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

Tried out the Nestle Nido last night. Mixed results. As I understand it, regular off-the-shelf whole milk is soemthing like 4% fat. This stuff is 6 times that. So, if you mix it as a drink its very, very rich. Imagine drinking melted vanilla ice cream. On the other hand, the girlfriend thought it tasted great. For cooking, it seemed fine in the very limited test I gave it. I used it with some of the Idahoan add-milk-and-water instant potatoes and it seemed to work. I'm going to pick up some pudding mix and try it with that as well as some baking stuff.

My opinion is that this stuff does not taste like regular milk, BUT its far and away more palatable (to me)than the 2% skim milk crap that is out there now. Its alot like Half-N-Half….I would say it would be an outstanding substitute for cream and would work well in any application that requires cream or H/H. Probably a great number to add to your coffe.

So….I'll probably pick up a half dozen tins of the stuff at the next opportunity.

Went to the Bozeman gun show yesterday. Got there way too early so i had about two hours to kill. It was almost a hundred degrees and I needed a place to be cool, onobtrusive, and highly amused or entertained. Solution? WalMart!

I used to say that CostCo was the best thing to hit the preparedness market since the MRE. No longer. Personal quartermaster thy name is SuperWalMart.

So Im wandering through WalMart with ZeroVision(tm) fully active…you know, looking for foods that have long shelf life, convenient durable packaging, etc, etc. And I found a very promising product.

Some background: instant milk sucks. No matter how you mix it, it always tastes horrible. One of the reasons is because all the dehydrated instant milk you find is low-fat, and frankly low fat milk tastes like crap even when you get it out of a carton. Thats when I noticed this in the ‘Ethnic/Mexican food/ section. Notice the label carefully: WHOLE milk. Yes, WHOLE milk…complete with , as the label says, 26% milk fat. So its real milk..not that lowfat crap. This is a product that, as it turns out:

is a dry whole milk product that is commonly sold in the Middle East. It is marketed as a way for adults and children to get the nutrition of milk when fresh milk is not available. In Middle Eastern cooking, it is incorporated into many dishes that call for goat milk. Nido is finer in texture than regular dry milk, lending a creamier consistency to casseroles, sauces and puddings.

Nutritional data? No sweat: http://www.dietfacts.com/html/items/19100.htm

Shelf life? About two years. Price is , out of WallyWorld, $2.78 for enough to make approx. 13 8-oz. servings…so about a gallon. A larger container (about 2-3#) is available also. Container is a cardboard drum with metal bottom and a faoil ‘pull away’ top..much like what you get when you buy cool-aid or gatorade.

I tend to not drink milk but I really want to like this product for cooking purposes. Between dehydrated eggs and dehydrated whole milk, I’ve got a good part of my dairy needs met. I’ll be trying this stuff out tonight in a very simple test: using it with instant potatoes. But, I also want to try mixing it with Tang to make orange smoothee type drinks as well as things like pudding, cream sauces and that sort of thing.

By the by, this is a Nestle product, “Nestle Nido”, bar code is 0 28000 78645 8. Nestle doesnt have much about it on their website but apparenty Spanish and Arabic food specialty places may be your best bet on it. Several internet grocers seem to be carrying it. I bet a WalMart near any Spanish part of town would carry it as well as some bodegas.
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Although I usually carry the Glock in a Bianchi #19L holster, I’ve come to the conclusion synthetic is the way to go with the Glock. While at the show I saw an injection molded number made by Blade-Tech, The Kydex was twice the money but it didnt have this very nice belt attachment device, and I figured for $20 I couldnt go wrong. We’ll see how it works out.
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Ran into Militia Of Montana has-been John Trochman. John may or may not be ‘active’ in whatever remains of the militia movement but theres no doubt he’s active in the sales division of it….he had a dozen tables selling everything..mostly books, vidoes, first aid gear, and my favorite – parachute flares. Which reminds me, a guy was selling 40mm white star parachute flares for usein M203’s. If I had something that launched 40’s I’d have gotten some.
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I’m jazzed about trying this new milk product. Details to follow.

