Economic meltdown insurance: Virginia alternative currency plan moves forward
Peter Schiff & Doug Casey On Gold, Investor Cluelessness, And The “Escape From America” Plan
Items from The Economatrix:
Unemployment Rates Fall In Most Large US Cities
2013: We are Witnesses to a Grand Disconnect of Hope/Perception from Reality AGAIN Like 2007
Running a tyrannical state government can be so expensive, these days. (So it is best to tax the people and charge them fees to pay for the bureaucracy of their own enslavement.)
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Kevin S. mentioned a handy frequency allocation chart.
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For those who have been patiently waiting, the fourth installment of the Mad Max movie franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road is now in post-production and will be released in 2014. The vehicles used look totally wild and OTT.
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SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large Mike Williamson sent the link to this video: Rogue wave. (Yes, they happen. This one went right over an Italian port’s sea wall. )
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“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he [is] God: [it is] he [that] hath made us, and not we ourselves; [we are] his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, [and] into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, [and] bless his name.
For the LORD [is] good; his mercy [is] everlasting; and his truth [endureth] to all generations.” – Psalm 100 (KJV)
We ‘ve completed the judging for Round 44 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. But before announcing winners, I have a special announcement: The Gunsite Academy–The first and best of America’s large scale shooting schools–has kindly donated a Three Day Course Certificate (good for any one, two, or three course with a value up to $1,195) for Round 45 and subsequent writing contest rounds. This course certificate is being added to the First Prize package. This brings the value of the First Prize package to $3,090 and the combined value of the top three prize packages to $7,485. (Note that this total does not include the many Honorable Mention prizes–there are usually 10 or more awarded for each contest round.)
Now… the Round 44 prize winners:
First Prize goes to T.S.H., MD for Field Care For Your Newborn, which was posted on December 20, 2012. She will be sent: A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.
Second Prize goes to Ulysses in Montana, for: Marksmanship and .308 Battle Rifles, which was posted on January 17, 2013. He will be sent:A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, E.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).
Third Prize goes to B.E., for Ropes and Rope Making, which was posted on January 11, 2013. He will be sent: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.
Honorable Mention prizes ($30 Amazon.com gift cards) go to the authors of 15 other excellent articles:
Here is the updated list of prizes for round 45, et sequitur:
First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.
Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials and F.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).
Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security., E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).
Round 44 ends on January 31st, 2013, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Mr. Rawles,
Here is my take on the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) for my hometown.
At risk of preaching to the choir, the Government isn’t coming to help you. We all have seen the horrific images of hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and how the Government response is woefully inadequate to help people after these large scale disasters. And in many cases, our current government uses these disasters to further tread on our collective liberty. The quote “Never let a crisis go to waste” leaps to mind. It occurred to me that the government is really made up of people, and most people are not inherently evil, so there must be some reason for the responses being so bad or even counterproductive.
I decided I would investigate, and in the process of scratching around I became an infiltrator. In response to the Bhopal disaster in late 1984 Congress passed and President Reagan signed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986. Included in this act was the formation of Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC). The committee is formed from:
• Elected state and local officials
• Police, fire, civil defense, and public health professionals
• Environment, transportation, and hospital officials
• Facility representatives
• Representatives from community groups and the media
I found the LEPC of my community in my searching for the “Emergency Response” searches in my local government. The committee had two vacant slots for representatives of community groups, and I decided to volunteer to fill one of them, representing my neighborhood. This was the first indication of one basic problem the government response has. I live in a fairly large city with more than enough people to staff this committee, but so very few civic minded people willing to volunteer about eight hours a year to attend a meeting.
I was voted in at the next meeting of the city council and attended the first of eight quarterly meetings in my two year term soon afterward. You have to keep in mind the LEPC was formed in response to a large chemical spill, so its’ focus is on hazardous materials (HAZMAT) accidents. The mileage of your LEPC may vary depending on the entities in your area, but mine was represented by:
• A city councilman
• The LEPC coordinator (City Employee)
• The water / sewer company
• A power plant
• A railroad
• Fire Department
• Police Department
• The hospital / health department
• Two companies who deal with HAZMAT in their operation
• A reporter for the local paper
• Me
First a note on overall attendance, I attended all but one meeting when I happened to be away on a business trip. As one of the “Voting Members” I was provided minutes on the proceedings along with the attendance record for the meeting I missed. The city councilman made it to half of the meetings, the LEPC coordinator was present at all of them. The police and fire departments were represented at all the meetings while the other entities were present for six of the eight meetings. The reporter came to two meetings, and I was never joined by a second community representative.
