Ramblings on Bandwidth...

Just wanted to say thanks to all you lurkers as well as the followers on this blog! I got an email from my photo hosts today claiming I was approaching my Bandwidth limit! Since I only use my photo hosts to post the pics you see on this blog as well as some forums I post on, it must mean folks are actually reading my demented writings!

To save a little bandwidth I am reducing the entries to 5 per page (older entries are still available in the archives at the bottom) so it may load up a little quicker in the future!

Next BIG blog project is building a chicken coop that I hope to have the building and interior finished by early May or June 1 by the latest. SO stay tuned for those epic entries!

Again thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings, I really do appreciate it!

Later,
ZA

Ramblings on busy like a bee...

Howdy Folks,



Today I installed one three pound package of bees. These bees started out from a apiary in Georgia up to Moravian Falls, NC and finally to the farm...

Ideally it would have been best to put them in their new home yesterday when I brought them home, but it was raining and 50F all day yesterday. Bees don't really like that kind of weather and can get irate!



First of all I had to open the package of bees. A three pound package of bees costs $71.53 out the door from Brushy Mountain Bee Farms FYI.

Inside the package is a can of sugar syrup with small holes poked in it to give the bees access. For those of you who have seen swarms of bees in the wild this is similar behavior inside the package.



The queen that comes with the package of bees IS NOT the queen of the rest of the bees inside the package. She is isolated with a few of HER worker inside her own little cage.



There is a cork covering a 'candy plug' that you remove when you place the bees in the hive. By the time the worker bees eat the candy away, they will be use to the NEW QUEEN and accept here as their ruler. Pretty cool if you ask me! Once she is free, she will begin to lay eggs!



When you place the queen cage in the hive, there are several different methods. I just press it into some drawn out comb (the bees will fix it later). YOU MUST place the candy plug pointing UP. The reason is that in case one of the queen bees workers dies, they will fall to the bottom of the cage they will not block the candy plug exit. If you place the plug down and one of the queens workers die... they may block the exit and then your queen will not be laying eggs until you free her. I will be removing the queen cage within a week.



Now I simply shake the bees into the hive. I remove about 3 frames (I use 9 frame hive) to give the bees room to spread out, I then replace them after about 20 minutes. You also spray the bees with a sugar water solution. This gives them some FOOD, as well as keep them from flying around. They are very docile for now, but next time I visit them, they may get a little defensive!



Here is what it looks like after I dump the bees into the hive! Spread out ladies!!!



Now I place on the inner cover and wait for 20 minutes as they bees spread out through their new home! After that time I replace the 3 frames I removed and on to the final phases.



I really love these type of hive top feeders. They allow you to fill them up without the bees being able to get to you. My wonderful Junior Beekeeper helper fills up the feeder with sugar syrup. This will allow the bees to locate their own food and water sources while having a source of food until they locate their own.

I have two more hives coming in May maybe I will get a better pic of the queen bee inside her cage!

I hope you found this interesting and as always thanks for reading!

Later,
ZA

Ramblings on commo capabilities every prepper should have...

Every Survivalist/Prepper should have commo :)

The type of communication capability is a question that only you can answer for yourself, but these are IMHO the very basic communications one needs. You can always do better than this list... it is just a place to START.

Two way radios:

Sometimes you need to talk to someone past yelling range. A pair of FRS/GMRS radio (make sure you pay the money and get your GMRS license) are better than nothing. So a pair of these in your BOB (to talk to your allies along the way) or to talk to your party while you patrol your perimeter is always a good thing. Be sure to have this capability!

AM/FM/Shortwave Radio:

Being able to listen to your local AM/FM radio is a definate plus when something is going FUBAR. Add Shortwave capability so you can listen to far away stations in case your local ones are out.

Weather Radio with S.A.M.E alert:

Weather Radios have come along way since the beginning. These radios can be programmed to go off ONLY when there is an alert for your county. So no more getting woke up @ 3 am for an alert for a county 50 miles away! These things give you a heads up for severe thunderstorms, hurricane reports, tornado warnings, winter storm warnings, etc. so having one is a great for getting a heads up and SURVIVING!

Scanner:

A good VHF (and higher) scanner can give you a heads up as to what your police department, fire department, EMS, utilities, ham radio operators, etc. are doing. Be advised, depending on your locale, your public service frequencies may be digital and trunked, so your scanner will need to have this capability.

I really like to listen to the public service freqs to track the occasional severe weather that tears through our area. Knowledge is power!

So get you some commo... you never know when it will come in handy!

This is a basic list... I highly encourage you to look into Amateur (Ham) Radio to give you some truly awesome capabilities!!!

Later,
ZA

Ramblings on the S&P minded web resouces that ZA reads and listens to...

A lot of folks ask me, "who do you read on the web and who inspires you???"

First off, I have been into the S&P idealogy since the mid 80's (wow whatta decade!!!) and although I have been at it awhile, there is still MUCH to learn! Some folks that I have met in the S&P world have this, "I am so smart NO ONE can teach me anything because I already know it" attitude!!! What jerks!!! The moment YOU think YOU know it all is about the time you fnd out YOU know NOTHING with that attitude!!!

While I am no spring chicken, I am constantly looking for better ways to do things I already know as well as learn new things! I frankly DO NOT CARE if the dude starting prepping yesterday or been at it for fifty years... if it is a better way or a good piece of info... I am gonna use it!!!

