Prepper Ponderings

SHOT Show

I'm trying to talk my wife into going to SHOT next year.  If you are not familiar with it, SHOT is the Shooting Hunting and Outdoors Trade show in Las Vegas each year.  It's open only to those in the industry, but I can get in as media.  It's over 600,000 square feet of show and all the manufacturers introduce the new models.  I've got her almost convinced with the Monday media day at the range, but when she saw that Colby Donaldson from Survivor and Top Shot was there... I think that got her in for sure ;-)


Spyderco Helping the Whales

I got the Spyderco OpFocus 2012 Product Guide in the mail at work today.  I've carried a Spyderco Delica and an Endura for years, and have always been impressed by their products.  Looking in the catalog, I found an interesting item near the back.  About 5 or 6 years ago, they were approached by wildlife officer in Australia who asked them to design a blade to use on a 10 foot pole to cut nets away from caught whales while not putting the raft at risk.  They came up with a super long hawksbill style serrated blade with a blunt tip that attaches to a pole.  In the first tests, it sliced through 40 and 50mm ropes with no trouble.  Two days later, it was used to rescue a 10-meter humpback that was entangled.  They now have 48 of these blades in use around the world saving marine wildlife.  It is also used by the military units that work with NASA to sever parachute cords on spacecraft.  We can't buy a Spyderco Whale Blade; they provide them to actual conservation groups.  Pretty cool way they are helping wildlife.


Thoughts on Death

When we are 0-15, we lose great-grand parents
15-25, we lose friends
25-40, we lose grand parents
40-60, we lose parents
60+, we lose friends

It never gets easier, and every case is different.  However long you have friends and loved ones in your life, treasure them.


Book Review: Folks, This Ain't Normal - Joel Salatin

Recently, when Joel Salatin was a guest on The Survival Podcast, he suggested this book as the "one" to read of all of his.  I would have to concur.  If you are interested in learning about factory food, the perverted relationship between big-Ag and the government, overbearing regulations, and what we can do to combat it, then Folks, This Ain't Normal is the book for you.

This book has been really inspirational to me in my realization of just how awful so much of what I eat is.  We recently bought our first grass fed, locally grown beef.  It was unbelievably tasty and tender.  Did you know that all cows have e. coli bacteria in their stomachs?  The ones that are fed grain (along with chicken manure and ground up dead chickens - that's another story altogether, but keep in mind that cows are herbivores) have an acid in their stomachs that causes the e. coli to adapt to that environment.  When we eat them, the e. coli are perfectly at home in our stomach acids and they thrive.  When cows are pastured (which is the natural way that cows are intended to be fed) their stomachs are less acidic and keep the e. coli in a benign state.

As Joel says throughout the book, "Folks, this ain't normal."  His writing style and narratives are very easy to read, and he truly gets some very wise advice through to the reader.  If you are concerned about what goes in to your body, and what goes on in our communities, then you should read this book.  Mine is going on to our neighbors for them to take a look at.  They dropped off a dozen eggs today from their chickens that roam the woods freely during the day.  Folks, having backyard chickens and sharing with your neighbors, IS normal.