He’s baaaaaack…..
The Locals III
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Start the clock
Well, since there’s no $200 tax to ‘make’ and SBR these days (Form 1) I took an hour, a ton of photos, and sent in the eForm1 to SBR one of my PTR MP5 clones, Ruger PC Charger 9mm, Group Industries Uzi, and my Action Arms Uzi. Because.
As much as I despise ATFE with a hatred that could fuel a large city, I have to very reluctantly admit that those fundaments did a fairly decent job with their website. It was about 10-15 minutes per gun, including taking pictures, but all in all it was relatively simple. Because of my FFL/SOT I didnt have to do the fingerprinting, CLEO sign off, or any of that stuff. Last time I did this was a few years ago and I think it took about 49 days to get the paperwork back. We shall see how it goes this time.
Food storage…literally
Ok, here’s the scenario to imagine: its the dead of winter and, for whatever reason, you’ve been forced to head to your fallback location. Really, all you could take with you was whats on your back and not much else. Being the harshest part of winter, its a bit of a slog but you make it to your destination. You let yourself into your cabin (or whatever) and you’re wet, cold, and hungry after the stress-filled challenge of getting there. You grab a propane bottle off the shelf and get your buddy heater going so you can sit in front of it and get some immediate warmth while you wait for the fire in the woodstove to start warming the place up. You drag a plastic bin out from under the bunk and change your wet pants and socks for dry. So far so good. But..still hungry. This little haven has been empty for the last three months, so there’s been no heat. Whatever food you have in place is going to have to be something that can withstand freeze/thaw cycles without becoming inedible or simply exploding its packaging. So with that in mind, here’s my question for the collective hive-mind: If you were going to store foods in a location that was going to be subject to freeze/thaw cycles, what foods would be best choices? Obviously anything that is liquid is probably not gonna fly since jars will freeze and burst. Also, some foods simply do not handle being repeatedly frozen and thawed. To my way of thinking this means that youre restricted to things that are dry and have no liquid or semi-liquids to worry about….soup mixes, instant potatoes, freeze dried foods, rice, beans, etc, etc. Canned goods are probably off the list since they run the risk of the cans bursting from the cold, and the wet contents may not remain palatable through the freeze/thaw cycles.
No doubt someone will opine that the end-run around this is to have some sort of heat system in place that will run while the cabin’s owner is absent. A large propane tank and a thermostat, or some such setup. Thats not in the cards…while mechanically it is do-able, thats kind of putting a lot of eggs into a basket that may, at the worst time, simply fail.
And, also, keep in mind I am not asking about the quantity of food. Thats not really relevant here, Im asking what actual foods would be indifferent to storage in an environment where there is nothing standing between them and freezing.
Thus far, I’ve come up with dried pasta, rice, beans, hash browns, drink mixes (iced tea, Gatorade, Tang, etc.), egg mix, pancake mix, salt, sugar, most spices, hard candy, oatmeal, cornmeal,canned bread, mac-n-cheese, and a few others. MRE’s and freeze drieds are certainly an option and are part of the overall answer, but what else?
Age come on apace
Liberace, back in the day, sued a tabloid for implying that he was gay. (And, of course, he was but back then it was a secret. A poorly kept one..I mean, look at the man…but a secret nonetheless.) So Liberace sued and won a judgment against the tabloid. When asked if the stress and spotlight of the scandalous trial was upsetting to him, Liberace famously said “I cried all the way to the bank.”
Fast forward to the other day when I was hitting the bargain meat bin at Albertsons…which I do every day on my lunch hour since they are nearby. So I found a half dozen pork tenderloins marked down 50%. Ok, protein is protein..lets head to the check out. The guy working the till asks me how old I am. I ask him why he needs to know. Turns out, the first Thursday of every month is ‘Senior Citizen Day’ with a 5% discount. Apparently their threshold for senior citizen is a rather low bar and I qualified. So, on one h and, I’m pretty jazzed about getting 55% off on bargain meat, but on the other hand I’m pretty annoyed that I look old enough that someone would ask me if I’m a senior citizen.
I cried all the way to the deep freeze.
Ooops I did it again
“How do you accidentally buy a gun?” is a perfectly reasonable question. I’ve mentioned it here.
