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« Letter Re: Converting Precious Metals ETFs to Physical Metals |Main| Note from JWR: » Friday November 20 2009Letter Re: Short Term Survival or Long Term Self-Sufficiency? Hi James, I have to take issue with your blog though. It focuses on survival in the short term (maximum five years after collapse). It does not give direction for how to proceed from there, how to thrive, how to rebuild society (or rather, how to build a better society). Surviving the collapse on modern medicine only to die from disease when it runs out is pointless. Surviving only to find that your gene pool is too small to survive into the coming centuries, or that you don’t have enough books or ways to copy them (or write new ones), and thus pass knowledge on... It makes a mockery of survival. Short term focus is what got us into this mess. Let’s have some longer term articles on what we should do to lay the foundations for our children and grandchildren, and more distant descendants, to thrive. Also, I do not see any articles on how to disappear from view of satellites, or other high-tech surveillance equipment, or how to fight against a modern army. I know it might sound ridiculous, and it is a conspiracy theory (and those are nowadays automatically disreputable), but I do not think that we are in this mess entirely by accident. The constriction of our seed supply to a few large corporations is deliberate. That there exist doomsday shelters with high technology for the elite is known. Might there not be at least some deliberate engineering of the current crisis? And, if so, might it not be with a view to facilitating control by the elite? A reduced world population would be easier to control. One desperate for food, shelter, medicine etc. would do some presently inconceivable things – such as surrendering freedom in exchange for those “necessities”. I am speaking here of the Mark of the Beast: subdermal microchips. We might find ourselves fighting against much nastier groups than mere marauders. If I am correct, much of that situation will be out of our hands anyway – it’s the Lord’s battle. But that doesn’t mean we can just sit back and say “I don’t have to do anything.” Regards, - David in South Africa JWR Replies: I think that you drew a conclusion about SurvivalBlog without digging very deeply. If you take the time to work your way back through the SurvivalBlog Archives (now nearly 8,000 archived posts), you will indeed find a large number of posts that discuss long term self sufficiency. These articles and letters cover steam power, home-made fuels, photovoltaics, micro-hydro power systems, home-grown herbal medicines, low tech do-it-yourself architecture (including rammed earth, adobe bricks, discarded tire Earthships), blacksmithing, home chemistry, farming, aquaculture, wood and coal heating, saddle and draft horses, primitive weapons, leather working, community organizing, gravity-flow water systems, traditional carpentry (without power tools), and much, much more. For discussions specifically about long term scenarios, be sure to use the search word "multigenerational." To provide some ideas on how to fight against a modern army, I wrote "Patriots:
A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse" « Influenza Pandemic Update: |Main| Letter Re: Oral Rehydration Solutions » Thursday November 19 2009Seven Letters Re: Getting a Christian Wife Involved With Preparedness Dear Mr. Rawles, As a side note, my husband and I "came together" on our preps about two years ago while watching the television show Jericho If "L.K." thinks such a show might interest his wife, it might be worth a shot. Best wishes, - M.K. Mr. Rawles, Mr. Rawles, For L.K. in Boise: Our preps have gotten us through very personal hard times. I wouldn't want to be without them. Have your wife read Proverbs 31. We have a duty to be prepared so we can look after our husbands, children, and others who come into our lives. God Bless, - Bonnie S. Dear Mr. Rawles, While I was on Temporary Duty (TDY), I met and began chatting with an older gentleman. We talked about scouting, firearms, reloading etc. I mentioned my dream alone in a mountain cabin and that's when my life changed. This gentleman educated me that my dream was a good one but flawed. He told me that I needed friends to watch my back, which would allow me to sleep in that cabin. He also recommended that I read this novel called "Patriots". I immediately after work, found a book store and purchased it. I devoured that book in three days. I'm currently reading:
[Once I started reading the novel,] I was so excited that I called my wife and began explaining the different chapters to her. She was interested probably due to my excitement as I explained. Once I returned home, I begged he to read the book. She was hesitate so I begged her to just read the first chapter. She agreed. I quietly watched her as she began to read and her eye brows began to raise and lower. First Chapter completed, she continued until she finished. My wife's outlook changed that day also. We live in base housing so we plan to rent a garden plot in the spring for a garden, I'm slowly stocking up on ammo and we plan to can what we grow. To sum it up. I was able to get mt Christian wife involved with Preparedness by begging her to read your novel "Patriots". Thank You Mr. Rawles, I'm eternally indebted to you for opening my eyes. Very Respectfully, - T.S. Wichita, Kansas Hi, James: « Letter Re: Parabolic Dish Shoutcasting |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Wednesday November 18 2009Letter Re: Getting a Christian Wife Involved With PreparednessMr. Rawles, Do you have any advice? I know there are probably many folks in the same situation that could use some encouragement. JWR Replies: You need to talk with and pray with your wife about God's purpose for your mortal lives. Although our lives are brief in the grand scheme of things, they can and should be used for God's glory. (That is our Great Commission.) I can think of no better Christian witness than being well-prepared and hence being in the position to share copious Christian charity in a time of crisis or catastrophe. The bottom line is that you can't share the gospel when you are room temperature. You also need to think in terms of your progeny. Parents have responsibility to protect and provide for their children. That is Biblically mandated. And on a longer time scale, it would serve God to pass on Christian values to future generations. But that can only happen if your children survive to have children of their own. Parenthetically, I'd like to mention that I'm a descendant of Dr. Rowland Taylor (who's life and death is described in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.) He was burned at the stake for holding to the inerrancy of the Bible. He died singing hymns, amidst the flames. Part of Taylor's legacy is not just in that book, but also in the witness of his descendants, like me. Ask your wife: What will be your legacy? The certain fact is that our lives matter, in many ways, and some of these may not be apparent until after we've left this mortal life. « Two Letters Re: Long Term Food Storage Package Now Sold at COSTCO |Main| Note from JWR: » Tuesday November 17 2009Lessons Leaned from a Wildfire Evacuation, by Daniel in Montana
It was a gorgeous Saturday night, Sept. in Montana's mountains the weather was hanging onto summer's 70 degree temperatures, warm and dry. Working all day at the hospital and finishing some of my home preparedness projects gave me a satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. Time to relax, I sat down, put my feet up and was sipping my week's end treat, a cold beer. I phoned my friend, “Brett” to finalize our plans to butcher a few of his farm animals tomorrow. He was finishing a Bible reading with his boys and was putting them to bed, and would call me back in a few minutes. It was quite strange, as soon as I hung up, the phone immediately rang. It wasn't Brett, it was “Eric.” His voice had a tone and panic I'd never heard before. Through his hollering and shouting I gathered a forest fire had just erupted a mile from his home. He was pleading for me to get to his parents' home and tell them he is being evacuated! He was about to loose his house, horses, tools, everything. His call ended any type of relaxing for this Saturday night. Eric and I have been friends for years. We live about 30 miles from each other. His parents and I are only 5 miles apart. He was unable to phone them. They have discontinued their land line, living tucked away on the side of a hill, far in the country and far from cell service. We of like minds prefer it that way don't we? My job in the health center was to train staff to respond to emergencies. We prepared for heart attacks, missing children, chemical spills, the usual. I am also a martial art's instructor and former fighter. Eric's call had ignited my fight or flight response dumping adrenaline into my body. My mind was racing, hundreds of thoughts and ideas all at once. I had just let my guard down. It was my time to relax, but my friend needed help. His request, and my urgency was to notify his parents, get people to the scene! “Should I ride my Harley”? It would be quicker than my truck, but the thought of being in a smoky fire on a motorcycle wasn't appealing. I'd ridden it before during a bad fire season a few years ago, the memory of the smoke stinging my eyes and my lungs burning made my decision easy. I ran to my truck. Oh adrenaline, how amazing you are..more thoughts flooded my mind, simultaneous, in a moment, “grab my boots, Carhartts, jacket, chain saw and Pulaski to fight the fire. I'll need my cell phone and lights, No, don't waste time get going! Hurry! I can always come back for my gear. It's only a few miles. Got to