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

Recognize this? Its the ubiquitous 5-gallon bucket. (Although to be fair, alot of 6-gallon buckets look darn near identical to this thing.) They can be had new for somewhere between $3-5~ at any hardware store. The lids are a major pain in the ass to remove but they weren’t really designed for repeated openings. A product that I use and can honestly recommend is the Gamma Seal lid. These lids consist of a threaded ring that snaps onto the rim of the bucket, and a gasketed threaded lid that screws into the threaded ring. In short, it turns the bucket into an easily resealable large container…ideal for foodstuffs or anything else you want to protect from damage. The buckets themselves are usually pretty durable since theyre designed for shipping about 40# of paint around in the back of trucks and trailers. I suppose they might get brittle in extreme cold but I havent had it happen yet. Theyre sort of like lightweight, really big amo cans in terms of their usefulness of storage.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand. If you happen to have some of these buckets available to you, do yourself a favor and pick up some of the Gamma Seal lids. They can usually be had for around $8 a throw. Sportsmans Guide sells them for six bucks and change, and Im sure somewhere on the interweb theres a place selling ‘em for less if you order enough. I ordered a dozen from Sportsmans Guide a few years ago but they only offer them in whote and black. (And in retrospect I probably should have used the black ones for ease of viewing in these pictures…but, hey, Im not a photographer.) The lids come in several colors so you can color-code your buckets for rapid identification. A smart individual might code them white for food, black for ammo, red for medical stuff, green for…whatever green means to you, etc, etc. Of course, theres nothing to keep you from slapping a durable label (or better yet, a packing list) to the exterior of the bucket since the last thing you need is to be frantically digging through these things when you’re desperate for some piece of equipment.

The adapter ring attaches to the bucket using natures miracle adhesive – brute force. The ring is supposed to ’snap’ into place on the bucket but a rubber mallet or a length of 2×4 makes things alot faster. (Also alot louder. Make sure to set the bucket on a solid surface [like a concrete floor] before whomping on the adapter ring.) Both the adapter ring and the screw on lid have gaskets but if youre a suspender-and-a-belt kind of guy you may want to run a bead of silicone sealant around the lip of the bucket before hammering the adapter ring on. Once the adpater ring is on the opening to the bucket will, naturally, be slightly smaller than the actual mouth of the bucket but not enough to make any practical difference. The tradeoff for the ease of use in opening/closing the lid is worth it, in my opinion.

Now, if youre storing grains or other foodstuffs you could just use the buckets by thensleves for non-long-term storage. I keep a bucket of rice in my kitchen for daily use. Unscrew the lid, scoop out a cup of rice, close lid…that sort of thing. I’ve been using out of that same bucket for about two years now and theres no problems of any kind. No moisture, no contamination, no insects, no dirt, no nothing. However, why not err on the side of caution, hm? If youre going to store anything in bulk in one of these buckets do yourself a favor and entomb it in a nice mylar bag first. Its those nice, thoughtful touches that make the difference. Especially if you ever have to transport your precious edibles in horrid weather conditions in the middle of the night. Last thing you want to worry about as your barrelling down the road in thunderous rainstorm is whether the 25# of wheat in the back of the truck is getting ruined. Of course, if youre putting away food thats already in its own durable packaging (canned food, or pouched foods for example) you can just go ahead and and stack/cram/pack ‘em in there.

To get slightly sidetracked for a minute, I’m not selling these things, nor am I directing you to any place that does sell them. Not because Im above that…after all, from time to time I might try to sell you something…but because I simply am not selling this particular item. I would never advocate or try to convince you to buy a product that I was not willing to use myself, and since I use the Gamma Seals for my own storage needs I thought some of you who don’t have any experience with them might find a little post about them useful. As I said, I’ve been using them for several years now and have been pleased with them. In addition to the obvious things like food, theyre also good for storing first-aid kits or vehicle emergency kits. If you can stuff ‘em in there, theyre great for protecting sleeping bags or blankets in your vehicle.

So, as they say on television “I use and endorse this product”.

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

Its the little things in life that bring me joy..a pleasant summer day, an orange sunset over the mountains, a case of HydraShock 9mm sitting in the back of the truck…that sort of thing.