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

Went to the Bozeman gun show yesterday. Got there way too early so i had about two hours to kill. It was almost a hundred degrees and I needed a place to be cool, onobtrusive, and highly amused or entertained. Solution? WalMart!

I used to say that CostCo was the best thing to hit the preparedness market since the MRE. No longer. Personal quartermaster thy name is SuperWalMart.

So Im wandering through WalMart with ZeroVision(tm) fully active…you know, looking for foods that have long shelf life, convenient durable packaging, etc, etc. And I found a very promising product.

Some background: instant milk sucks. No matter how you mix it, it always tastes horrible. One of the reasons is because all the dehydrated instant milk you find is low-fat, and frankly low fat milk tastes like crap even when you get it out of a carton. Thats when I noticed this in the 'Ethnic/Mexican food/ section. Notice the label carefully: WHOLE milk. Yes, WHOLE milk…complete with , as the label says, 26% milk fat. So its real milk..not that lowfat crap. This is a product that, as it turns out:

is a dry whole milk product that is commonly sold in the Middle East. It is marketed as a way for adults and children to get the nutrition of milk when fresh milk is not available. In Middle Eastern cooking, it is incorporated into many dishes that call for goat milk. Nido is finer in texture than regular dry milk, lending a creamier consistency to casseroles, sauces and puddings.

Nutritional data? No sweat: http://www.dietfacts.com/html/items/19100.htm

Shelf life? About two years. Price is , out of WallyWorld, $2.78 for enough to make approx. 13 8-oz. servings…so about a gallon. A larger container (about 2-3#) is available also. Container is a cardboard drum with metal bottom and a faoil 'pull away' top..much like what you get when you buy cool-aid or gatorade.

I tend to not drink milk but I really want to like this product for cooking purposes. Between dehydrated eggs and dehydrated whole milk, I've got a good part of my dairy needs met. I'll be trying this stuff out tonight in a very simple test: using it with instant potatoes. But, I also want to try mixing it with Tang to make orange smoothee type drinks as well as things like pudding, cream sauces and that sort of thing.

By the by, this is a Nestle product, “Nestle Nido”, bar code is 0 28000 78645 8. Nestle doesnt have much about it on their website but apparenty Spanish and Arabic food specialty places may be your best bet on it. Several internet grocers seem to be carrying it. I bet a WalMart near any Spanish part of town would carry it as well as some bodegas.
=====
Although I usually carry the Glock in a Bianchi #19L holster, I've come to the conclusion synthetic is the way to go with the Glock. While at the show I saw an injection molded number made by Blade-Tech, The Kydex was twice the money but it didnt have this very nice belt attachment device, and I figured for $20 I couldnt go wrong. We'll see how it works out.
=====
Ran into Militia Of Montana has-been John Trochman. John may or may not be 'active' in whatever remains of the militia movement but theres no doubt he's active in the sales division of it….he had a dozen tables selling everything..mostly books, vidoes, first aid gear, and my favorite – parachute flares. Which reminds me, a guy was selling 40mm white star parachute flares for usein M203's. If I had something that launched 40's I'd have gotten some.
=====
I'm jazzed about trying this new milk product. Details to follow.

The girlfriend ordered up some shotgun parts from Wilson last week or so and they arrived today. I was messing around with her shotgun the other week and noticed there was no spring pressure against the rounds in the magazine. Very bad. The follower was binding up against the inside of the mag tube. It seems that many recent made Rem 870’s have two ‘dimples’ pressed into the end of the mag tube. These dimples prevent the follower from coming out of the mag tube when you unscrew the end cap. This also means that if you screw on an extended magazine the follow will not be able to use the additional length. THe obvious solution is to simply drill out the two indentations. No problem. Usually. Depending on how good a job you do there can still be problems. To make sure that this isnt going to be a problem at all, we orderd up a handfull of Wilson high visibility followers. Theyre about $6 each and are a more rigid plastic and slicker than the factory OEM followers. Should make a big difference.

While going through the catalog I noticed that they do AR work, including adding flash supressors and muzzle brakes. Ah!!!

