Home Front: Walled security?

One of the thoughts coming on from thinking about the Urban Preppers seen on National Geographic's "Doomsday Preppers" is what to do to prepare in the event of "bugging-in" to secure and if needs be, fortify one's location.This is our little house. I've shown this shot before. We have this little rendered weatherboard place, wide window frontage, white picket fence. The3re is a bolted wooden gate for access down the side of the house to the back yard, and along the street-facing side of the street, a single window with wooden shutters. The back yard has a falling apart wooden fence and a steel rolling gate set in concrete.

So, being the consummate scavenger and opportunist that I am, I have always kept my eyes open for alternate dwellings, should disaster strike, and we decide to "bug-in" locally, but not necessarily at our place. On a local street is this promising fenceline. Note the bluestone (basalt) fence abutting a red-brick type fence. Great coverage and security you may think.

The problem lies here. The edge of the solid frontage is another wood plank fence. There goes your unassailable castle-wall... Still, the height of the stone frontage, and the coverage of the treeline give you an "out-of-sight" advantage that our white picket fence does not.

Even the stone wall wont stop even the most average able bodied intruder, but it does at least present a physical barrier, and shelter from that front.

Just down the road a bit further is this gated and walled place, again, some gate is better than none, and the high stone walls gives that "out-of-sight" protection too. The gate is a bit of a problem in that regards, again, but some hastily applied scrim or boarding would solve that. 


Again, the problem is the side fence. You can just make out here, another wood-plank fence, but again, behind a dividing and obscuring tree-line.

So, what to do? well, having lived in hurricane affected Houston I have witnessed what storms like that can do to glass frontages like I have, so, for non-society breakdown triage, it will be boarding and taping of our place, and perhaps "bugging-in", to abandoned local places we are still scoping out.

Home Front: Preppers in the media

So, I've started watching the fun National Geographic docu-series "Doomsday Preppers" which I must say is falling right into the slot I pegged it at. It's not actively making fun of preppers, not making them out to be crazies, in fact the opposite, it is showing a fairly broad spectrum of people with a variety of outlooks, concerns and abilities.  Obviously they only televised the ones deemed "entertaining", and again, obviously, only filmed the people who consented to being documented.

That said, there have been some really interesting trends I noticed:

1) It was assumed that in almost every case, violent roving bands of marauders would need to be fought off with firearms, which were freely available to both prepper and perp.

2) A high proportion of urban preppers would endeavor to "bug-in" regardless.

3) A surprisingly high proportion of preppers were not in what I would call "good" physical shape.

I guess the things about these three points that caught me were that in my current situation, without a readily firearm equipped population, there wouldn't be as much emphasis on taking proportional force to the firearms level. That said, I have taken my first steps in this direction, albeit baby-steps, in getting my Paintball Marker License (yeah, really ...).

Secondly, the urban "bugging-in" (buggers-in seems to make me giggle) crowd whilst taking advantage of their ability to stockpile LOTS of supplies, didn't seem to do much to take into account the possibility of the physical location being devastated. Suburbs burn, and if mains water and Fire Departments were out, that could be a big problem. Maybe it was just my experiences with bushfires and big storms that made me worry.

Thirdly, and this is the most problematic personally, what do you do if you are less physically able, or members of your family are? We have little people to look after. Triceratops Girl and Tactical Baby are incapable of doing anything useful at 16m and 4y. That's a given. My partner Omega just had knee-surgery to repair damage from a fall. We have a house of people who are not super-soldiers. So, like the less than peak-condition people in the NG show, what do we do? The best we can.

The ideas behind disaster preparedness are to be ready to adapt and survive through the disaster that you are faced with. To some extent that means being stocked and supplied, partially to plan and have the forethought to have contingencies, and the rest is to be skilled and trained.

In my opinion, regardless of all the cool kit that I review, the key to being Equipped for the Apocalypse, is being mentally and socially prepared.

Knowing what you are capable of, knowing what your family is capable of, and having THEM steel themselves, can be your greatest advantage. Understanding the foibles of other humans is also a big part of this, and on this, I'll leave you with a quote from R.A. Heinlein, from his "Time Enough For Love" :
Never appeal to a man's "better nature." He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.

