09:54 – I’m still making up chemical bags, building component inventories so that we’ll have what we need to assemble finished kits quickly as sales ramp up for the autumn semester. If I have all the subassemblies in stock, I can easily assemble a month’s supply of kits in a day or two. The trick is making sure to have all the subassemblies in stock.
But I seldom spend full days doing work like that. So, just having finished binning another batch of chemical bags, I’m going to spend a few hours designing lab sessions and writing the AP chemistry manual.
So, for long term food storage here in the deep South (no basements), where to store food? I have a 4 ft x 4 ft pantry that is so full that the wife is begging me to stop buying canned food. I am thinking about the back of my closet but that seems suboptimal.
What about under the bed(s)? That makes it a pain in the ass to rotate canned goods, but for LDS long-term storage cases it generally works well. Those cases are about 13″ deep x 19″ wide by 8″ tall. There are six #10 cans per case, so assuming you have 8″ of clearance under a bed you should be able to fit maybe 90 to 120 cans, depending on the size of the bed. If the clearance is less than 8″, you may be able to fit cans on their sides.
Also, what about your garage?
Would she let you put a 40 ft Conex container in the backyard if you promise to paint it her favorite color? 🙂
Just out of curiosity — why no basements in the South? I realize you do not have the cold issue that a slab represents here in the North, but I have always believed dry basements (and there is no reason for basements not to be dry in these times) is some of the most useful space you can get. I even talked one of the places I worked for, into building the basement for their new building right out to the property line. They were building in an area that prohibited more than 2 stories. Boy did that basement space come in handy as the business grew.
There are a lot of issues, but the two big ones are (a) that basements aren’t cheap and (b) that in many places in the South the water table is high enough that digging a basement is essentially the same as digging a well.
I agree that I’d never want a house that didn’t have a full basement.
Lynn, can’t you store stuff at your workplace? I thought it was massive.
Also, your house is ginormous, isn’t it? Why can’t you find some spare space?
Yup. Basements in San Antone cost a ton. Have to be blasted. Same here in Vegas. Some condo blds have underground parking. You have to pay a high premium to get a spot in a condo.
Our house in Leavenworth KS has a full finished basement.
Yep, questions already asked here, in re: big (huge) house, and lots of business buildings nearby. Why the space hassle?
We have a stone and cement basement here that is the footprint of the house, of course, with kinda low ceiling and exposed beams, nice for hobbits but not orcs like me. Dry as a bone and property has never flooded in 200 years. Anyway, I am using that to build our food, etc. storage, with a bit more up in the attic, depending on humidity and temps.
Looks like there’ll be a little delay in us seeing them F-35s up here:
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/07/04/f35-fleet-grounded.html?ESRC=airforce.nl
Beeyooteeful day on the bay today…
Also, what about your garage?
Detached building with almost no ventilation. Can hit 120 F in the summer.
Just out of curiosity — why no basements in the South?
The water table is only two to three feet down. Dig a hole, get a well.
Lynn, can’t you store stuff at your workplace? I thought it was massive.
I could but would rather not.
Would she let you put a 40 ft Conex container in the backyard if you promise to paint it her favorite color?
It would reach 120 F in the summer time. And the HOA would have a massive problem with it. I am contemplating adding a bathroom behind the garage though that would be air conditioned.
Also, your house is ginormous, isn’t it?
3,000 ft2 sounds large until you are living in it. Here is the floor plan:
http://www.winsim.com/perry_homes_plan_2991.pdf
The daughter lives in bedrooms #2 and #3. Bedroom #4 is reserved for guests. And my four bookcases. And a lot of “stuff” in the closet.
I guess my place is about 2200 sqft, my previous one was 1520 sqft. I noticed a large closet off the main BR. I assume your stuff takes up 5% of the space. Why not demand equal space with the Mrs and store the gear there? (smirk)
Posting from the DMV. Only 300+ in front of me. Registering a car. And that’s only in my number sequence of G!
We were told that a basement was expensive here in the desert, but that was just because of little experience in the building trades. The building department also didn’t have much experience, so said it was supposed to be difficult to get one approved. Turned out it was easy and inexpensive. Apparently very few had ever questioned the common beliefs.
