Fill Your Tank Up

[ThomasPowers]

I did a million+ USDollar computer system installation in Jakarta once in a building that had the hole in the floor and a bucket of "water".  Now I had researched this trip so I carried a lot of little packets of Kleenex and ziplocked bags with me so I could maintain myself and NOT screw up my hosts' plumbing.     I actually prefer "wilderness conditions"  and my wife who actually used to cook on a wood cookstove has great stories of Outhouses she has known... 

Our wood stove is not fancy; no electrical parts.  It does do a better job on heating the rest of the house with a fan blowing across it; we use a cheap box fan on low; just like we use in the summertime.  Of course 20's degF is the usual low in winter.  when it gets to the teens I throw another log on the fire in the middle of the night.  Daytime heat is thermonuclear and again a simple fan helps distribution.

[mcostello]

It's not using leaves for the Mr Clean finish that worries me. It's the missing the ONE Poison Ivy leaf.

[ThomasPowers]

Do you have an Itchy and Scratchy T shirt?

[Frosty]

Avoid leaves that have that really soft fuzz on them. Those are little itch machines AKA thorns that won't penetrate even soft skin but that isn't skin down there!

I am indescribably happy someone told me about it and I didn't have to make that mistake myself. I do know a few folk who didn't believe and BOY am I happy I listened!

I carry wet wipe packets and plastic bags in the woods anymore, best toilet paper on earth.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

When the shortages happened a year or two ago I read an article that talked about alternative tp lol

one section was about using mullin leaves and another talked about Eskimos using snow! It said it was fairly effective but all I could think was How cold that would be!! Lol

[Scott NC]

  Didn't people used to use corn cobs?  Lots of dry grippy surface area on them, and they can be rotated.

[SHC]

Rotated? You can stick em on a power drill and handle the matter in seconds!

 Backcountry in Afghanistan, many just use dust. Dries everything up and you just brush off the flakes. 

[Scott NC]

  I meant rotated 45 degrees and a dragging motion,  to eliminate waste (lol) of the cob.  If you spun them on a drill, I would think one would create more of a mess than you started out with.

[Steve Sells]

Diesel is 4.79 here today unleaded is 3.99

[Scott NC]

$3.89 here.  There is talk of price gouging on the local news.  Go to the grocery store if you want to see price gouging in slow motion.  Used cars, housing, gas, food, hardware, you name it.  I think there's too many people.  Our resources are limited and people don't give a hoot about saving, working hard, recycling repurposing, reusing or anything anymore.  I wonder what the national debt is these days.... I tuned out a couple yers ago.  I WANT IT NOW!  Whip out the plastic!  Mortgage for a new olympic size swimmimg pool?  No problem.  Sign your "x" here.  No job? Ahhh.. We can work around that!  Hurt in a fender bender?   Call "Dewey, Cheatham and Howe"  and on, and on.  You should see the comercials around here!  I'm getting pessimistic, so sue me.  Truthfully you'd probably get my house and future income!

[Scott NC]

  Sorry for the rant.  I had a very stressful day.  I know there are exceptions to every situation.  I'm blessed in my own situation and don't mean to belittle others situation.  I have been there.  I just value certain things and maybe going through it makes me more aware of it.

[Frosty]

Snow only stays cold for a split second when used for TP, it's not so bad. I've never tried dust though an old school friend used to use rocks. I always carried a partial roll of TP under my motorcycle seat and a generous folded quantity in my wallet when we were dirt riding in the desert. 

I haven't driven past the closest gas pumps but yesterday price went from $4.69 - $4.89 in about an hour. I expect it'll be $5.?? when I pick up some groceries in a little while. 

I don't see anything to apologize for Scott, that was a pretty civilized steam release compared to many. I'm pretty sure we're all on the same page with particular gripes of our own.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Nodebt, so sayeth every generation about the "good old days" and how terrible things and people are now.  For our kids these will be the golden good old days that will be recalled through a warm, sunny haze as when everything was great rather than the terrible future.

This is natural human perspective.  We recall the good things and forget the bad but see what we don't like in the present.

Frosty's recent post about his parents during the Depression years is a good tonic to make us realize that they faced much worse problems than we do and that we actually live in pretty good times.  They would have loved to have the problems we have today compared to their own.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

PS $2.97/gal. at the cheap station near our house.  Three something at the other places in town.

[Scott NC]

  I think there are some of the best people on earth on here.  I'm glad to be among them.  Thank you.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I've been pessimistic since Vietnam but sometimes hide it well. The other day unleaded was $3.06 in my area, but my tank was already full. Monday I have to go to the big city for an eye exam and shudder to think about gas prices over there in Fayetteville.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Irondragon ForgeClay Works
wrong day should have been Monday

[Frosty]

Oops, I messed up on the local regular gas prices, I was off by a dollar, they went from $3.49 to $3.89 in a couple hours yesterday. Today, shortly after my last post here I hit the local store with the best gas prices this side of Wasilla and this afternoon's regular gas price was $4.39, so far today.

