Havent done too much lately…just been working on my civillian stuff.
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Still havent gotten around to testing and evaluating the mylar bags, but I'll probably do that Monday. I think they'd be good for storing gloves, hats, etc. as well as other items that have to remain dry and clean…I want to test them for durability and waterproofness. What I'll probably do is fill and seal them and then leave one sitting outside for as long as it takes to lose integrity and then TTD (test to destruction) the others.
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Buddy of mine got out of the VA hospital the other day. I picked him up and in the process I 'acquired' a case of individually wrappped and sealed-for-your-protection 4.5″ Kerlix bandage rolls….about a hundred of them

Now, admittedly, I *could* use all 100 of them but from a practical standpoint, fifty oughtta be just fine. Since Im into the for nothing I'll be distributing them to the various LMI. A dozen to Capt. Insano, a dozen to another buddy, etc, etc. It works to my advantage to have the LMI as well-prepared as possible….never know when the well-being of one of them may affect my own well-being.

Which reminds me, I need to pick up some minor surgery tools…forceps, suture holders, etc….

By the by, why fifty? Well, its all about redundancy. I have the first aid kit at work, the first aid kit I carry in my pack, the first aid kit at the house, three spare first aid kits in the bunker…so thats six…..at eight bandages per kit thats 48 rolls right there. In reality, its more like three or four per kit but then I need extras to restock the kit. Also I see absolutely no reason not to have extras … especially since I'll ruin one or two of them in examining them and seeing how they work. (Practicing bandaging, seeing if packaging can be opened with weak hand, if packaging can withstand being crushed, etc, etc.)
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Still gotta get around to loading up some 'sniper grade' .308 for the CZ550.

While Im pleased that Im 99% done with my purchasing of FAL magzines (officially) it occurs to me I have absolutely no magazine pouches suitable for the FAl mags. My magazine pouches are either for AR mags or AK mags. While I'll undoubtedly pick up a few high-end .308 pouches from Tactical Tailor or some of the other outfits, I was thinking about purchasing some of the surplus HK G3 mag pouches that are on the market. Cheaper Than Dirt has them for ninetynine cents for a dual mag pouch. Rubberized plastic very similar to whats used on an entrenching tool cover. What I'd like is about a dozen of these things I can string to gether to form a bandoleer of mag pouches I can just throw over my shoulder and grab the FAL with.
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So 2004 was, from a terrorist activity standpoint, a bust. All well and good, as far as im concerned. Im in no hurry to eat freeze drieds, drink stored water and spend my nights huddled around a radio. At the same time we have…hmmm…North Korea doing their usual thing, Syrian and Iranian concerns, the ongoing nastiness with the fanatics and of course, our own homebrewed gestapo state. I seriously need my own country.  A nice, quiet, extraordinarily well armed and defended little isolationist state….completely indiferrent to the outside world, trading and dealing with all nations equally and ready to roll up the welcome mat the minute someone gets too friendly.
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I need to do some travelling this summe and find a nice little few acres in the Middle Of Freakin' Nowhere to lay claim to. Theres parts of this state where you can literally buy a house on a lot for less than $12000. But Im not looking for that…No, I want some acreage about as far off the beaten trail as I can get while still being able to access it in all seasons. (Although the form of access is negotiable…I've no qualms if the only way to get into it in winter is on a four-wheeler. Better for isolation.) Just a nice few acres that later on a small and remarkably well constructed little oasis can be built on . Ideally it would have a little elevation so I could build into the side of a hill, have reliable water from either well or, best, a year round creek (which unfortunately would shoot the price into the uncomfortably high numbers.) which would be lovely for mini-hydro, lotsa cover to remain hidden, some area to grow veggies, and just genearlly a nice little pocket of homey-ness in the middle of nowhere. Then when things finally get Majorly Wierd I can load up the vehicle (another project in itself) and head to my happy little redoubt.

When I was 19 had fantasies involving Nicole Kidman and a tub of Crisco, now my fantasies involve real estate. Infer what you will.
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Speaking of vehicle, thats another vastly expensive and complicated project that needs to get tackled. I very much would like a nice, easily maintained vehicle for for just such an occasion but that vehicle by virtue of its properties would also make a great vehicle for hunting season. Older Bronco, Land Cruiser or some such.
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Snowing here today. I should get out the winter camo and get pictures.

