Author Topic: UPDATES ON ME  (Read 7873 times)

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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #25 on: May 13, 2022, 11:29:31 pm »
That's a big tent and good setup. If it's something you enjoy perhaps if you want you could find a commune somewhere to set up? My brother spent a few years living at some rural communes in AZ, TN, and CA. He enjoyed his time there. It's private land so less risk of getting run off. But anyways good luck!

CA is a good place to get cheap used solar panels and batteries. Solar panels goes to charge controller. Charge controller goes to battery. Battery goes to inverter (pure sine wave if you can). Inverter gives you 120v AC to power small things all night like LED lights, laptops, phones, etc. Pretty easy to set up. But be careful as it's pretty easy to steal if your not in a secure location.

Yeah my campmate has been trying to teach me how to set up a system for us both to use.
Thanks for the advice on communes but I'm gonna stick to where I am for now. I'm in an out of the way spot on the far end of the slabs, no real danger of getting run off and it's just three of us here in the camp and we respect one another's privacy.

The only real annoyance is the guy here with us who keeps trying to act like he's mayor and runs the whole place but Kathy and I keep setting him straight.
He put on a big song and dance like he was gonna leave and go back to Alabama but he ain't left and i doubt he ever will.
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #26 on: July 11, 2022, 02:53:49 am »
Is there something wrong with this thread that i keep getting database errors whenever I try to post here?
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #27 on: July 11, 2022, 02:54:21 am »
Oh of course, that it posts no problem
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #28 on: July 25, 2022, 11:17:55 pm »
So i guess it's time for an update. It's getting hotter here in the wasteland.

Luckily Kathy bought a generator and a swamp cooler the other day and we spent the hottest part of the day holed up in her trailer enjoying the cooler air till her generator ran out of gas. Fortunately by then we had passed the hottest part of the day and it was slowly starting to cool down.


The only issue now is that with rising temperatures I'm drinking more water.

Last month i ran out of water and had to rely on Kathy for water. And this month, since Kathy used most of her check on the generator and cooler I been using my check to cover food and water for the both of us this month, which hasn't been easy.

So now it's getting to be a matter of being able to buy enough water to see me through the month entirely and not running out just shy of month's end.
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #29 on: August 08, 2022, 12:03:04 pm »
Update time

So my friend kathy and I have been planning to pull up stake and leave the slabs entirely and go north together to Santa Cruz.

Unfortunately a couple of days ago she fell ill and I had to call paramedics. She was taken to a hospital and shortly thereafter airlifted to a hospital in San Diego. She seems to be doing well but there's a big issue which now rears its ugly head, getting Kathy back home.

She doesn't have her vehicle and it's a long drive from San Diego to the slabs.

So if anyone has any ideas to help please speak up.
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Offline Jade Sinapu

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #30 on: August 24, 2022, 06:36:08 pm »
IDK really.  Is she is very well and brave and able,  is hitchhiking an option?
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Offline DDD

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #31 on: October 24, 2022, 04:26:18 am »
Hey Kay,

I haven't been on here in ages, but its so awesome to see these updates from you!
Your tent looks amazing at night.
By the sounds of it, you are starting the small strong community there.
Helping others set up tents is a great way to make friends for life.
If it is windy there, you can also get a wind generator.
Another way to harness solar energy without solar panels is to run a long length of black PVC tube filled with water. The sun will heat up the water in the tube, so at night time you can enjoy warm water without ever using electricity!

Looking forward to your next update!

DDD
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #32 on: May 24, 2023, 06:23:02 pm »
So it's been a while since I updated here and let everyone know how I'm doing.

The sad first. My Neighbor and friend Kathy's dog Sweetpea passed away a few months ago. I helped dig the grave. We laid an old tire on top along with a large stone and put a little fence around her to protect against coyotes.

A couple of weeks ago a neighbor down the street passed away from his alcoholism. His name was Sonny. He was pretty old and i miss him.

Now onto better things. I've been improving my solar setup, still using little panels to charge backup battery banks but it works well for me. I keep my phone charged. I even purchased a USB charging cord for my old "New 2DS XL". Being able to play games really helps mitigate the boredom here. My LDR boyfriend in Australia has also shipped me a Retroid Pocket 3+ stuffed to the gills with a number of games from the NES to Gamecube and PS1&2. Looking forward to that.

