ShopTalk Sunday: Combat Loading – Material Handling

Actual progress around the Ure joint, even with the house guest this week.  Elaine’s son is an extremely useful fellow.  Having run something of a Home Handyman Service before going to work for the post office.

Hard to explain to people sometimes, how useful (and valuable!) that wide range of “hands-on” work can be.  Seems like takes all the mistakes made over time and presents variants to ensure not only that we have internalized the lesson from a specific job, but that we have also generalized the concept into extensibility for all situations.

This may sound childish (if not outright pedantic) but it seems to us that there are two types of learning.  The kind where you are interested and have a possible future use for knowledge versus the “rote learning” in school of the required, just pass the test sort.

As an example, in grad school, there was a lot of this “pass the test” sort of learning.  Yep, 4.0 average, but could I remember how to fit chi squares?  No.  An example of rote knowledge.  If I ever need the skill, one of the old math books on the shelf has the short version of the steps.  No point filling up the mental storage container with things I don’t need.

ON the other hand, if it’s something you love doing, all the directly related learning – and reprocessing of older but related knowledge – makes sense.  So, when I was flying, for example, the study of inadvertent stall recovery included well-beyond rote accumulation from an aeronautical engineering book.  It saved my life more than once.

There are just some kinds of knowledge that, should you ever need it, as in an inadvertent accelerated stall condition, where there just won’t be time to find the cheat-sheet.

Area where cheat-sheets are useless include (as I was sharing with a subscriber this week) situational awareness and street crime. Plus, through into domestic warfare.  To put it simply, there will not be time for cheat-sheets.  You are either prepped between the ears or you’re (pardon my Sunday language!) fukt.

Combat Loading

Standard way of thinking in a firefighting family, but again, don’t know how many jobs and lives actually integrate the deep learning about Material Handling embodied in military operations and in para-military forces like Fire, Police, and Paramedics.

My first exposure to the phrase “combat loading” came at about age 10.  Pappy had purchased a 1959 Ford, six-cylinder, manual shift, four-door.  The motive for the purchase was the car’s roofline was plenty long enough to put the 8-foot fiberglass fishing boat on.  And the truck was HUGE!!!

Pappy being an avid outdoorsman took to going camping for a 20-year stretch, or so.  Good for the kids to learn to “rough it” was his feeling.  Especially since the Cold War was on.

“Come help me load the trunk.  I’m going to teach you combat loading” was the plan.

Over the next 20-minutes of loading the car, the process became clear:  Load material in a last-used first manner.  At the end of the 20-minute loading process, spare clothing (except poncho’s) had gone in first.  Next were the sleeping bags – all five of them. Then the layer of camping food.  On top of this went the camp stove.  And finally, it was all “topped off” with the tent and the ponchos.

Combat loading is planning your next moves ahead so that when you get to your destination, the material will come out in the order you’re going to need it.

“What’s the first thing in making camp?  Putting up the tent, and so that’s the last thing you load.  The ponchos too because it looks like rain the first night. Ponchos last so we don’t get soaked setting up camp.”

lights went on.  I was having serial epiphanies.  I could apply the same principle to my book bag and a host of other organizationally challenging situations. Why don’t all parents teach this?  Even applies in how I would later organize my brain.

The Visitor Use Case

Elaine’s son accompanied me on the “lumber run” Friday.  There are a host of important projects going and $371 worth of wood was needed.

“Take the yellow copy out to the yard and they will load you up…”

We pulled the truck around and I issued the instructions:  “We’ll want the 4-by-4’s and the 5-quarter decking in first.  Then we’ll take the sheet of birch ply, and we’ll finish with the sheetrock.

“OK, follow me…”

Young lady on the forklift was amicable and efficient.  Even red flagging the load. though even zealous cops won’t usually pull you over for an unflagged load as long as it doesn’t protrude past the edge of the tailgate in the down position. Still, risk avoidance is cheap, so why not.

Driven by the Work Plan:  This loading discussion might seem a bit over-the-top, but there’s a little more to it.  Just like going camping, was a “work order ahead” and one of the Firehouse Rules (followed by firefighters who build houses on the off shift) is that you “NEVER HANDLE MATERIALS MULTIPLE TIMES (if it can be avoided)”

Since my projects for this week are “rough in and tape ceiling damage in the guest room, lam up the radial saw table, build two more 2-foot-high raised beds, and replace weakening decking on the BBQ deck, the load when in using reverse order loading.

