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

The dehydrated eggs showed up today. Of thirty 6 oz. packages, one was damaged in transit and will be used for experimental purposes. (i.e. seeing how it works when used in baked goods, etc, etc.) I put them into bundles of 6, put each bundle in its own handy ziploc baggie, put them all into a sealed mylar bag and then dropped the whole mess into a new 6-gallon bucket with Gamma Seal lid. Should be juuuuuuuuuuuuuust fine.
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I continue to be pleased with the AK’s reliability. 320 rounds through it with no cleaning and no malfunctions whatsoever except for round #1, which I attribute to a rough bit of machining on the internals which has by now been worn smooth. Accuracy testing is in the future, but it reliably hits the steel plates at 50 and 100 yards.
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Gas prices have levelled off a bit here, our local CostCo has gas for $1.86 which seems cheap now but three months ago would have been considered spendy. Thus, a forty mile trip to buy ammo winds up costing a little less. I do , however, need to keep a bit of gasoline on hand ‘just in case’. A couple 5-gallon cans of stabilized gas would be nice. If/when the power goes out for whatever reason the local stations probably wont have generators to power the pumps so, even though theres a thousand gallons of gas right there under the concrete, it aint goin’ anywhere.
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Trip to Glacier last weekend was a nice opportunity to try out some gear. Camelbaks are easily worth whatever you pay for them. Esp. the wide mouth versions that allow you to dop regular-shaped ice cubes into them. (I have a much older CB that I just upgraded with a better bite valve and an on/off flow switch..a necessity to keep water from shooting out the mouthpice if your pack gets compressed by some weight [i.e. taking a fall]).
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Had a Zero Moment in Glacier…we were hiking along Avalanche Creek and a mother and her young (10-14 y.o.) son were leaning up against a rock catching their breath. I overheard her say “..first aid kit in the car”. I asked if I could be of service. her son had stumbled through some blown down trees and brush and had cut his knee. Not badly..a thin cut that bled some, about 2″ long. Trouble was, they had no first aid kit. Zero to the rescue. Gave the kid a bactine wipe to clean it out with, slapped a 2×2 on it and a couple strips of tape. Gave him another foil packet of Bactine wipes and a few band aids and told him to be careful and to next time carry some type of first aid gear with him.

Of course, if the bombs were falling and there were radioactive cannibal zombies on our tail he would have been on his own.
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The Tactical Tailor pack worked fine…carried plenty of gear and was fairly comfortable. Im tellin’ ya, folks….spend a lousy $110 and get a pack that you’ll never want to part with.
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Experimental cooking with dehydrated eggs over the next few days. Should be interesting.

One sure way to start the LMI equivalent of a flamewar is to go the 7.62×39 vs. 223 vs. 308 route. And, really, I have no interest in getting into it with you. I will say, however, that today a high-end AK variant found a new home.

Why the AK? Well, the AR has better accuracy and ergonomics. The Ak’s only real claim to fame is that it is as reliable as a rock. Most folks that get into that whole AR’s-are-crap arguement start off with something about how seven million soldiers were killed in Vietnam the M16’s jammed and then when they tried to use them for bayoneting the guns bent in half or some other nonsense. Did stuff like that happen? Sure..M16’s jammed all the time. And Orville and Wilbur Wrights planes crashed more often than not. Whats your point? After 40 years I think the reliability issue is almost academic. But, like I said, I really dont wanna argue this with you..if you disdain the AR, then dont own one.

Anyway, these Bulgarian AK’s are hammer forged chrome lined barrels, milled receivers, nice furniture and come with the slide rail for optics. Theyre about twice the price of the Chinese AK’s but you really can see the quality.

For my(our) needs the Ak has a couple selling points:
* Ammo is dirt freakin’ cheap and comes in sealed spam cans. And its dirt cheap.
* Magazines are cheap, cheap, cheap. And reliable.
* If something happens to it, it isnt as great a loss as if an AR had taken a hit.

