08:58 – Barbara is off this morning on a half-day trip with her friend Marcy. I’m building and shipping kits.
First priority today is FK01 forensic science kits, for which inventory currently stands at -1. We’ll get a new batch of those made up over the weekend, and then start on more of the CK01A chemistry kits, which are running low again. And then we need to do another batch of the BK01 biology kits, of which we have maybe a two-week supply on hand. Six days into the month, we’re shipping BK01 kits at a rate of 1.5/day and FK01 kits at a rate of 1.0/day.
Mrs. OFD continues her 11-day jaunt in Kalifornia and then a 6-day gig in the Finger Lakes area of the Vampire State.
Steady rain here today; got tied up for a couple of hours at the cah dealership and didn’t make either the dump run or the long slog down to the salt mine like I’d planned; too much stuff to do around here while My Better Half is gone. I may do a short stretch at the mine tomorrow and if things have dried out enough, the yard mowing and compost bin.
OFD now driving a silver 2011 Toyota RAV4, which I will pimp out a bit this next couple of weeks. Also putting together a standard emergency kit with a layer of winter survival included. Anyone here got car-top cargo carriers on their rides, like Thule, Yakima, whatever? Looking around for something aerodynamic, with good volume and doesn’t look goofy.
Also just got off the phone with our vehicle insurance company, nice lady with a sense of humor, operating from the great Lone Star State; she sez it’s pretty dry where she is and I told her that Kalifornia is evidently even worse, according to wife.
OFD now driving a silver 2011 Toyota RAV4
Congrats! 4×4?
Also putting together a standard emergency kit with a layer of winter survival included.
1. handgun with 100 rounds
2. a dozen MREs
3. bushmaster rifle with 500 rounds
4. backup handgun with 100 rounds
5. snowshoes
6. half dozen blankets
7. another dozen MREs
8. long matches and more matches
9. backpack
10. walking boots and very warm clothing
11. hammock
What did I miss? Is that enough stuff to walk home from 100+ miles away?
You kinda left out water, Lynn, which is considered by some to be important.
Survival kits to be kept in cars are really tricky up here, six months or so per year. Where I am, you can’t keep water in the car because it freezes, and you can’t even figure on gathering snow and melting (and purifying) it because there isn’t necessarily any ground cover for much of the winter. Pressurized liquids (plastic bottles of soda, in practice) are slightly more tolerant of cold temperatures, but aren’t really a solution because temperature has to be monitored and the bottles brought into the house if it gets too cold. Too much bother for me. What I do is keep a couple of mostly-full 2L soda bottles of water in a waterproof container (the bottom of an old cooler) and figure I’ll melt the ice if necessary.
I keep my insulated Carhart coveralls in the van in the winter. They’re easily pulled out if I need them around the house and yard, but they’re available in case of an emergency in the car.
The van also holds tools and fluids and a tire pump and a shovel and rope and such, year-round. Sure, the van carries what I need to walk home in case of problems, but as a general thing I find it’s better to repair a breakdown or pull the van out of a ditch than it is to walk.
Kinda light on ammo!
Here is a story about a guy walking home 250 miles after an EMP event from Tallahassee to south of Orlando:
http://www.amazon.com/Going-Home-Novel-Survivalist-American/dp/0142181277/
He had a minimal amount of water but one of those sweetwater purification pumped filter:
http://www.amazon.com/MSR-SweetWater-Microfilter-Gray-Red/dp/B001BNPJK6/
Here is the item that I have serious trouble buying because of the price, a PVS-14 night vision monocle:
http://www.amazon.com/ATN-NVMPPVS143A-PVS14-Monocular-3A/dp/B001JPEF42/
I want one but $2500 is a big prepper commitment. But, the PVS-14 NVG might be difference between you getting home and not getting home if you are walking home. And supposedly you need the third generation for the image processor.
http://angeryamerican.net/content.php/128-Morgan-s-Bag-Part-II
Your car can carry a lot more ammo than you can. My son did carry 1,400 rounds of 5.56 mm in the USMC though when he carried a SAW. 5.56 is 1 lb per 100 rounds.
Plus you might be able to trade some ammo for food or a bribe. Or, you might need to arm a fellow walker.
I have pretty much all of the stuff or very shortly will, on Mr. Lynn’s wintuh emergency list. Plus some firestarter, flashlight/s and batteries, Lifestraws, bivvy tent and sleeping bag, etc. In most cases up here it’s bettuh to stay with the disabled vehicle than to try humping for miles across frozen landscape with numerous wottuh hazards. Not to mention bears and the coy-wolf.
“… enough stuff to walk home from 100+ miles away?”
If for some odd reason I had to try to walk home from work it would be just forty miles; on a clear dry day and staying on the roads it would probably take me about 13-14 hours; if deep snow, wind, ice, etc, and not staying on the roads, considerably longer, maybe a couple of days. I’d almost always be better off staying at work, where I have another stash, or with the vehicle.
And if I did have to hump that distance home, my load would also be considerably lighter, esp. on the ammo. Naturally the bulk of the ammo would be in the vehicle; I humped M60 loaded belts in jungle heat forty-plus years ago and it near kicked my ass thoroughly. I wouldn’t care to hump it now in either heat or cold. Coupla extra mags each for rifle and pistols on a jaunt through the woods.
I’ll be interested to see a detailed list of what you choose for your car kit.
When I used to go hunting in the local mountains, I always carried two or more disposable lighters. They are much more water resistant than matches, and can more easily start damp tinder. I was always surprised when so few others thought of that. Of course, if weight is no problem, it is even better to take some flammable liquid. One guy I knew carried his propane torch along with his camp stove. May be overkill, but it has other uses.
Once I assemble it all, I’ll post it here accordingly. One of my little projects for this week ahead; a kit for the vehicle and one for keeping stashed at work. At the latter, and assuming electric power stayed on, I’d have running wottuh, showers, and fully equipped kitchen. I could break into (I have the key) to the owners’ offices adjacent to mine (I’m really de facto IT Director there for all intents and purposes.) and sack out on their couches. Hell, maybe I’ll put one in my office. Or at least one of them inflatable beds. If the factory building was not viable, there’s a motel about two blocks away, plus a Dunkins. And a restaurant.
If I was on the way there or the way back and the vehicle broke down or off the road and it was a blizzard/ice storm situation with no one else around (and the VT State Police regularly patrol up and down those two highways I travel), I’d be OK staying with it in relative comfort for a few days.
On the other hand, if it was Dystopia Writ Large Suddenly, and I had no vehicle or couldn’t try to run it back up the roads to here, I’d have a tough row to hoe over those forty miles, while also dodging zombies fleeing from the cities and predatory gangs. But I doubt they’d make it up this far or down this far and they’d be in worse shape than me.
Rain finally stopped and we have the first blooming sunflowers, an autumn mix of red and gold. I hope to have a dry afternoon later tomorrow or Monday so I can chop at the yard work; it’s an emerald-green jungle back there again. After the 10-12-hour days the past two weeks I had zero energy left to undertake that stuff during the week and today was ‘devoured by locusts.’
It’s our duty to protect Moslems from Global Warming ™:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/05/is-john-kerry-mentally-ill-scriptures-commands-america-to-protect-muslims-from-global-warming/
You know, calling John Kerry “Lurch” is a detriment to the real Lurch. Kerry is incompetent, Lurch was not.