The Rule of Threes

• Three seconds of stupid can get you killed.
• Three minutes without oxygen is likely to kill you.
• Three hours of exposure to cold water, 40-degree-rain-and-wind or sub-zero weather is likely to kill you.
• Three days without water can get you killed.
• Three weeks without food in an extreme environment is likely to kill you.

Maslow's Hierarchy

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The more I ponder the hyper-inflation looming on the horizon, the more I realize that the consequences can be modeled as a retreat down Maslow's Hierarchy.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term "Maslow's Hierarchy", it is commonly taught in Psychology classes as THE way people are motivated. Maslow contends that humans are motivated by the most immediate need that is NOT fulfilled.

Preppers might experience an orderly retreat down the hierarchy. Plans have a way of falling apart when they get punched in the nose but the planning-process gives preppers a way of adapting to dynamic situations.

Non-preppers' retreat down Maslow's Hierarchy is likely to be a disorderly and catastrophic.

Don't be stupid

To avoid pulling a Wiley Coyote descent down Maslow's Hierarchy:

• Don't be stupid
• Don't hang out with stupid people
• Don't play stupid games
• Don't go stupid places
• Don't say or write stupid things
  
• Pull your head out of your nethermost orifice
• Pull your nose out of your boss's nethermost orifice
• Do a quick up-periscope outside your internet echo-chamber once in a while
  
• Don't hyper-focus on distant threats. You are more likely to be off-ed by somebody who is 10 feet away than somebody who is 400 yards away.
• Don't
• Be
• Stupid
  

Clayton and Krystal: Ambush

Clayton turned slightly his chair so the action was to his left-front.

He heard murmuring on the landing as the miscreants got their act together.

The dim illumination of a small penlight traced about the sheets of wax paper Clayton had taped to the inside of the window. Clayton was an avid reader of military-fiction. He had read all of the classics...Clancy, Coyle, Curtis, Dickson... and had absorbed the lessons of ambush, kill-sacks and preparation.

The essence of an ambush is to deceive and to deny the target information until it is too late for them to countermeasure.

The hazy, translucent wax paper reflected enough light back at the viewer to deny them any useful information.

The light stopped tracing around the window and appeared to be directed downward.

Clayton heard the clink of tools. He heard the striking of the hammer, then the sound of the dead-bolt dropping on the floor.

Clayton had a moment of panic. If they breached the door-handle that quickly, all of his plans would come to naught.

He curled his hand around the half-dozen, 5/16” hex nuts he had prepared and lobbed them toward the window.

Then he shielded his eyes in the crook of his arm and counted out a half second “Mississi…” he depressed the plunger in his left hand. 

Even through his closed eyelids and with his eyes buried in his arm he saw red.

He heard the tools being dropped and hitting the concrete floor of the landing outside the door.

Clayton had stripped the 30,000 Lumen*, unidirectional light-bars off of his snow-plows and other equipment and hung them in the windows of the doors. One each in the doors he considered least likely as point-of-entry and two of them for the one the burglars were attempting to enter.

Clayton had hung them at the level where he expected the thugs’ eyes to be.

He had wired all four lamps in parallel. He did not want to have to screw around with remembering which switch went to which door.

He gave the lamp a full, two-second pulse before hitting the plunger again to turn them off.

Then he waited for another second before lifting his head from his arm.

He heard and saw precisely...nothing.

Then a crash.

Then the sound of something hitting the chain-link fence “Ker-ching”.

Unable to contain his curiosity, he scrolled through the WIFI security cams on his smartphone.

One goblin was hand-over-handing his way along the toprail of the fence. Unfortunately for him, he had hit the fence to the left of the gate and was working away from it.

The second goblin was harder to find. Clayton winced when he realized that the goblin had run, full-tilt, into the back-blade on his landscaping tractor. That goblin was struggling to get back upright and his gait suggested he was both blinded and lamed.

It took Clayton several passes through all of the screens before he found the third goblin. That goblin was laying face-up at the base of the steps to the landing.

Slowly, the third goblin stirred.

Clayton placed the smartphone down and cracked opened the bolt of the pump shotgun. He felt (for the fifth time that evening) to ensure he had a round chambered and stroked the corncob fore-arm back into battery. And he waited.

And waited…

And waited…

After a half-hour he did another scan of the cameras. The yard was empty.

He checked out the landing outside the door. There was a 3-pound hand-sledge and a cold-chisel with a fish-tail ground into the edge. The tool bag that had been left behind had miscellaneous tools (including a soldering iron) and a handful of zip-ties.

This had clearly NOT been a crime-of-impulse.

***

Clayton was frustrated as he tried to explain the situation to Krystal.

It was as if she was in active denial and what was crystal clear to Clayton was totally opaque to Krystal.

Of course he had not gone back to sleep after the ambush. Adrenaline does that to a person. He had turned over what he had seen, turned it over and over in his mind trying to make sense of it all.

“It took them literally four seconds to knock the deadbolt off the door” Clayton told her.

Krystal’s face suggested that didn’t mean much to her.