I didn’t expect perfect attendance, but this told me a few things. The government people (with the exception of the councilman) were very dedicated and attended all the meetings with something to say to the group. The commercial entities attended the bare minimum (75%) of meetings they are mandated to attend. The reporter came twice; once to take a tour of a newly opened police headquarters building when we held a meeting there and the other time to grill one of the commercial entities about a chemical spill during the quarter. (It was properly contained, reported, and cleaned by the way) I was the only civilian citizen who bothered to attend any meeting. I took notes and asked questions, and passed my overarching views on the meetings to the editor of our neighborhood newsletter / web site, but was only mentioned once there in two years. The reporter ran the two stories about the new police HQ and the spill, without ever really mentioning the LEPC. My take away was the government is willing, the companies will do something with a gun to their head, but the community doesn’t care until their hair is on fire.
This LEPC doesn’t get together and game all the likely scenarios like flooding, hurricanes, or civic unrest except where those things may cause a HAZMAT issue. As far as I can tell, my local government doesn’t do that at all. We did speak about power outages and minor flooding from a few storms but it wasn’t very in-depth or detailed. In a flooding event, several cars (with people in them) were swept up in some rapidly rising water. Luckily there were no casualties but I discovered my police and fire departments don’t have a single boat for emergency response. It isn’t that they are stupid, they have requested boats for years. The community doesn’t want to spend the money on getting one, maintaining it and training people with it. But here were 10-15 people screaming for the fire / police to rescue them and all they could do was try to throw them a life ring on a line. After that, the city council managed to get a couple Zodiacs appropriated.
A big concern of the LEPC is evacuating an area in case of a bad spill. If you evacuate people you have to have vehicles, (We will use the school buses) policies, (Yes, you can bring your pets on leashes or in cages) and a place to put them. Our place(s) to put people are in the school gyms or community recreation centers. I found out not a single one of these places has backup generator power. The new recreation center had it in the plans at the request of the LEPC, but it was the first item that got cut when the budget started to get overrun. So if conditions are right, refugees could find themselves in a dark and uncomfortable place in an emergency.
Speaking of backup generators, the city hospital proudly announced they had finished installing theirs at the second meeting I attended. My first reaction was shock –they didn’t have one already? But I recovered enough to ask some very telling questions. Was it a full backup? “No, it covers the emergency room, ICU, and operating rooms but not the other rooms, waiting areas etc.” How much fuel supply do you have on hand? “Oh lots! 500 gallons I think.” How long can you run on that much fuel? -“Gee, I don’t know.” These folks try to run from the meeting now when I see them, because I haven’t gotten the answer yet and I don’t plan on letting up.
The water company chimed in that they had completed upgrading theirs after discovering it wasn’t up to snuff during a power outage they had. It seems the backup generator wasn’t large enough to maintain positive pressure between the clean water and the sewer water, so they had to close the valves and cut off water to the whole city until they got power back to keep from contaminating their drinking water. So I asked, how long will your fuel supply last? -“Gee, I don’t know.” These folks hate my returning questions too –but haven’t figured out testing it and getting my answer.
The police station has a generator that will keep the radios & phones working for three days. The fire station headquarters has the same, but none of the seven satellite stations do.
The police are borderline outgunned. My city is large but not especially violent; we had zero murders in 2012. The cops all carry Glock 22s and have a Remington 870 in their patrol cars, but the armory only has four Smith and Wesson M&P AR-15s, three Springfield M1As and two Remington 700 sniper rifles. These weapons are only issued when there is a call for them or signed out for range time.
The Fire Chief and a few other high ranking guys carry Glock 22s but they don’t have an armory or allow the firemen to carry on duty. The city eight fire stations and each has a mix of tanker, ladder and rescue vehicles and they have a great record for response time. But the prepper in me folds my arms and wonders what happens when multiple large fires break out due to civil unrest –hopefully the neighboring towns won’t have the same trouble and can lend a hand.
