grape stomping

GRAPE STOMPING

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note: E.M. Joe, got your snail mail donation of mega generous proportions.  Many thanks!
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Don’t you just love synchronicity?  Okay, it probably has more to do with the song by The Police than the actual concept itself, but you can still appreciate when it happens.  I’m on the flip side of disc three in the Survivors TV series ( the original, not the remake that took its cue from a crackhead Muslim feminist, so bad I couldn’t watch it for free ) on the episode about a witch.  Not their finest work, but the Green Mountain Dude says the shows at the end are the best ( go to his web site to see the links to the free episodes on YouTube.  Yes, my web site that you are all supposed to know about in case I ever lose this Blog page to censorship ).

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The one great moment in the episode ( I believe I’m remembering the right one-if not please forgive me as I shan’t be firing up the DVD player just now to confirm this ) was the beginning where one minor character is doing her laundry in the tub.  Not by hand, not with a washboard.  By standing in the tub and walking in place.  Now the synchronicity part.  Just days later I’m reading a random webpage that mentions “the grape stomping technique of washing your clothes”.  Now, I know I’m probably wrong and it is just a trick of memory, but I could have sworn I’d never come across this technique before in my life and suddenly here are two completely separate unrelated citations.

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Surely you’ve seen on film folks stomping grapes for wine making?  They jump in a huge vat and walk around lifting their step high every time, stomping the grapes into mush.  Now I guess they do the same, or at least DID the same with clothes to wash them.  Obviously, you’d need a steady wall or rack to grab hold on to while doing this.  Not just because you could slip in the tub but because the clothes underneath could trip you.  And you would need at least warmish water because standing in cold water in the winter would be a poor idea ( even inside ).

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Soap and agitation are what you need to wash clothes.  A lot of the ways to provide agitation are a VERY high calorie consumption method and NOT recommended.  Now, granted, in old timey days there were a lot of methods that did use an unduly large number of calories.  This was not because folks were stupid, it was that the local natural materials at hand were free and so utilized.  Trade used to be very expensive and not something the poor could afford outside the immediate area in limited amounts.  Perhaps a metal tool was much quicker and easier to use, but if you didn’t have money, you used an organic material you had to keep replacing. 

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In case you were wondering how we got the natives to kill each other for us, it was because we had metal they wanted.  It was a far superior tool compared to what they used.  The European peasant that did without metal in many instances was divorcing himself from that kind of disadvantageous relationship the Indians had with the settlers.  Yes, perhaps taking your clothes and beating them against a rock in the creek was a lot of work.  You just ate more food ( and, it should be noted, had more babies.  Which aren’t JUST about your retirement, but also about young able bodied labor to help you on the farm as you prematurely aged ).

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Having a metal tub to stomp your clothes in would have used far less labor.  But metal tubs were costly and then rusted out, necessitating a replacement which took more money you didn’t have.  The cast iron kettle you used to heat water on the wood stove was a one time investment that lasted generations.  A wash tub was too “disposable”.  If you have a porcelain coated cast iron bathtub, that might just be the ticket, a secondary use being to wash clothes after you wash yourself ( the weekly bath followed by the weekly wash ).  But that is only feasible in water and wood rich areas.

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The Grape Stomping clothes washing method is primarily an idea for washing clothes for those that don’t want to buy any extra equipment.  But it does require warm water and extra water.  You can’t just fill up the bathtub with an inch of water to do this ( which might work for bathing, in a modified Whores Bath with washcloth ).  And please keep in mind that clothes washing with any method using your upper body muscles is retarded.  Leg muscles are far stronger than arm muscles.  So forget the “toilet plunger in a bucket” or similar methods.  Use your legs, damn you! 

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My idea has always been the enclosed bucket on a rocking chair.  As far as I’m aware, this was an idea original to me, and I’m proud enough of this rare insight that I must remind you of this fact every time I bring up off-grid clothes washing.  Strap the bucket down and sit on something behind the rocker, pushing on the chair as you read or otherwise occupy yourself.  Very little effort, and it has the added benefit of not needing warm water if it isn’t available.  You don’t even need a real old fashion rocking chair.

