Puppy Go Bag

We got a puppy over the Independence Day weekend, and now we're learning a whole new type of prepping. We're starting with the Puppy Go Bag.

Items mentioned in the video:

• Waste Bags
• Collapsible Bowl
• LA Police Gear Bail-Out Bag

Lokidude

Gun Blog Variety Podcast #151 - The Bacardi Episode

I drink a rum in the mornin' (yeah)
I drink a rum at night (gonna drink a rum at night)
I drink a rum in the afternoon (why?)
It makes me feel alright
I drink a rum in times of peace
and two in times of war (make love not war)
I drink a rum before I drink a rum
and then I drink some more (hey hey hey)
-- The Pyrates Royale, "Drink a Rum", 1999

• After her recent visit to Washington D.C. with the D.C. Project, Beth reached out to offer firearms training to the representatives in her home state of Alabama. Will anyone take her up on the offer?
• For Felons Behaving Badly,  Sean takes a closer look at a man arrested for a November shooting.
• Barron’s back again, this time with a segment about ransomware that isn’t and friends who remind you why you don’t click on unsolicited attachments.
• For those who have gotten the vapors about Dana Loesch’s nearly three-month-old video about fighting the violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth, Miguel has a simple question for you: Where have you been?
• GunBlog VarietyCast Radio is proud to introduce Special Guest Charl van Wyk to our show. Mr. van Wyk was a member of the Saint James Church in Capetown, South Africa, when it was attacked by terrorists, and he was able to save the lives of many by returning fire with his pistol. In the first of a three-part interview series, we talk about the church massacre and its aftermath.
• Tiffany is still on assignment.
• What is "proprioception?" Erin not only explains it, she pronounces it!
• Protect Minnesota is against a new bill that would bring Stand Your Ground to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Weer’d is back with part two of his three-part series on their anti-self defense press conference.
• And our Plug of the Week is for Aiming for Zero.

Thank you for downloading, listening, and subscribing. You are subscribed, right? We are available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Google Play Music!

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the show notes here.

Thanks to LuckyGunner and Remington for their sponsorship, and a special thanks to Firearms Policy Coalition for their support.

Blue Collar Prepping Transcript -

Proprioception and Phantom Limbs

I hope that you’ve all been enjoying my segue into into physiological and psychological effects of survival. I realize that this is more abstract than what I usually do for Blue Collar Prepping, but I feel -- and I hope you do as well -- that understanding why we do things will help us prepare for, and ultimately cope with, our reactions when terrible things happen. This segment is really going to dive deeply into those waters, and I hope you’ll stick with me through all the science because there is absolutely a payoff at the end.

Today’s five dollar word is “Proprioception”, and it means “The sense of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighbouring parts of the body.” If you want a demonstration of this, close your eyes and stick one of your hands out at a random angle. Then, with your eyes still closed, bring your other hand to it.

You didn’t have any trouble finding your hand without seeing it, did you? You knew where your hand was in space and found it immediately. That’s proprioception.

Fun fact: The principle is of “hand finds hand” is why the UZI was designed with a magazine that feeds through the pistol grip. This is why it’s so much more intuitive to load your pistol than it is to load your rifle -- unless, of course, your hand is gripping the magazine well.

This principle of your brain having a map of your body also explains the concept known as “phantom limb”, which is when a missing body part, such as an amputated hand, still feel present. This sensation is often uncomfortable -- sometimes it feels like there’s an itch which needs scratching, or the muscles are cramping -- but the end result is that brain insists the limb is still there and it requires stimulation of sort. Yes, this is another example of “All pain is in our brain” which I detailed last week.

But our brains can also be fooled, and this is the cure for phantom limb pain as well as other symptoms of loss. In 1998, V.S. Ramachandran - a neuroscientist at UC San Diego - conducted a series of experiments where people suffering phantom limb pain from missing hands or arms placed their functioning limb upon a table and then looked at a mirror reflection of that limb. By moving their healthy limb while looking at the mirror image, an illusion of moving the missing limb was created.

6 out of 10 patients said they could actually feel the movement coming from the missing limb! 4 of those could then use that visual feedback to relieve phantom limb pain by stretching, unclenching or otherwise doing whatever action the missing limb craved.