Made the mistake of walking into a gun sho pon my lunch hour yesterday. The guy behind the counter is starting to recognize me because a) I have an SOT which means he’s more likely to make a sale to me than to someone who has to go get fingerprinted and photographed, and b) I almost exclusively buy used guns, which they often have on consignment at a rather big bite.
We get to talking and he’s telling me of some full-autos he has for sale, including a freakin’ Lewis gun and an FNC. He also has some MAC-10 type full -autos. I told him that while the only thing there that might interest me is the FNC (but not at over $20k) but what I’m really after is a full-auto Uzi. After talking machineguns for a few minutes I asked what he had I might like. Interestingly he pulled out a Browning copy of a Winchester High Wall in .45-70 with a Badger barrel on it. Beautiful gun but not really practical for me. A Belgian Mauser? Meh. Ruger PC Carbine? AH…lemme see that.
Just a plain Jane Ruger PC carbine in the crappy factory stock. It was only a few dollars less than what I could order a new one for. I need a better deal than that, Is it a consignment piece, I ask? It was. So I said call the guy and tell him I’m a buyer at [20% less than what its priced at}, I figured the guy would say no and that would be that.
TL,DR: I just ordered an ODG Magpul Backpacker stock for my new Ruger 9mm carbine.
Muddy
A friend of mine said that they felt a little bad for me because the last few times I tried to get up to the Beta Site I had to bail due to road conditions. I replied that I wasn’t feeling bad about it at all. Each trip out there, even though it failed, gave me tons of information for later use. This weekend was more of the same…try and fail.
The amount of mud that was on the road was epic. I actually slid of the road and into a muddy borrow pit. Fortunately I was able to get back onto the fudge sundae that was the road without too much difficulty but it was a white-knuckler there for a while.
As the elevation increased, the mud decreased until we were back on snowy/slushy roads. Ok, so far so good. The big problem is this steep, sloping switchback. Last time it was a sheet of ice that very nearly punched my ticket to Sto’Vo’Kor. This time, I got out at the bottom of this treacherous stretch and walked it first to see what I was in for. The road surface was slushy ice, which was, in my opinion, traversible, with a set of chains. Fortunately, I had brought a set….the product of previous lessons learned. What I did not have, however, was time. By the time I would have chained up and gotten on my way it would have been too late in the afternoon to get anything done without risking having to come back in the half-light or dark. So…again…not this trip.
But, lessons are learned. I’m learning the conditions of the road, where the trouble spots are, what can and cannot be expected to work, etc, etc. Next trip will involve the side-by-side. I’ll bring along chains for it, as well as my unstuck gear, and we’ll see hwat happens.
Most people I relate this tale to tell me that clearly I need to expect to simply not be able to get to this property in the winter. I nod politely and agree, because I really don’t feel like explaining to them that I need to be able to access my property at any time of year under any circumstance. Heck, thats why I bought the side-by-side and thats probably why I’ll wind up with a snowmobile as well.
I’ve also mapped out the areas to start from if I want to walk in. For example, I know that it is exactly 1.75 miles in a straight line from that switchback to my property. And I know it’s exactly two miles from a different, easily accessed point. This summer one of my projects is walk those routes to I know what to expect.
Why haven’t I taken the side-by-side up there yet? Well, there’s a bottleneck. The side-by-side gets to the general region of the Beta Site on a trailer. That trailer needs a place to be safely stowed when Im not using it…and that would be my fenced yard. But I can’t put it in the yard until I get my fence guy to come in and put a gate into my fence so I can secure the trailer and side-by-side when Im not using them. So…I need the gate so I can get the trailer so I can get the side-by-side to the general region of the property.
The fence guy came today and says he’ll have some ideas and pricing for me by the end of the week. We’ll see. In the meantime, to err on the side of caution, I’m off looking for a good set of chains for the side-by-side as well as investigating the options and pricing for a replacement set of wheels with studded tires.
So, lessons learned and I’m better prepared for next time.
Mundane gun stuff
I picked up a Thompson Encore package back in December at the Hamilton gun show. For reasons that make no sense, I’ve always liked the little single shot Contenders and the Encore scales things up to take real rifle calibers. Play your cards right and you can make a very lightweight rifle. For example, I have a Contender carbine in a Choate stock with a 19″ .30-30 barrel and it barely weighs five pounds.
The package I bought last December was for a .50 muzzleloading barrel and a 7mm Rem. Mag. barrel. I had no use for either barrel but I did have use for the Leupold scopes that were on them. I figured sooner or later I could wheel-n-deal into something I wanted. Today was that day.
