The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

31 Comments

1. I strongly recommend seeing Horse Progress Days at least once in your life. It’s a great display of alternate technology even if you don’t like horses. The food’s great too. I won’t make it this year as it’s too much of a drive for me but when it’s held closer, I’ll be there.

2. The article on DIY dads sounds like a lot of denial and rationalization by millennials for laziness and ineptitude. Good luck when the there are no longer services available or when your income may drop. Cannot wait for their children to have the same attitude on steroids, Most likely there will be an increase in thumb sucking.

   1. I think it’s just clickbait. I didn’t read the whole thing, but older men are guaranteed to have more experience with home repair by virtue of being older. Look for the next article in the series: 90% of Millennial Dads Better at DIY repairs than a toddler.

   2. Can you repair anything in your phone? Your “smart” toaster? Your Nest controlled thermostat? iFixit has noted things are becoming impossible to fix. Sometimes installing yourself voids your warranty. And in the sterile concrete jungle, what is there to DIY that your landlord or HOA will allow?

      Conversely can you access all the features on your smartphone?

      I think the divide is not so much millenials, but red-blue, rural-urban. Out here, millenial Moms could probably (with a little instruction) rebuild a small engine.

      There is another side – Millenials are makers so can build things including robots.

      1. Yes I can repair a few things on my phone, recently replaced the battery on my iPhone for a total cost of $7.00 and that included the special tools needed, 5 sided Philips screw driver. As for building robots, that has been going on for a long time and the jury is still out on is it better for society to be more automated or for people to have jobs or be on welfare?

      2. That was another thing I should have mentioned, myself and most Millennials rent, and alterations tend to be discouraged by the landlord. I’m not going to build a chicken tractor because I don’t have a yard. It’s an apples and oranges kind of thing, sloppy journalism on their part.

      3. tz, I appreciate your reframe of this issue. The source of the article, an alarmist, screaming headline, paper led me to question the veracity of their reportage. The millenial men and women I know are skilled at the tech stuff that I am clueless about and many know how to raise their own food. A skill I lacked at their age.

         If the article IS true, then we have an opportunity to mentor and share our knowledge, thus developing trust with people who we may want as allies down the road.

         Carry on

         1. The proper “reframe” is if you have Millenals who ARE Dads, married to the Moms, that is much more important than if they can build a deck or do other things. You can always find and buy tools if you need them. But having a soul that orients you to a family is more important.

            Beyond the rent/own, is tools, even the Harbor Freight variety, are expensive if you aren’t going to use them very often. My chainsaw was wonderful on sale, and I took out a few small bush stumps, then, it just sat there. Even keeping gasoline with the right amount of oil around if you don’t use it is a problem. Urban settings – especially the zero greenspace – or the apartments where the Landlord or maintenance is responsible and has all the tools.
            I have plenty of tools and know how to use them but don’t find the opportunity (I’m not on a ranch). And I had to move all of them when I moved here, and if I move again…

            I’m not getting rid of them, and my pickup is proving better than a Prius out here, but that is a difference. If you are next to a spring you probably don’t need a well. Urban millenials need different things than those in suburbs with large yards (my parents did a garden), or full rural areas.

            Yet they have worse problems. We have bears, mountain lions, and coyotes and wolves. They have two legged predators.

3. re:
   California Chicken Cull

   According to the story on TheMainstreamMeadia, officials-and-authorities say they have “…no central data base…” for backyard chicken owners. Their ‘yet’ and ‘so far’ is implied.

   The bureaucrats need not worry. As long as ‘backyard chicken owners’ post to Social Media, bird owners are self-implicating… and self-convicting.

   If you use Social Media, should you expect something similar?
   Post photographs of your garden? Get the visit.
   Innovative rain collection? Get the visit.
   Equine-pack the backcountry? Get the visit.
   Smart child? Get the visit.
   Cranky old codger with no particular use for bureaucrats? That visit happens at 3am, and involves forced medical transportation.

4. The eviction of the 85 year old woman can most likely be traced as a way to remove her in an area with rent control so that a new tenant can be brought in at a much higher rent. It is hard to believe that rent control is even legal at all, needs to be revisited by the Supreme Court.

5. California’s ban on lead bullets for hunting is just another example of anti gun legislation. The California Condor has an extremely small range of only a couple of hundred square miles. So let’s use this excuse to create more senseless laws that go way beyond the need and include the entire state. Kind of reminds me of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring that resulted in an almost world wide banning of the insecticide DDT. I has now come to light that she had no scientific data to back up her erroneous claims. Further I submit that she is directly responsible for millions of deaths by malaria that could have been avoided if DDT had remained available for mosquito control. After all is your child is being mauled by a bear you may need to run down to the store, get a background check, appeal if wrongly denied and pick up a box of lead free ammo. Then of course after dispatching the bear and saving your child’s life hours later you are not out of the woods. Along come the fish and game department to issue you tickets and fines for hunting without a license, illegal discharge of a firearm, killing of a protected species, brandishing a weapon, violation of local noise ordinances, and of course Child Protective Services will have a dozen reasons to take your child away from you. I also feel it is imperative to create another law and fund a bureaucracy that will now go throughout the state sifting all dirt to remove any lead bullets, fishing weights, tire weights, batteries, naturally occurring lead deposits etc. that were left laying around for the last million years. Makes sense to me.

