07:46 – For some reason, there’s been a flood of orders for forensic science kits. Our inventory of them is now -1, with (so far) one outstanding order for a kit that I don’t have available to ship. So today I’m building another batch of forensic kits.
Most of my time this week was devoted to working on science kit stuff, as will be true for the next month to six weeks, but here’s what I did to prep this week:
- I spent a lot of time on relocation issues. We’re gradually getting all our ducks lined up. We’ll probably end up making at least a couple more trips up to look at homes, but it’s very possible we could find a suitable one on our next trip. If so, we’ll need to make the decision to make an offer versus keep looking. Actually, we may do both pending acceptance of our offer. Even though we plan to pay cash for the house, it’ll probably take 45 days or so from getting a house under contract to actually closing on it. I also need to find a good attorney up there, ideally one who can do the closing and also handle our business needs.
- I ordered a few #10 cans of Augason Farms long-term storage food, including one can each of dehydrated potato dices (just to try), beef-flavor TVP, bacon-flavor TVP, and chicken-flavor TVP.
- I read the first book in Glen Tate’s 299 Days series, The Preparation. Tate, like Bracken and Konkoly and unlike most other so-called authors in the PA genre, is a reasonably competent writer. Yeah, he needs an editor, as all of them do, and there are occasional howlers (repel down a cliff), but at least the first volume is readable. Tate is unabashedly conservative/libertarian, which drives the prog reviewers on Amazon to froth at the mouth. The real downside is that the price of these books is outrageous. There are ten in the series, and most of them are priced at $9.95 for the Kindle. I suspect a lot of people just torrent them.
- I read 100-day Pantry: 100 Quick and Easy Gourmet Meals. “Gourmet” is a gross exaggeration. This book is a collection of recipes that use only shelf-stable foods–mostly canned soups, pasta, canned meats and vegetables, a basic set of spices, and so on–to assemble edible meals as quickly and easily as possible, with minimal actual cooking. If you’re not already experienced at cooking from scratch this is an excellent resource for using the stuff you’ve stored.
So, what precisely did you do to prepare this week? Tell me about it in the comments.
08:55 – Another email from Jen. When her husband got home from work yesterday, he told her about a conversation he’d had over lunch with a guy they shoot sporting clays with. It’s spreading. The other guy remarked that he and his wife were becoming very concerned about social unrest in the cities, and thought maybe it’d be a good idea to keep a bit of extra food and other supplies on hand. Jen’s husband said that he and Jen were also worried, and suggested that the other guy not put it off, but make a Costco run or two to get stocked up on canned foods and other supplies. He also invited the guy and his wife over to their place for a cookout next weekend, where he plans to feel them out to see how serious they are about prepping.
“If so, we’ll need to make the decision to make an offer versus keep looking. Actually, we may do both pending acceptance of our offer.”
What sort of pre-purchase inspections will you be ordering when you find the house you like? I had pest and structural inspections and they both more than paid for themselves.
We’ll get a general home inspection as well as termite inspection. That’s out of our pocket, so we’ll have to be serious about a house before we make an offer. Actually, we have 30 days after making an offer to withdraw it with no penalty. We can withdraw for any reason or for no reason at all.
Most of those pantry cookbooks are pretty much all the same when it comes to recipes: Starch (rice/pasta) + One or more of the following: Canned Soup/Canned Veggies/Meat + Common Spices
I’m not sure how you turn that into an entire book and sell it.
You’re lucky to have 30 days. When I bought my house last year I had two days. I was going to withdraw my offer if I couldn’t get termite and structural reports. One of my nephews is a structural engineer so I got him to have a look too. Some minor faults were found, and the vendors and I negotiated a $3k reduction in price.
@RBT, couple of thoughts…
If you do find a nice property, you might want to look it up on an older map. I discovered accidentally that a friend’s new home was built on top of landfill by looking on an old map. That likely isn’t an issue for you, but there might be an abandoned landfill right next door. An older map can show “County Refuse Pit” or equivalent. There is a nice lot in my parents town that no one has built on and if you didn’t know it was a dump 50 years ago, you might think it was a good home site. It happens in the country when someone has a sand mine or digs a hole for some reason, then fills it in and covers it over. Couple decades go by and it just looks like scrub land.
Have the water tested.
