Link – Michael Bay doing “The Last Ship” pilot for TNT

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

It appears Hollywood isn’t ready to give up on the post-apocalyptic/dystopic genre just quite yet. Mind you that Jericho and Sarah Connor Chronicles both bit it after two seasons, and the new series, ‘Revolution’, looks like it might not break that streak. So, let’s shift the apocalypse from a nuclear war to a global pandemic and we get this:

Michael bay, of Transformers fame, is set to direct a TNT pilot of “The Last Ship”.

I read the book, The Last Ship, a few years back and thought it was about average for a post-apocalyptic novel. The short version: after a nuclear war, the crew of a Navy destroyer are left wandering the seas in search of a habitable home. Over time they deal with mutiny, food shortages, radiation, other surviviors, and their own new society.

It wasn’t a bad book, just nothing really groundbreaking. Good entertainment though and I would recommend it as an entertaining read. Those with naval experience will probably get more out of it. The potential, certainly, is there for a series if they can make it stick. Right now it looks like The Walking Dead is setting the television record for longevity of a post-apocalyptic series as it shambles into it’s third season.

Interesting local news

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Well, this is about as interesting as things can get.

New Ravalli County commissioner appointed after questioning about survivalist blog

HAMILTON – Jeff Burrows is Ravalli County’s newest commissioner.

His appointment Wednesday didn’t come without controversy.

Before the commission voted on his selection, the Hamilton man answered questions about a blog that sheriff’s officials felt encouraged confrontation between law enforcement and gun-rights advocates.

Seated at the table in front of three commissioners, Burrows fielded direct questions about his involvement in a survivalist-style blog owned by his father-in-law, Jim Farley, from the county sheriff and undersheriff.

 

I met one of those guys a little while back. Seemed like a nice enough guy. I visited their website and while there’s a lot of interesting information (although there isn’t as much activity as I’d expect) there is also a large quotient of (IMHO) tinfoil-hattery as well. I suppose it’s possible that I’m the one who is wrong and they’re the ones who are right but …some of that stuff is kinda out there. Here’s a link, you can check ‘em out for yourself.

 

Link – Walking Dead Season 3 trailer (spoilers)

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Well, well…trailer for season 3 of The Walking Dead is up.

Plenty of spoilers in there so you might wanna give it a pass if youre into that sort of thing. Looks like the producers are finally giving in to the huge amount of people asking WTF is up with the lousy weapons selection and giving some upgrades.

And, as the original source material showed, the term ‘walking dead’ doesn’t refer to the zombies. Looks like theyre going to start reinforcing that.

Also, for the love of Crom, when will someone on this show give some thought to offsite caching?

Nostalgia purchase – 1L. canteen

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(l.) new 1L canteen, (r.) 25+-year-old 1L. Wish I’d held up as well.

There isn’t a lot of stuff I have left over from early days of being into preparedness but one of them is the 1-liter military canteens. I bought a few back before I moved to Montana 25 years ago and I still have one. It’s beat up and scuffed and I haven’t used it in years. In fact, it’s relegated to the tertiary level of water storage. A quality Nalgene bottle beats it in just about every regard. But…nostalgia got the better of me and when I saw some available at countycomm I couldn’t resist and ordered up a few. Normally, I try not to give in to sentimentality, especially when it is so obviously trumped by better and newer products, but I couldn’t help myself.

Like I said, these things get beat by a good Nalgene bottle in just about every regard except for the shape. The relatively flat and square shape of the 1L canteens make them easy to stack or tuck in a corner of a bag or vehicle. Interestingly my old ones didnt come with a keepr for the cap and neither do the new ones. Of course, since there are grooves on both parts for a keeper, a few minutes with some paracord will take care of that.

As I said, this was mostly about nostalgia…I got the original ones back when the Cold War was still going on, Reagan was president, and the pinnacle of tactical ubercoolness came from a Brigade Quartermaster catalog…no internet ordering! I was just a kid who liked cool military-type stuff and I remember me and my brother getting a few of these. He, apparently, still has his, too. There is very little stuff I have now, that I still use, from back then…a knife or two, my polypro neck gaiter from BQ, this 1L canteen, and maybe a few knickknacks that have travelled with me over the years.

Ah, those heady young days of the late ’80s when someone talked about the Evil Empire and they weren’t talking about us. Say what you will, I liked the ’80s.

