Like this....

I need to be in alternative living an thinking mode.....its like a mini vacation for me.. clears my head and actually gives me some pleasure and personal satisfaction..

I got busy thinking about hay boxes... wrapping my crock pot in a sleeping bag and slow cooking for free.... lets take it a step farther.. I really like the Thermos cooker.. its about $200 and worth every dime to me...

But... if your finances are light and having top of the line vacum insulation isn't in the cards...

As an option Im thinking one of these.... filled with vermiculite pillows that pack all snug around your pot... plus if you need extra water storage... you kind of have it on the ready... I use the things as ice chests too... but only for pickled foods, milk and dairy stuff.. you dont want chicken stuff in your water... the coolers are cheap, effective and easy to deal with..

Then theres the ice chest or chilly box..... same insulation pillow space blanket liner trick.. I just like vermiculite... fiberglass is ok... I just dont want to deal with it... straw and hay breaks down.. and while it works..I want something more long term..

You can have more than one pot in this set up .. plus theres extra storage if you need it cause you got lucky foraging again.. cheap and effective, easy to handle... they look good and make the transition from normal to emergency pretty painless...and normal.... mentally ice chests are about camping, picnics and fun... its a comfort thing that can keep your head right and it really is all about attitude...

Then theres this option which is kind of sexy... and makes a nice addition to ones camp decor and can be home made if you wanna... insulate the floor and walls with bead board and another space blanket... add the usual vermiculite pillows and its all good... line with plastic sheet it'll even hold water.. besides you can sit on it.. the other stuff is good.... but this is kind of home made sexy... you can do the same thing with an ammo crate, a foot locker, a plastic storage bin, a cardboard box..

One last note the insulation pillows dont have to be vermiculite.. they can be polyfil, buck wheat, rice hulls, saw dust, wood shavings, pillows from the motel 8.... or a sleeping bag engineered to fit...

I have the chests and coolers NOW.... when things do go south even if its just a three day or week long power outage...getting supplies at Wallmart isnt going to happen... forget refilling your propane... getting ice or much of anything else... unless your snowed in...and I've done that for a few weeks at a whack too.. its not a big deal if you know the basics.. like where to get water.. and not die, get cholera, worms or dysentary from drinking it...  trust me sterilizing water is a priority.. which is another use for the rocket stove or solar oven...

Did you ever see this....

Its part of my fixation with third world tech thats been stepped up and made sexy... and the rocked stove meets that criteria... or at least this one does.. I've seen a few made out of mud and tin cans.. they work fine... but this one is pretty AND works fine.. it burns twigs.. brush, sticks, dry grass...one is a dual fuel charcoal model...which is way cool..  so Im thinking...

I want one....

I've done this a time or two....it works and lots of people in the world are doing it now my bread cooker is cast rather than sheet iron, but its the same idea...kinda, sometimes I use a grate..

Phase two is retained heat cooking.... bring the pot to a boil on the stove first thing in the morning... then put it in a hay box to keep cooking... or one of these sexy shiny things... which is basically a giant thermos..they're great for beans, stews, congee, chicken stew kinda things... currys, rice... think of it like a non-electric crock pot...

I have used straw boxes, wrapped the dinner crock pot in a sleeping bag and done lots of things with a regular thermos....... but given a choice....I want the pretty one for my day to day life...its sexy and wont scare people..

Now theres the solar cooker, slash hay box issue... this one is a home built that I thought was great.. its prolly the color..and that it can be stuffed with insulation to keep cooking regardless of sun.. or how the pot got hot in the first place... see rocket stove again...

I have one of the cute units shown below... its straight solar...but gets up around 350 degrees on a so-so day...they cost between $250 an $300 but they are top O" the line..

There are others but they boast any sale they make in the US subsidizes third world sales.. getting gouged to subsidize anything pisses me off.. especially racist social engineering... and "white liberal" guilt..

Any way.... you get the idea... "off the grid" doesnt have to mean digging for roots with a stick.. it can be pretty plush what with solar water heaters, pasturization, solar panels and wind turbines.

Homes don't have to be 2,000 square feet or even have brick, stone or wooden walls...I like rammed earth and adobe..its been around for a few thousand years..and works ya know?

I really like tents... medieval and pimped out, which is handy since I spent a lot of years working renn faires... What makes it different than sheltering in Hati is attitude and what you know..

I like this stuff...its my normal..

She saw my dark side.....

Rocket stoves and video was involved....

My nomadic "the world is in the brink of disaster" dealio involves rocket stoves.... they're simple cheap, effecient.. they burn twigs and stuff, grass, paper..leaves...charcoal

Which facinates me... cause Im a camp fire guy.. fire ring, 3 rocks to hold a pot, griddle, grill or what ever...

