I have previously written[1] on how to make your own money[2] and electricity. But man does not live on wealth and power alone. There is another thirst that must be quenched. This article is about do-it-yourself water systems.
First you need a source of fresh water. Anything will do:
- pond
- river
- stream
- lake
- spring
- well
- cistern
- atmospheric precipitator[3]
A “spring” is a place where water naturally comes out of the earth. There are techniques for developing them.
There are two types of wells:[4]
- Deep wells which are generally drilled.
- Shallow wells which are generally dug.
Next you need a way to get the water to the faucet. This usually[5] means pumps. There are three types of water system pumps:
- Submerged deep well
- Dry shallow well
- In-line pressure boost
A deep well pump is intended to be lowered into a drilled well and submerged. They can be hundreds of feet deep in the water. A shallow well pump isn’t designed to get wet. The mouth of an intake hose is lowered into the well. A pressure pump is mostly commonly used to pressurize a pressure tank.
These aren’t hard categories. A deep well pump can be used in a shallow well or a natural water source. Shallow well pumps and pressure pumps are very similar in design and can often be interchanged. For most of the systems with which I am familiar a single pump doubles as the well pump and the pressure pump.
The most mysterious part of a traditional water system is the pressure tank. A pressure tank consists of an airtight[6] shell with a rubber bladder inside. A pressure pump pumps water into the bladder, inflating it, and thereby compressing the air and increasing the pressure of the water. The air pressure in the tank is what drives water out as it is used.
A nifty device called a “pressure switch” is what turns the pressure pump on and off. When the water pressure drops below the switch’s low setpoint the pressure switch turns the pressure pump on. When the water pressure reaches the switch’s high setpoint the pressure switch turns the pressure pump off. Most pressure switches come pre-configured for a low setpoint of 30 pounds per square inch (psi) and a high setpoint of 50psi. The setpoints are adjustable.[7]
The point of a traditional pressure tank/pressure switch system is to not run the pressure pump the entire time that water is being used. Most of the time water flows because of air pressure in the pressure tank and the pressure pump is off. The pressure pump is turned on only when it’s necessary to refill and re-pressurize the tank.
Here’s a step-by-step description of a neighbor’s water system:
| Shallow well about 10 feet deep. This is a stock image, not my neighbor’s actual well. |
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| The well end of the intake tubing (described below) probably has a foot valve. This is a one-way valve so water doesn’t back into the well and has a mesh screen to prevent debris from getting sucked into the pump. |
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| A run of black tubing from the bottom of the well to the camp. The tubing is buried below the frost line so it won’t freeze. |
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| The hole adjacent to the camp where the buried tubing comes out gets cold in the Winter. Electrical heat tape prevents it from freezing. |
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| A shallow well pump that doubles as the pressure pump. The pump has a built-in pressure switch. |
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| T-fittings are used to plumb in a pressure meter and the pressure tank. |
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| Pressure meter. The water pressure is between 30psi and 50psi. |
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| The pressure tank has a single connector like the meter. |  |
The output of the pressure tank’s T-fitting is the input to the camp’s plumbing distribution system:
- water heater
- kitchen faucet
- bathtub
- bathroom faucet
- outside faucet
- washing machine
The pressure pump, pressure switch, pressure tank, and pressure meter can be purchased as a single assembly. On this assembly the water source is connected to the white-filled connector at the front of the pump, the pump’s T-fitting at the top is sealed, (This would be a good place for a pressure meter if one wasn’t already included.) and the plumbing distribution system is connected to the pressure tank’s T-fitting at the bottom.
Of course in these modern times advanced pump controls mean a pressure tank isn’t necessary. This is a modern tankless assembly that purports to do what the tank assembly does. I’ve never seen one in operation. The water source is connected to the connector at the front of the pump and the plumbing distribution system is connected to the top.
My neighbor’s water system is typical. My off-the-grid PV-powered cabin’s water system is not:
| Drilled well 300 feet deep. The water level is 12 feet down. This is a picture of a wellhead I found on the Internet. My cabin’s wellhead is inside the cabin. |
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| A 24V DC submersible deep well pump. The pump is 50 feet down. |
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| 50 feet of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) tubing from the pump to the top of the well head. There are also power wires and a support rope. |
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| I used flexible 1/2″ polyurethane tubing for most of the connections. This was before PEX was common. |
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| My well water is full of dissolved iron so I have to treat it. The well pump pumps water into a 55 gallon tank. |
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| A 12V DC ozone machine bubbles ozone through the water. This oxidizes the iron and turns it into rust that settles on the bottom of the tank. |
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| A foot valve at the bottom of the tank. | |
| A five micron filter filters out the rust particles so the pressure pump has clean water. |
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| A 12V DC pressure pump sucks water out of the tank, through the filter, and into the pressure tank. |
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| The pressure pump is controlled by a pressure switch. |  |
| Obligatory pressure meter. | |
| My neighbor’s pressure tank is bigger than mine. |  |
| After the pressure tank is the plumbing distribution system. I have a shower and a sink. Both outlets have a small on-demand propane water heater. |
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A word about connecting all these components together. In olden days plumbing was mostly copper pipe soldered (“sweated”) together. My cabin’s system is a mix of sweated copper pipe, 1/2 inch threaded copper and brass fittings, and 1/2 inch polyurethane hose. Modern plumbing is done with flexible PEX tubing which is low-cost and easy to work with.
