The Urban Survivalist

With a new bike purchase comes a sorry attempt to justify it. Everyone knows that they're dangerous. Cargo space is at a premium and if you've got a whole family to worry about then you won't be packing them up on the back and hauling them anywhere. They do have several advantages over other forms of transportation, though. Improved gas mileage is the most obvious advantage over cars and trucks. The biggest, baddest, most gas guzzling bikes get gas mileage that's on par with "economy cars". With the price of gas on the rise and the likelihood of it getting much more expensive the economics of riding a motorcycle is only getting more appealing. Motorcycles can go places that your car can't. As long as you're not riding an 800 pound cruiser you'll have plenty of maneuverability. If there's a real emergency then one of the worst possible situations could be getting stuck in traffic. In an emergency getting around a traffic jam is a lot...

Back in February I made a post about the AK chest rig that I use. A reader just emailed me a link to some mods that you can do. I knew that it would be easy to make some mods and I intended to do something like this myself eventually but just in case I never get around to it myself I figured I'd post the link. Check it out here . He shows how he added some clips to make it easier to adjust and take it on and off. He also provides a link to find some shoulder pads for it. I'll be doing something similar as soon as I get around to buying myself a sewing machine.

As if my garden wasn't keeping me busy enough I just bought a new bike. Don't expect too many updates as long as it's nice outside :). Here is a pic of the garden. I also broke ground in another corner of the yard and planted a few more tomato plants. I'll probably put up a more detailed post later. Here's the new BOV. It's a Virago 750 with less than 8k miles. It runs like a champ and didn't break the bank. Hopefully it won't break me anytime soon.

Target has some emergency preparedness knick knacks in their $1 bin. Some of the things that I saw were mini first aid kits, light sticks, emergency blankets, inflatable pillows, Cutter bug spray, cheapo swiss army knives, flashlights, splinter removal kits, a 5 in 1 emergency whistle and some small lexan bottles. There were probably a few other things that I can't remember. I got this tip from Arfcom so I'm assuming that it's the same at Targets everywhere.

The price of oil has been getting a lot of media attention in the last couple of days. $10-$14 a gallon gas is just over the horizon! People will starve because they're pouring all of their money into their gas tanks! American Airlines wants to charge $15 for carry on luggage to help offset fuel costs! It's all big oil's fault! The speculator's are driving up prices! This is probably just a bubble that we have to figure out how to pop! There has to be an answer! We've all seen this coming for a while but now that it's getting to the general public they're demanding action. Realistically, there's only one answer. I'll get to that later, though. Whether or not we've hit peak oil there are a few things that we've got to realize. Production isn't going up. Whether or not OPEC can pump more oil they're not doing it. They've demonstrated that they're perfectly happy keeping production at the current level or even a bi...

The end is inevitable! The writing is on the wall! We're watching it all unfold as we speak! I've been seeing this type of stuff pop up more and more lately because of things like the natural disasters that have been occurring, gas prices and the economy. Part of the problem is the ready availability and ease of distribution of information. This is a new phenomenon. We don't have to rely on the mainstream media to tell us what's going on on the other side of the world, anymore. It's a lot harder to let things go unreported. When a disaster happens we know the details almost immediately after the fact no matter where it happened in the world. Instead of reading about it in the morning paper or waiting until the 6 o'clock news to find out about it we get it all shoved down our throats 24/7 on the internet and on 24 hour news channels. Basically in the last decade or so we've been hit with doom and gloom overload. Another problem is the fact that the eart...

I've been hitting it hard in the yard again. I finished my dog's pen and I got most of the work done on my garden. When I'm finished I'll have 5 or 6 4x4 square foot garden planters in the back yard. I plan on concentrating more on obscure cash crops. Heirloom tomatoes sell for around $5-$10 a pound around here. Exotic peppers are pretty close. It's amazing how much people will pay for stuff that they can just grow in their back yard. I'm also going to plant some hops vines (the "how to homebrew with your preps" post is coming once I finish my all grain setup). I'll be eating a lot of what I produce but I want to use it for supplemental income as well. "Normal" produce is so cheap that I just can't justify doing all that work to get stuff that I can buy for a couple of bucks. Even with most food prices going through the roof fresh fruits and vegetables are still really cheap.