“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
In my first attempt at this, I used the terms Prepper and Prepping. I should not have, though I think material aspects of those are covered by what I am doing. Dad worked on Apollo and then Apollo-Soyuz and Skylab. We lived in Seabrook with all the other NASA/JPL/IBM engineers and astronauts that worked at the Johnson Space Center. I thought it was normal to play in the display J-2 rocket engine and wander around when the NASA staff were making the displays for the little museum they had going on before they made it a paid public theme park. My choices for reading were what dad had in the bookshelves, which was a set of Great Books of the Western World, the whole set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, and a mess of Niven, Heinlein, Clarke, Pournelle, Asimov, and others.
Heinlein always struck a chord in me, a resonance that with words expressed with the same impact that having grandparents who lived a lot of that self-reliant and ultimately satisfying life. Let us approach this from that lens, rather than all the connotations that come with Preppers and Prepping. Homesteading is probably the best term for it, in that Prepping requires that you are preparing for some great calamitous event, whereas I am coming from a point of just living life and solving problems in as self-sufficient manner as possible. This includes being prepared for disaster and mayhem, but as part of life.
Because of a reference in some of the comments about a rant on body armor from 2015, I read the entire archived thread that was referenced. First off, it is my life, and I will use whatever means I have in order to defend it. I will even extend that to those around me, whether they deserve it or not. That is my reasoning for having and carrying a pistol. My military gear is for just that (and mainly for working around the property, which happens a lot more than Mad Max bad guy gangs tooling around the nucular (sic) wastelands causing rape and mayhem). I camp with my hammock, poncho, poncho liners, carry everything in the same ruck (and same loadout) that I could live out of indefinitely if need be. Something that was brought up in that thread, to death, was the rights v. the person’s irrational fear of the use of body armor making his guns less effective, so BAN IT, BAN IT ALL TO HELL!!11!eleventyone!!
Don’t care. I shoot, a lot. It is one of the things that my TBIs didn’t scramble so badly that I can’t do it anymore, unlike doing artwork without great concentration or pain, or thinking about each step consciously at some level. I can still do it, and I do it well. I have also been very lucky in that on most of the ranges that I shoot on, there is a good possibility of getting hit with debris, the shorn jacket of a bullet, the odd nail in a stump that gets hit at just the wrong angle, and I have gotten away with at worst minor cuts.
There is also the fact that its intended use for protection in armed conflict. I have it for that reason, should I ever need it. However, I find that the only use for it so far, has been range safety. I have Rx Oakley and Wiley-X specs because I value my failing eyesight. I value what is left of my scrambled brain, so I have an ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet, Ballistic) high cut helmet. It clears the Peltor active ear protection, I can wear it all day, and it is WAAAAY more comfortable than the PASGT helmets you saw from Panama, Gulf War 1, Bosnia, and the opening years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
I have a simple plate carrier that I use, any Berry-compliant (every bit of it made in the USA, to include all components) carrier will do, but my beater carrier is a Shellback Tactical Banshee with medium SAPI rifle plates front and back, with Level IIIA Aramid (Kevlar) soft inserts on the sides. It also works great for carrying 4 extra magazines, a first aid trauma kit, flashlight, and hydration kit. I also have their Banshee 2 with the 3d air mesh lining if I ever had to wear it for days-weeks at a time. Crye Precision and TYR Tactical make the best tactigucci stuff out there, but these work for me, without the several-months wait. Aftermarket is one place where they really surpass the .mil plates and carriers, but you pay for it. NIJ 2006 is the latest standard, and is more stringent than the .mil requirements for Level IV and Level IV Special Purpose plates.
That all said and done, it’s getting to be time for proper gear. Boardshorts, t-shirt, flip-flops, the body boards, and the wetsuit. Almost time to rent a house on Topsail Island or the OBX before the waves die down for the summer. Next installment: reloading equipment and water purification.
Don, Always 11H1P, but now just Professional Beach Bum.
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
can, can, can, idk how hard can it be?, maybe?, can, can, can, can, can, sometimes, definitely can, sorta, can, can, can, can, not really, can, can, can.
what do I win?
Click here to claim your prize.
Can, can, can, can, can, can, can, can, I think I could, can, can, can, can, can, can, can, can, cannot, can, can, hope to in the distant future.
““A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. ”
All joking aside, this describes SP perfectly.
Nothing in there about changing a tire.
It’s so basic it didn’t even make the list.
I couldn’t write a sonnet *right now,* but I could change a tire, no problem.
Anybody can write a sonnet. Hell, Maxine Waters could prob…
I couldn’t keep a straight face.
I just mean that I’d have to look up what a sonnet is before I could write one.
Haven’t ever but I could probably figure it out, can, can, can, can, probably can but I’d need a definition, can, can, maaaaybe?, can, can, can, can, can, can, can, can but would prefer to not, can’t, can, never been in a physical fight but I’m a right cunt in a verbal sparring match, and…well, I guess we’ll find out one day.
And there are two type of sonnets, English and Italian.
And two sub-types of English sonnet: the Shakespearean and Spenserian.
So what I’m getting from this is that I probably can’t write a sonnet. Lol.
No, I’m just saying you have choices. Find the sonnet that suits you.
What about Ewa?
Heinlein’s list is pretty tough for me. As a part of the dreaded M-word generation my time has been wasted and my career highly specialized. I weep.
It’s not too late, waffles. You have the power to change that.
I can do most.
Conn a ship? No. And honestly, that doesn’t belong on a list of what everyone should be able to do. Design a building? For certain low values of building, but for much of anything more than a shack? Nope, and neither can anyone without years of specialized training. Program a computer? Again, not to any degree of usefulness, and again this doesn’t belong on a list, etc., any more than rebuilding an engine does.
yeah, but Heinlein was a navy nerd and a sci-fi writer. It definitely belongs in-context. Of course the particular context of this quote is from Time Enough For Love, so apparently a competent man should also be able to go back in time and fuck their mother
Conning….about as basic as it gets. Simply a matter of verbiage – you’re the one giving directions to the helmsman on how to steer the ship or adjust engine controls. There is a lot about technique particularly when you’re operating alongside other ships or mooring, but generally it’s simply knowing what to say and how to say it.
I can do all these.
Specialization is for insects.
Nice.
Can’t wait for the water purification. I have a lifestraw, some tablets and bleach but don’t have a large storage near me(except the neighbor’s pool).
You wear a full helmet and plate carrier every time you go to the range?
Words fail me.
You don’t? Once I realized that every RSO at my ranges was wearing plates or soft armor I thought it was probably a good idea. On public ranges you can’t know the skill level or safety habits of everyone. You can get a decent vest for the price of a new pistol. If you have the PPE and didn’t bother to use it whats the point of having it? Sometimes it gets awkward when some shooters are all, “Oh. look at Mr. Tacticool.” I just tell em that, personally, I’d feel dumb bleeding out because I didn’t bother to control for an easy to manage risk. Admittedly, I don’t wear a helmet when I go, but I also don’t have a MICH and sexy ear pro.
RSOs wear it because they are there every working minute of every day and because there is a not insignificant chance of someone attempting a suicide or even trying to grab someone’s gun off the bench. For a regular guy to do is a little different. It’s like wearing a Snell approved helmet and HANS device every time you get into your car ‘because NASCAR does it!’.
Don’t get me wrong, I own plates and carriers (not helmets) and do train with them occasionally in case the need for them arises, but if you go to the range actually anticipating taking a bullet, you need a new range.
I used to go to public ranges in SoCal quite a bit. Every time I did I felt like I was taking my life into my own hands with the lack of unsafe handling.
^^ Exactly. Except Indiana.
I understand your point about “because other guys do it,” when I wrote that I figured it was an appropriate shorthand without getting into a full risk analysis model. The difference is the risks you can control vs. risks you can’t.
For any given range, the RSO has the same baseline chance of catching a bullet that you do while on the same range. The difference between you and the RSO from a statistical perspective is they are in the hazard environment for longer so their particularized outcome is worse, but that doesn’t alter the underlying risk. If, while I am at the range, I can’t mitigate the statically probability of catching a bullet I’m instead going to mitigate the damage that a bullet will do when it hits me. This is the rational option given that both the RSO and I are exposed to the same hazard and I value my life more than I value the money I spent on a plates.
I’ve not run a rigorous analysis on helmets, but for me it’s a non issue as I’d need a Gurney bubble. I am debating whether my next daily will have a rollcage.
For clarity, that the RSO’s were wearing armor was a signal to me that I had incorrectly assessed the underlying baseline risk of catching a bullet.
Yes. Most certainly at a public range. I have 10 acres with two houses that backs on the wild west training area side of Ft. Bragg, so several thousand acres of forest, hills, and a drop zone about 7 miles away. When I’m in Austin, I feel like I need the full SWAT-style tank armor we had in Iraq in 2003. Some scary stuff there on the part of a small but persistent percentage of shooters. I’ll address this a bit further below, just got home.
*swings gun in direction of range mates*
“How’s that group, guys? Guys? Why are you all on the floor?”
Out here in central North Carolina there is a public rifle range inside Uwharrie National Forest. Pretty much midway between Fort Drum and Charlotte, and 5-6 miles down an unimproved road. One would expect (especially during deer season) the only folks there would be hunters and hillbillies. Such was not the case.
How a minivan full of Japanese tourists; 1) found this place, and 2) found a passel of ARs with requisite ammunition I don’t know.
It was all the RSO could do to get them to understand they were not allowed to finger-f#ck their weapons during a cease-fire, not to mention the complete disregard for any of the safe handling rules, I couldn’t believe they didn’t get kicked off the range post haste.
My buddy and I were there to zero our hunting rifles. Stupidly we stayed in order to do so. If I had plates and a helmet I would have used them.
Makes me wish I had land… Sorta OT: Anecdotally, at least where I shoot, if you go back about 10~15 years you wouldn’t see anyone RSO or otherwise out on the range with armor. Now its almost a universal for the employees, which I attribute to younger guys coming in off the service who are familiar with it along with the general influx of new shooters. Other nice thing is the demand from the services and the civilian community has meant more suppliers.
I almost got shot by some asshole casing his rifle ON THE FLOOR IN THE AISLE BEHIND THE BAYS. It whizzed by (probably my upper thigh), through the range door and lodged in the lobby wall.
I think about that every time I go to a public range, like Jeezuz, I STILL don’t have at least soft armor!
Let us approach this from that lens, rather than all the connotations that come with Preppers and Prepping. Homesteading is probably the best term for it, in that Prepping requires that you are preparing for some great calamitous event, whereas I am coming from a point of just living life and solving problems in as self-sufficient manner as possible. This includes being prepared for disaster and mayhem, but as part of life.
I used to watch one of those “prepper” shows. It didn’t take long to figure out the show’s producers were actively seeking out the craziest fringe. People who were building underground bunkers like they expected to take the starring role in some Twilight Zone nuclear apocalypse episode. Buried school buses stocked with rice and beans and water.
But one guy who made it onto the show was going in a completely different direction. He was building a frontier trading post. He had enough land to grow food for sale or barter. He was set up to mass produce ammo. He was doing it right, in my view. Rather than hide out in a hole in the ground, he was preparing to trade, but on a pre-iphone level. Because people will always trade what they know for what they need.
Also- in a discussion about this topic on The Place Before, somebody made the incredibly astute observation that one of the smartest things you could do in a “post grid” scenario would be to have an extensive working knowledge of the steam engine. Because the steam engine is what pulled us out of the muck before, and it could do it again.
Saw that episode, that guy had a great idea. I think the whole point of the prepper reality shows was to mock it. Instead it made prepping popular.
More importantly, and I believe this has been demonstrated in the many disasters we have see (Katrina, tsunami), is to get to know and trust your neighbors. Simple as that. What each is good at, skills, resources, etc. Social interaction and close social ties save the vast majority of people over new knives and fancy pants algae growing ponds.
This. So much this.
What if you’re a misanthrope though? Maybe I just need better neighbors.
*checks pond covered in algae, pours in a little bleach when no one is looking
Seriously, I had just gotten out in Jan 2005, got to watch the 82nd deploy to NOLA for Katrina… to stop the New Orleans-area LEO and National Guardsmen from confiscating guns and looting people’s houses. One tight-knit, well armed and prepared community would have stopped that cold since the confrontation would have gone viral.
And this is why I need to master chemistry. Gotta learn how to make proper propellants, but in order to master those skills myself I’d probably end up on a watch list as I’m not DuPont and pretty sure I couldn’t afford the BATFE certification process.
Join one of the rocketry organizations. I learned to roll AP with powdered aluminum kicker for my NAR and Tripoli certs. It worked and everything. I was shocked. My dumb ass would do something like mix ammonia and bleach, thus recreating some trench warfare scenes from a century ago… thought I would never breathe right again. This is why the better half does all of the chem and bio stuff. She is actually trained in it.