So my overall take on local government response is this: They do what they can, but they can’t do much. Every expense on people, equipment and training is scrutinized (rightly so) and kept down to respond to the everyday events. My police are great, they are visible and respond very quickly. The fire department is too. My government wants to be ready and respond to everything, but can’t justify the expense to the everyday taxpayer so many things get left undone. A single black swan event can completely overwhelm my city’s response capability. I am no proponent for the government trying to be all things to all people, so really their readiness is good given their budget. All I can do is try to help educate my fellow citizens to prepare themselves for these events and not to rely on the government. And by the way, I just signed up for another two year hitch on the LEPC.
Dear Mr. Rawles,
I have read Patriots and am working on (from the library) your three other books. I have a great group I am connected with and all are reading your material. Also, I have the book Strategic Relocation–North American Guide to Safe Places by Joel and Andrew Skousen. I really appreciate all your advice and tips and have been working as best I can to prepare. My question revolves around how crucial you think it would be for me to pay off as much debt as possible before the coming collapse or whatever comes?
I am struggling with balancing paying a credit card debt and mortgage while keeping my decent paying job, but this and some other bills that can’t go away quickly enough (student loans for example) are in the way of me doing other things to prepare. I don’t expect you to have the “magic answer” but was wondering your opinion of how important paying debt is as opposed to preparing? I don’t mean getting a loan to prep or a new credit card, but is paying off a mortgage or a VISA card really that important WTSHTF?
I ask this as one who has always paid my bills and am never late. I did, however, charge some food and prepping supplies as I felt I was behind on that.
I am open to brutal honesty of course. If you have time I would appreciate your input.
Thank you very much. Your brother in Christ, – Gregg in Central Washington
JWR Replies: We are possibly facing several more years of deflation before mass inflation kicks in. Deflation makes consumer debt devastating in the event of a layoff or a substantial pay cut.
I highly recommend Dave Ramsey‘s books. He has many proven solutions to personal indebtedness.
Don’t hesitate to team up with neighbors, relatives and like-minded friends. By picking specialties, pooling some resources and doing “group buys” you can get your key preparations squared away much less expensively.
Mr. Rawles,
I just read the excellent article you posted by Tony C. The only thing I would add (and you can’t always cover everything, so this is not derogatory towards Tony C. in any way) is this:
If you do want to educate yourself in any martial art, please do as much research of the facility that you want to take it from as you do in research for your firearms. This does not mean go around and ask the people that take it there if they like it. Their only experience may be of that one place. I am a 2nd degree black belt in 4 different martial arts (and very close to my 3rd) while everyone in my family is at least a black belt level or higher. I teach women’s self defense 6 times a week. My entire family has taught at several different dojo’s (due to moving). No two dojos are alike. It pains me to say this but many of them will gladly take your money and tie a belt around your waist and show you fluff and frill. And even sadder to me is the fact that many people are happy in the fact that they don’t have to work very hard to achieve a (what used to be venerated) black belt. With all that said, there are still Master’s that have remained true to their art and the quality thereof.
A case in point with Tae Kwon Do. There is Dojo X that advertises a great way to shape up and get your black belt. We visited this dojo only to find out they are not affiliated with the Kukkiwon (the official governing body of Tae Kwon Do) and we immediately recognized on observation that the techniques the black belts had were horrible and if applied in a real life situation would most likely get you beaten up bad or killed. We left Dojo X in a hurry. The next Dojo Y promised if we gave them x amount of dollars that we could get our black belt in record time. We got up and left in a hurry too.
So what do you want in a facility?
1) You want to check them out. Are they affiliated with a higher governing official body? (There are some dojo’s out there where the “master” “created” his own Kung Dum Ku and awarded himself a 9th dan in that martial art)
2) Is the master really interested in your money? Let’s face it, they do have to pay the rent. But some don’t teach much of anything and take your hard earned dough and slap a belt around your waist. We call these McDojos. Empty of everything good.