It rhymes with ‘ilver’

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My buddy the precious metals pimp (“You cant spell ‘pimp’ without ‘pm’”) came by today and flipped a silver eagle at me. Apparently someone in the viewing audience bought some silver from him and said to push an ounce in my direction.

So, thank you very much to the benefactor who has enabled me to add to my stockpile against that upcoming rainy day. After a tough day of beating back the infected unded it’ll be nice to be able to unwind by trading a silver coin for some refreshments and adult entertainment. Much thanks!

Come to think of it, my birthday is next month (on the seventh). Time to update the Amazon wish list.

SG stuff, inc. the zelts

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Well, my package of goodies from Sportsman’s Guide arrived today. A couple months back the guys at SpecOps were having a sale on their SOB buttpacks for around $12 or something like that. I wound up buying a half dozen of them but they did not come with shoulder straps. Fortunately, I knew that eventually I’d find some on sale somewhere. Thus, I got these from SG. Brand new, pack of five for $15. Good for he several buttpacks/musette bags I have sitting around.

After that, I picked up a couple of these sleep system carriers to try and stuff my military three-piece bag into. A little compression might(!) be necessary but I think they’ll fit. They’d also make excellent bags to store blankets and the like. Wish they were OD but, hey, you can t have everything.

And, finally, the might-be-zelts. well….they definitely have been around a while. Lotsa patches, small holes, etc. I compared them against the German specs from the manual I have and while they follow the pattern, their dimensions are smaller than what the German ones were. Still, they’ll be interesting to play with and I’m sure they’ll take my mind in other creative directions.

link – A Hard Lesson; Survivor Ammunition Storage

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Man, I’m way ahead, statwise, on posting frequency. I better start pacing myself.

But! A goodie from Tam over at View From The Porch: First hand report of what happens when your ammo locker gets flooded. Hint: Those military ammo cans you bought were worth it…provided you actually use them.

 

My wife, despite her usual inherent goodness, does, from time to time, give me a bit of…grief…about the quantity of ammo cans that sit around. Sure, maybe theyre empty NOW….but, when the poisoned, disease-ridden floodwaters swamp us out she’ll be glad we had all that important stuff packed away.

Article – Blitz (gas can company) closing it’s doors

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The East and Midwest are cooling off a bit after highs topped 100 again over the weekend. It’s been a hot early summer; there’s a potential shortage coming up. Not water, not power — gasoline containers. Blitz USA is the biggest maker of portable gas cans, and it’s filing for Chapter 11. The Oklahoma-based company says it can no longer bear the costs of product liability.

 

Blitz made gas cans that were, in my opinion, of mediocre efficacy. However, they were cheap, widely available, and came in various sizes….I have a bunch of 1-gallon and 2-gallon containers in case I need to trade off some small amounts of fuel.

If you wanna grab a few before they shut the doors, you might wanna get going on that. It’ll be interesting to see whats left in the market since Scepter sorta dropped outta that market. For the record, my favorites are the ‘euro’-style cans. (I am told that the Scepter water cans these days are the same as the fuel cans, just marked differently. Probably different gaskets or something.)

The article zays Blitz is filing Chapter 11, but it also says they’re closing their doors. I suppose it’s possible that Blitz will go Chapter 11, reorganize, and come back as Blitz USA or some similar rebranding….but it’s also possible they’ll file for Chapter 11, get liquidated, and be consigned to the dustbin of history. So…play it safe, and buy whatever youre lacking at the moment.

Edited to add: Explosion of lawsuits against gas can maker

I’m unclear….what does a reasonable person expect is going to happen when you pour a flammable liquid, from a container full of flammable liquid, onto a campfire? This is why we can’t have nice things.

Food budget question

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Out of curiosity, for those of you who track budgets….how much do you budget per month for groceries? For how many people?

Note: by ‘groceries’ I am including things you would buy in a supermarket environ that may not necessarily be food….things like toilet paper, aluminum foil, band aids, dishwasher detergent,etc….stuff you normally buy in a supermarket.

How much per month in your family of how many people?

Reason i ask, wife and I budget $400/month to feed the two of us and I was wondering how that stacks up elsewhere. (And yes, if there’s some room left at the end of the month, that grocery budget includes food storage.)