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

I don’t envy the rich, and I don’t pity the poor. I do what I do with what I have. If I cant afford something I either do without it or I find a way to afford it. Its that simple. Trust me, theres a lot of stuff Id like to have right now that I do not because I just don’t have the money….but someday…

I see the term ‘yuppie survivalist’ floating around and I don’t understand the class-warfare mentality of it. If you could afford to have the best gear possible, wouldn’t you? And if someone could afford the best gear possible but decided to muddle along the best they could with cheap ‘make do’ gear wouldn’t you think they were making a mistake?

It seems like ‘yuppie survivalist’ is code for ‘people who make more money than me’. It’s the guys with drums full of ramen and rice carping about the guys with cases of Mountain House and MRE’s. Its guys with SKS’ and HiPoints pointing fingers at guys with DSA FAL’s and Sigs. Its guys with travel trailers on leased land denigrating guys with concrete buildings on 500 acres. The guy with a HiPoint carbine thinks the guy with the Century AK is a yuppie survivalist and the guy with the Century AK thinks the fella with the DSA FAL is a yuppie survivalist…heck the guy with the FAL probably thinks the guy with the pre-ban HK91 is a yuppie survivalist.

Im all for being cheap. But if I can afford a good, solid, purpose-built 5-gallon water container why would I try to make do with washed out 2-liter pop bottles? Heck, carry it a step further – theres probably someone somewhere ranting that those ‘damn yuppie survivalists’ are using 2-liter pop bottles ‘cause they’re too good to drink water like us ‘working class’ folk and waste their money on that fancy yuppie fizzwater.

Mae West said “I’ve been rich, I’ve been poor, and its much better to be rich.” Theres nothing wrong with being poor, and theres nothing wrong with being rich. Me, my goals are simple – I want to have whatever it takes to have the level of security in my life that makes me comfortable. If it takes $20k a year or $200k a year, I don’t care. To me it isn’t about how much money as it is about how you live on that money. Im not ashamed to say I wish I had a lot more money than I do now. That’s why I get up in the morning – to try and get those things I don’t have now.

I am, by anyone’s definition, not rich. Probably not too terribly close to middle class either once you crunch the numbers. But I decide what I want and then I figure out how to get it. I have friends who make a lot more money than me and have a lot nicer things than me. Do I resent them? Of course not. Do I hate them? Nope. It just means they worked harder, were more successful or more disciplined. And Im happy they’re doing well….they are, after all, my friends and who doesn’t take pleasure in the success of people they care about?

Tagging someone as a ‘yuppie survivalist’ seems no different than someone calling people who make less than them ‘travel trailer survivalists’.  Its stupid, counterproductive and serves no purpose. If you hate poor people, then don’t become poor. If you hate rich people, don’t become rich. Giving someone a ration of crap because they bought something they can afford that you couldn’t is just small minded. If it really sticks in your craw that much, go get a better job. (And if you really believe that being a ‘wage slave’ to ‘the man’ who ‘exploits’ you is a ‘bad scene’ then go into business for yourself.)

A caveat: keep in mind Im talking about stuff you can afford. If you spend $5k on an original FN FAL and a case of magazines but then have no money for ammo then you, in fact, couldn’t afford the gun. But if you buy something expensive and can afford it, then more power to you. I’m glad for you.

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

CNN has an article on their website about the rise in ’survivalism’. Link taken from ,Rawles’ website.

And another article quoting ,Rawles…this one about food rationing in the US. Phone must be ringing off the hook over there at the ,Rawles household. Thats, I think, three articles this month. Good for him.

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

Made the trip to the local LDS cannery the other evening. It was interesting. Im not a social critter, I really dont like having to participate in group activities that require me to interact with new people. It just feels awkward and Im very used to doing my paranoid apocalyptic preparations by myself. On the other hand, the Mormons appear very big on group activity and ‘many hands making light work’. So, I smile and behave and do my best to get along. I think I made an okay impression, although next time I should try to appear a bit more clean-cut.
A customer of mine let me tag along with him, so thats how I got in on this. We arrived early and I got the tour of the facility..a nondescript building near the airport. There was a large warehouse-size room with racks of tall steel shelving and pallets of various bulk and canned foods, in another room was the dry-pack facility which was a standard commercial kitchen type affair – tile floors, steel tables, hair nets, etc, etc. The two things that interested me most were the electgric canning machine and the mylar bag sealer. Both would be extremely handy for my own needs, but theyre priced for larger outfits than my small circle of like-minded individuals. I can seal mylar bags just fine with an iron and a flat surface, but the foot-pedal operated rig they had was, admittedly, really sweet. The machine for sealing up #10 cans was nice and you can find hand-operated ones on eBay but the electric ones are the way to go. Spendy though.

