09:38 – We just finished moving a bunch of concrete blocks from the garage, where we’d temporarily stuck them, out to the concrete pad outside the garage door. Is it just me, or do concrete blocks weigh two or three times as much as they used to?
Frances and Al just had the crawl space in their house in Winston redone to seal it and eliminate a water problem. It’s a much taller area than I think of as a crawl space. More like a basement without much headroom. It’s even heated and air conditioned. Al, who’s about my height, can walk around stooped, and Frances can walk around without bending down. Frances mentioned that they now had space to store a bunch of LTS food and water. I’m not sure if she was serious or not. Just in case she’s serious, I just emailed her a PDF of the LDS Preparedness Manual, which is an excellent starting point. If you don’t have a copy, grab one now.
“More like a basement without much headroom. It’s even heated and air conditioned. Al, who’s about my height, can walk around stooped, and Frances can walk around without bending down.”
Like our cellar here, about half and half concrete and stone; I have to watch my noggin or actually stoop quite a bit in areas where there are pipes and conduits and suchlike; Mrs. OFD can be-bop around down there with no problem. Started building up our own storage there but am WAY behind “schedule.”
“Watch the headlines… see this occur… it will be seismic in its long-term nature, because it will fundamentally change the nature of the US government, since the debts of the states and cities will become everyone’s debt and we don’t have any “real” tools to govern their behavior or fix the long-term promises that destroy competitiveness and economic growth. This is the real story, it is happening under our noses, and instead of paying attention we are following these idiotic presidential campaigns of pure vapor.”
http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/52386.html
Gee, maybe after we bail out Puerto Rico, we can take over Mexico like West Germany did for East Germany!
According to Danny Glover, the world-renowned scientist, global warming caused the Haiti earthquake. Given the obvious truth of that assertion, I see no reason that global warming couldn’t also make concrete blocks weigh more. Global warming, is there no mischief it cannot perpetrate?
Concrete blocks do, in fact, weigh more, as does firewood. Thanks and hats off to Dr. Glover for his explanations. I suspect that global warming also caused the Great Depression, both world wars and the Crucifixion. Also, everybody is gay. And Beethoven was black.
Well Hamilton was.
Bob’s mentioning of the LDS reminds me that I know a Mormon couple. I wonder if a prudent prepping step might be to get to know them a little better. Also I wonder what my friends who keep chickens think of prepping. Or my friends who bought a chicken coop only to discover that they can’t keep chickens at their current location. One of my wife’s friends and her husband are preppers, but my wife thinks they’re crazy preppers where she thinks I’m just a little eccentric. The reality is that my wife would think I’m a crazy prepper, but I want to break the news to her slowly.
Hamilton was gay, Hamilton was black, or Hamilton was caused by global warming?
“The reality is that my wife would think I’m a crazy prepper, but I want to break the news to her slowly.”
There are a couple of articles online about this sorta thing, where one spouse, usually the wife (and I mean “wife” in the traditional sense, i.e. genuine female) is not on board, sometimes to a radical extent. My own wife thinks I’m a little nutty about this and worried too much about stuff that’s “never gonna happen.” Normalcy bias, writ large, but my SIL’s are far worse. Wife at least gets it that we need to be prepped for long cold winters and maybe no power, and also that there are goblins in our town up here who deal dope and break into houses. One of my methods is to make sure she hears about or sees those particular news items whenever they appear.
And if she’s ever home for more than a week and not exhausted from the previous week somewhere and not tied up catering to Princess or messing with other stuff, I need to get her up to the range for at least one or two classes by professionals in pistol, rifle and shotgun stuff.
I’m also pretty sure she’ll start noticing more and more chit going wrong as we get closer to the national election and inauguration and subsequent Reign of Terror. She often seems to be more up on the news than I am, but it’s the MSM-filtered balderdash, mostly.
“Hamilton was gay, Hamilton was black, or Hamilton was caused by global warming?”
Hamilton was gay and black and then he was dead. Thanks, and a tip o’ the hat to Mr. Aaron Burr.
From the American Currency Department:
OFD has nominations for a woman on the twenty-dollar bill, in order of preference:
1.) Martha Washington
2.) Mercy Otis Warren
3.) Ann Bradstreet
4.) Sacajawea
5.) Ann Coulter
Naturally the counter-nominations will be, again in order:
1.) Moochelle Obummer
2.) Doris Kearns Goodwin
3.) Phillis Wheatley
4.) Harriet Tubman
5.) Rosa Parks
Guess what?
Which is to say, not up on the news. Propaganda =/= truth.
“Is it just me, or do concrete blocks weigh two or three times as much as they used to?”
They do. Also, lids on jars and caps on soft drink bottles are screwed on much more tightly than they used to be. I wish I knew where they got the super glue from.
“Naturally the counter-nominations will be, again in order:”
1. Sandra Bullock.
There, fixed that for you.
WRT genuine women/females being reluctant to prep: it wasn’t that many generations ago that the women/females were totally on-board with prepping. They planted/cared for/harvested/canned the garden and the genuine men/males hunted/caught the meat/fish. That was the predominant way of life up until WWII. I consider myself fortunate to have seen that lifestyle in my grandparents and that they taught me how to “live off the land”.
BTW, they were not ashamed with the “traditional” roles of genuine men and women. I don’t ever remember my grandmothers and aunts saying that they were not fulfilled or discriminated against in any way. In fact most of them did not support women’s suffrage, particularly my dad’s mom who outlived two husbands and raised 5 kids during the depression.
@OFD, for the most part I agree with your $20-bill choices. I would like to see a $20-bill series with the first four women. I am particularly impressed that you included Sacajawea. She was far more than the history books taught. The area I now live in is the territory of Sacajawea and there is a lot of “the rest of the story” information that I did not learn until I moved here. The history of the Indian Tribes in this area has been totally corrupted by the “white man”. I do not want to start a long dissertation or argument, but Sacajawea was not a Shoshone. There is some significance/relationship with the Palouse Tribe (http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/palouse-tribe.htm) and the Nez Perce (http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/nez-perce-tribe.htm). Were it not for Sacajawea’s “associations” with these and other tribes it is doubtful that Lewis and Clark would have completed their expedition.
“Which is to say, not up on the news. Propaganda =/= truth.”
Exactly. I keep harping that it’s all fucking lies and bullshit and after one or two of my lines like that she just tunes me out. So be it, hon. I won’t say “I told ya so”, when that fan starts splattering stuff all over the world.
“Also, lids on jars and caps on soft drink bottles are screwed on much more tightly than they used to be. ”
Here’s some irony for ya; I’ve found that exact same condition to be in force when I try to open stuff like that and I always catch myself wondering “Gee, if I’m a big strong male warrior-hero, and I’ve gotta throw my whole fucking weight into opening this jar of jam, how do they expect some 90-year-old lady to do it??”
“Were it not for Sacajawea’s “associations” with these and other tribes it is doubtful that Lewis and Clark would have completed their expedition.”
Exactly. And I figured she’d be my ethnic sop to the libturd bureaucrats who devise these lists.
“I would like to see a $20-bill series with the first four women.”
Excellent idea, that; a SERIES, like they do sometimes with stamps and coins. That way maybe one or two of my candidates could get on it along with the usual lefty icons, like the phony Rosa Parks.
I am particularly impressed that you included Sacajawea.
She already got a coin, biotch.
According to Danny Glover, the world-renowned scientist, global warming caused the Haiti earthquake.
I feel sorry for Danny. He doesn’t have Hugo Chavez’ cock to suck anymore.
You’re a better man than I.
From the American Currency Department:
The rules say he / she must be dead
I propose she either be a knockout like:
– Natalie Wood
– Jayne Mansfield
– Claudette Colbert
or an accomplished woman
– Madam C. J. Walker (First self made female Millionaire – daughter of a slave)
– Amelia Earhart
– Pocahontas (Born a native American, she became an English citizen so she may not count)
– Molly Pitcher ( Revolutionary war nurse and artillery woman )
– Biddy Mason ( escaped slavery, she became a wealthy entrepreneur )
– Rear Adm. Grace Hopper ( early leader in software and systems design )
OR POSSIBLY a woman with both Beauty & Brains
– Hedy Lamarr ( Movie Star who invented spread spectrum RF used in modern WiFi)
I was a “silent prepper” … quietly building a cache of emergency supplies worried the wife would think I was crazy. Then the wife started reading PA fiction. Now she is driving our prepping activities.