What makes me particularly purr-like-a-cat content this weekend was going to CostCo and stocking up on a few things. Also, saving money makes me happy. And if I can combine the two – stocking up and saving money – then Im about as happy as Bill Clinton at female swordswallowers convention.

About a week ago I was up at Wally World and while wandering the aisles I took the time to make note of various prices and serving sizes for later price comparison. When I was at Costco yesterday I checked against my notes and found that some stuff was indeed cheaper at CostCo than at WallyWorld. Example? The canned chicken broth I wind up using frequently was $0.72 at WW, if I bought a 12-pack of it at CostCo it came out to $0.5825 per can. A savings of approx. $0.14, or $3.36 for the case of 24 that was purchased. That doesnt sound like much but look at it another way, it was the same as if getting six cans free. Or, put another way, 25% off.

So, stocked up on a few flats of canned goods, a case of toilet paper (because while there are substitutes, there are no good substitutes), several pounds of butter, about 15# of pasta and of course a healthy selection of meat.

The bulk ground beef gets broken down into 1# packages, vacuum sealed, labelled, and entombed in the deep freeze. Of course, at the same time, the oldest ground beef gets pulled out and shuffled into the kitchen freezer for use. Currently, I think the stuff I have thawing is dated 2004. Yes, if you vacuum seal it and freeze it (not in the freezer built into your fridge, which doesnt usually get to the mind numbing cold of a true freezer) it can keep for years. Oldest stuff I’ve pulled out of the freezer has been close to five years. Once thawed it cooked up just fine. The obvious advantages (and disadvantages) make bulk purchasing of meat an extremely economical way of doing things.

Chicken, on the other hand, has been a delight to store. Know why? Theyre packaging the chicken breasts in their own vacuum sealed, datecoded, heavy plastic pouches these days. I dont have to do anything to it other than throw it in the freezer. Damn convenient.

And, just to keep my freezer from turning into some sort of meat mausoleum, theres a write-n-wipe board on the door of it that is used to keep track of whats inside. Thus, when I head for the warehouse store I can tell if I need another 15# of ground round or another 10# of bacon.

The butter, by the way, freezes really well but if left in the freezer for any real length of time will start taking on wierd odors and flavors. Vacuum sealing it prevents this and greatly increases its shelf life. Yes, you can also can butter (or buy canned butter) and although its more expensive, I hear its quite tasty. Handy for when freezing/refrigeration isnt an option.

So, returning from CostCo, running the vacuum sealer, stocking the shelves, updating the spreadsheets and admiring the enhancements to the food stockpile always put me in a better mood. Nothing says ’security’ like several months worth of food. Except of course for ammo. And fuel. And metals. And guns. And medical gear. And warm clothes.

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

Gratuitous girlfriend picture after the cut.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Hmm..the forecast calls for significant snow and cold in my area. Two words to Mom Nature: bring it beeyotch.

I got heat, I got lighting, I got food, I got water, I got commo, I got game.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Man, I just cannot shake the feelings of impending doom everytime I listen to the news. (I’ve pretty much stopped watching the news. I now either listen to it on the radio or I read it on the various newswires on the internet.)

It seems like everything is doom and gloom about the economy, housing, fod and fuel prices, war, etc, etc.

I have to pause and think about my own exposure to these things – my house has a tiny fixed rate mortgage, I don’t have any debt other than the mortgage, the girlfriend has her job with a good degree of job security, we don’t have many luxuries other than internet and Warcraft, the truck is paid for, there no mountain of credit card debt, and by and large we’re not in a bad place should the economy tumble.

I cannot imagine being one of these people you hear about on the news…the family with two kids, three cars, an overpriced house, fifty grand in credit card debt and the threat of downsizing in the future. I think I’d explode from the stress.

But, at the same time, most of what I read and hear says that the majority of the people in these dire situations put themselves into it. Either by getting mortgages using inflated/falsified earnings data, living so far ahead of their income or just generally being incredibly shortsighted. So, while I feel bad for them I have a tough time feeling sorry for them. Earning $46,000 a year and lying to buy a $750,000 house isn’t a ‘mistake’, it’s fraud.

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‘Jericho’ returns to TV next month for their abbreviated seven-episode season. I read somewhere that the first three episodes were leaked onto the internet so if you’re the impatient kind, you can probably find them out there. Don’t ask me about links, I have none. I read about it on arfcom so you may wanna go look there.

