Tag Archives: gear

Snow camo

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Its gonna be another bloody day of near-100-degree temps here in Montana. Not exactly the sort of thing that puts you in the mind of thinking about winter, but it should. In summer, we prepare for winter. In winter, we prepare for summer. Thats how it works.

Someone in email mentioned something about snow camo and that brought me back to the Danish snow camo that I have been wanting for several years. I was reminded that Varusteleka sells such things.In addition to selling European milsurp, which is quite interesting, they also remanufacture things from old milsurp…things like anoraks from old wool blankets, that sort of thing. They also have more than a few articles about the things they sell. The one that is germane to this post is this – ‘The basics of snow camouflage’.

It’s pretty easy to think that just cutting up a white bedsheet will do the trick…and it certainly is better than nothing…but its surprising how a pure-white object shows up in snowy areas…especially since snow is actually less white and more shades of light grey and white.

Personally, given a choice, I’d rather spend my winters indoors in the warmth near a big window where I can watch the cold nights rather than be tromping through the snow in a situation where I need to wear snow camo. But, sometimes we don’t get a choice. And its very rarely a bad idea to be low-profile in pretty much any environment.

Battery possibilities

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When I head up to the Beta Site I take the StarLink setup with me because a) its nice to be able to have some form of contact in case something goes wrong, and b) it is exceptionally handy to have access to YouTube for finding videos on how to do whatever it is I’m up there doing.

StarLink Mini is native 12v which means it runs off of any 12v power source you can come up with. I go with batteries, although there are plenty of people who run it off of other off-grid sources like solar and hydro…and at some point I’ll be one of those people.

StarLink comes with several cables and adapters to allow you to draw power from whatever source you’ve got handy. One of those adaptors is your classic cigarette lighter type. You plug the adapter into your vehicles cigarette lighter (if your vehicle has one…different times, man), plug the USB-C cable into the adapter, plug the other end into your StarLink and youre off to the races.

For the creatively minded, this means all you need to run StarLink off of a 12v marine battery is a female cigarette lighter socket and some battery clamps. Something like this. Affix the clamps to the battery terminals and youre good to go.

Well, when I go up to the Beta Site, I usually have a bunch of Milwaukee M18 tools with me…Sawzall, chainsaw, drill, tire inflator, etc. Could I not simply run StarLink off one of the half dozen batteries I bring with me? Well, actualy, yes…yes you can.


Turns out there are devices out there to let you run cigarette-lighter-style 12v sockets off of your tool batteries. In this case, off of Milwaukee M18 batts. How well does it work? Well, I let the thing power StarLink all night and it still had juice in the morning. More importantly though, it streamlines my logistics train by using the M18 batteries I was already bringing up there. If you’re a Dewalt or Ryobi kinda guy, there are similar adaptors as well.

As I looked around, there appears to be a thriving aftermarket ecosystem of products out there that allow you to use your tool batteries for other purposes. Lehman’s, for example, offers a light that runs on tool batteries. And, as you dig around, you find more and more things tailored to use these handy power sources.

Anyway, I mention all this because if youre going to be off the beaten path and need to power something, you may want to investigate the possibilities afforded by these battery systems.

Costco water heater

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Once in a while CostCo has something that turns out to be fairly useful for my needs. Today’s case in point:

A portable propane water heater. Nothing says civilization like hot water. (Actually, electricity is the real hallmark of civilization…) This thing runs on a barbecue bomb and a 12v battery. I anticipate getting dirty and sweaty up at the Beta Site this summer and, lets be honest here, whats the point of spending a buncha money on a piece of property if you can’t be naked outdoors on it?

I need to do some research and see if this thing is worth picking up, but it’s definitely the sort of thing I’m going to need up at the Beta Site. Depending on the size of the structure I put up for the short-term, this might be able to be integrated into it to give me some basic water features.

Bargain – T3 Gear…sitewide 50% off

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Got a notice in email of a 50% off sale at a vendor I like. Passing it on to you guys.

A small shop that makes a couple items that I very much like. The first is their T3 Bolt Bag, an ‘active shooter’ style bag. Carries spare rifle mags on a removable panel, has pass-through on either side of the bag to access a holster, and is lined with velcro for things like mag pouches and whatnot. I have one of these for each ‘ready rifle’, and it holds mags, a Glock, spare mag, Stop The Bleed Kit, and a few other niceties for when bullets start flying. I’ve got one for the AK, AR, and HK91. At 50% off, these are a good piece of kit.

Other item is this buttpack. Used in conjunction with a ‘battle belt’ and suspenders, this is a nice way to carry essentials in the field. It also has D-rings so you can use it as a sling bag, but it really shines as a buttpack. Again, at 50% off…totally worth it.

