Still not outta the woods

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Interestingly, there are still large parts of town without power. Normally power is very seldom disrupted for more than 24 hours. I’m reading that a major substation took some severe damage and that may be the contributing factor.

Me? I’m happy as clam. Power never went out in my neighborhood and even if it did I have the brains to have planned ahead. I’m reading the local Reddit threads and am unsurprised at the amount of absolute dumbasses who say that they fully expected Northwest Energy (NWE) to drop the ball on this situation but, despite expecting this sort of thing, had no plans in place to mitigate it.

I know this is familiar country to you and I, but here’s some observations:

If you have any empty space in your freezer, it should always be filled with water bottles. I see people talking about how they need to buy bags of ice to keep in their powerless freezers and while that works, as that ice melts your freezer turns into a swamp of thawing food and ice water. Bottles are easy, self-contained, and you can drink them when they are no longer frozen. It’s the best way to store extra water and increase the thermal mass of your freezer at the same time. And, in non-crisis times, they are cheap cheap cheap. I just picked up a couple flats of water bottles at CostCo last week and distributed them through my freezers.

My boss couldn’t’ get to work because she couldn’t get her electric garage door open. Those of us with a y-chromosome know the solution to this, but for the rest of you – that little T-handle hanging on a rope from your garage track will disengage things allowing you to manually pull your door up/down.

Anytime it looks like there might be a loss of power, start charging your devices. Or do this. Or charge from your car. Or have a USB charger that runs on AA batteries.

Have cash. ATM’s arent gonna work and you don’t want to be driving around town any more than you have to.

I have a few people in my office who are very screwed…no water, no electric…unable to shower, cook food, have air conditioning, do laundry, etc, etc. You have an alternate method, right? It may be an unpleasant alternative…taking a shower with a garden sprayer, for example…but its better than nothing at all.

Will people learn anything from this? No. Invariably, they’ll tell their ‘war stories’ about how the suffered mightily and when I politely ask them if they’ll be buying generators or doing anything else to mitigate a repeat performance of the event they will say “Oh no, this sort of thing almost never happens”. Even though it just freakin’ happened.

And that, mi amigos y amigas, is why, collectively, we are doomed. People like you and I are outnumbered by orders of magnitude by these idiots. But they have the numbers and the collective gene pool of humanity will suffer because of it.

109-MPH winds

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Thats what they are saying we were hit with last night.

I was out to dinner and around the tail end of things some clouds rolled in and the wind picked up like nobody’s business. The lights in the restaurant flickered a few times, and then *pop* a transformer exploded outside. Lightning hit a nearby tree setting it ablaze. I flagged down the waitress and said I was leaving, gimme a check. All payment options were dead and even with cash she didnt have the ability to print a bill. I had her handwrite a bill, give it to me, and told her I’d be back at lunchtime the next day to square up. The Zero is not getting caught away from his heavily fortified home in a time of crisis.

The wind was outrageous. The interstate was covered in tumbleweeds of various sizes. Taking the off ramp, the traffic lights were all out…of course. There were fallen trees blocking various lanes of traffic as I made it back to my house. Parts of town were in the dark, some parts were not. In one case I got halfway down the block only to encounter a tree complete cutting off the the street. Had to back up and find an alternate route.

Amazingly, the power was on at my house. I staged the generator just in case. Grabbed some iced tea, my police scanner, a flashlight, and an MP5 and sat on my porch watching the lightning and listening to local PD and FD lose their crap. Even if the power didn’t go out in my neighbor hood, that didnt mean it wouldn’t….line crews would, I’d imagine, have to de-energize lines to remove limbs tangles in the wires.

After a while I started working the phones, checking in with the people I care about to see if they had power and if there was anything I could do for them if they didnt. Everyone was fine except for my boss, who did not reply. Just heard from her this morning – power is out at her place and she can’t get her car out of the garage to go to work because of the electric garage door. I told her about that little t-handle hanging off the track and she seemed disappointed…she was looking forward to not coming in. She still might not…no power equals no well pump equals no shower.

Me? Im at work at my desk like a good soldier. I am, however, thinking I may be he only one here today.

Article – Is There a Future in the Doomsday Economy?

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Set on a rise above the lush valley cradling the Lost River in eastern West Virginia, about two hours from Washington, D.C., the 50-acre property backs up against the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. A handsome guesthouse, built of dark timber slats, anchors the property. Two large, boxy dormitories, also timber but more rustic, as well as a bare-bones bunker, are designed to house more than 100 members. They are each expected to pay $2,000 to $20,000 (depending on the level of accommodation) to join Fortitude Ranch, and another $1,000 per year per person in dues to call this their “home fort,” meaning they will head there when catastrophe strikes.