Cept some places don't have wood.... at least not campfire fodder... but nearly everywhere has twigs.. So Im interested..

There is a demo on you tube.... "how to feed your family on flour, water, oil, salt and twigs"....or something like that.... I got that the twigs were to cook the bread... not eaten.... and since it was a rocket stove video... I figured it wasnt a boy scout wrap dough around a stick vid....

I know what flour, water, olive oil and salt bread is.... I know what a rocket stove is... and everything related to what he was doing...... I just wanted to see how he did it...

OMG... I kept hopeing hed catch fire it was soo bad.... the second I saw the bag of cheap ass wall mart, white flour and funky canola/rape seed oil.... I knew this guy didnt like what he was doing.. it started bad and got to worse fast....

Granted my breads arent perfectly round but at least they look like I was paying attention..... and they look nice.. I add a little cumin.. some red pepper flakes an olive oil or garum.. even a tapenade when its done.. and its good stuff..

Then theres hummis... whole wheat flour and chick peas last a long time as do anchovies... so I keep all that stuff on hand... same with cumin and red pepper flakes.. but thats my idea of how its done..

This guy was talking about feeding his family on the "bread" he made.... talking stupid shit about jelly... and peanut butter... which isnt made from peanuts its hydrogenated oils that has peanut flavor in ....  looking at that $4 a ton white flour he was using.. you know the cheap bastard wasn't going for the good stuff...... and besides... where was he planning on buying it?

His senario was no power..armageddon, bare survival mode... yeah, good luck with that... best get a jack rabbit for dinner... or some pigeons..

It was demeaning to bread..... if he tries to feed his family that, I bet he gets shanked... and I noticed, he didn't eat the "bread" he took a sissy bite an that was that... it was kinda fugly.. but well made bread "hot off the rock" is good stuff which gets wolfed down not nibbled..

Bastards.... I relly need to have a "what cha gonna do now" cooking school.... replete with solar ovens, retained heat, pressure cookers and Rocket stoves... and teach how to catch a rabbit/pigeon or the neighbors dog...

A 50# bag of beans lasts a long time... and you can have pintos, pinks, northerns, lentils, and on and on.. black beans, navys,  black eyed peas.. chick peas add a bag of white and another of brown rice or 12.. whole wheat flour.. or better still the wheat its self and a hand mill....

I know where this guy lives..... its on the coast and lush... he can scrape whelks, muscles and barnacles off the piers and rocks... get a seal... gull eggs.. seaweed.. crabs.. mushrooms, all kinds of stuff and he goes on about preparedness and feeding his family?

Hahahaa... better work at it.... cause there won't be a wallmart around...

I kept sending her the link so she had to watch it..... it was all sad....

The stove was cool though..... he had it on his truck tailgate just like I cook... kinda made the same bread dough... I just use good ingredients....and tend to be sort of horrible about knowing what I can eat in the neighbors yard...

Man cannot live by bread alone...... Hahahahaha.. he needs a quail, a rabbit, mb a pigeon or dove... some mesquite beans and nopalitos... a lizzard or big ass rattlesnake...

Give us this day our daily bread.... is just lazy and ungreatful...

Gotta have skills...

"You know, like numchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills."

--Napolean Dynamite

Which reminds me....

The juggeling act goes on....... hustle, scramble, hustle.. avoid the yawning pits in the road and the big assed bear traps...  then maybe you have a grab at the brass ring... or at least thats the thoery...

Razors... if you get the best you can find.. your set for life...

Not the most expensive... the best and.... there is a difference...  I try hard to find the best whatever... I dont want 5 cheap anything.... I want one...

I live in small areas...mostly under 200 square feet.....it began when I was a kid living in flea bag hotels with one washroom per floor.... I kept it up working rennfaires and craft shows.. it was all about trucks, tents and tarps, there was the occasional apartment.. they mysterys of which I never did figure out..  

However thats not the point..... I've never had the luxury of wasting money on shite....or the room to store said shite.... everything has a destiny and purpose..there are no string collections, drawers full of dead batteries, old cell phones or cheap flashlights that never work... no ink pens that are dead... none of it... 


I'll spend $20 on a pen..... but it's gonna work no matter how long it sets.... I have paid over $100 for a Mont Blanc..... but my $7 papermate was a nicer pen....so I sold the Mont Blanc to some guy who hated the idea of me owning one.... can't have the lower classes being all uppity now can we.....

So... papermate is good.... I do like waterfords and Cross pens.. but the agenda is different.. its more an art thing.... I still want the right feel and flow... which is ironic given my hand is anything but beautiful....something about broken bones, misspent youth and nerve damage ending in penmanship no amount of pratice will fix...

