Bliss Dinosaur Ranch Blog

I am very sorry for my lack of post and admittedly poor management of the blog lately.  It has quite a few hits each month and I try to write but the end of the year is wrought with weather changes, closing fossil sites up for the coming bad weather, and we had this little event here called the International Tactical Rifle Championships.

Here is a post that is essentially the story/article about the ITRC in the Powder River Examiner (a newspaper from Broadus Montana.

The Bliss Ranch just east of Biddle on the Montana/Wyoming line hosted 2 legs of the 3 events related to the International Tactical Rifle Championships over the weekend of Aug 21-22.  The well attended event was held under beautiful blue skies and great long range shooting conditions.  A team consisting of two shooters, one on a highly modified carbine (almost all AR-15 or M15 to a team) and a rifleman (shooting mostly 308 with some wildcat calibers in the mix) took on the hilly terrain with a time limit of two hours.  Running out of time meant you loose the ability to finish the targets above you, overtaking the team in front of you disqualified the overtaken team from continuing so most team ran the course.  Every man had to carry his own gear and stay on the mowed, flagged courses each over 2 miles long.  The third event was held off Bliss Ranch down at the Small Arms Training Academy near Gillette.

Several locals including  Colby Trump, Terry Powell, Ted Amsden, Dave Reed, Trusty Matheson, Marty and J Reno, and Chris/Frank Bliss were Range officers keeping score, calling hit and miss for each of the several thousand shots on both courses and enforcing very tough safety rules. There were no injures except to some of the chains holding targets.  Frank Bliss had several trips around the 4 miles of courses left to pick up the remaining loose brass from the event.  The two days of the shooting event yielded 63 pounds of highly prized, very high end match rifle/carbine cases.

The shot distances envelope were from 0 to 500 yards for carbine and 100 to 1000 yards for rifle.  Ranging lasers were permitted.  Wind instruments, barometric readings and altitude corrections were all the rage. The targets made from either rectangular railroad hard plate used to hold rails to the ties (8 inch by 14 inch) and 10 in square 1/4 inch thick hardox steels hung between regular T posts with either a rebar/rubber belt or rebar and double chains on each sides.

Twenty six teams from all over the world attended the the competition which boasted a 44 thousand dollar first prize, several custom rifles, 10 day/10 animal safari trips to africa with Randy Cotoure (the professional mix martial artist) as a companion, lots of gear donated by “Spec Ops corporation” and plaques for the Winners.

A sideline competition which almost everyone attending (even spectators and neighbors) was a helicopter shoot where 4 “pepper popper” targets were strafed by passengers with feet on the landing skid using custom Rock River AR-15’s.  The highest score took all.  The prize was the two custom Rock River AR-15s. Ejected brass was collected before it left the helicopter by an attached bag on the firearm.

The winners of the ITRC were the team of Bennie Cooley and Michael Voight with a total score of 5023.  That was a big lead 90 percent of the other teams had scores below 4000.  Cooley and Voight have been national Champions before.  They defeated the other teams consisting of a mix of professional shooters, military, government and qualified civilians.

Frank Bliss (who is a certified instructor of small arms and self defense) of the Bliss Ranch has worked in close cooperation with Mr. Dave Lauck toward this event for the past two years. Dave Lauck is considered by many to be the most knowledgeable small arms expert in the world. He has excelled in every aspect of the industry in addition to spending over 25 years in law enforcement. Dave is a much sought after instructor by police and military units and was presented the Golden Eagle Award from the U.S. military for professional firearms training. He holds numerous training certifications and was the Chief of sniper instruction at the 2004 World SWAT Conference. Dave is also a world-class shooter with multiple championships in three-gun, pistol and rifle matches. He was the first person to surpass Jeff Cooper’s 20-20-20 challenge: 20 shots, in less than 20 seconds, at less than a 20-inch target at 1000 yards and a member of the One Mile Club. Dave is also the Director of the International Tactical Rifleman Championships and the Carlos Hathcock Benefit Shoot-off. Dave has written for numerous shooting publications and authored four books including Advanced Tactical Marksman. He lives in Gillette, WY.

