Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

A few months back I was talking to one of the local cops and, as often happens, the topic turns to gear. He had a new LED flashlight he was testing out and I asked if I could examine it. The flashlight in question was the Pelican 8060…an LED flashlight designed and marketed towards the LE community. I tried it out in the dark parking lot there at the police station and was mightily impressed. Most lED lights tend to have their beam diffuse over distance so that, up close, theyre great but at distant ranges they scatter and wind up being almost useless. Not this thing…this baby was like the landing lights on a 747. I lit up buildings a block away with concentrated, focussed light and it was mightily imrpessive. I dont think any of my Krypton-bulbed MagLites do as good a job.

The missus was in the market for a new flashlight, her rechargeable MagLite having gone MIA somewhere. So, biting the bullet, she dropped the $180 for the rechargeable Pelican 8060. After playing with this thing further, I can say that if you can afford it this is a great flashlight. Im not going to go over the details, you can get them here in this review. One thing I dislike is that if you , for whatever reason, want to swap out the rechargeable battery with regular batteries you have to use ‘C’-batts. Now, the only things Im aware of that take C-batts are sex toys and various obscure devices that are seldom encountered. If Pelican made this thing to take a rechargeable battery unit and the much more common D-batts I would be thrilled. My other complaint is that there is no attachment point for a lanyard, however the more creative amongst us can fab something up pretty easily with some zip ties, I’d imagine.

Not really a flashlight for looking under the bed for your shoes or creeping around in the attic, this flashlight is definitely geared more towards outdoor use and tactical/emergency use with its brilliance. It’ll blind someone quite nicely if youre needing that sort of ability. Although it is of plastic/polymer construction it feels solid enough that you could crack heads with it if the need arose.

Price aint cheap but, dude, this thing makes every MagLite I’ve ever seen look like a toy. And I like MagLites. If Pelican makes this thing compatible with D-batts Ill be one of the first ones in line for it.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ninety percent of the time, the gun Im carrying around is a Glock. However, I do like revolvers and have quite a few of them. Mostly in, unsurprisingly, the common caliber of .38 & .357. While I do use speedloaders (Safariland ones) I also keep a bunch of the Bianchi Speed Strips around. For those of you who arent revolver dinosaurs, the Speed Strips are little plastic strips that hold six rounds of .38/.357 ammo in a straight line. You slip two cartridges into your cylinder’s chamber and ‘peel’ off the rest of the strip. Repeat two more times and you’ve loaded your six-shooter. The design is actually rather old and similar products were in existence a hundred years ago. These were an alternative to speed loaders and they work quite well. Why would you use them instead of a speed loader? Well, for one thing, they are caliber specific rather than gun specific. I havea S&W 36, S&W 10, and an S&W 28…I would need three different speedloaders. However, the Speed Strip works with any .38/.357 swingout-cylinder revolver, regardless of maker.

Bianchi literature years ago suggested the Strips would be available in other calibers but that never came to pass. A shame since a lot of folks carry bigger guns these days than .357s. Since Bianchi has shown no interest in the subject, another company has started making Speed Strips under their own name and in other calibers. While I prefer speedloaders for their quickness, there is a very nice convenience to just grabbing a few strips of .38 ammo and walking out the door without having to worry if I picked up the correct speedloader for a particular gun. Anyway, for you dinosaurs that still use the wheelgun, I figured this link may prove interesting. I’ll be getting a few for my Smith .44 Special and a few other guns as well.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Anyone notice the increased media attention to the swine flu situation? Hamthrax was all the rage earlier this year as the second coming of the 1918 Flu, then the bubbles were burst with objective observations like “regular flu kills more people than swine flu”, then there was a sharp drop in media attention to the issue, and now we’re being told to expect a large amount of Americans to get it (although, it is reported, many already have it and simply don’t know it).

Personally, Im pretty unconcerned about the flu from a medical standpoint. I’m probably as healthy right now as I’ve ever been and while a bout of the flu can knock me on my ass for a week or so I am quite confident it won’t kill me.

What interests me far more, and should interest you as well, is the non-medical effect that such an outbreak would have. Schools would close, medical facilities would be overtaxed, some industries and services would be hamstrung by workers calling in sick or not showing up, and the financial considerations are impressive too.