Use an online tool to see how much sun it will get, both for potential solar, and for gardening. There are specific tools, but sketchup will show you shadows and sun for anywhere at any time of year. Just build a model home (simple box is fine) and geolocate it. Then you can turn on sunlight. I wouldn’t bother if I was just moving, but this is your long term “make it thru the problem times” retreat.
Depending on the state, “home inspectors” might have no qualifications at all. Mike Holmes built a multi-season TV show just fixing problems a home inspector missed. Getting a local remodeling contractor to go thru it might be a good idea. He will know the problems that local homes have under the skin. Most home inspectors won’t look past the surface, or even lift a carpet or move a drapery.
Paying a plumber to video scope the drains and any inaccessible plumbing can save $1000s down the road.
Be wary of any recent remodeling or evidence that a ‘flipper’ owned the home. There is usually a bunch of hidden problems or poorly done work concealed behind new finishes. If you can see problems, think about what sort of thing probably got hidden.
Even if you do find issues, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy, just that you will have more work to do and money to spend.
nick
It’s really intended for people whose only cooking experience is stuff like sticking a frozen pizza or store-bought casserole in the oven or heating up a can of ravioli. A lot of my readers are in that group, many of them TINKs. That group generally has more money than time, so they eat a lot of fresh and frozen foods, packaged meals, and take-out.
Barbara and I are in that group. Neither of us has cooked from scratch since we met, although I used to cook and bake quite a bit, as well as stuff like making pasta and sauces from scratch.
A book like this is useful for people like that, who have shelves piled with bulk staples and canned goods, but little or no experience with combining them into reasonably good tasting meals.
@nick
Thanks. Good advice.
I suppose it depends on personal preference, but I recommend to friends either a very new house (shouldn’t have any problems), or else an older house that hasn’t been renovated in a very long time (problems will probably be apparent). The first is for people who basically just want to move in. The second is less expensive, but requires either a lot of DIY or investment in remodelling.
The one thing to absolutely avoid is a house that someone built themselves. I’ve seen amateur-built houses where you just don’t understand how they ever passed inspection. Maybe they didn’t. I remember one I look at in New Hampshire – the basement ceiling looked kinda like this. Amateurs always run out of money and cut corners.
But even the professionals do crappy work on their own houses. I have a cousin who is a general contractor. He can do absolutely beautiful work, but on his own house he used leftover material from his real jobs and cut some really unpleasant corners. My favorite were the beams supporting the second floor of the part of the house. Huge, thick, beautiful wooden beams, that were exposed on the ceiling of the ground floor. Clearly the kind of stuff that is joined by mortise and tenon…um…I love good woodwork, so I looked. Nope. Not even a decent steel brace. Just one beam butted up against another, held together with a a dozen nails driven in diagonally through the corner edge. Shudder.
You are welcome. Please benefit from my experiences!
WRT the way things are now. Please watch this short video of an armed robbery yesterday, less than 2 miles from my house. Maybe a lot less, but OPSEC you know….
http://www.click2houston.com/news/video-police-looking-for-3-gunmen-who-robbed-gas-station-store/34084326
Some things to think about:
Those guys had a plan.
You see the shoppers who walked into it? If you are CHL, what is your reaction? What is the law in your state? Are you justified to shoot given what you see in the video? Is it wise?
It’s FAST and then they are gone.
DAYLIGHT! 9:30AM how many of us would expect that on our way to work or the store? At midnight, sure, you are extra careful, but at 930am?
Video is useless to identify the perps. You need a camera at eyelevel facing directly at where they are, like one of these:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1120511&gclid=Cj0KEQjw2v2sBRCazKGu3tSFz64BEiQAKIE1hjb8aawdEsGuOoQCN3aEt5yM-BFRtGsh9Hu9Pxuzgb8aAh_28P8HAQ&is=REG&Q=&A=details
Nick
edit: not yesterday, that’s what I get for reading the title my wife puts on the email, still up the road from my house.
Also, if you are CHL and the armed man grabs you as you enter and throws you to the ground, DO YOU EVEN SEE THE OTHER TWO GUYS when you decide to act? And how f’d are you then…
My experience with home inspectors has not been that positive. You need to do an additional inspection yourself.
Remove several outlet and switch plates to determine the how the wiring is done. Remove the breaker panel so you can see the wiring in the panel. Pull the A/C filter and look in the wall return. Plug in a wiring polarity and ground detector and check an outlet in every room. Get the type of tester that will pop GFCI’s and use that in the bathroom and kitchen.
