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

I must say, the events in Spain are very eye-opening. The very definition of terrorism is violent action directed against civillians to force political change. And in a brilliant stroke, whomever was responsible for those bombings did exactly that – they pushed Spain into voting for a change in government that was, no doubt, sympathetic to the aims of the bombers. Can you grasp what an incredible feat that is? Few as a dozen people managed to, almost overnight, change a government.

Now, if that wasnt a job by al-Qaeda you can bet theyre going to learn from it. Novembers elections in this country would be the ideal time for this sort of thing….end of Oct/first day of Nov. you blow up something big, cause major mayhem, and hope that it will turn public opinion against the administration and get ‘the other guy’ elected. But, Americans are not Spaniards…I think we’re less likely to stop throwing punches even if we get our noses bloodied.

My point? Well, other than admitting that it was a masterful operation that seemed to do exactly what it intended, the bombing in Spain is going to make this years election a season of heightened awareness. Athough we keep bouncing into this Yellow/Orange alert nonsense, Id say that right before the election is when the next major terrorist attack in this country will take place.

Fortunately, being in a relative middle of nowhere, I dont have to worry about it too badly. Ceratinly, my daily commute isnt going to be a target as it would in, say, Washington DC or NY. No, my concerns will be with the fallout (so to speak) from such an attack…

But, if I *did* live in or near a Major Metropolitan Area In The East/NorthEast or West, I would be extremely alert during all of October and be ready to bugout (or in) on a moments notice. I’d keep the vehicle gassed up, have as many alternate routes memorized as possible, and never be more than arms length away from a television or radio.

I must say, the events in Spain are very eye-opening. The very definition of terrorism is violent action directed against civillians to force political change. And in a brilliant stroke, whomever was responsible for those bombings did exactly that – they pushed Spain into voting for a change in government that was, no doubt, sympathetic to the aims of the bombers. Can you grasp what an incredible feat that is? Few as a dozen people managed to, almost overnight, change a government.

Now, if that wasnt a job by al-Qaeda you can bet theyre going to learn from it. Novembers elections in this country would be the ideal time for this sort of thing….end of Oct/first day of Nov. you blow up something big, cause major mayhem, and hope that it will turn public opinion against the administration and get ‘the other guy’ elected. But, Americans are not Spaniards…I think we’re less likely to stop throwing punches even if we get our noses bloodied.

My point? Well, other than admitting that it was a masterful operation that seemed to do exactly what it intended, the bombing in Spain is going to make this years election a season of heightened awareness. Athough we keep bouncing into this Yellow/Orange alert nonsense, Id say that right before the election is when the next major terrorist attack in this country will take place.

Fortunately, being in a relative middle of nowhere, I dont have to worry about it too badly. Ceratinly, my daily commute isnt going to be a target as it would in, say, Washington DC or NY. No, my concerns will be with the fallout (so to speak) from such an attack…

But, if I *did* live in or near a Major Metropolitan Area In The East/NorthEast or West, I would be extremely alert during all of October and be ready to bugout (or in) on a moments notice. I’d keep the vehicle gassed up, have as many alternate routes memorized as possible, and never be more than arms length away from a television or radio.

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

“Whenever he gets into a fix
he reaches into his bag of tricks..” – Felix The Cat theme song

Asked what the hallmark of the prepared is, I’d say its a toss up between a firearm and the backpack. (In fact, my coat of arms should be a pair of crossed 870’s and AR’s over a backpack.) But I think the nod goes to the backpack.

For the last several years I usually travel my day-to-day with my Dana ‘Lewis’ daypack. I bought it many years ago when Dana was still a made in the US. Its a regular size daypack, like what you see every college kid packing around. It has a few nice features, like redundant closures – if a zipper breaks theres always a strap/buckle system to use as backup. A nice touch. Although a ‘civillian’ pack, its durability and versatility has made it an almost constant companion for me. During hunting season I change out the contents and it goes as my survival/hunting pack. Its deficient in some areas, not enough attachment points, for example, but Ive been satisified.

And then this shows up today in UPS. I am mightily impressed and when it comes to gear, Im a tough customer.

