Sunday, July 8, 2012

I Can't Stand It Anymore

Ok, from the blogs and forums I lurk on I'm just about to pull out my beard.

Yes, it's HOT across much of America and yes THERE'S NO POWER.

These are not blogs and forums for people who like kittens and live in city apartments. These are hardcore prepping and survival forums and blogs.

I understand if you're hot. It's hot outside. But what are you going to do? NOT GARDEN? NOT TEND YOUR LIVESTOCK? These are things you ought to be doing as a matter of your survival. Your survival is not a matter for comfort. In fact, comfort has nothing to do with it. Try and find ways to cope with the heat, from cooling down with water on you to getting up earlier and doing hard labor before it gets too hot. Take a nap during the heat of the day, or at least sit in the shade and read a book. While you're at it, you might think about your living conditions. If you live in a big metal box of a trailer house or a modern home that was designed to have gigawatts pumped in to run fans and air conditioning then it's itme to reevaluate that decision.

Next, if you're thinking you're going to die without electricity then it's CERTAINLY time to reevaluate your lifestyle. Why did you let yourself get into this situation in the first place, where your entire life is dependent upon someone else providing you some nebulous thing? Your well pump is out? You can't cook? You live in a city and it's completely dark all around you? All your frozen foods are spoiling and you won't have food?

Better take this mild rebuke from God as the merciful warning that it is. In the not-too-distant future there's going to be no electricity available. There will be no law and order beyond what communities can provide for themselves. There will be no food production beyond what families and communities need and can provide.

Your weak mentality of creature comforts and living in a perpetual 72 degrees with hot and cold running water is going to lead you to die in a ditch somewhere, and you'll most likely die very uncomfortable.

Tempus fugit. Get to work.

3 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

Easy to say if your wife doesn't have health problems, but your points are still valid.

Xa Lynn said...

I just wake up earlier (5:30 today) and do as much as I can before 10 AM when it starts to heat up. If it stays this crazy hot, I may just go to bed at noon and get up at 7pM and work all night when it's cooler. That only works when the Mr is traveling and the kids are visiting the grandparents who have AIR CONDITIONING. lol.

Xa Lynn

Ernest said...

My mother-in-law has some sort of breathing disorder. If it gets too hot she just slow chokes to death. I can't imagine having to deal with that on a daily basis.

I guess I should have a softer viewpoint about it, but really, I think this is going to become the new normal for a lot of people. Before too much longer the days of climate controlled dwellings are going to vanish. You'll be cold when it's winter and hot when it's summer. It's time to start adapting!

Around here we work starting at 6am until around 10-11am, depending on what needs to be done. Then it's lunch and internet time (and usually a nap) in the shade. There's almost always a breeze blowing so that helps immensely. You feel better immediately if you just go sit down in the shade and have a glass of lemonade. Then around 5pm we start working again until it's too dark to see or the mosquitos eat us alive.

In our future here I am going to try and bust butt real hard in the fall, winter, and spring to accomplish big projects and make sure the summer is mostly for maintenance tasks and knifemaking.

But I also expect to get used to it some. I'm already able to handle it better than I did when it first started heating up and as my physical stamina improves here on the farm things are getting a lot easier.