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