Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — February 3, 2021

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This is the birthday of writer James Michener (1907–1997), known for his very well-researched epic novels, such as Centennial.

And this is also the birthday of painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894–1978.)

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 93 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 93 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.


15 Comments

    1. Your priorities are all wrong. What is more important than putting POC in charge of the military and bringing in more LGQTB and women. So, no worries, Biden’s diverse staff has got this.

      1. The hopelessly archaic Geneva Convention has yet to recognize PowerPoint as cruel and unusual torture. So, our intrepid Sgt. SJW will simply need to ambush the enemy and rapidly liquefy their brains with diversity-equality-inclusion lectures… The remaining matter could probably be converted to soylent green right?

  3. There was a discussion last week in Viking4’s article about Sunrise/Sunset websites for printing calendars. For a TEOTWAWKI situation when websites are no longer available, I discovered there are Excel formulas you can use to do the calculations for setting up your own sunrise/sunset tables. (Moonrise/set, and quarters are a lot more complicated so I’ll post that when I get it set up.)

    I have all the Excel add-ins (pre-2012) so try a sample of this formula before setting it all up to be sure your Excel will do it, or if you have to download an add-in.

    Use Google maps and enter your location. Right towards the end of the address, you can see the exact latitude and longitude, or use a GPS unit while standing in your front yard.

    https://www.google.com/maps

    Cut and paste those into your spreadsheet. Don’t forget the (-) sign with the longitude for the US
    lat = 47.[decimals deleted for OPSEC]
    lon = -116.[decimals deleted for OPSEC]

    The formulas are:
    =sunrise(lat,lon,year,month,day,timezone,dlstime)
    =solarnoon(lat,lon,year,month,day,timezone,dlstime)
    =sunset(lat,lon,year,month,day,timezone,dlstime)

    timezone = from Greenwich time, -7 for Moyie Springs
    dls time (daylight savings time) = 0 for no, 1 for yes, meaning daylight savings time is in effect.

    Set each one of the inputs in their own cell to make the formulas easier to read in the table.

    Then set up these columns:

    DATE,Year,Month,Day,SUNRISE,SUNSET,Solar Noon,Day Length

    Use 366 rows for each day of the year + leap day

    You now have a chart for the sunrise, sunset, and solar noon for every day of the year. These times won’t change from year to year so one chart is good for the rest of your life.

    You can also set it up as a calendar if that works better than a table for you. If you do that, you have to add another column for weekday (Sunday = 1, Friday = 6, etc.) Using this function, you’ll have to change the January 1st date in the first cell each year (1/1/2021, next year: 1/1/2022) since January 1st falls on a different weekday each year.

    Here’s a sample of how the chart my spreadsheet looks like. The column headings and data won’t format properly in a SB comment but here they are in order, followed by the column content:

    DATE, Year, Weekday, Month, Day, SUNRISE, SUNSET, Solar Noon, Day Length Hrs & Mins

    1/1/2021, 2021, 6, 1, 1, 8:37 AM, 4:59 PM, 12:48 PM, 8:22
    1/2/2021, 2021, 7, 1, 2, 8:37 AM, 5:00 PM, 12:49 PM, 8:23
    1/3/2021, 2021, 1, 1, 3, 8:37 AM, 5:01 PM, 12:49 PM, 8:24
    1/4/2021, 2021, 2, 1, 4, 8:37 AM, 5:02 PM, 12:49 PM, 8:25
    1/5/2021, 2021, 3, 1, 5, 8:37 AM, 5:04 PM, 12:50 PM, 8:27

    Put the date in cell 1a, then use the YEAR, WEEKDAY, MONTH, and DAY functions to read those from cell 1a.

    Once you have it all set up, check it against various dates in an online calculator to be sure you have everything set up correctly.

    1. Interesting concept St. Funogas, and I’m sure there are those who would or might benefit from it. But man that sure seems like a lot of effort.
      I on the other hand have another approach towards it all:

      When it’s daylight I get up and start with the daily chores.
      When it’s dark I quit and go inside, read or try and stay up on what show is on the with the circus in charge at the time.
      When I get hungry I eat.
      When I get sleepy I go to bed, I don’t worry about what day it is, it’s always a God given day & I pray daily so you might say it’s always the Sabbath.
      When I get tired I rest.
      When the leaves start to turn its fall.
      When rain freezes its winter.
      When frozen rain melts its spring.
      When it’s hot out & I need shade its summer.
      My work (since I’m now retarded, er, uh, I means retired) consists of trying to do something constructive and useful each and every day.
      No internet or calculators required. I don’t need to know what day it is or what time it is, I have reached the point where I simply do not care.
      The sun will come up and it will go down as it has from the beginning.
      When the good Lord decides he has had just about enough of my antics, he will call me to da big house (hopefully). Since I’m not actually in charge of my life anyway, only the screw ups I pursue at any given time.
      If you want to hear God laugh tell Him your plans.
      And that good sir, is my approach towards time and keeping track of it all……. A bit different than yours perhaps, but it seems to work for me. Although I like your concept as well…..

      2. Hey N S, sounds like we have the same play book. Isn’t retirement great? 🙂

        Sorry to hear you’ve contracted LOMR. Hopefully you’re still pre-Stage 1.

        Viking4’s article was about defensive/strategic planning so those are the kind of folks who need that sort of stuff. For the Excel fans among us, it’s a fun puzzle to work through to keep the LOMR stages from progressing too rapidly.

        While reading Viking4’s article, I did think of an actual use for it though. I trace my daily solar panel output and using the day-length data I can work on some ideas I’ve had as far as output vs day length. Such as, in summer the days are longer but the sun actually rises in the northeast and sets in the northwest so the solar panels miss the early morning and late afternoon sun. I’ve wondered how that plays into the equation and if the “normal” tilt angle is really the best?? More useless stuff for normal people! But fun to work on to keep the LOMR at bay.

      4. N S, I enjoy your perspective. Living life as it comes. Since I agree with your opinion, your opinion must be correct. That’s how it works, right?

        Carry on

  7. In 1967 I was one year out of high school. Bored, I picked up a paperback copy of Michener’s book “The Source”. I have always been a reader, but this book opened up history like nothing before. After this, I absolutely devoured history. Years later, after he published “Chesapeake”, I wrote a letter to him, with gratitude. He was kind enough to reply with words of thanks and encouragement.
    I’ll never forget his kindness.

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