Is it the end of the world? Not unless you die from it, no. But if youre smart you’ll start thinking about how it would affect you and what steps you’ll need to take to mitigate those problems. For example, if your business shuts down or cuts back on hours because of an outbreak are you going to have enough money to make up for the lost income? If local markets are cleaned out by people in a frenzy of panic buying are you good to go with what you’ve already got in your cabinets? Got enough bleach, disinfectant and Kleenex around? You prepared to curtail your social life and stick close to home until it blows over? Are you aware enough to make sure you don’t handle doorknobs, telephones, keyboards shopping cart handles, bank pens, or any of a myriad of items that may have been handled by some wheezeing, mucous-dripping flu sufferer? Bleach wipes will be your friend in a very big way.

I’m not worried about any of that very much. We’re pretty we’ll covered on most of those fronts. If anything it may be a macabre form of entertainment watching the less prepared folk panic and implode. The drawback to that sort of entertainment, however, is that they outnumber us exponentially and that makes them politically powerful…next thing you know some nosebleed in the Senate is saying we ‘have to do something’.

Speaking of doing something, the goofballs in Massachussetts (State motto “Another boilermaker, Senator Kennedy?”) passed a public health law in anticipation of a hamthrax episode that, among other things, gives appointed public health drones the power to enter private property without the usual niceties like a warrant. Sort of a ‘Patriot Act’ for the public health crowd. You know, if you shop around you can still find old people who remember when the sheriff would nail a quarantine notice to someone’s house or farm. ‘Course, back then there were leper colonies as well. Isolation does tend to slow down these pandemic things. And while Im no fan of the ‘do it for the public good’ credo, I think people are far less likely these days to self-quarantine in the interests of preventing the spread of disease.

But, under the guise of ‘doing something’ about the ‘public health’ these goons want to be able to do an end run around protections afforded to us constitutionally. Nothing new there, I suppose….The TSA and their shenanigans are ample proof that constitutional niceties can be disregarded under ‘heightened circumstances’.

So, really, it’s standard operating procedure – stock up and shut up.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
My tomatoes are starting to ripen and I pulled the first one off the plant the other day. My peppers are doing nicely and the basil has turned into quite the shrub. Basil, tomatoes, peppers….add in some garlic and onion plus a little meat and you’ve got a snazzy meal going on there.

I planted two different types of tomatoes this year and both seem to be doing well. I was especially interested in one that was promoted as a cold-weather variety. (Hey, they say its from Siberia!) It seems to be doing well here in Montana. Our frost date is around June so you can’t really start stuff outdoors too early and expect success. Tomatoes tend to be a wee bit sensitive about the cold, so I try not to put them outside until the last minute. Seems to have worked so far though, none of the plants has died or failed to produce.

The plants that I put in five-gallon buckets are doing quite well, and are bigger than the same plants being raised in pots. I very much like the buckets for their portability and modularity…I can just pick up a bucket and face it in/out of the sun if necessary, also it makes watering very efficient – simply fill the remainder of the bucket with water and it all goes where it needs to, etc, etc. I think next year I’m going to do about a dozen of these tomato plants in buckets. I’ll be able to affix a trellis or other climbing aid right to the side of the bucket.

The peppers, which previously have been a little fussy, will definitely go in the buckets. The Hungarian peppers I’ve got going now are doing wonderfully and I think I’m going to go long on them next year and plant enough to can.

This years garden was very light…maybe a dozen tomato plants and that many pepper plants. However the positive results Im seeing are making me think that next year will be the year of the huge garden.

In addition to the peppers and tomatoes, the basil is doing great and the dill is coming along nicely as well. About the only failure has been one or two pepper plants that just don’t seem to want to amount to anything more than stubby weeds. So be it. That’s natural selection in action.

If I could grow some garlic and onions, and maybe a couple chickens, I’d have one hellaciously good meal growing out there….a nice cacciatore or some fajitas. Still, although urban livestock is on the rise I’m not ready to put a couple chickens in the yard. Although, really, it might not be *that* difficult and it would be nice to have fresh eggs. Plus, they’d eat the weeds. Hmmmmm.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Winter is coming and I need to get on track for that. Plenty of kerosene in reserve, so we’re good on that. I do need to get out the kerosene heaters and clean them up, check the wicks, etc, etc. Propane is a very nice alternative fuel for lighting and heating but I just like the kerosene…its stores quite well, is versatile, is about as safe to store as anything else, and won’t explode. Plus, my lamps, stoves and heaters can burn it. To be fair, I do have propane stove and lamps as well along with a goodly stash of 1# bottles. Redundancy….it ain’t just a river in..uhm…never mind.

