One year ago, I was contemplating fortune, fate, dumb luck, blessings and all the rest. In the pre-dawn hours of May 26th, 2024, over a span of 90 minutes, 15 tornadoes raked across the state of Arkansas. The storms took five lives, injured 20 and did untold damage to property.
The two angriest twisters came disturbingly close to The Mountain. Both mile-wide EF3s at their strongest, one barreled out of Boone County to the west and lifted near Summit, just north of Yellville. The second spawned a few miles southwest of my home and scraped the landscape south of Hall Mountain before tracking 36 miles across three counties.
I remember heeding the warnings, hunkering down, hearing the oft-described “freight train” roar, feeling the wind rock the camper first one way and then the other as the Boone tornado handed off to the Marion, holding on to Scout to comfort her (and probably myself as well).
My neighbors and I escaped without suffering significant damage.
That next Saturday, I drove the path of the tornado that began in Boone County, then tracked the one that touched down near The Mountain to where it crossed the White River. This is just some of what I saw that day.
The devastation was complete, heartbreaking, unforgettable.
It could’ve been me — but it wasn’t.
When I look at those images now, sitting at the kitchen table in my cabin on The Mountain, I take away a strong sense of rightness, even validation. I know that must seem like an odd reaction, so allow me to explain.
I’m still here. My dream, my reality, my home and my life weren’t erased by those storms. I returned fate’s smile by pressing on through difficulties. I stuck with it.
I’ll conclude this subject with the conclusion I draw, and I hope you’ll understand:
I’m supposed to be here.
Being on well water is great. It’s not without its consequences, however — the minerals that make it taste so sweet can wreak havoc on plumbing and certain appliances.
My barometer, if you will, is the dogs’ large, clear-glass water bowl. Over time, it develops limescale deposits that I remove with vinegar and a little scrubbing. (Strangely, the white residue was worse when I was filling it with water already filtered through the Berkey.)
The coffeemaker, obviously, is vulnerable to mineral buildup. I run a vinegar-and-water solution through it periodically, and that keeps my morning coffee tasting like coffee.
Shower head and faucet aerators get the same treatment.
The most critical appliance susceptible to scale — and the most expensive to repair or replace — is the tankless water heater. Yesterday I dug into the manual to see what sort of maintenance regimen Camplux recommends.
Turns out the unit has a built-in filter, probably a screen, that requires cleaning every six months — or every month, depending on which part of the manual I looked at. It means turning off water and propane, removing the small cartridge affair, and flushing it clear.
It’s easily accessible without disassembling the water heater or disconnecting supply lines, so that’s good.
Also on the vulnerable-and-expensive list is the clothes washer. Its tub requires cleaning (there’s a special cycle), along with both inlet screens (easy to get to) and the pump filter (behind an access panel on the front of the machine).
Again, white vinegar will handle all of that.
Mineral buildup needs to be monitored and dealt with even when drawing water from a municipal supply, I know. Well water takes it to a whole ‘nother level, though, which dictates routine (and disciplined) maintenance.
So-called “repurposing” is a thing these days. It’s gotten outta hand in many ways, with folks trying to re-use all kinds of stuff that simply oughta be pitched. Still, it’s a good mindset.
The objective isn’t to never throw anything away — it’s to use (or re-use) what’s useful. That is, waste not.
Pretty simple.
I’ve been preoccupied lately with making sure that everything I bring over from the camper has a place and a purpose in the cabin. Some stuff is obvious, like the TVs and the sound bar, space heaters, half a truckload of unused cleaning supplies, towels, various bins and containers, and so on.
RV-specific items can go either way. For example, I’ll have no practical use for the black-tank treatment pods I’ve relied on the last several years — but I’ll keep those gallon jugs of pink antifreeze, to use in the cabin’s shower and laundry drains when winter temps go low and stay there awhile. (Skirting the cabin will reduce the need for that in all but the most extreme cold.)
And then there are things like the grill/griddle I talked about the other day, reassigned from (strictly) camping duty to a new role in the cabin kitchen. The shower-curtain rod employed in the camper’s bath to hang wet towels now gives me a place in the cabin to put up my rain jacket to dry.
The RV’s patio mats will cover some of the gravel behind the cabin, making it a more pleasant space until I do something permanent.
Pavers that once served as platforms for generators will become stepping stones leading to the back yard, as well as the base for my soon-to-be-built propane shed. Concrete blocks now holding the Stinky Slinky off the ground will be the walls of a compost bin.
And on and on. Repurposing? Nah — just a matter of using what’s useful.
I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it here, but I once was vegetarian-by-marriage. Yeah, I’m glad those days are over, but while shunning meat for ten years, I learned a thing or two about food.
Among the processed veggie items I developed a taste for was MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burgers. They’re nothing at all like real burgers, but they’re relatively inexpensive, simple to prepare, and a decent source of protein. I found them quite tasty and continued to buy them after my (first) divorce.
It’s been years, though. So last time I bought groceries, I picked up an eight-pack. I fixed a couple for dinner last night, using my stove’s built-in griddle. Quick, easy, and absurdly cheap — everything was store-brand excepting the burgers and the Claussen pickle — and there was almost no cleanup.
I’d forgotten how much I dig these. They’ll never replace beef burgers on my personal menu, but for a lighter option, I think they’re great.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable