Tag Archives: links to other bloggers

YouTube videos re: canned meats and canned food

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Following a link from ,Rawles’ SurvivalBlog led me to this channel.

There is no shortage of preparedness-minded folks sharing their opinions and experiences on things like guns. Thats easy, low-hanging fruit that is always good for views. But preparedness is about a lot more than boomtoys. And, if you think about it, while you don’t need to shoot something three times a day, we all usually eat three times a day. So….food is kind of a somewhat bigger deal than guns when it comes to preparedness. Its just not as sexy.

So, I’m perusing this fella’s YouTube channel and while I may not be interested in everything he has to say, or even agree with it, I gotta give him credit for doing the work.

Food taste is very subjective. What you think tastes great might not taste great to me, and vice-versa. But it’s still good to at least see the options that are out there and let someone else take the financial hit of opening a dozen different cans of food, dumping them on a plate, and taking video.

Peripheral notoriety

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Friend of The Blog ™, Tam, over at View From The Porch has a post about the Ruger P-series. I have a few P89DC but my favorite is the P95DC. It’s clunky, bulky, primitive in a pre-picatinny kind of way, with a DA/SA system that leaves a bit to be desired. Why do I love them so much? Because they are utterly unkillable and reliable. For $200 you can’t buy a more reliable and durable gun. Its prolific nature in evidence lockers throughout the US attests to the staggering number made, the low price point, and the abject immortality of it.

The notoriety? That ugly evidence-locker P89 on the cover of the book used to be mine.

Nowadays, the Palmetto Dagger is leaning towards my choice for cheap-and-reliable tertiary level of gun, although I’m not sure about it’s durability. But, compared to a P-series, the only thing more unbreakable is a lump of depleted uranium.

I should pull one of these Daggers off the shelf and send it to Tam for her to bang around.

Bison goes extinct

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It appears that James Dakin, of Bison blog fame (notoriety?), hit the non-biological state of existence last year. You can never tell with bloggers….their deaths can be quite overstated. But, without proof to the contrary…

Announcement from from someone elses blog

I first mentioned his blog about 16 years ago in this post. My first impressions of him were that he was a bitter, classist, misanthrope. In fact, if you peruse my blog you’ll see me use the term ‘evil yuppie survivalist’ which I took directly from Dakin since he had a passionate disdain for anyone who spent money on ‘toys’ like modern firearms and freeze dried food.

He posted comments here from time o time and we had a agree-to-disagree sort of situation going on. I’m sure he saw me as an out-of-touch yuppie survivalist and I saw him as the Matt Foley of survivalism.

Nonetheless, he was entertaining and it was always interesting to read his diatribes. I’m sure that in person he was probably a nice fellow, but we shared little common ground about preparedness except for our utter certainty that it was necessary.

ETA: A quick check of comments showed that his last posting here was twelve days before his passing.

Shots fired in anger vs. shots fired in fear

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Friend Of The Blog, Tam, over at View From The Porch, had a post up with a link to this post about how the best fight is the one you never get into. Or, in other words, “The best defense is still not being there.” (Whcih, by the way, is my number one rule for surviving a disaster.)

The post basically says what I’ve said all along: that bullet parties are the exception rather than the rule, and that statistically your chance of needing to shoot someone is ‘not zero’ but fairly close.

But I take tremendous issue with this line: “First, (and I know some people are really going to be disappointed about this), you are most likely not going to be in a gunfight tomorrow. I can say this with some confidence, because statistically very few people ever need to fire their gun in anger.”

Can you spot the issue in that statement? It’s the use of the word ‘anger’. As a law-abiding, peaceful, I-won’t-bother-you-if-you-won’t-bother-me citizen there is never a need to fire a gun in anger. We don’t shoot people because we’re angry…thats what bad guys do. I can’t really think of a time when you’re justified in shooting someone because you’re angry, I can only think of times when you’re justified shooting someone because you’re scared.

The correct construction of that argument should be that “…statistically very few people ever need to fire their gun in fear.”

Crom forefend that you ever have to shoot anyone for any reason, but if it happens I believe that “I fired in anger” will not help your case nearly as much as “I fired in fear”. It is inculcated the minute we start looking into self-defense that you only shoot “in the gravest extreme”, as one author says. No one should be firing their gun in anger.

Am I being nitpicky about the use of words in the OP’s post? Maybe ‘fire their gun in anger’ was just an expression. Perhaps. I’m a  bit sensitive on the subject, and I’ve always been a stickler for precision in language. But, I think that, for me, the only reason to shoot someone, heck..or even point a gun at someone, is out of genuine heartfelt fear for my own safety…not out of anger. Be angry after the incident for the bad guy forcing you to do something that, I assume, you did not want to do. Be angry at him for the way he’s now changed your life and your assumptions about. Be angry at a lot of things. But righteous self-defense comes from a place of fear, not anger.

