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

Its a tragedy, this earthquake that theyve had in Asia, but you know what? If we're going to be spending money on humanitarian aid to dark skinned poor disaster victims then they should be Americans…get this New Orleans mess put away before you start rushing to a foreign disaster.
=====
Surplus goodies from Cheaper Than Dirt arrived. w00t!

Vinyl Mittens at $0.99 per six pair – Just what you'd expect. Unlined vinyl mittens. Theyve a wrist gather to keep cold out and the gauntlets go halfway up to my elbow. For bicycling or motorcycling in wet/cold these would be a good deal. Coupled with a set of GI wool mitten/glove liners they should be great. Since they are a lousy sixteen cents per pair I'll put a pair in my cold weather bag, the 's cold weather bag, an extra set to keep at work, a set to keep in the truck, and a bunch for storage. And, because I'm a sweetheart and can spare ninety-nine cents, a half dozen pair to one of the LMI. These are worth $0.99 for a half dozen pair and if you ever have occaison to have your hands out in windy, wet, cold weather your really gonna think they were worth the sixteen cents when you luck out and find the pair you stashed in the glovebox.

HK G3 Mag Pouches – Again, $0.99 ea. Sure enough, they hold a FAL mag like they were made for 'em. And, considering the history of W. Germany's armaments, they may well have been. (For a while W. Germany used a FAL variant.) These are uber-heavy-duty rubber/vinyl pouches. Completely silent, rattle-free and wth belt slots. Appears to be impervious to wet, cold, rot, mold, and everything except plastic-melting temperatures. Holds FAL and HK mags and I will bet they'll hold M1A mags as well. At $0.99 how can you go wrong??

Czech medic/firstaid bag, $9.99 – Eh. Not enough pockets. Construction is good…its a heavy burlap/canvas type fabric with stiffening panels on the sides. Might be good for re-enactments. I'm gonna strip the red cross patch off and use it as a carrybag for range gear. Might be good in its original role if you dont expect much but I can get a better organizer for a little bit more out of Outdoor Research. However, as a carrybag for cleaning gear, shooting stuff, small tools, etc, etc, it would be fine. Mild disappointment. Probably an improvement over the craptacular Blackhawk Medic Supply Roll, though.
=====
From the standpoint of those of interested in preparedness, the second half of 2005 has been the most interesting and analyzed period of time sine September of 2001. Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the bird flu threat, soaring gasoline prices, etc. have given people alot to think about. It certainly has restructured some of my priorities…how so? Well, I used to put food and ammo at the top of the list of things to stock up on..but now fuel is right up there, if not at #1 easily in the top 3. Its also reinforced my belief that a certain amount of portability of your gear is absolutely mandatory. While its great to be able to remain in place with all your gear and ride out whatever the disruption is, the evidence from Katrina and Rita clearly show that you need to be ready to get out in a hurry. Getting out in a hurry means being able to grab your essential gear and run like hell. Tough to do if youre wheeling around 55-gallon drums and footlockers. Storing everything in man-portable, durable, travel-capable containers makes more sense and I need to make sure that my gear is, in fact, stored in such a manner as to facilitate that. Imagine the classic 'bucket brigade' of a several people passing boxes to each other from a building to a waiting truck (or vice versa)…thats exactly the level of portability I want. Something that can be maneuvered quickly and easily into a waiting vehicle.

Of course, this is not to say that there isnt a place for larger 'static' stores. It may be more prudent to do both – keep some gear in smaller, more manageable units and keep other gear in larger, stay-in-place units. If youre staying out, you can use both and if you have to leave in a major hurry you can grab the portable stuff and least not be without resources.

Of course, this also depends on how much time you think youre going to have to pack. For 'appointment' disasters like hurricanes, blizzards and that sort of thing you have hours, even days, of warning. More sudden disasters like earthquakes, terrorist attacks, chemical spills, etc, obviously give you alot less time…in the case of earthquakes, no warning.

One of the LMI has a fairly clever set up. He has a two car garage where he keeps his big Ford truck. Theres a shelf that runs along the wall of the garage right above the roll up door. He keeps large bins full of his gear up there. To leave in a hurry he just stands in the back of the bed of his truck and pulls bins off the shelf to land at his feet in the bed of truck. Elegant. I've read of people using duct tape or masking tape to make an outline on the floor of their garage to the approximate dimensions of their pickup bed or trailer so they can practice arranging gear for the most efficient loading…or, if youre hardcore, you could get a few refrigerator cartons and cut/tape a 3-d representation of your available cargo space. If you cant fit it all in the box, its time to rethink your choices.

Of course, if youve got a secondary location to retreat to you could just store enough gear at your primary location for the immediate need and keep the majority of your gear at your secured secondary location. A nice plan if you can swing it.

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

A very cool story out of the hurricanes…regional power companies that showed remarkable innovation and perserverance.

As an electrical power company what do you do when your fleet of trucks needs diesel and its in short supply? Why, you head over to a local refinery and pipeline and say 'Hey, we can get your power back on if you'll give us a supply of diesel.'

Freakin' brilliant.

Great story – read it here.

A very cool story out of the hurricanes…regional power companies that showed remarkable innovation and perserverance.

As an electrical power company what do you do when your fleet of trucks needs diesel and its in short supply? Why, you head over to a local refinery and pipeline and say ‘Hey, we can get your power back on if you’ll give us a supply of diesel.’

Freakin’ brilliant.

Great story – read it here.

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

Okay kids, run, dont walk, to: http://www.theboxotruth.com/ to see a guy shooting various guns into bulletproof glass, body armour, sandbags, doors, padlocks, etc, etc. to see what does and doesnt do the trick. Extremely eye-opening … esp. the glass and the sandbags.

Okay kids, run, dont walk, to: http://www.theboxotruth.com/ to see a guy shooting various guns into bulletproof glass, body armour, sandbags, doors, padlocks, etc, etc. to see what does and doesnt do the trick. Extremely eye-opening … esp. the glass and the sandbags.

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

So, I had kind of an idea and I want to bounce it off of you people and tell me what you think….

I was in Sportsmans Warehouse the other day and the Nalgene 32 oz. bottles were $7.50 ea. I was thinking it'd be nice to pick up a few for destructive testing (drop survivability, impact resistance, etc..basically Test To Destruction) and I thought 'Man, I cant spend $30 on something just to destroy it for my own information gathering purposes'. Basically, we're talking about beating the living hell out of a product, in this case a Nalgene bottle, to determine if its a good piece of gear.

Then I started thinking some more, which is where the problems usually start. What if, I managed to get a few interested parties to chip in a few bucks each so I could get a few of these things for testing? We could write up a testing protocol of sorts  (10' drop, 15' drop, 20' drop, drop at angle, from moving vehicle, crush test, etc) and once we've all agreed on the tests, I'd go destroy these things (or not destroy them as the case may be). The resutls, with accompanying photos, would go in a Freinds Only post filtered for people who coughed up a couple bucks to find out if a Nalgene bottle can survive falling off a truck at 65 mph.

If it works out well, maybe once a month interested parties would suggest items for testing and it would become a monthly event.

Comments?

So, I had kind of an idea and I want to bounce it off of you people and tell me what you think….

I was in Sportsmans Warehouse the other day and the Nalgene 32 oz. bottles were $7.50 ea. I was thinking it’d be nice to pick up a few for destructive testing (drop survivability, impact resistance, etc..basically Test To Destruction) and I thought ‘Man, I cant spend $30 on something just to destroy it for my own information gathering purposes’. Basically, we’re talking about beating the living hell out of a product, in this case a Nalgene bottle, to determine if its a good piece of gear.

Then I started thinking some more, which is where the problems usually start. What if, I managed to get a few interested parties to chip in a few bucks each so I could get a few of these things for testing? We could write up a testing protocol of sorts  (10′ drop, 15′ drop, 20′ drop, drop at angle, from moving vehicle, crush test, etc) and once we’ve all agreed on the tests, I’d go destroy these things (or not destroy them as the case may be). The resutls, with accompanying photos, would go in a Freinds Only post filtered for people who coughed up a couple bucks to find out if a Nalgene bottle can survive falling off a truck at 65 mph.

If it works out well, maybe once a month interested parties would suggest items for testing and it would become a monthly event.

Comments?

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

Generally, if you have an injury that can be fixed with a band-aid, you dont have an injury. In perusing some of the 'first aid' kits at the local shops it seems like theyre mostly band-aids, a couple 1×1 gauze pads and an aspirin. If you have a problem that requires any of those, its not really a problem…its an inconvenience. Does that mean I dont carry band-aids and itty-bitty gauze pads in my kit? Nope..I carry 'em, but I carry alot more than that. Historically, my injuries are usually enormous weeping scrapes and abrasions from bicycle accidents, various stitch-requiring tears and cuts, and the infrequent burn. (I've been quite lucky in the osteo department…no broken bones.) In looking at prepackaged first-aid kits it seems they are either way too weenie (anything worse than a deep laceration and youre screwed) or way to extensive and expensive. Now, I have to admit, the first aid kits I carry or keep are not designed for 'I cut myself in the garage and need a bandage'…certainly, they are good for that sort of thing. Rather, theyre designed for 'whatever is in this bag is the only medical access Im going to have for at least x amount of days' so it tends to carry things like rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, betadine, lotsa 4×4s and tape, various non-OTC things, burn gel, lotsa antibiotics, compress bandages, etc, etc. And lotsa stuff to keep injured areas clean and germ-free. To my mind, the most common injuries that Im going to face in an unpleasant sudden 'wheels fly offa western civilization' scenario are various cuts and puncture wounds, maybe some burns, the possible gunshot. I cant fix a gunshot wound (except maybe a graze or through-and-through) but I can deal with it alot better with my own kit than some puny 2×2 gauze pads and 1/4″ tape.