3) Observe several classes. Take note of the instructor’s and how they run the class. You don’t want one that has no hold on the class while the students run around. Conversely, you don’t want one so strict that the student’s can’t do anything right. You want an instructor that is confident and knowledgeable that can command a good class and has the respect of his students and it will be obvious.
Let’s face it, in a TEOTWAWKI situation, you don’t want fluff and frill. You want to be confident in the fact that you trained with professionals. It doesn’t matter what color belt is around your waist, what matters is this; Is what you learned real and be used in real life situations?
Thanks, – Jessica B.
In the interest of honest and complete coverage of the topic, I’d like to clarify and expand upon the comments made by a contributor about the "brown sugar" typically marketed in the United States and Canada.
Brown Sugar is indeed just white sugar with molasses added to it. But what is not clear to most people is that molasses is what is left over when you refine sugar cane or sugar beets into white sugar.
Some sugars labeled “turbinado” or “demerara” sugars are made from partially refined sugar-juice that have had some of the water driven off by a centrifugal process. The darkest brown sugar, “muscovado” is not centrifuged, but pan dried and pounded to a thick paste like consistency.
Brown sugar and molasses were once demonized by the white sugar processors in the early 1900s as being “impure” – pictures of the molasses and brown sugar were taken with a microscope to show the microscopic organisms that were processed with the cane or beet that made people think that brown sugar and molasses was contaminated. It worked, people stopped buying partially processed sugar, and insisted on the highly processed white form.
Molasses, as a source of carbohydrate, is low on the glycemic index – while there is still some sucrose bound up in the matrix, it is slow to release and doesn’t give you a sugar buzz if consumed. Beet sugar molasses is more deficient in micro-nutrients, like biotin. Sugar cane, however, can have a root system that reaches up to 12 feet underground, which gives it a wider area to acquire nutrient minerals like zinc. Sugar beet roots reach about five feet into the ground and are much less sectionally dense(thick) and are thought to be less efficient that sugar cane roots.
A tablespoon of molasses has about 20 percent of the minerals needed by an adult on a daily basis. It is theorized that the uptake of minerals from molasses may, in fact, yield a higher percentage of usage minerals versus a vitamin pill as the molasses is slower to digest and releases it’s contents more gradually – and thus may not contribute much of it’s mineral content to elimination. Gardeners use molasses to encourage friendly bacterial growth in their gardens. Sugar beet as silage is almost as nutrient dense as corn, and is a major crop export for sugar producing countries (the bulk materials that are left over after sugar production) to countries that produce cattle. Cows love sugar beets, but can choke on them, so grind em up or chop them if you’re using them as feed supplement, after having about 20 percent molasses added back into the mix for lactobacillus growth encouragement. Point is, molasses is GOOD on many levels.
How to make brown sugar from white…
By weight, molasses is about 10 percent of light brown sugar, by volume just slightly more than 6 percent. A good measure is one tablespoon of molasses to one cup of sugar for a light brown equivalent. Another two teaspoons will yield the equivalent of dark brown sugar. If this is how you made your brown sugar, you will need to blend the sugar and molasses in a food processor if you intend to bake with it (cookies), if the sugar/molasses is going into something that’s melted (like caramel) then you do not need to blend it. Brown sugar is soft because molasses is hydroscopic, that is it attracts water molecules – yes regular sugar has water in it from the sucrose, but it’s bound up chemically and not attached in a non-bonded chemical form to the molecule.
To revitalize hardened brown sugar you can either heat it (be careful you don’t melt it) or put a slice of two of bread in the container and come back in a day – the water will have been slowly absorbed and spread into the hardened brown sugar, making it soft again. We typically buy something called “blackstrap molasses” an American coined word, which is simply a made-up, meaningless name – it indicates that the molasses was derived from the third boiling (processing) of the sugar cane or sugar beet. 1st and 2nd boiling molasses (sometimes called green molasses) still has a lot high of sucrose in it and is sold commercially to large food processors, but is not generally available to the public.
