"The issue as I see it is that American liberals are anti energy or at least any functional and viable forms of energy. They don't like coal or oil and I can kind of get that. However they also do not like nuclear energy. Electric cars are ...just about the stupidest thing out there because most electricity comes from coal or diesel powered generators. I would be for some kind of policy that would lead to enviornmentally friendly energy independence if it is a serious conversation. Wind and solar are great but they can only meet a tiny percentage of our total energy use. One might as well say that homes will be powered by rainbows and gum drops."
I got an email about this today. It mentioned those solar yard lights as an idea. In my personal experience and from what I have read they are not an impressive product. They are a great idea but it just doesn't seem to work. Personally for a budget alternative energy setup I got some rechargeable batteries and a solar charger for them. I think the cost was somewhere around $200-250. For lighting I would use them to feed a couple of LED lanterns and some flashlights. In a couple years when I upgrade I will get a couple solar panels, some deep cycle batteries and a few LED lights.
One night this week I challenge you to entertain yourself without electricity or electrical/ electronic stuff. Not saying that you need to flip the breaker, cook dinner on the coleman stove and all that (that would be another assignment). Simply your assignment is to entertain yourself and your family for an evening without TV, computers, the internet, cell phones, etc.
Read a book, play cards, bust out those old board games or just talk. You might even enjoy it.
The idea of massive food shortages in America is an interesting one. I think there are fallacies as well as misinformation in play. Also it would be naive to say there is not at least some some intentional fear mongering involved.
Food as a weapon is a scary thing. It has been used by brutal governments to force a region or group of people into submission in the one of the most inhumane and brutal fashions. To me it is scary because it intentionally targets the civilian population in a widespread and determined way. The history of it probably goes back as long as their have been organized groups of people big enough to communicate and act cohesively at regional and national levels. The British starved the Irish, the Afrikaners, Kenyan's and almost surely some other groups I have forgotten.
The Soviet communists under Stalin starved the Ukranian peasants in the early 30's. The idea of giving up their land and relying on 'the collective' to support them didn't appeal to these peasants very much. The Soviet troops and police took all of their food and blocked the importation or delivery of food aid to the region. Needless to say bad times ensued. Garden Serf wrote about this more. There is a video here that you can watch if so inclined.
Like I said before this is scary stuff and I don't think anybody can watch it without being profoundly effected. It will likely remind you of why you hate communists and make you want to stock up on food and ammo. These are generally good feelings to have so I won't argue against them.
This is however on the balance not a scenario which worries me particularly. It is somewhere towards the bottom of my list of concerns. It is in the neighborhood of a full on genuine Bosnia or Africa style civil war and above war with Canada or anything involving aliens. Though it is true that Americans tend to have (even those evil liberals) a much higher value for human life than some that isn't really the reason. I honestly think Stalin and Mao (or maybe the Illuminati and Trilateral comission) had a running bet on who could kill more of their population. While different cultures (for a lot of reasons) do tend to act in different ways however events can bring about rapid and crazy changes so in that respect all bets are off.
There are two primary reasons this scenario doesn't worry me much. The first is that privately owned firearms are so numerous and more importantly so widespread in America. It is difficult for Europeans or folks from a couple of large anti freedom cities to fathom just how many guns are out there in the hands of normal people. A hunting rifle with the 3 full 20 round boxes of ammo in the gun cabinet and the 4 random partial boxes spread all over or even a pistol in a nightstand with a single box of bullets are enough to cause real problems.
Even if the second ammendment was totally thrown out or ignored (as well as the rest of the Constitution) it simply would not be possible to confiscate anywhere near enough guns to make a difference. It is pretty obvious to me that well armed people are very difficult to forcibly starve into submission. Shooting would start long before that. I cannot say exactly how it would end but this alone would likely rule out such an outcome here, at least on a big scale.
