Home Front: Disruptive Thinking

Some recent events have spurred me to thoughts of preparation, self preservation and looking to become a little more self-dependent. The idea of thinking "outside the box" has always been very appealing to me. Doing the same thing, the same way over and over may work, but not having other means is a sure fire path to being caught out when situations change. Alternate strategies, and more than that, alternate thinking is required.
This patch is a great reminder of this, from SnakeDr and Last Ditch Kit and is a visual demonstration of how to overcome adversity, from new angles. Not being boxed in by expectations!

Disruptive thinking is another aspect of preparation that is often overlooked in the light of the shiny toys, kit and gear. In the event of disaster, a lot of common curtsey, and everyday thinking suddenly becomes fairly irrelevant. Getting in and out of places, getting away from threats, and facing them directly, these are all occasions where this is a distinct advantage. In my martial arts, one aspect of training is around the idea of concentration, and focus, and how to disrupt your opponents focus, and concentration. the kiai we shout, both acts to focus ourselves, but also to break and disrupt our opponent. The concept of seme of mentally putting pressure on your opponent is also key. Disrupt your enemies. Disrupt any opposition. And always, as this picture indicates ... know your exit strategy.


There is another aspect to all this. This is probably more in keeping with the rest of my blog thus far. Being prepared, being kitted out, and having a good stash of EDC gear, a cache of Bug-In supplies, a Bug-Out-Bag, or whatever, but without the nonce to actually DO something, when the need arises, it wont count for much.

This patch, from my friends at HORNEST bears their motto, Tempori servire meaning "adapt to the situation". One must always be flexible enough take advantage of the situation, to make best use of your skills, equipment and disposition, whilst at the same time

Disrupt your oppositions thinking.
Stay out of the Box.
Adapt to your Situation.

Apocalypse Equipped Morale Patch

I'm really proud to announce that I have my own patches now available!

I previewed them in draft form a little while ago, and I have a batch of 200 just in from Platatac Custom Orders.

Expect to see a PayPal button some time soon, I'm looking at $5 including local shipping ... let me know what you think!

Review: Chicken nipples

No, there's no great punchline here ... just .... chicken nipples .... or perhaps better to say, "gravity-locking beak-activated water dispenser". Either way, these are some very cool additions to my urban homestead that has dramatically improved the hydration levels, and water quality that my chookens are getting.

These valves are sold by  the chicken keepers supply company CC Only as a part of their extensive poultry supply catalog. They have a wide variety of poultry farming supplies, but these little watering devices caught my eye after a post on the American Preppers Network.

The magic of the valve are the twin pins and ball bearing between them.

When screwed into place with the threaded end, the ball bearing and top-pin presses down on the top of the bottom pin, forming a seal. When the bottom pin is jiggled, it moves the ball bearing, breaks the seal, and allows a dribble of water to flow. Once the jiggling ceases, so does the flow of water.

The bottom pin has considerable freedom of movement which means that the chookens can poke and peck at it from whatever angle their little chooken heads come at it.

 In fact, within minutes of placing these out for ours to drink from, they had worked it out and have not gone thirsty since installing them.

This layout was my first iteration, which featured a simple clear bucket, without even a lid, but it did allow me to judge how much water was in it, to guage any leakage, as well as how much the chookens were drinking.

One of the things CC Only were quite clear on is ensuring that the connection was secure.

Drilling a hole in the bottom of the bucket was simple enough, and with a dab of pipe-sealant to close any gaps, the system was pretty easy to set up. The real trick is to ensure the hole is the right diameter, there is adequate material for the thread to bite into, and sufficient sealant to prevent dripping.

I have just recently replaced the plastic bucket with a repurposed baby-food tin with a lid, to stem evaporation and also to reduce the weight , as this big bucket got quite heavy to haul when full. Working with a metal base added a little more difficulty in the fitting, as it wasn't as forgiving as the plastic, but is a longer lasting solution.

These were a great addition to my urban homesteading venture, my chookens have had un-fowled water (hyuk-hyuk) and I think they are a little more entertained with having something to peck at for their water.

Review: ITS / Zulu Nylon Gear skeletonised bottle carrier

One of my Giftmas presents has gotten a good workout, and as it turns out, this was another of my wish-lust items that was realised. Ive been using a much loved Platatac FUP to carry my poor battered 1L SIGG for the last few years, and its been a great fit, giving shade and some protection to boot.

However, There was something delightful in the lines and modularity in the ITS / ZuluNylonGear collaborative effort of their
modular skeletonized container sling.

Finally getting my paws on one, I wanted to show you just how modular, and hardy this sling is.

Here you can see it strapped to the front of the helmet carrier of my Bullock Echo daypack, where the FUP had previously sat. Plenty of room to attach it again, should I want a double-bottle setup, and still room for the SAR Global Tool Eclipse signal system tag.

The coyote colour was a nice match to the Platatac Khaki that most of my gear is, and it certainly blends smoothly.