I'm looking forwards to more of NG's "Doomsday Preppers",to the next season of AMC's "Walking Dead" and to NBC's "Revolutions", when we get around to watching it

Review 5.11 Tactical - Taclite Pro Pants

Here are the pants I mentioned in my belt post recently, these are the 5.11 Tactical Taclite Pro pants, that I picked up form LA Police Gear, online. I got them in their mid-grey "Tundra" and the light sand "Coyote" colours. These are some pretty feature packed pants, and quite comparable with the Blackhawk Performance WarriorWear pants i reviewed not long ago. These are made of a lightweight 65% polyester and 35% poly cotton ripstop material, which have been treated with HT Teflon® Wear Resistant Finish for stain and soil resistance. Tefglon pants, how cool is that? Actually, its very cool. I've been sprayed with water and food several times thanks to the combined efforts of Tactical Baby and Triceratops Girl whilst in these pants and they have beaded and wiped clean on almost all occasions with ease. Water droplets just bead and roll off.

 Very impressive. Apparently that same Teflon® coated fabric dries 25-40% faster than untreated fabric,something I also put to the test recently as I sweated through several days of 39oC Influenza fever. These pants were actually comfortable to be in.

Lets have a look at the pocket options. On the right face, a reinforced open knife pocket graces the front of the thigh, ( keep my Gerber multitool on a lanyard in it) The left thigh features a hook-and-loop closed pocket, big enough for an iPhone or possibly a magazine. Two standard bellowsed cargo pockets sit down the thigh, also with hook-and-loop closures.

There is a brass clip D-loop on the front right belt loop, good for keys, phone or lanyards, I've found. The front hand-pockets are deep and well angled, and also feature reinforcing to protect against fraying from knife or flashlight clips that may be attached here. The pants themselves close with a press-stud snap, a hefty zipper and an internal button.

At the back you can see the hook-and-loop closing rear "slash" pockets. I'm really digging this style of pocket, over the more traditional "up and down" style. It gives me easy access for stowed items quickly and securely.Also on the back right side is the long reinforced cotton webbing utility strap, which would be a great place to sling items such as my Dead-On Super Hammer.

A couple of other really good features are the double knee and seat reinforcements. The knees have an internal inward facing pocket to allow knee pads to be added. The fully gusseted crotch is also a godsend, it allows for full range of movement, especially for us long-legged critters. Behind the belt line are a couple of built in elasticized patches on the waist, which give the pants a stretch point when bending,m kneeling or crawling, whilst not interfering with the sizing or comfort of fit. The belt loops are wide and broad, taking the 1.75" TDU Belt by 5.11 Tactical perfectly. The one problem I had with these pants were that the Coyote pair were somewhat TOO rugged on the inside seams, as I "go commando", this led to some uncomfortable chafing and me having to resort to boxers for a little while. I presume this is just due to their newness, as my other pair which I wore in a bit more, same sizing, gave me no problems.

Guest Review: #$%^ That Works - MSR XGK Shaker Jet II stove

I have the very great pleasure to introduce (some) of you to my old friend Tony. Tony and I have a combined passion for Japanese weapons arts, which is how we met, and subsequently realized we share some other exciting interests as well. I am only too pleased to bring you the first article Tony has to offer......

#$%^ That Works

Some time ago I offered my good friend Josh at Apocalypse Equipped a couple of articles. And due to being slack and an urban hippie I have not managed to get this done for him until now. Below is the first of these articles.

For some back ground I have travelled a lot and climbed the odd mountain and done the odd wilderness expedition. While zombies may be off my radar I have been in places where natural disasters had just hit or hit not long after I have been there it which is more luck than good management. So in an apocalypse situation you just want @#$% that works. It needs to possibly have been lying around for a couple of years untouched and you need to know that...

1. You can pick it up and run and when you need it and it will just work.

And

2. It is field serviceable with a minimum of tools.

For me the best example I have of this is my MSR XGK Shaker Jet II stove.

I was reminded of this a couple of months ago we headed to the desert for a friends festival and one of the things on the list was cooking. I grabbed this stove out of my back shed filled it with mower fuel. Primed it and as you can see below viola first time it fired up and worked like a dream.

I first bought this shaker jet back in 1996 (some of the readers here are younger than this stove) in that time it has worked, worked and worked some more for me. It has had parts replaced over that time but the bottle and main unit are as is.

Advantages.

It is light at 500grams plus fuel

Efficient - I once cooked an entire month’s food hiking in Greenland on 1 litre of petrol

Rugged – works after being crammed into packs, on the back of yaks dropped, banged and just generally disrespected.

Field Serviceable – Pulled apart at 7000 meters at 20 below with the tools provided striped and put back together.

Versatile – I have run this successfully on diesel, petrol and white gas (and that was dirty dirty diesel)

Disadvantages.

Like its name says it sounds like a jet. You are not hiding from anyone using this stove.

It can burn a bit hot if you don’t know how to use it. (tip below)

Has taken my eyebrows off a couple of times priming it when I first got it.