The next issue is America's ratio of government security forces to citizens. Even if you count all military personnel, federal, state and local law enforcement as well as IRS agents, meter maids and dog catchers (and it would probably be unlikely that they would ALL choose to get involved, but lets just go with it as a worst case scenario) in America the numbers don't work. The ratio of citizens to what could (again a gross oversimplification) be called security personnel just doesn't add up. One of the reasons communist and other totalitarian governments have economic issues is that the ratio of security personnel to citizens is really high. It is really high because people don't like that kind of government. There are also significant budgeting and structural problems because such a high percentage of GDP and the state's budget goes to security. The ratio of people who would be trying to (violently or not) circumvent and bypass any such system to those trying to enforce it would lead to a lot of circumvention.
Food prices are an interesting thing. If you were going to try and specifically design an event to cause massive unrest it would be hard to beat food prices swinging to be either painful or out of the hands of the lower class. Short of a bunch of NeoNazis and the New Black Panthers both deciding to go to the same Waffle house at 2am after a night of hard partying I can't think of a better way to make some crazy stuff go down. While civil unrest is different than an insurgency or revolution one often proceeds the other. This sort of civil unrest has lead to more than one regime change. As I learned from this recent article it isn't so much long term gradual changes like inflation that cause these problems but short term volatile swings. I am not entirely sure why this is. It could be that people have more time to adapt to long term structural changes while someone in true 3rd world poverty can't pay 30, 40 or 50% more for food, even for awhile.
What does this mean for Americans? Well it is a good reminder to use alpha strategy type techniques to use money now to buy goods that will be more expensive later. That sort of strategy also lets you take advantage of good sales. If you have to buy, just for example, a can of baked beans for dinner tomorrow you're stuck paying full price. However if you have a dozen cans of baked beans (or 5 dozen) you can wait until there is a sale in a month and buy 6 cans on sale. Saving .30 cents a can on baked beans isn't a big deal in and of itself but if you do that with a significant percentage of foods you regularly (try for all shelf stable and frozen stuff) eat it will add up to real money.
The more I think about it the harder time I have with Americans who "can't afford food". Now don't get me wrong there are a few Americans with absolutely no income who can not in fact afford to buy anything to include food. However if you really look at the majority of Americans in that boat it is not in fact their situation. According to some reputable seeming website 80% of the worlds citizens live on less than $10 a day. I looked with as much percistence as it was worth to figure out the percentage of their income these folks spend on food and didn't find it. However it is accurate to say it is a pretty high percentage. I want to say more than 50%.
My observation about the Americans who say they cannot afford food is that while their budgeting priorities are fairly sound (unlike say rent food is a flexible part of your overall budget in that if you are flush it can be steak, shrimp and the best of everything; if things are tight it can be pancakes, rice and beans) their actual priorities are completely skewed. The thing is that while to a certain point your food budget can be flexible it is pretty darn important. In reality your actual priorities in order of importance are food, fuel/ energy, housing, insurance and then all that other stuff. While admittedly painting with a broad stroke Americans who are in this situation typically are spending their money on stupid stuff instead of buying food. I would personally like to open face slap everyone who smokes or drinks alcohol and then says they can't afford food. For heavens sake get your priorities strait. I like to have a drink as much as the next man, unless that man is Mel Gibson, but long before I couldn't feed my family I would be off the sauce.
I just don't see Americans who are one of the richest people on earth getting priced out of the food market at least in significant numbers. Even if the dollar and our standard of living drop significantly most Americans will be fine. According to something I read Americans spend a bit less than 10% of their income on food which is, if you look at world figures, rediculously low. If prices went up most Americans would cut something else out (entertainment, booze, whatever) or practice product substitution which is a fancy economist way to say buying cheaper stuff because the stuff you used to use got more expensive. It would be rough on the very bottom rung of society but the vast majority of Americans would still go to bed with full stomach's. My household spends 7% of our income on food including formula which is 1/4 of that. We could easily cut that by 1/4 if we didn't buy soda, the couple premade convenience foods we get as a luxury, and ate less meat. At subsistence levels with little meat or dairy we could probably spend 4% of our income on food including formula for Walker. We would eat a lot of oatmeal, pancakes, eggs, rice and beans but with some veggies and a little bit of meat now and then and a multi vitamin every day it would be fine for a long time.
