Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

What’s done is done, so, for me, no more reason to be hungover about the election. Accept the situation for what it is, and plan accordingly to mitigate it’s effects.

The NY region continues to try to get past hurricane Sandy. You have to understand that the parts of NY that youre reading about are actually a very small part of NY. Some parts of NYC never lost power or suffered much damage at all….it’s a rather large area, after all. It’s like thinking because of an earthquake in San Francisco all of California must be smoldering rubble. (Albeit, that’s a pleasant thought.)

The lessons and ‘teachable moments’ coming out of there don’t really seem to be things that we haven’t heard before, although once in a while a new twist comes in that I hadn’t thought of (like the rental car thing). It sounds like people were in three groups: those with no generators, those with generators, and those with generators and the logistics to support those generators. Looks like too many people bought generators and patted themselves on the back for a job well done and then gave no thought to where the fuel was coming from once the tank got empty.  If there’s any lesson there it’s that you need to have all the logistics support (gas, oil, filters, fuses, cables, cords, documentation, experience, chain-and-padlock, etc.) or your generator is just a disposable eight hour UPS.

Speaking of generators, it’s always a good idea to run them once a month or so to make sure everything is doing what it’s supposed to. My brother very cleverly cut a length of PVC pipe, capped one end, put a screw cap on the other, hose-clamped it to the frame of his generator and it holds all the documentation, instructions and small parts for his genny. That way it’s always there and protected from pretty much everything.

The tales of looting and that sort of thing are no surprise and the solutions are rather simple for those who aren’t prohibited by local government from having the necessary gear.

One thing that’s interesting is that many people were completely unprepared to cook or heat their houses. Many homes still had natural gas pressure but did not have electricity to run blowers and ovens (assuming their stoves were gas, which many are not.) And while gas pressure may have been unaffected in some places, water was unavailable in many. I had a buddy whose gas hot water heater was doing great except with no water flow it was fairly useless…no hot showers.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that next time an event like this (or any other disaster) takes place that things will go the same way and there’ll be natural gas available. Personally, I’d love to have a natural gas generator for my house but I can’t rely on a fuel supply that can be interrupted. Propane would be my next choice but as someone pointed out to me, when comparing the merits of a liquid fuel generator versus a propane generator, when youre out of fuel you cant just go a few doors down to your neighbor with a five gallon bucket and borrow a bucket full of propane. On the other hand, a 500 gallon tank of propane would probably last a looooong time on a generator thats only run for a few hours a day.

A multi-fuel generator sounds nice but it also sounds like a lot more to go wrong. And my experience has been ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions never wind up solving anything 100% of the way. What’ll probably happen is that we’ll wind up getting one of the Honda EU-series of portable generators at some point in the coming year. A buddy of mine got a nice feal on one offa Craigslist so perhaps I’ll troll around there for a while.

If you live in the east coast region, expect to see the local Craigslist flodded (get it? ‘flooded’?) with used generators as short-sighted people think “Wow, glad thats over!” and sell of their new gennys.

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

It’s gonna be a busy next couple of days.

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Well, let’s cut to the chase: it wasnt really so much about zombies as much as it was an intro into urging people to be prepared. Although, I must say, it was funny when the instructor said that preparing for zombies was good since it meant you would be prepared for other disasters like hurricanes, at which point someone called out “Hurricanes don’t exist!”

The gal instructing the class, who was pretty cute, was probably way overqualified. She has a degree in Emergency Management and the chops to teach it as well. She brought some of her own gear along to show what a BOB would look like, so she apparently walks it as she talks it.

The content of the presentation itself was your usual stuff about having water, food, duct tape and plastic sheeting, etc, with some zombie themes thrown in to keep it on topic. Really, for someone like yours truly there wasnt anything new but I wasnt there for the content, I was more interested in the demographics.

Including myself there were 14 people. Of that, one had the serious tinfoil-hat vibe, three looked like living-in-basement comic-book nerds, and the rest looked about average…although not like your usual REI customer (trendy Patagonia-wearing snowboarder or runner). At least one guy there was ahead of the curve since I heard him talking about his #10 cans of wheat.

I chit-chatted with the gal afterwards to get more info about the class itself. She said that it was one of the most well-attended of any class REI offered. The impetus for the class came from higher up the corporate chain. Although she was grossly overqualified, the classes at other REI’s are put on by regular staff. (She’s got the degree in EM but works at REI because she doesn’t want to move out of town.)

All in all, it was fun. Not terribly informative to someone like you and I who have been into preparedness for a while, but fun to see the presentation and to people watch.