The girlfriend’as AR’s are both post ban models (but not post-post ban which would = pre-ban). One has a bare muzzle and the other has the most obnoxious muzzle brake ive ever been exposed to. (Y-comp by Bushmaster). Every time I shoot it, its like someone sneezed in my face…theres a concussive wave that blows my hairline back. Its incredibly obnoxious. I figured we’d have to get new uppers. Nope. I called Wilson and told ’em what we had and could they remove the ‘permanently attached muzzle brake’, thread the barrel for the normal 1/2×28 TPI and put on an A2 birdcage. The answer? “Sure.” Cost would be about $59.95 + $15 labor. So $75…cheaper than a new upper. Then we can, at our leisure, put on an A@ birdcage or a Vortex. My backup Ar (“Plan B”) has a ‘AK type’ brake on it but Ive never had problems with it and rather like it, so I’ll leave it as is. I’ve fired it at night and see no discernable difference in its suppression ability versus the A2 birdcage.

While flipping through the very, very nice Wilson catalog I cant help but notice the spare parts and whatnot. Im not paying $1400 for a 1911 but I could use some spare magazine tube springs, sling attachments and a few other nice little gimmicks.

So, lesson for today – if youre stuck with a post-ban AR barrel you can get it ‘normalized’ by Wilson for about $75. No FFL needed since youre only sending the upper, not the serial numbered lower.

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

The girlfriend ordered up some shotgun parts from Wilson last week or so and they arrived today. I was messing around with her shotgun the other week and noticed there was no spring pressure against the rounds in the magazine. Very bad. The follower was binding up against the inside of the mag tube. It seems that many recent made Rem 870's have two 'dimples' pressed into the end of the mag tube. These dimples prevent the follower from coming out of the mag tube when you unscrew the end cap. This also means that if you screw on an extended magazine the follow will not be able to use the additional length. THe obvious solution is to simply drill out the two indentations. No problem. Usually. Depending on how good a job you do there can still be problems. To make sure that this isnt going to be a problem at all, we orderd up a handfull of Wilson high visibility followers. Theyre about $6 each and are a more rigid plastic and slicker than the factory OEM followers. Should make a big difference.

While going through the catalog I noticed that they do AR work, including adding flash supressors and muzzle brakes. Ah!!!

The girlfriend'as AR's are both post ban models (but not post-post ban which would = pre-ban). One has a bare muzzle and the other has the most obnoxious muzzle brake ive ever been exposed to. (Y-comp by Bushmaster). Every time I shoot it, its like someone sneezed in my face…theres a concussive wave that blows my hairline back. Its incredibly obnoxious. I figured we'd have to get new uppers. Nope. I called Wilson and told 'em what we had and could they remove the 'permanently attached muzzle brake', thread the barrel for the normal 1/2×28 TPI and put on an A2 birdcage. The answer? “Sure.” Cost would be about $59.95 + $15 labor. So $75…cheaper than a new upper. Then we can, at our leisure, put on an A@ birdcage or a Vortex. My backup Ar (”Plan B”) has a 'AK type' brake on it but Ive never had problems with it and rather like it, so I'll leave it as is. I've fired it at night and see no discernable difference in its suppression ability versus the A2 birdcage.

While flipping through the very, very nice Wilson catalog I cant help but notice the spare parts and whatnot. Im not paying $1400 for a 1911 but I could use some spare magazine tube springs, sling attachments and a few other nice little gimmicks.

So, lesson for today – if youre stuck with a post-ban AR barrel you can get it 'normalized' by Wilson for about $75. No FFL needed since youre only sending the upper, not the serial numbered lower.

In a nice bit of irony, moving water storage barrels is …well…thirsty work.

The barrels, being new, needed some cleaning ‘justin case’. A bucket with a couple gallons of boiling water, a healthy dose of baking soda, slosh around well and -presto- clean smelling…..mmmmmm.. A rinse with some bleach to make sure and we’re good to go. Now the fun part.

Set the barrels on the deck, fill, wrestle onto a hand truck, strap ’em down, and haul them down a flight of stairs to the bunker. That was NOT fun but it didnt take long. I have the barrels sitting on top of milk crates to keep them off the floor so I can keep an eye on them. Over the next few days I’ll check them periodically to make sure they dont leak. These, by the way, were 15 gallon ‘blue barrels’. Thats 120# water in each one.

