Archive for Self Sufficiency
Jun
30
Practicool vs. Tacticool
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Model 629 44 magnum and Glock 19 9mm
A few days ago I was talking about my latest interest in firearms being that of the more practical variety. I thought I’d go flesh out that subject just a little more for today’s post. As we break into one of the hotly contested areas of prepping and before I tweak any one’s nose unnecessarily… I own firearms of both configuration and probably always will. It isn’t so much a case of one is good and the other bad or undesirable.
As a serious prepper for many years, I’ve had the opportunity to stock up when the price was right and more importantly in the FAT years as aposed to the relative lean years many of us are experiencing now. These stockpiles can reach great proportions over a course of time and that’s what happened to me. Don’t lose heart you younger or newer preppers your pile’s will grow too over time! So, this is where I found myself as of late, big piles of stuff and much smaller piles of bank account. What to do? Like I said before I concluded that a degree of soul searching was in order as to what my current priorities were going to be?
Marlin Guide Gun 45-70
I really didn’t know how my decision was going to come out… It would have been much easier to have just left everything as is, stored away for a rainy day sure to come along soon enough! I also was deliberating on a direction to take with my firearms collection, I’d been feeling that I may have the ratio of practical tool guns out of kilter with the more tactical in design? As you already know, I decided that I would focus a bit more attention and money on the practical preps that were lacking in my plans…
The good thing was a significant profit could be made if I indeed decided to sell off surplus stores of guns and or ammo. Well, like I said, I already told you the other day I did eventually decide to sell off a number of duplicates from my collection as well as a huge amount of ammo. It took me nearly 2 years of contemplation before I began to make the phone calls and visits to the gun shows to move all of this inventory. It wasn’t exactly easy to see these items go as I know in my heart of hearts that I will probably never again be in a position to purchase this quantity of these particular items again…
I decided that my focus would move more into the practical direction and I would use the profits to complete projects at the BOL and also add a few firearms to the battery. Obviously, practical is a relative term and means completely different things to each individual! My version of PRACTICOOL is a more broad approach, practical preps like woodstoves and practical guns like the Marlin pictured above. The woodstove speaks for itself but the Marlin may not. I’m looking at practical firearms as those that will fill their intended purpose on a more regular basis… Yes, I know that we all have our favorite AR or AK for the practical purpose of home defense against the MZB’s that WILL BE coming on one gloomy afternoon not to far in the future. Let’s agree that we’re on the same page about having a high capacity, round spewing rifle close at hand, everyone should! However, how much Zombie death have any of us brought in the recent years? Remember, it could happen but has it yet? For most of us, at least the preppers that I have been privileged enough to gain their confidence, have an unrealistic skew in our preps leaning toward the Tacticool! Let’s face it, AR’s are cool and lately there have been a gazillion (sounds like a number soon to be used to describe our national debt) companies popping up to sell us there version of awesome upgrades to an already great firearm… I venture to say that we all enjoy taking that favorite gun out of the safe and just holding it while we watch a favorite action movie. Come on, don’t try to blow smoke at me, you all know you do that!
These Tacticool guns are great and I will probably always have more than my fair share of them around somewhere but lets get serious… Is that AR going to go out into the woods and bring back a rabbit? AR haters will always refer to it as a “mouse gun” but is it really? Of course not and it isn’t a rabbit gun either! How about using an AK for bear protection? Yes, I’d use any gun I happen to be carrying to protect myself from whatever threat came along but some threats and or uses are going to be more common than others… While at my residence in the suburbs, the 9mm will probably be perfect for the most likely threats I could encounter but out in the sticks at the BOL…?
With the exception of the lapse of judgement the other day when discovering our BOL break in, I would be more likely to cross paths with a black bear or cougar than a hostile 2 legged threat. While my 44 magnum will certainly make short work of a man sized threat, my 9mm would be anemic against that same threat in the form of a hungry bear! Can you see where I’m going with this?
Marlin Guide Gun 45-70
With the exception of the lapse of judgement the other day when discovering our BOL break in, I would be more likely to cross paths with a black bear or cougar than a hostile 2 legged threat. While my 44 magnum will certainly make short work of a man sized threat, my 9mm would be anemic against that same threat in the form of a hungry bear! Can you see where I’m going with this?
Bushmaster CAR15 .223
The same logic could be used while looking at the the to do list… Yes, a 10,000 round stockpile of ammo is AWESOME or at least more than adequate in most people’s minds but will it keep me warm when the power goes out? What if the power goes out and stays out? Can I eat it or would I be better off having a large woodpile to feed the stove while I dig through my bursting pantry deciding what the “Prepper” family will have for dinner to go with the rabbit I shot while doing my afternoon perimeter inspection? I say of the most likely scenarios I see on the horizon, I’d be better off with the wood and pantry… Am I wrong?