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I have quite the collection going on “semi-rocking chairs”.  I have three wooden rocking stools ( no backing ) and a strange aluminum rocking chair that folds up like a lawn chair ( but the slats are not the cheesy strips the lawn chairs use, they are solid ).  That one should last a lifetime.  All were from the thrift store and cost zero to nominal amounts.  I think I paid $3 for the folder.  In an area lacking much wood for fires, I can wash my clothes with little calories and no fuel.  Clean clothes are important for two very important reasons.  First, it cuts back on vermin such as bedbugs ( I also stock bags of diatomaceous earth for that ).  And second, clean clothes actually keep you warmer.  Something about the fibers being fluffier without grease and dirt flattening them ( obviously, I’m not recalling exactly ). 

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But if you don’t have access to an affordable rocking chair, but do have plenty of water and fuel, the grape stomping method is a great way to correctly ( with your legs! If I see any minions using a washboard I‘ll beat them with it ) wash your cloths with no or little cost.

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escape and evasion

ESCAPE AND EVASION

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note: this video is so bizarre and out there in tinfoil hat territory, it was like passing a traffic accident unable to look away.  Hillary Clinton's Mysterious Malady:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__UQQEHuRws
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I think it is quite natural to want to escape the US.  The place REALLY went to crap in the last ten years, and by its nature cannot recover like it used to.  Any civilization no matter the time period needs excess energy to function.  The US, and pretty much every other place, is now seeing a net energy decline ( fracking oil and gas merely postpone the implosion ).  Less energy today and tomorrow even less energy than that.  You all know my views on bugging out of your country.  It probably won’t work and even if feasible it certainly isn’t for me.

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That doesn’t mean it is the wrong choice, just not one I personally care for.  But I don’t want to argue the case against leaving.  It could well be the best strategy.  The Jews that left Nazi Germany early were rewarded for their sacrifices.  As a minion pointed out, the Confederates that left the defeated South for Brazil missed the grinding poverty and early death by malnutrition that Reconstruction at the hands of the industrialists brought.  There are plenty of examples that reward fleeing dysfunction.  The Whites that left the country while it was still White run Rhodesia, the White Flight out of soon to be minority occupied Rust Belt cities, the Brits who came to the US before the Muslims took over.

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I’ve been an expat, a former California who fled that craphole well in advance of things turning bad.  I don’t regret it.  Today, I merely want to bring up two cautions to moving ( there are many more ).  First, the best place to move to could turn into the worst from people arriving after you.  And second, there might be far fewer future safe places than you think.  Again, I’m not trying to convince anyone to stay.  I myself am not at all convinced staying is actually the wisest choice ( rather, it seems to be the least worst choice, for me personally ).

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A lot of us have fled bad places.  We sacrificed, moved ahead of the crowd, invested.  Then some assface moved there after us and screwed up the new place.  This is true of single pieces of property with a new neighbor, another state, or another country.  I was all alone in a great off grid location and then the idiots discovered the location ( but of course, being pussies, only moved there as the power poles were extended out ).  Now I’m hemmed in.  Other minions must keep fleeing once great alternate spots.  Why do you think a new country won’t be the same?

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Californians screwed up all the intermountain states.  Blacks from Dixie moved in and screwed up the Yankee factory towns.  Look at African Sudan and region.  Refugees moved in from other drought nations and screwed the whole place up.  Just twenty or thirty years ago some locations in Europe were probably really nice places.  Then the Muzzies moved in and turned entire cities into No Patrol regions.  As less stable countries with worse economies and too much population collapse in, say, South America, what is to guarantee your little piece of paradise won’t fall under waves of refugees?

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The big problem with the theories of the Forth Turning, or economic cycles named after Russian dudes, or global empires or even stair step collapses is what I’ve covered before as the 500 year cycle everyone ignores.  For the last five centuries, Europeans and their descendents have built an empire on surplus energy.  First by colonizing and then by carbon fuels.  The Industrial Revolution was due to coal, not the higher IQ of Whites, or the genius of capitalism ( surplus energy invented capitalism, not the other way around ), or geopolitics or technology ( surplus energy creates technology, not the other way around ).