@RBT,
Thanks for the link to the LDS Preparedness Guide. It looks like an excellent resource. It may be so good that I actually buy a copy. I’m going to have to put it on my cell phone and tablet when I get a chance.
I have found the Red Cross First Aid Manual online. Also there is evidently an American Red Cross First Aid app for both iPhone and Android.
What other free resources are there worth grabbing now?
Excellent choices, Mr. Harold, and a possible idea for Mrs. OFD up here; she reads a lotta thriller-diller fiction to relax and mysteries, probably half of it by female writers; I wonder if there is any decent PA fiction by women out there that I could leave lying around here….
“What other free resources are there worth grabbing now?
Tons of mil-spec “FM-” manuals online, and a bunch of apps for the phones; I have first aid and survival-tips apps on my iPhone; there’s also knot-tying, ham radio license study apps, etc., etc.
Are there any good PA movies or TV besides Jericho? By good, I mean entertaining and zombie free? Zombies aren’t going to happen unless your euphemism for urban thug is zombie. Actually I’m looking for movies or TV that paint prepping in situations short of apocalyptic. It’s bad enough that we have the highest chance of being nuked by the Russians since the Berlin wall came down. Making my wife worry about it would be worse.
“$1,000 Gun Tax Pushed as “Role Model” for States”
http://www.atr.org/1000-gun-tax-pushed-role-model-states
Ah, lets make it so the poor people cannot afford to buy guns. Gun Grabbers come in many forms.
In PA fiction by women, only Land (Stranded #1)
by Theresa Shaver and the follow ups spring to mind.
In PA fiction featuring women, John Ringo’s zombie books (starting with under a graveyards sky), or his Aldenata books… (although the women are supergirls)
Matthew Bracken’s Enemies series features a woman, and is scarily predictive. It often goes on sale for 99c or free.
n
Little House on the Prairie series also good.
n
I enjoyed the “Farm” series on BBC, Mideval Farm, wartime farm, edwardian farm, etc Available on youtube.
In fact, I miss it.
nick
Nothing comes close to Jericho.
@OFD
Try Shaver’s YA PA series.
We just finished moving a bunch of concrete blocks from the garage, where we’d temporarily stuck them, out to the concrete pad outside the garage door. Is it just me, or do concrete blocks weigh two or three times as much as they used to?
Yes. I am moving my 65 cases of 35 or 40 Ozarka water bottles to 24 bottle cases as we use them. We go through about 3 cases of water bottles per week so I should be totally converted before the end of the year. Those 35 bottle cases are just too heavy for my achy back.
Frances and Al just had the crawl space in their house in Winston redone to seal it and eliminate a water problem. It’s a much taller area than I think of as a crawl space. More like a basement without much headroom.
I wish we had a basement here in the Land of Sugar. Oh wait, flooding. The back yard has three inches of water in it right now so that the water is level with the pool decking. And, the pool is level with the decking also.
And both of the ponds at the office are one ft over their spillways. The drainage is very slow so the spillways are backed up. The front pond has expanded from 0.5 acre to about 2.0 acres.
Are there any good PA movies or TV besides Jericho? By good, I mean entertaining and zombie free?
The “Revolution” tv series was ok. Actually very good at times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_%28TV_series%29
Yup, both “Jericho” and “Revoluton” were pretty decent; also check out the kind of dated (1987) flick “Amerika” found on the Tube, former tee-vee series; starring Kris Kristofferson and the late Robert Urich, and his “biggestfan” has a channel on there featuring that show. The premise is that the Soviet commies have taken over the country, but you can easily extrapolate from their characters’ behavior and actions those of our current SJW types and ruling bureaucrats. The late Robert Conquest had a book about what to do when the Russians take over back around then, also. (“What to Do When the Russians Come: a Survivor’s Handbook (1984)”
Conquest was a major historian of Soviet Russia, a poet, and a contemporary of England’s “Angry Young Men” of letters, like the late Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin. And he lived to the ripe old age of 98, only dying last year.
Harold,
I propose removing Admiral Grace Hopper from your list and replacing her with Margaret Hamilton.
So how does one explain prepping to a five year old? I don’t think it would go over well to tell her that there are monsters, they do their thing in Mordor in daylight not under her bed after dark.
Stephanie Kwolek.
“… tell her that there are monsters…”
The worst monsters reside in Mordor, but they have an international network, mostly quartered in the cities. Other concentrations can be found in academia, the media, and among government bureaucracies. The monsters under the bed got scared and ran away and won’t come back. So as long as one stays away from Mordor, the cities, the schools and colleges, and avoids media people, one is probably gonna do OK.
Oh wait–then there are the bad angels. We know them as demons. And evil spirits. They haven’t gone away. In fact, they’ve made strong alliances with the real monsters.
On the other hand, maybe I’m not the guy to tell five-year-olds about prepping and monsters.
Except to say, that like the Boy Scout and Coast Guard mottos, semper paratus. For whatever.
@dave, The Little House on the Prairie books. Read them with my 4 and 6yo. They are full of life lessons about hardship and preparedness, hard work, luck, and slice of life from frontier days. We find opportunities to draw parallels to Laura and Mary at least a couple of times a month, and for a while the girls would insist we eat by “Laura and Mary rules”- children seen and not heard, which was hi-larious 🙂
One result is that it seems to be very reassuring to them that we have food stored after reading about the winter of starvation.
For someone a bit older, “The Girl Who Owned a City” is a true PA youth novel. I remembered reading it as a kid, and bought it for my kids. Haven’t read it with them yet.
We find poor survival decision making in kids books all the time, and depending on mood, will ask our girls if the characters could have done something different. They can usually name at least one better choice, then we continue the story. We sometimes explain that people do stupid things in stories because it makes for a more interesting story.
And of course we have ample naturally provided opportunities to say “this is why we don’t have to do that” or “we’ve already made sure of..” here in the Gulf Coast region.
For example today I filled the tub with water. 6yo discovers full tub, calls to mommy that the tub still has water in it. I reply that I filled it up. Daughter says “Oh, so we have water if the storm breaks the water to the sink.” If she didn’t already get it, I’d have explained it.
Keep an emphasis on reassuring them that we have it covered. We’ve thought about it, and taken steps. They don’t care so much what the steps are, they just want to know we’re looking out for them and it will all be ok.
After all, most of what we do now to prep, would simply have been considered everyday prudence by our previous generation, just part of life. You plant a garden. You take a jacket with you. You have a first aid kit. You know how to fix things when they break (incl people and animals.) You carry a knife.
Show by example, and they will think that this is just what people do.
nick
WRT monsters and bad people…
We’ve told them since they were infants that there were bad people in the world. We’ve also emphasized that MOST people are good people (this being true where and when we live.) We’ve tried to inoculate them against the common predator lines and behaviors, and have always insisted that the one rule they cannot break is they can’t go away with anyone.
About a year ago, we started them with the idea that there is a secret phrase we will say if we need them to absolutely right now do exactly what we say, and ask questions later. Our phrase is something we wouldn’t say in normal life, but doesn’t sound so weird that people would immediately freak out if they overheard it. We remind them if we are going to a public venue, or someplace novel that if we say it, they have to obey. We don’t abuse it either, it’s truly reserved for emergencies.
For monsters and kid fears, we’ve been consistent since birth that monsters are afraid of laughter, clapping, and butterflies. Then we put butterfly stickers on the bedroom walls. Seems to have worked so far.
nick
Dave – RE: Margaret Hamilton
1) I have actually met Admiral Hooper so I am prejudiced.
2) Regulations require the person on our currency must be DEAD and Wiki says she ain’t dead yet.
3) Loved her in the Wizard of OZ
Stephanie Kwolek isn’t dead yet, either.
EDIT: Ignore my assertion. I don’t know what I’m talking about.