Homesteading is how I look at it now. I realized that I didn’t want to be a prepper/hoarder, sustainability and self reliance was what I was really after. When preppers run out shit to use or trade they then become marauders. Those Alaska homesteader and Survivorman shows interest me more than the prepper ones did.
My dream is a subsistence farm in a clearing in the woods with some water, with maybe a dozen acres of land for crops and some livestock, a small orchard and outbuildings for welding, garage, projects. Solar, water, wind, HHO generators and all kinds of other sources can be used for power. I was raised in Amish country, and I realized long ago these people have a sustainable way of life and orderly society unchanged since before modern conveniences (although repressed).
My wife and I both love learning new skills like canning, glass blowing, rough and finish carpentry. Although she envisions us with more of a “cute farm”, with pygmy goats and bunnies and duckies and such.
I would like the opinion of the wizengamoot out there. Why is it all ex-mil guys love the crappy army gear? Is it a masochism thing? I mean you don’t need the top of the line shit but if someone said to me you can have the navy seal provision kit or this boyscout who is going to Philmont kit I would take the Boy Scout every single time. I mean the military provision gear has specific and SHORT TERM uses. The camper/hiker gear is for LONG TERM and DEEP OUTBACK purposes. IT MAKES NO SENSE TO BRAG ABOUT A 15LBS CANVAS BAG. You can get a phenomenal composite frame pack that carries three times as much, has more compartmentalization, and weighs less 6 lbs.
I don’t discount comfort with training but seriously it is 2017, the non military sector far surpassed the military in camping and survival gear about 60 years ago. I can cook a four course meal twice a day for over a week AND have somewhere dry to sleep AND the tools to build a freakin cabin AS WELL AS carry a weapon for at least 30 lbs less than your average ground pounder puts on.
If you want to talk SHTF survival yeah, a knife, a poncho, a pot…sure we can do that BUT if you ahve time to prep and want to enjoy your gear and use it get modern equipment.
P.S. This is not meant too be mean or directed at anyone in particular (except maybe my army friend). Please take with copious amounts of sodium chloride and Polar Ice.
I can’t speak for all the ex-mil’s but the familiarity is comforting. You know exactly how something is going to perform. You have to remember that so many of us would actually have to convert/improve the 15 lb canvas bag we were given so it actually worked a little better. And a lot of us were never in Scouts so milspec was all we ever knew for outdoors. But now, especially since the oldest is now in Cub Scouts, I’m learning to be more open about gear. But, at the same time, I will stand by the goretex bivy sack, the ‘woobie,’ and the canteen cup as exceptions to these rules. Nalgene started making the Oasis model canteens and I ordered a couple to give my canteen cups new life.
If he makes it to Boy Scouts check out the adults, Especially the young adults/ASMs etc. They have jobs and a focus on backpacking but no kids of their own yet so they spend the most on the cooled newest gear. I am not saying that all new shit is good. Nor am I saying that some old things arent good (model1911 is still there for a reason). But that vast majority of the time that old metal canteen is far inferior to the new hydration systems that are out there. And Gortex is the standard in gear…it ain’t a mil thing.
Crap I was inarticulate…and I deleted a couple of sentences in that first response. *Preview Button, cough, cough* I bought a Silva Ranger as soon as I could afford one when I was an E-Nothing. Seal Line map cases, stuff like that. Between money being finite, and one could only really replace gear that didn’t stick out, you get stuck with the other stuff. I had to have an issue ruck, that’s how that worked. I couldn’t show up with a nice composite frame pack. Plus, I couldn’t jump every ruck that you can buy at REI. That being said, I still have my old Ranger compass, but I also have a nice internal frame ruck now, and a badass woodman’s pal machete. But I still insist on having a wooden paddle on the boats, still have a rolled poncho in the closet, and still tape old style metal magazines on the bottom so they don’t rattle. And as much as I LOVE GPS, I get nervous when I don’t have a real map.
This!!!eleventy1!!!
Military deployments not withstanding obviously. Gotta follow orders AND mission params require different things. But when you go on your first 18 miler with two summits in a day, and the 15 year old kid carrying 50Lbs beats you AND has a 5 star hotel resort campsite set up before you make it there, then the value and use case of modern gear becomes clear. It is all about use cases. The backpacking use case is nearly 100% incomparable with the military use case. I can’t get an evac from a three day hike into the yukon…then again no one is shooting at me.
P.S. in Boy Scouts you don;t use GPS you use orienteering. Good troops have the 13 year olds do the triangulation.
