Brazenly Stolen from Mad Mike's Wall

Michael Z. Williamson:

You live in a city. You don't know how to change a tire or oil. You don't know how to build a fire. You can't communicate without a cell phone. You can't fix your plumbing. You can't set up your own wifi. You're untrained in basic economics, chemistry, physics and history. You can't prepare food without packages, and aren't even aware that food has to be processed from root or bone before that. You only know and get paid for one very specialized task.

Yet you call me a "hick."

Every. Damn. Day.

Why there aren't many pacifist preppers

The Self-Determination Project

So what brings a family of four 1400 miles, 15 degrees latitude and 3 degrees longitude to suffer culture and climate shock?

The REAL question is why we left.

Friends and family remain in AZ. Only our immediate family and income source made the move, and the income source is portable. So why leave (almost) everything behind?

Independence, self-determination, over-reliance, terrorists, and the horrible death trap that is Metro Phoenix.

Let's start with terrorists and the horrible death trap.

Imagine a bustling metropolis with 5 million people. These people live on mostly infertile, unforgiving ground. Fresh water is almost non-existent locally, and is brought in via a canal from a river on the state border. A river whose water rights are bitterly disputed by no less than 7! states.

Now imagine summers so hot that temps regularly reach and exceed 120 Fahrenheit, and people often die during the summer when their ac goes out. Imagine the electrical load needed for 5 million people to run their ac at the same time, and the inability of those with solar panels to keep up with their usage.

Imagine the lack of farmland, and the need to truck in almost every bit of food from neighboring states.

Now imagine the water grid, electrical grid, or transportation grid failing. 5 million people either trying to make do, or desperately trying to get out of town.

If someone wanted to make a REALLY big statement against the U.S., Phoenix makes a damn good choice. God forbid a natural disaster, or Palo Verde going down, or, or, or...

Like I said, death trap.

This came home to me about a year and a half ago while taking Chris's mom grocery shopping.

She bought only enough food to last a week, all of it processed. That's not particularly surprising for her. Then I started paying attention to everyone else in the store and what they were buying. Boxed meals. Prepackaged meals. Convenience foods. Not in large quantity either.

I never particularly paid attention before. We could easily eat for a month off of our pantry from the basic staples I keep on hand. But these people... what would happen if the grocery store just didn't get stocked? What would happen if no trucks came? How long could they live out of their kitchen cabinets? Do they even know how to cook from scratch if need be?

What if the water stopped flowing? How much did they have on hand? Could they even survive a full day if the faucet didn't work?

What if all 5 million of us got stuck in such a situation? Mass rioting is far too mild a term...

So we decided we needed to leave the death trap.

But where would we move?

It would make no sense just to move to another metropolis. All big cities have the same problem; lots of people dependent on lots of infrastructure in order to function. Over-reliance on systems they don't understand and no concept of what to do when systems fail. Also, city-dwellers deal with huge portions of their lives and livelihoods being controlled by city officials through public utilities, codes, property taxes, and police.

When there's a police officer on every corner, people forget that they need to defend themselves, and settle their own differences. When there's a police officer on every corner, sometimes the officers forget that people CAN be trusted to defend themselves, and settle their own differences.

Speaking of settling differences... that job has been taken over by the compliance police.

Code enforcers. HOAs. Byzantine zoning restrictions. All there to make sure you fit in and *gasp* don't cause home values to drop.



Scottsdale has the weed nazis. Code enforcers who come around after every rain checking for weeds in "desert landscaping". Code enforcers with the authority to fine.

Other cities want complete control over what type of buildings go up, to the point of dictating historical districts and to what level a homeowner can restore their own building. Some cities have ridiculous parking statutes.

Many, many people use these mechanisms in order to "encourage" their neighbors to fit in.

"Independent" becomes a very bad word... an insult in fact.

We didn't want to live in that environment anymore. We didn't need to live in the city anymore, so why were we still there?

But if not the cities, where? There's 50 states to choose from, how do you make a choice?

Now was the time for research, and some basic exclusionary analysis.

We started with the basics: gun rights. If a state didn't have shall-issue, or Vermont-style carry they got dropped off the list.

Then analyzed based on climate. We wanted a climate where the summer wouldn't be too humid. Pretty much everywhere east of the Mississippi, except New Hampshire, got taken off the list. We also wanted a climate that wasn't too Fridgid. Wyoming and Montana went into the iffy list.

We wanted mountains, with varied scenery. No Plains states. Besides, the weather on the plains leaves something to be desired.

Politics. Anywhere run by a hugely liberal capital got taken off the list. This killed otherwise suitable states, like Washington and Oregon, and made once strong like New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Nevada iffy.

Ideally, we wanted a low tax, no income tax state; but we didn't exclude based on it... Just not enough choices without income tax.

Fresh water, preferably with large lakes and lots of rivers; and a good, accessible water table. New Mexico got taken off the list entirely, and most of the rest of the west got iffy (leaving only small pockets of suitable territory in most of the Rocky mountain west states).

That left us with parts of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho.... Eastern Oregon or eastern Washington would have been good, but for the government in either state.

That is, until we decided we wanted to farm and ranch on a small scale.

Fertile land became very important to us, as well as a suitable growing season. Climate became more important, and so we decided we wanted a certain temperature range, and erred on the side of heating in the winter rather than cooling in the summer.

One factor remained; Chris needed to be within 2 hours of a major regional airport.

This became a huge issue. Lakes, affordable land, and proximity to an airport? Good bloody luck...

Then one day while looking at maps, I saw it. Tucked in the northern portion of Idaho, one of the deepest lakes in the U.S., and the biggest lake in the Northwest. Lake Pend Oreille. 75% of the shoreline Federal land, and the land prices made us drool. National forest all over the place and some of the most fertile ground in the Northwest. Plus, the mountain ranges funnel warmer air through the area so the climate is more mild than we expected.

Oh, and an hour and a half from Spokanes airport.

And no one else seemed to notice it was there. And if they did, they dismissed it out of hand.

"Idaho? All those redneck nutjobs? Why the hell would you want to move there?"

"Aren't there all those white supremacists there?"

"Isn't that WAY in the boondocks?"

(some of these are direct quotes from Chris's family).

Well, we knew better than to believe the stereotypes, so we started asking around and researching.

Redneck nutjobs? Some, but a very small minority. Plus redneck isn't necessarily an insult in our minds.

White supremacists? Yeah, there's still a few around, universally hated and scorned.

Boondocks? Well, that is kind of the point.

We wanted independence. We wanted to be able to take care of our own needs. We wanted as much self-determination as we could manage without ending up on a terrorist watch list.

Oddly enough, most of north Idaho feels the same way. The county north of us is where Ruby Ridge happened, and most residents rallied behind Randy Weaver not because they agreed with him, but because they were so pissed the Feds crossed that line...

People here like to be left alone. People here like to do what they wish. People here also like the stereotypes, because it means fewer of those damn Californians moving in and trying to take over...

...They REALLY hate Californians...

Moreover, while everyone we talked to is more than happy to live here; they'd rather keep the area a secret, so it doesn't get ruined. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get flak for posting this, and letting the rest of you know what you're missing.

So we looked at local ordinances, distances, travel times... We weighed all of the data and decided on Bonner, or the southern portion of Boundary counties (just because of distance and travel time. The northern part of Boundary county doesn't have much in the way of improved roads.)