Something else that has me concerned is the “Preppers” that have only prepped the Tacticool way? Often, we preppers don’t know alot of others like ourselves from anywhere other than the internet. If those guys on the internet forums and even other supposed DOOMER blogs are any indication of what a prepper is suppose to look like… All guns and no food will make Prepper Pete a very hungry boy… I also believe that with a more balanced approach we serve our own survival needs much better. When we have adequate food and or the proper equipment to grow or gather more, we have a far greater chance of survival than if we are limited to attempting to take it from others…
Alright, you say that this doesn’t apply to you as you wouldn’t ever try to take from someone else… Besides if all you have is an AK, it will take down a deer for you, right? It might under ideal circumstances… I don’t expect that we will be able to count on ideal circumstances and when you’re hungry I believe you will no longer have the moral fortitude to starve before you attempt armed robbery!
As usual this post is nothing more than one preppers opinion and attempted justification of my own actions… I do think that my final decision to liquidate some overstocked items in favor of a more balanced survival approach will turn out to have been a wise decision, only time will tell! I’m willing to bet that there are others out there in our community that have been or maybe should be having these same conversations with themselves. If this post is nagging at you or causing you to think about something from a new perspective, don’t ignore it – act on it! You may find that you’re all set and no corrections need to be made but from my research there are far to many Tacticool survivalists and far to few of the Practicool variety!
Prepper
Bushmaster CAR15 .223
Jun
18
Reader Questions
Posted by: | CommentsI realize that since there has been a significant break in my posting activity, it will take some time to get myself and everyone else back in the swing of things. I appreciate all of the supportive emails I received inquiring as to my state of being. Yes, there was even the one checking to make sure the black helicopters hadn’t “PAID ME A VISIT”? While I’m no fan of mine or any other current government, I walk a pretty straight line when it comes to saying anything overtly inflammatory! What I was leading up to was that I recently asked for you guys to start sending in your questions and topic suggestions again. These are coming in slow but I do have one for today…
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Question - “You’ve been planting fruit trees at the BOL, exactly what varieties and why?”
Well, yes I have been ramping up my orchard… The term ramping up would be seen as very subjective as many “preppers” have actual orchards full of trees which would make my holding almost insignificant. To add a little encouragement to this post I need to explain that it has taken me the better part of 15 years to actually start this orchard. I originally purchased BOL property with my good friend back in the early 90’s when I was in my 20’s and largely financially challenged. It had been my dream to have those fruit and nut trees that we all have read about in the descriptions of a real BOL! Unfortunately, fruit trees require water and ideally irrigation to grow. In my area of the state, water wells are deep and expensive (see my post about the experience I had putting our current well in - The Deep Dark Hole). Needless to say, I wish I had started this project at a much earlier date but the cost of the required water was prohibitive, especially for a young man just starting out in life… I thought I had done well to just secure a piece of land!
Anyway, let me get back on track… It wasn’t until last summer that I finally started the tree planting and now I just can’t stop… Originally, last summer, I planted 3 apple, 3 cherry and 2 pear trees. These all made it through the winter and seemed to be healthy in the spring. With the new expansion to my irrigation setup, I planted those 8 additional trees a couple weeks ago – 2 apricot, 2 plum, 2 peach and 2 nectarine. Well, like I said this is getting to be addictive… Last weekend we went over again and I couldn’t help myself, 2 more apple and 2 more cherry trees went in the ground.
If you remember my last BOL update, I mentioned that my brother had brought me a nice blueberry bush as a gift, well I added 4 more last weekend as well! Oh yeah, last summer I planted 2 experimental raspberry bushes. These were both doing exceptionally well, so I added 2 more last trip too! This brings us to 5 blueberry and 4 raspberries bushes total. Now all of these plants might sound like I have a small fortune in the ground? Quite the contrary, while I have seen people post about getting trees for VERY cheap or even free, I paid between $1.99 and $23.99 per plant and most of them were on the lower end of the spectrum… I think that a close guesstimate on total out of pocket for 20 fruit trees and 9 berry bushes comes in less than $450 dollars, that is full price (not discounting expense for the several that were gifts!).
Yes, some money had to be invested and $450 isn’t chump change to my family right now but that’s the nature of an investment… I expect my ROI (return on investment) to be in the area of incalculable! We purchase quite a bit of fruit at our house and do watch for bargains but the cost of fruit is significantly higher than junk food items. These trees will payoff the first year of true production, if not before!