I will say that from what Ive read about the second season, it appears the first season format of ‘just trying to stay alive’ is going to give way to episodes about more ‘tin foil hat’ type of things. I’d elaborate but I don’t want to ruin things for anyone.

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Still following the elections. I am still of the opinion that at this point who wins will be irrelevant in regards to gun policy. Nothing good will happen for gun owners out of the next election, it’ll only be differing degrees of bad. Buying magazines, ammo and gun s is never a bad idea and it is even less of a bad idea now with about ten months left until elections

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That reminds me….

When you stock up on firearms and related materials, don’t think that you are stocking up for the day TSHTF. What you are doing is stocking up for the rest of your life. Whats the difference?

If you’re stocking up because, say, you live in New Orleans and you’re worried another Katrina is going to blow through you might stock a case of 9mm, a case of .223 and a case of 00 buck and figure you’re all set. You’d probably be right. And then when the Katrina Mk II is over then what? Say you used up half of that stash (giving it to friends, neighbors, etc) what do you do? DO you buy more? Of course you do…and you can do that because its still available now that the immediate crisis is over.

I stockpile firearms and materials on the assumption that whatever I have right now is all I have to last me for the rest of my life because at some point they will no longer be available. If I say that I have a Pelican case with x  Glocks in it someone will ask “Do you really think that when TSHTF you’re going to need x Gocks? If you need that many then you should have brought artillery support.” But that’s not what those are for..oh sure, they’re good to have if things really do get weird but Im not thinking that come some Katrina-esque disaster Im going to need x Glocks. I have as many as I have because someday the powers that be may say that no more can be sold, or they’ll restrict them so highly as to make them virtually unobtainable, and then whatever I have has to last me for the next 40 years.

Remember that wild and crazy Assault Weapon ban in 1994? Lets say it didn’t expire, however many AR magazines you had at the time of the ban would be all youd be able to have for the. Rest. Of. Your. Life. Sure, you might be able to buy more grandfathered ones…maybe for $30 ea…and ten years later for $50 ea…and further down the road at $100 ea. So at that moment, when you’re staring at the television watching the news and you realize that whatever you have at that moment is probably all you’ll ever be able to have….do you think you have enough? You have two AR’s in the safe, maybe thirty magazines for the pair and you still have forty years of living left in front of you. Forty years of hoping that your rifles don’t suffer failures, that you don’t lose/break/damage/forget or otherwise ruin a magazine. Do you even own anything mechanical that you’ve managed to consistently keep in good condition for forty years?

A lot happens in forty years…in five years you flip your truck on a patch of ice and your rifle is destroyed in the wreck. Eleven years from now someone breaks into your home and steals your pistol and a rifle. Fourteen years from some overzealous cop at the range says you’re gun/magazine is illegal and confiscates them..he’s proved wrong but you don’t get them back because department policy is to never return guns. Seventeen years from now your house catches fire and your pistol is lost in the flames. Twenty years from now your son is getting married, moving away and you don’t want him to be unarmed so you want to give him a rifle and pistol. Thirty years from now you want to set a pistol aside for when your grandson comes of age.

So, really, is it that outrageous for someone to think that maybe a half dozen rifles and a couple hundred magazines is a bad idea?

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

I don’t particularly like the Ruger firearms company. My main reason is for Ruger’s history of Neville Chamberlain-esque willingness to ‘compromise’ when gun legislation rolls around. For example, Ruger voluntarily pulled their folding stock Mini-14’s off the civilian market. Ditto for the factory 20-rd mags. And Ruger was proud to be the first to suggest to the .gov that pistol magazines be limited to 10 rounds. Their advertising of themselves as “Arms maker for responsible citizens”, has an undeniably, and to me offensive, Orwellian ring to it. To continue the WW2 analogies, Ruger was the Quisling of the gun industry.

But, of course, theres an ‘on the other hand…’

On the other hand, I do like Ruger firearms. Ruger makes some of the most durable firearms around.

