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Last month, I made a posting about applying 'gas checks' to cast lead bullets. Now we'll go over how to actually make the gas check discs that I use in the manufacturing of that type bullet. I mentioned in the previous posting that you could buy 'factory made' gas check discs from a few places online. But, just as in casting and loading your own lead bullets frees you from dependence on the sometimes 'iffy' market supplying factory made bullets, making your own gas checks for your ammo loads is just one more thing you can be self reliant on.
As far as I know, there are only a couple of sources for do it yourself gas check disc making tools. One seems to be occupied by a guy who probably does make a good item….but has NO people skills, blowing his top over customers merely inquiring a couple weeks after the order was placed, as to the status of the unit ordered and the possible shipping date, only one time annnd….BOOM! Here's your @#%#&&*@ money back! BLAH BLAH BLAH! Oookaaay then, well so much for doing business there, I reckon. The other manufacturer that I mentioned last month, the 'FreeChex' tool, sold through 'GunBroker.com' or direct from the maker, seems a little less under pressure or something.
So, you order your tool to fit your particular bullet caliber. As of today there were 224,30, 357,41,44,45 caliber models available on the gunbroker site. If you need a custom size, check with the freechex website. When your tool arrives you get these 3 pieces:
This shows the hollow punch, the die the sheet of aluminum goes into and the return spring. When it's assembled, it looks like this:
You can see the tiny slot pretty well above. When in action you use an arbor press, preferably, to punch out and form the disc, which goes down into the hollow portion of the cutting tube, which has the spring around it shown above. I have used my Lee Precision single stage loading press for this operation, but it's kind of harsh on the tool, because there's little control over how far the thing travels as you work it, which could damage the tool in the long run. I have access to a machinists lathe, so I made the following adapter from a bit of aluminum bar stock, so that I can continuously punch out discs which fall out through the center of my 'adapter'.
The adapter I made isn't crucial to operating the punch, but it's way more convenient than having to stop and empty the tube frequently during a production run. I'm sure, if you're independent enough to be loading your own ammunition, you can probably come up with something to accomplish the same process. I bought a cheap Chinese made arbor press from Harbor Freight Tools near my home, but you can no doubt order one online or locate one somewhere. My adapter fits nicely into one of the 4 press slots on the unit.
I made this batch of gas checks from some left over aluminum roofing flashing that just happened to be the correct thickness of .010″. I cut the sheet into 1″ x 10″ strips as you can see on the left side of the press above. You can see a punched out strip on the right. I've found that a one inch wide strip works best for handling and quality of product. I strongly suggest using gloves while working with this process, because as the discs are punched out, the remaining material becomes like razor wire and will trap and stab your fingers mercilessly.
You will find it necessary to hold the strip against the back side of the punch slot to keep your discs consistent and usable, as shown above. As you develop an 'eye' for the positioning of the material, you'll be able to get the maximum number of discs per strip. I can get up to about 40 discs per 10″ long strip most of the time.
As you see above, the punched out discs leave wicked sharp, pointed edges that will absolutely eat your hands, stabbing you and trapping your skin between the points at the slightest touch. The gloves are practically mandatory, unless your just enjoy personal pain and blood. At the bottom of the press you can see a top from some spray paint or lubricant can that is handily catching the discs as the fall down the tube. As you punch the discs, you must press the punch down completely, but 'gently' after the initial resistance so that the discs will be properly pushed out.
I usually empty my little cap as I use up a strip, into a container.
I went through about 16 strips of 1″ x 10″ material in just a bit over an hour, making about 600 or so discs. At the retail price of about 4 cents each, that's about $24 worth of product.
You may calculate this punching setup was about $150 all together, and it does seem pricey until you consider it an investment, just like the Lee Precision turret loading machine. It frees me from dependance on the unstable market supply of crucial components, and as we've seen over the past months, supplies of items like ammo can be really scarce even without some kind of large crisis. Even during this long term ammo shortage, I've been lucky enough to find gunpowder, primers and either cast my own or buy bullets. The most hard to find item is the brass cartridge cases. When I go to the range for a little practice, I carefully pick up all my fired casings, and usually ask the range people if they have any used brass for sale, which occasionally happens.
Roll your own, save a ton of cash and become independent of the system a little more. Your are responsible for compliance with local laws and ordinances concerning firearms and ammunition. Failure to follow reloading instructions carefully can lead to personal injury and / or death. Pay attention, get away from the kids, no TV in your loading room, check, check and recheck your procedures, inspect, inspect and inspect your loading components, check your cartridge brass for cracks and damages that your press doesn't remove, make sure the primers are seated correctly, double check your powder charge in each load with your scale.
Keep prepping, my friends….might save your life.
The utter lack of interest in the security of the United States by the current administration.
Well, compared to the rest of my postings, the 'political' department is less occupied with postings, because although I do closely follow the political ineptitude of Washington, DC, I feel it's kind of redundant to rehash what anyone interested in the base subject of this blog page should already know. But sometimes, you know, you just have to say something.
The news, as always, is full of terrorists, economic shakiness, energy concerns, 'global warming', fanning the racial divide, all that usual stuff. But, the thing that keeps poking me is the undeniably obvious fact that this bunch of morons in DC has willingly, deliberately and directly caused the southern border, and the northern as well, I suspect, to become a joke, a parody of 'security', and a serious endangerment to the lives of millions of Americans through the unrestrained, for any practical purpose, free passage of millions of illegals to cross the border at will. This administration continues to trash the Constitution and rule of law, or any respect for it, is derelict of duty and responsibility and oath of office for the potential political gain of said illegals becoming democrat voters through his acts of unilaterally granting amnesty to them. That aside, along with this massive flow of potential future democrat party voters, are hundreds of thousands of people from every country on the planet. And among those have been thousands from nations and areas of the world that are openly hostile and at war against America. These are the illegals that concern me most. For the information of any liberal who happened to stumble onto this blog and this particular posting, I am NOT anti-immigrant. Anyone wishing to become an American citizen, done the LEGAL way is as welcome as any natural born citizen in my book.
This lack of concern, no actually more than likely a deliberate act of sabotage, for this border situation, lays the belly of this nation and millions of citizens bare for the gutting of our infrastructure, particularly the power grid. Our rail transportation network, like everything else is old and outdated in many ways. Out petroleum pipelines, expressway systems, air traffic control…..so much stuff that could cause major disruption of life and mobility of goods and people. But the grid, that is the most delicate of all systems that could endanger the most citizens. All intertwined, but supposedly 'independent', sections that have no security at power plants or major substations whatsoever. While you drive around America, you've seen those large, fenced in sub stations, without a soul around. Perhaps you may remember some time back when there was a 'vandalism attack' on a California large sub-station? They put down this massive sub-station with a mere hunting rifle, shooting holes into the transformers, letting the toxic cooling oils leak out to overheat and shut down the units. They rerouted the power around this damaged station, so power was available to the citizens….but it took almost a month to repair. Now, the terrorists, domestic, izlamic <(that's deliberate) or otherwise are out there formulating a plan based on this successful venture. Power plants themselves are larger, have people around (unarmed, I'll wager) but a squad of terrorists could deal with it pretty easily, and get away clean before any cops arrive. Or maybe they'll do a suicide kind of thing that muzlims <(again, deliberate) are so fond of, and just hang out for the resulting battle with the authorities for the 'glory of alla' and more damage to the power plant while that goes on. That kind of damage could take years to repair, meanwhile the thing is totally out of commission or crippled so badly that it's hardly of any use to the citizens energy needs. Now, imagine that a coordinated attack on say, a dozen sub stations and / or one or two major power stations. Do you not think this would seriously jeopardize millions of American lives? A 'dirty bomb' in downtown NYC would be pretty nasty, killing who knows how many thousands and be an uninhabitable spot for the next century. But the grid, I think, is a much easier target and would do far greater harm to a vastly larger area. Avoiding NYC is bad enough damage, but if the entire state of NY was blacked out for months, in the middle of winter, what would that do to the people directly effected, and the national economy? And what part of society doesn't require the grid to work?
When (or IF) the 'authorities' are grilled about this lack of security, they bluster and huff, and spout their usual lies or half truths at best, assuring (lying to) America that it's 'all under control' or 'we are addressing the issue'.
My readers, you folks are far more aware of the world around you than the average smart phone addict, by far. That kind of awareness is why we're preppers. Nonetheless, I say that we all need to double down on preps, form our groups or expand them, and get ready for some frisky business that may likely happen before the next presidential election….if we have one.
I'm hand loading ammunition every weekend, and adding goods to the store room regularly, as soon as I can split off the money from the bills to pay.