So what food vulnerabilities do I see that should concern Americans? As I have said I am not worried about food being used as a weapon or getting priced out of the market. However the incredibly long supply chain between food producers and the end user coupled with JIT inventories is a pretty vulnerable system. A power outage here or a terrorist attack there or some bad weather can mess things up in a hurry. It doesn't take a couple days of trucks not being able to make deliveries and nobody will be able to buy anything.
To me the biggest concern about food security is disasters. A bad winter storm, earthquake or hurricane means the normal food supply is going to be disrupted. As we saw in Hurricane Katrina there is a very real possibility that a major regional disaster will put you on your own for weeks (I think 6 is an accurate number). The 72 hour kit that used to be suggested doesn't cut it. You need to be able to feed your family for a few weeks in case of that sort of event. If you are worried about a flu pandemic think in terms of months not weeks. A black swan event like an EMP or a successful NBC terrorist attack could disrupt all sorts of systems and supply chains for at least a couple years.
The great thing is that like most basic preps food is useful in a lot of scenarios. Assuming you buy things you actually eat worst case you can just eat the stuff. Rotate it by eating it and save a bunch because you can wait for sales. So in conclusion I think you should stock up on food, if just for different reasons than others do.
Well I guess I will tell you what is worrying me. I am not particularly worried about power outages or storms or natural disasters. Not to say that all those can't happen. The risk of a storm or whatever is more or less the same as it always has been. Also it helps that I am pretty prepared for that sort of thing. Of course some tin horn dictator or totalitarian state could blow a couple nukes up in the sky and cause an EMP then it would be One Second After. I think those sort of low probability high impact events are worth paying a bit of attention to but I don't think the odds of such occurrence are any higher than a decade ago. I sort of look at them like if I happen to be in line at a coffee shop and 5 guys with AK's roll in and start mowing people down. You do the best you can and that is that.
The economy and inflation are what is worrying me these days. My income is secure. That is quite an intentional choice but still a blessing. I know almost to the dollar (somehow it is always a bit different) what I will get paid on the first and the fifteenth. However I am not entirely sure what it will buy me. If you start talking about 8, 10 or even 15 percent inflation that can reek havoc on any budget.
More concerning than tightening our belt a bit and lowering our standard of living are the second and third order effects of that kind of ruinous inflation. Very quickly banks would realize that the interest they charge needs to not just factor in risk and their profit but that the money they are repaid will buy less than the money they loan out. I recall a friend talking about 15% home mortgages in the late 70's. That would mean the cost for a business to borrow money would be ridiculous. Businesses would be less able to grow or expand. Good luck with a start up. This in turn means more unemployment so fewer people are buying less. Short of the debt trap you don't see many more vicious cycles.
What can I do about this? I think a lot of conservative financial advice suits these times well. In particular stuff like living below your means, saving and avoiding debt is so important. A person with a few dollars put away, reasonable bills and little debt can ride out a decrease in standard of living (from inflation or job loss). The exact same family with the same income disruption but a bunch of bills, a visa card and no savings will be in deep trouble.
We have some money put away and few bills. Between slashing our discretionary spending and going to minimum payments we could live on a lot less than we bring in. If need be we could live off savings for some time. In several months we will have paid off my student loan and will be debt free.
A small but regular portion of our income gets turned into silver and gold. I buy them as an insurance policy. If they go up 100 or even 300 percent in dollar denominated value I wouldn't sell. If things go beyond ruinous inflation to outright hyperinflation. Some of our precious metals would give our family a little bit of help in adjusting to the new reality and the rest would be our proverbial nest egg.
If we were 20 years older and better established real estate that can produce income would be where I would park money. A little paid off house you could rent would be better than some cash in a mutual fund. However since we aren't at that point in life yet it is a moot point.
Slowly but surely we are preparing for slightly darker scenarios. Argentina and FerFal's blog in particular are of a real help here. I am not so concerned with a full on Mad Max scenario but am working on self contained ways to maintain as normal of a life as possible no matter what disruptions we face. Little things like being able to do laundry easily or brew my own beer or listening to stations far away on the world band radio aren't huge but they start to add up.
