There are little hallmarks that occur in life that let you know, for better or worse, that you’ve transitioned to a new stage in your life… having to wear a tie or body armour, for example. Todays sign that my life has gotten more complicated than it used to be: I had to buy a matching pair of monitors so I can dual-wield programs.
On the bright side, if I get back into gaming these will be fabulously useful.
I dunno about you, but sometimes I think there’s never a level at which I’m satisfied. Me, I’d say Im a 7. But…lets put it to a vote:
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But, we happy survivalists being a rather independent bunch, my definition of prepared may not be the same as your definition of prepared. But, for me, I’d say I’m an easy seven…prepared enough to outlast a majority of the population, but not so prepared that I won’t worry when the bombs go off.
Ugh…Im immersing myself in a bit of reorganization of the long-term food. The positive aspect is that it gives me a chance to inspect, update , and repackage things. The negative side is that it’s a buncha work. After the last big Mountain House buy I wound up with a dozen cases of leftovers to add to my own stockpile. But…where to put it? Its an eye-opening experience. I’ve come across quite a bit of older stuff that may need to be excised from the current stash…most notably some MRE’s that are, no lie, 20 years old. Gotta figure out what to do with those.
It’s very odd to come across all these different things that have been in storage so long I’ve forgotten about them.
Anyway, when you have spent as many years as I have doing this sort of lifestyle you wind up having these sorts of to-do lists. I’m hoping that once Im done I’ll have freed up a bunch more space for better organization. And, really, I need to split the whole thing into an even distribution of three or four stockpiles to be relocated elsewhere…Ive got way too many eggs in too few baskets.
But…there’s a certain fun and bittersweet nostalgia to going through stuff from so many years ago. I’m curous to see what turns up and what winds up not being worth keeping. (For example..the cheap sleeping bags will probably be eliminated since I have so many of the military sleep systems these days.)
I’ve been remiss in mentioning it, but as of late a few people have ponied up a few bucks in the tip jar and for that I am grateful. Although there’s a little PayPal donation link button at the top right hand of the page, virtually no one uses it. There are, though, a couple people who not only kick in a few bucks but actually make a repeating donation every month…and thats really nice of them. Mucho thanks.
Where does it go? Honestly, it goes to domain renewal and hosting. “What? That can’t be very much!” I hear you say…well, it isn’t. But what comes in isn’t very much either…so – it all goes to that.
I try not to put the arm on anyone because, honestly, I blog mostly for my own satisfaction. Once in a while I ask for donations to keep the renewal/hosting fund solvent but I havent done that in…lets see…I think three years. Of course, I’d never say ‘no’ to any donations that came my way but I’m not going to be annoying and make pleas every few months either.
Anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge the folks that kick in for keeping the lights on here and give them their due. Thanks guys!
We now return you to our regularly scheduled descent into dystopia.
Those were some interesting numbers from that poll. Apparently, the majority of respondents share the same thought as I – that the ‘Big Event’ will be economic. Not zombies, not the Rapture, not Planet X, not chemtrails….just a good ol’ fashioned economic crisis.
Of course, no one really knows what the next apocalypse is going to look like, so I’d rather err on the side of ‘overprepared for an economic collapse’ so I don’t wind up ‘underprepared for WW3’. Succinctly, if you’re prepared for a nuclear war you are probably, de facto, prepared for all the smaller stuff than that….blizzards, power outages, etc.
I have had an interest in preparedness (although I didn’t know thats what it was) since my early teens. (Directly traceable, I believe, to having started reading post-apocalyptic fiction for some extra credit book reports) It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that I could do anything about it. And, being a young stupid kid, my immersion into preparedness was pretty much the same as most n00bs – lotsa guns. In the painful decades since then, I’ve moved away from the fun stuff like guns and camo to the mundane stuff like food and toilet paper. Don’t misunderstand…both are needed for a well-balanced approach to preparedness….but in all the crises I’ve been in , we used alot more food and TP than we did M855.
