As part of our preps, we've stocked up on canned cheeses available from Pleasent Hill Grain company (great company to do business with so far).
These cheeses have an 'indefinite' shelf life but projected is several years if not decades. This assumes you keep the cans cool and dry so they don't age faster or rust out. Remember, heat kills in your prepping.
We ordered both the Red Feather and the Bega and found them fairly similar in taste and texture. Think firm Velveeta cheese for the texture. A soft very mild flavor, not unlike that of say American cheese.
They make great grilled cheeses but aren't terribly robust for eating by theirselves. They melt very well and also work in omellettes, and potentially on say a pizza although you're not going to get a great pizza out of it.
But in a SHTF scenario, simply being able to make a pizza puts you several steps up above the common person in that situation.
So, highly recommended if you're looking to add some dairy to your prep stocks in the form of cheese.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Hornady AP Reloading - Followup
Just a quick follow up, if you're having problems with accuracy using the powder meter that shipping with your Hornaday AP progressive reloader then buy the pistol rotor for it. Accuracy went from +/- .4 grains to +/- .05 grains. It goes from being literally dangerous to being balls on accurate as a result.
Highly recommended update.
Highly recommended update.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Moooo.....?
In your long term, worst case scenario, have you given any thought to dairy products? And how you're going to replace your source when the, to make a bad pun, current source dries up?
Most of those early settlers took some way to produce dairy with them. For good reason. Dairy provides a bunch of vitamins we need, calcium we have to have for our children to grow tall and strong and it's fairly calorie dense and from it we get things like butter, buttermilk, cheese and cream.
This is an area that we personally haven't found a solution for, this post is merely to get you thinking about it as well.
As we think on it, after people's food supplies run low, things like cows and goats, our primary sources of milk are going to become so much BBQ. Very few people are going to starve while their cows walk around fat and sassy. They're going to get out the butcher knives and have some steak.
And long term unless they're dying of starvation, it's one of the worst things they can do with those animals.
We full envision there not being a dairy animal remaining for as far as the starving eye can see and the hungry feet roam.
Our hope is that eventually, such animals will be recovered from distant farms and free range lands once the immediate danger of them being eaten is past.
Otherwise you can expect your children to be small, have weak/brittle bones and in general be malnourished.
Just the calcium alone in milk is needed for -
Hormone and enzyme production
Muscle contractions
Heart function
Blood clotting
Bones and teeth
A lot of the above is because calcium, and potassium, are needed for proper nerve impulses which dictate things like contaction of muscles including your heart which is kind of an important muscle.
Things like Tums or similar ant-acids contain calcium in low dosages and have a pretty long self life, 5 years by the bottle and who knows how long in reality.
Laying in a stock of things that help replace what you're very likely to not have such as dairy products is something you should give serious consideration to.
Most of those early settlers took some way to produce dairy with them. For good reason. Dairy provides a bunch of vitamins we need, calcium we have to have for our children to grow tall and strong and it's fairly calorie dense and from it we get things like butter, buttermilk, cheese and cream.
This is an area that we personally haven't found a solution for, this post is merely to get you thinking about it as well.
As we think on it, after people's food supplies run low, things like cows and goats, our primary sources of milk are going to become so much BBQ. Very few people are going to starve while their cows walk around fat and sassy. They're going to get out the butcher knives and have some steak.
And long term unless they're dying of starvation, it's one of the worst things they can do with those animals.
We full envision there not being a dairy animal remaining for as far as the starving eye can see and the hungry feet roam.
Our hope is that eventually, such animals will be recovered from distant farms and free range lands once the immediate danger of them being eaten is past.
Otherwise you can expect your children to be small, have weak/brittle bones and in general be malnourished.
Just the calcium alone in milk is needed for -
Hormone and enzyme production
Muscle contractions
Heart function
Blood clotting
Bones and teeth
A lot of the above is because calcium, and potassium, are needed for proper nerve impulses which dictate things like contaction of muscles including your heart which is kind of an important muscle.
Things like Tums or similar ant-acids contain calcium in low dosages and have a pretty long self life, 5 years by the bottle and who knows how long in reality.
Laying in a stock of things that help replace what you're very likely to not have such as dairy products is something you should give serious consideration to.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Stack it high, stack it deep?
A recurring thread with preparing is guns, guns and more guns.
As you might expect we have a thought or two on that. Guns and other means to protect yourself are necessary, please don't believe they're not. When Rule of Law collapses, civility shows just how thin a veneer it really is and people's selfish "I Want That!" nature comes roaring back in full force.
A lot of preppers start with guns and while that's not necessary a bad thing in and of itself, do they stop with guns is a concern.
If all you have is a gun, then everyone else becomes a target when you're hungry, or your family is hungry. I don't know any parents personally that would watch their children starve to death if there was something they could do to prevent it, even things that they wouldn't dream of doing if it was simply themselves starving.
And yet there are preppers who have stockpiled thousands and thousands of rounds of ammo, guns of every size and shape and calibre. I constantly worry just how much food they have set aside. How much water. How many seed collections. Manual tools to plant those seeds and the skills and knowledge to do so.
From a realistic viewpoint everyone should consider just how many altercations that involve deadly force they honestly believe they'll survive. And that's assuming you can see the threat coming and prepare and react to it.
I've said it before and I'll repeat it again and again. I'm a better than average shot with a weapon, I have had a lot of practice with them for decades and have fired those thousands and thousands of rounds. I've particpated in hundreds upon hundreds of hours of simulated combat in multiple environments using paintball and airsoft style weapons.
If I were lacking in any moral depth and had no respect for human life or personal property, your stuff would be my stuff. You wouldn't hear the bullet that nailed you as you were out hoeing your garden, or filling your water jug, or just looking out your window.
And I stress again, any asshat with a decent rifle with a scope can take you down in this fashion. And in America there are millions of decent rifles, with scopes. They don't have to be a great shot, they just have put those crosshairs over your chest and squeeze the trigger. And your awesome tacticool rifles and pistols and shotguns are completely worthless.
So yes, I strongly believe, in the strongest possible terms, that you should have weapons to defend yourself or you should buy lottery tickets. Because your chances of winning the apocalypse without them is about as good as your chances of winning the lottery.
But don't stack it high and deep because your chances of ever needing those thousands of rounds and living to use them is about the same.
Additionally, don't be one of those people with 20 different weapons, all of which load differently, function differently, shoot different calibres and in general have to be learned 20 times over.
Buy multiples of the same weapons depending on your needs for your family or group. This drastically simplifies your training requirements and makes it easy for everyone to be familiar with them all.
One pistol, one shotgun, one rifle in standard common calibres for defense and a pistol/rifle in 22LR for hunting small game.
That's our thinking and our plan.
Please prep responsibly.
As you might expect we have a thought or two on that. Guns and other means to protect yourself are necessary, please don't believe they're not. When Rule of Law collapses, civility shows just how thin a veneer it really is and people's selfish "I Want That!" nature comes roaring back in full force.
A lot of preppers start with guns and while that's not necessary a bad thing in and of itself, do they stop with guns is a concern.
If all you have is a gun, then everyone else becomes a target when you're hungry, or your family is hungry. I don't know any parents personally that would watch their children starve to death if there was something they could do to prevent it, even things that they wouldn't dream of doing if it was simply themselves starving.
And yet there are preppers who have stockpiled thousands and thousands of rounds of ammo, guns of every size and shape and calibre. I constantly worry just how much food they have set aside. How much water. How many seed collections. Manual tools to plant those seeds and the skills and knowledge to do so.
From a realistic viewpoint everyone should consider just how many altercations that involve deadly force they honestly believe they'll survive. And that's assuming you can see the threat coming and prepare and react to it.
I've said it before and I'll repeat it again and again. I'm a better than average shot with a weapon, I have had a lot of practice with them for decades and have fired those thousands and thousands of rounds. I've particpated in hundreds upon hundreds of hours of simulated combat in multiple environments using paintball and airsoft style weapons.
If I were lacking in any moral depth and had no respect for human life or personal property, your stuff would be my stuff. You wouldn't hear the bullet that nailed you as you were out hoeing your garden, or filling your water jug, or just looking out your window.
And I stress again, any asshat with a decent rifle with a scope can take you down in this fashion. And in America there are millions of decent rifles, with scopes. They don't have to be a great shot, they just have put those crosshairs over your chest and squeeze the trigger. And your awesome tacticool rifles and pistols and shotguns are completely worthless.
So yes, I strongly believe, in the strongest possible terms, that you should have weapons to defend yourself or you should buy lottery tickets. Because your chances of winning the apocalypse without them is about as good as your chances of winning the lottery.
But don't stack it high and deep because your chances of ever needing those thousands of rounds and living to use them is about the same.
Additionally, don't be one of those people with 20 different weapons, all of which load differently, function differently, shoot different calibres and in general have to be learned 20 times over.
Buy multiples of the same weapons depending on your needs for your family or group. This drastically simplifies your training requirements and makes it easy for everyone to be familiar with them all.
One pistol, one shotgun, one rifle in standard common calibres for defense and a pistol/rifle in 22LR for hunting small game.
That's our thinking and our plan.
Please prep responsibly.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Future Farmers of Post Apocalypse America
Another thing to consider during a long term incident, something that lasts more than a few months, is how are you going to feed your children? Your family and friends? You may be thinking, 'to hell with them, they should have been smarter and prepared'. But when you're doing that, think back to the good old days as the settlers started pushing across the land of ours, single wagon families.
And how many just vanished without a trace as they encountered hazards. Everything from sickness to animals to maruaders.
We survive as a race by coming together and sharing the load and burdens of providing for ourselves.
20 people can raise a barn far far faster than 20x faster than a single person can raise a barn. And with significantly less danger of injury.
The same holds true for food as well. And long term sustainable food supplies are the reason for this particular post.
What do you plan on doing when your preps run out? Whether it's 3 months or 30 months. What are your plans?
Hopefully they include seeds. A #10 can of a variety of seeds, properly stored lasts years in your refridgerator or root cellar or just buried a few feet below ground where the temperature is lower. Even on a shelf in your closet you can expect to get a few years storage.
And that can of seeds holds the potential for a year's supply of food for you and your family.
Of course it's just potential if you don't have the knowledge, skills and tools to turn that potential into food and store it for the times when there is no food growing.
We have several such cans, from different vendors as a Just In Case measure. Do you want to risk your one can of seeds being bad for some reason? Or your two cans but from the same batch?
We also have part of our stock stored in alternate locations. If forced to bug out in a hurry it might be possible to get the seeds on the way out if we cannot get the ones at our primary location.
Of course bugging out with 3 days supply of food may render having seeds a moot point. But better some chance than no chance.
Another thing you're going to want is what are called heirloom seeds. The much more common hybrids are genetically modified or GMO crops are designed to grow well and produce but the seeds you get from such plants are like a bad xerox of a xerox of a xerox. They don't breed true and the resulting generations of plants are weaker and less productive.
So make sure your seed stock includes heirlooms, not hybrids. And in most cases you're going to want only a single type of each plant. Some plants like tomatoes are naturally resistent to cross contamination but if you plant multiple types of corn next to each other, your seeds are going to quite possibly be hybrids and not in a desireable form.
Places that we've purchased seed collections from include the below. The first link is the main web site which should remain viable as long as the company exists. The second link is a direct link to their seed collection which may die over time. If you get a 404 on the second link then try the first and just search around.
Augasonfarms.com - Seed Link
beprepared.com - Seed Link
mypatriotsupply.com - Seed Link
Another thing to remember is, just how do we store our seeds once they bloom to their full potential? That there is information enough for multiple posts but short answer is, we hope you have a pressure canner and canning pot, plenty (PLENTY) of canning jars, lids and rings.
Assume at least 1 quart jar per person per day and you won't be too bad off.
And how many just vanished without a trace as they encountered hazards. Everything from sickness to animals to maruaders.
We survive as a race by coming together and sharing the load and burdens of providing for ourselves.
20 people can raise a barn far far faster than 20x faster than a single person can raise a barn. And with significantly less danger of injury.
The same holds true for food as well. And long term sustainable food supplies are the reason for this particular post.
What do you plan on doing when your preps run out? Whether it's 3 months or 30 months. What are your plans?
Hopefully they include seeds. A #10 can of a variety of seeds, properly stored lasts years in your refridgerator or root cellar or just buried a few feet below ground where the temperature is lower. Even on a shelf in your closet you can expect to get a few years storage.
And that can of seeds holds the potential for a year's supply of food for you and your family.
Of course it's just potential if you don't have the knowledge, skills and tools to turn that potential into food and store it for the times when there is no food growing.
We have several such cans, from different vendors as a Just In Case measure. Do you want to risk your one can of seeds being bad for some reason? Or your two cans but from the same batch?
We also have part of our stock stored in alternate locations. If forced to bug out in a hurry it might be possible to get the seeds on the way out if we cannot get the ones at our primary location.
Of course bugging out with 3 days supply of food may render having seeds a moot point. But better some chance than no chance.
Another thing you're going to want is what are called heirloom seeds. The much more common hybrids are genetically modified or GMO crops are designed to grow well and produce but the seeds you get from such plants are like a bad xerox of a xerox of a xerox. They don't breed true and the resulting generations of plants are weaker and less productive.
So make sure your seed stock includes heirlooms, not hybrids. And in most cases you're going to want only a single type of each plant. Some plants like tomatoes are naturally resistent to cross contamination but if you plant multiple types of corn next to each other, your seeds are going to quite possibly be hybrids and not in a desireable form.
Places that we've purchased seed collections from include the below. The first link is the main web site which should remain viable as long as the company exists. The second link is a direct link to their seed collection which may die over time. If you get a 404 on the second link then try the first and just search around.
Augasonfarms.com - Seed Link
beprepared.com - Seed Link
mypatriotsupply.com - Seed Link
Another thing to remember is, just how do we store our seeds once they bloom to their full potential? That there is information enough for multiple posts but short answer is, we hope you have a pressure canner and canning pot, plenty (PLENTY) of canning jars, lids and rings.
Assume at least 1 quart jar per person per day and you won't be too bad off.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Every Cloud Has a....
