Friday, April 29, 2016

WNTBTTA 10


WHAT NO TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 10

3) wire.  Remember not too long ago when I got all excited and sang the praises of The Unnamed Yuppie Survivalist Scum Blog for having brought up another unique idea as they are wont to do about annually ( along with those such as the powdered bleach ), the inexpensive wire source in the floral section of China-Mart?  Wire to make snares or repairs or torches or whatever.  I believe that the reason I was so moved was that it hadn’t occurred to me to stockpile wire.  Well, as it turns out, if you are going to stockpile wire, that was a good cheap source.  Yet, now, shamefaced as all get out, I admit to being a dumbass.  You don’t need to stockpile wire, now do you?  I was blinded by a bargain ( granted, I spent about $2, and I habitually drop $1.60 once or twice a month on movies from Redbox that turn out to be retarded, so I call a wasted $2 prep relatively speaking less of dumb-assness than it could have been.  And speaking of Redbox, if you like Quentin Tarrentino movies, “Hateful Eight” kicks butt.  Granted, it is three hours of talking in a one room cabin, but the Q-man can pull that off like none other.  If you are a fan of his, I’d rank this as a must-see ).  Wire is everywhere, from phone lines to electrical cords to appliances to home and business wall interiors.  It would be hard to run out of wire in the immediate future.

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4) solar panels are another item I keep harping on you to get.  I mean, Come On!  At a $1.39 a watt for a 100 watt panel ( have you seen the huge solar panel mark-up at Home Depot?  Embarrassing.  Buy through my Amazon links ) you would be remiss in missing this opportunity.  Chinese trade, seemingly The New Normal after twenty years, can be shut off easily.  The end of the Petro-Dollar.  An attack on the Saudi main oil terminal.  Trade embargoes as we did with Russia and the 7.62x54R surplus ammo stopped selling cheap within days.  China could use their own trade stoppage as a military strategy ( did you ever wonder how many critical components are made over there? ).  You can’t guarantee overseas supplies won’t dry up ( look at the computer storage media supply issue after Fukishima ).  

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I still think it is a great idea to have a panel or two and a marine battery or two.  If you can keep the batteries from freezing you should easily get at least five years out of them, and with some LED bulbs you’ll always have crisp bright light during outages.  Not that I’m suggesting to spend $500 for the occasional three hour grid down.  Better to get a bunch of cheap flashlights ( LED-of course! ) and a lot of AA batteries which will probably run about $20.  But if you think we will join the ranks of Third World countries that ration their power to an hour or two a day-if that, sooner rather than later, well then a few panels and batteries are a great investment.  HOWEVER.  Just to have panels for after the collapse, just because they will be useful if not critical ( go with the LED flashlights and the rechargeable AA batteries with a solar charger unit for post-collapse light for years of electric illumination on the very cheap.  Candles SUCK ), there is little need to buy your own.  If they are not on your Absolutely Must Own list, you will probably be able to find them atop buildings at almost every population center.  Because most folks, outside very remote locations, will own solar but not a battery bank.  They just tie onto the grid to save major coin.  That is their version, along with owning a Prius, of saving Mother Earth.  You might get lucky with highway construction signs, also. 

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5) 12v LED light bulbs are a really nifty device for drastically reducing your power needs ( living with RV appliances ).  An old auto incandescent bulb uses 18 watts.  A much brighter LED auto bulb uses 4 or 5.  That difference adds up hour after hour at night, day after cloudy day.  However, if you are like most of us, you don’t live off grid with solar panels and marine batteries and 12v lighting.  So you never stock up on LED automotive bulbs.  Never fear.  They usually come in-wait for it!-cars!  Not all bulbs will be LED.  Incandescent still sell for a buck verses the LED’s $12.  But you’ll still find them easily enough-especially in commercial rather than private vehicles, as the bulbs are cheaper than getting a no-compliance ticket.  Granted, you’ll probably be finding red rather than white colored bulbs, but light is light after the apocalypse. 

