I Don’t Deal in Conspiracies

Prepper Precepts #6 I Don’t Deal in Conspiracies

 

27 Prepper Precepts #6
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I don’t deal in conspiracies.  Men do evil things on occasion.  Groups of evil men do bad things, but the shear amount of people that would have to be quiet to pull off a “shadow” government is impossible for a bureaucrat to manage.

These guys cannot figure out how to pay their taxes or keep their affairs out of the papers. I work in a bureaucracy, and I know exactly how ineffective they can be at keeping secrets.

Every time someone sends an email out about being on a “FEMA Red list” or “secret prison camps” it only hurts our community and makes us look like nutjobs.

Don’t Make Us Look Like Nut Jobs

Rules of Civility: The 110 Precepts that Guided Our First President in War and Peace

These precepts are my creed, and having prepper precepts guides me when I face tough choices.  A wise man once told me that when facing a moral problem, the right choice is usually the action you don’t want to take.

I am not a pollyanna person that is wishy washy or blindly follows rules, heck I have a little rebellious streak and love to know the WHY of rules, but I do respect and understand the need for law and know how vital it is for a society to have a moral code.

By knowing what I believe in you can know how I will act. This is very important in times of stress.  If you don’t want to read these precepts one by one, the completed list can be found here: Completed 27 Prepper Precepts.

How to Make Homemade Rootbeer

How to Make Homemade Root beer

 

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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So while experimenting with Mead recipes the other week I made yet another trip to the local brew store and happened to see some soda extracts. I had seen them before but never got some.  Today I was in a creative mood.  That landed me right in the middle of a “why the heck not moment”.

I picked the root beer extract because I don’t like cream or orange soda.  Alternatively, I wasn’t far enough on board to try sarsaparilla (yet)…

Making Homemade Rootbeer Is Very Simple

It actually took me less time to complete than it took me to convince the wife I would not blow up the kitchen or make a huge mess. A few minutes of “I cleaned up after the tofu” and “I promise I won’t make a mess”, sprinkled in with promises of a back rub and generous thanks for being such a help with the camera earned me a camera woman for this project…

Inside the extract box were several sets of instructions. Depending on if I wanted to make 4 gallons of root beer all at once, make it in actual beer bottles, or for the beginner two 2 liter soda bottles. I would have done it in beer bottles, but I wasn’t quite ready to drop the money in bottles, caps, and a capper (yet), so I choose the soda bottle method.

The Process

I rehydrated some yeast in a coffee cup while I dissolved a couple cups of sugar and a tablespoon of extract in a gallon of water.

Next I split both the yeast and the extract/sugar solution equally into the 2 bottles.

I added a little extra water to fill the bottles to within about 1 ½ from the top.

I then shook them up and put them in a 5 gallon bucket to ferment.

The yeast will eat the sugar and release carbon dioxide and a little amount of alcohol as a byproduct. That’s what will turn my root beer into soda. Without the yeast and the sugar the extract would not the carbonated.

The instructions said to wait 4-6 days for the carbonation to pressurize the bottles and then put it in the refrigerator to stop the carbonation. Otherwise the bottles could explode. By putting the bottles in the bucket, if I don’t check the bottles enough and catch them in time, any soda explosion, would be trapped in the bucket and won’t get me beat up by my wife.

I Can Control How I Deal With Events

Prepper Precepts #5 I Can Control How I Deal With Events

 

27 Prepper Precepts #5
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Bad things happen. I cannot control what happens, but I can control how I deal with events.  You cannot choose what happens, but you can choose how you react.  I read a book recently about the cancer wing at a children’s hospital.  The book told how the kids choose to laugh and be positive in the face of a terrible ordeal.  The author realized that resilient people choose to stay positive and look upon things with some measure of humor – seeing the positive is hard, but it helps.

This is the key to resilience.  knowing how to deal with problems.  I admit I still have some work to do in this area.  I’m great at handling work issues and big problems, but sometimes the weight of the small home problems get to me more than they should.

When that happens I try to go back to what is important right now and block out what I can’t deal with and focus on what I can – one can at a time until all the problems are dealt with.

Control Your Emotions

Rules of Civility: The 110 Precepts that Guided Our First President in War and Peace

These precepts are my creed, and having prepper precepts guides me when I face tough choices. A wise man once told me that when facing a moral problem, the right choice is usually the action you don’t want to take.

