07:51 – I laughed this morning when I read a page two article with the headline Tom Selleck accused of stealing water for California ranch. Until I read the article, I assumed that he was accused of taking more than his allotted share from a stream or river. No, as it turns out. Apparently, he has an avocado farm and is accused of pulling a tanker truck up to a fire hydrant, filling the truck, and driving off. Not just once, but regularly over the past two years. I’m guessing he may be forced to resign in disgrace as the police commissioner of New York City.
When the alarm went off as usual at 0645 this morning, I realized that that won’t be happening for much longer. Barbara’s last day at work is 30 September, and after that we’ll have no need for an alarm clock. It’ll be nice to sleep until we wake up naturally. Of course, Colin counts as part of “naturally”. Like all of our Border Collies, he decides when we’ve slept enough. I call them Border Roosters.
More kits to ship today, and I need to build a new batch of forensic science kits, which means I need to put together subassemblies today.
12:58 – Email from Jen. She’d mentioned before that she and her brother both wanted to devote additional resources to prepping, but both of their spouses were comfortable with what they’d already done. Jen’s husband said last evening that the more he read news articles, the more concerned he was getting about where things are heading. He asked her if she thought it’d be a good idea to spend some of the cash in their bank account on more tangible items, particularly firearms and ammunition and more particularly on tactical rifles for everyone. I replied that of course I thought that was a good idea, because hard assets are better than electronic assets in a bank account. It’s not like the price of guns and ammo is going down anytime soon. I recommend entry-level tactical rifles like the Ruger AR-556, along with a dozen spare OEM magazines and 1,000+ rounds for each. What do you folks think?
Some pictures of the wedding I attended while in Berlin.
http://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Graeber
Our first German exchange student who lived with my wife and I through the 2000-2001 school year finally had her church wedding. Her wedding was the primary reason for our recent trip to Germany.
I was not the photographer, just a guest.
Selleck stealing?
Was it like filling up a bottle from a drinking fountain in a public park?
Or, bypassing the credit card slot at a shopping center dispenser?
I love waking up naturally and going to bed when I feel tired. Unfortunately I almost never get to live that way except during a couple of stay-at-home vacations in the last couple of years. Getting up at 6:45am is late for me, my alarm goes off at 5:15am.
On the prepping front I bought 4 X 100W solar panels (easy fit on my south facing shed roof), charge controller, 2000W inverter, and 4 golf cart batteries. It’s all supposed to arrive by Saturday. I figure it will be a couple of weeks for me to find enough time to get it all installed and working.
Still a lot of details to work out (eagerly awaiting RBT’s book) but I’m well on the way to my set goal: 6 people to be able to survive in my house for 1 month with absolutely no services coming in during the dead of winter (worst case scenario).
I can’t do that wake up naturally thing. My hours always start creeping to the point I’m going to bed later and getting up later. It starts off with me going to bed around 11 PM and waking up around 7 AM. Then it’s 12AM and 8AM and then after several weeks it’s 4AM and 12PM. No matter how little sleep I get I seem to get a second wind about 2 hours before bedtime and I can stay up another 12 hours without much effort.
My nature was to sleep vampire hours until the work world intruded. I suspect I’d revert to that without external influences.
UPDATE!
Baltimore city police chief fired. Maybe the Calleguas Water District, Ventura County, CA could hire him to prevent water theft and arrest water thieves.
When I was a teenager in the Summer when school was out I typically would pass my mom in the hallway. She was getting up to get ready for work and I was heading to bed. It was a bit of an inside joke between us. She’d say, “Goodnight, Chad” and I’d reply, “Good Morning, Mom.”
My only unwritten rule for staying up late was to always be in bed before sunrise. No real reason. I think I just felt that if it was dark out when I went to bed (even if it was 4:30 AM) that I was still somewhat normal. 🙂
It has begun. Where is Sarah Connor when we need her?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/02/europe/germany-volkswagen-robot-kills-worker/index.html
No details, so we don’t know if it was an accident, manslaughter, or murder.