get to his parents! The fire was at least 30 miles from my home. My two daughters were safe, my wife was out for the night, the animals were all in their pens, go now, go fast!” I blasted off in my truck. My mission, my friend's request was clear, notify his parents. I took off wearing a pair of worn out sneakers, blue jeans and a T-shirt, no wallet, no ID, no phone. I raced my pick up to Eric's parents' home. “I can come back for my gear” disappoints me to this day. Completing my mission caused another families' Saturday night to change quickly, crying, disbelief and shock. It took them an eternity to accept this, get dressed and get on the road to help Eric. I followed them at 80 mph for the next 30 miles. Of course, we got stopped for speeding but the considerate officer knew of the fire situation and let us go, no ticket. I hope he reads this. I'd like to thank him. As the miles passed, the outline of the mountain tops were easily seen glowing a dull red. Smoke was now thick from the burning trees. I shut the truck's air vents. As we turned off the main highway I was suddenly cut off by a frantic heard of deer, several horses and a few dogs. They were crisscrossing the old road running wild. The fire was spreading quickly. I wondered, what I was getting into? This isn't safe. This really happening!” My friend needed help, there was no hesitation, only my commitment. The country dirt roads were not made for the traffic created from fire and pumper trucks, pick ups and trailers. The dust from the vehicles choked any attempts at normal breathing. I wrapped a bandanna around my nose and mouth but they were already dry and burning. It was quite dark but the glow from the fire and headlights created an eerie radiance. Any form of light was now encased in an evil combination of smoke and dust. Nothing was seen clear. Nothing was for certain. My Saturday had changed so quickly I couldn't keep up. My thoughts drifted to how valuable my gear would have been. Great planning and preparedness on my part. I never drove back to gather my equipment. I even have it organized for this type of grab and go situation. Wondering if the extra time spent would have been worth it? Saving those few minutes and racing off could prove costly. My instincts told me to drive my truck. My gas tank was rarely below ¾ full, and true to my nature, I'd even topped it off after work. I had a full tank, (no wallet). I always stocked my first aide bag, pistol, extra mags, leather work gloves, 120 ft. of rope, jumper cables and a spot light in my truck. I plugged in the spot light, holstered my pistol, put on my gloves, grabbed the first aid bag and rope and set them on the front seat. I lit up the spot light and in this smoky confusion of animals, firefighters, trucks, trailers and flashing lights, I found Eric. He was standing in a grass field, sweating, dirty and holding two of his five horses. I jumped out. Eric was in shock, my friend and brother needed help and lots of it! I used my 120 foot rope and several of us banded together forming a human fence. We were able to coral two more frightened horses. It took several attempts and over an hour to trailer those two. We roped off others and tied them to the trailer Like us, they were scared. confused and running on adrenaline One horse, was cut and bleeding bad. Her chest and legs sliced open, looked like she tangled with barb wire. I released my right hand from the rope and rested it on my pistol, assessing her, wondering? One lady was standing alone in the middle of the dirt road, trucks and trailers driving around her. I grabbed my first aide bag and went to her. She was stiff, didn't speak, didn't answer my questions. I checked her, no signs of injury, B/P and 02 sats were within normal limits, pulse was racing, whose wasn't? No cuts or bruises, shock. I drove her down two miles to the small country town, Lakeside where others had gathered by the Red Cross station and were sharing information and horror stories. I could hear conversations of those who needed to get gas at this time of night, without success. Most stations were closed and the one that was open was choked with long lines, and taking credit cards only. Beautiful 350 Turbo powered Cummings trucks sitting, going nowhere, without fuel. Frustrated drivers, swearing, pounding their fists on their hoods as the fire threatened their homes. One lady was standing in shorts and a tank top, great for the warmth of the day but more than exposed to numerous dangers in this situation. Her home was directly in the fire's path. She had called the police prior to attempting to go to her home. They told her not to worry she would not be evacuated. By the time she got home, the fire had changed directions and she was not permitted to go near her home. Eric had made several phone calls and other friends arrived. Some were quite prepared, some not. With his friends there to help him, all Eric could