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The whole globe is working under this model of excess energy.  What started as killing Black slaves to provide sugar to factory workers in England with cheaper calories is now killing middle easterners to provide oil to provide Chinese factory workers with cheaper calories from industrial agriculture.  Most countries on the bottom of the food chain are nothing more than commodity providers.  Those countries running out of commodities ( such as Libya and Tunisia, Syria and Venezuela with oil ) are thrown under the bus and long functional economies suddenly crash and burn. 

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These are the opening salvo’s in the end of the five hundred year old Western Empire.  Actually, the process started forty  years ago as oil supply peaked in per capita terms.  But until recently even marginal suppliers were rewarded with imported food.  That process of surplus food to commodities providers stopped being applicable around twelve years ago as the globe hit Peak Net Oil.  This one observation should give anyone thinking of leaving pause.  Are you walking into a trap set to shut shortly?  Repeat after me.  Venezuela was NOT about socialism.  Nor is it now about discarding the PetroDollar.

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It is triage, plain and simple, as the world’s population finally surpassed its grain production ( a combination of the end of the three generation moderate weather that made possible the Green Revolution, along with its butt buddy excess petroleum ).  Did you forget that it is All About The Food?  Excess energy is really just excess food, in the end.  If all of the Third World is nothing more than Commodity Providers, and those are the very areas triaged out of the system from lack of fuel and food, what is saving your expat country of choice?  Yes, growing your own food is great.  But politics from outside have a way of intruding.  Jonestown could have fed itself, but not protected itself from outsiders.

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Again, I’m not saying leaving the US is a bad choice.  I’m saying, will other peoples bad choices follow you to your better place?  Sure, the US is already in CrapHole status ( look at the bellwether state California for environmental, economic and population issues gone septic ).  Most people don’t think their escaped to state won’t follow California’s path, and they are wrong.  But will now functional third world countries stay solid, or will they also follow the collapse of western civilization?  Globalization is merely Western Civilization at this point, the whole globe conquered and occupied.  How will any escape when everyone is vulnerable to the same forces?

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How many Iranian citizens froze to death during WWII, because Russia needed their energy supplies?  They weren’t invaded or fighting in the conflict, but were still effected.  That is the kind of war gamming I’m encouraging here.  If far away locusts will attack your retreat farm, why won’t a rural farm in another country also fall to the overpopulated city hordes there?  Again, I don’t mean this as a “don’t you dare leave” article.  I only want you to think about if you are actually leaving problems behind.

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me the money and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

 

baby bullets

BABY BULLETS

Have you ever had a mini stroke, where you freeze up and you feel compelled to focus on one problem to the exclusion of all else?  You’ve probably all done this, such as when you can’t find out how to spell a word and it is one of those weird ones that aren’t intuitive and defy dictionary attempts but you just won’t give up on looking ( to this day I have a problem with “bureaucrat”.  I finally just taped it to the screen margins on my writing computer.  Hey, it comes up nowadays about as often as divine intervention in the Papist church did back in olden days ).  I couldn’t get that darn Lee-Enfield conversion to 7.62x39 out of my head.

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I’m sure you all remember our conversation we just had over that.  And it isn’t even like I’ll ever go ahead and do it.  When you work for less so you don’t have to work for Da Man, you don’t consume past shelter and food.  You just don’t do it!  It is unseemly, it is.  My luck, the day I place my bulk order for powder and bullets, my computer breaks or I have to go to the dentist ( not to mention that little episode where the B-POD was vandalized.  Not that I NEED to replace all but two critical items-they were just back ups to back ups, and I image while nice to have I don’t need ALL of twenty five propane tanks-but spending more after that leaves a bad taste ).

