Back the truck up…again

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I’ve been having a heck of a time finding ammo cans lately. And before someone starts in with how Harbor Freight/CostCo/Sams Club/Whoever has brand new ammo cans for sale…don’t. They have brand new ammo can knockoffs on sale. Hecho in China. Will they work as well as US GI ammo cans? Maybe. But a) I avoid buying Chinese goods whenever possible and b) if something is important enough to store in an ammo can, then it’s important enough to  not take chances by saving ten bucks and buying a ripoff ammo can.

So…that leaves hunting down the real deal. Which I did.

Behold the new home of a rather embarrassingly large quantity of Magpul magazines in various calibers.

I prefer the larger ammo cans but these days you really do have to take what you can get. Anyway, these will get stencilled up and filled with Deep Sleep stuff. Then theyare off to a cool, dark place and …see ya in twenty years. Or at Der Tag. Whichever comes first.

 

Erbswurst case scenario

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There has always been a need for compact forms of food that you could stuff in a pack for times when you were cut off from resupply and had to make do with only what you had on you, or what you could find locally. The Germans apparently approached this with erbswurst…a compressed ration of pea meal and other things that, when dissolved in a canteen cup full of hot water, allowed the user to make a soup. Personally, it seems rather unappealing to me but I suppose if your stuck in Stalingrad watching your comrades eat dead horses, it might not seem too bad.

Today, of course, we have MRE’s, freezedrieds, and even simple off-the-shelf soup products that are leaps and bounds ahead of the technology that brought us erbswurst. But… it’s an interesting concept. If a person had access to on of those consumer-grade freeze driers you could make some pretty impressive fare. Here are a couple videos on the subject:

It’s not too hard to imagine the plethora of items found in a modern supermarket that might lend themselves to this sort of thing. The trick is to keep the main principles as the fore: compactness, longevity, and nutrition.

This was actually addressed in a product that came out of WW2 …MPF…a fascinating product with a fascinating backstory: A nalgene bottle full of that stuff would probably duplicate (or exceed) the nutritional value of erbswurst and be a tad more versatile. That MPF, by the way, can be replicated at home.

For running out the door on your way to the boogaloo, a bag of a few days worth of freeze drieds takes virtually no weight and very little space. The more hidebound might go with a few tins of meat and that sort of thing. But wandering around a supermarket sometime, with a careful eye, might reveal some interesting choices for the ‘iron rations’ to keep in your gear. But…the Germans did it first, apparently.

Turkeyday

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Happy Thanksgiving, boys. Sometimes life is a swirling cesspool of despair from which no ray of hope can ever escape. (Or as I call it, “Lifes default setting”) But no matter how craptacular it is, it could often be worse. So, sure, take a moment to be grateful for what you have. But also be grateful to yourself for getting you there.  You overcame that crappy obstacle. You put yourself on the right track. You did the hard work. You made the tough choices. You fought the battles. You made the sacrifices. Sure, you may have had advice, help, and direction from others, but in the final analysis it was you who got you where you are now…good or bad. Own it. If you’re hitting bottom, slap yourself in the face a few times, grit your teeth, cowboy the F up, and do what needs to be done. If you’ve recovered from hitting bottom and are on your way to being a baller, keep your foot on the gas, amigo.

But take today to recognize what you’ve done and what still needs to be done. Then pig out, sleep it off, and get back to the plan.

 

Book – WarDay

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Post-apocalyptic fiction is usually, by definition, after the apocalypse. Its a niggling point, but if your science fiction is about the apocalypse, then, really, it’s intra-apocalypse* fiction.

But, in the case of the book WarDay, it is most definitely post-apocalyptic fiction.

The book has been out of print for a while but I enjoyed it when i was younger and when a used copy turned up on Amazon for a few bucks I grabbed it.

WarDay is about two reporters who decide to ‘see America’ after a nuclear exchange five years earlier. They travel cross country, interviewing people and chronicling their experiences. The book came out in 1984 and was predicated around the then-plausible idea of a somewhat limited nuclear exchange with the Soviets.

If you’ve read Max Brook’s ‘World War Z’ book, the format will be very familiar….journalists interview various people and let them tell their stories of how they survived the one-day war.

