Tools for a Tricky World [550]
Greetings from The Borders...
I’m Christian Payne, lighthearted prepper, writer and photographer prone to random acts of journalism. In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, plus where we might be going.
Thanks for joining in.
#TheAction
I’m not always on a roof. But after our first snowfall since moving here, I felt the need to clear the snow from the solar panels.
One of the selling points of this place was the solar feed in tariff (FIT). Like many places, Scotland offered small renewable electric generation operations money for both feeding into the grid but also just for generating. This could be solar PV, wind, hydro and some other stuff i’d not heard off. Solar was the most lucrative where generating could earn you 36-41p per kWh. So clearing the snow increases passive income.
Even though the snow would have eventually melted, 10 mins on the roof upped the generation 30% and scraping off the smattering of algae added an another 10%. A job i’d been meaning to do for a while.
Sadly the downside of the generous feed in tariff means that we cannot modify the solar system in any way. We can add another system though providing it’s on a different circuit and not connected to our mains. So at the moment I am charging standalone portable batteries when the sun is out and these can be used as back up power for freezers or other electrical items should there be an outage.
As I’ve mentioned before, we moved here with sustainability and resilience in mind. Resilience on a small holding in the Scottish Borders is really about riding out the glitches and interruptions that come with the territory. We’ve already had power cuts and a water outage.
A bit of solar, a battery setup, a healthy wood pile and a simple rain catchment system means you can keep the lights on, stay warm and make a cuppa even when the rest of the village is dark. After an eight week outage a few years ago, some neighbours stepped things up with generators and battery banks. We are still the new kids on the block and everything is a work in progress. I have a filtration system so I could manually filter from a local burn or our ponds, but something more automated is planned.
Growing our own veg, keeping the compost turning and preserving whatever we cannot eat fresh helps us feel less tied to shops and deliveries. My amateur radio hobby is probably overkill for staying connected if fibre or mobile fail, but it is another tool in the kit.
Real resilience comes from the skills you pick up and the neighbours you connect with. From learning to fix things, to improvising, to managing your resources and sharing with the people nearby who are doing the same.
This light-hearted prepping is not about hiding in a bunker. It’s about living comfortably in a place where the weather likes to remind you who’s in charge. But it is not just the weather now.
People are taking preparedness more seriously because the world feels less predictable. Increasing fuel prices, talk of AI bubbles and economic swings only adds to existing concerns. Climate extremes are hitting new highs, infrastructure is ageing and global tensions keep disrupting fuel and food. Cyber attacks remind us how dependent we are on fragile systems and the pandemic showed how fast daily life can change.
I sound like a doomer reading this back, but none of this means panic. It just makes simple, practical resilience a smart response in a world where hiccups and shocks are becoming more common.
It just feels sensible. A few steady habits, some stored essentials, local food, off-grid backups and a community mindset can give you a bit more stability in these unpredictable times.
#ThePictures
This week in Edinburgh, I discovered Backtracks Music and Tommy Robertson who has spent 36 years behind the counter selling Tapes, CDs, Records, Videos, DVDs and games.
He’s a bit of a local legend and even has his portrait hanging in the National Galleries of Scotland. [Click the pic for high resolution view]
Here’s is a video of a guy teaching an octopus to play piano. No it’s not AI.
#TheWords
On the topic of resiliance, even though we only live five miles from the shops. I have it on good authority that should the internet go down, the postal service will still work. As a back up plan/fun project I aim to offer the Dispatch in analogue forms. i.e via the post and over the radio. The former would require me to adhear to GDPR (i.e. have your consent to keep your address on file... offer a way to opt out... securely store your address... to only use the address for the stated purpose. The latter (via radio) would require me to plan a regular HF chat with another licensed radio operator (Probably
) and those that would like to listen would need a SW radio that does SSB like the XHDATA D-808 (I have this), Tecsun PL-880 (expensive but good). So to prepare for this, if you are a supporting subscriber, please send me your address to me on Wire.com (i’m Documentally on there) or Signal I’m Documentally.01Should any of you have a SW radio let me know and I can notify you of any test transmissions. (This will be cheaper than posting so is open to all) If you are a licensed radio operator in the UK and would like to try a test QSO please also let me know. I’m on QRZ.
#TheSound
Seeing Bob Dylan play has been on the bucket list for decades so my wife’s gift of tickets to see him at the Leeds arena was very welcome.
