Nom de plume: Rivrdog

B.A.G. Day

Yes, it's that time of year. Since I didn't get the Savage Axis, I decided to get ANOTHER snubby, and scratched that itch for a Charter Arms Pitbull, the new revolver in .40 S&W, which DOES NOT use retainer ("moon") clips. There aren't any Pitbulls locally, so I had to order it. $425 is "high street", but it wouldn't get much cheaper than $350 if there were a lot of them around.

Seems to me that a light .40 S&W caliber revolver ought to be just about the perfect mouse-gun (belly-gun, backup gun). Check out these ballistics: 1200 ft/sec & 495 #/ft (estimated, I took the smallest figures because of the shorter barrel and bullet-jump). Also, it's cheap enough to shoot, usually runs less than 30 cents per round for practice ammo. The main reason to get this gun is ammo availability. Just about every PD and SO uses 40 caliber now (and Homeland Security just ordered 450 million rounds of it), so there's a ton of it out there. If the S.H.T.F., ammo won't be hard to find or trade for. Of course, it's a revolver, so any dummy can operate it, although, at 20 oz, it WILL spank the hand with stout loads. I know that because my Charter Arms Bulldog .44 (same frame and weight) is a handful after about 25 rounds or so of practice, so I generally wear light leather gloves to shoot it.

Yep, a good backup gun for the Glock 22/Kel-Tec Sub2000 carbine combo when I need to be REALLY well-armed in the short-combat-range urban CQ invironment....

Ruh-roh! IDF cancels all military leave...

Yeah, ruh-roh. The Israeli Defense Force usually lets lots of troops go home for the High Holy Days.

Could be nothing, could be war coming.

You decide, but I'm filling all my jerry jugs...

Rivr Logistics Division, standing down

Aye, standing down.

The Coast Fork of the Willamette River, normally a small stream, large creek really, that flows by the Rivrsis' Rivr Cottage in Cottage Grove, OR, has had a hungry eye on her place recently. Seems that the Corpse of Engineers got taken in by some failed weather models, and let the reservoirs upstream of her get too full, so they had to have an emergency max opening of the floodgates at the dam just a couple miles above her.

That raised her River to it's max known flow rate and max gage height.

Then it commenced to pour. We have a Pineapple Express in progress, it's tropical connection going straight to the coast of Vietnam. It's been SERIOUSLY raining. In the inches. The tributary streams, and there are a few above her and below the dam, rose, and contributed their flow to the river.

I didn't like the look of this after she reported the second level of her three-terrace riverside lot going under, so I put the M35A2 at her disposal, and she began to make up a list of stuff which would be dragged out of the cottage and tossed into the truck (which can handle 30 inches of water with no problems.

The Corpse of Engineers lowered the reservoir level enough with the emergency opening, though, so now they've partially shut the floodgate, and the Coast Fork is receding.

The steep climb of the trace on the 28th is when they opened the gate, the steep drop of the trace today (just 1.5 hours ago) is when they closed it....

Standing down now (and saving the 50 or so gallons of diesel it would have taken to make that trip).

 

Prepping for Life

I've heard it said that there are really only two essentials for survival: water and guns. Well, I'd want to be dressed properly to survive, and I'd want decent shelter, but I think we can all agree that that without water and guns, our prospects are bleak. If we are really resourceful, we might even be able to get by without guns, and in fact, most survival courses assume you don't have firearms, but we can never do without water.

Never.

Not just any water, either, you have to have clean and safe water.

So, your clean water kit is really the most important part of your bug-out or bug-in gear.

I've put together a clean water kit over the past few months, mostly from stuff I already had. Now, I can't make liquid water out of thin air (other than by catching rainwater or melting snow), but lets assume we can catch it. Next, we need to be able to clean it up to be safe to drink. Voila!

One medium-sized cardboard box containing the following elements:

• 12 each, 1.5 liter wide-mouth, clear plastic, PETE bottles (OJ bottles)
• 1 each filter kit, from Cheaper than Dirt
• 3 each fine-mesh "re-usable vegetable sacks" found in the veggie section of your supermarket
• 3 bottles of Microdyne silver-based water purifier, total 54 milliliters (purifies 1080 liters of water, a tad over 308 gallons)
• Not shown, because it's in my Shelter Module, is an assortment of Stansport plastic tarps to catch rainwater with, and the paracord to lash them up into a catchment facility.

