Rabid Racoon

A post from a long ago post posted on the Rubicon which *I* wrote...


*Rabid Racoon*

By: ZombieAxe

14 October 2003

I Went down to my folks place this evening after work to get some "woods" time. I had planned this before I left work so I brought along my H&K USP and Blachhawk Flap holster rig and packed it SECURELY in the lock box.

After work the WX was a little drizzly but nothing major. It had been awhile since I had walked along the entire property line, and things were grown up. I also took along my folk's German Shepard who adores me as long as Dad is ain't around (then I am second place :) ).

The rain was picking up a little and I ALMOST did not finish walking the entire property but I went on as the tree canopy was keeping most of the rain off of me. As we were walking a trail in behind the homeplace, the Shepard came close but not in contact with a gray looking cat that appeared to be dead... fearing that the animal might have died of some disease (mainly I was thinking Rabies), I told the shep to stay clear of the animal. As I got closer I told Shep to go the house (she is a highly intelligent dog) and she obediently went there.

As I got within 10' of the "CAT" I noticed that IT was not dead, even though many flies were swarming around it and it was a VERY skinny, but full sized racoon!!! It struck me as odd that a racoon would be sleeping in the middle of a path, in the open and in DAYLIGHT as they are nocturnal creatures.

I immediately drew the H&K and aimed at its skull as it became aroused. It had a weird air about him as he didn't show fear and looked like it was getting up to head in my direction. Not waiting for its next move, I shot once striking it the skull, and then again to which the racoon flipped over on its back and its rear legs were kicking into the air, so to end its miserable life I shot it a third time :( It was dead.

After I put up the dog, it was getting dark, so tomorrow I will call the county animal control folks to come get Rocky Racoon and see if it indeed had rabies. It had all the signs of Rabies,except it didn't have the "foaming at the mouth", but the racoon could have been too dehydrated to have that sign. The racoon was very near death...

It pays to be armed ANYTIME you are out and about. Sometimes the threats are not what you expect. I was expecting running into the 2 legged pests that sometime frequent the outer edges of the farm, but instead I ran into diseased animal that might have been a handful if I had not been armed.

Only thing I would have done differently, is also brought along my Ruger 22/45 which I had in the truck but FORGOT :( to dispatch the animal...

Come to think of it, thats the first case I can think of that I didn't need that much gun... The point being that I was armed! Threats come in all shapes and sizes and UNEXPECTEDLY... Be prepared :) 73!

Later,
ZombieAxe

Operating a Ham Radio Station on a Remote Island...


Last year, a couple of my friends and I discussed where we were going to go the next year on our yearly trip. The idea of going to a remote island off the North Carolina coast won out. I decided to turn the trip into what Ham Radio Operators call a DXpedition. A DXpedition is where Ham Radio Operators usually operate from a remote island or rare grid square or so on. The idea is so other Ham Radio Operators will be able to work your station and get credit for various awards. The DXpeditions that you read about mostly have a support team; we would have to be our own support team. We also decided to turn our DXpedition into a Special Event Station (to get a 1X1 callsign for 2 weeks), and IOTA (Islands On The Air) event. Before I mislead you, I want you all to know that this was not a 24-hour a day operation as Hams go on in QST magazine (a magazine for Hams published by the American Radio Relay League). It was a few hours a day (usually 4) as this was a vacation also.



After the idea was hatched, I had to figure out what I wanted to do and how to do it. As for communication equipment, I had that already covered. I brought along the ICOM IC-706MKIIG compact HF rig that would be my #1 radio. An Automatic Antenna Tuner would also be required, but I had that base covered as well in a LDG AT-11MP.

My home antenna is a portable one and while it does well, I was going to need something larger. I acquired a G5RV antenna at a Hamfest. G5RV antennas work VERY well! Anyone who has been at the beach before knows that there are not many trees to hang your antenna from so a portable mast was also going to be required. I found what I was looking for in an MFJ-1910 33’ fiberglass telescoping mast.