Here is where the magic really is. The 1L Nalgene bottle is a pretty wide load, too wide for my Platatac FUP (although they do have the WUP, expressly designed to fit this bottle) The ITS sling is modular, in that it can be adjusted to fit almost any container. You can see here the interface between the two "arm" straps and the base strap, which is sandwiched and locked into place by the hook-and-loop layers.

The elastic shock-cord bottle retainer loop is initially fed through the top of three channels available, which I've indicated here with zip-ties. I like that I can use these to drop down the loop to retain other containers, be they bottles, can or jars, They also offer attachment options for dummy-cording items to the sling, lids, filters, funnels or cups, if needed.

Lastly, the four channel, one row PALLS/MOLLE attachment at the back is more than adequate to attach, fix and carry a fully laden 1L bottle, both on a pack or by manipulating the channels to act as a belt-loop, on the hip.


As with the Zulu Nylon Gear CAOS admin pouch this is a bang-up piece if kit. Rugged, modular and multifunctional, just the way I like, and just what I hoped it would be. Wish-Lust made reality!

Review: Strike Industries - Simple Plate Carrier

This is a really interesting piece of multifunction kit. Strike Industries, in conjunction with J Tech Gear have come up with a multifunction plate carrier, that doubles as a carry case for a laptop. They did my Sling Catch, and Picatinny vertical sling mount
so I've been keeping an eye on their new developments, and was only too pleased to see this cool piece become available, and to receive one! 

This might seem like an unusual combination, but considering the kinds of products on the market now in the US to attempt to protect kids from the alarmingly frequent mass-shootings at schools, the idea of having every-day items with the potential for containing armour is not new. In Australia, we are lucky to have pretty low rates of weapon related violence, but, being prepared for disaster, even the personal and human initiated kind, is what this blog is about. This is the Simple Plate Carrier, and it is anything but merely "simple"...

I've talked about what I use as a plate-substitute before, when reviewing my Platatac MAC rig, and whilst not ballistic protection,  I have again included Polyethylene cutting boards, shaped to the right size.

These not only give me the rigidity and bulk of plates, but I figure that they would also afford me some stabbing, cutting and blunt force trauma protection. Perhaps not as cool looking as a set of Mad Max tire armour, but far more modular, lighter and functional. I have a 34cm x 24cm (13 1/2" x 9 1/2") board in the front internal pocket here, which closely mirrors the SI Plate that Strike industries offers

The back compartment houses both my 15" MacBook Pro, a spare battery, and my iPad.

The rugged cordura-type nylon material of the case is very well stitched, with reinforced seams and bartacking on all the attachment and stress points, without being heavy, stiff or bulky. The wide webbing of the strapping is fixed at the upper edge with vertical fastex type buckles, and at the bottom edge with horizontal buckles of the same type and more importantly, size. Lastly, and this was a big point of interest for me, the back of the carrier features a sewn in handle, laying flush with the back, to turn the whole thing into a modern buckler if needed ....


I found that the laptop charger didn't fit very neatly in the case (it formed a bulge where the plug sat) but because the front of the carrier has three rows of PALS/MOLLE, including two side-by-side and covered in loop-pile, for patches, ID tabs and the like, I was able to affix one of the black Platatac FUP pouches I have, and give myself some extra storage capacity, with out bulking the carrier up too much, or making it too obviously a piece of MIL-SPEC type kit. There is a second panel on the lid flap for a flag-size patch. Depending on how big and full your carrier gets, there may be a third loop-filed exposed, for even more patch-goodness, here's my AFT's Jungle Recon extolling the love of his job...


And here is how the shield handle works, from behind. The main strap is wide enough to give a good bunched grip, knuckles flat against the back of the pad. Because of my very long forearms, by elbow poked out a little of the back when I stand "en guard", so I gave an alternative hold a shot, with my hanad gripping one shoulder strap, arm looped through the hand-hold and the other strap over my elbow.

Both seemed to feel pretty good, and with advantages and disadvantages according to the style of defense used.

When carrying the unit around, I tended to sling the the shoulder strap such that the entire carrier sat under my arm, rather than behind me.

This meant that I could bring the other strap up and over my opposing shoulder, to drop the carrier into the classic "front pack" configuration.

"Nice Target" you might say, about the patch, well, as Batman and the Punisher have said in their respective comics, "I cant armor my face" (although, these days this isn't as true. )


So here I am striking a pose, Simple Plate Carrier as a shield, with my trusty S&W Tactical Pen as my on-hand "please don't make my use this" incentive.

You can see that my elbow hangs out, but when taking a better "buckler and dagger stance" this would be less of an issue. with a combination of the polyethylene cutting board, the laptop and the material of the carrier itself, this was a substantial and solid barrier to put between my vitals and someone without my best interests at heart. All in a package I can happily carry about day to day.