There is a higher than normal risk of theft and violent crime. This doesn't worry me so much right now. I live in a pretty small safe world right now. When elsewhere I am pretty cautious about where I go and carry a handgun. However if you aren't a fit young guy who is reasonably trained and carries a gun it might be a good idea to worry about this. Get your body into some resemblance of shape. Get trained with firearms and start carrying one. Be aware of what you do and where you go. Not a lot of people get robbed while buying groceries at 3pm but going to the ATM at midnight is dumb.
There is a free service on Off-grid.net called LandBuddy that connects you with people who are looking to live off grid, people who are currently living off grid and people who want to help others live off grid.
LandBuddy contains a map that allows you to locate other off gridders in any geographic location. Current off-gridders can find and connect with fellow off grid neighbors. If you are thinking about living off grid, this is the perfect place to look for advice and resources from people who are already living off grid.
All you have to do is register on LandBuddy and specify where you are located. Hundreds of Americans have already registered and found land they could either buy or live on off grid land in return for work. Living off the grid, away from the grid of power and water, is a rising phenomenon in America because technology is making it steadily more comfortable and cheaper.
Off-Grid.net is the brainchild of Nick Rosen, whose new book OFF THE GRID, recently published. The book focuses on a range of individuals like millionaires and foreclosure victims, paranoid survivalists and saintly environmentalists and retirees and marijuana growers who are all chasing their off-grid dreams.
TOR adds: I believe we will be giving away a free copy of this book soon.
We had a pretty normal day. A leisurely morning followed by doing some stuff then grabbing dinner and settling in for a quiet night. At about 10:30 our power went out, then on, then out for awhile. I went to the bedroom to grab my sweet LED lantern and of course Wifey's too.
Those lights aren't great to read by and I wasn't ready for bed yet so I grabbed a beer and went into the spare room where the shortwave radio is set up. Also grabbed a notebook to start a permenant hard copy radio log. The waves were hopping tonight. Got broadcasts (in English) from Russia, Bulgaria, China and Serbia as well as a few others that didn't say where they were from. Since radio isn't visual I took the time to go through our paperwork that resides in the cabinet the radio sits on. Separated a bunch of redundant and otherwise useless paperwork which is good. Going to check through it again tomorrow (good to check twice) before tossing it into the shred box at work.
All and all not a bad way to wrap up the night. Now pretty obviously the power is back on. I really enjoyed the time fiddling with the radio. It is a lot more fun now that I am getting decent reception. Tomorrow I will likely find some time in the evening to mess with it more.
It has been pretty windy all day. Started out like a normal Sunday. I drank some tea (since I gave up coffee for Lent) and we were fiddling around online. Went to the store at about 11 like normal. After buying our food we started driving home. A bit out of the grocery store we saw a tree down over the road. Easy enough to drive around it and go to our next destination. On the way home from there we noticed a big sign was black and thought that was interesting. About 50 meters down the road we saw why, a power pole was down, like the pole broke and fell on the ground.
We came home and it was obvious the power was out. We sorted through the groceries to get the stuff that had to go in the fridge and freezer then quickly opened them one at a time to put the stuff in. After that we just sorta hung out. Our dinner plan changed slightly to make it easier to cook on a camping stove but that was more about convenience than necessity. We had a radio to listen to if we wanted. Lanterns and flashlights to see when it gets dark. I pulled the chair over towards the window to get better light and read most of The Modern Survival Retreat by Ragnar Benson. Wifey worked on some book or another. Also we talked a lot which was nice.
In short our plans for the day changed very little. We were not worried about putting together a decent dinner and cleaning it up afterwords or how to get around once it got dark.
The nice thing about being prepared for reasonable situations is that you can continue life in a more or less normal fashion when things happen. We could continue this way for a long time.
Since the power came on I was able to post today which was nice. After I wrap this up I am going to finish the book and then cook a nice simple dinner of hot dogs, beans and chips which was the power outage plan.
M.D. Creekmore wanted me to let you know about his new free ebook “It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine).” I downloaded and read it last night. I like free stuff and I like reading what M.D. writes so taking the time to read his ebook was a simple decision. At 29 pages it was a quick and pretty easy read, about an hour and change of very unfocused effort. Overall it's sort of an M.D. Creekmore style survival manual. It is nonfiction and informative without being dull or boring. Also it talks a lot about off grid living and establishing a budget survivalist retreat which has some real value. You might or might not want to go that path but there are still lessons to be learned in it. I got some good tid bits out of it and more stuff to think about.