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
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Thursday, April 28, 2016

WNTBTTA 9


WHAT NOT TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 9

PART TWO

Before we start this, I’d like to give full credit to a loyal minion for furnishing the list for this second part.  He was envisioning the civilization residue left in the wake of a sudden New Spanish Flu or Solar Flare Event ( or man made EMP working in excess of expectations ).  I’ve assumed this list can be used for most every apocalypse other than Greer’s ( the Druid Dude ) “longest ever straining credibility collapse during Gore Warming and overpopulation and energy shortage which will magically take centuries to unfold”.  The list was for one specific fast die-off event.  It was my doing, not aforementioned minions, to apply it to all likely collapse scenarios.  So if some are “stretches” or strain credibility, it is my fault alone.  I credit said minion, I do not mean to blame him.  It has always been my view ( after sufficient study and years of authority abuse that wiped away my optimism and hope ) that whatever collapse we see, it will NOT be anything other than catastrophic, 99% die-off, complete ass falling out of civilization.  Your mileage my vary, good luck with that.  My view is we are all going to die ( even if trying not to is a worthy goal ).

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THINGS NOT TO STOCKPILE DUE TO THEIR WIDESPREAD AVAILABILITY

1) kitchenware.  We all preen over our perfectly seasoned cast iron pots and pans and skillets, and they work so much better over a less than evenly controlled wood fire than anything else, but the truth is that cast iron is still a luxury.  It is really nice to have.  I do, and I recommend it ( for civilized on-grid denizens, stainless steel of quality brand works much better with your electric or gas stove.  I’m a convert after using them the last year.  The only trick is to NOT rush the cleaning.  If it has to soak, let it.  Scrubbing is rarely needed, if soaked ) but if funds are tight there are multiple pots and pans in nearly every home.  Sure, most will be toxic crap Teflon coated, most likely not so very coated anymore, giving you the bonus of tasteless flaking pieces of the stuff.  Granted, your Teflon infused organs will soon enough be in someone’s stewpot, so it isn’t like there is a long term health consequence.  For you.  So, there won’t be the kind of pots you prefer, but there will be a myriad of them available for the picking, nonetheless.  If Third World war torn peasants can bake their flatbread on a piece of sheet metal scrap, you can use a busted ass pan from someone else’s kitchen.

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Same with plates and cups and mugs and silverware.  I’m just as guilty as the next cheese dingus, multiples stockpiling every kitchen dish as if  I would never see another one, ever.  I can’t imagine I thought I could ever sell flatware for a pretty penny ( most likely stainless steel won’t be smelted ).  Perhaps I was just going under the assumption that collapse, no collapse, no matter what I had everything I needed without leaving home.  But it does seem silly, now.  Who doesn’t have a half a kitchen drawer full of flatware and other tools?  Who doesn’t have too many cups or glasses?

2) building materials are usually recommended to the average prepper.  Why?  Suburbia is going to be chock full of abandoned houses that, if not demolished and salvaged, will rot and melt down and blow away.  Plenty of two by fours, nails, plywood, roofing, insulation and other materials.  Since the key to survival is going to be downsizing shelter ( less heat ) and burrowing at least partially underground, with drastically reduced population, and smaller shelters replacing conventional size homes, there should be plenty of houses available to everyone to salvage.  I’d recommend an odd roll or two of heavy plastic sheeting, but at $60 each you might have to also forego that purchase.  It is invaluable for underground housing, but you could also improvise roofing as underground waterproofing, after a fashion.  

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Of course the preference is having exactly the needed materials on hand, ready to go.  You might have a tough time both demolishing buildings, transporting the material easily, AND avoiding the die-off in progress if there are time constraints such as an approaching winter.  However, while wishing for prepper perfection in one hand, unnoticed in the other hand there is appearing a giant pile of reality.  You can’t always budget for everything you need.  Hell, I’d wager NOBODY can prep as prescribed.  It is a huge jumble of hopes and dreams and budgetary constraints.  If building materials are not in the budget, salvaging will have to suffice.  Just get the basics you can’t improvise on.  Which should be few.  Continued tomorrow and for who knows how much longer.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
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* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

WNTBTTA 8


WHAT NOT TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 8

10) I constantly make fun of FLIR scopes.  You know the ones I’m talking about, your Super James Bond stud-muffin-ness can now peek through walls and read the thermal signatures of your nemesis in his secret Villain Lair.  I don’t know how well they work, how fragile they are, what counter-measures have been developed, or any other details.  I do know they cost $3k.  How much ammo and/or wheat could you buy for $3k?  Could you purchase a used travel trailer AND a piece of junk land for less than that?  I know I could ( not at my current location, but somewhere else, without much difficulty-say, east Texas ).  So, my choice is, oh, I don’t know.  Financial independence, being able to tell the banks to piss up a rope, or having a cool tactical toy.  Oh, the humanity, I can’t make up my mind!  Do we even want someone in the gene pool who would buy one of these things?  Burn the bitches out, or sniper their ass when they come out.  Don’t see where they are so you can attack them inside.  Really?  Do I have to do ALL the thinking around here?  Who wants that, right?