The stove works off a simple principle of heating the liquid before it gets to the jet by passing the tube through the flame this vaporises the fuel allowing it come out as a gas. Obviously it needs to be primed and this should be practiced but once mastered you can do it with your eyes closed or a set of gloves on.

The shaker part refers to a small needle inside the unit that can be shaken up and down that breaks up any residue that might block the unit which allows for the use of very dirty fuel.

Packs down extremely small and with so many other MSR items is well made.

It can boil a litre of water in under 2 minutes and it can turn out some fine food including a nice salami, bean and risonni pasta that we did in the desert. The tip(as promised above) with not burning everything it is to drop a old can top on top of the cross beam of the stove body to act as a diffuser. Makes it less efficient but more versatile for cooking.

So after water and shelter this would be my next item on any list when it has hit the fan and as we discovered in the desert where it had not hit the fan but we where 50 very long KM’s from anywhere like civilisation that water and shelter then food and warmth where on the list.

This model has been superseded by the XGK EX which I have read and heard good things about. At $250 it is bit rich to just have lying around I admit. But as I said if I have to run for the hills or the power goes out for a week in the snow (as happened to a friend of mine) then this is one of the pieces of kit I definitely want around. If Josh lets me in the next couple of months I will put up a post on how to build a super efficient lightweight stove using some old cans.

Till then happy zombie hunting the urban hippie www.iamnotanurbanhippie.com

Review: Strike Industries - Vertical Loop sling mount

In my quest to build myself a lasertagger for the Stargate Lasertag LRP that I am involved in, I have been accessorizing the tagger that I already have access to, to add to the "look and feel" of the simulation that we do.  One of the things I've found is that most of our home-made taggers lack the kinds of built-in sling-mounts that one would find on a real firearm, which makes mounting a sling problematic.  The electronics-filled MDF bodies can still weigh quite a lot, and because we are cabled into both the sensors and the controller-box, its not just a matter of "putting the tagger down" to do something, you are literally tied to your tagger. 

Rather than drilling an additional hole to put an eye-bolt, or the like in, or going full-ghetto with cable-ties or webbing I wanted to see what I could find to do it "right".  Because we put rails on the tops of many of the taggers to add red-dot's and the like, I realised I could make use of one of the  Strike Industries - Vertical Loop sling mount to give me my attachment point!
This piece of hardware spans two of the rail "ridges" with a bolt securing it. Simple enough as a concept, but the proof is in the engineering, as the case may be.

The body of the mount is of a T6 6061 aluminium construction with a hard anodized matte black finish. The securing pin is steel, but the real utility comes from the mounting ring itself. This spans both sides of the Picatinny MIL-STD-1913 compatible rail and is split to allow it to be tensioned firmly to the rail.

The loop itself is very cleanly machined, with no places to snag or catch, and is amply dimensioned to accommodate the paracord loop or harness snaps of a variety of sling attachments. Here I have it attached to my 215 Gear Sling.

Being completely adjustable, it is possible to move and reposition this sling mount anywhere that features two rail ridges.


This is a low profile, light and sleek accessory, perfect for what I needed, and is certainly fit for purpose.

I look forwards mounting it to my purpose built laser-tagger, once it's built.

Review: 5.11 ATAC A1 flashlight

Along with the cool belt that I got free-bee'd with my recent pants purchase, I also scored a handy pocket flashlight, in the ATAC A1 flashlight from 5.11 Tactical. Now, we've had something of a moratorium on me buying more lights, as I have QUITE the collection (in my tent peg, IR flashlight, LazerBrite LED glowstick, Packlight LED Strips, Surefire 6PX, and various keychain fobs, so when one just magically falls in my hands, I'm always happy.

This aluminium bodied, 87g (3.1oz) light, with a max 103 Lumen Cree-XP-E LED powere3d by a AA battery, packs quite the punch for its pocket-size. The lens end has quite broad crenelations for heat dispersal and ouchy-wackiness for those close-encounters .

The rubber end-button allows for silent "momentary-on" and by sequentially tapping it, give you access to the three modes: High / Low / Strobe. The "High" being the 103 lumen setting, with a purported 50 minute runtime, and "Low" having a 11 lumen output with 28 hours of runtime, whilst the strobe again packs 2 1/4 hours of 103 lumen razzle-dazzle. 5.11 Tactical report a 99m throw at "High" and 32m at "Low".

The tail end also plays host to three additional features; a steel clip for belt and pouch retention, nothing special here but it'd nicely made and mated. There is a squared ring of rubber projecting from the base, which gives you no-clank, anti-roll functionality. A drilled lanyard hole connects to 5.11's Break-Away Lanyard, the lanyard of which features a no-slip rubber slide, and the Break-Away component is sturdy and rugged, requiring quite a yank to pull loose, but certainly less than arm-trapping amounts. No accidental de-luminations here.