Pop some A/C supply grills and look in the duct work. Go up in the attic yourself with a strong flashlight to check the insulation. Turn the light off to see if there are any light leaks. If there is a basement get some cheap Tyvec coveralls from Home Depot and journey a few feet under there yourself.
When I moved to Oak Ridge I hired my own inspector by asking a couple of others in the area. As bad luck would have it he was a personal friend of the realtor listing the house and the owners. His glowing inspection report was nothing but fraud. Due to some other issues I had I reported the real estate agent to the state, such as the survey map she presented being altered. She lost her license because I apparently was not the only one she shafted.
There is not a day goes buy that there is not at least some nugget of good information/advice in RBT’s Daynotes, best few minutes of my day and the greatest motley crew of contributors/followers.
Cooking is rapidly becoming a lost art. While I learned to hunt from my Grandfather and Uncles, my Grandmother and Mother taught me how to clean fish and prepare game, grow a garden and can. Even so, not all the kids of the 50s learned how to cook, my Wife couldn’t boil hot dogs, she married me because I could cook. She is great at sewing, quilting, knitting, and crocheting though.
Today kids are taught to pull it out of the refrigerator or freezer and nuke it. We have gotten use to every vegetable and fruit being available all year long and have forgotten what real fresh in-season fruits and vegetables taste like. Yes, gardening is a lot of work, but the taste of a real ripe tomato picked in the early morning cannot be beat (about half of my cherry tomatoes don’t make it into the house).
Keep your powder dry and “Out of the Closet for Trump 2016™”
“Don’t Equate Same-Sex Marriage Decision with National Concealed Carry Reciprocity”
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20150705/don-t-equate-same-sex-marriage-decision-with-national-concealed-carry-reciprocity
“On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, which concerned whether same-sex marriage is a right protected by the U.S. Constitution. Although the case did not address the right to bear arms, some pro-gun advocates began debating whether the Court’s reasoning and analysis had application to national concealed carry licensing reciprocity. ”
Basically, some people have more rights than others. We are on a very slippery slope here in the USA.
I second this. Flippers are the devil. They’re cosmetic experts in hiding problems with homes using the cheapest materials they can get their hands on. You can probably check property tax records (many are online these days) and see if the house was ever owned by someone for just a couple of months and then sold for significantly more than it was purchased for.
More good advice, thanks.
Do you think my cheap little Cree Ultrafire will do, or should I spring for a big Fenix or Streamlight? 😉
Incidentally, speaking of LED lights, last night I decided to compare the light from the two Mighty Bright book lights I have. The older one was noticeably cooler than the newer one. Pointing them at a piece of white paper (without UV brighteners), the older one had a slight bluish cast and the newer a slight yellowish cast. The Ultrafire was about halfway between them, and looked pure white.
Remove the breaker panel so you can see the wiring in the panel.
Absolute necessity.
I had two house inspections where the breaker panel wasn’t pulled. I asked them why, “not our job” I then *angrily* pushed their own contract in their face which said they would, and made them do it. Both panels were wired wrong. This was a well know company in Vegas. Condos especially have breaker panel problems from DIY morons. They just stick a wire into an existing breaker to push power out to a deck.
I got used to the ins and outs of house inspection during 13+ household moves in the Army.
And a question from Dana Loesch:
Businesses must “follow the law” and bake a cake but cities can ignore law and be “sanctuaries” for those who enter illegally?
Indeed.
Another tip on house buying.
Make sure the heating and/or cooling unit is in warranty. If not, buy a 1 year plan and make sure you know how old the existing unit is. “Contractor” grade units usually last 10 years tops. Most of the homes we looked at when moving to San Antonio had shitty or inadequate A/C units for the weather there.
A strong variable intensity flashlight is best for checking a home yourself. I like the Ultrafire, but it is not strong enough to light up an attic or basement enough. Close up stuff, yes.
I’ve not had good experience with MagLite, but I decided to give them one more try, so I just ordered a 3-D cell light on Amazon. I suppose I could have ordered an equivalent Streamlight for $200 give or take, but I suspect the MagLite will be good enough for looking in attics and basements.
ok, here’s a video of an armed home invasion/double murder. Only the entry is shown and there is no indication the homeowners had the means to defend themselves or not.
