Happy Paratus, guys!
Today is the holiday for, by, and of survivalists. Bask in your uniqueness! Spend time with your fellow bunker-dwellers! Exchange gifts, go shooting, and have a good time!
Like any other holiday, its what you make it…so make it memorable!
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Its been a bit of a hectic week and while most peoples Paratus cards went out Monday, there are still three or four packages sitting here that I’m not going to be able to get out until tomorrow. So, better late than never, I suppose.
One other item of interest was brought to my attention by a couple of people this week. A couple folks emailed me to let me know that they were getting warnings about malware or security certificate issues from this website. Unfortunately, I know nothing about that sort of thing so I suspect I’ll be having to spend a lot of time with Google and WordPress to try and see what the issue is without accidentally burning this place to the ground. Wish me luck.
From the realtor:
Hello, I see what you are talking about. He does not have an easement. I just spoke to him on the phone, and he is a nice guy who has been getting his water from that source for many years. His name is [REDACTED] and his number is [REDACTED]. I would prefer to spoke to him directly and maybe come to an agreement. I have his permission to share his name and number with you.
He said that the water station is on the property to the East but its very hard to know for sure without a survey. On X is close but no completely reliable.
Sooooooo….thats a no on the easement. Which means, IF the borders shown were correct, the piping and watering station are on the listed property. But thats too big an ‘if’ to take into a conversation with this guy. I need to be 100% sure of (literally) where I stand in regard to property lines.
So whats at the end of that polypipe I mentioned a few posts back? This:
I walked a bit of the property using onX GPS/maps. OnX, as well as the Mt Cadastral, it appears, assuming the borders were accurate, that this little watering station is about 30-40 feet on the inside of the border of the property. This leads to a whole pile of questions…
If, and this is a key ‘if’, the borders shown on the Onx/GPS are correct then there needs to be an easement for this thing. If there’s not an easement, that opens up the possibility of a ‘mutual agreement’ that lets him not have to move the thing and gives me some access to that water. Or, if there’s no easement, it could just go from 0 to 60 and become an adverse possession issue or some such. So…I need to absolutely confirm the location of the property border to see if this thing is on their side or ‘my’ side, and I need to find out if theres an easement. Even if there is an easement, does that easement include putting a watering station on the property vs. just having a pipe running across it?
It appears gravity fed. I GPS’d the elevation at the watering station, and then I GPS’d the elevation of where I’d likely build. A difference of about 40 feet with the watering station being lower. In theory, as I figure it, this means that there could be gravity feed to a nearby holding tank or cistern and then the water pumped the last 40′ to the site. Need to think that one through.
So, one mystery solved and several more made.
Plans for this weekend? Well, the Hamilton gun show is today. I didn’t really see any guns at the show that I really really wanted, but as is my custom I stopped by the gun shops between here and Hamilton on the way back ‘just in case’. Stopped in at Frontier Guns which is becoming my favorite gun shop rather quickly, in terms of getting some deals on things. Walked in and saw a pair of Eotech 512 holosights for sale. Seeing a pair of them used together was a little odd so I asked the obvious question:
- Me: These are police trade-ins?
- Him: Yeah, the Hamilton PD swapped them out.
- Me: Really? What’d they swap to?
- Him: <Embarassed look> Holosuns.
- Me: <Thoughtful pause>..Seriously?
- Him: On their Palmetto Armory’s.
- Me: <In the same voice you console a friend with cancer> They, uhm…They don’t have much of a budget, do they?
- Him: No. No, they do not.
So, I asked him to make me a deal for the pair. He knocked $50 off each one and I got the pair for $275 ea. With box-n-docs.
One of them is going on my MP5A3-clone and the other…haven’t decided yet. And while I was there I found a box full of HKS speedloaders for k-frame Smiths. Now, when I carry a revolver its usually either a j-frame like my 642 I carry at work or an L-frame-ish gun like the GP-100. I seldom carry around a k-frame .38. However, I do have a Ruger Police Six which is .357 and has the same dimensions as a k-frame. This means the speedloaders will work just fine in it. And, since it’s identical to a k-frame in terms of dimensions, it fits juuuuuuust fine in this El Paso Saddlery holster I found in a used holster bin at the gun show for $40.