Bonner county has figured out that if they zoned just right, the Californians would stay away. Thus, the vast majority of Bonner County is zoned some variant of rural, with various minimum lot sizes (outside of an incorporated area, certain zones NEAR incorporated areas that allow .5 acre per dwelling, or specially permitted "high density" housing... mostly trailer parks... it's a minimum of five acres per dwelling unit), very few restrictions on land usage, and most importantly, the "right to farm" (oh and Idaho is right to hunt, fish, and trap state too). Their idea of water, mineral, and timber rights? If it's on your property, it's yours. If you can drill it, catch it, cut it... you can drink it, use it, sell it, whatever

As for government interference, here's a snippet from the "Buying Land" page from the OFFICIAL web page of Boundary County, the county to the north of us:

Another consideration is the economy of Boundary County, which is based predominantly on timber and agriculture production. Idaho is a "right to farm" state, meaning anyone who owns property has the right to use or lease that land for agricultural production; there is nothing the county can do to prevent a neighbor from going into the hog business should they so choose, even if the breeze blows your way. Much of the county is timbered, with over 75 percent of the total land base of Boundary County owned and managed by the U.S. Forest Service, the Idaho Department of Lands and the Bureau of Land Management. If you purchase a parcel because the trees on the hillside across the road make for a beautiful view, you shouldn't be disappointed should loggers move in later to harvest that timber.

Life in Boundary County is wonderful; the people here retain a strong pioneer spirit of hard work and of helping their neighbors ... most who call this community home would agree that you'll not find a more neighborly place anywhere else. But the rugged beauty and often harsh conditions mean that many of the amenities you may be used to are not available, and if you're used to relying on strict ordinances and regulations to help you resolve neighborly disputes, you'll be disappointed. It is the belief of the county that people who buy and build here have the right to build the home that best suits them; if the roof collapses under the weight of the snow, they'll know better next time. Conversely, you may build a beautiful home that meets the most stringent building codes while your neighbor may not; the county will not intercede on your behalf to make that neighbor live up to your standards.

I will admit that little snippet played a role in getting us to move here.

So now we live in unincorporated Bonner County on Lake Pend Oreille. We're surrounded by wildlife, farmland, and good neighbors (though, frankly, the neighbors are too close... But it's a rental. We can live with 1.6 acres and neighbors 100 feet away, in exchange for the lake and the dock... at least for now, until we can find a good piece of property)

But our plan wasn't simply to "get away from it all" and change locales. We're making a major life change in almost every way possible. We are going to push the envelope to see just how much of our own needs we can manage ourselves.

What does that mean? Simply, we're taking over our own electric, our own heat, our own water, our own defense, and as much of our own food as we can manage. We're taking over almost everything we need to live from the ground up. No more being at the end of the fragile "production to shipping to store to consumer" chain; we are going to BE the chain.

Our ultimate plan, is to be as independent as a family can be, and as self-reliant as a family can be. This is an exercise in seeing if one modern family can pull themselves out of modern dependence, stop being cogs in a really huge wheel, and make a go at (mostly) sustainable living.

This is not survivalism, or disaster preparation (though it doesn't hurt). We just got really bloody tired of not having enough control over our own lives, or responsibility for our own lives.

Renting in the area is just step one. The next major phase in our plan will be buying land; a large parcel with good soil, reasonable access, and a good water table (wells here average 40 to 80 ft, with a good rate of flow).

We'll be drilling a well, developing a spring (if we have one, we have 3 on our rental property), and setting up a water catchment system. The goal is to use the well as little as possible, as 34 inches annual rainfall (and 72 inches of snowfall) is more than enough for our uses.

We're going to be setting up off grid power (and hopefully getting grid tie with sellback), most likely a combination of solar, microhydro (if possible), wind, and backup generator. If small biodiesel converters become more suitable for farm use, we WILL be making our own diesel.

We'll be planting some crops, tending a garden, growing an orchard, and planting various berries and brambles. We may not be able to supply all of our own food (salt not being a crop) but we'll see how much we can manage.

Livestock will be entering the equation eventually. We have no qualms about raising our own meat (they are not pets) and we're pretty damn sure we can raise some good beef on the incredible pasture around here. We're also thinking of running domestic elk, both as meat for ourselves and meat to sell.

We want to know everything we use and ingest, and where exactly it came from. We want control of our water, food, and utilities.

We want to take care of ourselves... We want INDEPENDENCE.

This is the beginning of the Self-Determination Project.

Cross-posted at We Few

You Might Be a Survivalist If...

I'm sure y'all have seen the lists:

You might be a survivalist if:

You have a cookbook all about Spam.

You consider your extra large ham radio antenna as “broadband”.

You know how to cook leather.

You’ve ever been on a Soviet “Potential Threat” list.

SWAT has ever asked to borrow a few of your guns.

Your new girlfriend comes over for the first time, and when she walks into the living room, the first thing she sees is your CHL regulation Man sized target with 50 holes in the chest area.

Your dog has more Emergency Rations than 95% of the U.S. population.

You’re the first person at the gun range on Dec 26th to try out your new toys, and the clerk knows you by your first name

The local supermarket manager knows to go ahead and open up the back dock doors when he sees you on a shopping trip.

Your home and property are more secure and better lit than Fort Knox or Area 51.

All the local restaurants know to save you all their 5-gallon buckets on Mondays and Thursdays.

None of your vehicles have electronic ignition or pollution control.

You know the tail numbers of all the helicopters in your area.

The magazines on your coffee table include American Survival Guide, Guns and Ammo, Soldier of Fortune, American Rifleman, Shotgun News and 4 -Wheeler.

You welcome a “mild” El Nino storm because you know its going to fill your cistern.

The power fails in your local movie theater, and you pull your flashlight from your belt and show yourself the way out.

You use your Gerber Tool to cut your steak at a fine dining establishment.

Your knife collection has its own footlocker.

Etc., etc., etc.

We have our own "prepper" moments.

You might be a survivalist if:

* You've discussed how many rain barrels you need and where to build the water tower with your spouse.

* You receive a shipment of sea salt from Amazon, are thrilled to find it comes in a food-grade bucket and make plans to buy more.

* Your UPS guy, FedEx guy, and mail carrier all show up in the same day with various packages of tools and supplies.

Yes, this all happened today, why do you ask...

Cross-posted at We Few

Getting to where we want to be - Part 2: Broke down

Something is stopping Mel and I from being where I want to be in my life.

Our bodies.

The last few weeks I had an inflamed meniscus (in the knee that still has something left to inflame, the right); and being the idiot that I am I still insisted on walking around some.

The inflamed meniscus made me walk funny, which caused me to pull a muscle in my calf.

The pulling the muscle in my calf caused me to walk even funnier which strained the other knee and calf; and did a number on my back. Which of course makes me walk funnier, and causes cramps in both the pulled and non pulled muscles (I was very careful about and constantly watching for clots. I know ALL about DVT).

Remember, at this point I'm still refusing to stay laid up in bed; because I am an idiot.

Finally, Tuesday night the inflammation has died down, but the walking on pulled, and cramped muscles has made my knees and calves swell up all to hell.

So yesterday, instead of staying in bed like I should have; I decided instead, I was going to sit in a chair for about 10 hours.

My swollen irritated, pulled muscle, cramped up legs responded by inflating like balloons (peripheral edema).

