$3 dollar security upgrade

Just a quick blog this weekend, and then I'm busy until next weekend, but I thought I'd share a cheap home security upgrade with everyone.

Most robberies occur when a thief kicks in a door, grabs some valuables and gets back out.  A security alarm is a good way to help detect/prevent this, but if that is out of your price range or you're a renter, there's no reason to not do anything to help protect your stuff.  Ready for a simple upgrade? 

I'll give you a hint...we're messing with this:

 This picture shows the weak part of your door.  Contractors who build houses like building them cheaply.  One way this manifests itself is the screw they use to secure the strike plate of your front door.  The screws pictured are a whole 3/4" long.  That means they secure the strike plate to the jam.

The jam isn't strong enough to withstand a kick from a teenager, much less a criminal who's desperate enough to break into your house to finance his crack habit.  There are lots of elaborate, expensive solutions that could give a dedicated swat team a bit of trouble, but we're talking about cheap and easy here. 

So if the screws only secure the strike plate to the jam, why don't we fix that?  

A 3" screw can actually reach and anchor into the framing boards in the wall.  So instead of kicking against a jam, someone trying to break in has to manage to break the screws themselves or the framing board they're drilled into.

 Not an impossible task by any means, but certainly more difficult than kicking a jam out, wouldn't you agree?  Here's quick pictorial comparison of an old screw with its replacements:

So, what does an upgrade like this cost?  I got these four 3" wood screws for a whole $3 at my local hardware store.  You will need a drill to get them anchored, but if you don't have one I'm sure you can find someone you can borrow an electric drill from.  Its a whole minute and a half of work to swap out the old screws for the new, and you've improved your home security a decent amount.

Not bad for $3!

FIrst Harvest of the year

Got to pick the first veggies out of the garden today, which was exciting.  Our tomatoes are still green, but we have lot of them, so hopefully I'll get to pick some of them soon.  Watermelon is growing like a weed (though no fruit yet) and our squash plants are actively trying to choke out 2 of my pepper plants.  I keep trimming it back, but they keep trying to cover the peppers up.   In the meantime, I can just eat this squash for a week.  Seriously.  Its huge.  I even put sunglasses in the picture for reference.

I also had a couple of Jalapenos ready to go, so they got picked as well (and instantly thrown into a mix for some Jalapeno Ranch...mmmm).  The squash got cut up and baked into squash fries.  I'll try to get some pictures up of those some other time. 

A Brief Thought on Welfare Cards

I'm not going to get into a whole discussion regarding welfare, but as a libertarian most of you can probably guess where I stand on that one.

Instead, I'd like to share a personal story about a overweight lady in front of me in line at Walgreens.  As I'm standing there waiting to purchase Mothers Day cards (see? I'm such a capitalist I even participate in made up holidays designed to do nothing but sell crap) I notice there seems to be a problem in front of me.

This lady was becoming slightly angered by the fact that the cashier had swiped her Lone Star card twice, and the machine was claiming she still owed money.  Being a curious soul, I decided to peek into the bags and see what this poor woman was unable to provide for herself that I and other taxpayers helped her purchase. 

8 or 10 cans of Arizona Iced Tea (which are of course, super healthy...right?) and a pack of cigarettes she was purchasing with cash.  That was it.  No food, no medicine, no toiletries.  Arizona Tea. 

The poor cashier winds up having to call a manager over, and void the transactions, etc before rechecking her out.  When this happens, this woman lets out a huge sigh, rolls her eyes and huffs like an angry walrus (which she kind of looked like...back hair, body size and all.  Truly, the only thing missing was the tusks). 

Now, you're purchasing a frivolous drink...using taxpayer money...and you're going to get ANGRY that the cashier is taking too long?  I mean, I'm sure her time is valuable as hell!  Holy crap.  The sense of entitlement in this country that some people have is flat out astounding to me. 

I'd love to drop Suzy Walrus into Somalia for a week to see how far her fat ass and sense of entitlement would get her. 

Rant off. 

Garden Update (4?)

Not sure what update I'm on, but I have lot of garden news! First a couple of quick pictures of the garden:

The tomato plants, due to their continued instance that "I grow where I want", have been placed in govt reeducation centers, also known as "cages".  These cages should help the tomatoes grow upright, though the quality of the cages leaves much to be desired, as they were obtained by govt contract or "at walmart".

Our watermelon plants continue to grow wherever as well, but hopefully the intimidation of seeing the tomatoes cages will show them how to get in line.  I doubt it though, because they're dirty fuzzy watermelon hippies.

The Cherry tomato plants have begun producing lots of flowers and little tomatoes, and should be ready for taxing or  "harvesting"  soon.  The strawberry and herbs planted in our gardening pots continue to under perform, proving yet again that separate but equal is a crock of BS.  