I was actually trying to agree with you CB, I didn’t articulate it well. I was trying to explain why a knuckle dragger like me sometimes falls back on the only thing he/she/xhe knows. (<- Joke) But it is fun having the smallest pack that looks hobo AF and has the most comforts as home embarrasses the the other dad that spent waaaay to much on brand new stuff he can't figure out.
I understand and sometimes yes it turns into a fashion show. Not sayin’ it doesnt. And I get minimalist approaches too. But I use hardened steel not bronze because technology allows me to. All I am sayin’
My cook stove is an alcohol stove made out of two beer cans. I carry denatured alcohol in a squeeze bottle. But I bought a brand new retro style canteen to fit my ancient canteen cup that I heat on my home built stove to heat the water to cook the meal I made at home and vacuum sealed after I dehydrated it.
hard core.
white gas or gtfo
Um, I retired in 2012 – but if you think people are lugging stuff around in 15lbs canvas bags…. you might be a bit out of date with what the DoD folks get.
Speaking of old crap, I think it’s about time for my old ruck to go to the Great TA-50 Locker in the Sky. It’s been sitting in the garage gathering spider webs, dead bugs, and god knows what else for, shit, fifteen years now. Can’t quite bring myself to send it on it’s way yet.
Probably should do the same for the fragmentation vest and replace it with actual body armor.
Last time I looked in mine, there were MREs that expired a decade earlier. I was saving them for the apocalypse, now all I’ll have is pop-tarts.
Cheese spread and peanut butter should still be good. I ate one of the dehydrated prok patties from the old dark brown MRE issue vintage 1988. I didn’t die or get dysentery or anything. Still needed tobasco sauce though.
They all need tobasco – duh!
I used to take the ham omlette, squeeze in a cheese spread, jam in some crumbled crackers, and the potatoes au gratin it came with. Mix in as much hot sauce as you can find and you have a feast.
I always liked the hash. The meals in the dark brown MREs were almost uniformly superior to the tan ones. WTF is a HOOAH bar and WTF are the M&Ms?
Chocolate cookie bar with the peanut butter. Guaranteed to stop you up, then break the toilet bowl in the latrine when you got back.
Omelette with Ham or GTFO
I got a good friend who was Amy Int spec ops, ret 2 years ago…He still has and loves his TWO canvans rucks and each is easily 15lbs dead weight.
carrying capacity, ease of use, and overall quality of a 150$ used Kelty puts them to shame…and I HATE Kelty.
I had far better than 15lbs canvas stuff when in Iraq…in 2008. I cannot imagine it has gotten worse.
Sometimes people like old stuff – but that is individual preference, not applicable across a million plus people.
Agreed, and I aint sayin’ ones reproductive organ is larger than another. I am just trying to understand when I go camping/hiking/BPing, these folks run around with shit that is basically WAY TO HEAVY!
Like how you cleaved that extra O to save weight. We use to break down the MREs and get rid of all the cardboard and plastic we didn’t need on patrol. See, we’re all sympatico.
yup
and give me the BIG POT any day.
I like BIG POT and I cannot lie…
I wholeheartedly concur. A few years back I was on a climbing expedition and a military unit was camped in a nearby site at Camp One. Their gear was excessively bulky, clumsy, and at the end of the day, probably less effective than the space-age materials and designs that most of the recreational climbers had.
That being said, it is fun to walk around a surplus store, check out some of the gear, and find the occasional treasure.
The military unit’s gear was also made by the “lowest bidder” to specs drawn up by some bureaucrat that would never have to use it, and given to a unit that probably had one in 10 that actually had to use the equipment. And funniest thing is the ones that most needed the best equipment had the oldest and worst. The ones in support that would never use the equipment had the newest and nicest.
Well there the least likely to break that shit.
What about snake bites?
“I got some bad news. The doctor says you’re gonna die.”
Field amputations not that dissimilar from hog butchering, and a not dissimilar outcome rate. 😛
Did you have to put a smiley after that sentence? ;p
I snort-laughed some coffee on this whole bit. Chortled for reals even… 😀
“tactigucci”
Nice.
Googles for Bob on the FOB’s “Geardo”.
Goes with the gucciflauge.
Once I realized that every RSO at my ranges was wearing plates or soft armor I thought it was probably a good idea. On public ranges you can’t know the skill level or safety habits of everyone.