6. Regarding the chicken cull, that’s actually small compared to the numbers lost/ culled to highly pathogenic avian influenza about 4-6 years ago.

   With regards to agriculture, most states have pretty robust/ draconian laws on the books to prevent pathogens. In all likeliness, CA or counties within will be unable to sell chicken products on certain international markets until it is declared free of Newcastle disease.

7. I would not mind donating to Freezoxee, but I can not even get on the site, because I can never find an entry code.

   1. You should be able to get on Freezoxee by clicking on the site given above. Hopefully they pull through this crisis.

8. As to FreeZoxee, I have questions about a service from wowonder.com based in Istanbul, Turkey, and why the donation is in the EU.

   Gab and Minds are still there (as is BitChute and Subscribestar), and there is the new Parler.

   Gab in particular had major deplatforming and at one time the only way to contribute was to use checks. It survives and Andrew Torba is working to insure it can’t be deplatformed.

9. Re. Millennial Fathers Lack DIY Skills
   Millennials are ‘gadget people’ addicted to entertaining frivolous pursuits. Much of their time is squandered.

   However, while the generation gap appears to be widening I think DIY skills and ‘life skills’ are still inversely proportional to population density. tz (above) described the divide as red-blue, rural-urban. Yes. And if you are in a red area where homeschooling is the norm, the divide widens noticeably more.

   1. I recall reading a book by Joel Salatin where he says many of the 20-something interns at his farm don’t know how to use a hammer. They have never hammered a nail in their lives. What can they do? Play video games. As he says (in the title of the book): “Folks, this ain’t normal.”

      1. I too, generally don’t hammer nails. Those long screws with deep threads seem to be better and stronger and the power screwdriver makes short and certain work and doesn’t leave big marks in the wood.

         1. But the point is, you know how to use a hammer (but maybe not well, if you leave marks in the wood). And I have never screwed on molding or shingles.

            I think the causes are many, including: an over-emphasis on convenience; a depreciation of the value of blue-collar skills and an over-reliance on tech skills and college degrees; our disposable society where we just upgrade when something stops working; and, most of all, a generation where a large percentage never had to do any physical labor as a child, were never spanked for refusing to do their chores, who had helicopter parents who did everything for them, and were subjected to an educational system that elimated shop class and gave out too much Ritalin.

10. Floods along our major rivers and excess rain in farm country are nothing new. Scare talk about the disaster that farmers face is nothing new either. But history shows that most of that farmland will in fact get planted, some of it late and some of it not the usual productivity. This is nothing new. Five years from now it will be droughts in the news with the same scare headlines.

11. I have seen postings on other web sites in which people express indifference to the issues in California concerning firearms and ammunition. Those of you who live in Red States can probably maintain that attitude, but if you live in a state that is considered to be a Purple State, either now, or sometime in the near future, what happens in California should concern you. “What happens in California does not stay in California.”

    Once Democrats succeed in taking over a state legislature and governor’s office, even if only for one four year term, they will be inclined to follow California’s lead on many issues, gun rights being just one. When gun rights are restricted in many states, particularly in the states with larger populations, it becomes the “new normal,” and the impact on Congress becomes noticeable.

    All of these California ammunition restrictions are part of a plan for making the purchasing of firearms more burdensome. The more red tape, the fewer the number of people who will decide to purchase them.

    A third of all immigrants wind up in California. The arrival of so many immigrants has changed the political dynamics of California. People from Third World Countries have little experience with firearms–although their gang-affiliated sons often quickly pick up that experience after arriving here. Two-thirds of Latinos supported the last round of gun restrictions, no doubt because they have no gun ownership tradition in the countries where they originate, and because so much of their youth are heavily involved in gangs or are threatened by them.

    Single women are hardly a bastion of the political right, and suburban women are well-described as being a likely troublesome force for conservatives in the 2020 election. Single women are the bane of gun owners in California, in particular, and they were among the most ardent supporters of ammo restrictions. They foolishly believe that every new restriction on gun owners’ rights will make them safer.

    I recently came upon a Brady Campaign table at a community event. Three women in their 60s and 70s were there. They talked to me about the number of “gun deaths” in this country. I told them that anyone who lumps in suicide with “gun deaths” without acknowledging that suicide is a large part of the total number is engaging in deception in their attempt to shape public opinion. They didn’t seem to like that comment very much.

    One of the women asked me why anyone would need an “assault rifle.” This led to a lengthy discussion. I just wish that when that discussion took place I had seen the meme that I saw a few days ago: “The Second Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights, not the Bill of Needs.”