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No, this was more of an intellectual exercise.  It was a problem I couldn’t get out of my head.  And if I’m obsessed with it, you get to hear all about it.  You few lucky bastards.  Even if I never have the supplies, I wanted to know how to convert my full power thirty caliber battle rifle down to a carbine round and back again as needed.  Not to say this doesn’t have practical applications, since ammo component conservation is never a bad idea, but first comes the study of a problem anyway.  A few months ago I was obsessed with the cost of manufacturing an AR-15 without paperwork, and that is NEVER going to happen absent fame and fortune creating far more of a financial surplus than I’m used to.

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Previously, I tried purchasing a chamber insert from the famous dude up in Alaska.  I had waited too long, however, as he no longer offered them.  I thought about a pistol round instead, but took minions warnings about barrel plugs seriously, besides not wishing to sacrifice the power.  I brought up to you recently cannibalizing steel case carbine rounds, which quickly became apparently a terrible idea.  So, last Friday, instead of writing, I’m obsessed with this damn idea, still ( I used to be focused on macro ideas and pursued them relentlessly, but since I’ve beat all those dead horses to death-the ones that interest me-I’m back to micro ideas.  ‘Tis in my nature to obsess I imagine ).

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I start reading up on how people convert surplus rifles to fire the 7.62x39 round by taking off the barrel, cutting off most of the threads, rethreading and then having shortened the chamber can turn their Enfield’s or Carinco’s into a carbine round shooter.  For the home tinkering machinist, it was thought this process wasn’t too difficult ( I’ll take their word for it ).  I imagine all those companies that, for a time, offered this service were probably just this kind of operation.  It sounded like a retarded idea to me, as you now have no flexibility as to what to fire, an intermediate round only without the full power option.

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But the exciting thing is that I found a comment on this shooters forum that presented the solution of just under powering the regular 303 round to achieve the same results.  Now, please pay attention.  These are instructions presented as fact.  In other words, it’s some crap you read on the Internet.  So it could be true or it could be pure unadulterated farm animal feces.  I’m assuming that since nobody dog piled the poster and called him out as a troll, that there is a good chance of truth to his statement.  It seems that you can use one powder with much greater success than the others, H4895.  As long as you do not fall below 60% of the normal powder charge in your cartridge, this powder will ignite and perform properly, negating the issues of other powders not combusting as there isn’t enough in the larger case.

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So, you look at your loading data and take the regular charge, say 40gr.  Multiply that by .6 on your calculator.  In this case 24.  So as long as you don’t fall below 24gr your H4895 powder should ignite properly.  Now, unfortunately as is almost always the case, I didn’t note which shooters forum or what web page I got this information from.  So, I can’t remember if you took the average reload, the minimum or the maximum.  Just to be safe in my calculations, I took the max load, in my case with the 303 it was 45gr.  Which gives you the minimum load of 27gr.  I’d want it slightly more for a margin of error.  Remember, below 60% and this powder doesn’t work.

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If you were loading at 26gr, you’d get 270 loads per pound of powder.  At 30gr, it would be 230 reloads.  Placing the load about half way between should produce both reliable loads ( you don’t want a misfire in combat, all to save two extra cents ) and economics, giving you around 250 loads per pound of powder.  Taking into account HazMat shipping fees and shipping costs, if you bought eight pounds of powder you could get your powder for $30 a pound, all costs included.  That is twelve cents a round.  Buying a thousand bullets ( the 125gr .311 “Berry’s Superior Plated Bullets” from MidwayUSA, the same source as the powder ) after shipping sees you at another twelve cents per.  Add a primer for three cents.  27cents a reload.

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Granted, this doesn’t factor in case costs.  With the Enfield, your case life is never going to be great.  You can heat anneal every few rounds, putting the case neck in the camp fire and then water quenching, and you can neck size only, to increase case life.  But the 303 was never great for reloading.  It is good enough but never great.  By under powering it, you should also increase case life, but just keep in mind that while 27cents is the reload price, it isn’t the total cost long run.  To buy a 7.62x39 steel case after shipping is 22cents.  The two costs are not all that dissimilar ( if you buy less than a case of 7.62x39, it is more per round, just as it will be more per round to reload the 303 if you buy in smaller quantities ).