Still... I like pens with silver barrels... maybe ivory if they aren't totally gay.. horn, ebony.. all things interesting... not that I collect or buy them.... its just a fancy... a notion... Im not bent to take pen in hand...or ceremonially sign anything... and the $7 pen is just as good for my purposes..

I keep thinking about the fluffy one......and 200 square feet... then I study actual floor plans, thinking... this could be art... its not like Im not a tricky bastard....  Think Vardo... gold leaf, carving, stained glass.. wheel engraved.. etched.. glue chipped.. hard wood everything.. leather this an that... custom whatever...

Not to mention solar panels an a neon kit.... pneumatics...

Mobility, 10 acres in some green Eden... and a garden shed.

I keep stirring around...making notes... and sooner or later its going to come together...

Today was the day I unveiled one of my ridiculous habits.... aside from keeping stuff in cigar boxes... having more than one set of scissors.  and a silver thingy for aspirin.... The issue of having  16 or so straight razors on hand wasn't addressed the one on the left is ivory...some are collectable an kinda pricey.. Puma, Double Duck and HenckelsTwins..

I like the notion of shaving as zen.... the razors themselves as art and old school bad assery ..

Talking to the fluffy one it occours to me her son is getting to be that age...and I need to be introducing him to the proper rituals or want to at any rate....nobody gave enough of a fuck to show me the good stuff when I a young guy....so I had to chase it...but whatever.. it worked out, he wants to know stuff.... an I know stuff...

 Im thinking maybe I might get my hustle on and find him something amazing... and maybe rebuild and sell a few while Im at it... a good razor ready to shave is a couple of hundred bucks.... so I think I can make a few bucks... what with access to ironwood, ivory and some other material for scales... not to mention some silver smithing....and a little scrimshaw....Hobby stuff... cause I don't really have a lot of time for actually earning a living...or know what to do with money in my pocket

Live by the sword, die by the sword..

Eat or be eaten.....

Choke the chicken or be choked by the chicken..... in this case I was choked, not my chicken..

Rice and white meat kinda get caught half way down if Im not careful.....an sho nuff I wasn't careful.....

So I'm choking.. cant breathe.. forget calling anyone cause, its not happenin.... what am I gonna say? Gaakkkkk?

I manage to shift stuff around so I can breathe..... which was kinda good..but its sketchy an subject to being cut off...so I have to control a few impulses not panic and get my plan B together... I can't swallow the bolus or puke it up.. then I started foaming.. but Im breathing.... the block is in my chest... not throat.. so plan B comes apart... theres no way to make a hole.... then the sweat comes.. the whole diaphoretic sweat thing.. just before you die..

I'm thinking... my body is being tricked and over reacting.... so I call bullshit on the whole process... my heart isnt an issue... I am breathing...so it just is what it is...

Now the bolus is swelling.....and its 45+ minutes to a ER.... the gag reflex is a constant battle cause the lump needs to go down not up so I don't choke out...

I figure the odds and drive to the ER... I have to stay calm... move slowish...not get excited..don't spike my blood pressure or start breathing heavy....no dislodging the alien.. but theres the foam issue and Im trying not to drown....so things got fancy...but I make it to the ER.... Sweating like a pig.. trying not to wretch or drown....pass out or get too excited...

Breathe in breathe out.... you have 4 minutes once your heart stops and the clock starts ticking once breathing stops..... I'm figuring the odds are good.... I laid out the problem and things are getting ready for a little worst case action.... then I start drinking water to lube it up an maybe force things down....

Nope.... I'm gagging and wretching but nuffin good is happening.... dry heaving so hard my legs shake.... and Im dehydrating....

All good... WTF can one expect.... nothing can go either way....

They plan on giving me a shot they think will relax the smooth muscles..... I'm thinking.... and if that doesn't work?  I keep at it.... straight posture... moving.. cause you never know... then it gets bad..

So I wander off...... Im just starting to heave again and feel the lump break loose, which instantly ends the wretching..... Angels sing... I say. "I'm raizin up ya'll" "I'm Audi" "C-ya"

The nurse has the shot ready... but 5 seconds too late... I'm swilling water and on my way out the door like a stray dog on a mission... which I sorta was....

Mission being get out the door... before I get Ebola, Anthrax or the Plague.... the whole "have a seat on the exam table" creeped me out.... being as how someone left a used latex exam glove on the table.. and latex is porus, so what good are they exactly?

We wont talk about the face masks they were passing out..... I know what it takes to stop H1N1 and it wasn't these Michal Jackson costume looking things..

But I suspect everything......its my nature....and I'm a professional

Shoulda stuck with chili verde for breakfast...... not chicken..  the whole thing kinda messed up my morning....

Lunch was a caprase salad.....an my stuff is sore... my swallowing stuff.. not the other stuff...  that'll teach me not to run around feeding my face without thinking about what Im doing... or lubing the chicken....