Merry Christmas

I hope you are all having a great holiday and are surrounded by family and friends.  Take care, be warm, stay safe.  Not much to add from last year's post.  Take care, I'm about to have some awesome Christmas dinner.

My first earthquake

FYI, I am not dead.

Had my first earthquake Saturday, slept right through it!  My son felt the earthquake than got an alert on his phone.  He woke us up to tell us there was a tsunami warning and we were supposed to evacuate.  The lack of information was disconcerting, tons of websites were down (traffic overload, I assume) and the Canadian sites were way behind the US.

I spoke to some friends and decided we were fine where we were.  Our house is very high up and there really wasn't time to go inland, plus, that would involve going lower than where we live.  We considered driving up a mountain but I decided that would be more dangerous than the unlikely tsunami, trying to drive up a narrow road in the dark with some very severe cliffs.  We did offer to shelter quite a few people but only my son's girlfriend took us up on it.  Most of the locals were a bit dismissive of the situation, even though sections of the city were being evacuated by emergency services.

Turned out to be a minimal wave (less than 2 feet) and we had no damage to our house.  We were lucky, this time.

Stay safe everyone and be prepared.  Certainly be prepared with plans and supplies, all your preps, but be prepared for what may come by loving your family, forming close friendships, and trying to enjoy each day.

My best wishes to everyone, especially those who are suffering on the east coast right now.

Take care and I hope you are safe, warm, and surrounded by those you care about.

What's with the lack of posts?

Sorry, I have just been swamped.  I actually have a bunch of partially finished stuff that I haven't posted and didn't get some video reviews done before I sold the items....so busy right now it's not even funny.

I took on a second job as a bouncer, mostly weekends, still have my main full time job and am also signed up for full time school.  It was a great opportunity and a last minute thing, I didn't think I'd be able to come up with the money in time.  I'm in a full time welding program, a huge area of interest for me and a potential back up career.  If I can swing it, I want to take some blacksmithing courses next year too....

Yard Sale

We are having a big yard sale today, trying to get rid of a bunch of stuff we don't need and raise some money for my wife's plane tickets, she's going home to visit family and we are hurting for $$ right now.

I'm also trying to clear out a lot of my survival junk, it just makes me cringe to see a lot of the completely stupid shit I have bought over the years.

*sigh*

That's actually a topic for a future post, survival junk and excess buying.  There's a real industry out there, encouraging you to buy a bunch of stuff you don't need and will never use for your preparedness needs.  Consumerism is the name of the game in "modern" society and survivalists are very vulnerable to overspending.

So, keep it simple, light, and affordable.

Enjoying myself

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, I've been more involved in enjoying the great outdoors than writing about it.

Honest, a bunch of stuff is eventually coming, I've been testing out a few things and hopefully have some good info for everyone.

Splitting Wood with a Hatchet

Tried out a new technique that I saw Ray Mears do on a video, a safe and simple way to make small kindling sticks Works well, I did a very short video of it on youtube.

Sorry, not the best angle, it was raining a lot and my wife didn't want to get her camera wet, she was hiding under some trees  :)

Eberlestock backpacks

I'll be doing some more detailed reviews of some eberlestock backpacks - eventually - but wanted to just drop a little line here to say how much I truly love them.

I talked a little about the F3 Halftrack in a previous post, and still consider it a great pack.  I picked up the Gunslinger II after and have nothing really negative to say about it, enjoyed it a lot and the scabbard was super handy.  I also bought the incredible expensive V90 Battleship in anticipation for an upcoming 1-2 week survival training course, I couldn't take another excursion with my old MEC pack.  Sadly, I had to cancel the trip after we moved and haven't used it since, I think I may end up selling it.  I don't want to, I spent a ridiculous amount of money for it and I love it but....we will see.  I wish I had got the waterproof fleece version now that I have moved to such a wet area.

My EDC-to-work bag has now changed.  I moved from the halftrack to the gunslinger II to (briefly) the X1A1 and now have settled on the Blue Widow.

All are great packs and the Blue Widow review and a discussion on work/BOB will be coming as soon as I have time to write it  :)

And then there was one

FYI, I shut down my alternate blog today.

I haven't been posting much to it and there was essentially no traffic.  I think I will stick to what I am doing on this blog, others are doing social commentary better right now and I only have so much time.

Thanks to those that were reading it and had subscribed.

Cold Steel Micro Recon 1 Knife Review - Keychain Knife

I may get accused of hyperbole at times but I consider the Cold Steel Micro Recon 1 to be the most useful and quite possibly the flat out best knife Cold Steel has ever made.  Obviously Cold Steel makes a lot of knives that fit a lot of needs and it’s difficult to compare a combat knife to a woods/survival knife or a skinning knife to a kitchen knife.  What I am instead doing is a taking a knife within a specific category and comparing it to others on the market.  They have really kicked some a** here  :)

My video review is here:



The category in this case is the keychain knife.  A keychain knife is (obviously) a knife that you carry with your keys.  Normally it has a small lanyard hole that you can slide a key ring through or you attach it with a short cord or chain.  In our society, a keychain knife can be the ultimate EDC (every day carry) knife as people rarely going anywhere without keys – house, car, work, whatever.

