Jamie Jackson

LOL, you are so right. It really kicks your indoor humidity to a new (and higher) level. I know folks that use their grill side burner and do very well with it. We picked up one of our freezers off of Craig's List fwiw. Good Luck to you.

I was just bumping this thread back up to check and see how everyone's gardens are doing. I'm in Knoxville (and Suburbia). The drought and heat are making this year a challenge. We have about 1/2 acre, but a third of it is our backyard and has a southern exposure. We feel Blessed for that. This is our 4th year gardening since our childhoods (my Wife & I), and there has definitely been a learning curve. We also use rain water catchment and try to water the garden from that…but this drought has us using our garden hose… We have multiple raised beds, and seem to keep adding them each year. Back yard view Our primary cucumber bed is finished, the heat got ‘em. But we managed to put up quite a few Bread & Butter limed pickles and a dozen quarts of Kosher Dill pickles. Our tomatoes are starting to ripen. We only put in about 10 plants, mostly heirloom varieties, and 2 are indeterminate varieties…smallish globes for making pickled green tomatoes, and some grape cluster types that are producing faster than we can eat them. I have a couple of beds (one 4x4 and one 4x8) of red kidney beans. It took 3 planting to survive the friggin’ rabbit population boom this year. Fwiw these are Equate brand red kidney beans from our stores. Imho there are no finer tasting beans than fresh red kidney beans. The below is two joined 4x8 beds with asparagus beans and butternut squash. The beans haven’t started to blossom yet (they take at least 90 days), but the squash are forming up well. asparagus beans We planted 2 peach, 2 pear, 3 apple, and 2 fig trees last year. Good Lord willin’ they’ll be producing in a few years. Time will tell I suppose. I’m not some pot smoking tree hugger…not even a little. But we are doing our gardening using no pesticides and Steve Solomon’s Complete Organic Fertilizer or COF. a link in case anyone is interested. The COF is phenomenal. It won’t “burn†your plants, and as was mentioned, you won’t get the nitrogen burst to your tomatoes that give you tall plants that don’t produce. And it provides nutrients that yield more nutritious and better tasting foods. Solomon’s Book Gardening When it Counts has been invaluable to us. So, how are your gardens doing? Great I hope. Later, Prag eta: photo correction

LOL, Yep it can be hot and sweaty, especially doing waterbath canning indoors. We picked up a Camp Chef 2 burner propane stove for outdoor canning. We choose the 2 burner because it's a more stable platform. And by transitionally storing foods in our freezers, it allows us the option of doing the bulk of our canning when the days a a good bit cooler than what.we're currently experiencing. I also put a window unit AC in our kitchen and that definitely helps for our indoor canning. btw, we love pickled green tomatoes. That's some "good eatin'".

That was some funny s***! I nearly spewed coffee on my computer. That young man is damned lucky he didn't get shot for his efforts though. But still in all, very funny!

Excellent Advice! I taught myself to pressure can and waterbath can several years ago. The Ball Bluebook and Growing and Canning Your Own Food by Jackie Clay were immensely helpful. There are multiple forums where folks are very helpful as well...such as Frugal's Forums (there is a sub-section on Canning and Preserving foods there). I also frequent the National Canter for Home Food Preservation website. fwiw...We live in suburbia and have multiple raised garden beds. We've recently put up 17 pints of Bread & Butter limed pickles and 14 quarts of Kosher dills. We can pretty much anything that can be canned...tomatoes, beans, Swiss Chard, carrots, and lots of various meats. I recently pressure canned a turkey, several pork loins that were on sale, and 2 hindquarters of venison. We have 2 chest freezers and use them as transitional storage units...meaning we put items to later be canned into the freezers, then can them when time allows and/or we have enough of a particular item to be canned put back. Our tomatoes are just starting to ripen, so i picked, dipped (briefly into boiling water to remove skins), chopped and froze 1 1/2 gallon bags of tomatoes yesterday...when I have 6-8 gallon bags of tomatoes in the freezer I'll can them, or make soup mixes and can that. I also can various "meals in a jar", like chili, or Swedish Meatballs, etc. I have an All American 930. It's a large unit, but a workhorse. I do plan on purchasing another unit. It'll be an All American (they don't use gaskets to seal and I'm sure they'll outlast me). Probably a 915 unit as it is smaller and therefore easier for my wife to use. We also have and use an Excalibur 3900, 9 tray model and use it frequently. we use our dehydrated fruits and vegetables frequently, at least 5-6 times/wk. We had a bumper crop of bell peppers last year and dehydrated 13 pints of them...that is a lot of bell peppers and should last us for several years. Dehydrate 2 store has some great info. I consider canning (both waterbath and pressure canning) an essential skill...just like shooting and reloading. As long as you understand the process it is definitely safe, and very effective. Good Luck and you'll be glad you learned these skills.

