Tag Archives: links

Bumping a link – Safely Gathered In

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I was re-reading some of my earlier posts about canned food and storage food. While we can all agree that pre-packaged food is often not the healthiest thing for you to eat, I think that we can also agree that when you haven’t eaten if three day you’re probably gong to be a little more forgiving of some MSG or high fructose corn syrup in whatever it is you’ve stumbled across to eat.

Making anything ‘from scratch’ using long-life, shelf-stable food is challenging. Yes, you can open a jar of spaghetti sauce, crack open a can of ground beef, and pull some spaghetti out of a box. Presto – dinner is served. But for anything more complex than that, with more than three or four ingredients, you really have to do some careful menu planning.

This website has been one of my favorites since I found it. It is dormant and hasn’t been updated in years, but theres a pretty lengthy list of recipes, with pictures, for all sortsa meal using genuine long-term, shelf-stable stuff. I highly recommend viewing it: Safely Gathered In . And, yup, its from the LDS/Mormons…naturally. I’mm posting about it because although I’ve mentioned it in the past, there’s always a bunch of recent readers who may not have been around when I last linked to it.

I’ve long thought there needs to be some genuine ‘cooking with storage/stored food’ cookbook. Something that wasn’t just theory, but something with actual hands-on cooking, lotsa photos, and solid metrics about quantities, calories, and fuel consumption. I’ve read a few books that tried to be that, and I thought they failed miserably. Mostly because at some point in the recipe, a fresh ingredient was called for. No, I think a cookbook for using nothing but literal sits-on-a-shelf ingredients would fill a void in the preparedness marketplace. It wouldnt make anone rich, but it’d be nice to have.

Flashlight history sites

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As much as the field of guns has it’s wildly nerdy devotees who geek out on what might otherwise be considered ‘useless trivia’, the field is not alone in that. Case in point: flashlight nerds.

A posted about flashlights and a little bit about MagLite and, unsurprisingly, there are blogs out there dedicated to the history of such:

It’s a fascinating thing, to see how the technology and design have changed over the years. There have been very few advances in technology that trickled into the realm of survivlalism in such a pronounced way….the advent of LEDs and newer battery technologies have really made a tremendous sea change in flashlight options compared to the olden days of survivalism.

Both of those links are fascinating reading, doubly so if you have law enforcement experience. No doubt the KelLite’s bring back some memories for the long-retired cops.

 

Recommendations

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Sadly, quite a few of my ‘regular read’ blogs have shut down over the last year or two. It happens. So, I need some new blogs to follow.

Preferred qualities:

  • Big on preparedness or a reasonably related topic
  • Low on religion
  • Good grammar and punctuation
  • Low Alex Jones quotient
  • Low racist/sexist content. (Hey, its fine to dislike a group for no particular reason, but the name calling gets a bit declasse)
  • Updates at least once a week
  • Isn’t all about homesteading and tiny houses

You’d think that wouldnt be a tall order, but…

Whats my current list of blogs I read look like? Glad you (didn’t) ask:

View From The Porch
SurvivalBlog.com | The Daily Web Log for Prepared Individuals Living in Uncertain Times.
The Firearm Blog
Jerking the Trigger
The Ultimate Answer to Kings | …is not a bullet, but a belly laugh!
Living Freedom
brushbeater – “once more unto the breach, dear friends…”
American Partisan | A vanguard movement of Western Civilization
The Field Lab
Raconteur Report

So, trot your faves and let’s see if there’s something that piques my interest.

Links – Cold War History sites

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Two websites about Cold War facilities and fallout shelters.

Coldwar-Ct.com

Massachusetts Cold War History Site

Both sites feature pictures and small histories of various fallout shelters and other ‘doomsday’ real estate. One thing I found interesting and that I was unaware of was that the .gov had, in some cases, built small shelters for radio stations to allow them to continue to broadcast in a crisis. I never knew that.

The pictures of the hardened communication facilities is interesting as well. Having gotten to explore a couple of those microwave relay outposts, I can tell you that for the era they were built in they were very serious about survivability.

Anyway, entertaining links with some fascinating pictures…I especially enjoyed this series. Every now and then these facilities come up for sale. You’d have to spend some serious coin on your own to come up with an equal level of protection.

Link – Apocalyptic Dog Food

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

I love my dog. He’s a handful, and often a troublemaker, but I will, without remorse or compunction, instantly put my fist through the head of anyone that tries to hurt him. One thing I’ve neglected to do, though, for my little buddy is to set up his doggy bugout-bag and set back some food for him.

A doggy BOB isn’t a silly idea. Think about it..if we have to beat feet and take Mr. Furman with us what are we going to need to make things conducive to travelling with him? First off, we’re gonna need a leash (or two or three), spare collar, copies of his vaccinations, a couple muzzles, water bowls, food bowls, and a few other goodies. If we wind up having to stay in a crowded friends house or something, last thing we need is puppy being unwelcome because he wants to eat someone’s four-year-old….hence, some muzzles. And, really, if I can swing it, get the vet to prescribe some tranquilizers…in a high-stress environment some doggie-downers might come in handy for keeping him calm when we need him to be.

Food, though…I hadn’t really given it much thought. I figured that he’s a dog so he’ll pretty much eat anything we eat (and a lot of stuff we won’t.)  In retrospect, that’s really not a good idea. After all, that means our supply of people food for two has become a supply of people food for two-and-a-half…turning a 12 month supply into a 9.5 month supply.