Ours is dry because the water table is 300 feet down. We are on a hillside, so drainage is easy to manage, even in the rare downpour. Lots of contractors were used to building retaining walls and pouring slabs (the basement floor,) and digging in our ideal soil is surprisingly cheap. Some houses were built on a raised floor, so that was also easy. All it took was for someone to put it all together. We were not the first (dozenth?) When we were done, we had doubled our usable space (not all of it is living space) for far less than above ground construction. Because of the hill, one end is at the surface, so both levels have grade access. Bringing large or heavy objects in or out never requires using the stairs. The space costs almost nothing to heat or cool. Except for the small part that is exposed, there is no exterior maintenance. I could go on.
My only regret is that we didn’t put another level under it all. I must be a mole because I feel very secure underground. Always wanted one of those surplus missile silos, with their attached living quarters, but none in our area.
I do feel for the South, and did live in Florida, near the Everglades. The water table there was about two feet down, and the elevation was four feet, eleven miles inland. Flat! My parents’ last home in Michigan had a water table three feet above the basement floor, so they required a sump pump with backup power for outages lasting more than about four hours. The house across the street was on a slab, and was sold twice over the years. It was the only one nearby that had no basement, and was hard to sell. Lowering the price usually fixes most issues.
Mr. Atoz, we have been able to do most of our DMV stuff in Kalifornia on the web for years. I actually think the site is better designed than 90% of other commercial sites I deal with. This is the best noncommercial site 🙂
Sounds like you got a challenge down there, MrLynn; dunno what to tell ya. Between the high temps and the high water table, what to do, what to do…What do others do in this situation throughout the hot-as-hell South and West and high water tables?
MrAtoz; I sorta feel yer pain, vicariously; the DMV down in MA was notorious for years for its long lines and hassles and mayhem, and then in the early 00’s seemed to get its act together and was a not unpleasant experience. But now our son and DIL are living down there and she told me the other day it was freaking nightmarish now; apparently their whole DMV IT system is a mess now and the lines before the place opens in the AM are out the door and across the parking lot. And hassles for every line of the paperwork just to register a car down there. Many hours on-hold with the phone, etc.
Most of our crap here in VT can be done online, but if it requires a renewed license or a couple of other items, we all have to truck down or up or across to the HQ in the state capital to do it. But even then you get a number and the waits in my experience have seldom been more than fifteen minutes. And they all speak English, which is not the case in MA and other places.
All new reg etc has to be in person in NV. You can pay someone to reg a vehicle (requires a signed form).
Why is a Marine still in a Mexican jail while the hoard is coming across the border? Where is Obummer, Lurch, Holder? Even Gary Sinise is saying WTF! Maybe the USMC should just go get him and see what Mexico says. One way flow of crimmigrants to TX is unacceptable.
There’s gotta be some kinda unknown reason why that Marine is still locked up down there and we got the deserter back, what, weeks ago? Meanwhile, as the illustrious MrAtoz sez and MrGary say, WTF? With swarms coming across and being airlifted all over the country and if you go down to bitch about it when the buses roll up, Fed goons will tase and beat your ass and lock YOU up. That’s pretty fucking rich, pardon mon Francais, mes amis, but locking up regular legal citizens so that illegal, i.e., criminal, people can just swarm on in and get all kinds of great bennies that even I can’t get anymore, as a decorated combat vet of three U.S. wars??? WTF doesn’t even begin to cover it.
But I stopped being surprised by our regime over thirty years ago when I found out I couldn’t get on the MA civil service cop departments but while Houston was recruiting it took in two former NVA cadre as new cadets on theirs.
Quite frankly I’d send in the Marines to get the guy back, but the upper-echelon brass for some reason has put the kibosh on that; so how ’bout some merc outfit or contractors do the gig? I’m sure plenty would jump at the chance.
We live in Bizzaro US now. Reports of possibly 300K more heading to the border. Say goodbye to Texas.
Only 107 left in front of me at the DMV.
lol Just explained a form to an Asian lady. Apparently reading English isn’t required. Form has Spanish, though. Asians are SOL.
