Gerber Flat Iron Review

The Gerber Flat Iron knife is $34 from Amazon with Prime shipping.

A Few Thoughts

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

My mother had knee replacement surgery 2 weeks ago, and so I've been helping take care of her and also doing a lot of her chores around the house while she recovers. Therefore, this post will not have a single topic; instead, it's what David calls a "buffet post".


Save Your Post-Surgery Medication
This advice does not apply to antibiotics; if you are prescribed an antibiotic then you must finish your entire course of medication unless your doctor says otherwise.

However, for everything else that is prescribed on an as-needed basis -- anti-nausea, anti-inflammatory, pain killers, etc -- keep them in your preps to have on hand for an emergency. For example, I am prone to kidney stones, and in 99% of all such cases the best treatment is to wait for the stone to pass into the bladder. However, the act of passage hurts immensely; my mother, who has had three children and one kidney stone, said that her stone hurt worse than any of her deliveries. The next time I have another kidney stone, instead of going to the ER I'll just take one of the oxycodones I was prescribed in 2017 after the dog attack and then try to sleep through the pain until it passes.

Don't throw your medication away once it's past its expiration date, either! That date simply means "After this point the medicine is no longer 100% effective." I don't know about you, but I'm just fine taking medicine with a 99% effectiveness. See this post for more details, but the short version is that you can easily get four or more years worth of storage out of medications.


Cultivate Additional Food Sources
Our back yard butts up against a forest, and my mother enjoys feeding the squirrels, raccoons and deer which live there. Not only are we encouraging the growth of an animal population which could feed us in an emergency, but we are also conditioning them to not fear humans.


Have a Plan to Move Disabled Family Members
If we had to evacuate right now, it would be a lot more complicated than normal. Not only is mom moving much more slowly, but she needs a walker. That factors into my bug out plans, because it means that any evacuation will take longer and will require space for her walker (thankfully, it's collapsible) in the car.

If we have to walk?  Well, I have a deer cart and a chaise lounge cushion. It won't be fun for either of us, but if it'll cart a 500 lb deer out of the forest, it will easily carry a 120 pound woman and her BOB.


That's all for now. Hopefully I've have a more coherent post next week!

N11?

Last week I posted a bunch of information about where to find road condition information in various states. Several of the websites had “511” in the name, and one of my friends asked why that particular number was used, so I thought I would explain that a bit.

Way back when rotary-dial phones were still in use, every phone call was routed through mechanical switches, and the clicks that the phone made as the dial returned to its rest position controlled the mechanical switches. Because of certain physical restraints and standards imposed by the monopoly that ran 98% of the phone systems, the first three digits of any phone number (the area code) couldn’t start with a 1 or 0 and the second number was always either 1 or 0. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stepped in and brokered an agreement with Canada for a uniform numbering system, the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), under which certain numbers were set aside for public service use. The first digits 0 and 1 were still reserved for operator-assisted and long-distance calls respectively, but with the NANP we got the ubiquitous 911 emergency number along with a few others that aren’t as well known.

When the phone systems in the US switched to all-digital equipment in the late 1990s, it opened up that second digit in the area code and made millions of more phone numbers possible just in time for the explosion of the cell phone market. The Internet and cell phones have obsoleted many of the N11 numbers, but they’re still in the regulations. Here are the numbers in use and how they are to be used.

211

Community services and referral information. If you are looking to contact the local Red Cross or some other health/human services organization, try this number. It’s only available if the local government or a non-profit organization runs it.

311

City services and/or non-emergency contact for police and fire departments. This is a handy way to report potholes and graffiti around your city without tying up a line to the emergency services dispatcher (which is considered illegal — at the least a misdemeanor — in many states anyway).

411
Directory assistance. This is a left-over from a time when phone books were still common It’s only useful for local numbers, and most of the large cell phone companies don’t publish their customer’s numbers, so this one is somewhat obsolete, although many people still have land lines in addition to cell phones and those land lines still get printed phone directories.

511

Road condition information (usually at the state level). Most states still offer an automated phone service if you call 511, giving the highlights of road closures and construction.

611

Customer service. This number is not specifically designated as such, but is so used by many phone companies. It is the number to call for a problem with telephone service, or to report an outage, etc. Most of us have experienced what the phone companies consider customer service, so this one is pretty useless, in my opinion.

711
TRS (Telephone Relay Service) and TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf), services for the deaf and blind. Paid for by the phone companies, TDD and TRS give the disabled a way to communicate in near real-time.