It is planned that this event will occur next year on the Bliss Ranch with a rearranged course of fire and perhaps a new course in the mix connecting the first two so we can configure as we wish.  Good shooting all.

Frank Bliss

Have you been to the gun store recently.  It seems that they are one of the few industries that has been positively affected by the Obama economic slowdown.  Sturm Ruger corporations stock (for instance) is going through the roof.  I have been talking to contacts around the country and this is not a local Wyoming phenomena by any means.

In New Jersey, you can’t buy a 12 guage shotgun, not because they are illegal to buy, but because there aren’t any to buy on the shelves.  In South Dakota, Cabella’s OutDoor Outfitter’s sells ammunition as soon as it arrives.  Literally sold as quickly as it is being unpacked and put on the shelves.  I personally spent an hour visiting every internet source of ammunition that I knew of (dozens) and I finally found some .45 caliber pistol defensive rounds.  Everyone on line lists all calibers but none of them have everything listed.  Backorders, out of stock, or “Don’t even ask” is on the websites when you click “add to cart”.  I have literally been looking weeks for a few hundred rounds of common .380 pistol ammo. Interestingly, if you call a major manufacturer of AR-15’s, (who don’t even pick up the phone now), you have to send a fax for your order and it will take a year to get it.  Have fun with that.

In my closest town (Gillette Wyoming), there are 4 gun shops.  Out here in hunting country where pickup trucks usually have a rifle in the back window, ammunition has always been taken for granted.  Reloading ammo is a way of life.  Similarly to complete cartridges, reloading components are immediately sold off shelves as they are unpacked from their shipping containers.  The big stores not only cannot keep up with demand, they are not even close to being able to obtain the supplies they need as this “shortage” runs up the supply chain.  I also noticed that in all 4 shops, there isn’t an AR-15 for sale in the town.  This is the first time since I’ve lived in Wyoming (since 91), that I haven’t seen one in a local gun store.  Multi-round shotguns are also of short supply and only cheaper off brands are on the shelf.  You couldn’t buy a Remington 870 if you wanted to.  Additionally, any gun of any use in self defense has almost doubled in value from several years ago. This is indeed a National phenomena.

The reasons for this shortage are many no doubt.  I place high on the list, a belief (a highly likely outcome) that the Obama administration is going to reinstate the Clinton Assault Weapon ban that sunset a few years back.  My thinking goes, that people aren’t going to try to overthrow the gov’t or anything that sinister.  I just believe that there is a widespread fear of the anarchy that this kind of economic stress could (and really might) bring.  It is a fact that if you can’t defend yourself, your family/property and can’t rely on police, then you are a helpless sheep surrounded by wolves.  Therefore, law abiding people are taking up arms.  This is coinciding with an increase in use by law enforcement and military units buying up supplies for practice and looking to save money before some of this ammo is “taxed” out of means of ordinary folks.  There is a HUGE demand for guns and ammo what ever the cause.

Right below the surface, there is certainly an unspoken sense of alarm that this social unrest and political outrage, force fed leftists social spending, economic turmoil, and a big (and growing) sense of cynicism about the effectiveness of our legal system.  There is also a high probability of a terrorist attck which would increase the tension around the country in numerous ways. All of this is being managed by an out of control congress and a dangerously ideological new president which doesn’t make Joe Plumber (average guy) feel very secure. As other world economies tank even harder than ours, there is talk of a “new world order” and a world wide “new deal”.  The future is unknown and isn’t looking very bright to say the least.

Having said that, obtaining a reasonable supply of ammunition and firearms may be a very prudent act.  This is to suggest that sooner or later, Bible thumping, hate filled conservative “Bubba” is going to have to stand in line now with a very liberal left coast transplant from San Francisco to get ammo supplies because after all, this country is first come first serve.  If I were that liberal, I would be very polite to Bubba because Bubba knows how to use his gun where that left-winger has only seen them used in the movies.  Hopefully, this doesn’t come down to Darwinistic principles where only those with three or more arms survive.

The next point is, now that you have your spanking new semi-automatic, laser/light equiped, bayonett mounted firearm, how do you use them?  Where do the “bullets” go in???  If you don’t know how to care for, operate in the dark with, shoot a man sized target at 400 yards with firearm, then what?  Time to get trained huh?  I suggest Gunsite, Front Site, or any other professionally run training program.  You also need more than one magazine.  I suggest 20 or so for each gun.