Alright, the varieties I planted were from the recommendations of a local nurseryman. I purchased most of the trees from him so that they would have been raised in and appropriate for the area that I was replanting them. The recommendations he made were for the hardiness and pollination requirements. Since I wasn’t going to be planting every variety of tree he carried, it was important that all of the particular types of trees would pollinate the others in their respective category. The following is a list of the specifics as best as I can recall –
Apples –
Honey Crisp (2)
Winter Banana (1-pollinator)
Yellow Delicious (1)
4-way tree (1- gravel stein, gala, yellow transparent and yellow delicious)
Cherries –
Bing (1)
Rainier (2)
Montmorency cherry (1)
Stella (1)
Pear –
Auju (1)
Bartlett (1)
Nectarine - (2) I can’t recall these specifics
Peach – (2) I can’t recall these specifics
Apricot –
Tomcot (1)
Harglow (1)
Plum –
Shiro (1)
Santa Rosa (1)
Blueberry –
Bluejay – (2)
Bluecrop (2)
Olympia (1)
Raspberry –
Red (2)
Black (2)
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Jun
16
Up the river…
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Well, if you have to know… I very well might be crazy! I see everyday things and find myself making the jump to how folks like us could possibly use that to gain an edge in our prep lives or maybe garner additional freedom. What am I talking about? The boat, that old wooden boat in the picture… Can’t you see it too? Since I know that few people actually see the same things I do – we are a very small minority of the population and even inside the “Prepper” world, we all seldom can agree on much. I’ll just come right out and explain myself!
It all started a couple of months ago. I began my latest money making endeavor (Yes, I mean the second job) and this had me traveling down roads that I typically would have no reason to ever see… Low and behold one afternoon I spot this older wooden boat moored in a place I have never even seen a boat previously. First, in the Pacific Northwest, we have a gazillion rivers but many aren’t of the size you would usually find a boat in. Possibly a small boat that a couple of guys would do some weekend fishing from but generally not a boat like the one pictured here. Second, this particular river is in an urban setting, just South of downtown Seattle and a known pollution nightmare. I know what your thinking, this doesn’t appear to be that urban? I know, I see all those trees too, this is actually adjacent to a little know and lightly used strip of park land. A city bicycle trail runs through there as well but the whole area is surrounded by what I would describe as a light industrial area…
So anyway, the thing that got me thinking was that here’s this boat in an unexpected area, tied to who knows what and has a makeshift wooded walkway coming out of the woods right down to it. I think to myself, “I wonder if some-one’s living on that thing”?? Well, I watch this thing sitting just as you see it in the picture from the day I first noticed it up until just hours ago when I last drove past and it is still there. So lets say a couple of months at least!
As the weeks went by and I kept checking to see if the boat has moved or eventually would disappear, sink or anything else! The thoughts keep running through my head… Someone is beating the system, parking a boat in what would have to be described by the lay-person as a “No Mans Land” – except on water, of course! Was this a viable lifestyle for some freedom seeker? In reality I would think it most likely that it’s some guy that got tossed out of his house either by the economy or his old lady and had no other choice. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that this boat was occupied by someone working in one of the many businesses or warehouses near by. It’s only my lack of ever seeing anyone aboard when I drive by that has kept me from attempting to interview this elusive live aboard…
If this would work for the poor guy that’s down on his luck, why couldn’t it work by design? Like I said the greater Pacific Northwest is riddled with rivers. Why couldn’t a creative individual just give up living in the rat race and live on the river…? They could! Provided they have a boat to live on. Usually the boats we see around this area are more modern and often smaller than anyone I know would attempt to live on. Around here we are fortunate to have a large number of lakes as well, I guess all these bodies of water come along with the fact that it rains here, I believe 364 days per year – last count! So, the typical boat owner has a small fishing boat or a sporting boat, you know water skiing and other day use designs. However, if a person had a larger boat, this idea could work.
Unfortunately, I do not own a boat – or fortunately, depends how you want to look at it… Mrs Prepper is feeling very fortunate that I don’t own a boat as this currently prevents me from asking her to come live on the river with me. I’m only half way kidding here, as I am very much done and over with the whole rat race lifestyle! Why not buy a boat to try this all out? Not me, some theoretical “prepper”? I realize boats can be and often are quite expensive! How about looking for an older wooden boat such as the one pictured on craigslist? On several occasions my searches for other products, like used mobile homes, have lead me to find used boats in this category… Expensive? Not necessarily, I saw some boats that sounded and looked to good to be true – I will assume they were! I also so some moderately priced boats in the 26-30 foot range and were setup very similar to a land based RV. What was there true condition? Of course I don’t know for sure but even if they needed a lot of repairs, as long as the structure was sound…?
