Author Archives: Commander Zero

Water water everywhere

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Sitting on the couch watching TV at 10pm and there’s an odd noise in the background. Hmmm. I mute the television and hear a sound of….water? The hairs on my neck stand up and that little adrenaline rush bumps me from ready-for-bed to red-alert mode.

When you live in the same house for a number of years you become very attuned to the sounds of your surroundings. You know what noises are supposed to occur (or not occur) and when. This was a ‘something is not right noise’. It took about six seconds for me to run through the possibilities and then I was bolting down the stairs to the basement where, even before I saw it and heard it I could smell it…water.

We had snow during the week and the temperatures dropped abruptly. I wasnt ready for it and didnt turn off the water to the outside spigots. One of them cracked and a high-pressure jet of water was doing its thing.

I immediately grabbed the main shutoff lever and swung it closed. That solved the immediate problem. It also turned off the water to the entire house. But…with the immediate problem taken care of, now was the time to look closer.

The outside spigot branches off from the main water line and has it’s own shutoff as well. I closed that off and re-opened the main. Water was back to the rest of the house and the outside spigot line was isolated and shut off. I’ll deal with it in the spring. In the meantime, damage control.

I had always been concerned about pipe breakage in the basement so I shielded all my stored preps that were near any pipes. I also never put anything that was susceptible to water damage anywhere lower than a foot and a half off the floor. So, yeah, a few cardboard boxes of Pmags got soaked but while the boxes are a soggy mess, the mags are fine. I’ve a fan running down there now to dry out things but the bigger issue is: if I had gone to bed early, this thing would have run all night. How can I be alerted to such a failure in the future.

Well, first step, is I should have shut off the outside water two weeks ago. That was the biggest fail. But after that, unless I’m taking a stroll through my basement once a day, I need some alert systems. So..off to Amazon to pick up water alarms. Additionally, since I have plenty of unused ‘channels’ on the security cams, I’m going to dedicate a camera or two to keeping an eye on the basement.

All in all, it could have been a lot worse. But it could have been a lot better too.

Flashlight holster

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So its been a couple weeks since I picked up the flashlight I posted about a while back. Thus far, I’ve been extraordinarily pleased with it. It’s just a tad bigger than what I’d want to carry around in my pocket for everyday use (that need is far better served with the Fenix E12), but for a flashlight to keep in my Bag O’ Tricks (TM) or on a belt….wonderful choice.

The belt thing, however…..

Like pretty much every high(er)-end flashlight you buy these days, this thing came with a nylon belt pouch. Nothing wrong with that. But I want something a little more durable and a bit more resilient. Fortunately, the internet is not lacking in ways to spend money. Specifically, this little piece o’ gear.

Mounted on my new Viking Tactical belt, it fits just fine and remains out of the way but handy. Recommended.

What? The Viking Tactical belt? Oh..ok….more about that later.

 

Vote

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My usual election-themed Heinlein quote:

“If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for … but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.”

― Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Yeah, yeah, yeah…”If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” Whatever, man…. I’ll vote every chance I get.

Snowfall means winter is here

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Had our first real bit of snow yesterday which means it is time to make sure any seasonal preps have been attended to. For me, that mostly means putting sand and a shovel in the back of the truck, putting the Winter Module into my Bag O’ Tricks(tm), and making double-sure the generator is ready to roll.

I live in an extremely urban part of Montana, so the power rarely goes out here and when it does it is usually in the winter, it is very localized, and is almost always back in a few hours. So, there’s not really a huge risk of damage there…but whose to say the next outage won’t be region-wide? Or larger?

The part of Montana I live in is also, weirdly, the warmest part of Montana. When Billings and Great Falls are -20, it’s 5 degrees here. This valley, for some reason, seems to just stay warm. Probably a volcano down there somewhere that no one has paid attention to.

Regardless, it’s time to switch modes from warm-weather to cold-weather. And, that means making sure your vehicle is ready for whatever winter brings. I had a whole series of posts on that sort of thing. There’s nothing heroic or glamourous about freezing to death by the side of the road because you thought one of those foil mylar blankets and a few handwarmers were going to be all you needed to get through a cold night in your car. No one is going to hand out awards to people who made it through a crisis with the least amount of gear…grab a sleeping bag or two, shove them in a Home Depot orange bucket, hammer a lid onto it, and – presto- a watertight, dustproof, dirtproof, protective container for your sleeping bag.

In addition to car stuff, go make sure you’ve got everything you need in case a pipe pops somewhere. Make sure nothing is obstructing the water shutoffs, have material handy (clamps, sheets of gasket material, etc.) to at least jury-rig something to keep things relatively dry.

And , of course, carry extra warm clothing. I dont mean “Extra warm” clothing, I mean extra “warm clothing”….because there is always someone, usually a Gyno-American, who underdressed for weather because the warm goosdown parka was ‘the wrong color’ or was ‘ugly’ and instead thinks wearing fleece tights and a ‘cute’ fleece jacket will suffice. And the hat will ‘mess up’ her hair. Carry extras, guys.