3) Loved her in the Wizard of OZ 🙂
Actually, why not that Margaret Hamilton on the twenty?
Eh? Kwolek died in 2014, IIRC. She was an aunt (or something) of a girl I went to school with grades one through twelve.
RE: “The Little House on the Prairie books”
Read the series to our granddaughter over the years.
The episode “The Long Winter” struck a chord with me. The matter of fact description of the horrors of twisting straw to create something burnable, then eating your seed crops, corn and finally potatoes day after day, same thing, as you get weaker and weaker and watch neighbors die. I get shivers just remembering the book. After reading this book, you could sit down with your children and ask “what could they have done to be better prepared” to start a conversation about preparedness.
re Kwolek, I stand corrected.
I did a quick check on a site, which either incorrectly said she’s still alive or which I misread as saying that. I blame global warming for any confusion.
“…monsters are afraid of laughter, clapping, and butterflies.”
Some truth there; the Devil can’t stand to be laughed at. I dunno about clapping and butterflies, though.
Learning New Words Department:
“cisheteropatriarchy” (preceded in this case by “…white supremacist”)
“hamplanet” (apparently describing this person: http://30daystox.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Why-Lindy-West-will-go-broke-and-fall-into-obscurity-shortly.jpg)
Social Justice Hashtag Department:
http://takimag.com/article/a_handy_guide_to_popular_social_justice_hashtags_and_what_they_really_mean/print#axzz46Cu4ZXow
“I blame global warming for any confusion.”
And rightfully so! It is the cause of much evil in this world. Deniers should be first tortured publicly and then executed.
From the Our Worries Are Over Department:
http://bearingarms.com/obama-meets-nicki-minaj-dj-khaled-ludacris-justice-reform/?utm_source=badaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
Both my father-in-law and my paternal grandfather (passed on back in 1996) talk about eating potatoes for six months straight every winter back in the early 1900s. Three meals a day. Both came from seven kid families and very poor family farms.
But at least they had the potatoes. I plan someday to figure out how to grow potatoes someday. Real soon now.
Couple things to learn from this-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3546458/Father-accidentally-killed-four-year-old-daughter-blamed-child-carelessly-recklessly-waving-gun-home.html
-initial reports are almost always wrong
-if it doesn’t smell right it probably isn’t (this stunk from the first published version)
-your online posts will be used against you
-some people are too stupid to live
-keeping evil outside doesn’t help if you invite it in
-they are not like us ” ‘carelessly and recklessly’ waving a gun around a small bedroom with seven children present”
nick
@lynn, google potato tower
That’s what I’d try if my kids would eat them….
n
Do not drive or walk into flood waters, “Multiple fatalities reported as flood waters swamp Houston area”:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/article/Heavy-rains-bring-potentional-flash-flooding-7253618.php
Fire ant beds float! Snakes swim very well! And that muddy water has nastyisms in it!
Peeps always try to drive through what they think is only a couple of inches of wotta. Except it’s usually more than that and guess what, morons? It’s MOVING wotta. Know how powerful wotta is, cretins? It was/is used to power whole friggin’ cities!!! Whole regions!!
I remember the SEA monsoons, when it would rain like hell every day, esp. late afternoons, and klongs would overflow and we’d see dozens or sometimes hundreds of snakes and lizards swimming uphill away from it. Among the snakes, of course, varieties of cobras and kraits. Your hooch up on stilts? No problem for snakes and lizards. You ain’t lived till you see a king cobra slithering up the steps outta muddy wotta. And then slammed the door shut only to find a four-foot lime-green-with-red-splotches lizard clinging to the other side.
Dave wrote:
“I propose removing Admiral Grace Hopper from your list and replacing her with Margaret Hamilton.”
I second that. Hopper was a major factor in the development of Cobol, the programming equivalent of a war crime. And Hamilton could make important decisions on the fly and looked very cute to boot.
Lynn wrote:
“We go through about 3 cases of water bottles per week…”
Something wrong with the tap water there? I have some bottled water for emergencies.
[snip] 1) I have actually met Admiral Hooper so I am prejudiced. [snip]
I also got to meet the Admiral, back as an undergrad. She came to speak to the student association, and I volunteered to chauffeur her from the airport to campus. When she got off the plane, I addressed her as Admiral, and she said “Oh, please, call me Grace.” I responded that I was taught that anyone who achieves flag rank was to be addressed as such; she sighed and said okay. The only think I remember from her talk was that she lamented the lack of public libraries of code, saying it would be cheaper to license the wheel than for everyone to re-invent it.
Does anybody here use a water filter on the tap rather than buying bottled water for daily use?
“And Hamilton could make important decisions on the fly and looked very cute to boot.”
Yes, she could, like with that “Surrender, Dorothy” written on the sky and giving orders to her legions of flying monkeys. I question your taste in womens’ looks, though….
Yeah, I do. It’s called “Puratap”. I can’t tell the difference between normal tap water and that from the Puratap. They put in a new filter every year.
Undersink filter to a separate single tap on the sink and to the fridge for ice and cold water. I’m fine with it. Some around here keep buying water and leaving half full bottles around. I use one only when needed for convenience and refill from the fridge tap frequently.
we use the filtered water in the fridge for everyday use including cooking. The measuring function is very convenient. My wife and kids use refillable bottles to go.
I refill plastic bottle with filtered for storage.
nick
We have used the PUR water filters for many years. Best price is at Costco for the faucet units and the cartridges, both are regularly on coupon. Makes your coffee and tea taste better too.
I drink tap water.
We have a Brita filter, the output of which I use for making coffee and for some cooking and which my wife and daughter drink. We also have a water/ice dispenser on the fridge which the kids often use. Grandma fills a water heater and dispenser from the Brita filter, and drinks only pre-boiled water — tap water in the PRC is not safe to drink, so no tap water anywhere is safe to drink.
We — by which I mean my wife and daughter — also go through more bottled water than I’m happy about, considering that we do have good tap water which is a couple percent the price. Also, as dkreck notes, we have a constant supply of half-emptied bottles which end up getting poured down the drain. Not even used on the houseplants, because that would be, I dunno, not wasteful enough or something.
Our home came with a RO system (goes to fridge, also). I haul around a Kleen Kanteen filled with RO. For some reason, I can’t get the wife to use RO. She’s always buying bottled water. Even the dogs drink RO. The membrane lasts about a year+ with the rest of the filters 2-3 times a year.
“Some around here keep buying water and leaving half full bottles around.”
Ditto here, with that, and various PC soft drinks, coffee, tea, milk, etc. And then it gets dumped and they buy more, rinse and repeat. I buy a book and all hell breaks loose.
“…tap water in the PRC is not safe to drink, so no tap water anywhere is safe to drink.”
I wish I could say this is Asian logic but it ain’t; it’s female “logic.”
“….Not even used on the houseplants, because that would be, I dunno, not wasteful enough or something.”
Ditto.
And we have a well and she still buys the Brita pitcher/filter thing. When I’m here alone a half-gallon of milk lasts me all week; when I’m not home alone, I have to get a gallon and it’s gone in a couple of days. And from the dishes and pots and pans and silverware in the sink and on the counters, you’d think a squad of Marines was here chowing down every night.
I also empty any partial bottles into the dog’s water bowl. They drink better water than most of the world.
Obola promoting race relations with crooks, thugs and assorted fukstiks.
An attempt by President Obama to promote his ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ initiative, which aims to keep youths of color out of trouble, came to a farcical end when rapper Rick Ross’s ankle bracelet – which he received on a kidnapping and assault charge – went off.
Down with WHITEY!
“Down with WHITEY!”
Beat ya to it, hater! See my earlier link at 14:37 above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZaVA3NS7zE
It warn’t hapnin back den but it hapnen now, homes!
I don’t know about the rest of the PRC, but in Shanghai the water has a very peculiar odor. No way would you drink it by choice. On my first 21day trip, I got sick on my last day, when, after pulling an all-nighter, I forgot and brushed my teeth with tap water. I was sick by the time I got to the airport, and was sick for 3 weeks after. 4 hours to Narita, then 6-8 wait there, then 14 hours home, was a pure and simple misery. I took my mega-dose-backup-stop-this-sh!t-right-now drugs and slept as much as possible.