do was stand in disbelief, mumbling, “I've lost everything. I've lost everything.” I held both his arms, looked him square in the face and reassured him he hadn't lost everything. “There still is time. Look, your house is right here, the fire's still up on the mountain top. What can we get out of it? What's first?” He didn't answer. He ran off to get a chain saw. What are his priorities? What did he want out of his home? If his house did burn down what is important to him? We may only have this one chance. How can I help? What do I get for him? birth certificates, insurance papers, cash, guns? Where is all this? Then amongst all the fear and shock, unexpectedly, an angel gently touched my arm. It was Eric's mom. She was a calm in all this confusion. Her and Eric's dad are older, not in the prime of health and took a little longer to find us. His dad, Charles may not be in his youth but he sure proved his efficiency on the front end loader. Charles took up his position on Eric's loader and immediately started pushing over smaller trees and brush, dragging them away from the house and work shop. He was also building 10 ft high mounds of dirt around the house at the same time. He was amazing! Efficient, productive, we were making gains now! We were on the offensive! We rallied behind their calm wisdom and experience. All too sudden, it was quite, very quiet. The front end loader stalled while dragging a tree and wouldn't start. After several attempts to restart it, the battery died. At this moment I felt the weight of the Red Sea crash in on me. I felt the fatigue. I was exhausted. I couldn't breath. My knees, ankles and feet were throbbing, the past few hours walking, running and tripping in unfamiliar fields and dirt roads had taken its toll. My boots were now worth millions. “My boots, my gear, Wish I would have....wait! I always carry jumper cables in my truck! I hobbled to it and eased into the front seat. Shifting and pushing the clutch sent waves of pain through my battered ankles and legs. I drove through the field right up to the Bobcat and popped open my hood. Charles had been trying to restart it and grabbed my jumper cables. In a few short minutes, we had her running again! Guess I wasn't that sore after all and Charles didn't seem quite as old. As I moved my truck out of Charles' path, the headlights caught an outline of Eric at the base of a tree. He found his chainsaw and had started to cut down the larger trees close to his home and shop. Charles could push them away from the house once they were on the ground and the fire would not have any fuel. Great idea. Eric was halfway through a 60 ft. Tamarack and found his chainsaw had no fuel either. He ran out of gas and had none stored. Vehicles, people and animals all racing in the glowing dark and now a 60 ft. pine tree ready to come down at any time. We had an experienced logger, a Stihl chain saw but no fuel. This was very dangerous and we created it. Tired, thirsty and frustrated, I lit up the tree with my spot light and parked my truck sideways on the dirt road blocking any traffic from the North. Others stood on the South side and stopped any flow from their direction. Charles inched the Bobcat closer and closer and was able to push over the 60 ft. danger without incident. We all sighed in relief. The whole night was filled with events like this, success mixed with failure. You never experienced any one emotion for more than a few minutes. The burning fire created a constant urgency in everything we did. The eerie backdrop of a mountain glowing red with an uncontrolled fire wouldn't let us rest. Time changed that night. It would slow and pause for a moment, then by the time you blinked the smoke out of your eyes and it sped up creating situations and forcing immediate decisions throughout the night. There were times when I was watching all this unfold, far away from the fire, danger and confusion. There were times I was in the middle of everything, eyes stinging, scared, tired, wanting to do more for my friend. Lessons learned: I'd like to thank Mr. Rawles and your blog page. I've been a regular for almost two years now. It has been very valuable to read it and your books. You have given sound advice and enhanced my sense of preparedness. Because of your mission people were better off in a Montana wild fire. I hope and pray similar situations never come again but I feel it is only a matter of time. When the next one occurs, I will be even better prepared and will react with more efficiency thanks to you and others like us. Since I initially started writing this our weather has changed. In a 48 hour period it has gone from sunny and 70 to 4 inches of snow, icy roads cold, and minus 4 degrees at night. God Bless us all. - Daniel in Montana « From David in Israel: Off Grid Alternatives to Utility-Supplied Electricity |Main| Notes from JWR: » Monday November 16 2009Over-Planning: Get Thine Act Together!