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Even factoring in case cost, you still might get lucky with the number of reloads and see an all inclusive cost of 33cents.  Still not a bad price at all.  And you can always power the round back up with the same powder.  I understand not many of you own an Enfield, or even if you do you don’t use it all that much.  But the information on the H4895 powder might still come in handy.  You can reload lighter rounds to reduce recoil and stretch out your powder supply, getting more rounds to fire for the same price.  Just another option.  I hope I haven’t screwed the pooch here, providing inaccurate information.  Although, that is what the minion comments are for, aren’t they?

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me the money and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

 

 

 

aging bob 2 of 2

AGING BOB 2

Yeh, I know, Wal-Mart BOB items.  But at the time I shopped there the quality hadn’t gone to crap.  I didn’t have to worry about the food killing me, back then.  Now, I’d grocery shop elsewhere.  The bag was pretty basic.  Mostly it was full of food for three small meals a day.  Instant oatmeal, mashed potatoes, rice pilaf and the like.  I had some PowerBars, but those do NOT age well.  I just told you that story not too long ago as a note I tacked on to the article, about other Power Bars I’d gotten and stored, so I was very leery taste testing this one.  I didn’t need to swallow ( that’s what he said! ) to know it was putrid.  I spit that bastard out and then used mouthwash to sanitize.

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And of course, who could forget Top Ramen in their food preps?  Yes, they smelled musty, almost like vegetable shortening forgotten in the back corner of the pantry for a few generations, but it was a noticeable smell rather than an offensive one, so I taste tested and they were fine.  I have a relatively sensitive stomach and I can usually get a belly flop as soon as something bad hits it ( if not, I’m sick that night.  In this case, sixteen hours on, no stomach complaints or intestinal discomfort from all the products ). 

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So, eight Top Ramen packs, a dozen instant oatmeal packs ( with cream, so that shows you the non-food that non-dairy is ), two Rice-A-Roni’s, three mash potato and eight Pop Tarts.  The Pop Tarts were nearly rock like but if allowed to soften with saliva were actually edible and still surprisingly tasty.  I had a pack of dried pineapple that seemed to get drier as time went on, a literal freeze then dried.  Those seemed okay but would have been on the fence as to whether I wanted to eat much of.  A pound of butterscotch candies were fine.  The wrappers came right off without sticking to the candy, as so many do nowadays a year or even months after expiration.  You gotta wonder what they substituted for fake sugar in today’s candy.

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If I had rotated the PowerBars so they were still edible, I think the whole thing would have given me an easy weeks worth of food without experiencing too much hunger or weakness.  I also included a three pack of Sterno fuel, this being prior to my Volcano Stove or Hobo Stove or Dakota Hole learning curve ( the Hobo is a coffee can used like a rocket stove ).  Besides the food, and a six pack of bottles water which didn’t leak, surprisingly after all the freezes, I had a canteen with metal cup ( for the cooking ).  I also had water purification tabs ( the bottle water was just for the initial flight to avoid dehydration ).  Again, this was way back in the day when I thought the only way to filter water was the big Katadyn stick.  Obviously, my Y2K camping filter of the same brand escaped my memory at the time.

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For light, I had a LED pen flashlight rated at a hundred hours run time.  The two batteries that came with it and the four back-ups obviously didn’t make it through the decade.  The flashlight was fine ( the cheaper non-brand lights will sometimes somehow just age and die, even out of the weather ).  I had two Bic lighters, and those of course still worked.  A space blanket.  A back up to my fixed knife, a dollar folding knife.  And of course a cheap knife sharpener ( in the fishing section at Wally, a red colored holdable plastic piece, with two white crisscrossed small ceramic rods.  I think at the time that was maybe $2-this was a back-up to the sharpener I always carry on my keyring ). 