I was also planning on working mostly digital modes (PSK31/MFSK16) so I had to have a laptop, which I did, along with the appropriate 12V DC power adapter.


Now that I had the station equipment covered, I needed to power it. I have some wet deep cycle batteries. But after our last trip in the woods, I wasn’t really satisfied with the special conditions that I had to consider when transporting them. I mean, they can leak acid and really make a mess of things IF the case bursts open. On a trip where you might encounter some dicey 4X4ing conditions you do not want to worry about your lead acid batteries spilling their guts on you other gear.

I became seduced by the prospect of acquiring some AGM batteries. These AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) are very rugged and even if you poke a hole in the side of one, the bad stuff will stay inside which is perfect for my needs. Another plus was that the AGM batteries had a quicker recharge turnaround time (1 hour according to the specs) than a regular wet cell deep cycle.

I found what I was looking for at Bass Pro Shops for $119 for 79 amp hours. Pricey but money well spent in my opinion.


Batteries do not recharge themselves, unfortunately, so I had to come up with equipment that would fit the bill. I have an 1100W AC/DC (DC at 90 amps) 2-cycle gas generator that would do nicely for topping off the batteries.

It worked well but was a little gas hungry. It would run about an hour at full load before needing the tank refilled.

I also brought along two 15 watt solar panels for a total of 30 watts of solar power. The solar power was intended to keep my truck battery charged for the VHF operations and satellite radio entertainment. I did not use the solar for that purpose, so it went to extend the run time of the AGM deep cycle battery.


Here lately, I have found that those 1”X 1” 8 foot long boards really come in handy on camping trips. They are small enough to easily carry 8 of them and strong enough to use for tent poles and other camp needs. They will also work well for firewood should you not want to bring them back. I made a quick and dirty solar panel rack using 8 four-foot pieces of those 1X1’s and a few galvanized decking screws. Forgive my sloppy carpentry work. This was made in a matter of minutes. It worked beautifully and my only change would be to make a permanent version with a fold up capabilities.

Shelter wise, I opted for Cabela’s truck tent. This tent attaches to the rear of a truck with a camper shell or a SUV. This allows you to have both a hardened shelter (truck) and a tent shelter all in one. Not a bad concept and it worked well for the trip. If you are going to get one of these, be aware that unlike many tents on the market today, the truck tent does not have ventilation under the rain fly, so condensation can be an issue. I was able to use the tailgate of my truck as an operating position for the ham station, which gave the portable setup a solid operating surface. In other words, I didn’t have to worry about knocking the tailgate over as I would have a “camp table” and everything was above the sand that seemed to be everywhere.


Food was packed in coolers that were shielded by reflective heat barrier insulation (it looks like bubble wrap sandwiched between 2 thick layers of tinfoil) and also had a foam cooler type insulation custom fitted inside to keep it colder longer.

Also, I used homemade block ice along with dry ice to keep my food frozen longer than it would have been in a regular cooler. The dry ice kept the block ice frozen longer.

I also froze ½ liter Deer Park bottles to keep the food cold and provide me with good cold water when needed. I brought back most of the block ice I had made.

Water containers such as jerry cans take up space in this type of situation when you want to leave with less than you brought. On a previous trip, a friend had shown me 5 gallons of water in two 2-½ gallon containers. What impressed me was how nice they stacked. Once consumed, the cardboard and plastic containers could be easily burned. These wouldn’t be ideal for long term storage but seem to work well for situations where you have to slash and burn. I brought 40 gallons with me and it worked great!

Now since you have an idea of what we had to bring, I guess I should tell you why. A little history lesson is in order. Portsmouth Island was once a large port town in the 1800’s. Sea faring ships would unload their cargo on Portsmouth Island, to which the people on Portsmouth would then transport the cargo across the shallow sound to the mainland. After a storm cut a deep inlet directly to the mainland, most of Portsmouth’s economy went to fishing. After a few large storms in the 1900’s, people started moving away from Portsmouth and onto the mainland. In the early 70’s, the last permanent resident of Portsmouth Village moved to the mainland and Portsmouth is now a ghost town along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Today, the only folks that come to Portsmouth are surf fishermen and Hams crazy enough to brave the elements to setup a station along the island.