If your water source is open to the environment then you probably won’t want to use the water untreated. You don’t know who or what’s been peeing in it. Ten inch cartridge filters, like the one I use to filter rust particles, are low-cost and convenient. For an open-environment water source I’d use a two-stage filter before the intake of the well pump. The first stage would be a 10 micron particle filter. The second stage would be an activated charcoal filter. The particle filter removes larger contaminants and will greatly increase the life of the more-expensive activated charcoal filter.
The gold standard for drinking water is a reverse osmosis filter that removes everything except the water. Reverse osmosis is so good that some filter assemblies have a way of adding minerals back into the water.
Footnotes:
[1] Admittedly it’s been awhile. I spend too much time reading Glibs articles and comments to write much. Don’t any of you work?
[2] My modest Bitcoin article was immediately superseded by trshmnstr’s superior three part series.
[3] If you have a working atmospheric precipitator for doG’s sake don’t call it a moisture vaporator in the patent application or you’ll find yourself enslaved to The Mouse.
[4] This is not the technical definition[8] of deep and shallow wells but it’s good enough to work with.
[5] If your water source is sufficiently elevated then gravity may supply all the pressure your water system needs. This almost never[9] happens.
[6] During installation the air in pressure tank must itself be pressurized. I use a bicycle pump to do this. A typical value is 2psi less than the pressure pump’s low setpoint.
[7] My low-flow water system uses 20psi and 30psi setpoints.
[8] If you insist. A “deep” well is one that has a water-impenetrable barrier over it. If you start on ledge rock, drill down 10 feet and strike water, you have a “deep” well. If you start on dirt, dig down 15 feet and strike water, you have a “shallow” well that’s deeper than the “deep” well.
[9] Another neighbor has a magnificent waterfall in his back yard. He set out a shallow well pump on the level of his camp and threw the mouth of the intake hose ten feet down into a depression at the bottom of the fall. The pump is sucking up water that a second ago had been at ground level. He could run a hose up the stream and get water pressure for free but he’s the type that doesn’t respond well to constructive criticism and has more guns[10] than I have so I don’t belabor the point.
[10] The camp of a third neighbor[11] has a deep well. He pumps water high up the hill to a 1000 gallon tank and lets gravity create the pressure. His water system has a pressure tank plumbed in. “Neighbor”, I said, “You have gravity pressure. Why is this tank here?” I got a mumbling response. I don’t think he’s clear on what a pressure tank does. He also has more guns than I have so again I don’t belabor the point.
[11] Yes. For someone who lives in an off-the-grid cabin in the woods I have a lot of neighbors with camps. We’re all great friends which is good because most of them have more guns than I have.
Son, we live in a world that has articles, and those articles have to have someone who comments First. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Uncivilservant? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for seconders, and you curse the Firsters. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know — that the seconder’s shame, while tragic, probably saved lives; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.
Our well was replaced 4 or 5 years ago. The bladder system was replaced with an one-demand pump system of some sort. I was never interested enough to learn the details. Other guys in the association are well nerds that keep track of that stuff.
I’d add on that if you’re treating/filtering your water, check and adjust your pH if needed. Our well water is slightly acidic (clay soils) so not only doesn’t taste very good, it corrodes metal, particularly appliances, faster than city water. We replumbed the house with pex about 10 years ago.
We don’t have “city water” in our neighborhood. So we have a deep well, with a pump, filter, and softener in the basement. Those things had problems recently, and those problems tend to be expensive. Our water has lots of sediment and iron in it (looks like muddy river water when it comes out of the well). All that’s lacking is a generator.
Drilled well 300 feet deep.
The water level is 12 feet down.
Why go so deep? That seems like an unnecessary expense.
When I owned property near Santa Fe (on top oof Glorieta Mesa), wells needed to be @ 800 feet deep. The price for drilling and installing a well that deep was . . . impressive, over $40K if memory serves.