I’m passing this along to you guys because I find these two pieces of gear to be quite handy and well-thought out. I’m getting no piece of the action on this, so my motivation to pass this along is strictly out of ‘satisfied customer’.

Discount code is: THISISNOTADRILL

I saw that

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A friend of mine turned me on to the Silky saw a while back and I was very impressed. It’s basically a gigantic folding knife that has a saw blade instead of a knife blade. But it cuts wood like a beaver on meth and takes up a minimum of space in a back.

When it comes to saws, or any other hand tool, really, there’s all sortsa options. I mean, just in saws you’ve got chain saws, pole saws, bow saws, etc, etc. Fold in other wood cutting things like axes and hatchets and you can easily wind up getting overloaded with inpuit from ‘experts’, boffins, and nerds. (And theres nothing wrong with being a subject-matter nerd. Just understand that you are still, in fact, a nerd nonetheless.)

My intended use is for trimming branches around the Beta Site…especially around the overgrown ‘road’ that goes into the place. My friend brought one of these along on one of my first trips up there and I was immediately hit with a case of the “I Gotta Have That”. Sp, I trundled off to Amazon and picked one up.

Expensive? Holy Drokk, yes.  But in the limited use I’ve had with it, I’ve been quite pleased with its performance. It’s compactness and aggressive cutting are also pretty sweet.

The road that goes into the Beta Site has been neglected for, oh, decades I’d imagine. There are more than a few small saplings growing up in the middle of it, and in some places the branches from the trees along the side of the road reach right into the middle of it. This guy, along with a pair of loppers, do a nice job of getting things tidied up a little.

And before you say it, yes, a chainsaw is on The List Of Things To Buy. But until I get to that part of the list, this handsaw is going to get plenty of use on all the downed limbs that are littering the place. There’s a goodly amount of fallen lodgepole pines, including some that have fallen across the wire fence that separates my dirt from the BLM dirt. And since good fences build good free fire zones neighbors, getting the treese off the fence is a bit of a priority.

Packages arriving

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So that happened:


A set of recovery boards for Next Time. Not shown is the bracket set that arrived yesterday as well to allow me to mount the HiLift jack to roll bars on the cage of the SxS. On the way are the shovel bracket and a saw. Still to be purchased is a 12v portable hitch-mounted winch for the ass-end of the SxS.

One other things I’m working on for next trip is a preliminary stash of gear so that if something happens like last time, and I wind up having to stay put, I can do so in safety and security. There’ll be a post about that later.

Nothing modifies behavior (and empties the wallet) like having a Close Call and not wanting to repeat the experience.

And, yesterday I paid off the second third of the money I borrowed to help finance the Beta Site. Or, in other words, I’ve got $9649.63 to go, which I should have paid off either next month or the month after….which would be some thirty months ahead of schedule. Once thats done, the $1000/week that I’ve been throwing at the debt gets diverted into Beta Site Development, Equipage and Stockpiling Fund.

Improving future performance

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So, after the Cavalcade of Fail, it was time to strategize for next weekend. Right off the bat, if the weather is uncooperative, I’ll stay in town. I understand that the apocalypse will not happen on a sunny day, but for right now I’m not taking any more chances than I have to.

So, first order of business is to remediate some of the fails from last weekend. A couple of them were rather standout failures.

The HiLift jack. If I had brought the HiLift jack I would have had a way to ‘winch’ myself out if I hadn’t figured out the winch. The reason I didn’t bring it is because it really didn’t fit into the SxS in any meaningful way. The jack is 5′ long and the SxS is exactly 5′ wide. So, I have ordered a set of brackets to mount the jack across one of the bars on the cage of the SxS. In addition to the HiLift jack, I also have the base plate for it and a few other attachments. I keep chains, tow straps, ropes, and snatch blocks in my Unstuck Kit and used in conjunction with the HiLift jack I think I would have gotten better results than I did just trying to shovel things out with an e-tool.

Speaking of e-tool, I left behind my full size shovel for the same reason I left the HiLift jack behind. And, as with the solution for the HiLift, the solution for the shovel is a rollbar-mounted bracket to hold a D-handle shovel. The Glock e-tool did a really great job and it s a product I recommend, but it is not a substitute for a ‘real’ shovel. To that end, I also ordered up a set of brackets to mount a shovel along one of the roll bars on the cage as well.

Recovery boards. If you don’t know what these are, I suggest familiarizing yourself with them. Its basically a surfboard with a rough cats-tongue pattern to it to provide traction. Beats the crap out of throwing branches, floormats, and passengers under the wheels for traction.

Another failure point was that I broke one of the great commandments of preparedness: I relied on a piece of gear that was unproven and I had not practiced or familiarized myself with. I knew the SxS came with a winch. Thats all I knew. I spent hours digging out the SxS that could have been avoided if I knew where to plug the wired remote into. But…I had never actually hooked it up and tested its function. Unbelievable rookie mistake. I’ll be swapping out the steel cable-of-questionable-age-and-condition for a brand new synthetic rope and carry a spare of the rope as well.