This ebook is worth significantly more than the price, which is easy to say because it was FREE. Seriously though I am glad I read it. Download it here then read at your leisure, printing might not be a bad idea. After you are done reading go to his blog to tell him what you thought. At a minimum please do thank him for writing an ebook and then being nice enough to give it away.
Today started in a pretty weird way. Yesterday evening I was falling asleep while reading at 7:40 so I went to bed. Sure enough I was wide awake at 2AM. Got up and came out to the living room to waste some time on the computer then try and get back to sleep. The back to sleep didn't work. I watched the news and read The Day The Dollar Died.
In the story the economy collapses and people are very hungry for information. The TV and Internet quickly started having some 'errors' and folks were clueless except those who had ham, CB or world radios. These folks were able to listen to broadcasts from around the country and world in order to get an idea of what was actually happening. I won't get into any particulars of the story but if you have some time to spare this blovel (new word)is worth the read.
Sipping some coffee and reading was all and all a fairly decent way to spend the very early morning. At about 5:30 the power went out. No biggie, I just went into the bedroom to grab the sweet new lantern I got for Christmas. It is really sturdy looking, well designed with a nice handle and sure puts out a lot of light. Turns out that Mom got one for everybody this year.
She got to thinking about these awhile ago when the power was out at home. The combination of overhead lines with lots of trees and wind that occurs in the PNW during the fall and winter leads to power outages. My observation is that two outages are to be expected. Depending on how severe and widespread the damage is it takes between a few hours and a few days to restore power. A good reason to be prepared.
During the most recent outage Ma was walking through the house doing something carrying an oil lantern. The dog was sort of skittish and bumped into her leg pretty good. She got to thinking about what would have happened if she dropped that lantern. Best case it just goes out or burns a small patch of carpet but the worst case is really ugly. She got to looking at lanterns and someone suggested this one. I am not saying that oil/ kero lanterns are without a role or bad or anything but that the new battery powered LED lanterns are pretty darn nice. Battery powered lanterns are nothing new but the use of LED technology has lead to lanterns that get pretty bright but still have reasonable battery life. They have all the benefits of a flashlight (safe, convenient, etc) but can be light up a room decently so you can go about normal tasks hands free.
About the time I was going into the bedroom to grab the lantern Wifey woke up. After some fiddling with the fuse box and looking out the window it was apparent that it wasn't just our building. Went and grabbed one of the el cheapo Walmart LED lanterns we got some time back so we could both conveniently go about our mornings. The new one is vastly superior to the el cheapo model. It will light up a small room in a way that you could conceivably read while the el cheapo makes it so you can see a bit in the dark.
For right around $20 a piece getting a couple more of these is a very easy decision. At a minimum I need one. Somehow the shiny new red lantern became Wifeys when it is actually needed. A spare would be nice also.
Having a world band radio and a good LED lantern is probably good advice. Neither of them are that expensive and they are really useful.
Personal:
1. Be a good husband. I was a pretty good one last year but a few days really drug down my average. I am looking to not do that or at least drop it to a couple days.
2. Travel a lot.
Personal Stuff:
3. We can use a few smaller things like a new TV and another laptop. The main push however is to get a reliable second car which we pay cash for.
Financial:
4. Stash some more Euro's. Say E400 or so.
5. Contribute 10% of our total take home to retirement.
6. Continue to not make stupid choices.
Skills:
7. Take an automotive class. They offer them on base and I need to know more about car repair.
8. Be able to setup and trouble shoot a small solar setup.
Preparedness Stuff :
9. A good radio that can pick up everything. Probably a Grundig.
10. Maybe a Berkey water filter and maybe some spare elements for it and the portable filter.
11. A basic solar setup.
Gun Stuff:
12. Case of .223
13. Half cases of 7.62x39, 9mm and just maybe .38. Full ones if I am feeling rich.
14. Some M1a mags. At least 10 and ideally closer to 20.
15. Glock 9mm mags. At least 10 and ideally closer to 20.
16. A few more spare parts and at least one AR15 full bolt carrier group.
I would say my goals start at the top in terms of priority and work more or less downward from there. I put more small stuff on here than last time. That is mostly because I am trying to purchase stuff in a more dispassionate manner and plan ahead.