“…possibly 300K more heading to the border. Say goodbye to Texas.”
Not to worry, compadre; they’ll be quickly absorbed by the seven-million LGBTs living there in the big cities, where, of course, they’ll all immediately head.
“Only 107 left in front of me at the DMV.”
Did you count them? Hell, you got the world by the ass out there; should be out by midnight!
“…Just explained a form to an Asian lady. Apparently reading English isn’t required. Form has Spanish, though. Asians are SOL.”
And who better than you? Hell, you can talk all that Number Ten G.I. stuff you learned working for Uncle and regale them with yer tales of chopper fun over the villes.
We live in Bizzaro US now. Reports of possibly 300K more heading to the border. Say goodbye to Texas.
No joke on Bizzaro USA. Obummer has zero pride for his country as far as I can tell. Certainly zero respect for the law.
And that 300K is just the South Americans. Wait until the Chinese and others get cranked up to speed.
So much for the third amendment:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/07/08/stunning_california_couple_says_they_were_asked_to_house_immigrant_children
Which country? Kenya? Indonesia?
Oh, I believe he was born here in the U.S.; all that citizenship and birthplace stuff is for the birds; he simply lied on his entrance application paperwork at Columbia and used the ‘foreign student’ or ‘international student’ gambit to get a leg up on the competition, you know, so they could jack their Diversity numbers. Which is the big reason we can’t seem to find any of those records from back then; would indicate fraud on the part of him and the commie jackasses at Columbia; no doubt someone knows, assuming they haven’t been knocked off by now.
But rest assured; he has as much love and respect for this country and its regular legit citizens as I have for the old Khmer Rouge. And the Mooch has even less, closer to visceral hatred and loathing. How is it, one might ask, that the VP, Biden, whose son served (as a lawyer) in the Sandbox, and whose wife works for the benefit of veterans, can stand to be in the same room with them? Easy; they’re all part of the political minion class, and small differences like that are nothing to them. Behind the scenes they probably hate each other, ditto as regards the Klinton and Bush clans.
Obummer asks Congress for $3.7 billion for the humanitarian crisis. Where’s the UN if it is a humanitarian crisis, refugee exodus, mass invasion, Dumbocrat recruiting strategy? I would think the UN would be all over this to finalize the third worldification of the US.
$3.7-billion for that, 9.x-billion for this…pretty soon we’re talking about real money!
Hey, just raise our taxes again! Bleed us dry!
Get another war going in the Sandbox somewhere, bring in millions more people illegally across an international border (so much for national sovereignty, a complete joke here for decades), and claim one gigantic crisis after another.
I’m guessing that groundwork is being laid for a ‘national security’ crisis in the next year or two, with no really viable opposing candidates from either half of the War Party, and Barry just takes another term. While the Mooch takes up that senator gig in Illinois, courtesy of the Machine there, and steps in when Barry is finally done really screwing the country. She’ll apply the coup de grace at the end.
The UN will send troops to put down legal citizen opposition if and when our own Fed thugs can’t take care of them all, or maybe jump in anyway to get the practice. Picture blue helmeted Pakis or Dutch boyz and grrls downtown in your city, clubbing old war vets to the pavement as another busload of Guatemalans rolls in, straight to the welfare offices to sign up for a new house (or maybe yours will be confiscated for them), car loans, jobs, medical care, free education through PhD, etc.
Aaaand this just in from Lackland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TZ5UxaZjN8#t=45
Paging Stephen King:
http://www.amazon.com/Stand-Stephen-King/dp/0307947300/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404871521&sr=1-1&keywords=stephen+king+the+stand
Off subject, but:
If you don’t know about this already you might find it interesting, I first found it in a short blurb in the Smithsonian Magazine.
http://www.moore.org/newsroom/in-the-news/2014/04/08/winners-of-competition-to-reimagine-the-chemistry-set-announced
I used this search to get several references: biologist Manu Prakash $5 kit
Paul
Ah yes, Lackland; OFD spent many a wonderful hour at that wonderful air base deep in the haht of Texas, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSENltSkMuE
And this just in from the WSJ nooz squirt on my iPhone:
“Citigroup is close to a deal with the DoJ to pay about $7 billion to settle allegations over mortgages.”