All because stubborn idiot that I am "won't let these damn knees stop me from doing what I want to do goddammit".

Yes, that is a direct quote from last weekend.

I'm fine. I know what all this is, I've been through it before... and knowing me I'll probably be through it again.

... but I think I'm going to finally break down and go get a handicapped registration on the car.

According to the docs I'm only "20% disabled". It feels kinda lame (no pun intended) to get a handicapped placard for that; but some days, I NEED that couple hundred feet of difference.

Just as a temporary measure, I've ordered some patellar straps. I've thought about ordering them before, but no-place ever had the right size for me when I checked. I found a manufacturer that makes one large enough (Cho-Pat) and ordered two of them a few days ago.

Now that I'm on good insurance again, I'm going to look into getting some new custom fit knee braces. I need the knee support; and they now have very comfortable designs that specifically support the patella (which is my particular knee issue - patellar instability, and associated joint, ligament, and tendon degenration, due to past injury).

They're also considerably cheaper than they used to be (my last one cost almost $2k. The knew ones are under $1k each) so even if insurance wont cover them, or will only partially cover them, I'm still going to get them.

I REALLY want to avoid further knee surgery, and especially knee replacement; mostly because the knees that are currently used in mainstream surgery (the only kind insurance will generally pay for) have about a 20-25 year lifespan. That means I would need at least two sets, one sometime in my late 50s when the body heals much slower... likely resulting in very limited mobility for my remaining years.

The doctors and engineers tell me that within a few years I should be able to get a knee replacement that will last me the rest of my life; I just need to hold out 'til my mid 40s if possible.

Of course none of this matters if I can't lose the weight I need to lose. When I can work out, I do great at losing the weight, but when I can't (and the repeated knee injuries often keep me from working out for weeks or months at a time), no matter what diet I try, I only have limited success.

Up until now, I haven't even considered bariatric surgery. Now however, I have to face that I need to do something fast if I want to keep my knees intact long enough to only need one set of knee replacements.

The knee braces and patellar straps will help, but the fact is, I need to lose more than 100 lbs; and get to around 265; if I want to preserve my knees.

My best diet projections have that taking two years, and that presumes I can maintain my excercise schedule. I've been able to take that first 40 pounds off a couple of times, but then I re-injure myself and it comes back on again.

I HAVE extablished much better and healthier eating habits then I had when I started on this whole diet thing a while back; but it isn't enough.

So, although I am still very resistant to the concept, and I may still choose not to do so; I am investigating lap band surgery, with associated liposuction and abdominoplasty.

It's going to take two years or so with a lap band to come down to where I need to be for my knees (presuming no additional excercise). Since I need to reduce the weight on my knees as fast as possible; and I'm going to need the abdominoplasty afterwards anyway given the amount of weight loss I need to achieve; I'm also looking at thereaputic liposuction and abdominoplasty.

The thing about the lap band surgery that I like is that it is adjustable to my needs and conditions; and eventually can be removed and reversed with far less complication than other surgeries.

The problem with it, is that in general docs don't like doing it for people with UC; however, because of comorbidities like diabetes risk, and my knees, I believe that it's justified.

Thankfully, Mel has far less, and far less severe issues to deal with. She's only a little overweight in comparison (about 50 lbs, on a 5'9" woman), she has severe panic attacks and anxiety issues, and she has pretty poor vision.

We're already working on the first two issues. Mel has been losing weight, slowly and with setbacks; but losing still.

We've been working together on her anxiety and panic attacks from the first time I noted she was having one. She didn't know what it was, and had never really heard of them; and had been mis-diagnosed several times as a teen as having some psychological issue or another. None of the treatments worked because none of them were actually useful for the problem she had.

Just talking it out, teaching her methods to control her anxiety, and her emotional state and its effect etc... worked very well. It brought down the frequency and severity of her anxiety and panic attacks greatly; but didn't completely eliminate them.

We were very resistant to the idea of pharmaceutical treatment for a long time. As I have said before, I believe most of the people taking psychoactive medication not only don't need it, but it isn't effective for them, and has lots of potentially negative side effects.

That said, there are still a lot of folks out there who can benefit from the right medication. It's important however that you have clear goals and targets in mind. You have to have a very good understanding of the problems you are trying to treat, and target the correct medications and dosages for the individual appropriately; making adjustments as necessary.

That means you need a real psychopharmacologist, who really knows their business. Most psychoactives today are prescribed to women by their gynocologists (yes, seriously)... and that's just not a great idea.

So, finally, together we decided that that last hard knot of issues couldn't be addressed without some clinical help; and that hopefully with medication she could finally work out the emotional issues that cause the anxiety (which could then obviate the need for the medication).

A couple months back, we found a therapist and a psychopharmacologist (who don't work together directly, but who do work together in her treatment, which is important) who she likes, and now she's on medication that is controlling her anxiety very well. They're still working to find the optimum balance, and that's a slow process (it takes about six weeks to stabilize on a new dosage or a new medication), but it's working. Mel is getting better every day.

Oh and the psychopharmacologist is a sharp one. Mels meds are on the $4 list at WalMart and the discount list at costco, k-mart etc... So even without insurance coverage, we'd be OK.

The hope is, as I said above; that the medication will control her anxiety enough, that she can address the underlying emotional issues that cause the anxiety in the first place.

Before the meds, any time she got down to a certain depth of emotion, she would just break down because of the anxiety. Freeze up, and start doing self destructive things etc... Now, she's able to start working through those deeper things, in the same way we have been working through the shallower things for the past few years.

The final health issue is one we share; we both wear glasses. I'm only moderately shortsighted, but Mel is both severely shortsighted, and astigmatic.

So, we've got a health care savings plan with our insurance; and we're putting enough into it every year that we should both be able to get eye surgery by the end of this year.

So, hopefully, in two years or so... maybe three; we'll be where we want to be with our bodies.

Getting to where we want to be - Introduction

I'm not where I want to be in my life. Neither is my wife. Obviously then, we, as a family, are not where we want to be.

Oh sure, I've got a great job, and we've got great kids; and we're generally happy... but that doesn't mean we are where we want to be.

So a few months back, Mel and I started talking about this... kind of collecting the idea that have been floating around in our heads for a while; and decided to start really planning to deliberately move us from where we are now, to where we want to be; as quickly and effectively as possible.

I'm going to write a series of posts about this over the next week or two. Actually, I've got the first couple written already. I was going to post the first one yesterday, but decided not to post anything, because this is a serious topic, and yesterday was April Fools day.

Two is One, One is None

That is the preparedness maxim.

Basically it means that if you only have one of something important, you can't count on it, because it WILL eventually break, fail, be lost, or stolen, or otherwise refuse or be unable to perform its required function.

Now, when writing here, I generally apply the maxim to the essentials; you know, water, toilet paper, guns, ammo, spare parts for guns and cars etc...

Today though, I'm going to talk about computers.

Ahhh computers, the boon and bane of our existence; and to many of us not much lower on the priority list than those things above (at least until TEOTWAWKI).

So why talk about the two is one maxim and computers today?

Well, how about because I'm irritated.