Still got a few days before New Years to make any final changes. I should probably add some food stuff. Thoughts?
So much junk I can use. Think I will probably get some more 9mm glock mags just to be safe. After that I can use a case of .223 and a half case of 7.62x39 plus another half case of 9mm and some shotgun. Then I can be done with ammo at least for what I have now. After that some sort of compact solar power type setup would be nice. What are your thoughts on this and what can you use?
Today I have been rethinking my priorities. It is just too easy to get gun centric. I would like more Glock mags and some ammo to get to the ratios which will make me happy. Really I already have a decent amount of both, at least enough so they can slide back a bit in terms of priority. I am thinking about a compact solar power setup as my next major purchase. Somewhere after that a nice Berkey water filter would be good to have. I've got a pretty nice water filter (and another somewhere in the warehouse from my backpacking days) now so this isn't an immediate need but a nice at home setup would be cool to have. After that another dozen Glock mags (plus a few onesies and twosies for other guns) and a few cases of ammo will be purchased for my long term paranoid gun owner happiness.
Not sure why the font changes.
TheSunforce 50044 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit seems like a nice place to start when it comes to producing my own energy. I checked my preparedness wad of cash today and it would allow the purchase of this setup. Being able to run some sort of lights and charge small electronics/ batteries would be spifferiffic.
Do you guys think this would be a good purchase? If not what sort of alternative energy setup would you suggest to meet limited emergency goals on a budget? Any sort of help would be appreciated as I am not knowlegable in this area.
The other day someone mentioned Solar and it sort of got me thinking. I like the idea but my options in that area seem to be pretty limited. I can not mount anything outside or on the roof. I can not set stuff up outside or on the roof. Our windows are on the Nnw and Sse sides and the ones on the Sse are pretty big.
What options do I have for solar? Maybe a battery charger and a big stack of batteries?
My recent post linking to a MassadAyoob article drew some spirited debate in a direction I had not expected. It got me to thinking about experiences with cops and guns. We all know there are some authoritarian jack boot thugs who hide behind badges and there are also some darn good people doing a tough job. The question is exactly how many of each exist. I do not think that answer will be solved by sharing my experiences or the highly unscientific comments section. In any case it will be interesting to get a sense of your experiences with cops and guns.
During my life as a firearm owner I have had several interactions with the police where a firearm was involved in some way. Almost all of them were me mentioning (as required by state law) that I am carrying a concealed weapon when somehow or another I end up interacting with a cop. The vast majority of these were resolved with a head nod, maybe asking if I've got my permit with me and once or twice asking to see my permit. There have however been two experiences that were a bit more noteworthy. It works out perfectly because one was positive and the other was negative.
The positive one started like almost every police interaction does with a normal traffic stop. I hadn't done anything wrong but the stater was running a DUI point. He pulled me over and there happened to be a pump shotgun lying on the passenger seat. He said something to the effect of "so you've got a shotgun" and I said "yeah it is empty, you can check if you want". He did not check and the rest of the conversation went on just fine. I had done nothing wrong but he would not have been within his rights to make the whole thing a real pain in the ass for me. The guy just being cool about the whole thing was enough that I still remember it positively several years later.
