My wife and I wanted to go up to a lake near the South Carolina border, and spend the night. It's in a county that's fairly isolated. There are no four lane roads going in there , and it's a tough drive, winding and twisting through the mountains. We used to spend a lot of weekends at this lake years ago.
So, we headed out. It was a really hot day, and humid, but the drive is beautiful if you aren't in a hurry. Traffic was light, because people don't like going through those mountains. Lots of them get car sick with all the twists and turns.
You can rent little cabins along the lake shore. No frills or amenities like television or internet, but comfortable.
They are air conditioned and that's really all you need this time of year. In the fall, you need reservations to get a cabin, and in winter you can't really get in or out very easily. But this late in the summer I didn't anticipate any trouble getting a cabin.
I didn't take into account, however, that they would be having a car show up there. Apparently the car aficionados started arriving Friday night, and are staying through Saturday, leaving on Sunday afternoon. Not only were there a lot of people who came to display their 1916-1980 period autos, but a huge crowd came to buy, photograph, or just enjoy looking.
My wife and I couldn't find any cabin rental place that had a vacancy. We might could have stayed in the one motel in town, but that wasn't what I wanted. I was looking forward to sitting by the water, smoking my pipe, and watching the boats go by.
All of these paintings are of that particular lake, so you can have some idea of how scenic and tranquil it is. It was disappointing that we had to come back tonight, but we both agreed that we had a fun time today.
There's a very good military surplus store just down the road from this town. The old fashioned kind that sells military equipment at reasonable prices. I enjoyed plundering around in there and found some good gear that was affordable. They also had an excellent magazine rack in the local grocery store, and I got some great magazines I'd been looking for. My wife got a nice necklace from a local craftsman who has a shop there in town. We had a really good meal, at a modest cost, and all in all things went very well.
I went to a pet store and got several tubes of ferret paste at about half what I normally pay. Also found a bag of ferret food that has no grains in it, and is all comprised of meat. I dare not tell what I paid for it, because everyone would be shocked at such profligacy, but the truth is nothing is too good for my ferrets.
Here are the magazines I was able to get today. Because I haven't been going into town much, the magazines have been getting snapped up before I get in to the store. I was beginning to think I'd have to order them from the publishers as back issues ,even though some of them have only just been released. I don't know why the grocery store only orders 200 copies, they could sell many more and they don't get billed for any they don't sell. The manager is a nice guy but he's something of a dolt, as well. The way they've been doing things is always good enough for him.
Be Ready is a
Shotgun News Publication, only about a year old. It's largely oriented towards firearms. You'd expect that though, since firearms and accessories are what
Shotgun News is all about
Be Ready is more oriented towards women than most survival magazines. I suppose that makes sense because there are a huge number of women in the community now. Many of them are single moms, with kids. That puts a lot of pressure on a woman because she has no husband to help with all the things that have to be done, and sometimes it means she may not have much disposable income. But it's a big market, and since women like Survival Mom have gained such a following,
Shotgun News is trying to tap into that market with
Be Ready. I enjoy reading it because some of the articles are original, about unusual subjects, and that's hard to find in survivalist magazines.
Be Ready runs $8.98 plus sales tax.
This odd magazine was on the rack so I bought a copy. I've never heard of it before, so perhaps this is the first edition or maybe it's a one off.
It has an article about the bizarre show
Naked and Afraid, which almost kept me from buying it. But I have a lot of time for reading, and you never know what you'll pick up from the strangest sources.
I've thumbed through it, and on the face of things it doesn't look very good. However, I saved a lot of money on the cabin I didn't get to rent, so I figured I'd bring it home and give it a second lookover.
It costs $8.98.
Gear Guide is put out by
American Survival Guide.
It comes out quarterly, and is basically a sort of Consumers Report for Survivalists. Much of the equipment, probably the majority of it, is designed for use in the outdoors. I know some people who buy this magazine not for any self sufficiency reasons but because they are hikers, bikers, or in one case, a rock climber.
I can't say I've ever gone out and purchased anything because I saw it in this magazine. But I enjoy looking at all the new technology, and I have seen things that gave me new ideas. Then I went out and bought military surplus gear on line that filled the same function but was much less expensive.
If I had an unlimited budget, I'd buy some of this equipment. As it is, the $8.99 for the magazine is about all I can swing.
Off Grid is published by the editors of
Recoil.
Both are excellent magazines, and if they are a bit more expensive at $9.99 a copy, I think they're both worth it.
Off Grid has a different editorial style and the photography and art work is really good . They publish writers who are not commonly known in the vastly expanded genre of survival magazines, so it's fresh and different.
They also tend to focus on one particular threat in each magazine, and that makes
Off Grid a good addition to your library at home. Granted, it's largely oriented towards the more active 20 to 30's age group, who are more apt to be bugging out when the SHTF. But the older, sedentary crowd who are forting up can always find something useful in it.
I know I have talked about these magazines before, but I get emails asking specifics about them so I thought I might fill in some of the gaps in my earlier post.
All things being equal, it's been a good day. Did a lot of shopping in the kinds of places I enjoy, and on the way home we hit the Grocery Outlet and really stocked up on cheese, canned sausage, canned vegetables, meat, soup, and a host of good things. We accomplished a lot, we got out of the area for a bit, had a good time, and I got my magazines. I'm satisfied with that. When Fall comes we'll make reservations at the lake and stay a weekend then.
I almost forgot. Here's the latest on Hurricane Danny, may it stay away from North Georgia!