Getting into the rhythm of Spring

It's amazing what you can start doing when you have the time. Plenty of fruit trees planted, other trees getting cut down, the garden beds getting worked over. Although, in the case of the beds, more a case of being removed to make room for more trees...

I will have to find some uses for Aloe Vera - it seems to grow happily with little maintenance. Hardly sounds particularly... Survivalist-ish, but I'm not going to disregard anything that will give us an edge in a survival situation. That's the difference between a Real Survivalist and the Sheep.

Not that I particularly like that term "Survivalist"... It puts everyone in mind of the gun-totin', Bible-thumpin' paranoids... and the sort of thing that brings attention to the fact that you are equipping to get through most problems.

If you had to suddenly face a large scale crisis, you'll know how important it is to have preparations in place. I've been fortunate to have not had to face an inner-city riot... and now, living well outside of the city (or the nearest small township) the problems with urban crowding shouldn't be as bad...

On another note, a quarter of a century after the Chernobyl meltdown, it seems the plantlife in the area is thriving. It's had to adapt, but it's thriving... Life seems to find a way.

The Wages of Sin

There comes a point when you try to work out if you can afford to do everything you are trying to do. It's a simple enough idea: keep $incoming>$outgoing.

Except - there are always outgoings. And new outgoings. And outgoings that suddenly jump up in price. And outgoings that really should be gotten. And outgoings that aren't, strictly speaking, necessary, but are a good idea.

And yet - usually only one incoming, which never seems quite enough. Especially once you pay the strictly necessary bills, deal with things which suddenly pop up.

So... solar (electric) panels are on the back-burner, even though they would probably make a dent in the electricity bill. Solar thermal (hot water) isn't necessary (we have one), but could be experimental. Likewise, water tanks would be nice to get, even small ones for watering the garden, but... Of course, I'd rather putting in some underground tanks, but that would definitely shoot the price up, if I didn't want to break my back digging a couple of cubic metres of soil out.

Of course, there are a couple of ways to do things... a) Get a bank loan, or apply it to the mortgage... it doesn't get rid of the bill, but at least it means that it doesn't have to be all found right away. b) Find another, better paying job. c) Partake in... less... legal activities, which would mean more hassles - both from the enforcers of law, and those who actively break it. Not to mention the ethical qualms in doing so.

If I could find... customers interested in my knowledge on setting them up for cataclysms, that would help.

A lot of costs would lower if we moved further out into the countryside - yet other costs (such as fuel) jump up... And costs wouldn't lower if we moved closer to the city. Not that moving closer to the city would be pro-survival, anyway. Especially when a lot of houses are built not far above sea-level, or even on flood-plains.

Loading up the credit card preemptively isn't the answer, either. Apart from the fact that it's getting that way. When you aren't sure when things will happen, you have to ensure you have contingency plans... you'd be mad to spend everything in belief of the world ending next week when a big bill is due the following one - and things might continue on for a few months. Plus, as the recent economic problems in the US showed, an emergency doesn't mean the bills stop.

The Joy of Spring

Spring - when a young man's fancies turn to thoughts of What The Hell to do with the garden. Plenty of things like cutting down dead trees, putting new things in. The Aloe Vera has been propagating like mad, it can definitely go into the dry area in the garden.

Fortunately, I have three weeks of annual leave saved up, so now is the time to take it, getting gardening done before everything explodes in a frenzy of growth. Sometime over the weeks, I will get the chance to find the recycling centre, see what there is in the way of adaptable equipment...

Have been looking into algae as a crop. There are a few different things various types can be used for - food, fuel... Spirulina is quite nutritious; Algin from some seaweeds can be fairly easily polymerised and coloured, so has uses as a fabric, as well as for a few industrial purposes.

Of course, I still need an off-sider, or a couple of people, to help me with gettting some of these projects off the ground... Many hands, as they say, make light work...

More Than More Than Words

I manged to get a Geiger tube nice and cheap the other week... Just a pity I'm having trouble getting the circuit to work... Means that I'll have to trace through the circuit, borrow test instruments... Massive pain to do, but essential if it's to work. Fortunately, the test equipment is to hand - and so are plentiful replacement parts. Whether much in the way of spare parts would be available post-cataclysm. Not to mention all the work that would need to be done.

There have been a few natural environment problems recently. If 20 million people in an techno-industrialised country were to be affected, what then? What if 200 million people were affected? How much help would developing countries be willing or able to help?

On the bright side, more (hobby) farm work has been done. A couple of new plants - including native ginger, being used more as a decorative, but still edible. A couple of dying ones (one coffee seedling trunk broken), one peach not responsive to the arrival of Spring (the other quite happy). Fortunately, the persimmon has leaf buds about to open.

Which reminds me - I have to find enough of the right bits to make a pulping machine to make paper, or separate fibres from hemp (or similar)... and have to play with the glassware (and get some more) and try some bootstrap chemistry.