The drilling company didn’t think they’d hit water so they used all of the 300 feet of drill they brought. When the drill was pulled out you could hear water flowing down into the well. I think the water bearing layer is about 30 feet down and was initially plugged by the thick gray mud the drill pump pumped out.
When my wife bought our house, the drawdown/flow test was too low, so the sellers had the well drilled out another 100ft. Apparently there was a miscommunication and rather than resetting the pump, they put it back at the same approximate level. Probably passed the flow test just due to the volume of water ingressing below, but less than ideal to my mind.
Discovered this about 15 years later when the pump failed and I was having it replaced. Needless to say, the new pump was piped down much closer to the bottom with allowance for sediment so now has about 110ft of water above instead of 10-30ft static (depending on season, usage, and my California neighbors).
It also depends on the rate of replenishment from the soil in the area. with a 300′ well you know you can feed X gallons per Y time until the well is “empty”. Which is why the submersible pump is usually down near the bottom, not just 50′ down.
So, a 300′ well with the water table 25′ down and a 6″ bore will hold ~400gallons.
I put my pump only 50 feet down because I don’t use that much water and it’s easier to replace. My first two deep well pumps were expensive stainless steel units, both of which lasted a few days past the one year warranty. My current pump, pictured, is plastic and has been in the well for maybe 20 years now.
Our rental property is in an area of rapid growth and the water table has dropped over the years. When our second well was drilled the driller pulled off almost the instant that the bit hit water. Within a few years the level dropped such that we needed well #3. I had that driller go down an extra 100ft. In addition to the extra storage (about 1 gallon per foot of casing, if I recall) it has given us a buffer against the fluctuating water table.
Your comment made me think of this.
Those pressure tanks look awfully small. Mine is much bigger. A tankless system seems as if it would have erratic pressure/flow.
The picture of my neighbor’s pressure tank has bad perspective. It’s 85 gallons:
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200321808_200321808
My camp’s pressure tank is only six gallons.
Supposedly a sophisticated control system can make a pump’s output smooth. I’ll believe it when I see it.
I think the difference is the newer pumps are variable speed DC motors and the controller spools up and spools down the flow as demanded, where the old pumps were one speed AC motors, so you had to have the pressure tank buffer and the pump is sized to provide much more flow than the house normally demands, so it can always replenish the tank.
wells needed to be @ 800 feet deep.
Yikes. I thought mine (~370) was deep.
What i got from this article – you need more guns.
Seriously, great stuff. Off-grid living is becoming more and more interesting lately…
I’ve got a semiautomatic handgun, a revolver, and shotgun, and a rifle. Around here I’m considered unarmed.
Thanks!
On the one hand, you really can only use one gun at time.
On the other hand, guns do break. It’s always good to have spares.
The movies have shown me it’s really easy to dual wield fully automatic guns!
And it’s more bad-ass when you hold them sideways.
Only if you are Jerry Miculek – https://youtu.be/b7G-sOC3-sQ
I would never have spent ten seconds thinking about buying this place if had not already had a well in place. As I look at properties in Idaho, I have decided I would consider buying a teardown with a well/septic/power before I’d buy bare land.
My pressure tank is considerably bigger than that.
When we lose power, I know we have limited water until it’s restored.
But man does not live on wealth and power alone.
Not even Hillary?
Even she requires the occasional soul or two.
See: Marie Antoinette
For an open-environment water source I’d use a two-stage filter before the intake of the well pump.
Ive always heard to never put a filter in front of the pump. Is it different for open-environment?
Putting a filter in front of the pump increases the load on the pump because it has to suck harder. There’s a limit of about 20 feet that a pump can suck water up. Putting a filter in front of the pump adds virtual feet and may make the pump not work.
OTOH if the water source is really dirty you may not want the water getting into the pump. My treatment tank water has very fine rust particles in it which would scour and kill the pressure pump head if they got inside.
The picture of my neighbor’s pressure tank has bad perspective. It’s 85 gallons:
Ah. That makes more sense.
Speaking of tearer-downers
I have no desire to live in Reed Point, but somebody will snap this up, I suspect.
Site of a future SugarFree horror story?
160 for 7.5 acres?
How about 15? I will give you 15, tops.
Remember how everyone is expecting 2021 to be better… about that…:
these people don’t care they are criminals. They won’t stop until everyone’s out of business they have budget shortfalls to make up.
They can declare wide swaths of the private sector “non-essential” and put millions of people out of jobs and kill off thousands of businesses but every one of them is absolutely essential.
And they say public-choice theory is irrational psuedoscience…
We’re on county water, but our street and a nearby major street both have “Springs” in their names, and you can hear water gurgling through the storm sewers days after there’s been any rain. I think we would be able to put in a well pretty easily. In fact, there’s a mystery spot in the back yard with trashbag-style plastic held down by some bricks. It’s either where a well was or where the bodies are buried.