Explaining the kit: The plastic PETE bottles are there to both store drinking water in AND to purify it in, either using the SODIS solar/PETE theory or using the filter kit. The CTD filter kit has a silver-iodide treatment system built into it, and the bag will do 10 gallons (35 liters) an hour rate of filtering. The Microdyne will purify swamp water. (but I might double the dose of drops). The mesh bags are fine gross water pre-filters.

Pretty basic, but you will notice that I have three separate ways to purify water, and can use all three if I need to (bio-war environment). I also have chlorine bleach in my survival gear, mostly for use as an anti-fungal topical treatment though (survival conditions and fungal infections go practically hand-in-hand), and it can be used for purifying water, too.

Boiling the water to purify it is SOOOOOO yesterday, and it uses valuable fuel, takes a long time, you can't do very much water at one time and the smoke might give you away if you're trying to be stealthy. Boiling is, I suppose, the fifth alternative for clean water.

November 7th, 2012

Mark that date. If you don't have a 2012 calendar yet, get one, and mark that date.

That date, the day after the Election, will either be the date we start to pull back from the abyss in this Nation, as the right will have re-assumed political control, or it will be the date on which the Left will be confirmed in their program to finish off the US of A, and finish converting this Nation to the SS of A (Socialist States of America).

A little over 10 1/2 months is left until then.

11/07/2012, when we awaken from our night's slumber, we defenders of the Old America will know whether we are to put on our "civvies" yet again, or dress out in battle dress uniforms.

Too bright a line for you? Read this blog.

This week I joined a club which offers me access to numerous VERY rural properties. Next Spring, I will be putting on that battle-rattle and those boots, and taking my ass out to the boondox to beat myself into shape, both with my body and with my rifle.

I will be ready on 11/07/2012, to either bend elbow and swap stories of how scary it was, living on the edge of disaster for these past 4 years, or to shoulder my ruck and my rifle and begin the last phase of the Culture War. By 11/07/2012, we will know just how we will have to fight that last phase. If it is to be a fight to the end, I know that I will have some good company on that field of honor. I will be prepared. Will YOU?

Weather Warnings

There are 38 pages of weather warnings out for the Portland Weather Service Office now. I've never seen more posted at any one time.

Download 112111wxWNGS

Stormy weather!

For us, the major worrries are wind and rain, with possible 60-mph straight-line gusts and 3-6" of rain in these thar hills. And the snow already up in the Cascades and Coast Range will all melt and run down the rivers, too, so there are flood outlooks/advisories/warnings out as well.

I guess I'd better get dressed and go out to get some more generator gas...

A stormpunk lives for this!

Prepper Report: Building the RPS-01 Portable Power Supply

Yep, finally scratched an itch and put together a portable power supply. Of course I know that they are already built for the purpose as "jump-starters", the better examples of which have built-in inverters and 12-volt outlets on them.

For providing quiet, light-duty power for a variety of purposes, you don't want a "jump-starter", and the reason is obvious: they have flash-type batteries, the type designed to start cars by providing a lot of amps quickly. That design has serious deficiencies for providing power over the long-term, in lesser amounts. for that purpose, you need a Deep Cycle battery as your primary power. Such deep-cycle batteries can give twice the power that an equivalent weight-and-cube Starting Battery can, they just can't crank out the amperes in the hundreds.

So, in creating the "perfect" power supply (yes, I do in fact, have an ego!), I looked for something that wouldn't pull my arm out of it's socket carrying it. Goal accomplished, the RPS-01 weighs 28#, together with it's charger, a light inverter, a "heavy current" transfer system (up to 30 amps), a double 12-volt female adapter. Not in sight in the second photo is a 12-volt extension cord. I have one on my boat and will place it with this kit.

This photo shows the Plano Ammo Box the kit is enclosed in. Note the 12-volt outlet which I installed on the top.

The second photo above shows the box, ready to go. The battery is enclosed and wedged in with closed-cell styrofoam, one piece beside the battery vertically, and another on the bottom of the box under the stowed auxiliary equipment. You can see the 750-milliamp charger in the equipment well.

