Cleaned the AK from shooting it the other day. I really gotta hand it to the Commies, its been almost 60 years and very little has come along to challenge the AK’s reliability. Ergonomics suck, accuracy is only so-so, but by god it goes bang every time you pull the trigger.
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World sitrep remains relatively unchanged…actually, no, thats not true…I want to say it seems quieter but its probably just a) the media not keeping up with ongoing threats since they arent ‘fresh news’ any more and b) the threats are shifting from military/terrorist to economic. Actually, theyve always been economic, its just that sometimes its more pronounced than others. Fuel prices seem to have levelled off at the ‘high’ end of the spectrum but summer tourist season has yet to arrive and that will certainly boost prices a bit. Not that I really have anywhere to go, Im more interested in seeing what effect, if any, it will have on the prices of day-to-day goods (i.e. groceries) that require extensive shipping.
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I was cruising around the internet and noticed that alot of people (and outfits) are getting into the cargo container modification game. One website I read said that the US brings in about 9 million of these things every year but only sends back a third of that since its cheaper to leave them at the dock and pay a fee on them than it is to ship them back across the ocean from whence they came. Result is that , at least in coastal areas, you can get containers fairly easily. (Or, as easily as anything involving hauling large objects by truck can be.) While I wouldnt want to live in one year-round on a permanent basis, they seem like an interesting way to make a decent and relatively portable temporary cabin or retreat. Then, of course, theres always my dream which is coating the thing in a few layers of roofing tar to waterproof it and burying the thing in the side of a moutnain.
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Havent done any geocaching stuff in a while and I’d really like to. The weather, at some point, is going to be getting better around here and it would be nice to spend the time outdoors in the sticks. Still need to get the topo mapping software I want. Could be verrrrrry handy.
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‘Good Eats’ had an episode on pouch cooking. Basically, you take some food, put it into an aluminum foil envelope, and leave it on the coals to cook. No muss, no fuss. Nice option for when you have to cook on something other than your usual range. I’ve got a small Volcano cookstove (which I recommend, by the way) and I’ve cooked pork with onions and pepper in about fifteen minutes this way and it was darn good. As a result, I try to keep a goodly amount of aluminum foil on hand which is a good idea anyway since it has lotsa uses. (Great for lining cookware when camping so you dont have to wash your pots and pans…tear up a few large sheets, fold em over nice and small, and tuck them out of the way for use later.) Come to think of it, I should experiment some more with this method.
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Still need to work on emergency lighting options for the bunker
Still need to work on radio communications
Still need to work on more storage options
Still need to do alot of stuff