OK, so civil unrest spreads and the law is too busy to help you.  If you don’t hunker down, you’ll have to move.  Got somewhere to go?  Driving isn’t going to work as roads are for those that want to get ambushed. Time to take a hike?

Now that you know how to use and care for your nice new gun, do you have a sling for it? How about some gear to carry those spare mags for a walk out in the country if you need to get out of Dodge.  Got your pretty RED backpack preloaded? (nice subdued earth tones like wooland camo are better). How about breaking in those walking shoes.  Anyway to carry or at least filter water?  How about some packed meals ready to eat (MRE) enough for at least 3 days.  Can you stay warm?  GOOD (get out of Dodge) bags good for at least 72 hours should be an immediate priority.  If you have to move, your not going to have time without some kind of plan.  Do you have all that equipment for every member of your party/family.  Lone wolfs don’t do as well as a group.  Buddy up and good luck.  Time to start reading and preparing for contingencies as only those who are not prepared are afraid, those that are prepared are better secure.

If inflation kicks in, tangables maintain their value.  I can’t think of a better investment than a fine defensive firearm and ammunition for it.  Time to start shopping before the new administration decides you shouldn’t.

Please prepare so you are part of the solution, not part of the problem.  Your government is not going to take care of you.

If you want to post a blog relating to my comments or along similar lines, feel free to type away on the make a comment button on the bottom of each post thread.  I will monitor contributions of course to keep them clean but I welcome good discourse and discussion.  There were over 3000 hits on this blog last month but just a few of you left comments. Have at it.

Thanks  

Frank Bliss MS Geology

Owner Bliss Dinosaur Ranch.

It seems that there is a Bill Introduced in the new congress called HB 45 (The Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009) which is somewhat onerous (MASSIVE UNDERSTATEMENT!!!!) to gun ownership in America.  It wants to (in a nutshell) require in order for you to own ANY gun:

1: You to have to carry a Federally issued photo ID firearms license.

2:  A training class is required to license.

3: Disclosure of your storage method (like in a safe, under a tree buried, in your trucks back window).

4: A thumb print is required to obtain a license. (I assume the owners thumb print)

5: Every sale be recorded by the federal gov’t meaning no more private sales.

6: If you move, you have 60 days to inform the Attorney General or you are a felon.

7: If your gun is stolen and you don’t report it within three days, you are a criminal.

8: There will be no grandfathered firearms, you must register every gun you have.

9: If you do not obtain a license and report every firearm you currently own, you are a criminal.

10: The gov’t will charge us a license fee and a fee for the “services” provided at purchase time.

11: Licenses must be renewed every 5 years.

12: You must keep firearms unloaded and inaccessible to a child unless the child uses the firearm in self-defense (go figure and just how does that work?  I’m not making this up folks!)

13:  If you break the law under this act, you can be subject to a 10 year prison sentence or fined or both.

A pdf of the Bill submitted January 6th to the Judiciary Committee is available at:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi-dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h45ih.txt.pdf

We all will have 1 year from the date of such bills passage to register 100 million firearms or those that don’t will be a criminal.  

Putting it simply, we now don’t have to worry about unemployment in America because the bureaucracy that will have to be created to deal with the mountain of paperwork and the funneling of same will hire many thousands and cost billions of dollars.

Honestly, this would be laughable if it weren’t so serious.  The implications for our second amendment rights are staggering.  The creation of an enormous class of criminals by the government as a result of “inaction” by the owners is unheard of.  There are hundreds of “what if’s” I could come up with were an unsuspecting person could have a firearm on their property and not know it.

Besides, this is just another registration scheme who’s eventual goal is the entire elimination of privately owned firearms from our citizenry.  Obviously!  Why make law abiding citizens register guns when outlaws won’t register them in the first place and will still be outlaws.  You run the risk of making good citizens criminals.  You aren’t making anyone safer by this act and the cost will be huge!.  Just ask the Canadians who tried just this same scheme and are now backing down because of the difficulties and the cost. 

I mean this is just plain nuts but the problem is, the congress in it’s current configuration just might pass it. Stranger things will get through this newly elected body. 

