RetroRevolution

I’ve known the story of The Ant and the Grasshopper since I was little.  I remember reading it in a big book of stories along with the tales of the Huckabuck family.  I hadn’t thought about it for a long time and then I saw a Pixar film back in 1998 called A Bug’s Life.  The film was basically a retelling of The Ant and the Grasshopper, with a bit of Three Amigos thrown in for comedy and a bit of Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven for a touch of class.  Again this classic fable by Aesop faded from my mind, until it was brought back to the forefront in a podcast by Jack Spirco.

I had just been through another 4th of July weekend storm and our small town had lost a bit of power.  There were people milling about the grocery store wondering how they would cook without power.  There were people wondering how they would get gas with the gas stations closed because of a power outage, even though 5 miles down the road there were stations open with power.  That’s when I decided that this was ridiculous.  I had been a subscriber to Backwoods Home Magazine for a few years and occasionally visited their forum.  Someone had posted a link to something called The Survival Podcast. I had never listened to a podcast.  I assumed they were about things like bands, TV shows, and which Star Trek cast was the best.  Boy was I wrong. Jack’s Podcast back then had only just started.  He recorded it in a car and talked about being prepared so you didn’t need to worry about being surprised. A couple months later in September he posted a podcast about The Ant and The Grasshopper. He went out of his way to point out that in the original story the grasshopper dies.  I cheered.  I hate sanitized stories.  But the tellling reminded me of the power of fables and parables.  Jack and the crew at The Survival Podcast have adopted The Ant as their unofficial mascot, so I don’t go more than a couple days without thinking of this fable anymore, but I saw it on another blog today and made me think it was time to talk a bit about it myself.

The story was retold today over at Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op: The Ant and the Grasshopper.  I’m not sure where the story posted there was sourced from, but the finale is the sanitized version where the grasshopper sees the ants handing out food and realizes how wrong he was.  I’m torn over the effort. I’m glad that the message is getting out, but I’m saddened that there is the possibility of people reading the fable and thinking that everything will be all right n the end because of he kindness of strangers.  But more on the positive.  The Simple Green Frugal Co-op is in my opinion a mainstream Green blog.  It’s at the other end of the spectrum from the Guns and MRE blogs of the survivalist community.  One of their contributors gets it.  Several of the comments to the post get it.  I see it as a coalescing of different agendas all with a common end in sight.

Remember the story of The Ant and the Grasshopper.  Checkout The Survival Podcast.  Read The Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op.  Learn the lessons of the grasshopper and be an ant.

Our pastor is doing a series at church called, “Stuff Happens”.  To quickly bring you up to speed on the sermons: Last week was on the good stuff that happens; This week was on who was actually in control and being surprised.  A question we were asked to answer was “Do you like surprises?”  A second question that was asked “Do you need to be in control to avoid surprises?”

I think that having a self-sufficient mindset truly makes answering these two questions a non-event.  Being prepared isn’t about controlling the weather, or stopping an earthquake, or making sure you don’t drive into a ditch on an icy road.  It’s about knowing what to do when one of these things happens and having the resources to deal with it when it happens.

While I don’t relish the thought of bad events happening, I am simply not going to worry about them because we have taken the steps to minimize the pain should a bad event occur.  I’m going to say that again for effect.  While I don’t relish the thought of bad events happening, I am simply not going to worry about then because we have taken steps to minimize the pain should a bad event occur.

I can imagine that a parent in the first half of the 20th century spent a good deal of time worrying about their children contracting polio.  Up until the 1950′s there was a hysteria about the transmission vector.  Pools, theatres, sports arenas, most public gathering places were closed at one time or another to prevent an outbreak of the disease.  I remember my mother telling me that at one point in her childhood she was not allowed to eat a Popsicle because there was a rumor that they caused polio.  Then this changed.  There was a vaccine and I’ve never given a second thought to one of my children contracting polio.  I took some simple steps to minimize the chances of them becoming infected and now I don’t worry about it.  The vaccine itself is not without risk, but it is everything I can do with reasonable effort to protect my children from that disaster.

The same mentality applies to other disasters.  If the power goes out because of an ice storm, we have a backup generator.  If we were snowed in for a week or two due to a large blizzard, we would be fine.  We have alternate heating sources, backup lighting, emergency food and water supplies, and plenty of OTC medications to get us through all but the worst of emergencies.  We have taken reasonable steps to protect ourselves from natural disasters.

Do I like surprises? No.  But I will not live in fear of them either.

Do I need to be in control to avoid surprises? No.  I am in control of my preparations for the response to the surprise and by preparing, I will minimize the impact of the surprise.

Remember…Simple steps to a simpler life for a better future.  When stuff happens, it’s the simple things that keep working.  The complex ones have a tendency to fail.

Last night on the way home I had a blowout on one of my tires. I changed the tire in the dark on the side of a snow covered road. It was cold, but I had a spare tire, gloves, wool cap, etc… What I spent quite a bit of time thinking about is what other spare tires should I have for my other equipment. Of course I’m speaking figuratively about spare tires. I decided to make a list of critical equipment that can easily be fixed around the homestead that should have a spare for repairs.

Water is the most basic of needs. And with a well for water, the well’s continual operation is critical for survival and more importantly, the happiness of the wife. Toilets won’t flush, dishes can’t be washed, people can’t bathe, and people don’t drink without flowing water. The well is a deep well, so the reality of keeping a spare pump or motor on hand is out of the question. But the water system in general has a few parts that could be considered critical. There is a pressure switch that acts as a contactor for starting and stopping the pump. This is a fairly low price device, that if it failed on a long holiday weekend would make manually starting the pump a pain.

Heat in the winter time is next on my list of priorities. While a modern furnace has a lot of parts, the two fundamental parts are airflow and fire. The part in the furnace most likely to fail is probably the supply fan belt. Not all furnaces have a belt driven fan. Many have a direct drive fan that is directly coupled to the motor. However if your furnace uses a belt driven fan, I highly recommend keeping a spare belt on hand. A flame rod is the other component that I consider to have a high failure rate in a modern furnace. A typical flame rod for a modern furnace will cost about ten dollars. Replacing one is simple and if you needed one over a holiday like Christmas you would be glad you had the parts sitting on your shelf.

A chain saw is considered an essential tool by some people. Following a storm its ability to assist with the rapid removal of downed trees is unparalleled. If you believe in this device is a necessity, then an extra chain, bar, and spark plug should be kept on hand to keep this running when you need it most.

If you live in a rural area odds are that you have a generator incase the power fails. Three items on the generator likely to fail in my opinion are the spark plugs, carburetor gumming up, or electric start failing. Keeping a spare set of spark plugs and an appropriate wrench on hand is great. I spent several hours troubleshooting a small engine’s operation and it turned out to be a spark plug was simply not performing. It had spark, but just not enough. A new plug cured what ailed it. A carburetor rebuild kit should also be on your list of emergency repair parts. Finally a way of starting the generator should there be a failure in the electric start or pull start system. If the generator has an electric starter and a pull start, just test both of them occasionally; the system backs up itself. If it has only one or the other, I’d keep a spare starter or pull cord mechanism on hand.

The self backing up redundancy of the starter and pull cord brings to mind another way of thinking about spare tires. Sometimes the spare part could just be another way of accomplishing the same thing. If your main stove goes out you could be stuck with no way to eat. If you have a gas grill or Coleman camp stove you have an alternate way of cooking when the stove fails. Think of these alternate tools as backups for you primaries.