In the last few months (the current spate of failures started around November I think... maybe October), just at home, we've had the following (just what I can remember, and just in computers... probably more than that actually; plus the TV that died):

• three hard drives just flat out fail
• four power supplies die (one desktop, three laptop)
• two monitors fail
• three network interfaces fail
• two cd-rom drives fail
• several flash memory cards die
• one PDA have it's charging port break off
• one laptop just fail completely
  
• Two routers die
  

I think you get the point.

Now of course that's a lot more failures than most people experience; but Mel and I both work at home, and run my business from my home office; so we've got a lot more computers than most (2 laptops active, two desktops active, a couple servers, a couple of testing machines, a couple old boxes as emergency backups/spares... a total of about 10 systems; and that's down from about 15 a few months ago).

We keep hardware around a long time; and we buy a fair bit of new hardware for various reasons; so most of the failures were either beyond their service life, or still in their infant mortality period. We also have very dirty power here, and up until recently we didn't have everything on power conditioners (which is what killed the TV, and which has most definitely been fixed). All that adds up to more failures per system than most experience;

Combined, more systems and more failures per system... well, do the math.

The problem is of course, when something fails here, it generally means I can't work until it gets fixed; and that can get expensive.

As to why I'm particularly irritated today; just in the last three days, the motherboard for the girls computer died, and I had a hard drive physically break while I was doing maintenance on my primary desktop.

My windows boot drive, to be more specific.

Importantly though, only a couple of these breakages caused me an immediate problem, other than some irritation and time wastage; because I followed the maxim. I have spare parts for all my systems, and backups for all my data.

Yes, I had to pick up 2 new monitors; but I was able to function until I did by using old monitors (I always keep a couple around as spares). They were ugly, but they worked.

I was able to recover my windows boot drive using my backup software, onto a spare hard drive (I always keep several around, because they are the most frequent failure in computers). Each of the other hard drive failures, I was also able to put in a spare, and recover from backups. I bought the hard drives on special at woot, 3x 500gb drives for $240 total; just to make sure I had spares around.

The last time woot had them on special, I picked up 3 targus labeled (actually made by iGo, a great company) universal laptop power supplies for $20 each; so when my OEM power supplies have died, I've been able to slot in an iGo until I could get a replacement (or actually in the case of two of them, not bother getting OEM replacements because the iGos are actually better).

It doesn't take a huge investment to make sure you can always keep functioning. A spare hard drive costs under $100 these days. A spare router is $60. A spare DVD burner is about $35. Desktop and laptop power supplies are generally $60 to $80 for either.

Oh and don't forget spare cables. Cables fail all the time, and it's generally cheap to have a couple spares around. You can probably get spare power, network, USB, IDE, and SATA cables for each of your computers for under $30.

Generally speaking, when I upgrade something, I keep the old parts around as spares. Then if I need to use the spare, I buy a replacement and keep cycling things through. If I don't get a spare that way, I just snag them whenever I can pick them up on sale or special etc...

Also, I strip out all the useful cables, screws, brackets, etc... from old computers and other electronics I'm going to toss. You wouldn't believe how often the whole "for want of a nail" scenario plays out; and those spare screws etc... have saved my butt.

The couple of breakages that DID cause me an immediate problem that I mentioned above?

Both were because I didn't follow the maxim.

About a nine months ago, my router died; and I replaced it with my spare. I then forgot to replace the spare. About two months ago, my previous spare router that I was then using as my primary router also died; because of a power surge.

I work over a VPN, and without an internet connection I can't work. I also start work before most stores are open, because my co-workers are all in other time zones. I ended up having to go out to super-walmart at midnight to go and overpay for a router (and not the one I would have bought if given a choice).

You can be damn sure that a couple days later I went out and bought the router I actually needed. Now the midnight walmart router is my spare.

The other one is the girls motherboard.

There are generally two pieces I don't have any spares of: motherboards, and processors.

Basically, I don't keep spares because failure is very rare, because they are quite expensive, and because they tend to go obsolete very quickly. It just doesn't make sense to have a spare mobo and proc around.

What I do always have around is at least one spare computer. With computers so cheap these days, $300 gets you all you really need for a backup box; and you can always have it be a multifunction system (make it a media server or an archive server for example).

If I need to get that computer FUNCTION back up and running quickly, I have all my data backed up, and all my operating systems imaged; and I can just load it up on one of the extra computers rather than try and do a rush repair on the broken one.

I talk about building backup and security systems here, and here.

Thankfully, the girls computer isn't exactly critical to my work; so it isn't really necessary to keep such spares around; and I don't need to clone it onto another machine; but it's still a pain in the butt.

Oh well, time to order a new motherboard.

Saddling Up

So, a friend of mine posited the question, what would you have to do if you had to saddle up again; by which he meant you had to make a deployment, irregular or regular. What would you take with you, if you had a choice.

Assume two scenarios:

One: just you, any choice of weapons legally available to you within the means of a normal man (lt's say middle class to upper middle class) dedicating his entire financial worth to this project.

Two: You, and 3-7 other guys (for 4-8 total), presume limited availability of military hardware; such as security contracting companies have access to. Anything that's on the commercial market is fair game.

Presume you have time to train and condition, with the hardware you acquire, together as a team, before you have to deploy.

Those specific parameters are mine, not his; I chose them as seemingly reasonable for an excercise of this type.

He also posits a mission: After you have trained up, while awaiting deployment, your wife and daughter are trapped in central Mexico by a local "revolucion". They are in sometime communication, and are not being held by revolucionaries; but they will not be able to exit the area without armed escort, and possible direct force.

There have been border skirmishes between U.S. and Mexican troops and/or irregulars; and no governmental agency is willing or able to get them out (you could transpose this same situation to other AO).

Who and what do you do it with?

I'm game for this; could be fun eh.

Ok, first scenario, just me.

Primary weapon: Smith EBR M14 conversion, sage system, night force and an acog on QD mounts, plus BUIS, and an M6 (the big one, not the little one) on the rail with a QD. IR laser on the rail. A conversion sling (2 point, 3 point, 4 point switchable with QDs), and an LWS suppressor on a QD.

Sidearm: HK USP tactical, gemtech or LWS suppressor, M6 combo light with the IR laser.

10 spare M-14 mags (1 in the rifle), loaded up with 180gr Sierra Match King, and pouches. 4 spare mags for the USP (plus one in the pistol), 230gr .45 +p+/super hornady XTP loaded to just barely subsonic, with pouches.

Pop for a PVS7 (about 5 grand last I checked), or PVS14, a Dragon Skin, and a Blackhawk LBE setup, with a back frame (to lash the backup to, among other things), ass pack, and assault ruck with a 2 gallon hydration bladder.

Gerber multipro with toolkit, swamp rat camp tramp, a good set of dikes, a multi driver tool. a decent field spares kit with 2 of every pin, clip and spring, and a good cleaning kit with a couple punches.

20m braided spectrashield sheathed line, and 50m 550 cord, anchors, descenders, ‘biners. 50 zip ties of assorted sizes, 10 bungies of assorted size, 2 medium rolls hun-tape, 1 roll heat shrink electrical tape. 12 assorted cyalumes, pen pop flares, mini flares, two micro strobes, and 4 small personal lights. 2 full spare sets of batteries for everything. Baby wipes, simple green wipes (there are alcohol wipes and betadine wipes in the EFS kit), a bicycle inner tube, superglue, extra heavy duty aluminum foil, some microfiber cloth, baggies bags, rubbers or heavy duty baloons, clear nail polish, q-tips, some pencils WITH erasers, needles and thread (other than in the med gear), spool of fine safety wire, Lighter fluid (the ronsonol kind) or another flammable solvent, a half dozen disposable cigarette lighters, and a zippo

I can think of about a million little things that you’d absolutely kill for when you need’em, and you need’em more often than you’d think.

