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

“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.
=====
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.
=====
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.
=====
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.
=====
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.