    Back to ammo restrictions, my local gun shop owner says that the same federal judge who found the California limitation on magazine capacity to be unconstitutional in March has the lawsuit challenging the new ammo law before him. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he will issue a pro-gun rights decision in the last few remaining days before the law goes into effect.

    In any event, as JWR says about magazines, so it is with ammo, Californians: “Buy ’em cheap and stack ’em deep.”

    1. Amen on the Women comments!

       Ann Coulter once said that it is a shame women have the right to vote… “Because the vote democrat” The same goes for the three Republican congresswomen– all voted to keep Obamacare in place– you know for the families.

       A while back a gentleman gave many statistics on women and how they’re destroying the USA by having a man’s job. We were a stronger nation when women were in the homes supporting family rights and not gender rights. America is not strong due to her single liberated feminist women. But we are strong because of men who provide for stay-at-home wives/mothers.

    2. Anon, you need to visit the lower Mississippi Delta. You had better bring your boat. There’s over 500,000 acres of land flooded most under several feet of water and more water on the way. Most of these family farms will not plant a crop this year. But, they still have to make payments on their equipment, buildings, etc. Many, many families have been flooded out of their homes for 3 or 4 months and living under the stress of not knowing how they will provide for their families.

       1. Absolutely correct but it has nothing to do with what I said. Most of the flooded farmland will get planted. Yes there will be losses and these will be played up to the hilt because of insurance and government payouts. Yes there will be a lot of land that does not get planted because the floods will linger too long and these will be the same exact lands that are always most affected by floods when they happen and they happen often and cyclically. Just as in droughts that is land that won’t get planted or won’t produce if they are planted and the droughts happen cyclically too. Some of the best bottom lands that produce the best are the first to be affected by these floods but this isn’t new it has been going on since they first farmed them… and yet they are still there. Why? Because this is not the big deal it is being played up to be it is simply the price of farming rich bottom lands along one of the world’s biggest untamed river.

12. I hope those stupid Californians that you are encouraging to “vote with their feet” don’t come to Oregon! We are over-Californicated already!

    1. You only have yourself to blame for what Oregon has become stop projecting.

13. The farm crisis is real. Iowa and other corn states will have smaller crops this year. Other crops as well as livestock will also be affected. Food prices will rise. Exports will decline. Don’t believe me ? Watch and see. I am not making this up.

    1. Nathan,
       Don’t food prices go up every year? How many acres of corn are grown for Bio fuel? How many Millions of acres around the Country are in CRP? there are many acres doing absolutely nothing.. I think this is more about subsidies than it is about a food crisis. It seems to me that the farmer for the most part never misses an opportunity to cry about something.

       1. You said it. I’d have more sympathy for farmers if I wasn’t required to put ethanol in my gas tank.

14. FreeZoxeeFriends is not a free speech zone. I joined it in the beginning and was attacked for saying restricting any speech is wrong. I mean attacked by the creator of the site. We need an actual free speech site. I don’t support racist, sexist, or other such speech but we should not limit that speech. I was taught the speech we should protect the most is the most vile. When we allow some speech to be restricted we set up all speech to be restricted. I may not believe in what you say but I would fight to the death for your right to say it. If they can take your speech, they can take mine.

15. Re: Boston Dynamics

    Brass Fetcher provided this rare data set of 7.62 NATO AP projectiles launched at increasing speeds at increasingly thicker amour plate samples, documenting the proportionally increase in depth of penetration as the speed was increased. If you forgot to pick up that AR-50, or the other 107 thingy on sale, then load up the Win. Mag, or better yet yore Weatherby, and punch holes deeper, or from longer distances than heretofore was conceivable from shoulder fired projectile launcher. Ya never knowed when an elephant might show up.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkVMSj6scxE

    Almost as an aside, standard lead core boolits, regardless of SD, or weight, are capable of penetrating AR500 inside of 50 to 100 yards, when the muzzle velocity is at least 3,100 fps. There are many You Tube videos that demonstrate. This includes M193, or hotter handloads out of a 20 inch or longer barrel. A .300 Win Mag can make 150 grain bullet do that. A .300 Weatherby can push it to around 3,400+ fps at safe pressures with IMR 4350 or IMR 7828, and a 125 grain boolit to 3,682 with 89 grains of RL22. So says Nosler. It gets real interesting with AP, as it appears that the velocity at impact is only around 2,500 fps to do the same thing. The fastest that they say a 165 grainer can go safely, is about 3,280 fps with Supreme 780. Factory fresh M1AP is 168 grains at 2,750 fps.

    Please note that AP is not a lead core, and pressures should be watched like a hawk, and kept conservative. I have not tried this at home, so do the DD ( Due Diligence). If I could not get a hold of a .300 Weatherby, any barrel burner in any of the on- steroids cartridges, loaded with light for caliber projectiles might be a good anti -material round.

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