Gee, that’s nice. I hope no one on the Citigroup board misses a golf date or goes hungry or anything. I may have to dial up the WSJ later and ask them if that could be a misprint or sumthin, i.e., $70 billion, or $700 billion….Citigroup is a pretty huge operation.
In fact, their bill collector drones were ringing the phones off the hook here yesterday and today about a couple of our measly gas cards being overdue, you know, to the tune of twenty bucks or so. Emails, too. When we’ve paid the balances in full and early for several years now. And I explained to them how Mrs. OFD’s pay check is now over a month late. Again. I didn’t bother going into how her paymasters can drag it out for thirty days after she sends in her invoice paperwork, and in fact they’ve dragged out many times WAY past thirty days, like six or seven weeks sometimes. Then they expect her to pay for hotel, car rental, gas, and meals out of her pocket first and they may get around to reimbursing her….thirty days later. Maybe.
She tried to use our second Sunoco card down in MA today and it was a no-go. Why? Because the $25 payment was a few days past due. But Citigroup is gonna work out a deal with Holder’s DoJ. What a load off our minds.
We’re also late with our monthly tax nut and will be punished for it, guaranteed, with penalties and interest and fees and threats to seize our accounts. But one T. Geithner didn’t even bother filing or paying anything at all one year, to the tune of some astronomical sum, and he skated, of course.
Multiply our measly little troubles this week by a few hundred-thousands, if not millions or tens of millions, like us or in worse shape, and like us, armed and angry. Keep squeezing, you bastards and reap the fucking whirlwind. Maybe not this year or in five years but your day is coming.
The population forecast for Texas in 2030 is 40 million. The current population is around 26 million. I’ve been wondering how we are suppose to have a 54% population increase in 16 years. I now know how, illegal immigrants. So called dreamers. Houston will become a festering sore in the South with this inrush.
I’ve always been a big fan of immigration, my dad sponsored several engineers to come work here. I’ve sponsored a PhD Chemical Engineer from Madras, India who has worked for me since 1995 (a proud graduate of University of Alabama). A couple were Dad’s grad students from OU. But, that was stealing the best of the best from other countries. Now we are taking the poor and uneducated. Quite the change and I fear the the consequences.
I dunno what to tell ya, MrLynn, or MrAtoz out in LV, either; both of y’all are in pretty tough locations for any coming dystopia. If I was in your positions and had the financial wherewithal, frankly I’d be on my way out yesterday. This latest pile of chit from our regime is a very nasty wake-up call. When they’re willing to send Fed cops and troops to arrest regular legit citizens exercising First Amendment rights in the face of hordes of illegal immigrants swarming into their towns and cities, then we are entering a whole new phase. It was one thing out at the Bundy Ranch capers; this is them seeing us and raising the bet quite a bit.
And when the big banksters continue to cut major deals with Holder’s DoJ and they come after wicked small fry like Mrs. OFD and me for peanuts, that’s another bellwether alarm, although that’s been their m.o. for a long time. But a while back we had our bank account seized and they just took all the money and didn’t even tell us, and we’ve also been threatened with prison. Over how much, you ask? About $19,000. We’re looking, belatedly, into a hard-ass tax lawyer now; our monthly payments aren’t even making a dent; the principal keeps going up anyway with penalties and interest and fees.
We are where we are and we’re at the age we can’t just swan off to some other location; this is as good as it gets, probably. But youse guys out in the Fah West maybe need to do some serious thinking; at least consider getting away from those cities, which will be death traps.
I noticed a large closet off the main BR. I assume your stuff takes up 5% of the space. Why not demand equal space with the Mrs and store the gear there? (smirk)
Yes, that is the closet that I mentioned for my auxiliary food storage. It is 8 ft x 18 ft and I own the 12 foot along the external wall nearest the door. That is a five foot tall rack of which I get 12 out of 18 ft. Plus she owns the two racks on the end and the three racks (4 ft, 7 ft and 10 ft) on the internal wall. We haven’t quite figured out how to use those 10 ft tall racks yet.