Adventures in Biking

I will probably be doing a series of posts on my bicycling experiences.  I almost thought about another blog split off but decided to bore everyone here instead!

I decided on a mountain bike.  I really had no idea what to get, I don't know a darn thing about bikes.  The road bike didn't seem right and the hybrid bike, I dunno, just didn't appeal.  I went with the sturdier looking mountain bike and what I thought (perhaps mistakenly) would be better grippy tires for the wet weather and gravel around here.

Spent about $400?  $500?  Can't quite remember, it was 2 months ago.  More than I wanted to, for sure, but decided to get one put together properly from a bike shop rather than getting one from the local department store.  I tried that years back and it was a mess and I got sooooooo frustrated trying to adjust it....

It was a lot of money but will be paid for with a few tanks of gas I won't buy - assuming I get good use from it.

So far it's been pretty good.  My fitness sucks, fortunately it's not too far a ride.  I'd be a lot better off though if it was flat and 10 times as long....hills suck.

Ridiculous Whining

I want a Fallkniven WM1.

That is all.

Small EDC and Tactical Fixed Blade Knife Comparison & Review

I recently completed a video comparison on 4 small fixed blade knives.  I am still rocking the hideaway straight as my EDC knife but started to look around at some other options as well.  The awesome custom fit of the HAK is also it's only real weakness, if you are wearing gloves you pretty much can't use the knife.

The four knives are the TOPS M1 Sub Compact, Boker Fred Perrin Neck Bowie, Tops FDX Hunter Point, and the Esee Izula.  The main common feature between these, besides small size, is a deep(ish, depending on blade) finger choil.

No More Winter - Famous Last Words

Hello everyone.  I'm not dead and I haven't forgotten you.  Very sorry I haven't posted in so long, I've been crazy busy since I moved.  My work training was interesting to say the least but it progressed at a rapid pace, I finished sooner than expected.  This gave me the bright idea to do a late entry in the school semester and take 3 classes....needless to say, I have been busy.

All is going well though I had to laugh after reading my last post.  We ended up getting socked with some serious winter here over a 2 week period (plus periodic dumps of snow for weeks after), temperatures in the area dipped to -25 C (much colder with windchill) which is absolutely unheard of for this area.  Pipes froze and then burst all over town, it was pretty crazy.  The weather was no big deal but it did create some interesting events.

A few notes:

1. I was lucky.  My house is up quite high on a hill, set on bedrock.  I have a concrete perimeter foundation and a fully insulated basement.  Even though my basement isn't heated, my pipes came through OK.  I also added some pipe insulation but couldn't get any heat tape for love or money - more prep for next year.

2. I've never lived somewhere with such steep grades, I have always lived in lands of flat!  We had a lot of ice and snow and I couldn't make it up the street in our rental car.  The day we had to move out of the hotel and into our house, my bike got left behind and we left our bags into the car.  I packed up a few personal items and we walked to our house.  I went back for the car the next day and grabbed the bike a few days later.

3. 4WD can be your friend.  We went wild and crazy and bought a jeep.  I have severe buyer's remorse but there have been many days where cars were littered at the bottom of the street and I drove by them on the way home.

4. I quite like riding the bus.  There was too much snow for me to even consider biking to work, I don't think I would have lived.  I ended up taking the bus one way and then walking home or taking a cab the other, the bus generally only matches up with one direction.

5. Biking uphill is HARD!!!

6. Not a news flash but a good reminder, water-resistant just means a delayed soaking.

All this walking to and from work has been a good reminder of the importance of weight in a BOB.  I've been carrying my Eberlestock Gunslinger II pack  to work and I've really tuckered myself out.  Some minimal survival gear, textbooks, lunch, sometimes a laptop, etc, it adds up fast and I am wiped out.  All the more reason to carry it of course, it's good training for my fat a**.

Get in shape people and test your gear.  You don't want to carry it for the first time when it's a real emergency, you want it to feel natural and normal.

BTW, love that backpack.

Anyway, I'm going to start posting some material, I have a lot of stuff to add, I hope I can get to it all soon.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone that reads and comments, I really appreciate it.  I'm shocked to have over 10,000 views of the site, I didn't even have to tell my mom to get them, lol.

Take care all.

New Location

Well, here I am in the Pacific NW.

NO MORE WINTER!!!  Well, at least of the minus a billion and endless snow kind.  It's been very windy and rainy here but I'm loving the above freezing temps.

It's been a bit stressful getting everything set up down here, finances are stretched to the limit.  We are going to be car-less UFN, just not in the budget right now.

Starting work tomorrow, probably 6 weeks of training.  If unsuccessful I will be absolutely f***ed so wish me luck!

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2012 is awesome.