Look to your own security condition and preps. If SHTF, it won’t just be a couple of guys in shorts and slippers.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3155521/Young-parents-shot-dead-masked-intruders-broke-home-murdered-CHILDREN-horror-caught-video.html
Notes:
The murderers are not ‘tacticool’, but instead look like they just got out of bed.
They are improvising. They don’t even have gloves.
They used a rock or brick that was laying around to break the door.
If the bedroom is away from the front door, they had about 15 seconds warning. Can you get your weapon in 15 seconds?
They had an alarm, but the snarky truism that when seconds count the cops are minutes away proved true.
I don’t know how they had their alarm configured, but at a minimum the control panel was buzzing and yet the murderers entered anyway.
The murderers got away before the cops got there.
Some thoughts, purely my own.
Lots of junk laying around the entry, lots of concealment.
There is more to this story but we probably won’t hear it. It looks like a targeted killing to me.
Anti-break film on door and surrounding windows would help against this attack.
Once again, camera placement precludes getting facial shots.
Having another door between them would have given more time to react. Close your hallway and bedroom doors.
Motion sensor for the porch or chime on gate if this is a courtyard would give more time to react.
Alarm should be set to ‘instant’ on glass break or entry when armed at night.
We’ll need to extend our perimeter as things get ugly. Waiting for the glass to break or the front door to open is TOO LATE.
nick
My house in Canberra had some of the cupboards and such done by the previous owner, and it showed. The problems were largely cosmetic, all the electrical work was fine, but it looked tacky. Eventually had the kitchen replaced, looked much better afterwards.
Just in time Lifehacker.com comes along with a post relevant to some of today’s discussion:
http://lifehacker.com/the-hidden-home-improvement-disasters-that-can-wreck-yo-1716991073
When we bought our home in 1979 it was just 3-years old. Pretty well built. The original owner owned an HVAC company. The home was “inspected” and passed with a 100% score. Well the original owner was a licensed electrician and did some “upgrades” in the house. He also installed the HVAC system. To make a long story short, in the electrical area he mixed copper and aluminum wire, the A/C coolant lines had numerous welds in their 20-foot length and no insulation, the HVAC plenum was made of insulation board cut to make a plenum and held together with duct tape all covered with aluminum foil to hide the work, the ducts to each room were just shoved into this plenum.
I filed a suit with the inspector and the original owner and they settled out of court for the full cost of correction plus a sum for time and aggravation. I had a good lawyer who also found the Realtor in collusion, the Realtor lost their license. The lawyer has since gone on to be a WA State Supreme Court Judge, IMHO the only Conservative on the Court (he still keeps my will/living trust up-to-date).
Do you think my cheap little Cree Ultrafire will do, or should I spring for a big Fenix or Streamlight?
Duct tape four Cree Ultrafires together and use that.
BTW, I still prefer the Coast 220 lumen single AA flashlight for throwaway light. It also comes in a nice box for Christmas gifts.
http://www.amazon.com/Coast-HP1-Focusing-LED-Flashlight/dp/B00IEMUOWU/
In the future, torture will be weird:
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2015-07-10
“he cut off my head and grafted it to a headless monkey”
Do you think my cheap little Cree Ultrafire will do
Snicker. Yeh, It will do unless the attic is 25,000 SQ FT.
In addition to a pro inspector and a termite check, you will want to do a radon check. It looks like that area in NC is in a radon check area for the state. It can make selling the house a problem later on.
In Texas, many of the inspectors are PEs and we’ve always used one that was. That way they are on the hook for major items they missed. I also went to the house with the inspector. In all cases, he had a plug tester that checked voltage and grounding. I had one thing they didn’t – a phone circuit tester. Put tone at the demarc and you can see if the phone circuits work. He (Found a few plugs that were 3 prong that weren’t grounded on our latest house. got them grounded when we did some renovations before moving in.)
A quick termite check can be made if you look in the breaker box. IIRC, it’s required to put a notice in the breaker box if the house has been treated for termites.
Also, be damn sure you can get high speed internet. If I had to depend on the telco where I live, I’d be limited to low speed DSL due to the line length, and couldn’t get Uverse until recently. (It appears they are doing fiber to the home right now. I may look into it.)
buy a 1 year plan
Good luck with that. Most home warranties simply refuse to pay to replace and will patch a system together for the duration of the warranty regardless of the number of service calls.