Contact your congressman and senator to request in the nicest possible way to defeat this and any other gun control legislation that comes across their desk.  Write President Obama and ask him to VETO any bill that would register every firearm in the country and make criminals out of millions.

Protect your rights because once they are gone, they are gone.

Contact your senator at:   http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

This is a phrase used all together too much in western Kentucky these days.  There was of course a tremendous ice storm this last week of January 2009 over there and virtually all common forms of communications ceased to function over a wide area.  I heard a news report saying that it was now the plan for more Emergency Operations Centers (EOC’S) to integrate Amateur Radio stations into their infrastructure.  Wow.  What is Old is New Again.

With all the modern technologies out there, Cell Phone, Internet, Dial Up Voice and Satellite Internet, you’d think that Emergency Managers (and american families) would never have to do without communication.  Well as it works out, the first thing to go in a disaster is communication.  This recent ice storm shut down the power to over 700,000 households and many entire cities.  When electrical service is down more than 12 hours, most telephone (thusly internet) service and cable company battery backup time is exceeded and you are off line and out of touch with the outside world.  Such is the way of disasters that interrupt electrical power.

 The scale of this outage isn’t lost on this amateur radio operator.  Nor were it’s effects of effectively isolating anyone without a charged satellite phone or a Ham Radio Station ignored by the sheer inconvenience to those effected.  I hope you and they learned something from this.  

If you personally don’t have an amateur radio license, get to know the ham nearby you and help him put up his antenna.  At least don’t complain when he puts up a tower across the street for his antenna. Alternatively, become an amateur radio operator.  The FCC has removed the morse code requirement from the test and www.qrz.com has sample tests from the actual pool of questions.  Either way, you will get to be able to reach out to let relatives where you are and what your condition is.  When everything else fails, amateur radio will always work.  

Our power grid is easily interrupted by natural and man made influences.  Imagine an EMP terrorist attack on the eastern United States.   Power would be interrupted for many months if not years over a wide area making the power outage in Kentucky this week look like a picnic in the woods.  How would you or your community communicate with the rest of the world when even satellite phones wouldn’t work.  There will always be a ham radio operator with his trusty backup emergency rig that works on 12 volt.  

A licensed, experienced operator will be the backbone of any EOC, neighbor hood cooperative survival network, or small town center.  They never go hungry, go without water but would certainly occasionally pull long shifts without sleep.  If you have a working two way radio, you will survive any widespread shutdown of electrical service.  You will be taken care of because you will be an important part of dealing with the disaster locally.  

This is the fastest way of preparing for a natural or manmade disaster. It is important to become part of the solution, not part of the problem.  Cross training in other emergency management disciplines is also useful because as you operate the radio, you are already familiar with nomenclature and acronyms which permeate the emergency management culture these days.  Become a medic, get certified in a Community Emergency Response Team, become a pre-trained Red Cross Volunteer and certainly get your amateur radio license.

This is not to say that you should avoid having your own survival supplies.  Who do you suppose is more comfortable in Kentucky these days.  Those with a 1000 gallon propane tank running a pre-installed generator big enough to run their water well and refrigerator, or those living without such things.  Those with stored water, food and alternative methods of heating their homes, or those without.  You decide how you should be living or should I say preparing.

Geology is Detective Work

Everyone likes a good book.  Now days the genre has changed.  With the proliferation of the internet, reading books may go the way of the Wooly Mammoth. Geologists, while having read their fair share of text books and technical articles also spend a great deal of their time (besides web time) reading the pages of the earth’s book. I once had a student who was always the last one up the hill.  I just thought he was slow and out of shape. One day I saw him open his always bulging backpack and to my astonishment, a dozen heavy college textbooks fell out.  After shaking my head, my only public comment was, “the only books you need in the field is the outcrop in front of you and your field notebook”. (He passed the class by an act of charity.)

In a previous Geologic Column, I wrote about how the present is the key to the past (and the future).  Lets remember this rule as I discuss the turning of the pages of earth’s book.