The peppers are the soccer moms or "most confusing" plants of the lot.  They can't decide what they want to do yet.  I'm not sure if its just not hot enough for them, if they haven't been pandered to enough, or if I simply need to start getting more expensive haircuts to win their love, but we have some pepper plants that are very big but haven't so much as flowered, and some that are tiny and will probably crush themselves under the weight of the single pepper they're growing. 

Our squash, like most politicians, are very pretty and have promised lots and lots of crop for harvest.  Unfortunately, just like most politicians...our squash have promised lots and delivered little.  We have one small squash that is starting to grow, but they promise to do better if we reelect them in November.

All of our plants, minus the political squash, seem to be suffering the effects of bugs or "1000s of pages of petty laws and regulations" which isn't helping them to grow and produce.  Man, my garden has lots of issues! 

Tomatoes:

Peppers:

Squash:

Thoughts on riots

Between race baiters fanning the flames regarding a shooting in Florida, people like Van Jones encouraging the Occupy protestors to step it up and get violent this summer, etc I thought it was time to write down a few thoughts on staying safe in unsettled times.

These are mainly my thoughts on Joe Civilian and riots (seeing as how I've never been in a riot, just done lots of reading, you can take or leave the advice as you see fit).

Seems that most civil unrest/violence in the US occurs in commercial or very low income/rent residential neighborhoods.  That being said, how to react in order to keep yourself safe from an angry mob is going to be wildly different depending on which area you are in, commercial or residential (or more simply....are you at work or home when things happen).

Some things you should do regardless of location:

1) Be Aware
Look outside occasionally, check the local tv/radio news for reports of "crowds forming" or "unrest".  Be aware of any national news that could incite violence (for example...Zimmerman goes to trial.  Once the jury is deliberating, I'd keep a very close ear to the ground waiting for an announcement of guilty/not guilty).  If you don't realize a riot is going on until the mob is breaking into your business or setting your car on fire in the driveway, you're already way behind the curve.

2) Have a Plan
You should always have a plan.  If a riot is in or heading to your area, what are you going to do?  When would you try to get the heck out?  What situation would necessitate you holding your position?  What would you need to do either one?  What supplies would be good to have in the event of a riot?

A lot of those questions don't have universal answers, but will depend on your specific situation.  A few things that I think are universal:

Have gas in the car.  If you can only drive 30 miles before you run out of gas, it makes it a lot harder to flee from a bad situation.

Have at least a weeks worth of food/water.  If you can't get to the store because they're closed or the mobs in the way, can you feed yourself something?

Have fire extinguishers.  Even if its not the mob setting your property on fire, your local PD/FD will be busy with the mob...so if something happens at your home/business being able to take care of it yourself is important.  Their response times to non riot related calls will likely be VERY long, if they're able to respond at all.

3) Be armed.
More than that, be armed enough to face multiple assailants.  I know people love their 5 shot J frame, or their pocket .380.  Would you care to face a crowd with them?  Try to carry the largest capacity gun in a service caliber (9/40/45) that you can.  And carry reloads.  Make sure you have a rifle or shotgun and reloads handy.  Fairly self explanatory why.

Now, regarding commercial/residential.

In a commercial/business setting:

If at all possible, get the heck out!  Insurance will cover any damage done to the business.  Whether you own the place or work for someone else, your life isn't worth defending those computers, or twinkies, or whatever random item the rioters decide to steal.  Your life is more important.  Make sure your coworkers are able to get out, and leave!  If you are not able to leave, retreat to a warehouse/backroom that has at least 2 exits, lock the doors and dim the lights.  Hopefully anyone who breaks in will only be interested in grabbing what looks good out front and leaving, not exploring thoroughly.

Leaving a commercial location

Okay, so you've decided to flee.  Smart call.  Since you're being smart, you probably can grab that long gun from the trunk and throw a towel over it to keep it up front with you, right?  Good.  That being said, you're driving a 3000 lbs weapon.  Simply put...if you can avoid the riot at all, do so.  If you somehow manage to take a wrong turn/come across it unexpectedly....Doors locked.  Do NOT stop moving. Mobs are dangerous.  If they get you out of the car, you could be beaten, crippled or killed.  Do not let them get you out.  DRIVE.  

In a residential setting:

Most people have a problem with this, because we're talking about our homes as opposed to where we work.  But again, the safest thing to do (if you can do so without going through the mob) is to get out of dodge.  Yes, you may lose some "stuff"....but thats why we have everything documented for insurance, right?  My neighborhood does only have 1 entrance/exit, so I've had to consider the possibility that fleeing isn't an option.  So in that case..