Thanks for the info!
In fact, there’s a mystery spot in the back yard with trashbag-style plastic held down by some bricks.
You haven’t been curious and taken a peek?
On the other hand, guns do break. It’s always good to have spares.
“I just don’t want to get killed for lack of shooting back.”
I like the footnotes-for-footnotes.
If your water source is sufficiently elevated then gravity may supply all the pressure your water system needs
I visited some relatives in Ecuador. At a tourist site we went to, the bathrooms were at the base of a hill and the water feed pipe must have run downhill. I thought the water out of the faucet was going to take my skin off from the pressure.
One thing I learned about deep and shallow wells: They have different treatment needs. One house I looked at had a shallow well which was pretty shallow. The sellers handed over lots of records about treating the well for bacterial infection, but had very soft water. Other places with deep wells had problems with hard water.
Thanks for the write-up!
Thanks!
One time my well pump was broken and I was filling the treatment tank with five gallon pails of water from a nearby stream. Then there was a whopper of a thunderstorm and water was jetting off the ends of my gutters. I stripped down[1], caught the rainwater in the pails, and dumped them in the tank. A pail filled in the time it took me to get back to it.
My well water isn’t particularly hard. The stream water was softer. The rain water was insane. I don’t think I got the soap rinsed off until after I replaced the pump.
Footnotes:
[1] After that I wondered what people would have said[2] if I’d been struck by lightning.
[2] Probably, “This wouldn’t have happened if he had more guns.”
[1] After that I wondered what people would have said[2] if I’d been struck by lightning.
[2] Probably, “This wouldn’t have happened if he had more guns.”
Yep. More guns is always the answer.
Site of a future SugarFree horror story?
The barn is full of Subarus. And corpses!
It’s too close to the interstate. No interested.
So you are in the tank for big water, floating above while the rest of us get hosed.
LOL
Nice article. We have a well and a large pond. There’s a 15 or 20′ miniature waterfall coming off the pond that I considered installing some sort of hydroelectric generator but it’s really too far from the house to make transmission worth the cost.
When we first moved in, there was a hand dug well next the well house that went down about 100′ and maybe 3′ across. The opening was covered with some thrown down sheet metal that was unsecured. The dirt was also starting to cave in around the concrete bib surrounding the hole.I’m sure there are reasons to leave an open 3′ wide, 100′ hole steps from your backdoor, but none that I was willing to consider. I had it filled in with a dumptruck load of dirt.
Thanks, Richard!
Is there ever a need to disinfect the system?
One of the benefits of ozone’ing my water is that it kills off any bugs that may be in it, and the well water is so full of iron I’m not sure anything can live in it.
Once exception is iron fixing bacteria which I see in small streams and seeps around here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_bacteria
I don’t see how iron fixing bacteria could get into the well, and if it did I don’t know if I could tell the difference just by looking at the raw well water.
If you have a lined and properly capped well, there generally shouldn’t be ingress of bacteria into the water. After doing work, like replacing the pump, the well guy will dump a bottle of bleach down before sealing up the top. Lab testing of water samples is easier, fast, and relatively cheap for monitoring. Bigger concern would be infiltration of the groundwater and wellwater from non-bacteria contamination.
Thanks to both of you. We used to shock the well at the cabin with chlorine once a year, but I was never sure it was necessary.
The well driller will toss a gallon of bleach into the well and run the pump for 24 hours to clean up the equipment..
Gustave beat me but you know where my well driller’s shop is, Tundra.
I need more ammo.
https://www.salon.com/2020/12/10/the-us-constitution-is-hopelessly-outdated-its-time-to-re-envision-it/
The electoral crisis, the decline of trust in government, and gross income inequality in the United States may seem like separate issues. But they have a surprising, common origin: the US Constitution, or more accurately, its shortcomings. Indeed, the depth of multiple crises in our nation in 2020 — if not their existence entirely — are all rooted in our flawed Constitution and the judicial decisions that it has facilitated.
“gimme gimme gimme. There’s nothing sacred, nothing honorable, and nothing that can shame me in my lust for power and stolen wealth”
/salon
Trsh, very random question but do you suggest using sesame oil in pizza dough? I’ve got my dough mostly down and am fine-tuning the wood fired brick oven. I swear I remember a thread of someone saying use a 1:1 sesame:olive oil mix but can’t find it.
Yes, it’s the few vestiges where we still pay lip service the Constitution that stand in the way of the march of progress.
