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Letter Re: Advice on Avoiding Retreat Gear Entropy
Mr. Rawles:
My question to you is: How can I plan ahead for everything eventually wearing
out at my farm/retreat, assuming we could expect a decades-long "Deep Schumer"
situation? Everything I own seems sure-as-anything to fall victim to entropy.
Tools
eventually
wear out, things rust, things break, nuts and bolts come loose and get
lost in the weeds. Those lousy blue tarps only seem to only last about a
year. Last weekend I went to go sit in my yard chair and I fell right through
the [expletive deleted] plastic webbing, which had sun rotted. My kids laughed
at me, seeing me stuck in the chair. "Har, har, har, very funny."
How do I plan in advance for all this entropy, without having a
big "I
won the lottery" budget? Thanks, - LTP in Missouri
JWR Replies: There is no panacea, since entropy
is inevitable. But at least it can be forestalled. My advice is
pretty commonsense: First
and foremost, buy the best quality tools and equipment that you
can
afford. Concentrate
on classic, proven designs that are user serviceable.
Buy plenty of spare parts for high-wear items. (Belts, bearings,
leathers, seals, cotter pins, and so forth.)Buy plenty of spare
hardware--especially for "high loss" fasteners.
Retrofit all of your farm, shop, and kitchen machinery with lock
washers
or Nylock
nuts that won't back off, where appropriate. Take good care
of what you have. Keep your gear well lubricated and out
of the elements. Avoid ever buying "high entropy" items
like those ubiquitous blue tarps, by instead building permanent
structures with metal roofs. (Such as wood sheds and hay
barns.) If you use tarps for some reason, make sure that they are
long lasting extra heavy duty type, like you see used on flatbed
trucks. (Truckers know what lasts!) One maker of this type that
I recommend
is Tarps
Plus.
We've used one of their reinforced truck type rubberized tarps
on our utility
trailer
here
at the Rawles
Ranch for seven years
and it is still in great shape. Unless weight is critical, over-engineer
everything that you build. Protect
soft
items from
mice and rats
by storing
them
in steel cabinets. (Often available at surplus auctions or even
free from auto parts stores if you ask--since they often get them
as freebies from their parts vendors.) If you live in a damp climate,
buy a Goldenrod dehumidifier for all of your gun vaults and tool
chests/carts. (These are available from Boater's
World
.)
Learn to do your own service and repair on every piece of machinery
that you own. Buy the requisite tools for all of that work. Don't
overlook buying service manuals for each of your vehicles, farm
machines, and major appliances. Avoid buying shoddy merchandise.
In essence, you can
either "buy
quality" once, or buy cheap Chinese
junk over and over again, with a higher cumulative price tag and
the risk of being caught without, when re-supply is impossible.(Post-TEOTWAWKI.)
For example, I recommend buying the more expensive heavy duty rubber garden
hoses instead of cheap plastic
hoses. You'll find that you buy just one "15 year" hose
instead
of
five
or
six "bargain" hoses that last just two or three years each. Although
the initial
purchase
price
per
unit
is higher, your long term cost will turn out to be lower. And
as
for
replacing the
falling-apart
yard
furniture that you mention:
Buy
heavy duty
cedar replacements. Those will last for decades. (See my friend
Keith Cutter's Huckleberry
Ridge web site for some of the best American made cedar outdoor
furniture on the market.)