I have made more than one tactical retreat from the range when people I deemed to be “untrustworthy” showed up.
I never really thought about it. Now i cant go to a range without some type of extra. Thanks for the “Aha!” moment. Nice article.
This is what my method of having to learn to do damned near everything physical again, as well as the thinking about things that used to be subconscious, has led me to. I was always good at infantry stuff, always a natural at shooting. It gave me goals, I train/ed with much better quality stuff than they issue even now, got some of it back. Just my way, and my meandering thoughts along with it, in hopes someone can consider not only the practical stuff, but the philosophies and ideals behind my Oath and the Constitution. As a minarchist-ish person, it ain’t perfect, but it is a whole lot better than anything in human history so far. Yep, I too have withdrawn to safer environs when people showed up with a case of the dumbass.
I had to take a firearms safety class to get my CCW. I was pleased that the class size was suuuper small–think 6 people, total, plus two instructors. I was pretty concerned because they had some 20-25 people in the classroom portion…and I really did not want to be on the range at the same time as some of them.
It was pretty clear this would be the first time some of them handled a gun, but where else are they supposed to start?
I usually offer pointers and safety tips on the line, even when it isn’t wanted. It is my flesh as well as everyone else at the range at stake (mmmm, now I need to grill a steak). Most ranges that I have been to have staff that give introductory courses, and pretty much everyone looks out for each other.
I follow the same code of conduct at the range as I do at the gym–unless someone is doing something unsafe, it’s not my circus and those are not my monkeys.
Exactly.
I thought the part about the modifier “if they were being unsafe”, but apparently it never made it to my fingers.
Brooksie, I have to. In Wisconsin, the weeks before gun deer season are crowded at the ranges. Never a problem, really, until the Hmong contingent would show up. I’d leave immediately. They always came in big groups and apparently adhering to gun safety rules is against their religion or something. No indexing, no muzzle control – it was some scary shit.
I know how to butcher a hog but I don’t know how to clean a fish. But I can change a tire
I’ve never butchered a hog, but can clean a fish. Free association time? I like bacon too…
I’d gladly write you a beautiful sonnet, in exchange for some of that delicios bacon.
Sure thing. I miss working in a butcher shop to be honest.
I like words. *hands egould some ebacon* mmmmmmmm
Here. Pay attention to the fish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujSZoKjhhQY
What fish?
Dude… catches, cleans and I’m guessing cooks it
Even the really serious folks make mistakes sometimes.
Skip ahead to 29 seconds in and note how the dude hides behind a target D: Ahhh!
Yep, that one is pretty bad.
And effectively illustrates why I wear armor, humans are fundamentally unreliable system elements. Training, procedures, and oversight can increase that reliability but there will always be excursions. Pobodys Nerfect as the saying goes.
Then you always have these guys…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxIfMuJzKxQ
My face the entire time I was watching.
Did you say “dumbass” in Clint’s voice as well? Good grief.
Jeezo…no trigger etiquette.
LOL proggie coworker is morphing into a gun enthusiast now.
Ask him/her if they are going to join the NRA.
Ask them if in 4 years, A Donkey wins the WH or Congress goes Blue – will they give up their arms?
He said he’s not sure now. He doesn’t want to be one of those people who has a membership to the racist NRA but he’s considering joining a Democrats for Guns group or some shit.
Yea, but if he joins the NRA then it’ll be his NRA and he can vote. Or he can bring light to the darkness or whatever. Sell it as a noble crusade.
D.emocratic U.nderground M.ilitary B.ivouac
I know/seen any number of “smart” people who just can’t fathom physical work – anything like plumbing, or a car, or even building a retaining wall is just something they hire out.
When I tell people I’ve done engine swaps or built an engine up from a shortblock I get this look like some mystical power has been passed on to me. But really i just bought a book, read a lot, asked a bunch of questions on some car forums, got the right tools together, and did it. I always figured if some guy with a GED can figure this stuff out than an “educated” (ha!) bloke like me can do it too.
*then
Replacing a whole engine is fun.
My dad doesn’t have a high school education and he taught me everything I know. I did teach him how to read, though. I’d say it was good trade off.
I resemble that remark. I have a lot to learn. I’m enjoying this series that’s for sure.
You have the physique for it. I know basic car stuff, but as soon as the going gets tough, I find an expert. It’s good to be well rounded, but there are reasons for specialization.