This is where the secession talk really seems like a necessary conversation. How am I supposed to live in a country where that person is a thought leader being published in a national magazine (FWIW). Their culture is not only completely foreign to me, but it’s completely hostile to me. It preys on responsible people to curry favor with the irresponsible masses. I’m gonna be the responsible chump again, ain’t I?
Thinking about it, secession, if achieved relatively painlessly, would probably be a huge boon to the states that left. Not only do they get to avoid the disasters attendant with the looming socialism, but they also get to shrug off all the debt and other obligations that are tied to the US government that are already putting it on a collision course with disaster.
Which is why it will never be allowed to happen peacefully.
The last attempt was not peaceful even with the proposal to pay their share of the federal debt and purchase federal land/forts within the states.
No, with a peaceful secession, the leaving states would have to take their per capita share of the debt with them.
And there would be intense negotiations over what is really a debt, since the US government has been counting it wrong for over 50 years, violating GAAP in as many ways as is possible.
A big chunk of debt is future SocSec obligations. No way should states leaving be stuck with any that, since they won’t be getting SocSec benefits.
Exactly, that would be the major sticking point. Unless the leaving states got one of the lockboxes.
Speaking of lockboxes, aren’t the SS IOUs in a filing cabinet in WV? I would think they would be one of the leaving states.
Does this secession have a name yet, a la Brexit?
Until China moved into the failed states. That might get exciting.
WOLVERINES!
Meh, they’re a commie rag that no one pays attention to any more. I wouldn’t take their blatherings seriously.
Right…?
You buried the lede(s).
It’s a list of fairy tales and utopian dreams. These are the useful idiots that Bezmenov spoke of.
Declining public trust in government, a political situation caused by candidates being more beholden to wealthy funders than voters, is due to the Supreme Court ruling that political money in elections is First Amendment–protected “free speech.”
Whooooooooo…..now there’s a howler.
You buried the lede(s).
No.
I felt everyone deserved the thrill of visiting Salon discovering the depth of derp that exists there.
Ah, you’re a sadist.
It’s nice to meet my own kind once in a while.
If the Left doesn’t like the Constitution, why do I hear constant complaints about Trump violating it? Maybe Trump just agrees with them about it being an outdated document.
All they care about is power, they will be as hypocritical and mendacious as the day is long if it gets them one inch closer to power. They have swallowed Marx whole and in Marx’s world there is no other factors driving human behavior other than power.
Nihilism as a culture.
I hadn’t thought about it that way. That explains why Russians were all about it. If I were a Russian peasant in the 19th century I might be a bit of a nihilist too.
Electoral college had nothing to do with slavery. It was a large state vs small state issue. And even that didnt have anything to do with the electoral college, just its form. I don’t think national popular vote was even on the table for consideration. At least one proposal involving one house being represented by geographic area. Alaska and Wyoming would have really been overrepresented in the EC with that.
There is a nexus of not understanding the electoral college, not understanding the three-fifths compromise, not understanding the 17th amendment, and not understanding how voting worked before the mid-1800s. Universal adult white male suffrage was a radical idea until about the 1830s, directly electing a person to national office would have been a logistical nightmare bordering on impossible, and small states had fewer slaves per (free) capita than large states.
I am guessing they didn’t pay attention in history class, and/or had them after 1990 where they covered other things.
Also, has civics entirely gone away as a HS requirement? In my HS, there was freshman Civics for the regular track, and senior Government/Economics (1 semester of each) for the college track. I think we covered all of the civics requirements in a single semester. The economics semester was crap.
It hasn’t gone away. based on my son’s experience, it’s turned into proggie propaganda hour.
That’s where the teach NYT 1619 Project swill, the “Electoral College was to protect slavery” garbage, and every other lie about how this country is founded on racism and is irredeemably racist and should be torn apart.
I took AP U.S. History in 2004-2005 and we covered all of this in some detail. But that class was not required (no AP classes were), the teacher was an open-minded conservative (sadly, he died of cancer a couple years later), and the College Board hadn’t been skin-suited yet.
the teacher was an open-minded conservative
I had an awesome history teacher in the early aughts. Retired marine in his 60s who took up teaching. He focused on wars, combating tyranny, and liberty.
He was fired soon after I graduated for beating the shit out of student. Some ghetto pos was messing with a girl, the teacher told him to leave the girl alone, and the student attack him. Teacher gave the student a self-defense beatdown in front of the class. Lost his job for that.
He was immediately hired by my university and I actually retook his college-level history course for my gened requirement.
I had a teacher with a similar story — he didn’t get fired, but he got in a lot of trouble for breaking up a fight, getting punched, and throwing the guy through the trophy case glass.
I didn’t have him for history, I had him for a soc/psych class. He was interesting. Before the military, he was a collegiate diver.
“These are the useful idiots that Bezmenov spoke of.”