When everyone who was going to arrived had finally showed up it was time to start the show. It was a little disorganized at first but that improved as people started finding things to do. There were about ten people in attendance plus the volunteer who was in charge of the facility that day. The guy in charge gave a little pep talk about how everyone who was there was doing a great thing by being responsible and taking precautions to protect themselves and their families and that they should be proud of themselves for taking these steps, etc. Really nice…the sort of reinforcement most of us don’t get in this field. There was an opening prayer too and I just kinda looked at my shoes and analyzed the floor tile while that was going on. I think it wasnt a secret that I wasnt in their church, but Im pretty sure no one knew just how far out of their church I was. Everyone made a list of what they wanted, those lists were added up and then an appropriate amount of food was moved to the canning area. For example, if three people wanted four #10 cans of wheat, then an amount necessary to make 12 cans was removed from the bulk area. It was all wheeled into the kitchen area and the work begun. Hairnets, beard nets (as necessary), aprons and gloves for all. Empty #10 cans were filled with product and passed to another person, that person weighed the cans and adjusted the amount as necessary, the can was then passed to the next person who added an oxygen absorber to the can, passed to the next person who put the can in the sealer and closed it up, passed to the next person who labelled and date stamped the can, passed to the person who arranged the cans in the boxes. A very simple setup once everyone finds their particular role. Efficient too. I dont want to be critical but it seemed like there was a need for people to specifically be instructed at the begining who will do what rather than just sorta falling into whatever role was open or appealing. But..I was a stranger there and perhaps its usually more organized. Im sure not going to complain…the folks took things seriously enough to be there and to have a dedicated facility for this sort of thing. I respect that.
In addition to the canning, I got to play with the mylar bag sealer and I liked it alot. Sure an iron and a 2×4 work, but this thing was nice.

In addition to food being available, what really made my day was the packaging supplies that were available. One-gallon mylar bags, in bulk. Oxygen absorbers! And cardboard boxes that’ll fit six #10 cans per box (which I need very much for my loose cans of Mountain House floating around.)

Also interesting, the desk in the office had a rechargeable 12-volt battery sitting on it, hooked up to a trickle charge, some radio gear, and a statewide map showing various call signs across the state. So, in addition to the cannery they also have quite the radio network.

Get on these peoples good side now, I suggest.

All in all, I had a good time and Id very much like to go again. It was nice being around people who dont look at you funny if you talk about storing drums of corn and wheat, MRE’s, freeze drieds and whatnot. Matter of fact, a couple of people expressed some interest about getting in on the next Mountain House group buy.

If it wasn’t for that whole religious angle I’d sign up just for the networking and access to resources. Sadly, there are no affiliate memberships for non-believers.

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

Not a cheap day, but a satisfying one.

First, I read a heads-up on on of the forums that Best Buy was marking down CR123 batts (”Surefire batteries”). Headed up to BB and, sure enough, Duracell CR123 were $3 per 2-pack. Seemed like a decent deal so we grabbed a dozen packs. Check your local BestBuy.
Next stop was the Missoula gun show. A few items I very much would like to have but nothing that I had to have. We did take the opportunity to stock up on primers, though. Grabbed a sleeve of large pistol, small pistol, small pistol mag, and large rifle. Total: 20,000 primers. They’ll get squirreled away ‘just in case’. A few other goodies jumped out at me but Im getting much, much better at exercising restraint. I am picking up a few surplus goodies…most notable a flectar rain poncho to go with my current flectar gear.

As I expected, prices on ammo and components are high. Being a graduate of The Great Primer Scare from the early nineties (remember that one?) I am painfully aware that just a rumour of scarcity can actually cause scarcity. So…20,000 primers. This is on top of the supply I already have on hand. Lest you think 5,000 primers in any one flavor is alot think about how it would be used. 1k .45 ACP, .1k .44 Spl., 1k .45 Colt, etc, etc. and you can see that 5k ain’t that much.

