Posted: 1/23/2013 4:10:43 PM EDT
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Hi Guys,
We all know the routine. We prep, and the sheeple look at us like we are fools or paranoid psychos for worrying about tomorrow. Well, we had an interesting day today... The wife came home from work. One of the kids she works with came to school looking all shell shocked. Apparently the kid's parents neglected to think ahead, and the propane supply for their furnace ran out last night. It was -11 F at 6:30 this morning, and the temps inside the kids home were apparently on the order of 30 degrees. During dinner we were discussing the short sightedness of many people. 
Shortly after we ate I noticed the house starting to cool off. The furnace was kicking in, but the temps weren't really rising. Long story made short, I'm likely going to need a new furnace. Its 8:07 pm, already -4 F outside, and might dip down into the -20's tonight. No issues. I simply filled the Kerosene convection heaters, lit them up and temps are nice and cosy in the house. Oh, and I'm a hero with the Mrs.  That's always a good thing.
Prepping is easy. I really do not know why more people cannot simply think ahead and have a "Plan B" as a basic back up. Fro |
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I think people are too lazy to do much of anything anymore - they might play prepping on their phone if there's an app for it
I also think that most people can't or don't want to admit to themselves that bad things could really happen - too scary for them to deal with OP - just watch you have decent ventilation with that kerosene - but I'm sure you already know that 
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I think part of the problem is it requires people to spend money that they can't get any satisfaction out of right now.
I'm not a hardcore prepper yet, but I always have a Plan B. I work for myself and out on the jobsite if something gets screwed up it could cost me a whole day, so I have to have a contingency plan before I even leave the house, based solely on the fact that something might not even go wrong today. I carry it over into the house though, same as you, I have a backup Kero heater, not a ton of fuel for it, but one can will last me a few days, long enough to get something figured out. A generator is on my list (need to get a super nice one, also will be a work use item), and I do my best to keep the vehicles and power equipment filled up with fuel. It does cost some money out of pocket to think ahead, like when I buy bags of rice or canned goods. I always get two, I don't need two, but I have them if I do. Some of you guys on here are real inspirations to be followed (I am coming along with time) and I can only hope to someday have the fuel and food rotations that you guys have, inside of the next 2 years is my goal, provided there is enough work coming in to pay for it. |
| Niece was without power for about 4 days right before Christmas. All through Christmas all we heard was "were getting a generator, we won't be caught like this again". As of yesterday evening.....no generator, no means for back-up heat, no nothing. These are white collar workers who can afford a nice generator too. |
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Wish I had a Kerosene pump near me but I would have to drive 70 miles to get to one. Funny being that I live in North Dakota you would think there would be more Kerosene pumps around! There is a lot of propane around here so it's a good thing I have my Big Buddy heater need to buy another one along with more 20lb tanks or maybe a larger tank.
I might also think about getting a 55gal drum and going up to Bismarck and filling it with Kerosene! As I loved my Kerosene heater and hated that I had to leave it behind. |
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Niece was without power for about 4 days right before Christmas. All through Christmas all we heard was "were getting a generator, we won't be caught like this again". As of yesterday evening.....no generator, no means for back-up heat, no nothing. These are white collar workers who can afford a nice generator too. When the power is on, they don't need a generator. When the power is off, they can't shop on the Internet. |
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Wish I had a Kerosene pump near me but I would have to drive 70 miles to get to one. Funny being that I live in North Dakota you would think there would be more Kerosene pumps around! There is a lot of propane around here so it's a good thing I have my Big Buddy heater need to buy another one along with more 20lb tanks or maybe a larger tank. There are bazillons of space heaters on the market that will run on propane or natural gas - and very few of them require any electrical power to do it. They aren't expensive or hard to install, either. If you have a reliable supply of LPG or NG, then you got no good excuse for being without heat during a power failure. |
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Wish I had a Kerosene pump near me but I would have to drive 70 miles to get to one. Funny being that I live in North Dakota you would think there would be more Kerosene pumps around! There is a lot of propane around here so it's a good thing I have my Big Buddy heater need to buy another one along with more 20lb tanks or maybe a larger tank. There are bazillons of space heaters on the market that will run on propane or natural gas - and very few of them require any electrical power to do it. They aren't expensive or hard to install, either. If you have a reliable supply of LPG or NG, then you got no good excuse for being without heat during a power failure. True but when you don't own the home or know you will not be staying there long why spend the money? I live in Gov home payed off long before I was born home was built 1920's! Yet I pay my rent each month and in the two years I have nothing upgraded! I did want to add a wood stove fire board tile and all even the having someone come out and do the chimney with my own money and was told no! I'm not going to set up a new heating system with my money to a house that has not had upgrades since the 1970 and that I'm not going to live at but for another year or two. |
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And don't forget to test your stuff.
