Although they are being whittled down, there are still a few dozen cans of various MH freezedrieds left. If youre interested, gimme an email at zero@zeroincorporated.com . There’ll be no more orders for this stuff this year and I probably won’t be doing any next year. Word to the wise, folks.

Remaining:
Instant White Rice, $11.94 – 4 cans remaining
Chili Mac, $16.25 – 2 cans remaining
Diced Beef, Cooked, $32.77 – 3 cans remaining
Beef Teriyaki, $19.13 – 3 cans remaining
Lasagna, $19.88 – 3 cans remaining
Noodles & Chicken, $19.00 – 4 cans remaining
Long Grain& Wild Rice Pilaf, $17.57 – 5 cans remaining
Sweet/Sour Pork w/ Rice, $21.97 – 3 cans remaining
Turkey Tetrazzini, $21.34 – 4 cans remaining
Oriental Spicy Chicken, $20.38 – 2 cans remaining
Diced Chicken, Cooked, $32.77 – 4 cans remaining
Pork Chops, Raw, $40.00 – 5 cans remaining
Garden Green Peas, $14.26 – 4 cans remaining
Corn, $14.19 – 2 cans remaining
Precooked Eggs w/ Ham, Peppers, $20.57 – 5 cans remaining
Granola w/ Blueberries, Milk, $22.37 – 1 can remaining
Blueberry Cheesecake, $15.43 – 5 cans remaining
=====

The quest for the perfect gas can continues. I opened up my steel Blitz can the other day when it was about 95 degrees out and figured I’d rotate out some of the gas filling the lawn mower. I then sealed up the can nice and tight. A few nights later the temperature dropped into the low 40’s. The air inside the can contracted to such a degree that it actually crumpled the can inwards, like a bear tap danced on it. A few days later I noticed that at one of the ‘crinkle’ points of the crumple a pinhole leak had formed. Thus a gas can meets its end. This has been my biggest complaint about gas cans so far – they need to be airtight but they also need to be able to vent. Two great ideas that seem at odds with each other. Plastic cans have a nice amount of flex (like the coveted Scepter cans) but they are still plastic and I worry about the permeability of these things vis-à-vis long (1+ years) term storage under fluctuating temperatures. There are new ‘Euro’-style cans on the market and Im tempted to investigate them.

An obvious solution is to fill the cans to such a level that there is almost no air in them at all. Trouble is, when you do that you have them so full that they’ll start dumping from the nozzle before you get the can leaned over far enough to get the spigot in the fuel port.

The newer plastic California-approved cans have a shut off in them so that might make a difference but Ive tried some and I cant ever seem to get them to work as advertised. Its looking more and more like a gas can and a long neck funnel are the best method for fueling. And I have no problem with that if I can find a gas container that is all-weather temperature stable, airtight, durable, and won’t let gas vapors permeate through the material. And at $40+ per gas can, I don’t feel like experimenting.

=====
Ow. Minding my own business, zipping along on my mountain bike, and the chain decides to, for whatever reason, lock up. Physics being what it is, I go flying over the handlebars. First priority in these situations is get out of the freaking street lest a truck come along and add insult to injury. Second priority, and I cant keep from doing this, is look around and see if anyone saw me embarrass myself. Third priority is me, which if everything seems to be functioning and can be repaired at a later time/location moves me to fourth priority, checking bike for damage. Slid the chain back on and tentatively pedaled back to the shop. Since I had my Bag O’ Tricks with me I was more than suited for fast field first-aid but the shop was only two blocks away and I have an even more extensive kit there. Destroyed a pair of jeans (dammit!). No serious damage but theres a deep, weeping, bleeding 3”x2” scrape on my knee. Couple sprays of antibiotic, some 4×6 gauze, a bit of de-gravelling and one roll of kerlix later and Im good to go.

The real annoying part for me is that, other than having to shell out for a new pair of jeans, I have to go into the bunker and pull out replacement components for the first aid kit at the shop. Gotta remember to do that.

The bike, by the way, is in the bike shop where I gave clear orders to have the bloody chain, derailleur, sprockets, guides and related components checked over for alignment, wear, misalignment, voodoo or alien influence. Oh, and I mighta bent the wheel a bit when things came to a sudden(!) stop.

But, prior planning of having first aid available at my shop and on myself kept things manageable.

=====
Article here reminding us that the nations power infrastructure is not up to the task of meeting demand. Infrastructure is always a hot topic for the preparedness minded. Every one can agree on its importance. No matter the disaster it’s a safe bet that certain aspects of the infrastructure will fail – ice storm, terrorism, war, rioting, invasion, hurricane, whatever – that power grid is going down. The only situational variable is how long it’ll take to be back in business. You might not be able to get ten people to agree on how the world is gonna end but you can bet all ten will agree the pwer grid will be one of the first things to go.
NYC, and really any large city, is a bad place to be when these things occur. Having all the traffic lights go out in Sheepdip, KS isn’t as big a hassle as having them all go out in Manhattan. Add the large amount of tall buildings with elevators, miles and miles of dark, unventilated subway tunnels, airports without power, opportunistic looters, price gouging battery/flashlight vendors, mountains of spoiled food and uncollected garbage, etc. and you can see that a simple power transmission failure can wreak some pretty impressive results.
Thus, we prepare.