What’s more, you don’t even need to have a missing limb to experience this effect. There’s a trick called The Rubber Hand Illusion whereby participants have their real hand hidden from view and a rubber hand poised in nearly the same position. Both hands, real and rubber, are stroked in exactly the same way at the same time. Eventually the participants began to feel that the rubber hand was their own hand, so that when they were asked to touch their “missing” hand with the working hand, many of them indicated the rubber hand.

In effect, their nervous systems “grew” into the rubber hand, adopting it as their own. This adoption was so strong that when the rubber hand was struck with a hammer, threatened with a burning cigarette, or stabbed with a needle, the subjects actually reacted with fear and pain!

This neatly explains why frequently used objects - be they tools or weapons or even vehicles like cars and aircraft - can feel like part of the user’s body. This is because, to a certain extent, they are. Through constant use and identification of the item as an extension of the user’s will, the nervous system integrates them into its own proprioceptive “body map”.

This raises an interesting question: if an inanimate object can be considered part of someone’s body by the brain, then why not another living being? And in fact, this is exactly what happens with people we are physically close with. That loss, and coping with it, will be addressed in next week’s segment.

• Proprioception - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception
• Phantom Limb - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb
• Body Transfer Illusion - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_transfer_illusion
• The Rubber Hand Illusion - https://youtu.be/sxwn1w7MJvk
• Consciousness and body image: lessons from phantom limbs - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1692421/pdf/9854257.pdf

Firearm Safety Friday!!

Our regularly scheduled post has been preempted by something very important, and that's firearm safety!

First, a little video:



So let me tell you the story...

A friend recently moved back to the area, and as enthusiasts often do, we were going through his gun collection. He had a neat little double action only .380 semiauto.

Right before my eyes, the little handgun was removed from its place in the safe. Then the magazine was removed and the slide was worked vigorously, twice. Took aim at the pillow, just see how the trigger stacked, and BOOM! Dead Pillow.

Okay, it really wasn't much of a boom, but it was attention grabbing for sure.

So what happened? The best we can figure is that extractor did not pick out the cartridge in the chamber. It was an old round that had been in there for a while.

Negligent discharges happen. Guns fail in ways that can make them more dangerous than they inherently are. But regardless of the handgun's malfunction, or of the failure to tactilely inspect the chamber, further disaster was averted by following the simple rule Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.

Now before you ballistic rangers and keyboard commandos start talking about how negligent discharges "never happen" or "you've never had one", my response is this: either you don't use firearms very often (like never) or you're a liar. Now I am no Clint Smith or Rob Pincus, but I have been an instructor for almost 2 decades and instructed thousands of people. I have seen more NDs than I can count, and I have had a few over the years myself.

Simply following that most important safety rule of gun handling, always point the gun in a safe direction, has helped avert disaster in each of those negligent discharges.

Be safe. Be smart. Don't be stupid.

Teaching and Learning

A lot of what we write about here is done as a form of education. We're trying to show you what has worked for us (or others) in order to give you a reference point or starting point for your own response to a crisis. We do some product reviews and report our honest feelings about the results of our testing. We recount personal and historical events as a demonstration of what could and/or did go right and/or wrong. We're here to teach, and I assume you're here to learn.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know everything. I'm a generalist with a good understanding of a wide variety of things, but detailed knowledge of only a few. None of us here are “experts”; we've never claimed to be and likely never will. We're playing the role of “teachers”. I use the term “playing” because none of us are actual educators by trade, nor do we have the baggage that comes with a typical student/teacher relationship. We won't talk down to you and we're open to comments and (polite) criticism. If we're ever wrong about something, show us the error and we'll correct it. We have experience in certain fields, mostly job-related, that we want to share because we realize that no one person can do everything. We've all enjoyed camping, shooting, and other outdoor activities so we all have some common experiences, but we're all a bit different:

• Erin is our editrix, mainly because she started this blog and she has the best grasp of grammar and composition. She also has the dubious pleasure of cleaning up some of the word salads that the other writers can produce.
• Firehand is a good metal-smith and has experience gained through years of practice that most of us don't have the time to duplicate. No reason to re-invent the wheel if you can learn about it from someone who has already done it.
• David is well versed in “starting over” due to his life experiences.  He's also a good generalist with regards to life skills. 
• Lokidude has been prepping in one way or another his entire life, it's just part of him now. He has more "outdoors" skills than most of the rest of us.
• The Discerning Shootist is fairly new here, but his levels of expertise is certain fields will become evident as time goes on. 
• My training is in the sciences and math, with a healthy dose of growing up working on farms (the two are not mutually exclusive - I use more math, biology, chemistry, and physics every day than most people would think). 
• Once in a while we get guest authors  who have specialist knowledge that they would like to pass along, and we're always open to new guest articles (without guaranteeing that they will be used).