Silver is often commented on in terms of preparing for an End of the world as we know It situation, especially those relating to hyper-inflaction or economic collapse.
We have some thoughts on that subject and in full disclosure we don't have any plans to keep silver around.
As we see it there are a few drawbacks if you're expecting to just buy everything with silver dimes or bullion.
We see a lot more benefit in using money that we might otherwise tie up into precious metals in increasing our stocks of the items that will keep us alive. In using it to increase our skills and knowledge of things that would allow us to be more self sufficient rather than hoping there is going to be an economy that's civilized enough to allow us to spend our dimes rather than just getting killed for them.
Your mileage may vary with this philosophy and if you want to invest some money into silver or other precious metals then by all means go ahead and we honestly wish you the very best luck and hope it works out for you.
And obviously if you've got all your preps line out such that you have the inventory, tools and skills to get through the first 18 months without needing to barter then by all means store up some silver. We're not saying it wont' be valuable to someone. But we do believe that a economy requires a certain degree of order, law and stability to support a non-barter system.
We have some thoughts on that subject and in full disclosure we don't have any plans to keep silver around.
As we see it there are a few drawbacks if you're expecting to just buy everything with silver dimes or bullion.
- Just how much can you afford to store up between now and whenever the 'event' occurs? If it's not a hugely significant amount then you're just daytrading penny stocks with the loose change in your couch. Sure it can be fun but it's just a tiny fraction of what you'll need to survive.
- How do you plan on making change with your silver dimes or do you expect everything to cost multiple silver dimes? If the latter just how many do you plan on having again?
- You can't eat silver. And if other people are like us, we're not going to be trading you food that will keep us alive for your inedible metal. Much less bullets that you might use against us or seeds that we'll need to insure our kids survive another year.
We see a lot more benefit in using money that we might otherwise tie up into precious metals in increasing our stocks of the items that will keep us alive. In using it to increase our skills and knowledge of things that would allow us to be more self sufficient rather than hoping there is going to be an economy that's civilized enough to allow us to spend our dimes rather than just getting killed for them.
Your mileage may vary with this philosophy and if you want to invest some money into silver or other precious metals then by all means go ahead and we honestly wish you the very best luck and hope it works out for you.
And obviously if you've got all your preps line out such that you have the inventory, tools and skills to get through the first 18 months without needing to barter then by all means store up some silver. We're not saying it wont' be valuable to someone. But we do believe that a economy requires a certain degree of order, law and stability to support a non-barter system.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Water predicament you've gotten us in!
Here are some links that you might find useful in terms of have ways to clean and purify questionable water.
http://shop.monolithic.com/products/just-water-ceramic-drip-filter
http://www.shared-source-initiative.com/biosand_filter/complete_biosand.html
http://en.howtopedia.org/wiki/How_to_Filter_Water_with_a_Sand_Filter?
http://www.cms-uk.org/GetInvolved/TheConcept/Construction/tabid/311/language/en-US/Default.aspx
The below comes from the Zombie Hunters web site and originally posted by navarre1095.
Link - http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50970
Disaster plan for water utility customers
Water is essential for survival. The ground trembling and shaking caused by earthquakes
can crack or break the lines that bring fresh water to your house. Trees that are uprooted
during severe storms can also pull mains right out of the ground! Stocking water reserves
and learning how to purify contaminated water should be among your top priorities in
preparing for a disaster. At the very minimum, you should store a 72 hour emergency
supply of water for each member of your family. Emergency officials estimate that you
should plan on being self sufficient for the first 72 hours following a major disaster. It is
highly recommended that you store at least a two week supply of water for each member
of your family. Since everyone's needs differ depending on age, physical condition,
activity, diet and climate, the amount of water you will need to store may vary from
official recommendations. A normally active individual needs to drink at least two quarts
of water each day. Hot weather can double that amount. Children, nursing mothers and
those ill of health will require more. You will also need additional water for food
preparation and hygiene purposes. Store water in thoroughly washed plastic, fiberglass
or enamel-lined metal containers. Don't use containers that can break, such as glass
bottles. Never use a container that has held toxic substances. Sound plastic containers,
such as soft drink bottles, are best. You can also purchase food-grade plastic buckets or
drums. Do not use plastic milk jugs! The plastic is brittle and the lids come off easily.
There is also the danger of not completely removing the milk residue which will become
a breeding ground for bacteria.
• Containers for water should be rinsed with a diluted bleach solution (one part
bleach to ten parts water) before use. Previously used bottles or other containers
may be contaminated with microbes or chemicals. Do not rely on untested devices
for decontaminating water.
• If your water is treated commercially the water utility, you do not need to treat
water before storing it. Additional treatments of treated public water will not
increase storage life.
• If you have a well or public water that has not been treated, follow the treatment
instructions provided by your public health service or water provider.
• If you suspect that your well may be contaminated, contact your local or state
health department or agriculture extension agent for specific advice.
• Seal your water containers tightly, label them and store them in a cool, dark place.
• Calendar a date six months from now to refresh your water supply. Drain old
water into the garden, clean out your container(s) and fill with fresh water.
[Hint: If you use two-liter soda pop bottles, you can store these under beds, in the
corners of closets, behind your sofa....think about this activity as a priority rather
than an inconvenience and you'll find many places where you can store your
emergency water.]
As a general rule store a total of one to three gallons of water per person, per day.
Emergency Water Sources
If a disaster catches you without a stored supply of clean water, you can use water in your
hot-water tank, in your plumbing and in ice cubes. As a last resort, you can use water in
the reservoir tank of your toilet (not the bowl), but purify it first. Swimming pools are
large resources for water. But contain toxic chemicals that are not fully removed by many
purifiers. Use swimming pools and water beds as sources of water for sanitation rather
than for drinking purposes. To use the water in your pipes, let air into the plumbing by
turning on the highest faucet in your house and draining the water from the lowest one.
To use the water in your hot water tank, be sure the electricity or gas is off, and open the
drain at the bottom of the tank. Start the water flowing by turning off the water intake
valve and turning on a hot water faucet. Do not turn on the gas or electricity when the
tank is empty.
As we stated before, should an earthquake or tornado strike this area, there is a good
chance that the mains carrying drinking water to your homes may be damaged. Water
quickly becomes a precious resource following many disasters. It is vital that all
household members learn how to shut off the water at the main house valve.
• Cracked lines may pollute the water supply to your house. It is wise to shut off
your water until you hear from authorities that it is safe for drinking.
• The effects of gravity may drain the water in your hot water heater and toilet
tanks unless you trap it in your house by shutting off the main house valve (not
the setter valve in the plastic box by the curb—this valve is extremely difficult to
turn and requires a special tool).
Preparing to Shut Off Water
• Locate the shut-off valve for the water line
that enters your house. It may look like the
sample pictured here.
• Make sure this valve can be completely shut
off. Your valve may be rusted open, or it
may only partially close. Replace it if
necessary.
• Label this valve with a tag for easy identification, and make sure all household
members know where it is located.
If you need to seek water outside your home, you can use these sources. But purify the
water before drinking it.
• Rainwater
• Streams, rivers and other moving bodies of water
• Ponds and lakes
• Natural springs
Avoid water with floating material, an odor or dark color.
Emergency Water Purification
Boiling Water Method
Boiling is the safest method of purifying water. Bring water to a rolling boil for 5
minutes, keeping in mind that some water will evaporate. Let the water cool before
drinking.
Boiled water will taste better if you put oxygen back into it by pouring it back and
forth between two containers. This will also improve the taste of stored water.
Chlorination Method
Chlorination uses unscented liquid chlorine bleach to kill microorganisms. Follow these
recommendations:
• For one quart water use 2 drops of unscented liquid chlorine bleach. If
water is cloudy, use 4 drops.
• For one gallon water use 8 drops of unscented liquid chlorine bleach. If
water is cloudy, use 16 drops.
• For 5 gallons water, use 1/2 teaspoon of unscented liquid chlorine
bleach. If water is cloudy, use 1 teaspoon.
• For 15 gallons water, use 1 1/4 teaspoons of unscented liquid chlorine
bleach. If water is cloudy, use 2 1/2 teaspoons.
• For 55 gallons water, use 4 1/2 teaspoons unscented liquid chlorine
bleach. If water is cloudy, use 3 Tablespoons bleach.
[Note: There are approximately 100 drops in a teaspoon}
Add unscented liquid chlorine bleach to the water, stir and let stand for 30 minutes. If the
water does not taste and smell of chorine at that point, add another dose and let stand
another 15 minutes.
If you do not have a dropper, use a spoon and a square ended strip of paper or thin cloth
about 1/4 inch by 2 inches. Put the strip in the spoon with an end hanging down about 1/2
inch below the scoop of the spoon. Place unscented liquid chlorine bleach in the spoon
and carefully tip it. Drops the size of those from a medicine dropper will drip off the end
of the strip.
Purification Tablets Method
In addition to having a bad odor or taste, contaminated water can contain microorganisms
that cause diseases such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis. You should
therefore purify all water of uncertain purity before using it for drinking, food preparation
or hygiene.
There are many ways to purify water at home. None are perfect. Often the best solution is
a combination of methods. Before purifying, let any suspended particles settle to the
bottom, or strain them through layers of paper towel or clean cloth.
Distillation Method
Distillation involves boiling water and then collecting the vapor that condenses back to
water. The condensed vapor will not include salt and other impurities. To distill, fill a pot
halfway with water. Tie a cup to the handle on the pot's lid so that the cup will hang right
side up when the lid is upside down (make sure the cup is not dangling into the water)
and boil the water for 20 minutes. The water that drips from the lid into the cup is
distilled.
http://shop.monolithic.com/products/just-water-ceramic-drip-filter
http://www.shared-source-initiative.com/biosand_filter/complete_biosand.html
http://en.howtopedia.org/wiki/How_to_Filter_Water_with_a_Sand_Filter?
http://www.cms-uk.org/GetInvolved/TheConcept/Construction/tabid/311/language/en-US/Default.aspx
The below comes from the Zombie Hunters web site and originally posted by navarre1095.
Link - http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50970
Disaster plan for water utility customers
Water is essential for survival. The ground trembling and shaking caused by earthquakes
can crack or break the lines that bring fresh water to your house. Trees that are uprooted
during severe storms can also pull mains right out of the ground! Stocking water reserves
and learning how to purify contaminated water should be among your top priorities in
preparing for a disaster. At the very minimum, you should store a 72 hour emergency
supply of water for each member of your family. Emergency officials estimate that you
should plan on being self sufficient for the first 72 hours following a major disaster. It is
highly recommended that you store at least a two week supply of water for each member
of your family. Since everyone's needs differ depending on age, physical condition,
activity, diet and climate, the amount of water you will need to store may vary from
official recommendations. A normally active individual needs to drink at least two quarts
of water each day. Hot weather can double that amount. Children, nursing mothers and
those ill of health will require more. You will also need additional water for food
preparation and hygiene purposes. Store water in thoroughly washed plastic, fiberglass
or enamel-lined metal containers. Don't use containers that can break, such as glass
bottles. Never use a container that has held toxic substances. Sound plastic containers,
such as soft drink bottles, are best. You can also purchase food-grade plastic buckets or
drums. Do not use plastic milk jugs! The plastic is brittle and the lids come off easily.
There is also the danger of not completely removing the milk residue which will become
a breeding ground for bacteria.
• Containers for water should be rinsed with a diluted bleach solution (one part
bleach to ten parts water) before use. Previously used bottles or other containers
may be contaminated with microbes or chemicals. Do not rely on untested devices
for decontaminating water.
• If your water is treated commercially the water utility, you do not need to treat
water before storing it. Additional treatments of treated public water will not
increase storage life.
• If you have a well or public water that has not been treated, follow the treatment
instructions provided by your public health service or water provider.
• If you suspect that your well may be contaminated, contact your local or state
health department or agriculture extension agent for specific advice.
• Seal your water containers tightly, label them and store them in a cool, dark place.
• Calendar a date six months from now to refresh your water supply. Drain old
water into the garden, clean out your container(s) and fill with fresh water.
[Hint: If you use two-liter soda pop bottles, you can store these under beds, in the
corners of closets, behind your sofa....think about this activity as a priority rather
than an inconvenience and you'll find many places where you can store your
emergency water.]
As a general rule store a total of one to three gallons of water per person, per day.
Emergency Water Sources
If a disaster catches you without a stored supply of clean water, you can use water in your
hot-water tank, in your plumbing and in ice cubes. As a last resort, you can use water in
the reservoir tank of your toilet (not the bowl), but purify it first. Swimming pools are
large resources for water. But contain toxic chemicals that are not fully removed by many
purifiers. Use swimming pools and water beds as sources of water for sanitation rather
than for drinking purposes. To use the water in your pipes, let air into the plumbing by
turning on the highest faucet in your house and draining the water from the lowest one.
To use the water in your hot water tank, be sure the electricity or gas is off, and open the
drain at the bottom of the tank. Start the water flowing by turning off the water intake
valve and turning on a hot water faucet. Do not turn on the gas or electricity when the
tank is empty.
As we stated before, should an earthquake or tornado strike this area, there is a good
chance that the mains carrying drinking water to your homes may be damaged. Water
quickly becomes a precious resource following many disasters. It is vital that all
household members learn how to shut off the water at the main house valve.
• Cracked lines may pollute the water supply to your house. It is wise to shut off
your water until you hear from authorities that it is safe for drinking.
• The effects of gravity may drain the water in your hot water heater and toilet
tanks unless you trap it in your house by shutting off the main house valve (not
the setter valve in the plastic box by the curb—this valve is extremely difficult to
turn and requires a special tool).
Preparing to Shut Off Water
• Locate the shut-off valve for the water line
that enters your house. It may look like the
sample pictured here.
• Make sure this valve can be completely shut
off. Your valve may be rusted open, or it
may only partially close. Replace it if
necessary.
• Label this valve with a tag for easy identification, and make sure all household
members know where it is located.
If you need to seek water outside your home, you can use these sources. But purify the
water before drinking it.
• Rainwater
• Streams, rivers and other moving bodies of water
• Ponds and lakes
• Natural springs
Avoid water with floating material, an odor or dark color.