I was much more careful on the second trip.
nick
BTW, you have to be very careful in the shower not to get it in your eyes or mouth either. Hot tea, beer, or bottled water with every meal.
My rain gauge, here, near Burnet, says 2.5 inches of rain. Huh. CR330 at the low water spot where Hairston Creek crosses was at one foot on the marker today. I’ve seen water there 3 times in almost 20 years. Yeah, pick-up or jeep, no Volare wagons or Dodge Stratus’ allowed. I really need to walk to back of the place for a look… where said creek’s bed is about 20 feet down.
I don’t believe my rain gauge.
But hey, as long as the water runs, no skeeters!!!
Skeeters were trying to eat me just a few minutes ago. I was in my driveway.
n
“Morris: Kasich amasses a dowry”
http://thehill.com/opinion/dick-morris/276067-morris-kasich-amasses-a-dowry
“Question: Why is John Kasich running for president?”
“Answer: To be Donald Trump’s vice president.”
“Question: So why is he still fighting for delegates?”
“Answer: To have a dowry to present to Trump in return for the VP nod.”
“The nuptials are scheduled for July 18 in Cleveland. Save the date.”
Maybe.
Beat ya to it, hater!
There’s never enough hate on this site.
I was a “silent prepper” … quietly building a cache of emergency supplies worried the wife would think I was crazy. Then the wife started reading PA fiction. Now she is driving our prepping activities.
Nice. My wife thinks that I am crazy and wants me to stop reading Post Apocalyptic fiction.
My wife thinks I’m crazy but I tell her she is. She claims I drive her there. Short trip.
“Nice. My wife thinks that I am crazy and wants me to stop reading Post Apocalyptic fiction.”
Mine KNOWS I’m crazy and so doesn’t tell me what I can read or watch or think.
Started watching “True Detective,” and the first episode of the first season’s shots sorta look like some areas up here, i.e. DEPRESSED. Story takes place in Louisiana, I guess, and the characterizations of some cops hating other cops is all too real for ol’ OFD. Been thirty years and it all comes back.
Say, ya’ll down there in TX? Don’t bother sending any wotta up here; we gots us plenty of it. To spare. Light rain again.
“The Trump Chess Board”
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/143006237056/the-trump-chess-board
“Trump cleverly used the Colorado “rules change” situation that denied him any delegates as a warning to the party for the convention. Trump’s Wall Street Journal article about Colorado was perfect because it primed voters to be touchy about any future shenanigans. The party has been warned.”
“Trump has been painting Bernie Sanders as a victim of the rigged system to show that Trump is not alone. It is a smart way to make Trump’s claims of an unfair system seem less Trump-centric. And it makes it easier for Sanders supporters to jump ship to Trump later.”
Interesting as usual. Trump focusing on Bernie as a victim is great.
Say, ya’ll down there in TX? Don’t bother sending any wotta up here; we gots us plenty of it. To spare. Light rain again.
Sounds like we may get another 2 to 10 inches of rain over the next three days. Looks like the Brazos is going to peak tomorrow afternoon at 0.8 ft below the all time peak and hold there for a few days. That is 70,000 ft3/sec of water.
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=HGX&gage=RMOT2
I would like to send the fresh water to Las Vegas for ol’ Atoz. I don’t think that anyone wants the nasty Gulf of Mexico salt water.
I have a ‘thing’ where I taste the water wherever I go if I can.
pacific, atlantic, north sea (from both sides), persian gulf, great lake, etc. Something about touching it, smelling it, and tasting it really brings it home for me. I had NO trouble passing on this ritual when in China….
nick
Bill Nye “The Douchebag Guy” thinks the rain in Tejas is due to climate change. I guess it never rains in Tejas. Ever.
Ain’t that just tumbleweeds, jack rabbits and oil wells down there?
That’s WEST Texas….
East Texas is a swamp.
nick
Oh yeah, actually that’s Bakersfield. Got confused a minute.
“Bill Nye “The Douchebag Guy” thinks the rain in Tejas is due to climate change. I guess it never rains in Tejas. Ever.”
We don’t like your tone, MrAtoz, and believe you’ve committed several micro-aggressions with no trigger warnings and no safe space for us. Watch out, Mister:
http://freedomoutpost.com/bill-nye-the-science-guy-i-can-see-why-climate-change-deniers-should-be-designated-as-criminals/
From the Nine Months Department:
http://freedomoutpost.com/collapse-strategist-were-in-the-terminal-phase-economic-pain-like-weve-never-seen-before/
We don’t like your tone, MrAtoz
I have a sad. 🙁
Oh, MrAtoz is in much deeper trouble than that, OFD. He’s denying climate change. If Bill Nye the Douchebag Guy gets his way, MrAtoz goes straight to jail. No need for a trial.
“MrAtoz goes straight to jail. No need for a trial.”
He won’t be lonely, though; the rest of us here will be neighbors in his cellblock. Y’all can teach me the math I struggled so hard with when I hit Al-Jubba and science stuff, and I’ll larn ya some 3,000 years of literature in the hated and loathed and despised Western Canon. The good news is we can tell the assholes by what they loathe and despise and hate so much. They’re wrong about pretty much everything.
http://freedomoutpost.com/bill-nye-the-science-guy-i-can-see-why-climate-change-deniers-should-be-designated-as-criminals/
Wow, so much for our constitutional free speech rights.
Why are these people so desperate to silence our voices?
I just drink plain tap water, no filters or bottled water for me. (I do have some bottled 1/2 liter and 2 liter water set aside for emergencies.) The public water supply here is extremely pure, it exceeds every EPA standard when it comes out of the ground. It is, of course, then treated per the regulations, but it’s still really good water.
Rain is starting up again. Supposed to get clobbered again tomorrow. We’ll see, but I hope not.
nick
When I bought this place I considered getting a fridge with chilled water/ice. I was too cheap to pay the extra and also for more plumbing.
I fill several 1.5 litre plastic bottles that used to contain iced tea and put ’em in the fridge, I then carry one or two with me when I’ll be away from home. Room temperature water is nice, chilled water is heavenly.
In the Sixties Adelaide water was notoriously bad. Not unhealthy, just yuck tasting. There was a story going around that there were two cities in the world where captains wouldn’t take on drinking water: Aden and Adelaide. Mucho better now.
Because the free market has winners and losers. This applies to the market of ideas as well as to goods, and in the free market of ideas, the ideologues and true believers are losers. They can’t bear being losers, so all they can do is shut down the free market.
(Yah, I know your question was rhetorical. I was just using it as an excuse to call warmenists losers.)
Ref the free markets of goods and of ideas, something else I found.
It goes farther than that. They can’t stand it when someone else has more than they do. They would rather see everyone live in even worse poverty than the people of Zimbabwe, rather than be at the bottom rung of the economic ladder where they have job cleaning toilets and enjoying luxuries that people in Zimbabwe can’t even dream of like a trip to McDonalds.
Didn’t get much rain, but schools are closed anyway.
nick
So I have been thinking about prepping, life balance and keeping the wife happy. My goal is to get to the point where 1% of our assets are in prepping stuff and we spend 1% of our income on improving our readiness. That would be a much better position than we are in now, with a continuing trend toward improvement. We are more prepared than we were before Bob started writing the book.
I don’t want to turn into the prepper whose wife left him and whose only assets are prepping supplies. I think that Bob is right about the slow slide toward dystopia. My prediction of the future in a single word would be volatility. I wouldn’t be surprised to see gasoline below $1 per gallon or above $4 a year from now. Or in other words, I am trying to prepare for unpredictability. So unlike the people on Doomsday Preppers, I am not preparing for a single scenario, but for every scenario that comes to mind.
@Dave, the basics are the same in any case. Disaster first.
Start with 3 days food and water. basic first aids stuff. Security.
Build to 2 weeks food and water. Have more complete first aid, alternate comms, cooking, power, Water
Build to 4 weeks. Switch to low power. low energy alternatives, hunker down to new reality.