Went to a small gun show today. Didnt really purchase anything of consequence, although I did, for $3, find a copy of the seminal work “Survival Guns” by Mel Tappan. Although a very dated work (originally came out in the late 1970's) alot of what he said made sense. He was, however, not shy of advocating that you needed at least a dozen guns. Now, thats not dozen as in “Four guns with tripple redundancy in case of breakage, loss, etc.”…no, ol' Mel thinks that you need at least a dozen…backup gun, hideout gun, working gun, big game gun, varmint gun, training gun, defensive auto, defensive revolver, etc etc. Now Im the first to tell you that any gun is better than no gun, but theres alot of overlap in gun choices….nonetheless, its still a good read. Since its so old theres no mention of the .40 S&W, Glock, SIG pistols, or any of that. He's very much of the Jerry Ahern school that says you need an AR, a 1911 and an 870. Which is fine and dandy but I think I'll hedge my bets with a few other choices.
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Picked up a few more mags for the FAL which gives me exactly 30 20-rd magazines. (Actually, I need 31…1 to keep in the gun, the other 30 for stoarge.) But, by and large, Im done buying FAL mags.
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Gardening season approaches. Shortly it will be time to start some seeds. Whats it going to be this year? Romas, peppers, chiles, lettuce, spinach, herbs, and whatever else strikes my fancy. This year I think I'll order up some heirloom seeds to use.
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Havent played with the mylar bags yet. Maybe tonight. When it happens, I'll post about it.
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I have to say, if youre an LMI and you want to work on some useful skills, geocaching is the pasttime for you….map and compass skills, GPS usage, sneaky thinking, tromping around in the outdoors, etc, etc. And lets not even think about the hugely useful skills you'll pick up. Never know when its going to be handy to leave something hidden in a location that only you and your LMI's can get to. And its, of course, a handy skill for arranging rendezvous and supply drops.

But, and I stress this, GPS is no substitute for map and compass skills. .gov can turn off the satellites or bring back Selective Availability (intentional errors in the GPS readings to reduce accuracy..it was only turned off a few years ago) at any moment. And we all know about battery life in our critical gear, right? It doesnt exist! So have the battery-powered goodie but be ready to not have it available.
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Quick Tip: Make a copy of your keyring. I dont mean make a copy of just a couple keys. I mean copy every key on your keyring, put them all on a ring or fob just like what you use now so its an exact duplicate. I lost my keys last week and it was a major mess. Easier to just go home, grab the complete extra set and have house key, truck key, shop key, bike lock key, etc, etc, already in one place and ready to go.
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Still need to go down to the bunker and straighten up. The shelving I put in has made a tremendous difference. I just now need to organize a bit better and utilize the freed-up space more efficiently. But, overall, Im okay with how it looks. More organization is needed, but I'm satisfied that things are 'good enough' if the situation calls for using the things there.

SO the North Koreans admitted publicly, yeah, we have nukes. (And in the article, their guy is quoted as using the term 'nukes'.) And, naturally, they have no desire to continue the six-way talks about them curbing their nuclear program. Again, what a shock, hey.

Let. Them. Starve.

No more fuel shipments, no more food shipments. If the civillians arent going to rise up and overthrow this nutjob then they deserve to slowly starve in the cold, Stalinist world theyve created.

Even their fellow travellers, the Chinese, don't like them. And theres sure as hell no love lost between them and the Japanese. I suppose if we werent worried about them rolling into South Korea we'd just let them starve….
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I will not call about the HK…I will not call about the HK…I will not call about the HK…

Theres an HK91 listed for sale in the paper for $700. Hmmm….no..no,no,no…I already have a .308….
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Although in my civillian life I have wierd zombie dreams all the time, I attribute those to that particular part of my life. (The civillian part, not the zombie part.) However, I had a dream the other night that really was aimed more at this particular facet of my personality. I had a dream that , I think, aliens were invading (yeah, I saw the War Of The Worlds trailer during the StuporBowl). The girlfriend came by in her truck and we were rushing to load all the gear and supplies, all the while seeing the destruction and flmaes only a few blocks away headed in this direction.

Moral of the story? everything needs to be in man-portable, durable, waterproof containers for easy transport on a moments notice. This is, for me, easily accomplished with 40mm and 20mm ammo cans (as well as a few 60mm cans for the big stuff).
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$50 for the Leatherman Wave tool that I want. However, various municipalities auction off seized Leatherman tools taken at airports on eBay. A very good value but theres just no way in hell I can support the state seizing property like that.
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Uline (www.uline.com) is a supplier of packaging materials…mostly boxes and polybags. However, they also sell FDA approved food-safe mylar bags. Hmmmm….ordered some samples to try out. They come in three sizes and should be easy to seal using a hot iron. The Commander loves mylar bags for their airtightness, waterproofness, light impermeability and general razoo appearance. Pricing is per 1000 bags which means I'll split them up with the rest of the LMI, but at that point the price comes down to around a dime each. Not a bad value. I have some samples and will be experimenting with them soon.
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Speaking of the LMI, a late Christmas gift from one of them: http://www.eagleindustries.com/ProdDisp.asp?PartNoID=271

A scope and muzzle crown protector for my CZ550. (Or, as I explained it to the girlfriend, 'a gun cozy').
Nice, eh? And a very, very good choice of gift…and in my color too! OD.
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More and more interesting goodies are turning up now that the assault weapons ban is a thing of the past (for most of us). Lotsa neat new AR-15 platforms and even the AK's are starting to get tweaked out into M4-type guns. My focus is magazines. I need smore AR mags and a few more P35 and Glock mags.
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The Chinese are building a pebble bed reactor, according to the news the other day. I am highly interested in this particular type of nuclear power generation facility. If we could get past the knee-jerk reactions to the words 'nuclear power' folks might come to see that a nuclear power plant (of the pebble bed variety) mixed with your hydrogen-based automobile industry would be a big step forward…nuclear energy produces the electricty to crack open water to get hydrogen which is used to fuel cars.