Band-aids are necessary, esp. since a small cut can become an infected major problem in short order if its not taken care of……but just band-aids and bactine? Bleah. I (and you) can put together something much more comprehensive for not much more money.

By the way, if you do decide to build your own kit, its alot easier to buy multiples of the contents and make several kits at once. The advantage is that if they are all stocked equally and arranged identically, it makes things easier than making another kit later on when you realize you need one for the car, one for work, one for home, etc. Its also cheaper.

My point is, figure out what possible injuries youre going to sustain and build around that…and especially take into consideration 'can I get into this bag and open these pouches/packages with my weak hand in the dark when Im bleeding?'. Seriously. 'Cause if its just you by yourself and you've got a problem with your good arm or hand youre really gonna want a kit that you can access easily.
=====

Post-Katrina New Orleans is rapidly becoming my paradigm for theoretical failure testing…I ask myself “would this be a good [item/strategy/plan] if I were camping out on a rooftop in a flooded out wasteland of a city?”
Its also stressing the importance of portability of items and ,very importantly, waterproofing of containers and items. The ubiquitous GI ammo can gets big nods for being near-bombproof in terms of protection and waterproofing. Loses a couple points for weight and size, though. Pelican cases are great, as are other hard-side waterproof containers. Of course, its also nice if your gear is generally unaffected by moisture. (My Glock and AK, for example, can pretty much be left in a mud puddle for a faw days with virtually no ill-effect.) Critical electronics, though, are easily worth the $ youre going to spend for a good, hard, waterproof case. Pelican makes some small fairly affordable cases that are ideal for small electronics like radios, GPS, palmtops and that sort of thing. And, naturally, if youre going to get a little waterproof hardcase for your electroninc goodie be sure to leave some room in there for some spare batts.
=====
After the canned goods shopping spree at Albertsons last week I needed to make some space in the kitchen cabinets. My top cabinets are have no shelves and thus items must be stacked and the space isnt utilized as well as it could be. (Jars of spaghetti sauce stacked on top of each other three jars high is just asking for trouble.) Fortunately for $10 a couple shelf standards and brackets were had and some scrap 3/4″ plywood was cut down to fit and the next thing you know -presto- adjustable shelving is in the formerly shelfless cabinet. This frees up a good amount of space since I can now store more in that particular cabinet than I could before. Which means other cabinets now have more room since stuff was taken from them to put in the newly-shelfed cabinet. Moral: utilizing available storage space as efficiently as possible can be cheap and pay off big in terms of giving you more usable space to store things.
=====
Speaking of batts…..

My plans revolve around exactly two sizes of battery for personal devices: “D” and “AA”. If a device doesnt take them, I find one that does or I modify them to take them. Why? Here's an example….I was tromping in the boonies earlier this year and the batteries on my GPS were going out on me. I pulled my LED 4-AA flashlight out of my bag and swapped the batteries. The LED light works fine even with near-dead batteries since the power requirements are so small and the GPS continued to chug along for the rest of the day. All because my gear used a common battery size. To be honest, with the advent of LED technology I could probably eliminate the “D” batts from my gear since they are used almost exclusively for MagLites….but there are a few other devices that use them (my AN/PS1 seismic intruder system system, for one). “C” batteries? Getting to be pretty uncommon. The only thing I've seen taking C-batts in a long time are vibrators and not much else. 9-volt? Sure, lotsa devices out there use them but I try to stick to the AA's for those devices. Although they are sometimes hard to find in “D” size, “AA” and 9-volt lithium batts are available at Lowe's/HomeDepot…. theyre very much worth the extra money. Theyre far more resistant to the affects of temperature extremes and, most importantly, they store for years with little if any degradation of power….meaning that a lithium batt thats sat on the shelf for ten years should still have almost all its original power.

The Japanese are supposedly coming out iwth a new battery technology thats supposed to be even better than lithiums, but I havent found much in the way of details.

So, if you can get your flashlight, GPS, radios, and other goodies to all take one common battery size……..well, you can see the advantages, right?