This is a petite light,as matches its single AA power source, as seen here beside the 2 CR-123 Surefire 6PX. This makes it ideal for off-hand use, pocket or EDC stowage, or in your car. I found the momentary-on mode-switch a little fiddly to use, and had to practice to get from "High" to "Strobe" smoothly, but with everything, practice, practice, practice.

Review: 5.11 Tactical - TDU belt 1.75"

A quick one today. I got some pants from LA Police Gear recently, and a tasty treat was thrown in with each pair, a colour matched belt! At first I was skeptical. The pants themselves were already on special, what kind of belt would just be thrown in for free. Well, let me show you the TDU Belt from 5.11 Tactical.

The belts are 1.75" (about 45mm) wide and made of a really heavy nylon webbing, stiffer and thicker than seatbelt material. A very sturdy polymer buckle sits low and flat, with only a slight tab protruding from the belt-facing side. Being a non-metalic polymer, this buckle will be metal-detector safe, meaning it's one less thing for me to take off when I visit an airport. I have yet to fully field test it with my partners, but initial studies indicate that being of a more traditional style, it not as tricky as a Cobra buckle to undo at first pass.

The webbing is triple stitched, with a broad bartack, giving it a stiff connection to the buckle, without adding any more bulk. The tongue of the belt is heat-cut at an angle, for easy feeding through the buckle, with plenty of slack at the size I have to double-back for extra security, a habit I picked up both in SCUBA and rock-climbing.

This is a lightweight but very sturdy belt, simple in the extreme and made to last. Even though I've had no problems going through metal detectors with my Ultimate Riggers Belt, the all-plastic look of this one would make it less of a drama.I'm really happy with this, and it (and its tan-coloured counterpart) give me a couple more belt options to add to my collection. Having your pants fall off at the wrong time is BAD for survival.

Review: CountyComm Premium EMT / Combat Shears

These are another part of the batch of gear that I got from CountyComm, I've had a set previously, but I passed them along to a my partner Anna, who had need of them. These are the Premium EMT Shears by Maratac. These are the full size versions, but they also make a much more compact version, but I wanted the full sized version to maximize my cutting power.

The first thing to note about these sheers are the cutting edges. The two arms have quite different features, in that one is a sheepsfoot tip (to reduce the chances of penetration) and has a predominantly flat cutting edge. The opposing arm has fine saw-like teeth in the stainless steel blade, no point at all, and a flattened lip that runs at 90 degrees to arms, giving a platform to run the shears against, when cutting clothes off a person, or the like. You can see that the shears have fullers pressed into them, giving them increased rigidity and shear strength.

The area behind the rivet also features two notches, for stripping wire, something I'd be otherwise afraid to do with the shears, as a result of the very aggressive cutting power they possess. These are some no-nonsense tools, and I have every faith that they will serve me well, for all my first aid and emergency trauma uses, they also cut zip-ties to get flex-cuffs off prisoners, open burlap bags to feed my chookens, open packing boxes, cutting tins to make BBQ-coal starters and they even cut coins, for when you get sick of capitalism and need to stick it to "the man".

The handles are an impact resistant composite, seen here in "desert brown" and are smooth edged, and the finger-recesses big enough that I can fit three fingers in a squeeze into the big ring, or two comfortably with work-gloves on. I can't recommend a set of these enough, they will cleanly, and efficiently brutalise anything you need to cut safely and with precision. I don't look forwards to having to cut someone out of their mangled boots, but I ever need to, these will be something I reach for!

Review: Blackhawk! Performance Cotton Pants

Here's a set of pants that I acquired from LEGear, which I must say, I have been slack in reviewing, which says more about my laundry-duties than the pants themselves. I gave this set a fairly reasonable workout, a weeks worth of wear and adventure, and they came up for more.

With both Tactical Baby almost walking and scooting EVERYWHERE, and Triceratops Girl being the most on-the-bounce 4 year old I know, I certainly spent some time crawling through pipes, clambering over logs and obstacles, digging in the veggie garden, chasing chickens as well as looking tidy and professional whilst wandering the server-rooms, labs and corridors of the hospital I work in.

These are some feature packed pants, which were a delight to get into, and find all the options available to me. Here are some of the pockets and what they are good for, and what I used them for.

