21 Comments
May 30Liked by T.L. Davis

How true, how true. Snowmageddon taught us a bunch of lessons three years ago. We’ve done some preparing overtime, but we live in northside suburb of Dallas, which is still a suburb.

We live on a golf course because it has such a beautiful view and is as much nature as we can get around here. When the power went out, I was in a sling from massive shoulder surgery only a few weeks before, but we across the golf course in the snow, where we had seen some cut wood a few days before while walking the dogs.

We had no good way to carry it, but we just took a tarp and put as much wood as we could drag on that and dragged it back. They did let us start a fire in the living room, but we also learned those decorative fireplaces put out very little. But then we rigged up that same tarp behind a few chairs and other things, and that made a small space where you could sit or lie down in reasonable comfort. Lessons learned!

But after that, I did get a heat exchanger for that fireplace that blows some of the hot air out with a small motor that can be charged by solar.

Eventually, we end up with a whole house generator that runs off of natural gas. And to point, we built a structure around it, which cuts the sound by half, which is still 40% too much. But a friend is giving me ideas on how to remove, even more sound.

This is a huge topic, but I very much realize that all the preparations we have done in suburbia really gives us a few days of comfort and normality that others won’t have, and some advantages for longer term because even the gas would go out eventually.

To that situation where the neighbors might start looking at us with hungry eyes, but that’s yet another topic.

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Yes, exactly.

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GG: PG & E cut off our gas supply in the Kincade Fire. We learned our lesson and now have some small space heaters that run off of small propane cans. The propane cans also run the Coleman stove.

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May 31Liked by T.L. Davis

Hadn't considered a cut-off. Amazing the cognitive blind spots sometimes...thanks for mentioning.

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May 30Liked by T.L. Davis

PS to my previous comment: we found it astonishing. However, that in our upper middle class neighborhood no one used their environment in anyway to help them out. Some are well supplied with camping gear and so forth, but just like Covid , in their minds if they’ve hoarded some toilet paper and bottled water they’ve done as much as they ever could possibly need to do.

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"Sheepled" Upper Middle Class Neighborhood Suburbs of Dallas.

My daughter lives in the same environment in Orlando. If/When TSHTF its going to be Very Tough to live through, Outsiders coming In and Insiders coming Out, both to Get anything they can find to survive.

Rural areas will merely be just Tough, minus the "Very", hopefully; but it's just a guess at best.

I got totally out of Florida, too crowded, for the mountains of Georgia, much less population, much less diversified, much less crime.

All the best to all of us.

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Funny, I just had a 3 hour reading with a very renowned astrologer, he told me the best place for me is TN, or FL (he showed me the areas).

I was looking at the EXACT same areas a few years ago. Intuition is amazing! I trust in God/Creator, and God’s Will…not my own eGO.

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May 31Liked by T.L. Davis

GG, be aware that when silencing your generator you must allow for heat dispersion or it will overheat. Unfortunately, allowing the heat to get out also allows the noise to get out.

I worked on a project many years ago in an R&D department trying to silence military generators. We ruined a couple to no avail.

Technology has improved generators over the years, but a whole-house generator defies efforts to make it quiet. As TL says, know when to run 'em, and when to shut 'em down.

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Pnoldguy: It was our experience during the Kincade Fire evacuation, that it was best to be silent and dark. We were very careful not to be seen or heard.

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May 31Liked by T.L. Davis

Got it. The guy that helped me design it was deployed in GWOT as a builder and really emphasized that. He drew up a plan that is a small 3-sided box that covers it and faces one way, and a bigger 3-sided box that fits over the small box and faces the other way so air flow is good.

But again I'm 'humbled' at how all we really have is a couple weeks advantage, and then we shall see. Small communities in good locations seem the best answer as long as those groups are truly cohesive, but barring winning the lotto you gots to work with what yuz got.

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http://timmytaes.com/2019/11/01/surviving-the-kincade-fire/

Above is the link to my story about how my wife and I survived the Kincade Fire town evacuation. We had no electricity, natural gas, and had to hide in our house from the cops as the town was under mandatory evacuation. We did have water though.

The worst part was no heat. After five days the house temperature was down to 46F.

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“You better have a good partner that you love and trust.” That was the perfect finale to your fantastic story!

Thank you! Remember, I’m in Commifornia too! 😉

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Thank you, Renee. It's not easy living in Commifornia, eh?

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It’s like living in an insane asylum. Utter whack jobs!

Ooops! What’s that say about me?😂🤣🤣😂

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Renee: The key is not to get whacked by the whack jobs. I've taken on the role of crazy bearded long-haired old man who walks with a broom as a cane.

People leave me alone.

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Hi T.L. Davis, I bought all three books of the trilogy. Please sign them if you can. I don't mind paying more for shipping. I live in Healdsburg, CA 95448.

I watched "The Last Picture Show" and "Hell or High Water" in the past week. Both movies are about West Texas. What do you think of the movies?

I have a friend who lives in Midland, Texas. She's born and raised there and her ancestors settled the area.

I don't know Texas. I've only been to the airports traveling through to somewhere else.

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Both are excellent movies, authentic, by two of the most outstanding Texas writers, Larry McMurtry and Taylor Sheridan. The J.D. Wilkes series is probably in line with those, only much earlier. I'll be glad to sign them.

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Thank you!

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May 31Liked by T.L. Davis

Here in Outer Suburbia where all kids are super kids and soccer moms are wrinkle free, I have a great suspicion that after the Fan hits and those moms must decide between botox and feeding the kids, we will be seeing many very skinny kids who suddenly needed to lose weight, and lots of very smooth foreheads.

If I could get botox as a barter item I would be King.

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May 31·edited May 31Liked by T.L. Davis

I see commercials on tooltoob before a video starts of these women worrying so much about a few laugh lines or 'crepey skin'. All I can think is, lady you will probably have a lot more important things to worry about before much longer. By the way, if you're thinking of items that could be used for barter, why not soap?

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Jun 1Liked by T.L. Davis

We've b÷n working for this for quite a while but honestly you are never fully done. Next year I'll be retiring from the day job, we have two places we could escape to. One on the coast & our tree farm in the American redoubt.

There factors to consider with either.

Getting to either in the event of an emergency is probably the biggest thing. I am thinking civil unrest is coming soon. In the event we cannot get to one or the other we have agreed & have several options on an

accountability list. God help America.

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