On the left side of the truck bed:

Hard to see the plywood under the sheetrock.  But here’s the right side of the truck bed with the decking:

And since there was a nice, smooth piece of plywood for a work top, it was easy to slice out the sheetrock without making a bunch of “monkey motion stops” at the workbench and such.  The required pieces were cut en bed like so:

(Your tool for every purpose collection does have a sheetrock square, right?)

After cutting right in the truck bed, the big replacement hunks were carried in an pushed up into place:

(No that’s the adhesive in the sheet rock, not mold that looks dark!)

As of tomorrow, I’ll finish the rocking with the couple of small holes that are left.

Which will then be cut back a little lower (OK, higher because it’s the ceiling and I don’t know your reference datum) and fire-taped.

There you have it:

  • Combat load everything in Life.

Even shopping, frozen items in the trunk last because they go right to the freezer(s). Then refrigerated foods, and the warm veggies and caned and dry goods.  This is all like Last-In, First-Out (LIFO accounting).  Just like in life generally, be wary of First-In, – First Out (FIFO) accounting, vehicle loading, and rotation of your prepped goods.  Don’t fall for it.  LIFO or rethink it.

  • MMM: Minimized Material Movement. The idea is to get everything in life done with minimal effort>maximal effect.

An example is the kitchen.

When you put things back after using (like the pizza wheel) then it should be relatively simple to find. However, obviously, simple rules like combat loading do not work or apply where a person of the opposite sex is involved.  They may have a different loading philosophy entirely (such as one based on size or color of objects) which will be incomprehensible for the typical male.

Write when you sort that out.

George@Ure.net

43 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: Combat Loading – Material Handling”

    • When you joint sheetrock, the process is to
      1) get the hole set up for sheetrock with supports
      2) cut the sheetrock
      3) screw into position
      4) flat-fill the big gaps first
      5) apply joint tape over a thin layer of mud. there are two types of tape
      a) conventional tape. Made of paper-based material – easy to work and generally flat
      b) fire tape which will do the same function but has a “fire rating” (usually one hour) which means that a sheetrocked wall with fire tape should be able to (on paper anyway) withstand and hour of fire exposure.
      A lot more expensive (take a look at https://amzn.to/3IyxMsC which is what we use) but worth your life in a house fire.

  1. yeah I’m the combat loader and organized part of our marriage. In her defense though, while if a certain object that has no set place to locate it, she’ll just toss it into a closet and get on with cleaning the house. If it were up to me the house wouldn’t get cleaned until I had built a new cabinet for said object, varnished and installed it which might take a few weeks and a couple six packs.

  2. “but could I remember how to fit chi squares? ”

    i hear ya G….lol lol lol.. Logs, and moles…
    https://sciencing.com/calculate-moles-4828641.html
    https://www.vedantu.com/formula/logarithm-formula
    I use to do logs and moles as part of my job.. it was such a common thing that I didn’t need a slide rule ( old time calculator) or a piece of paper and pencil.. I could do it in my head while working.. then I moved on..years later..I was sitting at the desk doing my charts.. and a couple college kids were talking about how hard of a time they were having with them.. in my mind.. I thought give it to me I will show you how dumb easy this is.. told them let me look at it a moment.. and realized… use it or loose it has a meaning of practicality.. I had forgotten how..it would have come back in time but since I didn’t do it daily.. I had lost the ability..
    the same thing getting blood drawn.. had to get a test done..old guy came to do it.. the common question..you done this before..yup been doing this thirty years.. OMG… he dug and dug.. after an extended time and finally before I fringed I said..would you like me to do it quick.. I thought you did this before..they got the kid with pimples to come out and draw the sample all while telling me about his date.. the old guy.. he was the director of the lab..yes he did it but that was thirty years earier..he used a pencil and sat at a stupid desk..he knew how..but had lost the ability..
    use it or loose it..
    we have an old retired grocer.. he could take a sheet filled with figures run his finger down and give the answer..faster than a kid can punch the numbers into a calculator.. now its been ten years since he retired..I’m curious since he doesn’t need that ability ..can he still do it..

