New old experience.

Weee... There is no hidden room at my house. Just a thicker wall and my little mistakes in measuring. :) But I would say luckily because it would mean an extra wall to be ripped out.

Another thing is that today I bought 36 4-watt solar wafers and some ribbon to spin it together.  I would try to build a 145 W solar panel using my own hands. It's been over 20 years since with a help of my neighbour I had assembled my first color TV-set but I hope I can still deal with soldering tool.  I am going also to make some tests on them to determine how to improve their yield in poor insolation condition.

If you have tried different types of batteries please let me know what are the best for everyday usage. I'm sure that gel based used in computer APCs are pretty bad according to my experience.

Visit no. 3.

Still a lot of snow. Streams of water from melted snow looks interesting but can be harmful for cellars. The house is still there awaiting me. Nasty roof revealed some hidden holes and one room resemble swimming pool. That is nothing. It was so for past several years - a few weeks doesn't matter. 

Every time I am there I find something extra, something that makes me feel like lucky guy. Today it was as usual.

I found the old wall-clock casing. It looks very old fashioned covered with tons of paint layers. The last one is brown. My father-in-law that accompanied me said that he has a working mechanism that can be placed into and he will renew it for my "old fashioned" room. He also noticed parts of electrical installation dated before 2nd world war he would like to renew also. 

Another thing is that I found that I do not have to make my own, new connection to waterworks. I found a small well with a cut-out and counter ready to be connect. It will definitely save me time and money although I've already gathered materials to build my own well-for-connection. 

Mystery of eaten eggs in the attic looks solved. I  found a hole in the very near with a strong smell. 95% for that I have a martens as my neighbours. 

The last thing for today was that I made an exact plan of the house and my prediction were right. I have a wall that is almost one meter thick. There is no entrance to that place so tomorrow I will make a closer look. My wife is horrified of the things that can be hidden in such place - it can be fulfilled with rats bones :)). We will see tomorrow...

Some things that may be important.

For last few days some things have come to my mind as cheap and unnecessary now and very useful and precious after SHTF.  Please consider them and maybe suggest some more in that matter. I was not looking very carefully but I did not find a word about them in the topics I read.

1. Atlases. Atlas of herbs. You can not memorize everything. Now you can easily acquire a most accurate one with recipes, even collect seeds. Of course every practical knowledge will be helpful after SHTF but you never know what can be useful so some academia knowledge as atlas of trees or minerals are worth to be matured

2. Scale. Small electronic scale. Cost of the unit with 50g capacity and 0,01 g. precision - $25. After SHTF - priceless in terms of payments and exchanging goods using silver or gold slabs.

3. Distillation set. Affordable thing that can be used in many ways. As I chemist I can suggest to have one complete apparatus - maybe as simple as possible, maybe a bit more complicated.  I can say more about its part if necessary - just write abut it. What it can be used for ?

- distillation of water - just to use it, drink

- distillation of water - to receive distilled water to add to the cells of the batteries 

- distillation of alcohols - to receive more concentrated ethanol (priceless ! :) )

- separations & purification of mixtures of volatile substances through distillation

- extraction under condenser (reflux) to get vital things from ig. herbs

- concentration through evaporation to receive concentrated substances or mixtures (ig. evaporation of water or alcohol to receive syrups)

...and many many more that at that moment do not come to my mind. The simplest one set you can gather having just $100 in your pocket. I think its worth its price many times in case of SHTF.

Sewage treatment unit.

First thing I will acquire for my house is sewage treatment unit. After long consideration I decided for biologically-ecological model. Although it uses some electricity (80 W pump working 15 min then 15 min break - so approx. 40W of permanent consumption) it gives you quite good quality water in the end. So it do not need to be drained in the ground. I plan to collect it in the small pond and use it for watering garden. Even without "oxygen stage" induced by air pump it will still work such as ordinary ecological unit based only on anaerobic process. Maybe the water quality in the end pipe will be not so good at that time but we are talking only about period of "disaster" and at that time my garden will be watered from other sources if needed.

The only maintenance cost is once a year take a mud from the first reservoir. Cost of such unit (2,5 m3 - up to 5 users) should return within 4-5 years. What is most important form preppers point of view it will make me totally independent in terms of sewage. 

Of course I plan to have photovoltaic installation to which I plan to connect my sewage treatment unit to keep it operating with aerobic process even if the electricity fail.

Rule no. 1.

I abandoned my first idea about building a new house just because I didn't want to break this rule. What is so important that could change my plans ? The rule no. 1 is...

When you are not a rich man buy everything the best possible in terms of technology and materials used , choosing the recognized manufacturer. 

In the very beginning I did not find it well. But being experienced through life and problems I would strongly recommend this rule as the most important one. Especially for preppers ! I will try in a few words convince you that it works.

Have you ever bought a thing that was repaired plenty of times during their lifetime ? It is not about the money but possibility to use owned equipment.

