Link – Concern Over Changes to Home Storage Centers Unnecessary

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This was brought to my attention in email. Thanks to the thoughtful person providing the linkl!

Over the past several weeks, misinformation and unnecessary concern has been circulating on blogs, over social media channels and by email regarding changes in operations at the Church’s home storage centers, which are located in the U.S. and Canada. No home storage centers are being closed, but the Church is making welcomed modifications in its operations at most of these centers that will help to better serve the needs of members of the Church, as well as significantly improve efficiency.

In all but 12 of the Church’s 101 home storage centers in the U.S. and Canada, patrons will no longer self-can products, but they may purchase these same items pre-canned or prepackaged at no additional cost.

Logistically, I can see where it makes loads of sense to deal with finished product rather than operating a can-it-yourself operation. However, I was always under the impression that the LDS church was into more than just logistics and wanted users of the facilites to ‘have some skin in the game’ by engaging in the canning process. Additionally, it’s also a ‘team building’ thing to get a bunch of strangers to cooperate for their common good…which is probably the goal along.

Regardless, I’ll need to visit the local cannery and see whats what. I pretty much fulfilled my needs from them a year or so ago but you really cant have too much stored food.

And a hearty ‘thank you’ to the LDS church for letting non-believing atheists like myself use their facilities. This is  why I’ll always be generous to their missionaries whenever possible.

Cardboard ammo boxes

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Years and years ago, back when I ordered my reloading stuff from Midway, I got a deal on some surplus cardboard military .45 ACP ammo boxes. If youve never seen one, they are small tray-like boxes that hold 50 rounds. The end flaps fold over into the rows of ammo to keep tings somewhat stable. Military ammo used to be packed like this for quite a while…no idea if it still is. Here’s an image of the military style box. For my needs, this was a handier way of storing things rather than a bulkier styrofoam-tray-n-box. My anticipated need is to be abble to grab a box of ammo and stuff it into a bag or pack and not worry about discarding/losing a $1 plastic ammo box. Basically, I wanted a disposable ammo box.

Some aftermarket versions of these things show up from time to time but they aren’t very common and they are usually limited to just the .45 ACP caliber. While .45 ACP is an okay caliber (it isnt a death ray, contrary to what the dinosaurs think), my autopistol logistics revolve around 9mm, mostly. So, where do I find boxes for the 9mm?

,Rawles over at SurvivalBlog had a link the other day to these guys. Who not only sell the pistol ammo cardboard boxes, but also ones for the usual Evil Black Rifle calibers. Heck, I’ll risk a few bucks and get some to try out. Ordered up some 9mm, 45, 40 and .308 boxes. When they get here I’ll try ‘em out and give you my impressions. I hope they’re a good product, they’d make storing ammo a bit more convenient and cheaper since at $0.20 each I can afford to repackage a large amount of ammo and throw away the boxes without guilt. If these work out, I’ll probably be getting a lot of these.

GP-100

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Ah, the GP-100 arrived today. Another gun rescued from a life of not belonging to me. Came with some competition speedloaders too. This thing was used as a competition gun by a fella so it has replacement springs to give it a smoother, slicker trigger pull. As sweet as the dounle-action is, I’ll probably pick up a set of factory springs and put them in. I want this gun as a general-purpose revolver and I’d like the heavier springs to ensure good firing pin hits.

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As you can see from the photo, theres some carbon markings on the cylinder. Anyone have any ideas on best way to remove ‘em? Keep in mind I dont have a parts tank, hazmat suit, or EPA certifications….so something over-the-counter would be nice.

ETA: Would not have believed if I hadnt seen it with my own eyes: pencil eraser does the trick!

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Freezer fun

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Lately, as in the last month or so, my upright freezer seems to have been developing a rather intensive frost problem. Its a 20 year old freezer and I suspect that the door seals were starting to fail and warm air was getting in there, condensing and creating the amazing amount of frost. How amazing? I am not kidding when I sawy that when you open the freezer door it looks like this.