Build to 3 months. All aspects of day to day life should have alternatives for your new reality.
Build to 6 months, food garden well on way, animal husbandry under way, significant alternate lifestyle available.
For slow decline, FOOD and the ability to supplement any available food is most important. Alternate treatments for med conditions or stockpiles. Services fail, become unreliable. Alternate energy, water, security must be in place. Social environment changes from high trust society to low trust society. Makes most of western lifestyle impossible. Return to intensely local and tribal.
One of the critical limits on my prepping is that none of it be ‘irrevocable.’ The other is that it must provide tangible benefits to my current life. I started out only prepping for disasters but have expanded my horizon to include long slow decline (or sudden drop to lower level which is just as likely) and when I can do so at little cost, I include preps for collapse to a level comparable to 1890-1930.
History in the survivalist/prepper community shows very clearly that you can outlive your disaster, or in other words, those guys didn’t have to use the fallout shelters. On the other hand, it also shows the ‘boiled frog effect.’ If someone from 1960 was fast forwarded to today, they would be devastated by the horrific degradation of society that has occurred. Our government is an intrusive, dangerous, vindictive presence in every aspect of daily life. Our cities are shockingly dangerous and have crumbled to unrecognizable cesspits. Two entire underclasses have developed and dominate popular culture and urban areas, and would be horrifying to our time traveler for their savage culture.
You could make a very good argument that we ARE in the collapse. Sure, we’ve got lots of shiny bits and pieces to distract us. Sure, we have access to the constant distraction of the global information flow. But are we, in general, better off than a millwright in 1960?
nick
That’s a bit disjointed, ’cause it’s early in the morning.
I should add that one of the ways my preps can’t negatively impact my life is finances. I can’t divert significant money from current life toward prepping. Hence my emphasis on finding stuff, adapting stuff, fixing stuff, and making do.
I look for preps in the secondary market, and while I’m there I look for stuff to resell to cover the costs of what I’m buying. I’M looking for camping gear, but if I see Cabbage Patch Kids stuff to resell, I’ll grab it. I’M looking for radio stuff, but if I see consumer electronics that sell well on ebay… grab it!
I can trade time for money. Some people have the money but not the time, so new, packaged preps might make more sense for them. I need to go slow, and build up. Someone else might be able to spend money in big chunks, and add ‘plateaus’ in their readiness. Lots of people start by simply buying more of what they always buy, and storing some of it. Very few people are buying an equipped bunker, or a pallet of Mountain House. I still buy that way. If my store is having a BOGO sale, I get a couple extra cans of veg. If they have a sale on instant side dishes or box meals, I get a couple of those. In this way, I’ve built up to 3 months of normal food on shelves and in the freezer. This is in addition to a ‘normal’ pantry.
Ebola scared me. It was a 4-6 hour drive away. I panic bought a bunch of longer term staples. Now I’ve got them, and for not much money. Basic staples, which are great to supplement available food in a long decline, are amazingly cheap.
So much of basic prepping applies in the specific and in the general…. my tyvek suits work just as well for poison ivy clearance as for ebola. My bleach sprayer works just as well for cleaning the deck and walk with the bleach I had stored as for decontamination. My colman stove and lantern work just as well during a thunderstorm as TEOTWAWKI.
You don’t need to sell your house, quit your job, and move to a shipping container bunker in the country to prep.
nick
BTW, a reluctant spouse will appreciate not having to go to the store when the storm is coming. She will appreciate having power from your gennie when the block is dark. She’ll appreciate the shotgun when she sees TV reports of looting and fires. Just have the stuff ready in the background. It will prove it’s worth before too long.
Well there’s your mistake right there.
“Ref the free markets of goods and of ideas, something else I found.”
And their default setting is to immediately try to shut down free speech and the First Amendment. Rather than just laugh it off and ignore it. True Reds.
“But are we, in general, better off than a millwright in 1960?”
Nope. I was seven years old that year and living in a small town near the Rhode Island state line, southeast of Woostah, MA. My dad worked at the steam boiler plant at a big ol’ brick factory on the Mumford River, whose owners had not only brought money to the town but were also major benefactors of it. We played in the park they built and took swimming lessons at the community center they’d set up. I could walk by myself to school, the library, those swimming lessons, my friends’ houses, or be-bop around the woods in back of our house, still the same and still known as “The Badlands.” My father, at that time, supported a wife and three boys in a duplex and we had a car and three hots and a cot and decent birthdays and Xmas, all on a factory drone’s pay. Try that now.
“Build to 4 weeks.”
We’re at that stage now, with probably more than four weeks of food and we have a well and can heat the house solely with wood. It’s a slow slog, thanks to finances and my unemployment now for eighteen months straight again, and because we also have to do stuff on the house that never got done, like the new windows, the living room ceiling, the front and back doors, the electrical infrastructure, etc., etc., and five-page to-do list that never gets any shorter. And of course Princess has another eight months to go of college and her expenses take a big chunk out of our monthly revenue, plus one or the other of the three cars always needs work.
“Well there’s your mistake right there.”
+1,000
@nick,
Thanks for the practical advice. We have a little bit of disaster prep stuff in each car and some in the basement. I still need to do a bit more to get us prepared for the one disaster I have personally encountered. When I was single, I had to evacuate due to a tornado caused natural gas leak. My stupidest mistake was going back to my apartment for the one prescription medicine I need. Instead of staying with one of my parents or going to a Red Cross shelter, I went to a motel.
My biggest mistake was going back to my apartment for my one prescription medicine. I should have gone to a pharmacy and gotten a refill. Now, I get my prescription medicine by different means, so if I can’t go home and can’t go to my usual (very local) source for refills, I am going to have to a pharmacy with an urgent care clinic and get a prescription and my medicine. So this is the most obvious problem I have to fix.
If we have to bug out due to a tornado, the next biggest problem is making sure we have enough gasoline. My wife and I both tend to let the tank get below 1/4 full. Which is bad in the non-prepping world because the gasoline helps cool the pump at the bottom of the tank. I realize that in the event we have to bug out the last thing we want to do is go buy gas. If the tornado affects a large area, lots of people may be bugging out, and will probably be on their way to the gas station. The gas station may or may not have electricity. Better to have at least half a tank of gas at all times in both cars, and not have to worry about it.
“Better to have at least half a tank of gas at all times in both cars, and not have to worry about it.”
We try to keep ours full during the winter, at least. And I have several go-bags or get-home-bags I can take along in whatever car I’m using, but neither of the females cares at all about stuff like that and they’re guaranteed to lose them sooner rather than later, anyway. (they’ve lost countless cell phones, chargers, keys, wallets, contact lens stuff, etc., etc. over the years, and I get an email this morning that wife left her cell either at the house down there or at the work site, not very clear which; and this is RIGHT after she broke her phone by dropping it on asphalt and LOST my phone.)
I’m of the opinion that CCW is outta the question for either one of them, and they wouldn’t do it, anyway. We’ll see, as the Current Situation deteriorates further.
Imagine if the gummint deregulated drugs. You could have an emergency stockpile in your freezer and not have to worry about getting you thyroid meds that you will die in a couple of days of not taking them. Ditto other life keeping meds. I’m lucky. I’m not on any scripts, yet. There are plenty of people who will die in a week just from lack of meds during the Barackaylpse.
Regular firearm carry for people who routinely lose things might not be the best idea, regardless of other considerations.
“There are plenty of people who will die in a week just from lack of meds during the Barackaylpse.”
Mrs. OFD is in that ballpark, maybe two to four weeks and she’s gone. I bring up that she should get with the docs and start building a stockpile and it’s blown off and forgotten. One of her cousins, a judge in north-country Vampire State, can only miss a day and he’s gone. I’m gonna start ordering my VA-supplied BP meds earlier each cycle and build those up, but it’s not a life-threatening condition for me, anyway.
My sister is also in that state of needing meds DAILY and she HAS forgotten to take them for whatever reason/s (fembat mental chit going on at the time) and she’ll have gran mal seizures, bouncing off the walls and throwing grown men around like tenpins.
Nope, none of the women in this family should be doing the CCW thang, dat’s fo sho.