I’ll leave out the details of nav, comm, med gear, and food; suffice it to say I won’t go anywhere without an EFS kit, a double stuffed trauma pack plus SAM splints, my serious meds kit, a solid GPS, 2 short range comms and a long range comm plus spares (the choice varies depending on mission requirements, and support), and 5 days of minimally decent high calorie field food, plus about 15 energy bars, and 20 packets of gatorade.

Total load out, about 100 lbs including the weight of the food, water, LBE, sack, pack, and armor; most of which I had at one time, and had no problem with for short hauls (meaning less than 10 miles. You can generally handle about 1/3 your body weight for extended periods of time, and a lot of that weight is in consumables). Of course I’ll need a year to get back to where I can do it again, and I’ll need two solid knee braces, and a solid collapsible walking staff (cold steel and others make good weaponised examples).

Then give me a good 4x4 ATV, with a backrest pack setup, and front and rear rack setups; loaded up with ammo (say another 10 mags for the M-14), a shotgun as below, fuel, water, and spares... oh and a field genset, storage battery, a winch, a compressor, and another longer range com with a longwire setup. Seal the tires up with green slime. Give me a field bivvy with a breakup net over it for me and the quad. I may need to worry about transporting the rescuees back, so maybe throw in a trailer.

Another option would be a disguised 4x4. Stick all your Mil gear in with old tools, regular camping gear, etc.. and strap various items to undercarriage or under bodywork.

If I can pick out 3-7 other guys, things change completely. I’ve based this on hardware I own or can easily acquire, legally, within the next few months. If I have access to military hardware things change substantially, but not completely.

I’m thinking of a 500 mile infil-exfil corridor here, from between brownsville and mission (holes a mile wide down there) and northern Ouaxaca; we’d never be able to do it on foot.

One guy with an ATV could cover that in a few days, but four or six guys in an obvious off roader or two (especially if we could mix a woman or two into the op) would be better.

If it were stable enough for regular border traffic to continue, I’d want to smuggle the gear in and cache it overnight, then cross at a regular crossing with the proper tourist permits etc…

You’d be surprised at how much crap you can conceal and disguise on a couple of off road rigs; especially if you take lots of bribing cash.

Second situation, you have backup. Now, I said if I had otherguys things changed completely, and I meant it. Let’s explore that here.

First step, training. I need guys who do not quit, ever, no matter what. A man is never defeated until he concedes defeat to himself. I know some folks who’ll do.

Assume 4 man team total (the most likely scenario actually, and the easiest to insert and support) including myself. Everybody crosstrains on comms, and medical; with two specialists in both (I’m well qualified in either, but I could use an update on both). Everybody crosstrains on demo, with two specialists. Everybody crosstrains in basic vehicle maintenance. Everybody crosstrains on basic spanish (or the language of choice for the AO), with two specialists. Everybody crosstrains on navigation. I want two fixed wing pilots (I’m one), and two rotorheads if I can get them.

Physical conditioning. Runs are great for young guys, but don’t do much for knock knees like me. I can walk all day if I have to (it hurts, but I can do it). I can walk for four hours with my 50lb little girl on my back, but I can’t run for five minutes even when I get my fat ass back down to fighting weight, or my knees will collapse. That means hiking, in mixed terrain and hot weather, with field loads, in good boots. Minimum 5 miles per day, up to 20 miles per day. Bicycling, and circuit training for strength and endurance. Good supplemental regimen in place.

Gear loadout is a bit different. Still presuming no access to non-civvy gear, I change the mix up some. Everybody gets substantially the same personal gear I mentioned, but the doubled items get cut down to one per person, and some of the single items get cut down to two for the whole team. For example I’d mix it up with One heavy med kit, one medium kit (and two personal kits of course) the guys not carrying the big meds haul extra ammo, food, and water; along with 5ks each of commercial plastic explosives, and detonators; and some civvy flashbangs.

With 4 guys, I change out the weapons a bit. First thing, we all get the same primary weapon, but in different configurations. 7.62X39 ARs, with an AK magwell and a piston upper (I just don’t like the AK). Two configured as entry guns, two as DM rifles. Yes, the round is marginal for DM use, but I want to be able to “field resupply” if possible.

Second, two shotguns as secondary weapons: SBS mossy 590 with the Knoxx CopStock folder, a breacher standoff, side saddle, surefire forend (cut to clear), a ghost ring setup, and an IR laser. Fold the stock and lash it to the pack frame. 20 reduced recoil 00 buck shells, 10 hornady SST slugs, and 5 breachers, plus pouches..

Third, we change the pistols to 9mm, again for field resupply. I think I’d stay with the USP, but switch to the 9mm version; and an extended threaded barrel. Otherwise a Sig P226, same type of barrel.

Why the emphasis on field resupply with 4 when I went all out on power with 1? Because with one guy operating alone, I’m doing every single possible thing I can do to avoid ever having to use ANY of my ammo; and I may be able to get away with it. With 4 guys, the liklihood of getting into an extended firefight of some kind is much higher, as is the lilihood of needing to provide suppressive fire etc…

Also, everyone still gets two short range comms, but there are only two long range comms in the personal packs total.

We organize as mutually supporting pairs; one entry gun with one DM gun; and those pairs never have both pilots, both medics, both linguists etc.. if possible. We designate a commander, an XO, one primary RTO, and one primary medic, with their alternates.

If we get six guys, the equation changes a bit more. I still like the weapons mix, but with six, I really need some heavier weapons. At that point I have to have an LMG of some kind (with an SMG, or assault carbine as a secondary weapon), and one of the guys should have a long boltie in something heavy, maybe a .338. Also, with six or more, I need at least two ‘naders, and some personal frags, and some flashbangs. The infrastructure load out is spread out more, but we still maintain double coverage on all items and specialties. Instead of six atvs we go to two custom jeeps, or land rover defenders.

Organizationally, we remaing in mutually supporting pairs, with a pair designated to remain as ready reserve consisting of the tactical commander, and a designated medic, who is also a reserve radio operator. We also designate an XO, an alternate medic, and an alternate RTO as with 4.

Eight is the maximum I’d want for something like this, and again we’d spread the infrastructure load out, but instead of double coverage on critical items, we go to triple coverage. At this point I want an MMG/GPMG for each vehicle. Also, we can change calibers back to standard if so desired because we can carry enough weight of metal with us that I’m not as worried about field resupply.

Some organizational notes on 8 people: At this level we organize into two fireteams of two mutually supporting pairs each team. Also, at this point we designate an S2, S3, and S4, and their assistants; as well as a designated medic, two alternates, the tactical commander and XO (the XO is probably the S3), and a dedicated RTO and two alternates.

Funny enough, all of this is still civvy legal in the US, but expensive as all hell. Honestly, if I had to do this without legal access to military hardware here in the U.S. I’d train up and gear up with everything but the mil weapons, then head down to the CZ and pick up what I need there.

Now, reader Ross posits a different scenario. It's Tuesday, you get notice of the problem today; you have til Friday to infil and make the grab, and say the rest of the weekend to exfil until the excrement is throroughly splattered by the rotating ventilation device.

