TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Well the truck is all packed and ready to go. I’m off for a glorious camping trip in the rain! It’s humid as Rosanne Barr’s armpit up here right now, and a cool dip in a spring-fed pond is just what the doctor ordered.

I’m not a smoker, but I do enjoy an occasional cigar when camping. I picked up cheap ones for the buddies and good ones for myself. I probably smoke 6-10 a year, I figure I get more lung cancer lottery tickets from the smog I sit in every day to and from work.

I’ll be sure to snap some photos with my crappy cell phone camera. I’ve got my fishin’ pole too, as I have yet to go fishing this year. I think I’ve earned it.

I got ham sandwiches for lunch today and tomorrow. And for dinner I have Delmonico Ribeye’s that I use a dry rub on. Nothing in this world is as good as a ribeye cooked over a open flame with all the juices sealed inside from the dry rub. I’m gettign hungry just thinking about it.

For dessert I have a apple cobbler planned. Take a pie tin, and dump the canned fruit on it. Then sprinkle a little extra cinnamon and nutmeg over the fruit, just a little, and cover with a box of cake mix. Just the powder, not mixed with the eggs and such. put chunks of butter all over the top of the cake mix and sprinkle some more cinnamon and butter on top. Toss it into a dutch oven until done. That’s living high on the hog!

well off to triple check I didn’t forget anything. Ok now all of you got to hold down the fort until I get back!

Well I can’t seem to make heads or tails of what in Sam Hill is going on with the economy. I guess if there are enough people brainwashed into believing this ponzi scheme works they might be able to hold of disaster. I’m not bettign on it, I’ve been stocking up on more food.

I’ve made two batches of cornbread, but the “real” cornmeal is playing havoc with the recipes I have access to. The second batch is much better, but I need to up the regular flour, and cut back on the cornmeal. It’s good stuff, would do Michael proud. We don’t have a hell of a lot going for us up here, but we still have access to healthy food if you look hard enough. Once I get the recipe the way I like it I’ll post it.

Something is just not right. I have that feeling of suddenly waking by someone being near you when you’re not used to it. Oil’s dropping towards the bargain price of $100 a barrel. So far, the fedz have not bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So my Crystal ball must be broken, got to see about it getting looked at.

I’m dying to go camping this weekend. I got my work cut out for me. I’ll be talking with my three buddies, and see if they are preparing like I am. I know one is. Now I need to convince Jack to pull his Republican blinders off and look at what’s really going on. He’s completely blinded by his love for all things republican, and hatred for all things liberal. Since the nitwit in charge is Republican then he can do no wrong. I’ve tried to open his eyes by pointing out the farce that led to the war in Iraq. Mindlessly he tows the party line.

My other buddy Chuck, isn’t a political slave, but I’m not sure of his political leanings. I’ve only known him for about 10 years, and he lives pretty far away from me, so we don’t hang out as much as I’d like to. I know we agree that all politicians are crooks, but as to individual issues I’m not sure.

Well it’s going to rain like hell on Saturday, so we will be playing boardgames and drinking beer. I love a good game. our favorites include “Settlers of Catan”, “Boomtown”, “Citadels”, and “Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers”. All the games have relatively simple rules, but you can develop complex strategies. Perhaps I should review each of them sometime.

Remember to add boardgames and a deck of cards to your stash. Not just for the kids, you’re going to go batty if your holed up at home with no power and nothing to do together. Well no rest for the wicked, time to dial into the job and work on servers. Joy!

By day, and most hours of the night, I’m a complete and utter geek. Working on servers at work (and home) I make a good living because Microsoft can’t make a operating system that works. Now how does an geek like me prepare for the end of the world, and feel fine about it? Well, I love to go camping.

Long ago, in the dim recesses of time, I was a Boy Scout. Although some of the scoutmasters were a little creepy, we didn’t have too much to worry about. There were two scoutmasters in particular that shaped me into who I am today. One was a top-secret electrical engineer for a defense-related company. The other was a schoolteacher in one of the toughest schools in the northeast.

They taught me to use my brain, rather than cop out and use excuses. I was never one to excel at rank, but by the end I had more merit badges than anyone else. We learned first aid, fire starting, wilderness survival, and so many other skills. To this day I have 30 different knots burned into my memory… I just counted by tying them on a piece of networking cable.

In a week and a half, I’m going on a camping trip. I get together with my buddies and head out to the ass end of Mass, and camp out in the middle of nowhere. No cell signal, no internet, no way for the boss, girlfriend, wife, or kids to call. Blessed silence. The benefit from one’s mental outlook from unplugging for a weekend usually lasts a few months. We also consume a lot of beer, which helps immensely. Not as much as we did in college, but as one friend says “Kids play games and count beers, real men just drink!”

I fully intend on going on a few hikes to see how long it takes to re-attune from my suburban mode of sensing the world around me to a wilderness mode. I’ll look for deer and bear sign, and just take a technological time out. No GPS – I still use a map and compass.

I’m certain I’ll think of all kinds of useful stuff while out there, and I’ll write them down on – get this – paper, and bring them back. Since my buddies have been talking more and more about the looming financial crisis, I’ll find out who’s been prepping and who hasn’t. Maybe we can hatch a plan of mutual support, and start a little survival group, we shall see.

One of the strengths in my patrol in Boy Scouts was our specialization, and redundancy. Any survival group should follow what we did, as it is the most efficient way to get things done. No one could learn every skill, so we divided the skills needed up between us. There were several meets throughout the year where competitions were held between all the patrols of all the troops in the area. each of these competitions had several challenges, and your patrol was scored on how well it accomplished the task.

The tasks were varied, and included many of the scouting skills. Here are some of the ones I remember. Orientation with a map and compass, fire building where it was timed to burn through a string at a specific height, first aid, rescuing someone by throwing a rope 50′ and so on and so forth. What we did was each person in the patrol had to master one event, and act as a backup to another event. When I first joined, I had to tie 10 different knots and show them to a referee in the shortest time possible. I was the backup first-aid guy. By divvying up the amount of stuff we had to learn, we were always the best in our troop, even though we were considered by many to be the patrol of fuck-ups.

If your lucky enough to have a survival group you can work with, then I would suggest following that strategy for the broader skills needed. For example, If you have five couples in the group, there is no sense in having everyone learn how to hunt and butcher a deer to start. Because food is so important take three and have them learn that, while two more learn how to tan the hide.

Some should concentrate on growing and preserving food, while others can master making solar stills. Someone needs to know how to work on engines, while others will need to learn about alternate energy. You cannot learn it all, but once your group has all the skills covered, then they continue cross-training.

Of course some skills are needed by everyone. Safe firearm handling and maintenance. Silent communication with hand signals, what fruit is edible and which is poisonous for the common plants in your area, how to shoot, how to read a map.

Robert Heinlein said that “specialization is for insects” but the way our society has relied on specialists for so long, you have to start somewhere. I feel we are short on time, and long on things that need to be learned. I have never baked bread in my life, but I will tonight.

If you have a child interested in scouting, I say go for it. The trick is that the parents need to be involved. I’m willing to bet that if the parent of the child is there, and involved with the whole she-bang, the less likely they will be a target of one of those sick bastards. Also, don’t pressure your kid to get to eagle scout. I saw many kids that had their parents all over them to get that far, and all but one of them buckled under the pressure. you know what’s best for your own rug rat! But stay involved! So many of the parents looked at scouting as extended day care, just dump the kid off and pick them up later.