I am of the opinion that these “tactical timeshares” are snake oil. If you have the money to sink into a subscription or membership to one of these places then you have the financial wherewithal to build your own. Additionally, when the apocalypse arrives don’t you think the ‘Golden Horde’ will think “Hey, there was that doomsday hotel about ten miles down the road…lets go there!” And unless the security guards at that place are scarily armed and determined, those party crashers will probably get in. I would rather take my chances with five trusted friends on ten acres than two hundred strangers on 640 acres.

The real Doomsday Economy isn’t so much these rental bunkers, but rather everything else. The ‘doomsday economy’ is the market for magazines, ammo, freeze drieds, solar panels, batteries, medical gear, training, communications, etc. And, as long as a large amount of people still retain a good bit of their natural instinct towards self-preservation, those tranches of the market will always be active.

 

Paratus in less than 60 days

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This is the annual reminder that Paratus, the holiday by, of, and for, survivalists is coming up in September…..September 20, to be precise.

If you got a card/gift from me last year, and your address has changed, you need to email with your updated mailing information. If I send a gift/card and it gets returned as undelivereable…well…my interest in the matter ends there.  (Looking at you, TOR!)

And, for the curious:

How do I get on the Paratus card list?

It’s pretty simple and blatantly selfish. If you’ve signed up at Patreon, sent me a gift of any kind, are someone I know ‘in real life’, are an ‘internet friend’ with whom I’ve exchanged many emails, or otherwise have interacted with me on more than a casual basis…and you’ve provided an address…you’ll get on the list.

Simply emailing or commenting with your address and “Please send me a Paratus card” will not work.

 

Article – A man kills a grizzly bear in Montana after it attacks while he is picking berries

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This actually didnt happen all that far from here.

A man picking huckleberries in Montana shot and killed a grizzly bear after it attacked and injured him badly enough that he had to be hospitalized.

The 72-year-old man was alone when the adult female charged him Thursday. He killed the bear with a handgun, according to a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks statement Friday.

The attack happened in Flathead National Forest about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) north of Columbia Falls, a northwestern Montana city of about 5,500 people, according to the state wildlife agency.

For bear deterrent in the woods, I have two options. A handgun is no one’s first choice for defending against a bad-mood bruin, but sometimes you just can’t carry an HK91 everywhere.

How do handguns stack up against bears? Glad you asked. 

 

Offsite….just in case

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I was talking with Guido here in the office yesterday about Trump’s ear-piercing. He said, “..yeah if we were out shopping or on the road and I heard that news the he’d been killed I’d have said ‘lets go. Back to the house. Now. Some crap is going to go down.”

Curious, I asked him what he would do in a situation like that. “Dude..we’d probably head to her parents. They have a piece of land outside of town. We could stay there if we needed to.”

Interesting.

“You know”, I said, “If you really believe thats what you’d do, you might want to think about getting one of those big black-n-yellow storage tubs from CostCo and put some stuff in there…change of clothes, toiletries, dog stuff, a pistol, y’know…that sort of thing. Pre-stage it up there so it’s one less thing to worry about. Have your ducks in a row.”

Even if youre not an end-of-the-world kinda guy, this sort of planning has utility. Let’s say an event happens…forest fire, hurricane, tornado, etc….and, for whatever reason, you have to leave your nicely stocked and fortified home. Maybe you’ve got your little bugout location all prepped and awaiting your arrival. Great. But what if you can’t get to it? Or you don’t have such an option? For many of us that means asking family/friends outside the danger zone if we can crash with them for a few days until things blow over.

If your friends/family are like-minded individuals, then you’ve got a pretty good situation going on. If theyre not, well, blood is thicker than water so maybe they’ll let you couch surf for a few days.

But, what makes it a far easier experience for both host and guest is if the guest has their own supplies and gear so they don’t put out their host, who may already be operating under stressful circumstances if the disaster that affected you is affecting them as well. For example, if an earthquake knocked down your neighborhood and you’re staying with your sister and her family a mile away, her place, though still standing, may be without power..or water…so whatever you can do to ease the situation is gonna go a long way towards making you a more welcome guest.

All this to say that it isn’t the dumbest idea in the world to grab a big ol’ tote or two and stuff in some clothes, toiletries, batteries, flashlights, food, pistol, ammo, medstuff, and other essentials and tuck them away where you might need them if you have to beat feet from your primary location and cant get to your secondary (or don’t have a secondary).

Look, I’m a somewhat squared away guy and I have enough ‘extra’ that a houseguest or two isn’t going to be a practical problem. But it’s a far less problem if they come with food, fuel, sleeping gear, a folding cot, toiletries, fuel, water, etc, etc.

If things come crashing down and your plan is to head to Uncle Bob’s cabin or your brothers ranch? Start staging some stuff there, man. Ask if when a crisis happens, can you come to their place for a short stay? Emphasize that you’d like to preposition a couple totes in the basement or garage or attic of stuff so they don’t have to treat you like a welfare case.

