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

Went to the LDS cannery the other day and it was a notable trip for the simple reason that nobody else showed up. Yeah..nobody else. It was just me, the guy I went with, and the older couple that run the place. To my way of thinking it seemed a little bit much to go through all the effort and cleanup for just two guys so instead I hung around and shot the breeze with the couple that run the place. We talked HAM radios and that sort of thing for an hour or so. Just so the trip wasnt a total waste, I got some already-sealed #10 cans of product off the shelves to bring home. Their shelves are much fuller than the last couple times I was there. In addition, they got a new portable can sealer for their ‘loaner’ program so if theres some goodies you wanna can that they dont do at the cannery you can take this thing home, along with the necessary cans and lids, and do it yourself. A more devious and twisted indivisual might stick a pistol and some ammo in a #10 can and then carefully remove the label from a #10 can of chili or somesuch and use it to make the other can look far more innocent and uninteresting thatn it actually is. As you can see, theres potential there.

The cannery has a decent selection of staples for dry-pack canning (meaning you are canning dry goods like rice, grain, etc). However, there may be stuff I want to can that they do’t offer…in which case checking out the portable unit would be nice.

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I have very little to say about the economy simply because if you are reading this then youve been paying far more attention to the situation than the average American. All Im gonna say is that unless youre a zillion percent confident that youre not gonna get laid off anytime soon I’d start socking away the cash and goodies you’ll need to get you through a bout of unemployment. Me? Im trying like hell to keep expenses down and supplies up.
I was reading somewhere about how October 7th is some sort of critical day where a huge event of great significance will take place. *Yawn* I followed the threads on the forum I saw the initial post at and tracked it back to this. Ever hear of Godwins Law? It says that “As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” Meaning that sooner later in a discussion about, say, politics someone will bring up a comparison to the Nazis or Hitler at some point…at which point the discussion is over. I propose theres a similar maxim somewhere on the preparedness forums..”As a forum discussion about possible EOTWAWKI events progresses the probability of Art Bell/C-to-C AM being cited as an autoritative source approaches one”..at which point rational discourse logs off and the Tinfoil Beanie Brigade are all that remain.

I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next nutjob, but conspiracy theories are delicate things. Theres gotta be enough that can be proved, mixed within a proper ratio of what cant proved. Take Area 51/Roswell incident vs. alien abductions. We think something is going at at Area 51 since its got all the elements – .gov involvement, heavy security, mystery, etc. So we can look upon the conpiracy theories it generates as unlikely but maybe not impossible. Then we skip over to the alien abduction guys…not much eveidence except someone saying “there was this bright light and when I woke up I was naked and being probed”. Thats not a conspiracy, thats a date rape.

So…is October 7th anything that will be cataclysmic in its importance? I doubt it. Probably a hell of a lot less than November 4th will be.

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Gas prices continue to decline a bit. About $3.50/gallon locally. I need to sock away more fuel and I’d like to think gas will drop to $3 before coming to a rest around $3.25. Goal is enough fuel for two complete tanks of gas for the vehicle. Thats enough to give us local mobility for a month or so and enough range to leave here and get some distance if we want.