There is NO power and only limited potable water and toilets near the ferry landing but they would be 15 miles away from our center of operations. During high tide, the beach road would be impassable for a few hours. I was able to talk to a late arrival into our camp from 12 miles away. That comes in very handy when there are NO landmarks, just sand, sky and ocean.

Cell phone coverage was a little spotty but doable. A large dune in our immediate camping area made a good platform to get into a cellular repeater. I also would get some tropospheric ducting on my wireless email PDA at night but it was spotty at best. To me this was a perfect environment to test out my comm. gear and make notes of what worked and what did not work.

The 33’ MFJ-1910 telescopic mast failed, but I fixed it to keep us on the air. Instead of 33’ it became a 27’ mast.

My idea of keeping us 24/7 on the APRS network didn’t exactly work as I planned, but we were on a few hours a day. Considering that we were over 70 miles away, we still did very well to get into the APRS node. I can say that the HF station I ran, ran perfectly once I started transmitting.

I worked many DX countries and many states. I often got compliments on my signal and I was impressed, as many were, about my operating conditions.

One of my favorite comments was, “so all you guys have to do is provide the radios and antennas and the rest is provided on the island???” As I said before, we had to bring everything!


When on a DXpedition, it pays to have a contact on the mainland SOMEWHERE. RadioRay provided that crucial link, and we even proved that you could correct a T-shirt order over HF! RadioRay was also willing to provide traffic handling should we had needed to pass traffic.

We had an awesome time and learned a lot of valuable info in other areas as well as communications! Sure you can test your gear at home, but to really test your gear you have to take it to extreme levels to figure out what does and does not work! It only works if you “know” it does, not if you “think” it does. 73

Later,
ZombieAxe

Ramblings on the Camp Chef Outdoor Propane Oven

The Camp Chef Out Door Propane Oven

Camp Chef Oven with lid up and oven door open.


The Oven Burner.

One of the two stove top burners.

This is a review of the Camp Chef Outdoor Propane Oven. I am not an expert chef but I am no stranger in the Kitchen. This review will not cover the stove top burners as my intentions were to test the baking abilities of the oven part.

My overall impressions of the CC oven are that it is a well built unit and it is very efficient in its use of propane.

My main purpose in acquiring the CC oven was to have an alternate means of baking bread and other items if and when the commercial power is down. If you are setup to make bread when the power is on and have no way of doing so when the power goes out for whatever reason, you are severely limited in what you can do with those bulk grains.

I followed a great recipe for your basic whole wheat bread from http://www.simplylivingsmart.com/ that has become a family favorite. My wife and I decided to hedge our bets by making one loaf in the CC oven and the other two in the regular electric oven.

First of all for those of you that have never cooked with a camp style propane oven, you must monitor the temperature closely. The CC oven comes with a oven thermometer and that is your only indication of the actual temperature inside the oven. I was trying to maintain a temp of 350 deg F since that is what the recipe called for. Once I lit the oven (it has piezo electric ignitors) I decided to go with the HIGH setting to preheat. After the temp got to around 250 F I turned it to MID and at 300F I turned it to LOW. I probably could have turned it to LOW after the temp climbed to 250F and it would have climbed slowly to 350F. Once at 350F I had to open the oven door every 5 minutes or so to drop the the temp back down. I did this to familiarize myself with the oven characterisitics. Once the loaf of bread was placed in the oven the temp pretty much stayed on 350F with the lowest setting on the knob with very few adjustments.

After 40 minutes I had a loaf of bread that was a little darker on the bottom than I like but it will be a simple matter of adjusting the cooking times to get it perfect!

