Month: May 2015

09:29 – Barbara is cleaning house and then heading out to meet a friend for lunch. Colin is hiding under my desk, apparently afraid that she’s going to bathe him again.

One of the commenters yesterday posted a link to the Coleman Camp Oven, which looks to be a good solution for baking and reheating dishes during a power-down situation. I wasn’t even aware this product existed, but I just stubbed in a link for it in the book.

I’ve been using classic Zippo liquid-fuel lighters exclusively for a year now, and I strongly recommend them as a primary fire-making tool. They’re extremely reliable, and just about bullet-proof. Literally, as many soldiers over the last 80 years can attest because their Zippos stopped bullets meant for them. As a pipe smoker, I use a lighter heavily, probably on average 50 to 100 times a day. That means my main Zippo has lit at least 18,000 times, and it shows no sign of not being good for another 180,000 lights, if not 1,800,000.

Two downsides: First, I go through a lot of flints. Every week or so I need to replace the flint, but they’re cheap and readily-available in 6-flint dispensers. Second, they’re not air-tight, which means the fuel evaporates in a few days even if the lighter isn’t used. Not an issue for me, because I refuel mine once or twice a day. I bought two 12-ounce cans of official Zippo lighter fluid originally, and I’ve been refilling those cans ever since from gallon cans of VM&P naphtha from Lowes. It’ll also burn just about anything volatile and flammable, including gasoline, acetone, or alcohol.

I also have a Zippo butane lighter, which uses a the same flint/steel lighting mechanism and provides a jet/torch flame. The advantage of this model is that once it’s fueled it stays fueled. I’m still running it on the butane I put in it six months or more ago, testing it every few weeks to see if the fuel has dissipated. So far, so good. It’s really intended for Barbara. She doesn’t smoke, so she needs a lighter that can be put in an emergency kit and left until needed. I also keep a can of butane and a dispenser of spare flints with it.

10:53 – Barbara is out running errands. I’m doing laundry and the other usual Saturday housekeeping tasks. We’ll do kit stuff this afternoon and tomorrow.

Once we get moved, I’m going to talk to Barbara about converting some of our paper assets into hard assets. Most couples have only their home, vehicles, and personal possessions as hard assets. We go a bit further than that, with significant funds devoted to long-term food storage and other prepping supplies, as well as considerable inventory for science kits. All of those are a hedge against inflation, but I’d like to go further. The balances in our bank accounts are worth less and less every day, and I’d like to convert some of those funds to stuff that appreciates rather than depreciating.

For example, last autumn I bought 5.56mm ammunition in bulk for $0.37 per round. The same round now costs $0.47, an increase of 27% in just seven months. I still remember years ago when Walmart had a sale on Russian-made SKS carbines for $30 each and 1,000 rounds of Russian-made 7.62×39 in ammo cans for another $30, or $.03/round. That was probably not too long after the fall of the Soviet Union. What I really, really wanted to do was buy 100 SKSs and 100,000 rounds of ammo. That would have set us back $6,000. Nowadays, I see Russian-made SKSs selling for $400 and Russian-made ammo going for $0.50/round. Those 100 SKSs and 100,000 round of ammo would cost me about $90,000 today, maybe $80,000 if I really shopped around or was willing to settle for inferior SKSs made elsewhere.

Not that I’d go out and buy 100 SKSs today. Even if Barbara agreed, they’re simply too high-profile. But I might pick up a half a dozen or a dozen more civilian-type rifles and shotguns. Things like the Maverick 88 or Remington 870 in 12- and 20-gauge, the Marlin Model 60 in .22LR, and so on. Lever-action rifles aren’t the bargain they once were, but I wouldn’t mind having some in .38/.357 and .44Mag/Spec. They’re easily speed-loaded, use common ammunition, and are actually pretty competent defensive rifles. And they’re only going to gain value.

08:30 – It’s Memorial Day here in the U.S., the day set aside to remember those who sacrificed themselves to protect our freedom. Although the official purpose of Memorial Day is to remember those who gave their lives in the service of our country, let’s also remember all of those brave men and women, living and dead, who through the years have put their lives on the line to protect all of us. As we have our cookouts and family get-togethers today, let’s all take a moment to think about our troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, who can’t be with their families. And let’s have a thought, not just today but every day of the year, for them and the sacrifices they are making and have made.

We drove over to Barbara’s sister’s house yesterday for dinner. Frances cooked and Al grilled. We took Colin along on his first-ever social outing. He was excited to explore a new place, but settled down quickly and behaved very well. I was proud of him.

We also hauled home the bedside commode that Al had been keeping for us in their rented storage. It looks much like this one, and I wanted to check the bucket to make sure a 1/6-barrel t-shirt bag would fit it. We buy those by the box of 1,000 for science kits, so we typically have 1,000 in inventory, if not 2,000 or 3,000. If there’s an emergency that makes flushing the toilet impossible, one of these bedside commodes and a large stock of plastic bags makes things a lot more livable. A standard 5-gallon bucket with a snap-on toilet seat works, but unfortunately the t-shirt bags, which cost something like $14/thousand, aren’t large enough to fit over the rim, so you’d have to stock more expensive larger bags.

The civil unrest in Cleveland appears to be passing with less violence than there might have been, but as Barbara and I discussed yesterday on the way over to visit Frances and Al, this kind of thing could happen anywhere at any time, on zero notice. And the day may well come when a literal firestorm breaks out nationwide rather than just in scattered cities. That’s one of the main reasons we’re going to relocate, although we’d probably have done so even in the absence of that threat, simply because we prefer the small-town environment. Occasional trips into the big city for Costco runs or whatever will be just fine for us.

08:41 – We’re having a get-together for Memorial Day with Barbara’s sister and brother-in-law. Colin will have lots of begging opportunities.

We don’t store freeze-dried just-add-water complete meals, but if you like these meals you might want to check the Costco web site. They have several Augason Farms freeze-dried complete meals on sale through the 31st for anything from $10 to $50 (15% to 20%) off their normal prices, which are pretty good to start with. (Note that I’m not recommending these meals. I’ve never tried them, but customer reviews are generally good.)