Excellent post Mr. Harris. Thank you. Non Drop free mags exist, they are a fact of life for some of us. I've carried a Glock 19 for about 17 years now. I have plenty of drop free mags for it, and quite a few on the older "u" shape non-drop free mags that function perfectly in it. I know, I can simply relegate them to range use. They already have been so relegated. But, as a default in my training, and since I accept they do exist and that I can screw up and have one in my gun when the balloon goes up, I train to rip the mag out as I go for a fresh mag. The time difference is negligible for my reloads. I'm not an IPSC player, so the 100ths of a second in time doesn't matter to me. Glocks lend themselves to personal modification. A dremel can be your friend, or your nemesis...it depends on you. My Glock (s) are modified with a small circular area removed on each side of the mag to facilitate a quick "grip and rip". I've also removed a small amount of the front of the magwell to allow me to rip the mag out on my belt when working a one hand malfunction clearance. ymmv, but this is a solution...if you're a Glock owner...if you run across difficult mag extraction...and if you choose to do the modification. It hasn't affected function in any way. Just my unsolicited and ever devaluing $.02 worth.

I agree, Grafs & Sons are top notch. They don't always have as wide a selection as Midway, but they definitely offer quality products and great service.

You're welcome. The Aldi coffee comes in #10 cans and when we last purchased, it was $5.49/can. That's why we buy it by the case or flat (6 cans). We like it much better than Folgers or Maxwell house. And yep, I use the cans in my reloading area, for nuts/bolts/screws and a number of other things as well. We also have several 5 gallon buckets of granulated sugar...in Mylar, but no o2 absorber as they'll turn the sugar into a rock solid block. It doesn't harm it, but you'll have to bust it up or re-grind it. And we store honey as well. I prefer the taste of honey to sugar in my coffee and quite a few foods we prepare. Honey is also historically very useful for wound treatment. It was highly prized by Roman soldiers for their wound care "kits". (We still use refined sugar in wound care...not frontline, but in wounds that are difficult to heal.) That alone has me considering the possibly of keeping bees. But, barring that, honey does essentially have an indefinite shelf life. We keep Sue Bee honey, from Sam's. It, unlike many brands, is all USA made and not imported Chinese trash. I also have a few quarts of local honey related to it's purported ability to decrease responses to regional allergens. Stevia is an option we are considering trying to grow. I certainly don't care for it nearly as much as honey, or even refined sugar...but it is an option.

I'm having my "morning Joe" as I type this . I usually drink 2 cups a day, sometimes 3. But I need at least a 10 hour break from any caffeine prior to trying to sleep. But (psychologically or physiologically) I need my morning caffeine to kick my brain into gear. A caffeine headache is a real phenomenon if your body (CNS) is used to (some say addicted to) caffeine. Whatever...I do love the stuff. We keep a couple of cases (#10 cans) of Aldi's coffee in the pantry. It is in a metal can, but with the foil top. It'll stay fresh tasting for several years. Some vendors still make #10 cans of coffee that has the metal top (the type requiring a can opener), and I've had coffee stored that way that still tasted fresh after 5+ years. I've read others state they've kept the metal topped cans and used them with good results even after 10 years. We also have a fair amount of instant freeze dried coffee (stored in 5 gallon buckets in Mylar with o2 absorbers) put back. I've had instant coffee in C-Rats that was well in excess of 15 years old that still delivered my caffeine dose...but face it, C-Rat coffee is simply a "caffeine delivery unit" (cdu) and not much else. And we keep some vacuum sealed No Doz tablets in our stores as a last ditch cdu. Tea stores well in vac sealed form and will last a long time. Another option is to store green coffee beans. They supposedly can be stored for 20+ years, and then simply roast them prior to use. Here's a link to one vender: MRE Depot. Another source for green beans is Sweet Maria's. I appreciate the alternatives suggestions and discussion, but as long as I can have a familiar form of caffeine available (i.e. coffee), I'm gonna stick with that. When I see I'm running out in an EOTWAWKI ? I guess I'm gonna have to detox myself because caffeine is certainly my "drug of choice"!

