s enough for me. For some people they are tools not toys. It’s pretty common around here to mount snow plows on the front and use them all winter to clear driveways. Put a small trailer on one and they are decent farm vehicles. 

However, I know a farmer who replaced his ATVs with electric golf carts. The carts could do all the jobs the ATVs could do. They were also slower and kinda dorky so the hired hands got into less trouble with them.

So what am I going to do during the big festival? I’m visiting friends downstate. They have an nice quiet place in the country. 

-Sixbears

Everything on the phone

Smart phones are amazing. Ironically the phone part is probably one of the weak links in all things they do. In reality they are powerful little computers. 

My beef is that they are used for more than they should be. 

Let’s take a simple example. Next to where I charge my phone I have a nice powerful rechargeable flashlight. The phone has a flashlight but that’s a poor way to use your phone. It’s pretty awkward to hold your phone in an upright position as a flashlight. It’s easy to drop it that way. A regular cheap stand alone flashlight is easier to use. If you drop it you aren’t damaging an expensive and fragile electronic device.

Then there are gadgets that are just silly. One those things that crosses the line for me is electronic meat thermometers that link up with your phone. Really? Do we need an electronic gizmo when a cheap stand alone meat thermometer works just fine?

Another one is automobile scan tools. I’m not a pro mechanic so the cheap $30 - $40 scan tools do most everything I need. They tend to be in shock resistant rubberized cases. I really don’t want my phone around heavy tools, grease, and fuels. 

If your phone is needed for everything you are big trouble when it breaks. You didn’t lose just a phone, you lost dozens of tools. 

Here’s a pro tip, carry around a small note pad and pencil or pen. You’d be surprised how much handier they can be than taking notes than on a phone. Personally, I feel a lot more creative writing on a pad than thumb typing on the phone. It also has the advantage of being able to jot down information and rip the page out to hand someone. Their are no issues with dead batteries. 

Smart phones are wonderful, but just because they can be used for everything doesn’t mean they should be.

-Sixbears

More Supply Chain Disruptions

We’ve had a lot of upset in the supply chains. Expect more. China is going through a massive covid outbreak right now. Their lock down policies have thrown a monkey wrench in production. We still have a major war going on with all the disruptions in fuel, food, and raw materials that entails. 

Take a minute and do a quick mental inventory of what you have at your home right now. I want you to think of two categories. The first one is consumables. That’s stuff like food, fuel, and water. How are you set? Can you get by for a few days? Weeks? Months? Years?

The second category I want you to think of is critical parts, materials, and items. Do you have the materials and skills to fix things? Here’s a simple example: the handle on our toilet broke. We had a replacement and it only took a few minutes to fix. We were having an ice storm and going out for a new part would have actually been dangerous. If we didn’t have the replacement part there were a couple of ways I could have temporarily fixed the old part. 

At a bare minimum you should have replacement parts for things that regularly fail: faucet washers, fuses, light bulbs and so on. Think about anything that had to be replaced in the last year. Stock up on those things. Every household is a bit different and has different needs.

Brush up on your repair knowledge. Make sure you have the tools and materials need to fix things. Be prepared to make do with what you have. The key here is flexibility.

While there may be supply chain disruptions, it doesn’t mean there won’t be anything available. However, what you might have difficulty getting exactly what you want. That could involve eating unfamiliar foods to fixing things with the “wrong” parts. One time I needed a connector for a plumbing job and it wasn’t available. In the end I cobbled three different parts together to do the same job. It was a pain but it worked. It’s still working a decade later. 

You don’t have to panic but you might have to think outside the box.

-Sixbears

Economic Indicator

One of my personal economic indicators is my car repair situation. When things are going really well I like to have the garage do most of the work. During hard times I work on my own cars. In the last couple of years I’ve really felt the need to save money where I can. During this new period of high inflation it’s even more critical than ever. 