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The bag all this fit in was only nine by nine inches and a foot and a half long.  The water made it a bit heavy, but nothing that would be noticeable unless I carried it all day.  The Top Ramen made it a bit bulky, but still not bad.  Everything was in Zip-Lock bags and everything looked as new as the day I bought it.  The bag and canteen with cup were trash pick items  and I already had the fix blade knife on hand, so I don’t image the contents cost over around $30.  Today, if making the bag, I’d replace the water tabs with a Sawyer filter.  I’d do without the Sterno and of course, never buy the Power Bars.  Other than that, not bad for a bag I bought and then literally forgot about. 

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I’m frankly astounded the food did so well a decade past its expiration ( take that!, freeze dried, you overly salted overly prepared overly expensive bastards ).  I’ve never had issues with grocery store food three to five years past expiration, but one would have thought a decade in fluctuating temperatures wouldn’t have been so kind.  I imagine if I had put peanut butter away it would not have survived, but then, who knows?  It is the same nasty Forever Oil that vegetable shortening is made from.  But like all oil, there is no mistaking when it is rancid past the point of consumption ( I think most of us eat semi-rancid food all the time ).  Normal oil, you sniff and it is strong.  Rancid and you jerk your face away in disgust and almost vomit. 

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Not to say you want to eat decade old food, just that you can.  I wouldn’t want it my exclusive diet, merely a supplement.  A one week supply of it exclusively isn’t going to kill you, either.

But to finally arrive at the takeaway, “white foods last forever, and make your BOB mostly about food”.  All these other doo-dads are fine.  But as always Food First.

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me the money and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

 

 

aging bob 1 of 2

AGING BOB

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note: J.Y., most excellent PayPal donation-thank you.
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You all know I’m not a huge fan of Bug Out Bags.  I don’t mind them, per se, if the intent is a short distance to home or a back-up emergency egress simply because you never know.  I don’t dislike the BOB’s, I dislike everyone’s unhealthy infatuation with them, the endless articles and focus on something that should be no more complicated than an  Everyday Carry list.  Which are also beat like a dead horse.  Beat like a dead horse by a fish wife on meth on the way to the glue factory.  No list is right or wrong and usually it is futile to attempt to improve on one.  And it is an unfortunate activity for no other reason than it adds to the acronyms preppers use ( and I hate acronyms from my military days, and the crass attempt at Corporates to use them to confuse rather than clarify ).

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I had a truck bug out bag, which I mainly used to move from Carson City up here to Elko ( good distances between settlements ).  After that, it was just handy if I had to head for the hills.  Since I was living off grid without heat ( or not enough, anyway ), I was pretty much always dressed warm enough that I only needed to grab a jackets to cut the wind and I was warm enough.  The gun and cartridge belt were next to the bed and my bag was outside behind the truck seat.  And that was about as much attention as I paid to the whole concept ( yes, I know I’m lacking a up in the hills cache ).  The only thing that changed was the truck was retired around six years ago and the cab got filled up with a bunch of crap I would have had to fight through ( well, that, and I don’t live there anymore-now the plan is to get to the property ).

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I just had a guy leave me a note up at my place, asking if he could buy some parts off of the truck.  Bumper, fender, grill and mirrors.  Now, this is a 1975 truck.  It was always a work truck.  Beat hard, then rode hard, then put up wet.  I didn’t think anyone would want the poor dear.  Hell, it even has a big enough rust hole on the floorboard I had a snake catch a ride with me into town once ( NOT as exciting as you’d think ).  But what the heck, it’s a few extra bucks.  So I’m up there clearing out the cab ( he had mentioned the dashboard, but it turned out too cracked for him ), and I thought I really should haul out the BOB and check its condition.

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Besides a few bike parts ( the fenders I never used because of my baskets, taken off when I bought the bike new, a few tires that had punctures but I didn’t want to throw away thinking I might salvage ) and a trash picked RV propane stovetop, a box of 25cents paperbacks from God knows when, most of the cab was stuffed with strips of pink fiberglass insulation left over from my B-POD roof.  I had to rent a U-Haul for the lumber and supplies to build the thing, and all in all I calculated all the material rather well in advance.  The only reason I was short on 2x4’s was because I changed the design after I started building.  I’d say I was off about one and a half rolls of insulation, to the surplus rather than deficit. 