I’m adventurous. I can get to work without a car and all that so it’ll be minor inconvenience if I screw up. But I get what you mean.
In the day of YouTube, it boggles my mind how so many people won’t try the easiest of repairs, etc. and just call ‘the guy.’
I do the same. Some I hire out due to physical limitations like structural damage and coordination issues, it just takes me too long for some stuff now. OT, but I might need to talk to you about hi-fi tube amps. I’ve built a couple of clones of HIWATT amps (David Gilmour freak here) from schematics and pictures so hand wired, point-to-point, and lots of clones and mods to EFX pedals. Sat there helping dad make Heathkit stuff, but that was 40+ years ago. I always liked your posts about such things at the other place.
Hell my first job out of college I changed a guy’s brakes on his honda for him cause they were gonna charge him up the ass and he was already grinding the steel backing on his rotors.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I’m an engineer, which means my co worker was, too. This guy graduated with a bachelors in mechanical engineering and couldn’t change brake pads.
Heinlein’s characters always exuded general competence and common sense. Loved the juvenile series and gave many to my son to read. But I always identified more with Niven’s more happy-go-lucky characters who just made up crap on the fly.
All this talk of Heinlein and Niven make we want to go dig up my old books now.
I started reading Ringworld again. Love it.
My county library now has digital audio books – with some Heinlein titles. Now I listen to them during my commute.
I was quite surprised to find a TON of them on youtube.
Library?!?
That’s a picture of me when I discover my wife paid some of our money for a book.
STOP USING YOUR PRIVILEGE YOU CIS-HET SHITLORD!
I always figured if some guy with a GED can figure this stuff out than an “educated” (ha!) bloke like me can do it too.
That’s my default assumption, too.
“Jesus, look at the people who get *paid* to do that. How fucking hard can it be?”
“Jesus, look at the people who get *paid* to do that. How fucking hard can it be?”
In my cabinetry/carpentry days, I saw circumstances where certain people have thought that. Then their wife forced them to hire us to fix it.
And I’m sure after you’ve wrecked two or three projects, you’ll have it figured out, too. I just hope you have enough projects to wreck on your way up the learning curve.
With age – and a better income – I don’t do as much car work as I used to. But minor repairs are no problem. I just don’t have the space in my current mid-century house for the tools, especially the big ol’ engine lift and stand.
But I’ve painted, done drywall, some minor carpentry (I hate this since I can’t cut straight with a saw to save my life), plumbing, and lots of electrical work. So far so good. But I hired someone to install a new front door since I knew it would be a bitch to move the doorbell to another location, shim the frame, and deal with the old structure.
Sometimes it is better to pay someone with the experience unless you don’t mind learning from your mistakes.
Sorry I’m late responding, both nieces are sick so I spent the morning with them. Thing 1 has walking pneumonia, Thing 2 is ramping up her fever in the who-can-be-the-most infected meatbag contest.
Cliche Bandit, when I went to Iraq, we were just moving from the mostly Vietnam-era equipment (I did basic and jump school in the good old steel pot, and my M16A1 in basic was made in 1967). My first two months in the 82nd I was on every detail for turning in the old stuff and inventorying all of the new. It was the first time I wore the original Kevlar helmet, got to retire the 1911A1 that was my issue sidearm for the crap M9, turned in the 1/4 ton jeeps for the brand spanking new HMMWV fleet that was waiting for our Battalion to sign for… and on jump status, you used the ALICE pack (which Division still uses to this day).
My issue BDUs and desert stuff sits in a trunk for museum use. I wear Crye G3 combat pants for the training/field use, and Arc’teryx stuff for day trips an hanging out. Or board shorts and a Captain America t-shirt. My crap issue boots got put up as soon as I got to my unit, and stayed there. Lowa Zephyr 8″ or Asolo boots depending on where and when, or Merrell Trail Glove 3 shoes for the rest of the time I have to wear foot cages. When I’m looking to do the long haul stuff, days or weeks at a time, along with an extra set of SAPI plates. I run minimalist yet well designed gear, the plate carrier being the only non-top-tier stuff I have. My plates are only 6 lbs each, but rated for NIJ 2006 Level IV. They cost me about $400 per plate, as opposed to the $90 (full set, front, back, and sides) that I would spend on heavy issue plates. I don’t run Crye Precision JPC or Armored Chassis Carrier, because they ride the plates too low on me to properly cover my heart and lungs. I have a Team Wendy headgear setup, not cheap but damned if it isn’t almost comfortable. I use an issue poncho for tarp, rain fly, or light sleeping bag with a woobie for a heat sack under my hammock, and another for cover warmth.