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I hate night vision devices, but with no where near the purple passion.  Since you can get a rich kids version for $100 to $150, while not cheap they are not ruinous either.  If you simply MUST have one, it won’t break the bank or take away from more important tools or supplies.  I strongly urge you to consider the Old School method of night fighting, by training for it rather than waiting for the high tech tool to cheat at it.  Google the pre-WWII Japanese military manual on night fighting.  The great thing about training over tools is that it doesn’t break, more than one person can use it at a time, and you can pass it down to the next generation indefinitely.

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11) you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I was going to include semi-autos on this list.  Please do NOT panic.  I’ll keep it short and sweet since I know you have all been bored to tears by this before.  If you are on a budget, avoid semi-autos.  Period.  If you have the bucks, sure, you have a tiered arsenal with semi’s for the heavy fighting during the die-off ( which hopefully you can avoid, but if not… ) when you need firepower, then bolts or singles to preserve the second half of your ammo stockpile, and last rimfire for a “forever gun”.  But only if you have the cash and other preps, debt free and living frugal with stockpiles.  If you are poor, you must arm poor.  Being poor, you can’t stock much ammo.  So you go defensive rather than offensive and put more effort into hiding than fighting.  Ammo is key, not guns, and you must conserve.  The Dark Ages ahead do NOT include any higher tech industry.  Or mid grade tech.  Only if you are lucky will you see low tech.  It isn’t about knowledge but about resource availability.  Semi’s waste ammo.  Only a few percentage of you can overcome brain chemistry to control firing in combat.  Let your gun conserve the ammo for you.

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12) last up, before we begin the second part of this series, is electric sites for your guns.  Not only are these expensive and irreplaceable ( I’m not versed in the area of their fragility, but I’d assume Murphy’s Law there if I were you ), but they encourage wasting ammo.  They are spray and pray sites.  They are used for quick target acquisition.  They are for closer range.  They are semi-auto sites.  Getting old, your eyesite is not kind to marksmanship.  And most of us are getting old, the young’uns crotch whipped with new wives and still paying for a worthless college degree and usually not having the wisdom to listen to those with experience.  Sometimes iron sites, while superior for ruggedness, just won’t cut it.  So you compromise with scopes.  And they can be bought in bulk at $20 each in some cases.  Not the best quality, but you are going to be breaking and replacing them regularly.  So cheap is the best way to go.  How many much more expensive electric sites can you afford as back-ups?  More tactical toys.  Avoid them.  Tomorrow we start on the second part of the series, things to avoid due to widespread availability.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

WNTBTTA 7


WHAT NOT TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 7

8) a bug-out vehicle is one of the most retarded survival tools out there.  Now, I’m not saying bugging out itself is a bad idea.  It isn’t a GREAT idea, but it is probably what most of us are going to be stuck with.  Just like having a mortgage on a retreat is worse than no retreat at all, needing a bug-out vehicle is just compounding a bad decision.  Bugging out is better than bugging in at suburbia, but it is still fraught with risk and danger.  To deal with that danger, you live as close to possible to a retreat as you can, both minimizing the size of the urban area you work and live in, and the distance away from the retreat.  It is far better to live in a small city and have a junk land retreat only a few miles away ( say, half a day’s bicycle ride-probably no more than 100 miles maximum ) than to live in a humongous urban super-city and have a groovy deluxe forty acre retreat with concrete fortress and babbling brook and pasture and woodlot and cows, but a thousand miles away.