I’m very happy with my 1/3 of the closet and have learned the hard way that complaints mean that I will lose more. After all, I am a man and do not need as much space as she does (yes, that is a quote).
We’re looking, belatedly, into a hard-ass tax lawyer now; our monthly payments aren’t even making a dent; the principal keeps going up anyway with penalties and interest and fees.
You’ve got to pay more so that Lois Lerner wannabees can get their bonuses. And I wish that I was joking.
And we are bankrupting ourselves for these kleptocracies in Gaza and Egypt. A pox on their houses, Israel may send them back into the stone ages while they dance and joyfully sing about making Israel kill their children.
“…I am a man and do not need as much space as she does…”
Ditto here. I own maybe a couple of pairs of dress shoes, couple pairs of sneakers, pair of hiking boots. Imelda’s cousin here has more shoes than Imelda, and they’re on all four floors of the house, sometimes piled in closets. Clothes? Don’t make me laugh. I hear from my littlest brother occasionally and it’s the same deal down there in MA. He wears worn-out chinos and t-shirts and wife and daughters are getting hair and nails done weekly and buying clothes on each excursion with enough shoes to sink the Titanic again. Oh, and the wife and daughters down there bring the dogs in for pedicures, too. Brother’s nails poke through his worn-out sneaks.
“… A pox on their houses, Israel may send them back into the stone ages…”
Sooner the better, with Eretz y’is-Rael right after them and good riddance to them all. How many years now and how many billions per year to BOTH Israel and Egypt, while our own economy tanks? How many billions to Pakistan, whose people hate our guts? A trillion or two that they admit to for the Sandbox and Suck wars; for what? Cui bono, baby, cui bono…
Taxes, o frabjous joy. I thought I’d be done with the IRS on June 16th this year, but my tax guy (unbeknownst to me) filed for an extension. So I have to wait on the champagne.
Actually, that will be my last (part year) as an American. Because I still have an account in the US that gets oil revenues (a whopping hundred bucks last year), I’m told I’ll have to file a non-resident return each year. However, at least I won’t have to keep telling a foreign government about all my local accounts, income and personal details. Hopefully it will be simple enough that I can go back to doing it myself.
I have never understood the women/clothes/make-up/nail-polish bit. I am so allergic to this crap that I usually didn’t get past the first date with women who were into this stuff. Kissing waxed lips, yuck. Don’t-smear-my-makeup, I-can’t-do-that-I-might-break-a-nail. And what is supposed to be erotic about high heels, I have never understood – give me bare feet or nice sandals any day.
I remember a first date with one woman: When I picked her up from her house, I saw her white poodle had lipstick stains all over its head. Really, the date was already over for me before it began…
Ok, I’m weird…but at least our closet space is pretty much 50-50, and our biggest problem is telling our jeans apart…
Yeah, there were some really impressive projects in that group. We managed to get an honorable mention.
I am blessed. Barbara has more clothes and shoes than I do, but not all that many more. And I’m on the low end of the curve even for a guy. She’s just not into girlie stuff. Come to think of it, none of the women I’ve ever been seriously involved with has been into girlie stuff.
I dunno what to tell ya, MrLynn, or MrAtoz out in LV, either; both of y’all are in pretty tough locations for any coming dystopia.
Our backup plan is still to run to Leavenworth, KS to our rental house there. The cold Winter will discourage most “southern” crimmigrants.
And what is supposed to be erotic about high heels,
If God is a WOMAN, you will certainly be going to Hell for that comment. I love the big clunky heels. You can hear them a mile away and hide. I don’t comment on my wife’s clothes. Especially if I want my remaining testicle. (she keeps the other one in a mason jar by the bed.)
Women’s fashion, the downfall of society. Go out to the malls, stores, strips, etc. 80% of the places are clothing stores. Who knew humans need so much clothing. I get the secondary closet in the bath area. You know, the one 1/4 the size of the walk in. I consider myself lucky. I also have to store my extra hobby equipment in there.
