How many amps of current does the lightbar draw when it’s on? It’s just a bunch of LEDs correct? No motors or moving parts (if there are moving parts, the answer gets more complicated)? If you can find that answer in the manufacturer docs, and it’s well under 16 amps, you should be good. If you can’t, you need to measure it with a multimeter. Set the multimeter to the amps setting on the dial, and make sure the positive lead is in the amps socket. Then you touch the two probe tips to the two wires that would connect to the switch, thus completing the circuit (the meter is taking the place of the switch temporarily, and the current flows through it, from one wire, through the probe tip and meter, out the other probe tip to the other wire). Write down the number you get, make sure to check what the unit is.  One last detail, is the switch rated for 16 amps AC or DC? You would think that amps are amps, but it’s easier to switch off AC than DC, so the ratings are not interchangeable.  Hope that helps, let me know if you have more questions. 

I’m not saying inflation won’t be a problem, but it should be noted that the fed changed the way they calculated M1 in May of 2020, so that spike is an artifact; there weren’t 12 trillion new dollars injected into the economy all of the sudden. It’s a weird way of doing a graph, I don’t know why they didn’t just recalculate the pre May 2020 supply according to the new metric so you could compare apples to apples. 

Agree about supply chains. In fact, in a lot of ways rural supply chains are more precarious. I live on the outskirts of a major city, we have roads, ports, airports, and rail lines. If some of that infrastructure is unusable, we still have other options. Also, although high gas prices increase the cost of shipping and thus the goods I buy, I rarely need to drive as I can walk, bike, and use public transit. On the other hand, my parents who live in a more rural area, have to drive a few miles just to get rid of their trash/recycling, and 20 or 30 miles for groceries.  Oil is a finite resource, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel, but I’m less gloomy about peak oil than I was some years ago. A solar/wind/hydro/battery/long distance transmission electric grid is a solved problem from a technical and economic perspective, we just need more of it, and it’s scaling fast. Electric cars are also a solved problem from a technical perspective; they’re still somewhat more expensive, but getting cheaper as they scale. Electric freight trucks are still in development, but there don’t seem to be major technical barriers to using basically the same tech as electric cars. Electric air and sea freight are still pie in the sky, but that may just mean we do a lot less intercontinental trade in the future, which is not civilization ending.  Of course, just because there are workable solutions doesn’t mean we can’t still screw up the energy transition. But ten years ago I wasn’t even sure there was a way out of getting crushed by peak oil, so I’m less pessimistic than I used to be about that. Re: urban yuck, I also have an aversive reaction sometimes to images like that, but on the other hand think how much environmental destruction would happen if each of those people wanted two to ten acres in the country. 

Interesting products. But, if I understand the parameters of the problem correctly, you could just use an easy etcher to etch your passphrase onto a piece of scrap metal, for half the money and less hassle (slightly more noise). Note that it comes with a set of letter templates.

Agreed, bees are my top choice as well.

I have a very simple solution; on the rare occasion I go camping, I take the dual-use supplies out of my bug out bag and use them. Or I take out the supplies I DON’T want for camping, add some other stuff, and use the whole bag. When I get home I make sure to put everything back. If I went camping more often I might want duplicate supplies, but it doesn’t take much time to swap back and forth and long as you put it all away properly when you get home.  I second practicing with your tools. Camping is not necessarily a good analog for bugging out, but it is similar in that most thing are harder to use in the backcountry than they are in your living room.  I do keep a few duplicates of things (vs. bug out bag) in the car kit, but the car kit is mostly different stuff than the bug-out bag. And I might only have one or the other.  This perma-kit idea saves time and energy if you camp constantly, which very few of us realistically do. They mentioned camping 90 nights a year? I probably average 1 or 2. 