811
Before-You-Dig. This number was set aside for as a digger’s one-call system: before you dig into the soil anywhere, you’re supposed to call this number and the local utilities will send out a “locator” to find and mark any underground wires or pipes. Failure to use this normally free service has cost a lot of idiots a lot of money and caused some major headaches. “Bubba with a backhoe” is the derogatory term for someone who manages to pull up or cut into a buried phone line or gas pipe, causing a service outage that can vary from a neighborhood to a city, and (in the case of the gas) risk fire and/or explosion. I’ve seen some rather large outages in my time, up to and including the idiot who ruptured a high-pressure natural gas transfer pipe. That one took weeks to fix once the residual gas bled off (and was intentionally set on fire).

911
Emergency services. We’re all familiar with this one; if you need the police, fire department, or medical aid, you’ve been taught to dial 911. Cell phones are required by law to have GPS locators in them so the dispatchers can know where you are; land lines will show up with their version of caller ID, but phone-over-internet calls have created a hole in the system. The proposed authentication system for combating robo-callers may close this hole and shut off the “swatting” of people by spoofing their phone numbers.


I know this isn’t strictly prepper material, but I’m answering a legitimate question from a reader. We’re still dealing with flood waters in my area and it looks like we’ll be seeing them for several months. The snowpack upstream is just starting to melt and we’re expecting more rain, so the rivers will be full again this weekend. Unlike a hurricane or storm surge, our flooding tends to be long, drawn-out periods of miserable weather coupled with some of the most helpful people in the world.

Prudent Prepping: Smith's Diamond Precision

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

I’m still not in my own place, and it might not happen until after the first weekend of April, but my sister hasn’t complained so I just might make it! I have more room to spread out here and reorganize my gear, but in my latest round of packing I kept discovering things that I honestly forgot I owned. Some things are fun discoveries, and some are an absolute “When did this come home with me, and why did it end up in this tote?”

https://amzn.to/2FvyYeI

One find was a sharpening set I didn’t know I had: a Smith’s 50594 Diamond Precision Knife Sharpening System!

My co-bloggers pretty much shamed me into buying a Lansky Sharpening set several years ago, and I’ve used it often to touch-up my two pocket knives. That set is in a tote now, and I couldn’t necessarily find it quickly, but the Smith’s set popped up.

From the Amazon page:

• Durable folding angle guides; angle guide with four sharpening angles to choose from;
• V-Lock vise holds knife at consistent angle during sharpening;
• One-inch wide stones; coarse diamond, fine diamond, serrated edge stone bar;
• Micro-tool sharpening pad on diamond stones; sharpening groove for hooks and pointed tools;
• Oversized thumb screws on vise; premium honing solution cleans and protects; fabric storage pouch.

Head to Head Comparison

• Both the Smith's and Lansky sets use guide rods; the Smith’s rods screw into the end of the stones, while the Lansky rods screw into the side.
• Both sets need to have straight rods to maintain the proper angles, so there usually needs to be some tweaking with both. 
• Both sets have a guide frame with cutouts marked with the popular blade angles, but Smith’s guide folds and the Lansky guide does not. 
• Both guides use screws to hold the knife blade steady, and here is where I think the Smith’s set is better, as its screws are larger and easier to use when locking the blade down. 
• Another difference is the folding guide in the Smith’s kit; the Lansky guide is fixed, but given how each one fits into their respective carrying cases, I don’t think one is obviously better than the other.
• One very big difference between the two sets I have is that the Lansky kit is a 5 stone set, but the Smith’s kit has only three. Judging by the tote in which I found it, it’s been buried from before my previous move (more than 6 years ago) when I really really didn’t have much extra cash.

There are obviously many similarities with the Lansky and Smith’s sets, and if I could put my hands on both, I’d do a head-to-head sharpen-off. Stay tuned!

The Takeaway

• I can’t say I enjoy moving, but given the chance to do some really deep cleaning and sorting, I find I feel better about what I have, and now I can put my hands on things.
• This sharpening set is going into my camping gear when I find the Lansky set.

The Recap

• Nothing was purchased this week, but this Smith’s Diamond Sharpening system looks like a good-quality, entry-level sharpening system at a bargain price.
• The Smith’s system is available from Amazon for $39.99 with Prime shipping available.

***

Just a reminder: 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 or given in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.

The Bug Out... House?

We’ve talked quite a bit in the past about bug out bags, bug out plans, and even bug out vehicles. Today, though, I want to offer up the notion of a bug out house.

Don't worry, I’m not seriously going to try and convince you that you can somehow move your entire house, and while having a second house that is distant enough from your primary residence to serve as a bug-out location would be great, no way is that blue collar. But what is blue collar, and almost as good as having that second house, is having some manner of RV or camper.

I will concede that large, fancy camping rigs are incredibly expensive, sometimes costing as much as a small house or even more. But a budget-minded individual who is a bit handy can acquire an older unit for the price of  a teenager's first car. A rig like this will need some maintenance that newer units won’t yet need, and it won’t have all the top conveniences, but it will keep you warm (or cool, depending on season) and dry, and is considerably more comfortable than a tent.