Less than a week ago I was told “It doesnt matter what you say. No amount of evidence, facts or logic will get me to change my position.”
That is a quote, word for word from a left of left idiot. She has been that way for as long as I can remember. She said that in response to my asking her why she hates OMB and LA senator Kennedy. She never gave me a reason.
My response: “Ah, so you admit that you cant be reasoned with.”
Her: *pause, stutter, stammer, silence*
Useful idiots indeed.
I believe we could all come up with several “fixes” we’d like to see in the Constitution. However, none of what those people are suggesting is in any way an expansion of individual liberty or justice.
Guess which one is a co-author of that tripe.
The electoral crisis would not have occurred if the Presidential winner was based on the popular vote instead of the Electoral College — an institution born of slavery.
No, it is because the STATES, as separate/sovereign political entities elect the president of the united States.
The human impact of the pandemic would be less severe if health care, food, housing and income were deemed inalienable constitutional rights.
Good luck funding positive rights. I am sure it has never been tried before so there are no examples to study.
Who said anything about funding them? They are inalienable rights – no one can stop you from living in their house, eating their food, or spending their money.
Completely totally unrelated.
But they have a surprising, common origin: the US Constitution, or more accurately, its shortcomings.
Since the Constitution is almost universally ignored, I’m not sure how you an attribute any problems to it or its claimed “shortcomings”.
It’s not much of a stretch for them to believe that the lingering wisps of Constitutionalism are responsible for all of our country’s ills.
After all, they believe that Republicans are responsible for inner-city police violence. They believe that “laissez-faire capitalism” is responsible for the problems in the healthcare and banking sectors.
Great. There is a process to do so, I suggest you guys get started.
Just ordered .45 and 5.56 from fenixammo today after getting their restock update.
You probably already know this, but if you watch the Beauty and the Beta show, you can get discounts. Probably not much these days, but still.
I still had a 10% coupon in my email. That helped.
Weirdly, unable to locate the account tied to my email – but at least the coupon was still accepted.
Dammit! Didn’t check my email in time.
I bought a 50rd box of shitty steel Russian made .40 for $20 yesterday. Felt like I got a deal. Also a box of 300 CCI .22lr.
No ammo, but I did get a shipping notice for the shotgun I order on Thanksgiving. Only two weeks to ship.
Whadja get?
CZ USA 720. “youth” 20 gauge semi-auto. 24 inch barrel.
Online reviews were “mixed’ regarding reliability. But it’s the first shotgun I’ve seen online at basically MSRP in about 6 months.
Sitting at the bar of my favorite restaurant. No spacing. It was nice hanging out with you peeps. I feel a tickle b my throat.
See you in Hell.
No way. I’m never going to Jersey.
LOL
Sitting at the bar of my favorite restaurant. No spacing.
I like this.
I’m sure you’ll be fine.
I feel a tickle b my throat.
Are you wearing a mask? I always get that feeling when I’m wearing a mask.
That ticke is the girl’s tongue next to him doing a covid test her own
That’s some service. Never happens to me when I’m a bar. I guess I go to the wrong places.
I hated the fact that all the workers, including my favorite bartender, have to wander around with masks on.
I hate that the bar staff at my favorite places have to wear masks.
In the early days after the Clown Prince allowed indoor dining, if things were quiet and only trusted regulars were around, the staff would take their masks off and chat with the regulars. Now, thanks to the Clown Prince and municipalities cracking down, the masks stay on all the time.
Well, it is the first year of Democrat rule for my county. And, guess what, a tax increase is set for 2021, after at least ten years of no increases under Republican control. The newspaper says their were no public comment during the virtual meeting to discuss the budget. Yeah—-maybe because the frigging paper doesn’t give advance notice that there will be a meeting to discuss the frigging budget! If the Libertarian Party wants to do anything of value, then start speaking out locally against the little nicks and slices government makes to our individual freedoms.
Can’t, too busy virtue signaling on the Twatters.
I felt bad enough voting Johnson/Weld in 2016. After Jorgensen, the “LP” is utterly worthless.
The last two Free Man Beyond The Wall podcasts featured Eric July and Dave Smith. Things are afoot to torch the old guard and try to kickstart the movement again.
Worth a listen.
I’m trying to understand what the point of the Libertarian Party even is anymore, except of course to find an alternate path to graft for its upper ranks. Whatever their platform may say, their public statements never diverge from the beltway consensus. I’m sure some would say that’s evidence of a “libertarian moment”, while we all get locked down, businesses get declared “non-essential” and shut down, mask wearing is mandated, and even the watered-down “viewpoint-neutral” interpretation of the First Amendment gets tossed aside.