You, as a reader, are playing the role of student. You're here to learn something new or maybe a new way to do something. Take notes, interact with the teachers, ask questions, maybe join our Facebook group and meet others like yourself.

• I say "take notes" because most of the emergencies that we are all trying to prepare for are going to involve a lack of internet. Having notes on paper or stored on a local device ensures that you will be able to access the information even if you can't pull up the website.
• Interact with us. We like getting comments because it's one of the few ways we have of knowing that anyone is reading our stuff. The admins have access to some analytical tools, but they're not a convenient way of getting feedback. We're human and like to be acknowledged once in a while.
• If any of us are unclear on something, please ask for clarification. We're not going to belittle anyone who has an honest question (conspiracy theories don't count) and someone will try to answer your question. Different people learn in different ways, so we're flexible in how we present information.
• The FB group has rules, but they're not draconian. The rules are actually a lot like the ones we have imposed upon ourselves here at the blog. No politics, little to no advertising (the few ads we have along the right side of the page don't pay much), no spam, and no promoting other sites are the main rules. We do our best to weed out the 'bots and spammers before allowing them into the group, the few who make it through the vetting process get booted quickly. Having a half-dozen moderators that check the page several times a day means we can stomp on the spammers efficiently. Some of us enjoy that part of the job (a few enjoy it a bit too much).

Basically, our goal at this blog is to give you more than a helping of free ice cream. We want to share knowledge with you, knowing that doing so is often a two-way street. We'll keep doing our best to provide our readers a fresh, non-political, maybe even unique, article every weekday while hoping to learn a few things ourselves.

Prudent Prepping: Fighting a Cold When It's Hot Outside

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.

Getting sick any time of year is not fun, but getting sick during the summer is even less fun. Let me explain why.

The Summer Cold
When I catch a cold in the winter, it seems to last about a week and a half, maybe a little longer. I can feel the start of the usual symptoms sneaking up on me: runny nose, sneezing, a scratchy throat and maybe a cough. When any of those things start, I'm prepared with vitamins, minerals and a special anti-viral that I take which knocks a cold down in four days, every time. 

During the Summer, things are a lot more complicated because I have allergies through most of the spring and summer, with short breaks between whatever is blooming, pollinating or spreading spores. My allergies start out with all the same indications as a cold: runny nose, sneezing, scratchy throat and sometimes a cough. The only difference between the two is that my allergies produce clear nasal drips and not so clear for colds. And I caught a cold a little over two weeks ago. I was late in figuring out that this was an actual cold until it was very, very obviously not allergies. (I won't go into details, but I'm sure you all can imagine.)

Cold Fighters
When I know I'm fighting a cold, I add one of these packets to a bottle of water, let it fizz up, shake it a bit and drink. I didn't put Emergen-C vitamin packs in my lunch box during summer, even though there are some in my GHB; this is something I fixed last week.

• Supports your immune system, enhances energy naturally and replaces electrolytes post-workout
• Available in delicious super orange, raspberry and tangerine
• Just add to water and feel good with no crash

The last part of my cold fighting supplies is is a No Joke, Over-The-Counter anti-viral that works: Ecological Formulas Black Elderberry Extract 8 oz. 

http://amzn.to/2sMTyPt

This is exactly what it says on the bottle: Black Elderberry Extract, with some honey added to smooth out the somewhat tangy, sharp taste of natural, unsweetened Elderberries.

When I know I'm catching a cold, I start with Emergen-C and one oz of the  black elderberry extract four times a day for four days. This means I have to keep two bottles on hand at all times which, this being Summer, I didn't have. I had to go to a real vitamin store (not a body building supplement store) to get the fancy label national brand at (of course) a higher price.

Since I didn't realize I had a cold until symptoms were well developed, taking everything like I normally do didn't knock things down quite as fast as I'd like. I had to go back for a third bottle and double the dose to kill my cold, which took two weeks to finally go away.

But now my allergies are kicking up and my nose has a slow drip, like a bad faucet. I can't seem to win.