Ubercool item of the show: Navy flare/smoke signal devices still packed in their steel storage cases. $70 a dozen with the locking steel container. DOnt need ‘em, but theyre definitely cool.

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Tomorrow is Patriots Day. Get out and shoot!

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

Well cool…it looks like I may have someone to sponsor me for a trip to the local Mormon cannery this weekend. I like to imagine it will be staffed by wholesome, hot Mormon chicks but in reality its probably geriatric members of the ladies auxilliary or somesuch. Unimportant. Whats important is that its an opportunity to hedge my bets against an uncertain future and provide an extra layer of security for me and the girlfriend. Oh..and networking. Mustnt forget the networking.

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Still working on loading 9mm ammo. Know what the interesting thing about having the big Dillon 1050 is? You wind up loading ammo for your like-minded friends too! And Im perfectly cool with that, otherwise i wouuldnt have offered. So I just handed off 1000 rds. to a friend and will do another 1000 rds. for me, then another 1000 rds for them, then another 1000 rds. for me, etc, etc. Not because I feel there’ll be an event that requires me to use 5000 rounds of 9mm, but because theres always the possibility that whatever ammo I have now may be all the ammo I have for the rest of my life…therefore ‘too much’ is never really possible. (unless the wheels flew off of civilization in a major and violent way I could not foresee needing more than a couple magazines worth of ammo in a given event. However, I could see needing a bit to hand out to my friends who may have been caught short. As I said, never enough…actually, I stated it better here.)

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Sadly, I received an RSVP from ,Rawles with his regrets that he would be unable to attend the wedding. Thats too bad because I was looking forward to chatting with him.

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The girlfriend consumes a fairly large quantity of tuna fish. Usually the small 3 oz. cans are what we purchase since they are just about the right size portion for her. As of late, however, we’ve been liking the ‘MRE pouch’ style packaging that StarKist has been using (her preferred brand). According to the company FAQ the cans are rated for four years and the pouches for three. Both of those, IMHO, are conservative. The canned stuff is, most definitely, cheaper but requires draining and is a soggy mess. The stuff in the pouch does not require draining and seems firmer and more appealing. Both forms of packagin have their pros and cons…the pouches are lighter but the cans are more compact. The solid cans are, in my opinion, more durable than the pulltop cans … I’ve had products where the cans have failed at the pulltop seams from some object being pushed hard against it. No such problem with the solid cans but, naturally, you’ll need a can opener. The main attraction for the pouch stuff seems to be the quality of the product within. What I’ll probably do is stockpile both.

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

Two articles of interest:

First one: ‘World peace’ hitcher is murdered

Why is anyone surprised by this? The world is not a Frank Capra movie. Its a place full of human beings who are quite capable, and sometimes eager, to hurt you very badly for no good reason whatsoever.

And another one from Scrotum Free America NPR: A Victim Treats His Mugger Right

I posted about this elsewhere and was met with this:

I would say that the guy in the story evened the odds a lot. Certainly, as a 56-year-old woman with no weapons skills, I have a better shot at his style than an aggressive one.

My reply:
Let me gently suggest that if, given a similar situation, your only recourse is docile compliance with a desperate hope that you wont be hurt (or worse), perhaps taking the opportunity to learn a simple and fundamental weapon skill (such as purchasing a small handgun, learning how to use it, and obtaining a license to carry it) might be worth exploring. Physical limitations imposed by age and gender in a possibly violent confrontation are greatly mitigated by proper basic gunhandling.

And, yes, there are people who feel that when their lives are directly threatened – as in right here, right now, dark-alley-with-a-knifewielding-mugger – their best recourse is to somehow ‘defuse’, ‘de-escalate’, ‘ramp down’ or otherwise becalm the situation with soothing words and rational discourse. Morgues have seen more of these optimists than not. Certainly it may work in some situations, but playing the lottery with your life at stake seems like a bad practice.

Rational discourse usually achieves its best results with rational people. A person willing to possibly kill you over a matter of money (or, if youre an attractive woman, something a little more personal) is probably not terribly rational. Even if they are, is your life worth so little to you that you feel your best course of action is to gamble on your assailant’s better nature?