The only point is a stage for an attempt at a culture shift. It may already be too late, but look how goddamn fast things changed this year.
I think a good number of libertarians have been born with the Commie Cough hysteria. Unfortunately there have been just as many state, if not more, worshipers born as well and the latter have a much bigger megaphone.
The LP has screwed the pooch in two presidential elections, they had the opportunity to present a legitimately pro-liberty platform in elections where there was at least some room (more in for them to distinguish themselves from the duopoly. Granted , there was more space for a third way in 2016 than this year. I mean they wouldn’t have won but they might’ve least advanced the brand and maybe made into a debate.
Shooting the mushy middle of both parties is not going to work. All candidates in every election ever at least tries presents themselves as the reasonable middle. That was Joe Biden’s entire pitch.
Agreed. You need to go after the people who are starting to see that fedgov is fucking them over.
Based on Liberty magazines reports in the 90s, “graft for its upper ranks” has been pretty standard for a long while. That was the complaint about the Browne campaigns, the fundraising efforts paid nice campaign salaries instead of buying advertisment and etc.
How does speaking out locally against the little nicks and slices government makes to our individual freedoms bring in big-dollar donations?
I knew a guy who had a weekend place out in the boonies and his well has been struck by lightning twice. Fried the pump both times.
Did he try grounding his well?
Oh wait…
Having always lived in a city I know next to nothing about wells. The only thing I saw above the ground was a concrete slab covering the hole.
Good article, Richard.
Thanks!
Oh, and good to another post from you, Richard. I’d love to have my own water well, but I am pretty sure I could never it approved by My Masters downtown. I think there’s a de facto (at least) moratorium on residential wells.
Plus, I’m not sure how excited Mrs. Dean would be about the bill.
Budget in diamond earrings or a trip to Maui.
Apropos of self-sufficient DIY systems, Toyota claims that they’ve produced a new solid-state battery which, amongst other things, will take 80% of a full charge within ten minutes, and which will give a new generation of EV vehicles a 500km range between charges:
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/12/thats-it-for-this-week.html
Could someone who’s much smarter than me in electricity and/or battery chemistry tell me how this might be possible? Last time I checked, Ohm’s Law still applied in the real world, we’ve already almost fully exploited existing energy potentials between various atomic elements, and charging a (say) 50kWh-capacity battery in ten minutes implies almost a zero-ohm resistance for the battery, which sounds unrealistic to me unless Toyota’s also secretly been working on cracking the room-temperature superconductor problem, and has figured out how to “mix” said superconductor with the battery electrolyte. Otherwise, every fast-charge scenario I’ve ever heard of involves the battery getting rather hot, which reduces its lifespan. Usually a lot.
One of the commenters in the above linked article replied:
What he/she said, but mebbe there’s something more that I’m missing? Can anyone weigh in here?
It sounds like fusion. “We’re almost there!”
We figured fusion out in the 1950’s IIRC.
#PedantsGonnaPedant
Without the high temp superconductor, it’s impossible.
With it, Toyota will beat Elon into submission.
With it, Toyota should stop making cars and just make superconductors. That way lies wealth beyond the dreams of avarice (not to mention an utterly-transformed global civilization).
“every fast-charge scenario I’ve ever heard of involves the battery getting rather hot, which reduces its lifespan. Usually a lot.”
Can’t dispute that at all. I wonder if what they have in mind is some sort of “battery subscription” plan that keeps dealerships happy with regular battery replacement along with market segmentation to sell LiOn to the cheapskates or sold-state to the money-no-object group.
The parent-article:
https://asia.nikkei.com/content/4c8b11d1c65d83d23ba9aeb11030a947
implies such batteries are still under development. There are a lot of weasel-words.
Austrian MP Tests Cola for Covid-19 – Yields Positive Result.
How much longer is the “soaring covid cases” scam going on?
It’s not going away. Ever. Plan accordingly.
This.
The Cathedral is already spreading the word that having a vaccine won’t eliminate the need for masks.
Well, maybe if a particular set of swing state Governors face some electoral consequences the case rate may drop.
It’s going to go till they can’t afford it anymore.
There’s still checks in the checkbook.
And right on queue…
New York City Will Shut Indoor Dining Starting Monday, Gov. Cuomo Says
Well, there’s goes another few tens of thousands of jobs.
LOL
It’s comforting that their political class is exactly as shameless as ours.
Without repeating the experiment in public I assume.
I’m in California. What’s this water thing you guys are talking about?
It’s a liquid sometimes used in mixed drinks but usually not required.
Never drink it. Fish shit in it, you know.
It’s where the fish live.