So, here’s where logistics problems come in. The smart money says: defrost fridge, clean it up, check all the seals, replace if necessary, restart freezer, bring to temp, watch for a few days, and load it back up if no problem.

Thats the smart thing to do. Trouble is, where do I keep a couple hundred pounds of meat in the meantime? Am I supposed to rent a meat locker, chisel all the meat out of the fridge, bin it up, run it to the truck, race across town, hurl it into the meat locker, and then reverse the process a few days later? No, the solution we went with was this: the freezer has worked for twenty years, it’s time to pull the plug (Ha! I kill myself sometimes.) and let it go after serving for two decades and replace it with a new chest freezer. As it was written, so shall it be done.

More logistics issues followed. The biggest was this: I have a bunch of preparedness gear and supplies stashed in my house. I do not let just anyone into my house and virtually no one into my basement. So who the frak is going to help me haul a freezer down a flight of steps? Well, there’s only four people I trust enough to let them into my house like that – one has moved away, one has mediocre upper body strength and the other two have tight schedules. Still, managed to get one of them in there and we got it down the stairs. So now comes an even greater adventure: shuttling food from freezer A to freezer B.

You would think this would be a snap, right? I stand at one freezer, toss a steak across the room to the missus, she catches it and stuffs it into the new freezer, right? Nope. Remember that little frost issue? Every package that comes out of the freezer looks like something that crawled out of abominable snowman’s butt. Every vacuum-sealed stake was caked in frost. Solution? Every package had to be quickly dunked into a bucket of hot water to get the frost off, dried with a towel, and then carefully organized and placed in the new freezer. All the while, the door to the old freezer is wide open, things are thawing and the clock is tick, tick, ticking. Hey, no pressure.

So we got it done and in the process took an inventory. The old upright is thawing as we speak and once its done doing that and dried out I’ll check it over and turn it back on to see if this frost problem persists. If it doesnt, I might keep it around as a backup freezer in case I ever need to defrost the other one.

From a preparedness standpoint, this was a bit informative…I got to pull out some stuff outta the freezer that is a couple years old but, thanks to the vacuum packaging appears to be doing just fine. This was also a reminder that I need to get off my butt, stop whining about it, and just put out the money and buy a bloody Honda eu2000 already.

 

More invitations to OPSEC fail

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I seem to be getting more and more of these sorts of emails these days. This sort of thing can never be a good idea. Theres just no reason to do this sort of thing. But, I mention it here in case anyone wants to take a swing at it. I wonder if maybe someone could troll them by being so amazingly over-the-top that they think they’ve hit ratings gold.

Hello,

My name is Jessie and I’m a casting assistant for Metal Flowers Media. We are in the process of casting for a reality TV show and are searching for zombie hunters, preppers, and apocalypse specialists who have the expertise to speak boldly, passionately, and fearlessly – and can show off their preparedness for the coming apocalypse. We are accepting applicants of any age that are serious about the matter and I think you would be a perfect candidate for the show! Would you be interested in anything like this or know anyone within your group that may be interested? You can reach me at jessie@metalflowersmedia.com or my cell 303-818-0767.
Thanks!
Jessie Davis
Casting Assistant
Metal Flowers Media, LLC
720-310-5338
………………………………………..
Web// www.metalflowersmedia.com
FB// facebook.com/metalflowersmedia
Twitter// @metalflowers

moar gunz! – pt. II

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A little late to the party, but somehow we’ll find room in the safe for it:

9030208168_98eae70dcf_zReally, more of a competition rig than a ‘practical rig….G35 w/ fiber optic front sight, aftermarket rear sight, trigger job, spare mags with basepads, mag holders, Bladetech holster and a Tactical Solutions .22 kit w/ three mags. Price? Oh..well…I don’t want to be tacky….but this whole deal cost less than what dealer price is on a new G35 all on its own,

Yeah, kinda stumbled into the deal. This should be the end of the gun buying for a while and we let our respective wallets recover. (Although the GP-100 is paid for, just waiting for it to arrive now.)

moar gunz!