Other exciting news, in preparation for the coming summer i have bought a solar powered fan that has its own dedicated panel along with two small USB powered fans that i run off my power banks.

Last acquisition is a propane camp stove so that i can finally cook food of my own and stop eating hormel compleats meals like they're ration packs.

I'm also using powdered gatorade and powdered milk to flavor up my water now heh.

I still intend to work on getting some kind of refrigeration out here. I'm thinking that if i can get something like a jackrey and some solar panels to keep it charged i could get a little DC powered cooler chest off Amazon. But man is that stuff costly...

Some new people have moved into the area as well, most of them living in tents, one has a tent that looks kind of like mine but made of typical tent nylon instead of canvas. They're not horrible people i guess but i wish they'd stop shouting.

Still living in my tent, it's holding up well so far. Life is settling down into an odd kind routine now.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2023, 12:05:21 am by Kay Alett »
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Offline Jade Sinapu

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #33 on: May 25, 2023, 05:37:48 pm »
Thanks for the update Kay. So sorry to hear about the neighbor and dog.  That's sad.  But at least for the dog you all paid last respects and will never forget.

Sounds like you are holding up well so far
 Is it still your long term goal to get ID and move into a town etc? Just wondering if it didn't matter as much now that you are so self sufficient.
Bear your soul and take control
If the wolves are howling outside your door
Invite them in and make them beg for more!
(Name that tune!)

Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #34 on: May 26, 2023, 02:57:57 pm »
Thanks for the update Kay. So sorry to hear about the neighbor and dog.  That's sad.  But at least for the dog you all paid last respects and will never forget.

Sounds like you are holding up well so far
 Is it still your long term goal to get ID and move into a town etc? Just wondering if it didn't matter as much now that you are so self sufficient.

Oh i already got ID. Got that about a month into my life here.
No, i don't think I'm going to go back to civilization any time soon.
I rather enjoy this wasteland living. It's not ideal and can be pretty stressful at times i won't lie, but i have fans to keep cool, i have electric lights, i can keep my phone charged, i have games to play, and now I can cook food again.

It's quite an adventurous way of life here, and there's a certain bent appeal in approaching the challenges of building a life here like a crafting game.
"Stove acquired! Cooking unlocked! New crafting recipes have been added."

Next step is getting running water. And once i have a water tower and tank I'll set about getting some lumber and try building myself an outdoor shower.
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #35 on: June 15, 2023, 02:05:40 pm »
Time for an update I think.

The stove is working out better than I could have even hoped for. It's so nice being able to cook again, granted most of what I do is just heat up canned food that is already cooked but the point is that i can make more varieties of meals.

I've been enjoying mac and cheese quite a bit lately heh. Nothing fancy and it's taken some compromises that lead to a need to develop an "acquired taste" for it. I'm using the really cheapo Walmart brand mac, in place of milk I'm using powdered milk, the cheese powder it comes with is just okay so I decided to improve upon it with some velveeta.

Rice boiled in broth and topped with gravy with quite tasty, especially if you add in a can of roast beef or chicken.

My usual go to for meat is SPAM. I love SPAM, always have.
Cube it and mix it with baked beans, cut it into patties and fry it with a little cheese and put it on grilled bread for a great sammich. Cut into strips, fry it put it on a hot dog bun with ketchup and mustard or a little chili. All time great for survival food.

I'm gonna try and get ahold of a big can of powdered eggs so i can start having a nice hearty breakfast.

I been enjoying the heck out of my new gaming system, it's called a retroid pocket 3+ running an emulator called retroarch. I can play everything i grew up playing again. Nes, genesis, TG16, dreamcast, sega cd ps1, ps2, gamecube, all the gameboys, it's fantastic. And since it's basically a kind of a modified smartphone it charges exactly like my phone.
Tbh I'm still in awe over how technology has advanced from when i was a kid and this system is like magic to me.

My neighbor Kathy finally stopped using her large ice chest which really wasn't doing her any good because she kept it in the doorway of her trailer where the sun always hit it.

That's pretty much it as far as things are around here. Just a day to day survival challenge.
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Offline Jade Sinapu

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #36 on: June 15, 2023, 08:55:55 pm »
I have been wondering... what's a person to do for bathroom breaks? Sorry just curious.
Bear your soul and take control
If the wolves are howling outside your door
Invite them in and make them beg for more!
(Name that tune!)

Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #37 on: June 17, 2023, 12:56:37 am »
I have been wondering... what's a person to do for bathroom breaks? Sorry just curious.
It's okay. Basically you get a thing at Walmart called a camp toilet which is like a toilet seat and lid that plugs on over a standard 5 gallon bucket.
I'll let you figure out where things go from there.
The best thing to do is use a garbage bag to line your bucket for ease of cleaning.

EDIT: Additional - Standard practice out here is to bury your waste.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2023, 03:23:27 pm by Kay Alett »
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #38 on: December 11, 2023, 04:04:08 pm »
Sooooo much to tell everyone where do i begin?

Sorry about being gone but first I had to get my login info back. Thanks Weissman!

So back in September 1st I unfortunately lost everything I had. My tent, my transformers collection, my new stove, everything except for my car, phone and some solar panels and batteries.
(EDIT: I neglected to clarify that this was a flash flood that hit the whole Slabs and the nearby town of Niland)

I also very nearly drowned!

Just outside of my camp was a canal that i had been swimming in it was probably about 12 feet deep from the road to the very bottom of the canal. That entire thing was under a couple of feet of water.
I got caught by the current and washed into a line of trees. I could feel the current trying to pull me under the trees and I was having debris pile up against me.
With everything I had i pulled myself out screaming at myself "I have survived the desert! I have outlasted hurricanes and I will not be beaten by mere hedge and shrubbery!"

I got out only to be dragged by the current out of camp, through the driveway, across the road and over the canal to the opposite bank. I managed to grab some plant thing that was under the water but sticking out of the ground and kept myself from getting carried out into the wider desert.
I sat in that freezing current for about an hour or so just trying to ride it out. Once i started to feel the initial effects of hypothermia i swam against the current, back across the canal and clawed my way back to camp...

And that's when the real trouble was to come.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2023, 04:35:55 pm by Kay Alett »
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #39 on: December 11, 2023, 04:10:53 pm »
My neighbor kathy decided the very next day that she was going to leave the Slabs. Unfortunately the road was a fine mess of mud and quicksand so she called paramedics and they brought a helicopter into our camp. Telling me to watch her camp and her dogs.

She didn't come back. Because it turns out she called her son who came and got her and took her up north, leaving me here, alone, holding the bag and on the hook for all her stuff and dogs.

Since I was alone my other close neighbor, a guy named Tinman, started to steal stuff every time i left camp for food and water and with the road washed out no vehicles could get to me. So i just had to do what I could to keep the wolves from getting my stuff.

Once Tinman was done picking the bones of camp he threatened me with arson if i didn't get out...
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #40 on: December 11, 2023, 04:21:08 pm »
So i messaged as many people as I could, including Kathy who kept saying "I'm coming back soon" and then... didn't.
Managed to get help and got my car moved along with all of kathy's camp that hadn't been stolen yet.
The move was finished at the start of October and kathy was still saying she's coming back as soon as she has the money for a bus ticket.

So i call kathy's family to find out what is going on and I'm told that she's been lying to me about paying them rent, lying to me about not having money (sorta) because apparently had enough money to buy a blu rat player and a couple of sewing machines and lots of junk food, sodas, cartons of cigarettes and bags of candy. Just not enough for a bus ticket.

Kathy continuously lied to me about paying her family rent and lied to her family about paying me the money i spent to rescue her jeep and trailer and little travel trailer.
On top of all that she was being hostile to me about moving the camp, hostile to my new campmate Robert who was just trying to get her jeep key so he could move it behind his fence out of sight of scavengers, and kept saying "I'll be there next month" and making excuses for why she hasn't come back yet.
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #41 on: December 11, 2023, 04:31:42 pm »
So kathy finally came back last week and started raising cane the second her feet hit sand. I cleaned out her trailer of all her belongings and told hervin no uncertain terms that because of the way shes treated me, lied to me, left me here all by myself to the mercy of a merciless environment full of people that aren't trustworthy (she actually had the gall to tell me that Slab City is the safest place on earth as if that justified her) and left me looking after all her dogs for three months without so much as a thank you that i would be taking the house trailer for my own to live in.

