I am a complete failure at life 😥
Strangely, this general, all round loserness has turned me into one of the big time Survivors. I got skills. Not the usual, highly profitable skills. Not the type that will impress a father when his daughter drags me home under false pretext. Ive got the skill of having had to deal with impossible situations so many times that if you give me 20$, some rusty , bent nails, a tube of KY jelly and some sheet metal then tell me to build a space station, I can probably pull it off. I consistently pull off the impossible with nothing. This skill developed, not by success but by my complete and utter failures…and occasionally Dang, Cussedness.
Most times, the answer to a complex survival problem is not some Youtube super fix like woodgasification or vertical wind turbines. Most times, the answer is simply to do without….and the endurance to do without over a long period of time. If all else fails…lower your standards.
After that, the general answer is Double, Triple, and Quadruple redundant systems.
Complex systems fail.
Im sure that if you clicked on this post, its probably because you wanted to hear me blab on about how our complex social system society is about to collapse. Well, it is but Im here to share about how my own personal complex system just went through its own cascading systemic collapse since the beginning of the big winter super storms. Some of you read my post, Two Weeks Without Water ( http://internationalpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3021 )...but that was just the beginning. I wanted to call this, Two Weeks without Internet, but thought you'd be calling C5 a whiny little bitch. Besides its been three weeks now and a 5 ft snow drift blocking even whinier repair crews that refuse to walk in and it wont be going away any time soon till the rain washes it away. Im at the library sending this. I managed to get the tractor un stuck, plowed an extra ten feet... before getting the tractor even more stuck. Its there now till the melt. Now, Me and Mrs C5 have an enviable solar system. We don’t notice power outages because we have a battery system. Unfortunately, even 16 thousand invested doesn’t cover everything in the long dark winter...so we are still attached to the grid to recharge the battery bank when its low. So, having to call this... Two Weeks Without Power...What a monumental Kick in the nuts. The electrical is now working again after getting our solar guy in (an embarrassingly simple fix)...that phone calls, the combined brain power of of us two minor geniuses, a rather grumpy power crew that faced the storm, trudged through the snow banks at one in the morning on a sunday...only to tell us that power was really going into our house. Now we have a back up generator, gas storage, lots of batteries and boxes of candles and a wood stove, all of which we had to use...only to find out that we couldn’t charge the 48v battery system with our geny. We need a 48v charging unit upgrade. To add to the overall proof the the playfull gods were fucking with me...the controler of my PS3 stopped working. After the end of porn and coffee, the loss of video games will truly signal the end of civilisation. 😉 Its all flint napping spearheads from that point on. 😀 It suddenly dawned on me that I had forgot the rules to Cribbage (a survival mainstay for our elders) I got the rules from the library...only to realise I had lost our cribbage board in our last move. Let the mockery begin.
So...what have we learned from all of this. We need our solar guy to give us a number of upgrades and bypasses (like a second feed into the well pump). We learned that our tractor needs chains and a separate electrical system to keep the block heater working. We learned that we will chew through our fuel storage allot faster than expected in a systemic collapse. We also need to double our water storage. We need more board game and lite non prepping related escapist novels.
We also learned that a lot of our systems worked. If nothing else, our system will continue to run the freezer and fridge and pump even on the cloudiest of periods...though nothing else. Redundant systems worked. Endurance, and low standards...work, of course.
Some people were talking here recently about keeping cash, silver or gold. The answer given by some of the best, was that if you have the supplies on hand, you wont need the cash or trade goods. The problem is...some part of your system is going to fail. You may need to trade for something that broke or you missed or you need to bring in an expert to fix. You will never truly know how its going to go down till it does. Give yourself several options. Hopefully your failures will happen and get worked out now and not after the societal systemic collapse. Make as many mistakes as you can ...now. find out what doesn’t work
As I often say, There is a big difference between KNOWING in the biblical sense and KNOWING in the porn sense. (Im chanelling my inner Homer Simpson here. "Knowing in biblical sence means Having Sex. Tehehehe")
I am a Loser. A complete failure. It sure has made me a Survival expert. Tried and true
I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more Useful.
Sorry to hear about all the problems you have been encountering. Have you ever noticed that it is rarely just one thing that goes wrong? Usually there seems to be a cascade effect with all the bad luck coming in waves. Good can come from a bad situation. As you say you have learnt a lot and are much wiser now. Next year your tractor will have chains, your alternative energy system will be more resilient and your stored water supply will be much greater. As far as reading material goes some fictional TEOTWAWKI novels are always good to have around. When things get bad pick one up and immerse yourself in it. Soon you realize things could be a LOT worse.
The worst is over for now and you are a better prepper because of it. Not a failure at all and certainly not a loser.
Thomas Edison tried a thousand times before he managed to make a working light bulb. Someone asked him how difficult it was to fail so many times before finally succeeding. His reply "They weren't failures, they were just discovering 999 ways how not to make a light bulb."
There is no such thing as failure, only lessons learned.
You only fail when you give up. C5, you didn't give up, so you didn't fail, you learned.
TAZ
Those who are unwilling to defend freedom, will become unfree.
I seem to have a window of internet so Im taking it. Perhaps this is reading wrong. This isnt a why me post. Im making fun of myself. 😆 The point is that you cant succed if you havent failed. If you succeed first try...or because you can buy your success, you havent realy learned anything. Most of my skills and prepping knowledge didnt come other than by expensive, dangerous and humiliating mistakes. Its been by not having easy answers that I have been able to ask tough questions.
Thanks for looking out for me, though.
I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more Useful.