If you can go to bed earlier you can have the pleasure of kicking *Colin* out of bed… 🙂
Regarding ” Tom Selleck accused of stealing water for California ranch”: It is not uncommon for cities to grant licenses to use fire hydrant water. There is a benefit to the cities as fire hydrants have to be routinely flushed if they are not used regularly. I bet Selleck’s farm had a license and that he did not know that it had either expired or been rescinded. Let’s see if the truth comes out or the issue just goes away. Anyway, I’ve got bigger concerns like what to make for dinner tonight.
@Ray, another fine example of your photographer skills.
I have always had an internal alarm clock, which became a great asset when in the Submarine Service. Alarm clocks are not welcome on a submarine and the pollywog coming on board had better have listened to throw that alarm clock in the bay or they would get a tour of the inside of a torpedo tube and find out a novel use for a grease gun.
There was recently a post on Foxtrot Alpha that provides a view of life aboard a submarine:
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/confessions-of-a-u-s-navy-submarine-officer-1715113243
I do take issue with his dismissal of “Hunt for Red October” as I was there but the mission has changed since them and the fast attacks are no longer doing that (well, maybe…). He also was apparently not in during the rule of Admiral Rickover which would have added a whole new dimension to his story. Rickover treated officers like shit, but had great respect for his enlisted nukes (stories to come later).
I have a vague memory of a study involving people who lived in a mine, with no external time references.
They ended up on a 25 hour day which explains Chad’s one hour progression.
When I was able to sleep and work whenever I wanted to, I found the same thing-one hour progression until I ran into dawn, and then I’d reset.
I find it still happens if I’m not careful. I go to bed later and later. I’m currently up to 130. The kids wake me, so I end up with way too little sleep if I don’t make the effort to get in bed earlier.
In other news, if Jeb isn’t going to ‘kowtow’ to conservatives, who IS he going to kowtow to?
Boy the white house was quick to say, ‘NOT an attack.’ I remember all those times they responded quickly before any facts were in and they were COMPLETELY CORRECT, wait, no I don’t. They’ve been wrong about every one.
And by the way, who the bloody hell do these elected officials think they work for? They were elected and work for the CITIZENS of their districts. NOT illegal aliens. Citizens can vote. Illegal aliens can not. (I know, that’s what the Dems want with their opposition to voter id.) Every person in their districts should be reminding them who they actually were hired to represent and defend, and it isn’t the lawbreaking squatters.
I hope someone is making a list.
nick
Fred On Everything has a new post this morning:
http://fredoneverything.org/paybacks-a-bitch-rural-wisdom-and-the-gathering-storm/
Out of the closet for Trump 2016
Well, the earth’s rotation is slowing down. Without looking it up, I’m not sure how long ago the rotation period was 25 hours, but perhaps we’re programmed in DNA for a 25-hour day.
Did Fred just come out as an atheist?
The version I read about the accident at VW was that the worker was doing maintenance inside the safety cage when the machine energized, moved, and crushed him. No word on whether or not the lockouts / safety protocols were engaged properly. We had a case here where a local was quoted as saying “That damn gun ain’t never worked right.” as he was carted off to jail. Curiously, he was drunk & messed up on methamphetamine at the time. He’s now effectively serving life for manslaughter.
@Ray, another fine example of your photographer skills.
Thanks. Minimal equipment with me as I had to get it on an airplane along with my clothes. Little room to spare. Just a camera and a flash, no reflectors, radios for off camera flash, tripod, monopod, external shutter release, etc.
I have to wonder about the results from the hired photographer. He did not use any flash outdoors so I suspect raccoon eyes may be a problem. Indoors he used a Fong tupperware bowl, diffuses light nicely but tosses the light everywhere thus greatly reducing flash effectiveness requiring higher ISO and the resulting noise. No monopod or tripod either when used at the ceremony indoors with very low light and no flash allowed. The hired chap left at the start of the reception so he did not get any of the dancing pictures.
I processed all the pictures part of the night and the next morning using the Surface Pro which worked very well. Thing was a fast as my desktop in processing the images. However, I did forget to calibrate the display before I left thus requiring extensive use of the histogram in Lightroom. May never calibrate the display on the device and instead calibrate for an external monitor.