The main "Angle-cut" hand pockets are deep, and well placed, with flat-seamed edges, to hook and clip pens, money clips and pocket knives to. The right hand side also features a hidden, zippered pocket built into the seam. Good for stowing valuables, papers and the like. The supporting internal stitching keeps it sag-free, which is a great addition.

The front of the top of each thigh has an easy-access, top opening mag pouch, with a hook-and-loop closure. Not humping ammunition around myself, I nevertheless found that they fit an iPhone nicely, or a set of precision screwdrivers, snugly and securely.

The main back pockets are also deep, and sloped to afford easy access and storage, scalloped at an angle rather than vertically as in Levi's. the back right pocket also features a zipperable pocket, to keep your wallet stowed and secure (I still keep mine in my EDC harness but as the weather heats up, I may take this option up.)

 The big cargo-pockets at the bottom of the thigh on each leg also hook-and-loop secure, with two patches on each flap. Each of these pockets feature three wide elastic webbing loops, inside to keep all your needfuls secure and properly oriented. They will fit two TV/DVD remote controls and my Trophy Master skinning knife (just in case, you know?) without even showing a significant bulge. I believe they would suit the designed mag-holding purpose very nicely. As well as the big pocket, the cargo-pockets each also feature a zippered pocket on the inside leg seam, for extra storage, as you can never have too many options. A lanyard loop at the belt loops is another aspect of that.

The pants close with a press-stud and zipper, with secondary botton inside, to give you that extra level of anti-dacking security. A cool feature inside the pants is the silicone grip strip inside the  waistband which kept my shirts tucked in during baby-chasing maneuvers. You can also see here the hidden, elastic waistband slides which kept the pants snug, but gave them some play when bending and kneeling. I really liked this feature. No more pinching!

The pants themselves are made of a rugged wrinkle / fade resistant 8.5 oz cotton canvas, which was double layered in the butt and knees for increased wear and protection. I just threw out a set of pants for tearing through the knee, something I hate. I hate it almost as much as I hate tearing out the crotch, which I do with alarming regularity. The Blackhawk! Performance Pants, however, anticipated this, with their broad crotch gusset, which allows increased movement, less pinching and no snagging of my bling. The belt loops are also generous, being 1.75" wide, to allow easy of feed for rigger belts such as my 215Gear Ultimate Riggers belt. The leg cuffs are also reinforced, which usually isnt an issue for me, being a long-legged as I am, but the 32waist/36leg was a really good fir for me, and when barefoot, the cuffs do actually touch ground, a rare surprise for me.

The only issue I found with these pants is that they seemed to pick up every piece of fluff or dust that I came into contact with. I had thoguht this might have just been because they were fresh out of the bag, and would die off after a wash, but post-laundry (where I remind you again of my general lack of care whilst doing this chore) they seem to have the same issue. Hopefully in a few more washes this will soften up the cotton until it no longer collects crud, and they will look as snappy as they aught to. Rock solid adventure-wear, great storage options, and rugged as all get up. These are pants to see you through some tough times

Review: Platatac - MAC Mesh Back Pack

This unusual piece is a now discontinued line from Platatac, something of an experiment of theirs that didn't pan out commercially as well as hoped. I however, think they are a great idea. The concept is that a daypack has been mated with the Medium Armour Carrier back-piece.

You'll remember from recent posts that I got this particular piece of gear as part of a deal along with the Front Opening Panel which I reviewed not too long ago, but this is interchangeable with that as well as the closed front MAC plate carrier that makes up the front of my usual rig.

The ability to chop and change these pieces gives the wearer the ability to have a permanently mounted pack, integral ballistic plating carriage and modularity to connect it to an existing front piece.

As with all Platatac's main-line gear, I chose khaki, to suit my aesthetic, and is made of the same 1000d Cordura material I've come to expect from their gear.




As well as two spacious "most of the way to the bottom" unzipping side-pocket, each with a set of 3 row, 2 column PALS/MOLLE, but also with a large  "1/3 of the way opening" main compartment. Inside the main compartment there is an elasticized internal pocket, up against the back wall, suitable for a hydration bladder, or soft-storage. At the top of the pack there is a vent, cut and covered to prevent the casual ingress of water and dirt, which would allow a hydration tube and/or cables to exit the pack.

The pack also has a beaver-tail flap, which is fitted with multiple cinch straps, two fastex-style clips, one on each side, and a criss-cross of shock-cord running through D-loops to give additional storage. The beaver-tail will fit most ballistic helmets, I read, but for my purposes, it fits my Pro Tec Classic skate helmet just nicely.  For all my brain-bashing adventure needs!





