This is Bob bloody Dylan. I was excited, of course, but knowing I was about to watch an 84-year-old introvert not known for pandering to an audience kept my expectations low.
It was a three hour drive to Leeds and after a lovely meal at Pho we trotted through blustery showers into a security cordon. After passing the detectors and bag searches our phones were locked into small pouches.
I was not a fan of this, so once inside I went to one of the unlocking stations and exercised a little sleight of hand. I walked away with my phone in a now unlocked pouch. You know… just in case I needed to live stream some breaking news.
The tour had sold out fast which meant we were in the bleachers at £90 each. When the band strolled on stage they might have been in a different postcode. They were barely visible in a haphazard layout that looked like someone had forgotten to clear away a band practice.
Thankfully my last minute thought on leaving the house was to grab a pair of compact binoculars. As a result I was actually equipped to see Bob Dylan live. Wrinkles and all.
In fact I’m pretty sure the binoculars gave me a £100 seat upgrade. I had a better view than half the arena. I kept thinking... This is Bob BLOODY Dylan.
The theme for the night and I think for the whole tour, was recently written material and heavily reworked versions of older songs in this new style. Bob sat behind the piano with two guitars, a bass and percussion. Think minimalist, rootsy beat poet at an open mic night.
When not playing piano he’d turn his back to play guitar. There was no real crowd interaction. But the hardcore fans whooped and shouted variations of “we love you Bob!” while coming close to orgasm when he played a few bars of harmonica.
Anyone hoping for familiar hits or a traditional performance would have been disappointed.
While recording the odd moment on my watch I tried to sneak a photo with my illicitly free iPhone pressed against the binoculars. If I had been spotted I would have been kicked out, and I quite enjoyed working hard to appreciate Dylan’s art in my own way. The blurry close to useless photos matched the hazy, exploratory sound coming from the stage.
After nearly two hours many of the audience had been for a wee at least once, especially the ones drinking the £18 two pint pots. Just as I was pondering how well Dylan’s bladder had coped, they finished a song, stood to watch the front rows stand to ovate and then wandered off stage.
For a moment it looked like they might return for an encore but it was only a roadie with a torch collecting something for the drummer.
And so hesitantly the auditorium filtered out.
Those wanting the studio crisp Dylan of the last sixty years likely left frustrated, but the open minded fans were rewarded. After all… we had just shared a room with the Nobel Prize winning songwriter, American folk hero, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, artist, protester and icon. Bob bloody Dylan.
Here is a song captured on my watch from the back of the Bob Dylan concert with 13,000 people nearby.
Needless to say it’s not the best recording and the live experience was so much better.
For years I’ve wanted to pick up a first pressing of Bolt Thrower’s Warmaster. I was never really a death metal fan, but when I was a teenager visiting a friend in Nottingham I walked in on the artist Pete Knifton painting the album cover.
He laughed when he saw the Punisher skull on the shoulder of my biker jacket. My teen biker gang called ourselves ‘The Punishers’ and Pete knew real bikers. The kind who had sawn off shotguns strapped to their bikes. I still have that jacket he laughed at. It still fits.
He asked me to stand still for a moment while he sketched the image of a warrior injured in battle, then he painted the skull onto the warrior’s shoulder. “Thanks for the inspiration,” he said with a smirk.
Years later, after picking up the album on cassette, I’d show my friends the impaled figure on the cover that I’d inspired. A Warhammer friend then informed me Pete was a legend and had also worked full time for Games Workshop. His art shaped the company’s whole aesthetic. His work appears on games and sets all over the world, including the legendary board game ‘Blood Bowl’.
I always meant to track down a first edition of the album and have Pete sign it, but they were hard to find. Then this week in Edinburgh a record shop told me there was a new pressing.
It arrived yesterday. I was excited and ready for the next step. Find Pete Knifton so he could sign it.
But I was too late. A quick search brought up posts of condolence. He died only a few weeks ago.
When I pulled out the album to play, my jaw dropped. The image on the inner sleeve was almost exactly what I saw on the easel over 3o years ago. It was the sketch of the pose I was in and the freshly painted skull from my shoulder.
RIP Pete Knifton.
#TheConsumed
I’m easily lead, and in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series of books i’m currently reading this drink features regularly.
