Tools, bits, pieces, and parts.

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I went on a bit of a splurge last month.  Oh, not a huge one.  Some things on my list, mostly little things, were tended.  A winter coat that is truly worthy of the name.  A few small tools and parts, which I have been purchasing over time anyway.  Mostly little, but annoying, items I had been fearful of pulling the trigger and buying.  Pillows was another group of items, which are working out.  I am pleased with my choices and decision to do so.  However, for the next few months, I am going back to living like a monk.  Until the hog I put a call in on, and butcher costs, are tended, I will be holding back.  Plus I want to see what a half a beef will cost, either ordering that next or saving a bit more for it.

However, that doesn't mean I can't window shop.  Hand drills, planes of various sorts, crosscut, rip, and scroll saws, and some other such, for literal hand woodworking are on my mind.  Getting the garage in order will add to that.  And, perhaps over time, stocking up on wood.  It doesn't hurt to have a half dozen plywood panels, of various thicknesses, a score of 2x4, perhaps some 2x2s or 2x1s, and maybe a few 4x4s as well.  Not too much, just enough that, along with the tools in stock, a few projects could go forward.  If skills increase, and furniture work might be under consideration, then perhaps more expensive woods, in small doses, could go into inventory.  Thoughts...  My garage can store a goodly lot of stock.  I simply don't want to begin stocking too heavily until use makes that a reasonable proposition.  I don't know how long wood stores well, and I don't really want to test that.

Beyond tools, I keep reviewing various lanterns and non-electric lighting solutions.  These are alternatives, and solutions for temporary electric outages for now.  The reason they are alternatives, and not common use, is because they aren't as good as electrical lighting.  Still, even a six hour to two day power outage, when it is overcast, makes alternative lighting quite reasonable.  I have a minor heater, though even that needs some thought for in the home.  Longer outages, and the problem of fuel changes from a secondary to a primary issue.  As with anything, just start, figuring out the longer term solutions as you go.  I still haven't decided on which system to go with.  Kerosene, and multi-fuel lamps have advantages.  Oil lamps could have a place.  Olive (vegetable as well) oil lamps could be handy.  How bright is this over that?  I don't know.  I am looking, learning, and watching as some things that were considered the best are simply becoming unavailable.  Then again, while a $200 lamp might be the best, if the company goes out of business just how good are those Chinese replacement parts going to be?  If they even make them.  A couple of inexpensive oil lamps to start, probably.  Right now, just flashlights.

There are so many options, and so many areas, to consider.  Has anyone thought about writing?  I have considered communications, but... that assumes electricity.  I won't bother with electrical notion unless/until I get something going on solar.  Wind isn't viable here.  As to the viability of solar, itself, that is another question.  I have things, of modern and not, to get to before I consider such a notion... expense.  The problem with the edge we are approaching is even how close, or close to hitting bottom, we are, is not easy to tell.  It may, if mechanisms and ingenuity work, but a very slow thing beyond the rest.  I simply don't have the means to be absolutely sure.  Further, there is a possibility that the nation saves itself by fixing things, socially, politically, economically... to varying degrees, much as with simple, humble, honest, prayer.  While I doubt mankind easily, I do not doubt God.  Then again, I don't doubt His ire, at this point in American life.  A nation that has economically fed on tens of millions of aborted babies, and many more who were refused simple existence through "choice".  Christ said, if this were His kingdom, they would have been fighting to get to Him.  Which means, even being pro-life, I have not done enough.

I didn't say anything I discuss is easy.  I won't suggest my preps will be perfect either.  But I am looking for the best options in an attempt to skip through the dark period with the least tribulation.  I am hoping to become skilled with these tools.  I may never be a true master of them.  I don't need to be to survive, even go on to thrive potentially.  I merely need to have a basic working knowledge, letting need, ingenuity, and faith cover the rest.  Trying to foresee needs into an unknown isn't perfectly possible.  But it isn't a useless effort, either.  It is coming.  Some of it can be foreseen better by looking to the past.  What was the easiest fuel for lanterns to produce locally, with the least tech?  What did they write with, and how was that maintained?  Some of it can't be realized.  Tech, while it may go away as we know it, has advanced beyond what it was.  Simply understanding how to extract this from that, or find core materials, and what has been found but left untapped, if that knowledge can be accessed and those of knowledge brought to the task...  All of it, though, is a big question mark.  This won't be like moving to a new place.  For a time, it will be like moving to a new time.  Just what happens in families, when men have to work to the bone and women can no longer compete, but have that competitive nature from an easier tech world, is going to lead to some very... difficult times.  Until it settles out.  So deep is that well, so dark too, and so many areas to be considered.

Never worry.  But do prepare.  It really is coming, soon or late.  I will take all the time I can get.  I need it, between deciding, and affording, even the little things.  *light bulb lantern lighting up*