It’s nice to think that if we had to leave the security and safety of our home we would have time to grab a dozen totes, pile them into the truck, and head to the Beta Site. But thats a best-case scenario and those almost never happen. Think more along the lines of you’re at CostCo and the way to your return home is cut off….bridge collapse, train derailment, roadblocks, ground fissures, rockslides, whatever….going home has suddenly stopped being an option. Nice to know you can head over to buddy Steve’s where you know theres clean clothes in your size, toiletries, food, a cot, a radio, extra cash and cards, and that sort of thing waiting for you in those boxes you left there last time you guys got together for a fishing trip.

Depending on the nature of your work, you can use your workplace for this sort of emergency caching. Maybe you own your own business and have a big steel building with a fence around it. Nothing says you cant keep a couple footlockers full of goodies in a corner of the warehouse, maybe a few five-gallon jugs of gas and water, and have that as your off-site resupply.

If you’re really dialed in, and you can afford it, you might go one or two levels of redundancy on this sort of thing. Identical stashes at dad’s cabin and at Steve’s house. Potentially an expensive way to do things but if the situation ever calls for such measures…well…the last thing you’ll be thinking about is what it cost.

Anyway, just something to think about as we continue our descent into clownworld.

 

Nailed it

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From Saturday’s post:

Its just a matter of time before the left starts saying how it was ‘an inside job’ by a Trump stooge to ‘near miss’ the the former President to make him look tough.

and today:

News website Semafor reported that Mehlhorn, in an email to some sympathetic journalists and supporters, said there was a possibility “that this ‘shooting’ was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash.”

If you really wanna go for the double-layer of tinfoil, wrap your head around this: it, in fact, was a ploy by the Trump team to make their guy look tough. They were gonna pull some patsy out of the woodwork, give him a rifle with blanks, have him take a shot, get popped by snipers, and Trump would look like a hero as he clutches his ear with a hidden razor blade in his palm to draw some blood. BUT….one of Trumps team was working for the other side and at the last  minute they switched out the blanks for live ammo and it became the real deal.

Yeah, I don’t believe that either. But I’ll bet someone, somewhere does.

Range day

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Aesop over at Raconteurs Report throws out a Chuck Norris-like joke about yesterdays event…

A sniper shoots at Trumps head, and its the snipers head that explodes.

Thats actually a pretty good one.

I put yesterday’s events behind me because a) the next President is still alive (see what I did there?) and b) I’m the pebble in this avalanche…nothing for me to see or do.

So…off to the range.

The Mini-14 has always had a reputation for AK-like accuracy. That is to say, there’s a reason the A-Team never hit anything. The Mini-14 was notoriously inaccurate and that was that…go buy an AR.

Ruger did a bit of product improving to the Mini-14 a while back and the reports are that they are now much more accurate than they used to be. I took this re-issue of the GB model to the range today to sight it in and see what sorta accuracy could be wrung out of it. TL;DR – much better accuracy than the old models.

I’m getting to be an old man, and open rifle sights aren’t as ideal for me to use as they used to be. Nonetheless, at 50 yards I could keep everything in a group about the size of a playing card. At 100 yards it was easy enough to ring the steel plates. I think with nicer sights the gun would benefit greatly. And, yes, I’m aware of the aftermarket options. In reality, I’ll probably throw a little red dot on this thing and go with that.

Considering I have something like three dozen AR’s tucked away around here it’s a curiosity to have anything in .223 that isn’t an AR. But you know what? Everyone has an AR, and they’re all over the place…..sometimes I like to try other stuff. So…the Mini-14, the JAKL, the BRN-180, and at some point probably an AUG and whatever .223 PTR is gonna come out with. And I’ve been toying with the idea of a 5.56 AK as well, although that itch is scratched by the JAKL.

The Mini-14 is about as rugged as any other Ruger gun, which is pretty impressive….good thing because Ruger, unless things have changed recently, has been notorious for not sending parts out to customers who wanted them. If a part needed replacing you had to send your gun to them, they weren’t just gonna drop a new bolt or trigger in the mail to you.

With the demise of Tapco (which, in itself, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing) the one trustworthy aftermarket magazine (Intrafuse Gen II Mini-14 mag) on the market is now unavailable. And, honestly, I’ve had some negative experiences with recent factory Ruger 30-rd mags although the 20’s seem to work just fine.

By the by, I have the Mini-14 and the other non-AR’s because I have enough AR’s for my preparedness needs and thus I can move on to having some ‘fun’ guns. But, for a .223 carbine for the sake of preparedness? You’d be a fool to go with anything other than an AR. Price, logistics, adaptability….can’t beat the AR.