WInter is here, time to shift gears.

Interesting times

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Call them what you will…disasters, events, apocalypses, crises, whatever…..but they come in two temporal flavors: the fast and the slow. The fast ones are easy to recognize – an earthquake, tsunami, explosion, martial law, riot, etc, etc. Its basically going from zero-to-MadMax in the span of a few moments. The slow ones are things like what we’re experiencing now….every day the water gets a bit warmer and you don’t notice it until the day it becomes a rolling boil. And by then….well, I hope you had your gear stashed and your plans made….because, brother, it’s too late now.

Gas prices are still absurd, inflation is uncontrolled, politicians of both stripes are warning of politically motivated violence, crime seems to be increasing, the housing markets are fomenting cries for socialist policies, taxes are going up, and who knows what the international situation will be adding to the mix. Interesting time to be alive, isn’t it?

Eventually all of this will be a memory…inflation will drop back to its ‘optimal’ level of 2%, the housing market will calm down, politics will return to something you can talk about without it devolving into a knife fight, and your average Joe won’t feel like a trip through the WalMart parking lot is like taking a stroll through Fallujah.

The big question, of course, is what will the medicine look like that finally cures this ailment? Chemotherapy kicks cancer’s butt but it darn near kills you in the process. Will the fix for these things be almost as bad as those things themselves? I mean, Mussolini made the trains run on time, and Hitler built the autobahn…but look at the cost.

I have no idea what its going to take to change the current situation. But I am fairly confident that I know what it will not take…it will not take out-of-touch leftists whose solution to inflation and crime is “Green Deals” and “inclusive” pronouns.

Next week’s elections should be telling. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m gonna go on a limb and guess that the major issues on the minds of your average voter are inflation and gas prices. I’m of the opinion that most people, fundamentally, look out for Numbah One and that means that when chicken jumps 70% in a year they will vote on the economy and their pocketbook, not on transgendered bathrooms and carbon neutrality.

No two ways about it, these are weird times. So far, I’ve been able to deal with inflation, scarcity, crime, and pandemic simply because I’ve been preparing for stuff like this for the last thirty years. Food prices up? I’ve enough stockpiled food to help defray the high costs. Housing is expensive? Good thing the house is paid. Crime is up? Dude….not even gonna worry about it. Pandemic? Happily unvaccinated and still healthy as a horse. But you and me, we’re the exceptions. And, unfortunately, it isn’t the exceptions that decide the outcome of elections, but rather the general populace… the general unprepared populace.

So, long story short, make sure to vote next week, and make sure to grab some friends and drag them to the polls and make sure they vote. Then go back to your bunker and keep working on your readiness, ’cause one way or the other this nonsense is still far from being done.

WinCo keeps winning

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Ah, WinCo….How I love thee.

About a week ago I thought WinCo had sealed the deal and become my favorite place to shop. But, today plucked the strings of my heart (and wallet) even further. Behold:

Now, my freezer is already at 105% capacity. No room at the inn. But, dang it, for a buck and a half a pound I will figure something out. Is it a bargain if I spend $400 on a new freezer in order to save $1.50 a pound on chicken? Mmmmm…probably not…but it sure is tempting.

No idea how long the sale lasts, but if you’re local, the WinCo is on Reserve and South. Tell ’em Commander Zero sent you.

 

Flashlight history sites

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As much as the field of guns has it’s wildly nerdy devotees who geek out on what might otherwise be considered ‘useless trivia’, the field is not alone in that. Case in point: flashlight nerds.

A posted about flashlights and a little bit about MagLite and, unsurprisingly, there are blogs out there dedicated to the history of such:

It’s a fascinating thing, to see how the technology and design have changed over the years. There have been very few advances in technology that trickled into the realm of survivlalism in such a pronounced way….the advent of LEDs and newer battery technologies have really made a tremendous sea change in flashlight options compared to the olden days of survivalism.

Both of those links are fascinating reading, doubly so if you have law enforcement experience. No doubt the KelLite’s bring back some memories for the long-retired cops.

 

Fenix PD35

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Man, I remember in the very fledgling days of my survivalist existence the flashlight to have was the MagLite. The bigger the better, and MagLite made some of those things in as many as, I believe, 6 D-cells which was alot like carrying a baseball bat. And, of course, that was the idea behind it. MagLite’s unspoken-yet-obvious big selling point was that you could beat someone to death with it if you needed to. And, back in those days, you had a Krypton bulb that threw out a decent bit of light compared to the flashlights of the day. But if you dropped your MagLite there was a good chance the filament in the bulb would break, so they came with a spare bulb nestled in the tailcap.

Now it’s thirty years later and technology has actually delivered on its promise, at least as far as flashlight are concerned. Thanks to LED’s we get ten times the battery life and about that much times the brightness.

