Brisk!

Wow, it was pretty damn cold this morning. Until DST is taken off I get up before sun-up to begin my long ride to Boston. It was 30 degrees at the house when I let the dogs out this morning. My body is in summer mode, so anything below 50 feels chilly. By November I should be adjusted and can resume wearing shorts down to below freezing again.

I got my first package of seeds last week. Mainly herbs and salad greens from this company, but I did pick up another variety of beans. Appropriately named "Mayflower Beans" They took the trip to Plymouth with the Pilgrims. I hope I get the other shipment this week. That one contains the bulk of my items for next years garden.

I wonder If I should just toss them in an ammo can in the basement, or If I need something special. I wonder if they need to breathe at all while stored. If you have any advise please leave a comment.

I shot Skeet this weekend, and I manged to score a 22. Not bad for a 20" straight bore barrel on a tactical shotgun. I have to admit I like the gun club, they never gave me crap about it, and now we give each other crap. They taunt me with my "1/2 a shot gun" and I give them hell with "You need to upgrade, I hit that station with this." or "Your shotgun needs a flashlight on it, that's your problem"

I ordered that reloader last week so it should be here in the next couple of days. I scavenged a lot of hulls from the field, plus all the ones I've saved, and another shooter gave me a garbage bag full of hulls last week. I got at least 1000 hulls ready. The problem is that most of them have steel bases. These are fine, and unlike rifle rounds, can be reloaded safely. Most hulls give you 6-8+ reloads before the plastic breaks down. Once the reloader shows up I need to go to the local gun shop and pick up a pound of sporting clays powder, some wads and some #8 shot. I'll load 3-4 shells, then go to the range to see if I can blow myself up.

Once I get some reloading experience under my belt, I think I'm going to load buckshot. I will not use the steel-based hulls, as the intention is to store ammunition long-term for home defense and food acquisition. I have no illusions that this is going to be the best ammo around. It is better than nothing, and being able to load up 200ish rounds to store as part of my preps in case of mutant zombie attack is a sensible thing to do since it's going to be cheap.

The gun club offers members deep discounts on boxes of 5000 primers, #8 shot, and several powders. Since I'm just starting out I plan on buying small quantities until I find what I like for a load, then invest in the bulk quantities. Ideally, I want to just change the amount of powder, the wad and the shot. There will be some experimentation, but I assure you that I will be starting conservative and working my way up.

Now I did spend time re-organizing my preps this weekend, and I need to add some shelf space in my stash. I bought some plastic tubs at 40% off the weekend before, and put them to good use filling them with pasta. I'll be going to BJ's tonight to stock up on some bulk items. Speaking of which I got to track down my order of mylar bags and O2 absorbers! Well THAT company's not getting any return business from me.

Well be safe out there everyone, I got to do me some research on Question #1, which will repeal income tax in Mass. Basically, it means the property taxes will go through the roof, but I want to be well educated before I say boo on the subject.

Remember to invest in tangibles, Stock up on fuel since it's so cheap!