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There has been a bit of an orgy of gun-buying going on around here as of late. However, the firearms circle-of-life does not come cheaply..and some guns in the safe are sent on their way to make room for new additions. What sort of new additions? A Glock 34, a Glock 35 and a Ruger GP-100. Who in the gun safe got voted off the island? The wife’s Kimber Pro Carry II that probably hasn’t had more than 200 rounds through it in the last six years. While 1911′s are fun guns, to me they just are not suitable candidates for our anticipated uses. They can be finicky, parts can be expensive, the guns themselves are spendy, and the magazine capacity is fairly limited. So…I keep my old Springfield 1911 for nostalgia’s sake but I rarely use it in any other capacity than at the shooting range. (Once in a while, I’ll carry it afield but thats usually because I have better field holsters for it than I do for the Glocks.) I keep all the support equipment for the 1911 so if the day comes, I could certainly use it and maintain it for quite a while but I’d have to go through about a half dozen Glocks before I hit that stage.

The Glock 35 is in .40 which is not a caliber we plan on doing much with. The missus wanted a race gun for Open Class and this thing came to us in a crazy good deal…comes already tweaked out for competition, comes with some competition mags, and even a Tactical Solutions .22 conversion kit…all for less than the dealer price of a new G35. So..yeah…had to get that.

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The Glock 34 was, I thought, for me but a miscommunication has also landed that one in the wife’s competition loot pile. I’ll have to satisfy myself with the GP-100 as my new gun-o-the-month.

I’m actually a Smith and Wesson fan but, honestly, the Rugers tend to be a bit more robust and durable than pretty much any other revolver. Given my druthers, for a .357 I’d face the world with a Smith 681 in each hand but they just won’t be as durable as the Ruger. I have a Smith 28 sitting in the safe now and theres really no reason for me to keep it so I should probably Gunbroker that one as well and use the money to get another GP-100. The GP-100 is about the same size as Smiths L-frame series so perhaps there will be some cross-platform compatability in terms of holsters and speedloaders.

And although it’s not a new gun it may as well be – I drank a couple gallons of Magpul kool-aid the other day and tweaked out one of my old school non-flattop AR rifles. I’ve been carrying around the PTR when hunting and the HK-style of sling attachment and carry was very appealing to me. Sadly, even though we’ve had a bout fifty years of M16 development we still have the old-style sling attachments. I pulled off the factory handguards and stock and added the MOE rifle Stock and Handguard, that was half the battle. The other half was then mounting the Sling Attachment point up front and getting the two-to-one point QD Sling. So, now I can carry the gun pretty much the same way I carry the PTR but without the network of around-the-stock loops of webbing that are normally needed to convert an AR to that style of carry.

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Still have to order in the matching replacement pistol grip, but this is how it looks so far. The biggest drawback I see so far to this stock is that while it does have a storage compartment, the shape of it is completely incompatible with the GI cleaning kit. That annoys me. And, yeah, that Magpul Kool-Aid can be an expensive drink. But, I got the features I wanted, the color change to thegun that I wanted, and a few other mounting possibilities are now available, so I don’t mind spending the money if I get what I want the way I want it. Honestly, I’ll probably only do one or two ARs up this way, one rifle and one carbine, and see how I like them.

And, finally, my 30-rd 9mm Beretta factory happysticks arrived:

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So there you have it…a gun-centric week so far and it’s only Tuesday. THings to do this week: set up the big Dillon and crank off some ammo so the wife can start playing with her new G34.

 

Convenience packaging – batts at CostCo

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One of the basic things about preparedness that youre just going to have to get used to is that you wind up buying things in two sizes: huge, gigantic, Costco-sized containers/quantity or tiny, itty-bitty single-serve sizes in giant quantity.

Why the disparity? Well, when youre hunkering down at your home or retreat you have no problem dipping a tablespoon or two of ketchup out of your gallon jug. But if youre out in the field, sleeping in your car, or otherwise living out of your pack, you’ll be better served with those little fast-food packet sized offerings.