I mention this because I sent a pocket flashlight to someone as a gift and got one for myself on a whim. And I am astounded at the light output in it’s maximum mode. The light in question is the Fenix PD35 v3.0 1700 Lumen Tactical Flashlight with Two ARB-L18-2600Us and LumenTac Organizer.

For the last several years I have been carrying a Fenix E11/12   which has proven to be an outstanding choice for an everyday pocket light. Bright enough for most operations without getting into the overly tactical realm. It’s small, runs on one AA batt, and fits in your pocket quite nicely.Its a good everyday carry kind of item and I recommend it highly for that.

But…sometimes you want something in the same (or similar) size and form factor but you want to up the firepower. So, after examining the one I got as a gift for someone I decided I very much needed this thing in my repertoire.

It runs off an included rechargeable battery. The battery charges off of USB cable so you can pretty much charge it anywhere. Probably even off a Goal0 solar panel that’s designe for charging USB appliances. And, since it is USB, you can charge it off of anything that is meant to charge your phone…like those portable little battery banks. But, in a crunch, it’ll also run just as nicely on a couple of those CR123 batteries you’re using in your Surefire weapon lights. So..dual fuel.

The biggest attraction , to me, is this retina-scorching maximum setting on this thing. Hit the button on the tailcap to on/off. Once on, there’s a small button at the front bezel that you can click through the five power settings. Lowest setting will give you a nice ‘work light’ output for finding things close at hand in the dark, highest setting will look like an aircraft landing light. Hold down the selector button for a few seconds and you get a wildly disorienting strobe on maximum setting. Pretty sure it’ll induce an epileptic seizure on pretty much anyone…epileptic or not. It remembers what setting you had it on when you last used it, so if you turn it off on low, it’ll be on low when you turn it back on. Turn it off on maximum, and when you turn it back on…maximum.

Runtime, according to the paperwork, is something like 200+ hours on the low setting and about five hours on max. Battery recharge is about fifteen minutes and the battery has a red/green LED indicator on it to let you know when its charging/charged.

Price? Not cheap. About a hundred bucks which, even with Bidenflation, still seems like a bit of a bitter pill. But…cheap bastard that I am, I’m telling you that you’ll get what you pay for with this thing.

It’s about the size of your average Surefire light, but still of a size that would fit in a pocket. Theres a belt clip and lanyard for keeping things handy and from getting lost. If you do things like take the dog out at midnight, or walk home from work late at night, this is the last word in pocket handheld illumination.

Do I think it’s worth a hundred bucks? Hmmm. I think so. I’ve never had an occasion where I wished my flashlight had less power, but I’ve been in plenty of situations where I wished it threw a beam further or brighter.

So…thumbs up from your buddy Zero.

Article – About To Cook Freezer Burn Beef? Think Again. Here’s How Long Meat Really Lasts in the Freezer

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So you bought too much meat during your last grocery run and decided to stash some of it in the freezer until a later date. But then you forget all about it—until months later, when you find those chicken breasts, turkey burgers or skirt steaks hidden in the back of your freezer. 

You think to yourself: “How long does meat last in the freezer—and can I still eat what I’ve been storing in mine for, like, ever?” Well, the good news is that you can pretty much keep frozen meat around indefinitely and it’ll still be safe, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Phew! 

Buuuut…we do have a bit of bad news to share. Just because frozen meat won’t go bad, per say, doesn’t mean it’ll always taste good once you decide to thaw it out and grill, sear or pan-fry it. As the USDA notes, the quality of frozen foods decreases over time. Womp, womp.

This article, and several like it that have been making the rounds these days, are complete and utter nonsense. IF you package the meat properly, and IF you keep it at a nice 0-degree-or-less temperature, it will last for years. I know this because I eat meat that is way older than a year all the time.

To be fair, there are other variables involved…how you cook it, for example. Will a rare steak taste from five years ago taste as good as one purchased yesterday? I don’t know. But I do know with utter certainty that meat used in stews, soups, sauces, and that sort of thing will taste just fine. Tacos, enchilladas, spaghetti sauces, sloppy joes, stews, soups, that sort of thing….not an issue at all.

I have eaten frozen turkey that was at least five or six years old. I just recently has some meat that was about ten years old. No problems whatsoever.

But, as I said, it’s all about the prep and storage. You’ve got to keep air from contacting the meat. I use a vacuum sealer but you might get away with plastic wrap if you make sure to wrap it thoroughly and to leave no voids with air.

After that, you need to get that meat down into the -0 range and keep it there. The freezer in your fridge will not be the optimal choice for this task. A dedicated chest freezer is the ticket.

I’ve noticed that articles like these are abounding lately. I wonder if it’s a concerted effort to get the population used to the idea of eating out of their freezer because of expected shortages and high pricing….or is it just coincidence? Hmm.