Emergency Water Purification
Boiling Water Method
Boiling is the safest method of purifying water. Bring water to a rolling boil for 5
minutes, keeping in mind that some water will evaporate. Let the water cool before
drinking.
Boiled water will taste better if you put oxygen back into it by pouring it back and
forth between two containers. This will also improve the taste of stored water.
Chlorination Method
Chlorination uses unscented liquid chlorine bleach to kill microorganisms. Follow these
recommendations:
• For one quart water use 2 drops of unscented liquid chlorine bleach. If
water is cloudy, use 4 drops.
• For one gallon water use 8 drops of unscented liquid chlorine bleach. If
water is cloudy, use 16 drops.
• For 5 gallons water, use 1/2 teaspoon of unscented liquid chlorine
bleach. If water is cloudy, use 1 teaspoon.
• For 15 gallons water, use 1 1/4 teaspoons of unscented liquid chlorine
bleach. If water is cloudy, use 2 1/2 teaspoons.
• For 55 gallons water, use 4 1/2 teaspoons unscented liquid chlorine
bleach. If water is cloudy, use 3 Tablespoons bleach.
[Note: There are approximately 100 drops in a teaspoon}
Add unscented liquid chlorine bleach to the water, stir and let stand for 30 minutes. If the
water does not taste and smell of chorine at that point, add another dose and let stand
another 15 minutes.
If you do not have a dropper, use a spoon and a square ended strip of paper or thin cloth
about 1/4 inch by 2 inches. Put the strip in the spoon with an end hanging down about 1/2
inch below the scoop of the spoon. Place unscented liquid chlorine bleach in the spoon
and carefully tip it. Drops the size of those from a medicine dropper will drip off the end
of the strip.
Purification Tablets Method
In addition to having a bad odor or taste, contaminated water can contain microorganisms
that cause diseases such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis. You should
therefore purify all water of uncertain purity before using it for drinking, food preparation
or hygiene.
There are many ways to purify water at home. None are perfect. Often the best solution is
a combination of methods. Before purifying, let any suspended particles settle to the
bottom, or strain them through layers of paper towel or clean cloth.
Distillation Method
Distillation involves boiling water and then collecting the vapor that condenses back to
water. The condensed vapor will not include salt and other impurities. To distill, fill a pot
halfway with water. Tie a cup to the handle on the pot's lid so that the cup will hang right
side up when the lid is upside down (make sure the cup is not dangling into the water)
and boil the water for 20 minutes. The water that drips from the lid into the cup is
distilled.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Security
One thing that's we've considered and consider over and over again is what happens in a social collapse, temporary or longer term, when law gets tossed aside.
It always starts with the looting of "I need an upgrade" items. TV's, stereos, computers, etc as the tissue thin veneer of civilization is tossed aside as the fear of reprisal and punishment goes away.
And then people start to get hungry and thirsty...
Can you as a family protect yourself against a mob?
No, you cannot. Don't lie to yourself. Mob Rule is phrase for a reason. You're unlikely to be the Spartans holding back 10 to 1, 50 to 1, 100 to 1 odds. And remember what happened to them.
In any situation where violence rises, someone's going to get hurt. And in a situation where medical help is unlikely to be found, what are you going do to if it's you? If your child is on the ground with a lung punctured by a bullet? Your wife is bleeding out where a broken bottle cut into her neck?
Better to not get in that situation don't you think?
You can, with sufficient force and brutality, possibly disrupt a mob. Even cause it disperse. But then you have a whole lot of people who are pissed, afraid and coveting your stuff. And some of them are going to be fair shots with a weapon, all it really takes is one person who's a decent shot to wreak havoc with your carefully laid plans for laying low.
And depending on your situation, they're going to find you. Starving mobs of people are going to go door to door trying to find food and water, whatever they can find. And given the number of guns in this country, they're going to be armed. And hungry enough or having hungry enough people, wives, children, friends depending on them for their lives that the life of someone they don't know weighs less in the balance of their qualms at taking your stuff through force up to and including lethal force.
So what can you do? As best as we can determine you have three options, at least good options.
Option 1: Get lucky and overlooked. Be the mouse in the walls, the roach under the cabinet who only scurries out at night when there's no one around.
Cons: Luck is a fickle bitch and never to be depended on.
Option 2: Be part of the group big enough and strong enough, and well armed enough, that only the most and truely desperate will attempt to take what you have.
Cons: You have to share all your goods with those who didn't have the foresight to do so and thus potentially come out the worse for the bargain if you all end up starving to death before you can get a new source of food that doesn't include each other.
Option 3: Get you and yours so far away from anyone else that you vanish. This also requires a bit of luck to stay off the grid.
Cons: You're alone with your problems. Anything of a serious nature can wipe you out. Google pitcairn island for an example of this. And you have no defense at all from the guy with a rifle crouched down at the edge of your corn field as you're trying to plant it.
We'd ask that you consider these options as you stockpile your preperations and assume you're just going to close the door and be okay.
It always starts with the looting of "I need an upgrade" items. TV's, stereos, computers, etc as the tissue thin veneer of civilization is tossed aside as the fear of reprisal and punishment goes away.
And then people start to get hungry and thirsty...
Can you as a family protect yourself against a mob?
No, you cannot. Don't lie to yourself. Mob Rule is phrase for a reason. You're unlikely to be the Spartans holding back 10 to 1, 50 to 1, 100 to 1 odds. And remember what happened to them.
In any situation where violence rises, someone's going to get hurt. And in a situation where medical help is unlikely to be found, what are you going do to if it's you? If your child is on the ground with a lung punctured by a bullet? Your wife is bleeding out where a broken bottle cut into her neck?
Better to not get in that situation don't you think?
You can, with sufficient force and brutality, possibly disrupt a mob. Even cause it disperse. But then you have a whole lot of people who are pissed, afraid and coveting your stuff. And some of them are going to be fair shots with a weapon, all it really takes is one person who's a decent shot to wreak havoc with your carefully laid plans for laying low.
And depending on your situation, they're going to find you. Starving mobs of people are going to go door to door trying to find food and water, whatever they can find. And given the number of guns in this country, they're going to be armed. And hungry enough or having hungry enough people, wives, children, friends depending on them for their lives that the life of someone they don't know weighs less in the balance of their qualms at taking your stuff through force up to and including lethal force.
So what can you do? As best as we can determine you have three options, at least good options.
Option 1: Get lucky and overlooked. Be the mouse in the walls, the roach under the cabinet who only scurries out at night when there's no one around.
Cons: Luck is a fickle bitch and never to be depended on.
Option 2: Be part of the group big enough and strong enough, and well armed enough, that only the most and truely desperate will attempt to take what you have.
Cons: You have to share all your goods with those who didn't have the foresight to do so and thus potentially come out the worse for the bargain if you all end up starving to death before you can get a new source of food that doesn't include each other.
Option 3: Get you and yours so far away from anyone else that you vanish. This also requires a bit of luck to stay off the grid.
Cons: You're alone with your problems. Anything of a serious nature can wipe you out. Google pitcairn island for an example of this. And you have no defense at all from the guy with a rifle crouched down at the edge of your corn field as you're trying to plant it.
We'd ask that you consider these options as you stockpile your preperations and assume you're just going to close the door and be okay.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Fish Antibiotics Part II
Please do your own research in this area, we're not advising anyone to do this, only offering up our decision for entertainment value as they say to avoid potential lawsuit.
After much (very much) deliberation and research we've added fish anitbiotics to our prepping kit. We're going to vacuum seal them in mylar along with O2 absorbers (overkill hopefully since they're sealed in theory already) and stash them in the fridge and replace them within reason or while we can.
Some places now require a prescription from a vet before buying these. This may become the norm rather than the exception. Make your own decision as to when you should start buying these if you're going to.
We found post after post indicating that the fish products produced by Thomas Labs were identical to the ones produced by the same company for humans. Same shape, color of gel cap, pill mold, lettering and numbering and dosage sizes.
Given one of my children just had strep and required amoxicillian for it we felt that not laying in a supply of these antibiotics as a JIC measure where we were completely unable to recieve medical help long term that not having them could lead consequences that outweight the risks.
After more research I decided to go with the fishy equivilent of Amoxicillian, Ciprofloxacin, Ampicillin and Cephalexin. We're trying to focus on the ones that don't turn toxic with age.
Based on our research these have a longer shelf life than the expiration date and some like Cipro remain very viable out to 10 to 15 years based on governmental studies. Perfect for a prepper.
I really really really hope that I never under any circumstances have any need to see if antibiotics labeled not for human consumption work on humans. But I also really really really would hate to be watching someone burn up with infection without making some preperation to do something about it.
In addition to the biotics I've purchased a drug guide, a nurses guide and printed out all the information on these anit-biotics including what they're typically used for, dosages, side effects, complications and collisions with others.
Of course diagnosing the source of any given infection without years of medical school and practical experience is a shot in the dark at a distant target while someone's jabbing you with a sharp stick during an earthquake. Do you know the difference between an upper and lower GI infection? Do you know which biotic to use?
But sometimes you have to take the shot. Or at least get the rifle ready so you have the choice when that life or death shot comes up.
After much (very much) deliberation and research we've added fish anitbiotics to our prepping kit. We're going to vacuum seal them in mylar along with O2 absorbers (overkill hopefully since they're sealed in theory already) and stash them in the fridge and replace them within reason or while we can.
Some places now require a prescription from a vet before buying these. This may become the norm rather than the exception. Make your own decision as to when you should start buying these if you're going to.
We found post after post indicating that the fish products produced by Thomas Labs were identical to the ones produced by the same company for humans. Same shape, color of gel cap, pill mold, lettering and numbering and dosage sizes.
Given one of my children just had strep and required amoxicillian for it we felt that not laying in a supply of these antibiotics as a JIC measure where we were completely unable to recieve medical help long term that not having them could lead consequences that outweight the risks.
After more research I decided to go with the fishy equivilent of Amoxicillian, Ciprofloxacin, Ampicillin and Cephalexin. We're trying to focus on the ones that don't turn toxic with age.
Based on our research these have a longer shelf life than the expiration date and some like Cipro remain very viable out to 10 to 15 years based on governmental studies. Perfect for a prepper.
I really really really hope that I never under any circumstances have any need to see if antibiotics labeled not for human consumption work on humans. But I also really really really would hate to be watching someone burn up with infection without making some preperation to do something about it.
In addition to the biotics I've purchased a drug guide, a nurses guide and printed out all the information on these anit-biotics including what they're typically used for, dosages, side effects, complications and collisions with others.
Of course diagnosing the source of any given infection without years of medical school and practical experience is a shot in the dark at a distant target while someone's jabbing you with a sharp stick during an earthquake. Do you know the difference between an upper and lower GI infection? Do you know which biotic to use?
But sometimes you have to take the shot. Or at least get the rifle ready so you have the choice when that life or death shot comes up.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Reloading Ammo
One of the things we're doing is reloading ammo. This allows us to have the basic components of ammuntion without having to invest in any specific type. In some fantasy OMFG we're going to be without resources for a generation, this seems like a good plan.
The reality is, reloading your own ammunition allows you to either practice for less, or shoot more often for the same amount of money.
If you do your research you can find powders that work for both pistol and rifle and thus use them interchangeably. Research is a PITA though. There are far more bullets, primers and powders than most companies want to do the research for so reloading manuals have only at best a moderate listing of each for any given calibre.
Here are some links to help you though -
Hodgdon Powder provides data on quite possibly the broadest amount of data and does it for free on their site.
Yeah that's about it for free on the web that we've found.
You can also pick up reloading books by Lyman, Hornady, Speer, Hodgdon from places like Amazon.
I'd strongly advise printing out the data from the Hodgdon site AND picking up at least one reloading manual, two would be better. Remember, 3 is 2, 2 is 1, 1 is none. You don't want to 'guess that's right' with ammunition.
Depending on the calibre and the gun you can reload the ammuntion for far less than you can buy the finished product for retail. Smaller calibres, especially pistol, aren't as a big a savings, but larger pistol and most rifle are a lot cheaper to reload for.
We went with the Hornady Lock n Load Progressive reloading unit. We ended up getting it on Ebay because all the vendors were out of stock but got a good price on a NIB unit and free shipping. It comes with 'almost' everything you need. We chose it based on reviews and specifications. Your research might lead you to a different conclusion.
The cheapest online source we found, but out of stock, was at Natchez Shooters Supplies.
Some of the nice things about it are:
It's fast, in theory anyway. You can crank out a couple of hundred rounds an hour easy and if you're uber as many as 500 an hour.
5 positions on the turret which we have filled. Many others are four position only so you either must double up on one position or leave out a pretty important one like the Powder Cop die which gives you a visual indicator of how much powder you have in a cartridge.
You can go to a powder through expander die which apparently lets you both size the case at the same time that you put powder in it and thus recover one die position.
You can go with the base model which means for every cartridge you have to insert an empty shell manually into the starting position and a bullet into the almost completed shell. You can buy an automatic empty case feeder and eliminate that step. And as I understand it you can also buy a bullet seater that will drop a bullet into the case for you. All you have to do then is just pull the lever and keep your eye on the powder cop to make sure you don't over/under charge a bullet.
Some of the bad things and issues we ran into:
Out of the box the indexing was off, it wouldn't consistently index or rotate the shells into the correct position with each pull of the lever. Research on the web finally pointed me to the 'pawls' or the teeth that run along the index tray under the bottom of the unit. The left one was really loose and had apparently shifted during transit just enough to make it not work. With a little turn (actually a big turn because I didn't know what I was doing) it worked. What I actually did was think that the hex screw was supposed to hold the metal tooth looking thing in position. So I cranked it down. Now it didn't work at all. Well [bleep]. So I backed it back up a couple of turns and tested it and miracle of miracles I accidently hit the right spot with that ham fisted display of turning and go it set right to index. What had been a frustration was now indexing like a swiss clock.
You do NOT get a primer flipper tray. Seriously WTF? These things are just molded plastic that can't cost more than a couple of quarters to make. Why not include one with the $400 reloading kit?