Here’s a great post about borrowing the canner from the LDS cannery and putting away some premium kibble. Certainly some #10 cans are gonna last quite a while but I think most dogs, when theyre hungry, aren’t really going to turn their noses up at their dog food because it’s stale. There are, after all, critters that are designed to eat roadkill. However, from a storage standpoint, if youre going to store a bulk amount of food you want it stored in a manner that does not promote vermin, insects and other pests. Just heaving a 50# bag of kibble onto the shelf and expecting it to sit there for a few years might not be a terribly good idea unless you like the idea of some really well fed and happy mice setting up shop in that bag. I think I might just go the mylar bag route. I have a stack of them from the cannery and they should hold about the same as a #10 can. I also have quite a few 5-gallon buckets sitting around with GammaSeal lids on them so that might be a way to go as well.

Of course, borrowing the canning machine from the cannery opens up a few other possibilites since I could can..well…anything.

Regardless, I’ve been neglecting Nuke’s post-apocalyptic needs and need to get him squared away.

Link – Disaster shelter offers full kitchen, flat-screen TV

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

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. –

Could a “Doomsday Bunker” protect your family in case of disaster? One local business thinks so and is offering tours of an Atlas corrugated pipe shelter.

Al’s Army Navy Store in Altamonte Springs is selling a 32×10-foot shelter. The unit is designed to go 20 feet underground, and can offer protection from hurricanes, tornadoes and other disasters.

You know, I rather like these culvert-style shelters but I really would probably prefer them above-ground. Just put up some wood cribbing, get some forms, encase the whole thing in cement, plant some ivy over it and you’d be good to go. Probably a great way to go in hurricane country where digging into a low water table isnt a good idea…encase it in a couple feet of concrete and no hurricane is gonna screw with you. And best of all – no sewage pump.

Link – DIY pepper spray

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

From a link that was sent to me in email. How to make your own Pepper Spray.

I’ve never been sprayed with the stuff directly, although I’ve gotten a face full indirectly a couple times. However, my lovely wife, as part of her training, got a solid blast of it in the face from about three feet away. It does indeed blind you, and it does make breathing a spotty endeavour, but…and this is important…if the bad guy already has a grip on you somewhere he can still continue his melee attack (since he doesnt need to see in order to continue beating on you when he already has a hold of you). If he doesn’t have a grip on you, then he’s going to have a heck of a time finding you what with the blinding and tearing up of the eyes. (Of course, to my way of thining, if the bad guy already has a grip on you then the situation has advanced beyond pepper spray and into things a bit more dangerous.) I like the idea of having a graduated scale of escalating force options and pepper spray gives you that. However, the impression that spraying someone in the face with the stuff will spare you a beating isn’t exactly 100% true.

Linkage, blegging, gun show

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

I was sent a link to this blog and am passing it on: Getting Your Life In Order

And although I’ve mentioned it before, it’s time to mention it again, one of my favorite cooking-with-food-storage blogs: Safely Gathered In

As I’ve said in the past, I think the hallmark of maturity in the long road to preparedness is when you start putting more value, effort, resources and thought into things like food rather than guns. Guns are important, no doubt…..but think about how many times you eat per week vs. how many looters you shoot per week. I dunno about you but my meal-to-looter ratio is pretty high these days…thus, guns an ammo are now back-burner stuff as I work on keeping the grocery supply topped off.

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The blegging continues. About a dozen folks have been kind enough to throw a few bucks (and some it was more than just a few) in the direction of the blog to pay for hosting and domain registrations for the next year or so. I’ll mention it once or twice more in the next couple posts and then you won’t be hearing about it again for a good couple years at least.

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The Missoula Gun Show approaches! This is the largest show in Montana and while not as big as it has been in the past it is still an awesome show. Should be interesting to see how the current events will affect the turnout and the market.

Some camo links

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

The missus sent me an email informing me of this resource ( Camopedia ) …interesting. The source I has been using prior to that for information about camouflage patterns was kamouflage.net. As always, more then one source of reference/information is appreciated.

Peripherally tied into the subject of camo, is this nice ‘how to’ from arfcom: How to Multicam your rifle…on the cheap!

When I buy gear I almost always go with basic OD since it goes with everything. Someone pointed out to me once that it didn’t matter if the gear was OD, desert or black…the right can of spraypaint will make anything camo. OD is pretty common but given my druthers, I really like multicam. (Yes, I drank that KoolAid.) Only problem is that it’s mighty expensive. Another possibility is the new A-Tacs patterns, esp. the green one, that is becoming more and more available.The other pattern I find that I like for my region are the classic German flecktar, which seems to be a pre-digital-age version of digital camo with its ‘dithering’ effect. (Whcih, if you ignore the political implications, appears to be a direct descendent of the old Nazi pea pattern camo.)

For winter wear I have the usual German ‘pine’ camo but I’m very taken with the Finnish and Danish winter patterns. G’luck finding ‘em in the US. (Real ones, not airsoft knockoffs made in China.) Although you’d think that a set of simple solid white clothing would work, it turns out that snow really isn’t solid white…there’s enough shading and whatnot that solid white will stand out a bit. The Marines have a new winter camo out that looks pretty good but I don’t expect to see it on the surplus market anytime soon.