Individual rock layers are commonly visible as you drive down the highway around Powder River County.  (70 mile per hour geology!) They stick out visually in sharp contrast as they are usually harder than surrounding rock (which weathers away).  They might be a cap rock protecting the softer sediment below or just a huge monolithic chunk of sand that sticks out of a hillside.  My point is that each rock unit that can be easily identified as different from the surrounding rocks, has a different, unique series of events that led to it’s formation and preservation.  This sequence of events is a snapshot on the page of the book I reference above.

The science of stratigraphy is the study of the origin of rock layers.  (Biggest term of the week time!) Geologists use principles of “paleo-environmental stratigraphy” to determine the ancient environment that enabled the deposition of the sediment (any detritus such as dirt, sand, silt, clay up to boulders in size) that led to the hard rock we see today. Geologists use physical characteristics of the original sediment preserved in the rock to do the detective work which figures out the paleoenvironment (ancient conditions including climate, whether water had anything to do with the deposit, what happened shortly after the sediment was buried, etc.). Lets use a big ledge of hard sandstone over a soft layer of muddy shale as an example.

Where today is sandstone made?  Locally, the Powder River moves a lot of sand that has been weathered off the land by that all too rare precipitation event. A walk down the river bottom will show you a lot of different environments for sediment to accumulate.  The quite pools of water (a bowl) cut off from the main river flow, will always have a layer of fine mud covering the bottom of the sediment below (which is mostly sand/silt). Over time, the pool may fill up with mud. This lens of mud could then easily be covered by a thick blanket of sand from the next flood.  So our sequence of a sand dish pool, filled with mud and covered with a blanket of sand is buried over the years by more such sequences.  With the passage of time, the sequence hardens because of chemical changes from ground water and compression from the weight above. Presto-chango and you have rock and a rock layer sequence telling you a story.  If nature does that long enough hundreds of feet of sand/shale/sand sequences accumulate and you have a rock formation form.

I collect all sort of fossil remains from the local rock formation named “Hell Creek”.  It was formed more than 65 million years ago (Upper Cretaceous Period) by similar environmental conditions to that described above.  (Have you ever seen an animal bone in a river bottom?) It is hundreds of feet thick, is very fossiliferous and the rivers that formed it were fed sand by the trillions of truckloads from the newly rising Rocky mountains to the west.  If I take you to Hell Creek outcrops in the field, I can show you numerous sandy dishes filled with a fine muddy shale capped with a blanket sand.  I can watch the process today live, real time (albeit slow motion) or I can see the results of the same process in the rocks almost anywhere in the county.  All you have to do is look at the picture on the page. The present is the key to the past!

More on those fossils in a later Geologic Column.

FB

Geologic Column
By Frank Bliss

Folks are always telling me they have found some really cool “dinosaur eggs”.  I tell them they are probably not dinosaur eggs.  These rounded, spherical or elongated rocks that are often rusty red or yellow in color often fall out of sandstone outcrops.  These objects also often take on the persona of a cannon ball to the non-geologists out there.  Heck, they are heavy, round, redish and look like the right caliber for an 8 pounder. There is a simple (sort of) explanation.

These fairly common and certainly very interesting objects are called Concretions.  They are not man made and are not reptilian in origin either.  They are, in fact, naturally made by a somewhat complex series of events concluded with a simple process of cementation.  The following process is necessary for their formation.

Please bear with me here and use your minds eye.  Try to think of a thick bed of uniform sandstone as a 3 dimensional fabric (like a finely woven cloth but in three not two dimensions).  This 3 dimensional fabric allows water to flow freely through the holes between the sand grains.  A uniform fabric allows water to flow smoothly without obstruction unless a fragment of something other than sand (fossil, twig, root, rock, etc) disrupts a smooth passage of water.  Moving water (like in pipes in your house) creates an electrical field which in a uniform flow is (guess what) uniform.  Any disturbance in the water flow creates a disturbance in the electrical field which causes an “electric potential gradient”.  (don’t let that term scare you!)   An “electric potential gradient” means that the disturbed area might be more electrically positive (or negative) than the rest of the sand body.  This causes charged dissolved minerals in the water (ions) to be attracted to that area. These minerals that are attracted to that charged area literally accumulate there and cement the sand grains together like concrete (remember the term concretion!).