I don’t have a garage so I have to work exposed to the elements. Worse than a little rain is the bugs. There’s nothing like having a deer flies land on you while your greasy hands are trying to install something. It’s even worse in the winter cold. Imagine changing a water pump on the side of the road in -30 temperatures. It’s not a fond memory. In the past year I’ve gone back to dealing with the discomforts in the interests of economy. 

My car recently passed state inspection. The garage noted that while the front bake pads were legal they were getting thin. He helpfully sent me off with an estimate for replacing the pads and rotors. Like that’s going to happen. In a few weeks I’ll be changing the pads. Currently the rotors are fine and since I’m changing the pads early they’ll stay fine. 

More tools have been added to my collection and they’ve paid for themselves on the first jobs. The Blazer had the dreaded check engine light come on. Before the availability of cheap code readers that was always a trip to the garage. Yesterday I hooked it up and discovered it was a minor leak in the pollution system. All the possible repairs are cheap. Just making sure the gas cap was on on securely might have fixed the problem. 

Keeping the vehicles in good repair is essential right now. Replacing them is not in the budget. Besides, you can’t bug out in a vehicle that’s sitting up on blocks. 

-Sixbears

Nicks and scrapes

Did you ever spend way too long trying to fix something that should have been replaced? That took up way too much of my day. A while back I had to borrow my cousin’s compressor to set the bead on a scooter tire. The annoying thing about that is the fact there’s a big 240 volt compressor in my basement. 

The problem is that it had not run for years. Life gets busy. So I messed around with it. When power finally made it to the motor is made a lot of horrible screeching noises at first. Before that I thought I’d gotten the compressor to actually turn over. In the dark basement I did not notice that what I manged to do was to loosen the pulley on the spindle. The belt went back on for a test. When the motor finally kicked on it spun the pulley right off. 

At that point I decided I’d better get some more lights on in the basement. Taking a good look at the overall condition of the compressor I decided to finally junk it. Had I not been working in a dark cramped corner I’d probably had come to that conclusion sooner. Nicks and scrapes on the knuckles would have been avoided too. 

I can be frugal to the point of being stupid, but there comes a time. Tractor Supply had a nice cheap little compressor that can handle everything I’m doing right now. By the time all that was sorted out it was too late in the day to finish the job that required a compressor. 

Such is life.

-Sixbears

100 Year Old Battery Technology

Lead acid batteries have been around for over a hundred years. So how come with all the new lithium batteries out there are they still in common use? Odds are very good that the battery in your car is a lead acid battery -unless you drive a Tesla. There are good reasons a gas or diesel vehicle has a lead acid starting battery and a Tesla has lithium.

In short, price, weight and energy density. The battery in a fossil fuel vehicle has one major job, to start the vehicle. A lithium battery could do the job, but why spend the money on a much more expensive battery? Lead works. A Tesla has a huge battery bank. Lead acid is heavy as . . . well, lead. It also lacks the energy density of lithium. For electric cars to make any sort of sense at all a lighter and more energy dense battery is the way to go.

Lithium works great in power hand tools. The power and light weight make sense in something you have to lug around all day. Who wants to use a 50 pound cordless drill? Cell phones and other electronics benefit from compact and energy dense batteries. 

For a while Elon Musk’s power wall was going to be the big thing for off grid houses. You don’t hear that much about it lately. One model was discontinued and they’ve been tweaking the designs. They are  kinda spendy. Personally, I’m still using lead acid batteries with my house solar electric system. It’s a  huge price savings and the weight isn’t an issue since the house isn’t driving down the road at 80 mph. 

My small solar electric systems that I use for camping are still using lead acid. They are heavy, but the systems are small and only use one deep discharge battery. The weight penalty is acceptable. 

However, I did consider using a lithium battery for a 50 watt solar electric system I was going to bring on a long canoe trip. Weight was an issue in a canoe, especially when it came time to do a portage. As it turned out the trip didn’t come together so I never spent the money. 

