Ammo can…not ammo can’t

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Remember this post? That was where I picked up these:

Well that was about three years ago and, dang it, I need more…fortunately this guy still has a few hundred left and I picked up another 25:

Do a Facebook Marketplace search for AMMO CANS in Missoula and you should find ’em.

What am I using them for? Well, over the last few years I’ve been stocking up on magazines. I’ve got sealed cardboard cases here of Magpul P-mags and those cardboard boxes dont last forever, don’t stack well, and are subject to damage. I transfer the mags to the ammo cans, stencil a number on the side, slap a hangtag on them, update the spreadsheet, and set ’em down for the Deep Sleep.

Given that it’s an election year, I’ll probably pick up another case of Pmags and some AK mags. And…they need a nice place to spend the next decade, so there we go.

Oh…and I got in on a group purchase with some local LMI to the tune of 30,000 rounds of CCI 9mm ball ammo. Came out to $0.22 ea, shipping included, so I’ll tuck my share of that away in one of these also.

Paratus stuff

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I’d be an ungrateful person if I didn’t take time to acknowledge the several people who sent me Paratus gifts. Gifts included knitted headgear, cartridge brass, pocket notebooks, and a few other goodies. For privacy’s sake I won’t go into who sent what, but I want to make sure everyone who sent a gift knows I appreciate it. Very generous of you dudes (and dudettes).

Nope, not this one……..

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You’re not stupid, so Im pretty sure youve figured that your buddy Zero found himself a property that caught his interest. Indeed I did. It caught my interest so much, in fact, that I drove out there today to look at. Glad I did because, in case you didnt know, what you see in a Google Earth satellite pic and a real estate website gallery may not always jibe with reality. In the words of the War Department “There is no substitute for boots on the ground.”

The property in question was two 20-acre lots that butted up against a couple thousand acres of private land that was in a conservation easement. Nearest power was a long ways away. The property had two storage conexes already on it. My biggest two concerns were the terrain and the roads. I don’t mind driving a dirt road but if the road was a winding, torturous affair that precluded things like a well-drilling rig and the like….well, thats gonna be a problem.

I knew it might be a challenging drive so I packed for it…shovel, hilift, straps, chains, extra fuel, extra water, radios, flares, smoke, first aid, rations, etc. Because in Montana you just don’t know.

We’d made it about 3/4 of the way to the property (amazingly staying on course, which was an incredible accomplishment all on its own) before I had decided in my head that this was going to be a ‘hard pass’ just on the strength of the truly horrific road. There was one stretch that was such a steep downhill run that I seriously doubted my ability to climb it on the return. In rain or thaw it would have been a Slip-N-Slide. How a couple conexes made it to this property is utterly beyond me.

Once there it only took a few minutes to see that this was not gonna be the new Beta Site. Altitude was a bit up there at 6000′. Terrain was all distinctly stingy with the flat spaces. And, more importantly, there were more houses up there than my careful Google Earth reconnoitering had shown. Combine that with the Highway To Hell and I couldn’t salvage the rest of my Saturday fast enough. SO, since I am definitely not taking it…here’s a link to it.

I have almost always regretted spending money more often than I have regretted not spending it. I am certain that this will be a case where I won’t regret not spending money.

But, for the last week, while waiting to get a chance to go look at this piece, my mind had to go and start addressing concerns that I really hadn’t given too much thought to. Things like maintaining privacy in the purchase, fuel logistics, septic logistics, water logistics, fuel selection, structure type, internet access, neighbor politics, vehicle considerations,  etc, etc, etc. Some of these issues I’ll be bringing up in the blog later to get the opinion of the hivemind.

 

Paratus 2024

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AH, I know,,,it seems like we just got through taking down the decorations from the last Paratus. Yet, here we are!

So, first off, Happy Paratus to everyone. About 40 people made the list for cards/gifts this year. If you didn’t get a Paratus card, have no fear…here’s this years card:

Cover

Inside

Back

Did I get myself anything for Paratus? Well, not really….but trust me, I’ve spent enough on myself this year that it more than makes up for not buying myself a gift. Really, I spent way too much on boomtoys and whisperpickles this year. I suspect that is something that will rapidly be coming to a middle here shortly as I try to put money together for other purposes.

I hope YOU had a happy (and safe) Paratus. And I hope you got to spend Paratus the way it was meant to be spent – getting cool gear and hanging out with your like-minded friends discussing the upcoming kamalapocalypse. But feel free to tell me in comments how you made it in the gift department and if you did anything special. It is, after all, your holiday.

