Eight Weekend Projects
Small, meaningful projects that leave you more capable from a weekend’s effort.
Resilience has a marketing problem. People picture a year of ‘prepping’, a $50k solar system, a bunker, a 10-year supply of toilet paper and rice… and they decide it’s not worth doing. But that’s not where you should be focusing your initial attention. Some of the most impactful things you can do right now cost little of your time and money.
The Crux Weekend: here’s a stack of two-hour projects that you can accomplish before the weekend is over, leaving you much better prepared for uncertainty than when you started. A clear, deliberate step towards cultivating capability and resilience.
1. Develop a family emergency plan
An evening · Free
The dividend. Knowing how to reconnect with family and friends in an emergency.
The hedge. In an earthquake you don’t get a week’s forecast. It hits. You have whatever is on hand. Your family is wherever they happen to be at that moment. Roads, power, cellular service could all be out in an instant. You may not be able to get home. What’s the backup plan?
Do this. Define a basic emergency plan that clearly defines 1) where to meet if you can’t get home, 2) a backup place outside the immediate area if the first choice is inaccessible, 3) evacuation routes with physical maps if you don’t know the route from memory, 4) written phone numbers and emails of who you are going to call, and when you are going to check in. Consider how your plan works if your phone is dead or lost, or cell service is out, or roads are out. Keep it simple, keep it backed up on paper in your ‘go-bag’ (see project 3).
Level up. Buy a portable shortwave radio ($150) and develop a listening plan: what frequencies are you going to listen to for updates within your personal network? Who do you know that has an Amateur Radio License (Ham)? Maybe it should be you.
2. Find and label your shutoffs
30 minutes · free
The dividend. When a pipe breaks at 2 a.m., you stop the flood in thirty seconds instead of wandering around in ankle-deep water looking for the valve. More importantly, after an earthquake, you can shut the gas off at the meter before a leak turns damage from the shaking into a fire or explosion.
The hedge. Burst pipes, a gas leak, an electrical fault.
Do this. Locate the water main, the gas shutoff, and the breaker panel. Tag each one. Hang the right wrench by the gas and water valves. Walk everyone in the household through it in case you aren’t around when an event occurs.
Level up. Add labeled photos to your family emergency plan so you don’t have to rely on memory years from now. In the middle of the night.
3. Pack a go-bag
An hour · use what you have
The dividend. You’ll never scramble for the charger, the meds, or the flashlight again.
The hedge. A fast evacuation when a fire or flood gives you fifteen minutes to grab and go.
Do this. One bag per person, by the door or in the car (not buried somewhere in the attic). Water, snacks, medications, a charger and battery pack, cash in small bills, a change of clothes, rain gear or cold weather gear if needed for your climate zone. Sun hat and sunscreen for areas with high temperatures. An LED flashlight. For a full guide, see the Go-Bag Build project on Crux-works.com.
Level up. Add a document kit, a copy of your family emergency plan, scans of IDs, insurance, and a copy of the deed, in the bag and in encrypted cloud storage.
4. Set aside two weeks of water
An afternoon · $30–60
The dividend. You don’t rely on getting to the store to haul cases home in a panic when there is a boil-water notice or a prolonged power outage affects your water supply (well-pump and municipal water both require power).
The hedge. Power outages that lead to well pump failure or municipal water disruption, contamination from floods, or the wildfire requiring a regional evacuation.
Do this. Plan one gallon per person per day. Have on-hand two weeks’ worth — for two people that’s 28 gallons, or six 5-gallon water jugs. Buy food-grade water jugs from the outdoor store, or buy cases and rotate them. Store cool and dark, and date them. If you’re on a well this matters more — no power means no pump.
Level up. A rain barrel or a gravity filter can stretch two weeks’ supply into two months. With a wrench to remove the drain plug and an inexpensive carbon filter your hot water tank can provide another 30-60 gallons of potable water.
5. Build a two-week food buffer
Two hours · a slightly larger normal grocery run, a few weeks in a row
The dividend. You’re never out of dinner, you make fewer last-minute store trips, and you quietly benefit from bulk buys on sale.
The hedge. Supply chain disruption from a regional shortage, a lean income stretch, the week a storm empties the shelves.
Do this. Two weeks of shelf-stable food that you actually eat, not fifty buckets of dried chickpeas that you’ll never eat. Buy a little extra of the usual, shelve oldest in front, then eat and replace. For a more complete guide, see the Projects section at crux-works.
Level up. Add a way to cook it without the grid: a camp stove and a full fuel canister.
6. Build a clean-air room
20 minutes · $60–100
The dividend. Allergy and smoke relief you’ll use most summers, and you’ll sleep better on bad-air nights.
The hedge. Wildfire smoke, which now reaches places that don’t even directly experience wildfires.
Do this. Tape four furnace filters and a box fan into a cube (a Corsi-Rosenthal box), or set a HEPA purifier sized to one room. Pick the room you sleep in. The full guide is at the crux-works resources tab or at edgecollective.io/airbox.
Level up. Check the weatherstripping on the room’s door and window gaps so clean air stays in and smoky air stays out.
7. Meet three neighbors
A weekend’s worth of hellos · free
The dividend. A friendlier street, a borrowed ladder, someone to water the plants. The richness that grows from not living among strangers.
The hedge. In any real emergency your neighbors are the actual first responders, and the block that knows each other well has the greatest resilience bench strength.
Do this. Take a walk. Introduce yourself to others walking or in their yards and learn their names. Make a goal to trade numbers with three households.
Level up. Start a short list of who has what nearby, a chainsaw, a generator, medical training, a truck.
Host something small. A BBQ does more for resilience than a chainsaw you’ve never operated in your garage.
8. Build a small power backup
Two hours to set up · $150 and up
The dividend. You charge phones and run a lamp anywhere, on a camping trip, a road trip, or the next outage, without giving it a thought.
The hedge. Grid failure, and the multi-day outage that keeps getting more common. Intentional utility power outages every time the weather’s dry and the wind blows (increasingly common utility risk mitigation after the Paradise fire).
Do this. Get a portable power station (a battery with outlets), sized to your basic essentials: phones, a light, a router, a CPAP or other medical device. Keep it charged, and know what it will and won’t run.
Level up. Add a folding solar panel so it recharges itself, or add a generator or battery bank big enough to power the refrigerator.
Extra Credit
This one may take a whole weekend, but it’s still low cost relative to the wildfire security you’ll be gaining…
9. Clear the five-foot ember zone
An afternoon · some rock mulch. Debris removal.
The dividend. A tidier, lower-maintenance perimeter and fewer pests working their way into the house.
The hedge. Most homes that burn are lost to wind-blown embers, not a wall of flame, and the first five feet surrounding your house can determine the outcome.
Do this. Move firewood, mulch, dead plants, and anything flammable at least five feet from the foundation, and clear it out from under the deck. Rake leaves from gutters and roof valleys. In that first zone, gravel or bare soil beats bark. Follow the Firewise guidelines shared on the Crux-works resources tab.
Level up. Screen your vents with fine metal mesh so embers can’t get inside.
Then do another
None of this is bunkers and beans in the dark. It’s a smoother life less susceptible to common disruptions. So pick a weekend and get it done, all at once or one per weekend. You’ll enjoy this newfound security. Capability is a muscle, and just like cascading failure, the dividend compounds. This time in a positive direction.
Full how-to guides for several of these live in the Projects section at crux-works.com. Not sure where to start? Take the free Resilience Snapshot for a clear picture of your biggest concerns and highest impact projects to take on next.