Copied all the images to a thumb drive and gave the images to the couple the next day. Spousal unit then used the Surface to select a couple hundred images to print, cropped them all to 4×6, copied to a thumb drive and printed them in Berlin the next morning (Monday). Self service kiosks that start printing the pictures immediately while you wait. Very nice setup.
Next couple of days the spousal unit worked on a memory book for the couple. Gave that to her brother when we passed through his town of Obersuhl so that he can pass the book on to his sister.
Technology is wonderful.
Fred summarizes everything talked about on this board for months. Something has got to give.
Trump 2016! “The Great White
HopeDopeTrump ™”About the alleged water theft, then a few hours ago another water main, dob 1929, popped in LA with massive flooding.
What is the description of the theft in comparison to the water main rupture in street terms: “drop in the bucket”?
And the bureaucrats spent $22,000 on a private investigator to finger Selleck, but they cannot possibly keep up with water main degradation.
I recommend entry-level tactical rifles like the Ruger AR-556, along with a dozen spare OEM magazines and 1,000+ rounds for each. What do you folks think?
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/11/jerrycatania/gun-review-ruger-ar-556/
Looks like a fine weapon. My Ruger Mini-14 stainless ranch rifle with the hardwood stock is the finest rifle that I know of so I advise that.
http://www.ruger.com/products/mini14RanchRifle/models.html
I advise 20,000 rounds of ammo per household. At least 2,000 rounds per weapon. In a pinch, ammo can and will be used as currency. Yup, I need more magazines according to your rule there.
20K rounds of ammo is fine, but most people will blanch at the price.
My goal is to keep one year’s living expenses in our checking account and convert the rest to hard assets.
I concur with Mr. McGuire for the ammo count per weapon. I’ve worked on building my War Reserve Materiel (WRM) for the last few years and have enjoyed the strategy discussions with my shooting buddies on what’s the final number. Lots of different approaches, but the bottom line of 2k per gun is a good start; anything more I’ll use for barter as required. And ditto for the magazines; would add a few spare parts (springs, pins, etc.) to round out the weapon’s life cycle support.
I enjoy reading everyone’s posts as they give insight into experiences outside of my own.
You need enough ammo to practice regularly.
Every class you take will need a couple of hundred rounds.
Couple boxes per month for basic range time with each weapon is probably more than you will actually use.
If SHTF, you need enough rounds to bring your co-defendants up to speed on your hardware.
You probably want a combat load in mags, and reload ready on strippers or some other reload method, for each rifle. IE about 210 rounds in mags.
If you think you’ll be rockin and rollin, you probably want more in mags and reloads.
nick
(my thought compiled from a number of sources. Keep in mind, no one in a gun fight ever said, “I wish I didn’t have all that ammo.”)
Added: ammo is conveniently packaged in small boxes. Although the cost per unit is higher, it makes it easy to buy one extra with every purchase, just like your canned goods and food. Get a good base, then keep adding to it.
20K rounds of ammo is fine, but most people will blanch at the price.
Yes. A lot of my ammo is at least ten years old. Some is 30 years old.
My goal is to keep one year’s living expenses in our checking account and convert the rest to hard assets.
This is great until the bank account money confiscation haircut in the USA. But, that is 10 to 20 years away. Land is always a good hard asset if you have the income to maintain it (taxes, mowing, road allotments, etc).
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/07/05/greece-will-never-run-out-of-money-it-will-just-print-more/
My ammo model is the little town in “One Second After” where they had to defend themselves against the army of 4,000??? savages coming up the interstate. Those with the ammo ended up using it for the common good.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765356864/
BTW, there is a sequel coming out, “One Year After”:
http://www.amazon.com/One-Year-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765376709/
I just wish I could buy grenades. They are highly effective close quarter clearing devices. I do remember my USMC son’s story of basic training where his fellow trainee threw his grenade out of the bunker and managed to hit the wall, bouncing back into the bunker. Apparently that is quite the heart stopping moment.