“Those were $50 deadbolts and they cracked them open almost as fast as we could open them with a key” Clayton tried again. "They had tools!"

“So?” Krystal responded.

“So they can walk in any time they want” Clayton said.

“But you stopped them. Surely they won’t try again” Krystal said. She had great faith in her man.

“I might agree if I thought those three were operating alone, but SOMEBODY made them specialized tools. The average thug cannot grind a cold-chisel like that” Clayton persisted, holding up the cold-chisel with the wide, shallow notch and edge that made it so effective at biting into and sliding the dead-bolt.

“And somebody dropped them off and was going to pick them and their loot up…” Clayton said. "They were not operating on their own."

Krystal’s face remained skeptical.

Then Clayton handed her the zip-ties. “Do you know what these are?”

“Yeah” Krystal said. “I have seen you use these to hold wires and things together.”

“Cops use them for handcuffs” Clayton said, cryptically.

“Do you know what this is?” Clayton asked, holding up the soldering iron.

“No” Krystal said.

“It is a soldering iron. The tip gets to more than 700 degrees. Why, do you think, home-invaders would have zip-ties and a soldering iron in their tool bag?” Clayton pushed.

“I don’t know. Maybe to break into safes?” she ventured.

“Not hot enough” Clayton said. “Maybe to torture people so they say where they keep their valuables. Maybe to torture their kids to get that information? Maybe they get their jollies by causing pain…”

Enlightenment dawned in Krystal’s eyes. She drew in a breath and gulped. 

Next Installment

* A 100W, incandescent bulb puts out 1600 Lumens and it is omni-directional. Each light-bar is putting out as much light as 20 100W, incandescent bulbs and it is all pointing out the window.

Cross-fit competition, Part II

Belladonna gave me permission to post that she is the person I went to watch compete in the Cross-fit competition this week.

She wondered why I did not mention it in the earlier post.

Privacy

Once I put something out on the web it exists forever. I try to be respectful about people's privacy, especially in this day and age.

For example, when a neighbor sends me a picture of a deer they harvested I strip any information from the description because Michigan's laws regarding reporting of a deer harvest has become intrusive. Michigan's Legislature passed a bi-partisan bill that decriminalized the rules formulated by the Executive Branch demanding that hunters report the location-of-harvest to within a half-mile. Michigan's Governor Big-Retch (hawk, spit) vetoed that bill.

So it is still a potential felony if a hunter fails to report exact location of harvest within 72 hours of bringing game-to-bag.

How much longer before they demand that we do the same for gardens and log-in how many tomatoes on a day-by-day basis?

So rather than expose people who trust me, I leave out details unless the people who share their stories WANT me to share.

Details

This was Bella's first Cross-fit competition. Her team optimistically entered in the "Intermediate" division rather than the "Novice" or beginner division.

There were eight teams entered in her division and her team placed just shy of the middle which is an astounding performance.

The "heats" were brutal. They lasted ten minutes and were a mix of cardio dominated tasks interlaced with strength dominated tasks. For example, the first heat for her team was to alternate 20 sit-ups, 15 "box-jumps" where they had to jump up onto a 24" tall box, and 10 "plate lifts" where they had to lift a 40 pound weight-lifting plate from touching the floor to up, overhead. The two team-members alternated so they both got to do the sub-events. The team was scored based on the number of trips through the torture chamber.

Then there was about a 45 minute recovery period...than another set of events.

The second event was gross-tonnage of clean-and-jerks. The women alternated, one minute-on, one-minute-off. They both had to lift the same weight but they got to choose how much that was.

The third ten minute event was synchronized swings where they had to both have their legs above horizontal at the same time for 20, then throwing a medicine ball against the wall and then 20 burpees.

The final event was stationary bike where they had to sprint as far as they could in ten minutes.

I give my daughter a tip-of-the-hat for having the sand to compete, the optimism to compete as an "Intermediate" and the fortitude to leave it all on the gym floor...all except for her breakfast...she didn't leave any of her breakfast there. But it was a close thing.

...picked a peck of peppers...

It has been a productive morning.

I have a load of peppers in the dehydrator and a load of dishes in the washer.

I picked the peppers by cutting the plants at the base and processing them inside. The plants are done but the peppers were fine. They are Anaheims so they are not very hot but they are what I have.

I also got a pesky seed order done. The vendor's software is not very transparent. It did not like the fact that I used the two-digit version of the year my card expires and it wanted the four digit. The error it threw was that I had to list both my first and last name on my shipping address.

The small airport by Chicago informed me that a shipment of sabots is heading my way.

It has been a good morning so far.

Justified, Satan, Judge

I don't pretend to be a Biblical scholar. I read the Good-Book and ask questions. Sometimes I stumble across things that I find interesting and want to share them.

One word that gets bandied about in the tail-feathers of the Bible is the word "justified'. It shows up in Paul's letters, most especially in Romans.

The modern nuance of the word "justified" is "well, considering all of the extenuating factors the action is not one we will prosecute". That is not how Paul uses the word.

It has been helpful to me to substitute "...made righteous..." or "...righteous..." for the word justified.