And it’s been at the point with me for a long time now that if for some reason I don’t have my CCW thing on, I feel nekkid. So I’m OFTEN in “gun-free” zones and they can kiss my ass.
@ofd,
I know there are a host of other considerations going on, but perhaps Princess could be cut back a notch? Take a step back, realize you are not going to go back to work at a nine to five in your field. Don’t piss away what you have waiting for that to happen. I’ve seen it too many times. Your new reality is your life will probably continue on like it is at this moment. Is your current spending on the princess sustainable if you don’t have an IT job? From 1700 miles away, it doesn’t look like it. Again, I know there are other, non-financial, considerations.
WRT gas in vehicles. I usually run down to near empty. I know. Bad! For some reason, I like filling the tank from O. To counter that, I’ve got a dangerous amount of stored gas at home. And our most likely disasters here are visible from days out, so there is time to top up. I’m vowing right now to start treating the 1/4 mark as empty…
WRT bugout… many people use the excuse they are too old, too fat, too infirm, etc and just plan to ‘hunker down.’ That’s awesome if you can arrange for the “right” disaster to strike. If there is 2 ft of water in your house, you don’t have much choice. Same with the brushfire moving toward you, or after your neighborhood is destroyed by a tornado, so you better have SOME plans for bugging out.
WRT planning… I’ve written about it before, but what works for me is:
I have lists. They vary according to the amount of warning I get, and are cumulative. So I have a 5 minute list, a 15 minute list, and a 30 minute list. They are all on a piece of paper folded and stuffed into a clear plastic “ID” holder/namebadge holder, on a lanyard with a tiny flashlight and a tiny leatherman. (5 and 15 on one side, 30 on the other) I have one for the wife too that covers kid stuff.
The idea is to grab the lanyard and start working the list for as long as I have time.
5 minutes
Grab and go bags
Guns
cert bag and IDs
Paperwork box- vital papers in a small fire safe box- have a shopping bag with it
Trauma Kit/Drug Bag, DOP kit
water bottles
laptops, NAS drive
15 minutes
Other PCs cpus
Commo kit
Mountain House
aquatainers
wedding pics
recipe book
tool kit
dog carrier (has leash harness and 1 week food inside)
30 minutes
builds off the above, but it’s all luxury
You can strip your house of every valuable thing in 10 minutes if you know you aren’t coming back.
If you don’t make a list while you are calm, you won’t remember when you are frantic.
nick
ADDED and I see that I need to update my lists and my BOB, as diapers are no longer needed.
If any disasters requiring bugging out hold off for a few more years, you can add diapers back in … for yourself.
“… you can add diapers back in … for yourself.”
Good one! Laff of the day so fah.
“Is your current spending on the princess sustainable if you don’t have an IT job? From 1700 miles away, it doesn’t look like it. Again, I know there are other, non-financial, considerations.”
We’re on the edge all the time here; paying for Princess one week means that a bill or two will be late, and vice-versa, plus we have the utterly random issuing of pay checks by wife’s employers in Mordor. Anywhere from two weeks to six weeks, very hard to sustain a budget, let alone spending. By the time she gets paid, a bunch of stuff is already late. Yes, when I was still working, this was much less of a problem but one of the things my brothers and I have noticed is that we could probably make a million dollars a week and the wives and daughters would spend it all anyway and bills and taxes would STILL be late. It’s like unto how work expands to fill the time allotted to it, supposedly. Or is that the other way around, I forget. Anyway, we have eight more months of college for Princess, but rest assured, once that expense goes away, they’ll find another one at least as big for us to take on.
I’m thinking that maybe if I’m sent to prison for the taxes they’ll finally wake up, or just laugh and say eff it, now the miserable old wack job is out of our hair.
I like Mr. nick’s 5-15-30-minute lists; I need to get that organized better.
How old is she? It seems to me that it’s reasonable for parents to pay for four years of college, but after that the kid should be on his own. Too many kids are dragging out their college years to five, six, seven or more. I assume that’s mostly to avoid the real world for as long as possible.
It seems to me that it’s reasonable for parents to pay for four years of college
The majority of financial advisers tell people to never pay for a child’s college. Let the student get a student loan, a scholarship, a grant, or a job to pay for their schooling. Parents should instead be saving that money for the parent’s retirement or for other financial needs.
Not speaking for OFD here, but my experience says that both parents need to be on board with letting the kid solve his own problems, and that if one parent gives in to whines or demands, that’s functionally equivalent to both parents giving in.
“How old is she? It seems to me that it’s reasonable for parents to pay for four years of college, but after that the kid should be on his own. Too many kids are dragging out their college years to five, six, seven or more. I assume that’s mostly to avoid the real world for as long as possible.”
Bingo! She’ll be 24 in June, and had a year abroad in Brazil during her high skool junior year and then took a year off after high skool to spend it on a Greek island and then Rome, Italy. She also used a couple of summers basically doing the old 19th-C European Tour that Brit aristos used to enjoy, only we’re not exactly British upper-crust here. In her defense she HAS worked shitty retail jobs and taken abuse from managers/bosses, and has done well academically at a very tough university. But she also changed her major at least once, which extended the college years, and seems to be able to find lotsa time on weekends and holidays to gallivant around New England and Quebec. I’m wondering what the latest caper being planned for this summer is….
My theory is that wife lavished attention and greased the skids for son and daughter as best she could, partly because she feels that’s what we’re SUPPOSED to do, forever, apparently, and also may be assuaging any guilt she has over their biological dad being killed in a car wreck when son was seven and Princess was a baby. Wife herself lost her own dad when she was a baby and her mom never remarried or had any other kids. This is the polar opposite of my own family, which was HEAVY with the male influence 7×24, and then reinforced repeatedly by my years in sports, the military and then the cops and even IT. I tried to break out of all that in grad skool, where the humanities departments are run by rabid matriarchies, but couldn’t hack it for very long.
“Let the student get a student loan, a scholarship, a grant, or a job to pay for their schooling.”
Again, we have an odd situation here; Princess is a dual U.S/Canadian citizen, has lived and worked in Quebec for at least a year and she speaks fluent French. So she goes to McGill for practically nothing; what’s killing us is her apartment rentals and living expenses up there and then the summer travels every year. Plus they BOTH are heavy consumers of clothes, shoes, toiletries, etc., and pricey organic foods. In any case, wife has allegedly told her she’s gonna be on her own dime after she graduates; we’ll see how that works out, and also what the deal is gonna be this coming summer. Mark my words, they’re cooking something up and I’ll be the last to know.
And then we have the 88-year-old MIL, who also gallivants all over the CONTINENT, but it means OTHERS have to step up bigtime and facilitate those travels. Neither of them ever seem to consider or appreciate that wife here is often utterly exhausted and sick half the time, or what we’re doing to keep this whole enterprise afloat with me not working or working as the case may be. A LOT of stress some weeks.
Lucky I don’t drink or dope anymore, I guess; it would simply make things much, much worse, and stuff I’ve learned since those days helps me to cope most of the time. But I still have those anger and bitterness issues and I still cling BITTERLY to my guns and religion. And hope to be a nasty and venomous thorn in the side of the Regime for the rest of my days on the planet.
Why are these people so desperate to silence our voices?
Because the free market has winners and losers. This applies to the market of ideas as well as to goods, and in the free market of ideas, the ideologues and true believers are losers. They can’t bear being losers, so all they can do is shut down the free market.
(Yah, I know your question was rhetorical. I was just using it as an excuse to call warmenists losers.)
Actually, I think that it is much worse than that. They are getting ready to impose a tax system on CO2 generation that will bring the USA to its knees. Your electric bill which is $100/month today, will be $150/month in 2017, $200/month is 2018, … Your gasoline bill is $200/month today, will be $300/month in 2017, $400/month in 2018 …
These costs will hit the poor first and then our manufacturing. They will send rebate checks to the poor, establishing a new welfare system that will be difficult to sustain and never stop.
Only by stifling dissent now can they do this horrible damage to our economy.
“…if one parent gives in to whines or demands, that’s functionally equivalent to both parents giving in.”
BINGO! Again.