 

Lightsticks above the doorway

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While investigating other blogs, I found this post: The Light Stick Over The Door Trick

This is something I’ve been doing for almost thirty years. I leave a lightstick on the top of each doorway in the house. They are unobtrusive, mostly out of sight, but when the power goes out you know theyre always there and they are just what you need to find your way to a real flashlight. (Assuming you don’t already carry a small flashlight in your pocket at all times…which you should.)

I might have mentioned this before but, honestly, I don’t have time to trawl 20 years of blog posts. I will say, though, that with lightsticks being relatively cheap, it’s worth it to replace them every couple years. And always keep them in the foil pouches until ready to use. I’ve never had one fail, but I tested one last year that was almost 15 years past its expiration date and it worked just fine. But for less than a dollar each, why take chances?

As an aside, I also keep a couple lightsticks inside any container of emergency gear so that if I need to use that gear in the dark, I have a light source of some kind. I tape them to the inside of my Pelican gear cases, and I always have one or two in every larger first aid kit. (Thats in addition to a small, lithium-batteried light.)

Power failures have a habit of being unplanned, which means next time youre in the bathroom and the power goes out, it’d be nice not to stumble your way outta the bathroom, down theahll, to your computer room or wherever you keep your emergency lighting tools. Instead, find any doorway, reach up, and -presto- illumination.

Texas chilly

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A few posts back I was mentioning heating options for when the power goes out and the thermometer has the bottom drop out of it. Apparently thats a real thing in Upper Mexico Texas right now. The Texicans, not quite accustomed to that sort of climate, are managing as best they can but it seems many werent quite prepared for that particular level of cold. Some you-are-there reporting from one of our blog commenters can be found at his blog.It’s an interesting read and definitely makes me think that, for my needs, I’ve gone in the right direction with heating options. For me, kerosene heaters to heat the basement (pipes) and main room of the house, and a Buddy heater for spot warming where needed. Although I have a small Honda generator, my anticipated use of it is basically just communications, lighting, internet, and security cameras. (And all of those are on battery backups that can run for a good length of time.)

I suspect that many people in the Texas scenario were ready for Texas-cold weather but never really anticipated actual-cold weather. And I think that’s a pretty understandable thing…I doubt there are folks in Hawaii with kerosene heaters, Yak Trax, and parkas tucked away in the garages. Its just one of those scenarios that seemed legitimately unlikely.

But, as a survivalist it is always informative to read other peoples accounts of what happened, what worked, and what didn’t.

Oh, and I should mention, in the blog linked in the opening paragraph there is also recounting of how some local businesses were ‘cash only’ and not taking plastic. Another reason to have an envelope of $20’s stashed away in the safe.

Anyway, its good reading and if anyone else has some links to some ‘I was there’ AAR blog posts or whatnot, please share.

YouTubing

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Broadlu speaking, there’s only three channels I follow on YouTube – Gun Jesus, InrangeTV (a collaborative project with Gun Jesus and one of his buddies), and the questionably entertaining but usually informative Nutnfancy. Someone posted a comment with a link to this persons channel and I thought some of it was worth watching, and, frankly, gunbunnies and survivalbabes are always interesting….so, I added this one to my list.

I’m the most optimistic survivalist you’ll ever meet….I don’t foresee a mandatory-attendance-nationwide-impromptu-3-gun-match (aka Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo) actually taking place (although I do love the memes). But whatever you stockpile to give you an edge in the big igloo will, by extension, be pretty darn in handy in 90% of every other flavor of apocalypse. So…vidoes like these have some merit.

I don’t necessarily agree with everything in this video…or any video, actually. But there’s always some wheat mixed in with the chaff and watching chicks who are on the same wavelength as us is always fun.

Link – First Aid: Food Storage and Food Poisoning

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A comment from the previous post on “I ain’t eatin’ that” generated a very concise and useful blog post over at Aesop’s. In a world where emergency medicine is wishful thinking, and you’re eating food that might not be up to First World standards, your first bout of food poisoning might be your last bout of food poisoning. Aesop tells it like it might be. Go read. Hall of fame post right there.

Blog roundup

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ETA: Guys, use your head….if youre going to mention a blog that you think other people would be interested in, don’t just say “You need to read Steve’s blog!”…post an actual link. C’mon……

Unfortunately the roster of blogs that are preparedness-related is constantly changing as blogs fall to the wayside…victims of lack of interest, lack of time,  or lack of hearbeats. My blog reading has taken a hit as some of my favorites have gone dark. Even though it is 404’d I still have Self Sufficient Mountain Living in my list of daily reads even though there hasn’t been a peep from its owner, publicly and privately, for a couple years now. But..he’d gone dark before and returned. I hope, I hope……

So, whats on the daily read? Here you go:

I’m always up for looking at new blogs. If you know a blog that might interest me, is frequently updated, has a low religious quotient, doesn’t have a tinfoil hat dress code, and is decently written….link a brother up. And tell ’em Commander Zero sentcha.