I like the Youngstown kevlar lined gloves for heavy duty jobs and bike riding. Kevlar lining is important to me because it makes it much less likely I will leave skin on the road if I get into a bad slide and put my hands down for stability. Putting your hands down in a bike crash is not a good idea, but you’re on automatic when something that bad happens.  The kevlar lining has also been nice when working with sharp saws, splintery wood etc; I ride with the new pair and use the old, beat-up pair for heavy duty jobs.  Protection is very good, the winter version of the kevlar lined gloves is reasonably warm (although I was riding today in 30 something degree weather and my fingers did get quite cold). The main downside is a significant loss of dexterity when the gloves are new; as you break them in the dexterity improves. 

A bit off topic, but I would love to read a post/thread about your month living off wild food. I’m a decent forager, but I doubt I’ve ever foraged more than maybe 1/4 of my food for a few days.  Considering the things you’ve already done, I suspect you’ve done a mock bugout already, but if you haven’t, that’s a common prepper practice exercise. Try getting to a rally point or your vacation house or your friend’s house or wherever you are likely to go, with no support from civilization: First, drive there with your supplies packed up in your car, and get there without stopping for gas, food, water etc. Probably pretty easy, but it helps you practice loading out the car etc. for an emergency. Then try to get there on motorcycle, bicycle, or whatever your plan ‘B’ is. Takes longer, you can’t pack as much, more challenging. You might have to camp overnight in some random patch of woods.  Then try to get there on foot (hardest). 

Keep in mind that with gears you are trading off speed and torque. You could set it up so that the grain mill turns 20 times for every turn of the bike pedals, but you would have to push 20 times harder on the pedals. 

The orange flowering plant looks like Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly weed. In the milkweed family, so good for monarch butterflies as well as the bees. 

I kind of do the inverse; I have a BOB with modules I can drop to save weight if I need to. I figure it’s easier to drop 5 lbs out that I realize I don’t need and can’t carry on a long trek than to assembly the right mix of kits when I leave the house.  Also, I love the granite gear zipditty bags for modular packing. They come in a number of colors and are very lightweight silnylon. 

Apparently, giant ground sloths thought it was delicious. You can still still the footprints of that extinct animal (probably hunted to extinction) in fruits like osage orange, pawpaw, and avocado.  I’ve read that the seeds of the osage orange are edible, the flesh of the fruit is not, so if you want to eat it, you have to remove the seeds, clean the flesh off them, and cook them. Seems like a lot of work, but I’m going to try it this season. 

Those do look nice, but a less than $20 pair of electrician’s scissors can do basically the same stuff. 

I was aware of that in generalities, but the specifics are actually quite helpful, as this is a road my wife and I may be going down in a few years. Thanks!

Cold steel ‘Bushman’ knife. I had just started prepping, and I thought how versatile it was that the knife had a hollow handle and could be made into a spear. Previously, I’d only used cooking knives. As I gradually learned a bit more about ‘woodsy’ skills, and practiced a little (I’m still not very good), I found that the Bushman knife was wildly impractical; too heavy, weighted weirdly, hard to store (I made a sheath, it kept cutting it’s way out of it because of the curve). Now I keep a couple of Mora knives around instead; they have rubberized grip and don’t slide out of your hands, the shape of the handle keeps your hand from sliding up over the blade, they are light and well-balanced, easy to sharpen, and come with a great, lightweight, durable, well-fitted plastic sheath.  The other one that comes to mind was also a knife. I had read how great the British hacking knife (used in construction) was because it has a soft spine and can be safety used to baton, wood, also hefty enough to serve as a sort of a hatchet. Well, I practiced with it, removing invasive vines and brush, and I almost cut my thumb off! Admittedly, I was chopping too close to my other hand, but with a chopper that small, I had to do so in order to get any force. After that scare, walking home blood dripping from the gash in my thumbnail, I later tested the other thing it was ‘great’ at and found that the spine was so soft it deformed if you used it to baton wood. I recycled that POS and bought a few folding saws until I found one that fit my hands nicely (Bahco Laplander). Not totally satisfied with that one, but even if you’re exhausted and getting sloppy, it’s hard to hurt yourself more than a minor cut. And, with a 7″ blade, if you’re patient enough and have the grip strength, you can cut though 6.5″ branches!