Tag: Preparations

November 4, 2021 – What Has Changed Since the Ice Storm in February

November 4, 2021 /

Yesterday, I had a conflict that left me away from home a large part of the day. I am also going to be travelling for business next week and I am not sure that I want to take a second laptop or not. Since I cant get this to work on iOS, I may be AWOL next week.

February 16, 2021 I wrote about lessons from a winter storm. One of my biggest holes were things related to energy. I didn’t have a lot of supplemental heat for comfort or electricity to protect my freezers for an extended outage. March 31, 2021 I wrote about the shortage of everything which now seems to be common knowledge. The linkage between those two was that I was having a hard time finding fuel storage namely propane tanks and fuel cannisters.

It wasn’t until mid-summer that I saw both of them come back. When they did, they weren’t at the prices they were before they were gone for months. So, as a good prepper watch the availability and price and buy when both are optimal and not needed.

The propane is flexible. With my little heater, it can run on 40 hours per cylinder. I also have adapters that can run the stove and other things. Combine this with my kerosene restocked (around 200 hours) and the fireplace we have way more supplemental heat potential.

I have been buying gas cans when they go on sale. This is to power the new generator that we have which was unfortunately part of Olivia’s inheritance. I really don’t have a clue about runtime here, but the strategy is all about rotation. The idea is to store the gasoline up to one year and then pour it into the vehicle and replace it. I have enough gas to swap it out every two months throughout the year.

Looking a little more long term, I still have on my list a couple more items. One is another inverter for converting vehicle power into energy. The idea is to have one inverter per vehicle so that they can be used as makeshift generators. I would also like to add a suitcase type generator because they are light and portable.

Also, I would like to build up a better supply of firewood as well. But, since we mostly burn in our firepit, most of my supply is actually garbage. Meaning, I largely burn off cuts and smallish branches from pruning. I am on the look-out for some inexpensive wood supply That takes planning and effort, so that will largely be an opportunity where I have the time to do it.

When thinking about a longer term outage, there are other considerations. For instance maintenance. The generator that we have was supposed to have the oil changed after five hours and then every hundred hours afterward. I am pretty sure the first change never happened and supplies are needed to run as long as you have fuel. I drained the fuel and then changed the oil so it should be ready to go.

End Your Programming Routine: “Two is one and one is none” is the preparedness mantra. In many cases I had one or none when the ice storm hit when it came to energy. Now, I am in the space of one at least. Flexibility and options rule the day when the cards are down. Fortunately, we have largely been fortunate when it comes to power outages over the years, As the saying goes, Fortune Favors the Prepared.

March 18, 2021- Ice Storm’s Lasting Effect

March 18, 2021 /

Every day that I sit down in the basement, I get more and more motivated to get started with my office. It is usually 57 degrees when I turn on the lights in the morning. The heater that I wired in barely makes sitting for long durations bearable. Usually, by lunch time I am ready to take a hot shower just so I can warm up my feet.

A little over a week ago, we won a Little Buddy propane heater in a raffle. It came with two, one pound cylinders. I thought that it was a good temporary solution to add supplemental heat. The problem is that one pound cylinders only last for five hours according to the literature.

One of the area’s that I am not too prepared is heat and generally comfort. I always imagined that I would put on more clothes and do manual work. I have a kerosene heater that I use in the shop and I figured that was my fall back heater. Running for two hours, the shop is heated to the point that I can turn off the heater.

But, kerosene is not common in this area of the country. When we lived in South Carolina, you could buy kerosene at the gas station running about the cost of diesel. Not here, I am paying $8/gallon. And to top it off, to buy in volumes of 2.5 or 5 gallons, it is only seasonally available at the stores. From a runtime perspective, a 2.5 gallon jug will last about a week of working hours in the shop.

Propane is a much more prevalent option. The thing that I am noticing is that propane is scarce. It has to be the after effects of the ice storm. There are no one pound bottles anywhere. There are also no larger, refillable containers in stores. Stock is out online as well. I was able to buy a hose that attaches to a 20# cylinder for my heater and I do have one cylinder.

