Another nice day today if a bit on the windy side. I been working on prepping the old tractor's sheet metal parts for a re-painting. It ain't going to be some super slick high gloss job though. Just brightening up the colors a bit and removing some rust. She is going to go right back to work and going to get all dinged and scratched up anyway.
Between that and needing to split another load of firewood that's about all I got done today. Still not feeling enough like Spring to get me jump started into full motivation mode.
I had a reader email me and ask why I was wasting so much time on tractors if I felt an economic collapse would eventually leave us liquid fuel free?
A fair question I must say. The answer lies in the length of time it takes us to get from the point we have reached now to whatever point we finally level out at. This has been one slow, grinding decline I don't think anyone can deny that and as things wind down technology that was once thought of as obsolete often times comes back into fashion as it is a better choice. In the case of these old tractors they get smaller jobs done with much less energy consumption than the larger ones. I bet all told I didn't even use 25 gallons of fuel (either diesel or gas) all Summer last year. They are much simpler to maintain (Ok as long as you aren't rebuilding a diesel engine anyway) and were definitely made to last.
Of course when the fuel and lubricants run out they stop working no denying that but I figure I could still get a year or two's work out of them even after a full collapse just with the fuel I store on site. If things continue on the slow grind down for a few more years I might even have them for another decade before fuel runs out.
After that I can park em in the front yard and use em as props to tell my great grandchildren about the good old days and how man had machines to do all the hard work for him.
We aren't talking big money here anyway. Even with a two year window in a post collapse situation they would more than pay for themselves and the return on the investment in time to adapt would be priceless in my opinion.
As for blogger well nothing has gotten any better. I made a post yesterday at 4:00 PM and it never updated to other blog rolls until sometime after 2:00 AM this morning. That's at least 8 hours it sat there. Almost all my posts now refuse to update until sometime in the wee hours of the morning.
In other blogger related glitches. I have noticed I jumped up to 156 followers yesterday morning than fell to 148 by that afternoon and lost an additional two this morning to 146. Yet I don't see where any are gone now. Who knows? I also noticed that when I click on comments that my silver and oil price widgets disappear and the only way to bring them back is to reload the blog manually.
Not sure what's up with any of these issues but I guess there is nothing I can do about them right now but continue on and hope it gets straightened out. I put in a thread about it on the help forums and got one reply asking questions and then just crickets chirping.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!
Wow only took 2 hours to update this time!!!!
ReplyDeleteIf the economy decentralizes to where we aren't shipping stuff 3000 miles constantly and have more regional and seasonal foods as we did for hundreds of years, there will be more fuel available from domestic production. Just think if daily trips to walmart were eliminated for some folks, we won't be serious about energy until they stop burning street lights all night and other worthless activities. There should be plenty of fuel especially if you are near producers. Diesel is easier to produce so that is why you need that tractor.
ReplyDeleteSf - Exactly. You put it in better perspective than I did. Sure if we go full madmax like some try and claim the tractors might be useless after a while but I doubt we go that direction for some time yet anyway. When fuel prices bounce back up some of the locals with the big tractors will be giving me envious looks once again.
DeleteI just look at it as skills. You may not use that particular skill in a post-decline society, but the skills to get there- persistence, mechanicing (it is a word in my world), machining - will be useful no matter what.
ReplyDeleteTb - I think Blacksmithing will come back into fashion :)
DeleteWood gas. thats the answer. We need to look towards Cuba over the last 30 years and the UK during WW2. Or even go back to steam.
ReplyDeleteSol - Wood gas is something we should look into I believe. Perhaps methane production as well.
DeleteMy little gardening operation is minute in comparison to your full fledged farm. I do much of the tilling etc with gas powered implements, But I make it a point to have manual tools to do the same operations. Every spring I buy one or two hand tools. I have no idea if I could manage a whole season just using hand tools, but if forced to do so to avoid starvation, I will make a heck of a try at it.
ReplyDeleteCarl in the UP
Carl - Well I have all the hand tools for that as well. I really want to get an electric tiller too to run off batteries. In the end though when the fuel runs out it will take a lot of adjustment even here with my small operation. A lot more grazing and a lot less haying I imagine :)
DeletePP,
ReplyDeleteHey there dear friend, you're not the only one having issues.
Do you type your posts and set them up for posting on a particular schedule? Or do you post them as you go?
PP,
ReplyDeleteI like your new header with the tractor picture.
When I type and setup my posts to display at a particular time, the clock doesn't seem to work properly. They're times my posts don't even appear.