ESCHATON

 

Thunder and lightning SMASH down upon this small asset-stripped Texan farming community, shaking the ancient wooden timbers (what?) of the Compound. Like no kidding, a ferocious storm, turning night into day with all the fury of an electric universe.

Yes indeed, the climate's changed with elemental, eschatological fury. And so we stand, undaunted, on the rain lashed porch, daring our adversary to do its worst. 

Seriously, this storm's pretty crazy, be safe out there.

Apocalypse,

LSP

You Dirty Little Beast!

It's all very well owning enough deadly assault rifles to equip an irregular fire team in the case of an EOTW scenario or the Eschaton itself, but you do have to clean them. A clean gun is a happy gun, you see.

With that in mind, I hauled out a section of the arsenal and got to work. First things first, the lowly SKS is considerably easier to clean than the AR and its allies, by a factor of a lot. And it got me thinking, maybe piston driven beats gas impingement?

Then I got to the 7.62 BCG (bolt carrier group). It's this massive thing, dwarfing the puny, toylike 5.56 equivalent. Go figure, it's designed to deal with a larger bullet. 

Still, it seemed harder to clean the same caliber FN FALs of yesteryear, which were notoriously piston. Saying that, this beast's way more compact than the old Broomsticks and you can clip things to it, like optics, lights and radar.

Point being? I'm no expert but maybe gas piston rules over gas impingement when it comes to weapons cleaning.

In related news, the FIB is blowing back a lot of hot gas in an attempt to impinge on the release of the House Intelligence Committee memo, detailing FIB corruption. Well go figure.

TICK TOCK

LSP

Cooking With LSP, Country Style Ribs

"Cooking with LSP?!?" you snort indignantly into an old Jeb! campaign brochure, "You can't do that." But you can, and here's how.

Go out and get a couple of pounds of bone-in country style ribs from the supermarket for around eight or nine bucks. Take a gun, if Nanny allows you to defend yourself like a free man, or woman; I chose a Glock 21, but that's just me. Buy some carrots, celery, onion, garlic, dry white wine, olive oil, apple juice or cider, cider vinegar and tomato paste, grainy Dijon mustard, bay leaves, thyme, chicken broth and dried red pepper. 

Ingredients. Note Spyderco

If you already have these ingredients you don't have to get them again, unless you're all about building fail-safe redundancy into your EOTW (end of the world) food store.

Return from the supermarket and get out a crock pot, cast iron works well, it can go in the oven. Put the pot on the stove at medium high with 2 tablespoons of oil and brown the pork, previously salt and peppered, then place the meat aside. Don't be intimidated, it's not hard.

Shoot The Plate With a Glock

Add 1 more tablespoon of oil, 1 chopped carrot, celery stick and onion to the pot, and cook on medium heat until softened. Add 3 cloves of minced garlic and cook for a further minute, then 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. Stir this up for a bit then pour in that white wine you bought earlier, 1/2 a cup worth. Raise the heat to medium high and scrape up any browned meat or veg from the bottom of the pan. 

While you're at it, turn up the jukebox, perhaps it's playing Thank Christ For The Bomb, or Rebel Son's famous Bury me in Southern Ground. Whatever, you decide, like a Sovereign.

Well done, you've got this far, so have a drink as you look in wonder at the food in the pot. Have several, or not, there no rule.

Meat in, Atogether, Bring to Boil, Transfer to Oven

Wine in, add 1/4 cup of apple cider, 2 1/2 cups chicken broth, 1/2 cup cider/apple juice, 1 tbs mustard, 2 bay leaves, 3 sprigs thyme or dried equivalent, and red pepper. Salt and pepper to taste. Then put the pork in the pot. There, it's altogether. Bring to a boil then cover and transfer to an oven at 325*, middle position. Cook for around 1 hour 45 minutes, removing the lid for the last half hour. 

Scoff

The meat should be fall-off-the-fork tender, if it isn't, return to the oven and cook that pork 'till it is. Take it out of the oven, let it rest for a bit, and serve over mashed potatoes.

Get a Haircut, Fool.

Then eat your scoff like a Warrior. And that's cooking with,

LSP

Houses of the Holy

Don't get me wrong, country life is great, but I decided to drive to Dallas this evening with Blue Zeppelin, to grill out with GWB and his old pal CB. CB sells Old Masters; who knew there were any left to sell? Well, there are, but it's a "niche market." A good one to be in too, I'd imagine.

With that in mind, I made the drive to the frozen metrosprawl of Northern Texas in 45 minutes. I35 was apocalyptically deserted, which made for the good time. Of course some EOTW/SHTF scenarios would leave the highways impassible, choked with the wrecks of cars and trucks.

A good off-road vehicle might be helpful in that situation, or even better, the presence of mind to have a place in the country and the forethought to be there on time.

Be prepared,

LSP