Scenario three:

You have no budget but what is in your bank account (presume appx $5000), and no resources excepting what you have, or can scrounge from friends in that time.

Ok, that's a pretty good scenario.

One problem in applying it to me: If it ever came down to life or death, I have friends who can get me almost anything I need from the list above within a couple days. Of course I'm still fat and out of shape, and don't have time to train or build a team... but I've still got some of those friends I mention, and not only would they be willing to go with me, but I couldn't stop them if I wanted to.

But, let's presume for sake of argument we are talking about J. Random Gun Nut.

Now, assuming no budget but what you have in the bank, and no friends to acquire from or use for your team, THATs a more serious limitation; but you can get everything but the night vision and the ATV pretty easily and quickly, even with just the cash in your bank account.

I cut the load by about 50%, and pick up a used but reliable beater 4x4 or something similar. My primary weapon becomes an AK variant, with an ultimak, a folder, and an eotech; and I pick up the cheapest gen 3 viewer I can find. I stick everything in like regular camping and off roading gear and come in on a regular tourist permit as described above. If I can't get the toursit permit because of the hostilities, it's still pretty much trivially easy to get into mexico (I've done it on ATVs and dirtbikes a bunch of times).

If I can get three to five solid guys to go with me (and I know I can), and they can use their budget as well, I can still do the two 4x4 gig; and there are a couple of women I know who I'd want to ring along. They're both great backup, and great cover.

Now, heres a curveball for you; presume you have access to a boat in brownsville, that is large enough to take you across to the central mexican coast, with 4 ATV's. Have one guy offshore, running comms for you, and coming in for extraction; how does that change the equation?

UPDATE: Clarified the original mission, training, equipment parameters etc... and added the section about an "instant" mission.

What are Your Useful Skills

Today sems to be just chock full of posts inspired by the Nation of Riflemen (as many of my posts often are), where reader 1991a1 asks "Any other tradesmen or experts out there willing to offer their tricks of the trade".

Basically he was aksing folks whet their useful skills and experience amounted to, and I thought it was an interesting topic, because my interests and experience are all over the damn map. When people ask me what I'm into, I usually say "everything".

As a 12 year old my first job was as a professional office cleaner for one of my uncles (I have 16 aunts and uncles; Irish family). There are actually a lot of things to learn to do the job well, and a lot of basic tricks to do the job quickly without injuring your knees and back.

Next I worked in an antique furniture restoration and refinishing shop where I learned carpentry, cabinetmaking, and finishing. I also learned some luthiery, and shipwright skills (I built or repaired, and finished or refinished a couple of guitars. I helped build a 32 foot wooden ocean sloop with my uncle, and I built and restored a few small wooden boats, a small aluminum boat, and small fiberglass boat), and of course I had to move a lot of expensive furniture.

Then I worked in a small custom bicycle factory where I learned to weld and fabricate metal. This would also be the first time I deliberately violated ATF regulations (gee, it's really amazing what you can do with the materials in a bicycle factory, and some manuals from palladin press).

I've been flying since I was 13, and I got my private pilots license on my 17th birthday. I'm also a licensed amateur radio operator (KB1DXJ), an International Radiotelephone Operator (all pilots are), and a High Frequency Radiotelephone Operator (all pilots who fly trans oceanic flights have to be).

My mother was not enthusiastic about my flying... not in the least actually (she's deathly afraid of airplanes, she flys, but she gets... mental). I'd been cooking since I was a little kid (during one of her bouts with cancer I tought myself how to cook, at around age seven), and I was pretty damend good at it. Well I wanted to be a pilot, and she wanted me to be a chef, so we compromised. She would help pay for my flying lessons, if I would take professional cooking classes, so I did both.

I headed into the Air force, and went to college for aerospace engineering.

I also had side jobs as a nursing assistant in a nursing home, an oil change and brake job mechanic, a security and audio installer, a convenience store and gas station clerk, and an autoparts store manager.

Since the Air force and college I have worked as a body guard, a driver, various physical security work, a self defense instructor, and I also played semi-pro football (not a useful skil that, but fun). Unfortunately I aggravated a training injury a few years ago, and I can't really do that work anymore.

My primary job since the re-injury of my knees has been as a security consultant, for both physical security, and electronic and information security (computers, networks, and communication systems, policy and procedure, and investigation and forensics). In connection with that, I design and implement high performance and/or large scale networked computing architectures.

I also develop training and educational materials for security (both kinds), and during the dot com boom I used to write for some technology and internet magazines and websites (the only one still around that I was a regular contributor to is techrepublic)

I've used all of these skills in my hobbies.

I have always built lots of stuff out of wood, metal, and leather as a hobby.

I've been into the martial arts since I was 5, and I've collected swords and knives since I was 13. I have other hobbies like the SCA, shooting, and R/C cars, boats, and aircraft.

I build some of my own furniture, I do chess sets, I've made bondage and fetish gear, I've made LOTS of armor.

I've done some gunsmithing, and made some siege weapons, bows, crossbows, catapaults (and other weapons of the type, ballista, mangonel etc...). I've also done some amateur bladesmithy (a blacksmith trained me on the forge while I was in college after some creative begging), and some bladecrafting with premade blanks.

I'm a transportation nut, and I've built or co-built boats, cars, airplanes, motorcycles, and Karts. I've done a LOT of tuning stuff on cars and bikes.

I also make little electronic gadgets and I've built a couple of robots.

I play guitar (badly), and I sing, (pretty damned well), mostly classic rock, blues, and soul; also some folk and Irish, and of course filk (an SCA pre-requisite). I was in a showband varying in size from 8-16 members depending on the week, and the gig, and we had some fun. I was the lead singer, and we did a lot of blues and soul classics, a couple of classic rock hits, and even a few hard rock and metal tunes, rearranged for our guys to have fun with (I do a mean set of AC/DC).

This is why I say my interests are pretty much everything. A lot of these things Im barely a journeyman at, but I'm an odd sort of fellah. When I get interested or involved in something, theres jsut some drive in me that forces me to gecome an expert at it or to absorb as much info I can, or to be the best I can. It's amazing how much of that crap is still floating around.

Of all the things I've done, the only one I wouldnt feel confident doing again without retraining is the medical work. You jsut dont mess around with peoples lives. That said, I still remember a hell of a lot of it, which helps when I'm dealing with my mothers illness, and especially in dealing with doctors, nuses, and recalcitrant peristaltic IV pumps thatmy mother keeps fouling and that the nurses dont have time to fix.

I should also mention that I'm an insomniac with eidetic memory, which is NOT photographic memory. True photographic memory is total retention with total instant recall. I have the total retention part, but I have something called highly associative recall. Its not instant or total, but it's still pretty damned useful.

I also read like a maniac, and obsessively watch history, science, and trivia shows (I love the 70, 80s, 90s etc..), and the hitler channels (history, discovery, military, biography etc...), so I have a truly vast store of useless knowledge in my head.

Fun stuff eh? How about you post your lsit on your own blog, trackback to me, and/or leave the permalink in comments, and spread the meme.

The Ultimate Road Trip - Part 1

So, the Imperial Firearms Advisor, Kim Du Toit, has put up the "Crossing America" challenge again (he did it last year as well).