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You should start your prepping journey by minimizing debt and minimizing the number of people surrounding you.  Don’t maximize that debt and crowding, THEN think at the last minute you can safely escape.  Because, YES, you will wait until the last minute.  The very thought of giving up your trophy wife and three financed cars ( two careers, two commuter cars, one bug-out vehicle ) and mortgaged McMansion and private schooled conehead spawn and mistress on the side, well, it just does not compute.  You won’t act at the first sign of trouble because you could lose all that.  So you leave when it is obvious the crap really honest injun truly has hit the fan.  Along with everyone else with the inclination.  And odds are good you will die, long before you reach your destination.  It is all well and good to assume your studly vehicle and your arsenal of semi-autos will save you, but the first thing they teach you as a grunt is how easy the ambusher has things and how screwed you are as the ambushee.  And roads are a channeling system into ambush.  It is as simple as that.  You think it is bad enough you will be killed?  You’d be lucky.  Once a half smart ambusher sees what you are carrying, you had better already be dead.  Because Tommy Tactical High Speed gear yells “survivalist” and if I were the guy I’d be torturing you into directing us to your retreat.  The longer the travel, the greater exponentially you face danger.  The shorter the distance, and the less road you are on, the less dangerous.  A bug-out vehicle like a bike is one thing, a motor vehicle another ( if you can quietly go off road, the distances needed to travel can be increased slightly, but always beware mechanical failures as per Murphy’s Law.  With a bike, a spare chain and tire and two tubes will most likely cover everything.  A motorized conveyance just screams at Murphy to screw you ).

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9) freeze dried foods have their place.  Not in your storage pantry, but in the aforementioned bug-out kit.  You can go MRE-less like we already discussed,  which can easily also replace freeze dried foods.  Top Ramen, jerky and Power Bars are not too expensive, and filling, but for a hard physical bug out, hiking or biking, I’d max out the jerky and add a fat like peanut butter.  Or, just go freeze-dried to minimize storage and weight.  This is a small purchase, for a one time specific event, so cost isn’t really an issue.  But factoring in accidents and improbable events, I’d triple your expected travel time and then double THAT in water and food.  If you have to bike a hundred miles, and that one day turns into a week because the last half became a walk, for whatever reason, you might be glad to have the low weight/high calories of freeze dried foods.  Past that, however, you are buying WAY too much luxury and convenience for WAY too high a price, for far less calories than you need. 

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Most folks bleat pitifully that they need freeze dried for their meat, and while I drop my slacks and moon any and all vegetarians, even those idiots born into cow worshiping religions or whatnot, because humans were meat eaters from Day One and only greedy pig humping despots running an agricultural empire who wanted to maximize peasants to plant and cannon fodder to fight would insist on the population NOT eating dead animals would say otherwise ( the guys not eating meat do ingest dairy for animal protein, and that is one exception to the Meat Please Diet, but most overcrowded areas deny most people most animal proteins, even dairy ), I also insist that for poor people, meat is a post-apocalypse luxury, at least during the initial die-off.  Once you have your five to ten years of grain calories, okay.  Time to Animal Up.  But not before then.  Most “experts” insist on freeze dried first, rather than last.  I’m saying, calories first and foremost, protein next.

And freeze dried is saying “a few nice meals prior to starvation” if it is the mainstay of your prep diet.  A second thought add-on, not a staple.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

Monday, April 25, 2016

WNTBTTA 6


WHAT NOT TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 6
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note:
 https://srsroccoreport.com/continued-financial-market-deterioration-impacts-gold-eagle-sales-in-a-big-way/
explains the probably panic last week with the Fed with their secret White House meetings.  This guy gets the Bison Seal Of Approval.  Sorry it is a bit late, I read the article on Saturday morning.  The above link was left in the comments section of Friday's article, for those that already saw it.
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7) the next thing I would strongly advise against having as a prep would be financial investments of any kind.  I’m of course talking about intangible investments-those you cannot see or feel or touch or have any control over.  The kinds only existing in the digital ether.   Digitalization is wonderful for many things, two being limitless flawless copies and robots.  If you are old enough you remember the problems of copying cassette tapes or Xerox copies-each copy got worse and worse until it was useless.  2nd generation copies were worse than originals, 3rd generation far worse, etc.  And while computers and digitalization has been responsible for a lot of job “disappearing” in a far bloodier manner than during any Argentinean strong man rule, it has also done a lot of good such as exploding the information available to all.  After the cost and PITA of publishing ‘zines, a blog is a wonderful thing indeed.  But one thing you really honest injun don’t want digitalized is the financial sector.  Much evil has come of such, with more in the wings.

