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

Im being deficient as the Zero these days..Im behind on a few small projects that Ive been meaning to do. I need to refill the lamps and heater for winter, organize the food cupboards, add more bottled water to the freezer, etc, etc. And I need to keep up on my reloading…I’m getting a bit low on .45 and 9mm ammo.
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The girlfriend was reading a book about a (supposedly) upcoming economic upheaval. Theres alot of things to learn when youre Commander Zero and, honestly, economic theory hasnt quite made it to the top of the list yet. (Its there, I just havent gotten to it yet.) My belief is that rather than reptoids, graboids, invading Chinese, asteroid impacts or pandemic plague the one event that will effect a nationwide disaster will be economic. Ceratinly a terrorist incident has nationwide consequences (Patriot Act, for example) but in terms of damage/lives lost it tends to stay localized. Im more inclined to believe that therell be an economic disaster..a depression, devaluation, hyperinflation, whatever. My point being that if you think its tough meeting a mortgage and paying bills now, imagine what its going to be like when you cant find work (or sell your product/skills), theres lines for gas and toilet paper, foreclosures are occuring left and right, and your dollar isnt buying everything it used to. This is why rather than sink $500 into an oil painting for the living room, or $300 into patio furniture Id rather spend it on food, supplies, durable clothing and gold.

Naturally, the side effect of this is that as I prepare for an economic disaster I wind up being prepared for pretty much most other types as well.
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I left the new Eureka Combat Tent set up for the last week to let it air out and to get an overall feel for it. Ive used them before and thats part of what made me decide to get one. Even the girlfriend is impressed with it…apparently she was expecting a canvas shelter half or something. Nice thing is that since this thing is a freestanding tent, it could actually get set up in the bed of the truck. Handy.
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One thing thats been really annoying me as of late is that I dont have a convenient pantry area for my kitchen. The result is that my cupboards are a very disorganzied array of cans, boxes, pouches and assorted food packaging. I need to devise a simple and efficient system for storing the canned goods that are always around. The usual rolling dispenser like you see for pop cans would work. I just need to get one that will fit within the confines of the cabinet. Lately Ive become very enamored with the halfsize (8 oz. instead of 15 oz) cans of vegetables and fruits. They have pull tabs, arent too much for one person and are easy to store. Super WalMart has the usual varieties of corn, pears, tomatoes, onions, beans, etc….a couple cases of each would go a long way towards giving me that warm, fuzzy “Im not gonna stand on a half-mile long line for government handout food” feeling.
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Which also reminds me, I need to work on my oft-neglected project of playing in the kitchen to see what kind of recipes I can concoct using nothing but stored/canned food….if it wont keep for six months at room temperature on the shelf, it doesnt get used as an ingredient.