Secure the power grid? Heck, we can’t even keep our bridges from collapsing.
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Boiled eggs in chili. Are you rich? And how did you afford 3 whole eggs?
That looks great. I am definitely trying that next time the better half makes chili.
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That’s a very relatable fear. I feel like that. I am a fan of former President Trump and his policies. But I feel his ability to run for office would be marginalized by the antipathy of the " anybody but Trump" voters.
This is an example of something he said that I can get behind. But you then have the reality of acceding to anti gunners on the “Bump Stock Ban”. Bump Stocks have never been that big an issue to me personally. But…
It’s difficult to remember this, but Trump didn’t come into office as a “conservative.” He’s always been more of a Reform Party person. He had ‘friends’ (I use that term very loosely) in both the Democratic and Republican parties. These days, Joe Biden Inc. likes to label anything Trump touched as extreme alt-right-wing fascist MAGA Nazi stuff, but while Trump was undeniably the leader of the Republican Party, I never thought of him as the standard bearer for conservatism.
I’ve heard people say that the over-the-top attacks that Democrats made against Trump during his first year in office came as somewhat of a shock to him. They claim that while Trump came into office willing to work with anyone from either party, he quickly learned that he had no friends on the left, and eventually decided he didn’t care for them, either.
I’m in no position to verify that version of events, but I totally buy it.
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There is more than ample evidence over the decades, that Trump believed in causes that were not traditionally Republican. That’s a good thing. The Democratic Party was very appreciative to President Trump past endeavors and gladly took the donations that he made. Trump didn’t become, Enemy number one until he ran as a Republican. Rank hypocrisy if you ask me. Once he defeated Hillary it was “Game on”.
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New Year’s Eve, Ohio State @ Georgia for a chance to beat up TCU in the CFB title game 
Those who attended the game didn’t even have a chance to see the ball drop at the strike of midnight and welcome 2023.
Meanwhile at home in stormy California, there was a power outage minutes after the game ended.
There were only two houses on our block with lights on.
The cop with the generator.
My house with “hybrid” chandelier that has electric bulbs and candles. Power was restored just before midnight Pacific.
I need to up my game.
While minimally impacted, the following seven days saw low-lying communities evacuated, major road and highway closed, and a few more intermittent power outages.
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Always DEFCON 3 REDCON 1
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I had an interesting conversation with a gas company big cheese while working on repairing one of the many ancient gas lines feeding CA. He said CA did a big study on how long it would take to recover from the overdue Big One on the San Andreas fault. The expectation was that while a few areas might be restored in a matter of months it would be at least 2 years before power and gas would be back on for everyone. I’m pretty sure my in laws in the hills above Santa Cruz are still without power from the atmospheric river’s first wave a couple weeks ago. Fortunately they have partially learned their lesson after 3 months without power from a forest fire. Now they at least have a generator. Though they are very fortunate that only 2 of the 3 roads to their home were washed out since they rarely keep more than a couple days of food on hand.
With the crumbling state of CA infrastructure, I would consider having an alternative power source to be mandatory if I lived there. Though I wouldn’t want to be the only house in the neighborhood with the lights blazing if the power was out for more than a couple days. Our plan here in AZ is to just live without power aside from a couple of solar powered lanterns to light up our supply of books and board games and a small solar panel to recharge the tablet and flashlight batteries. But we are also fortunate to have a wood stove for heat and a forest full of fuel and live at a high enough altitude that we don’t need AC to survive.
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How about the water supply in AZ?
Listening to what this video release could create this evening, I’m a little nervous, I live downtown and have seen things go from 0 to 60 awfully fast. Plus R works in one of the center points of downtown and will be there tonight and tomorrow. The saving grace is that it’s pretty cold out right now, usually, around here, protesters are fare weather creatures.
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Yes, I too am wondering what is going to happen with the video release.
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Something to consider is a self contained RV. Think of it as a life boat. It is a lot easier to power an RV than a home. We used to spend months boondocking in an RV during the summer. Solar and a 3kw generator kept us going. I still have a 50 gallon waste tank and macerator pump so I did not have to move the trailer to empty the waste tanks. If things start looking worse I might buy a used one.
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We are fortunate to not be down in the desert and to have a pretty deep and reliable well. We also have a small scale rain catchment system that we could upgrade pretty easily to a larger scale by diverting the water to our 3000 gallon cistern. Our neighbor has a 5000 gallon rain catchment system. Should be good on water for at least a year even if it didn’t rain for some extremely unlikely reason:)
The big threat here is forest fire but the Forest Service just did a massive thinning around our area and our neighborhood has a lot of defensible space.
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I’ve been really wanting to get a small camper for our plan B. We just have a small cargo trailer and tent setup at the moment. One issue with that plan is that ideally you want to have several other friends with lifeboats to join you on whatever island you find.
My coworkers and I have to do a lot of camping for work and have run into more than a few sketchy situations especially when camping alone or in smaller groups. The larger our group of vehicles the less likely it has been for the sketchers to make an appearance. The number of incidents seems to be increasing over the past couple years.
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It does not necessarily have to go anywhere. It would be easier to survive a grid down situation in a smaller self contained unit. Less resources required. Yes I have lived in one in winter with snow on the ground and in 100+f heat for several months. If you did have to abandon your home you would have some shelter. Think turtle.
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Coming down in March house hunting but do not know where the best place to begin to look. and remember, I am not rich!
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Good luck on the house hunting! It’s really nice around Flagstaff if you don’t mind the occasional snowy winter but housing prices have unfortunately gone through the roof the past several years. No way we could afford a home here if we hadn’t bought 10 years ago at the bottom of the market. Nearby Williams might be more affordable and could use a good chef to up the quality of the several touristy restaurants they have there. Think Prescott is going the same way as Flag but maybe there are some affordable areas on the outskirts.
I have several coworkers/friends who live in Tucson and really like it. It’s a little big and warm for my taste but noticeably less so on both counts than Phoenix and it had a reasonably nice small cIty vibe last time I was there. Lots of little hole in the wall towns and rural areas with cheap land and homes all around the State. Jerome is an interesting little old mining town on the side of a mountain turned tourist destination that has a collection of little bars and restaurants. And there are some similar little pockets like that in the nearby Verde Valley which is trying to turn itself into a mini version of Napa Valley wine country. Kingman is likely cheaper as well but the Saudi Arabians are buying up big chunks of farmland there and sucking up all the ground water to grow alfalfa for their Arabian horses back in their desert.
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Suprise, AZ😎
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I personally would choose to avoid the Phoenix sprawl, especially for anyone concerned with steering clear of potential social strife.
Though I’m not sure I would go completely to the opposite end of the spectrum either even though I bet the housing prices are hard to beat here:
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This past year has seen a huge increase in development around the entire Phoenix Metro area. What used to be huge open spaces are now developed.
Further North around Prescott would still be good though it is now pricey there.
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