I had two house inspections where the breaker panel wasn’t pulled.
The inspection report I had said the panel was opened and all the wiring was fine. Assholes lied. When I went to add a breaker and pulled the panel I found there was significant rust in the panel. So much so that I had the panel replaced including all the breakers.
In my son’s house his inspection report said the electrical was in excellent shape, no issue. Well the wiring was actually fairly good. But all the outlets and switches were back stab connections which I absolutely despise. So on one of the work weekends before he moved, while the interior was being painted, I replaced every receptacle and light switch in the house with Leviton appliances with real screws and clamp plates.
I also replaced all the lights in the ceilings with ceiling fans. The house had old square lights in the middle of each room. Found a couple of them wired completely wrong (neutral and hot reversed, no ground) so I reworked the wiring while I was doing the installation of the fans.
I also verified all the outlets were properly grounded and polarity was correct after doing the installation. Was not an expensive project, only a couple hundred dollars, worth the cost to get rid of back stab devices. Only got shocked once when someone activated the wrong breaker.
I also had to crawl under his house to install cable in four of the rooms. I will revisit that to replace the coax outlet plates with coax and Ethernet plates. In his work room where his computer is located I will put in a six port Ethernet plate which he can then use to run wires to his switch.
I also replaced the sink, rebuilt both toilets, added a light in the bathroom, rewired to put the exhaust fan on separate switch.
Several people have recommended the three-packs of Feit three C-cell flashlights that Costco sells for $45 per set, so I just ordered a three-pack for $48 including shipping. They’re rated at 500 lumens, so I’m guessing they’ll be a little brighter than the single AA-cell Cree Ultrafires. If so, I may need to wear sunglasses when I’m using them.
There is not a day goes buy that there is not at least some nugget of good information/advice in RBT’s Daynotes, best few minutes of my day and the greatest motley crew of contributors/followers.
Agree 100% – so in terms of being prepared, any thoughts on a backup forum distinct from this one that could be utilized for this group to continue to communicate should some SHTF scenario put Bob’s host out of commission? A quick search turned up something like this: https://www.proboards.com/
I agree completely. Which reminds me that someone posted links a few days ago to a couple of garden planning web sites. I need to go hunting for those links, but I have a question. One of those sites featured plans for several pre-arranged vegetable garden plans and the ability to do your own plans. One of those plans was no weeding or little upkeep required. Would such a plan also tend to be good for inexperienced gardeners?
My house in Canberra never had termites as far as I’m aware. Now I’m in Adelaide, the termite capital of Australia. The place I bought had had termites, and I got a bit off the price for that. If it had had a current problem I would have run for my life. (My parents place had them at least twice, my sister’s at least once and a nephew had them. If someone denies ever having had them in Adelaide you should automatically be suspicious.)
I’m guessing that Australian termites are gigantic and deadly poisonous to people…
I’m guessing that Australian termites are gigantic and deadly poisonous to people…
No, but the ants are.
@Dave B. – here is the post you are looking for:
http://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2015/07/02/thursday-2-july-2015/#comment-86055
Both of the sites I linked are initially intended for the inexperienced gardener, but the experienced gardener can learn a few things too.
Prepping this week:
I wanted to play around with a solar power system and went looking for CHEAP. I found this one at Harbor Freight for $189. 100% made in China. It has some good reviews on line, in stock in Vegas, so what the hey. People apparently like this one for their shack out in the boonies. I went over and got one. I asked one of the clerks how many they sell, she said about 3 a week. Someone had returned one and she sold it to me for 50% off with a full 30-day return. They are only 45W, but I bought the matching combiner that hooks up to 8 panels and then to the controller. The 50% off one works fine and 1 separate 15W panel is $70 alone so I think I made out. I bought a matching 12V 35A battery and it is happily charging. The controller is very cheap, but has ciggie outlets you can stick a car inverter in, 6V, 3v plugs with adapter cable, two mini cfl bulbs (cable and it’s own plug). I have a 1000W pure sine inverter, so I connected it to the battery and it works fine. I’m currently charging all my Eneloop Pro AA/AAA’s. The charger I have for the Loops unplugs the A/C and plugs right into the 3V hole on the controller. Charging away fine. Next I’ll try charging one of the Pofung batteries. I think I’ll have to use the inverter for that charger.