I am not a pollyanna person that is wishy washy or blindly follows rules, heck I have a little rebellious streak and love to know the WHY of rules, but I do respect and understand the need for law and know how vital it is for a society to have a moral code.

By knowing what I believe in you can know how I will act. This is very important in times of stress. If you don’t want to read these precepts one by one, the completed list can be found here: Completed 27 Prepper Precepts.

How to Stencil Ammunition Cans for Ammo Storage

How to Stencil Ammunition Cans for Ammo Storage

 

How to Stencil Ammunition Cans for Ammo Storage
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The other day I showed you how I removed the markings from old surplus military ammo cans. Today I will show you how we went about stenciling ammunition cans with our own markings.

As I scoured the internet for options I found that stenciling ammo cans was the most popular by far, and I even found a guy that will custom cut stencils. The cost was reasonable – about 2 dollars a stencil, but I decided to try my hand at cutting them. I got some clear plastic, a hobby knife, and a printout of the words I wanted to paint on my cans. Let’s just say this was a fail.

Next I tried to get a friend of mine with a vinyl scrapbooking stencil cutter. My idea was to resale common stencils like 5.56 and .40 S&W. My powers of persuasion were not powerful enough to get the stencils in bulk.

Next I just went to the local hobby store and bought some stencils.  Spray-paint and stencils never work well for me and after turning my workbench a nice shade of yellow I threw the stencils in a box.

I then found that the military STAMPS the lot number – which makes a lot of sense. I then bought some rib type stamps, a stamp holder, pad, and yellow ink and decided to stamp my own cans.

½ letters work fine and you can get about 23 characters a foot
I chose ¼ letters so I could get more lettering on the locking end of my can (If I did it again I would stick with ½ inch) ¼ inch stamps is about 43 characters a foot.
If you go bigger ¾ is about 16 characters a foot and 1inch letters get you about 14 characters a foot.

Some Common Dimensions

30 CAL AMMO CAN is 10″ x 7″ x 3
50 CAL AMMO CAN is 11.5″x7″x6″
SAW BOX is 12″ X 6 3/4″ X 8 1/2″
20 MM AMMO is 18 3/4 X 8 1/4 X 14 1/4
81 MM MORTAR BOX is 14 1/2 X 5 1/2 X 22 1/2

My smaller cans I use for cast bullets so I stamped them “CAST and the caliber”.  I use another for casting supplies so I labeled it “CASTING SUPPLIES”

For my 50 caliber cans I labeled them the following way:

800 ROUNDS
CALIBER and BULLET TYPE
BOXED or BULK
RELOADS or COMMERCIAL

Stamping is easier for me than painting, and mistakes were easier to clean up.
But my pad was too large – I wanted to get a lot of room for letters, but ended up wishing I would have gotten a much smaller pad to make it easier to use even pressure.

My letters were too small. They were just right for the ends, but could have been a lot bigger on the sides.

But my biggest learning curve was my ink. I wanted to use yellow like the original cans, but high quality yellow ink was expensive so I did not buy what I needed and the ink I got did not adhere evenly and was hard to see.

Next time I am going to use a high quality white ink.

I know that there are easier ways of marking your ammo cans – one guy said he colors in his stencils with a white grease pencil – others use tape and sharpies. Whatever works for you. But personally while this does not follow K.I.S.S. principles to the letter, I like how it turned out, and since I put a lot of effort into making good rounds, I wanted to store them in nice boxes.

Take Reasonable Precautions Based Upon Risk Assessments

Prepper Precepts #4 Take Reasonable Precautions Based Upon Risk Assessments

 

27 Prepper Precepts #4
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I take reasonable precautions based upon my own risk assessments. And then I get on with my life. As situations change, I may spend some time tweaking plans as I watch current events. But life happens, things break, I fix it, and move on.

Preparedness means you ready as you can be.  No one can be 100% prepared, but follow the emergency preparedness cycle and you will be more prepared than most of the population.

Rules of Civility: The 110 Precepts that Guided Our First President in War and Peace

These precepts are my creed, and having prepper precepts guides me when I face tough choices. A wise man once told me that when facing a moral problem, the right choice is usually the action you don’t want to take.

I am not a pollyanna person that is wishy washy or blindly follows rules, heck I have a little rebellious streak and love to know the WHY of rules, but I do respect and understand the need for law and know how vital it is for a society to have a moral code.

By knowing what I believe in you can know how I will act. This is very important in times of stress. If you don’t want to read these precepts one by one, the completed list can be found here: Completed 27 Prepper Precepts.