I’ve been researching the production of distributed energy for years. This takes it one step further and allows the brewing of your own ethanol literally in your own backyard.
Micro Fueler Is First Ethanol Kit for Brewing Backyard Biofuels on the Cheap - Popular Mechanics
Agriculture: The New Disruptive Technology
Ethanol waiver seen spiking gasoline $1/gallon
I remember watching the first prep stages of Hurricane Katrina, oh, about +30 hours before landfall and seeing, among the people carrying small suitcases, a college age girl with a full-on backpack. Right there at the stadium. I was thinking to myself, well, she’s certainly prepared for the stay.
After my good friends for nearly 18 years moved to Florida as part of an Aircrew Instructor tour duty station change several large hurricanes (Ivan and Katrina, to mention two) rolled through their area.
Seeing pictures of the devastating effects these storms had on just about everything in sight along with the catastrophic tsunami that hit Indonesia have made me realize that even when everything is simply peachy in the world, bad things can happen at any time.
My friends were always prepared for any emergency, therefore Ivan and Katrina just added to their repetoire of excellent Beer Stories.In fact, Katrina forced the move of a retired Aircrew Marine’s family as they were displaced from their home on the coastline of Mississippi, so my friend took them in for a short time. Yes, we take care of our own.
My philosophy is that most Americans are doing just fine as long as food comes in trucks to restock supermarkets, roads are relatively clear of traffic, and gas stations stay resupplied with no interruptions.
When there are problems, the worst in human nature tends to come to the surface. Luckily in some areas with Hurricane Katrina there were a few who chose to keep watch, in California I’m not so certain that would be an option.
Best bet, have your own food and water, plus the means to keep it.
Every California native has heard of Northridge and the Bay Area has made it a point that they are expecting a 7.0+ quake at any time. Public awareness in school age kids starts before kindergarten. See |
As part of the ‘Earthquake Kit’ that no Aircrewman has failed to assemble at some point in their lives, I would add some skills and training that would easily fit into the next family camping trip. The standard cupboard fare that we keep at home works quite well to meet the ‘Minimum 3 Day’ rule, but if there’s a mandatory evacuation you might well have to shoulder the load and trek out on foot. If you’re lucky then someone’s secured public transportation.
That means person-portable items to keep ready for an indeterminate period of time, and as the Katrina survivors found out, this meant food, clothing, bedding AND clean water or a means to filter dirty water.
Planning on taking the kids and water enough for the entire family means that you’re going to be left with very little room before your own personal Delta-V for walking burns too much energy to carry everything.
From Lightweight Backpacking with Young Children at Backpacking Light:
Infants can’t walk, and letting them crawl to your destination is neither timely nor hygenic. So that means that Mom’s going to carry the baby in a backpack and Dad’s going to shoulder the rest of the gear. Dad may be shocked at the realization that he’s not going to get to carry the same sub-twenty pound pack that he gets to carry on a summer trip with his buddies, but rules are rules!
The bottom line: you’re both going to be shouldering some weight, so slow down, take it easy, and lower your mileage expectations. A great gear list for cold / snowy trips with kids can be downloaded here.
Clearly the same goes for prepping your lightweight version of your Earthquake Kit / Bugout Bag.
Backpacking and lightweight camping is a great way to build important skills, along with building your skills in distributing a family’s load properly with all members shouldering their fair share.
If your kids know how to use their gear, should they ever need to use the mandatory Earthquake Kit at school, it becomes more of a ‘Cool, this is just like camping with Mom and Dad’ experience rather than a traumatizing situation. PMA - positive mental attitude.
As we remember the key to everything is being aware of the tools at hand and survivability programs stressed the value of keeping a level head in a crisis situation. That comes with experience, so get outside and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible while building your family’s knowledge base and confidence.
Kids Hiking Safety - this site has a great philosophy to teach your kids about getting lost/separated. The signal devices every kid should carry while hiking are a whistle and a mirror, add that to a folded up Hefty bag and you’re on it. I recommend putting those three items within the ‘Earthquake Kit’ that most SoCal childcare and preschools have as a mandatory piece of gear.
My son’s preschool asked for specific items within a one gallon Ziploc bag. This had plenty of room for a small flat whistle, non-shatter mirror, and a Hefty bag along with some Neosporin and bandages.
From Hiking With Children:
This is the time to give them a safety whistle, and the beginnings of the essentials in their pack: a snack, some water and a spare layer. Some things that may have been taken for granted now need to be reconsidered: The campsite by the lake, a fire, or the camp spot on the ledge with the great view may now be a safety issue.
In areas where mountain lions and other stalking predators are a concern, simple rules are good. For example, “no running, have a whistle at the ready and always keep in sight of me” might be a good place to start.Other areas to consider are altitude, sunburns, bee stings. just be aware and prepared. Especially for new parents: the built-in awareness that the baby in your backpack is getting sunburned/cold/ bit by bugs may take time to develop, so you need to be extra aware and diligent.
All in all, it’s best to have a good supply of camping gear that you’re familiar with, and to have your kids adapted to camping and hiking.
The Big List — Contents: “The BIG List”
Basically this is meant for your do it yourself BugoutBag. You know, the earthquake kit that every aircrewman keeps…
Andy Brewer passed away this year. I just wanted to put this up here in case anyone wanted to share sea stories about Andy so I can put them up on the main site. Leave a reply with your memories.
I got enough time recently to put an email I recieved up as a memorial page on the site.Two of Andy’s shipmates in that picture, Dewey Thompson and Keith Poole, were instructors of mine as I went through VS-41.
As a personal note, I met Andy at the 2004 decom ceremony. He may have passed on as a civilian, but he will always be an AW, and his legacy lives on.
Ironically, I first met Andy a week prior to my son being born and they share the same name - Andrew Charles.