I’ll be taking the AK out this evening for a spin. I’ve about 6,000 rounds of ammo here in front of me so I think we’re doing okay in that department. Minute-of-badguy is the level of accuracy we’re looking to obtain and hopefully it should meet that requirement. (Thats one big nod to the AR….all things being equal [scope vs. scope, iron vs. iron] they tend to shoot better groups than the AK. (At this point someone will jump up and say how they once saw an out-of-the-box Norinco that would print 1″ groups….uh-huh, how many of them have you seen? Thats what I thought. )

Mind you, Im not disdaining the AK, Im merely saying that both rifles have strong points and both have weak points. What one rifle isnt, the other is.

So, now I’ll have to sock away some of those wonderful sealed spam cans of 7.62×39, which I should do anyway since everyone seems to have an SKS these days.

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

One sure way to start the LMI equivalent of a flamewar is to go the 7.62×39 vs. 223 vs. 308 route. And, really, I have no interest in getting into it with you. I will say, however, that today a high-end AK variant found a new home.

Why the AK? Well, the AR has better accuracy and ergonomics. The Ak’s only real claim to fame is that it is as reliable as a rock. Most folks that get into that whole AR’s-are-crap arguement start off with something about how seven million soldiers were killed in Vietnam the M16’s jammed and then when they tried to use them for bayoneting the guns bent in half or some other nonsense. Did stuff like that happen? Sure..M16’s jammed all the time. And Orville and Wilbur Wrights planes crashed more often than not. Whats your point? After 40 years I think the reliability issue is almost academic. But, like I said, I really dont wanna argue this with you..if you disdain the AR, then dont own one.

Anyway, these Bulgarian AK’s are hammer forged chrome lined barrels, milled receivers, nice furniture and come with the slide rail for optics. Theyre about twice the price of the Chinese AK’s but you really can see the quality.

For my(our) needs the Ak has a couple selling points:
* Ammo is dirt freakin’ cheap and comes in sealed spam cans. And its dirt cheap.
* Magazines are cheap, cheap, cheap. And reliable.
* If something happens to it, it isnt as great a loss as if an AR had taken a hit.

I’ll be taking the AK out this evening for a spin. I’ve about 6,000 rounds of ammo here in front of me so I think we’re doing okay in that department. Minute-of-badguy is the level of accuracy we’re looking to obtain and hopefully it should meet that requirement. (Thats one big nod to the AR….all things being equal [scope vs. scope, iron vs. iron] they tend to shoot better groups than the AK. (At this point someone will jump up and say how they once saw an out-of-the-box Norinco that would print 1″ groups….uh-huh, how many of them have you seen? Thats what I thought. )

Mind you, Im not disdaining the AK, Im merely saying that both rifles have strong points and both have weak points. What one rifle isnt, the other is.

So, now I’ll have to sock away some of those wonderful sealed spam cans of 7.62×39, which I should do anyway since everyone seems to have an SKS these days.

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

The dehydrated eggs I wanted were apparently run off when the company had/gets a government contract to do so. They currently do not have a contract to do so, thus, they have no inventory of this product to sell me. My options are to now look for an alternate product (Deb El if I can ever find any) or buy the existing stocks at REI and hope they have enough for my needs. (I figure one case oughtta do it for now [=100 eggs]).

This is typical. Every time I find a product Im really enthused about it gets discontinued or otherwise becomes unavailable to me.
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With summer on the way, im wondering if there’ll be failures of the power grid as there was last summer. Even if there isnt, Im still predicting/forecasting Major Wierdness around election time and I am also guessing *something* will happen proximal to the Assault Weapons Ban expiration to suddenly swing votes towards renewing it.
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I’ve had an extraordinarily Machiavellian thought lately – go to school, finish college with some sort of civics degree and get a job as Emergency Management officer for the county or state. This why I know exactly where all the goodies are and I get keys to the warehouses. Hmm.

