Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I have, so far, missed not one but two classes on canning that have taken place here in town. The first was a three day course on food preservation, including canning, that was held by the county extension agency. The other was an evening class that was free, but full up, at the local HippieMart. I’m not full of myself enough to believe that I know everything so I would be interested in taking these classes and seeing what I actually do and do not know. However, I was unaware of the three-day class until after the fact and the one at HippieMart apparently filled up early. Maybe next time.
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I see that hurricane Gustav was basically a non-event. In fact, I was reading that authorities are concerned that it will make people less willing to follow a mandatory evacuation next time. I suppose that makes sense. However, I still find it fascinating that some people simply Will. Not. Learn. I would imagine that being forced to shelter at the SuperDome during Katrina would make anyone serious about either getting the hell out of New Orleans or be very prepared for the inevitable hurricane that will come along next time.

However, if theres one thing that comes close to being an absolute truism in this topic, it is that some people are sheep (the sheeple) and will blithely go about their lives doing nothing to increase the odds in their favor. They’re going to make careers out of being victims and I feel only the smallest amount of pity for them. Man jumps out of a plane without a parachute you have to expect he knew what he was getting into and when he hits the ground we’ll wonder why he did such a foolish thing. Same theory. You live in a city that is below sea level, regularly floods, is subject to very predictable and very powerful hurricanes, has already had one epic (and likely repeatable) disaster and you don’t prepare to take care of yourself? That’s like leaving your parachute back at the hangar. You’re poor and on welfare and cant afford a parachute? Then don’t get in the plane. Move out of New Orleans and continue your welfare existence someplace less likely to flood…the food stamps will follow you, so move to Iowa.
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The Farmers Almanac predicts that this will be a very cold winter. Predicting the weather in Montana more than a few days ahead of time is literally the same odds as flipping a coin. “Might rain, might not”. Predicting weather a year in advance ranks right up there with horoscopes and a trip to Lourdes in terms of scientific accuracy. However, better safe then sorry, yes?

I picked up an extra kerosene heater last year and still have about 60 gallons of the stuff in storage so If for whatever reasons we wind up with some sort of problem that precludes use of the normal heating system I think we’ll be okay. Same for cooking and lighting. It’ll be rustic but it’ll beat the heck out of sitting in the cold, dark eating cold Spaghetti-O’s outta the can.

Additionally, theres plenty of extra sleeping bags and blankets in storage in the bunker. Military surplus blankets, if you air them out to get rid of the naptha mothball smell, are excellent values and I recommend them highly. Get a couple ‘blanket’ safety pins and you can fashion a very decent bedroll for yourself.

Historically, in the twenty some-odd years Ive been here in MT I have never seen an outage that affected us for more than eight hours. Sure, other parts of the state that are more rural may be down for days while crews replace lines, but here in town its never been anything near that. No reason not to be prepared though.
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Speaking of cooler weather, its getting close to time to put the cold weather gear back in the truck. You do keep some emergency cold weather gear in your rig during the winter, don’t you? Don’t you?

Fella up in the Big Hole valley got stranded in his truck for about a week. This was about two years ago, I think. Rescuers eventually found him and his dog and although a little hungry they were doing fine, thank you. Why? The fella had some emergency gear in his truck. So he stayed with the vehicle and waited for someone to find him. Happy ending. Contrast that with the stories of families that take wrong turns and wind up on closed seasonal roads and die of exposure after trying to hike out. (And in one case tried to sue the the highway folks for not posting signs that would have warned them to stay off closed roads. Go figure. Another case of blaming everyone else for your own failures.)

By the way, in almost every case of a motorist getting stranded the vehicle is almost always found before the poor slob’s body. So if you get stuck stay with the vehicle. Stay with the vehicle. Stay with the vehicle. And its a lot easier to stay with your vehicle if you have the gear you need.

When the girlfriend was driving back and forth to Helena every weekend during the winter I was, naturally, concerned she’d wind up in a ditch. So, I packed up a Rubbermaid container with MRE’s, water, flashlight, batteries, radio, spare ammo, candle lantern, candles, matches, warm clothes, and that sort of thing for her. Duct taped the whole mess shut so it wouldn’t pop open, and paired it with a military extreme cold weather sleeping bag as well. Took up very little space but gave tremendous peace of mind.

I’m not going to go into the whole ‘winter survival’ spiel. You can Google “winter survival car stuck” and get all the info you will ever need. However, you gotta actually put the crap in the back of the car for it to make any difference. Don’t just think about it, think about it and do it.