Big Berkey, stainless steel and has been in daily use for a bit over 3 years now. It is worth every penny we paid for it. I use the standard white ceramic filters and have the PF2 Fluoride and Arsenic Reduction units attached. we have a backup set of Black Berkey filters for a "just in case" scenario. We are on municipal water, but you would have to taste the Berkey filtered water to appreciate the amount of foul tasting and potentially harmful crap it filters out. In my GHB I carry a Sport Berkey. I talked with Jeff Gleason, the owner/operator of Directive21, a Berkey distributor, about the Sport Berkey filter system. it utilizes the Black Berkey elements and probably does a bit better job of filtering water than even our big Berkey. I gave one to a friend that went on a mission trip to Haiti last fall. She was impressed with how well it worked, and it obviously worked well as she returned safe and sound and in good health. I do have a sand filter setup, because being prepared is about options and redundancy. I haven't tried the one linked in the OP, but have read numerous positive reviews about them. I wouldn't mind adding a set to the "redundancy pile".

Congrats! Don't forget to send copies to Graf's, Midway, and Brownells to get the "Dealer Discounts"...they may not be massive, but a "penny saved is a penny earned". I got mine several weeks ago and my shootin' Buddy got his last week. Thanks to all for the info on getting them.

LOL, I have no doubt you'll conquer this gjohn. I admire you guys for these restorations.

Same here..and I'm with you caster...that's a bunch of pieces. I could just see myself...ziplock bag full of parts in hand...beaten...walking up to the smitty's counter... It makes me appreciate my Glock (s) even more.

I'm slow on the keyboard... I have several of the 33 rd Glock (and KCI) mags that have proven very reliable in my G19 & G17. (The KCI are range use only.) But the 33 rd mags are definitely a reason to lean toward the Kel Tec.

Like I mentioned, with all of the praise (and condemnation) Hi Points receive, it has certainly peaked my interest. I wasn't aware of the 10 round mag limitation. That's the reason the Kel Tec K2 looks pretty decent to me. I'm still learning to use the software here...I cut off a portion of my original reply, and that was by following your budget and parameters, you may still be able to come in "under budget" and have apportioned funds set aside for additional ammo, or more importantly, training for your group. It sounds like you are thinking things through pretty well Sir.

I think your criteria makes good sense from a logistical standpoint. Based on your criteria I have listed a few options below. I appreciate your parameters and I’ll try to stay in that context. Glock 19 9mm from Bud’s. $499.00. Kel-Tec Sub 9mm Glock 17 magazines $399.99. Ruger 10/22 from Academy Sports. $249.00. Gunbroker: KelTec Sub2K9. I don’t have personal experience with the Kel Tec Sub2K, but plan on purchasing one. I also have no personal experience with any Hi point product, but a lot of folks seem to really like theirs… A quality suppressor is an excellent suggestion as well, and offers great utility and versatility. Especially one for a .22…to fit my 10/22 and/or a .22 handgun…

Good point and info Caster. From a bit of searching around, you may well be right. imho the Fed is the bane of our Great Nation and one of the primary entities responsible for our current economic situation...one of... I would be interested in learning more on the legalities as well. Thanks.

I don't invest heavily in PM's. But I do put a small percentage of my prepping funds into what's commonly called junk silver. But this is only a small portion of my prepping focus...food, tools, water purification, gardening and storage (canning & dehydration) come first...but if there's a dip, I'll buy some more silver. Gold may be an avenue to protect wealth, but it's not, imho, a realistic precious metal for me and my needs. In a serious economic collapse, making change could be next to impossible. For large purchases, or transporting wealth if bugging out (more fantasy than reality I think), it could have merit. Copper coins and copper rounds are intriguing though. Provident Metals have some nice looking copper coins for example. I believe it is currently illegal to melt (destroy) Government minted coinage. But like was mentioned, copper most definitely has many uses... Pre-1982 copper pennies are most definitely worth saving. According to Coinflation the pre-1982 pennies are currently worth 2.54 cents. That makes 'em worth sorting out to me.