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Picked up another rack of steel wire shelving the other day. At the rate things are going, in terms of us stocking up on more and more items in larger and larger quantities, it was necessary. Unfortunately, CostCo must have moved to a different supplier of these made-in-China wonders because when I tried to combine the uprights with my older shelves the adjustements didnt line up properly. Spent about three hours last night assembling, dis-assembling, and then re-assembling shelves to try to get them to line up right. Finally had to get out a level and some shims but I finally got it. Major pain in the ass though. After finally giving up for the evening I plopped down in front of the computer to play Warcraft for a few horus and said “You know, sometimes being a survivalist is a major pain in the ass.” “Yeah, but think about how happy you’ll be when youre warm and fed”, was her reply. True. Still a pain, though.

Since I was moving shelving around I had to move the contents of the shelves around as well. Many of the items on the shelves have their date, purchase price and place of purchase marked on them. In this way, I can keep track of things. I noticed that on items where a price had been noted a year or so ago, and a new version had been purchased recently, prices were around10% higher. For example, ziploc bags from Costco were $9.99 a year ago and were $10.75 yesterday. About 7.5% increase from last time an amount was purchased.

So, unless you’re making 10% more than you did a year ago you are getting less value for your money these days. :::shrug::: Not much you or I can do about it except shop carefully and strategically.

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

My father was completely prepped for the “big one” he expected this year. Then a few months ago he had a massive heart attack and died. He left lots of debt. He expected the economy to collapse this year and thus was buying supplies on credit and wasn’t paying his bills.

I have more than enough supplies of my own so I don’t want them. He had everything from generators, seed, grain grinder, camping supplies to emergency essentials food, 55 gallon drums, and bottles of propane.

I’ve been using the 55 gallon drums of gasoline to fuel my truck. I’ve taken about a ton of scrap metal to the recyclers. Given away as much cat food and as many mason jars as I can get anyone to take.

 

If you die after living a life of preparedness and it turns out you never needed any of those things you put back away for that ‘rainy day’, I consider that a win.

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Take a look at these images and just study them for a minute. Examine the expressions, the details, and, most importantly, the feeling that is conveyed by them. Here you go, I’ll wait:

Think they have anything in common? Obviously, they’re all featuring young women who appear to be in vulnerable situations. All imply that there is a change in the season coming (as shown by the falling leaves and snow), and the women appear to be..shall we say….not exactly hard workers. The first woman appears to be a courtesan, or perhaps a dancing girl, who is vulnerable and helpless now that the music has stopped and the reality of winter is approaching. Same for the second and third girl, evidenced by her mandolin…ill-clothed and ill-prepared for the coming winter she clutches her mandolin and hopes for the best.

Follow that up with this bit of artwork:

Another girl, with a mandolin, standing at the threshold of what appears to be a decently provided-for house where the woman of the house looks upon her disdainfully. Have you figured out what all three of these paintings (admittedly, the last three moreso than the first) represent? They are all artistic interpretations/representations of the parable of The Ant And The Grasshopper. The grasshopper, as we recall, fiddled away the summer as the ant worked hard in preparation for the winter. When the seasons changed and winter came blowing, the grasshopper was (depending on your version of the story) left to beg the from ant to survive, or in the more classic cases he dies from his lack of foresight. These bits of artwork convey that story by putting human faces on the characters. The girl with the instrument is the grasshopper who, having whiled away the productive summer in song and dance, has found herself caught in the cold and is not able to fend for herself.Left in the cold, without the aid of the ant, she’ll surely perish.

I share these because every so often I stumble across images on the internet that evoke feelings in me that keep me focused and driven when I get a little complacent and start thinking “Ahhhh..this is good enough. We’ll be okay.”  I find them to be good reminders of what I should be doing and why. The Grasshopper one I’ve been aware of for a while. Here’s one I stumbled across on the internet yesterday:

From the caption I found, this is a six-year-old boy in Austria in 1946 who has just received a new pair of shoes from the International Red Cross. You can see the detail of the shoes on his feet and then contrast that with the absolutely unbridled joy on his face and the way he clutches the new shoes to his chest. Six years old and the thing that makes him happy beyond measure is new shoes…at a time in his life when all he should be thinking about is toys, games, hanging out with his friends, and doing kid stuff. If that image doesn’t make you wanna go stock up a few more things in the basement I dunno what would.I don’t ever want to be in a situation where a new pair of shoes, a hot meal, a warm blanket, or anything like that becomes so scarce a commodity in my life that when I finally get it I become this overwhelmed with joy. My goal in life is to find things like that to be dull and unremarkable because they are always available and present in my life.

I think I’d like to get a print of that second and third painting, though.