Material is heavy Cordura-type fabric. Should handle sliding around in truck beds, tumbling off cliffs, getting soaked, getting dirty, etc, with aplomb.

All stress points (and even some non-stress points) are double stitched…at least. Some are triple stitched. Some are quadruple stitched!!!! Yowza!

Padding in the straps is generous. Strap attachment points are reinforced quite nicely. Shoulder straps include a sternum strap and the usual D-ring and web attachment points.

There are three compartments, all accessed by zippers. The inside of the main compartment is lined on the bottom (which also has a drainage hole) with blaze orange material to make hunting objects easier. Nice touch. 2900 cubic inches is the advertised capacity of the bag.

Top of the bag sports a serious drag handle and covered drinking ports. (Could also run radio cords through as well.)Theres Molle-style webbing on three sides of the pack as well as attachment points on the bottom of the pack. Compression straps on the sides and top of the pack allow for rolled up gear like ponchos or field jackets.

This is a seriously nice high-speed, low-drag pack. I’d feel not the slightest bit of hesitation to load it up and toss it out the back of a truck at forty miles an hour, drag it behind me in a river crossing, As much as my Dana has been a good piece of gear, Im not one to let sentimentality stand in the way of an upgrade. Price is about the same as what I paid for my Dana about seven years ago – $110. This would be an extremely well spent $110. Im going to investigate the rest of their gear and if its as well made as this thing, Im going to have to do some serious ordering from them.

All their gear is made in the USA, by the by. While I’ll buy gear from anyone if it meets my needs for quality and funtion, I prefer to buy American.

A quick perusal of Tactical Tailor’s website shows some very nice modular pockets to add on. Im in love…truly!

I called the LMI’s to come by and check this thing out…thats how impressed I am with it. Expect some field reports about this thing over the summer.

“Whenever he gets into a fix
he reaches into his bag of tricks..” – Felix The Cat theme song

Asked what the hallmark of the prepared is, I’d say its a toss up between a firearm and the backpack. (In fact, my coat of arms should be a pair of crossed 870’s and AR’s over a backpack.) But I think the nod goes to the backpack.

For the last several years I usually travel my day-to-day with my Dana ‘Lewis’ daypack. I bought it many years ago when Dana was still a made in the US. Its a regular size daypack, like what you see every college kid packing around. It has a few nice features, like redundant closures – if a zipper breaks theres always a strap/buckle system to use as backup. A nice touch. Although a ‘civillian’ pack, its durability and versatility has made it an almost constant companion for me. During hunting season I change out the contents and it goes as my survival/hunting pack. Its deficient in some areas, not enough attachment points, for example, but Ive been satisified.

And then this shows up today in UPS. I am mightily impressed and when it comes to gear, Im a tough customer.

Material is heavy Cordura-type fabric. Should handle sliding around in truck beds, tumbling off cliffs, getting soaked, getting dirty, etc, with aplomb.

All stress points (and even some non-stress points) are double stitched…at least. Some are triple stitched. Some are quadruple stitched!!!! Yowza!

Padding in the straps is generous. Strap attachment points are reinforced quite nicely. Shoulder straps include a sternum strap and the usual D-ring and web attachment points.

There are three compartments, all accessed by zippers. The inside of the main compartment is lined on the bottom (which also has a drainage hole) with blaze orange material to make hunting objects easier. Nice touch. 2900 cubic inches is the advertised capacity of the bag.

Top of the bag sports a serious drag handle and covered drinking ports. (Could also run radio cords through as well.)Theres Molle-style webbing on three sides of the pack as well as attachment points on the bottom of the pack. Compression straps on the sides and top of the pack allow for rolled up gear like ponchos or field jackets.

This is a seriously nice high-speed, low-drag pack. I’d feel not the slightest bit of hesitation to load it up and toss it out the back of a truck at forty miles an hour, drag it behind me in a river crossing, As much as my Dana has been a good piece of gear, Im not one to let sentimentality stand in the way of an upgrade. Price is about the same as what I paid for my Dana about seven years ago – $110. This would be an extremely well spent $110. Im going to investigate the rest of their gear and if its as well made as this thing, Im going to have to do some serious ordering from them.