In other words, minerals in water flowing through the sand selectively cements together sand grains around a nucleus.  This process generally leads to very spherical, often concentric growths. Adjacent spheres may even grow together or an odd shaped nucleus can give very unusual final forms.  I think they are neat enough to take home when they are small enough to carry.  I have seen them the size of a small car and often they weigh many tons.

Over the years, I have collected a nice assortment of sizes, shapes, and types of cemented concretions which mostly reside in my gardens.  The composition of the cement varies greatly and includes: pyrite, marcasite, hematite, calcite, halite, dolomite and various silica minerals.  The iron cements are the most common around here though. Some rare concretions may even have very nice fossils (nucleous) within. Fortunately for us, Powder River County has more than it’s fair share of these nifty natural objects. Now you know they are not eggs or old cannon balls.  I don’t know too much about cannon balls but I’ll cover dinosaur eggs in a later geologic column.
FB

There is nothing like making a U-turn.  Having invested a significant amount of time and resources to a particular path, it seems like our wise voters (some of which can’t tie their own shoes) have arranged to change horses and paths mid-stream.  So there we are.  May the winners save the economy because the options are not good.  Having said that…..

Being blunt, it looks like the Obama administration is Clinton 2.0 with all his senior advisors being drawn from old Washington types with a great deal of ideological zeal and experience in promoting same.  I had my issues with Clinton mostly related to stains on the floor of the oval office but he was a fairly moderate centrist as a result of his intense reliance of polls.  The difference between Clinton 1.0 and 2.0 is that the balance of power that was in effect during the Clinton Administration is non-existent now (in the Obama admin.) with the far left running the congress (at least on the leadership level).  The Democratic Rubric of Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country has certainly been reworked into “Ask what your country can do for you”.  This will certainly lead to problems if left unchecked over a period of time.

It seems there is going to be a very major reworking of entitlements, taxes and jobs, essentially giving more than 50 percent of the voting block these benefits.  Thusly ensuring a power base that is happy to be essentially paid for their vote.  We begin to follow the road first tread by the Roman Empire where the productive people started to feed the majority of the population who by that time were entitlement drunk followed by a very rapid decline in the society.  It is likely that we have not learned from history and our horse is heading in that direction.

By necessity, the first few years of the Obama administration will be spent trying to deal with the economic tornado that is spinning out of control world wide.  This will delay and distract all involved from some very touchy subjects indeed but there will be casualties of principles that we have lived under since the inception of our country.

The total buy into Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) by the new administration just about guarantees that numerous productive segments of our economy will fail due to government intervention into just about every aspect of energy production.  The coal industry will be a victim along with petroleum production.  The enormity of the production/distribution system for those two industries is highly underappreciated by policy makers who flippantly say “we will bankrupt coal plants before they are built”.  Cap and Trade is the worst idea I have heard in my lifetime.  The ONLY hope we have is that some new energy technology is invented that enables America to provide a new industry on shore that replaces the jobs lost due to the AGW buy in and resultant bad policy decisions.

Ranchers will essentially go out of business due to the cattle fart tax that the EPA is proposing due to the perceived danger to our climate as a result of the cattle’s contribution of methane.  You couldn’t make this stuff up either.  The idea is so ludicrous to be funny if the impact wasn’t so serious and immediate.  The food production decline by taxing cattle is very predictable.  Grass fed cattle supply a huge amount of income to this country and is a huge industry to itself.  The farmers of america feed the huge number of urban folks who would be unable to feed themselves otherwise.  

The feel good gun control measures of Clinton 1.0 will be reinstated.  The crime rate will go up as the economy continues to tank so more measures will be instituted and the vicious cycle will continue.  Good people should be able to own firearms, bad people shouldn’t and having a clueless bureaucrat decide which gun is good or bad is fools play.  Obama’s hiring practice of asking if an applicant has firearms or not will ensure that only firearm ignorant individuals will be making policy.  

Going from a capitalist supply side economy to from the bottom up socialist economy is the biggest change or direction that we could have possibly made.  To have Bush enact the initial stages of this ongoing process blew me away.  I suspect that he was reacting to the gloom and doom being told to him by his advisors and had little choice.  Obviously there was a lack of accurate data available.  It will be interesting to see what history has to say about that.  Obama is continuing the gloom and doom talk in order to get the ducks lined up for what ever his advisors dream up.  History will also judge him.