What I really need to stop dragging my feet on, in regards to winter, is making sure the house is as weatherproofed as possible. I foresee a date with me, a caulking gun and a buncha windows. Also need to change out the furnace filters while Im at it. No rest for the wicked. On the other hand, anything that prevents a $300 heating bill is worth it. That’s more money to be used for other things or socked away against the uncertain future.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Man, talk about ugly.
Here’s an update on that nursing home incident during Hurricane Katrina.
I would have thought that a facility like this would be a little more prepared…especially since hurricances usually give you at least a few days warning. But, really, when youre three feet below sea level don’t you think it might be a good idea to move your electrical facilities to the second floor or higher?

Easy to Monday-morning-quarterback these things, though. Still, its a chilling and heartbreaking example of poor planning and folks being forced into hard decisions.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

On the right, bell peppers. On the left, the “I dont think thats too many seeds for one pot” basil collection. Just watering the basil fills the air with that lovely aromatic smell. Mmmmm…..pistou!

What we have here are the Hungarian peppers that Im growing in a discarded 5-gallon bucket. Theyre doing very nicely and are convincing me that, as far as container gardening goes, the discarded bucket is the way to go. While I like the look of the traditional style clay pots (as in the first photo) I like the cheapness, durability and potability of discarded buckets better.

Not shown is the dill, which may or may not get used for pickling peppers, and the tomatoes which are doing pretty good although I really should have staked them out earlier. Next year, I’ll screw some old conduit onto the sides of 5-gallon buckets and use that for trellising tomato plants.

Basil, tomatoes, peppers…..get some garlic and onion going and we have a party.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Hmmm…this is interesting.

,Rawles linked to this article but it isn’t until you read further that you realize the religious survivalist type referred to is the head honcho over at Frugal Squirrels. Im sure the guy at FS has his own particular take on the situation but I imagine that whatever his argument to the .gov types are it’ll be punctuated with a good deal of self-righteous religious zeal and impromptu interpretations of the law.

I do read the stuff over there at Frugals but I have a hard time dealing with the outrageous hypocrisy they have. Normally, I expect that from the superstitious types but I find it amazing they don’t seem aware of their double-standards. For example, they’ll rant endlessly about those darn Muslims and their wanting to impose Islamic law and how terrible it would be to live in a country ruled by such religious laws…then they’ll lament how the US needs to have its laws based on their holy texts and belief system. Hey, a theocracy is a theocracy no matter whose invisible friend is at the helm.

Another thing that I find annoying about the place is that they’ll delete a post that links to anything they consider offensive. For example, Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit” television program did a really great job skewering gun control. Someone posted a link to it and that link was deleted. The reason? Because the name of the show was offensive. ‘Course these are the same folks that’ll post about how all the ’sodomites’ need to be killed and that, essentially, if you don’t believe in their particular flavor of religion you’re obviously evil. Personally, after 42 years on this planet I’m pretty hard to offend and ‘bad language’ doesn’t even come close. I’m more offended by someone saying we need to kill a segment of society because someone’s imaginary friend told them to.

Of course, the head guy over there is quick to remind people that it’s his party and if you don’t like it you can pack up your bandwidth and go elsewhere. And thats absolutely true. Sadly, I think its a rotten thing to stifle discussion because you don’t agree with other peoples opinions. Im not saying that you cant use the banhammer on someone whose posts are just endless profanity and racist diatribe, but thats not the same as simple and polite disagreement.

So why do I still read the stuff over there? Once in a while theres a poster or two who can be rational and reasonable without dragging things down into a ‘my god is better than your god’ flamewar. Also, I find myself unable to turn away from the drama that sometimes ensues. Some poor bastard says his flavor of Christianity is slightly different than everyone elses and the fur starts flying. For a group that disdains .gov intrusion into peoples lives they sure don’t seem to find anything ironic about wanting to enforce their policies and beliefs into the lives of people who don’t share their beliefs.