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

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

The dehydrated eggs I wanted were apparently run off when the company had/gets a government contract to do so. They currently do not have a contract to do so, thus, they have no inventory of this product to sell me. My options are to now look for an alternate product (Deb El if I can ever find any) or buy the existing stocks at REI and hope they have enough for my needs. (I figure one case oughtta do it for now [=100 eggs]).

This is typical. Every time I find a product Im really enthused about it gets discontinued or otherwise becomes unavailable to me.
=====
With summer on the way, im wondering if there’ll be failures of the power grid as there was last summer. Even if there isnt, Im still predicting/forecasting Major Wierdness around election time and I am also guessing *something* will happen proximal to the Assault Weapons Ban expiration to suddenly swing votes towards renewing it.
=====
I’ve had an extraordinarily Machiavellian thought lately – go to school, finish college with some sort of civics degree and get a job as Emergency Management officer for the county or state. This why I know exactly where all the goodies are and I get keys to the warehouses. Hmm.

So Im in REI yesterday and it was brought to my attention that there was a powdered egg mix in the foods section. Hmmmm. The usual preparedness breakfast meals keep quite well but, frankly, after a while oatmeal, grits and cornmeal much are gonna get pretty darn tiring. Eggs…mmmmm….that would be a nice change. Also, if youre gonna store all that wheat it might be nice to have some eggs to use for making bread, caked, etc.

Anyway……



The product was a 6 oz. foil package of “Wakefield Brand All Purpose Egg Mix” by Michael Foods Company. (This company is subject to a website urging them to be boycotted because of their factory farming process. I. Dont. Care. When the dust clears and the choice is between starvation and survival I really dont give a rats ass that the eggs Im eating came from a chicken that was ‘oppressed’.)

$2.50 for the 6 oz. package. According to the package, it is the equivalent of 10 eggs when you mix contents of package with 2 cups water. Or 2 tablespoons of product plus 1/4 cup water = one egg.

I opened the foil package and thought immediately that this stuff reminded me of the cheese powder you get with macaroni-n-cheese meals. It was kinda peach/orangey colored. I mixed it up in a bowl using a hand whisk and it looked highly unappetizing and smelled nothing like eggs. Poured the mess into a buttered frying pan and was still feeling skeptial. It cooked slower than ‘real’ eggs and the color was still bothering me. After about four minutes of high heat and stirring with a spatula, all that changed. Suddenly it started smelling like real eggs, started cooking like real eggs, and started looking like real eggs. Now I was intrigued. I continued cooking. (I like my scrambled eggs ‘dry’) and when done these things were absolutely indistinguishable from ‘real’ eggs. Tasted exactly the same. I mean ‘exactly’. I melted some cheese over them and they tasted no different than regular crack-em-open eggs. And all for $2.50!

So, I called Michael Foods (1-800-328-5474) and am trying to get ahold of their regional sales rep to see if I can get more of these at a discount and if its available in #10 cans. Theyre website doesnt mention the ‘Wakefield Brand’ at all but its a new product as far as I can tell. The info person at the 800 number sent me to someones voice mail about regional sales so I’ll try them and report back.

This is good stuff, I highly recommend it if you can find it.

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

So Im in REI yesterday and it was brought to my attention that there was a powdered egg mix in the foods section. Hmmmm. The usual preparedness breakfast meals keep quite well but, frankly, after a while oatmeal, grits and cornmeal much are gonna get pretty darn tiring. Eggs…mmmmm….that would be a nice change. Also, if youre gonna store all that wheat it might be nice to have some eggs to use for making bread, caked, etc.

Anyway……

The product was a 6 oz. foil package of “Wakefield Brand All Purpose Egg Mix” by Michael Foods Company. (This company is subject to a website urging them to be boycotted because of their factory farming process. I. Dont. Care. When the dust clears and the choice is between starvation and survival I really dont give a rats ass that the eggs Im eating came from a chicken that was ‘oppressed’.)

$2.50 for the 6 oz. package. According to the package, it is the equivalent of 10 eggs when you mix contents of package with 2 cups water. Or 2 tablespoons of product plus 1/4 cup water = one egg.