Lithium batteries are pretty good, but expensive enough that you have to decide if your application really needs them or not. Industrial scale production brings the price down and that helps. In the long run lithium will probably be replaced with some cheaper and even more energy dense. There’s a lot of incentive to engineer in that direction.

-Sixbears

Life skills

I’m returning to another of my pet peeves -people who don’t have basic life skills. What set me off this time was a friend’s mother passed away. He’s now spending the summer at his dad’s because dad does not know how to take care of himself. The guy doesn’t know how to cook, clean, or do laundry. My friend is recovering from a back injury but has to spend his time babysitting his father.

One can argue that is a generational thing. However, my dad knew how to take care of himself. He learned at an early age. In fact, dad owned sewing machines, not mom. Of course, dad not sew clothes much. Mostly it was things like hunting packs, seat covers for his Jeep, tool bags and the like. Still, he knew how to cook, clean and all that.

A guy I knew got divorced in his 30s and didn’t know the first thing about cooking. The poor guy lived on woopie pies and Pepsi. Had he not soon remarried he probably would have died from a heart attack.

When I was dating my lovely wife I cooked for her. Back then I knew a local butcher who’d custom cut steaks for me. Trust me. Girls think guys who can cook are sexy.

On the flip side, girls should know their way around tools. My girls certainly know to fix things. They should also know how to change a flat tire or do basic auto maintenance.

I also think that everybody should know basic firearm safety. Even if you have no interest in taking up shooting sports you should at least know how to clear a gun and make it safe. That’s just another handy life skill.

-Sixbears

Dried Beans

Dried beans are one of the cheapest and easiest foods to store. They are also filling and nutritious. Combined with rice they make complete proteins. That’s why a lot of preppers store plenty of beans.

Unfortunately, too many people think of beans as just a cheap long term storage emergency food. That’s a huge mistake. Unless it is part of your normal diet, it will cause problems during an emergency. The last thing someone who’s under stress wants to do is to try new foods. It’s also not the time to learn how to cook them to your liking. They should be part of your normal diet.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve made a number of bean dishes. We had spicy black beans with rice, Boston baked beans, Kidney beans, and refried pinto beans. I make large batches and freeze the leftovers. One of the problems with working with dried beans is the long prep time, so it’s worth making a good sized batch.

Normally I soak them overnight, rinse, then throw them in the crockpot with enough water to cover. If in a hurry a pressure cooker can have presoaked beans ready to eat in thirty-five minutes. There are plenty of recipes out there and I encourage you to find which ones work for you. Once you do find which spices and ingredients work for you, make sure to have plenty of them stocked up too.

The crockpot is handy, but if the grid goes down other cooking methods are necessary. Pressure cookers are a good idea. They work great on a kitchen stove, but are a good idea for an emergency camp stove. The shorter cooking time saves a lot of fuel. My cooking arsenal includes four different types and sizes of cast iron Dutch ovens. Those are good for charcoal or campfires. In a pinch a regular cooking pot also does the job. I’ve slow cooked bean in a regular pot on top of the woodstove using the lowest temperature cooking area.

Storing beans is a good idea. Cooking and using them on a regular basis is an even better one.

-Sixbears

Power Vs hand tools

So what’s better to have, power or hand tools? Okay, that’s a trick question. It’s better to have both.

Let’s face it power tools really save a lot of time and effort. There are darn few jobs where I reach for the non-powered tool first. Once in a while it’s quicker to use a hand tool for a small job than to bother stretching out an extension cord.

In reality there are three major tool categories, not two. There are power tools that have to be plugged into house current. There are hand tools that rely on human power. Then there are battery powered tools. They’ve come a long way, thanks to better battery technology.

Picture this: a hurricane is coming and you are trying to board up your windows. The power goes out ahead of the storm before the job is done. Then you can pull out your battery powered screwdriver and continue putting up plywood. Of course, if the batteries die before the job is done, you’ll be happy to have some hand tools to finish the job.