The powder measure is wildly inconsistent, like a full grain off for me so far and when the acceptable range between minimum and maximum load for the powder we're using is 0.5 grains, that's ridiculously dangerous.
I've broken the thing down twice now and thouroughly cleaned it per the videos on youtube using the recommended product, Hornady One Shot to no avail. I can sometimes get a string of charges that are within 0.02 of each other. And then one will shoot up .5 grains or drop by .5 grains.
FYI you NEED a scale capable of weighing these small amounts. There are a number of them on the market specifically for this but in researching them, the mechanical beam scales, they all apparently suck since around 2009 or 2010. About the time they started being made in other countries. Check out the reviews on places like Midway USA. Great reviews up to around 09/10 and then consistently bad ones after that. After a lot of digging I eventually found some recommendations for a scale that's not designed specifically for weighing powder but rather gemstones.
Jennings Mack 20 scale.
It has a resolution of +/- 0.02 grains and is reasonably cheap. Like anything electronic it's subject to variance but by making sure that it's zeroed out for each weighing it's very repeatable. I keep a empty casing that weigh exactly 62 grains for testing loads. I weigh the cartridge to confirm we're on mark and then TARE it out to 0 and then fill the casing and weight it again to see how much powder is going in. I then dump the powder and at random weight the casing again to verify it goes back to 0.
I'm still looking for a good beam scale, the internets consensus is get something made by Ohaus scales in the USA from 5 or more years ago. So I'll be lurking on ebay for something like that. Digitial is great, as long as you have power to run it.
Work on the inconsistency is still pending. Armed with more internet knowledge I'm going to try the following:
Oddly though I've also found posts that say the meter doesn't work as well when it's less than 1/4 full. And with the baffle in place it's always going to be the equivilent of less than 1/4 full.
I'll follow up this post with the results of that.
I'd be remiss if I didn't include links to sources for cheap components based on my extensive research (we're cheap bastards) and after doing business with some -
Midway USA - Not the cheapest but they have stock on some stuff when no one else has and they're prices aren't the highest.
Powder Valley, Inc - Good cheap source of components. Recommended in several places by reloadings.
Natchez Shooters Supply - Fast shipping. The site mentioned by NutnFancy of youtube fame.
Graf & Sons - Also mentioned/recommended on several reloading forums.
Once Fired Brass (A subsidary of Tech Equipment Sales) - Fast cheap shipping, they use USPS with their 'if it fits, it ships' boxes. The brass was exceptionally clean and obviously tumbled to shiny state.
The reality is, reloading your own ammunition allows you to either practice for less, or shoot more often for the same amount of money.
If you do your research you can find powders that work for both pistol and rifle and thus use them interchangeably. Research is a PITA though. There are far more bullets, primers and powders than most companies want to do the research for so reloading manuals have only at best a moderate listing of each for any given calibre.
Here are some links to help you though -
Hodgdon Powder provides data on quite possibly the broadest amount of data and does it for free on their site.
Yeah that's about it for free on the web that we've found.
You can also pick up reloading books by Lyman, Hornady, Speer, Hodgdon from places like Amazon.
I'd strongly advise printing out the data from the Hodgdon site AND picking up at least one reloading manual, two would be better. Remember, 3 is 2, 2 is 1, 1 is none. You don't want to 'guess that's right' with ammunition.
Depending on the calibre and the gun you can reload the ammuntion for far less than you can buy the finished product for retail. Smaller calibres, especially pistol, aren't as a big a savings, but larger pistol and most rifle are a lot cheaper to reload for.
We went with the Hornady Lock n Load Progressive reloading unit. We ended up getting it on Ebay because all the vendors were out of stock but got a good price on a NIB unit and free shipping. It comes with 'almost' everything you need. We chose it based on reviews and specifications. Your research might lead you to a different conclusion.
The cheapest online source we found, but out of stock, was at Natchez Shooters Supplies.
Some of the nice things about it are:
It's fast, in theory anyway. You can crank out a couple of hundred rounds an hour easy and if you're uber as many as 500 an hour.
5 positions on the turret which we have filled. Many others are four position only so you either must double up on one position or leave out a pretty important one like the Powder Cop die which gives you a visual indicator of how much powder you have in a cartridge.
You can go to a powder through expander die which apparently lets you both size the case at the same time that you put powder in it and thus recover one die position.
You can go with the base model which means for every cartridge you have to insert an empty shell manually into the starting position and a bullet into the almost completed shell. You can buy an automatic empty case feeder and eliminate that step. And as I understand it you can also buy a bullet seater that will drop a bullet into the case for you. All you have to do then is just pull the lever and keep your eye on the powder cop to make sure you don't over/under charge a bullet.
Some of the bad things and issues we ran into:
Out of the box the indexing was off, it wouldn't consistently index or rotate the shells into the correct position with each pull of the lever. Research on the web finally pointed me to the 'pawls' or the teeth that run along the index tray under the bottom of the unit. The left one was really loose and had apparently shifted during transit just enough to make it not work. With a little turn (actually a big turn because I didn't know what I was doing) it worked. What I actually did was think that the hex screw was supposed to hold the metal tooth looking thing in position. So I cranked it down. Now it didn't work at all. Well [bleep]. So I backed it back up a couple of turns and tested it and miracle of miracles I accidently hit the right spot with that ham fisted display of turning and go it set right to index. What had been a frustration was now indexing like a swiss clock.
You do NOT get a primer flipper tray. Seriously WTF? These things are just molded plastic that can't cost more than a couple of quarters to make. Why not include one with the $400 reloading kit?
The powder measure is wildly inconsistent, like a full grain off for me so far and when the acceptable range between minimum and maximum load for the powder we're using is 0.5 grains, that's ridiculously dangerous.
I've broken the thing down twice now and thouroughly cleaned it per the videos on youtube using the recommended product, Hornady One Shot to no avail. I can sometimes get a string of charges that are within 0.02 of each other. And then one will shoot up .5 grains or drop by .5 grains.
FYI you NEED a scale capable of weighing these small amounts. There are a number of them on the market specifically for this but in researching them, the mechanical beam scales, they all apparently suck since around 2009 or 2010. About the time they started being made in other countries. Check out the reviews on places like Midway USA. Great reviews up to around 09/10 and then consistently bad ones after that. After a lot of digging I eventually found some recommendations for a scale that's not designed specifically for weighing powder but rather gemstones.
Jennings Mack 20 scale.
It has a resolution of +/- 0.02 grains and is reasonably cheap. Like anything electronic it's subject to variance but by making sure that it's zeroed out for each weighing it's very repeatable. I keep a empty casing that weigh exactly 62 grains for testing loads. I weigh the cartridge to confirm we're on mark and then TARE it out to 0 and then fill the casing and weight it again to see how much powder is going in. I then dump the powder and at random weight the casing again to verify it goes back to 0.
I'm still looking for a good beam scale, the internets consensus is get something made by Ohaus scales in the USA from 5 or more years ago. So I'll be lurking on ebay for something like that. Digitial is great, as long as you have power to run it.
Work on the inconsistency is still pending. Armed with more internet knowledge I'm going to try the following:
- Clean it for the third time.
- Rub the inside of the powder measure, top to bottom, with a anti-static dryer sheet.
- Spray it with graphite spray lube to make the powder less likely to stick.
- Insert the baffle that came with the press but without any instructions or indication as to what it was for. It's just a oval piece of metal that's bent in the middle and apparently it goes inside the powder measure with the hump at the top. This prevents the weight of the powder from changing the pressure as the powder goes into the charging meter.
Oddly though I've also found posts that say the meter doesn't work as well when it's less than 1/4 full. And with the baffle in place it's always going to be the equivilent of less than 1/4 full.
I'll follow up this post with the results of that.
I'd be remiss if I didn't include links to sources for cheap components based on my extensive research (we're cheap bastards) and after doing business with some -
Midway USA - Not the cheapest but they have stock on some stuff when no one else has and they're prices aren't the highest.
Powder Valley, Inc - Good cheap source of components. Recommended in several places by reloadings.
Natchez Shooters Supply - Fast shipping. The site mentioned by NutnFancy of youtube fame.
Graf & Sons - Also mentioned/recommended on several reloading forums.
Once Fired Brass (A subsidary of Tech Equipment Sales) - Fast cheap shipping, they use USPS with their 'if it fits, it ships' boxes. The brass was exceptionally clean and obviously tumbled to shiny state.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Why Prep?
For us the reason to prep is quite simple. We have house insurance down to and including earthquake insurance (yes we have them, just not like in cali). We have car insurance including uninsured motorist. Life insurance, health insurance.
And with prepping we have society insurance.
And you know what the best thing is about having society insurance, if you plan it right you pay for it once and re-up every few years for a minimal fee.
Once you've got your year+ food supply cached away using 30+ year foods and storage methods you're done with food prep unless you just want to add some variety to it over time.
Once you've got your water supply set up, you're mostly done with it. Just purge it every few years and refill it to insure you have sweet water. And luckily, in this country right now, you can store 50 gallons away for a few pennies.
Once you've got your bug out bags set up? You're mostly done. Just swap out your food preps in the BoB every 5 years give or take to make sure they're tasty and nutritious.
Once you've got your means of protection (and please don't be so naive as to think you won't need it or so stupid as to think using it is your food prep) you're done. Modern weapons and ammo properly stored lasts a life time.
Once you've got your alternate energy prep's stored away? Done.
There's no recurring monthly bill like you have with every other type of insurance.
And the best part of society insurance? It's not ever truly wasted. If you one day decide that the world has no chance of ending, no pandemic, war, hyper inflation, solar flare, super volcano, world storm, alien invasion, whatever your end of the world flavor might be, you can sell your preps, eat the food and use the water to wash your car.
And quite likely by that point the year of eating that food you'll save a ton of money. Our food preps have cost us about $2000 to provide over a years worth of food for our family. That's less than we spend normally. And we've locked that price in. No matter how much food prices continue to go up, we can avoid a years worth of high prices at some point if we need it.
And with prepping we have society insurance.
And you know what the best thing is about having society insurance, if you plan it right you pay for it once and re-up every few years for a minimal fee.
Once you've got your year+ food supply cached away using 30+ year foods and storage methods you're done with food prep unless you just want to add some variety to it over time.
Once you've got your water supply set up, you're mostly done with it. Just purge it every few years and refill it to insure you have sweet water. And luckily, in this country right now, you can store 50 gallons away for a few pennies.
Once you've got your bug out bags set up? You're mostly done. Just swap out your food preps in the BoB every 5 years give or take to make sure they're tasty and nutritious.
Once you've got your means of protection (and please don't be so naive as to think you won't need it or so stupid as to think using it is your food prep) you're done. Modern weapons and ammo properly stored lasts a life time.
Once you've got your alternate energy prep's stored away? Done.
There's no recurring monthly bill like you have with every other type of insurance.
And the best part of society insurance? It's not ever truly wasted. If you one day decide that the world has no chance of ending, no pandemic, war, hyper inflation, solar flare, super volcano, world storm, alien invasion, whatever your end of the world flavor might be, you can sell your preps, eat the food and use the water to wash your car.
And quite likely by that point the year of eating that food you'll save a ton of money. Our food preps have cost us about $2000 to provide over a years worth of food for our family. That's less than we spend normally. And we've locked that price in. No matter how much food prices continue to go up, we can avoid a years worth of high prices at some point if we need it.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Shelf Life
Remember, properly stored rice, wheat, oats, beans will last longer than anyone prepping will likely live and still be nutritious.
By properly stored, the items have to be repackaged into food safe containers, preferably sealed in mylar to block light which degrades the items and then the oxygen needs to be removed or reduced.
You can remove the oxygen in several ways, the easiest by far is to use O2 absorbing packages which are pretty cheap and readily availalbe. Go overkill with them. Why risk 30 pounds of wheat by trying to save 25 cents by putting in one less O2 absorber.
When we repackage our food into 5 gallon food grade buckets, NOT buckets with just HDPE #2 on them but ones guarenteed food grade, take the recommendation on O2 absorbers which knowing the market like I do are overkill to sell more product and then add 20% more in absorbtion quality.
If 4 500cc O2 packages are recommended for a 5 gallon bucket of wheat or rice, I put in 5. At what I pay for them, that's 25 cents more per bucket. Do you really want to risk opening that bucket of rice 10 years (or next month) down the road and find it filled with dead weevils and egg husks and no wheat because you cheaped out on a quarter?
Those #10 cans of dehydrated foods, packed with 02 absorbers or nitrogen flushed, there are numerous reports o them being opened 10, 20 even 30 years later and being perfectly good and just as tasty as they were the day they were canned.
Just like you pay house, care, life, health insurance, pay a little here and there and set up society insurance. Just like the others, it's hopefully wasted money, but those times it turns out to not be wasted, there is no substitue.
By properly stored, the items have to be repackaged into food safe containers, preferably sealed in mylar to block light which degrades the items and then the oxygen needs to be removed or reduced.
You can remove the oxygen in several ways, the easiest by far is to use O2 absorbing packages which are pretty cheap and readily availalbe. Go overkill with them. Why risk 30 pounds of wheat by trying to save 25 cents by putting in one less O2 absorber.
When we repackage our food into 5 gallon food grade buckets, NOT buckets with just HDPE #2 on them but ones guarenteed food grade, take the recommendation on O2 absorbers which knowing the market like I do are overkill to sell more product and then add 20% more in absorbtion quality.
If 4 500cc O2 packages are recommended for a 5 gallon bucket of wheat or rice, I put in 5. At what I pay for them, that's 25 cents more per bucket. Do you really want to risk opening that bucket of rice 10 years (or next month) down the road and find it filled with dead weevils and egg husks and no wheat because you cheaped out on a quarter?
Those #10 cans of dehydrated foods, packed with 02 absorbers or nitrogen flushed, there are numerous reports o them being opened 10, 20 even 30 years later and being perfectly good and just as tasty as they were the day they were canned.
Just like you pay house, care, life, health insurance, pay a little here and there and set up society insurance. Just like the others, it's hopefully wasted money, but those times it turns out to not be wasted, there is no substitue.
Balanced Diet after SHTF
One thing to be concerned with after any situation where regular meals may be up to you and what you have stored or can gather.