This book shows some of the tropes that we’ve come to see in post-apocalyptic fiction that has been printed since then. Things like a Mexican reconquista of the southwest, foreign troops providing ‘aid’ that turns out to be more of an occupation, submarines cutoff from contact thinking the war is still going on, survivors in cities eating each other, etc, etc.

In addition to these narratives, WarDay also tries to cover a bit of the .gov’s experience as well. There are copies of reports, directives, orders, and other bureaucratic paper to show how the government eventually tries to get back to normal with forced relocations, rationing, martial law, etc.

Having come out in 1984, some of the book is dated…reporters using tape recorders, for example…but the descriptions of starvation, radiation poisoning, oppression, etc, are pretty timeless.

Because the book is written as a ‘documentary’, don’t expect the usual townies-vs-cannibal-army that is a staple of this sort of genre. But if you want a  more thoughtful read that seems quite rooted in reality, this is a good choice.

Is there anything to be ‘learned’ from it? Probably not. It’s most redeeming quality, from a survivalists standpoint, is that it’s portrayal of how the average person fared in a nuclear aftermath might make you think twice about not stocking up on more of everything.

I think it’s a good read, and definitely a ‘thinking mans’ sort of book….light on gunplay and Ahern-esqe ubermensch, the realistic scenarios, responses, and consequences make this a story that seems quite plausible.

If you can nail down a used copy for a few bucks, I think you’ll find it a worthwhile read. Just remember the time it was written.

 

* = Pre-apocalypse fiction would be before the apocalypse, post-apocalypse fiction is after the apocalypse. Whats the prefix for during the apocalypse? In-apocalyptic fiction? Intra-apocalypse? Peri-apocalypse? Mid-apocalypse? I’m going with intra-.

The War Budget

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Years ago, when things took a financial turn into the ditch, I figured I’d try living on a budget. It’s not as constraining as it sounds. You might think “But if I have to live on a budget how will I ever buy a gun?” Uhm…pretty easily, actually…you simply budget $xx each month for gun purchases. It’s not rocket science. My budget is, maybe, 20 items. And thats the budget I try to live on. Follow the plan and everything works out.

Financial resilience… simple, just not easy.

When I make my budget, obviously, I have a pretty good idea of what I need to purchase/spend each month. I know I need to put money away for property taxes, auto insurance, etc, etc. And my budget is predicated on bringing in a certain amount of money every month. Although you can write a budget without knowing how much you’ll have to work with, its a lot easier when you do know how much you’ll have to work with.

So, I have my usual budget. But, what if I lose my job? Or I can’t work? Or, for some reason, my income gets halved…or worse. Theres a plan for that. I call it The War Budget. It’s the budget for when belts need to be tightened, fat trimmed, and resources stretched as long as possible….without starving to death or becoming homeless.

I take my normal budget and start slashing through it… Cable, Spotify, entertainment, dining out, subscriptions, etc….all zeroed out. Grocery budget? Knock 25% off, at least…this is why we keep a lot of food on hand. Gasoline? We’re riding the bike more and traveling less. That sort of thing. It’s the budget that is used on what cash resources are left.

Of course, this means that you have to have something tucked away to fall back on ‘just in case’. After several years of living on a budget that includes setting aside money every month specifically for this sort of thing…I’ve got about six months of living expenses in cash. And, interestingly, another six months worth of living expense in gold and silver. Theoretically, I could have $0 income until this time next year and nothing would have to change. But, of course, I’d be an idiot to have no income and not trim my expenses. Thus…The War Budget. In the frenzied “OMG what am I going to do” mindset that follows when your boss says “Don’t take off your jacket”, the last thing you’re going to be able to do is think clearly enough to come up with a workable financial plan for how to make what you have last until you get back on your feet. This is why I plan the War Budget in advance. I can mope back to the house, flop into a chair disgustedly, have a nice pity party, and basically flip a switch and know how to spend money going forward.

Is it sexy? Is it exciting? No, of course not. But it’s what keeps me from having to carry an armful of beloved guns to a pawn shop three weeks later because the water, electric, and gas bill is due. It’s just another part of preparedness….no different than wargaming how you’re going to get out of your town and to your bugout location. Except this scenario might be a tad more likely to happen before the other one does.