The basic premise is this:

You have the opportunity to go back in time, arriving on the east coast of North America circa 1650, and your goal is to cross the North American continent, taking as much time as you need. When/if you reach the Pacific coastline, you’ll be transported back to the present day.

Your equipment for this journey will be as follows (taken back in the time capsule with you):

-- enough gold to buy provisions for the first five days’ travel
-- a small backpack containing some clothing essentials
-- a winter coat, raincoat and boots
-- waterproof sleeping bag
-- an axe
-- a box of 1,000 “strike anywhere” waterproof matches
-- a modern topological map of North America, binoculars and a compass
-- and a U.S. Army First Aid kit.

Weapons:
-- ONE long gun (and 800 rounds, but no scope)
-- ONE handgun (and 1,000 rounds)
-- TWO knives.

Once there, you’ll be given a horse, a mule and a dog—and apart from that, you’re on your own. Remember you’ll be traveling through deep woods, open prairie, desert and mountains. You may encounter hostile Indian tribes and dangerous animals en route, which should be considered when you answer the following questions (and only these):

1. What long gun would you take back in time with you?
2. What handgun?
3. Which two knives?

So heres my answer:

Long gun: Marlin 1894ss in .44mag with a gold inlay outlined tritium front dot, a reciever mounted tritium outlined ghost ring, and a tang mounted fold down peep site (the first for defense at close range, the second for hunting and long ranges. I believe the 1894 has an all coil spring action. If not I'd find one with an all coil spring action made of stainless.

Handgun: Ruger Redhawk 5.5" in .44mag. Tough, stainless, and no leaf springs. I'd need a custom grip on it though. I hate the stock redhawk grip.

Obviously the advantage of the two weapons sharing caliber is too big to give up, because it's pretty much 100% that one will break or be lost before the trip is over.

The biggest problem here is maintaing the firearms without tools. The fact is, if you expect the weapons to live, you'll need at least one phillips and one slot screwdriver. You will also need a brass brush and a soft bristle brush. If you are allowed a small cleaning, spares (one of each screw, extractor, firing pin, roll pins or retnetion pins, clips and springs), and maintenance kit for your weapons and your pack you may make it all the way with all three intact and fuctional. If you aren't, count on all three to fail during your trip (probably the lever gun first).

Actually if I could, before I left I would take all the screws in all my gear and replace them with square drive screws, then use the weakest loctite on them, and safety wire or cotter pin any that could be. I figure I could get away with 3 screw sizes total, and if necessary manufacture the screwdrivers locally.

Knife one: Swamp Rat Camp Tramp. I originally chose the Cold steel Recon Scout, because t's big enough without being too big, but the Camp Tramp is about the same size, about the same quality, and has tougher handle material. I'd actually prefer to have a Busse Combat, but they are semi-out of business (only doing a few hundred knives a year), and focusing on Swamp Rat.

Knife Two: Gerber multipro with toolkit. I had originally not wanted to go with a toolkit knife, instead choosing a Dozier professional skinner in D2, but as I pointed out, the problem of maintenance is going to be one of the biggest issues you will have to deal with, and the toolkit is too big an advantage to discard.

Kim also mentioned an axe specifically, and any one of the finnish or swedish medium axes would be good. Something larger than a hatchet but smaller than a felling axe. An axe like this is good for small trees and hand work, as well as light woodworking and manufacturing field expedient structures.

For a dog, personally I'd go for either a rottie or a german shepherd, trained as a working dog (track, kill, attack, and defend). There are hardier breeds, but I get along well with both of those, they train well, and they are tough and smart enough to survive, and to hunt on their own (the only thing I'd worry about was adequate diet for them).

But... But... this is nowhere NEAR enough detail for geeks like me...

You knew I wasn't going to stop there didnt you? I mean this is me, the guy who can turn just about any subject into 5000 words; theres only 760 words up there, I'll have to do better than that.

There's a hell of a lot of stuff you will absolutely need to purchase or build once you get back to 1650 to get across the country successfully, while still keeping it to one horse and one mule.
What you buy, and how you store it, are HIGHLY dependent on your load carrying capacity, which means your horses and wagons.

Remember you'll need to winter at least once and likely twice, and you'll need to build at least one boat (barge or raft really) large enough to carry everything you are bringing with you (when you cross the mississippi), unless you want to head into northern Iowa or Minnesota in the middle of your first winter (which is where the river becomes fordable, or easily bridgeable). I personally would take the southern route, and just build a boat. I've done it before, and it's not actually all that hard, especially since you're only going a mile with it.

Assuming I could do so, the first thing I'd buy or build would be a mule cart with two very large, wide rawhide bound wheels (possibly solid, non spoke wheels for strength) with iron over rawhide rims. This would increase my mules capacity from around 350lbs to around 1000 lbs (including the cart which weighs about 250lbs), and it can go almost anywhere a mule can. Personally I'd go for one of the floatable designs. Oh and those wheels are important. Straight Iron over wood will have a tendency to brake in rough terrain. If the wheels are rawhide bound, and theres a rawhide buffer between the Iron rim and the wooden wheel, the wheel is a bit more flexible, and a LOT more resilient.

If instead of a mule and a horse I could get either two good mules, or two good sized work horses that were both saddle and harness broken, I'd go for a floatable 4 wheeled wagon, which would give me up to about ton of carrying capacity (for long distances without injury to the horses. Over shorter distances a horse cart can carry a surprisingly huge weight).

Assuming wagons or carts aren't allowed or available, all of the supplies I list here except for maybe all the the water I'd want to take, maybe all the alcohol I'd want, and the portable forge (more on that below), can easily be squeezed in at around 450lbs. This is really the max long distance load for a single mule (for shorter distances mules have been known to carry up to 700lbs).

Rmember, 1 gallon of water is 8 lbs, and I want to have at least two growlers (5 gallon barrels), or better, two frikins (9 or 10 gallon barrels depending on whether you are using U.S. or U.K. measurement). Raw alcohol weighs around 7lbs per gallon, and I'd also like at least a firkin, and preferably two available.

I would of course carry myself, and my personal gear and whatever else could be comfortably carried on my horse, but I'm a pretty big guy. Even after a few months of living in the wilderness I'll still be 265 (at 265 I'm positively skinny), so the horse isn't going to carry much more than myself +50-75lbs, and I'll be walking as much as possible to save the horse.

Combine the items we get rid of if we have no wagons, and the capacity of the horse, and this will give us the extra capacity for 5-10 gallons of water, a couple weeks worth of food, and our ammo and modern gear.

Some might say that wagons are unrealistic because there isnt enough cleared area for them to roll through, but this sitn actually true. There are actually enough rivers, valleys, and clear areas that I can get narrow wagons or carts with large wheels through all the way to the plains states. The wagons would definitely have to go by the board by the time you reach the western mountains, but by then your suplies are going do be pretty low anyway.

On the subejct of horse and mules; as I said, if I were stuck with the horse and mule, I'd load them down with supplies and mostly walk, but I'd only lightly load the horse. The fact is horses just aren't all that hardy, and if I don't have a vet and a farrier handy I don't want to depend on the horse that much. At that point it'd be even better if it were two mules since a mule is much tougher, and can carry more for a long distance than most horses.

