Air Travel and Preparedness

I hate flying. It is just a huge hassle. I really hate flying in America with airlines seemingly getting their customer service skills from communist Russia and the terribly irritating, disrespectful and utterly useless TSA. Having a little kid makes it worse. Given an option between flying with kiddo and getting kicked in the junk every hour on the hour for the same amount of time I would take the kicking.

Anyway the topic of preparedness and traveling by air comes up now and again. In various survivalist fiction it is a fairly common theme, typically showing a prepared person who gets caught unprepared. One answer which I sort of consider a cop out is to say that you live at your 'retreat' and do not travel. It is fine and dandy if that is how you want to live but many people it is not really an option. They need to travel occasionally for work or choose to see family who live far away (make no mistake if you move 2,000 miles to ideal survivalist land your friends and family are not going to all follow.) or just to have a fulfilling and interesting life.

It is not a big deal to be fairly well prepared when traveling. There is this magical thing called a checked bag. Take a well thought out selection of gear and put it into this bag. Below is a picture of various preparedness stuff that came along with us for this trip.

Contents:
Rocky boots, what I am wearing for work these days.
Sawyer water filter
Personal survival kit
IFAK
compass
lighter
cheapo flashlight
battery powered lantern
emergency radio
about 2-3k calories in food
the remaining stuff from my GHB
My TT bag
various knives-I didn't plan to go all John Locke here with the knives. A knife here or there plus a couple in kits sort of unintentionally grew to more than I might have brought when intentionally looking at all of them.

Not shown are some good serviceable clothing and a couple water bottles.

My experiences though brief, flying and carrying firearms have been positive. Unless you live in or travel to anti gun areas it is too easy to take a gun or two and some ammo along. This might be a good place for a fairly affordable gun sort of akin to a truck gun if you will. More a place for a $400 used revolver than your new custom $2,500 1911.

Yes checking a bag or two in the case of a gun, is a hassle. However it will let you land pretty well prepared instead of just relying on luck and your keen wits.  To me an extra few minutes and a small fee are probably worth it. At least worth thinking about anyway.

Something else to consider is keeping some equipment supplies and maybe even weapons in a place you regularly travel to. This of course would require that you can afford to take a small portion of your supplies (maybe a gun or two, a pair of boots, some clothes and maybe basic camping stuff like a pack, a tent and a sleeping bag, etc.) or have the money to purchase this stuff at the location. Also it would require a safe place to store this stuff or the establishment of a full on cache. This is an excellent place for fairly inexpensive (but still good) stuff like military surplus gear.

Random Thoughts From Lost

Wifey and I have been watching Lost on Hulu plus lately. Finally about to finish the series. I have observed some things both good and bad that are worth talking about. We will alternate good and less good. Otherwise there is no particular order.

Good: Most characters carry basic gear with them all the time. How everybody got a backpack I am not sure but they all seem to have them. Basically they all had the best survival kit they were able to put together. Contents are basic stuff like a water bottle, some food, as well as other useful stuff they might have like fire starting gear, a knife and a firearm if they have them.This stuff makes surprise events or unplanned trips much more comfortable than they otherwise would be. Also this lets them survive if they can't make it back to camp/ their supplies though since it is TV the nitty gritty is glossed over.

Less Good: Repeatedly I have been disappointed that the characters fail to use even the most primitive caches. [The only exception is Sawyer occasionally hiding the stuff he stole from the group] They get a bunch of food, medicine or weapons and then end up losing it all due to an accident/ explosion or needing to flee from an overwhelming force. Simply by putting a rifle with ammo, some food and gear in the most water resistance stuff you can find and tucking it under an overhang of a cave or a hole in an old tree they would be way ahead of the game.

Good: The importance of having medical skills in your groups was emphasized. It is awful convenient  that they had a bunch of Doctors on the island. The value of such skills cannot be overstated. Regardless of if you have a doc (lucky!) or not everybody needs to get as proficient as they can because Doc might be the guy who gets unlucky in a gunfight or cutting wood.