Not related to them by blood so there was one strike. And then anything I tried to do was sandbagged and cut out from under me by the wife and grandma, repeatedly and continuously for the past twenty years. So I was always the asshole. The latter two parties have only just begun to see things my way, but it’s kinda too late, ya know what I mean? And we had nearly zero of this kinda trouble with our son. Who’s now making more in a quarter than I ever made in a year. But on the other hand, he has a 5’6″ 300-pound whiny wife and three screaming kids, one of whom evidently has some kinda developmental issues related to autism. And he lives in a state that is bankrupt and being overrun by swarms of immigrants and run by a Bolshevik junta.
Because the free market has winners and losers. This applies to the market of ideas as well as to goods, and in the free market of ideas, the ideologues and true believers are losers. They can’t bear being losers, so all they can do is shut down the free market.
It goes farther than that. They can’t stand it when someone else has more than they do. They would rather see everyone live in even worse poverty than the people of Zimbabwe, rather than be at the bottom rung of the economic ladder where they have job cleaning toilets and enjoying luxuries that people in Zimbabwe can’t even dream of like a trip to McDonalds.
+1,000,000
“Only by stifling dissent now can they do this horrible damage to our economy.”
And gee whiz, WHY oh WHY would they wanna do this to the economy???
(getting off OFD’s confessional series and whiny rants for a while)
As that infamous playbook page sez, if they wanted to destroy the country, what indeed would they be doing differently? But again, WHY destroy the country? Why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? Why knock us back to the level of Brazil, or Mexico in some areas, and run the place on the old Soviet police-state model? Cui bono?
Very true. I don’t think clearly under pressure. I don’t get frantic, I just don’t think very well.
@Dave, you aren’t alone, the “vapor lock” is a normal response to those conditions. You have to train your way past it. Think thru ahead of time what you’d do, visualize it, even rehearse it, and that will break the logjam. (deer in headlights, stunned look, etc)
It’s one of the reasons part of active shooter response training is to grab people you pass and get them moving toward the door. Otherwise they’ll just stand there. And this is true in all sorts of “rapidly changing environments.” (one thing just standing there with your mouth open does is it keeps you from triggering a ‘chase’ response in natural predators. This may be part of why we do it.)
nick
@nick,
You are completely right. That’s why we have to plan in advance. I have thought about having to bug out, and realize if we do, that my wife should drive, and I should pardon the expression ride shotgun. My wife is more comfortable driving than being a passenger, and if we have the luxury of a working cell phone GPS, I’m better at taking advantage of it. That wasn’t hard to figure out. Then I thought about the colloquial term for front seat passenger and remember the derivation, I realized that we don’t have a shotgun and I’ve never fired one. I don’t want to be sitting in the passenger seat holding a shotgun, I’m assuming barrel pointed up and out the window. But I want to have more information so I can evaluate how stupid the idea is.
So I have a couple of stupid prepping questions:
I have concluded there are a couple training classes I need to take. First I’m thinking I need to take the NRA’s Basic Shotgun class before I even contemplate loading a shell into one. The shotgun owner I know who would be the most obvious person to ask questions has been the subject of a funny lack of shotgun safety story that almost wasn’t funny. So I think the class is my best option. Am I expected to already own a shotgun if I take the class?
Second how much overlap is there between CERT training and Red Cross First Aid Training? I’m thinking I probably want to do both eventually, I’m just wondering which one comes first? Also the local CERT program may be hibernating…
So, it’s flooding here in Houston.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3548231/Incredible-aerial-images-reveal-horror-aftermath-deadly-Houston-floods-killed-six-forced-thousand-homes-residents-brace-rain.html
Some dramatic pictures at the link, if you can ignore the typically very poor writing.
If you looked at a map, you’d see that many of these areas, Katy, The Woodlands, Greenspoint (where 1000s were evac’d from apts, near the IAH airport) are outside Houston proper and don’t usually flood. We had a ton of water dumped on a widespread area, across a couple of different watersheds. Like everything else in Houston, location is critical to how you are affected.
I’m home with the kids and dry, no real interruptions except school being canceled.
Some lessons from the linked article:
-the typical advice on self defense blogs- “don’t be there” is especially useless in this case. Many of these areas would not normally be thought of as at risk. Some areas that ALWAYS flood, didn’t.
-you aren’t “trapped” in your home in need of rescuing unless you want to LEAVE. If that’s where all your stuff is, stay there… (as noted by EM personnel in the article)
– don’t drive into flood waters. JUST DON’T FUCKING DO IT. I’m familiar with several of the underpasses that are flooded, and they all have flood gauges. These are giant rulers that tell how many feet of water are in the underpass. LOOK FOR THEM, learn to read them.
-don’t drive faster than you can SEE. Several people rescued from flooded vehicles said the same thing- “I didn’t see that it was flooded.” Driving too fast in the heavy rain had them crashing into water before they could react and stop. Heavy rain = risk of flooding = slow the hell down
-flood waters are full of nasty stuff. You don’t want to be in them if you can avoid it.
-it’s not just snakes that are flushed from their homes by the flood waters
-look at a topo map of your area and see which roads are higher. Plan a route out of town.
-in Houston, the streets are designed as detention for flood waters. In other words, street flooding is NORMAL, EXPECTED, and DESIRABLE. Plan accordingly.
-everyone needs flood insurance. 1″ of flood water in your home will require replacement of ALL floor coverings, opening walls to allow them to dry, mold and moisture remediation, new trim around every door and all base molding, and a crapton of other work. If you aren’t in a flood plain, it should be cheap. BUY IT.
-120k lost power, 70k still dark. Some of those areas now have contaminated drinking water too. PLAN for it.
-I might have to seriously consider a snorkel kit for my truck. Imagine if something disrupted emergency response, or continuity of govt? What if the FSA starts burning stuff and it’s time to leave and you are in one of those isolated suburbs?
-my wife went out and cleared debris from our street’s storm drains. The street cleared. Two streets over, still flooded late yesterday. There are things you can do to help.
-I couldn’t find my waders. I bought them specifically for this situation, but moved them and forgot where. If you can’t find it, you don’t really HAVE it.
nick
@dave,
If you think you might be fighting from a vehicle, you want a weapon that works in that environment, with an emphasis on “SHORT”. Since Uncle Sam peed his panties over the idea of sawed off shotguns, there’s a real limit to how short you can go. As you already can imagine, sitting with a long gun, barrel out the window, doesn’t make sense. My $200 shotgun with the pistol grip is still too long to be used comfortably from the seat. If you want a shotty, something like the UPAS or Keltec KSG would be a lot more usable. A full size, high capacity pistol might be a better choice, and will be cheaper. There are rifle versions that would be good choices too.
WRT classes, I’m not familiar with the NRA shotty class, but my local range does a couple of different classes for different levels of owners. They definitely have one for the guy/gal who has never fired one before. Check with whoever is running the class for their requirements. I’d guess that most will want you to have your weapon before class, but maybe not.
WRT CERT vs RedCross.. The CERT program is 8 half days long, over the same number of weeks, and is very broad in coverage. You can look at all the modules online for free. CERT classes are FREE and you get a goody bag with CERT branded stuff in most places. (Cheap book bag style backpack, safety helmet, gloves, glasses, hi-viz vest, etc.) CERT does 2 medical modules. Their focus is immediate disaster response so they emphasize triage, not treatment. NO cpr for example. In a disaster/mass casualty event, if they’re not breathing, you move on… Motto is greatest good for the greatest number. The first aid module is focused on stopping bleeding, prepping for transport, and triage. The rest of the training covers Fire, Light Search and Rescue, the Incident Command System, Disaster Psychology, Terrorism/ NBC weapons, and in the ninth week an exercise where you practice the skills.
I recommend everyone take the CERT training. It’s broad but (necessarily) shallow, has lots of info for the preparedness minded, introduces you to EM folks, teaches the ICS method which is a national standard so you will understand the response structure, and in Harris County you become an official first responder with county ID. Participation in any real disaster is entirely voluntary- the hierarchy goes self, family, neighbors, community. It opens up further training opportunities, and service opportunities too.