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I don’t throw much away, ever, and always end up using everything, even half rotted lumber, and I know that insulation will come in handy somehow.  Of course, being in the sun a few hours a day ( I couldn’t completely shade it ), the paper backing is now brittle, and the insulation fibers fly off at the slightest touch.  If I don’t get cancer from my one cigarette a day, I’m wondering if moving that insulation and sucking in the fibers as the wind whipped them back in my face will do the trick.  Yes, I know I’m TOO cheap sometimes, not that that ever stopped me.

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For being laid on a bare metal floor and subjected to eleven winters ( and all the freezing that goes on in seasons not officially winter ), the bag held up quite well.  No mold on the canvas bag and on the inside I had one fleck of rust on my fixed blade knife that I could scrape off with my fingernail*.  I’d call that a success.  Even more so, 95% of the food was still edible.  I sampled everything.  And all of the food had expired ten years ago.  I’m not sure how old the bag was, but I’m pretty sure I built it just prior to moving out here in the summer of ‘08.  Unless I built it for our first trip up here in ‘06, but I don’t believe so.  I think the food just had about six months to expire when I bought it at Wal-Mart.

*

( *again, this was Back In The Day.  Now, lower price stainless steel doesn’t hold up as well.  You get the rusting of carbon steel with the crappier edge of a stainless steel blade, at its worst.  Now, I’d lightly oil coat stainless steel going into storage.  I’d also coat factory coated blades with a better oil, just to be sure.  I like axle grease )

*

I had really forgot everything I had filled the bag up with, other than remembering the bottles of water.  I was WAY off in my recollections.  So who the heck knows when I built the bag.  It could have been AFTER I moved up here rather than before.  Hey, this is how much importance I place in BOB bags.  Anyway, I continue in far more detail than you’d ever want, tomorrow.

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me the money and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

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hump you humping humpers

HUMP YOU HUMPING HUMPERS

There is much talk about liberals verses conservatives, White verses Black ( fun filled fact: only 5% of all African slaves ended up in the US.  That is FIVE percent.  The majority were split between Brazil and the Caribbean.  The reason so many were here was that relatively speaking we treated them well enough to reproduce, which was not the case elsewhere ), class verses class, introverts and extroverts.  I believe I’m about the only one that talks about pessimists verses optimists.  As in, this is such a behavioral marker that is explains a lot more than acknowledged. 

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Preppers are too pessimistic to just swallow the Deep State Kool-Aid.  Pussy Pretty Pony Preppers are far more optimistic than rural tinfoil hat semi-hermit End-Is-Nigh survivalists which embrace full on pessimism ( while berating themselves for not being pessimistic enough ).  Liberals are so optimistic that they think petroleum comes from the gooey Earth center, that Love will solve all problems and that women just need to center themselves enough to be as strong as males.  Conservatives are optimistic about their odds of screwing over those weaker than them but pessimistic enough to watch their backs for similar treatment.

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We’ve talked of all this before.  So, today, I’d like to apply that Applied Lens to planning on your future enemies.  In short, you are far too optimistic if you think people aren’t that bad.  You need to Get Religion about pessimism and the future.  If you think you can continue with today’s view that if you leave others alone they will mostly return the favor, you just stamped a big “Hump me, please, dry” on your forehead.  All of you hate ( there you go!  Focus on that hatred! ) my focus on Peak Oil, EROI, energy contraction and Malthusianism.  Go ahead, hate the messenger.  Here is the bottom line.  Optimism is a feel good fantasy that we have been allowed to indulge in all through the Oil Age.

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You need to stop that crap right damn now.  The oil age is in clear decline for all those willing to look.  We haven’t even sustained our VOLUME of oil, let alone its net energy.  The only unknown aspect of the crash is the timing.  It is already occurring.  And the reason we won’t gradually decline like we have for the last fifty years is that after the plateau we fall off the cliff.  Everything you think we just went through as being bad ( deficiets, unemployment, inflation, etc. ) was JUST the bumpy plateau.  You haven’t seen anything yet.