Of course if I could get something like a Shire, or Percheron or two it would be a different story. In that case, bring it on baby. A single shire averages 16-17 hands at the withers, weighs well over 2000lbs, can pull a 5000 lb wagon, and can carry around 1000 lbs on it's back for short ditsances, and at least 6-700 over distance. I've seen one carry three normal sized adults without breaking a sweat. They are also one of the oldest draft breeds, so it may be possible to find them, or horses like them, though probably not as large as today. A pair of them would be very nice thank you.

Of course they also eat an AMAZING amount, and drink even more, but there are always trade offs to these things.

If as I suggest above, two of us could pair up, that would give us four animals. I would still choose four draft horses, if I could get them, or mules if I couldnt. I'd use two of them at a time to pull the wagon, and keep the other two walking, and lightly laden. Primarlily I'd just use them to carry more food and water, and of course to rotate out the teams to keep them fresh.

At a sustainable walking rate, I figure 7-10 miles a day is an average for when you arent actually climbing a mountain or stting out the weather (counting the plains states which are almost half the total distance, that should be doable). The total walking distance is probably 3500-4500 miles including detours etc... and at the projected pace, it's a 2 year trip (winters).

So now that we know how we're going to carry the supplies, what are those supplies going to be?

Like I said, there are a HELL of a lot of supplies necessary to get yourself, two draft animals, and a dog across the continent.

Expendables (non food):

First, you WILL die without salt. You must have large amounts of salt on a long journey both as a nutrient, and for preservation. In that same vein, good luck trying to find pepper, but if you can, buy as much as you can get.

You should also buy as much raw high proof alcohol as you can conveniently carry. Use it for tradegoods, as an antiseptic, as fuel, as a cleaning agent and solvent, really for everything.

Some fuel oil would be VERY useful. Whale oil would be common, white oil (kind of like kerosene) is also available but hideously expesive. Naptha might also be available depending on where you start, but it is both rare, and expensive. You should also grab some refined mineral oil, and some turpentine if you can get them (again, they are around, but they are rare and very expensive).

Soap would be useful but it's pretty easy to make once you kill some game (ground limestone, ash, and rendered fat).

Candles are the same as soap, once you have some animals killed you can render tallow. Was will be very rare (bee keeping wasnt that big yet) and you can probably collect small amounts of wax and pitch locally for sealing and the like.

Speaking of beekeeping, try and get as much sugar as you can, and believe me it won't be much. You MAY be able to find some honey, but as I said, beekeeping doesnt become a major proposition in north america for another 150 years.

At this time most sugar is from apples, beets, and other fruit or vegetable sources, or from molasses, which had started to be imported from Barbados.

Oh, one interesting thing aboout molasses, it removes rust; No seriously, it does (unlike the urban semi-legend about Coke, which WILL remove rust, but not much more effectively scrubbing with water).

Kegs: You will need water tight carrying capability which means kegs. You'll be using them for oil, water, alcohol, smoke meat, jsut about anything that needs to be kept dry, or moist.

Horsehoes: Your horses aren't going to go very far in rough terrain shoeless. Or they will, but it will be very slow with frequent stops when they pull up lame. This of course creates additional requirements filled below in the tool section.

Tools and hardware: You will need hoops, nails, pegs, brass and iron (or steel if you can get it) wire, rope, tongs, pliers, nippers, a couple of different sized hammers, an awl, a few different files, a couple of chisels, a small saw and a large saw, a draw knife, an adze, a plane, a small and a large brass brush, a small and a large wire brush, a small and a large bristle brush, a felling axe, sharpening stones, some oil, and finally a portable forge with bellows and anvil.

Other than the forge and anvil, that's only about 75 lbs of tools, but the forge and anvil together are going to weigh about 100 lbs. Some of these could be eliminated if you had no wagon or cart, but I'd rather have them all.

Other Domestic supplies: For cooking you'll need at least two pots (one large, one small), I personally would want a seperate coffeepot, two frying pans (one large one small), and a dutch oven would be nice (it could serve as your large pot), along with a large wash tub (which everything is packed in), and two buckets. For prep and eating you'd need a pair of tongs, a spatula, a large and a small fork, a large and a small spoon, a plate, a cups, a mug, and a bowl, preferably all made from steel if you can get them.

You will want some candles as mentioned above, and if possible a lantern (and oil). Lighting is critical, especially during the winter when you will hole up in a location with as little natural light as possible (because light means drafts).

Continuing, you'll need some heavy needles, various thread, twine, rawhide lacing, leather strapping, some sheet leather, some heavy and some fine cloth. Basically you need enough supplies to make two large tents, two large tarps and ground cloths, some horse packs, and two suits of clothes, two sets of moccasins, and two sets of soft boots, for when your starting sets wear out.

Kim mentions a U.S. army first aid kit, bu that one it isn't very good. I'd take my rescue pack (which is a small backpack, not much bigger than a standard kit), and load it even more than it already is with various broad spectrum anti-biotics, sulfanilamide, disinfectants, ointments, maxi pads(take up less space than compression bandages), and painkillers... Lots and lots of painkillers

Finally I personally wouldnt do this without at least five honking big books (possibly in multiple volumes) that I would have to take from the future with me.

1. A guide to the edible, poisonous, dangerous, and useful plants and animals of North America
2. A complete history, geography, and atlas of the united states with as much detail as possible
3. A one volume complete unabridged works of William Shakespeare
4. A one volume complete unabridged works of Mark Twain
5. A one volume complete unabridged works of Robert Heinlein (yes, it exists, and it's huge)
   

Oh and a harmonica. Gotta have some real music, and I don't think a guitar would last long.

If it were possible to take one luxury item, it would be a PDA, with a few mem cards (the size of a postage stamp each) completely loaded with useful or entertaining ebooks (a 1 gig card can hold up to 2000 or so), a few mem cards loaded with music , and a solar charger for it (I actually have one and it works great).

Ok, but can it really be done?

First things first, I am in fact a bona fide U.S. Air Force certified expert on surviving in the wilderness with only the contents of a load bearing vest, and a knife. Really, this can be done, though it isn't fun and obviously you aren't getting far on just the vest alone.

Realistically, I think it would be impossible to do this alone. I figure that pairing up with other people and pooling your transportation and supplies is about the only way to make sure one of you lives.

These are just wild ass guesses, but they feel about right to me (I've been through a couple of modern wilderness survival courses, military and civilian), I'd say it's about a 10% shot of doing it on your own at worst, and 25% at best.

The odds are just too great against you as a single individual being able to travel, feed yourself and your animals, defend yourself, and not suffer an incapacitating injury or go mad.

For every Jim Bridger there had to have been at least 10 nobodies who got et.

The more folks you have, the more you can spread the workload, the more resources you have, and the less the felled game will go to waste.

I figure a 2 person team gives you a 50% shot, and 4 gives you a 75% shot, 85% if it's only one person who has to make it all the way and not everyone.

No matter what you do, I doubt it would ever go much above 85% because of four things: The rocky mountains, disease, hostile natives, and the fact that nature is a stone ass bitch.

I'd say that the odds of everyone surviving go up until you hit around 8, then they plateau til something like 15 and go down from there. In any group bigger than about 15 out in the woods for two years I figure at least one person has a major accident, at least one person gets a fatal disease, and at least one person gets et or shot.

And of course that assumes no-one in the party goes on a killing rampage of madness or anything like that (which is actually a big assumption).

I tell ya though, if I could, I'd do it in a heartbeat.