Defending the home

Generally, as CHL holders we are trained to stay inside the house (and its tactically sound advice).  While this is normally a good idea, mobs like fire, and burning things.  So if one thug breaks down the door and is met with gunfire, they won't try to storm the house....but they might go ahead and set fire to your roof before they move on.  In the LA riots, Korean shopkeepers on their roofs kept the mob moving on to other targets.  In a mob/riot situation, the roof is a decent idea.  Its not great cover, but pretty good concealment.  It gives you a great view of the neighborhood, and you'll be able to see anyone trying to start fires, etc.  Again in this situation a rifle or shotgun wins over a pistol.


For the TL,DR crowd.......My riot advice: Be aware of your surroundings, have a plan to get out or defend, be armed, and if you can at all...get the heck out of the area.

Feel free to chime in if you feel I missed anything important or am just flat out wrong.

Garden Visitor

Went out to check on the garden the other day and found this little guy, a red footed tortoise.  They're apparently native to South America, but have been exported as pets in the past.  Its possible this guy got out from somewhere I suppose. 

Either way, after a few pictures he ran off.  I guess he's camera shy. 

Becoming an NRA Instructor

As I posted before, I spent some time recently in class to become an NRA Certified Instructor (and got these shiny patches that I'm going to show off one more time)

The NRA offers certifications in a lot of different areas, from the seemingly obvious like pistol, rifle and shotgun, to the more advanced/obscure like reloading metallic cartridges, range safety officer, and muzzle loading pistol, rifle or shotgun.  I am now certified to teach (as if you couldn't tell from the patches) home firearm safety, personal protection in the home, and basic pistol. 

Before you can become certified to teach any of the specific disciplines, you must attend Basic Instructor Training (or BIT), which basically makes sure that you're capable of getting up and speaking in front of others...something only moderately important for a teacher, right?  

Day 1 of class consisted of mostly BIT, though we started covering some of the pistol course information as well.  I really enjoyed the fact that our BIT training consisted not only of making sure we had a good grasp of basic firearms knowledge, but also covered topics such as advertising, writing a press release, checklists of "things to do" before hosting a class, etc.  For someone with no prior paid teaching under their belt, this is a helpful way for you to dip your toes into the pool, and figure out how to swim before you swan dive off the 10 foot board in that first class. 

Day 2 was the meat of our pistol course and a trip to the range which made sitting in a classroom all day worth it.  The information is pretty basic, which is good considering the pistol course is designed to introduce new shooters to pistol shooting in a safe way. 

We begin discussing the various types of pistols and actions, breaking down and explaining the components of a pistol and even a cartridge.  From there, the fundamentals of pistol shooting such as sight alignment/sight picture, proper grip, trigger pull and follow through is all discussed.  This class can take someone who is a complete novice, and turn them into a knowledgeable shooter.  

On the range we mainly were tasked with making sure we were familiar with all the various action types that may be in class, from semi autos to double and single action revolvers.  The single action revolvers were new to me, and I have to admit I prefer modern designs in both revolver and semi auto.  The grip on an old school single action revolver were a little hard to get used to for me.  They're fun to shoot and have nice triggers, but they just feel weird in my hands.  (Though I do want to get a SAA clone in .357 to pair with my lever gun just because they go together like peanut butter and jelly.) 

Day 3 was the most fun day to me because it was more advanced, dealing with home security, personal awareness, and the importance of having a plan for a home invasion.  Personal protection in the home is considered a more advanced class, so the teaching is directed towards those who already know how to shoot or may even be CHL holders, that would like to improve their in home safety knowledge and skills. 

The range session was also a lot of fun, as we got to practice shooting from different positions and behind barriers, not to mention emphasizing defensive shooting as opposed to bulls eye shooting.   Don't get me wrong, its fun to tear a tiny hole in the paper to show what a great shot you are, but knowing that you're able to bring the pistol into action quickly and be accurate enough to stop a threat is a very comforting thing and the perfect range session for a class on in home defense. 

In summary, I felt the classes were very helpful, and absolutely worth the price of admission.  Now that I am certified, I plan on teaching both NRA classes and my own classes, specializing mainly in helping introduce new shooters to pistol shooting.  I don't plan on making "quit your day job" type money, but as long as I can cover my costs regarding ammo/insurance/other expenses, I will be happy.

I'm mainly doing this because I love shooting and enjoy teaching people about things.  If I can infect others with my enthusiasm for the shooting sports, then that is X number of people who are now informed about their 2nd Amendment rights and are therefore less likely to buy the utter drivel that passes for "thinking" regarding guns from the media, the brady bunch, and the statists.  As well, they will possess the knowledge and skill to safely use their gun and enjoy shooting.  That's a win in my book any day!