Day: November 2, 2006

Letter Re: Advice on Avoiding Retreat Gear Entropy

Mr. Rawles: My question to you is: How can I plan ahead for everything eventually wearing out at my farm/retreat, assuming we could expect a decades-long “Deep Schumer” situation? Everything I own seems sure-as-anything to fall victim to entropy. Tools eventually wear out, things rust, things break, nuts and bolts come loose and get lost in the weeds. Those lousy blue tarps only seem to only last about a year. Last weekend I went to go sit in my yard chair and I fell right through the [expletive deleted] plastic webbing, which had sun rotted. My kids laughed at me, …


Letter Re: My Experience at the RWVA Mingus, Texas Shoot

Hi James, I wanted to share my experience at the Revolutionary War Veterans Association’s Mingus, Texas Appleseed Army Qualification Target (AQT) [high power rifle] shoot last weekend (10/28/06-10/29/06), held at the excellent Tac-Pro Shooting Center. For those that don’t know, RWVA is an organization that promotes/teaches Americans marksmanship skills using military rifles and ball ammo. A fine gentleman known as “Fred” (of Fred’s M14 Stocks fame) spearheads the Appleseed Project. They have begun holding Appleseed shoots at different ranges throughout the country with the intent of teaching shooters how to improve their marksmanship using an Army Qualification Target. Fred gave …


Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog reader “The Rabid One” mentioned that chemical light sticks can be set up with a discarded computer CD as a reflector mount. This mounting arrangement can create very visible markers for trails. helicopter landing zones, et cetera. Employing infrared light sticks in this manner (for use with night vision goggles) opens up even more possibilities. You can even make them directional. “The Rabid One” quipped: “I knew I would someday find a use for all those free AOL CDs.” (Some uses for CDs are not just comical. They do make effective reflectors for scaring birds from gardens and orchards.) …