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1. Very productive week on the prepper front.
   Went to an auction and picked up a box full of military gun parts. I gave some to a good friend to help him re-build his heirloom 1911. I am having two extra M-1 Carbine bolts put together (might come in handy if I ever have to shoot the steel case SHTF ammo).
   I also got a very small gasoline blow torch and a new Ax handle at the auction.

   Picked up and shoveled 4 truck loads of gravel into the BOL driveway where construction has messed it up. Will probably have to do several more loads.

   Was at tractor supply this morning and picked up a battery operated timer for watering. Will be using that on the Rain Barrel/drip irrigation system system. Regularly $14, got it for $1.49!!!

   Had to go to Lowes for grass seed, again to repair lawn where it was damaged due to construction. Picked up an assortment of stainless steel hardware for the “collection”.

   Also picked up another 2’x8′ packing crate for use in the barn.

2. If you do not have enough wind to blow chaff out I use a fan. A floor drying type works best. Point it in the direction you want the chaff to go and then dump the contents from one 5 gal bucket to another in the air stream. After a couple of passes the chaff is gone.

3. Great picture of the deer and hunter.

   Many years ago I went hunting early season rifle up in a wilderness area. My friend and I climbed a bunch of very steep terrain, maneuvering through thick brush. A lot of it was where you are on all fours and it is steep enough to where you are not far from upright. We finally got to this 6000 foot high ridge which we worked sighting downhill. Saw a little sign but no deer. Then headed back down the 3500 feet on the main trail that we avoided on the way up. When we got back down to where we had parked, our vehicle was surrounded by fresh tracks and a hiker told us they had seen numerous deer in the parking area when they drove up.

4. Last week we had 10 large trees trimmed and two cut down so this week it has been cutting wood to size and burning the unusable parts. We will be doing this for at least two more weeks. We now have six cords of wood and I expect another two. We will leave the remainder stacked in the woods for the future.

   We also pulled 5 more 55 gal drums out of service for emptying and cleaning. It’s not hard, just had to get a long handled scrub brush to wash inside and out. The weather channel said zero change of rain so we left the drums open-side up to dry in the sun; then it rained. Two of the drums were cached supplies which were sealed in 2014. When opened all the contents were dry with no bugs. The food items were vacuum sealed and placed in kitchen size trash bags. The clothing items smelled a bit but were dry with no bug holes. Even the emergency bottled water was holding well. This has inspired me to cache more items and place them around the woods.

5. Well we were out of power for 6 and a half days but we finally got it back. It was a great training opportunity for us, we figured out what worked and talked about how to make it better, we found out what didn’t work and developed a plan for fixing it and now we’re just left with cleaning up the mess.
   I happy to say most of our planning actually worked, we lost no food, all the livestock made it through just fine. We did have a tree go down on a fence for the goat pen but my “emergency fence repair bucket” had it patched up during a lull in the storm and I did a permanent repair over the weekend.
   One thing we failed to plan for was air circulation in the house. We were cycling backup power to conserve fuel which meant not running it at night. It got really uncomfortable for several nights were looking at an inverter to run a fan and also to keep the satellite link up for our phones and internet, we only had comms while we were on backup power.
   Overall we felt pretty good about our outcome, we did well enough to be able to help our neighbors without it causing us a problem.

   As a side note if a widespread grid down situation last more than about 7 days correctional institutions are in serious trouble, if you are located near one be sure to keep that information in your plans. Without the ability to resupply most institutions will be out of fuel, food, and security personal in a week, there will be some very hard decisions to be made and none of the choices are good.

   1. Outlaw; how far inland are you located? Did the hurricane cause any river flooding? Also, on your electric power, are you within city limits or in county coverage?