On the ongoing FireFox saga, I finally got around to downloading Flash yesterday and wished that I had not. My smoothly running FireFox became jerky and I even had a script lockup so bad that I had to kill FireFox from the Task Manager.
So, Flash is still bad, at least for me. I used the add-ons manager and turned Flash from “always activate” to “ask to activate”.
Other than research and reading, I’ve done jack for prep this week, thanks to our $ running out prior to the next check/s, multiple VA appointments/trips, and the hassle of the other day’s nightmarish trip to the Montreal airport. But we’ve kept up the raised beds, created another one, and I’m organizing tools and other devices in strategic locations.
“Basically, some people have more rights than others. We are on a very slippery slope here in the USA.”
No chit, homes; this has been going on a real long time. It’s not a slippery slope at this point; we’re hanging on by our fingernails to the cliff-edge. Field Marshal Rodham will waddle along shortly to stomp on them.
If Field Marshal Rodham and The Mighty Trump run together, should they be called:
Trumpham ™
or
Rodhump ™
I approve of that acronym rather than DINKs. TINKs can expand to “Three…” just as well as to “Two…”, and I plan on getting myself another wife just as soon as I can find a woman who will nag me the rest of the way to death. Finding someone like that should take, what, about three and a half minutes?
I eat barely anything that I don’t cook from scratch. Partly it’s because I enjoy it, partly it’s because this way I know what’s in it. Or rather, I know what’s not in it.
@Bob, have you thought about socialization in your new place? For instance, you seem to know many of your neighbors via walking Colin. Will you have close neighbors in the new place that you can meet while walking Colin?
BTW, I have not ever seen TINK used before, at least to my recollection which seems to be about the last five minutes nowadays. I used to see DINK quite often.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tink&defid=193301
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dink
During my yoot back in junior h.s., we fashioned another word, created from “dork” and “dink,” as in “doink.”
“Hey kid, you’re a doink.”
Back in the day when I was in the Navy, “dink” meant a person behind in their quals. There were certain unpleasant “benefits” of being “dink” one of which was helping the cook.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dink&defid=6429191
Ain’t the Interwebs fun 😉
@Lynn McGuire
No idea where we’ll be yet. We could buy a house in the middle of town or one with some acreage further out in the country.
Yes, I can force myself to be sociable when necessary.
“Yes, I can force myself to be sociable when necessary.”
Ditto. My excuse is the PTSD and general pretensions to geek-hood.
Whether the sticks or an actual ‘hood, it would be very wise to socialize, without, of course, coming on too strong and too fast. Easiest thing is to just help somebody or offer help. Be hard-working, quiet, sober but with a sense of hew-muh, inquire as to the next Roman Catholic RCIA class…just kidding. Probably not a common option around there, anyway.
It takes time to do this sort of thing in the country, though; we’re friendly with our closest neighbors here but not to the point of hanging out with each other. But we’ve helped each other out a few times and that counts for a LOT, even with neighbors who loathe each other; up here you might gotta get pulled out of a ditch or need a bucket brigade for a barn fire until the volunteers arrive with their big rigs.
Looks like a typical mid-July weekend ahead; high 70s into mid-80s and kinda humid, with a light breeze, maybe, and always a chance of a late afternoon t-storm. Mrs. OFD is off to Michigan on Sunday. I’m just about at my last week of Cognitive Processing Therapy with the VA, 12 weeks in all, and things are better now than they used to be. And we’re getting help to the kids coming back now, which wasn’t an option for us back in the day.
@nick, you might like this, “Police identify motel intruder shot by ex-CNN reporter”:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/04/robber-killed-by-former-cnn-journalist-in-attempted-robbery-reportedly/
The dude took three bullets to the chest though but he did keep his wife safe. And dog.
“Is a mini ICE AGE on the way? Scientists warn the sun will ‘go to sleep’ in 2030 and could cause temperatures to plummet”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3156594/Is-mini-ICE-AGE-way-Scientists-warn-sun-sleep-2020-cause-temperatures-plummet.html
You may want to start buying your long underwear soon.
@Lynn,
yep, not a rocket scientist, she offered to get the case which might have something in it for the robber, and robber let her hand it to her hubby. ‘Course the robber got what was coming to him sooner or later.
And a good man gets shot 3 times because of the catch and release policy.