I was re-reading Tappan’s opinion on revolvers vs. automatics for self-defense and especially for long-term use. Tappan opined that, by and large, an automatic could be repaired as fast as you could swap some parts. A revolver could be repaired as fast as you could get it to a gunsmith. As usual, there are almost no absolutes in there and the truth is somewhat in the middle. For example, in Tappans book he also goes on about how the 1911 is the finest pistol you can get…once you take it right out of the shipping box and hand it over to a gunsmith for all sorts of modifications. So, apparently, his vaunted automatic was no better than the revolver in terms of being ‘repaired as fast as you can get it to the gunsmith’. On the other hand, I’ve owned and shot revolvers over 60 years old that still seemed to work just fine. Go figure.

But, to be fair, Tappan was right in some ways. Revolvers generally have parts (hand, bolt, etc) that require some fitting by hand. On the other hand, you take a modern auto like the Glock and pretty much any part just drops in with no fitting…a very handy feature for the long term where you never know if theres going to be a gunsmith available. (Or when your favorite gun is verboten and you cant risk taking it in for repairs.)

Personally, I’ve gone past the dogmatic stage of unyielding allegiance to a particular brand of firearm simply because it sound cool to say “Glocks rock!” or “John Browning is my god”. I want what works. For playing at the range and relaxing I have other preferences but for “Holy crap, was that a mushroom cloud?” I want something that I trust implicitly. The main appeal of automatics, for me, is the capacity of the magazine. Ballistically, revolvers appeal to me more.

So wheres Ruger fit into this?

Its my opinion that Ruger, despite their cowardly political practices in the past, make some of the most durable firearms on the planet today. I will also say that they currently make the most durable revolvers. Period.

I’ve been wanting a .44 Mag for a while now. Logistically, it does not fit into my main cartridge hierarchy (.22, .223, .308, 9mm, .38/.357, .45 ACP, 12 ga.) but I’ve been wanting a powerful revolver for stomping around in the boonies as well as for general usage. I’ve owned .44 Mags by  other manufacturers, including S&W, and while they were certainly good guns I do not believe they could stand up to long-term use with full-power loads as well as the Rugers.

Currently, I’m torn between the new 4” Redhawk and the .44 Alaskan model. The Alaskan is built on the Super Redhawk frame and is, in a word, massive. I genuinely believe that twenty years after the bombs go off the only guns still functioning will be AK’s, Glocks and these monolithic blocks of Ruger steel.

At this point Im sure someone is saying “Why not .45 Colt? You can load it as hot as the .44 Mag and you’ll have bullet interchangeability with your .45 ACP bullets.” That’s true. Logistically, I could eliminate the need to stock .44 bullets and brass and simply use .45 ACP bullets if needed. However, I think availability of .44 Mag ammo is better than .45 Colt. Also, the .45 Colt ammo that is available, usually, is the lighter stuff meant for all guns whereas the “.44 Magnumesque” .45 Colt loads are either strictly a handloading proposition or are available only from a limited amount of sources.

Why a revolver? The revolver offers me more power than can be stuffed into the average auto. (Yes, I know theres .45 Win. Mags out there. Im talking about the average auto.) At its best, the .45 ACP puts out around 500 ft/lb of energy (a +p load with 185 gr.) The 10mm, a worthy choice, puts out 600 ft/lb. at its best. A .44 Mag can put out 700-1000 ft/lb. without too much difficulty. The .357 Magnum puts out around 500 ft/lb. so ballistically its as good as any .45 ACP. The attraction to a revolver is that I get an extremely broad selection of bullet choices. I can shoot shot loads for pests at close range, lightweight bullets for plinking or small game, heavy bullets for larger game, and wicked cavernous hollowpoints (or even inverted hollowbase wadcutters) for brutal stopping power. This is not to say I’d run off to WW3 with the revolver on my hip…rather, for everyday use in the boonies the revolver has more appeal to me than the auto.

Is the revolver my first handgun choice for running out the door with when Der Tag arrives? Nope. That would be my Glock. But when Im hunting, or mountain biking, or fishing, or just tooling around in the sticks it would be nice to have something that affords me a large degree of power.

So, I think for a .44 Mag the Ruger is going to be the way to go.

As I was typing this a customer came in and as he was fishing around for his wallet I noticed some speedloaders on his belt. “Packing the revolver today?” I asked. He replied in the affirmative and produced his 4” GP100 Ruger .357. Im a fan of S&W handguns, and have a bunch of them, but that GP100 is a rugged little piece. I may have to get a couple of them too.