      1. I’m inland about 30 miles and border a river one the west side of the property. The river saw a rise of about 18′ as the storm came in, in part from storm surge at the mouth and complicated by the dam 20 miles up river opening flood gates to keep the reservoir lake in check. It never endangered the homesite and the river is one that is quite susceptible to big rises, it is a very high banked river. No one was surprised by the amount of rise we were however a bit surprised by the rapidity of the rise and subsequent fall, the day after the storm it had already dropped 11 feet and the dam was still spilling two of its four gates. Our power is from an electric cooperative we are very, very rural. The one thing that does help us is our feed comes from a substation located next to the dam(it’s hydroelectric) and we are a sideline off off of a feeder that goes to the small town 30 miles from here, it seems to make us a bit more of a priority than if it were just our tiny community.

   2. Outlaw,

      To keep our internet up while generator is not running we have a small UPS (uninterrupted power supply). Last able 4-6 depending on use. I recommend everyone have at least one Good UPS system in their home. Good as in with a built in power conditioner and alarm mode when on. If you power coming into your home is not “clean” it will turn on and alarm to protect what ever it is plugged into it. The alarm mode allows you to then decide if you want to shut down other items to protect them. Also consider adding a small battery bank that you can recharge when generator is running (or can be charged by solar) the you can buy 12 volt DC fans. Running an inverter uses more energy and produces additional heat.

6. I took a few days off work in preparation for our deer season that opened today in Georgia. I did not go by the way. I like to save my hunting time for cooler days and today it has been in the mid-70s all day. Earlier this week I checked the zero on several rifles. My main deer rifle, a .270 built on a Mauser 98 action, a Ruger American Predator in .308, a Ruger American Ranch rifle in .300 Blackout, and a Marlin 30-30 that I picked up last year at a gun show for $300.00 were shooting just fine and on target at 100 yards. The 300 Blackout was suppressed and I was testing the new Hornady Subsonic Ammo that uses their new Sub-X bullets. I was really impressed at how well these shot and grouped. In the bolt action Ranch Rifle the muzzle report sounds like and air rifle and I still can’t believe how quite it actually is. I did shoot my Thompson Center Encore Pro Hunter in .308 and as expected it would not group. I had dropped the gun last year and I thought I had damaged the scope which still may be the case, but when pulling it off I found that the Talley single piece mount had a broken screw and this is the likely culprit for the grouping issue. I also shot a Ruger PC9, original version, and I could not get this to group very well at 55 yards. I changed the scope on it and tried again and it still has a grouping issue. I’ll have to look further into this and make a determination on what to do. I also shot my FN 509 pistol at some steel and was very pleased with it. I later took it to an indoor range where I ran 150 rounds through it. I shot the first 35 rounds at 25 feet and literally keep every shot within the 10 ring on theB-29 (Paper) Silhouette Target. I am really pleased with this pistol purchase. From the range and into the store I purchased an Anderson AR upper for $50 and a BCG for $70.00 in order to finish out a AR build that I’m working on which is made up of spare parts. After that purchase I went down the road to a gun smith for a couple of things, one being the broken screw in the TC Encore barrel. I don’t have an E-Z out so I figured I’d let him do it. The other is a Long Range rifle I’ve put together needed some machining work done to it. I want the barrel threaded for a muzzle break and while there I also wanted the action changed from a glossy finish to a mat black finish. The last part and again while there was to have a professional free float and glass bedding job done. One of the last things I’ve did this week was more limb trimming on the roads. This is a never ending job it seems. I did check all the planting I’ve done and everything is up and growing. I am going to have more turnips than I know what to do with if I can keep the wild hogs from completely destroying the area. They’ve already hit a couple of spots with their signature rooting that leaves bare ruts all in the planted areas. If I’m lucky this year I’ll get to harvest a couple of these on the hoof pork chops as payment for their destruction of my planted areas.

7. Not seasonal prepping related, but about how readers best recognize Viggo Mortensen … I bet a fair number of us are Lord of the Rings fans, so … Aragorn, of course.

8. Are you :
   James Wesley Rawles
   James Wesley, Rawles
   James Wesley-Rawles?
   I have seen all 3…

   1. My full and proper name is:
      James Wesley, Rawles

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