Unsulphured molasses means that the sugar cane was mature when processed and did not need the addition of sulphur to help break down the immature sugar cane for processing. Sulfured molasses was made from less mature plants and is more common, most store brand molasses are of the unsulphured variety – where does the other stuff go? Into the baking industry! There is a difference between the molasses from sugar cane and sugar beet, ultimately most sugar beet molasses ends up as feed for animals or for use in making yeast or other things like stout beer – there is a bitter taste to beet molasses and considerable more indigestible bio-mass in the mix.
I hope this information helps! – J.M. in Colorado
An interesting design: Paracord Belt with Carabiner Buckle and D-Ring
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An honored veteran who has been in the Warrior Games (for wounded servicemen) gets treated like dirt because of New York’s absurd magazine ban. When politicians ban plastic boxes and sheet metal boxes–turning them into potential felonies–something has gone very wrong with America. Please support Nate Haddad’s legal defense fund.
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Backyard Farming Gets Fancy: High-End ‘Homesteaders’ Want Pricey, Stylish Tools; The $1,300 Chicken Coop. JWR’s Comment: Spend your prepping dollars wisely. Extravagance is poor stewardship. Learn to build your own, and save money.
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“Religion is a most cheerful and thing to practice, but a most sad and melancholy thing to neglect. The government of God in the soul is a government which regulates, but does not enslave. If we seriously consider what religion is, we shall find the saying of the wise King Solomon to be unexceptionably true: “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” The idea that religion is a kind of slavery, to which none can submit without sacrificing the natural enjoyments of life, has ever been the greatest hindrance to its advancement among mankind. How much wiser and better should we be if we could carry along with us, from infancy to old age, the full conviction that happiness is the substantial cultivation and exercise of the Christian virtues, and that piety is the firmest basis of morality, securing first God’s claims, and by so doing securing our own! For, without the belief and hope offered by Divine revelations, the circumstances of man are extremely forlorn.” – John C. Gunn, M.D., Gunn’s New Family Physician, 1866
Today we present the final entry for Round 44 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.
Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, E.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).
Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.
Round 44 ends on January 31st, 2013, and the queue is full, but you can e-mail us your entry for Round 45. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
I woke up a few months ago. Literally, I woke up one day and realized if TSHTF, I was toast. In a big way. It all started with Hurricane Sandy. I live in a coastal town in the Northeast. The beach is a comfortable twenty minute walk from my home. Three streets behind me is Water Street, so named because not only is home to various Marina’s and marine supply stores, it has a tendency to flood every high tide. I woke up the morning Sandy hit to an eerily lit sky. Even though a hurricane was heading our way my employer expected me to show up on time ready for work. I had been at work for all of two hours when my manager informed us we had permission to close the store and go home in three hours. Half an hour later, we lost power and it was a half an hour later that we were finally allowed to go home and brace for the storm.
Since I am a single parent who’s currently without a vehicle and bus service was suspended for the duration a co-worker gave me a life home. When we were two blocks away from my home both of us noticed an awful amount of water on the street, what frightened both of us the most was there was no rain. When she dropped me off in front of my home a utility truck was parked in the drive way notifying the residents in my neighborhood they were cutting power and shutting off the gas to reduce the possibility of fires. After all part of the Long Island Sound was now in my front yard.
I ran up the stairs to my apartment and rushed through the door, frightened beyond belief. As I went through the cabinets I realized I had absolutely nothing to feed my children that didn’t require adding water and cooking. I walked down the hall to my bedroom my heart racing a mile a minute. “What am I going to do?” I asked myself repeatedly. As I was changing, the local radio station mentioned that local schools were opening as emergency shelters. As quickly as I could I packed up the family, and we headed out. As we were walking my youngest whom is all of eleven years old kept saying. “This is not cool mom; we’re walking in a hurricane. We would have been safer staying at home.” I didn’t have the heart or the courage to explain to him, home was not good because his mom who is ninja at paying the bills, and making sure there is always food in the house was not ninja at making sure she was prepared for this. His mom, who will wash clothes in the tub to make sure he and his thirteen year old brother can go on a field trip, was not so cool on this.