“Never appeal to a man’s better nature, he may not have one. Appeal to his self interest instead.” Survival is everyone’s top self-interest. A mugger may not have a ‘better nature’ that will compel him to desist out of some on-the-spot moral epiphany. However, he almost certainly will ‘come to jesus’ when he realizes he brought a knife to a gunfight. I will wager a large amount of money that more violent confrontations have been ‘nipped in the bud’ with “Get out of here before I shoot you” than with “Put the knife down and let’s talk about this”.

I think there is nothing wrong with believing that there can be rational, well-reasoned alternatives to violent confrontation. However, the moment to try to learn to fly a plane is not when the pilot has a heart attack and keels over. Similarly, the time to try peaceful, nonviolent resolutions is not when you’ve got a knife pointed at your belt buckle.

“There are no victims, only volunteers” is a quote I remember from somewhere. There is absolutely nothing, not one thing, noble about submitting to a violent criminal if you have the ability not to with reasonable expectation of success. No great cosmic, karmic destiny is fulfilled by allowing yourself to victimized. Even famous ‘peaceful’ icons such as Ghandi and King were open to the idea of violent defense of self when necessary.

I say this not as some sort of ‘gun nut’, ‘right wing nutjob’ or ‘racist hater’ (although all these descriptions are probably applicable in some regard or another), but as a person who has the highest respect of an individuals personal rights. A person threatening me with harm in an attempt to take away my property (or my life) is an attack on several fundamental rights that, to me, are more important than that attackers well-being. If he’s just a ‘misunderstood youth’ then theres absolutely no point in him becoming a ‘misunderstood adult’. He needs a fast lesson that when you violate another persons most basic rights its going to cost him a nap on the concrete sidewalk, a trip to the hospital and a few years in a cell.

Nonviolent responses do have a place in the scheme of things but the time for that option is not when your being mugged.

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

I’d been dragging my feet about it but I finally pulled the Dillon RL1050 out of the closet, set it up and started loading 9mm ammo today. Even at the healthy clip of one box of 50 rounds every 2:20 minutes its still tedious. However, it does pay off. Since I always save my brass and pick up whatever range scrounge I can, I figure my cost for cases is $0.00. Factor in primers at $0.019 ea, bullets at $0.057 ea, and powder at $0.011 per charge that makes one round of 115 gr. FMJ 9mm for $0.087 ea, or $4.35 per box of 50…or $87 per thousand, if you prefer.

I have a 5 gallon bucket of empty brass, about 6000 bullets (which cost about 40% more than they did last year), a keg of AA#5, and a matching amount of primers….everything I need to stock up what the girlfriend and I have shot off over the last few months.

I currently have a Dillon 550 and the Super 1050. In the past I have used the RCBS and Lee progressive presses and found them wanting. If you want to get your production up and not futz around, get the Dillon.

I do, of course, keep the good ‘ol Rockchucker press around for loading my .308 target ammo. I just like the meticulous, ritual-like motions of loading a box of 50. What do I load? Lapua brass (excellent stuff, get it before the dollar collapses further and the price is outrageous), Fed. Gold Medal primers, Varget powder and Hornady AMax 168 gr. bullets. The results satisfy me. Less-than-MOA is typical….usually around .7 MOA although there are times I’ve shot much better and dumped ‘em into .5 or .4 MOA.

So, I have a cardboard box here filled to the top with nice, shiny 9mm ammo ready to be boxed up in plastic ammo boxes, stacked in ammo cans, and put away for the uncertain future. (Generally half of everything I reload gets socked away, the other half gets shot for practice.)

In addition to the 9mm, I also have the setup to run the Dillon in .40, .45, .38/.357, .308 and .223. Lucked out and found a set of carbide .308 dies for $50, and I still have my .223 carbide dies from years ago. Yes, you do have to lube the cases with carbide rifle dies but the cases won’t get scratched nor will the die if the cases are dirty.

With the price of ammo being what it is these days you really dont have an excuse, other than being fabulously well off, to not reload.