So, MrAtoz; is yer Leavenworth domicile secure, i.e. does someone check on it regularly, is it locked up tight, etc.? (oh wait, you mentioned an E-8 or somebody renting it, never mind). And can you begin, if you haven’t already, storing things there for dystopian survival purposes? Population and demographics there don’t seem too bad; is the house near a flood zone, i.e., the Missouri River? I’d also be concerned about it being a target of some kind in view of it’s being the “Army’s Intellectual Center.”
“…I love the big clunky heels.”
I don’t like the giant clunky ones; I think they look kinda stupid, like the way some guys wear those giant baseball caps sideways on their heads; look like idiots. But hey, stiletto heels are groovy. Can hear them coming, too, and either hide or whatever.
“I also have to store my extra hobby equipment in there.”
We don’t wanna ask what “hobby equipment” is in there, do we?
I think high heels look cool, but not the clunky platform ones. But I still don’t understand how women can remain upright while wearing them.
BTW, I do have an area in my home that I call the basement. My detached garage has a ten foot extension on it at the back (the building is 22 ft wide by 31 ft long). I call that extra space my basement. The problem is that it is hotter than blue blazes in there right now until November so I cannot store anything like food in there.
I’d use that extension for non-food storage, of course.
For food storage you have a challenge there. The only solution I can think of, and it’s not very good, but I’m working with limited and very damaged brain cells here, is to excavate a pit the size you need, lay a cement/concrete foundation around the sides of it and the floor, then surround that with a non-permeable membrane. Include a powerful enough sump pump that triggers on whatever stimulus.
But as I say, you need to think seriously about gettin’ outta Dodge, my friend.
But as I say, you need to think seriously about gettin’ outta Dodge, my friend.
Why? I am out here in the sticks. We live right inside the third ring around Houston where the population density is 500 people/mile^2. The inner ring of Houston is 30,000 people/mile^2, now that is scary.
We live at segment C on the Grand Parkway (the third ring around Houston, about 60 miles in diameter):
http://www.grandpky.com/segments/
I am trying to buy two acres of land and build a larger one story home on it. But we will be just three miles further out than we are now.
“I am out here in the sticks.”
Not by my reckoning; but you know what you’re doing.
Le deseo la mejor de la suerte y la fortuna como siempre
The question is, will we slide slowly or quickly into dystopia? I am betting slowly, very slowly, over ten to twenty years. And I think that dystopia in the USA will look a lot like the current United Kingdom. Or Japan. A bunch of old people and not many workers.
The short term possibility of a USA collapse is almost nil and would have to be caused by an EMP event, viral disease apocalypse, zombie apocalypse, energy failure or something along those lines. The USA may have a financial collapse but that is years in the future and may not affect the common man very much. And, the USA may get a financial cold but the rest of the world will get pneumonia.
That Renaissance party dude that you posted on facebook the other day is just another example of everything slowly going crazy. It looks to me like the Republican party is getting ready to split into about two parties or maybe even five. In fact, we may end up with coalition governments here in the USA in the not so distant future.
And, I have two bug out places to go. My parents live in Port Lavaca, 110 miles southwest of here. My brother has a weekend farm, 150 miles northwest of here. The biggest question is will I have enough gasoline, clear roads and no road bandits to get there?
You may be right, like Bob, about a slow slide into dystopia; but the longer that major corrections take to work or have a chance to work, the worse the eventual pain is going to be; and as you both have pointed out: no matter how slow and muddling-through it might be for us in this country, any one or more major catastrophic events could really accelerate things. In addition to the ones you just mentioned, a 9/11-plus attack somewhere and the resulting response from our regime; a major energy crisis and disruption of the food distribution infrastructure. The latter not hard to imagine with only a three-days-just-in-time inventory policy of almost all the major players. Or a Katrina-sized event combined with something else; the masses panic and the regime responds in its usual stupid and heavy-handed and incompetent fashion.
If you think you may have to bug out to either place out there at some point, even if only temporarily, you might want to look into alternate routes away from the major highways for starters and have at least one solid reliable vehicle set up to take you there at Mach-whatever speed.
In addition to the ones you just mentioned, a 9/11-plus attack somewhere and the resulting response from our regime; a major energy crisis and disruption of the food distribution infrastructure.