I opened the foil package and thought immediately that this stuff reminded me of the cheese powder you get with macaroni-n-cheese meals. It was kinda peach/orangey colored. I mixed it up in a bowl using a hand whisk and it looked highly unappetizing and smelled nothing like eggs. Poured the mess into a buttered frying pan and was still feeling skeptial. It cooked slower than ‘real’ eggs and the color was still bothering me. After about four minutes of high heat and stirring with a spatula, all that changed. Suddenly it started smelling like real eggs, started cooking like real eggs, and started looking like real eggs. Now I was intrigued. I continued cooking. (I like my scrambled eggs ‘dry’) and when done these things were absolutely indistinguishable from ‘real’ eggs. Tasted exactly the same. I mean ‘exactly’. I melted some cheese over them and they tasted no different than regular crack-em-open eggs. And all for $2.50!

So, I called Michael Foods (1-800-328-5474) and am trying to get ahold of their regional sales rep to see if I can get more of these at a discount and if its available in #10 cans. Theyre website doesnt mention the ‘Wakefield Brand’ at all but its a new product as far as I can tell. The info person at the 800 number sent me to someones voice mail about regional sales so I’ll try them and report back.

This is good stuff, I highly recommend it if you can find it.

A little commentary on three-day packs. Which, naturally, reminds me that I need to inspect mine and make sur everything is hunky-dory.

Went shooting yesterday. Im coming to like the Glock. With zippy hollowpoints its accurate enough for my needs and it really is pretty reliable and goof-proof.

Weather here is warming up so it’ll be time to head into the sticks for camping and hiking. And, since Ive a new mountain bike to beat to death, I think I’ll start spending some time cruising around the logging roads and whatnot. Good way to build up stamina, get exercise and see the country.

Im still practically guaranteeing that theres going to be some sort of (attempted) attack on the US right before the election. It worked in Spain so why wouldnt they try it here? Fortunately, Im about as far away from a major target area as I can be so my only concern is, so to speak, the fallout from the event….more Draconian laws and the like.

I think everything from September to December is going to be very interesting, in an Orange Alert sort of way.

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

A little commentary on three-day packs. Which, naturally, reminds me that I need to inspect mine and make sur everything is hunky-dory.

Went shooting yesterday. Im coming to like the Glock. With zippy hollowpoints its accurate enough for my needs and it really is pretty reliable and goof-proof.

Weather here is warming up so it’ll be time to head into the sticks for camping and hiking. And, since Ive a new mountain bike to beat to death, I think I’ll start spending some time cruising around the logging roads and whatnot. Good way to build up stamina, get exercise and see the country.

Im still practically guaranteeing that theres going to be some sort of (attempted) attack on the US right before the election. It worked in Spain so why wouldnt they try it here? Fortunately, Im about as far away from a major target area as I can be so my only concern is, so to speak, the fallout from the event….more Draconian laws and the like.

I think everything from September to December is going to be very interesting, in an Orange Alert sort of way.

Man, I gotta post more………

Acquisitions from the Butte gun show –

German rain poncho – Dang it, is there a single piece of US field gear that the West Germans cant beat???? Their poncho is heavier, has nicer snaps and folds neater. How the hell did these people lose World War Two? If it was for their pornographic fascination with poop and puke films these guys would be the country to emulate.

Surplus Brit sleeping bags – On the other side of the coin, you get the Brits who cannot create good food, good cars or a good .223 weapon. However, the sleeping bags were of decent quality, roll up into their own pouch, and look like the may be pretty warm. They were purchased as ‘truck bags’ for that unexpected winter adventure when you get stuck in the snow and cold.

WaterGel – Never enough burn treatments.

And a few Glock 17 mags…although we have Glock 19’s, and the 17 mags stick out the bottom of the gun a bit, this allows us to use this magazine in any 9mm Glock whereas the 19 mag only fits 19’s and the miniguns.

Bunker maintenance….must. organize. bunker.