Hand Sanitizer
Of course, the best way to fight a cold is never catch one to begin with. Hand sanitizer is part of my work gear, carried in my jacket pocket, next to a pocket pack of kleenex in the same pocket. From where I work, keeping my hands washed can be a problem, so the sanitizer gets a real workout. 

The hand sanitizer I used to buy had unscented Jojoba oil in it. Unfortunately it was discontinued in favor of a lavender scented product that smelled like cheap perfume. My workaround to this was making my own unscented, Jojoba oil product!

http://tinyurl.com/ycsw6rpt

What I did is buy a large bottle of sanitizer, refill my two small bottles and add my own oil, using Sam's Club Member's Mark Hand Sanitizer as a base.

• Kills 99.99% of common germs and bacteria
• Contains moisturizing vitamin E
• Large pump bottle for easy dispensing and refilling
• Perfect for high-traffic areas
• Great for businesses, retail shops, schools and daycares

Even though it says 'contains vitamin E', there is not enough to keep my hands from drying out and splitting and cracking from the constant use I make of this stuff. I have to add extra oil and what I use is Trader Joe's 100% Pure Jojoba Oil.

From the Amazon listing:

http://amzn.to/2uql5Ic

• Trader Joe's Spa 100% Pure Jojoba Oil
• Pure and natural plant extract
• Pure Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed oil.
• Produced without an animal testing or animal by-products.

I have had a bottle of this in my lunch box for years that I've used after washing my hands. It is thicker than any olive oil I've seen, and a very small amount rubbed on my hands goes a long way!

I put 5-6 pumps of the large jug into my 2 oz squeeze bottle, add 3-4 drops of oil, shake well and I have a reasonable replica of what I used to buy!

The Takeaway

• I must make sure I've got ALL necessary supplies on hand, even if I don't see an immediate need or use for them.
• Making your own supplies can be easier and much cheaper that first imagined.
• Buying supplies at the last minute and when in desperate need, costs.

The Recap

• Members Mark hand sanitizer: $6.98 from Sam's Club 
• Trader Joe's Jojoba Oil:  $10.98 from Amazon with free shipping but no Prime on this item
• Emergen-C Vitamin pack: 90 count from Amazon $28.99 with Prime
• Ecological Formulas Black Elderberry Extract: $15.93 from Amazon with Prime

If you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running!

If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.

On Independence

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

As this post goes live, it is Tuesday, July 4, 2017. It is also Independence Day. On this day 241 years ago, 56 men risked everything they had to ratify a document declaring that they would no longer be subjects to the ruler of a distant land.

Liberty, and everything that comes with it, was dear enough that men were willing to risk everything to obtain it. Failure meant certain death, as well as a permanent stain on their families and progeny.

In the modern day, we celebrate the success of their daring venture. The parades date back to young men (and some old men) marching off to war with a grand farewell. The fireworks are an analog of the artillery fire that has cleared the way for those brave men since the dawn of our nation.

Don't feel guilty if you barbecue, or go to car shows, or go camping or boating or whatever with your family for this holiday. Blood and treasure has been shed for two and a half centuries to secure your right to spend time with the people that matter to you. If patriotic displays or quiet remembrance are more your speed, that's perfectly appropriate, too; the memories of the lives spent in service are worth keeping.

Lives have been pledged to the ideals of this nation since before the Declaration of Independence was even ratified, a tradition which has continued uninterrupted. While at times our military was much smaller, we have always had a core of professional officers and specialists that recruits could rally around. As warfare became more complex and involved, a cadre of true professional soldiers has arisen to fill that role. The stunning part is that all of these professionals are volunteers. We haven't had conscript soldiers in my entire lifetime, and for nearly a decade before.

Knowing that our men and women in uniform all raised their hand of their own free will makes the final line of the Declaration even more poignant:

"with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Honor those who have purchased liberty, in whatever way you see fit. That is the nature of freedom, and that is what they have secured for us all.

Lokidude

Gun Blog Variety Podcast #150 - Let's You and Him Fight

It's called "rooting for injuries", and it's what the anti-gunners are doing.

