Prepping is dull beyond words.
Its not the adventure story with heroes, muscle cars and damsels in distress unlocking their thighs at your rampant masculinity and all round saviorness. (I made that word up)
Its dull. Mind numbing boring. Its getting a bit of wood over your shelving units or dehydrated carrots.
Thus I bring you some truly depressing prepping advice. Used cars. I saw this today and thought of you guys. High-mileage used cars you can depend on. http://autos.ca.msn.com/editors-picks/high-mileage-used-cars-you-can-depend-on#image=1
#2 on the list is the Toyota corolla ...and low and behold... a 92 corolla station wagon sits just outside my window. It just wont die. It has crossed the continent from coast to coast a whopping 7 times with a lot of commuting and road trips on top of it. 228000 Miles so far. Over 350000 Km.
This car is truly embarrassing to show up anywhere trying to look all bad ass. When I step out of it in my leather jacket and combat boots...I sheepishly look around to make sure no one notices. Yet Ive grown to love this truly dull, dull, dull car. There is nothing on the market today that could possibly replace it. Nothing.
During the latest solar storm, I put my Honda shadow (another grossly dependable but dull vehicle) into the shipping container (Faraday cage) and began the old question of what vehicle to save. The truck would be handy in a crisis. So would be the 4x4 with the snow plow....Ah crap. Save the fugly corolla. It uses a third of the gas and does most of the necessary hauling with the small trailer.
So what does this have to do with prepping. Prepping is expensive. Its an investment. New is often a bad investment when money should best be invested somewhere else. Do you actually own your vehicle in full or does the bank own it. If its the last vehicle you ever own will it keep running. Can you afford the gas if your wage suddenly drops in half. What will gas shortages or mass inflation do to your driving habits. Do I purchase a new vehicle and risk losing my house if my gamble goes wrong. ETC.
Did I mention...prepping is dull.
I leave you with some prepper humour and food for thought. This is one of my favourite prepper videos. enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCJEZSJlqiU
😆
I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more Useful.
+1 On the Corolla. Bought my first one new in 95. Base model, no air, didn't even have a radio. Sold it in 2004 with 360000kms on it. Next up is a 04 with 370000 on it currently. This is a slight guess as the odo stopped working at 299999. My kid is now using it as a daily driver. Currently driving a 2010 Rav. Big mistake, should have got another Corolla.
I just laughed so hard, so many times!!!
I love my pickup, too. 1998 Ford Ranger, 400K miles - yeah, that's miles - with a lot of it spent in deserts or on the Gulf coast and several spans of years in there where she has not gotten oil changes and other maintenance exactly on schedule. Bought it new for $10K tax, tags, registration, out the door. (Remember those days?) It has a radio and air, but no vanity mirror and was the model without the floor console (soda crates can be trimmed for a perfect fit and are ideal for large sodas and "real" travel mugs) and it's got the hard plastic instead of carpet inside (which was actually a selling point for me).
There's less than $5K into her in fix-its over the last 15 years, to include tires and batteries but not including oil changes or windshield washer fluid. If she makes it to 500K without going over the $5K mark, I told her I'd buy her big tires so she doesn't feel dwarfed and unloved when everybody washes their big honking trucks and SUVs.
Go ahead. Say Ford stands for Fix Or Repair Daily.
There was also once a love-hate relationship with a baby blue mini-shoebox '84 Honda Civic that refused to give up and die. Then it saw my sister coming and committed suicide. For real: the night before her license test it was parked the same place it had been for years, all of a sudden, CRUNCH, everybody runs out to see that the die-hard veteran of multiple first-time drivers had lost its brake and rolled down the LONG driveway (which curves and has several trees lining it, making that a minor miracle on its own). It managed to hit just the right angle and just enough speed to ramp a ditch and wrap the front bumper almost all the way around a big ol' oak and totally smash all the most important parts.
It was a smart move, since she wrecked the next car four times in her first year.
C,
If you start foraging to add to your general preparedness know-how, fear of eating the wrong thing and having to go to hospital with all the sick people might liven up your task and cut the dullness. 🙂 Plus, kudzu flower jelly is totally gorgeous and totally scrumptious and there's always the fun of explaining what you're doing with a sharp stick and a big curved knife to authorities. It's like instant dull-be-gone!
We love the Nissan Patrols...had one that went around the clock three times before an engine change, yep a staggering 3 million km!
Mine is a ute (99) and currently at 320,000km...it had been rolled into a drainage ditch full of water when we picked it up from an auction as a damaged vehicle, replaced the roof and drivers pillar, since been through a head on and then repaired again, carries full loads of either bricks, timber, mulch or compost at least twice a week and quite frankly I LOVE IT.
DH offered to get me a newish VW Dual-cab but nope I prefer my ute and wouldn't have anything else, even my daughter told him "You'll never get that ute off her."
It can be a bit heavy with the fuel but if I drive around at about 50-70 km/hr it isn't too bad, so I pop on a farm hat and I'm sure people that follow me think I'm a little old man farmer rather than a middle aged lady 😀
I call her the 'Model T' which had a top speed of about 65 km/hr