All their gear is made in the USA, by the by. While I’ll buy gear from anyone if it meets my needs for quality and funtion, I prefer to buy American.

A quick perusal of Tactical Tailor’s website shows some very nice modular pockets to add on. Im in love…truly!

I called the LMI’s to come by and check this thing out…thats how impressed I am with it. Expect some field reports about this thing over the summer.

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

Slow times in Zeroland. My civillian life has alot going on so my life as Commander Zero is taking a backseat right now to whats going on elsewhere.

But, I still manage to get a few things done…..

Finally moved all the crap into the bunker that Ive just left laying around for the last few months. And it drove home the fact that I really need to get more shelving in the bunker. I also need to label the storage containers a bit better.

Still havent picked up any 26.5mm flares or smoke. Very bad. Who knows how long the cheap surplus stuff will be on the market. The bottleneck is this absurd $20 HazMat fee. I was hoping to stumble across some at a gun show but that isnt looking likely. What I’ll have to do is order enough of the things to make it worth the $20 fee.

Discovered that, apparently, a 10-round .40 S&W Glock magazine can be stuffed with 9mm ammo and used in my G19 with no problems. Interesting. Means that the concept of pre-ban/post-ban magazines is now a non-issue. I can 13 or so rounds in the .40 Glock mag and its perfectly legal since Im not ‘making or modifying’ a magazine into pre-ban configuration.

Must do some website work…been slacking in that regard.

Slow times in Zeroland. My civillian life has alot going on so my life as Commander Zero is taking a backseat right now to whats going on elsewhere.

But, I still manage to get a few things done…..

Finally moved all the crap into the bunker that Ive just left laying around for the last few months. And it drove home the fact that I really need to get more shelving in the bunker. I also need to label the storage containers a bit better.

Still havent picked up any 26.5mm flares or smoke. Very bad. Who knows how long the cheap surplus stuff will be on the market. The bottleneck is this absurd $20 HazMat fee. I was hoping to stumble across some at a gun show but that isnt looking likely. What I’ll have to do is order enough of the things to make it worth the $20 fee.

Discovered that, apparently, a 10-round .40 S&W Glock magazine can be stuffed with 9mm ammo and used in my G19 with no problems. Interesting. Means that the concept of pre-ban/post-ban magazines is now a non-issue. I can 13 or so rounds in the .40 Glock mag and its perfectly legal since Im not ‘making or modifying’ a magazine into pre-ban configuration.

Must do some website work…been slacking in that regard.

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

I seriously need to spend a few hours in the bunker straightening up. As of late I simply shuttle acquisitions and purchases there and leave them on the floor figuring I’ll deal with them later. Bad, bad, bad. I need to segregate them, datestamp them, and put them into their respective storage containers and then label the containers. Tedious and quite unglamourous. It aint all sunshine n’ stun grenades when youre the Zero.

I also need to do a fuels evaluation and come up with some hard and fast numbers regarding fuel consumption and inventory. Basically I just buy more and more and leave it at that. I need to research and experiment and see what actual consumption is. (How long will my lantern/heater/etc run on one gallon of kero, one bottle of propane, one gallon of Coleman fuel, etc.) Time consuming. There are a few references that give some basic rules of thumb in terms of consumption…still, there is no room for error so its gotta get done at some point. Really, a spreadsheet is in order…”If I run the lantern for 12.9 hours, the heater for 18.2 hours and the stove for 5.3 hours that will use 10# of propane”, etc, etc.

The trick is actually doing something…its too easy to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of something, compare prices, check availability, etc. and next thing you know three weeks have gone by from when you said “I better buy a …” and you still dont have it. And meanwhile The Day creeps closer and youre still sifting through catalogs. Its *real* easy to get lulled into that ‘armchair survivalist’ thing.

That reminds me, I need to polish up The List and see what I can pick up in the near future. I keep a tiny 9-point-font list with me so if I find myself at a store I can check against it.

ANd I seriously need to do some website updates.