• Beth wrote a textbook called "Women's Handgun and Self-Defense Fundamentals", and she tells us all about it.
• A $1M bond for man accused of kidnapping a family and forcing them to... shop at Target? Sean looks a little deeper into the story.
• Barron’s back with more on the expected second wave of ransomware.
• Miguel is fired up today. He's irritated at those members of the pro-civil rights community who are blindly doing exactly what the anti-gunners are telling them to do.
• We welcome Special Guest Ali Slocum, who tells us about her journey from anti-gunner to gun student with instructor Jenna Meeks at Carry On Colorado.
• Tiffany is still on assignment.
• Pain? Anger? Sadness? It's all in your head, but Erin tells you why that's neither a dismissal nor a bad thing.
• Protect Minnesota is against a new bill that would bring Stand Your Ground to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Weer’d starts a three-part series on their anti-self defense press conference.
• And Barron brings us our Plug of the Week for the Mission Critical baby carrier.

Thank you for downloading, listening, and subscribing. You are subscribed, right? We are available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Google Play Music!

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the show notes here.

Thanks to LuckyGunner and Remington for their sponsorship, and a special thanks to Firearms Policy Coalition for their support.

Blue Collar Prepping Transcript -

It’s All In Our Heads, But That's Okay

About two weeks ago, I received an email from one or our listeners in reaction to my segment on PTSD. I won’t go into great detail on what the letter said, because it’s personal and not my story to tell - but I can say that the listener thanked me for the segment and said it had great applicability to his situation, because he was about to observe the anniversaries of the deaths of two of his children.

So I hope my segment helped you, dear listener. And thank you for writing, because it brings up a worthwhile topic for discussion: why does loss of a loved one hurt us like a physical injury? The answer again comes from Lawrence Gonzales’ book Surviving Survival, and it’s very simple: the brain is the organ that interprets what is and isn’t pain.

It doesn’t matter to the brain if you’re upset because you’ve stubbed your toe or if you’re upset because you’ve lost a loved one. All it knows is that you’re upset and showing the physiological signs of it -- increased heart rate and blood pressure, rapid breathing, crying, yelling or screaming or cursing, etcetera -- and so the brain dutifully interprets this as pain.

There are two effects going on here. The first is that the brain doesn’t differentiate between emotional pain and physical pain, because to the brain there is no difference. Pain, anxiety, arousal; all of these are interpreted by the brain from nerve signals that the body is sending out. So when someone looks at you and says that your pain is “all in your head”, you go ahead and give them the stink eye, because duh, where else would it be?

What’s more, because the body sends signals to the brain, and the brain loves to notice and remember patterns -- recall the phrase “Fire together, wire together” -- this means that your posture can influence how you feel. If you adopt a posture of grief -- shoulders hunched, head forward of your hips, face in your hands -- you will start to feel sad even if you have nothing to feel sad about. Similarly, if you smile, the neurons that fire when you smile go “He’s smiling! Therefore, he must be happy! So we’ll feel happy!”

This gives us some effective strategies for coping with grief. First, realize that something “being in your head” doesn’t make what you are feeling any less real. Everything you sense and feel is by definition all in your head, so just stop with that self-defeating line of thought. You feel what you feel, and your feelings are valid.

Next, adopt a posture that your brain doesn’t associate with sadness, and you will start to feel better. (Incidentally, this is why exercise is also good for helping overcome grief and depression -- your brain associates other mental and emotional states with those postures, as well as the endorphin release that comes from exercise).

If at all possible, adopt a posture of a desired emotional state. For example, putting a pencil between your teeth uses many of the same muscles as smiling, so -- fire together, wire together -- you start to feel better because your brain thinks you're smiling and therefore happy.

Finally, understand that your desire to lash out in anger is completely understandable. I thought I was just a jerk with a hair trigger temper because every time I stubbed my toe I had an instant, white-hot desire to hurt, maim, kill and destroy whatever object I’d bumped into. Well, as it turns out, this is actually a reflex that’s been hardwired deep into mammalian brains as a survival mechanism.

If the brain senses pain from the body, its first assumption is that we are being eaten by a predator, and so our immediate reflex is to kill whatever is hurting us before it kills us. The fact that you’ve been able to think “Why would I want to murder a doorjamb? That’s a ridiculous overreaction” isn’t something to be ashamed of; instead, feel relief that your mind was able to realize you weren’t being eaten and was able to reign in that impulse before you did something drastic, like hurt your hand punching the door.

Don’t ever feel ashamed of your feelings. What you feel isn’t your choice, but how you react to those feelings is.

• Surviving Survival - http://amzn.to/2shaYUE