BUT. That is all for camping rough for a week to indefinitely, as I have no plans to bug out should the sky fall and civilization end. I have hand-operated pump heads for both wells, endless trees for building and firewood, I just reserved a Dillon 650 progressive press for mass-producing barter goods in several calibers, and I can make mead (and I’m thinking brandy from it once I get set up with a still). Those things are very useful for the community here. Others have much more than the 4 clear acres I have for farming (though I do that on and off on those 4 acres), and there is a guy about 4 miles away that has herds of cattle for slaughter. I tend to use optimized versions of issue gear due to the familiarity. I still have my green tick, er, Pack, ALICE, Large, with Frame, but not fer using. It’s just fer lookin’ through. Eberlestock is what I use, and I am eyeballing a couple of Mystery Ranch packs that some Group buddies swear by. Those dudes live out of that stuff for months at a time in Afghanistan.
The extra SAPI plates bit was supposed to be after the first sentence. I blame Bob Marley.
I enjoyed your article Beach Bum. I had never thought about the prepper thing until a few years ago. It seems I have most items to survive off the grid probably indefinitely, except gasoline for the generator, and to get to the trees if I needed more firewood. I never planned it that way, it is just how I have lived and acquired naturally through lifestyle.
I don’t own any body armor, but I shoot in the hills with no one else around. I never really thought about that since I haven’t been to a proper range in a long time.
There is still some junk around here. Rocks, metal, even alone in the woods strange things happen. I watched a bullet hit target, go through about 3 inches of oak sap wood, then cut a branch at head height perpendicular to the path of flight.
This is outlining an entirely different preparation for a different use case. It is easy to see in this outfitting where the focus, rightfully, is. But recreational gear, which can be more than adequate in a survival situation, is used for a different purpose. Armor iis not the first thing I pack (although I do think it would make the mauling by grizzlys take longer so I may reconsider). In a survival situation in hostile territory those things make perfect sense, in the mountains of coloraodo i want a fishing pole and a nice sleeping bag rated to -40.
Also, they would have had to pry that 1911 from my cold dead hands for an M9. When is the mil going to start using the Sig p226? (or do they?)
The thing about your loadout whenever you are on foot is the weight. Honestly, body armor would never make my cut if I was hauling everything on my back.
Travel light, freeze at night…or if you were in the army, travel light, spoon at night.
My first team leader out of basic- “How much does 10lbs of cool gear shit weigh?”
Sig P320 just got the contract. $425 street price here for black, $495 for the Dark Earth/coyote.
oooooooooo
I really want a 226 .40 … damn. Now I am window shopping again
Double the price here ($879) for the P226 Mk25 with threaded barrel.
I shop at Goodwill.
“Specialisation is for insects.”
Huh.
A society of “specialisers” will outpace a society of generalists.
I think he meant as an individual – if you limit yourself to being able to do only one thing…eh. Obviously, R.H went to doctors 🙂
cav, you can be both. As a general counsel, I am a generalist. As a hospital lawyer, I am a specialist. In combination, my market value is doubled over what either would bring in without the other.
I think it’s fair to say that MILSPEC vice REI camping gear is gaining ground on the pizza and abortion wars. None of you are true scotsmen!
Oxford comma or BURN IN HELL!!!!
Ya know, I got Nikki to agree with me on that once.
But I can’t pay for a Swissy narrow gaze in the ML…whatever.
Any more back and forth between us and the rest are going to ask us to get a room. NTTATWWT.
I don’t want to ban body armor to make guns more effective, I want to ban guns to make my barbwire bat more effective.
You just had to go there.
+1 board with nail
Silk long johns, Jeans, wool socks, steel-toes, flight Jacket, sweater kind of guy when it’s cold. Also wool shooting gloves that can convert to mittens. Add in the heavier stuff – snow pants for real winter weather which is all too common here in Michigan. Also snow shoes/ cross country skis depending on the terrain.
it’s been ages since I’ve camped – the older I get, the colder and hotter the world seems. Now I’m a hotel kinda guy.
No doubt on the older thing. Me and the seven year old. Hammocks with no real other comfort. Wife and the 3 year old join us…tent with an inflatable mattress and every comfort known to man. Either way…my old ass don’t sleep on the ground anymore.