Livable, cozy even….

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I’d mentioned a while back that someone I know was living in a not-quite-tiny-house. The interior dimensions, I believe, were something like 17’x15′, including a closet and bathroom. There was a sleeping loft upstairs and despite the small size, I thought it was rather adequate and comfortable for one person. A small enough footprint that you could tuck it away somewhere ‘just in case’ but if you had to spend a winter in it you’d be comfy and not get claustrophobic. They were nice enough to send me some pictures, so I thought I’d share. Keep in mind, this doesnt really meet the definition of a ‘tiny house’ but it is very compact and, in my opinion, efficient.

The kitchen sink doubles as a bathroom sink, which works surprisingly well. There is no stove, which I thought was odd, but a couple electric conduction hotplates (as well as a microwave or instant pot) bring up the kitchen features.

For someone like me, who doesnt really care about aesthetics or decor, its enough space for me to line the walls with wire shelving full of supplies and gear and still have space to live and sleep. For two people…well…they better be pretty close.

This particular place has no basement. If I could, I’d build something like this as a hidden getaway but build it on a basement for storage purposes. But, still, I rather like this little place. It’s in someones backyard in town so it has sewer and electric, but I would think a small place like this would function in an off-grid environ as well.

This is the only house like this I’ve gotten to actually examine close up. For one person who doesnt want anything glamourous it seems pretty nice. Its inspiration for future projects, methinks.

How would you………

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Hypothetical situation: you have a piece of property that is uneven ground and you have a 40′ conex (empty) sitting on it. Your goal is to move it to a different location a couple hundred yards away through the brush, not necessarily a straight line journey. Assume that trees, stumps and the like are not an obstacle but depressions, slopes, uneven terrain, etc. are. You can only use hand -tools including Hi-lifts, pulleys, ropes, jackstands, etc…anything except a Bobcat, forklift, frontloader, or other vehicle.

How would you do it?

I know there are trucks you can mount under either end of a conex to put them on wheels but that is mitigated somewhat by the uneven overgrown terrain. Assume no more than three or four people to work this task.

Suggestions?

ETA: a portable 12v winch is an option in this scenario. Something that can be carried in, along with a couple 12v batts.

The Ruger P-series fetish continues

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Been a good boy and not bought any guns in a couple weeks. But….gun accessories, on the other hand…

I was doing well until an email landed in my box asking if I was interested in some factory mags for the Ruger 9mm P-series….you know…P95DC mags.

Me: How many do you have?

Them: *sigh*

Interesting thing is, this works out to about three mags per gun.

Portable and potable

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Have you ever watched a movie where the hero is off in some sort of arid environment and there’s that classic scene where he tilts the canteen to his lips, a single drop drips out, he looks disgustedly at the canteen, and then throws it away?Why would you do that? Just because you don’t have any water at that moment doesn’t mean you’re not going to come across some later. And if you do come across some, and drink your fill, how are you going to carry some of that water with you since you threw your canteen away?

I mention this because I posted earlier about those water pouches and the conversation developed into a discussion about various water portage options. I always keep one heavy-duty-plastic bottle of water in my Bag O’ Tricks(tm) because you never know when you’re gonna get stuck somewhere. (I also keep a couple small ‘lifeboat’ ration bars in there too. If I’m gonna be stuck somewhere I’m not gonna spend the time listening to my stomach growl.) But in addition to the plastic water botle, I also keep one of these guys rolled up and tucked away. Although I like the Platypus, I go with the Nalgene because the mouth of this bladder takes all Nalgene lid accessories, including this one which I highly recommend. Importantly, the Nalgene version has the wide mouth so you can fill this thing in a hurry and even throw in snow/ice if you have to. And..I can fill it from a questionable water source and be abble to fit a LifeStraw through the mouth of it.

I carry it in my bag because I simply cannot carry as much water with me as I would like….its heavy stuff. But I can keep a water container with me in my bag so that if I do run across a water source…a natural body of water, a hose bib, an unattended faucet, or that sort of thing, I can supplement what I have.

You might ask, since I’m already carrying a plastic bottle of water, why not refill that? If it wer eempty, I absolutely would…every chance I get. But in a crisis I want more water than just the one bottle’s worth…more is better in this case.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but if you’re going to carry around a  (insert acronym here) bag, you may as well take the two ounce weight penalty and have the option to carry around extra water when you come across the opportunity.