An item I have put in my prepping inventory, $15 off with 'free shipping', is the Auagason Farms Emergency food pail, 30 days, 1 person. I intend to add more of these as quickly as possible. From BJ's Cub online, I don't have any idea how long that price will be there. I don't get a dime for recommending this product and I put it here as something I personally have in my own stuff. Food, Fire and Water all in the same bucket, so it fits my personal preference of maximum versatility survival gear or supplies. You can of course build your own survival buckets, but this BJ item gets you there much quicker than a DIY project.
To paraphrase a certain beer commercial….keep prepping, my friends. It may save your life.
If you're now getting into reloading your ammunition and casting your own lead bullets, here's some useful information on taking your home made bullets up to the next level of velocity, approaching the speeds of full metal jacketed 'factory bullets'.
The problem one faces when trying to push lead bullets faster and faster out your weapon barrel is that the greater velocity is achieved by larger powder loads (and different powders as well) placed into your cartridge as the reloading process is accomplished. The greater the pressure of the burning gases generated as the firing of the round happens pushes the bullet faster, but the typical lead bullet will begin to melt around the edges as this massive gas burst shoves the bullet out the barrel, with the flame of gas pushing by the bullet in the grooves of the barrel. This melted lead is left in the barrel, accumulating with every bullet fired in that same situation. Soon, the accuracy is compromised and the leading problem accelerates.
Some clever shooter in the past came up with an idea of swaging a thin cap of harder metal than lead onto the bottom of the bullet to 'take the heat' so that the bullet could be successfully pushed faster without the melting problem leaving lead streaks inside the barrel. These 'caps' are called gas checks. The metal, around .010″ thick, is shaped into a disc as it's punched out of the thin sheet of copper or aluminum.
The closeup picture above shows some of my .357 magnum bullet gas checks. These can be purchased for about 3 or 4 cents each from online reloading suppliers, or if you wish maximum independence you can use a 'Freechex' punch and die and make your own from aluminum or copper flashing material from Home Depot.
The bullet above, from Lee precision, is a .357 lead, semi-wadcutter, specifically designed as you see, to have a gas check disc added to it's base, with a nice little recessed base that the gas check cup fits into nicely as the bullet is sized, passing through the sizing die, giving us consistent diameter bullets.
However as you see in the next picture above, the base of this hollow point lead bullet, also that started out as a Lee precision lead bullet mold, has a beveled base that is NOT intended to have a gas check added to it in the normal processing of the cartridge assembly. So, what to do? We need sufficient velocity for a hollow point bullet to do it's thing, expanding as intended for maximum effect. We do 'bullet modification'!
The gas check is the correct diameter to work with any .357 cast bullet, but the trick is in the base design of the bullet. That means we'll need to adapt the gas check to a bullet that was never really intended to have one.
So, we place the hollow point bullet base into a gas check cup, and gently tap it into place, the idea being to seat it nice and squarely on the base of the bullet. I'm not too worried about damaging my bullet, because I quench my cast bullets in water as they come out of my molds. This makes them hard as possible….and I'm not pounding on them, just gentle little taps.
Then I lubricate the bullet very well using my case lubing pad and generous amounts of that lubricant. I wear a latex glove on my left hand while handling bullets and lube to avoid the lead and the case lube is rather sticky and nasty after a while.
Then I place the bullet, base up, on the ram of my Lee sizing die, and push it up through the die.
This changes the gas check from this: Where you can plainly see the gas check just sitting on the base of the bullet, to as we see in the next picture, an almost invisible, very well swaged on aluminum base on this bullet, successfully going onto the next step of lubrication later on.
This now allows this bullet, after the next steps of lubrication (by the 'pan' method) and loading, to be fired much faster, going from around 800 feet per second with no leading to around 1,200 feet per second, or better, still without leading up the barrel.
Everyone I communicate with is concerned with the costs of survival gear. Me too, for that topic. So, looking for good stuff among the Chinese made junk at WalMart for those of us on tight budgets is a skill we should all develop.
While on a scouting mission to WalMart for ammo (sold out of the good stuff I always look for, as usual) with a birthday gift card that needed to be used up, I fell back to plan B since there was no useful ammo for me to grab. A side note on that comment: Being able to manufacture your own ammo is priceless. Plan B of course is to look for useful survival gear in the following top four categories: Fire, Water, Shelter, Food. I scored on the Fire and Water items and will present them here. WalMart did have a thin selection of 'backpacking gear' (better than noting gear quality) and some Mountain House dehydrated backpacking food items.
My WalMart store was pretty thin in the better lines of fire making equipment, with just a couple cheesy fire steel products, and a small selection of 'weather proof' matches. However they did have Ultimate Technologies 'Wet Fire' fire starting product. The price was typical retail for this stuff, at about one dollar per piece of individually wrapped fire starters.
If you have the budget to buy these in quantity, good for you. Personally, I save the exotic materials like this for the most dire conditions where it's down to I MUST get a fire going in abysmal weather, where my standard fire making skills and normal tools and materials aren't up to the job. This product will then save the day, as it really will light while floating in a puddle. As part of my every day carry items, I have a pack of weatherproof matches wrapped in Saran wrap and a single Wetfire in it's wrapper in a pocket of every jacket, coat, 'hoodie' and sweater I own. You never know when you'll need such things, and safe beats sorry every time. My warmest winter coat also contains a couple of energy bars and a very good brand of firesteel.
You don't need to use up an entire cube, most of the time. Unless you need a fire built in a swamp after it's rained for 4 days.
Next item of great use found on this trip to WalMart is a Sawyer Mini-filter, for just under $2o US. First, let's get a bit of a stretch, in my opinion, out of the way. On the package, Sawyer claims this little filter can do 100,000 gallons of water. I suspect the 'fine print' of that claim must be from filtering tap water. But to be generous, let's say that it could filter 10,000 gallons of typical 'found water' in the wild. To me that's pretty impressive for this price.
This comes in a 4 piece kit, consisting of the filter, a straw, a squeeze bag and a reverse flushing syringe. This reverse flushing syringe is key to the life of this kind of filter. This is used, with CLEAN WATER, to flush out the accumulation of sludge that is trapped by the filtering system allowing more water to be filtered. You just put the syringe against the mouthpiece end and press firmly. Away goes a bunch of sludge the filter has trapped in the filter, allowing more filtering as you need it
This is quite versatile for your survival situations, or for mere backpacking in the boonies. Your options: Drink straight from the creek or clear puddle with the straw attached to the filter. If you have a spare soft drink bottle, fill it in the creek or puddle, just screw it right to the top, drink your creek water out of the bottle for a portable water supply.
The squeeze bag supplied with the kit can be used instead of the soft drink bottle and is handy for force filtering of creek water to fill up CLEAN containers you may have, to stockpile some water as you travel. Just don't squeeze it excessively, you may burst the bag.
When using this method to fill your clean containers, leave the straw off the filter and turn the whole thing upside down over your clean bottle, squeezing gently and patiently.
If you happen to have a hydration bladder / pack you can install your Sawyer filter in the line from the bladder to your mouthpiece.
The back flushing idea would work here as well. It's nice to have that filter added to your hydration bag, saving you a bunch of time in filling your bag by the rather slow squeeze bag method described above. You could rig up a gravity fed setup if you have a base camp where you had time to let gravity do the work for you. Get creative and re-purpose 2 liter beverage bottles by cutting away the bumpy bottoms of the bottle, suspend with some paracord or wire, screw your Sawyer to the cap end and fill with found water. The filtered water is then collected in CLEAN bottles or your hydration bag. If your found water is full of trash and debris, muddy or whatever, pre-filtering the muck out will help the life of your critical little filter. Use a spare sock, bandanna, tee shirt or other similar material to at least get the really big stuff out of the water. Or for a long term base camp, a made from scratch pre-filtering station.
So, there you are. You don't have to visit the high priced sporting goods store for ALL your gear. There are lots of online places to shop that have pretty decent prices, as well.
Hi, welcome to another Surviving Urban Crisis posting.
Today I'll share my ideas on caching items for your survival gear, those secret stashes of goodies to keep you and yours alive during whatever SHTF situations you may be planning for.