I absolutely agree, you can't succeed if you have never failed. Just trying to be supportive
C5: Here's my mothering moment for you. If you never fell down and then pick yourself back up again, you'd be a human sea lion floundering on the ground instead of an adult who can probably take walking for granted. You have heard it already but you should not even joke about being a failure!
Now, that being said, thanks for the smiles, even if it was done at your own expense. Your post was enlightening 💡 and hysterical 😆 at same time. We need the sense of humor!! Just my opinion, but I think a sense of humour is the #1 trait for a successful prepper.
If life hands you lemons, be sure you have a battery backed up juicer to make some good ol' fashioned lemonade! 😉
Just an afterthought on entertainment. I mentioned, non prepping related, escapest entertainment. I have quite a collection of disaster books and movies. These were fun when life was safe. Over the last few years when those stories are becoming reality, Ive lost almost all intrest in them. If youve just lost your wife, you dont want to read romance novels. If someone is trying to kill you, you wont want to watch action movies. Storie about war wont be much fun during a war. I have to recomend comedies or sci fi novels to get through long term disasters. If you are living in a cave, reading about living in a spaceship will be very apealing. Its called escapist literature for a reason. FerFal, the Argentina Collapse guy, recomended having movies and a home entertainment system. His reasoning was that in post collapse Argentina it became too dangerous to go out to clubs or movies. Safer and cheaper to stay behind locked door and gates. This last round has reminded me that I need some "Other" movies and books in my collection. That and a new cribbage board. How bad is that. I used to have several. No idea where they went. Damn crib board pixies stealing my stuff. The elves and farries must be board and unemployed...or prepping
Oh yah. Thats why we perchased the un essential but truely essential video game system. Cheap entertainment on the whole when other entertainment is unaccesable or suicidal. That one needs tweeking
I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more Useful.
Thanks for this. Very entertaining and educating at the same time!
A real life eye-opener for sure! Thanks.
And don't forget to get a Scrabble game or Cranium Game -hilarious.
Cerrnunnos5
"Most times, the answer is simply to do without….and the endurance to do without over a long period of time. If all else fails…lower your standards.
After that, the general answer is Double, Triple, and Quadruple redundant systems.No idea where they went. Damn crib board pixies stealing my stuff. The elves and farries must be board and unemployed...or prepping"
Absolutely. The first statement should be cross stitched onto a sampler and hung on the kitchen wall right next to Home sweet Home.
Never put stuff in a "safe" place, because "man its gone". Kinda of like dropping your keys in a river of molten lava.
If you play crib, another skill you need is wittling new pegs out of match sticks; that is, if you ever find your board.
Thanks for the smiles, even if they were at your own expense
"if you give me 20$, some rusty , bent nails, a tube of KY jelly and some sheet metal then tell me to build a space station, I can probably pull it off." --- so where do I send the supplies to 
Just my opinion, but I think a sense of humour is the #1 trait for a successful prepper.
So, A priest, a rabbi and a cleric walk up to Highlandsgals prepper retreat begging for food. She looks them straight in the eye and says, "What is this? Some kind of joke?"
I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more Useful.
I think a couple decks of cards are true must, so many games now that can be played with decks, much smaller and easier to play with.. we got a new one that is a blast, and it kinda falls into the talked about you want comedy/funny.. I guess if things are really going south this might? not be as much fun now but I think it could be..
Its a card game called gloom, you get a misfit family and its a combo of card effects and verbal storytelling, as things happen you are to find a way to interconnect the story and the end goal is to have as many sad and outlandish things happen to your family that in the end sends them to sadly rest in peace..
First game with Dh was, I don't know about this, then how does this work and by the end of the game, both laughing our heads off and play again?
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
Just my opinion, but I think a sense of humour is the #1 trait for a successful prepper.
So, A priest, a rabbi and a cleric walk up to Highlandsgals prepper retreat begging for food. She looks them straight in the eye and says, "What is this? Some kind of joke?"
C5- I've actually heard that joke, but I heard it like this:
So, a priest, a rabbi, and a cleric walk up to Highlandsgal prepper retreat begging for food. Seeing signs of life, but no one in sight, the priest offers to speak for the group and shouts out, "Remember what the good book says in Revelations 3:20 - "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in and I will sup with him, and him with me.". After a moment of silence, an arrow is fired into a tree just inches from their heads, and they hear Highlandsgal yell out "Acts 2:38". The priest grabs the rabbi and the cleric by the arms and starts running as fast as they could to get away. When they finally paused to catch their breaths, the cleric turns to the priest and says, "why did we run so fast from there?" The priest replied, "Didn't you see and hear what I did. Not only is she good with a bow and an arrow, but she has an axe and two 38's as well." 😀
If life hands you lemons, be sure you have a battery backed up juicer to make some good ol' fashioned lemonade! 😉
Just my opinion, but I think a sense of humour is the #1 trait for a successful prepper.
So, A priest, a rabbi and a cleric walk up to Highlandsgals prepper retreat begging for food. She looks them straight in the eye and says, "What is this? Some kind of joke?"
C5- I've actually heard that joke, but I heard it like this:
So, a priest, a rabbi, and a cleric walk up to Highlandsgal prepper retreat begging for food. Seeing signs of life, but no one in sight, the priest offers to speak for the group and shouts out, "Remember what the good book says in Revelations 3:20 - "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in and I will sup with him, and him with me.". After a moment of silence, an arrow is fired into a tree just inches from their heads, and they hear Highlandsgal yell out "Acts 2:38". The priest grabs the rabbi and the cleric by the arms and starts running as fast as they could to get away. When they finally paused to catch their breaths, the cleric turns to the priest and says, "why did we run so fast from there?" The priest replied, "Didn't you see and hear what I did. Not only is she good with a bow and an arrow, but she has an axe and two 38's as well." 😀
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