It took a little under a half an hour for us to get to the school, the first thing I noticed as we were walking in was the fear that it inspired in me. Armed police officers stood guard at the door. People in bright orange vests herded the new comers into a line. Once you got to the table another orange vest asked for identification, and the names of all in your party. After we were checked in another orange vest escorted us into the school gym, and showed us our area. As we set up our cots and prepared to hunker down for the worst, another orange worker came over and informed us that dinner was being served and we needed to follow the rest of the crowd down to the cafeteria. As we walked to the cafeteria I noticed that there were armed police officers in the halls drinking coffee, and listening intently to the noise squawking from their radios. Suddenly, I didn’t feel like a refugee from Monster Storm Sandy, I felt deep within my soul and in my heart that my children and I were in a farce of being shipped off to a concentration camp similar to what I had seen in Schindler’s List. I didn’t like that feeling one iota.
As the night wore on and the storm finally hit, I was gripped by the terrible fear that if I survived the night with no bad happening, I was going to do everything in my power to make sure my boys were never placed in a similar situation ever again. When the next morning dawned it was business as usual. I called my job, we were open for business and I was expected in. I told them I’d be late and why. I packed up the boys, called their grandfather for a ride and we headed home. The lights and gas back on, the Long Island Sound back where it belonged. All day while I was working and my kids talking about their grand adventure I knew I had to begin to prepare for whatever would could and probably will happen next.
So I set myself up a mission, I needed to learn how to prepare for the worst. I did countless web searches. I read blog after blog, message board after message board. It seemed at first as if I just wouldn’t be able to the expense was just too great. Then I remembered ” Keep It Simple Stupid” (KISS). What do I know, so I made a list.
1) The human body cannot live for more than three days without WATER.
2) The human body cannot live more than five days without FOOD.
3) Depending on the weather conditions you have to be able to stay warm, cool, dry.
So I started with the basics. Water. The next time I went grocery shopping post Sandy bottled water was on sale. Buy 2 get 2 free. I bought 4, and I got 4 free. Four went into the kitchen for the house; four got hidden under my bed. I felt good doing that. I can’t describe how totally back in control I felt. So I began to expand. My kids love fruit snacks, what kid doesn’t? I noticed one day while grocery shopping that all the way down on the very bottom shelf was an off, off brand of fruit snacks 10 for $5.00. I bought 20. Ten went into the kitchen; ten got hidden under my bed. I felt even more empowered.
One week when my paycheck wasn’t quite what it should have been, and the non-child support paying ex gave his usual, “I’ll see what I can do,” speech. I had no choice but to go to the dollar store for groceries. It was while there that I realized I really could have been prepared. I purchased thirty cans of beef stew for $15.00. Half went into the kitchen, half, you guessed it, went under my bed. Hey, cold beef stew may not be an ideal dinner, but it’s better than no dinner at all. It was a start small and insignificant as it seems, it was a start. I kept it simple, when I got a bonus at work because my department exceeded our monthly sales goals I invested in an item that I had read about over and over again.
I bought a vacuum sealer, three rolls of bags, 100 Mylar bags and 100 300cc deoxygenators. Then I went back to the dollar and bought 14 boxes of just add water pancake mix. Three made it into the kitchen; the rest got measured out vacuum sealed with a deoxygenator and tossed into the freezer for two hours. After they came out they got sealed into a Mylar bag and stacked into a really useful box, and put under the bed.
Soon it was joined by more water, some alcohol, first aid kits, coffee, and a camp stove. This month I again got a bonus and instead of paying down debt decided to invest in water treatment and a really good gas grill from amazon. One that I can fire up under my dining room window and cook a nice hot meal for my boys, where the neighbors can’t see it, and I don’t have to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning. Soon enough my income tax refund will be here, and as my neighbors are discussing which model of big screen television they are going to be purchasing. I’ve already spent mine. First on my list is a car. A nice used SUV or Wagon. Next up camping gear for me and the boys, a pistol firing course for me and archery lessons for the boys. I also plan on purchasing a six month supply of MREs, a 21 quart pressure canner, and canning supplies.
The big one though is I’m a city girl. I signed up for a plot at the community garden; I’ve got a list of seeds of things I’d like to grow. A book on gardening for dummies, some potting soil and plenty of empty egg cartons for seedlings; I can’t wait to get started.
