McGarrett

Welcome to TN & TGO, glad to have you. I have lived in TN all my life but I am a newcomer to the forums. Congrats on making your way South.

Welcome to TGO!

The advice that whitewolf & tacoma have given is solid; beans, bullets, and bandaids.   +1 on firewood & wood stove. You can heat, cook, boil water, etc. I keep about 2 to 3 winters worth of wood stored up and keep it rotated out. Plenty of fire starting materials, kindling, seasoned woods, & matches, zippos, flints, lighter fluid. I am constantly cutting, splitting, stacking and working with the wood year round. Good exercise and has a practical use as well. We do not exclusively heat with wood but it just supplements our regular heat and it's there if you need it. I also have a fire pit outside, I keep some charcoal as well as wood for it. We live on 10 acres and 1/2 of it is wooded so there is no shortage of wood, I am constantly cutting up trees or limbs that are down.   Lights- coleman lanterns, oil lamps, candles, flashlights.   Ammo- been buying a little along the years, need to have plenty for each type of firearm you have. I have a couple of combos of handguns & carbines that take the same caliber. I have .38/ .357 revolvers and lever rifle and .40 handguns and keltec sub 2000 carbine in .40. I also have some 9, .45, 22lr, 12ga, etc. Too much to list all of them but you get the picture.   Water storage, we have barrels as well as an above ground pool. Getting a Berkey filter soon.   I keep 2 propane bottles, 1 to use out of and 1 extra. We have a gas grill as well as a propane camp stove/ oven. Someone stole my coleman stove out of our barn and i have not replaced it yet.   Fuel storage & generator or small solar set up are things that are on my list. I keep enough gas to run the chainsaw and log splitter for a while with stabil & seafoam added to it. I get 100% gas with no ethanol.    Food- my wife handles most of this, we have a variety of long term & short term food stored. She has been buying some bulk grains and other items from a place in Knoxville that is run by the Mormon church. They will sell to anyone and they also have a cannery set up to can items in the large #10 cans that is on site. I do not know much about this place because my wife goes there. Very reasonable prices. We are not Mormon but I guess from what I see they must believe in stocking up on food. We are also gardening and growing some grains; wheat & buckwheat.   First aid/ medical- we have been stocking up on your normal everyday medicine cabinet type items as well as first aid items.   CB is a cheap & common form of comms that has a decent range probably 3 to 5 miles max. I don't know much about ham. I think cb could be used to keep a community in communication with each other and maybe relay out to the rest of the world. I have been looking at one of the voyager solar/ dynamo radios but have not got one yet, only receives does not transmit. I have looking into the old military surplus field phones, they would be good where you can run wire or get onto existing cabling.   I keep a bug out bag in the vehicle with the intent to primarily use it to get home to bug in. We live in a rural area.   I hope this helps you out. I tried not to ramble on and overload you with too much information at once,

Here is a link to an incident involving a local Blount County man that got in a jam selling guns out the backdoor of his business. Not sure of all the details but I think he sold a stolen gun as well as selling to a felon and got on the radar of the TBI.   This makes you think for sure. Definitely be careful when buying or selling.   http://www.thedailytimes.com/Local_News/story/Maryville-man-pleads-guilty-to-gun-charge-id-041544

Sorry for your loss.

It works 60% of the time, all the time.

My son pulled a good one on the telemarketers one time. Miami Vice fans will get this: seeing a # he did not recognize on the caller id, he then answered the phone and just said Crockett and after the spiel about the alarm system or whatever he told them he would need to put them on hold and check with Lt. Castillo for approval, they just hung up. He managed to stay straight faced the whole time, but I was cracking up.

I was not sure, it has been 8 years sine Katrina. Just reminded me of them. I am sure you would know sine you worked with them.   The officers we worked with during Katrina were from all over the country but were all cool to deal with.   Do you think they are private hired security or from some fed agency?

Not sure but their uniforms & the suv look similar to some officers I had seen from USDA Forest Service Law Enforcement. The BLM also has officers like this.   I ran into these officers during hurricane Katrina. They were assigned to Forest Service fire crews that were down there doing search & rescue and recovery work. My company was down there providing bus transportation through our Forest Service agreement. All of these officers were really nice to deal with when we were down there in Louisiana & MS.   I am not sure on this but the uniform & vehicle look very much alike. If you could zoom in you might be able read the patches or badge. The officers I am referring to are the ones with the tan/ green uniforms not the obvious security ones.

I saw the title of the post and was thinking of a little cabin up in the mountains. Not sure on the food pricing. I can ask my wife she buys that type of stuff. I am in charge of firewood & firearms.