I brought the gennies out this weekend for a monthly exercise, and found that apparently the solar trickle charger that I keep hooked to the battery of the one with electric start had crapped out. Battery completely dead. It's a diesel with no manual-start capability, so it was dead in the water until I could get the battery charged. 
Lesson learned, need a better battery maintainer. |
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Similar situation happened to me this week. My water well pump froze and my drains froze.
Luckily I have plenty of milk jugs filled with water for drinking and flushing. ALso I have space heaters for thawing out the lines. And as far as not being prepped I also think it comes down to $$$$. |
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Quoted: Similar situation happened to me this week. My water well pump froze and my drains froze. Luckily I have plenty of milk jugs filled with water for drinking and flushing. ALso I have space heaters for thawing out the lines. And as far as not being prepped I also think it comes down to $$$$. To a point... You can get kero heaters used at auctions or Craig's List (I bought two kero-sun radiant 10's for 25 cents at auction) and a 5 gallon jug of kero. $30 bucks and you don't die. |
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I will readily acknowledge that money may well be a reason why some do not prep. However, I also strongly suspect that "I don't have the money" excuses are not true or valid about 95% of the time those words are uttered.
I cannot count the number of times I've seen people squander cash on absolute bullshit. They claim they don't have the cash to do something like ensure their family does not freeze to death, yet they are never without cigarettes or beer, they spent $1200 on a purebred english bulldog or $800 on a cockatiel, and they have no issues spending $150 on a bender at the local bar. I have three kerosene heaters in the house. And another in the hunt camp. Three are 22,000-23,000 covection towers, and one is an old smaller 10,000 BTU heater. The combined total cost for all four heaters is on the order of $50.00. Garage sales are your friend. Fro |
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Wish I had a Kerosene pump near me but I would have to drive 70 miles to get to one. Funny being that I live in North Dakota you would think there would be more Kerosene pumps around! There is a lot of propane around here so it's a good thing I have my Big Buddy heater need to buy another one along with more 20lb tanks or maybe a larger tank. There are bazillons of space heaters on the market that will run on propane or natural gas - and very few of them require any electrical power to do it. They aren't expensive or hard to install, either. If you have a reliable supply of LPG or NG, then you got no good excuse for being without heat during a power failure. True but when you don't own the home or know you will not be staying there long why spend the money? Again, we're not talking much money here. For example, 180 bucks gets you 30,000 BTUs - and you can take it with you if you move. |
| My heat pump/ac took a dump over Christmas, found out yesterday the house has been kept warm by the emergency heat in the system and ran my electric bill sky high. I'll be pulling out my portable propane heater over the weekend to knock down the next bill till I get it fixed. |
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Wish I had a Kerosene pump near me but I would have to drive 70 miles to get to one. Funny being that I live in North Dakota you would think there would be more Kerosene pumps around! There is a lot of propane around here so it's a good thing I have my Big Buddy heater need to buy another one along with more 20lb tanks or maybe a larger tank. There are bazillons of space heaters on the market that will run on propane or natural gas - and very few of them require any electrical power to do it. They aren't expensive or hard to install, either. If you have a reliable supply of LPG or NG, then you got no good excuse for being without heat during a power failure. True but when you don't own the home or know you will not be staying there long why spend the money? Again, we're not talking much money here. For example, 180 bucks gets you 30,000 BTUs - and you can take it with you if you move. I have a portable model, but I bought a 12ft hose so I can fit the tank outside. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200578251_200578251 |
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TJ's flat tire topic has some good posts in it covering why we are in the shape we are in with this country. The post about a fella not knowing how to change a flat made me laugh. I do know people like that though, at least they probaby could call their aaa number and get it fixed that way. Everyone taking a vehicle somewhere for simple stuff is also a consideration, some people pay huge prices for easy to do stuff. I understand if the prices are reasonable, but the knowledge should still be there. |
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TJ's flat tire topic has some good posts in it covering why we are in the shape we are in with this country. The post about a fella not knowing how to change a flat made me laugh. I do know people like that though, at least they probaby could call their aaa number and get it fixed that way. Everyone taking a vehicle somewhere for simple stuff is also a consideration, some people pay huge prices for easy to do stuff. I understand if the prices are reasonable, but the knowledge should still be there. Yep, folks even here won't even learn to clean the carb on their genny. Folks just want to have fun. 
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