We went to the Mormon food bank today. There are 110 of them across the USA. Lots of dehydrated foods stored in number 10 cans for good prices. Powered milk that lasts 20 years. Most everything else is 30 year life. https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/food-storage/?lang=eng

Just received my ATN Thor scope today. Its the lower resolution one, but magnification is listed at 4.5x-18x. The first look thru it was just before sundown... it is thermal so it doesn't matter if you use it day or night. I looked across the field 300 yards away and saw a doe and two fawns... she was licking one and the other fawn was jumping around. I couldn't have spotted them with my own eyes but they popped out like crazy in the thermal view. Went out after dark and scanned the yard. It was like daylight... the trailers, the truck... a reflection in the side window of one of the cars. Turns out feathers are a great insulator.. couldn't see the chickens except for their eyes (heat emitting from eyes).

I mounted the laser range finder on the end of it at first, but it made the whole thing damn near as long as the barrel of my AR.... so I side mounted it. I have not calibrated it or paired to the scope yet. It speaks bluetooth to the scope and the scope will display the range and do all the point of impact calculations on screen. The default brightness setting of the screen is high enough that it blinds me in one eye when I put down the scope.... I finally found where to dim it in the menu. Changing the color palette (black is hot or whitehot or rainbow colors) is not quick to get to... I guess that's ok because once you get used to it, you'll never change it again.

The bad... it's the heaviest scope I've ever owned. You are going to need a bipod. They sell it as a zoom scope such as 4.5x to 18x.... but there is NO optical zoom.... the image sensor is 384pixels and all they do is digitally zoom the image. Once you get about 1/2 way thru the zoom factor, the image becomes very pixelated. There must be some special lenses inside the thing... if you look at window glass you see the temperature of the window... but the sensor must see thru a magnifying set of optics that are invisible to IR light.... that's amazing. Anyway, if you buy this (or any other mid-level) scope don't expect much out of the zoom function. I was able to ID the horses and those three deer at 300 yards easily on 4.5x base level zoom.

Pistol shooting diagnostics.

Sundown at Coffin Rock. Worth the read.

Fire drill du jour: how are your feet? If the power is out you won’t have a way to easily dry shoes. Do you have work boots and shoes? Socks? Lots of socks? Say this with me out loud… esso see Kay esssss. Socks. When I was a kid we used old plastic bags that bread came in inside our shoes to keep socks and feet dry.

Folks, research an know the laws. There was a man who heard a noise and looked out into his front yard to see someone bent over inside his pickup truck. He shouted for the man to stay put and he fled. He was shot in the back of the head... with a pistol... running... in the dark. The home owner was arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter. His defense was SC statute SECTION 17-13-20. This statute describes the manner in which a citizen may affect an arrest. Item 'E" in this law says "flees when hailed".

A citizen may arrest a person in the nighttime by efficient means as the darkness and the probability of escape render necessary, even if the life of the person should be taken, when the person:

(a) has committed a felony;

(b) has entered a dwelling house without express or implied permission;

(c) has broken or is breaking into an outhouse with a view to plunder;

(d) has in his possession stolen property; or

(e) being under circumstances which raise just suspicion of his design to steal or to commit some felony, flees when he is hailed.

Here is the article in the news about it from a few years ago. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article60220116.html .

Learn the laws. Print the interesting ones and keep in your wallet. Often the police don't know or don't want to admit knowing the law.

The homeowner's attorney presented the law I just mentioned at the grand jury and they refused to indict. The Kershaw County Grand Jury returned a no-bill on charges of voluntary manslaughter against Jimmy Joe Methe, the 49-year-old east Camden man arrested a month ago for fatally shooting 17-year-old Brandon Scott Spencer during what appeared to be an attempt to break into one of Methe’s vehicles. A no-bill means the grand jury declined to indict Methe, effectively dropping the charge. Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s Office Director of Communications Nicole Holland confirmed the grand jury’s decision late Thursday afternoon, but said Solicitor Dan Johnson had no comment at the time.

Does anyone have PDF copies of elementary school and middle school books for homeschooling? For those interested my school books have been posted here in PDF format previously.

Any of you considering solar should invest in a power meter first. This one is recommended by a friend and doesn’t cost too much. https://shop.emporiaenergy.com/products/gen-2-emporia-vue-with-16-sensors-bundle

You connected to your main 200 amp feeds coming in and it also has 16 individual CT’s to monitor 16 additional devices. Pro tip: you can run more than one wire through one of the CTs. For example you can combine two bedroom circuits in to one reading. You know, just on case your house has more than 16 circuits.

Use this device to look for phantom loads. Use this device to accurately estimate your electrical usage so you can make a better decision about how much sewer you need.

Ive got a question for the group... we've moved into a new house and the AC is 4.5tons. It runs for a very brief time and shuts back off. The house is 4800 sq ft, but extremely well insulated. So I want to get a smaller heat pump.... I'm looking at something that is top quality for the best efficiency because we are 100% solar off grid. A friend replaced a 20 year old heat pump with a Daiken minisplit with cassette and has raved about the improvement. I'm strongly considering this brand.... but I want to ask about geo thermal. It seems you can trench the yard 4-6' deep instead of drilling wells, and you can use a back hoe to dig out a wide ditch and simply place coils of pex tubing in them. So does anyone know about this stuff? I need an education.

I was looking at an old bush hog and broken rotary tine tiller over the weekend and it occurred to me that I could park them at the gate to block it. Would you drive your truck over a bush hog with parts of it sticking up? Finally a use for old “yard treasures”.

Good cutaway of how a remmington 870 works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21uh28Z77Xg

Fire up your smokers! Happy Thanksgiving to all our subscribers

Bonus points if you're eating a turkey you hunted