“Crisis Preparedness Handbook” by Spigarelli (ISBN 0-936438-07-0) arrived the other day. Thus far, its not bad. It isnt as broad and vague as many books but its nowhere near as detailed as, say, “Making The Best Of Basics”. Still and all, it seems a good book and one that I dont think I’ll regret purchasing. About half the book is devoted to food storage and preperation which is good since too many books try to be too many things within the narrow confines of their covers…some (Passport To Survival, for example) try to get in a chapter on *everything* and wind up giving short shrift to other topics.
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The shelving project in the bunker continues. I got all the MRE’s and freeze drieds in one place and that was a big plus. I need to make a rack to hold the 5-gallon buckets, though. I dont really care to just stack them on top of each other and I certainly want them off the floor. Simple frame made out of 2×4’s oughtta do the trick. Also need to make one for the various water containers as well.
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One project I would very much like to do this year is to set up a solar panel on the bay window roof, run it to a charge controller in the basement and have a couple of batteries constantly being tricklecharged/topped off. Given my lack of knowledge on the subject im going to have to do a good bit of research and see what I can come up with. My biggest concern is that I want to use batteries that wont give off any gas when being charged. Thats limiting me to, I think, gel-type batteries. As I said, I need to do some more research. I want to have enough power to run a simple and small LED array of lights and power a two-way radio. Thats it. I was thinking something in the 75-100ah range. Research is called for.
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Its hard to believe but I am one gun away from completing my ideal battery of guns. I need to pick up a Ruger MkII at some point to fill in the ‘.22 pistol’ niche and I can then pick up the redundant spares at my leisure. There are , however, a few guns I’d like to have but that are not critical…a Vaquero .44, a Beretta 21A in .22, a bolt action .223 and maybe a nice Marlin .22. But right now Id be very well served with the current inventory of thundertoys. Still need more ammo though.
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I see on the news that California motorists got stranded and had to sit in their cars for as longas 12 hours the other day. 12 hours? Bah. Talk to me when youve spent three days or so. I think right now theres at least that many days worth of gear in the vehicle right now. Getting stuck on a snowy road in the middle of nowhere would almost be a vacation given the sleeping bags, candle lantern, MRE’s, etc, etc. that are packed away. Of course, being California Im sure none of these people had any gear with them for a prolonged stay.
Notes From The Bunker
yeah, that beretta 21A i’ve got is a beaut, although the Mgr of the store i bought it from DID say that despite what the manual said, it was NOT a .25, apparently a guy had returned it saying that it wouldn’t chamber the ammo, and it turned out the guy was trying to get .25 Auto to chamber in a pistol meant to take .22
You might be interested in “The Solar Electric House”. It’s very dense to start off (or maybe it’s that I hated solid-state electronics so much in Engineering), but past that, good stuff. It even mentions Gelcells.
My in-laws just gave me a little LED flashlight for Xmas, and the minute I opened it I thought of you. It has a handcrank on the back, and if you crank it for a minute it is supposed to power the unit for an hour. My Father in law said he cranked one for a minute, and it still hasn’t stopped working for over a month.
I got one with a magnet and coil in the handle–shake for a minute or two, get light for quite a while. Not a month, but a fair piece.
I like the MkII–that’s the pistol I first learned on.
pistol i learned on was a Mdl 66 S&W Combat Magnum in .357
There are a lot of sealed lead-acid batteries that are designed to be trickle-charged and used at constant draw, rather than engine starting loads. Dynasty VLRA Long Duration Series TEL-12-125 125 ah batteries are what I use.
ok the website has no information but the prices cant be beat
http://www.cheapestsolar.com/
I have “Making the Best of Basics”, and I really like it. I also like “The Encyclopedia of Country Living”.
OT, but I’ve got to say, your icon’s adorable.
I’ve had mine for over 20 years, and it still gets out to the range with me at least once a month. My husband’s just starting to shoot, and he loves the thing.
batteries
it is hard to go wrong with harker sla’s. the monobloc configs are handy. spendy, but worth it.
don’t skimp on the charging circuit. improper charging can greatly shorten a battery’s useful life. (there is plenty of good info re: charging on the hawker/enersys site)
If you were nearer, I could send you one or two of the 125AH batteries that is referring to.
There isn’t any kind of lead-acid battery technology that doesn’t give off some small amount of gas. Of course, flooded cell batteries are the worst. Gel and AGM batteries rarely vent unless they’re being charged at a very high rate. Of sealed lead-acid batteries, I believe AGM are starting to supplant gel cells in popularity as they perform a great deal better.
Regarding Californians, not all of them are yuppie twits. There are a lot of preparedness nuts in the Sierras and the central valley. There’s also a few where I live in the Santa Cruz mountains. I’ll use as an example.
Getting stuck on a snowy road in the middle of nowhere would almost be a vacation
Not until you get a topper on that thing. It would get awfully cramped after awhile.
Of course, being California Im sure none of these people had any gear with them for a prolonged stay.
Statistically you might be right, being as how no one from around here was stuck, as near as I can tell. But you have to get over this idea that everyone in California is from LA or San Francisco. If the state wasn’t gerrymandered to death, it would be very, very rural, conservative and prepared. There are many, many more people in the rural areas than the urban or suburban, CZ. It’s only the city pukes that insist on building on fault lines and expecting the supermarkets to stay open in a disaster.
Everybody on this hill can hack three days in their car. We might have to barbecue some of the city dwellers, but only after our 72-hour SHTF supplies are exhausted.
If you are planning on getting a *new* Ruger Mk II, you may want to get it soon. The Mk II is being replaced by the new Mk III. The Mark III adds a mag disconnect safety and a key lock safety. I personally don’t like having either one on my guns. It also uses different mags then the MK II because they moved the mag release from the heel clip to a button release behind the trigger guard.
I have a Govt Target Model that I’m very happy with. I’m going to have to pick up a second one now that I’m teaching classes. I want the guns to be able to use the same mags, so I need to get it soon.