There will be no response from our current regime. Oh wait, yes there will be a response. They will sue the attackers in US Federal court in Manhattan.
Katrina-sized event combined with something else; the masses panic and the regime responds in its usual stupid and heavy-handed and incompetent fashion
Even though Katrina was immensely devastating to New Orleans, it was contained in a 100 mile radius. We are 200 miles away from NO and did not feel the hurricane at all. Getting a weather event to extend itself across several hundred miles is very unlikely. We did get 100,000 refugees in Houston of which 50,000 became permanent citizens. Of those, the Houston police department executed XXXXXX shot many of them in suicide by cop.
have at least one solid reliable vehicle set up to take you there at Mach-whatever speed
All three of our vehicles run very well even though the newest are 2005 models. Any bug out will be complicated by lack of gasoline and road bandits. I keep paper maps in our vehicles and a modicum of tools. I do not have bug out bags for the vehicles yet, one might argue that is needful.
“Any bug out will be complicated by lack of gasoline and road bandits.”
Auxiliary fuel tanks, jerry cans filled, etc., in advance of rolling bad events. Ditto water containers, and the usual bug-out equipment and food. For road bandits: AR-platform 5.56 and 7.62 semi-auto rifles with good open sights, good slings, and decent optics; your call on regular excellent scopes like Leupold’s, or the tactical optics of the Aimpoint T1 and Patrol type. Needless to say, extra mags and your choice of whichever handguns you know how to use real well.
“…the Houston police department executed XXXXXX shot many of them in suicide by cop.”
What does this mean? Outta-control felons on the loose in Houston after Katrina? “suicide by cop?” Never heard about it.
What does this mean? Outta-control felons on the loose in Houston after Katrina? “suicide by cop?” Never heard about it.
About 20 or 30 of the animals moved to the Houston from New Orleans and figured that they could continue their mindless rampages here. The Houston police shot and killed all of the dumb ones in the act of robbing / killing / raping someone else.
Don’t mess with Houston cops. They will kill you dead. Sugar Land’s cops are even more serious.
Excellent.
Always like to see outstanding police work where it still exists.
Another thing that I forgot about bugging out. All of these preppers recommend getting NVGs (night vision goggles) and only traveling during the night.
My former USMC son preferred monocular NVGs when they were on maneuvers or going to visit someone in the middle of the night in Iraq. One eye for the NVG and one eye free when the fire fight starts.
Boy, you guys are really into this.
To the extent the NVGs are necessary or even desirable, I agree with your son. But keep in mind the severe limitations of civilian-grade NVGs. Unless you spend a ton of money, you’re going to end up with early-gen stuff that’s better than nothing, but not much. And I’m not sure I agree with what you say is the consensus.
In the situation you envision, I’d rather be traveling during the day in convoy. A scout vehicle up front, with driver and a guy riding shotgun. About half a mile back (distance depending on local conditions) a security vehicle or two, packed with well-armed people. Then, 100 to 200 meters behind them, the soft targets. Then, a couple hundred meters behind that group of vehicles, the rear guard, another vehicle or two packed with well-armed people. And good comm (and comm discipline) throughout the convoy.
Not that I’d ever do this, because I don’t expect a zombie apocalypse, and if it does happen I intend to be far enough away already.
Unfortunately, the bug out scenario for most people is one vehicle with just a couple of people in it. Hide, scurry and run situation.
This prepper book talks about leaving Houston a month after the fall of the USA government due to a financial collapse. The biggest problem is the gangs (and Houston has a LOT of gangs) have taken over the truck stops outside of Houston up to 100 miles away:
http://www.amazon.com/Holding-Their-Own-Story-Survival/dp/061556965X/
This book talks about a self induced EMP event in the USA (by a government desperate to stay in power) and the guy walking home from Tallahassee to Orlando:
http://www.amazon.com/Going-Home-Novel-Survivalist-Series/dp/0142181277/
In both cases NVGs are crucial to the story lines. My son’s experience in the USMC is that when you own the night, you own everything. He talks about the Iraqi soldiers getting the backs together and just wasting entire mags of ammo in the night when they got scared. They called it the “Iraqi Death Blossom”.