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And part of coping with this accelerating collapse is to Stop Being So Gott-Damn Optimistic.  The sunshine shooting out of your ass is so bright it is blinding you.  Now, note that I am NOT saying to give yourself permission to be a dingus to others.  I’m just saying that if you start assuming the worst, when it inevitably happens you don’t go into partial meltdown from shock.  And part of this process, what I speak of today, is to start hating other people.  This is the part where you dehumanize them so it becomes easier to smite them in the future.

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Fear of jail and incarceration keep us all civil now.  Polite discourse is still important for our own sanity.  But as the saying goes, don’t confuse my generosity with weakness.  That is where your head needs to be.  Hate others.  Pretend you are the Thought Police and hate them now for what they might do to you in the future ( or others like them ).  Condemn then before they act.  You still act polite, because no one likes a dick, even in ourselves.  Politeness is social lubricant.  I’m a bit harsh and judgmental, rough around the edges, and less likely to suffer fools then I used to be, but I try to stay polite with all my minions.  You constantly increase my knowledge base which makes me a better writer, and only a fool bites the hand that feeds them.

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And by being polite and civil, we all benefit.  Does that mean I don’t hate everybody?  No.  It means I can operate socially as needed.  I can still operate under “I’ll leave you alone if you return the favor” mode.  But by keeping that nauseating optimism under control, I still operate under enough suspicion and skepticism and cynicism to cover by ass.  I’m not saying I hate my minions and suspect them, what I’m saying is that I don’t let their decency and love dampen the pessimism I hold towards the human race in general.  They are the exception that proves the rule.  So is your one in a million non-fair weather friend, or your odd duck spouse that isn’t out to screw you like all the rest.

*

If you stay pessimistic, despite all the contrary evidence, you are always pleasantly surprised.  If you stay too optimistic, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.  So to return to dehumanization, keep on hating.  The more you hate, the easier it is to kill.  The easier it is to kill, the odds of your survival increase.  Soldiers and cops use dehumanizing techniques as a matter of course ( “let’s go kill us some gooks and towel heads and slopes and dinks and commies and goat humpers”, “all civilians are stupid sheep and potential criminals and all POTENTIAL criminals are douche bags, scumbags and liars” ).

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And soldiers and cops have no problem killing you.  They might initially freeze up from stress in a fight or flight brain chemical dump, but as you have already been dehumanized the desire to kill you is already there even if the means to do so must be On The Job trained for.  You can achieve that slight edge in combat yourself ( the edge being the one who hesitates the least ) by simply starting to hate everybody.

*

And hating everyone starts with a decrease in optimism and a huge exponential jump in pessimism.  Now, granted, the first time you are violently humped, you will not only lose all your optimism, you will add huge feelings of betrayal to your tool chest.  But will you survive, in general, being that optimistic?  I don’t even know if it is possible to switch voluntarily from pessimism to optimism or vises versa.  We might all be wired how we are, and only pain turns you pessimistic.  You can give yourself permission to hate, but will you believe it?  I’ve always been dour and moody, except perhaps for up to twelve hours after getting laid ( then you return to cynical and hateful as you realize that could be the last time ), but I have gone from far less pessimistic to way, way more after a lifetime of being humped.

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If we stay as we were wired, all that means is that you’ll always be optimistic, but as time passes it just becomes harder to lie to yourself.  And if you are naturally pessimistic, you just add to your distrust.  I’m not sure how much pessimism and optimism is nature and how much is nurture.  But the thing I do know is the more you hate, the more ready you are for the apocalypse.  You want to view life as rainbows and unicorns, you’ll be one of the first in the stewpot.

*

Repeat after me.  I Hate You All.  You All Suck.  Stupid Humps!  You’re All Dumb Asses.  Direct at anyone and everyone.  Then, keep your sense of humor.  Because as much as you think you hate everyone, they will still surprise you being much worse than you can possibly imagine.  And then that is a joke on you!

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me the money and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there