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After the stock market crash in the Eighties, the evil Bush Elder pulling the strings for our dementia addled president decided that the “plunge protection team” was just the ticket for stabilizing the financial industry which was rather busy stripping the assets from any last man standing corporation which had two nickels left over to rub together after the brutal industrial bloodletting of the ‘70’s.  That was the beginning of fudging the numbers to fool all of the middle class into believing the old stock market ( dividends were retirement income ) was the same as the new stock market ( middle class, widows and orphans need not apply-only the moneyed classes, ‘cause stocks and bonds were short term profit vehicles only and by the way, what is a dividend? ) so please keep putting your money into this fools paradise.  Bush did the deed of his banker handlers and was rewarded with riches and seeing his son get a turn at dazzling the masses with his brilliance.  Since the late Eighties ( it could have been a mite earlier, but for all intents and purposes… ), anything the bankers touched was the Midas Elite ( gold for the rich ) and everything everyone else touched was magically Anti-Midas ( crap for everyone else ).

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All the numbers are manipulated, and everything kept in the digital lockbox for your later retrieval has been either greatly diminished or rendered worthless.  All promises, from ALL those in power ( even your favorite politician who has pinky-swear promised to NOT be as crooked as all the rest ), political or corporate, are worth as much as the promise of an animal sacrificing child molesting sociopath.  If not worse.  Anything you have in THER control is as good as gone, given a long enough timeline.  What you are doing by trusting them with your money is gambling that when you need it, it will be prior to their theft.  No matter what your company says, your pension is NOT secure, and if the government promises that it is, they are lying on behalf of your company.  Your stock or bond holdings worth are at the mercy of crooked CEO’s, bribable politicians and greedy bankers.  Simply put, these people are NOT of your tribe, and they will screw you gladly seen in that light. 

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A bit of precious metals, a bit of rainy day cash, supplies and the tools of production are all the investments you can trust ( and only partially ).  Any surplus wealth is better invested with family or friends, those you trust, in small businesses ( as with the Chinese, who have had more experience in getting screwed financially than everyone else combined ) if you need a retirement income.  The rest of us without a surplus will be reliant on Social Security ( as scary as that is ).  Look at the bright side.  You know that system is destined to fail, but when it does you will have bigger problems as the ass has fallen out of civilization/empire.  Civil war, revolution, famine and other assorted symptoms of collapse will make the need for a pension moot.  But any wealth you have in intangibles will be gone before that-as the bankers have already baked their financial collapse into the cake ( I don’t think Social Security can outlast the private bankers downfall by all that much, but when you are talking a crap sandwich, just one bite less makes a big difference-you’ll have a little time as all the banks fail and are swallowed by the fewer big fish ) with the PetroDollar and their insane derivatives over-leveraging. 

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It isn’t a question of if your wealth will be wiped out, but merely when.  Cash out and invest in something else.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

Friday, April 22, 2016

WNTBTTA 5


WHAT NOT TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 5

5) I’m not sure if I even have to bring this one up, it should be so obvious, but one really just never knows.  Here you are at a redneck cocktail party ( sitting on the porch at Joe Bob’s drinking beers, if employed, or moonshine, if not ) trying to figure out how many times it takes a newborn baby to be dropped on their head before they are capable of growing up and voting for someone like Hilary, and the inevitable apocalypse reference comes up.  If your only exposure to the topic of survivalism has come from zombies, you don’t want to be showing your ass by bringing up The Walking Dead.  The best second alternative you can think of is “Rambo”, the first movie.  You seem to faintly recollect some part with a cool hollow handle knife with lots of nifty survival supplies stashed inside.  Then, your buddies all stop drinking refreshing adult beverages, and/or scratching themselves, all in unison, look at you in a slack jawed amazed gaze, and burst out laughing mirthfully.  Scooter, you dumb hump!  And there you go, another faux pas. 

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The best way to illustrate the silliness of this design is to make one yourself.  Take two toilet paper cardboard rolls.  Between them place a flat piece of cardboard.  Like such: -/-

Attach with Scotch Tape on both sides.  This is your Big Bad Mighty And Righteous Combat Accessory And Survival Kit Rambo Killing Machine.  Now stab something.  Watch the two pieces separate.  Now take a paper towel cardboard tube.  Stab something.  Do you notice the one piece breaking off in the middle?  Knives need to be designed with the blade and handle core consisting of one piece, or they are close to worthless.  You are better off getting some kind of small plastic tube ( of semi-soft material, not brittle ) and filling it with your supplies and using a bunch of electrical tape to secure the lid and attach it to your knife sheath, if you are so worried about having an emergency survival kit with your knife at all times.  I know, it doesn’t look cool.  And High Speed is all that and a bag of chips, isn’t it?  Enough to risk your life for.

