Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.
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Reader Tim J. sent this news: Army To Retire All Of Its Turboprop Surveillance Planes By The End Of The Year. JWR’s Comments: I predict that the Army will be forced to extend the life of its existing Guardrail turboprop (Beechcraft Super King Air) platforms, until a significant number of the new Bombardier Global 6500 jets are delivered, and all of the SEMA bugs are worked out. I worked live missions at the Integrated Processing Facility (IPF) ground segment of a Guardrail unit, back in the late 1980s. That was the 2nd M.I. Brigade in Stuttgart, West Germany. We had mission tasking at both the tactical and strategic levels. More than half of our aircraft were the Improved Guardrail V (IGR-V, a.k.a. RC-12D) iteration of Guardrail (similar to the plane pictured above), when Guardrail Common Sensor was still in the planning stages. These are very complex systems, and their delivery and acceptance schedules are notorious for slipping. The trusty Beechcraft turboprop birds will probably have to soldier on for a few more years. It would be a huge mistake to leave a gap in our nation’s air-breathing platform SIGINT/ELINT capabilities.
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SurvivalBlog reader C.B. sent this: How California’s National Park Item Ban Is Impacting Visitor Safety. JWR’s Comment: We visit our nearby National Parks (Yellowstone and Glacier), and both have plenty of grizzlies. When we do, we usually carry both pepper spray and lead spray. Pity the poor disarmed Californians. They now have nary but harsh language available, to discourage the bears.
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High on Health: MAHA Makes Shopping Apps Popular.
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An update from our favorite Finnish sailing adventure vloggers: Living 164 Days in Ice. Now It Gets Dangerous.
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Tommy Robinson’s impromptu speech, following his latest release from prison.
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Several readers mentioned this news: Dense smoke from Canadian wildfires is blowing into U.S..
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H.L. was the first to spot this: Alaska man somehow survives three hours facedown in frigid creek … under 700-pound boulder.
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SaraSue sent this snippet:
“I was inspired by Lily’s retelling of lambing season and all that goes into it. As much as we’d like to believe in the idyllic, human intervention is often needed.
It’s been calving season here and the farm was blessed with 2 healthy heifer calves. Sometimes mama cows do not manage their calves properly and human intervention is required. One of my cows refused to come in to be milked after calving. Her milking capacity is about 10-12 gallons each day. A newborn calf can only drink less than a gallon a day after having its fill of colostrum. This particular cow is a fantastic milk cow. She is halter and lead trained, trained to hand or machine milking. Never kicks or acts out. That is, until she had this calf. And hoo boy, when that calf was born, everything changed. She pawed the dirt and charged me if I got near. She threw a fit if I tried to lead her in for milking. (Note: you are not strong enough to drag an uncooperative, 1,000-pound, dairy cow anywhere she does not want to go). At one point, realizing this cow was going to get very sick if she wasn’t milked out properly, I called my neighbor over to help me. While I distracted the cow, he went to pick up the calf and carry it in to the milking area. As the calf bawled, he had to literally run with the calf in his arms to stay ahead of the mother cow while I ran interference.
Once we got the calf into the milking area, I haltered it and tied it next to where I would be milking the cow. Mama cow came roaring in, and I got her in the head gate. The baby calf threw itself on the ground, played dead, and rolled its eyes up into its head (this is very common for a scared calf so I was not alarmed). With mama cow’s head locked in, and grain under her nose, I put a kick bar on her and proceeded to milk her out completely. She showed her distress by pooping, peeing, bouncing around, and unsuccessfully kicking me, but we got it done. Her behavior continued, so I sold that calf as a bottle baby. It took thee days for mama cow to settle down and go back to being a happy milk cow. She accepted that her calf was gone and she wasn’t even sad about it.
The other dairy cow who calved was completely the opposite. She marched right in to be milked, could care less if you touched her baby, didn’t mind her baby wandering off, but kept an eye on her and tended to her properly. When she had her first calf, she had no idea what it was, kicked it when it got near her and ran from it. I had to make her stand still and help the calf latch on and show her that it was her job to mother the calf, and I supervised feedings for a period of time until she got the hang of it. Each cow has been a different experience.
I am currently in the process of having two heifers bred to calve next Spring, and it will be interesting to see what kind of mothers they become next year. I also picked up a bottle baby bull calf from a local dairy, fairly inexpensively, to grow out for beef this year. My intention is to acquire a second bull calf, if the stars align. With the current cattle prices, it’s a good time to sell and a difficult time to buy. The calf is being raised on mama’s milk, albeit not his particular mama. There is plenty of milk to go around.”
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Phone smuggled out of North Korea sheds light on mad Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship.
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Canadian wildfires are having big impact on US air quality.
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AP: Ukraine’s drone attack on Russian warplanes was a serious blow to the Kremlin’s strategic arsenal. The article begins:
“A surprise Ukrainian drone attack that targeted several Russian air bases hosting nuclear-capable strategic bombers was unprecedented in its scope and sophistication and for the first time reached as far as Siberia in a heavy blow to the Russian military.
Ukraine said over 40 bombers, or about a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, were damaged or destroyed Sunday, although Moscow said only several planes were struck. The conflicting claims couldn’t be independently verified and video of the assault posted on social media showed only a couple of bombers hit.”
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From The Economic Times (of India): World War III looms: Global leaders given two weeks as the clock ticks toward catastrophe.
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Dutch Government Faces Collapse After Wilders Pulls Party out of Coaliton.
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Reader Maxine T. suggested this article: The disaster preppers who were proven right: ‘We lived in the car for five days’.
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Citibank Drops Gun Policy After Trump Accuses Banks of Discriminating.
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Bankrupt Microsoft-Backed ‘AI’ Company Was Using Indian Engineers To Fake It: Report.
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And, lastly, some unusual news from New Jersey: Man On Horse Chases Hit-And-Run Suspect In Burlington Co.: Police.
Please Send Us Your Snippets!
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