I need some square-butt Pachmayr Grippers if anyone needs an idea for a Paratus gift. 😉
Also picked up a Bianchi 7L holster for one of my Berreta 92’s ($40) as well as a Safariland 6280 ($20) holster for my Glock 34. First gun show where I walked out with holsters and nothing else. The fellow selling the holsters had a few other El Paso’s at similar prices but they were for guns I don’t have. However, I must say, those EPS holsters are some fine pieces of work. Theyre expensive, no two ways about it, but if you can find a used one you can save some major coin.
Off to do some ‘boots on the ground’ tomorrow at the potential property purchase. I wanna see exactly where that polypipe goes and I need to eyeball some of the grown over entry points on the map. Also wanna get some dimensions on the buildable area that is there. So…into the woods tomorrow.
When we last checked in with the property I was looking at, one of the biggest questions was what the heck was that polypipe running along the property?
I emailed the realtor and asked. Apparently, one of the neighboring properties has water rights to a spring on the BLM land. It appears they ran the polypipe from the spring to…somewhere. And they ran that pipe just on the inside edge of the property Im looking at.
Now, water rights don’t grant easements. It’s possible theres an easement that lets this guy run the pipe along the property…if thats the case, then Im afraid that might be a dealbreaker. I need to do a title search to see if theres an easement.
If there isn’t an easement, then things get more interesting. I don’t want to be a bad neighbor and tell this guy he has to move the pipe off the property. But I can’t have someone traipsing through the property whenever they want under the guise of checking the pipe for problems.
But…lets say that this guy doesnt have an easement. Perhaps an arrangement could be struck…in exchange for not making him move it (its all the way on the opposite side of the property from where Id build) I get to put a T into it and have access to that water. That might be something.
At the moment, though, I need to find out about the easement. If it queers the deal, so be it. We shall see.
Man, for a demographic that abhors guns, foes of the right sure do shoot at people a lot.
I’ve no doubt this footage will be pulled shortly: https://x.com/safarijournalco/status/1965853249581555855
Paratus, the holiday of survivalists, by survivalists, is next week. A few people have sent early Paratus gifts which is quite thoughtful. To my surprise, there were some very thoughtful gifts and I offer my sincere thanks to those who sent them.
Paratus cards/gifts will go out on Monday, so if youre on the list…keep an eye on your mailbox.
So…get your Paratus events and plans laid out. Its your holiday!
In other news, Im still researching that property I mentioned last week. Still haven’t made an offer…I need more background detail and hopefully will have that info soon.
Amazon shows the All American 925 for around $500. Ive Had the smaller 921 for years and can recommend it with enthusiasm. Apparently you can shave a hundred bucks off that Amazon price if youre at Costco:.
Makes an awesome Paratus gift to yourself or any other like-minded individual. Get plenty of lids and jars…you never know when there’ll be another run on them and you dont want to get caught empty-handed. I have no doubt that people will post in the comments that their local CostCo is not selling these, but if youre local to me….youre in luck.
TL;DR = I like it enough to make an offer, I dont like it enough to make it a very good offer.
There were indeed water sources on the property. Two swampy/muddy creeks. One was just black stagnant water and mud in this August weather, the other had a tiny rivulet of flowing water. But thats in the middle of August…I’d imagine that in the spring its more substantial. Interestingly, there was a block poly pipe running along the ground along the length of the creek. It ran from the state land side of the fence and through the subject property. Not sure what that was about but it seems to suggest that theres an upstream water distribution point of some kind. Wonder if I could just tap into it with a T-joint or something.
And, there was indeed, a fairly decent flat spot to build. You crested this rather steep road and at the bottom was a nice little circular area that would seem to lend itself to a small cabin. Major drawback – the water sources, such as they are, were all the way at the other end of the property 440 yards away. Thats a quarter-mile for those of you keeping track.
The roads to get up there were about what I expected. There’s no way youre getting in there in winter without either a snowmobile, snow-specific four-wheeler, a horse, or snow chains and some cajones of steel. That isnt necessarily a deal breaker. The roads could accommodate trucks that were designed for such roads. I saw a forest-fire-fighting tanker trunk maneuvering the roads with aplomb. I suspect a small-ish well drilling rig could get in there. I’d rather lean towards having a well in there.
It has…possibilities. The price is somewhat within the range I was looking for but there’s going to be a degree of terraforming necessary….trees removed, some minor roadwork, etc.
I was thinking of offering 20% below ask, cash, and go as high as %10 below ask. I think I’ll just offer 20% below ask and if it happens it happens, and if not…the hunt continues.