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6) power knife sharpener.  Yes, I know your Dremil Tool has an attachment that allows you to sharpen your chainsaw in seconds.  You just had to have that chainsaw, didn’t you?  But come on, people.  An electrical knife sharpener?  Really?  I not only am fearful of screwing up my knife when I sharpen mine, even the cheap ones, but I also am a lazy bastard by nature and have looked for quick fix knife sharpeners all my life ( because, you know, it really is impossible to own enough knives ).  My newest favorite is the Rada brand R119 Quick Edge Knife Sharpener ( buy yours at Amazon for under $8.  Made in America ).  That does a better job than my key ring sharpener with the carbide and ceramic V slots.  Key ring attached sharpeners being more important than stashed fishing hooks and matches in a hollow handle knife.  Anyway, I’d swear by this sharpener before I’d spend big bucks buying some damn thing I need to plug in and that uses a replaceable sandpaper fan belt looking thing.  It might work beautifully.  I have no idea.  But is violates the KISS principle that all survivalists should swear a blood oath to.  It is, really, a solution in search of a problem. 

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If your knife was given the correct angle on its edge at the factory, your regular carbide V or steel wheeled quick edge sharpener should work just fine.  If not, it is probably Chinese and has a crappy angle.  Look up sharpening with a wet stone sharpener ( everyone should own several ).  It isn’t too difficult, in concept.  Holding the blade straight up vertically from the laid flat stone is 90 degrees.  Go half way down towards the stone for a 45 degree angle.  Halfway again is 22.  Once more for an 11 degree angle.  I believe the factory standard is 13 to 16 degrees.  So go halfway between the last and second to last angles.  If the easy sharpener doesn’t work, you go to the stone and even if you lack a good hold to the proper angle, you can’t really screw it up all that much more.  I mean, obviously, don’t keep going until all the metal is gone, if you can’t get the hang of it.  Leave a good enough knife to barter it.  Someone else better with a stone can use it.  But that is the whole point of the machine knife sharpener, to achieve the perfect angle.  Most folks have a good enough factory knife this isn’t going to be an issue.  If it is, try your luck with a stone.  Rough side first, a half dozen strokes away from you ( never pull towards yourself-push away ), then the other side and inspect.  Keep going, taking your time and working at that angle.  When you’ve got a good edge, repeat on the fine side.  From now on you should be able to use the quick sharpener.  Which, needless to say, you need multiples of in case of theft, breakage, etcetera.  Having only one sharpener is like only having one grinder for tons of wheat kernels.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
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* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

Thursday, April 21, 2016

WNTBTTA 4


WHAT NOT TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 4

3) the third thing you really shouldn’t be bringing to the apocalypse are MRE’s.  And before I go any further, you’ll be happy to know I won’t drag that topic out an entire article.  Even though I could.  You are welcome.  I’ll pick up the pace a little bit here, but only because I’ve covered all these so many times before.  And remember, after these first twelve tools, which I’ve covered before, we move into new and exciting virgin territory.  The things I do for my loyal minions.  Okay, back to MRE’s.  They are convenient and they are very filling, and with the right ingredients for a combatant like salt and fat and dead animals.  When you are on the run for your life you can’t cook.  And when you need energy to go, you really don’t care if the thing costs $6 or $10 or $50.  You need food and nutrients or your engine ceases to function optimally.  So why don’t I recommend them?  I know you are going to say, “it’s because they cost too much and Jim is a skinflint penny pinching arsehole and I hate him and it’s NOT because I’m jealous of his hair!”.

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Well, we all know it IS because of my hair, but I’m going to let that go.  Just as with freeze dried, so with MRE’s.  As long as you are reasonable with how much you buy, they are way too expensive but certainly not without their merits.  Sometimes there is no other way to store dead animals ( do NOT, under any circumstances, get textured vegetable protein.  That is soy crap, overpriced, and likely processed in such a way as your body can’t assimilate it anyway ) than freeze dried.  And MRE’s do have a place in bugging out ( although I strongly encourage you to NOT bug out past a few hours biking distance ).  But because of the cost ( one MRE equals three weeks of wheat in cost, and has less than one days calories of the kernels ), it is stupid to own too many.  They are good for a circumstance or two, not as a staple.  And to eat too many MRE’s all at one time is to invite a rectal breaking rock hard turd after an incredibly increasing discomforting constipation period.  MRE’s, by themselves, are deadly in that regard. 