+$.40 yesterday and + $.50 so far today. 

I was working in a service station when it hit $.50/gal and you should've heard people howl. Of course if you had a vehicle that got better than 20mpg you were bragging about it. 

I won't gripe too loudly until Deb and I try budgeting a road trip in the RV. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

The cheapest I can recall gas prices is .25/gallon in about 1965 here in Laramie.  With inflation that would be the quivalent of $4.46/gallon today in 2022.  So, when someone complains about how cheap gas used to be ask them what they were making then.  In 1965 $100/week was a decent wage, equal to $46k/year today.

In the summer of 1965 I was working as a Repair Helper at Inland Steel and making something north of $100/week and thought I was in fat city.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Gas was 3.80 something here a few days ago when I filled up the truck it was $90 bucks and another $50 to fill the car, 

my battery company has went up 3 times in the last year so now I’m paying more as a dealer then what retail was,

$1000 dollars ruffly equates out to three trips to Wally World for me my wife and boy, 

small engine parts have went through the roof if but luckily enough for me business hasn’t slowed through the pandemic if anything it seems it’s got busier 

I am noticing a definite uptick in people dragging out their old garden tillers a lot of people are spooked an starting to put in gardens

also people looking to buy tillers last year apparently they couldn’t be had anywhere new because they had all sold out so people were paying crazy money for used ones

mowers have stayed pretty steady and more an more people are moving to zero turns because their faster an use less fuel, 

For the most part I’m seeing people repairing over replacing here but there are some that are spending the money to upgrade to better machines

 

[Anachronist58]

$5.60 / gal today.

Robert Taylor

[Frosty]

That's the same question I ask people who think I should charge the same as a blacksmith in the 19th. century, George.

In 65 I did piece work in Dad's shop, 1/4 cent a part depending on what I was doing, zero for rejects. It was good pay, there were days I made $20. in 5hrs. Dad wouldn't let me work longer, a  metal spinning shop is too dangerous. You had to know what you were doing to walk through it safely when everything was shut off. 

I think a better meter is to judge prices on how many hours you have to work to buy a thing. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

The meter on how many hours you have to work to buy a thing is how I judge a price on a tool I could make. If it is cheaper than my time to make it then I will buy it. (That is on pry bars and clip tools and such, not a Lot of tools I can make for my job lol) it Does also apply to smithing tools like tongs, hammers, punches, chisels and such. Which is more of an "I'll just make one for that price".

[SHC]

That’s a good meter Frosty. Look at an object and think, “how many hours of my life is this thing worth?”

I may have mentioned it here, another thread, even another forum…

My favorite local restaurant’s prices have doubled. I can afford it much easier now than I could just a year or two ago. Actually, we could eat there just about every evening and not flinch, I’ve been blessed with much improved circumstances between wages and investments. But we don’t do it. The last time I paid the bill I showed it to my wife and we decided it’s cheaper to eat like royalty at home. For the amount it takes to eat there now, I can smoke a whole brisket and grill some steaks, and even after adding side dishes it’s cheaper. And with that much meat, that’s at least a week’s worth of meals. That’s even with the increased cost of food at the grocery store. Well, it’s been a couple weeks since I smoked a brisket, but I paid 90$ for it then. A meal at our favorite place is 90$ or so. 
 

We’ve been doing gardens for a couple years now. We didn’t last year because of the move and my wife’s following back surgery, but she’s ordered a bunch of raised beds just yesterday. That was cheaper than building them. 

[Scott NC]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

I think a better meter is to judge prices on how many hours you have to work to buy a thing. 

  The only problem with that is wages don't skyrocket along with inflation and price gouging.  Shortage this and shortage that.  If it was a nail or chisel you could make for yourself I understand.  I was born in 65 so I'm a youngster.  My first job ever, before I graduated was pushing a cart with sticky wheels down the lenght of a loooong chicken barn collecting eggs and prying dead trompled down chickens out of the cages.  IIRC I made $2.00 an hour.  Pee yew on that job.

[Daswulf]

Probably didn't even give you a respirator let alone a mask or even a bandana eh?

My chicken coop is only 8'x12' and I need to wear a respirator to clean out the bedding. I can only imagine how dusty and smelly that big of a coop building was just walking through. 

Just did my after winter cleanout last weekend and wow was it rough. I can't get my tractor to the coop or get the old bedding up the hill in snow and mud so I go with deep bedding and add fresh occassionally over the few bad winter months. 

[Scott NC]

  Nope.  No breathing apparatus whatsoever.

  We raised Rhode Islands and geese once.  We tried free range and the coyotes got most of them.  I didn't much care cause they were ALL mean.  They chased my dobermans and us around and were tough eating.  When we butchered them we tried old 2 nails on a stump thing.  We had ducks too.  I will never forget those ducks looking up at me from that stump.  I worked in a beef and hog packing house and never felt so horrible.