Like any other long term survival idea, planning is the basis of the entire idea. You set up your scenario, map out how to get to where your Bug Out Location is, plan at least 3 ways to get there and along each possible route you stash these goodie safes to resupply food, gear and ammo as you get along towards your BOL (bug out location). Or (or additionally) at your BOL, you stash goodies in various places on the site, because since you can't be there if you don't actually live at your BOL, the security of your goods and gear must constantly be questioned. If you have built a place, put a travel trailer there, or plan to take a travel trailer to the location, the amount of gear and supplies you can stash there is crucial to how long you'll be able to hang on at your BOL. No matter how well you build a place, given enough time, which will be aplenty since you don't live there, a criminal looter or just plain thief will have all the time in the world to break in and steal whatever you may have placed there. Unless (or maybe even if) it's an underground bunker with a theft proof, impenetrable outside door, someone can get into your BOL building and take your stuff, or even set up a squatters camp right in your BOL. Which is why you MUST approach your BOL as if there are hostiles there ahead of you when you're bugging out during a SHTF situation. It would really suck to finally make it through all the dangers of the road getting to your BOL just to wind up shot by squatters in your own place. If there is a building that can be occupied on your BOL, you should assume it's full of moochers who are eating your food, and will be using whatever weapons you may have stashed there against you along with whatever arms they had with them when they broke in. Which is why having the vacant location set up for a travel trailer to hook up to makes sense to me. That would be a well water source with a hand operated pump and a septic tank that you can hook up to for your sewer. Electricity may be nice, if you use your BOL for vacation or weekend trips in your travel trailer. That makes a nice cover story for your BOL activities. Of course power will more than likely not be available in most SHTF bug out scenarios. You can have a dozen buried caches all around your property, but nowhere for squatters to occupy a building. And if they should bring their own trailer and squat there, well that's pretty obvious when you cautiously drive up to your place, right?
OK, on to some details. To construct a cache tube or pipe, see this video page. The side bar on the right also shows a bunch of other ideas and methods. I mentioned in a couple other posts how useful a FoodSaver machine is when you're preparing items to go into your cache. As the videos point out, there's several methods to constructing a cache pipe, but the key is to make it absolutely your best shot at waterproof. Then, you must consider how you plan to open the pipe at the point you need to access the contents. There are at least 3 different caps or ends that are common on DIY cache tubes, so consider that during your construction time. There's the square nub on the end cap, which can be accessed with large channel-locks or a wrench.
Shown here with the required end piece.
Then there's a flush type, that would need sort of a giant screwdriver to open.
Which screws in where the square plug cap would fit.
Then there's a rubber cap end, which would only need a good survival knife to cut it open.
To avoid having to dig up the entire tube, I suggest you attach either wires or pull strings to packages or items in your cache, especially if the tube is smaller in diameter than your hand or longer than you can reach to the bottom of when the thing is buried and on end. Most people tend to bury their cache pipes vertically as it's a smaller diameter, but much deeper, hole to dig rather than laying the pipe down in a long trench type idea. That also makes it a little harder to find with a metal detector if someone was searching for hidden goodies with that device.
Of course if you can't remember exactly where you buried your cache, you'll be rather frustrated if you need to dig it up, I'll bet. So, if you don't have family members with you to help bury the things and recall those details, you need some 'memory joggers' to help you recall the details of the location. A method that came to mind, and has other value as well, is to find a one ounce silver bullion bar with a smooth, non detailed backside to use as a "map".
On the back side of this silver bar, you could engrave, or have engraved, a cryptic little map of where a cache is located. In this fictitious example, I'm pretending this stash is buried at a Georgia state park, site #36, with the stash at 30 degrees north northeast of the corner of the concrete parking pad, 48 heel to toe 'paces' from the indicated corner along that compass heading. Unless a state park is virtually deserted, you'll probably never be able to bury a cache pipe without someone noticing what you're up to, so in reality this most likely wouldn't be such a great place to try a cache. "X" marks the spot, matey, thar be the treasure. You don't need anything but the very basics for clues to jog your own memory of this location, and drilling a small hole in the silver bar will allow you to hang it from a sturdy necklace chain and keep it around your neck like a military dogtag. And, bonus, after you've dug up the cache, you now have an ounce of silver you can barter or trade for goods. Another idea to help with fewer details to remember about your cache locations is to try to use the same compass headings and distance from the landmark (like the concrete pad) in each stash location. You can use any kind of memory jogging numbers for the compass heading and number of paces, like the year you were married and the month of your birthday times 2 or something.
When you're digging your hole, save the plug of grass that comes up with the first shovel full to place back over the stash. Also the displaced earth should either be hauled away in a bag or widely scattered to hide the fact that someone's been digging here.
So to sum up, I suggest vacuum bagging everything going into the cache tube, with silica gel desiccant packets and /or oxygen absorbers placed in the bags with the items before they're vacuumed. Attach thin, stiff wires with ring handles formed at the end to the bags to aid in extracting the items when retrieving the cache. Make the tube as waterproof as possible with good glue joints, Teflon taped screw threads snugly (but not excessively) tightened because you may not have the proper tool to remove the cap when you truly need this cache, and add more silica gel packets in the pipe among the items placed. Make sure you're unobserved when burying your cache. Make a map for retrieval with only just enough info to jog your memory as to the location. When you're retrieving your goods, keep a guard up because if things have gone bad, you must take no chances. And when you get to your BOL, assume squatters are there until you prove otherwise.
Hi, and welcome to today's post, under two headings at once: Food storage and tested gear.
Today I'm showing you the FoodSaver machine, a system actually, that is one of the most valuable items in our kitchen or general prepping gear. They have advertisements on TV now and then, and it's really not 'hype'…..the gizmo really does save us boatloads of money on fresh, frozen and dry food that we process for our survival stash. We have used our machine for well over 15 years, still working fine as long as we use 'authentic' FoodSaver bag materials in the process. We've tried some of the competitors bags…..they just don't cut it, too cheap and the design just really doesn't make it. Those of you who've heard of sealing your stuff in Mylar bags will find this machine will seal Mylar bags well, but won't really pull a vacuum very well on that material. I'll go over dealing with bulk dry goods shortly.
I mentioned the Foodsaver machine in another post, about food storage.
We find that using this on freshly bought meats (or fresh game you have bagged) and fresh vegetables will indeed last for years in the freezer, vastly better than anything you can hand wrap meat with. With anything you can fit into the different sized bags available, you can fully control the 'hardness' of the vacuum level from a gentle removal of the air in the bag to a rock hard brick, just like you may have seen commercial coffee products in their little vacuumed bags in the grocery.
The process works equally well when dealing with leftovers from a large crock pot load of food, just turn the vacuum level down to avoid sucking a load of juice out of the bag as the cycle runs. Toss into the freezer and have a quick meal of that delicious stew in a few months without going through the cooking process again.
As preppers, we generally spend a lot of time in the summer growing season canning veggies we grow in the garden. We also make up dry ingredient 'meals in a jar' recipes, and meals in jars from the fresh goods, processing those along with the garden produce. A FoodSaver isn't designed to replace the home canning method, but will supplement it nicely, using the canning jars and lids to vacuum pack dry goods, if you have spare jars that were left from the canning season, or have recently been opened to consume the delicious stuff you canned two or three years ago. Using the canister set available from FoodSaver, you place the canning jar with dry goods in it, into the canister which will fit it best, have the lid and sealing ring lightly on. Pull a medium vacuum on the canister and you'll also be vacuuming the air out of the canning jar. When the machine indicates 'done', open the canister and check the 'pop' of the sealing lid. No pop indicates a successful seal, so tighten up the sealing ring and you're all done. This also works just fine on recycling glass jars of commercial products with the lid that 'pops' when you open the product, like salsa, jelly, dressing products, just about any glass jar with a vacuum sealed lid from the manufacturer of the product. Wash the jar thoroughly, put your dry goods into it with the lid just lightly tight, only enough to just make contact actually, pop into the canister, pull the vacuum. Check the little pop spot on the lid, no pop is a good vacuum. Tighten down the lid and you're done. You can also 'reseal' your jar of salsa or whatever as you use it up, with this method, which would no doubt extend the freshness of it as you consume it.
Now, on to dealing with saving money on bulk purchased dry goods like rice, pasta, beans, grains and so forth. We have some dear Mormon friends, their faith kind of making them the 'original preppers', wisely guiding those of this faith to set aside a year's worth of goods for their families as a normal part of daily life. To aid their members, and everyone else in need, they have established regional storehouses for their members and their friends to purchase bulk quantities of dry goods of all kinds. Occasionally, the members can invite friends outside the faith to shop at the regional center, so I jumped right into that when my friend offered the chance. Got kind of carried away on my visit and wound up with well over 100 pounds of potato flakes, rice, sugar, pancake mix, all purpose flour, pasta, spaghetti and other stuff. These products, as is, could be stored with proper conditions for a couple years, perhaps. But with a FoodSaver available, it can be stored for decades. We took each product and put about two family sized servings of the item in a FoodSaver bag, along with a printed sheet of preparation instructions copied from the original bulk package, and hard vacuumed the stuff. The bags have a two sided construction, a smooth clear side and a textured side (to aid in the vacuuming process), so it's very easy to see what you have in any bag you pick up. Any way, after about two days of processing and vacuuming, we had all that treasure reduced to manageable portions and hard vacuumed to last for a very long time.