You know what I really like about being Commander Zero? When I do these posts and website updates I can be a completely different person. I dont have the worries and stresses and headaches of my civillian life. Everything is much more in my control. All I have to worry about is *things*…need food? Get food. Simple. Need ammo? Get ammo? Piece of cake. Nothing more complex than that. Being the Zero is sometimes a vacation from being the 'real' me. Its nice to be someone else once in a while.

Onto business……

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The Leatherman Wave is looking like the candidate for the Official Zero Multitool. I'll go price a few and see if its in the realm of possibility. Because, as the Zero, I'd have to get more than one.
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The weather here has cleared up a bit and theres very little snow on the ground so Ive taken to riding the mountain bike around town again. Great exercise and it very much reminds me that for short-range urban (or semi-urban) transport these things are hard to beat. Traffic becomes almost irrelevent, blocked streets can be bypassed for sidewalks or overland routes, more gear can be carried than if I were on foot, and its certainly much much faster than walking. The only drawback is, of course, lack of protection compared to a car or truck and the relative short range. One other seriously nice thing is that I could throw the bike in the back of the truck and if things got hairy I could always abandon the vehicle and continue on bicycle. (The movie 'Deep Impact' highlighted this in a scene where an evacuating family is caught in a monstrous and hopeless traffic jam..the young son survives because he can weave through cars on his little enduro motorcycle.) Which leads me to the midway compromise of a nice all-terrain motorcycle. More range, more speed, more cargo. Drawback is, of course, more inherent risk since you are travelling faster in an unprotected manner. Still, the military has a diesel Kawasaki out now that looks severely tempting. I've figured my motorcycle days are behind me since Im not young and invincible anymore, but at the same time there might be some merit to having a fueled and equipped motorcycle ready to go.
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LMI buddy of mine has been collecting the old Jerry Ahern 'Survivalist' series of 'mens action adventure' books off of eBay. Ah, the heady days of the Cold War. An interesting read in retrospect, twenty years after the series started. Invading Russians, AR-15's for everyone, no .40 S&W cartridges, ACOGS, Humvees or other staples of warfare and defense in the last decade. Very dated…but still a fun read. By the by, if youre looking for some interesting reading along the lines of 'Lucifers Hammer' or 'Alas Babylon' try getting yourself a copy of “Patriots: Surviving the coming collapse' (by Rawles)…a bit heay on the religion and UN NWO conspiracy but still a very very enjoyable read.
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I need to get the DSA scope mount for the FAL. I have the AR and AK for the close-n-cozy moments and I have the CZ550 for the reach-out-and-touch-someone moments but I think the FAL's niche is with a decent 4x (maybe 6x) scope and a bipod. Something for stopping vehicles at longer distances than the 7.62×39 and .223 but requiring more output of lead than a bolt gun can provide. Something for peppering trucks at four hundred yards, that sort of thing. A Barret .50 would be nice but if I had that kinda money Id be sinking it into Zeros Personal Chariot Of Apocalyptic Deliverence (read: a nice little get-me-the-hell-out-of-here vehicle).

Okay, multittools – Leatherman, Gerber, Buck, etc, etc.

Opinions, comments, recommendations, warnings?

Im looking for the one tool to rule.

Someone, , I think..posted a link to military packaging guidelines online. Can some post that link again..I cant find the post it was in.

Been quiet lately. Things in my civillian life have taken priority over my Zero-life. This isnt bad since many of the more urgent things are taken care of. I guess really Im at the point of simply maintaining my preparedness level rather than advancing it…although if an opoprtunity presents itself I will, naturally, add to things.

Went shooting the other day. Shot the SKS, which really is a rifle worthy of respect. Its easy to dismiss it as a glorified 10/22 but its definitely something to ber eckoned with. Reasonably accurate as well. Also shot the AK which is always fun. Played with the FAL some more and confirmed that, indeed, the gas regulator setting it is currently on is the one to use. Its official name is the “Big Stick”. I do need to sit down and load ammo..esp. for the CZ550. I just never seem to get around to it.

On the bright side, I took Red Cross CPR and first aid earlier this week. It was about 7 hours and really wasnt that difficult. In fact, it was so not difficult that it makes me wonder if there was anything to be learned. No, I think the next step is to hit the more advanced courses. Something that goes beyond “Call 911″. If nothing else, taking this class might fill some sort of prerequisite to take a more advanced class. I've been lucky (or , rather, the people around me have been lucky) in that Ive never really had to deal with a serious emergency. Its almost always been something that was remedied with the application of some neosporin and a 4×4 gauze pad. Still, Im glad I took the class. Its good for building confidence.