It's that time of year again!!

Getting ready for the upcoming California fire season (actually already in progress) I am reviewing the status of my emergency gear and i am glad I am doing so.

Mostly I am concerned with emergency lighting and ability to recharge cell phones off grid. I am finding that some of my power banks have significantly lost power over the last three months....

It really pays to check your stuff now and then....

Amen.

Big storms brewing in the Gulf of Mexico. Going over my gear this weekend.

To bad I can't send our hurricanes to take care of your fires.
-Blast, looking into hacking HAARP

We could sure use your hurricanes here is AZ.

As an archaeologist working in the American southwest for much of my career, I saw much research effort devoted to understanding the moves and abandonments of areas by Puebloan societies throughout time, especially the great drought that occurred at the end of the 13th century, when there were massive population shifts.

Looking at present conditions and prospects, I get the creepy feeling that history may be repeating itself (he said dryly...)

I've pretty much moved to using only Eveready Lithium AA and AAA batteries for lights and devices that need to work during longer term storage, such as safety kits, in cars, in barns, tools such as laser measures, ... These also do very well in cold weather, and are noticeably lighter weight, if that matters.

My charging banks seem to store surprisingly well. I've not tracked how long they last though. Longer than my rechargeable nickel metal hydride AA's.

Recently I bought my first pontoon boat (a retirement requirement), and I noticed the marine shop using a small lithium battery booster to jump start the outboard. I bought the Noco Boost Plus battery booster linked below and was very pleased to see that it also has a USB power port. I had a more typical 12V battery jumper pack, but the thing is heavy and awkward to use hanging off the rear of the boat. The lithium battery booster is small, lightweight, and has enough power to jump my pickup's V8.

Right now I'm testing the shelf life. Every few days I turn it on to check the charge meter. I'm about 3 weeks in, and it still has a full charge. Oh, and it can be left plugged in - no harm. I like that.

https://no.co/gb40

Lol...but, yeah.
-Blast, watching the signs

Over here in my corner of the world, we have 'hurricanes' of sand and dust these days. I wish they were good enough to smother your fires, but they are only good enough to making driving super bad.

My daughter just came home from work (emergency doctor) and I was too much worried about her driving in those conditions.

This is one of the situations I am trying to prep for when I go to home town and start construction of the new house. I may be "stranded" there unexpectedly, just sitting with no construction work going on. I have to hoard more stuff than a few bottles of water and a chess game. LOL.

I went with solar/crank radio & a small solar collector for recharging my phones. (Plus I can use the car outlet.)

Mentioning lighting and powerbanks reminds me...

Sofirn very recently just released the latest version of their BLF LT1 lantern, adding powerbank functionality.

The original was designed by some people over on BudgetLightForum (hence BLF in the name) and Sofirn has been producing it.

https://sofirnlight.com/products/new-version-blf-lt1-lantern-with-anduril-20-power-bank-function

New version probably only available direct from Sofirn until they get around to pushing them out to their Amazon stores.

I have a first-gen BLF LT1 lantern and it’s freaking great. I might very well buy this new one.

Yep, getting ready for the coming tropical storm. Usually I just have power outage for a while. Looking forward to using my new toys!

Lol, that's how I see these storms, too! Finally, i may get to use my cool stuff!
-Blast