Grenade use is/was one of the arguments against women in combat. IIRC, the figure was something like “70% of female recruits couldn’t throw a hand grenade far enough to escape the blast.”
Commercial/military ammo has an excellent shelf life. I’ve shot 50+ year old stuff in automatic weapons with very, very few mis/hang-fires.
I remember when the military used to do grenade training with one trench. Now they use two closely-spaced trenches so that when a (nearly always) girl drops a live one everyone has another trench to jump into. If I were the rangemaster, I’d be scared to death of training people with small, weak hands to use small explosive devices that are too heavy/dense and large for them to handle safely.
Bug bomb plus road flare?
nick
Is this heresy?
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2010/12/yankee-gun-nuts/the-1911-sucks/
From the title, yes.
“My goal is to keep one year’s living expenses in our checking account and convert the rest to hard assets.”
It’s a minor quibble, but please not in your checking account. Just about anyone can suck money out of any US checking account, just using information off of any check you have ever written. Theoretically, the bank is liable. Theoretically, but if it comes to it, they have more lawyers than you do.
In my opinion, it’s better to keep your checking balance minimal. Keep larger amounts of cash in some other account, and transfer to your checking account as needed.
Good point.
I wish Swiss banks could still be trusted.
Me too…
There are so many dumb politicians in the news today I can’t even begin to list their dumb ass statements. I don’t even want to follow the news anymore. What a circus.
And another massive hack stealing info from OPM. Why doesn’t Obola have heads on pikes on that fancy new White House fence? Instead of drone attacks on douches in the ME, he should be droning the shit out these hackers wherever they are. China, Russia, who gives a shit.
Speaking of trusting banks…
Just got an ad in the mail from a megabank trying to lure us to do business with them. This bank is prepared to give us $500 to be customers of theirs. They’ll give us $300 to open a checking account if we set up a direct deposit to the account. They’ll also give us $200 to open a savings account if we deposit $15,000 and leave it there for 90 days.
Hmmm, they REALLY want your money. Wonder if they expect to need it?
nick
I was wondering the same thing. I was so curious I looked up their rating at Bankrate.com, and found they get four or five stars.
Interestingly enough, this bank bought the bank that bought the bank where I opened my first checking account 33 years ago.
I got one of those $500.00 offers in the mail today. Mine is from Chase. IMHO and my dear departed Dad’s learned opinion, don’t trust Chase with a penny.
FWIW Bankrate.com’s ratings are incestuous as well as being influenced by politics.
“End of US oversight role ‘strengthens’ Internet”
http://news.yahoo.com/end-us-oversight-role-strengthens-internet-063353906.html
I’m totally sure that some faceless bureaucrat in Geneva will represent my internet interests fairly and without bias.
Right.
And Plastic-Face Pelosi has directly threatened those demented rayciss fossils in the country who cling bitterly to their religion, guns and Confederate flag;
http://dcwhispers.com/unhinged-nancy-pelosi-said-to-promise-we-will-hang-them-by-that-confederate-flag/#oRQAEbAfF4AcE4JL.01
Y’all get it yet? These people ain’t playing. Given the power, they WOULD round us up and hang us. They haven’t got the power yet but they sure are trying hard.
Ima gon see if that store up the road still has some of them flags for sale tomorrow.
The Colt LE6920 is the gold standard in entry-level AR-15s. They can be had for $800 – $850 plus fees with careful shopping, and might be in stock at your local Wal-Mart. Of course, Wal-Mart is just as likely to have a Bushmaster and despite appearances, they are NOT “the same thing” as the Colt and should not be considered an acceptable substitute.
I’d also suggest a good basic course on running the AR-15 for Jen and her husband.
A dozen spare magazines is about the minimum I’d consider acceptable. They’re wear items and have a definite lifespan. They’re also cheap right now, so why not stock up? The next time there’s a ban scare, their cost will triple at the very least.
Ammo- that’s a tough call. 1000 rounds/rifle sounds like a lot to many people, but if you’re going to the range regularly and practicing, it really isn’t. I don’t think I’m willing to suggest a number there, except to say at least 1000 rounds is a good start.