I’ll even take this one step further, why would this boat have to have a good motor? Yes, yes… it would have to be able to get to the spot picked for your new life up the river! There are ways to get boats moved when their engines aren’t working, which on all the boats I’ve been around is fairly often… Boats usually come with a large amount of ongoing maintenance to keep them dependable. Many of the classified ads I’ve read were for “Project” boats, the prices on these boats were shockingly cheap… For good reason, the buyer was taking the problem off the hands of the current owner! I did see apparently beautiful boats that had some “Issues” with the power plant… Also, one large expense with a motor boat is the cost of fuel, an additional expense that would be nullified in our little thought exercise…
What I’m imagining here is doable! Would it work for you and yours – probably not but it WILL WORK for some. A rather small but well setup cabin cruiser, with or without it’s own on board power plant, moored “Up the River” or even at a local marina… Hmm, what are moorage rates at the local marina – might be worth looking into. Usually these moorage rates are with hook ups for your sewer, phone and electric… This wouldn’t be nearly as cheap but at least around here the rates are FAR lower than even an inexpensive apartment…
As usual I’m submitting this as just another option that might work for one of you guys out there. This strategy would come with several downsides but it would also allow for that freedom only achievable when that mortgage payment has been destroyed… Food for thought!
Prepper
Feb
01
What’s in YOUR gun cabinet? part 2
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You’ve got to know when to hold em…
Posted by: Prepper | Comments (0)Some of you that know me personally know that I’ve been liquidating some of my collection… This certainly isn’t because I don’t think I’ll need preps in the not to distant future… I actually believe that we’ll all be needing them now, or soon, more than ever! Since I’m a bit cash poor currently or to put it more accurately, the cash I have isn’t available for preps and or improvements to the BOL, I’ve been selling off some of my duplicate items and things that are just plain stacked to deep!
As I’ve come to grips with letting some of these treasures go, I’ve been doing additional soul searching while I was at it… I turned 39 this year and I’m not in the best physical shape of my life, too much time doing the desk jockey routine. I’m convinced that riding a desk must be just about the farthest thing from what the human body was designed for, it’s no wonder that us paper pushers end up so soft. I digress, it isn’t my sorry physical state that I was pondering but my inner most feelings about what my prep inventory really required and what might be turned into cash for other prepping uses… That’s right, I’m not selling things off to pay the house note but to keep pushing forward with the more important things that wouldn’t get completed otherwise, at least not as quickly!
What I discovered was that the “Red Dawn” syndrome of my 20’s has passed and I no longer feel convinced that I’ll be called upon to defend my country from enemies foreign or domestic… Wait, I know what your thinking! Yes we have more and more evidence that our enemies are closer to home than ever before and the time may just about be upon us to stand at our personal lines in the sand. I haven’t given up on the ideals of fighting for the cause of liberty, I have just come to see those around me as ever less likely to stand up even for themselves, much less liberty and freedom. This being the case, my previous belief of needing to have plenty of armament to spread around for recently shocked awake friends and neighbors seems highly unlikely!
I even find myself less likely to go spend a day at the range than I once did… Ammo prices what they are and even cleaning the beloved battle rifle doesn’t hold the same appeal it once did? Who knows, maybe I’m completely crazy but I’m looking at my weapons more and more as the tools that they are, rather than the cool that they were… Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of guys of all ages that are looking at their guns in the ways that I used too and I’m not about to say there is anything wrong with it – I just wish I had the same LOVE for the gun I used too, at least when it comes to justifying it’s place in the safe!
I guess what I’m really saying is that I’m looking for a gun that’s going to earn it’s keep… Weather for hunting or homestead protection against 4 legged predators, those are my more likely scenarios these days, I’m gearing more to that end rather than say, “The other”…
It’s true that many guns will serve double duty, however many of mine would be poor choices in the roles I find the most probable. This doesn’t mean for a second that I’d be caught unprepared or I’ll even go out on a limb and say out gunned by most that would cross my path, I wouldn’t! I’ve “collected” for many years and have taken advantage of many great buys that I’ve come across… I’ll recognise a tidy profit on most anything that I have or will decide to part with. This is a good example of something we’ve discussed here in the past – Investing in tangibles… My investments can relatively easily be turned back into cash and not even one will have lost value!
I haven’t even posted this to the website yet and I can already feel the emails coming… “Why would you sell off guns right when we could be facing our darkest hours?” Well, for one, I think these coming dark hours will be better faced with some practical guns sitting beside a well stocked pantry, a well fed woodstove and a solid “debt free” roof over my families head… In recent years I wouldn’t have been forced to choose and hopefully you’re not faced with a choice like this… Given enough time, I would have found some other way to accomplish these goals and still kept the gun safe fully intact but I don’t think that we have the luxury of unlimited time!
If there are others out there with this same feeling in their gut, get moving – do whatever you have to do to get your house in order… Typically I would say you can’t have to many guns but in this present global setting you COULD have to little of something else, like food!
Let me just encourage everyone to do a little soul searching of your own and see if possibly you’re over prepared in one area and under in another? Maybe you’re like me and now is a good time to re-evaluate your holdings and see if there is a reallocation in order? No one can tell anyone else what the right answer is when it comes to something of this nature, we all have to decide for ourselves…
Prepper