One of the great things about this carrier's design is that the shoulder straps, being all of the same design, can be swapped from position to position. Instead of a "backpacks/frontpack" style carry, simply by changing the straps from top-to-bottom, to top-to-top and bottom-to-bottom, giving you an "around the neck, around the waist" configuration.

All the straps feature a slide adjustment and an elasticised loop to secure loose ends.

This is the classical "Plate Carrier look" and it's a little more conspicuous, but certainly more secure. Wearing the carrier in "frontpack" style, when leaning forwards, it was occasionally tricky keeping the carrier in place, unless I had another pack on my back pinning the straps in place. Good for backpacking and travel in unusual and possibly insecure places, but not full-time.

For the best performance and security, over-the-neck is the way to go.

I've been looking for a means to carry a laptop about. My CSI folder is awesome, and it carries my iPad about in safety, either inside, or slipped beside it in my Bullock Echo daypack, but the Simple Plate Carrier offers the modularity of a inconspicuous armor carrier for a little urban insurance, as well as a means to carry a laptop, and an iPad around safely and securely.

I felt there wasn't much padding for the bottom edge and sides of the laptop compartment, but that was easily solved after-market with a sheet of closed cell-foam. I really liked the lines, and as always, the multifunctionality of the carrier really appealed to me.

Just be sure to remember that neither the iPad or MacBook's are bulletproof .... not to mention cutting boards .... be safe, be equipped and know the limitations of your gear...

Home Front: Summer Harvests

We've had good fortune with our crops this summer, the front veggie patch has had good light, and we've been keeping on top of the watering when it has been hot. The reward has been a bumper crop of tomatoes, and some edible corn. Last years corn turned out to be the actual variety used to make popcorn. Looked great, couldn't be eaten after boiling. (To be fair, it does pop really well, we still have some of it left).

However, last years crop of tomatoes, those that survived the Triceratops Girl arrival cull (she would pick and gobble several each time she came through the gate) and our own cooking needs, we dried and eventually bottled in olive oil and herbs. This jar however was met by Tactical Baby's early display of evil, when after accidentally knocking off a jar of herbs from the bench, she grabbed my glass jar of precious dried tomatoes, tossed and smashed them too.

Lesson learned, this years produce will be canned into one of the small Dead Person Jars.



I use an electric dehydrator, for the speed and simplicity that offers, and the Fowlers Vacola - Ultimate Dehydrator 4000 is well suited the the task. This batch filled two of the four trays, and filled a third of a 1L DPJ.

We have another couple of meals worth of corn, if they haven't dried out too much in the heat, but even if they have, the rabbits and chickens will enjoy them.

Review: Zombie Squad 1L Nalgene bottle

I had a big fanboy moment when I looked up and joined the Zombie Squad, which apart from being a kick-ass zombie clearance and elimination organization is also a disaster preparation educational and response group, performing acts of goodwill and community welfare. I can totally get behind that.   Apart from that, and their awesome motto "Making dead things deader" they also have some great merchandise. One of these items was a logo'd Nalgene bottle, and I thought it was time I gave these renowned bottles a try.

Many of my long time camping friends have recommended them to me over the years, so I was keen to see what it was all about and compare them to my long standing love, my 1L SIGG bottle.  The main selling point seems to be the fact that it is made from the nearly indestructible  BPA free Eastman Tritan™copolyester, but for me the best feature, apart from holding a touch over 1L (32oz) is the extra wide lid.


This makes filling the bottle up with ice cubes, with powdered Power Thirst and makes cleaning a breeze. 

Being clear is also a real help when it comes to cleaning the bottle. Not only can you see if there is built up grot and grime on the inside, but it also allows light in, which is at least a help to keeping it clean.

The other good thing about the bottle being clear, is that along with it being nicely marked to indicate both mixing, proportions, it is also an indicator of how much you've had to drink and how fluid much you have left. The well fitting cap features a retention cap and ring, so no loosing when you are refilling from a stream.

Having been around for over 20 years, there are loads of pouches, filters and the like out there, and many packs will have built in pockets specifically sized to fit the bottles.


One more thing that sets the Nalgene apart is the versatility. Being all but unbreakable (my partner Anastasia tells me her dad still has the bottle that a Tasmanian Devil gnawed on, leaving tooth marks but not penetrating) makes it a good vessel for other uses than for water. One such example is this "paracord hammock in a bottle" project. With appropriate padding, I've been told they make an ideal impromptu storage and transport container for dedicate paleontological samples.

There are even pre-made "Survival kit in a bottle" sets with the 1L Nalgene as the basis, and of course, the good folks at TEOTWAWKI Blog have some helpful hints as to how to build your own. The extra wide lid comes into play here, as it gives you access to fill the bottle with your needful items.

So, this is a great bottle. It's light, strong, resilient, holds a goodly amount and in my case, bears a bitching slogan. I'm not retiring my SIGG, but this is certainly going in my EDC list.