    • “that I didn’t need a slide rule ( old time calculator)”

      Now that brings back memories. For my final physics, calculus, trig exams 60 years ago, all we could bring to the exam room was a pencil and a slide rule. Could we ever make that baby hum. I can’t even imagine handing something like this to a student today.

      https://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Slide-Rule

      • I did everything I could to avoid college math courses. Did OK in HS but my mind just doesn’t work that way. Thank goodness my degree which is normally from the Business School for some strange reason at my University was under the Poly Sci Dept (Arts and Science) though I did need a reasonable amount of math and some programming for it. Because the degree was coming from the College of Arts and Sciences I was able to dodge the math dept and take my math courses in other BA departments, which are about 10 times easier than those taught in the Math Dept. WHEW!!

        The downside? Being A&S and getting a BA vs a BS I had to pass the FINAL class of the second year of a foreign language in order to graduate from College and it was the Spring Quarter of my final year and I hadn’t done that yet. I almost didn’t graduate because of that.

        Finagled my way into that final class withOUT having passed the prerequisite, walked into that class the first day and OH MY GOD the chairman of the Dept was teaching it and HE KNEW ME and KNEW I had not done the prerequisites!! … AND knew could NOT speak a lick of Spanish!! and shouldn’t be there.

        Alas he let me stay in the class with the warning that he wasn’t going to just pass me just so I could graduate, but lucky me that class ended up being mostly reading and composing which I could kinda do … and I actually ended up with a REAL”B”!! OMG Later ran into him and he said it was a legit “B”, he did NOT grade of a curve fwiw, and he was happy to give it since I earned it.

        OH … and for the math I had to do in college a Slide Rule was the only way to do parts of it unless one wanted to spend hours over in the Bus School Lab with their Monroe mechanical calculators. Nothing electronic back then.

        STILL never had a Calculus course and hope to finish this life without ever having taken one!! I guess NO MBA is in the cards for me! LOL

        • I never got a degree.. I had dumbed myself down to fit in..( I tell all my kids don’t do that go to school get the sheet of paper that everyone sees as important) I did chlenge the tests at GWU so I could take a course only open to Jr’s. and seniors.. got my course..
          had a family and never any money to afford a college degree..

        • Calculus killed me the first time around.

          Then I discovered:

          When you shoot a basketball, your brain is performing a series of integral calculus equations, instantaneously. You are estimating the force required to put the ball in the hole, and estimating the effort every muscle that’s involved in initiating that force must produce. If you’re outside, you are also computing windage.

          When you drive a car, when someone stops in front of you, you estimate the amount of force you will have to apply to the brakes, to avoid an unsatisfactory interview with said driver’s insurance adjuster. If your estimate is in error, the police reconstructionist will use differential calculus to estimate how fast you were going when your car did the bump & grind.

          We use trig and calculus all the time, probably thousands of times a day, without ever noticing it, because they are standard functions of our brains. ‘Problem is, professors want everyone to know how smart they are, so they write absolute shit in such a manner as to obfuscate the ease with which things are done in the real world, to make everyone think they’re actually smarter than a bag of hammers.

          They’re not.

          The truly intelligent individual, who has an actual knowledge of his vocation, simplifies things so average people with average backgrounds and average intelligence can understand both the concept and the execution of whatever it is he’s teaching.

          Einstein was truly intelligent. He could’ve taught introductory physics to an average Jr-High science class, without adjusting a single word from one of his lectures at Columbia…

          Calculus is easy. Calculus books are written by self-important intellectual idiots…

          BTW, BigBro had a 6″ bamboozled pocket Pickett. By the time I got to kollege I was a arithmagician in my own mind, because I had a aluminium 12″ Pickett (I might even still have it, somewhere) which we learned how to use in 9th Grade math (along with those God-awful mechanical calculators…)

        • “‘Problem is, professors want everyone to know how smart they are, so they write absolute shit in such a manner as to obfuscate the ease with which things are done in the real world, to make everyone think they’re actually smarter than a bag of hammers.”

          LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
          I never looked at it that way @Ray… LOL LOL LOL
          LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
          I believe the six inch picket is what I have to.. don’t have a clue where it is.. don’t need it and my phone has a calculator on it LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
          I don’t know if I could still use it it has been so long.. I still have the pocket square.. that dam thing like the tape measure gets used ALL the time.. hate it when I leave it someplace.. the same with this little gem similar to my small pocket square this thing is used a lot more than I want to admit I use it LOL..

          https://www.amazon.com/Sliding-Vernier-Caliper-Measuring-Optional/dp/B07B49JHLX/ref=asc_df_B07B49JHLX/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=343955349764&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8695973558779228306&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9020398&hvtargid=pla-615913195436&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=67569293005&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=343955349764&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8695973558779228306&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9020398&hvtargid=pla-615913195436

          got to say for the ten bucks.. I have a small plastic one to that I keep around in the garage I think i picked that one up for a dollar at lowes or someplace.. my wife calls the crap I carry… my pocket toys LOL LOL she can’t see why I need to have them quick to grab… LOL LOL..
          https://www.amazon.com/General-Tools-300-Precision-Stainless/dp/B00004T7SW/ref=sr_1_7?

          https://www.amazon.com/Dewalt-DWHT33028M-Magnetic-Pocket-Measure/dp/B07X31163G/ref=sr_1_22?

        • I’m finding all this calculus chat fairly humorous, so I’m going to defend calculus books from Ray’s “calculism” (this could be a new victim class). Having had many calculus books for the many calculus classes I took in three different universities, and having also tutored calculus students, I’ve rarely, if ever, had a problem with one. There may have been an occasional book that was a bit obtuse, but this would have been an exception. I’ll venture a guess that the car he mentioned whose braking involved “intuitive” calculus couldn’t have been manufactured without the knowledge some engineers gained from a calculus book. Case dismissed?

          Now on to the topic of slide rules, which is amazingly coincidental with my recent desire to acquire one so I’ll be able to keep my rice and beans inventory current when the grid goes down, amongst other mathematical chores. I dislike arithmetic so much that learning to use a slide rule would be preferable to an intuitive inventory in my head. If this creates cognitive dissonance because of my previous statements on calculus, I can only repeat what a calculus prof said in class: “Everything through calculus is arithmetic, and after that math starts.”

          Whatever, never in any of my math classes was a slide rule required, nor did I ever see anyone using one, so their use by so many here surprises me. I presumed slide rules are mainly engineering tools. But now I want one! I’ll learn how to use it after I get it. I looked for one several years ago, with no success. I’m hoping that someone among the slide rule users here knows where I can find one at a reasonable price.

        • Tumbleweed: Understand my initial issue with Calc was, when I took it in high school, I couldn’t understand the reason for, nor see the practicality of it. It was not until I glomed onto what it was, that I became happy with its study.

          For slide rules, bamboo is the gold standard. When I was a kid, a simple bamboo slide rule cost a day’s wages for a machinist or engineer. A complicated one (more scales, more computational ability) could cost a couple weeks’ wages. The one I had in HS and college was an aluminum rule with a yellow scale — came in a cheap leather (probably leatherette) holster, and cost about a day’s wages for a store clerk or secretary. Pickett isn’t the only game in town, but they are the Brown & Sharpe of slide rules.

          Your best bet is eBay, but I suggest you find 1-2 “slide rule aficionado” websites and read, first,

      • In my 1974 physics class, we could use a slide rule, which I hated and was NOT proficient at… or we could use one of the new scientific calculators, the HP-35. I drove 100miles each way to Minneapolis to buy a $400 calculator to do trig functions. I was the envy of the class. By second semester TI had come out with their model at half the price, and several more had appeared in class.

        • A couple of years ago I visited a museum of antique technology in Sweden. Right next to a 1968 Saab (my first new car) was the same model slide rule I used in college. I knew then that I was old.

        • dam.. I loved my slide rule.. I haven’t used it in decades..I probably would have to learn how to use it all over again..but dam… I’d never have run to buy a calculator if I had a choice..

        • Must be nice…

          I was never in a class which allowed calculators, let alone allowed them on tests. Paper or slide rule only, and several didn’t even allow the slide rule for tests. We had to know it and be able to work it out, or flunk it.

        • Memories…

          Buddy studying EE ponied up $325 for either an HP-45 or HP-35 that year. I purchased a nine-year-old Buick Skylark for the same amount of money.

          His need was to do well in his lab work; I needed transportation to the part-time job paying my tuition.

