Been busy with kids and work. Yay I have full time work (more than 50% of U.S. doesn’t right now)! October was nice here in the South, a couple of ‘heatwaves’ hit and caused my tomatoes and jalapenos to flower and grow a bunch. Stupid plants. I got the last of each yesterday. Since the last full tomatoes were attacked by insects (in spite of marigolds and Basil) , I have been plucking the green tomatoes before the insects think they are interesting. They’ve been ripening in sunlight in the house. Even ripened they don’t taste as good as the naturally ripened but I’ve been dehydrating them and making ‘tomatoe’ powder. It goes with the 1/4 kg of basil powder (didn’t think to leave in sprigs) .. next year, MORE! Garlic, Oregano, Parsley, Chives, Rosemary and regular, not lemon, Basil (in bunches.) The wife loves pesto so, more Basil! Oh Coriander AND Cilantro. Tons of Cilantro. Also we’ve got about 0.8 kg of dried jalapenos for use during the winter. The potatoes I grew were gone pretty quickly (dang tasty they were…), the carrots I didn’t pay attention to how close they were when I planted so they all came up in big clump. The sunflowers were nice and produced about 3 kg of seeds.
I’m still working on my regular preps: food, water, defense and power. The food, we’ve added cans and dehydrated or bagged more food. I hate water duty, hurts my right arm. BUT even with the rain barrel we have, it’ll be a nice buffer till we get a better rain catch system. On power I’ve added 2 100W solar panels and am purchasing a 250AH battery for them to hook to. Also started on the box for a solar hot water collector. Most companies say it’s old news, but when the grid goes down I want as much OFF the batteries as I can get. Defense we’ve added a few long guns and am planning on a small 9mm for the wife (presently she only has a .22 pistol, useful but no stopping power.) Luckily ammo is slowly reappearing in stores.
Not much major going on with the economy and wars. Both are getting worse. What’s really scaring me now is the schools my grandsons will have to attend. Between the ‘gun scares’ (poptarts in the shape of a pistol, fingers pointed at another kid in the shape of a gun) and the kneeling before teachers, it’s a very scary place. My own public school days were good; we drove in and out of the high school parking lot and into the building without being frisked, your car was your car, and you showed respect to your teachers because you should AND if you didn’t your parents would whup you when you got home. The wife and I keep trying to think of ways to retire and home school the boys when the time comes. Haven’t figured it out yet.
Big thing today is area of effect defenses. (Old hat for the old-timers and military guys…) If you are a big WoW (or other MMORPG) player, you know that AOE effects are things (in our case defenses, landmines etc) that cover an area of land that have some (wait for it) effect on a number of targets. Sometimes it’s small, sometimes it’s large. An electric fence is a specialized version of an AOE defense. A better example would probably be the “flame thrower”, portable incendiary device, flame projector. One man can wield this and cover an area in front of him at about 20ft wide and up to 60 ft away. It is AOE because it is indiscriminate; anyone in the area, friendly or Tango, will be affected by the device. Between things getting real bad and the time of WROL I plan on putting a few fixed flame projectors in the ground in the front and back of my house (away from the house of course.) I also thought that the taser/”stun gun” would make a good AOE weapon. Also occurred to me that a short spray of water and several electrical fence wires in the yard would also be an excellent deterrent.
The good side of AOE defense is it’s a force multiplier. With the right setup, one person can cover front and one side, the other can cover second side and the front. They’re dumb weapons – like snares they hit whatever they are triggered on, wanted or not. I’ve also considered some pop-up thermite delivery sections; hit the trigger, the devices in the yard hidden under the dirt ignite some thermite. The heat from the thermite causes the projectile to be launched upon unsuspecting intruders. In the middle of the thermite is a firecracker that will cause a small explosion of the thermite onto anything in a 1 m area. With one of these every meter across a 7 m yard, the first and maybe second wave of attackers can be turned back (the second because the thermite is now burn a big hole all over the yard. ) Of course this means a lot of water to keep the house from catching fire but how many invaders will walk back to smouldering, burning heck? I’ve also considered an AOE defense with the water spray and stun guns. As they approach, turn on the water and as they reach the ‘stun line’ hit the stun guns. These are mounted instead of carry, thereby by avoiding the need to hold the gun and be close to the target. The water’s there to increase chance of getting the ‘zombie.’ If clothes are wet and the stun gun just hits the pants, it’ll conduct the electricity across the targets legs. Dance zombie, dance!!! MUAHAHHAHAHAHA. Without the water, it may not get through the clothing.
Y’all know of anything else like this that might make defending against the ‘Golden Horde’ easier? Especially stuff that can be hidden easily till the last moment.
teotwawkiandifeelfine 
Posted on November 21, 2013
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