The Red Cross training is focused on medical response and compliments the CERT training.
If you have an interest in ham radio, ARES and RACES groups provide training and opportunity for hams to serve their community during disasters and other events.
My personal feeling is that this is the time to get whatever training is available to you, especially cheap and FREE and official training. Further, this is the time to stack up certificates, ID badges, licenses, and vehicle stickers that could possibly help you with access or freedom of movement if things go sideways. A ham license will get you an exemption to operate a radio scanner in a vehicle in most states where that is otherwise illegal. Participation in ARES or RACES will get you some credentials and possibly a logo’d shirt that might help you. A locksmith license will allow you to move around with useful tools. A CERT sticker might get you waved thru a check point or put you first in line for vaccine distribution (Houston did just this as an exercise). A ‘friends of the police’ sticker from a Citizens On Patrol, or Community ride along program, or Citizens Police Academy program could help in an otherwise tense situation (as might a logo’d shirt and official ID) for example….FFL license will let you own and transport some things I might not be able to, CHL or CCW has obvious personal benefits…
In other words, get what you can. It can’t hurt and might save someone’s life.
nick
You can buy AR-15 pistols with 10 or 12 inch barrels and a collapsible shoulder stock that doesn’t violate any laws. The first time I saw one, I thought it was an actual M4.
All good tips from Mr. nick, per usual, and yet every year we see vids and stories about cretins driving into flood waters. Just like up here every winter some morons always drive onto the ice and fall through. Water is, like fire, a wonderful servant but a fearful master (stolen crib from G. Washington, IIRC). (so James Fenimore Cooper and G.W. BOTH, looks like…)
“-it’s not just snakes that are flushed from their homes by the flood waters…”
Also coffins. Some of them open.
“… So I think the class is my best option. Am I expected to already own a shotgun if I take the class?”
The NRA-sponsored classes up here at my range do not mandate you owning/bringing in whatever firearms the class is for; they usually have guns right there for ya, and you’d wanna ask them what would be the best choice for you and your particular circumstances, anyway.
“… I’m just wondering which one comes first? Also the local CERT program may be hibernating…”
Take what’s available right away. Our local CERT orgs also appear to be in some kinda limbo and no one minding the switch, which is odd considering the two major storms and flooding that hit this state in recent years. I have the Red Cross First Aid/Responder cert and it was just a full-day class, costing IIRC around a Franklin (or five Rosa Parks). The RC also does the longer and more intensive EMT and Paramedic training but it’s a substantial time and money commitment and you would probably also benefit from actually working on an ambulance crew as a volunteer or whatever at some point.
More good tips from Mr. nick and RBT.
I agree with the comments made about trying to utilize a shotgun from inside a vehicle, moving or not; better off with the handguns in that situation. Once outside the vehicle, however, both handguns and shotguns will have a limited range and pen capability for other hostile vehicles.
My own choices for a vehicle firearm and having to deal with probably multiple hostile threats, would be either an AK with folding stock or a Ruger Mini-30 likewise with folding stock. Keep it in a sports/gym bag like Adidas or whatever with at least half a dozen loaded mags and a small trauma kit. AKs and the Mini-30 are not all that expensive and have the knockdown and pen capabilities that an AR does not, although if truth be told, the 5.56 WILL pop through most vehicle body metal, but loses a bunch of energy doing so.
Thanks guys, I was figuring a shotgun will be pretty worthless while inside the vehicle, but I was thinking that when it comes to buying guns I go shotgun, handgun and then scary looking black rifle. I’m going to work on proficiency in the same order.
I’ll probably do the Red Cross First Aid first, then Basic Shotgun and then CERT training because that’s most available to least available as far as scheduling.
Yep, I didn’t want to sidetrack on the whole rifle issue.
SIG is adamant that that is NOT a shoulder stock BTW, using it as a shoulder stock and not an arm brace makes it a short barrelled rifle and an NFA tax item. This has gone back and forth with ATF and the latest is quoted from the Brownell’s catalog below my name. IF YOU SHOULDER A PISTOL WITH THIS BRACE, you have likely committed a felony and that is not something you want to do until SHTF.
Pistol in question:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/04/chris-dumm/pws-buy-ar-pistol-get-free-sig-brace/
And yeah, if the rules don’t make sense, welcome to the wacky world of gun control.
nick
I think setting aside money for retirement should be the priority over saving for kids college, but student loans are evil. We finally got rid of my wife’s student loans, and are going to steer our daughter toward education, but to come up with a plan to do so without loans.
@dave,
I think a bullpup design shotgun, particularly the high capacity ones I listed are a valid choice for ‘drive thru the looting on the way out of town’ gun. I own the KSG and it is very maneuverable. Add a red dot sight and it’s as close to point and shoot as you can get. Several local police agencies are now issuing them as trunk guns. Works in the confined space of the home too.
keltec and others have some nice folding rifles that shoot pistol ammo including several with magazine compatibility with Glock and S&W.
Whole nother kettle o fish though…..
nick
@dave, some of your choices might be limited by what state you live in. Keep state law in mind as well as Federal, and keep in mind anyplace you will transit thru on the way to your retreat/bunker 🙂
nick
Y’all shouldn’t be so hard on Princess. She’s soon going to get a well paying job and devote all her spare time to looking after Mr and Mrs OFD’s welfare…
Why so? In theory, the student is taking out loans for the improvement of his earning potential. They are a good investment.
In practice, of course, the education market is so skewed by government screwups that most students take out loans for what amounts to an extended party and have trouble repaying them. That’s the fault of the students and the government (and to a much lesser extent corporate recruiting departments), and is not an indictment of the idea of student loans.
I used to have a HS10B before I lost it in the river. It was comfortable to shoot with one hand.
And fuck the Second Amendment and all you bitter clinger serfs. We’re the government. Fuck you, that’s why.
EDIT: To clarify a point which may not have been clear, I’m incandescently outraged at F-Troop, the legislating judges, and all the rest of the cowards, retards, and scumbags who cannot or will not comprehend “shall not be infringed”. I have nothing bad to say about the firearms and accessories manufacturers who try to work around the ever-changing legislative, regulatory, and whimsical requirements imposed by the gun grabbers.
At least they jumped thru the hoops to make it available to anyone….
n
and yeah, over 50000 gun laws and ALL of them illegal under the black letter law of the land.
Imagine if a country artist had done this with BHO:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3548362/Rapper-YG-20-000-people-screaming-F-Donald-Trump-Coachella-launching-song-promises-riots-Donald-s-assassination.html
n
re the underclass threatening Trump and Trump supporters, I commented elsewhere that it sounds like incitement to riot to me. Oddly, the laws seem not to be evenly enforced.
Imagine if a country artist had done this with BHO
Where’s Sharpless, Jackwagon and Fartinacan? Oh, wait, WHITEY! don’t get no respect.
“…it sounds like incitement to riot to me.”
The three individuals mentioned by MrAtoz above should have long since been charged and tried for incitement to riot, particularly Rev. Sharpless. If Mr. SteveF or Rev. RBT or me had done the same, we’d STILL be in jail. Hey, I kinda like that: “Reverend Bob,” or “Reverend Robert.”
@Mr. Dave; make of it what thou will, but OFD’s choices for lethal defense are: shotguns and handguns for home and property defense, and folding-stock rifle for vehicles w/handgun backup. Other rifles for stand-off within 300 yards and then way beyond that to 1,000. I also try to stay with major reliable brands and calibers that are pretty common and easy to find, though there is a school of thought that sez those disappear first and fastest and it might be smart to keep one or two firearms in odd calibers, because those were still on the shelves during recent “shortages.” So I have .22 WMR and .41 Mag here, too. And wish I’d bought the Marlin lever-action .41 Mag when we could still get them fairly cheap.
And wish I’d bought the Marlin lever-action .41 Mag when we could still get them fairly cheap.
One of my relatives has a .44 Mag Browning lever action that I have dibs on. But, .44 Mag ammo was hard to get for a long while.
You could get the Marlin 1895 big loop in 45-70:
http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=Marlin-Model-1895-Guide-Big-Loop-Centerfire-Rifle&i=722588&r=view