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How about some Power Bars, jerky and Top Ramen if you are going to spend the money?  I can guarentee you are going to get over 1200 calories, and for way under $6 a day.  Make most of the calories the noodles and it is just a dollar for 2k calories.  Add a bit of dried meat and if you get them on sale, the hiking food bar.  Tastes like crap for not that many calories but it is energy.  What is that, $5?  With twice the calories.  Top Ramen doesn’t need to be cooked if you are on the go, just crush the noodles and eat dry, pouring into your mouth from the bag.  I know there are other trail foods, such as gorp ( which I personally don’t care for ).  Hell, even candy bars that don’t melt and aren’t too terrible for you such as Payday, aren’t a bad idea.  Just add to relatively real foods to get more than empty sugar calories.  The point is you can do better than MRE’s, calories and fiber-wise, for less money, without needing to cook or prepare in any way.

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4) mollie gear, alice gear or any other gear the military gave a girls name ( and for what other reason than the thing is a Capital B bitch? ).  Military web gear has one purpose, and that is to be able to attach more gear to your frail, failing, overburdened frame.  This is exactly what you DON’T want to do.  Your bare essentials should fit on your pants belt ( or a outer belt attached to your pants belt ), and NOT pull your pants down past crack level.  If they do, you are carrying too much crap.  Your rifle cartridges go in a belt worn over one shoulder and everything else should fit on your waist belt and in a small backpack.  As small as a day pack or patrol pack.  Mostly water and the bare amount of food.  If that-perhaps just water and one or two other essentials.  If you are true light infantry, you can easily run away to fight another day.  If your gear makes you anything else you are cannon fodder for someone else’s nefarious purposes ( regardless of the florescent hued smoke they might be blowing up your ass ).  If you have voluntarily overburdened yourself, I have my doubts you understand what you are doing.  You want to go in, guns blazing, empty AR mags discarded hither and yon as you lay down a cloud of lead upon the enemy.  I think I’ll just pick off the sentry when the opportunity presents itself.  Booby trap patrols.  Bushwhacking and in general keeping my dear ass alive.  If invaded, fall back.  But you do what you want, with your chest strapped full of semi-auto mags, part of your 80 pound carrying load.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

book review-article 2 of 2 today

This is the second of two articles today.  The regular daily article was published first-scroll down.
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BOOK REVIEW
GRID DOWN-The New Reality Volume 3

I do enjoy Bruce “Buckshot” Hemming’s Grid Down book series.  I would put it at the top of the post-Apocalypse genre of books being published on a regular basis.  There are plenty of over-priced books that are a collection of very short novels broken up to increase revenues.  There are very good stand alone books that are published sporadically.  Some are set in the same universe, but can either continue or never see a sequel, seemingly at random.  Good authors can never be heard from again.  But there are very few professionally published series that can hold my interest ( and that doesn’t mean New York published-which can put out financially orientated drivel ).  Grid Down is one of the few.  Bruce is a good writer.  Not the best-few of us are.  But a solid writer who tries to deliver value for your book buying money.  His efforts are better than most, even if they aren’t perfect. 

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I like what the last two books have done, veering off a bit and testing new territory.  They are not carbon copies of the earlier series.  They do not pander to some readers expectations of non-stop action and bloody unending combat and harrowing attempts at survival.  The previous book changed the geographical setting and was a very good “almost stand alone” attempt.  This last one takes a very sharp departure and has a Back To Near Normalcy component.  The country is, piecemeal, getting back on its feet, yet without the federals interference.  I’d say a bit too much of a Libertarian/Patriot Militant victory.  But that is a minor point.  I was actually very pleased with the overall general feeling, much more positive.  A lighter air about it, not as doom and gloom.  The other volumes in the series always had a positive optimistic feel, but this was even greater.  It was a “less wolf packs and feral bandits will kill us, now we can grope towards a better future”.  I did think the optimism and turn-around were too pronounced, but the series could continue filling in those gaps and still retain their post-apocalypse feel.  It wasn’t like some series where everything returns to complete normal, only better ( cough, cough, “299 Days”, ahem, Rawles ).  A bit too much of a recovery, but not completely unrealistic. 