The "inside" of the pack shows off its plate-carrying nature, with a heavy hook-and-loop closing pouch, allowing your vitals to have that much needed protection. Below this, you can see here the belt-pouch, where it is possible to run a waist belt, or the strapping needed to secure the bottom of this piece to the bottom of one of the front components of the MAC family.


The inside of the belt-pocket has another patch of hook-and-loop, to secure any strapping you use to prevent it sliding one way or another. You can also see some additional loops and attachment points. These came in very handy when I rigged this pack for solo-wear, by running two meter-long lengths of webbing from the bottom, up to the fastex-style clips at the shoulders. There are also two sets of wide elastic cable/tube keepers sewn into the shoulders, and additional d-rings for further attachment options.

Underneath the beaver-tail helmet carrier, there is extensive PALS/MOLLE real-estate, with 6 rows of 7 channels, the top one being hook-and-loop loop field, with an additional band of MOLLE-spaced loop-field below that for unit, name or morale patches.

The pack was just big enough to fit my ubiquitous CSI folder and most of my daily needs. I also fitted my bottle-carrying FUP pouch, and my half-med pouch, as well as some other needfuls, as you can see here.

All in all this is a very interesting hybrid. I would have made some further adjustments and recommendations if Platatac were looking to continue the lin, namely to the placement of some of the loops and attachment options, but all in all, it was a worthy investment. Now i can kit out another member of my household, and put a pack on them that cant be lost or forgotten!

Good thinking, and staying prepared!












8

Review: CountyComm Breacher Bar sheath

Here is another part of my recent haul of gear from CountyComm, a kydex sheath also made by CountyComm to fit their very rugged Breacher Bar. I have been so happy with my Breacher that I wanted to get this piece to compliment it. Up until this point, I have mounted mine on a PALS/MOLLE panel on the front of my MAC plate carrier.

The opportunity to have  a purpose built sheath was too good to miss, and these hand-made kydex sheathes by EOD/ CountyComm, which come equipped with not only a tight friction lock of the Breacher Bar, but also offers several different attachment options. The sheath is designed to fit the Blade Tech line of TekLoK systems as well as being able to accept lacing and other means of attachment. The two bottom holes, the six along the sides, two at the top and three through the middle give ample options to lash with paracord, or fit a variety of other attachment options.

I have attached a short MALICE clip to mine, which will enable me to mount mine to the MOLLE of both my chest rig, and also to any of the bags of belts that I may have in play at any given time.

The fitting hardware that came with the EOD sheath consisted of four screws and threaded eyelets as well as a spacer ring, deep enough to match up against the depth of the sheath itself from the edge holes.
A drainage hole at the bottom finishes the package.



The sheath itself is a very good fit, taking some vigorous bouncing to shake the breacher loose, and more to pull it free. I'll still be mounting it in a "upwards draw" just to be sure, but it pleases me no end to have a purpose made, and properly fitted sheath for this very useful piece of kit.






















e

Home Front: Injury and Illness

Being sick sucks. Being injured sucks. I've been both often enough just in the last year to make me strongly consider what options and risks would be apparent in the event of a disaster both for those with chronic illness or injuries, and those with incidental illnesses and injuries. One of my partners has some fairly hefty pharmaceutical requirements for the condition she has. The other has torn cartilage in her knee and a history of respiratory problems. The idea of loss of access to the medical facilities and the pharmacopeia that modern industrial society provides us is chilling. Even the idea of long trips "off-grid" would require significant stockpiling, and preparation, and this is not a bad thing, but costly and difficult to arrange.

Even taking stock of our little bathroom medicine cabinet at home, just to take stock, made me realise how dependent we are on the infrastructure both to have such things produced and also distributed. I recently watched the disease-thriller "Contagion" which really impressed me with its sensible and pretty accurate portrayal of both lab-science and disease epidemiology. It reminded me that in the event of a wide-spread disease, resources will become scare not only due to demand, but also as the infrastructure required to produce and disseminate it is affected by the disease. Not only medical supplies, but later on, all supplies and services, depending on the severity of the outbreak could be unavailable. Healthcare workers are often on the front lines, as the very sick are brought to hospitals and from there, it can spread. That not only means my workplace, but also the people who would care for and supply treatments to my loved ones, and children.

Fortunately, there are several sources for being kept aware of these kinds of events, both sickness, and natural.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
The World Health Organization (WHO)

both of which I follow via Twitter on:
https://twitter.com/CDCemergency
https://twitter.com/WHO

I'm also fortunate enough to be sent bulletins like these through work, from the Bureau of Meteorology

 
Sent: Tuesday, 4 September 2012 3:15 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: ** State Health Command Advisory - damaging and destructive winds **


Good afternoon all,

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds in the following forecast districts:

Mallee
Wimmera
Northern Country
North Central
North East
South West
Central
West and South Gippsland
East Gippsland

Damaging winds around 60 to 80 km/h with peak gusts of 100 to 120km/h are forecast to develop over the Southwest and Wimmera districts this evening, and will extend to remaining districts overnight and early Wednesday morning.