As I mentioned in my other post, linked above, I use our machine for a lot of purposes other than food preservation. You can put survival gear into these tough bags to waterproof and weatherproof the items. All kinds of gear, like walkie talkies, emergency radios, GPS units, clothing, and of course emergency dried foods for your Bug Out Bag. Do NOT pull a rock hard vacuum on any kind of radio gear or similar item (it's not necessary, you're only sealing out moisture and weather) and NEVER have the batteries in the item when you seal it up. Since it may be years before you take it out, the batteries will have turned to crap and possibly have ruined the item. Never leave batteries in any kind of your emergency or survival gear, keep them handy in their own little lightly vacuumed bags, so that if they go sour your gear isn't damaged. Virtually anything a prepper may need to set up for long term storage that would fit into a FoodSaver bag can be done.
Ammunition, still in it's factory box (video link), and small firearms such as pistols or survival knives that could be placed into hidden cashes (video link), along with dry food items, spare clothing or whatever else you could think of, can be sealed from weather, rot and rust with this system, placed in the cache and buried, walled up, or hidden away in many other fashions. Since FoodSaver bags also come in wide and long rolls, it's conceivable one could even bag up rifles, probably in a disassembled state of some degree, and have those protected as well. Couple points on caching….take maximum precautions when packing up your items to bury. Meaning, make every effort to intercept any kind of water damage making it to your goods, where the FoodSaver system shines. Even add oxygen absorbers and silica gel packets to the items as you vacuum bag them. Then construct your cache tube to the best of your ability to waterproof it. And when you bury the cache, make sure you can FIND IT when you need it! Always go with an extra family or trusted group member to stash these items so that more than one memory has the location. Use close by landmarks such as strong fence posts, unique rock formations or whatever is likely to be unchanged in case of fires, storms, or time passing. Devise a measurement system, such as heel to toe stepping off the distance, that is infallible and un-loseable (not really a 'word', but you get the idea) so that you can find the cache even if all you have is the clothes on your back and a folding shovel. Obviously, secrecy when placing the cache is a given, so a stash in your back yard can be done in the spring when you're planting rose bushes or something. Rose bushes are our favorite stash hider. Who wants to mess with those thorny things unless you have to, right?
OK, the latest addition to my firearms and self defense column. Here we have a link to a "quick draw sling trick" video
He's demonstrating the method with an AK-47, but that's irrelevant to the idea I'm showing you today. This will work with any kind of rifle or shotgun with the standard kind of sling that such weapons are normally equipped with.
Since the technique is for speed and is done 'at speed', it's a little hard to see the complete steps, so I've frame captured the movements down into about 5 steps, starting with just the 'ready' position.
As you see here, the guy has the weapon hanging off his 'strong shoulder', or basically the side he intends to shoot from. Hanging butt down, with the magazine kind of under the arm. This technique will work with right AND left handed shooters, all you do is 'reverse' it for left handed folks, hanging on your left shoulder.
To begin the movements, he grabs the stock below the trigger grip and begins to swing the butt up towards 'horizontal', doing a kind of spinning motion.
As the butt is swung up towards his shoulder, the support hand meets the forestock (here he is also partially gripping the magazine for additional control as the rifle pivots into final position) and continues the lifting up, while the right hand lets go and then grabs the stock again at the hand grip.
The right hand is then in the proper position to being firing.
This guy can do this move in just over one second, but I suspect he may practice some! If you try this, do it with an UNLOADED WEAPON until you get the hang of it so you're not grabbing the trigger and shooting yourself in the foot. Go nice and slow until you can do every motion perfectly. Remember, slow is smooth, smooth is fast after you get the motions down.
AK-47 tactical reloading drill
Right to left transition drill
A brief clip from a training DVD, Paladin Press, KALASHNIKOV RIFLE GUNFIGHTING -"Too Simple to Be Tactical" – with Gabriel Suarez. Click his name if you may be interested in a copy. I have this DVD in my personal instructional gunfighting video library. The price has gone up since I bought mine a couple years ago.
Other comments about rifle slings. The idea is, find what works best for YOU and your weapon.
Do I favor AK-47s? Well, I have one, because it was more affordable than an AR. And I've seen very few other weapons that you could do THIS to. (Also points out how magazine type / quality affects operations.)
Hello, everyone.
Today I'm adding another post to my 'tested gear' section. An item our family has used for years, while living in the city and out in the boonies. The British Berkefeld® Gravity Water Filter, a company that's been around for a very long time. A ceramic filtering media is the secret. Many years ago, before the term 'prepping' was in vogue, I bought one of these units with the dual ceramic filters as I didn't trust the city water much because of the flavor and smell. And after a few years in the city, we moved out to a fair sized parcel where our water supply was from our own well. That too, even while being great water, was improved by a good filtering system, because of the microscopic silt that came along with every cup of water.
The versatile Big Berkey system is the ideal system for use at home with small or medium sized families, travel, outdoor activities or during unexpected emergencies. The ceramic units filter both treated water and untreated raw water from such sources as remote lakes and streams. Of course, stagnant ponds and 'mud puddles' would be the last choice because the gunk filtered out would rapidly cause the filters to require cleaning. If you must source your water from such a source, I suggest you should pre-filter your water through some sort of gross filtering setup, to help with trapping the large particles of trash, mud and muck that will inevitably be scooped up with the water.
Typical replacement filter package.
Water filtering is a must in hostile environments where electricity, water pressure or treated water may not be available. According to published information, the Big Berkey system removes pathogenic bacteria, cysts and parasites and reduces harmful chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, and VOCs without removing the beneficial minerals. Made of highly polished 304 stainless steel, the new systems come complete with four 7″ ceramic elements. This system has a storage capacity of about 2.1 gallons and when in use it stands 19.25″ in height with a diameter of 8.5″. The upper chamber nests upside down within the lower chamber for transport and stands only 13″ in height. This allows the unit to store on the shelf, if you trust your water, until the true, emergency need for filtered water happens. The system will filter about a gallon per hour when full and the filters are new and clean. That rate, being gravity operated, would slow as the water level drops in the filtering section and particulates begin to coat the outside of the filtering media. Whenever our white filters became grungy looking with the residues they trapped, a gentle scrubbing with a toothbrush (NO SOAP!!) under the spigot brought them up to par and improved the filtration speed back to nearly as new. Much improved in the past 20 years we've used ours, the new range of filtering media is impressive. And they still supply the good old white ceramic units ours uses.
All round, I think the Big B system is pretty good for a prepper to have, or anyone who distrusts city water to be as pure as they claim it is. No moving parts, batteries or power supply needed, no heat or fuel required. Just pour your dirty water in the top and wonderfully clean, pure water drips into the holding tank for drinking.
As the Southeast USA gets pummeled by those pesky global warming record winter snowstorms, for the second time in as many weeks, it's time to ponder things while scribbling notes by candle light, bundled up in layers and keeping warm by the auxiliary heat source. Nah, actually I'm quite comfy this time, as last time, while all this weather chaos is going down.
As a prepper, I tend to view things from that point of view, no matter what the subject or idea. So, as interesting things show up, I have an open mind as to their usefulness to me, as a prepper. Any vehicle that's dependable, economical as possible for it's purpose, and capable within it's design 'could be' used as a bug out vehicle (BOV). In my book and other blog posts, I've talked about the typical idea most folks have for a BOV, usually a 4 wheel drive truck or Jeep, all good there. Except for the fuel issue. Every BOV has to have fuel, the weak link common to all, other than maintenance break downs. Many preppers prefer Diesel BOV's because they will take vegetable oil as an alternate fuel, depending on the vintage of the machine. And some have taken the time, trouble and construction skills and make their own 'biodiesel' apparatus to refine and recycle found used fry cooker oil and other stuff. Good for them, but what of folks without such admirable skills?
How about an electric power BOV? 100% electric, no petroleum fuel required? Aw, man, you're saying, if the grid is down, your screwed with the rest of the world. Yep, you're right….unless you have a solar power backup generator. It can already keep your bug out location supplied with power, be it where you are now or where you want to be after the SHTF, it can also power your electric alternative transportation.