Trailers obviously aren’t as quick to press into action as a simple grab-and-go bag. Depending on who we’re taking with us, and where we are when we get the call to go, it would take my family somewhere between one and two hours to get loaded up, hitched up, and on the road. My brother-in-law can have his trailer rolling in an hour or less, but his is a much smaller and simpler rig. However, the trade-off for that slower reaction time is that a trailer can be kept stocked with sundry nonperishable supplies and equipment that would be infeasible or impossible to carry in a bag.

Another complication with a camping rig is the need for a tow vehicle and fuel for same. I’ll go into the particulars of towing at a later time, since it's a valuable skill to know, but for now it's enough to say that all but the very smallest of cars can tow something. My best friend hauls his trailer with a Dodge Durango, I pull mine with an old Ford F150, and my last rig, which my brother-in-law now owns, could easily be pulled with a midsize car.

Finally, don’t discount the “recreational” part of the name. Recreation is vital to mental and emotional health, and maintaining your emotional well-being during an extended emergency is every bit as important as keeping up your physical health, and if you’re so lucky that you never need to bug out, you can still use your RV or camper to spend time outdoors, learning and practicing skills, and making lifelong memories. Many of my outdoors experiences growing up came while camping in Mom and Dad’s old rig, and the love I had for those experiences drove me to build more skills and learn more. These are the same skills I now pass on to the Scouts I teach, as well as to my friends’ children.

If you’re caught in an evacuation scenario like the Southeastern USA regularly gets with hurricanes, or the Midwest is currently seeing with rain and flooding, being able to hitch up a small house and leave within an hour or so grants a lot of flexibility. You don’t need a friend with an available bed, or a hotel room that may be in short supply, and you don’t have to figure out where to stash the family pet(s); all you need is a friendly parking lot or a bit of driveway at a friend’s home.

[Editor's note: Chaplain Tim has a series on converting and upgrading an RV ad a bug out vehicle here.]

Lokidude

Crate Club Box #2

My second Crate Club Box arrived. What's inside?

The RATS Tourniquet Debacle

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

I am a tourniquet elitist, and that's because I vehemently believe that a first aid device which can mean the difference between my life and my death ought to be reliable. As far as I'm concerned, there are only two tourniquets in existence which are worth my money, and those are the Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT) by North American Rescue and the SOF Tactical Tourniquet Wide (SOFTT-W) by Tactical Medical Solutions.

You'll note that neither of them are a Rapid Application Tourniquet System (RATS) tourniquet, which is half the price. The fact that I don't recommend something less expensive is a good indicator that I don't like it.

Now to be fair, the RATS is better than bleeding to death, so I suppose if you can't afford a CAT or a SOFTT-W then I guess you can carry it, but I wouldn't recommend it. And I don't say this because I claim to be an expert with medical devices; I'm not. Rather, it's because the U.S. Department of Defense Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC from now on) -- a body which has the authoritative word on whether or not a piece of medical equipment deserves a place on the battlefield -- endorses only three tourniquets, and the RATS isn't on that list.

As a point of interest, both the CAT and the SOFTT-W are on that CoTCCC list, which is why I recommend them. The third is the Emergency and Military Tourniquet (EMT), which costs $475! It's probably amazing, but most of us don't have that kind of money to spend on what is probably a one-use item, especially when there are others which are much less expensive. 

Now, some of you are probably wondering why I bothered to bring up the RATS in the first place. This is because the inventor of the RATS has been caught engaging in shady practices involving:

• registering domains which sound like those of his competitors (for example, the CAT belongs to North American Rescue, www.narescue.com, and he registered www.northamericanrescue.com);
• routing those domains to a page he owns, where he claims (falsely) that his non-endorsed tourniquet is superior to the CoTCCC-endorsed tourniquets;
• "proving" his claims using cherry-picked data and an endorsement by the USTCCC, which is not a regulatory body but rather a commercial enterprise, and therefore nowhere near as impartial at it sounds. 
• Or at least, USTCCC was a commercial enterprise; it seems to have disappeared entirely from the internet. Again, this is not the behavior of a reputable source!

There are links to my sources are at the end of this article if you'd like more details. 

The moral of the story: Just because something claims to be the best doesn't mean it is the best. Research before you buy, because the life you safe with your first aid gear might be a loved one's or your own. 

Further Reading

(in chronological order)

• The initial skepticism (May 27, 2015)
• The recent bald-faced claim (March 18, 2019)
• A Facebook page for combat medics notices something shady going on (March 19, 2019)
• The Havok Journal questions those claims: (March 20, 2019 )
• RATS owner doubles down on his claims and actions (March 21, 2019)
• RATS owner engages in more shady practices (March 21, 2019)

I will add more links as the story develops.