It’s been an early autumn. August was wetter and cooler than usual. So far, September has been cool but dry, with the nights dropping into the 40s. I often wear a fleece or hoodie when I walk the dog at night. At this rate, I’ll be breaking out my knit cap before October arrives. If it were March, we’d be delighted with this weather, but not in September.
August’s regular afternoon thunderstorms disappeared along with the high temperatures, leaving us with a day of rain every week or so. The upside of less rain is that there is more time to do outside chores. We’ve got about a month before the leaves are gone and the daytime temperatures drop, so every day is useful as we finish our winter preps and homestead improvements. The downside is the threat of a wildfire builds every time we go ten days without rain.
Meanwhile, my wife covers the vegetable garden at night when the temps drop too far, and we hope the fall greens will continue to mature. We’ve got spinach, kale, and two kinds of lettuce, although the red lettuce has not fared well. The peppers are still on the plants, but are slow to turn yellow or red. Last year, we harvested them after Helene struck, so my wife is holding onto some hope we might get a warm blast to ripen them.
Chicken Attacks
Another hen died, but this time we know what happened. My wife spotted a “large brown bird of prey” eating it while the other chickens cowered as far away as they could get in the run. Judging by the number of feathers, she put up quite a fight. The rooster, however, was cowering in the corner with the other hens. So much for protecting his flock.
The chicken was too large for the hawk to carry away, so the dead body just lay there until I collected it and disposed of it.
I watched enough Saturday morning cartoons as a kid that I can’t help but think of Henry the chickenhawk in all those old Warner Brothers cartoons with Foghorn Leghorn. “I say, boy, I say, you’re never going to catch a chicken like that.” Well, this hawk did.
The surviving chickens may have PTSD. The next day, none of them came out of their coop all morning. We thought the battery on the door might have run down, but when I checked, the door was wide open. The birds were just too “chicken” to come out. They came out eventually, probably because their only source of water is outside the coop.
We’ve lost hens to owls overnight, but this is the first known hawk attack. We’ll have to hope it doesn’t return. If we lose another, I’ll string up some wires or netting.
We’ve been getting 12 eggs a day. The day after the attack we got 11. it appears the hawk killed one of the productive hens.
The Electric Bill on Solar Power
Our August electric bill shows the power company owes us almost $100, a sum that has built up over the past three months. The cooler temps in August contributed to the lower bill because we didn’t use the air conditioning much at all. The cool-but-not-cold weather is allowing us to coast along on 20 kWh of electricity use per day because we are using no HVAC.
With all the sun we’ve had this month, I expect our surplus will increase. For example, we used only 1 kWh of electricity from the grid the other day and exported 23 generated by our solar panels. The day before, we produced only 6 kWh more than we used because we did multiple loads of laundry, and the dryer uses lots of power.
By January, our surplus will be used up, and we’ll owe money on our electric bill again. In the meantime, having no electric bill doesn’t get old.
We’d spend a fortune on electricity in the winter if we didn’t heat with firewood. After some measuring and a bit of math, I determined we had 5 cords of firewood stacked, seasoned, and ready for the winter. I ordered an additional load just to be safe. This latest delivery won’t be burned until March or April, if at all, so it will have at least six months to dry.
Homestead Defense Bag Update
This is a minor change, but I replaced the 20-ounce Deer Park water bottles in my homeland defense bags with 32-ounce Gatorade bottles. I both cases, the bottles were empty, so weight was not an issue. I pack an empty bottle planning to fill it at one of the many springs or streams that crisscross our property and the mountains around us. Then, I will add a water purification tablet. One bag carries Portable Aqua, which will treat a quart of water in 30 minutes. The other bag has Katadyn Micropur tablets, which take four hours to reach full effectiveness but are effective against Cryptosporidium.
Since both tablets are set up to treat a quart rather than 20 ounces, the 32-ounce Gatorade bottles are the perfect size. More importantly, the Gatorade bottles are much thicker and sturdier than the Deer Park water bottles, so they can withstand more abuse. I can also see toting an unopened bottle of Gatorade or a similar sports beverage, and will grab one if I have time. It adds two pounds of weight but if we are moving quickly it can provide a boost of fast energy while fighting dehydration.
Both bags have packets of Gatorade powder we can use to make a refill while on the run. The powder will also cover up any residual flavor left in the water by the Portable Aqua tablets.
A Suppressor Solution
After some thought and more research, I used Rocksett thread locker to semi-permanently affix the 5.56 suppressor on my 10.5-inch AR pistol. I then sighted it in and found it was shooting so high I had to crank it down 24 clicks and then six more. The last time I shot it, I had to move the dot up, so I can only assume this shift in the point of impact is caused by how the suppressor is screwed on.
The resulting weapon is a handy, quiet-ish, lightweight gun, which I now consider my go-to gun if I have time to grab something more powerful than the Glock on my belt.
While I was mucking about, I removed the .30 caliber suppressor from my .300 blackout rifle and placed it on my .300 blackout AR pistol. With the suppressor on the shorter barrel, both guns are now about the same length.
I decided that having a suppressor on the full-length gun wasn’t the best use case. While I can shoot 220-grain subsonic ammo from either the rifle or the pistol, the ammo gains nothing from the longer rifle barrel. So, the shorter gun gets the suppressor and the subsonic ammo. If silence is a big issue, I’m going with this weapon and 220-grain subsonic ammo.
The point of aim on this gun shifted nine MOA with the suppressor on it. I continue to be shocked by the shift in the point of aim that some guns exhibit when adding, removing, or even remounting a suppressor. This is one reason I don’t mind mounting one in a semi-permanent manner. I wish I knew if this is just barrel harmonics or something like the threads being off-kilter.
Ammo Costs
While reloading my magazines, I had to open a fresh case of ammo. I use the FIFO method, and the oldest case of 5.56 I could lay my hands on was actually 55 grain PMC ammo in .223, which I bought in 2007. Surprisingly, the receipt was still in the cardboard box, showing I purchased 3,000 rounds for $989.85, or $329.95 each, from a store called The Armory in Virginia Beach. I checked their website, and a case of Plain Jane .223 now costs $450, an increase of 36 percent in 18 years.
I’ve seen similar ammo on sale elsewhere for $399 per case, which is an increase of only 22 percent. Either way, not too bad considering how much other prices have increased since 2007. I remember buying a case of Federal 5.56 for $299, but given that Obama was elected in 2008, I assume this was prior to 2007.
By the way, I have never had a round fail because it was old, and I’ve shot surplus .308 made in the 1970s and Korean War era .30-06. When stored properly, ammo lasts.
As I have said previously, this is a good time to stock up on ammo. With the way commodity prices are going, ammo may never be this cheap again. Brass, copper, and lead are my kind of precious metals!