It has been on my list for years to get some more cylinders and attachments. I bought propane conversions for my camp stove so I could also use one pound cylinders. So I have always thought this was a direction to focus but it never seemed like a priority. Probably because I only had one item that used propane and maybe once a year do I use that burner. Now, I am looking to augment my heat and it cannot be found.

I guess what I am trying to say is that preparing is about evaluation, discipline and recognizing opportunity. For instance, the best time to buy gasoline to have on standby is in the winter time when the price is usually lowest. But the worst time to buy it is when the power is off and everyone is either trying to fuel their generators or running the car to stay warm. I evaluated my needs but I didn’t execute the discipline part.

The opportunity part is knowing that some fuels (and parts like wicks and adapters) are seasonally available, the time to buy is when you can. I was able to take advantage of a seasonal close-out and save $4 a jug on kerosene this week. It is unlikely that I will need too much heat until next fall but just like propane you don’t know when you will not be able to buy it, if you wanted it.

I am grateful that I have one cylinder, but I would like to have at least two. One to use and one to fill-up. Some people in my area were without power for a week, so it is possible to have a long term outage. An generally speaking, the outages are because of some weather event be it too hot or too cold or flooding or whatever, so not the best time to have no heat. An event like what happened in Texas was so catastrophic that even natural gas was frozen in the pipes. A lot of things don’t like to run real well when that get that cold either like engines, so consider that.

Finally, related to heat and cold. If you are without power in the winter, don’t let your items go bad in the refrigerator. Put them outside! I am amazed at how many people just let the fridge go bad when they could have shoveled ice from outside into a cooler or even just put stuff outside. When all you’ve got is cold you should at least be able to keep stuff cold. The freezer might be a different situation but the same thing applies.

August 13, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

August 13, 2020 /

Late summer (around here) starts to turn my thoughts toward hunting season. If you have ever gone to the rifle range between now and mid-October, it is a mad house of people checking their rifles and getting ready for the shortly upcoming season. Fall bear season is already open, archery deer season as well as doves start in two weeks.

My range as well as many around the country offer a sight in service, as a fundraiser. This is where the general public can come to the range and pay $5-10 and get help sighting in their rifles. Today I am going to offer some insight to the vocabulary and service.

It all starts with a few basic terms, the first is the bullet. The bullet is the projectile that leaves the firearm with the intent to hit the target. Ideally, it would hit in the same place consistently. Bullets have a whole set of terms that go along with them but let us talk about two in particular.

  • Caliber – the diameter of the bullet, typically measured in inches or mm
  • Weight – the mass of the bullet. Mass is measured in a unit called grains. It takes 7000 grains to equal 1 pound.

For caliber, the heavier the bullet the longer it is. It is the only way to get the same diameter of projectile with more mass.

Barrels on rifles have a series of lands and grooves inside. The lands are the bearing surface of the barrel touching the bullet as it travels to exit. The pattern is spiral inside the barrel to cause the bullet to rotate and therefore stabilize the projectile.

The number of twists in a the rifling impacts the stability of different weight bullets. So each firearm has some optimum bullet weight for the best potential accuracy because the number of twists do not change.

  • Rate of Twist – The number of inches it takes to make one full revolution in a barrel and expressed in a proportion.

For an AR type rifle a 1:7 to a hunting style rifle 1:16. Let us decode a little bit further. 1:7 means one full revolution in seven inches. The faster the twist rate, the better heavier bullets will stabilize, but not necessarily the light ones. Hence, the rifle is optimize to shoot a close range bullet weights based on the twist rate.

Sticking with one caliber, 0.22in nominally AR type rifles typically have a 1:7, 1:8 or 1:9 twist rate. This is going to shoot a 55-65 grain bullet accurately. Using the 22LR, another 0.22in bullet, the twist rate is 1:16 for a Ruger 10-22. Those bullets are ranging from 30-40 grains typically.

We have already gone deep for the uninitiated and we have just touched the surface. What I am trying to get across is that once your rifle is setup and sighted in for a particular load, it is best to use that load for the season. People really in the weeds with ballistics would recommend sticking with the same manufacturing lot because you are likely going to have consistency of the components leading to the most accuracy.

I don’t worry so much about keeping the same lot, but I do understand the principles. Knowing your skillset, how your equipment performs and the territory that you plan on hunting should give you the controllable variables of the hunt. The rest is up to you.