I was emailing someone the other day and I mentioned that there’s a point where you can ‘plateau’ as a survivalist and your focus goes from acquisitions to maintenance. Your’e pretty much done acquiring things and you’re now at the stage of maintaining those things. Preparedness is a commitment, man….sure, there are some things you can tuck away and forget about, but there’s alot that needs to be maintained and taken care of on a regular basis if you want to not waste your money. (For example, running the generator once a month to make sure it’s always ready.) I wouldn’t say I’ve plateaued… there are still a few big ticket items I need to acquire, but if the world ended tomorrow I would not feel at a great disadvantage with what I have now. But…always room for improvement, y’know?
The things that hold me back? Easy: money and motivation. (and, really, the two kinda go hand in hand.) If money were no object, I’d be living in my own private county right now. But my motivation wanes from time to time and without motivation I’m less inclined to take the steps and do things necessary to get the money. Frankly, it’s always easier to do nothing than it is to do something…and I’m sadly notorious for taking the easy way.
This is probably the main reason I so enjoy disaster movies and books – it puts my overactive imagination into overdrive and I start wargaming things in my head…and next thing you know I’m in the attic with a clipboard inventorying Hardigg cases and making lists. Hey, whatever gives you motivation. Me, my motivational imperative has always been security. Not physical security, per se, but rather security as in being able to absorb the punches that life likes to aim at my family jewels. My goal is to be secure enough that a job loss, debilitating injury, or other insult to my well-being will be an inconvenience rather than a critical hit. To that end…survivalism.
Something new to play with, blogwise………
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I’ve apparently reached a stage in my existence where my standard uniform of jeans and a t-shirt is not always the perfect ensemble. But…it’s ridiculous to pay retail for clothes I don’t even want to wear unless I have to. So…yay for used clothing. Got four shirts and a wool sweater for $24. That frees up more money for ammo.
Speaking of ammo, the big event at the moment seems to be YouTube doing some ethnic cleansing in the continuing culture war. I think it’s absurd, but I’m not sure they don’t have the right to say whom they’ll host or not. I’m reminded of the last great gun culture war back in the late ’80s/early 90’s…back when gun owners were urged to buy shares of TimeWarner to try and influence their trajectory. That didn’t work either.
But, make no mistake, it is a culture war. Guns are the convenient excuse to get everyone on board but invariably the gun community tends to trend towards the right side of the political spectrum and the real issue is about quelling those voices from the right, guns is just the convenient rally cry to muster the troops. Kinda like how the Civil War was ostensibly fought over slavery but was really about something else.
How do you play defense and win at a culture war? I’m not sure you can. You can not lose, though… which is almost as good as a win. You not-lose by dragging out the issue until the other side gets tired/bored/distracted or loses support. (Same technique used in Algeria, Vietnam, Korea, Colonial America, Colonial Africa, Colonial everywhere.)
Eventually the Tide-Pod-eaters who we can’t trust to cross a street safely will move back towards video games, sex, cars, and spring break. As a political bloc they are virtually worthless for anything except media fodder. A 10/22, a brick of ammo, and a Saturday afternoon would probably go a long way towards encouraging them to think for themselves. Something more about the fun of shooting and being outdoors rather then about political indoctrination (not that political indoctrination is uncalled for, just that there’s a time and place for it….an 8am Monday morning on the first day of learning to shoot is probably not it.)
In a place like Montana it’s pretty hard to find someone who is anti-gun AND has never shot a gun before. (Mostly transplanted Californians and East Coasters, I’d imagine.) I should post an ad somewhere offering to take kids shooting for free if they’ve never had the opportunity. You know there was a time when lotsa high schools used to have smallbore rifle teams. We should bring that back.
Indoor shooting practice at school back in the day. High school shooting teams were not rare and these kids didn’t grow up to be mass murderers.
Local Missoula Junior Varsity Indoor RPG Team. State champs last year……
So after the last large purchase of freeze-drieds, it was time to put the leftovers away. The freeze-drieds (FD) are packaged with an advertised shelf life of a minimum of around 30 years, and the experience of some folks seems to suggest that rating is pretty spot-on.
Thirty years…. I’ll expire before the food does.