Quoted from Knoxville News Sentinel:
BREWER, CHARLES A. (ANDY) - age 43, of
Preceded in death by his father, Bill Brewer. Survived by wife, Linda; daughters, Elise and Carley Brewer, Courtney and husband, Leo Jimenez; son, Devin Brewer, all of California; mother and stepfather, Bobbie and Bill Laugherty of Knoxville, Tennessee; brother, Greg Brewer and wife, Vicki of Colts Neck, New Jersey; brother, Jeff Brewer and wife, Dixie of Wheatland, Wyoming.
Family and friends will meet at Woodlawn Cemetery on Monday for 11:00 AM graveside services, Dr. William Sheil, Pastor of First Baptist Church presiding. Arrangements by
We have a memorial letter from an attending AW that was published on redgriffins.org.
LAFD EARTHQUAKE HANDBOOK: PORTABLE AUTO SURVIVAL KIT:
“PORTABLE AUTO SURVIVAL KIT - FROM THE LOS ANGELES CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT’S EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS HANDBOOK”
Taking the Bug Out Bag Ultralight
After all, how else are you going to tote it around?
Paddling Straight Fishing Techniques, Rigging Explanations, Kayak Recommendations and more: “Paddling a Sea Kayak in a Straight Line ”
Okay so some of us own Kayaks. We love to get out there and check out what we can catch while getting a workout. This whole straight line thing is harder than you may think, so here’s a good technique page.
Space for the RedGriffins.org site has been donated by 3nW Corporation. Here’s a little about the company.
3nW Corporation - Focusing On Disruptive Technology:
Disruptive Technology is defined as any technological advance that attempts to meet at least two of the three following conditions: be ten times cheaper than any alternative, provide ten times higher performance, or provide ten times higher functionality. Meeting all three conditions is optimum.
Disruptive Technology is typically not favored by the previous controlling interest or monopoly, and potential users must learn of the benefits through cooperative business development marketing strategies. Disruptive Technology is highly valued by the business or consumer who benefits from lower costs and higher profits. We believe the goals set forth in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) focus of the United Nations will disrupt global operations and business strategy in such a way where within five years, the markets that have held conventional influence will be irrevocably changed.
3nW Corporation has a relentless commitment to quality and seeks to provide clients with new and innovative methods of solving unique problems with the application of new, disruptive technologies. 3nW Corporation remains dedicated to bringing these concepts to the mainstream markets, providing its clients with an edge in the early adoption phase of technology and procedures. Researching and developing new Disruptive Technologies is the internal software development focus of 3nW Corporation.
The project involving veterans is called Vets2Vines and is located in Solano County. 3nW Corporation is a privately held California C Corporation that qualifies for Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise bidding preference by California state, county, and city municipalities.
Some people wonder why I consider myself independent yet vote for Bush. I believe in several key points regarding our Constitution. First, the Executive branch of which the President and his cabinet consist of, are here for our protection. Second, I have seen firsthand the failures of foreign policy in Somalia and Iraq and also North Korea, and realize that historically, appeasement of aggressive nations doesn’t work forever.
Why Bush? I picked up a book on the leadership tactics that he uses in order to understand how he fights a war, or as we used to call it in the military, ‘works a problem’. The way he does it is to pick people who can provide the best solution and let them work the details. By not micromanaging he allows himself to still approve the broad strokes of policy yet not get bogged down in the weeds.
Why not Kerry?
The key issues with Kerry result from his Congressional record and his ambivalence in treating Terrorism as a war. Regardless of the sound bites from this week, his opinion as stated over the long term missed several key foreign policy decisions.
1) Cold War. Not supporting the Reagan effort to win the Cold War shows me that his loyalty will remain with the Party platform, and that he will not commit to tactical and strategic victory over terrorism.
2) Defense and Defense Intelligence cuts in the early 1990s. Here’s an opportunity to show what that five months in-country in Vietnam taught our intrepid naval line officer. Nope. Let’s give the troops even less to work with, and as a direct result human intelligence that could have given us more contact with the growing radical elements of Islamism will never develop.
3) The terrorist threat after 9/11 can somehow return to some level of background noise. Sorry, this doesn’t cut it for me either. It’s all or nothing. Terrorism can win against democracy, because it already did a number in Morocco, where in the early 1990s fundamentalist Islamists were killing young schoolgirls for not wearing headscarves. Sorry, no ostrich head-in-the-sand tactics for me. All that will happen under appeasement is the same as Fallujah; they get time to regroup and rally, and you have to go back and wipe them out. Same thing the UK discovered about Hitler after Chamberlain tried appeasement with the Third Reich.
4) This whole non-reality of bringing in other allies sort of makes me ill when you look at the realistic view that even Kerry embraces. At least GWB is straightforward and honest. Kerry is irritating when you look at the promises that he makes vs. what he knows he can deliver. Others would call that lying. I call it campaign amnesia. Particularly when we’re talking about whether he can deliver on that promise to bring in more European troops and he says he won’t be able to do it - not what he said in the debates. What changed?
National Security is the job and responsibility of the Executive branch. You fail at that, and we’re left with the same thing as Chechens running into Russian schoolhouses and blowing up hundreds of kids. You’re left wondering when terrorists will figure out how to hijack tanker trucks full of gas and use them as smaller versions of aircraft in blowing up buildings.
Earlier in October I posted regarding the threat of terrorism with dirty bombs posed by Iraq. There are plenty of non-WMD attacks that would disrupt the US and create havok.
Living 15 miles from the busiest border crossing in America with seven military bases within ten miles, I am convinced that the number one issue in the US is not the economy, whether Bush will appoint a new Supreme Court Member, health care, education, or any of that. It’s whether I’ll be able to buy a Snickers bar at the local liquor store without getting blown up.