The negative experience was a bit more interesting. A few years ago there was a major storm back home which caused a huge blackout that lasted for a few days (or more in some areas). My mothers place has a wood stove so it was a pretty decent place to be staying. At the time Ryan rented a room in a nearby town where they were out of power. Since it was winter the temperature in a home without heat (they had electric heat) that place was not so comfortable. Also hearing his roomies scream at each other did not seem appealing. I invited him over to mom's place to at least stay warm until power was back on. That is an interesting little thing to think about but is mostly just setting the scene. Without TV or anything like that it got a bit boring as the evening went on. I would have gone to sleep but Ryan was used to working swing so was wide awake. I decided to stay up and we ended up going for a walk around our little home town. At one point we were walking along the main road and a cop car pulled up. Once she got out of the car I mentioned having a gun (lawfully concealed) and she asked where it was then told me to turn around with my hands behind my back. She got a bit of a shock when Ryan turned did the same thing. So she grabbed my thumbs, reached under my Carhart coat and took the 1911 out of the small of my back, stuffed it into the back of her belt and proceeded to do the same thing to Ryan. She then put our guns in her car and demanded to see our ID, permits, etc to call everything in. Through the whole time we were waiting for the person on the other end of the radio to check us out she was standing there all jittery and stuff. I wanted to say "lady, if we were crooks we would not have told you we where carrying guns. If we wanted to hurt you we would have done it before giving you the loaded pistols we were carrying" but decided against it. She was obviously jumpy and it would not have helped calm her down which was my goal. She was pretty new to the job and probably over reacted a little bit. Was this an enormous inconvenience? No it was not. Was she within her rights? I am sure she was.
Why did the whole thing bother me? I have been thinking about this question for most of the day. Really we were just detained for 10 minutes or so which since we were walking around and bullshitting wasn't a problem. In retrospect it really bothered me that I was treated like a dangerous criminal when in fact I was just a peaceable armed citizen. That this cops default setting was that someone who tells her they have a gun is a serious danger to her was insulting to me. If I had been a scumbag I would have said nothing and she would never have been the wiser, I was a good guy doing the right thing and it got me screwed with. If I would have wanted to harm that cop I would have called a 911 call in from a pre paid cell phone and said I was at one of the empty houses which butts up to the woods then been lying in wait with a rifle. Matter of factly as law abiding armed citizens who happened to be meandering through town if the only cop on duty got into trouble (town is pretty darn small) we would have been the best chance of help that could do anything except write a report.
Back towards your experiences. I am interested in your experiences and how they have shaped your perspective on law enforcement.
This is a pretty major event for the blog. To be honest it has grown explosively and exceeded my wildest expectations. To everyone who has helped out in some way or another thank you very much. Rarely does a day go by where I do not learn something from readers. This blog takes a lot of work but it is worth it. I am pretty ambivalent about additional growth at this stage. Hopefully the whole thing stays fun and we have some more good times on our way to 2,000.
In the next couple of weeks there will be enough funds to purchase the Glock 19. Waiting on Wifey's last check from her old work to show up and then headed to a gun shop. Definitely looking forward to that.
Commander Zero wrote a great post today. He was talking about guns, mags and spare parts for the most part but also a bit about alternative power. The part on guns, mags and such got me to thinking. Particularly when he spoke about ratios. That got me to proportionality whichgot me headed down another path. Basically I think it is a good idea to have good proportionality in all of your preps, namely from one category of stuff to the others.
The gun collection is out of proportion to some other stuff. At some point I will definitely purchase some more guns but other stuff needs to take priority. We have a reasonable stash of chow but can use a bit more. Got as much water as can be readily stored in our humble abode, a water filter to purify more water. Plenty of clothes and assorted warm stuff. A bit of cash in the bank and some on hand. A few precious coins.
The main area we need to improve is emergency lighting and power. We have plenty of flashlights (also two self powered ones) and some spare batteries but that is about it.This will probably start pretty small with a couple of LED lanterns and a solar battery charger. A grinder will also likely be in this purchase. Bulk grains will likely soon become a part of our food storage plan. We will of course need to get some rechargeable batteries. Eventually a fancier lantern might not be a bad idea. More traditional kerosene lanterns will round out the lighting situation at some point.
That puts us onto power. A solar battery charger is the simple and cheap start. Batteries are more expensive but we can get a pack a week or something like that. The next step will be something like this. Being a single unit has some real advantages for a newbie to this whole alternative power thing. I think getting to this stage will take 3-4 months. Eventually some solar panel's, an inverter and a few batteries will be the solution but that is a long way off.
For the next two or three months we will be purchasing ammo instead of precious metals. After that we will resume precious metals purchases. Once the power and lighting situation is taken care of this stuff spare parts for the guns we have will probably be the order of the day. Spare parts and some mountain house will probably share our resources for awhile.
It looks like I just mentally allocated a reasonable amount of money I haven't earned yet. Fun times, fun times.
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