      • LOL LOL boy do I Know that.. my kids wouldn’t have a clue how to use one.. if they can’t punch it into a computer.. it doesn’t exist.. LOL LOL
        what is funny though.. is I use to have all the numbers memorized.. all phone numbers.. account numbers.. etc.. now they are punched into my pocket brain LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL.. I wouldn’t have a clue on them..
        I still have my slide rule to.. someplace I think it is in the tool box.. haven’t used it in over thirty years.. the other thing I had.. and a cute story on.. is my pocket square.. LOL LOL LOL LOL I use to carry both in my shirt pocket to use when I needed it.. and a tape measure.. anyway when I was at the cabinet shop one of the bosses was talking about how he forgot his pocket square.. I reached in my pocket and took mine out handed it to him.. he had the damdest look on his face.. whats this.. a pocket square..
        what he was looking for was his stupid hankey LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL I never knew that hankey’s were called pocket squares.. mine was a real pocket square LOL had that my slide rule and a depth gauge in my shirt pocket.. a tape measure in my pants pocket.. OH HEY I STILL CARRY THE TAPE measure.. LOL LOL a little nine footer LOL LOL..

      • the kids wouldn’t know how to use one.. but they all get an abacus when they are first learning how to count and do math….

        https://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Abacus-Educational-Counting/dp/B00005BVRQ?th=1

        which is basically the same thing as a slide rule.. amazing tool.. I believe one of those is on the shelf in front of me in a box. I would buy a bunch of them just for gifts…. I get one for every grandkid to play with and show them how to use it.. another amazing tool…

  3. G: nice photo tour ATR. The second set of hands is worth ten. Lucky! I miss my son especially 10 minutes at a time. Sigh, write when you get loaded, Egor

  4. The combat loading sounds like it would be applicable to a fellow living in the mountains and traveling to work gigs.
    Choice of vehicles is very personal, but AWD is mandatory for the mountains. Accessories should include surge protection. Best source for training videos and parts is:
    https://m.youtube.com/@disasterprepper/videos

    I tend to organize supplies into two containers: a mid-size backpack with a decent load-carry waist belt, and a large duffle. The pack is a walk-home bag, which contains emergency first aid and supplies needed to go on foot. The duffle has everything else, and is sort of a giant possibles bag.
    A good place to start with supplies for a vehicle is one of Tony Nester’s books, “Surviving a Disaster…”, which is available on Amazon.
    Other trip and weather dependent stuff gets layered around and over the top, or into the back seat.
    For winter travel, I would add a flat of water, a good sleeping bag, and candles.
    Typically survival authors aren’t much for electronics. Add a 12vdc powered USB power supply, a DC battery charger, and a multi-band radio.
    That’s enough for one morning. Have a good week all.

    • “I tend to organize supplies into two containers: a mid-size backpack with a decent load-carry waist belt, and a large duffle. The pack is a walk-home bag, which contains emergency first aid and supplies needed to go on foot. The duffle has everything else, and is sort of a giant possibles bag.”

      Me, too, ‘cept I only use a gym-sized duffle. The backpack serves as a 3-day GO-Bag, but the duffle extends things out past a week or two, and doubles as an overnight bag, with a full change of clothes (including insulated jeans…) I also use one of those tough tubs. The thick PVC will still shatter in the cold, but they’re a lot more robust than the thin PVC ones. The tub is for if I get stranded in-vehicle, the backpack & duffle are for if I have to hoof it…

      • Think of adding one of the BIG WHEEL luggage carts so as to carry the duffle bag. (forget one with dinky wheels, you need something that can easily traverse cobblestone streets /sidewalks and go up curbs – ie: the LARGEST wheels you can find)

        Over the years and many trips to Europe if I am needing to carry a LOT of stuff vs what will fit in just an oversized book bag size bag (my PREFERRED travel size bag), I have found that to be the solution. I have used mine many times and walked probably hundreds of miles towing it behind me with my “stuff”, or sometimes the stuff for 2. One trip I ended up on crutches for most of the time there … and could still tow that little luggage cart behind me as I crutched my way no and off trains, subways, buses, and through a number of cities (and bars :-) ) with no problems. MUCH easier and less effort than trying to use a full size backpack imo!! Full size backpacks are a PITA when it comes to riding public transit where you are on and off several times a day, plus they tire you out if you have to wear it ALL DAY LONG as you try to visit a city.

        I keep one in each car for “just in case I need it” situations.

        • I have a folding luggage cart with decent wheels which folds flat. I will give that a thought. Suppose I need to ferry heavy stuff a relatively short distance – that might work. I have used it carry heavy stuff out of Big Box stores. Going cross-country it would be less advantageous.