Most electric vehicles are hybrids, all still needing fuel, no matter how far it can stretch a gallon of gas. Few are total electric, and those are limited in production numbers and very expensive. And most wouldn't be worth much on anything worse than a typical dirt road out in the boonies. So, what am I leading up to with all this suspense?
TA-DA! At last, here's the idea….a 100% electric, fully capable, long range (compared to many other electric 2 wheel transportation), powerful, fast (near or up to 100 miles per hour for most models) dead quiet, off road capable (depending on model), almost no maintenance, made in the USA motorcycle. http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/
OK, granted, this is 'solo' transportation, so getting a family outta Dodge in a hurry is not an option here, BUT for what it is, I think it has some highly valuable points:
* For scattered family members who intend / need to get to a central family planned Bug Out Location (BOL) it would be an option, up to 171 miles of surface street travel with an optional 'power tank' extra battery in the Zero S or SR models.
* For a scout ahead point man in a short run supply caravan, it would be quiet and highly maneuverable, an experienced rider can turn this 400 pound machine around and wind up the insane torque of this thing to get out of a surprise bad situation very fast.
* In the 'dirt bike' version, it can keep up with the best typical noisy as 'ell gas powered dirt bike without alerting every hostile within a mile that you're in the woods.
(video link to dirt bike version)
* It can be recharged by plugging into any 110v outlet, no special government approved 'charging station' required nor funky adapters or special equipment at your home, so where ever the grid is working or if your solar powered generator is available, you're good for more power. Adapters for those stations are available, however.
* It has 'regenerative braking', so wise use of downhill opportunities or planning ahead when you see you have to come to a stop can be advantageous to extending your range. Which is more valuable in a situation, time or distance? You can get there fast, at expressway speeds, but that will kill your travel distance to around 70 miles, or you can ease back and extend your range.
* There are saddlebag cargo carrying options available, so between those and a decent backpack, some search and scrounge missions are certainly possible, finding food and medicine items that would fit such carriers is easy enough. The machine is rated to carry over 350 pounds. Solo missions are possible, but likely more hazardous than in pairs or a caravan type expedition.
I explained in my book "Surviving Urban Crisis" that, in my opinion, motorcycles have a very useful role in survival situations, but with the criteria, again in my opinion, the virtues of QUIET and maneuverability over as much terrain as possible are top criteria for best use, so a roaring Harley, cool as they are or a screaming rice rocket, despite it's 150 mile per hour capability are not my 'best choice'.
It's main negative is that it is not expected to be a long trip machine on the expressway, in spite of the fact that it can keep up with that speed level, but only for about 70 miles or so. So, is it the 'perfect BOV'? Nope, no such thing, no matter what you pick as a BOV, there's always negative factors. Weigh them and decide for yourself. Zero isn't the only electric motorcycle out there, but as far as I've seen, they have the widest range of models. But, if you find something else that fits your needs, by all means go for it.
Information for this article was provided by Zero motorcycle's web page and other sources on the net. I have no affiliation with Zero, nor do I own one of their bikes….yet.
Zero motorcycles facebook page
Now, if only you could find a Diesel fueled motorcycle at a dealer somewhere……wonder what that would be like?
Yep, short sweet and to the point, today I'm posting several links to FREE E-books on Amazon. Don't know how long they'll be free, most are always on a time limit, so get 'em while you can. If you don't have an E-book reader, like a Kindle or whatever, no worries, Amazon gives away apps to read them on everything, smart phones or computers.
First one: The Basics 4 Survival (A Wilderness Survival Topic)
Next: Survival Pantry: The Prepper's Guide To Food Storage, Water Storage, Canning And Preserving
Next: Survival Guide for Beginners
Next: Practical Wilderness Skills and Thoughts on Survival
Next: How and When to Be Your Own Doctor
Finally: Survival Seeds: The Emergency Heirloom Seed Saving Guide
All righty then, that should keep you busy for a while, the best of all worlds. . . . free knowledge that could help save your life.
Again I'm saying these will probably be free for a limited time, I had given away my own book for a short while, "Surviving Urban Crisis". But that time limit expired.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Longwei Petroleum Completes $110.6 Million Purchase Of Huajie Petroleum Assets
Mr. Cai stated, "This acquisition nearly doubles our storage capacity to a total of 220,000 metric tons and extends our reach into the fast-growing industrial area of northern Shanxi Province. Our distribution model has proven successful, and we will continue to build upon our strong foundation."
"With the addition of the Huajie facility, we have strengthened our lead as the largest non-state-owned fuel storage and distribution business in the province and are better positioned to capitalize on the demand for petroleum products in our regional market. We are confident we can quickly ramp up sales at the Huajie facility based on relationships we have established in the area over the past 18 months," stated Mr. Toups.
The Company recently reported revenues of US $510.6 million and net income of US $65.1 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012. At the June 30, 2012 fiscal year-end, the Company reported total assets of US $342.3 million and a book value per share of $3.31.
Longwei has posted a video of the Huajie facility to its corporate website at http://www.longweipetroleum.com/operations/storage-operations. Photos and videos of the three facilities can be seen on the "Operations" section of the website.About Shanxi Province, PRC The Company's operations are concentrated in the central PRC, primarily Shanxi Province. Shanxi is the leading coal-producing region in the PRC. The region is mountainous and has no oil reserves, pipelines or refineries within the province. Therefore, petroleum products have to be brought in from outside of the province via rail or truck, either from refineries in the neighboring provinces or from the relatively more numerous refineries in the coastal provinces of the northeast PRC. Consequently, wholesale distributors are required to commit significant resources to transportation, logistics and storage. The province is dependent on the timely delivery of petroleum products to support its growing industrial and consumer base. Taiyuan (the capital city of Shanxi Province) and the outlying area have a population of approximately 5 million people. Shanxi Province has a population of approximately 34 million people and is surrounded by large populated provinces, including the PRC capital city of Beijing, which represent a total combined population base of greater than 300 million people. Taiyuan is approximately 500 km southwest of Beijing. The GDP growth rate for Shanxi during 2011 was 13%, according to the China Daily, March 13, 2012, and it is expected to outpace the general economic growth in the PRC for 2012. The provincial government has estimated the fixed asset investment in Shanxi to be RMB 5 trillion (approximately $790 billion) over the next five years, according to the China Daily, September 13, 2011. The provincial government also recently announced an additional RMB 1 trillion (approximately $158 billion) in local development projects as part of the region's industrial stimulus plan, according to China Securities News, August 23, 2012. The Company believes its locations within Shanxi Province are advantageous to the growth of its business model. About Longwei Petroleum Investment Holding Limited Longwei Petroleum Investment Holding Limited is an energy company engaged in the storage and distribution of finished petroleum products in the People's Republic of China. The Company's oil and gas operations consist of transporting, storing and selling finished petroleum products, entirely in the PRC. The Company's headquarters are located in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. The Company has a storage capacity for its products of 220,000 metric tons located at three storage facilities within Shanxi: Taiyuan, Gujiao and Huajie, which have an individual storage capacity of approximately 50,000 metric tons ("mt"), 70,000mt, and 100,000mt, respectively. The Company has the necessary licenses to operate and sell petroleum products not only in Shanxi, but throughout the entire PRC. The Company's storage tanks have the largest storage capacity of any non-government operated entity in Shanxi. The Company seeks to earn profits by selling its products at competitive prices with timely delivery to transportation companies, coal mining operations, power supply customers, large-scale gas stations and small, independent gas stations. The Company also earns revenue from agency fees by acting as a purchasing agent for other intermediaries in Shanxi, and through limited sales of diesel and gasoline at two retail gas stations, each located at the Company's Taiyuan and Gujiao facilities. The Company seeks to continue to expand its customer base and distribution platform through the utilization of its large storage capacity, which allows the Company the flexibility to take advantage of pricing, supply and demand fluctuations in the marketplace. Longwei was recently named to the Forbes list of " Asia's 200 Best Under a Billion" from a universe of 15,000 companies. Forbes ranked the companies based on sales growth, earnings growth and return on equity in the past 12 months and over three years. As was reported, Longwei's three-year track record is 45% sales growth, 28% earnings per share growth and 28% return on equity. The Forbes article can be found at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2012/07/25/asias-200-best-under-a-billion For further information on Longwei Petroleum Investment Holding Limited, please visit http://www.longweipetroleum.com. You may register to receive Longwei Petroleum Investment Holding Limited's future press releases or request to be added to the Company's distribution list by contacting Dave Gentry at email@example.com. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Longwei's industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Because such statements involve risks and uncertainties, the actual results and performance of the Company may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Longwei's operations are conducted in the PRC and, accordingly, are subject to special considerations and significant risks not typically associated with companies in North America and Western Europe. These include risks associated with, among others, the political, economic and legal environment and foreign currency exchange. The Company's results may be adversely affected by changes in the political and social conditions in the PRC and by changes in governmental policies with respect to laws and regulations, anti-inflationary measures, currency conversion, remittances abroad, and rates and methods of taxation. Other potential risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to the ability to procure, properly price, retain and successfully complete projects, and changes in products and competition. Unless otherwise required by law, the Company also disclaims any obligation to update its view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward-looking statements made here. Readers should review carefully reports or documents the Company files periodically with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact: At the Company:Michael Toups, Chief Financial OfficerU.S. Office +1 727-641-1357 email@example.com http://www.longweipetroleum.com
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John Krasinski
John Krasinski Search Results
Gay Icon?Emily Blunt shares support for same-sex parents and reveals her dream to become a gay icon...
