Category: SHTF

Lessons Learned

SHTF

Now that the waters have receded (from our apartment) and the ice has melted (from the Great Texas Polar Event of 2021), here are a couple of things I’ve learned from the experience.

1.)  You cannot have too many flashlights, lanterns or batteries.  Seriously.  When our power went out, I was three lanterns short, and I kept misplacing my goddamn flashlight — you know, you put it down to carry a bucket of floodwater outside, then can’t find the thing when you come back into a darkened room.

Addendum:  You don’t need trillions of candlepower to get by.  Seriously, again.  In fact, my trusty Surefire was often too bright, its beam blinding me when bouncing off a mirror or white wall.

Next steps:  I’m going to get at least three more battery-operated lanterns like this one:


I already have one of these, and for long life and adequate lighting, it’s the best:  it saw me through the last Plano power outage (5 days) back in 2016.

As for flashlights, I’m going to get a bunch of these Maglite 3C bad boys:


I used to pack one on hunts and camping trips back in South Africa, and over about five years it never broke, flickered or burned out — and those were the days before LED bulbs, even.  (I can’t believe that I don’t own one now, come to think of it. ) There is going to be at least one in every room in the house, and in each car as well.  (Note:  I already own a sufficiency of “tactical” Surefire and Fenix flashlights, and also a couple headlight types as well.)

I’m also going to get a lanyard to hang a smaller Maglite around my neck, just in case.

2.)  My little butane cooking stove was completely inadequate to cook anything outside — the wind kept blowing the flame out, and even in calm conditions, it took over half an hour to boil a single pot of water, because butane sucks under frigid conditions.  Here’s the offending object:

Next steps:  what I’m going to get is a sturdy camp stove, like this one:

…which uses Coleman Fuel, white gas* or in a pinch, even gasoline (which I always have on hand in a spare fuel can).  Or I might just go crazy and get one of these:

I don’t care much about portability because it’s for in-home emergencies like we just endured.

Conclusion:  it doesn’t seem to matter how well prepared you think you are — I certainly wasn’t, even though I thought otherwise.  (I didn’t run out of batteries, which is the only good thing about the whole sorry business.)  Next time will be better, I hope.

*Coleman Fuel and white gas are almost the same, except that white gas, while cheaper, doesn’t have the extra stabilizers and corrosion-preventatives that the branded Coleman Fuel contains.  Even so, either will last up to ten years in an unopened container.

Interesting Perspective

SHTF, The Gun Thing

A lot of talk is centering around the Biden/Harris/Beto’s threats to disarm America.  Several people have talked about this in Doomsday terms, e.g. in the Third World:

…and in Nazi Germany (same link):

I’m not going to suggest that this stuff never happened, because that would be stupid.  Leftists attempt to deny history, and I don’t.

That said:  I think that in order for a government to get its civilian populace disarmed, one of two conditions need to be in existence.

Firstly, this works in the Third World (Africa, S.E. Asia, etc.) where the population is scattered, impoverished and not very connected by media.  Under these conditions, it’s quite easy for the government to send out truckloads of soldiers to village after village to round up the guns.  In many cases, the gun owners aren’t aware that the raids are beginning or if they are, it’s too late and they’re too disorganized to devise some system to hide their guns or to organize resistance.  And the very isolation of the population groups (by distance, desert or forest) adds to the ease for the government to do, well, anything (and not just gun confiscation) to their hapless citizens.

That’s not the situation facing a Marxist government like the Biden/Harris/Beto model.  Gun owners in the U.S. are aware, connected and not easily cowed.  Surprise may be achieved once, but only once before the word gets out and the job becomes not only more difficult, but a lot more difficult.

The other situation where gun control works is in a Western country — e.g. Germany or the U.K. — where the population is subservient by nature, and where disarmament can begin first with registration and later with door-to-door confiscation raids by the police.

That may work in Europe, but the snarling gun-owning population is the U.S. is anything but subservient.  They’re actively hostile and willing to resist even “commonsense” policies like gun registration.  (As was shown recently in Connecticut, the bluest of blue states, where governmental attempts to register AR-15s resulted in perhaps 5% compliance, and even that’s just a guess.  Imagine the success rate of handgun registration or hunting — “sniper” — rifle registration…)

Even statewide gun control fails, as evidenced by the continuous wails of neo-Marxist governments like those of Illinois and New York complaining of the flow of “illegal” and unregistered guns from neighboring states like Indiana and Virginia respectively.

I’m not saying that attempts at confiscation aren’t going to happen.  Anything is possible with these bastards.  But if Marxists are good at anything, it’s trying to suppress human nature and in our case, Constitutional protections, because as with all things Commie, the results are irrelevant as long as the doctrine is followed.

What I am saying is that it’s not going to be as easy as they seem to think.  In fact, it’s going to be exponentially more difficult than they think, and a tremendous amount of blood is going to be spilled, probably on both sides.  In the end, the side which prevails will be the side with the greater devotion to their particular ideal, and the guts to push it, or resist the other’s, as hard as possible.

That’s enough talk.  I’m off to the range. There’s ammo to be tested, and practice to be done.

Hoarders

SHTF

I always laugh at the reaction from the general public to people who as children read the fable of “The Ant And The Grasshopper” and took its lesson to heart.

Most  visitors to this back porch, I suspect, keep a reasonable quantity of supplies (food, water, ammo, whatever) handy, especially after the Great Chinkvirus Lockdown and its concomitant emptying of the store shelves by Stupid People who don’t.