Probably one of the best blogs on the web on Survival and Preparedness is James Wesley, Rawles of Survival Blog (links at the top of my blog) who is constantly pumping out info on stuff I can use, news and ideas. Updated DAILY this website is a powerhouse of knowledge. If you don't read it, you should!!! Also I highly recommend JWR's "Patriots" work of fiction which also has a bunch of ideas to get you started.

Also another fellar that is tireless in his efforts to get out knowledge to the masses is Jack Spirko of the Survival Podcast(links at top of blog). Jack usually puts out a podcast once a day that runs from 35-45 minutes. A bunch of the podcasts revovle around the "Modern Survival Mindset". Instead of preaching to just store food, Jack encourages you to also grow some of your own food! I have always been a gardener, but through Jack's podcasts I have learned there are better ways to do these things. Jack Spirko YOU ARE DA MAN!!! Also be sure to check out the great forums there as there are a bunch of like minded people who have a bunch of experience doing things that you will want to try!!!

Another podcast I listen to is The Preparedness Podcast (link at top of blog) which is also a great podcast. This generally run once a week and have been known to flirt with the 120 minute mark in length. There is a bunch of great info that is handed out in each podcast. I really think the Capabilities Checklist is a great tool to evaluate your needs of what you need to acquire to make your SHTF experience less stressful! Good work Rob, Greg and Mike!!!

Finally my other information source is Glenn Beck. Very entertaining, usually spot on in my political idealogy, and a great sense of humor! I prefer to listen to him in the podcast format as I like to be able to pause the program as needed. You can catch him on numerous radio stations around the country as well as the Fox News Channel. IMHO he is way better than Rush or Hannity. You go Glenn!!!

So there you go, this is where ole ZA draws his plans, encouragement, ideas for S&P minded matters on the web!

I encourage everyone to check out the above sources of info, if you do not already, as I feel they are great places to stimulate the thought process and learn about new things!

So again thanks, James, Jack, Rob, Greg, Mike and Glenn for all you do to get the word out!!!

Thanks for reading!

Later,
ZA

Ramblings on Green and Red lasers...

Sometimes you try something that is full of hype and find out the claims are not entirely true and in the process of testing it you find something out you never knew...

I have been very interested in the claims of the highly visible Green Lasers on the market that claim they work well in ALL lighting conditions. The green lasers are notably brighter than their red counterparts but does it justify that extra money???

First of all, this is not a criticism of LaserMax products as I find they are extremely well made lasers. It is a unbiased totally unscientific test. I used my eyes as the testing equipment and that was my only basis for the test. If it looked brighter to me then it looked brighter to me... nuff said.


The green laser is noticeably brighter when you can see it. I don't care what the claims are, the green laser washes out in bright sunlight and is not easy to pick up even at close ranges IN BRIGHT SUNLIGHT.



I tried many different takes to capture an image of the green laser in bright sunlight, but they did not turn out. The only one that turned out was the one above when I aimed the laser in an old shed that provided enough shade to see the green dot. This was walked off to about 25 yards. It shows up well in the shade.


Now you take away that bright sunlight and change it to overcast/dusk/dawn and it becomes visible at significantly longer ranges.



At night, the green laser has an extremely bright dot and visible beam and is very easy to pick up. As you can barely see (about 50 yards away) the green laser is brighter that the red laser. Both will get the job done! The camera obviously does not do this any justice... but I tried!

So in my testing, the green laser beats out the red laser in brightness and all the photos support this...except for the ones taken through a Night Vision Device!!!



The red laser is the one that shows the trail on the left. The green laser would not show up unless it was reflecting on a close object. To get the picture I had to aim the green laser on a tree about 50 yards away.

I suspect that this has a bunch to do with the green image as seen through the Night Vision Device... but still I thought light was light!!!



Above is the red laser by itself. It won in the Night Vision contest so it deserves its own picture!

This really shocked me as I had expected BOTH to do well about equally.

In summary... the green laser IS brighter in all lighting conditions, but is still wiped out in bright sunlight. If you can't get an IR (infra red) laser for your weapon and you want it to show up through through a Night Vision Device then go with red!


Also, before anyone gets all upset and tells me what a dummy I am for using a VISIBLE laser with a Night Vision Device... I know that one can see the laser beam and KNOW exactly where it is coming from. This was purely a test and I thought the results were very interesting... at least to me!

Finally, I think LaserMax Uni-Max Green Laser deserves a little attention so I will throw in a quick review and comments...



I do not understand why these folks who make tactical lights/laser combo's put the laser underneath the flashlight??? Maybe I don't understand technology or engineering, but would you not rather have the laser CLOSER to the bore of the weapon, rather than far away???

I liked the concept of the laser/light combo, but I could never get over the laser being on the bottom...



Then one day I saw the Uni-max which will attach to ANY picatinny rail and it ALSO has a rail below the laser to attach a light. Now the light can be attached to the bottom... where I thought it should be :)



I obviously got the green LaserMax Uni-Max for this test and found it to be a nice and easy to use unit. I tested it on a pistol rail as well as a Carbine rail... This little laser performs BIG!!!

I also have a Streamlight TLR-1 LED weapon light that I mounted below the laser! Very nice setup IMHO.

I will be doing a review of the TLR-1 and Glock Light in the future so stay tuned.

I hope you have found this blog entry interesting and imformative tonight. As always, thanks for reading!!!

Later,
ZA