So, in effect, the new administration plans to reduce food production, move strategic industries out of the country or drive them out of existence entirely.  Hold on to your wallets! I hereby make a prediction that the throw away society of the 80’s 90’s and last decade, become a society where things start getting repaired instead of replaced.  The age of the TV repairman returns, the Cubans tendency to repair cars over and over again moves to America.  No longer will we have the prosperity to just replace what is broken.  How many people do you the that darn socks anymore.  Heck just go to WalMart and buy new ones.  This may too change.  The periods of prosperity we have enjoyed are about to change to austerity. 

What can the driver at the head of this be thinking as he heads us into the ditch.

Our lifestyle living on the Wyoming/Montana border and being over 14 miles from the nearest asphalt road is just a bit different than the average urban dweller.  It is a fact of life up here that the power could go off at any time, we could get snowed in for weeks, roads have been taken out by flash floods and mud season is a problem all unto itself.  Our nearest general store is 15 miles away, the closest pharmacy is 45 miles and the closest WalMart is 65 miles away.  Heck, we usually go into town every couple of weeks just to keep fresh bread and fruits about whether we need to or not. This geographic isolation is certainly problematic at times but is actually an asset as you will see later.

How did I get this way?  As a past vice-chairman of the Wyoming Chapter of the American Red Cross, a past Chairman of the Jackson Hole Chapter of the American Red Cross, an active EMT/First Responder, an ex-COP, a firearms/self-defense instructor, a seasonal grass fire fighter, and a “CERT” (Community Emergency Response Team) Instructor,  you might imagine I have had a few hours of training related to disaster preparedness/response.  You would be correct of course.  This training has led me to integrate a “ready for anything” mentality into our regular daily routine.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not afraid of anything, because I am prepared for anything. (I think).

Naturally a hard core survivalist comes to mind but the reality of having to interact with the rest of the world prevents that.  We actually interact with the surrounding population, have friends out in the community, do business with locals and don’t shun authority figures.  I suppose this precludes our membership as a true survivalist.  Short of buying your survival retreat in the remote wilderness there are some things you can do to make yourself more secure, comfortable and safer.

Of course we keep a garden, have the ability to farm, raise livestock and generally feed ourselves here on our ranch.  You probably don’t.  We actually have some limitations but generally if the national supply chain is disrupted on our end we will do just fine.  I really don’t expect the government to help us out here (Are you kidding!) I consider having to go to town for any small part that I might need an unnecessary/expensive trip.  Therefore I keep a really large selection of spare parts, nuts, bolts, oil, filters, and general repair materials for all of my necessary equipment and machinery that I rely on.  I keep at least two years of spare parts on hand for all mission critical components of my operation.

You must remember that the rules have changed.  It used to be that the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Administration used to tell you to have three days of food, water and supplies on hand to “wait out” any possible disaster.  That has certainly changed.  Since this “rule of thumb” changes weekly, look it up for yourself.  Now my suggested general rule of thumb is to have as many supplies as reasonable on hand to wait out any reasonably expected extended event.  Of course the three day rule never applied up here but is still followed (at best) in urban situations. (The worst thing I can think of happening to this country is a high altitude nuclear detonation by a terrorist state or group.  Look up EMP on google). Why would they just take out a city when they could take out a whole coast by shutting down all the electronic goodies we (as a society) rely on?

I’ll cut to the quick. Lets assume that either locally or nationally, the supply chain is disrupted by either a natural event or terrorist action.  You know, the worst case situation.  The following is a BASIC list of things that need serious attention.

Living in urban surrounding with population around you that is NOT prepared with enough food, water and supplies to support themselves is an ugly situation.  I suggest to you that that is the situation for over 250,000,000 of our fellow countrymen.  When they can’t get food after the local grocery store runs out (most stores have only three days supply on their shelves as they operate under a just in time ordering system), they will stop being good neighbors.  My suggestion to avoid this is to get out of town into a very rural setting if your situation allows.  If it doesn’t, give yourself options and train with firearms till your understand them instinctively to protect yourself, your family and close associates under your care.  Train them too.  Your second amendment rights are vitally important to this and vote accordingly to keep those rights.  Have at least one good shotgun, a .22 rifle, a .22 pistol, a 38 pistol, a .223 rifle and a .308 rifle with plenty of ammo about.  All of which are useful for different purposes and have enough ammo around for their extended use.  Here is where geographic isolation is a plus, no refugees from the city to deal with.