At the moment, my job is pretty secure. But so what? For all I know the building may burn down tomorrow, the .gov may shut it down, the franchise may get bought out by corporate, the boss could get drunk and fire everyone…whatever. No job, even when you work for yourself, is truly secure. You. Just. Don’t. Know.

So, my suggestion, or recommendation, to you is that you might want to wargame a scenario where your income gets cut to $0 for a period of time. What will you continue to spend on? What will you stop spending on? What resources will you set aside for that contingency? It’s worth thinking about because sooner or later, you’re going to find yourself staring down the barrel of a job/revenue loss… especially nowadays. Go jump into Excel and write up your own War Budget. And here’s the most important thing: if youre willing to live on a budget in a time of crisis like that, then be willing to live on a budget when things aren’t in crisis…because that how you wind up being able to be ready for that crisis period.

Article – JPMorgan Removed from Louisiana Muni Deal After Gun Scrutiny

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Some good news from the southern front in the culture wars:

 

(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. was removed on Thursday from a $700 million Louisiana municipal-bond deal after the bank’s stance on guns drew criticism from state Republican officials.

After a fiery meeting, the state bond commission voted to have Wells Fargo & Co. replace JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, as senior manager on the deal.

 The decision came after state Treasurer John Schroder, a Republican, said his team was scrutinizing JPMorgan’s gun policies following Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon’s comments to a Congressional committee earlier this year that his firm won’t finance companies that make military-style weapons for consumers.
As it turns our, that whole “We won’t invest in funds or companies that deal with guns” thing cuts both ways. I rather like the turnabout being fair play.
I suppose you could argue, from a concerned taxpayer standpoint, that the removal of Chase means that the state will not be getting as good a deal as it might have otherwise. May be. But even I, a staunch opposer of government spending, would support this move.
I wish other municipalities had the cajones to knock some sense into some of the companies when they start getting all ‘woke’. Political posturing has consequences. This is the reason a smart business keeps its politics to itself. As Chase just learned.

MAK90

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Well nuts…I purchased that milled Norinco MAK90 with all of its mags, drums, and ammo with an eye towards dumping it on GunBroker. And then…I made the mistake of shooting the bloody thing and now I’m wanting to keep it.

This happens far too often.

On the bright side, I think I havent bought a Ruger P95DC in over a year so…yay me!

 

Winco for the win

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I’d mentioned before that Winco has a little section in the corner of the store devoted to ‘long term food storage’. Well, apparently Winco, after selling out of 3- and 5-gallon buckets and oxy absorbers, thinks there might be a market for long term stuff. So, when I was over in that corner of the store checking to see if the buckets had been restocked I saw this:

They had banana chips, apple slices, butter powder, lowfat milk, potato shreds, and egg powder. Sort of a post-apocalypse breakfast selection. I’m curious to see if this is just Winco testing the waters and possibly bringing in more products.

For those of you who are local, or semi local, this is the Winco that is on Reserve and South Avenue, across the street from Rosauers.

Tired

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I was up at CostCo yesterday in the battery/tires section. I over heard a fella asking about tires for his vehicle and he was told that “they werent in yet” and that “we’re not sure when theyll be in.” Hmmm. So I asked the guy behind the counter if they wer having availability issues with tires these days. He replied that they were. I asked him if a person thought they might need tires in the next year or so if it would be a good idea to buy them now. He said yes. Now, I understand that you don’t ask the barber if you need a haircut, but perhaps a pre-emptive purchase might not be a bad idea.

Even if availability isnt an issue, I’m pretty confident pricing will be. I’d almost guarantee the tires I’d buy next week are gonna cost more in a year. Like, 99% certain.

You know, when I was a kid and admittedly a bit wet behind the ears, I thought the most likely survivalist scenario was the gun-heavy WW3 nukefest or something equally dramatic and unlikely. Now that I’m older, though not necessarily wiser, I foresee the most likely survivalist scenario as an economic one…either on a grand scale like a national or global depression, but more likely on a personal scale like a job loss or similar.

But, there’s nothing sexy about living on a budget, paying your home early, and having money in the bank/safe/mattress. And yet…my belief is thats the direction things are going to go – less .50 BMG, more $50 bills.