In a side note, for those who are depending on being able to hunt for meat, please take a look around, our country doesn't have the animal life it once had in terms of supporting people. Heck I'd go so far as to say our world doesn't. Watch Survivorman and see how much food a highly trained, experienced and practiced survivor finds when dropped down in the middle of nowhere. The take-away is notice how often he goes hungry. Now make that one guy a couple, or a family of 4, or two families of 8 or a group of 20. How far is that one snake, handful of edible grass gong to go with that many people?
So back on topic, one of the things that those of you who are stockpiling grain, honey and salt should also consider is the human body requires a lot of amino acids to function properly on top of all the vitamin'y and mineral'y things we need.
Some of those amino acids can typically only be found in meat, honest to goodness animal flesh.
You're also at risk of malnutrition thanks to a deficiency of B12, Iron, D, Calcium, Iodine and Omega-3 fatty acids.
Wikipedia outlines some of the problems with lacks of these things and where they can lead -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarian_nutrition
As a result, stock up on your multi-vitamins, yes I know the old saw about American's having the most expensive urine in the world thanks to their taking multi-vitamins and not processing them but I'd rather piss out 50% of a multi-vitamin than be deficient in B12 and have unrecoverable nerve generation.
Also plan on growing some nut trees. And get started on those now, nature isn't in any rush to provide you with food. And toss in a 25lb bag of iodized salt in your kit, it costs nothing or next to nothing and a litle goes a long way.
In a side note, for those who are depending on being able to hunt for meat, please take a look around, our country doesn't have the animal life it once had in terms of supporting people. Heck I'd go so far as to say our world doesn't. Watch Survivorman and see how much food a highly trained, experienced and practiced survivor finds when dropped down in the middle of nowhere. The take-away is notice how often he goes hungry. Now make that one guy a couple, or a family of 4, or two families of 8 or a group of 20. How far is that one snake, handful of edible grass gong to go with that many people?
So back on topic, one of the things that those of you who are stockpiling grain, honey and salt should also consider is the human body requires a lot of amino acids to function properly on top of all the vitamin'y and mineral'y things we need.
Some of those amino acids can typically only be found in meat, honest to goodness animal flesh.
You're also at risk of malnutrition thanks to a deficiency of B12, Iron, D, Calcium, Iodine and Omega-3 fatty acids.
Wikipedia outlines some of the problems with lacks of these things and where they can lead -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarian_nutrition
As a result, stock up on your multi-vitamins, yes I know the old saw about American's having the most expensive urine in the world thanks to their taking multi-vitamins and not processing them but I'd rather piss out 50% of a multi-vitamin than be deficient in B12 and have unrecoverable nerve generation.
Also plan on growing some nut trees. And get started on those now, nature isn't in any rush to provide you with food. And toss in a 25lb bag of iodized salt in your kit, it costs nothing or next to nothing and a litle goes a long way.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Fish Antibiotics
If you've ever had a sick child with strep or anything really and noted how quickly antibiotics tames such a infection, and if you're a prepper and wondered what you'd do after something might happen that might block or delay proper medical care then perhaps your fish might be something to consider.
Fish apparently take the same antibiotics that people do. The question is are they as pure? Are the binders toxic to people?
After doing some research apparently a lot of people, who purport to be medically trained, say maybe. Now I could tell you I'm a anything from a EMT to a pharamicist to a GP. You have no way of verifying that. (I'm not). Much like you have no way of verifying most anything you read on the web.
But based on my research am I going to add some fish biotics to our hope chest? Yes, yes I am. I'm going to do as much research as I can to try and insure I get the best quality such items that I can but in a situation where it's either watch someone die or suffer brain/organ damage from extreme fevers or risk giving them anitbiotics made for fish then I'm going to likely fall down on the fish.
I strongly advise you to do your own research and I under no cirucmstances say that my decision should influence yours. I merely offer this information up for edutainment purposes and any harm you suffer is your responsibility.
I offer up these links as a way to get you started with that research and remember as part of that research you need to document which antibiotic functions with what type of infection. They are not a magic bullet, one type can be worthless when treating any given infection.
We don't endorse or recommend any of these but provide them for comparisons only. Again, do your research.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r97xoSOEjM
http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/07/a_doctors_thoughts_on_antibiot.html
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/hp.asp
http://www.lambertvetsupply.com/Categories.aspx?id=3649
http://www.medi-vet.com/fish.aspx
http://www.rxlist.com/drugs/alpha_a.htm
http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/index.html
Fish apparently take the same antibiotics that people do. The question is are they as pure? Are the binders toxic to people?
After doing some research apparently a lot of people, who purport to be medically trained, say maybe. Now I could tell you I'm a anything from a EMT to a pharamicist to a GP. You have no way of verifying that. (I'm not). Much like you have no way of verifying most anything you read on the web.
But based on my research am I going to add some fish biotics to our hope chest? Yes, yes I am. I'm going to do as much research as I can to try and insure I get the best quality such items that I can but in a situation where it's either watch someone die or suffer brain/organ damage from extreme fevers or risk giving them anitbiotics made for fish then I'm going to likely fall down on the fish.
I strongly advise you to do your own research and I under no cirucmstances say that my decision should influence yours. I merely offer this information up for edutainment purposes and any harm you suffer is your responsibility.
I offer up these links as a way to get you started with that research and remember as part of that research you need to document which antibiotic functions with what type of infection. They are not a magic bullet, one type can be worthless when treating any given infection.
We don't endorse or recommend any of these but provide them for comparisons only. Again, do your research.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r97xoSOEjM
http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/07/a_doctors_thoughts_on_antibiot.html
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/hp.asp
http://www.lambertvetsupply.com/Categories.aspx?id=3649
http://www.medi-vet.com/fish.aspx
http://www.rxlist.com/drugs/alpha_a.htm
http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/index.html
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Ruger 10/22
I won't go into a lot of depth here on the Ruger 10/22. It's been around for decades and is still just as good as it ever was.
I will though detail my experiences with the one I currently own.
It's the standard carbine model with the front barrel band. i.e. the cheap version you can pick up for under $200.
Accuracy was all I could ask of it. Offhand standing position with iron sights I was able to shoot a 1.5" group at 20 yards with 10 rounds. For a 22 I can't really ask more than that. The sights were spot on, no adjustment necessary.
One thing I didn't like about this particular weapon is several FTF or failure to feeds. In most cases racking the slide enabled the partially chambered round to chamber correctly. In some cases it didn't and I had to eject the magazine and tip the case out of the weapon. In these cases it had a serious dent in the side of the casing.
Granted I was using cheap-o bulk ammo, the kind sold in bricks of 350 to 500 rounds. It also was the weapons first trip to the range and I specifically didn't do anything to it in order to get the 'out of box' experience.
Also granted, this weapon's reliability while of some concern is hopefully never going to need to be used in a situation where relibility might mean life or death. A .22 long rifle is for shooting targets and hunting small game. It is not designed for or very capable of anything more in the hands of the vast majority of people. It 'can' do some of the things a larger calibre can do on a OMG can you believe that? basis but please do not bet your life or the lives of your family on it.
I am going to order a stock with a collapsible butt stock though, as is the weapon is just a little too long for the children.
The younger boys took a couple of magazines before they were able to get on paper with reasonable chance of success at 20 yards but my oldest son did surprisingly well his first attempt with the rifle, getting roughly half his magazine on paper, a splatter zombie rat for the fun of it.
His second magazine he was going for head shots and had a decent sized group about a couple of inches above the head. Perhaps evetnually a DMR AR-15 is in his future.
I will though detail my experiences with the one I currently own.
It's the standard carbine model with the front barrel band. i.e. the cheap version you can pick up for under $200.
Accuracy was all I could ask of it. Offhand standing position with iron sights I was able to shoot a 1.5" group at 20 yards with 10 rounds. For a 22 I can't really ask more than that. The sights were spot on, no adjustment necessary.
One thing I didn't like about this particular weapon is several FTF or failure to feeds. In most cases racking the slide enabled the partially chambered round to chamber correctly. In some cases it didn't and I had to eject the magazine and tip the case out of the weapon. In these cases it had a serious dent in the side of the casing.
Granted I was using cheap-o bulk ammo, the kind sold in bricks of 350 to 500 rounds. It also was the weapons first trip to the range and I specifically didn't do anything to it in order to get the 'out of box' experience.
Also granted, this weapon's reliability while of some concern is hopefully never going to need to be used in a situation where relibility might mean life or death. A .22 long rifle is for shooting targets and hunting small game. It is not designed for or very capable of anything more in the hands of the vast majority of people. It 'can' do some of the things a larger calibre can do on a OMG can you believe that? basis but please do not bet your life or the lives of your family on it.
I am going to order a stock with a collapsible butt stock though, as is the weapon is just a little too long for the children.
The younger boys took a couple of magazines before they were able to get on paper with reasonable chance of success at 20 yards but my oldest son did surprisingly well his first attempt with the rifle, getting roughly half his magazine on paper, a splatter zombie rat for the fun of it.
His second magazine he was going for head shots and had a decent sized group about a couple of inches above the head. Perhaps evetnually a DMR AR-15 is in his future.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Review: Groats from Honeyville Grains
We tried the groats or steel cut oats from Honeyville Grains the other day. We put them in a bowl using 1 cup of groats for 4 cups of water and then put that in our slow cooker on low and let them cook overnight.
These oats don't look anything like those mashed flat oats you may be used to in the round boxes with the quaker guy on the label. They look a lot more like tabouli or pastina or perhaps the crumbs left over in a bag of granola?
In a word they were awesome with a little brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. So much better than instant or 5 minute oats there was no comparison.
FYI brown sugar, stored in moisture proof containers (i.e. heat sealed mylar bags) has a shelf life of 'indefinite'. Bag up some and store it with your preps along with some powdered butter and sticks of whole cinnamon. It'll go a long way toward making eating from your preperation foods enjoyable and not just a source of calories.
The cinnamon isn't indefinite but after using powdered cinnamon of over 4 years in age that was just 'stored' in its off the grocery shelf container in the back of the spice cabinet, I think storing the stick kind in a bag with O2 absorbers to prevent oxidation and loss of oils should last for many years and still be able to add a little flavor to your meals.
These oats don't look anything like those mashed flat oats you may be used to in the round boxes with the quaker guy on the label. They look a lot more like tabouli or pastina or perhaps the crumbs left over in a bag of granola?
In a word they were awesome with a little brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. So much better than instant or 5 minute oats there was no comparison.
FYI brown sugar, stored in moisture proof containers (i.e. heat sealed mylar bags) has a shelf life of 'indefinite'. Bag up some and store it with your preps along with some powdered butter and sticks of whole cinnamon. It'll go a long way toward making eating from your preperation foods enjoyable and not just a source of calories.
The cinnamon isn't indefinite but after using powdered cinnamon of over 4 years in age that was just 'stored' in its off the grocery shelf container in the back of the spice cabinet, I think storing the stick kind in a bag with O2 absorbers to prevent oxidation and loss of oils should last for many years and still be able to add a little flavor to your meals.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Review: Palmetto State Armoury - AR 15
Finally got around to putting the AR-15 kit I bought from Palmetto State Armoury together. Assembly was pretty easy, there are a lot of tutorials available on the internets for this purpose, you do NOT get any assembly information with the kit.
The hardest parts was going "hmmm I think these are the right springs" and not being 100% sure but really the springs are in such quantities that they do make sense for where they go.
The front pivot pin was, as is mentioned in most videos and tutorials, the worst one to deal with. I did manage to send the pin and spring flying but luckily my ears are good enough that I heard where both pieces landed. I strong, strongly, advise that you drape a sheet over the weapon and your self when you do this piece if you have any concerns about losing the parts. Trying to find a tiny detent pen that's about a 1/16 of an inch across and a 1/4 inch long is not fun even when you know where it landed.
Other than that it assembled easily.
Quality of work was good for everything. The only questionable bit that I had was the trigger and hammer pins do not have anything holding them in place other than the pressure of said trigger and hammer springs. Some kits drill and tap these pins and provide a connecting bar that you screw into both sides which makes it impossible for the pins to come out.
Given there's no sideways pressure on the pins I don't think it's a concern but it is the one con of the PSA lower kit that I can dock them a point for compared to other lower parts kits.
I mounted a Vortex StrikeFire red dot sight on the rifle which does cowitness perfectly with the MBUS rear and standard AR-15 front sights. I'm considering swapping out the front sight/gas block with a railed gas block to allow for MBUS pop up front sights as well but it's certainly not required.
We went to the range yesterday, primarily to let the wife and kids shoot the Glocks and Ruger 22's but also to put a few rounds through the AR.
I put 100 rounds of mixed bulk ammo through it (the $5-$6 a box) stuff. It ate them all without a single hiccup.
I forgot my target stand though, a basic steel frame with clips. I have a wooden break down target stand that supports multiple targets that I use for pistol shooting (don't have to carry it very far) but didn't want to set it up just for some break in shots.
As a resuilt I just picked a obvious target in the berm at the end of the rifle range, roughly 200 yards away. Using the StrikeFire I was easily able to put all 100 rounds into an area the size of a human torso using a standing off hand position. I can't tell you a specific group size since I didn't paper it, just watched the dust eruptions from the impacts but accuracy was more than acceptable given I wasn't benching the weapon and using the cheapest FMJ ammo I could find.
Let me also state this was without ANY sight adjustment at all. Just bolt on and go. POI was roughly a 1' low of POA at the distance I was shooting. Windage was spot on.
I'm at this point satisfied with the purchase and it'll do what I want it to do, which is hit a deer sized target at 200 yards with a good degree of repeatability. Around here, 200 yards would be a very long deer shot for what it's worth.
Once I get a chance to paper it I'll post a more accurate measurement of the weapons accuracy.
The hardest parts was going "hmmm I think these are the right springs" and not being 100% sure but really the springs are in such quantities that they do make sense for where they go.
The front pivot pin was, as is mentioned in most videos and tutorials, the worst one to deal with. I did manage to send the pin and spring flying but luckily my ears are good enough that I heard where both pieces landed. I strong, strongly, advise that you drape a sheet over the weapon and your self when you do this piece if you have any concerns about losing the parts. Trying to find a tiny detent pen that's about a 1/16 of an inch across and a 1/4 inch long is not fun even when you know where it landed.