This photo shows all the equipment that packs into the kit. From left to right: The Battery Tender 750 MA charger, with it's "flat-two" connector system, a 10-foot 110-volt extension cord with triple-tap, a double 12-volt female outlet adapter, a "flat-two" heavy 30-amp adapter, currently fused for only 15 amps until I get proper ring terminals instead of the clips on the adapter now, and a Chicago Electric (from Harbor Freight) cheapo 80-watt inverter with USB-power outlet.

I will carry other inverters, namely these three in the photo below. You want to suit the inverter to it's load, because the inverter's idle current consumption goes up as the size (output) of the inverter goes up, and that idle current makes it a power hog to use, say, the 400-watt inverter to recharge a cell phone.

From left to right, those are a dependable (old) West Marine Sorcerer 250-watt (no fan, very quiet), surges to almost 400, will carry a 4.0 cu/ft Haier fridge (had that combo on my previous boat); a 400-watt Chicago electric model, surges to 700-watt, with USB, haven't used it other than to test it (fairly quiet fan, though); and a Statpower (Trace) 175-watt inverter, very reliable, but it's cooling fan screams it's not-so-quiet song, can be heard for 50 feet, but it's reliable, has hundred of hours of use powering an former, power-hungry laptop that used 90 watts. All these inverters are out of my stock of preparation materiel. The Chicago Electirc 400 is current ($59 at Harbor Freight), the other two, not current.

So, I have inverters from 80 to 400. I have others, a 750, a 800 and a 1,500 watt, but they won't work well with this size of battery. They work with 2 X Group 27 battery lash-ups, of which I have several sets, but they are a whole different deal, very heavy, you don't move these without a Second Soldier to help you.

The battery itself is the Absorbed Gas Mat (AGM) type, and this model, the Batteries-Plus Werker Model WKDC12-35J, rated at 35 amp-hours. I chose this battery because it fits into the Plano box easily, and is quite common, being the most widely-used mobility-scooter battery.

Work left to do: I want to get one of those digital voltmeters that go into the 12-volt receptacle and carry that and I need to fuse the heavy-current output for 30 amps after I provide proper conduction for that current (ring terminals).

Cost to construct:

Case: the Plano case sold new for $15.00 on sale, $20 not on sale. It is sealed with an o-ring, and is designed to carry this level of weight in shotgun shells. It is the size of a USGI 50-cal ammo box, but it's made of polystyrene, and non-conductive, not affected by any acid fumes.

Battery: It was $80 at Batteries Plus.

80-watt inverter: $20 at Harbor Freight.

Charger: This advanced, 3-stage float charger with polarity reversal protection cost $40 at Batteries Plus. First quality equipment.

The extension cord and double-outlet for 12-volt added up to $15. The "flat-two" adapter was part of the battery charger, no additional charge. Heavy-current fusing (not yet installed), another $20 for holder and two spare fuses.

Total expended for the kit: $150. Labor, maybe 3 hours so far.

Yet to add, a proper fitted "boot" for the positive terminal of the Werker battery. These are hard to find, and I may have to find a specialty jobber. Small money nvolved, maybe $5. The plug-in digital voltmeter, if they are still available, will be no more than $20. A small "ditty bag" to carry the extra inverters and whatever else I want with the kit (have many of those in stock already).

Power stats:

This battery is nominally rated at 35 amp-hours at a 20-hour discharge. So, 35 X 12 X 20/12 = 700 watts deliverable @ 12 VDC to zero capacity. You never want to discharge this type of battery below 50-60%, so that's 350-400 usable watts at 12 volts down to recharge voltage. The only downside to this battery is that it's recommended recharge rate is 1/10th capacity, or 3.5 amps. You can hurry this up a bit if you monitor the battery's temperature (using a non-contact, infra-red thermometer, about $40 at harbor Freight), but since it's a sealed battery, you don't want to have it out-gas during recharging, so it has a max charging temp of 77 degrees ambient. If it's cold, you can bump up the charge rate some, but if it's hot, you have to cut it back. This battery would charge beautifully with a 45-watt solar charger, costs $150 at Harbor Freight.

There you have it: a quiet means of providing power for your electronics so that the zombies don't hear your generator running and flock to the blood it represents, forcing you into a Zombie Apocalypse shootout....