First up was a 26″ .308 Win. barrel. Very useful since I can hunt pretty much anything with it, it shares ammo commonality with my CZ .308, Ruger Scout, Mauser FR8, and a half dozen PTR-91’s. But the other barrel…a 16″ .357 Mag barrel that is threaded. And since I have a few 9mm suppressors laying about this will make a delightful little suppressed backpack gun.
For whatever reason, the guys who made the barrel threaded it at 5/8-24 rather than the usual 1/2-28. I’ll order up a 5/8-24 tri-lug adaptor and this thing will get used with my Rugged Obsidian.
So….one barrel leaves, two more enter.
And, since it was the weekend, I figured I’d try and head up to the Beta Site but I was foiled by still-snowy conditions and, contrarily, some absolutely horrible mud. Post on that later.
Morning headlines
Note: I actually had a post scheduled wondering about the buildup of US heavy metal in the Middle East and what it would lead to. Then I woke up this morning to the headlines that Iran was spontaneously exploding. Its a wild world when current event move faster than my ability to speculate on them.
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When I learned to drive, the person instructing me told me to stop looking at what was directly in front of my bumper and to instead keep my attention on what was further down the road. By looking far down the road in front of me, I’d be ready for whatever approached and came within immediate range. I can’t imagine I need to explain the analogy or metaphors in there.
Ive been so focused on the Beta Site that I’ve been neglecting looking down the road in front of me to see, and prepare for, whats coming.
Whats on my personal radar? Well, I have a feeling that the political situation is so…polarized? Balkanized?…that the notion of Republicans (such as they are) winning the Oval Office in 2028 seems terribly unlikely. I mean, yes, it’s possible that the Democrats run such an unlikable or clueless candidate (like obvious wannabe Gavin Newsom) that they manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. My point being that I need to plan and prepare ‘just in case’ the Democrats win in 2028…and for me that means just stocking up on more magazines and AR lowers. It also means exploring the consequences of what a now-we-have-them-where-we-want-them Democratic victory and administration would be. So, gotta war game that.
I was going to say I need to wargame what an upcoming Middle East in flames would look like but Epic Fury beat me to it. Off to CostCo as soon as possible to fill up the truck and extra gas cans in case prices decide to ramp up.
I must say, regime change, rightly or wrongly, seems to be a theme these days. If we expend all our missiles knocking down the Iranians, whats going to happen when China decides to step on Taiwan while we’re restocking the shelves?
Interesting times, indeed.
The Locals II
ETA: Looks like there were enough posts to finally get the tag “Beta Site” into the tag cloud on the right.
Looks like the fox is out looking for a late night snack….
As long as he keeps eating the rodents and stays outta my way we’ll get along just fine.
Math
I was toying with the idea of a small A-frame cabin-like structure up at the Beta Site. The simplicity appeals to me but the inefficient use of space does not. Obviously, your head room diminishes as you approach the sloped walls. So, what if you wanted, say, eight feet of headroom for a space, say, ten feet wide. How wide would the base of the structure have to be, and how tall would it have to be? Welcome to math.
It’s been a million years since I needed to do trigonometry. Fortunately the internet provides. Threw this into AI, “How wide is the base of a right triangle with a height of eight feet and base angle of 60 degrees“. According to the interwebs, 4.6188 feet for the base of that triangle. Okay, so to get a ten foot wide space that has eight feet of headroom, I’d go 4.6188′ for the left side, add ten feet of space for the middle, and then add 4.6188′ for the right side. Add that up and you get an isoceles triangle with a base of 19.2376′. Lets be grown ups and call it 19.25. Okay, so with an angle of 60* how tall would the triangle be? Back to the interwebs.The answer, it seems, is 16.67 feet.
A bit of a problem there…boards are available at16′ lengths, but they get expensive after that. So, realistically, slightly less than 16′ would be the way to go, yes? That means either the desire for ten foot width, or the desire for an eight foot headroom, will have to be adjusted slightly.
At the moment, I’m contemplating a small A-frame structure that can accommodate a cot, some gear, and a bit of room, so I can have a place to throw out a sleeping bag while I’m working on a larger accommodation and the infrastructure that goes with it…something not too far from this:
Its justa thought for now…another avenue I’m exploring….but it does seem to offer some advantages in terms of ease of construction. More research is called for. And math.