Over Alpine areas, winds are expected to average 80 to 100 km/h Wednesday with peak gusts of 140 km/h

The Victorian health sector should:

Maintain situational awareness via the Bureau of Meteorology website: http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/warnings/
Consider the dissemination of this advisory


Being aware is part of the battle, looking after my family and loved ones in the event of such an event, short or long term, is another. I have first-aid kits, but when it comes down to it, do we have enough medical supplies laid in? No.

Do I know where to go to get some, and what to get? Mostly. More work required.

It also occurred to me that improving my First-Aid training is always a good thing.

Review: CountyComm Dropline carabiner spool

A shipment of goodies arrived that some friends and I all got together for, and I picked up a few cool things. This is something I'd had my eye on for a while, and wanted to add to my EDC pile. I have carried lengths of cord both on my person, and in my bag for a long time now, there is something very comforting about having a bunch of paracord on hand.

The problem however, is how to stow it, and have it ready. Previously I have bundled up my lengths in hojojuitsu style, in neither hayanawa or “fast rope”, or torinawa ("capture-rope") type bundles. These are self-contained and feeding bundles, but are only practical for kind of short lengths, 8m being the typical length I use, but for longer, more utilitarian lengths, some other method is needed. Paracord often comes in 100' lengths and even that is a lot of cord to hump around.

However, my fellow blogger, and knot-maker of high repute, Stormdrane worked with CountyComm to come up with this, a highly functional spool, on a carabiner, in the form of their Drop-Line RLD. This is purported to hold 50' of paracord, or 100' of of 3/32 Tether cord (which is a thinner, "dummy-cord", not unlike the Australian "hootchie cord" for doing tie-downs of gear and as guy-ropes.)

The spool consists of a Omega-Pacific Standard Locking D carabiner which incidentally has a 31kN rating along its major axis, (and is the same brand as the Rappel Rings, I reviewed a while back) and the internal Delrin® wheel which is a rigid, low-friction polymer which in this case has a split down one side to fit it to the carabiner, and two notches, one on the inside, to attach the internal end of the cord, and one on the outer rim to lock down the loose end.

You can see I started off with the best of intentions in looping my 50' of cord, feeding smoothly and tightly from side to side until I reached the rim of the spool, with about 6' or cord left to go. I could have trimmed this off, but i wanted to see just how much I could fit whilst still being able to open and fit the carabiner. In the end, with a messy attempt at the zig-zag spooling, I managed to get all 50' onto the spool, AND was just able to open the gate wide enough to feed it onto PALS/MOLLE webbing, as seen here, nestled between my Half Med Kit and the FUP I use as a bottle holder on my pack.

I've wanted to get one of these for a while, mostly because of their simple utility, and elegant solution to a common problem, and now that I have one, I want more... Perhaps I can give that zig-zag another go ...

Review: Blackhawk! Engineered-Fit Shirt

Here's another great item made by Blackhawk, that the folks at LEGear sent my way. This innocuous looking shirt is in fact part of Blackhawk's "WarriorWear" Line, of engineered base-layers. I've reviewed other Blackhawk! gear before, in their knee-pad range, and I have some pants from them lined up to look at as well. You may recall that I have reviewed this kind of shirt once before, and I was pleased to be able to look at someone else's take on the design and application of technology.

Here we go: The WarriorWear Engineered-Fit shirt comes in V-neck or crew-neck, I chose crew, as I like having full closure, keeping all my cat-bell like jinglies tucked in. The shirt is actually made of three distinct regions, in two different fabrics. The torso and biceps are made of a very fine Jersey knit in 92% Nylon, 8% Spandex and the underarm strips, running mid-pectoral to mid-shoulder blade are of a 95% polyester, 5% Lycra mesh. This gives you considerable breathing through sweaty armpits, as well as being stretchy for unrestricted movement.

The seams are all extremely flat, almost inappreciably so, and better yet, are placed off the shoulders entirely, giving no pinch points for packs, harnesses or plate carriers loads to press and rub on. Being a long, tall and skinny critter, I don't have a lot of padding that I can shrug off that kind of thing with, so having the seams off my load-bearing areas was a welcome relief. The material is actually brushed on the inside, to give even better contact to the skin,as this is a wicking shirt, and designed to be held tight to the body, both to draw away moisture, but also to prevent agaisnt-the-skin friction from your load. It is also anti-microbially treated, to help prevent stinky goon syndrome.

