Monthly Archives: January 2004

Day to day stuff

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Wake up, check TV to make sure Nothing Important is going on, continue with the day….

Winter is about halfway over and although nearby locales experienced a couple power outages this season, we’ve been relatively lucky here and not had any disruptions…might be a first. Doesnt mean anything though…still have to wire up an uninterruptable power supply and a low-wattage light for emergency use. While Im at it, I do need to pick up a few more 5-gallon jugs of kerosene too.
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Lately I’ve been drinking Coke in 20 oz plastic bottles rather than cans. I save the bottles, fill them with water and use them to line the edges of my upright freezer. If the power goes out, they’ll help keep things frozen and then they also double as an extra source of water for washing up, flushing toilets, etc, etc.
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Need to do some sort of website update this weekend. Should have plenty of time since I expect things to be slow around here what with the Super Bowl tomorrow….

Beans, bullets and bandaids

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Picked up a cz52 yesterday. Its built like a tank and fires the very zippy 7.62×25 cartridge…its very high velocity makes it a…challenge…to body armour. With a steel core bullet or the proper pointy shape it would probably zip right through. The price was right and cheap handguns are the next best thing to money in the bank. In fact, think about this… no matter what the economy there are four things people will always want: food, weapons, medical treatment, and sex. If youre in any business that caters to those four, well, my friend you have a recession-proof business.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. In the land of NYC or Chicago, the man among the unarmed sheeple with a lousy .25 auto would be king. Handguns are a delightfully compact form of currency. Obviously, theres the drawback of them possibly being used against you but if your trading with strangers you would normally only do that from a position of overwhelming force anyway.

I’ll probably clean this thing up, get a couple spare mags, a sealed tin of 500 rounds of ammo and pack it up for long term storage. (Or, as one of the LMI call it “the mylar nap”.)
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Speaking of mylar, I picked up the other 25# bag of dried corn I ordered. Tonight I’ll dump it out into a bucket, inspect it for foreign material, and put it in the deep freeze for a few days as insurance that anything in there will be dead, dead, dead. Then it’ll go into the mylar bag along with a buncha dry ice to displace the oxygen. Then the mylar bag is heat sealed and deposited in an airtight 6-gallon bucket. Anything that can live through that isnt from this planet.
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What does a body do with 50# of dried organic corn? Well, first thing he does is order another 50#. Then it gets used to make cornmeal for things like polenta, corn muffins and cornbread. (And, kids, warm cornbread with clover honey is just too damn good…) Why not store ground cornmeal? Keeps better as a whole kernel. Way I figure, once it goes into the mylar bag, and assuming container integrity is not breached, it should last at least into the next decade.

The grains are the last of the really long-term foods I need to purchase. And, interestingly, they are the cheapest. 100# of wheat is less than $40. 100# of corn is about $55. #100 of rice is about $25. Naturally, theres other food items in storage to go with these things since it would otherwise be a remarkably bland diet. (Although whole freakin’ nations exist on nothing but beans and rice….)

Gold

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aldoushuxley on LJ has a lovely post that, sadly, is ‘Friends only’ regarding his insight into where he sees the economy going and what investments strategy (if you can call running like hell a strategy) will minimize your losses. What I like most about is a) reading about his dating life and b)his position on gold being the best way to preserve your wealth. (Preserve..not increase, but *preserve*).

Zero has gold. Not much. Gold is expensive stuff. (Although it was cheaper when I started buying it..the fact its price has gone up so much as people flock to it to protect their assets should tell you something.) And, of course, golds lesser cousin, silver. Invariably, those of us in the ‘preparedness community’ look on silver/gold in one of two ways:
Its a great medium and the closest thing to a universal currency
or
You cant eat it or shoot it, so its worthless

I subscribe to the former line of thinking. Short of a nuclear explosion in every major American city at the same time, we’re not going to have a Mad Max world overnight….nope, I think your going to see a slide into a dystopic situation akin to Soviet Moscow, Bosnia, Argentina, or anyplace in Africa – food lines, checkpoints, rolling blackouts, rampant corruption and crime, etc, etc. And in situations like that, a little gold goes a long way to getting you through that checkpoint, out of that cell, or to the head of the line.

More realistically, there will be times when checks and credit cards are worthless. Happens all the time. Hurricanes and floods knock out power and all the credit card machines are offline. At times like that, cash is king…but cash can lose its value, gold seems to just keep chugging along.

So, I play it safe….the usual goodies – food, water, ammo, meds, gear, etc…and some silver/gold. Never know when your going to need a universal currency.

Food stuff

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Zero Deed For The Day yesterday – ordered up a couple 50# sacks of Montana Hard White Wheat, and picked up 25# of dried corn with another 25# on order. Also picked up a lovely Made In USA 8″ Dutch oven to fit my small Volcano stove. (Those stoves, by the by, beat the hell out of any hibachi that ever lived and are definitely a good tool for cooking in the post-apocalyptic world. Heres their website..check em out) And I also picked up a hard carrying case for my Coleman Dual Fuel lantern…(yes, we can light the night using kerosene, gasoline, coleman fuel, or propane.)
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Need to pick up dry ice today to fumigate the dried corn before sealing up the Mylar bags. I suppose you all know about the joys of CO2 bombs, right? You get a 2-liter pop bottle, fill it about 1/4 of the way with warm water, pour in a buncha crushed dry ice, screw the top on tight and run like hell. The things explode with a very authoratative boom.)
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Reminds me, I need to cure/treat that dutch oven tonight. A smokey job, but I can do it outdoors……..