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

I was at the bank the other day and the teller commented to me that they had a new program with accounts that offered a whopping 1.75% interest. Now, assuming that inflation is running at a rate higher than 1.75%, which it assuredly is, the only possible thing this savings account can offer is a slightly offset level of devaluation. In short, if I stick $100 in my safe, at the end of the year it’s worth $96. In the aforementioned account it may be worth $98. (Or something similar, my math skills….not so good.)

If I actually had any money, I’d be putting it into durable goods and into a form that would hold its value against an inflation of currency. The Weimar Strategy, I suppose.

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‘Tis spring here in western Montana. Sure, it still gets cold and theres the infrequent snow squall but, by and large, winter is pretty much a done deal. Time for spring cleaning, getting the yard neatened up, looking for seasonal sales on things and generally getting things in order.

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Its worth noting that the newswires are reporting cases of human-to-human transmission of bird flu. (Remember bird flu? Was all the rage a few years ago.) The articles Ive read so far state that In China, which is having ‘regular’ outbreaks, cases are reported of family members infecting other family members. The article suggests that thus far its human-to-human when both humans have similar genetic makeup (siblings to siblings, parents to children, etc.) Im sure from there its just a matter of random mutation until it jumps from infected stranger to infected stranger. My personal perception of it as a threat to us? Pretty low. Somewhere above ‘Yellowstone volcano’ but below ‘new Depression’. Certainly, an outbreak in someplace like NY or Chicago or Vancouver would have some repercussions here but I don’t believe they’d be anything like the photos you see from the old 1918 influenza days with police in surgical masks, public gatherings prohibited and quarantine notices tacked on buildings. ‘Omega Man’ it wont be. Not in my neck of the woods anyway….you guys in the major population centers are on your own.

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

As ,Rawles pointed out over at SurivivalBlog the NY Times (”Pravda On The Hudson”) had an article about the ‘new’ survivalism. The consensus on the various discussion boards seems to be that it was a decent article with only a few jabs thrown in at the more…..elaborately….prepared amongst us.

Hey, more prepared people means less 5.56 ammo I need to keep around. Good on ya.

It reminded me of another article from New York magazine a few years back about NYC survivalists. This one has a much higher tinfoil-hat quotient, but its still a fascinating read.

J. has crossed paths with at least 60 others like him in the city — nouveau survivalists who are equal parts urban and apocalyptic, methodically preparing for a future that was unthinkable to most of us before last September. “I’ve met them, all races, all sizes, even women,” J. says. “Some of them are very extreme. I feel like I’m in the middle. They’re fucking paranoid.”

With that, he stands up: “I’ve got to meet someone.” I shake his hand and start to walk away, but he calls me back.

“After today, if I see you on the street, I don’t know you, you don’t know me. And don’t call me anymore. It has to be that way.”

A very interesting read. The article came out post-9/11 but pre-Katrina so it would be interesting to see someone do a follow up. And, hey, Grace Jones is into preparedness??????
Article in its entirety.

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

Theres pretty much two kinds of posts a person can make and still be on-topic as far as preparedness goes – you can either post about things you are are going to do/doing/have/want to have or you can post about ‘theory’ which is mostly things like “When the zombies invade, you should….”

I tend to stick close to the former. This is mostly because theres very little you can opine about that hasn’t been beaten to death elsewhere. However, knowing this still doesn’t keep me from throwing my two cents in every once in a while. You’ve been warned.

Stayed up until about 1:30 yesterday mrning setting up what should, ideally, be the finally set of shelves in the bunker. Now that its (for the most part) all done, its time to actually re-arrange and inventory whats there. All the foodstuffs on one shelf, all the sleeping gear on another, etc, etc. Part of me is looking forward to it and another part of me is cringing at the thought of meticulously going through all this stuff and moving it around. On the bright side, it may free up more space if things are stored more efficiently. A casual glance shows that at least 40% of the available space down there is taken up with long-term food. MRE’s, freezedrieds, barrels of rice, etc, etc. Then theres the 2×4 rack holding all the ammo cans of ammo. I need to go through those as well and inventory them too. Life as Commander Zero is not all sunshine and stun grenades…sometimes theres a bothersome amount of ‘housekeeping’ involved.

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At work, I have a copy of Mel Tappan’s ‘Tappan On Survival’ as a text file on my desktop. I browse it when I have nothing better to do. Here’s some interesting paragraphs about government and monetary policy that Tappan wrote over twentyfive years ago:

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