It’s the alcoholic version of the Shirley Temple and called a Dirty Shirley. I’m sure it would look even more appealing than this if you aren’t (like me) just using the nearest clean glass.
The ingredients are Vodka: 60 ml, Grenadine: 30 ml, Lemon-lime soda (or sprite): 120 ml with Maraschino cherries if you’d like a garnish.
It’s bloody delicious. Dangerously so. The key ingredient is Grenadine. A syrup which is now made with corn syrup or sugar mixed with water, citric acid and flavourings (the bottle above has raspberry, black berry and elderberry). Originally it was made by reducing pomegranate juice with sugar and it’s now a small life goal of mine to try to make this with proper true-to-its-origins Pomegranate Grenadine. You can grow pomegranates in polytunnels but it might take 3 to 5 years… So I ordered some online.
The first time I had a proper thali was in India.
Thali simply means ‘plate’ in Hindi. But over time it now describes a meal served in a selection of small dishes arranged on a single metal plate. Sometimes in bowls, sometimes a trey like above.
Initially is was so you might have an Ayurvedic food balance. With the aim to balance salty, sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and sharp flavours.
If I see a thali on a menu, I will almost certainly go for it. It’s not that I don’t like my food touching, more that I love to have multiple items that compliment each other without having to choose them myself.
I procured the meal above at Mamaste Kathmandu in Edinburgh and it was delicious. At one point, as is sometimes the case with very spicy dishes, I sneezed and while attempting to contain it in my elbow I didn’t quite succeed.
It was only after thanking the waitress who smiled at me strangely did I realise in the bathroom mirror I had two grains of rice hanging off my eyebrow.
I used to have a thali type tray at home, but it was based on the eating tray from the film 2001.
I’m so tempted to invest in more of this wonderfully practical tableware.
#TheFound
I had a blast dropping off my finds at the Treasure Trove department at National Museums Scotland.
The dropping off and logging was scheduled to take about 15 minutes but I chatted with Archaeologist and Anthropologist Sophie Flynn for almost an hour. Fascinating stuff. The musket ball is most certainly that, but it needs accurately dating along with a selection of buttons I left with them.
#TheThings
There are some amazon affiliate links on this page. It’s rare for people to click them as there are more ethical places to shop but there’s a chance that if you do i’ll get a kickback. That’s not yet happened this year though.
This is the pouch that failed to contain my phone.
I had shown the attendant my wife’s locked phone pouch saying i’d locked mine away and got away with it. But I have it on good authority that clothing security tag magnets will also free your phone. You know… in case you need it in an emergency.
#TheThanks
Massive thanks to the paying subscribers who continue to support this dispatch and the adventures/experiments that make it. You know who you are. ♥️ I shall especially remember these people when the corporations, hellbent on building endless data centres running software designed to replace human effort do just that. And capitalism will no longer see the point in supporting human work at all.
Till then… If you value these words, ideas and curation, please consider an upgrade to paid…
Or if you prefer a random hat tip you can do that via PayPal
or Monzo …Either way… Thank you for reading, sharing, liking and supporting a human doing manual work with their brain.
#TheWeb
The hatred of podcasting.
A random click on the Documentally community map has me wanting to give a shout out to Josephine Chang. Let me know if you see this ;-)
A pretty crazy long read.
Also this week… RIP Mani. An inspiration to so many musicians I used to hang out and play with in my teens.
How to get out of a cult.
Some of my other places include these…
A beginners guide for prepping in the UK
I was really keen to give you some polytunnel news but snow and icy roads has meant that although the build is going well it’s going to take another day. Here’s a short thread showing the progress so far.
#TheEnd
Thanks for reading this crazy long post. (All spelling mistakes are proof of life.)
The “this post is too long for email” warning came halfway through, so if you’ve read this far… well done you! :-)
Next week I hope to report on a shiny new polytunnel. Don’t worry, there will no doubt be other more interesting things.
Till then have a great week!
“Plan for what it is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.”
― Sun Tz
Prep.
See you out there.
Over…
Really enjoyed listening in to a few amazing moments along with you to Bob!
So this was going to be a read over morning coffee. But insomnia struck again and I’ve just read it.
Yes to the newsletter over the air. (NOTA)
the shack should be finished by the end of January. But hopefully the antennas will be up before the end of the year. 🤞
Another great read. Roll on next November for deep purple.