Footwear. I was so excited about getting to take the SxS to the Beta Site that I overlooked all sorts of things…including changing into suitable footwear. The solution is to add ‘Change shoes’ into my pre-trip checklist…and believe me, buddy, there’s gonna be a pre-trip checklist.

I was smart enough to bring my Unstuck Kit, but I need to put in some longer towstraps. And some more clevises (Clevis’? Clevi?) I made a buncha mistakes this last time, but bringing the Unstuck Kit was not one of them. I was able to use the long tow strap that was in the kit to loop to a tree and feed back to the winch hook.

Now, keep in mind, this is a list of what I did wrong. A list of what I did right is a separate list. So if you feel like chiming in with “you should have had x, you should have has y” keep in mind I may have already had those….this is a list of things I didn’t have or do properly.

I’ve spent the last two days researching various gear and ordering it up. Recovery boards will be here today and more goodies throughout the week.

 

Update: America Stone knife sharpener

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About five years ago, a fella sent me a sharpening stone that he wanted me to try out. I did try it out and was really quite pleased. So much so, in fact, that it is my ‘go to’ sharpening stone. It sits in my kitchen on the windowsill above the sink and every few days when Im doing dishes I see it and am reminded to pull out my Benchmade folder and touch it up a bit. A few strokes on one side of the blade, a few strokes on the other, repeat a couple times and thats it. It does a magnificent job of keeping my folder ridiculously sharp.

A few weeks ago I got an email from the same person asking if I wanted to try a newer model that had a change made to its composition. Sure, why not? It arrived today.

It has the same footprint..that is to say overall shape and profile…of the original product. I’m given to understand theres a bit more synthetic diamond in the composition and that it sharpens a bit more aggressively. So, with that in mind I rounded up a couple pocket knives that needed a little work. The sharpener is definitly more aggressive than the older one. By ‘aggressive’ I mean that it takes fewer strokes to accomplish the same results as the older stone.

Its definitely as good a product as the older one, and I can tell that the composition of the stone is different by how quickly it works. Again, this is the first stone I go to when I need to sharpen something…including my expensive Henckel kitchen knives. One of the nice features of the stone is that one side has a pointed profile to it that is used for removing nicks in the edges of a blade…and indeed it does exactly that.

The stone is, as you can see from the picture, pretty compact. It’s handy and easy to slip in a hunting pack (strong recommend). It would, of course, also be a handy companion anytime youre spending a goodly amount of time away from your base of operations and need to keep your tools sharp.

If youre looking for a handy and very efficient sharpening stone, this one is a good choice. I don’t think youll be disappointed.

Upcoming NFA tax change

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As you may know, after the first of the year the $200 transfer tax on certain NFA items (short-barreled shotguns and rifles, and suppressors) goes away. You still have the annoying background check and delays, but at least you won’t be paying $200 for the privilege.

The demand for those kinds of items (hereafter just referred to as ‘NFA items’) has always been tiny compared to the demand for non-NFA stuff. The reason, of course, is because most people don’t want to go through the hassle…this is evidenced by the fact we have ‘wrist braces’.

Since demand is usually fairly mild it’s not too hard to imagine that production rates of these NFA items is also a bit dialed back.

So, what do you think is going to happen after January 1st when theres no $200 tax to deter people anymore? Demand will go up, of course. But production rates my not be able to meet that demand. So when you go to buy a nice shiny Mojave9 or Sparrow, your dealer might say “Yeah, those are backordered.”

It makes sense that if youre of the mind to take advantage of the new rules on January 1st your strategy should probably be to order the the NFA item now, pay for it now, and have the dealer sit on it until January 1st and then do the paperwork.

 

Loewes water container

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I was heading back to work from my lunch break and cut through the Loewe’s parking lot and beheld these:

Hmm. Interesting. I was curious so I pulled over to get some detail. Its a 260-gal emergency water storage tank. Conveniently, it’ll fit through a doorway. Inconveniently, it’s about 2200# when filled…so strictly a basement or garage item.

I try to keep at least 75 gallons or so of water on hand at all times, and theres another 50 gallons or so in the water heaters, but if you ever need to break into your stored water you probably won’t think that a larger tank is ‘too much’.

The reason I posted this is because I find it interesting that something like an ’emergency water storage tank’ has gone mainstream enough to be at Loewe’s. I should also like to point out that if youre in Missoula or thereabouts, Murdoch’s and Mountain Supply both carry a very large variety of water tanks…from the convenient and small 35-gal. all the way up to the monstrous and useful 2500-gal.

When I get my little hideyhole squared away there will be at least a couple of these sitting around ‘just in case’.