She has all her belongings and she has setup a new camp elsewhere (although apparently she called police on some people who were harassing her because she decided to camp in a spot that was owned by a guy who just recently died and the cops ordered her to camp in a different spot). She's been back for only a few days and she's already telling lies to the people around her. Saying she just hot out of the hospital and she had to leave her son's house because he and his wife were abusing her and just generally talking smack about people who were trying to help her and only turned against her because of her own nasty attitude and constant lies.
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #42 on: December 11, 2023, 04:39:04 pm »
But things are settling down now. I'm in a new camp, away from thieves, away from the drama of kathy, I'm on the main road of Slab City and best part is i can now finally get deliveries from Amazon! Which means i can order food and water in bulk and it's cheaper.

I am still rebuilding my life though. All my stuff that i had is gone. My laptop. My transformers that I've been collecting for years. A stuffed animal doggy I've owned since I was 2. My last picture of my birth mom. All my clothes. My dresses. The flood even took my shoes and my wallet!

It's hard having to let all of that stuff go. I'll never get it back. But all i can do is move forward. The floodwaters took everything from me and tried to take even my life but i survived it.
I will survive this too.
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Offline Jade Sinapu

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #43 on: December 11, 2023, 08:00:43 pm »
I am dang near speechless!
Just... omg.
Bear your soul and take control
If the wolves are howling outside your door
Invite them in and make them beg for more!
(Name that tune!)

Offline Varg the wanderer

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #44 on: December 12, 2023, 03:23:01 pm »
But things are settling down now. I'm in a new camp, away from thieves, away from the drama of kathy, I'm on the main road of Slab City and best part is i can now finally get deliveries from Amazon! Which means i can order food and water in bulk and it's cheaper.

I am still rebuilding my life though. All my stuff that i had is gone. My laptop. My transformers that I've been collecting for years. A stuffed animal doggy I've owned since I was 2. My last picture of my birth mom. All my clothes. My dresses. The flood even took my shoes and my wallet!

It's hard having to let all of that stuff go. I'll never get it back. But all i can do is move forward. The floodwaters took everything from me and tried to take even my life but i survived it.
I will survive this too.

I wish I could mail you a hug. Loosing everything is really hard, especially without a network of close friends and family.

Since joining the local fire department I have seen several people loose everything they had. Houses reduced to rubble, homes becoming smoking holes, piles of charcoal and twisted metal. It is hard for all of them. One thing I have learned, though, is focus on the positive- which it seems like you are doing already. Your life was given to you as a gift, and it sounds like that despite the hardship you are now in a better place in part because of the trial you went through.

You are loved. Is there anything you need like durable food or stuff to cook with?
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #45 on: December 12, 2023, 03:55:04 pm »
Your life was given to you as a gift, and it sounds like that despite the hardship you are now in a better place in part because of the trial you went through.

You are loved. Is there anything you need like durable food or stuff to cook with?

You can look at it as a gift, personally I feel like I have my life because I fought for it. Nature tried her best to take me out of the game and I spat in her eye and told her that if she wanted to kill me she better put some real effort into it and stop wasting my time.

No, really, i shouted that straight up at the sky while i was hanging on the bank of the canal and getting pelted with hail and debris. Some folk have a can-do attitude. I have a F-U-attitude. You wanna kill me? Screw you, I'm not dying that easy. The sun has not yet risen on the day when i will face death graciously no matter how much I may look forward to my finale. I will bite, scratch, kick, and spit my last breath in its face.

As for things. I could use some replacement clothes. And a new Colman stove to cook on.
I'll be clear though. I am getting back to good already. I don't need donations or things like that but i will accept them.

I'll post my amazon wish list later along with my address where things can be sent. I'm not sure if I can take mail in donations cause the us post office doesn't deliver to the slabs but it can reach me if you use UPS or FedEx.

But again, I'm doing well and i don't require donations. I will accept them if you insist but you don't have to feel any kind of obligations. I am fine as in you don't have to worry about me.
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Offline Kay Alett

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Re: UPDATES ON ME
« Reply #46 on: December 12, 2023, 04:26:08 pm »
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/16L41YAWFO7LU?ref_=wl_share

These are only ideas. With my new location on the main road I decided to start buying in bulk because it's typically cheaper.
I also threw in some clothes.
Once again, no one should feel any obligation to donate to me. I am recovering fine.

Address anything to me at

Gary Snider Jr
668 NE Beal Rd.
Slab City
Niland, CA 92257

(I still haven't been able to legally change my name, i go by Kay)
If you can't get anything off that list and want to ship something from your home you will have to send by UPS or FedEx.
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