My wife's gun is a Model 36 LadySmith in 38spl. She does not carry so this is my nightstand gun by the bed. It is hard to beat the simple & reliable operation of a revolver especially for those who are not as experienced with guns.    I have carried it a few times just to try it out, I traded for it about 6 years ago and it came with a nice Galco IWB holster. I think the main difference in this LadySmith model is the smaller grips. It is a nice looking revolver with blued finish and rosewood grips.   My daughter's gun is a Sig Mosquito 22. She is too young to carry but says she wants to get her HCP when old enough. We shopped around on her 14th birthday and she picked the Sig over all the other 22 pistols we looked at. I was leaning toward a Walther P22 but I let her make the decision. The Sig has been fun to shoot, it is a little finicky with ammo, seems to like cci mini mags with no problems.

If drinking were on my agenda I would plan in advance on who was driving and would leave my carry gun at home. With a commercial driver's license it is just not worth the risk and also I would not want to run into issues with the HCP. There is just too much at stake for me to risk it. I am not suggesting everyone should do it this way but just stating how I handle this situation. I tend to see things very black & white anyway so not a lot of gray areas for me.   I will also add that I have not had a drink in years, at least more than 5 years. I just find that I would rather carry and not worry about any issues. As I have gotten older I have noticed drinking doesn't do much for me anyway, not to mention it is expensive. If I did drink I would probably enjoy it more at home. Just my 2 cents.

Upon reading my original post a second time I agree that using the word "fringe" may not have been the best choice of words. I meant nothing negative toward this group at all. I am glad to hear about them, their structure, board, and plan look solid from what I read on their website. I think they have a good idea going.   I very much believe in being prepared. I think it is very hard to be totally self sufficient, and whether it be community based groups or organized groups like this, people will need to band together to help each other. The skills and training that these veterans have would be very valuable.   I agree with you that it depends on how the group acts.   My A-team reference was just a joke, but they may very well have a plan coming together. 

It may be time to load up the van and go pick up Murdock, maybe there is a plan coming together.   This type of group has some positives going for them but they tend to also attract a fringe element that brings along some baggage.   I have not heard of this group before but I am sure it could not hurt to have an organized group of prepared veterans such as this one. 

Hope everything is ok with your eye. You are right, never take anything for granted.   I am usually wearing sunglasses when mowing but now I am going to make sure to always wear eye protection. I always do when running the weedeater but now you have got me thinking.

Nice truck! What kind of tires are you running on it?

Welcome to TGO.

Welcome to TGO.

Congratulations! Spend all the time you can with them, they sure do grow up fast. 

I live in the county and don't follow the city politics around here much. Guess I need to start watching them a little closer.

I asked my daughter if she had heard anything about this since she goes to Heritage High School. She said it happened in a home ec class during something involving sewing. It was straight pins and not thumbtacks and one of the students that was involved has hepatitis C. I think the affected students are being tested from what she said.   This is just what she heard at school but it may shed some light on why the Sheriff's Office is involved. Sounds a little more serious than just getting poked with a thumb tack.

I have a few stumps like that around my property. A little trick my neighbor told me about, buy a salt block and set it on the stump, rain and deer will do the rest. It will take a while but the salt will get all down in the stump and in the dirt around it and the deer with dig at it and around it and it will be gone in a few years.   +1 on not enough data space on the forums, and I also don't know where to begin.

I usually just overlook this type of mistake. I try not to walk around with a clip on my shoulder. 

Make sure the vent and hose are not clogged up with lint or other obstructions, check that it is clear all the way to the outside. If it got restricted that could cause the coils to overheat and result in the burning smell. The restriction could also cause it to blow out the hose or clamp. I have had this happen a few times over the years usually clogged at the little grill outside or in a bend of the hose.   Good luck with it. No better way to learn than tinkering around with it yourself.

+1 for wood heat. I have a fireplace in the living room and a small buck wood stove off to the side the kitchen. I enjoy working with the fires and in the winter mainly use the wood stove but I will have a fire in the fireplace when we are all home hanging out in the living room. The buck stove can really kick out the heat with a small amount of wood.   I have plenty of trees on my property and there seems to always be one falling during a storm so I have no shortage of available wood. I have a hydraulic log splitter, good chainsaw, cart to pull behind the mower, and a pickup so I am able to handle the wood ok. Working with the wood is good exercise and I enjoy getting outdoors.   Warms you 4 times; when you cut it, split it, stack it, and finally when you burn it.