No tag for this post since ‘art interpretations’ aren’t something I expect to be posting about very often.

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — A Carson City recluse whose body was found in his home at least a month after he died left only $200 in his bank account.

But as Walter Samaszko Jr.’s house was being cleared for sale, officials made a surprise discovery: gold bars and coins valued at $7 million.

“Nobody had any clue he was hoarding the gold,” Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover told the Las Vegas Sun, adding it was found stored in boxes in the house and garage.

 

Well, the good news is that this guy was discreet enough that no one suspected he had Fort Knox in his basement. The bad news is, no one he cared about was able to come and get it before the .gov caught on to it.

Anyone else kinda get reminded of ‘Second Hand Lions’ by this?

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

As Cabela’s Inc. prepares the selection of guns it will sell for the holiday season and winter hunting, the outdoor-gear retailer has two plans: one if President Barack Obama is re-elected, and one if he isn’t.

Old news, man. This stuff is as predictable as the seasons. Election year = article about Americans buying more guns.

But…let’s go off the track for a second and play ‘what if’. If you look at, say, the last 75 years of gun legislation as a whole you can definitely see a trend where the pool of ‘permitted’ firearms and firearms owners gets smaller and smaller. Obviously, there’s only a certain level of restriction that can be approached before public sentiment becomes politically unmanageable. Things like machine guns, which were heavily regulated around 70 years ago, caught another hit when they were prohibited from being manufactured for anyone except military and law enforcement. (Which, naturally, drove a $400 Uzi purchased in 1984 into being an $8000 Uzi 25 years later.)

The 1994 Assault Weapons ban was about as close as we’ve seen to a stroke-of-a-pen ban on certain styles of firearms. If nothing else, the AW ban of ’94 gave us a glimpse of what a future ban (or obscenely prohibitive regulation process) would look like.

Obviously, the biggest thing, short of banning the guns themselves, would be a ban or regulation against ‘high capacity’ (whatever that means) magazines. Unlike last time, there probably wouldn’t be a grandfather clause for mags made before the ban.

Another import ban would be easy to achieve using ATFE’s notorious ‘sporting clause’ rule. Guys like SIG, HK, FN, Saiga, etc., would either have to move their manufacturing to the US or drop their product line. This was already done back in the late ’80s which is why an HK91 costs $3000.

Having trimmed the supply of magazines, and cut off the flow of imported guns, domestic manufacturers will ramp up production of the AR-15 since everyone is making one. Limited to a ten-round (or less) magazine, most folks will have no problem coming up with old GI mags. However, domestic production will probably have to go back to the no flash suppressor, no bayonet lug, no pistol grip designs. Existing guns probably will be grandfathered in because of the sheer numbers and because no one wants to be the person to start the legendary ‘door to door gun confiscations’ that the Alex Jones crowd have been yelling about. A new firearms classification, like they have in Canada, may come into being with evil black rifles being regulated like suppressors or SBR’s – intrusive licensing and controls.

Let’s look back at a reasonable timeline…something that will fit into most of our lives. Let’s look back thirty years. In 1982 full-auto machineguns were still being made for civillian use, you could buy HK, FN, Steyr, Uzi, etc. carbines all day long. Buying a handgun was as simple as filling out a one-page yellow sheet at the gun counter and walking out the door with it. No place in the US, as far as I can tell, had a ban on magazines holding a certain number of cartridges. Within a few more years you’d be able to buy drum-fed semi-auto shotguns, cases of cheap AK ammo for $85/case, SKS rifles for $75, and all the cheap Chinese ammo you wanted. And that was all within most of our lifetimes ago. So, yeah, things can change pretty dramatically in a short time.

Most folks will calmly point to the Heller decision and say that they have nothing to worry about. Interestingly, the guys making the new laws will point to the Heller decision and say the same thing. With established precedent in the form of the various Gun Control Acts, your right to own a firearm will still exist, it’s just that your choices will be kinda slimmed down.

Now, let’s drop back into reality for a moment….do I really think that this sort of thing will happen? Absolutely. I have 100% certainty it will happen. I am as certain of it as I am of the sun rising tomorrow. But I don’t know when it will happen. I don’t see it happening anytime ‘soon’. Within my lifetime, assuming I live to be around 80, absolutely. A law changed here, a rule changed there, all over the course of twenty or thirty years. But do I believe that something like I just described will happen in the next four years of an Obama second term? Nope. I believe it’s possible, and I believe that some aspects of it might be trotted out, but do I believe the whole grandiose disarmament plan will occur within the next four years? Nope.

But, since I believe it will happen someday, I’d like to be prepared for it. So, while the stuff is still available, I buy what I can.