Problem is, the smaller you get to a quantity of a product, the higher the premium (usually). For example, if you bought a five-gallon pail of mustard and you then bought a case of fast-food packets that added up to five gallons you’d see that, almost certainly, the packets cost more on a cost-per-ounce basis than the bucket.

This is understandable, naturally,  because while the empty five gallon bucket costs more than the empty foil packets, the five gallons of mustard only needed one bucket…the five-gallons of packets, however, required about a thousand individual foil packets and were probably more  resource-intensive to fill – thus, higher price per unit.

Are there times when the convenience of the packaging is enough to offset the increased cost? Sure. Take that condiment example I just gave.

I mention this because I was up at CostCo to day and stumbled across these:

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They are a ‘bulk’ package of Duracell batteries that are broken down into ‘matchbooks’ of four batteries. Each smaller cardboard box contains four AA or AAA batteries. Why is this handier than the bulk packages? When I grab a handful of batteries to throw in a pack I always have to put the batteries into some type of holder or tape them together as a bundle. Doing t his keeps the battery contacts from shorting out against each other or other metallic items in my pack. This packaging helps to prevent that – just grab a box of four and toss it in the bag. Additionally, we all have ‘junk drawers’ with loose batteries floating around…this solves that problem neatly. Now, obviously, if youre disciplined and organized enough, you can do this sort of thing on your own; no need for a pre-packaged solution. But some fast math showed me that in this particular case not only is there no increased cost, the batteries were actually $0.25 cheaper for the entire package than if I had bought the bulk battery packages. So: no added cost for convenience packaging.

If youre the kinda guy whose particular flavor of apocalypse includes ‘trade goods’ and bartering (or giving away your hard-earned gear as ‘charity’) then this sort of packaging definitely has some attraction. For setting up small caches or bugout kits these would also be convenient choices. My only complaint is that AAA-batts are not something we have much need for…we standardized around D-, AA- and CR123-batts. To be fair, though, I do keep a  very small quantity of AAA batts on hand for some non-preparedness toys we keep around like remote controls, tiny LED lights, etc.

Not sure if this is a CostCo-specific item, a temporary ‘test market’ type of packaging or what but it seems like something that would be handy.

Cool

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Summer is apparently on its way here in Big Sky Country. Im not a fan of hot weather and while the days in Montana can often get up into the 90′s (or worse) they usually cool down by about 20-30 degrees at night so you can sleep comfortably with nothing more complex than a fan in the window. If it really gets objectionable, I can always retreat to my basement where its usually a constant sixty something degrees.

I feel bad for folks that live in regions where the weather is always Too Damn Hot and basements are a rarity. (I’m looking at you, south-east USA.) I cannot imagine living in a place where, should the air conditioning go out, there is no recourse to cooling down short of subersion. How the heck did people live in these places before the advent of electricity and ceiling fans?

On the other hand, the winters here will, without heat or electrical power, kill you in short order. While the folks in Georgia or Alabama may think the world is ending when an inch-and-a-half of snow hits the ground there it’s really pretty lame compared to a week of -10 degrees and windchills in the -40 range.

On the bright side, the hot, sunny summer months are when a couple PV panels would be doing the most work so one might be able to charge enough of a battery bank to run an electric fan for a few hours a night. MacGyver a swamp cooler with some bins of water and a rack of hanging towels and a person might make it even in the hottest climes.

One thing I’ve always been curious about trying – since we are told that the temperature underground is fairly constant, why couldnt a person have a network of underground tubing to draw air throguh? Bury it five or six feet underground and draw warm air through one end and after travelling a few hundred feet the air would be cooled and come out the other end. Only drawback I can think of, which might not really be a drawback, would be condensation form in the tubes but that could be drawn out as well to provide water.

Like I said, in my particular region it drops 20-30 degrees at night so I’m never too worried about keeping cool enough to sleep. I can always set up a tent in the yard and sleep out there at night and be nice and cool.

Basements, though…..thats where its at. Cool temperature, fairly consistent year round…I feel bad for folks that dont have one.