What’s worse is that these ignorant assholes persist in excoriating people like us with labels of “selfish”, “hoarders” and worse, even after our recent experience.  Here’s one example (I know, it’s formerly-Great Britain, but I know there are people just like that Over Here too):

A MUM-of-two has been slammed as ‘selfish’ after revealing she’s stockpiled enough food to last her and her family until January.
Emma Tarry, 26, appeared on This Morning surrounded by her mountains of groceries, as she revealed her fridge, freezer and cupboards were full of food.
Emma, a mum-of-two from Lancaster, was branded ‘selfish and stupid’ by viewers, as Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield grilled her over her shopping.
The mum revealed she’s hoarded around 400 tins and 700 nappies, and stocked up on essentials like flour to make bread.
She defended her decision, saying: “I think it’s best we go to shops and supermarkets as little as possible. I think stockpiling done properly and don’t go too excessive is ok… if you prepare months in advance or buy it off Amazon.”

Nothing this woman said strikes me as particularly incorrect or, gawd forbid, offensive.  And the quantity of food she’s stored for a family of (at least) three people doesn’t seem that excessive.  (Break it down:  400 tins for six months for three people is just over one tin per day, per person.  She probably needs another 200, just to be on the safe side.)

Emma said one of her children has special needs, and she wants the peace of mind knowing she has access to food and medicine. She said: “If my child needs Calpol… that way at least I’m organised — I just want to make sure myself and my kid is organised.”
And she also pointed out she’s been able to help out family and friends with her food stash, and hasn’t kept it all for herself.

Predictably, the Stupid & Envious Set chimed in:

But viewers were outraged by Emma’s overflowing kitchen, claiming stockpilers like her are the reason behind national shortages.
Taking to Twitter, one person wrote: “This makes me so angry, many people can’t afford that much shopping let alone hoard it. I hope this woman has given some to the food bank. We all need to get on with life, hiding away in doors & hoarding is not the answer.”

So because not everyone can afford to do it means that nobody should do it.  Socialism in a nutshell:  make everybody equally miserable.

Another tweeted: “That stupid… stockpiling food is all that’s wrong with this greedy selfish world we live in…”
A third wrote: “Not sure why #ThisMorning have got this girl on today. Worried food is going to be rationed, only putting more fear into others and potentially making the panic buying issue worse! People should have learnt from the last lockdown and stop being so selfish.”
While this person said: “Absolutely ridiculous. She just can’t see that she’s part of the problem. Her actions end up having a knock on effect. How many others are behaving the same as her though? This is why our local shops have no loo roll again now!”

Yeah;  looking after yourself and your infant children is “selfish”.  Someone needs a good ball-kicking, and it ain’t our Emma.

What made me decide to talk about this women, though, is the extra step she’s taken:

Emma previously revealed she’d bought a BB gun to protect her stash, in case anyone tried to steal her mountains of food. She said: “I researched how to legally buy a BB gun or air rifle and bought one from a local gun shop. I’ve previously had shooting lessons on a local gun range, it’s legal and stored correctly and it gives me peace of mind.
“Three weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night and heard someone trying to break into my garden shed. “I stayed upstairs and pointed the BB gun out the window and told the man to ‘eat the dirt’.”

Of course, to the rest of us, what she did is not only laudable, but just plain common sense.  (The fact that she’s limited to a damn BB gun instead of a proper 12-gauge… see “formerly-Great Britain”, above.)  And this post is useless with at least one pic:

Clearly, her shooting lessons didn’t include a section on trigger discipline, but under the circumstances, I think we can excuse her.

Well done, Emma.  Ignore those assholes (arseholes) who are carping at your excellent state of preparedness.  And if any of them come sniffing around your house in times of great shortage… all I can say is:  have a goodly supply of BBs, and practice fast reloading.

Not one person at this website thinks you’re selfish, or any of that jive.  You’re prudent and taking care of yourself, not relying on “the government” to do so.  Only in a socialist country could this be a cause for anger.

Indispensable Tip

Anarchist thugs, BaconLettuceMayo, SHTF

We see this happening (in Beverly Hills, even):

Trump supporters have been holding weekly rallies in Los Angeles and about 200 of them were gathered in Beverly Gardens Park in Beverly Hills on Saturday.
But a few dozen Black Lives Lives Matter people showed up to “counter protest” and got violent. They came apparently trying to start fights with the Trump supporters.

…which engenders well-meaning advice like this:

A Navy Seal Instructs Americans on How to Deal With a Violent Mob

I read that, and apart from the usual “stay away from where there’s going to be trouble” bromide, I noticed one glaring omission from our SEAL buddy in the event that the SHTF:  if you’re going to shoot a gun from inside your car, remember to put in earplugs first.  (I’m assuming that you have at least thirty seconds warning that Bad Things are about to happen, and I’m also assuming that like me you always carry a couple of those little orange thingies in your pocket.)

I cannot stress this enough:  if you touch off a round (or two, or three) inside a car without at least some hearing protection, you will suffer severe and possibly permanent hearing loss.

If you don’t carry these little things in your pocket when you go out, you should start getting into the habit.

Here endeth the lesson.

2020 Strikes Again

Disaster, SHTF

Once again, the Year From Hell is adding to the catalogue of woes:

And I think the Grand Finale will be:

…which, if it blows, will pretty much wave goodbye to Western civilization.  (The Third World is already in Dark Ages-style squalor, so not much change for them  and like cockroaches, they’ll survive.)

There’s only one thing to do, at this point:

Not my actual Cabinet ‘O Scotch*, but it’s pretty close.  So, after I’m done loading up my [number deleted]  AK- and M1 Carbine mags…

Cheers, y’all.

*Upon close inspection, there are only about a couple of those brands that I’ve never tasted, so maybe a pre-Apocalypse run to Ye Olde Liqueure Shoppe is called for…