Other than that it assembled easily.
Quality of work was good for everything. The only questionable bit that I had was the trigger and hammer pins do not have anything holding them in place other than the pressure of said trigger and hammer springs. Some kits drill and tap these pins and provide a connecting bar that you screw into both sides which makes it impossible for the pins to come out.
Given there's no sideways pressure on the pins I don't think it's a concern but it is the one con of the PSA lower kit that I can dock them a point for compared to other lower parts kits.
I mounted a Vortex StrikeFire red dot sight on the rifle which does cowitness perfectly with the MBUS rear and standard AR-15 front sights. I'm considering swapping out the front sight/gas block with a railed gas block to allow for MBUS pop up front sights as well but it's certainly not required.
We went to the range yesterday, primarily to let the wife and kids shoot the Glocks and Ruger 22's but also to put a few rounds through the AR.
I put 100 rounds of mixed bulk ammo through it (the $5-$6 a box) stuff. It ate them all without a single hiccup.
I forgot my target stand though, a basic steel frame with clips. I have a wooden break down target stand that supports multiple targets that I use for pistol shooting (don't have to carry it very far) but didn't want to set it up just for some break in shots.
As a resuilt I just picked a obvious target in the berm at the end of the rifle range, roughly 200 yards away. Using the StrikeFire I was easily able to put all 100 rounds into an area the size of a human torso using a standing off hand position. I can't tell you a specific group size since I didn't paper it, just watched the dust eruptions from the impacts but accuracy was more than acceptable given I wasn't benching the weapon and using the cheapest FMJ ammo I could find.
Let me also state this was without ANY sight adjustment at all. Just bolt on and go. POI was roughly a 1' low of POA at the distance I was shooting. Windage was spot on.
I'm at this point satisfied with the purchase and it'll do what I want it to do, which is hit a deer sized target at 200 yards with a good degree of repeatability. Around here, 200 yards would be a very long deer shot for what it's worth.
Once I get a chance to paper it I'll post a more accurate measurement of the weapons accuracy.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Review: Palmetto State Armory
This is a review of Palmetto State Armory, a web site that sells ammo and AR-15 parts among other things.
Some background -
In preparing for disaster, our opinion is you should always hope your fellow man is going to treat you like you'd treat them but prepare for there to be some... potential issues.
As a result one of the things we're going to be preparing for are those who feel they have the right to take, rather than ask in a disaster scenario.
I've been around guns all my life, while they terrify me for what they can do, I understand them, I enjoy them and I derive no small amount of pleasure from my skill with them. But my fear of them ensures I do everything I can to make sure that they don't go off when I don't want them to.
When asking around on the Zombie Hunter forums for recommendations the name, rather the initials PSA kept getting bandied about. Now the ZH forums are populated by a level of professionlism and technical knowledge that I found surprising given the 'purpose' of the site, that of dealing with a zombie apocalypse. As a result, we took a hard look at those recommendations and went with PSA, primarily to be brtually honest because they had stock where BCM aka Bravo Company USA and RRA aka Rock River Arms did not.
The review -
To wit, I've placed four orders with PSA, two for ammunition, they're simply cheaper on the cheap stuff than others and two for parts. When you're breaking in a weapon, you don't want to burn money on ammo that's good when all you want to do is get the machinery running smoothly.
I've also ordered an upper kit, lower parts kit and stripped reciever from them for the purposes of building my own AR-15.
They've done a servicable job so far, shpping while not instant was within reasonable expectations. Quality of parts so far appears to be good. They've even gone so far as to call me about an ammo order where they were out of a specific type of ammo that I ordered that was marked as in stock when it was atually out of stock. Not only did they call me but when we got disconnected during a phone transfer they called me back. To make up for 'my troubles' they swapped out my ammo of choice with a better grade and on top of that gave me an additional box for no extra charge.
As a result we're going to have have to side with all the other Zombie Squad folks who said to put them on the short list of vendors when considering AR-15's.
Some background -
In preparing for disaster, our opinion is you should always hope your fellow man is going to treat you like you'd treat them but prepare for there to be some... potential issues.
As a result one of the things we're going to be preparing for are those who feel they have the right to take, rather than ask in a disaster scenario.
I've been around guns all my life, while they terrify me for what they can do, I understand them, I enjoy them and I derive no small amount of pleasure from my skill with them. But my fear of them ensures I do everything I can to make sure that they don't go off when I don't want them to.
When asking around on the Zombie Hunter forums for recommendations the name, rather the initials PSA kept getting bandied about. Now the ZH forums are populated by a level of professionlism and technical knowledge that I found surprising given the 'purpose' of the site, that of dealing with a zombie apocalypse. As a result, we took a hard look at those recommendations and went with PSA, primarily to be brtually honest because they had stock where BCM aka Bravo Company USA and RRA aka Rock River Arms did not.
The review -
To wit, I've placed four orders with PSA, two for ammunition, they're simply cheaper on the cheap stuff than others and two for parts. When you're breaking in a weapon, you don't want to burn money on ammo that's good when all you want to do is get the machinery running smoothly.
I've also ordered an upper kit, lower parts kit and stripped reciever from them for the purposes of building my own AR-15.
They've done a servicable job so far, shpping while not instant was within reasonable expectations. Quality of parts so far appears to be good. They've even gone so far as to call me about an ammo order where they were out of a specific type of ammo that I ordered that was marked as in stock when it was atually out of stock. Not only did they call me but when we got disconnected during a phone transfer they called me back. To make up for 'my troubles' they swapped out my ammo of choice with a better grade and on top of that gave me an additional box for no extra charge.
As a result we're going to have have to side with all the other Zombie Squad folks who said to put them on the short list of vendors when considering AR-15's.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Glocks are Left Leaning?
I got in a chance to shoot a couple of Glocks, the Model 17 Generation 3 and the Model 19 Generation 4.
All the 'preppers' swear by the Glock, well a few swear at it I suppose. But it has a few features that I personally agree with. The 17 and 19 are in 9mm which is a very common and easily available cartridge. Parts are easily and cheaply obtained. You can even get .22LR conversions for them so you can train on the cheap with the same gun.
I was using your basic cheap FMJ range ammo. You know the type, about $10 a box and it comes in various flavors, PCM, CCI Blazer, Winchester. That's what I was shooting that day anyway.
The pistols fed without any problems straight out of the box, no modifications or changes had been made to them including cleaning.
We shot at 10 yards. Both glocks, for me, shot about a 8" group using a full magazine with the occasional flyer that for the sake of vanity I'm ignoring. To give you some idea of what a little experience and break in will do for you I also brough a gun I've had for about 20+ years, the Ruger P85. With that gun I shot around a 4" group full magazine again ignoring the odd flyer.
Oddly both glocks also had a CoG or center of group about 4" left of the X. Given this is the first pistol I've had this issue with I can only assume there's something off about the way they settle in my hands and how much trigger finger I'm getting on the triggers.
I was impressed with them overall although I obviously need to work on learning them properly so that I can hit the X rather than left of the X. Although even now, if something bad is within 10 yards I won't have any trouble hitting center of mass. Getting a head shot on a zombie might be a little mroe difficult though... :)
The gun still looks and to some extent feels like a toy to me, I grew up when it was steel and chrome, not space plastics. But I do have to give credit where it's due, in spite of their feel, the guns did what they were supposed to do, go bang every single time.
Given the obvious use of pistol, i.e. to shoot bad people wishing to do you and yours harm in short range, I'm going to be putting one of the XS Big Dot sights on one of them. They have a love hate relationship with their owners, most people love them for fast target acquistion in 3 to 10 yard range. Less than 3 and aiming using more than the slide is almost unnecessary for most people and greater than 10 requires more careful aim.
Anyway, once I get them I'll post my own review of the sights.
All the 'preppers' swear by the Glock, well a few swear at it I suppose. But it has a few features that I personally agree with. The 17 and 19 are in 9mm which is a very common and easily available cartridge. Parts are easily and cheaply obtained. You can even get .22LR conversions for them so you can train on the cheap with the same gun.
I was using your basic cheap FMJ range ammo. You know the type, about $10 a box and it comes in various flavors, PCM, CCI Blazer, Winchester. That's what I was shooting that day anyway.
The pistols fed without any problems straight out of the box, no modifications or changes had been made to them including cleaning.
We shot at 10 yards. Both glocks, for me, shot about a 8" group using a full magazine with the occasional flyer that for the sake of vanity I'm ignoring. To give you some idea of what a little experience and break in will do for you I also brough a gun I've had for about 20+ years, the Ruger P85. With that gun I shot around a 4" group full magazine again ignoring the odd flyer.
Oddly both glocks also had a CoG or center of group about 4" left of the X. Given this is the first pistol I've had this issue with I can only assume there's something off about the way they settle in my hands and how much trigger finger I'm getting on the triggers.
I was impressed with them overall although I obviously need to work on learning them properly so that I can hit the X rather than left of the X. Although even now, if something bad is within 10 yards I won't have any trouble hitting center of mass. Getting a head shot on a zombie might be a little mroe difficult though... :)
The gun still looks and to some extent feels like a toy to me, I grew up when it was steel and chrome, not space plastics. But I do have to give credit where it's due, in spite of their feel, the guns did what they were supposed to do, go bang every single time.
Given the obvious use of pistol, i.e. to shoot bad people wishing to do you and yours harm in short range, I'm going to be putting one of the XS Big Dot sights on one of them. They have a love hate relationship with their owners, most people love them for fast target acquistion in 3 to 10 yard range. Less than 3 and aiming using more than the slide is almost unnecessary for most people and greater than 10 requires more careful aim.
Anyway, once I get them I'll post my own review of the sights.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Review: Usa Emergency Supply
As part of this ongoing blog we're going to post our reviews of the products and companies we've actually dealt with in our virgin efforts at preparing for potential diaster that might make it necessary to depend on ourselves for an extended lenght of time.
The first on the block is USA Emergency Supply.
We weren't directed to this site other than through the magic of Google. But the first thing that struck me is they have a professsionally done site. This doesn't necessarily mean anything more than they have the money to pay someone to do it but it's rarely a bad sign.
In digging through the site to a greater degree we found them to have all kinds of good information. They also list their drop shippers, they don't actually maintain stores of foods for instance, they just drop ship it to you from other vendors.
This isn't a bad thing per se and is a common mechanic that many companies use.
They do charge a small fee for this, the prices they show for everything they drop ship are marginally higher than what you'd be charged going directly to the end vendor.
What you're paying for is the one stop shop appeal and as USA ES takes paypal unlike some of their suppliers if that's your preferred payment method it might be worth it to you.
They had everything we needed in the way of food storage, food grade pails, lids including gamma lids which can be re-used/resealed and oxygen absorbers which are used to kill the little passengers that come along with all those grains.
In researching the company I found no bad reviews and no on with prices in the same ballpark. They also were noted for their discrete shipping, no "This is going to a prepper!" type markings on their boxes.
So far I've placed two orders with them, both were shipped quickly, next day in fact and I was sent both order confirmations and shipping detail emails quickly.
I have no faults with them and can recommend them for your food storage or acquisition needs without any hesitation.
The first on the block is USA Emergency Supply.
We weren't directed to this site other than through the magic of Google. But the first thing that struck me is they have a professsionally done site. This doesn't necessarily mean anything more than they have the money to pay someone to do it but it's rarely a bad sign.
In digging through the site to a greater degree we found them to have all kinds of good information. They also list their drop shippers, they don't actually maintain stores of foods for instance, they just drop ship it to you from other vendors.
This isn't a bad thing per se and is a common mechanic that many companies use.
They do charge a small fee for this, the prices they show for everything they drop ship are marginally higher than what you'd be charged going directly to the end vendor.
What you're paying for is the one stop shop appeal and as USA ES takes paypal unlike some of their suppliers if that's your preferred payment method it might be worth it to you.
They had everything we needed in the way of food storage, food grade pails, lids including gamma lids which can be re-used/resealed and oxygen absorbers which are used to kill the little passengers that come along with all those grains.
In researching the company I found no bad reviews and no on with prices in the same ballpark. They also were noted for their discrete shipping, no "This is going to a prepper!" type markings on their boxes.
So far I've placed two orders with them, both were shipped quickly, next day in fact and I was sent both order confirmations and shipping detail emails quickly.
I have no faults with them and can recommend them for your food storage or acquisition needs without any hesitation.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Review: Zombie Hunters Org
Let us be honest and say that the name of this site is more than a little odd unless you just happen to love zombie movies like we do. In spite of that name though, Zomibe Hunters is a wealth of professional, educated and technically qualified sources of information to help you prepare for and live through any disaster scenario you might come up with. Even ones that aren't caused by the undead rising from their graves to eat our brains.
The forums are the real treasure for this site. They're heavily moderated, there is no sexism, racism, politicalism, religousism tolerated. If you have an agenda, this is not the place for you.
Instead those kinds of posts are heavily clamped down on. You cannot discuss anything that deals with an illegal material, actions or nature. You can talk about disasters all you want as long as you don't drag politics or politicians into. No one there cares what your opinions are, they want to know what you know that might help them survive a disaster or to provide that information to you.
You'll find information on storing food, recommendations for the best tasting long terms storage foods, how to prepare it and how to make sure you don't die of malnutrition.
How to deal with the young and old and the furry when you're facing a disaster.
First aid, what to pack and what to leave to the experts. With real experts providing this information, service medics, EMT's, paramedics, firefighters, general practitioners all providing a wealth of information on how to do what you can to prepare for dealing with injuries and what to leave the hell alone because your lack of skill and training will only get someone killed.
I can't recommend this site highly enough if you're looking for a huge pool of smart individuals to throw your questions at.
The forums are the real treasure for this site. They're heavily moderated, there is no sexism, racism, politicalism, religousism tolerated. If you have an agenda, this is not the place for you.
Instead those kinds of posts are heavily clamped down on. You cannot discuss anything that deals with an illegal material, actions or nature. You can talk about disasters all you want as long as you don't drag politics or politicians into. No one there cares what your opinions are, they want to know what you know that might help them survive a disaster or to provide that information to you.