Discovered that its very easy to goober up the caps that go on these things if your wrench isnt sized perfectly…so, I’m going to head over to Nitro-Pak and order a few spare bung caps (make your own joke) and a better wrench than the one I have now.

On the bright side, in addition to the many 5-gallon containers and cases of bottled water, I now have a couple of nice 15-gallon drums of potable water sitting safely in storage.

Thus did Zero do his Deed For The Day.

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

In a nice bit of irony, moving water storage barrels is …well…thirsty work.

The barrels, being new, needed some cleaning 'justin case'. A bucket with a couple gallons of boiling water, a healthy dose of baking soda, slosh around well and -presto- clean smelling…..mmmmmm.. A rinse with some bleach to make sure and we're good to go. Now the fun part.

Set the barrels on the deck, fill, wrestle onto a hand truck, strap 'em down, and haul them down a flight of stairs to the bunker. That was NOT fun but it didnt take long. I have the barrels sitting on top of milk crates to keep them off the floor so I can keep an eye on them. Over the next few days I'll check them periodically to make sure they dont leak. These, by the way, were 15 gallon 'blue barrels'. Thats 120# water in each one.

Discovered that its very easy to goober up the caps that go on these things if your wrench isnt sized perfectly…so, I'm going to head over to Nitro-Pak and order a few spare bung caps (make your own joke) and a better wrench than the one I have now.

On the bright side, in addition to the many 5-gallon containers and cases of bottled water, I now have a couple of nice 15-gallon drums of potable water sitting safely in storage.

Thus did Zero do his Deed For The Day.

In terms of reviewing the movie as a whole, which isnt really what this post is about, I’d say it was okay. Definitely did a great job of keeping the stress on. My interests were more in the aspects of the characters situations and how they relate to my own anticipated situations.

Cut for spoilage

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

In terms of reviewing the movie as a whole, which isnt really what this post is about, I'd say it was okay. Definitely did a great job of keeping the stress on. My interests were more in the aspects of the characters situations and how they relate to my own anticipated situations.

Freaky lightning storm, lotsa mysterious rumblings in the ground, all electrical devices fail AND ALL THE CARS STOP DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS. That last little tidbit just screams EMP and since the usual cause of EMP is something bad, once I felt the ground rumble and start thinking EMP I'd be running my ass back into my house and getting my gear together. Like, five minutes ago. There is no benign EMP.

Cruise yells for his kid to put some food together. They stuff a cardboard box with, basically, condiments. Brilliant. No backpack? Who is gonna haul a cardboard box around in a crisis? I dont know about you but I want my hands free. And you can bloody well bet I'd have 'real food' to pack..freeze drieds, MRE's and the like. Not four bottles of barbecue sauce, vinegarette, and mayo.

Cruise has the only functioning vehicle in a city of disabled vehicles. He eventually realizes that this does make him a target and he starts getting cautious but still manages to lose the vehicle to a mob. Heres the thing…he had to traverse some waterway so that meant a ferry or tunnel, both of which were natural chokepoints. Since he established that replacing the solenoid (!!!) was all that was needed, he should have grabbed some tools and solenoids for some common vehicles (remember, in this movie Cruise is a car guy) and beat feet with the rest of the masses until he was on the other side….then find a vehicle, repair it and get the hell out of dodge.

Killing the guy in the basement. Man, that was a tough call. If it had been just me I'd have either left or found a different place to hide. If I had a loved one along who couldnt take care of themselves and this was the only safe place and nutjobguy was about to blow our cover? Mmmm…well, its an ugly world so I guess I'd do it. Wouldnt be happy about it though.

Major kudos to the news crew that was salvaging bottled water and food from the plane wreck. Exactly the thing to do.

Things learned:
Have the bare minimum (BOB) ready to go.
If your stuck in a population center you must have multiple exits mapped out
Its quite often better to go to ground, hide and wait for the bad stuff to pass over
Panicked sheeple are dangerous. Be alert. Avoid other people.

I always hoped Eric Rudolph would give some insight into how he survived on the lam for several years. USA today (no link, sadly) had a little something.

Living off dumpsters, grain silos and stolen garden vegetables