Trump Files Lawsuit Against Everyone Who Voted For Biden
YouTube Accidentally Deletes CNN Russiagate Coverage While Banning Outlandish Conspiracy Theories
Immediately After Moving To Texas, Elon Musk Announces Tesla AR-15
Nice article Richard. When I was a kid (long time ago) growing up in rural LA we drank rain water that was collected of our roof via gutters. The water tank sat off the ground high enough to provide some water pressure, but not much. A separate water line provided bath and dishwashing water, which was pumped out of the lake near the house. My recollection was that was no purification and minimal filtration of the drinking water. Despite that the that the water tasted good, certainly much better than our neighbors with well water. But god only knows how much bird crap and DDT (from crop dusters spraying the cotton field nearby) we drank! What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, I hope.
How many limbs do you have? If it’s more than 4, that water might have been a problem.
What do include as a “limb”?
Only 4, but 6 fingers on each hand.
Thanks!
My family has a cottage by a lake. The cottage association ran a lake-fed water system for 100 years which worked well with the understanding you shouldn’t drink the water. Then the State noticed and said the water *had* to potable. Luckily the owner of a well-drilling outfit lives nearby. He drilled some deep wells and plumbed them into the association’s distribution system.
The problem was that, because the lake water wasn’t potable, the old cottages were all plumbed with copper pipe affixed with lead solder. This meant a lot of replacement plumbing had to be done, all to solve a nonexistent problem.
This place is like a college. If you actually read the articles, eventually you should get a diploma, or at least a vocational certificate.
Nice article, Richard. I learned something… which I am quickly forgetting via alcohol.
Also,
My neighbor’s pressure tank is bigger than mine.
No worries. Just make do with what you have. Remember, by definition, 49.99% percent of everything is below the median.
I learned something… which I am quickly forgetting via alcohol.Exactly like college!
Thanks! I’m about to indulge commence some forgetting myself.
I’m glad someone noticed the joke.
This is my safe place. Change my mind.
Fuck off, Tulpa.
Search for “SugarFree” posts.
Your mind will be changed, one way or another.
I think I’ve successfully managed to reverse engineer a scaled down version of the power plant from one of those [REDACTED]. It’s nice but I really don’t know what to do with 45TJ/s or how to harness that with my setup. I’m a good five years away from even beginning to understand the propulsion system. I honestly don’t think even Einstein or Feynman could figure this out, but it would be nice if someone in the private sector beat DARPA to the punch on that one.
I’m about to return to the communications void that is my cabin. I’ll be back on-line Sunday. I’d like to thank my agent, my parents, SP, and all of you for such a wonderful reception!
I eagerly await more Glib technical articles. Bon voyage, Richard.
What!? No HF radio setup?!
+1 AN/GRC-106
I had one of those goddam things on my hand reciept. Couldn’t make the effing thing go away.
. . . the communications void that is my cabin.
I gotta get me some of that.
“. . . the communications void that is my cabin.”
“but, but…what do you do all day?” -my 12 year-old
It’s interesting hearing of your off the grid style.
My house uses a sandpoint, but is pretty close the first set-up when it reaches the pump.
My well hit water at 90 feet but we stopped at 210 because we built on reclaimed land full of trash. We have the full gammit of softener, reverse osmosis etc.
Side note; a dental hygienist once asked me if I grew up with well water (which I did). I guess the lack of florida is noticable but at least the Russians can’t weaken this body.
I dated a nursing student in Uni who had the opposite problem from well-water — she grew up in rural Alberta, and her family’s well produced copious quantities of flouride ion. Her teeth had what looked like brilliant white chalk patches on them. She told me it was flouride “staining,” and her dentist assured her that, should there ever be a nuclear war, her teeth would probably survive intact.
**HEAVY SIGH**
For “flouride,” substitute “fluoride.” Grumble.
Better than Walford, who had a notable lack of Florida Man in his water.
Hell, better than florida. These Fat Tires are having their way with me.
Better than drinking
your ownurine.Thanks for the article, Richard!
I love watching documentaries about how good the Romans became at manipulating water, for drinking, bathing, sanitation, rudimentary clocks, various novelties.
This is in that vein but far more practical.
I wonder what skills I can bring to a clan of other survivors of Humanity’s self destruction sequence that is running now?
I can cook. I’ve never built an electric generator but i know the theory. I can sew. I can draw.
Ok, I’m useless until we get electricity.
Mine is at 1200’. Hot water at a hair over 1000’. I said punch it out I never want to redrill. We got the house as a foreclosure because the builder/owner went cheep and only went to 1025’ and hung the pump on a 1” pipe which failed. It was a disaster of six years hauling water and the state lying tonis after changing the rules to drill without canvassing the owners to tell anyone they were going to change the rules. I should have bought a rig and punched the well myself to spite them.