So how do you prepare for TEOTWAWKI? Well it’s like they say, you can’t run until you’ve learned to walk. You can’t prepare unless you know how. One thing at a time, start with what you know. In the two months since Sandy hit, I went from being a scared sheep with no idea what to do. To a soaring Eagle with a nice supply of necessaries for me and my boys, if we have to hunker down for a day we’re good. If we have to hunker down for a week we’re good. Even if we have to hunker for a month or longer we’re good.
I no longer shop in the dollar store for groceries with my head down as if it’s something to be ashamed of. I shop there on a regular basis with twenty to thirty dollars a week stocking up on things I know I’ll need if TSHF. From soap, shampoos and grocery items to basic first aid items and possible barter items. I have learned how to prepare. As I think back on the night I evacuated my home for a monster storm and I peek under my bed and in my closet and in my kitchen at how far I’ve gotten, I realized that my income didn’t matter. What mattered was I was able to prepare all along and just didn’t know it. That I just had to start at square one.
In six months the oldest of my boys leaves for the Marine Corps, and told me that for the first time since he enlisted he’s no longer afraid of what will happen with me and his younger brothers. He’s actually okay with really leaving now, because in two short months I’ve managed to squirrel away enough supplies to take care of all of us, and instead of believing that the powers that be will take care of me and mine in an emergency, I’m being proactive in taking care of me and mine. If it happens, when it happens, this Mama is more than ready.
Sir:
As a Central Texas Prepper, I have solved my food storage problem affordably, as follows: On my property there was an existing 20 foot by 24 foot sheetrock walled tool shed. I gutted this building and installed slabs of 8 inch styrofoam panels against interior walls.
These blocks of foam were salvaged from floating docks on a local lake as most people were installing plastic floats under their docks. The styrofoam blocks were free for the taking..As the floats were used and had been in the water in some cases for years, they looked gross and smelled bad also. I found if you cut as little as 4 inches off the side of the float, you now have new looking and smelling styrofoam blocks. The foam blocks come in [usually] 4 foot by 12 foot dimensions and need to be sized for re-use. This was accomplished with a 20 inch chain saw, with a tube sawing guide extending past the chain bar,and cut around the perimeter. The entire block will not be cut thru at this point but if you pop rivet two regular carpenters hand saws together to make a 5 foot blade, the remaining styrofoam cuts easily. You now have a 4 foot by 12 foot by 8 inch slab of pure insulation. Cut and tightly fit these slabs against your interior walls. Use foam sealer to seal the joints and you have an air tight interior. Inside the interior foam slabs, I built a 2×4 framed wall and insulated it with fiberglass insulation. These walls were then sheetrocked and taped. The ceiling received the same treatment with cutoff chunks of Styrofoam placed on top of the slabs in the attic. The thicker the better. A sheetrock ceiling was put up after all seams were sealed with foam. A solid core door with a foam rubber gasket was installed to keep things airtight.
Next, a high efficiency 10,000 BTU window air conditioner with a power saver feature was installed to cool the interior. The whole thing works better than expected, keeping the interior of the storage building at 60 degrees or below, no matter the outside temperature. The window unit is shut off in the winter with the interior temperature staying around 55 degrees. The electricity consumed by the window unit is negligible.The exterior of the building was left worn and weathered looking even our closest friends have no idea about the contents of the tool shed. Some work required but this resulted in a cheap and effective storage facility. – Don in Texas
Reader Michael W. sent this: Zimbabwe Is Down to Its Last $217. Comrade Mugabe and his cronies have absolutely destroyed and looted their nation which once had a vibrant economy. They must be overthrown!
The destruction of the US Dollar continues: Bernanke Seen Buying $1.14 Trillion in Assets in 2014
Items from The Economatrix:
Economists Growing More Upbeat About Year Ahead [JWR’s Comment: Well, golly gee, with the Federal Reserve and Treasury conspiring to soon double the money supply AGAIN, so stocks must go up, and we’ll all be “millionaires” soon, right? Given their monetary policies in recent years, I propose that the Federal Reserve shorten their name to Feral Reserve. That would be more accurate, since they are a private banking cartel has truly gone wild, and after all they never were a Federal agency. They are no more “Federal” than Federal Express.]