Hit or Miss?Click through to check out the most eye-catching style hits and misses of December 2014.
Week In PhotosJennifer Garner was spotted out and about in Santa Monica, Calif., plus more of your favorite stars this week in photos.
Week In PhotosRihanna attends her 1st annual Diamond Ball, plus more of your favorite stars this week in photos.
Governors AwardsSee what Jen & Justin, Reese, Emily, Jessica and more stars wore to the sixth annual Academy event...
Wedding BuzzGeorge Clooney, fiancee Amal Alamuddin, and guests arrive in Venice for the actor's big day.
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LovebirdsTake a look at John Krasinski and Emily Blunt's cutest moments together.
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Greek Review: "All Children...Grow Up"by LL at . Comments
It's spring break! Woot! Woot! "All Children... Grow Up" is the Season 3 finale, and the Greeks bring all their drama down to Myrtle Beach. Check out our episode guide for all the details!
Last week, we were left hanging, waiting to hear about the KT's "master revenge plans" against the Omega Chis. Did the plans live up to your expectations?
Let's see what went down at Myrtle Beach:
Phase 1: Lose golf tournament - hand over the keys to the beach house to Omega Chi.
Phase 2: Get Omega Chis kicked out of the house by a scary quasi-mobster.
Phase 3: Have the Omega Chis see Rusty with the mob man to make them believe that no one is actually staying at the house.
Phase 4: The Omega Chis take back the house, where they find a raging party, just in time for the cops to come. When they get in trouble with the cops, the charter for the house is threatened. Presidential candidate Trip only makes things worse, but fellow candidate Calvin seems to dissolve the tension, instilling confidence in his fellow brothers.So Omega Chi really got theirs! Oh, wait actually they didn't. Really KT? The master "revenge" plan didn't really result in so much revenge. Apparently their idea of revenge is getting their best buddy in a leadership position? I don't think Wade, Ferret, and Jeremy will feel vindicated.
This season finale had some major cheese factor!
Rusty teaches Casey a very important lesson: All children, except one, grow up! She is afraid to move forward, towards law school, away from Cappie and CRU and ZBZ. But as Rusty tells Casey, nobody is Peter Pan, not even Cappie... but is Cappie the exception? We thought he showed some growth recently, what with his attempt to declare a major, and all... but after tonight, we might think otherwise. Is this truly the end of Cappie and Casey? I really hope not! But we'll have to wait till next season to find out!
Cappie :(
Gosh i love that showww.. **
Does anyone know the song that is played when casey tries to get her mail from the mailgirl ? The text goes something like this
"Are you ready to go? are you ready to leave? Please i have searched for it everywhere?
and one more thing. hope beaver gets a bigger exposure/role. he's just so funny. i was actually hoping for an ashley-beaver love-hate relationship to develop but it just didn't push through.
but oh please, hope cassie & cappie would get back together asap. i waited for 2 seasons for them to be together.
disappointed with cappie & cassie breaking up. what happened to "taking chances"? it's starting to feel like a cassie & max relationship all over again. bring them back together, just give them more grown-up concerns.
but it's pretty cool that calvin is being shown in a different light here, away from his struggle of being gay in a straight society & away from his recently ended gay relationship with grant.
rusty is doing ok too, his relationship with dana is not overkill compared with his past hopeless romantic relationships. that did not seem to suit his personality. this one seems to work.
dale is simply hilarious. he's pretty consistent. from season 1 to 3.
evan & rebecca? well, not too relevant for me. does not make me wanna look forward to their developments. i just like them as evan as evan, rebecca as rebecca. but together, hmmm no spark for me there. but it's seems just fine. no violent reactions.
overall, greek is still my favorite. looking forward to a 4th season & i will keep on watching this show. (as long as there is reason to keep on watching) :)
im probably the only ones here who thinks cappie is kinda being an asshole for mking casey feel guilty for trying to do something with her life
Couldn't we for once have a television couple stay together for longer than half a season?? I don't know about everybody else, but I certainly don't feel like I got my fill of Cassie and Cappie. C'mon, let's not be predictable - get them back together!
Beside you know, the ending I thought last nights episode was great. Had the humorous scenes I've been looking for all season. Though I thought the KT revenge plan would have been a bit more cunning I actually like how it turned out. Totally thought Dale was hillarious this episode, with him getting drunk and with his fake ID.
I was sooooo disapointed that abc family broke up cappie and casey!!!!! that was the absolute WORST. i did like the KT way of "bringing down" omega chi but STILL. i cant believe that really happened!! during the next season i REALLLLY hope they get back together! or i will...idk but im not too happy with abc family right now.
The episode would of really been awesome had they followed threw, had those been REAL police and the Omega Chi's actually gotten in trouble and lost their house THAT would of been awesome to see Calvin and Rusty really fighting, but I felt like the episode was kind of a bore, at least last time they took a break a house burnt down, oh well hopefully the final ten episodes will be amazing.


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Adam Rosenbaum made a very intriguing animation, showing the history of a couple's relationship, that ends with a wedding proposal. Sweet too.
Via Visual News.
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I bought this book for my pregnant sister who absolutely loved it.
I was so neurotic during my pregnancies and it was as if Teresa crawled inside my head and took all the craziness out and made it funny and so enjoyable to read.
I've enjoyed listening to Teresa Strasser on the Adam Carolla show for years.
As a mother of a 3 year old and 36 weeks pregnant with my second, I can honestly say this is one of the best books I've read about the pregnancy journey. Read morePublished 5 months ago by MLTD
The immensely talented Teresa Strasser gives a fantastically-written, comedic treasure that should be the standard for the pregnancy and child-raising genre. Read morePublished 9 months ago by Louis N. Palacios
I read this while pregnant with my first and loved it. It was nice to know someone successful and put-together could be just as neurotic as me! Read morePublished 9 months ago by Alyssa Johnson
I have known of Teresa since her days in radio as a sidekick to Adam Carrolla. I was looking forward to reading her book as I thought she was under used--Adam is such a strong... Read morePublished 15 months ago by ROYGBIV
I love to listen to Teresa on here radio shows and on pod cast appearances. When I heard about her book on a pod cast I immediately purchased the book and wondered why sales were... Read morePublished 16 months ago by Amazon Customer
Teresa Strasser is one of the funniest women in the world! I felt like I was haven't a good chat with a girlfriend while reading this book. Read morePublished 16 months ago by notafanofparentingbooks
Teresa Strasser is hilarious and endearing. This is the perfect book for folks with a sense of humor- you don't even have to be pregnant to enjoy Strasser's wit and... Read morePublished 16 months ago by Stephanie Turner


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follow Dictionary.com
8 Wintry Words to Defrost Your Vocabulary
1530s, from Anglo-French paramont, Old French paramont "above" (in place, order, degree), mid-14c., from Old French par "by," from Latin per "through, for, by" (see per (prep.)) + amont "up," from a mont "upward" (see amount (v.)). The whole from Latin per ad montem, literally "to the hill."


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I am happy to say that I am finally seeing a difference in my bills from the New A/C and Furnace that I had put it. Because I am on budgeted billing it took this long to figure out. But it was worth the wait because tthey went down by $100 a month!!! That's insane!
I'm going to send that $100 right to my LOC because that's where the furnace is sitting right now (blush) so at least I will be "passively" paying it down.
I think my LOC will be my target debt. If something happens and I lose my job (not that I expect it will happen but you never know) then I can always borrow from the LOC but I can't from my student loans


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New Audials 10 Is Ready For Windows 8
KARLSRUHE, Germany, November 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Audials AG has released the tenth generation of its successful Audials software on its website http://Audials.com. With many innovative features for recording movies, listening to the radio, acquiring music, and preparing media for PC, smartphone and tablet, the flagship Audials One, the classics Tunebite and Radiotracker, and the entry-level editions Moviebox and Mediaraptor are now also available for Windows 8.