        • I’ve got one of those giant duffels on wheels, somewhere. I used it to haul a portable video recording studio to remotes. Cams, lenses, tripods, mics, mixers, monitors, batteries, chargers, video tape, etc. ‘Haven’t seen it in 20 years. I could pack that thing with everything I’d need to live for a year, and still not fill it…

      • I like the tub. If I were in a colder climate, a sled tub might be of interest.
        My frame is no longer up to hauling 60 pounds, so I have no intent of trying to hoof it with a backpack and a duffle.
        I too keep a change of clothes, and a set of mid-to-heavy long underwear in the duffle. The duffle has automotive tools and bushcraft items which can be lashed to the pack. Nothing fancy or expensive. Am I looking at 24 hrs or 36 hrs to whatever? Hopefully I have time to reconfigure, not starting off on what passes for a dead run hoping I am not going to be shot in the back.
        Multiple sets of hiking socks and liners and a good civilian poncho are in the walk-home bag. I don’t want anything that looks military showing from the outside.
        Severe incident first aid items are in the pack, including anti-clotting kit and tourniquets. Sunblock goes in the pack. There is a headlamp. Very basic food prep and fire-starting kit are in the pack. And yes, I have a genuine all-metal Chinese can opener. I have a sharp, and a multi-tool. There is very basic water storage and filtration in the pack. A larger collapsible water jug is in the duffle (by now you understand I am not going anywhere with the duffle on foot, because I have to partially empty it to pick it up).
        I keep one lifeboat ration chunk in the pack. I have enough parachute line in the pack to improvise a shelter with the poncho. There is a lightweight general purpose survival kit stuck in the bottom of the pack. Jackets and sleeping bags are seasonal trip-dependent add-ons. I might add hiking boots for specific circumstance, but I normally wear serviceable walking shoes or boots anyway. Again, reading some of Tony Nester’s material is a good place to pick up ideas. Tony lived in fire country for many years, and his material is sound.

        • “The duffle has automotive tools and bushcraft items which can be lashed to the pack.”

          These are in the tub — stuff like a hand axe (Fiskars, Finnish, with holster) and my trenching shovel (real Ames, MIL-Spec, tempered steel, with the serrated side sharpened to knife-specs. The later shovel like mine, with the steel “D” handle, makes a terrifying CQB weapon, and the handle makes it nearly impossible to take one away from someone.) My kids carry their machetes in their tubs and I probably would, except I’m using the damn’ thing all the time. I do carry a Silky GomBoy saw (Swedish Solingen steel, sharp as a razor blade, and was about $13 when I bought it, BB. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D8OGL34 ), air compressor, Fix-a-Flat, Visqueen and 3/8 poly rope, rug (to lie on, to work under a car), dry kindling — pretty much everything I have in the duffle, only super-sized. I don’t carry my toolboxes in the tub because they’re in and out frequently.

          I have a second tub which contains my cold weather gear — clothes and outerwear that’s good to -62°F, but I never carry that unless I’m going into the mountains or places like International Falls and the UP, where temps can hit -50. I also carry my flare-gun in my console, not the tub.

          ” I don’t want anything that looks military showing from the outside.”

          I’ve got an SOG ST Elite and an Ontario USMC fighting knife in my duffle and backpack, and a flannel shirt with which to hide them. I’ve got nothing “military appearing” or even in camo, except the shovel. Everything else makes me look like a poor yuppie-wannabee, on my way to the gym or library.

          For water, each the backpack and duffle have two half-liter bottles of water. They then, each have a Lifestraw. The prepper idiots tell you to carry a gallon of water per day, per person. I’m NOT going to carry 25 pounds of water and neither is anyone else who’s worn a backpack and hiked. First of all, it wouldn’t fit in my backpack. Second of all, it’s a stucking foopid opinion foist by someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about and wants to sell stuff to the ignorant masses. I’ll carry a case in the car, when I’m going to be somewhere I can get myself into trouble…

  5. “They may have a different loading philosophy entirely (such as one based on size or color of objects) which will be incomprehensible for the typical male.”

    That made me chuckle. Well played sir!

  6. I keep a copy of both “Pocket Ref” and “Handyman-In-Your-Pocket” within sight or reach…
    As far as rote learning goes, I’m still digesting the General Ham class material several years after “passing” the test. Still far ahead most of the Extras I know as far as hands-on goes.