Bob’s bug-out-in-a-hurry scenario is the ideal; Lynn’s is gonna be the reality, for the most part; i.e. a couple or family basically running in panic mode with a couple of firearms and hoping no one notices them. They will be easy pickings. We’ll see their stripped corpses roadside in large numbers. And if there’s a famine; they’ll end up slowly turning on homemade spits in urban slag-heap wastelands.
In a true dystopia, we’ll see, for example, the Houston gangs vying for territorial control against each other and against groups of renegade cops and soldiers, also vying among each other for that control and loot. The latter will have the better weapons…for a while. A quick perusal of the Roman Empire aftermath in Europe or central Europe between the wars and just after WWII gives a good idea, only ours will be jacked up by an order of magnitude via our huge numbers and massive numbers of firearms.
The global elites will dance jigs and high-five each other, chortling and guffawing in rabid glee.
Well, as one of my friends once said about surviving a nuclear detonation, the secret is to be far away when it goes off.
The other secret is to trust your instincts when they tell you that it’s time to move. It’s far too easy to ignore your instincts because moving would be inconvenient, disruptive, or whatever.
I keep saying this, but I’ll say it again: the US government isn’t going to collapse because of finances. It can print all the money it wants to, and it gets first advantage of spending it before that new money decreases the value of all money. The UK is in the same situation relative to most of the rest of Europe. The UK can print all the money it wants to. Eurozone countries can’t, which is why they are eventually going to collapse from the ongoing financial crisis. They are no longer actual countries in the usual sense. That requires having control of their own currencies, which they emphatically do not.
Dirt will help you survive The Big One too. So long as you’re not too close being in a windowless cellar with a few feet of dirt over the top and some supplies might be enough.
Well, if there are nuke detonations of one sort or another here, all bets are off. That raises the game just a tad.
I also do not think financial matters will bring down the gummint, per se; but we could be entering entirely new historical territory if the debt keeps ballooning into the 20s and 30s of trillions and they decide to default on it all, currency printing notwithstanding. A lot of currency was also printed in Germany between the wars and we all know those stories.
I just see a lot of things going wrong at once here, between the financial chicanery, the overseas wars, the burgeoning police state, crumbling infrastructure, a three-days-just-in-time food and goods inventory, and a sick, poisoned and evil society and culture.
It pays to Be Prepared, like the Boy Scouts used to say, dunno if they still do say that.
“…being in a windowless cellar with a few feet of dirt over the top and some supplies might be enough.”
And come out to what? If you’re anywhere near a target area it’s pointless. And even if not it may be pointless; remember how crummy the old Soviet missile system structure was? Which our intel geniuses knew all along? But still, I’d rather not be near any large city or military base.
Like Plattsburgh?
Yeah, but it depends on a lot of factors. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in Minnesota after WWIII because you’re down wind of hundreds of Minuteman silos in ND and MT, but if you’re in somewhere that didn’t have many strategic targets you’d just emerge and start farming.
Plattsburgh ain’t been a target for a real long time now; the bombers are long gone. It’s a mall and museum thing now. Closest target we got here might be the Burlington International Airport, ’cause it’s got the Green Mountain Boys there, a fighter (F-16) squadron, soon, we think, to be F-35’s. And that’s thirty miles south of here.
You can emerge and start farming but it will be small-scale subsistence farming for a very long time, if even that; any large-scale or commercial stuff will be gone. Not many peeps are prepared to start farming from scratch in circa-1900 conditions.
“Obama administration says the world’s servers are ours”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/obama-administration-says-the-worlds-servers-are-ours/
I’m sure that all the NSA wants to do is casually read Irish email. Why not? There are terrorists out there!
Yes, I know. Subsistence farming. I didn’t mean large scale stuff.
Even during the Cold War I’d rather have been 50 miles from Plattsburgh than 50 miles from Minneapolis.
“… casually read Irish email. Why not? There are terrorists out there!”
If their big concern is Irish terrorism they’re only about thirty years behind the curve, but that would be standard with these cretins.