Gasket preservative question

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I was thinking, whats the best substance/material to use to preserve the rubber gaskets on ammo cans (or other waterproof containers?)

I don’t want to seal the container permanently, I simply wish to maintain the integrity of the gasket and keep it from drying out.

I was thinking some type of silicone or something. Any ideas?

Food stores

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As much as I hate health/organic food stores due to their being bastions of soak-the-rich, kill-your-tv, fellow-traveller liberalism, they do tend to be a good source for 50# of hard red winter wheat and other grains to go into storage. Since I found out yesterday that a local vendor has the somewhat-difficult-to-find 15-gallon blue water barrels it only seems to prudent to pick up a couple and get another hundred or so pounds of wheat to go in them.

Why wheat and not flour? Well, wheat stores alot better and is a bit more versatile…you can crack it for bulghur or making cereals, grind it a little finer for mush, or grind it even finer for flour. You can also sprout it if your in need of some freshe greens.

Anyway, I called Dean headquarters bastion of failed liberalism and asked if they had wheat in 50# bags. Sure wnough…$22/50#. Reasonable. So I’ll pick up a hundred pounds later today and that shall be my Zero Deed For The Day.

Sportsmans Warehouse

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Hmmm…wandered up to Sportsmans Warehouse and determined that they may, in fact, become my main local source for preparedness items. In addition to the Coleman parts I was looking for, they had:
15-gal water barrels with bung wrenches (no jokes, please)
Mainstay lifeboat rations
Mountain House pouches at reasonable prices
Propane heaters and adapters for use with 20# tanks
Olive drab (OD) 5-gallon water containers
Cyalume lightsticks in a variety of colors
Emergency drinking water pouches
Primus Omniefuel stove (burns all fuels, even butane cartridges) for $100
And lots of other stuff…

And, they had made-in-USA Danner boots so as soon as I can come up with $209 I can get new boots.

Nice to find all that locally…was especially glad to find the 15-gal. water barrels. Those were a pain to find.

Spares, kero heater, MagLites

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Zero Deed For The Day: Got part and model #’s for replacement globes for my Coleman propane lantern (#214A0461) and Coleman Dual Fuel lantern (#690A048) so I can pick up spares today. Also copied down their respective model numbers (5154 and 295 series) so that I can get mantles that will fit *both* interchangeably (#21A122 or #21A104). And while I’m getting spare globes, I may as well pick up the protective carrying case to keep them from getting broken in the first place.
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Fired up the kerosene heater and lamps yesterday to make sure they were in good working order. (ZDFTD for yesterday) I do like those Alladin lamps…they throw out a good amount of light and some extra heat. I need to add extra wick, mantles, chimneys, wick tool, reservoir cap and flame spreader to my list of spares.
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I’ll be heading up to CostCo today. They have MagLite combo packs on sale…$19.95 gets you a MiniMag, a D-cell MagLite and Duracell batteries for both. A good deal.

Keeping lists

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Part of the huge spreadsheet of things I need to keep track of and acquire. Now, before you comment and say “Hey, you forgot…” keep in mind this is just a fragment of a larger sheet. This is stuff that either there is none at the moment or stuff that there needs to be more of. If it isnt on this list then it means its probably already in storage.

I keep a tiny, tiny (6 pt. type) version of this list with my Everyday Gear so that if I find myself at Home Depot or someplace I can know what I need to get or just find the price of.

BOB, by the by, is the 72-hour bag. (Bugout bag)