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

Okay, you gotta admit…its a pretty cool looking bomb shelter.

“The disaster shelter that you are about to view was custom built for a very discerning and well-informed family. It took approximately two years to construct and was never installed. This project is available and ready for delivery.”

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

Got the new Sportsmans Guide HQ catalog the other day. The HQ catalog differs from the regular SG catalog by being mostly military surplus stuff. It is rapidly becoming one of my favorite catalogs. There’s some very cool, very handy surplus stuff in there that I normally haven’t seen elsewhere. Some highlights from this recent catalog:

The fabulous flectar parka w/ liner for $29.97 (AX8M-124413X) – These things are wonderful. They are very comfy, warm and well made. I notice the price has gone up about $10 since I last saw the liner/parka combo offered. This is the coat I wear through most of the Montana winters and I’ve been pleased. You can roll the whole thing up into a tight ball and stuff it into its hood for compactness. I usually leave one basketball-sized rolled up parka in the truck ‘just in case’. These are excellent pieces of gear and I always recommend them when I see the catalog has them available.

2-pc Snow Camo Set $19.97 (AX8M-87700X) – Another fine German product I can recommend. In fact, I just had mine out the other day to try it in our new snow. My buddies agreed that at 50 yards I was pretty much invisible. These are covers that go over your normal clothing. They offer no real warmth or insulation, they simple act to cover your winter clothing you’re already wearing. They are completely reversible from/to solid white/white with pine. Even the pockets are reversible. I’ve had my set for years and this is the first time Ive seen them available at such a reasonable price. Obviously, since you’re wearing them over your bulky winter clothing, you might want to order a size larger than what you normally wear.

Two fairly new items that look interesting that I have not purchased:

Chinese copy of the GN58 portable hand generator – $149.97 (AX8M-115980) – The GN58 was made to power various military radio equipment. You can sometimes find them on eBay. They’re output is particular for the requirements of the mil radios but Im sure anyone with a soldering gun and knowledge of electronics could convert it to whatever voltage output they wanted. This Chinese copy looks almost identical to the genuine article. An interesting thing to experiment with.

Czech military RF-10 radio $129.97 (AX8M-130642) – Another new item…says it operates 44,000 to 53,975 Mhz which sounds odd for some reason. Comes w/ battery, antannae, mic, cables, charger, etc. 1 watt output (pretty short range). Might be fun for the radio enthusiast who wants to tinker.

What might I actually wind up getting?

Swedish M90 insultaed pants $19.97 (AX8M-130964X) – These look like just the ticket for wearing under the snow camo for those long, cold moments laying in the snow waiting for something to walk in front of the muzzle.

Theres a few other things in the catalog as well but they’re mostly luxuries or novelties that don’t serve a purpose that I haven’t already got covered. And while surplus stuff is always a bargain, Im not buying stuff just for the sake of having something new to play with. Resources are too limited for that. Still, alot of cool stuff if you should happen to get one of the HQ catalogs.

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

I think the Church (or cult) of Preparedness just got a new prophet.

Here’s a fascinating article about Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, whom you may or may not recall was a larger-than-life figure in the Katrina relief efforts. One of his more notable moments was “Chocolate” Nagin calling him a “John Wayne dude” who cut through the incompetence with a take-charge attitude, and telling reporters “Don’t get stuck on stupid!”.

(Actually, Chocolate said “Now, I will tell you this — and I give the president some credit on this — he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is [Lt.] Gen. [Russel] Honoré. And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And he’s getting some stuff done.”

So, Honore retiring after almost 40 years of service. His plans?

“…he says he wants to spend the rest of his life creating a ‘culture of preparedness’ to prevent another post-disaster disaster.’

“’What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the eastern seaboard’”

“His next project is taking shape, but he wants to see civil defense classes for young people that would teach first aid and survival basics, such as how to purify water. We wants to lobby drug stores and other businesses to keep generators in case of a long power failure. He wants cities to stockpile food and water so they don’t have to rely on the federal government.”

