Life as the Zero is not all sunshine and stun grenades…
I’m pleased about the acquisition of kerosene the other day. It brings current inventory levels to slightly higher that what Id originally wanted them to be. In short, according to my plans, I have extra. This is good. Kerosene is simply one fuel that I plan on having available. Its the most advantageous, as far as Im concerned. Its got longer shelf life than gasoline, burns hotter than alcohol, is cheaper than white gas, and is easier to store away than propane. Although, honestly, I think propane is the way to go…if I had a house somewhere out in the sticks it would run on propane. Of course, I’d also have to have someone come in once a year to fill the tanks and that might be a trick out in a really remote place….although you could fill a huge tank off of some 20# barbecue-bombs but it would take a while.
The AK is appealling to me more and more….its only selling point is its economy of function (cheap ammo, cheap mags) and its utter reliability. Still want a Yugo SKS though…just to keep around as a ‘disposable’ I-dont-care-what-happens-to-it semi-auto carbine.
Picked up the Ball Blue Book on home canning the other day. Theres about fifty tomato plants in the yard at the moment and when those babies start spitting out Romas I plan on pulling up some of the onions and garlic, clipping off some basil and oregano, and can some homemade spaghetti sauce. (‘Bunker tested, Zero approved’) I’ve a nice pressure canner that I’ve been wanting to try for a while and canning some tomatoes and spaghetti sauce seems like a good reason to give it a go. Yes, I could go the water-bath route for something like tomatoes which are high-acid but I want the extra margin of safety from the pressure canning method.
Fourth of July celebrations are being mentioned as possible terrorist targets…eh..maybe. I think the crown jewel for this year will be the Republican convention in NYC. Admittedly the goons that run NYC are going to be in no mood for any crap from anyone, be it protester, terrorist or self-described ‘anarchists’. But were I of the terrorist mind, I’d think the convention would be an ideal target. Of course, I am also predicting a Spain-style terrorist attack shortly before the elections in November.
One thing on the agenda that I really need to work on this year is radio communications. I’ve an ‘export’ radio that was tweaked out to work in ways the FCC would not approve of, that works on, I believe, 10 and 11-meter. It also puts out a fair amount of power. I need to get a good power supply for it but more importantly I need to get an antannae up for it. I could, I suppose, go the ham radio route but Im loathe to add myself to another federal agencies database. Besides, the situation in which I would need these communications is a situation in which the FCC is probably no longer around.
This reminds me, I also need to, at some point, get a nice radio scanner.
And, naturally, all of these devices must run on common size batteries (preferably AA or D) and also be adaptable to 12v systems. (AA and D are pretty much the most common battery sizes. If Im buying electronic gizmos I try to make sure they use one of those two sizes of batteries. Makes things alot easier. There are adapters out there that let you use AA in D devices, C in D, etc, etc, but Id rather simplify things by just standardizing battery sizes.)
Speaking of Fourth Of July…nows the time to buy ‘useful’ fireworks. Ive a recipe around here somewhere for making homemade teargas grenades out of 4oJ smoke bombs, road flares and crushed red pepper. Smoke generating devices are always nice to have around. And a surprising number of fireworks have useful applications as perimeter warning devices.
what my folks’d do with their tomatoes is make homemade tomato juice & from that they’d either drink it or make homemade chili
i also have a good recipe for Spaghetti carbonara
Still want a Yugo SKS though
I love my SKS. Even moreso that I can’t own an AK or an AR-15 here in stupid California.
I’ve a nice pressure canner that I’ve been wanting to try for a while
I’ve got an old All American No.7 15qt pressure canner. Mostly I use it to cook beans quickly for various things (hummus, lentil curry, chili, etc). I canned some chicken stock once, but all the lids didn’t seal properly. Apparently, there’s a trick to getting them just tight enough. I wish I had a garden so that I could make and can my own fresh marinara sauce.
One thing on the agenda that I really need to work on this year is radio communications. I’ve an ‘export’ radio that was tweaked out to work in ways the FCC would not approve of, that works on, I believe, 10 and 11-meter. It also puts out a fair amount of power. I need to get a good power supply for it but more importantly I need to get an antannae up for it. I could, I suppose, go the ham radio route but Im loathe to add myself to another federal agencies database. Besides, the situation in which I would need these communications is a situation in which the FCC is probably no longer around.
Though I’m also loathe to have my name in another government database, it’s nice to have the knowledge that comes with being an amateur radio licensee. If you were licensed to operate on HF frequencies you would probably also know that that 10-11 meter “import-only” rig would be pretty much useless for anything other than local communications right now and for the next few years as the sunspot cycle is in decline. The only useful bands during the day now are 20M, 17M, and 15M and I noticed recently that 15M wasn’t all that great. Even if the sunspot cycle were peaked, it is unlikely that one could get any sort of ionospheric propagation at night with 10-11M. Typical nighttime bands are 160-40M.
While it’s true that one doesn’t have to be a licensee to know these things and get the right equipment, I believe that a licensee is more likely to know these things and also more likely to be practice in the use of the equipment which is critical to being able to use it under various conditions. Also, I can think of many situations where you might need to use those frequencies for various purposes even while the FCC is still around. Regardless, anyone can legally use any frequency in the event of certain kinds of emergencies.
A word to the wise about canning, if you haven’t done it before – water bath is the way to go if you’re just making jam or whatnot, but the pressure route is much better for items high in acidity. My wife and I jammed eight quarts of strawberries last May, we just now ran out of jam and have been eating it steadily throughout the year. Go to a “U-Pick-It” type farm and stock up, it can be done cheaply and is rewarding practice.
For now my main interest is in the relatively local area when it comes to communications….something within about thirty miles or so. eBay seems to be a happy little place to find tweaked out gear that goes beyond the factory specs in regard to wattage and frequencies.
No, my communication needs are pretty simple at the moment..something that will receive and transmit on the same frequencies as the handhelds, picks up the frequencies on my perimeter alarms, and allows me to communicate with my buddies down the valley.
Does your home currently run with propane? We recently moved 11 miles up the road and no longer have natural gas service, instead being supplied with a large propane tank beside the house that needs periodic feedings.
Other than needing to be aware of when it might run out of fuel (a 3 day weekend without heat isn’t fun) and a dryer that required a retro-fit kit to accept propane, there hasn’t been much difference.
Ham License
If you have the license, it makes it a whole lot easier to practice with your radio gear for when TSHTF. In the meantime, there are a whole lot of lesser disasters that you as a licensed ham can assist with.
I personally think that hams would not be the first group of people to be rounded up in the event of totalitarian nastiness, and if they happen to come for you, defend yourself.
On that note, as a licensed ham for the past twenty years the only times government types came calling on me it were due to natural disasters where they needed emergency communications. On that note being involved with RACES/ARES is a good way to establish local government contacts.