Have you ever bought a thing that has much worse working parameters than it was stated in the advertising ?

Have you ever found that when you wants to service an equipment spare parts are not available any more ? Or even worse - the manufacturer is unknown - probably small firm in Guangzhou...

Have you ever been surprised looking at the bill given you by the serviceman ? According to his costs and costs of the parts used to repair (imported from luckily found small firm in Guangzhou).

Have you ever found that this cheap license you bought suddenly is blocked by manufacturer ?

From preppers point of view this question is the most accurate : What happens when it will stop working in a "bad-time" ? Murphy's law says - for sure it will happen ! And in the middle of the ice storm, when electricity will fail, your generator would stop working ...

I am not telling about paying for luxuries,  solid gold cover or best design. Just focus on taking what you are paying for and do all you can to pay only once. Now if its affordable buy the most advanced one build of best materials. You can spend lets say - $100. You can buy from unknown manufacturer or build not with best materials for $50. Now you have $50 but surely you would spend it on something else. You will not keep any part of these money for future maintenance or repair costs. So one day it can happen that it will break and you will have to pay this $50. What if in that time you would not have this $50 for repairing this ? Who can predict future ? And maybe you will have to spend $10 but 10 times for exchanging filters which are self-cleaning in this $100 machine ? Someones say - ou its only $100. OK. Put $50k in that place. Can you see the difference? And do you perceive the problem now ?

And I hope now you understand my "rule no. 1". Please consider it seriously.

Introduction.

Why do I start to write this blog ? I think it is only because I found people who will consider my words and thoughts. I will not satisfy everyone - for sure and that is why I decided to write this just for people who are interested in changing their life in some particular way.  You will know that its written for you very quickly otherwise you will soon become bored. Very bored :)

It will be the story of my efforts to renew the small house in the village. There are some rules I choose to obey. The most important one is that it has to be as much self sufficient as possible. And I mean both infrastructural and also as the place that has to upkeep my family in good times and in bad times too. Thanks God I do not have to start in the open country. Some time ago I bought an old farm. I planned to build there a huge, comfortable house. All the farm building were in very poor condition and had to be destroyed even for safety reason. But why it was worth buying is that it had both water and electricity connections, old trees in a farmyard and the old well. After I had realized how much it would cost and that I would had become a slave to the bank for another dozens of years I abandoned that idea, looking for a better one. Then came the opportunity to buy an old house in the closest neighbourhood. It was abandoned and used as a storage for a firm. For several years it stood abandoned, unheated with the roof that started to leak. It was surrounded by bushes and small trees that started to strike their roots in the foundations. But I saw the possibilities. And pleasure in fight with all the difficulties that will come. Finally I like things with souls and it looks like one of the kind. And here I am - preparing for the battle. :)

Live your life.

"Live your life" is my motto. Why is that? There are many reasons but the main one is that nowadays we live not-our life. We live in times when its said what to do, what to buy, what to listen, what to read. The whole mass of people is working on that. To free us from thinking, to give us apparent choices or just choose for us telling us its best for us. As I look at the people I pass, look how they look like, what and where they eat, what they read, watch or listen, I clearly see that people are becoming more and more the products of the world, not individuals any more. They wear trendy things, listen promoted music, read what someone in TV said is worth reading. But of course the program was not about literature but about home design. They watch all the sitcoms and look like the heroes and behave like them. Even think like them "to be cool". So Iran is bad, our government is the best thing that could happened. (Just not to watch their hands.) etc. Democracy is corrupted but accepted as no other choices are given. Same is with all the people. They live someone others life because there was no other option given. Parents prefers to sit their children in front of TV instead of talking with them. They prefer to buy them new PS game instead of take them in the mountains for day or two. And so it happens. Day by day, hour after hour. Our society become more and more predictable, more, I say, formated. And their existence, their choices are in hands of someone else. For sure not their own.

I am very cynical. Both for people and information. Today you are not given informations but comments. Being cynical gives you opportunity to find the informations and give away comments. Its a possibility to justify things as they are not just look and read what to think about them. Remembering that for government we are only statistics, makes easier thinking about our life as persons not society. What is good for community may not be good for us as individuals. We have different needs, we live in different places and our biochemistry is slight different then any other human (that is why no good diet for all ;) ). We should take informations and make the best choices FOR OURSELVES having them.  Only healthy individuals can creates healthy communities. So thanks God for the internet. :)  Here you can find almost anything. You can find inspirations, you can share your knowledge, you can see facts from many points of view. And still you are free to tell what you think. And that is what I am actually doing.

I do not want to give you here a large piece of me. I would like to write a story about what I am now planning to do. I've just bought an old house in the countryside and want to make it my home, my space. I would like to use all known to me "preparedness rules" to make it  comfortable and safe place for me and my family. You will find not only the facts about renewal progress but also my considerations that creates choices. Maybe here you will find the reasons to start to live your life as it can be really funny and will give you opportunity to taste everything as it is. 

Here we go !