MRE dude

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So the big holiday crush is behind us now. I was traveling for the holidays, unfortunately, but managed to not get stuck in an airport so…there’s a triumph. However, I did have some interesting experiences after all….I got to meet, and pick the brain of, the head honcho of a company that makes MRE’s. Funny who you meet in the course of your travels.

I had a lengthy and technical conversation about MRE’s, packaging, development, cost accounting, whats new on the horizon, who are the big contracts with, calorie requirements from various customers, who are the international customers, etc. All in all, a very informative and illuminating conversation.

I have a goodly stash of MRE’s simply because theyre the epitome of grab-n-go food. They are bulky and they are heavy. But…they are literally everything you need in one place. I don’t view them as a long-term solution but rather as a short-term solution to a particular episode. For example, if I was simply staying home through a blizzard or the aftermath of a hurricane….no need for them, there’s plenty of ways to create better, tasteir meals from my food stocks. But for a ‘get everything in the truck, we have to leave nownownnow!’ sort of situation, they’re pretty much ideal.

Same story on the freeze drieds….they’re not a three-meals-a-day-for-months type of food but rather a specialized item for particular situations. Most notably stowing them in environments where space is at a premium, and long shelf life is paramount. For example, a big sealed drum of them in the closet at your bug-out cabin.

But MRE’s have always had that interesting history of military and .gov development and use. Sure, Mountain House has an R&D department, but it’s probably constrained by the relatively limited resources of a private company. Uncle Sam, however, has no such limitations on how much cash he can swing around if he really wants something. And then he orders five million at a time to get the quantities-of-scale advantage.

Anyway, it was definitely a highlight of this seasons travel experience to meet and talk to someone who is ‘in the know’ on a topic that I’ve found interesting for so many years.

ETA: This was a conversation that was casual and ‘off the record’. I don’t want to say anything that would come back to get this guy in trouble for divulging company secrets or anything like that. So, I won’t say which company, and I won’t say the exact title. What can I say? I was told shelf life of current MRE’s is “five years”. Biggest bottlenecks? Labor and packaging supplies. Biggest customer? .mil and various FEMA-types. International orders? Very few since nations want the stuff made domestically and you cant just build a food-safe facility for one contract.

 

Article – Prosecutors say Iowa police chief lied to buy machine guns

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How does the saying go? Pigs get fat but hogs get slaughtered? Or something along those lines. The gist of it being that greedy or selfish behavior can be overlooked until you get a little too greedy or a little too selfish.

Case in point: the police chief of a three-man police department who police letterheaded 90 machineguns for department use….and tried for a minigun.

A small Iowa town of 800 residents likely has no need for a police force armed with 90 machine guns to keep the peace.

That, at least, is the view of federal prosecutors, who on Wednesday announced the indictment of Adair Chief of Police Bradley Wendt on charges of making false statements to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to obtain numerous machine guns over a four-year period on behalf of the Adair Police Department, which during Wendt’s tenure has never had more than three officers.

I admire his entrepreneurial spirit, and his taste in giggle-switch-equipped firearms. But there’s only so much you can do before the Eye of Sauron homes in on your otherwise benign collecting activities. And, of course, using your position to procure thundertoys to rent out at a profit…well, that’s a bit on the ‘abuse of power’ side.

Machineguns are fun, no two ways about it. I think about the line in “When we were soldiers” where the colonel tells the sergeant that he needs to get himself an M16. The grizzled old sergeant says “I reckon the time comes I need one, there’ll be plenty of them laying around.” Same with machineguns. Nine times out of ten, theyre probably unnecessary for the task at hand. But that tenth time….boy, nothing else will do. If you’ve got the, literally, tens of thousands of dollars for an MP5 or Uzi….have at it. But for a survivalists needs, I’d rather take the money and buy gear more likely to be of use in a crisis.

However, when the zombie rise and I come across some zombified state trooper with a full-auto M4…..well, he won’t be needing it anymore, and it’d be a shame to let it lay there to rust.

 

Seasons Heatings

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Ah, the joys of home ownership….

The furnace decided to not do its thing yesterday. I’m hoping it is something as simple as a bad thermocoupler that needs replacement. But, the issue remains, in the middle of a Montana winter, how do you keep your house warm enough to keep things going and keep the pipes from freezing?

Dude….I’m prepared for this.

I have two kerosene heaters sitting in storage. One is none and all that. Anyway, I pulled the plastic bag that I was using as a dust cover off it an, to my surprise, found an index card clipped to the top of the heater….”Cleaned, run for half hour, filled – 11/2018″.

Apparently, four years ago, Past Me decided to do some forward thinking. Set up the heater, put fresh batteries in the electric ignitier, and -poof- … heat. Since I have electricity, I grabbed a box fan, put it near the heater, pointed it at the ceiling, and let ‘er rip. The thermostat steadily climbed and after an hour or so I had a gain from 57 degrees to a balmy 66. Thats actually warmer than I usually keep the house in the winter.

Still waiting for the furnace guy to show up, but in the meantime there are a bunch of takeaways that I need to act upon:

  • Inspect and operate the heater at least once a season.
  • Make sure heater is filled 100%, has spare parts, spare batteries, matches to light it if batteries are unavailable, etc.
  • Lighting the heater with matches is a convoluted affair. I need to drill a hole in the side of the casing so that a fireplace match can be inserted to light the wick manually
  • Biggest takeaway: my heaters are two different brands and models. I need to get two identical ones for logistics and operating simplicity. Thats gonna be a few bucks, but I think it’ll be worth it in the long run.

In addition to the heater, I always keep fire extinguishers, CO detector, fuel siphon, and other related materials handy in a large ammo can.