More streaming recording for music and movies
The Audials 10 PC software now offers three new recording modes specially designed for websites, media libraries and online Video on Demand services, enabling you to record videos and movies even better. Tracks in music streams are now recognized more accurately and saved automatically. Videos and HD movies are now recorded up to 1080p and saved as MP4, WMV, H.264, AVI or 3GP files.More format conversion for PCs, smartphones and tablets The Audials universal converter now converts high-resolution video files more quickly. The profiles have been expanded to include the latest generation of smartphones, as well as the iPad, Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, Microsoft Surface and other tablet PCs. More radio The new radio controls provide initial information on the tracks played, artists and even cover art, even before you listen to the station. The user can find, listen to and record radio stations according to genre, country or currently-played artist. The location-based supply of regional stations and a station selection with top hits just starting are both new. In addition to the improved favorites function, the user can now also "pin" genres and artists. Overall, the radio stations available in Audials comprise the best 50,000 international stations, such as BBC Radio 2, KSFO, Heart, Classic FM, WBAP, Magic, 92 KQRS, Smooth Radio, KIIS, Z100, and many more.
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LAS VEGAS, Oct. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Inspired by Hyundai's successful RE:MIX Lab program, Hyundai introduced a special edition RE:MIX production Veloster to the enthusiast crowd at this year's Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas. The special edition...
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Fairfax, Virginia - Waking up bright and early Wednesday morning, the Youth Education Summit loaded into their bus for their first adventure in Washington D.C. This was the first trip to our nation's capital for many of the students and they gazed at the monuments as the bus drove into the heart of the city.
More on the NRA Youth Education Summit in Washington DC...
Fairfax, Virginia - The first full day of the National NRA Youth Education Summit is spent at none other but NRA Headquarters, but that shouldn't surprise you. With a week's worth of events designed to educate attendees on the significance of the American Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the importance of being an active citizen, a top-to-bottom tour of the NRA is covers all bases.
Beginning with presentations by each of the organization's divisions, students learned how the NRA not only protects our Second Amendment rights, but provides almost 200 programs to enjoy and exercise them. Attendees were even treated to special presentations by NRA General Operations Executive Director Kyle Weaver and NRA President Jim Porter.
More on the 2013 NRA Youth Education Summit ...
Fairfax, Virginia - The 2013 NRA Youth Education Summit is finally here. This week, forty-seven high school students from around the United States are here in Washington, DC for a seven-day, competitive college scholarship program they won't soon forget.
Throughout the course of the summit, the attendees will tour memorials and monuments surrounding the nation's capital as they learn the significance of the American Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the importance of being an active citizen. After trickling in flight-by-flight yesterday and playing the requisite icebreaker games, the summit's first full day finds everyone at NRA Headquarters here in Fairfax, Virginia.
Fairfax, Virginia - Molly Smith is one of the shooting industry's brightest rising stars. Although to some, like us, she already is one. Still just in high school, Molly is already a professional shooter with Team Smith & Wesson where she shoots revolver and is the junior captain.
Molly was one of the 46 lucky enough to attend the 2012 NRA National Youth Education Summit, a seven-day educational experience in Washington DC for high school students. Molly and the others spent a week learning about the federal government, the constitution and the benefits of the NRA's programs. She describes it as the best week of her life. How's that for an endorsement?
More on Team Smith & Wesson Junior Captain Molly Smith...
Fairfax, Virginia - A total of $15,000 in college scholarships will be split among six 2012 NRA Youth Education Summit attendees in recognition of their outstanding performance in the Y.E.S. Grand Scholarship project.
The Y.E.S. Grand Scholarship begins at the conclusion of each year's NRA Y.E.S., the Washington DC-based seven-day educational experience for high school students covering the constitution, federal government and the NRA's impact on the Second Amendment through community outreach programs.
Following each year's Y.E.S., the 46 participants are eager to return home and educate their local communities on the positive effects of NRA programs like Eddie Eagle GunSafe, Women On Target and Refuse To Be A Victim. The Y.E.S. Grand Scholarship encourages students to create a portfolio documenting their involvement in NRA programs over the next nine months and awards college scholarships to the most inspiring projects.
More on the Youth Education Summit Grand Scholarship winners...
Fairfax, Virginia - Each summer's annual NRA Youth Education Summit, the seven-day all expenses educational experience in Washington, DC, for high school students, has plenty of opportunities to compete for college scholarships. After the summit ends, there's an even bigger opportunity available - the Y.E.S. Grand Scholarship.
While at Y.E.S., rising high school sophomores and juniors travel the Washington, DC area learning about how our federal government works as well as the importance of the Second Amendment and the benefits the NRA provides through its community outreach programs. The optional Y.E.S. Grand Scholarship, beginning when the weeklong summit ends, gives that year's attendees nine months to introduce NRA safety education and training programs into their communities, documenting the process and results.
More on NRA Youth Education Summit Grand Scholarship...
Fairfax, Virginia - The inaugural Oregon State NRA Youth Education Summit (Y.E.S.) concluded this past weekend, setting the stage for the June 24 National NRA Y.E.S. in Washington D.C.
A week long educational experience for high school sophomores and juniors, Y.E.S. is an opportunity for today's youth to receive first hand knowledge of how the federal government really works. Not just anyone can attend Y.E.S., though. For most there is an application process to the expenses paid once in a lifetime trip, but others must compete directly with their peers in state-level summits before winning a ticket to the nation's capital.
More on Oregon's inaugural Youth Education Summit...
Fairfax, VA- The newest edition of the NRA Foundation's Traditions magazine contains a special story about Pennsylvania's successful Youth Education Summit program. Enjoy this sneak peak, and be sure to read the entire story when your copy of Traditions Magazine arrives:
Pennsylvania's Youth Education Summit
Since its inception, Pennsylvania's Friends of NRA has consistently generated impressive and successful programs. One of the most noteworthy is its Youth Education Summit (Y.E.S.), a competitive program designed to mold high school youth into educated leaders of their generation. In late April, 19 students from across the Keystone State gathered for this year's Y.E.S. program, and it proved to be an event they will not soon forget.
After arrival the eager students hit the ground running on a packed five-day itinerary easily mistakable for that of a month long event. They sat with mouths agape on Thursday evening while their dedicated chaperones provided an overview of activities to come.
More on this year's Pennsylvania Youth Education Summit ...
Pennsylvania's Youth Education Summit
Since its inception, Pennsylvania's Friends of NRA has consistently generated impressive and successful programs. One of the most noteworthy is its Youth Education Summit (Y.E.S.), a competitive program designed to mold high school youth into educated leaders of their generation. In late April, 19 students from across the Keystone State gathered for this year's Y.E.S. program, and it proved to be an event they will not soon forget.
More on this year's Pennsylvania Youth Education Summit ...
Fairfax, Virginia - Prior to the National Youth Education Summit, held each June in Washington, DC, some states have begun holding State Youth Education Summit programs to introduce high school freshmen, sophomores and juniors to their state government and learn about their state's unique heritage and history, and obtain a better understanding of volunteer organizations and how young citizens can become involved in serving their communities. Of course, like at National Y.E.S., a special emphasis is also placed on the benefits of firearms ownership.
More on the first ever Texas Youth Education Summit...
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Funeral home touts city's oldest elevator
By DYLAN LYSEN, Herald Staff Writer | 3/5/2014
Tom Ferguson stepped into the caged box and shut the metal-spring gate, which creaked as it closed. The box began to ascend slowly, but smoothly.
The elevator at Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home moves as well as any, but uses old-fashioned technology and looks like it's straight out of a movie set built for a Depression-era film.
Tom Ferguson stepped into the caged box and shut the metal-spring gate, which creaked as it closed. The box began to ascend slowly, but smoothly.
The elevator at Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home moves as well as any, but uses old-fashioned technology and looks like it's straight out of a movie set built for a Depression-era film.
"It's the epitome of an elevator you see in the movies," Ferguson said.
Ferguson, office manager at Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home, 325 S. Hickory St., Ottawa, said the elevator on the southeast side of the funeral home's converted Victorian house was installed in 1932, making it the first and longest-lasting elevator in Ottawa.
Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home originally opened as Lamb Funeral Home in 1892, some 40 years before the elevator was added. The business, then owned by the Lamb family, built the structure that now houses the funeral home as the living space for the owners, Ferguson said. It was finished in about 1906, according to a photo in the funeral home's lobby.
"This is just a beautiful home," Ferguson said. "From my understanding, it was a five-year build, not like they do it today."