Takeaways:
motels are not a good place to let your guard down.
(there have been a bunch of ‘come up behind and push you into a place’ robberies lately, be on your guard)
gun not on your person might be hard to get to when needed.
even being naked doesn’t mean you are defenseless.
sometimes you can shoot a guy 3 times and he still will kill you back.
nick
Old nooz.
The robber couldn’t have picked a worse couple to attack.
To what would the warmists try to attribute to a mini-ice-age? Oh never mind, I already know–the Repubs, and the Twelve Years of Reagan-Bush. Or privileged straight white males, still clinging bitterly to their guns and religion.
The robber couldn’t have picked a worse couple to attack.
That is what bothers me. I wonder how many people that this moron had robbed before? Killed?
I stay at La Quintas / Holiday Inn Express nowadays. Inside doors. Outside doors are too easy to get attacked at. However, if I have the dog with us then there is just about one choice only.
The LE authorities should have released that info/intel to the public immediately. That they did not, and generally do not, speaketh volumes, doth it not?
As for hotel/motel stays, there are methods and devices available to travelers that will either delay or actually prevent invasions/break-ins such as that one. I recommend looking into that before your next travels of that nature. Bad guys like that one will kill you as soon as look at you, as Mr. nick has illustrated and to which I can also attest, having known some of them in my previous LE jobs. Protect yourself and family accordingly.
Those of y’all in Jade Helm territories might consider acquiring/developing some intel for future reference:
https://sparks31.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/basics-time-to-salute/
I am doing likewise in the northern Nova Anglia border region accordingly. There seems to have been an uptick lately.
Also:
https://sparks31.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/jade-helm-or-ruby-tail-band-searches/
Did a little prepping this week.
Did some refurb on a 144mhz base station antenna I got at an estate sale a year ago. My desktop radio has separate antenna connections for HF, 50mhz, 144, and 440. Now that I’ve got the multiband vertical up, I need to get the others up too. I’ll probably do a dipole for 50mhz. I’ll do a homemade 1/4wave ground plane for 440. Now I’ll have antennas good for 5-10 times the rated output of my radio.
At sales today I got 2 bottles of propane and a gallon of colman fuel basically free. It was a seller who just looked at my 2 boxes of stuff, and waved her hands while saying “how about $30 for all of it?” OK! Most of it is tech stuff, wifi dongles, a couple of SSD drives, a sony ebook reader, HDTV antenna, hdmi and sata and esata cables, wall warts, and several OS and Office install disks. For an additional $5 a nice pump pellet rifle and a package of pellets. It will need cleanup and some lube but it’s in great cosmetic shape with real wood stock.
I’m hoping for some good sales on Saturday. Most of the listed estate sales look weak for prepping stuff, but you never can tell what they don’t list in the ads.
Will be working on the rainwater collection too. Need to put a tap on the bottom of one barrel, hang another 10 feet of gutter, and get another barrel in place.
Need to do some marital harmony work around the house too.
Always something to do…
nick
“I’m guessing that Australian termites are gigantic and deadly poisonous to people…”
Nah, just to atheists, Latin Rite Catholics, people who whine but don’t vote, and other miscreants… 🙂
nick wrote:
“Takeaways:
…
gun not on your person might be hard to get to when needed.”
One of RBT’s pals used to take his gun into the shower with him… 🙂
One point on electrical distribution panels … Federal Pacific Electric was a common supplier of panels and circuit breakers up through the 1990’s. It turns out that the FPE fudged/faked its tests and its line of Stab-Lok circuit breakers have high fail-to-trip faults. FPE went out of business due to these and related problems.
So if your prospective house has FPE breakers, I would consider a complete replacement.
Our house, built in 1986, has a pair of 200A FPE distribution panels and breakers. Replacement is on my list of things to do.
Forgot to mention, one sale had a 500 round box of Federal Premium 22LR for $30. That’s a pretty good discount over the cheaperthandirt price, and HEY, 500 rounds of 22!
Also got a carbon monoxide detector for a dollar. They can cost $30. Every car should have one with your kit, but especially in winter driving areas. You really don’t want to die from CO poisoning while idling to keep warm (or cool.) Put some batteries in, and stick it under your seat.
Thank me if it saves your life!
nick
I wouldn’t buy a used CO detector. They have actual shelf lives.