When you fall off down here into the South Texas Brush country to be an oil field gate guard the world as you know it changes. Stay down here long enough and you will be amazed when you venture back into the real world that everyone is not driving a white Ford F250 Super Duty.
I reckon me and Miss K have been down here and doin’ it long enough to offer up some advice about what kinda goods you might be needing to A) Survive and B) Make life a tad easier. It ain’t rocket science but you may very well find yourself in a remote location pretty danged far from the closest H.E.B.
This list of goods from Amazon is actual stuff me ‘n’ Little Blondie use day in and day out. I went back through my Amazon orders and picked out some of the most critical items and also some stuff that just plain improves our quality of life. Hey, you may not NEED it but at the same time; the item might be nice to have around. To my way of thinking, with the way things are going, I would rather have some tangible hard goods in lieu of a bank account stuffed with increasingly worthless American Dollar Bills. That is just me.
I always put in a disclaimer when I get to talkin’ about ordering from Amazon via the blog here. I support the blog and the Gate Guard Forums from revenue generated when you click on one of the blog links. I can tell you right now we ain’t getting rich by anybody’s count. Amazon kicks a few cents back to us for every item you order via one of my links. The cool part is they DON”T jack up your price to pay me. You pay the same whether you order through one of my links or not. Ol’ Jeff Bezos just has to come out of his pocket and split some of his Amazon profit with me, Miss K and Tuco the Dog. It is the American Way .
So just peruse the list of goods here and order some of ‘em up if they strike you just right. We sure would appreciate the patronage!
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One thing I can just about guarantee is that at some point you are gonna get so far back in the pucker brush that your cell phone signal fades to mostly nothin’. We have used the Wilson amplifiers for YEARS and they got the best equipment going. This particular set up will amplify AT&T and Verizon at the same time AND amplify cell phones and aircards without no attached wires. We are running the exact same setup here as the one pictured with the exception of the outside antenna. We use the Wilson Trucker. Made in America folks and their customer support is phenomenal.
I got two of these Wooster 16′ painter poles. One on the ass end of the Princess Palace with the Wilson Trucker antenna hose clamped to the top and the other pole on the nose of the Palace with a Gadsden flag fluttering from it. These are tough items and again — Made in America.
When the Old Girl was murdered by the big hails on Easter Sunday, we replaced her with the Princess Palace and I like the new digs just fine. One glaring omission equipment wise was a generator. There ain’t one in the Palace and that is bad juju. Regardless of how good your gate guard company is and regardless of how good their equipment is, everything mechanical breaks sooner or later. If it is 111 degrees outside and you are sitting in a tin can in the full sun, what happens when your generator quits? Been there and done that. This Yamaha is pricey but the best costs more. Buy Once – Cry Once. It will run everything in the Palace –with some judicious power shedding– except for the rooftop AC. I plan on getting a second Yamaha this spring. You can hook two together and run everything. This little jewel will run ten hours on a gallon of gas — a far cry from the Generac propane hog in the Old Girl. It is also quiet enough you can hear yourself think when it is running.
When the time changed this Spring. it took me most of a day to figure which buttons to push to set my watch ahead an hour. Heck, it was a good tough little watch with mucho bells and whistles but it aggravated my nature. I got this little solar powered ECOdrive and it has a stem you pull out to set the time and day and date. If you ask me, that is how it should be.
Want something Made in America that is as tough and as useful as it comes? Try some Lodge cast iron cook stuff. We use it on the stove, in the oven, on the grill and over open coals. Miss K made up some beef stew in the Dutch Oven this week that was damned tasty. I am fightin’ Tuco the Dog over leftovers every day.
I call what we are doing down here Industrial Boondocking being as how we are powered up by a generator 24/7 month in and month out. This is NOT your KOA RV park next to the river. I fret about our batteries — on the Palace and the vehicles. Batteries are expensive rascals and tend to let you down at the worst possible times. I try to take my best care of them. This solar panel and charger is hooked to some spare batteries I keep in the DTB for emergencies. It maintains them day in and day out with no fuss and no cost. The Battery Tender is used for the vehicles. I buy top of the line batteries folks and I am just NOT going to neglect them. Period.
I stash some extra fuel — both gas and diesel. These cans right here are the best of the best for doing that. They ain’t cheap and they also don’t have all the California nozzle crap on there that makes those plastic cans an exercise in madness when you TRY to use them. I like ‘em; yes I do. Make sure and get the steel nozzle made for these if you order some up.
When I went up to New Braunfels and picked up the Princess Palace, I just hooked her up to the big ass Suburban and headed south. It was white knuckle all the way. I had a Reese anti-sway weight distribution hitch on the enclosed car trailer I used to own and it was sweet. Got this one on the Princess Palace now. We just got back from an 800 mile round over Thanksgiving and it did its’ job. Disappoints me that all this steel is made in China but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I included the correct hitch ball for this outfit as well. Gotta have one with a slim nut.
Miss K is a wonderment in our trailer house kitchen. I am not the brightest bulb but I know the stuff she cooks up tastes GOOD! I indulge her hobby 100% plus what man doesn’t like to spoil his wife? The following items have Miss Kathy’s seal of approval.
A couple of items that get used on a fairly regular basis……
I like manly footwear. Big honkin’ leather boots and such. But big boots+mud+in/out a trailer 100x is bad as bad can get. This caliche mud sticks harder than white school paste and if you don’t take your shoes off when you go back inside the trailer house it gets ugly quick. When the monsoons hit South Texas I keep these funny little plastic shoes by the door and just slip ‘em on and off.
Reckon that oughta about do it. A few survival items, some man toys and some stuff to make the wife squeal.
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