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I did enjoy the book.  I didn’t want to put it down and it never bogged down.  It was an enjoyable read.  It had those wonderful nuggets of survival tips the whole series contains.  I merely mention all of the above to prepare the reader.  It isn’t action packed, nor is it a continuation of the first few books.  It didn’t have the “normal” romantic interest ( a departure I welcome, for one-not that those ruined the other books, just not my preference ).  It was a change.  Not unwelcome, just different.  I’ll eagerly await new installments.  If you enjoyed the series, by all means get this one.  Just be forewarned this one seems an interlude rather than a continuation.  As long as the series doesn’t veer into militia porn fantasy/patriot porn, I still see great things ahead.

END

WNTBTTA 3-article 1 of 2 today


WHAT NOT TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 3

2) another oft recommended tool that you simply must have for the apocalypse is a chainsaw.  I completely disagree.  Now, I’ll freely admit that after the one time in  my life I tried to use a chainsaw, and it scared me straight, I’ve been adamant against large machines that can double as amputation tools.  It wasn’t because I was afraid of a chainsaw after watching “Texas Chainsaw Murder” ( even if “Jaws” taught me the wisdom of staying out of any salt water ocean, I never cared for horror films and have never watched many ).  I don’t like flesh ripping power tools in any guise.  Proving once again that public schools are a minimum of one generation removed from reality, it not an entire century or even imperial cycle, my High School was insisting on a whole lot of shop classes, as if Unions and factories were still there awaiting my graduation with jobs offers.  Silly boys, assembly jobs are for Orientals.  I put up with all the other trades I wasn’t ever going to master such as auto mechanics and welding, but I adamantly refused to take woodworking ( a small localized burn is far preferable to amputation ).  Did you see “Maximum Overdrive”?  One of Stephen Kings best movies, in my opinion ( I think it had slight survivalist overtones to it, although I doubt many would agree with me ).  Yes, Virginia, the machines do want to kill you.  And chainsaws are the recon drones of the Machine Wars.

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So, from pretty much Day One, I’ve hated power tools of all kinds.  Even lawn mowers.  There was an element of foot amputation fears but mostly it was the hatred of the endless cord yanking on muggy hot summer afternoons.  So I never missed power tools, always preferring to do things the Old School way.  I dug my B-POD pit with hand tools and built the thing with hand tools.  I weed my half an acre manually ( I own an acre but only about half is cleared of sagebrush ).  The last time I “owned” a lawn ( I rented a trailer space, owned the trailer ) I had a manual mower, and that was in the Florida jungle where you mowed twice a week at a minimum.  So, yes, of course I have a prejudice against power tools.  And then?  What is your point?  They are still dangerous as hell.  I don’t care how many metal chaps and Kevlar whatever you wear, or how careful you pinky promise to be, on less food and living in no air conditioner trying to sleep overnight and waking hungry and “dishcloth wrung out” from the humidity, you are going to tire very quickly out there cutting wood.  Attention will invariably lapse and deadly mistakes will of course be made.  You want to play macho tool man taylor and wave your giant phallic symbol around, someone is going to be hurt and most likely it will be you.  Good Christ on the cross, man, your wife already has your testicles.  No one is going to be impressed with your vulgar display.

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And, yes, I can already hear your excuses.  Oh, I’ll get cords and cords of wood sawed up in likity split time, I’ll fell car barricades in the blink of an eye, erect bullet proof timber backed dirt walls around the Yuppie Scum Fortress.  Why, yes, yes you will.  Congratulations on drawing folks to your treasure trove from the high hearing killing decibels roar of your legions of chainsaw users.  Congratulations on once again cheating the Gods as they took away the Oil Age and all its labor saving tools.  Once your magic machines break, there will be no replacements.  The same is true with firearms, batteries and other items.  True.  You might think it is an arbitrary list, with me “allowing” certain technologies and “disallowing” others.  But what I’m doing is trying to minimize your exposure to disappearing technologies.  I’m not trying to “hurt” you by taking away your favorite toys.  I’m applying the 80/20 rule to prepping.  If a power tool or an expensive toy is less than a 20% increase in performance with a more than 80% increase in price, I judge it unworthy.  To put it another way, if a lower technology performs at 80% at only a 20% cost, it is following the 80/20 rule.  For what a chainsaw costs, you can outfit several team members with manual saws and you won’t take too much of a hit on performance.  Even if you do, the manual tool will compel you to do more with less wood, whereas the ease of a chainsaw will encourage you to use more.  With manuals, you spend less for more tools, can replicate them easier, make no noise to attract marauders, and severely reduce the danger in using them.  80% of the performance at 20% of the price.  More next time.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there