This article about the right-of-way/road issue is going to be interesting on so many levels. I’m curious to see how it turns out. Im especially interested in seeing how the guys over at FS portray their side of it. I am certain that, no matter how it plays out, the guys from FS are going to come out of this looking like tinfoil-hat wearing religious zealots.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Not sure why, but for some reason I seem to be getting enthused about hunting season. Its pretty early to be even thinking about it since season doesn’t open until November. Still, for some reason I find myself looking forward to it. I suspect that its just me getting a hankering to grab a buncha cool gear and head out into the boonies for a while. Well, if that’s the case, so be it. Who am I to argue with such urges?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
A buddy of mine brought by his Kifaru Paratrap for me to play with. I was kind of interested in one of these as a ‘just in case’ shelter for this hunting season in case I wound up getting stuck somewhere. However, after setting it up and examining it, I think it would work out rather nicely for someone who wants to keep weight to a minimum. Coverage and ‘floor area’ is more than if you used the classic standby of a poncho and some paracord. More importantly, this thing compresses to something you could fit in an M16 3-mag pouch and weighs less than a pound. It has no floor, so youre going to have to either be okay with laying on the ground or perhaps roll out your poncho to use as a groundcloth. (or, a ground pad if you have one). Color is a nice neutral brown that blends with pretty much everything. A fascinating accessory for this thing is a vestibule that has a cutout for a stove. Kifaru makes a stove that folds flat and has a rollup stovepipe that, literally, gives you a woodstove you can fit in your pack. Very clever. Anyway, the Paratarp looks like something I might need to add to the Christmas gift list. Price is typical of Kifaru, a little south of $200, but I must say that Kifaru seems to be a pretty good example of getting what you pay for. For giggles I set up the Paratarp and then set up a poncho shelter. The Paratarp had more room, offered more protection from the elements, and was a lot lighter when rolled up. The only advantages to the poncho shelter are its price, about 1/10th the price of the Paratarp, and its multitask role as a poncho.

I’ve been fortuitous in that I’ve never been forced to overnight unexpectedly out in the sticks. It’s been close a time or two, though. If I did have to overnight in some inclement weather, this thing and my Woobie would make quite the difference…and given the rather light weight of both products theyre things that wouldn’t be objectionable to keeping in the hunting pack ‘just in case’. The prices though….oy.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
A friend of mine introduced me to curry. Im fairly predictable in my cooking and dining tastes. I have no problem eating the same thing over and over if its something I like. Some folks have a problem with that, but it suits me just fine. I suspect that if there was a 50# of Purina People Chow in the store, and I liked it, I’d live off it. (Two cups a day. One if Im trying to slim down. And maybe crack a raw egg over it if I want my coat to get glossy.) Anyway, the curry was interesting because all of the ingredients (curry paste, curry powder, onion, chutney, salt, pepper, lemon juice, tomatoes, etc, etc.) can be had in long-storage form. This means that a fella with 100# of rice sitting in a drum has a new option. This, naturally, interests me.

There are a few ‘cookbooks’ out there for cooking with long-term food and I’ve read the majority of them. They all seem rather bland and repetitive to me. Of course, this all depends on your idea of ‘long term’. For example, a can of tomatoes is good for a couple years whereas a jar of ginger may only be good for three months.

Still, theres very little that’s packed in cans and jars that won’t keep for at least a year or two these days.For example, I bought some spaghetti sauce when it was on sale a year or two ago and still use it. Tastes fine and keeps fine. (Of course, how you store things makes a tremendous difference in these matters.)

The missus has been reading backpacking magazines and as I was flipping through one I noticed that they have recipes for ‘on the trail’ meals. These meals require food that requires a minimum of preparation and doesn’t need a lot of refrigeration. So, I think I’ll have to start perusing the backpacking recipe books and whatnot.

Speaking of food, if anyone is interested I have an excellent deal on freeze-dried pork chop pieces. These are from a contract run of pork chops for the .mil. In the drying process some of the pork chops broke and therefore were rejected. But, hey, four 1-oz. pieces of pork chop is the same as one 4-oz. pork chop, right? More importantly, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper. Freeze dried, raw (so cook ‘em after you rehydrate them), with a thirty year shelf life. I only have a couple cases sitting here but if anyone wants some theyre $30/can. MSRP on the whole pork chops is about twice that. Email me at zero@commanderzero.com if you don’t want to spend the apocalypse as a vegetarian.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

A couple interesting ideas and concepts.

This one appears to be about as practical as a condom dispenser in a church bathroom. Its a ‘roll along’ frame that ’slinkies out’ to become some sort of odd looking shelter. I suspect this is like those bizarre ‘creations’ you see on fashion runways that no one would ever actually wear – an experiment in design and function that meets with wirtually no real-world success or interest.

This second one is a bit more clever. A jacket with a built in tent. After playing with a buddies Kifaru Paratarp I can see this working. The Paratarp compacts down so small and light you probably could sew it into a jacket liner and not even know its there. Silnylon seems to be quite the miracle fabric these days. For the heavy-duty tinfoil hat crowd this would be part of the ultimate low-profile bugout gear.