I’d like to know his opinion of disarming disaster survivors at gunpoint ala Katrina. He’s a military man so while he can appreciate the use of firearms and violence he may also have that mindset of ‘only authorized personnel’. If he’s got a book project going on I’d be interested in reading it to find out some more about him.

He’s saying everything a fella like me would like to hear. Sadly, I don’t think it will matter. He would be the perfect face and voice for a pro-civil-defense lobby. However, I don’t think such a thing exists on any large scale. (Im sure there are small, hideously underfunded groups but none with very much clout or manpower.) Perhaps on a state level he could help grassroots organizations that are trying to appropriate federal funds for local preparedness projects. I’d hate to see him wind up being the pitchman for water purifiers or other product. The guy seems to have a bit of passion, I hope he gets to apply it as he’d like and not have his enthusiasm diminished.

It would be nice to put him in charge of something like FEMA or other relief organization. Presumably he could cut through the BS and spend more time on the problem at hand and less time worrying about how his necktie looks on camera like that last idiot did.

But a ‘culture of preparedness’? We haven’t had that for a long while, if ever. The closest we may have come was during the heyday of Civil Defense when the .gov stocked shelters and encouraged public participation in preparing for the day the Reds pushed the button. And even that was a token effort. No, the true ‘cultures of preparedness’ occur on much smaller levels. Local and state, mostly. The folks in Utah, home of the Mormons, probably have their act together regarding civil defense more than any other state. And even then that’s mostly due to religious groupthink. We all know that the Swiss have the high ground when it comes to civil defense with some other European nations (even excommunist ones) holding the top of the charts. The US is right down there in the basement. I suppose that since we’ve historically never really had occasion to use a civil defense program it never amounted to a very high priority. Even with the terrorist attacks of 2001 and the continued terrorist threat it seems like civil preparedness still gets short shrift.

Best quote from Honore: “In this new normal, with the possibility of terrorist attacks, natural disasters and industrial accidents, we need this culture of preparedness. A vast part of America still thinks ‘It cant happen where I live’ and they are dead damn wrong.”

Is it possible to create a ‘culture of preparedness’ without breaking the bank or becoming too heavy handed? I think so.

First of all, remember all those military base closings from years ago? Find a closed military base in each state and rehab it as a disaster staging point. Bring in National Guard engineers or the local vo-tech construction classes to update the buildings, add runways and helipads, and set up storage facilities. Create a point where supplies can be flown in and shipped out.

Next, take the out-of-date-but-still-good military items that would be relevant to a disaster and turn them over to the states for use in their programs. Bulk MRE’s purchased at the current .gov pricing schedule, vehicles that are otherwise no longer used, water treatment purification equipment, surplussed fuel tankers, etc, etc.

Offer incentives to citizens to prepare the way Florida does. Florida has a ‘no tax’ program every year, I believe, where you can buy hurricane preparedness gear without paying sales tax on it. I say take it a step further – tax credits for having generator, approved disaster shelter, advanced training, etc, etc. Any revenue lost through a tax break is offset by having one more family that doesn’t need .gov aid in a disaster.

Encourage civilian organizations to participate. This is already done with ham radio enthusiasts and private plane enthusiasts (ARES and CAP, respectively), it should be extended to other groups. Even the Boy Scouts would be an asset. Everyone gets an assigned role and everyone gets training in that particular role. Not everyone needs to be shoveling debris and bagging bodies…theres always going to be a need for runners, camp kitchen staff, sanitation orderlies, refugee processors, vehicle refuelers, etc, etc.

But, of course, we’ll never see anything like that coming out of Washington. You may, maybe, find it coming out of your state capital someday. You’re more likely to find it coming out of your county seat.

Also, there is, of course, no substitute for taking your own steps to be prepared, regardless of .gov participation (or lack thereof).

I’d be very interested to see what the future holds for Lt. Gen. Honore. I wonder if his statements aren’t some sort of positioning for a cabinet position when the administration changes, or if he genuinely believes what he’s saying. I would like to think the latter.

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

I was skimming through arfcom the other night and found an interesting post. A fella was saying how he had come across about 20 cases of Mountain House canned food that someone had put out in the trash. Still sealed cases, mind you. Naturally, he grabbed as many as he could.

So how does something like that happen? That’s easily a thousand dollars or so worth of food, so why would anyone discard it? The obvious, although possibly not correct, answer in this case is that the previous owner probably died and the family was getting rid of his junk.