In addition to the kerosene heaters, I also have a couple of the Mr Heater ‘Buddy’ heaters. They are, in my opinion, ideal for spot-heating a small room. My computer room is a spare bedroom measuring about 11×10 and this thing does a wonderful job heating it up and keeping it warm for several hours on one 1# propane bottle. Highly recommended product.

In the meantime, I need to see how the furnace guy replaces the thermocouple. The replacing isn’t the hard part, its getting access to the thermocouple thats tricky. But…fortunately a life of quiet survivalism left me with plenty of options to keep things close to normal heat-wise.

 

 

Seasons Beatings

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Ah, ‘Tis becoming the holiday season….Chrismahanakwanzakah. Funny how all those gift-giving holidays are timed right around December, isn’t it?

Slightly dated, still on-point.

What does the Zero want for gifts this year? Well, a series of huge rallies in the stock market would be nice. Other than that, I’m fairly content with what I have. Just gild the lily a bit here and there….a little ammo to top things off, a little more freeze drieds to top things off, etc. But, by and large, I’m good with just a card or something.

However….. 😉

If you’re the generous type who thinks, “You know, that long-suffering survivalist in Montana does a fairly good job of entertaining me. Heck, I should do something for him.” Well….Im not gonna say no.

Either sign up through Patreon to kick in a couple bucks a month, or email me an Amazon gift card I can use to buy..well…pretty much anything. Esbt tabs, mag pouchs, radio cables, CR123 batts, knife sharpeners, that sort of thing.

Being Commander Zero is an often thankless task, but sometimes nice things occur. A couple times this year I got a silver dime or quarter in the mail, or someone sent a gift card or similar code for Amazon. All very thoughtful and greatly appreciated actions.

Regardless, whatever holiday you observe/celebrate/emulate/ridicule this season, try to have fun and ennjoy whats left of the American economy and civilization.

 

Mountain House MCW overruns

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The folks at Mountain House were offering for sale what appears to be some MCW rations that I am guessing were part of a contract overrun. Spaghetti w meat sauce, chicken with rice, and breakfast skillet. I actually have, literally, 15-gallon drums filled with pouches of freeze drieds, but I got these anyway.

These are slightly more compact than the Pro-Pak series of meals MH offers, and I wanted something for where space is at a premium. Most notably, for when I travel by air and risk getting caught in an airport overnight without food options. A couple of these, an electric immersion water heater, and a plastic spoon make for dinner.

How big? About the same footprint as a 20-rd AR mag, although thicker.

Weight is approx. 4 oz. and calls for 16 oz. of water, so in theory you’re looking at a 20 oz. meal.

Given the compact nature of these, I’ll definitely tuck them away for the situations where space/weight/size is a big factor. But they should do quite well for my airport-layover-kit.

They are available on MH’s website, but the retail price is a bit painful. Dealer is about $5 less per package. Twenty to a case. Might be worth checking out.

Weaponlight upgrade

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I try not to be a dinosaur, but sometimes it just happens. Case in point: weaponlights.

This is the G19 I keep on the nightstand:

It’s been sitting by the bed for…mmmm…the last15 years, at least. It wears some night sights that, really, I should be replacing and it also has a Streamlight M3. This is a weaponlight that, in todays world of high-tech, would not even rise to the level of airsoft. At the time I got it, which was probably 20 years ago, it was decent. But, time and tech march on. I was at a gun show today and thought perhaps it was time to up my game.

This is an Olight Valkyrie PL-Pro that I picked up at the gun show. It surpasses my ancient M3 in so many ways that the only real way to express it is through a picture:

And that is not with weak or dying CR-123’s in that M3. The simple truth is that battery and LED technology have advanced so far since I purchased the M3 that, compared to what is available now, the M3 doesn’t even clock in as ‘toy quality’.

And speaking of technology, the M3 has one function: on/off. This Olight has a high, low, strobe, temporary on, constant on, and a lockout function. Even more interestingly, it is chargeable through USB.

And…the unit has a low charge warning indicator, and a charging/full indicator on the charger. And that charger, by the way, attached magentically…which is kinda neat.

And since its LED you get brighter light, longer battery life, and less fragility than with the older incandescent bulbs. Man, how technology has changed.

So…upgrade time for the trusty bedroom Glock. So far it seems like a fine product and I might get another one or two fr some of my other pistols. After all, its dark 50% of the time. Oh…and I need to swap out those faded tritiums as well.

‘Tis the season for holiday upgrades!

The return of canning supplies

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A trip to WinCo this evening shows that, at least at this location, the supply of canning jar lids and related materials has returned to normal. (Or, I suppose, normal-ish.)

Much like how the Great Primer Scare of the ’90s turned many of us into primer hoarders, this recent experience in being unable to locate canning lids has made me quite certain that my future plans include keeping several hundred lids on hand at all times. You know….just in case.

I don’t enjoy canning. I have better things to do with my time than stand around and babysit what is basically a potential boiler explosion for 70 minutes. I dont dislike canning, but, dang it, I’ve got better things to do.

However..I do enjoy eating. And I’m a huge fan of saving money and not starving to death. So….canning.

And that canning requires one critical component: jar lids.

So, I havent inventoried them but I should be sitting somewhere near a thousand or so lids at the moment. At one pint of canned meat or other food per day, that would be about three years of canned food. Of course, keeping a thousand pint jars on hand is unlikely but I do have a hundred or so, which should, I think, see me though most tough times.

But the lids…..like primers they are the one critical and expendable component that bottlenecks the whole process if you can’t find them.

Glad to see theyre back in stock. For now.