When it comes to tools it’s not an either or situation. It’s an all the options thing. As a rule of thumb I like to have a least one human powered tool for every job that I’d need a power tool for. Most backup manual tools are pretty straight forward, a hammer for a air nailer or screwdriver for a bit driver. Then there are some tools one might not think of. What do you have for a chainsaw replacement? An ax? Not the best solution. I’ve got a 3.5 foot long German cross cut saw. When sharp it makes pretty quick work of even good sized logs. It’s much cleaner and faster job that a thousand whacks with an ax.

We are tool using animals with opposable thumbs. Embrace your heritage and make sure you have some good tools.

-Sixbears

Survival Minimalism

Serious long distance backpackers have always been concerned about the weight of their pack. In recent years high tech materials have slashed the weight in everything from tents to the backpack itself. Some hardcore hikers even forgo the use of a stove and mess kit. They eat all their meals cold.

They've got nothing on our ancestors. After the last ice age, hunters traveled the land with a pretty minimal kit. More often than not, they would make the tools they needed instead of carrying them everywhere. Archaeological records show how they'd dress a mastodon after killing it. Using a couple of big rocks, they'd break one of the leg bones a special way. It would make a saw like tool that they could use to skin and cut up the rest of the beast.

Indigenous Americans used canoes to travel everywhere. They could build them really fast and well. Sometimes, instead of carrying a canoe between bodies of water, they'd just build a new one as needed. Natives knew the value of having skills over things. They could build everything from hunting and fishing gear to clothes and shelter -all from local materials.

These days there are people who can survive using the junk that washes up a beach. I've seen video of people building solar water distillation equipment from empty soda bottles. When we think of living off the land, we think of using natural resources like stone and wood. In our polluted world it's sometimes easier to use plastic and aluminum cans.

While I've practiced bush craft skills, I certainly would not turn my nose up at anything found that makes survival easier.

-Sixbears

Knowing that one guy

A friend of mine is pretty busy and sometimes hard to get in touch with. However, it's totally worth the effort.

In an evening's sort conversation:

He is going to weld one of my broken tools.
Fix the gasoline engine of a small generator I acquired.
We shared some information about good deals on solar electric batteries.
The guy may know someone who would like to buy my van.
He's going to set me up with some local maple syrup.
My buddy educated me on different boat trailer brake systems and gave me a link for inexpensive parts.

Of course, this is the guy who's house I wired and set up for off-grid operations, so it all comes around. Also may help him move a large propane generator he acquired.

Good to have friends.

-Sixbears

Repair guy complaint

It's a common complaint among shady tree mechanics that you can't work on new cars anymore. Unfortunately, that applies to an awful lot of stuff. Much of our modern world has “no user serviceable parts inside.”

When I was a very young kid I remember tube testers in hardware stores. You could bring in your radio tubes and test to see if they were good. If they failed, you could buy replacement parts. Radios could be fixed. Sure, new radios are much cheaper and use a lot less energy. However, those old tube radios had a certain deep mellow sound that modern electronics just don't capture.

TV repair guys were a thing. My lovely wife's uncle used to be one. Times have changed. A guy I know had one of those really huge and expensive flat screen TVs. It had a display problem. While it might have been possible to repair it, the cost as almost as expensive as a new TV. As for myself, I buy smaller cheap ones and cross my fingers.

All electronics have pretty much become non-repairable disposable items. With that in mind, I still will open them up to see what's inside. It's surprising how often the problem is a simple internal fuse, bad switch, or disconnected wire. When I get modern electronics up and running again, people think I'm some kind of a wizard. Sadly, all too often the problem the problem is deep inside some circuit board buried in the innards and well beyond my abilities. At least I'm willing to try.

I feel bad for kids these days. They are growing up in a world where nobody gets their hands dirty repairing something. It's a waste of time to even try. That's a shame as repairing things is a great way to learn problem solving. You discover that you have some control over your environment. The age of tool using primates may be coming to an end.

-Sixbears