But, the food only lasts as long as the container it’s packaged in. Now, I have had some MH sitting on the shelf for almost 20 years and it appears to be just fine. BUT….I have also had some #10 cans from the LDS cannery that eventually started to rust and look like they may be a bit sketchy. (One can had almost turned black with freckling, but when I cut it open everything was flawless inside…but there is no room for ‘probably ok’ when it comes to food storage.) Honestly, I do virtually nothing special to my #10 cans…I stick ’em in a cardboard box that holds six cans, tape it shut, and stick it on a wire shelf in my basement. Here in my part of Montana, the basement stays cool with virtually no humidity…optimal conditions. But, when a can of FD beef or chicken sets you back fifty bucks a can, it’s probably a good idea to maybe add an extra layer of protection. And some folks live in areas where the humidity can get downright troublesome…like, oh, the southeast US for example.
I’ve read a lot of stuff on how to store food long-term. Other than the ubiquitous statement about ‘a cool, dry place’, there are a few other suggestions on how to make sure your canned stuff doesn’t have it’s structural integrity compromised. The most detailed that I’ve read involves removing the labels from each can and ‘painting’ the can with (or dipping it in) melted paraffin. This seems like a pretty solid way to do things except that it also sounds like a tremendous pain in the butt. As I pointed out, there is an alternative. The folks at repackbox.com were kind enough to send me one of their kits that are designed to maximize the lifespan of the #10 can that’s housing the stuff that’s preventing you from having to eat your dog. I am always up for examining new gear..
So, starting at the top:
UPS dropped off a box and I was delighted at how much detail went into things. I mean, the storage boxes are marked with places to write down he contents of the box and then they provide a new black Sharpie for you to do the writing with. And a roll of tape to tape up the boxes. Literally, everything you need to pack your #10 cans for long-term storage is included…except for the shelves. Note to the guys at repackbox.com: find a bulk deal on surplus P38 can openers and include a couple with each overbox.
So the idea is that you take your expensive can of yuppie chow, put it in the polybag, add a packet of desicant, ziptie the bag shut, seal it up in the small box, and then load four of them into the overbox. At that point you’re good to go for what will probably be the next hundred years.
Lather, rinse, repeat until all boxes filled. The boxes, by the by, are some heavy duty cardboard. Is it waterproof? Of course not, but thats why the cans are sealed in a polybag. Is this the sort of packaging that you could put together on your own? Maybe. I ship stuff for a living so I know all the sources for this kinds stuff. But…here it is, in one place, ready to go, and just a couple mouse clicks away.
For my current needs, this is overkill. But, overkill isn’t a bad thing. What I mean by overkill is that, for me and my current circumstance, this is more protection than seems necessary (although erring on the side of caution isn’t a vice in the world of preparedness). But…let’s say I was going to store a bunch of this stuff offsite at the Beta Site, or the family hunting cabin, or in the attic at my uncles warehouse, or under the floorboards of a family members kitchen…..well, then there’s really no such thing as overkill. Come the day when you’re fleeing the [zombies/hurricane/troops/tornado/alien overlords] and arrive at your hideout, tip over the fake woodpile, and untarp your cache, it’ll be hard to think “Man, I really didn’t need to pack that stuff as well as I did”.
The biggest issue I would think anyone would have with this sort of lily gilding is the expense. But, four cans of FD meat is $200. And then there’s the whole what-if-my-life-depends-on-it angle. Breaking the cost down, it’s about $2.91 per can to exponentially increase the level of protection of your food supply.
Honestly, my own policy is probably that the stuff I store in my basement will probably not be packed like this. I mean, its in my basement…I can go downstairs and check on it every week if Im so inclined and stay on top of any issues. BUT…the stuff thats going to be tucked away Elsewhere…where I may not see it for a year (or years) at a time…well, that stuff is going to definitely get packed up like this.
So there you have it. There’s the old saying about how if your pants absolutely Must Not Fall Down that you go with suspenders and a belt…and then you sew your shirt to your waistband. This kit from repackbox.com is definitely the sew-your-shirt-to-your-waistband step of extra certainty. Go check ’em out.
In a country where they get their knickers in a twist over pocket knives, this probably has more than a kernel of truth in it…..
