Darrell

And my ice-dam is getting close to collapsing:

This is the county road I must take to get to town, and my own driveway, which I cleared as best I could a few days ago. I know the county doesn't have the snow-clearing equipment to keep the county roads clear, but if it had been plowed right after the snow it would be fine now. Obviously, quite a few people are driving on it, but I'll wait another day.

For goodness sake, don't tell that story to Joe Biden!

You might want to load a few of those primers into cases without any powder or bullets, and test them out in a firearm. I bought a bunch of old primers last summer and one case of them just fizzed, so I had to dispose of them. Better to find otu before loading the ammo. Check out Berry's bullets for plinking rounds.

You can find real bargains if you look around at Ham swap meets, eBay, etc. My first rig was a Heathkit that I built, but that really wasn't inexpensive. An older radio can provide a lot of hours of entertainment, you don't need the super-whiz-bang stuff to make contacts. I think my HF radio is about 20 years old now, and I bought it new. I expect it will keep working until I die.

Well, I live at a little bit of elevation, surely not in a valley, and we have 6" of frozen snow on the ground right now, and a passable but hazardous road to civilization. My expectation is that it will melt tomorrow and Tuesday... at least I hope so.

When I was a young Jarhead I used to love to take my old pickup to Lake Arrowhead and snow camp during the winter. There was never anyone else there, and a weekend of fishing and solitude was great. You, however, are FAR tougher than I ever was if you can do that with a bunch of kids!

Five below on my porch this morning. I've had enough now.

If you are atop a hill you will probably be able to communicate 50 miles using a repeater, and maybe even without. 2-meters, which is where most of your inexpensive hand-held rigs operate, is line-of-sight. So if on a clear day if you can see the other community, you should be able to talk. Repeaters allow much longer range communications because they are often located on high ground and they almost always run more power. A mobile unit, the kind you would mount in your car, will likely have 50 watts of power. More power means longer comms, all else being equal. A decent 50W mobile rig can be found used for $100-$150. You can make your own antenna for a few bucks, or buy one for a few bucks more. You can mount a mobile unit in your home, of course, but you'll need a 12v battery or a 12v power supply. All that stuff can be found used pretty easily. Probably the easiest way to get on the air is to find an "Elmer", an experienced ham who will help you. Again, a local ham radio club will have people who will be anxious to mentor. There's a repeater in Waverly, and it's owned by the Three Rivers Amateur Radio Club. Here is some contact info: https://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/three-rivers-amateur-transmitting-societ It looks like they offer beginner classes.

I scraped the top layer off my driveway this afternoon when the sun was shining. Now I have a skating rink out there. I did a Fred Flintstone with the flying feet when I almost fell on my butt. Maybe the sun will shine again tomorrow?

Perhaps there's a ham club somewhere near you. If so, they will welcome you to a meeting and help you understand the hobby a little better. A technician license and a cheap two-meter hand-held are a good way to dip your toes in. But if, like me and GGG, you find that you like it, you can spend big bucks. Just like our shooting hobby. Like GGG, I am also an Extra, but I almost never get on two-meters. I prefer Morse, but I admit I've not been on the air much since arriving in TN five years ago. I need to get an antenna up, I guess!

For a two-meter radio, like the Baofeng, only a tech license is required. You can buy a study guide, devote a few evenings, and easily pass the test. Two-meters is line-of-site, so it may not be real useful in a "situation", though. Most of us use them with repeaters, and those may or may not work under difficult circumstances. I have two of the little Baofeng transceivers that my wife and use under certain circumstances, but they're very low power and won't communicate too far without a repeater. Well, they'll communicate to the moon or to a satellite with 5 watts, but that's a different subject.

True indeed, but under SHTF circumstances.... who's gonna write the ticket?

If I look from the end, there's actually a tunnel of ice above the gutters. So the water from the melting ice will still run through the gutters until the whole shebang slips off the roof. Seems to happen every winter and so far there's been no damage.

That's what I get for going out to the barn for an hour. Very nice knives, congrats to the buyers.

I really like Ruger #1's. I have four of them. But darn it, I don't see myself going to Africa to hunt buffalo or elephants. Beautiful rifle, though, and someone is going to treasure it.

My guess is that if there are going to be major problems, they will manifest in larger cities. I live in a small community and have no fear at all of any kind of disruption locally. But I can imagine scenarios that might make food distribution to supermarkets difficult. It's probably wise to think about the possibilities, but right now I'm not very worried at all.

One more thing to consider would be liability insurance.

Passports to Alaska? Did Russia take it back?

My drive-clearing operation wasn't too successful. But I did manage to scrape an inch or three of snow off the top of the ice using my tractor and FEL. Maybe MacGyver can send a kid over.....

I'm going to clear my driveway this afternoon. The sun is working on it now, and if I can get most of the snow off then I think the sun will finish the ice. Even though I expect more ice overnight, it should clear more quickly without the snow.

Fair enough.

The .243 has been a popular round for deer and varmint for decades. I see ammo at Wal Marche from time to time, but I prefer handloads. I bought my first .243 a few months ago. I was thinking about an inexpensive Savage, but ended up with a Ruger #1. It's a good shooter, and the recoil is very light. I can see why it's such a popular round.

I was surprised that our mailman delivered yesterday. The country roads out here are a frozen mess. There was no letter mail, but we got a couple of packages and our mailman delivers eggs, too. (He has chickens and keeps us supplied, what a guy!) It's a balmy 14 this morning in Hebbertsburg, and my dog doesn't want to come back in after her morning constitutional.