Among the stops on the elevator's trek to the third floor, where caskets are displayed for viewing before purchase, is the second floor of the building, which members of the Lamb family once used as their residence. The elevator also descends to the basement, which is used for storage.
The family owned the business until 1964 when the funeral home was sold by Harold J. Lamb to long-time employee Bob Roberts. The late Roberts added his name to the business and it became Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home. Roberts sold the business to Carriage Services, based in Houston, about 20 years ago.
In December, Michael and Jami Piper, along with Eric Price, Ottawa, purchased the business.
Through all those changes, the funeral home's elevator remained.
And it's in surprisingly good health today, Ferguson, who has been with Lamb-Roberts since December 2012 and a part of the Ottawa community for 15 years, said.
"It's relatively maintenance-free," he said. "We keep it clean. We have it checked. The biggest maintenance is keeping it clean."
The 1930s elevator technology also came with some simple safety mechanisms, Ferguson said. Both gates on either side of the elevator must be closed, and then a switch pulled, before it can lift.
"It's on par with any other elevator," he said. "It's old school in that you have to have these safety factors in place. You can't just press a button and go."
Despite its age, the metal box ascends through the elevator shaft smoothly and quickly, which is what a person might expect from an elevator added to help people with disabilities.
While customers could walk up a flight of stairs to each floor, the elevator was installed specifically to help customers unable to make the climb, Ferguson said. The funeral home chose to aid members of the population living with disabilities nearly 60 years before the federal government took steps to ensure such accommodations.
"We know it's the oldest handicapped facility in Franklin County," Ferguson said. "That's what it was put in for."
President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law in 1990, protecting the rights of those living with disabilities, much as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did for minorities. According to the law, it prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, state and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation and telecommunications.
Because the ADA wasn't enacted until 1990, Ferguson said, the elevator was installed long before many people in the country were thinking about the rights and needs of those with disabilities. It serves as proof the Lamb family was progressive, he said.
"It was definitely preemptive," Ferguson said. "It was way, way before its time. It was an innovation."
Elisha Otis, an American industrialist and elevator pioneer, received the first order for a passenger elevator in 1857, according to The Elevator Museum, an online reference for the history of elevators. The Lamb-Roberts elevator was finished 75 years later, but Deb Barker, Franklin County Historical Society director, said it still was new technology for the local community.
"Nothing was good in 1932," Barker said of Franklin County during the Great Depression. "Elevators were invented back after the Great Fire in Chicago and all that. That would have been something pretty cool [in Franklin County]."
Elevators aren't necessarily part of the requirement for serving people with disabilities who visit businesses, Barker said, but the Old Depot Museum, 135 W. Tecumseh St., which is operated by the historical society, also added an elevator to help the Franklin County population.
"We put in an elevator in [1998] in the Old Depot Museum," Barker said. "You weren't required to do so, we just know we had a large clientele that would need it."


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Brian Teasley | July 12, 2005 | Comments
Knowing how customers behave on your Web site can improve sales, marketing, and even the site itself.
Do you know who your best customers are? Do you know how much they buy, and when they buy it? Do you know how they use your Web site?
A few years back, an organization (whose name I cannot recall) ranked all of the airline Web sites from best to worst. The site that ranked best did so largely because it was one of the few that actually had flight and fare-finder information on the first page.
Many other sites had nice-looking home pages. But to get the information wanted, you had to spend extra time on that home page. That really wasn't nice. It increased the time needed to find the desired information.
I know the guys who designed and built the best site. They decided to put this useful information and functionality on the home page because it was obvious to them it should be there. They knew from examining their log-file data these pages were the most frequently visited, and they wanted to make the site as easy to use as possible. So they used the data and made an informed decision to put the flight and fare information on the home page.
Do you know how your best customers use your Web site? Which site aspects should be on the home page? Does the answer differ for different types of customers? Is your site different for different customers?
The answer to "How do your best customers use your site?" has implications for not only your site's design but also your product offerings and overall marketing.
Details on how to answer the question are a bit too complex to answer completely in one short column. The solution involves discussions between sales and marketing groups, data warehouse groups, data analysts, and the Webmaster group.
The marketing folks must clearly define who the best customers are. Often (this always surprises me) they don't know. The data warehouse group provides the data to help shape this definition, then the Webmaster group engineers a method to track the online behavior of those customers.
The method of tracking must include some type of identifier. It could involve some combination of a user identification number, cookie ID number, or IP address. This identifier is then tracked along with the Web page visiting information, sometimes called clickstream or path data.
Clickstream data is written into the raw Web log file and to a special database table developed for tracking Web site behavior. Analysts, who use different software, depending on analysis complexity, then analyze the data.
The software from ClickTracks, which won the 2003, 2004, and 2005 ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards, does a great job letting marketers extract this type of useful information from their data. It's easy to use and delivers good insight into your data.
WebTrends also breaks down which pages are most visited from every other page in a site, which is helpful in understanding how a site is used.
Omniture SiteCatalyst goes a step further and allows "path analysis," which investigates full paths users take through your Web site. This capability is available as part of an add-on module to the base software.
Two companies that no longer exist, Accrue and Personify, attempted to analyze customers paths. Personify assets were acquired by Accrue, which in turn recently reemerged as Datanautics. Time will tell how helpful its new offering will be.
Regardless of the software used, information extracted from the analysis should help improve your marketing. Some of your best customers may always visit a certain area of your site. That may mean it should be featured more prominently on the site. Your best customers might use certain services on your site. These should be featured in your marketing. They might look for more information on certain products. Maybe you should feature that information in your sales efforts.
Your best customers might be doing all these things... but do you know if they are?
Today's column ran earlier on ClickZ.
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More Atrocities in Afghanistan - Why Are We Surprised?
| Posted 05.03.2012 | World
Read More: Atrocities, War Crimes, Military Training, U.S. Army, Vietnam War, Afghanistan War, World News
Here we go again. Photos published several weeks ago (taken in 2010) showed U.S. soldiers displaying the corpses and body parts of alleged Afghan ins...


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Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies are having unusual price changes in Peru trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of 2:29 p.m. New York time.
The Lima General Index fell for the ninth session in 10, losing 0.6 percent to 18,333.58. The MSCI All Peru Capped Index dropped 1 percent to 2,311.45.
Industrial and banking shares dropped after U.S. stocks and commodities slumped on concerns the global economy is slowing, said Arlen Lahura, a trader at Lima-based brokerage Coril SAB.
Austral Group SA (AUSTRAC1 PE), a unit of Austevoll Seafood ASA, fell 3.7 percent to 26 centimos. Empresa Siderurgica del Peru SAA (SIDERC1 PE), the Gerdau SA unit known as Siderperu, declined 2.9 percent to 1 sol. Grana y Montero SA (GRAMONC1 PE), Peru's largest construction firm known as GyM, dropped 0.9 percent to 5.5 soles. Scotiabank Peru SA (SCOTIAC1 PE), the local unit of Canada's third-largest bank, slid 1.2 percent to 42.49 soles.
Copper and zinc miners fell after the metals declined in New York and London.
Candente Copper Corp. (DNT PE), a Canadian exploration company, dropped for the fourth session in five, losing 3.1 percent to 94 cents. Panoro Minerals Ltd. (PML PE), a Canadian copper and gold exploration company, declined 5 percent to 38 cents. Volcan Cia. Minera SAA (VOLCABC1 PE), Peru's largest zinc and silver producer, slid 1.1 percent to 2.58 soles. Cia. Minera Milpo (MILPOC1 PE), a zinc and lead producer controlled by Sao Paulo-based Votorantim Metais Ltda., fell 1 percent to 4.95 soles.
--Editors: Glenn J. Kalinoski, Richard Richtmyer
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Emery in Lima at firstname.lastname@example.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at email@example.com


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TYLER — Tyler Investigators were notified that Ashton Wade, age 4, passed away in Children's Hospital in Dallas, on Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 7:10 p.m. This case remains under investigation.
On 06-14-2011 at 8:14 pm, Tyler Police Officers were dispatched to 3088 Old Omen Road in reference to an unresponsive child.
Once on scene, officers learned that a 4 year old black male identified as, Ashton Wade, DOB 01-15-2007 was found floating unresponsive in the swimming pool of the apartment complex.
Prior to officers arrival, the child was pulled from the swimming pool by a citizen and CPR was administered.
EMS and TFD responded to the scene and began treating the child.
The child was transported to East Texas Medical Center and then later transported to Children's Hospital in Dallas.
The child and the adults that were with the child reside in Tyler, but do not live at the apartment complex where this occurred.