Ammo .22 LR
Ammo .38 Spl.
Ammo .357 Mag.
Ammo 9mm
Ammo .45 ACP
Ammo 0.223
Ammo 0.308
Ammo 12 ga.
Backpack ALICE Frame
Backpack ALICE Straps
Backpack ALICE Pack, med.
Backpack ALICE Cargo shelf
BOB Clothes All-season Jeans
BOB Clothes All-season Socks
BOB Clothes All-season Underwear
BOB Clothes All-season T-shirt
BOB Clothes All-season Longsleeve shirt
BOB Clothes Seasonal Hat
BOB Clothes Seasonal Gloves
BOB Clothes Seasonal Scarf
BOB Clothes Seasonal Field Jacket w/ liner
BOB Water Canteen
BOB Water Caneen pouch
BOB Water Camelback
BOB Water Purification tabs
BOB Water Canteen cup
BOB First Aid Kit
BOB Sleep Sleeping bag
BOB Sleep Sleeping bag stuff sack
BOB Sleep Sleeping bag straps
BOB Sleep Pad
BOB Lighting MiniMag Flashlight
BOB Lighting MiniMag Batteries
BOB Lighting LED light Red
BOB Lighting Lightsticks
BOB Lighting Candles
BOB Lighting Matches
BOB Fuel tabs
BOB Knife Fixed blade
BOB Knife Folder
BOB
BOB Shelter Poncho
BOB Shelter Poncho liner
BOB Paracord
BOB Compass
BOB Food Dried
BOB Pencil
BOB Notepaper
Clothes Socks, cotton
Clothes Socks, wool
Clothes Underwear, cotton
Clothes Underwear, winter
Clothes Undershirt, cotton
Clothes Undershirt, winter
Clothes Pants
Clothes Heavy shirt
Clothes Belt
Clothes Jacket, rain
Clothes Jacket, light
Clothes Coat, winter
Clothes Hat, winter
Clothes Gloves/liners
Clothes Scarf
Communications Field Phone
Communications Field Phone Carry Case
Communications Field Phone Two-strand wire
Communications Field Phone Manual
Communications Spraypaint Black
Communications Spraypaint White
Communications Spraypaint Orange
Cooking Stove Coleman Dual Fuel
Cooking Stove Coleman Dual Fuel Parts
Cooking Stove Coleman Propane
Cooking Stove Coleman Propane Parts
Cooking Stove Coleman Propane Adapter for tank
Fuel Kerosene 5 gallons
Fuel Kerosene Siphon
Fuel Coleman fuel 1 gallon
Fuel Propane 1# bottle
Fuel Denatured alcohol
Fuel Gasoline Can, 5-gallon
Fuel Gasoline Can, 5-gallon Rack
Fuel Gasoline Can, 5-gallon Nozzle
Fuel Gasoline Gas/Fuel stabilizer
Fuel Fire extinguisher
Fuel Hand pump
Heating Heater Propane
Heating Heater Propane Adapter for tank
Heating Heater Kerosene
Heating Heater Kerosene Wick
Lighting Flashlight Mag-lite AA-cell
Lighting Flashlight Mag-lite AA-cell Bulbs
Lighting Flashlight Mag-lite AA-cell Filters
Lighting Flashlight Mag-lite D-cell Brackets
Lighting Flashlight Mag-lite D-cell
Lighting Flashlight Mag-lite D-cell Bulbs
Lighting Flashlight Mag-lite D-cell Holster
Lighting Kerosene Alladin Mantle
Lighting Kerosene Alladin Wick
Lighting Kerosene Alladin Chimney
Lighting Kerosene Alladin Wick tool
Lighting Lantern Propane Carrycase
Lighting Lantern Coleman fuel Carrycase
Lighting Lantern Mantles
Radio FRS FRS Radios
Radio FRS Charger
Radio FRS Hands-free mic
Radio FRS Carry cases
Radio FRS Spare batteries
Radio Scanner
Radio Scanner Batteries
Radio Scanner Antanae
Radio Weather Radio
Radio Weather Radio Batteries
Radio Power supply
Security Razor ribbon
Security AN PSR1A Unit
Security AN PSR1A Probes
Security AN PSR1A Wire
Security AN PSR1A Manual
Sleep Folding cot
Sleep Sleeping bag
Sleep Sleeping bag Liner
Sleep Blankets
Storage Mylar bags
Toiletries Toilet paper
Toiletries Toothbrush
Toiletries Toothpaste
Toiletries Dental Floss
Toiletries Mouthwash
Toiletries Comb
Toiletries Soap
Toiletries Washcloth
Toiletries Towel
Toiletries Razors
Toiletries Shaving cream
Tools Hand Prybar
Tools Hand Shutoff
Tools Hand Axe
Tools Hand Shovel
Tools Maintenance Solvents WD-40
Tools Maintenance Sharpener/file
Tools Hand Boltcutters
Tools Hand Knife Glock
Water 5-gallon container
Water Stabilizer

Tidying up the bunker

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So, I had resolved yesterday to do *something* everyday to further The Cause Of Zero. SO, how’d that go? Not bad. I re-inventoried the clothing I have stashed away in the bunker and, in a fit of efficiency, vaccuum sealed it all..each item with its own little label. Why vaccuum sealed? Couple reasons..for one thing, there were a dozen pairs of wool glove/mitten liners and the last thing I need to do is be freezing to death, open the box, find twelve bands of elastic and a six-pound moth. It also compresses things nicely so they take up less space. And, of course, it protects them from damp and water…so if I have to haul that box to a waiting vehicle in the middle of a heavy rain or snow and I trip and the box goes flying, scattering its contents…no prob..its all still clean, dry and safe. Multiple redundancy is the name of the game.

So that was yesterday…today, I’m printing out a small list off of my Excel listing all the clothing that is contained in the box and affixing that list to the outside of the box for easy sorting.

While I was at it, I did some re-arranging of things in the bunker as well. I had alot of 6-gallon buckets sitting around getting underfoot so I moved them around, consolidated a few items into milk crates, that sort of thing.

I think todays Deed will be fairly simple…move to the bunker all the things that I’ve let stack up in my living room that Ive been meaning to take down there and put them away.