Thank you Sir! I planed to double my rain barrel catchment and you've just made it affordable to do so.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, and insight on this. While I agree with Wheelgunner that the gun owning populace is a strong voting arm when mobilized, it's the insidious nature of the loss of our Constitutionally Protected Rights that's always in the back of my mind. I picked up a copy of John Ross's [b[unintended Consequences[/b] back in the late 90's. The first half of the book does an incredible job of illustrating that insidiousness. It's still a great read, but I can't believe what they are selling this book for on Amazon! I have only had my driver's license checked a couple of times during the 20+ years I've carried concealed. This was traffic related and I offered by Permit...but it was required in the states I used to live/work in. While not required in TN, the Peace Officer would certainly see that you have a permit if he "runs" you. So I would most likely hand my License & Permit together to an Officer in a scenario such as you mentioned. Without reasonable probable cause, they really shouldn't be concerned other than the issue at hand. But some of the "young guns' on the force nowadays, without a good FTO, can be a bit gung ho and overzealous.

You're quite welcome Moped. Here's another link to the LDS Food Storage Calculator. It's a bit basic. But if you "copy can" (purchase 2-5 of an item you need to replace and of things you eat regularly) your storage will grow pretty fast and it won't break the bank. It's a great feeling having a growing pantry, and growing and canning/dehydrating your own food. The best thing is when you need to "run to the store and pick up a few things" and instead you just walk down to the basement and "restock" your upstairs pantry. Best of luck to you my friend.

Because it's my Responsibility to do so as a Free Man. And I believe in the Defender's Creed: The Defender's Creed John Farnam I accept and understand that human predators exist. Criminal or terrorist, they take advantage of our civilized society to prey upon the weak. They represent evil and must be confronted and defeated. I believe that self-defense is a moral imperative, and that illegitimate force and illegal violence must be met with righteous indignation and superior violence. I will not rely on others for the security of myself, my family and my community. I proudly proclaim that I run with a like-minded pack. I do not amble through life with the mind-numbed herd. I will train with my chosen weapons, maintain them and carry them in a condition of readiness at all times. I will be mentally prepared and physically equipped to effectively respond to an attack or emergency. I will constantly test myself against realistic standards to discover my strengths and weaknesses. I will turn weakness into strength. I will seek to learn new skills and techniques, and then teach what I have learned to other members of the pack. Be it with firearm or blade, empty hand or blunt object, I will hit my enemies hard, fast and true. I will live a quiet and unobtrusive life, but I will develop and retain the capacity for swift and decisive violence. I recognize that I am the modern equivalent of the traditional Minuteman, and that I may be called to service at any time against heavily armed enemies. I will respond effectively. I accept that I am a pariah among some of my countrymen, and a quaint anachronism to others. I will not hold their ignorance against them. I will win, or die trying. I swear this creed before God, my family and my fellow citizens.

I forgot to mention that we keep several of the Starter kits on hand to offer to friends and family if the need arises. From the LDS website: "The kit contains recipes, instructional pamphlets, visual aids for teaching family home storage principles, and cans of wheat, rice, beans, and oats. Food items cannot be shipped to addresses outside the United States." For $31.00 (current price, $29.00 when I purchased them) it's still a bargain.

As BlessTheUSA mentioned you can order online. I have many times. The prices are great, and I've never been charged any shipping. link I have gone to the local LDS Warehouse several times for bulk purchases. The folks are friendly and make you feel welcome. It's easy to cultivate a positive relationship there. I have a friend that's LDS and has offered to arrange for me to schedule the canner for a pickup. You can purchase the cans, lids, and o2 absorbers from the Warehouse. Great Folks and we all share the common goal of Self Reliance.

9mm Glock(s). I have a 17, 19, & 26. I have carried the 19 for better than 15 years. 9mm ammo is available pretty much anywhere ammo is sold. The 9mm is the original Glock caliber, and (imho) the further you go away from the original design specifications the more potential for "issues" you can have. My 19 is ridiculously reliable. It's easily concealable. It has a normal capacity (15 round) magazine, but accepts larger capacity mags. It's (subjectively) very shootable. I've seen and treated people shot with almost every imaginable handgun round...the 9mm will certainly do as long as you do your part... You get a very long "user life" from a 9mm Glock... + 30,000 rounds and going strong... 9mm ammo is one of the more affordable rounds to purchase and/or reload...so you have absolutely no excuse to not shoot , practice, and train... Did I mention a Glock 19 (factory stock except the friggin plastic sights) is RELIABLE ?