While you're prepping for food shortages ...

It occurred to me this morning at breakfast that while we're prepping for possible food shortages, we should also be stocking vitamin and mineral supplements. Compared with food and water, storing enough supplements for one person for a year is inexpensive and takes up minimal storage space, and are easily portable should you need to bug out.

I'm planning on picking this up for myself.

This is the formulation for women.

A main difference between the two is that women's multivitamins include iron while those for men don't.

Note that while the above are Amazon affiliate links, I'm planning to purchase locally so I can check the expiration date before purchasing. I don't want to buy a 10 month supply that expires in a few months, regardless of how long they'll last past the expiration date.

TA Outdoors: 10 Wilderness Survival Tips

I ran across this video from TA Outdoors and was very impressed with what he was able to accomplish with a Swiss Army Knife. A lot of these would apply to scout knives as well.

Some new pocketknives

Every so often I go through a knife buying binge.

I had a MidwayUSA gift card and put it towards a large Case Trapper. This one has yellow Delrin scales and the blades are Case's chrome vanadium (CV) steel, which is a high carbon steel rather than stainless. I've found it to have good edge holding properties while being easy to resharpen. The Victorinox Pioneer is for scale.

Next up was an old Imperial Kamp King. One of these was the second knife I ever owned, back in the late 1970s. It was an inexpensive Boy Scout-type knife and to be honest, was pretty cheaply made. The blades are carbon steel and will develop a patina with use. Somewhere along the line I lost my original. They are easy to find on eBay but most are well used. I found this one that looks like it spent most of its life in a drawer. I put an edge on the blade and it'll find its way into my carry rotation.

Next up were a new Hen & Rooster mini-stockman and an old Kabar 1152 camp knife. The H&R was made in Germany and has stainless blades. From what I've read about the Kabar, it was actually manufactured by Camillus for Kabar. 1152s in fine condition list for $90 - $100 on eBay. This cost about half that due to the pitting on the blade. Someone didn't care for it properly and the pitting is the result. However, that puts it into the user category for me.

When I got it the top of the screwdriver blade rubbed against the knife blade, making the screwdriver almost impossible to open without first opening the knife blade. I filed a slight bevel on it for clearance and now it opens normally.

The blades were a bit rough when opening, so I lubricated them with Sentry Solutions Tuf-Glide. (Amazon affiliate link.) I've found this to work really well on pocketknife pivots. After the carrier dries it leaves behind a lubricant that doesn't collect lint and dirt.

This past weekend I brought the Kabar with me on a camping trip to Tioga County. The can opener worked great on a can of corned beef hash we had with breakfast one day.

If you like Swiss Army Knives but are in the mood for something different there are plenty of affordable old scout knives to be found on sites like eBay and Etsy.

The DEF Shortage

On top of the diesel shortage, we have the Diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) shortage. DEF is injected into the exhaust to reduce pollution.

DEF is required in Diesel engines built since 2010. Without some kind of a hack, they won't run. They won't even start.

Without Diesel-powered trucks, nothing in this country moves.

Morning Call: Record Diesel Prices Crushing Pennsylvania Farmers

Warning, doomer post:

The Morning Call is the third largest newspaper in Pennsylvania. It's not what anyone would consider to be "fringe." So, the fact that it ran this should get your attention.

HARRISBURG — A Lehigh County farmer recently called Kyle Kotzmoyer and said something like “I’ve got a tractor hooked up to my corn planter out here, no diesel fuel, and I can’t afford to get any.”

...

After the hearing — in a phone interview — Kotzmoyer made clear that food may not be as available because of the fuel price surge.

“One, if they can’t afford to put it in the ground,” he said of farming using diesel-thirsty machinery. “Or, two, if they can’t afford to take it out.”

Average diesel fuel prices Tuesday in Pennsylvania were $6.19 a gallon, about 75% higher than a year ago, according to AAA.

...

Asked if food shortages were a possibility, Kotzmoyer said, “If the farmers cannot get crops out of the ground, then there is not food on the shelves.”

Kotzmoyer said he has already heard of farmers selling seed corn or beans back to dealers so they can plant hay, which has “more return on investment.”

...

Full article.

Of course, the problem is not limited to Pennsylvania. This is nationwide.

This picture was posted by "Lorax" from Wisconsin on AR15.com yesterday:

They are spacing out bratwurst in a Wisconsin supermarket like they are cars at a dealer with low inventory.

On top of the disruptions in global food supplies due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, none of this bodes well.

Continue to stock up.

A Couple More Rides

Yesterday I took the Nishiki out for my longest ride since the early 1990s. I started at SEPTA's Spring Mill train station and took the Schuykill River Trail out to Valley Forge National Park. Round trip was 22.22 miles.

I continue to be pleased with the Selle Anatomica saddle. I would've been hurting if the bike still had the OEM saddle.

This morning I wanted to ride again but without a recovery day wasn't sure how well I'd do without some assistance, so I took the Lectric XP out for a bit more than 20 miles on the Cross County Trail and the SRT.

I wound up keeping it on pedal assist level 2 for most of the ride, only bumping it up to 3 a few times for hill climbing and passing. This gave me a pretty good workout. On anyting other than dead flat ground or a downhill, it's a heavy pig to pedal without assistance.

The Vee Speedster tires I installed a month ago make a big difference when riding on pavement, compared with the OEM knobby tires. That said, I've come to the conclusion that the bike would have been better designed to use BMX-type wheels with 2" (at the most) wide tires. It could be made lighter and it would be a lot more nimble, and I bet battery life would be better as well.