I can attest to this, having worn it all day under my it at Manifest overnight, then all day at a kendo instructors course. Kendo is a very physical activity, under both heavy gi and armour. The material kept me dry, chaffing free, comfortable all day, and didn't smell! It's going in my running kit at work

It's important to note, that sizing is really important with these types of shirts. You need a skin-tight fit to gain the most from them. The Blackhawk range of Engineered-Fit body-sculpted shirts (in that they aren't just flat panels of fabric, but are "body-shaped") have specific measurements associated for their sizing. To move from their "Standard Fit" and full "Compression Fit" (for those who want that), all you need to do is move one "size" down. I got myself a "Large" but could have probably done better with a "Medium", as the length was more than adequate to cover my long torso, as you can see here as I demonstrate a "traditional Provencal French salute". You can see there has been no ride-up, helped in part by the soft, next-to-body, jacquard elastic waistband, and the intrinsic stretch of the materials used.

I really liked the smooth, matte-finish surface the shirt has. I've now worn it solo, and under a variety of other tops, slept in it, trained in it and have been dry, comfortable and protected from some regular wear and tear. Definitely worth getting into!

Review: Strike Industries - Tactical Sling Catch

Image swiped from Strike Industries

Here is s great little accessory I picked up recently, that I wanted to share with you all. I saw this reviewed by the great guys at Jerking The Trigger and Soldier Systems and whilst this puts me pretty far behind the pack, I don't mind, because basically, I'm a hobbyist, and my "what if" postulating is a bit distant from what most of their readers face. However, this is, as I said, a great little accessory.

Here's the situation, you have your item of choice on a sling, over your shoulder and across your body. The strap may have padding, it may be nice, soft nylon tubing, or may be a strap of heavy canvas. Either way, you are lugging important and precious kit on a strap that is using your neck as a fulcrum. No matter how soft, wide or padded, once you get moving, it sways, bumps and begins to chafe, saw, pinch or dig into your neck.

That becomes a lingering distraction, uncomfortable, and consistent. You've got a pack on, a chest rig, or some kind of vest, because that's what you're loaded up with. That just adds to the problem. What to do?

This is where the Tactical Sling Catch by Strike Industries comes in. What they have produced is a piece of reinforced PX polymer, which forms a hook to keep your sling up off your neck, and bear its load.
The catch is light and just flexible enough to be resilient enough, but stiff enough to carry the weight of your slung item of choice, be it a 35mm Cannon or the most specifically, the lead-spitting kind. The catch has three main components, the primary of which is the outward facing sling catch, which is broad, deep and tall enough to accommodate a variety of slings securely, without being a snag-risk for the environment as you move about. Two loop wells allow the twin 6" hook and loop strips to be fed through to attach it (More on this later).

The "outward" edge of the base plate has on its underside a harness retaining hook, two wedge shaped projections which catch the edge of whatever you mount the sling catch to, and help keep it from sliding inwards towards your neck. I found this secondary retention really assisted when I put a load on my 215 Gear sling. I had worried that the whole sling catch accessory would just rotate around on my shoulder piece, but with that retainer, it held fast. Under the base plate were six little spikes, which further added to the stability of the catch.

The primary means of attachment however is the two strips of hook-and loop supplied. One hook, one loop field, each 6" long. This gives enough room to wrap through the two loop-wells, around the shoulder piece, and back onto each other to give a very secure, adjustable connection. You can see here that I ran those strips through the PALS/MOLLE loops that were on the top of my rig's shoulder strap and from there, cinched it up tight under the shoulder strap. Lateral and horizontal movement halted!

The PX plastic is low-friction, and well molded, with rounded edges and wide angles wherever there will be sliding action. I found that I could move my sling around freely, remove it smoothly, and bring my item of choice up to bear quickly without even noticing it was there. When jogging about, ducking, weaving with the sling slack, it stayed "mounted" and didn't slip free, so that when I then when "hands free" the catch did its job smoothly. Similarly, when I had tension on the sling, bringing to bear, the sling catch was doubly useful, as it did indeed keep the sling off the side of my neck, and kept me from yanking my head, or chafing my neck.

I'm really impressed with this catch. I can recommend it to anyone who wears a sling for any length of time. My big-lens camera weilding soul-sealer friends might be just as interested as my "running about in cammo" friends. I can see these being useful to the hiker, tourists, camping, or anyone who has to sling something for extended periods of time. I'm thinking of getting a couple more, to affix to my bags and other rigs. Well worth it.