So, yes, lets talk about dead survivalists.

We’ve all seen the t-shirt with the expression “If you die, we split your gear!” or similar sentiment. Sometimes someone will post something on the discussion forums about doing something their wife will obviously disapprove of and someone will reply with “Can I have your guns afterwards?” implying the wife would kill the original poster for his insane behavior and then his gear would be up for grabs. And we joke about it. But, it does happen. Plenty of people who stockpile food, ammo, fuel, medicines and gear wind up dying of heart attacks, car accidents, cancer or just plain old age before they ever encounter the big event that they were preparing against.

Mel Tappan, the guy who was the voice of survivalism back in its heyday, died long before he would have gotten the chance to need his guns, food, gold and other gear. (And what a collection of gear it must have been, eh? Esp. with his wife being from the Mack truck family. A little family wealth would buy a lot of AR-15’s….) Tappan died in the early 1980’s, when there was still a USSR, Soviet imperialism, a national hangover from the Carter years and a general ‘malaise’ in the spirit of the American people. Not a time of positive outlook. Tappan’s vision of societal collapse never materialized (not yet anyway) but Im sure he was glad it didn’t happen in his lifetime.

The Four Corners ‘survivalists’ prepared for their own little SHTF and all three died in short order after vanishing into the desert after their crime spree, the last of their skeletal remains only recently being discovered. I would bet that theres caches of supplies they left in the desert that will remain hidden for a very long time to come. They brought their disaster on themselves, thinking they were ready, and died before they could implement their plans for survival.

The folks at CUT (Church Universal and Triumphant) here in Montana built an extremely impressive bomb shelter that is all but abandoned and is occupied by only a couple people who, almost certainly, will not be around to use it under the circumstances for which it was built. Most of the people involved in CUT are still around but have moved on to other things.

Going back a little farther in time, there are plenty of houses in the United States that have bomb shelters in them…leftovers from the height of the Cold War. In many of those cases the original shelter owners have been deceased for quite a while. Their determination to survive, however, continues on after them in the form of concrete shelters under many suburban homes…now called ‘storage rooms’, ‘wince cellars’ or ‘bonus rooms’.

Like fire insurance, health insurance and homeowners insurance we spend resources against a perceived threat and then hope like hell that all our expenses will be for nothing and that we’ll never need the recourse that we’ve been paying on for years and years. It really isn’t throwing money down a rat hole since one thing you do get is peace of mind.

But, preparedness is a funny business. Like old men who collect model trains, the things that we value, seek and collect have marginal interest to those ‘outside the loop’. Take the cases of freezedrieds mentioned earlier… the family getting rid of it probably regarded it as more crap that crazy Uncle Eddie cluttered up the basement with. But the arfcom poster who found it regarded it as a major score.   Its almost like being in a secret club…we recognize fellow members by their gear, not by their names. Not a lot of people walk around with name badges saying “Hi! My name is: Steve And Im A Survivalist”. (Well, maybe at conventions…) But it seems like everyone recognizes the ‘symptoms’. The guy at work who wears 5.11 clothes, a belt that looks suspiciously like a gunbelt, drives a simple four-wheel drive vehicle or pickup truck, has a Leatherman tool on his belt, listens to talk radio, and never seems to get caught unprepared for anything. Maybe in a casual conversation he’ll mention buying some new backpacking gear, home canning some venison he shot, or discussing current events in a manner that shows he’s thinking ‘what if?’. Put all of these things together and you start thining “Yeah, I think he’s probably on the same page as I am…” And some day when he gets divorced and moves to Outer Yakistan and his wife is throwing out his gear, you’ll come across piles of web gear and MRE’s sitting at the curb and you’ll think “Damn, I knew I was right.”

But, as I said, most of the time we’ll all die before The Day arrives. And I am perfectly cool with that. I would much rather have the things I have and not need them than to have a situation arise where I did need them. I doubt many people who have fire insurance on their home would like their homes to burn so they can feel smug that they had insurance, right? Same with me…if I never have to use any of the things I have stockpiled I will be a very pleased individual.

Living out the rest of my life prepared for most disasters but never having to go through one would be a nice triumph.