Some things of note about the CC oven:

First of all I had to turn my bread pan (10"X4.5"X3") sideways as if not placed perfectly on the wire racks it can turn sideways. Not a big deal but something to be aware of. A bigger pan could easily overcome this.

I used a one pound propane tank (this is located on the back) to bake with. Which IMHO seems to be adequate for my baking needs. I DO plan on adding the bulk tank adapter for use with twenty pound or larger tanks for use during extended power outages or a lengthy SHTF scenario.

Inside Oven Dimensions are 10"Wx16"Lx8"H, Oven Burner is 3500 BTU's

Overall Dimensions are 12"Wx21"Lx16"H weight 35 pounds.

Range Burners 5300 BTU's.

Overall I think this is a great item for using emergency food, using in a small cabin, boat or motor home. I find that it really fits a need in my Preparedness plans.

I hope you found this review helpful. Thanks for reading!

Later,

ZombieAxe

(ZA)

Getting ready to bake.

In goes the bread!

Out comes the finished product... um um good!

Ramblings on food storage...

Hopefully you are storing up preps in the event of one day, that the grocery store shelves are empty...

Katrina was a disaster that PROVED that you have to fend for your self when soceity breaks down...

Having your own food storage/prep items when the ballon goes up, means you will not be part of the masses scrambling to fight for the last loaf of bread. A loaf of bread doesn't last forever either...

Give a man a loaf of bread and he will eat for a day... Teach a man to make his own bread and he will hunger no more! I don't like hunger so I learn the things I need to do, to keep my family and I fed!

Lets look @ what it takes to make bread WTSHTF...

First of all you need wheat. A lot of it, if you want a lot of bread. Wheat stores well so it makes it handy to keep on hand. To store it use 5 gallon buckets, mylar bags, and O2 absorbers.

You will also need a recipe and an ingredients list, those other ingredients you will also want to store in bulk.

To turn wheat into flour, you will need a grain mill. An electric one is nice, but a hand operated one is better for when the power fails... I prefer both...

Once you have followed your recipe, you need to bake it... If the lights are out and the oven don't work, you will need another source to bake it. We like this offering from Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7857646

There are tons of other things you need to store besides the ingredients to make bread, but making your own bread makes alot of food more enjoyable... Without bread, a PB&J sandwich is just a mess!!!

Another thing, don't wait until the SHTF until you begin to make your bread, do it NOW!!! There is nothing better than HOMEMADE bread... Nice knowing you are only eating the stuff you put in the bread and not all that other junk that keeps it "FRESHER".

IOW store the foods you eat everyday and you will NEVER have to throw out good food gone bad...

There is alot of stuff you need to bake your own bread... acquire it now, learn how to use it and incorporate it, into your daily food routine!!!

Same goes for any food or prep item!

Later,
ZombieAxe

Long Hiatus...

I have been a bad blogger... it was be almost a year since my last entry...

A lot of things have happened since that last entry. I lost my Grandmother to a short fight to cancer. One of my star up and coming female German Shepherds puppy was poisoned by some antifreeze and had to be put to sleep...

Of course in life things always happen for a reason and we peon little human beings will never be able to fully comprehend the reason... To paraphrase that slogan, "Life Happens".

Not all of it has been bad, but deaths of loved ones have a way of dimming the rest of life's many blessings...

The new addition to the family will be having his first birthday soon and it is a pure joy to interact with. The older sibling is truly an angel (but don't most parents think that way about their children???).

Also have been updating some of my work skills, by taking evening classes. After succesful completion of the class 6 0f the 8 students qualified by independent testing to get a higher paying job should one come open. So it is nice to have options.

Also I have taken several preparedness related courses http://www.readyfortheworst.com/ (Rawles Gets You Ready of the SurvivalBlog fame). Received some training with Skywarn for learning about spotting severe weather. As you can see I have been very busy...

Later,
ZombieAxe