You'll find information on storing food, recommendations for the best tasting long terms storage foods, how to prepare it and how to make sure you don't die of malnutrition.
How to deal with the young and old and the furry when you're facing a disaster.
First aid, what to pack and what to leave to the experts. With real experts providing this information, service medics, EMT's, paramedics, firefighters, general practitioners all providing a wealth of information on how to do what you can to prepare for dealing with injuries and what to leave the hell alone because your lack of skill and training will only get someone killed.
I can't recommend this site highly enough if you're looking for a huge pool of smart individuals to throw your questions at.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Water, water all around and not a drop to drink
Water is critical to a diaster. The old saw is 3 days without water before you die. Obviously there's going to be some variance to that but apparently it's pretty close. Without water your body starts to shut down, it can't filter the toxins from your blood and urine, these build up and you die.
It's pretty simple and pretty ugly.
The recommended guideline is 2 to 4 quarts of water (or fluids) a day depending on activity.
That averages out to about 5 gallons a week. 250 gallons a year. Per person. And that doesn't count for cooking, meal prep/cleanup or bathing.
How much water do you have in your house right now? The answer may surprise you. You probably have 30-50 gallons in your hot water tank right now. Another several gallons locked up in your pipes. More in the tanks of your toilets. All clean and potable (i.e. drinkable).
One of the things we'd thought to depend on is the 20,000 gallons in our pool. Apparently that's not the best idea. Unless the temperatures are such that it impedes wildlife growth at the microscopic level then as soon as those pumps stop circulating chlorine through the water, nature's going to start to take over your pool and turn it into a swamp.
That's not to say you can't treat that water and make it drinkable but you have to have the means to do so handy. There's also the problem of the water reducing due to evaporation which concentrates the minerals and other non-watery things in it over time. Just like reducing a good sauce for dinner, your swimming pool is constantly being reduced over time that it's used making it harder and harder over time.
Of course if you have enough warning you could pump it empty and refill it while the water is still flowing. But are you going to have enough warning? Probably. But definitely? No.
So our new plan is to start stock piling flats of water bottles. Why bottles? Because it's cheaper per gallon than obtaining water drums for us and almost as important it's significantly less obvious as to what they're for -
"Why do you have so much water?"
"We got it for half price?"
We're going for the low key, bug in not out approach to our preparations. Once we've arranged for our own needs for a year to 18 months then we'll start our preps to be able to bring in others who refuse to prep or for some reason lose theirs in any situation.
The down side is 55 gallons of water in a water barrel takes up less space than the same 55 gallons of water stored in water bottles.
The up side is you can't lose 55 gallons of water due to contamination. A box of water bottles is significantly more moveable than the 450 lb water barrel.
With every silver lining is a dark cloud.
To supplement our growing stacks of water bottles we're going to get rain barrels and put them on our down spouts, for now just to provide water during the dry months for the gardens and lawns.
But in a disaster situation, those rain barrels combined with several tarps and some scrap lunber will become giant rain catchers storing pretty pure and clean water that we'll use to refill our water bottles from and drink first.
FYI, if you're considering using unscented chlorox (8 drops per gallon, sniff after half an hour and if it doesn't smell like chlorine, add another 8 drops, still no chlorine smell discard the water) to purify your water, maybe have a small vial in your GOOD bag (Get Out Of Dodge), well chlorox has a shelf life of around 6 months. Make sure you rotate that stuff frequently. A better alternative, at least a longer shelf life one is the chlorine powder you shock swimming pools with.
Also if you're going to use tincture of iodine or iodine tablets to purify your water then apparently a little vitamin C added to it afterwards will get rid of the iodine flavor. I wish I'd of known that as a kid when we went out scouting because those iodine tablets made for some seriously foul tasting water.
There are a number of personal water purifiers made for hikers that we're going to be looking at and probably buying one or two to stash for diasters. They can turn some very iffy water into crystal clear drinkable water.
You can also use a solar oven to pasturize water (to be safe bring it to 150F for several minutes). You can also simply use a black painted plastic bottle left in the sun and you can easily (ahead of time prior to a crisis) make a simple pasturization tester.
If you have fuel to burn, pun intended, you can also set up a moonshine still and distil your water, what you get out of it should be potable. Depending on the contaminants of course.
It's pretty simple and pretty ugly.
The recommended guideline is 2 to 4 quarts of water (or fluids) a day depending on activity.
That averages out to about 5 gallons a week. 250 gallons a year. Per person. And that doesn't count for cooking, meal prep/cleanup or bathing.
How much water do you have in your house right now? The answer may surprise you. You probably have 30-50 gallons in your hot water tank right now. Another several gallons locked up in your pipes. More in the tanks of your toilets. All clean and potable (i.e. drinkable).
One of the things we'd thought to depend on is the 20,000 gallons in our pool. Apparently that's not the best idea. Unless the temperatures are such that it impedes wildlife growth at the microscopic level then as soon as those pumps stop circulating chlorine through the water, nature's going to start to take over your pool and turn it into a swamp.
That's not to say you can't treat that water and make it drinkable but you have to have the means to do so handy. There's also the problem of the water reducing due to evaporation which concentrates the minerals and other non-watery things in it over time. Just like reducing a good sauce for dinner, your swimming pool is constantly being reduced over time that it's used making it harder and harder over time.
Of course if you have enough warning you could pump it empty and refill it while the water is still flowing. But are you going to have enough warning? Probably. But definitely? No.
So our new plan is to start stock piling flats of water bottles. Why bottles? Because it's cheaper per gallon than obtaining water drums for us and almost as important it's significantly less obvious as to what they're for -
"Why do you have so much water?"
"We got it for half price?"
We're going for the low key, bug in not out approach to our preparations. Once we've arranged for our own needs for a year to 18 months then we'll start our preps to be able to bring in others who refuse to prep or for some reason lose theirs in any situation.
The down side is 55 gallons of water in a water barrel takes up less space than the same 55 gallons of water stored in water bottles.
The up side is you can't lose 55 gallons of water due to contamination. A box of water bottles is significantly more moveable than the 450 lb water barrel.
With every silver lining is a dark cloud.
To supplement our growing stacks of water bottles we're going to get rain barrels and put them on our down spouts, for now just to provide water during the dry months for the gardens and lawns.
But in a disaster situation, those rain barrels combined with several tarps and some scrap lunber will become giant rain catchers storing pretty pure and clean water that we'll use to refill our water bottles from and drink first.
FYI, if you're considering using unscented chlorox (8 drops per gallon, sniff after half an hour and if it doesn't smell like chlorine, add another 8 drops, still no chlorine smell discard the water) to purify your water, maybe have a small vial in your GOOD bag (Get Out Of Dodge), well chlorox has a shelf life of around 6 months. Make sure you rotate that stuff frequently. A better alternative, at least a longer shelf life one is the chlorine powder you shock swimming pools with.
Also if you're going to use tincture of iodine or iodine tablets to purify your water then apparently a little vitamin C added to it afterwards will get rid of the iodine flavor. I wish I'd of known that as a kid when we went out scouting because those iodine tablets made for some seriously foul tasting water.
There are a number of personal water purifiers made for hikers that we're going to be looking at and probably buying one or two to stash for diasters. They can turn some very iffy water into crystal clear drinkable water.
You can also use a solar oven to pasturize water (to be safe bring it to 150F for several minutes). You can also simply use a black painted plastic bottle left in the sun and you can easily (ahead of time prior to a crisis) make a simple pasturization tester.
If you have fuel to burn, pun intended, you can also set up a moonshine still and distil your water, what you get out of it should be potable. Depending on the contaminants of course.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Where's the gas?
In a disaster situation you may find that your gas and or electic may not be working as well as you might like. Or at all.
So how are you going to cook all that prepped food you have squirreled away? You could eat it raw, your body would probably absorb quite a lot of nutrients out of it before it passes through. But are you going to be happy doing it?
Unlikely.
You could fire up the ol' propane stove. Oh wait did you remember to keep a full tank around?
What about the charcoal stove? Even if you forgot to get charcoal there's always wood from the wood pile. You don't have a wood pile? Then maybe some random wood. Just make sure it's not treated with anything because otherwise you could end up dead from chemical poisoning.
And in some situations while you might enjoy the company of your neighbors and stranger passerbies who smell your burgers cooking on the barbie, in some situations you may not wish to advertise you have food to burn...
In these cases solar ovens may be something you might have never considered. And you should. In the right areas and the right time of the year you can do a lot with a solar oven up to and including baking bread in it. Almost year round in most areas as long as the sun's shining you can at the very least cook some soups or soup like meals and pasteurize water to kill all the little things swimming it that are just aching to give you a case of the trots.
And in a disaster situation, a bad case of Montezuma's revenge can potentially be life threatening and easily put the lives of your family at risk if you're the one they're depending on for their survival.
You can find all kinds of cool inforamation online about solar cookers and make most of them at home for next to nothing. There are also some good folding, portable ones available for sale.
Some links -
Solar Cooking Plans - Homemade.
All Season Solar Cooker - Homemade.
Solar Water Disinfection - Homemade.
Vides -
Making bread - Homemade
Making Bread - Commercial oven
So how are you going to cook all that prepped food you have squirreled away? You could eat it raw, your body would probably absorb quite a lot of nutrients out of it before it passes through. But are you going to be happy doing it?
Unlikely.
You could fire up the ol' propane stove. Oh wait did you remember to keep a full tank around?
What about the charcoal stove? Even if you forgot to get charcoal there's always wood from the wood pile. You don't have a wood pile? Then maybe some random wood. Just make sure it's not treated with anything because otherwise you could end up dead from chemical poisoning.
And in some situations while you might enjoy the company of your neighbors and stranger passerbies who smell your burgers cooking on the barbie, in some situations you may not wish to advertise you have food to burn...
In these cases solar ovens may be something you might have never considered. And you should. In the right areas and the right time of the year you can do a lot with a solar oven up to and including baking bread in it. Almost year round in most areas as long as the sun's shining you can at the very least cook some soups or soup like meals and pasteurize water to kill all the little things swimming it that are just aching to give you a case of the trots.
And in a disaster situation, a bad case of Montezuma's revenge can potentially be life threatening and easily put the lives of your family at risk if you're the one they're depending on for their survival.
You can find all kinds of cool inforamation online about solar cookers and make most of them at home for next to nothing. There are also some good folding, portable ones available for sale.
Some links -
Solar Cooking Plans - Homemade.
All Season Solar Cooker - Homemade.
Solar Water Disinfection - Homemade.
Vides -
Making bread - Homemade
Making Bread - Commercial oven
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Cooking Under Pressure
One of the many overlooked things you might find a use for, perhaps a live or die use for, is the materials you need to prepare and store foods for long term storage after one of those 'the end of life as we know it' events. The acronym is TEOLAWKI or something that effect. If you see something like that, that's what it means.
It took me awhile to figure that out as I'm not really wired to think that way. Actually Prepping is filled with acronyms, annoyingly so. It can make trying to research difficult, especially at first as you try to figure just what the hell someone emans.
To get back on topic, to can or jar or 'put up' fruits and vegetables or simply to cook faster which saves on fuel, a pressure cooker is an obvious choice. You can save massive amounts of fuel by pressure cooking. And in one of those end times events, fuel may be a premium.
Our research has uncovered a single, very not cheap, brand of pressure cooker that doesn't have parts that wear out. Almost every pressure cooker has rubber gaskets or o-rings in them that wear out over time rendering the pressure cooker worthless as a pressure cooker although you can still use it to cook in of course. Or wear it as a hat.
I'll warn you, it's about as non-cheap as you can get. But it should and has lasted people for their lifetimes. And 'you get what you pay for'.
The one I'm referring to is made in the U.S.A. (never a bad thing) and is made by All American who's been doing it for a long time apparently.
At the time of this writing you can pick one up on Amazon for around $200. Depending on the size you get.
NOTE!!! These pressure cookers are big and heavy. Filled with water and food they're even heavier. As a result the company recommends you do not use them on glass topped stoves. You've been warned.
It took me awhile to figure that out as I'm not really wired to think that way. Actually Prepping is filled with acronyms, annoyingly so. It can make trying to research difficult, especially at first as you try to figure just what the hell someone emans.
To get back on topic, to can or jar or 'put up' fruits and vegetables or simply to cook faster which saves on fuel, a pressure cooker is an obvious choice. You can save massive amounts of fuel by pressure cooking. And in one of those end times events, fuel may be a premium.
Our research has uncovered a single, very not cheap, brand of pressure cooker that doesn't have parts that wear out. Almost every pressure cooker has rubber gaskets or o-rings in them that wear out over time rendering the pressure cooker worthless as a pressure cooker although you can still use it to cook in of course. Or wear it as a hat.
I'll warn you, it's about as non-cheap as you can get. But it should and has lasted people for their lifetimes. And 'you get what you pay for'.
The one I'm referring to is made in the U.S.A. (never a bad thing) and is made by All American who's been doing it for a long time apparently.
At the time of this writing you can pick one up on Amazon for around $200. Depending on the size you get.
NOTE!!! These pressure cookers are big and heavy. Filled with water and food they're even heavier. As a result the company recommends you do not use them on glass topped stoves. You've been warned.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Vacuum Pack On The Cheap
Obviously it's going to be difficult to hook a 5 gallon bucket up to your vacuum sealer. As long as your using O2 absorbers, you don't need to. But you can instead use your ordinary vacuum cleaner to help reduce the load your O2 absorbers need to deal with. Is it necessary, no. Does it make you feel better? Quiet possibly.
The trick is to put your mylar bag in the bucket and fill the bag with your product. Then using your iron and 1x2 or 2x4 as your ironing board seal all but one small section.
Do this for all the buckets you're going to prep before you start the next step. For instance we buy O2 absorbers in the 50 count pack and put 5 in each bucket (always over engineer when lives depend on the results). This means we have to prep 10 buckets at a time.
Once you have all the buckets filled and the bags mostly sealed, working quickly open the vacuum sealed bag containing your O2 absorber packets, it should still have a vacuum and most if not all have a color coded indicator which means they're still good. Now push through the small hole however many of the O2's you're going to put in each bag.