Prescription drugs should be kept in three month minimum backup reserve with stock rotation being the rule.  Other necessary over the counter remedies such as Ex-lax, Immodium, Pepto Bismol, cod liver oil (rotate every two years), an emergency dental kit, Tylenol, aspirin, a complete first aid kit, a poison kit and take first aid training to know how to use all of the above.

More obscure things to gather up:

Potassium iodide which is used in the event of a nuclear plant disaster or a nuclear attack are optional but store nearly forever and are impossible to get if you actually need them. The iodide will flood the thyroid with regular iodine preventing the thyroid for absorbing radioactive iodine and thus prevent thyroid cancer down the road.

Vitamin C from the store only has a shelf life of a few years.  Buy crystalline vitamin C (do a google search) by the kilogram (a years worth for one adult) because scurvy kicks in after 6 weeks.  Vitamin C might be worth far more than gold if there is a major supply chain interruption.

 Oil, sugar and flour:  If you have a lot of these things along with a source of heat, your eating pretty well.  The problem is, only sugar will store for extended periods of time.  The other two will need to be rotated.

Food is easy, water is way more important.  Getting your self an expedition level water filter is a necessity in my humble opinion.  You can always find water but if you drink it, your probably done within 24 hours unless it is properly filtered before your drink it.  There are numerous types of filters out there, get one.  Water storage is another option but takes room, has to be rotated regularly and is not an easy option.

Sanitation:   I have always said, “if you have a years worth of toilet paper and there is a disaster, you will have a lot of other things you need because you can always trade”.  Nuff said.  Paper products should be kept in at least a 3 month supply on hand for all parties that you think might be staying in your abode.  

Clorox is an obvious must and should be rotated every couple of years. Plastic trash bags of all size are never in enough supply.  Have a toilet cover that uses a 5 gallon bucket under it. Put a small sized trash bag or each use and add a teaspoon of clorox to the mix.  Throw away each into a place designated for such use.

Insect products may be quite useful too.  Use your own preferences but have them on hand if you need them.  Ask any hurricane victim how bad mosquitos get after the storm passes.

Pet foods:  You don’t want your pet to be without during any disaster so have a portable kennel so if you have to bug out, you can take them.  Also have enough food in store for them to have the same backup you do.  Rotate the stock religiously.  Same applies to their prescriptions and any treatments.  An unhappy pet doesn’t make a good companion.  Hopefully you have a well trained dog that is protective of you and yours.

Games/entertainment:  With little or no communication, have card games and kids activities handy and have plenty of variety.  Learn to be a ham radio operator.  You don’t have to know Morse code these days and you can take sample test (that have the actual test questions) at www.qrz.com.  The test costs 15 bucks and the local ham club will help you through the process.  If the internet isn’t there, ham radio will be.  At a minimum have a good shortwave radio and learn how to find news and other information.  Have a BIG supply of batteries and rotate them regularly.

Tools:  A pretty good basic tool kit with screwdrivers, wrenches, crescents, pliers, vice grips and hammers with a good supply of duct tape, nails, 1X2 boards and plastic to cover broken windows. A nice supply of various nuts and bolts is also a good idea.  Some sharp utility knives may also come in very handy.  A really nice hunting knife, hatchet and a way to sharpen same may be handy.  In fact, all camping supplies from tents to lanterns are highly suggested in your bug out kit.

To boil all this information down in a nutshell….. Think 1880’s technology!  If it worked then, it will work now with no power or modern conveniences.  I firmly believe in the power of ropes, horses, a few log chains, axes, firearms, canvas and some fire making supplies.  With such things along with a wood stove, there are very few places you can’t survive in if you take the time to learn how to do it.   With the world teetering on the brink of this or that problem from day to day, don’t you think it might be worth your time to look into the subject a little bit?

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