  7. “Situational Awareness” has, unfortunately, entered the everyday lexicon., at least it should be part of your personal repertoire – afterall, you entered that WalMart, do you know where the back exit is? At your local coffee shop? It only takes a few seconds, but sadly most never take the time. Up your game just a bit and learn what to look for as your head-out from the grocery store to your car. It doesn’t mean to become paranoid and afraid., just aware and prepared.

    • “afterall, you entered that WalMart, do you know where the back exit is? At your local coffee shop?”

      Yes.

      Even if I’ve never been in the store before.

      I also know where the more-secure spots are, where most of the cameras are (w/ likely field of view), and where things are, which might be of use as improvised weapons.

      Also, walking down a street, I know from which windows I can be seen or shot, where I can (and can not) be run down by a car, and most places from where a mugger can attack.

      It’s second nature, and I’ve been doing it since I was a teen. My kids think I’m weird, yet it was while I was raising them that we’d be going someplace and I would ask stuff like: “What did we just pass?”, “What did that sign say?”, “What State is the license plate on that car from?”, etc. I made them watchful little kids and trained observers, without their knowledge. They don’t look out for machine gun nests, but they ARE likely to spot the open window at the Book Depository…

  8. I remember long ago George was looking for something last seen when they went out somewhere. (Keys,maybe?) Upon asking Elaine, she replied she would find it as soon as she figured out which outfit she was wearing that day…. which left GU completely befuddled. Different filing systems in the brain.

    I never knew it was called ‘combat loading’, but I have used the FILO system always when loading the vehicle to go work at a friend’s house for several days.

    Kona low persists in bringing up tropical moisture to the Big Island. Cool and damp, towels do not dry in the bathroom. Got the wool blanket out for a wrap. Interesting fact: Even soaking wet, wool retains 80% of it’s heat insulation properties. First choice for a survival blanket. These modern ‘fleece’ artificial plastic blankets are worthless.

  9. Hi George–
    I agree that being prepped between the ears is always good,
    but OTOH we are already Fully in UnKnown Territory ;-)

  10. Hi George, my husband (George), has been reading your site for 17 years and loves it!! He doesn’t subscribe to peoplenomics because he is not that financial savvy, but looks forward to reading your site everyday and enjoys it. He says he has learned so much through the years and always tells me when you make “prime rib”!! Could you please tell me your recipe so I don’t have to compete with a nutter in the East Texas outback ?. Thank you, Rosa.

    P.S. It’s gotten to the point that everyday now, I ask him…what did George sure say today!!

    • “He doesn’t subscribe to peoplenomics because he is not that financial savvy, but looks forward to reading your site everyday and enjoys it. ”

      don’t feel bad Rosa.. LOL LOL … to play the big boys games you have to have a few extra pieces of paper to play that and if you seen my ledger you would know that I definitely couldn’t play in that arena.. you gotta be able to toss it out the window to do that luckily with G’s insight .. LOL LOL.. I get Peoplenomics.. not for the long term investing .. ( at my age I have a tough time buying green banana’s or a bag of apples.. heck might not live long enough to see the banana ripen or eat up all the apples LOL) But.. on people nomics.. there are a ton of extra things on inside thoughts of what is going on in the world of insanity.. and a ton of stuff on what and how to prep.. it is totally worth the money to get the newsletter.. I am addicted.. G has a great mind and keeps this old man thinking.. looking at things in different perspectives..

  11. Stu,
    Isn’t there something about the death of a past leader., that “ushers in”., or is the “beginning of”.., seems I did read something like that., but I can’t remember.
    – This has to do with the recent news regarding President Carter.

  12. wow. that was really good read dude. really good read. I definitely needed to read that.

    after reading that. I had to sit and ponder my own systems of thought. reorganize a few ways of thinking.

    reminds me of what my good friend says all the time. when moving into new relationships or job opportunities or other situations in life, such as growing older and phases of transition such as being 40 and turning 52. 52 is much different than turning 40.

    he uses the analogy of moving into a new house. “would you pack up all your garbage at your old house Andy, old already used floss, tooth picks, chicken bones, old moldy bread, and used paper towels etc etc and take it with you to your new home?

    nope. then why do you think it’s necessary to take that garbage from when you were 40 into your 50s?”

    same principle applies to alot of areas. and what you wrote George is how you pack for your trip is just important as what you don’t bring with you. and more importantly how you organize what you pack and even more importantly how you think.

    sure needed to read that.

    that was very good timing as I consider a few life choices and alternative paths. very good timing. thanks man.

    I appreciate you George.

    namaste!

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