I seriously need to spend a few hours in the bunker straightening up. As of late I simply shuttle acquisitions and purchases there and leave them on the floor figuring I’ll deal with them later. Bad, bad, bad. I need to segregate them, datestamp them, and put them into their respective storage containers and then label the containers. Tedious and quite unglamourous. It aint all sunshine n’ stun grenades when youre the Zero.

I also need to do a fuels evaluation and come up with some hard and fast numbers regarding fuel consumption and inventory. Basically I just buy more and more and leave it at that. I need to research and experiment and see what actual consumption is. (How long will my lantern/heater/etc run on one gallon of kero, one bottle of propane, one gallon of Coleman fuel, etc.) Time consuming. There are a few references that give some basic rules of thumb in terms of consumption…still, there is no room for error so its gotta get done at some point. Really, a spreadsheet is in order…”If I run the lantern for 12.9 hours, the heater for 18.2 hours and the stove for 5.3 hours that will use 10# of propane”, etc, etc.

The trick is actually doing something…its too easy to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of something, compare prices, check availability, etc. and next thing you know three weeks have gone by from when you said “I better buy a …” and you still dont have it. And meanwhile The Day creeps closer and youre still sifting through catalogs. Its *real* easy to get lulled into that ‘armchair survivalist’ thing.

That reminds me, I need to polish up The List and see what I can pick up in the near future. I keep a tiny 9-point-font list with me so if I find myself at a store I can check against it.

ANd I seriously need to do some website updates.

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

An expensive day for the Zero. Decided to walk through every aisle in CostCo today to see what was around that had some applications for my needs. Found a great deal: Coleman two-mantle propane lantern *with* hard carry case for $30. Zowie. A quick perusla of The List shows that the last hard carry case I bought for that same model of lantern was almost $14. Ka-ching…some savings. So, I now have two perfectly identical propane lanterns with carry case. (And , naturally, they take the same mantles as my Dual Fuel lantern) Drawback is that my ‘adequate’ supply of spare mantles is now ‘inadequate’ since the quantity-per-lantern just took a 50% hit. Fortunately theyre cheap enough I can pick up a dozen for less than $10.

Also found ‘Trio’ brand #10 cans of instant potatoes. Now, why the excitement? Well, a scan of the label showed that this was a food-service product made by Nestle…the same guys who make my beloved Idahoan instant potatoes. Remember the just-add-water instant potatoes I was going on about a few months back? Well, this is the #10 can of ‘em. w00t.

And, although this doesnt really apply to my needs directly, there were surgical scrub sets for $15. Nice, loose, baggy surgical scrubs for lounging around the redoubt house. Navy, burgundy, UN blue, or green. I went with navy…its slimming and wont turn translucent in bright light.

Also grabbed a 6-pack of 16oz propane bottles for $9.99.

So CostCo was good to the Zero today. Spent 10x what I had planned, but that lantern was a sweet deal.

An expensive day for the Zero. Decided to walk through every aisle in CostCo today to see what was around that had some applications for my needs. Found a great deal: Coleman two-mantle propane lantern *with* hard carry case for $30. Zowie. A quick perusla of The List shows that the last hard carry case I bought for that same model of lantern was almost $14. Ka-ching…some savings. So, I now have two perfectly identical propane lanterns with carry case. (And , naturally, they take the same mantles as my Dual Fuel lantern) Drawback is that my ‘adequate’ supply of spare mantles is now ‘inadequate’ since the quantity-per-lantern just took a 50% hit. Fortunately theyre cheap enough I can pick up a dozen for less than $10.

Also found ‘Trio’ brand #10 cans of instant potatoes. Now, why the excitement? Well, a scan of the label showed that this was a food-service product made by Nestle…the same guys who make my beloved Idahoan instant potatoes. Remember the just-add-water instant potatoes I was going on about a few months back? Well, this is the #10 can of ’em. w00t.

And, although this doesnt really apply to my needs directly, there were surgical scrub sets for $15. Nice, loose, baggy surgical scrubs for lounging around the redoubt house. Navy, burgundy, UN blue, or green. I went with navy…its slimming and wont turn translucent in bright light.

Also grabbed a 6-pack of 16oz propane bottles for $9.99.

So CostCo was good to the Zero today. Spent 10x what I had planned, but that lantern was a sweet deal.