The modern sense of a "justified" shooting is a shooting where the target might have presented a risk of mortal danger or risk to limb.

The modern sense of a "righteous" shooting is a shooting where the target presented a clear-and-present danger to innocents: A thug pointing  a loaded pistol at a pregnant woman's belly or an arsonist throwing Molotov Cocktails into a crowded tenement or firing into a school.

Satan

Another word that drifted is the word "Satan".

The most common understanding of the word Satan in the Old (aka, Jewish) Testament was as "Stumbling block" or obstacle. If you accept this definition, then the parable of the seeds falling among the briers (an obstacle to progress) and the beaten path takes an interesting twist. The way to find God is somewhere between the two extremes.

When Jesus told Peter "Satan, get behind me..." he was using the word in this sense. if Jesus accepted Peter's counsel he would not be able to fulfill his mission. Peter was an obstacle not the Evil-One incarnate.

The Old Testament book that gives us the closest look at "Satan" is Job. In that book, Satan slyly proposes that men glorify God based on a quid pro quo relationship. God objects and poor, old Job takes a beating. The book of Job has been a great comfort for the less fortunate throughout the ages.

The common understanding of the word "Satan" pivoted as Christianity expanded and encountered competing religions. Many of the attributes of "Satan", i.e. cloven hooves, horns, tail, tridents.... resemble the accoutrements of Druidic and Greek "gods".

The amalgam of Revelations and mish-mash of displaced gods became the popular image of Satan.

That is not to diminish Satan's power. His first appearance is in Genesis where he separates Adam and Eve from paradise by appealing to their weakness. We were created in the image-and-likeness of God. Sadly, we fail to see that we cannot BE God even as we are drawn to be like him.

Bonus link

Judge

Another word that drifted in meaning since Biblical times is "Judging".

The general sense I get from the Bible is that to "judge" was to assume (or perhaps curse) somebody into eternal damnation. If you "judged" them as unclean or not making-the-cut for salvation then you were sinning because you made them something less than human.

Paul is a good example of why we should not judge. He held the cloaks of the people stoning early Christians, yet through God's grace became one of the pillars of the church. Should we "judge" the 20 year-old tool who carries an "Abortion is cool" sign to protest those who are holding prayer vigils outside of abortion clinics?

While we cannot know the state of her soul when she slips her mortal coil, we can exercise discernment. Discernment is a critical skill in our mission to be good stewards. It is improper (in my universe) to condemn people for exercising "discernment". After all...is condemning the very "judging" the Bible prohibits

Cross-fit

 

I attended a Cross-fit competition today. This vehicle was in the parking lot

This team was competing in the competition. They told me about their last competition. There were five teams competing in their heat and they were the two youngest guys.

Cross-fit has a "Masters" division. Unfortunately, they define a Master as anybody who is over 45, so these guys had an uphill fight to score well.

There are going to be a lot of people with sore muscles tomorrow. "Wintergreen" (methyl salicylate) will be the fragrance of choice for most of these competitors.

Based on the tattoos, bumper stickers and tee-shirts, this crowd runs strongly toward patriots. At least on the west side of Michigan.

Foods for the Hungry Months

Historically, the hungriest months of the year were in the springtime before any significant amount of plant-growth occurred.

If you don't pay much attention, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the ground is either frozen or cold mud and nothing is growing through much of the spring. The larder is depleted and the animals that survived the winter are devoid of body-fat.

Collecting eggs for the fish hatchery. Notice the ice on the riverbanks. Wisconsin. Probably late-July.

Two sources of much-needed protein and calories were migrating waterfowl and spawning fish. In my area of operation suckers and Northern Pike start spawning even as there is snow and ice on the banks of rivers and creeks and they continue to spawn* until the daffodils are in full-bloom. Suckers and pike are "white" fish with little fat, but various trout and salmon are loaded with fat. Fat equals calories.

Carp can be very fatty and they spawn about when the apple trees are blooming. In Eaton County, Michigan apple trees bloom about May 10, give or take a week. North Americans look down their noses at carp but that could change. Different horses for different courses. 

Spawning carp congregate in shallow bayous and ox-bows where the water warms earliest in the spring. They can also be chummed with a bit of dried corn, soaked and partially sprouted. Pounding the sprouted corn makes the flavor leak out. Carp can be harvested with arrows, nets, hook-and-line, electricity, walnut-hulls or pool "shock" chlorine powder. The last three methods are not legal methods-of-take in most areas but if your family is starving, what do you have to lose?

Baby rabbits start showing up shortly after the apples bloom but have almost zero body fat. Protein yes, fat no.

Hens start laying well about the time the apple trees bloom but eggs are also low in fats.

Some kinds of roots/bulbs are easy to find in the spring. Onions and garlic are easy to identify by smell. Turnips can survive the winter under the snow. Carrots and parsnips can make it through the winter, in-ground, if mulched with straw or autumn leaves.

Greens make a good tonic but offer few calories per calorie expended in collecting and preparing.

Autumn is the time to prepare for the hungry months. March is too late.

*There are many species of suckers and they spawn at different water temperatures.