Less Good: The kumbaya  factor was a bit high. The fights and conflict in the beginning of season 1 are probably pretty realistic. People do band together in times of need but they sometimes go all Lord of the Flies.

Good: The need to be fit in a variety of ways is emphasized. Be able to run, swim, climb, lift stuff and if need be carry people. 

Less Good: The ratio of accidental/ illness to dramatic crazy stuff in terms of injuries was quite off. Granted it was a TV show but for every gunfight there are going to be a dozen cuts from inexperienced people using sharp tools, cases of the common cold or food poisoning or whatnot.

Good: The importance of skills was emphasized.There is a saying that the more you know the less you need to carry. That is really helpful if circumstances leave you less than ideally equipped.

Anyway I hope this gives you something to think about.

Quote of the Day

"You're telling us we are under house arrest?" -Jack

"No, you are free to leave but I will shoot you in the leg" -Miles

Saturday Randomness

Today was a pretty good day. Our weather finally snapped out of early spring nastiness if just for the day. We went out to a you pick field which was pretty fun. Kiddo had a good time. He didn't quite get putting them into the bucket but ate it all instead. The fruit we picked was pretty cheap which was cool. Far cheaper (healthier and fresher) than we could get in a store. This was definitely a reminder that we want to be close to our food. Producing some of our food would be ideal but with my job that can be problematic. Certainly we can buy from farmers markets (did it in the South) and if possible look into coop and group buy type stuff.

Went through and layed out my purchasing priorities for the next few months using my Intentional Purchasing Plan. Using this as a forcing function to put more money into medical stuff, alternative energy and food will probably make things much better balanced. Incidentally I planned to buy a bunch of medical stuff to put together a few IFAK's tonight but the Chinook Medical website, or at least my connection to it, is on the fritz. Sure it will be up tomorrow or the next day.

I stumbled onto the Hillpeoplegear site. Their recon kit bags are probably the best way to carry concealed on your body with a ruck on your back that I have seen. The stuff isn't cheap but I have heard good things about it. Don't need anything they make but some of their stuff would be aweful nice and make the outdoors more comfortable. In a couple years when, having squared up more basic stuff, I can afford some luxuries they will get some money from me.

A big highlight in our recent lives is getting hulu plus running through the Wii. We get a lot of TV for $7 a month which is pretty cool. We are enjoying watching Lost. As we have been over here for almost 3 years we are pretty behind the TV power curve. Some new entertainment opportunities are surely enjoyed in our house.

We had a pretty good Saturday here. Tomorrow will be a pretty quiet day as we take care of a lot of household stuff like grocery shopping and laundry on Sunday's. Anyway I hope you all are having a good weekend.

Quote of the Day

"I really wasn't thinking strait. Sometimes good command decisions get compromised by bad emotional responses."

-Ben on Lost

What If- Knives

I was doing some knife preventative maintenance and had a bit of inspiration. While looking at a stack of knives I wondered what if I had to chooose? We talked about what we would choose if we could only have five guns awhile back and talking about knives seems fun.

Anyway you get five. To define it we will say you get five knives to suit every normal cutting need. No need to get sidetracked into strictly kitchen culinary stuff, herilooms or industrial things like razor knives, I am thinking more general purpose, survival, defense type stuff. These knives could fill most of those other roles anyway. In no particular order here we go.

First I thought about a good all around edc knife. For this I would choose a Buck 110. A great knife to carry around. It won't cause any awkward looks in a sheath on your belt but it handles and cuts like crazy. If I found myself stuck in the woods with one I would not feel at a serious disadvantage.

Next I considered something I could carry concealed and use effectively as a weapon. Without a doubt this would be a cold steel push knife. I have a bit of experience in knife fighting but a decent background in striking and knifepunching people seems rather intuitive to me.