Reloading bleg

Need some ideas here:

Suppose you're into reloading. I am, and most serious gunnies I know are as well. Now, modern smokeless powders last a long time in their original containers, but there is some degradation over time. If you wanted to store some powder against an uncertain future of the sales of such, would it be in your interest to vacuum-seal it?

With modern vacuum-sealing systems so easy to use and avaiable for reasonable dollars, most modern households have one of them on hand.

Would the vacuum bags work to seal quantities of smokeless powders? Would any Feddle laws be broken in doing so? If repackaging is an issue, what if you repackaged it small enough so the packages could be stored inside the original containers?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Cross-posted at Straight Case Blog.

Hurricane hype

Everyone, including NOAA, has been hyping Hurricane Irene as a super-storm. I'm not so sure. The hurricane hasn't strengthened as forecast, and it's path is becoming less predictable. It's eye-wall dynamics aren't there to show it as a super-storm, and it's less than a day from landfall.

As I see things, it will still cause some problems for the East Coast, but not on the level that has been predicted.

My hurricane creds? Well I sat out Hurricane Hazel in DeeCee in 1954, and this storm has some attributes of the similar-tracked Hazel: it doesn't seem to have things fully together. It is unlike the Carolina-beaching Hazel in that it lacks much forward speed. Hazel, though, did a lot of damage in that instead of falling apart after landfall, it hung together, and hammered the inland areas up the spine of the Allegheny Mountains until crossing the border into Canada and hammering Toronto. Hazel survived colliding with a major cold front, something rarely seen.

Nope, Hurricane Hazel piqued my interest in things meteorological, and I have held interest in that science since then, some 57 years. BTW, my Dad was Disaster Director for the Mid-USA region of the Red Cross from 1961-1963, and ran the Red Cross relief efforts on the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Carla and Cindy. Carla was a doozie, and caused major flooding in the lowlands of  LA, MS, TX. In the command post, my Dad kept hearing reports of workers and citizens getting bitten by snakes, so he called up his Army liason and had the Army issue sidearms (1911s) to all the Red Cross workers. Do you suppose that would fly today?

Fox Financial had a hypester on today who said that Irene could cause $100 billion damage, and maybe even kick off another Recession.

Jebus, haven't these hosehead hypesters figured out yet that we never got out of the last one?

BTW, does it seem to you that NOAA has overhyped every landfalling hurricane since Katrina? Looks that way to this observer, and I'd bet that there is interdepartmental correspondence at NOAA to show that as intentional. Maybe Congress might look into it, and while they are there, they might just find that science is NOT NOAA's primary mission anymore, NOAA is just another propaganda arm of the Administration.

Prepper Post - Gathering Strength

In any disaster involving the loss of civil order, prepared people fend for themselves. Some definite psychology will arise then, and you need to plan NOW to deal with it.

The psychology is that the un-prepared will want to join you, and either remove your supplies by force, or sponge off of you, depleting those supplies quicker than you had planned, endangering you and YOUR family.

Dealing with the first instance is easy. In the S.H.T.F. scenario, you will defend your survival supplies as you defend your very life, because you WILL be defending your life. Deadly force is appropriate against anyone who would take your supplies. Do not hesitate to use deadly force, and use it against any and all who threaten you and your supplies, and use it IMMEDIATELY when the threat arises.

The second scenario is more difficult to deal with, and requires some pre-planning.

The plans should include a pre-printed paper handout which will become VERY important, for several reasons.

You may download that handout here:

Download PREP-ClanRules  (that's in Open Office format), PDF here: Download PREP-ClanRules (PDF)

Note that the handout is simple and to the point. You should allow the sponger to read it in front of you, while you maintain your distance, armed, of course, weapons visible but not pointed at the sponger.

After the sponger has read the handout, ask him/her if they are willing to fully comply. If they agree, you may issue your orders to your new subordinate crew/family. If they do not, cover them with your weapon and order them off the property and out of the vicinity (so much as you can make that stick).

See, this isn't that hard, but it DOES involve some philosophy. If you are to become the leader of a Clan, you assume the responsibility for those who have willingly joined your clan and sworn fealty to it. that means different things, but among the things it CERTAINLY means is that you would do well to have more food and water on hand than just you and your immediate family need. Maybe more arms, as well. Maybe more shelter capability, as well.

Whatever, but PLAN it!