They also should buy some quality spare parts for the rifles. Spare bolt carrier groups, gas rings, firing pins, extractor springs, lower parts kits, the list goes on. Finally, a good red dot optic, but a good class should cover that aspect better than a short post on the Internet.
“The elites who own America only respect – also known as “fear” – cultures clutching their beliefs fervently enough to kill, destroy and\or disrupt the normal social order to advance them. Other, less dogmatic people, are nothing more than serfs – to be brushed aside with no fear of complications or retaliation. Surface nuisances to be disregarded and laughed at within the ranks of “proper company.”
http://www.dethguild.com/respect-is-dispensed-at-the-business-end-of-a-sword/
Looks like Merkel is crumbling under pressure from the EC to make concessions. Will Greece get bailed? Will ‘Murka get stuck with billions? Will Trump come to the rescue when elected PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?
Trump 2016-20-24 “WWTD ™ ” “What Would Trump Do ™ “
Looks like she already caved to the Greeks for some reason; also looks like we won’t have the Chinese currency superseding the dollar anytime soon, either.
And this is within hours/days of the various outages yesterday at our own stock market, the WSJ web site and others, and United Airlines, along with 19-20 million Fed personnel records at large now thanks to “hackers” from somewhere.
None of this is connected at all, however, and there is nothing to see here, citizen, so move along now…move along…
And President-Elect-in-all-but-name, haha, Trump, now leads the pack of RINO clowns who keep spilling from that tiny circus car. While Rodham looks worse and worse by the hour yet it won’t matter a whit.
Mixed feelings about ICANN. On the one hand, the US government’s “oversight” seems to be of the type “we can do whatever we want”. I don’t mind reducing the power of a government with this mindset.
On the other hand, to whom will ICANN now answer? Whose interests will they serve? Pournelle’s Iron Law makes this entirely clear: they will do whatever they can to enhance the power and scope of their own organization. If this coincides with the interests of internet users, it will only be by accident.
I haven’t fired an AR in a long, long time. Do you have specific recommendations on magazine brands to buy (or to avoid)? My 70’s-era Mini-14, before I accidentally lost it, was very picky about magazines. The OEM ones all worked reliably, but most others did not, including well-known brands.
Just got an ad in the mail from a megabank trying to lure us to do business with them. This bank is prepared to give us $500 to be customers of theirs. They’ll give us $300 to open a checking account if we set up a direct deposit to the account. They’ll also give us $200 to open a savings account if we deposit $15,000 and leave it there for 90 days.
FWIW, opening a checking account will usually result in an inquiry against your credit report – most banks will do a ‘soft’ pull but occasionally some will do a ‘hard’ pull.
“… Do you have specific recommendations on magazine brands to buy…”
For most ARs, Magpul.
And what Mr. Mark said above, right on the money.
For total noobs on the rifles, I’d also recommend starting with a local Project Appleseed weekend; the first day on the .22LR and the second either with that or your AR.
From there, check out Max Velocity’s trainings down in the great state of West Virginia.
That’s what I buy for Barbara’s Mini-14, and I notice that Ruger supplies them with the AR-556, so I figured they were a good choice.
“… Do you have specific recommendations on magazine brands to buy…”
I’m split about 50/50 between polymer and GI (aluminum) mags. On the polymer, it’s all Magpul PMAG. For the GI mags, I own D&H with Magpul anti-tilt followers, usually purchased from Bravo Company http://www.bravocompanyusa.com/AR15-magazines-s/104.htm. Colt/NHMTG/Okay Industries is more than acceptable. Brownells is supposed to be good to go. I would not buy the Surefire 60 or 100 round magazines, there are too many reports of unreliability with them.
I would suggest picking up a few 20 round mags also. 30 rounders are the norm, but every now and then you might encounter a situation where a little shorter magazine comes in handy.
I have no experience at all with the Mini-14, but when I was thinking about buying one, I read the same thing about using OEM Ruger mags only.