A relatively large sheath knife for general purposes or fighting came next. I would have to go with a Ka Bar for this. Ergonomic as can be with a big solid blade, not much to argue with here. They are just a darn good knife and I cannot imagine not owning one.

A multi tool is just a darn useful thing to have. I do not carry one as I do not use them that frequently but I keep them at home and in my ruck. I like the original leatherman. (Pictured is a SOG multi tool because my leatherman is MIA.)

Lastly I would want a solid camping/ survival kind of blade. Without a doubt I choose the cold steel kukuri. A few years ago I was watching Lost and thought "what knife would I want if I was stuck on a jungle island?" and ended up buying one of these. They are definitely pricey and it would be genuinely hard to argue they are worth the price when you can get a good machete for 30 bucks or so but I happy that I own one.

Narrowly missing selection was the Buck 119 special which is just a darn good knife. Great as a hunting knife or for all manner of tasks. In all honesty sentimentality is probably the reason the Kabar beat it out for the general purpose sheath knife spot.

Noteably absent is the modern one hand opening "tactical" folder with a pocket clip. I am just really soured on them due to a slew of bad experiences with a variety of big name models. I fiddled with a small belt knife to do everything. It worked OK but carrying one all the time is problematic. A buck 110 to do stuff and a push knife as needed just in case is what I am trying right now.
What would your five be?

Quote of the Day

"Why did you do that, why did you light the fuse man?" - Hugo
"Why wouldn't I light the fuse?" -Locke
"Maybe because I was running towards you waving my arms and yelling don't do that." -Hugo
"laughter... well you got a point there, I guess I was just excited."-Locke

Walking

I was watching Lost today. Came to a very simple solution that just about every survival type situation involves walking. Maybe you will need to get home even though the road is blocked. Maybe you will be safely at home but want to go to the neighbors to see how they are and what is going on but don't want to burn the gas. If nothing else just doing day to day stuff without ready access to cheap fuel would change things a lot.

I preach physical fitness and I imagine a disturbing percentage of readers ignore me. Maybe being able to run and lift heavy stuff is not something you can see the importance of. However I do think we can all see the wisdom of being able to walk.

Of course being able to walk all day long at a rate of 20 minutes a mile carrying an 80 pound pack would be nice. Realistically if you can walk 4-5 miles with say a 20 pound day pack and not be useless when you get there it would be a darn good start.

Hilarious

We are just starting Lost Season 4. Our season 3 DVD for the last episode (from the library) didn't work. We are watching the Lost in 8:15 recap. It literally catches you up on everything that happens in 3 whole seasons of Lost in 8 minutes and 15 seconds. It is a woman narrating the entire story in a very fast and matter of fact manner. Pretty awesome and totally hilarious.

7 Real Life Women You Need to Survive on the Lost Island

I bumped into this and figured it got a chuckle out of me. You might think it is sort of interesting. From what I saw the site was totally SFW but I can't guarantee you won't go to another thing which leads to something that isn't so use caution. Anyway check it out here.

Sunday Morning

Yesterday was a pretty busy day and today is going to be almost as busy. Up till now I have pretty much done nothing on the weekends but chilled out. Somewhere between doing nothing and being on the run the whole time would probably be ideal. After watching Bride Wars we came home and just hung out. On a side note I thought the movie was decent (it did have two hot chicks) and Wifey thought it wasn't so great. I made the obligatory family phone calls and she watched The Notebook. I then caught up on this weeks episodes of Lost and Burn Notice. It sucks that of the two shows i really follow one I don't get cuz our crappy company doesn't get networks and the other is on too late.

The concept of weekend runs is great but it is consistently showing that I just don't care enough about my run times to get out and do it. I got up at a somewhat reasonable hour which was nice. Had my adjusted weekend ration of coffee (1/2 pot) and some awesome muffins Wifey made last night. I layed out my stuff for shooting and am pretty much ready to go. Should take off my bathrobe and put on some real pants though.

Hopefully all goes well on the shooting trip and you will get a good post late this afternoon.