Speaking of Kifaru, I’ll have a post up about their Paratarp in a day or so.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

And one more before bed…..
If you figured that in a total collapse you’d just live off the land, you might wanna read about this guy:

Channel 4 exploitation row after cameraman is airlifted from wilderness dying of starvation

It promised to stretch reality television to the limit: one man pitting his wits against the Yukon wilderness with just a camera for company.

But hopes for an epic three-month contest between man and nature were dashed when adventurer Ed Wardle failed to go the distance.

Seven weeks after striding out into the rugged forests of western Canada armed with a rifle and a fishing rod, Mr Wardle had to be airlifted back to civilisation suffering from starvation.

He sent out a distress call five weeks before he was due to finish filming his one-man survival programme Alone In The Wild for Channel 4.

Mighta bit of more than he could chew. Get it?

But, seriously, that whole ‘live off the land with just a knife and some gear’ fantasy never seems to work out when someone tries it for real. This guy hung in there for a goodly amount of time, though. No idea what kinda support he had though. Heck, for all I know he coulda started this thing weighing 300# and made out of fat.

Still, its an interesting article and the pictures are worth a gander to check out his gear.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Toldja so.
Remember I said:

(And, yes, I am aware that linking to your own posts in your own blog is the blogging equivalent of yelling out your own name during sex.)

So…dislike health care, wanna see a real birth certificate, and you like to go to gun shows? Well buddy, you’re a a racist militia type. Here’s the search warrant, you got a receipt for all those guns? And why do you need all that ammo anyway?

I’m telling ya, gang, the gloves are coming off and both sides of the political spectrum are pulling out the stops, choosing sides and it’s quite possible that folks like you and I, who just wanna be left alone, are gonna get caught in the middle. You’ve got a copy of “Unintended Consequences” laying around? Been to a gun show lately? Dislike Obama’s policies? Well, then youre an evil racist militia type and, darn it, that means you can get Patriot Acted right into the ground.

Personally, I’ve met white separatists and genuine militia members and while they are certainly an eccentric bunch they were, by and large, pretty harmless. Distasteful in some of their beliefs? Sure. Its a little silly, though, to say that if you dislike Obama its because he’s half-black. Thats like telling liberals they only hated George Bush because he’s white. I’m a firm believer that if you take the time to really get to know and understand someone, you can find a much better reason to hate them than just ’cause their a different color. Like, oh, say, their desire to socialize a nation.

So maybe in a few months we’ll get some ‘common sense’, ’sensible’, ‘minor changes’ in gun laws to make sure those previously unknown hordes of racist militia right-wing hatespewers can’t cause trouble.

Blood in the gutters? Revolution in the air? Troops in the streets? Highly unlikely. I’d almost say ‘never’. But what is more likely is grabbing at this sort of hysteria, whipping it up, pointing it at a target demographic (like, say, you and I) and using it to ramrod all sortsa nasty laws and regulations into our lives.

You know, I dislike Obama as much as the next guy. And for a dozen different reasons. And nowhere does the color of his skin have anything to do with it. He’s incompetent, he’s unqualified, he’s hopelessly out of his league, and he may be a genuine disaster as a President…but his being half black isn’t even on the charts.

Stay tuned, this isn’t the last of it. There’ll certainly be more as the umbrealla definition of ‘racist militia’ starts to cover more and more people.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

The internet is abuzz that in Arizona several people attended an Obamacare rally while toting guns…including this fella. As expected, the left is foaming about how this is a sign of intimidation, a sign of violent lunacy on the right’s part, and, of course, Im sure someone is calling it racist. A bit odd since the gentleman in question with the AR over his shoulder is African-American ..a person of color…black. His reply, when asked why he’s carrying the pistol, rifle and spare mags? “Because I can”. Good on ya!

Now, here’s my question….during the election, when leather-cald, truncheon-toting Black Panthers were at the polling places, where was the outrage?

This reminds me of when I was visiting the girlfriend in VA. She had to work that day so I was hanging out at her condo. She said her friend M. would come by and we’d go out to lunch. Theres a knock on the door and its this big black guy with a stainless Sig P220 on his hip. Going to the range? Nope. Coming back from the range? Nope. So why ya carrying the Sig, I ask. His exact words: because I can.

I think that “because I can” is the best reason for a citizen to do something and the worst reason for a .gov to do something.

Once in a while someone asks why I have a pistol on me. I usually say its because its my responsibility to protect myself. I think now Im going to say, as diplomatically as possible, ” and because I can”.

I have no intention or desire of heading to AZ anytime soon, but if I did I’d like to meet that guy and shake his hand.