Once you have them all placed, come back and shove the narrow tip attachment of your vacuum cleaner (or fake it with a sheet of thick cardboard rolled up into a funnel and some duct tape) into the narrow hole and suck the air out of the bag. Press down on the mylar as you remove the vacuum hose to keep the seal and then run your iron over it to seal it properly.
It helps a lot to have two pairs of hands for this part obviously.
The end result should be a fairly tightly packed bag, depending on the HP of your vacuum of course, with an overkill capacity to suck the remaining Oxygen out of the remaining atmosphere inside.
Why go to all this trouble? A couple of reasons. The lack of oxygen kills the many larvae and eggs that are inevetibly in your grains preventing them from hatching and eating your grain. Years down the road do you really want to open a bucket of wheat as you wait for FEMA or some other government agency to get around to getting you some food and find it crawling with insects? Sure if you're Andrew Zimmern it might be perfectly okay. For me and mine, not so much.
If the above isn't obvious, then simply youtube it. There are plenty of video tutorials out there. Note that some promote the use of those hand warmers you can find for cheap in your local walmart or other type store.
While it makes sense those are probably just the same, again do you want to bet your life later on saving a few cents now? It may seem like I'm harping on the same subject here but do understand the preperations you're making now are being done with the intention of savig your life in an emergency and as a result are not something you want to go cheap on unless you have absolutely no option. Quality > Quantity > None.
The trick is to put your mylar bag in the bucket and fill the bag with your product. Then using your iron and 1x2 or 2x4 as your ironing board seal all but one small section.
Do this for all the buckets you're going to prep before you start the next step. For instance we buy O2 absorbers in the 50 count pack and put 5 in each bucket (always over engineer when lives depend on the results). This means we have to prep 10 buckets at a time.
Once you have all the buckets filled and the bags mostly sealed, working quickly open the vacuum sealed bag containing your O2 absorber packets, it should still have a vacuum and most if not all have a color coded indicator which means they're still good. Now push through the small hole however many of the O2's you're going to put in each bag.
Once you have them all placed, come back and shove the narrow tip attachment of your vacuum cleaner (or fake it with a sheet of thick cardboard rolled up into a funnel and some duct tape) into the narrow hole and suck the air out of the bag. Press down on the mylar as you remove the vacuum hose to keep the seal and then run your iron over it to seal it properly.
It helps a lot to have two pairs of hands for this part obviously.
The end result should be a fairly tightly packed bag, depending on the HP of your vacuum of course, with an overkill capacity to suck the remaining Oxygen out of the remaining atmosphere inside.
Why go to all this trouble? A couple of reasons. The lack of oxygen kills the many larvae and eggs that are inevetibly in your grains preventing them from hatching and eating your grain. Years down the road do you really want to open a bucket of wheat as you wait for FEMA or some other government agency to get around to getting you some food and find it crawling with insects? Sure if you're Andrew Zimmern it might be perfectly okay. For me and mine, not so much.
If the above isn't obvious, then simply youtube it. There are plenty of video tutorials out there. Note that some promote the use of those hand warmers you can find for cheap in your local walmart or other type store.
While it makes sense those are probably just the same, again do you want to bet your life later on saving a few cents now? It may seem like I'm harping on the same subject here but do understand the preperations you're making now are being done with the intention of savig your life in an emergency and as a result are not something you want to go cheap on unless you have absolutely no option. Quality > Quantity > None.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Our First Preps
We did a lot of research into what you need to survive. We found the Church of Latter Day Saints guidelines of course and 'food calculators'.
Virtually all the food calculators are based apparently on the LDS one. A couple of examples below.
One, Two
So using that we came up with our basic list. I immediately altered it to some extent, more rice, beans and corn, less wheat for the grains to match our personal existing diets. The guidelines are exactly that, guidelines.
Then I used Google Docs to create a spreadsheet that we can all use to record what we've bought, stored and what we're still lacking on. For example in checking it right now I see my wife has picked up another 50lb bag of white rice and 2 5lb bottles of honey. We still need another 15lbs of salt and another 10lbs of sugar among other things. We can update this from anywhere we have access to a computer.
Obviously preparing is not something one does 'all at once' although you certainly could but for most, over time is the best option.
The first thing we decided to do was place an order through Honeyville Grains and USA Emergency Supply for our first buy of bulk wheat, oats and corn and mylar bags, O2 absorbers and food grade pails.
While we could pick up wheat locally the cost was about the same and would have required travel on top of that. So why not go with convienence?
Regarding the buckets, yes we're aware of the debate that rages about what constitutes a food grade pail. HDPE 2 means food grade or doesn't. But the way we're looking at, sure we could save a couple of bucks a bucket but is it really worth the risk?
After being forced to use your stored food is the absolute worst possible time to find out that those food grade buckets weren't and leeched flavors or worse into your foods or that not using quality O2 absorbers left you with a bucket of weevil infested wheat.
Anything our lives are going to depend on, we're not skimping on. Low bid is not what you want to go with when you have children depending on you.
Several things we'll also pick up at the local big box stores. Rice and beans can be had locally for less than half what we'd pay to get it online. Oats were a wash and we wanted the whole oats, steel cut, rather than the more heavily processed versions for nutritional reasons.
So things we're going to get locally include honey, white rice, beans, pasta, oils, dry goods, sugars.
Honey, salt, sugar have an indefinite shelf life, it's buy it, store it and forget it.
White rice, properly stored, is good for 30 years. Brown rice spoils in about 7 so we're discarding that even though it's the better nutritionally option.
Pasta's can be had on sale cheaper than we can get them online and in greater variety and store just as well.
Speaking of storage we're going with the standard prepper 5 gallon bucket with the contents in 1 or 2 5 mil thick mylar with an overkill of O2 packets inside each one. The O2 packages are just too cheap to skimp on. We'll also be using a vacuum to suck most of the air out before sealing to help reduce the amount of O2 that needs to be absorbed.
For a lot of it, each bucket will be in a single bag but we'll also have buckets with the contents divided up into multiple mylar bags so we can open smaller portions over time and check that the quality has degraded without losing a large amount.
Additionally to supplement those basics we've bought a 1 year / 1 person kit from Augason Farms which was the cheapest option to add a large variety of dehydtrated foods. We've supplemented that with additional dried milks and butter powder and dried eggs in #10 cans along with treats like dried apples and banana chips. And especially tomato powder because tomatoes provide significant nutritional items in a diet. The stuff like dried onions, carrots and peppers while providing ways to change up the meals don't really add that much in terms of nutrients. Keeping a nutrionally balanced meal post disaster is going to be a huge concern.
To be able to consume those hard grains and turn them into bread, tortillas and pancakes and the like we've ordered two mills from Pleasant Hill Grain.
One the high end Country Living mill ($$$$) along with a spare parts kit for it. We've tested it and then cleaned and oiled it and stored it in a bag with some dessicant and O2 absorbers in it's own bucket. It should be safe in there until we need it. Hopefully we never will and my children will be able to add it to their disaster preperations.
We've also got the Family Grain Mill as our daily driver so to speak along with spare parts. This is the one we'll use as we start to add our prep food into our daily diets.
We did a lot of research on mills and for manual grinding those two are considered the best in their price points.
Just for the record we don't have any affiliation to or get any kick back from anyone we link to on this site. The purpose of this site is to help others who are just starting and possibly save them some of the hours and hours of research we've done on the subject.
Virtually all the food calculators are based apparently on the LDS one. A couple of examples below.
One, Two
So using that we came up with our basic list. I immediately altered it to some extent, more rice, beans and corn, less wheat for the grains to match our personal existing diets. The guidelines are exactly that, guidelines.
Then I used Google Docs to create a spreadsheet that we can all use to record what we've bought, stored and what we're still lacking on. For example in checking it right now I see my wife has picked up another 50lb bag of white rice and 2 5lb bottles of honey. We still need another 15lbs of salt and another 10lbs of sugar among other things. We can update this from anywhere we have access to a computer.
Obviously preparing is not something one does 'all at once' although you certainly could but for most, over time is the best option.
The first thing we decided to do was place an order through Honeyville Grains and USA Emergency Supply for our first buy of bulk wheat, oats and corn and mylar bags, O2 absorbers and food grade pails.
While we could pick up wheat locally the cost was about the same and would have required travel on top of that. So why not go with convienence?
Regarding the buckets, yes we're aware of the debate that rages about what constitutes a food grade pail. HDPE 2 means food grade or doesn't. But the way we're looking at, sure we could save a couple of bucks a bucket but is it really worth the risk?
After being forced to use your stored food is the absolute worst possible time to find out that those food grade buckets weren't and leeched flavors or worse into your foods or that not using quality O2 absorbers left you with a bucket of weevil infested wheat.
Anything our lives are going to depend on, we're not skimping on. Low bid is not what you want to go with when you have children depending on you.
Several things we'll also pick up at the local big box stores. Rice and beans can be had locally for less than half what we'd pay to get it online. Oats were a wash and we wanted the whole oats, steel cut, rather than the more heavily processed versions for nutritional reasons.
So things we're going to get locally include honey, white rice, beans, pasta, oils, dry goods, sugars.
Honey, salt, sugar have an indefinite shelf life, it's buy it, store it and forget it.
White rice, properly stored, is good for 30 years. Brown rice spoils in about 7 so we're discarding that even though it's the better nutritionally option.
Pasta's can be had on sale cheaper than we can get them online and in greater variety and store just as well.
Speaking of storage we're going with the standard prepper 5 gallon bucket with the contents in 1 or 2 5 mil thick mylar with an overkill of O2 packets inside each one. The O2 packages are just too cheap to skimp on. We'll also be using a vacuum to suck most of the air out before sealing to help reduce the amount of O2 that needs to be absorbed.
For a lot of it, each bucket will be in a single bag but we'll also have buckets with the contents divided up into multiple mylar bags so we can open smaller portions over time and check that the quality has degraded without losing a large amount.
Additionally to supplement those basics we've bought a 1 year / 1 person kit from Augason Farms which was the cheapest option to add a large variety of dehydtrated foods. We've supplemented that with additional dried milks and butter powder and dried eggs in #10 cans along with treats like dried apples and banana chips. And especially tomato powder because tomatoes provide significant nutritional items in a diet. The stuff like dried onions, carrots and peppers while providing ways to change up the meals don't really add that much in terms of nutrients. Keeping a nutrionally balanced meal post disaster is going to be a huge concern.
To be able to consume those hard grains and turn them into bread, tortillas and pancakes and the like we've ordered two mills from Pleasant Hill Grain.
One the high end Country Living mill ($$$$) along with a spare parts kit for it. We've tested it and then cleaned and oiled it and stored it in a bag with some dessicant and O2 absorbers in it's own bucket. It should be safe in there until we need it. Hopefully we never will and my children will be able to add it to their disaster preperations.
We've also got the Family Grain Mill as our daily driver so to speak along with spare parts. This is the one we'll use as we start to add our prep food into our daily diets.
We did a lot of research on mills and for manual grinding those two are considered the best in their price points.
Just for the record we don't have any affiliation to or get any kick back from anyone we link to on this site. The purpose of this site is to help others who are just starting and possibly save them some of the hours and hours of research we've done on the subject.
You have to start somewhere...
Hi and welcome to our new blog on what we're doing as a family to prepare for potential disaster. We do not truly believe that a society crashing disaster is going to occur in our life time. But we're also not naive enough to believe that it's an impossiblity.
We're also aware of just how fragile our microcosm is at all levels. Personal, town, state and country.
It's been said over and over again until it's attained something of a 'given' that towns have at any given time 3 days of food and supplies for the population at normal consumption. This is resolved because at every given moment trucks and trains laden with goods are filling the local warehouses by the back doors as fast as the trucks are leaving by the front doors to deliver it to your local stores.
If anything happens to cause a break down in that system, the shelves start to empty out pretty quickly.
Whether the three days is universally true or not, it's probably a given that for most places it's in the ballpark or probably no more than double that figure.
This assumes normal shopping habits as well. In a percieved or real crisis the panic buying starts, leading to a significantly shorter time frame. The first ones to buy, buy it by the car load leaving little to nothing for those who waited too long.
The number 3 is also fairly ubiquitous in our lives. Everyone's probably heard the phrase, 3 minutes wihtout air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food. An extended version includes 3 hours without shelter in extreme conditions. Why 3? Because it's a good ballpark for all of them I guess.
We're in a position where we can afford to prepare although in all honesty depending on the time frame everyone should have some ability to prepare or at least extend their ability to not be dependent on being able to to go the store for a few days, then weeks, then months.
Just go at it slowly and carefully.
This then is going to be our journal on the road to preparing for whatever disaster life may throw at us, whether it's extended unemployment to total societal collapse from some nebulous source.
We're also aware of just how fragile our microcosm is at all levels. Personal, town, state and country.
It's been said over and over again until it's attained something of a 'given' that towns have at any given time 3 days of food and supplies for the population at normal consumption. This is resolved because at every given moment trucks and trains laden with goods are filling the local warehouses by the back doors as fast as the trucks are leaving by the front doors to deliver it to your local stores.
If anything happens to cause a break down in that system, the shelves start to empty out pretty quickly.
Whether the three days is universally true or not, it's probably a given that for most places it's in the ballpark or probably no more than double that figure.
This assumes normal shopping habits as well. In a percieved or real crisis the panic buying starts, leading to a significantly shorter time frame. The first ones to buy, buy it by the car load leaving little to nothing for those who waited too long.
The number 3 is also fairly ubiquitous in our lives. Everyone's probably heard the phrase, 3 minutes wihtout air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food. An extended version includes 3 hours without shelter in extreme conditions. Why 3? Because it's a good ballpark for all of them I guess.
We're in a position where we can afford to prepare although in all honesty depending on the time frame everyone should have some ability to prepare or at least extend their ability to not be dependent on being able to to go the store for a few days, then weeks, then months.
Just go at it slowly and carefully.
This then is going to be our journal on the road to preparing for whatever disaster life may throw at us, whether it's extended unemployment to total societal collapse from some nebulous source.
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