I occasionally hear from consulting clients that get stuck in the rut of "over -planning". They do so much planning for training, and planning for stocking up, that they never seem to get around to doing either! Lengthy "to do" lists are worthless if they never get implemented. This sometimes reaches absurd lengths, as illustrated by one of my clients that showed me a spreadsheet on his laptop PC, in which he not only compared prices from various vendors for ammunition, but also tracked the changes in their prices, over the course of two years. I asked him: "Well, when did you buy, and how much did you buy?" His reply: "Well, none yet, actually, but I've found the best sources, and I've logged their price increases, shown in dollar prices here, and in percentage terms, here. Look here: This company has increased it prices by 12% less than these others. Now look at this column: their prices are up an average of only 21% since this time last year." So, while he was busy fiddling with his spreadsheets, the purchasing power of his money went down by more than 20%. He would have been ahead by at least 20+ percent, if he had just bought ammo a year earlier. But instead, he sat idly by and watched the value of his dollars melt. And these were dollars kept in a typical bank account, perhaps earning only 2% interest. (If he had invested precious metals, then he would have at least stayed ahead of the price increases on ammo.) The foregoing instructs an important point: Avoid infinite planning cycles, and get started with some concrete steps at preparedness. Clip some coupons and go to you local discount grocery store or "Big Box " store, and actually lay in some supplies, when prices are favorable, of course. If you are not sure exactly what you should buy, or about the shelf lives of various foods, or how to repackage them in oxygen-free sturdy containers, then get a copy of the "Rawles Gets You Ready" family preparedness course. The bottom line is that a good plan today beats a perfect plan, tomorrow. Or, as we often used to quote in the US Army: "Better is the enemy of good enough." « Three Letters Re: How Much Food Storage is Biblically Justified? |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Sunday November 8 2009Letter Re: An Overwhelmed Newbie, Catching Up at Prepping
Mr. Rawles, I've already bought a food dehydrator and meat grinder both very inexpensively on Craigslist and a wheat grinder from Lehman's The other thing I've done (following your wife's guidance), is to buy two copies of Carla Emery's book [The Encyclopedia of Country Living]. I've dived into that book, head first. The Memsahib was right. What an amazing reference! Owning that book is like having a country aunt on "speed dial" that you can turn to, to ask just about any question about the old-fashion ways of doing things. Since we are members of both Sam's Club and Costco (discount memberships, through my husband's work, and my school district) we plan to buy most of our bulk foods at those places. So I'm getting a copy of your ["Rawles Gets You Ready"] prepping course. I'm sure that will fill in some gaps that Carla Emery didn't cover, like details on food shelf lives and modern food packaging. Most important, it is perfect for people like us that want to be able to stock up [on food storage], just [shopping] at supermarkets or the Big Box outlets like Sam's [Club] and Costco. OBTW, my husband devoured your novel. It kept him up 'til 3 A.M.! We are selling off our "fluff stuff" on eBay and Craigslist, to get cash for prepping. So far, we've sold my collectibles and some vintage clothes, our Bose sound system, my husband's stamp collection, and more than 200 music CDs, in batches of 10 to 15, [sorted] by genre. We dropped our dish television contract--no time for that sort of time-wasting and mind-numbing entertainment! Next will be selling our Nautique ski boat. Fishing will replace water skiing as our summer hobby, and we can do that from the shore or from kayaks or inflatables that will fit on our Excursion's roof rack. The side bonus is that selling the boat and trailer is that clears one whole section of our garage. That will surely be filled with prepping shelves, shortly. My husband has a source for used industrial-weight shelving and pallet racks for about the price of scrap metal. (They buy shelving from failed companies.) Thank You, Mr. Rawles, for extracting our heads from the sand. Semper Paratus and Semper Fidelis - Jessica and Ron, in the Non-Amish Part of Ohio (Wishing I lived in Kidron, next door to Lehman's!) « Letter Re: Once a Prepper, Always a Prepper |Main| Notes from JWR: » Saturday November 7 2009Survival Preparation on Low or Fixed Incomes, by Shawna M.
So you’re convinced that the free ride is over, that things are getting worse, and when the worst happens, you want to be prepared. But you have a problem—you don’t have a lot of money for prepping and day to day living. Maybe you only make minimum wage. Maybe you make a little more than that, but you’ve got a lot of bills. Maybe you live on a fixed income, or have irregular self-employment. Regardless, don’t assume because you can’t afford expensive classes or pricey gear that WTSHTF, you’ll be unable to fend for yourself and your family. My husband and I make less than $10,000 (I’m disabled, he’s self-employed) a year, but we’ve already got a good start on skills, tools, and storage, have plans to expand, and it wasn’t difficult at all. Being on a low or fixed income can help you with a survival mindset, because you’re already used to making do with little, or having to get creative with what you have. You just have to expand what you have, a little at a time, and, before you know it, you’ve got a pretty good cache of supplies and abilities that can help you and yours no matter what comes down the pike. « Economics and Investing: |Main| Survival Preparation on Low or Fixed Incomes, by Shawna M. » Letter Re: Once a Prepper, Always a Prepper
Mr. Rawles, My Childhood I lost my father, uncle, and aunt in a close span of time together when I was 16 years old. But my Dad, Uncle, Aunt and my Mom gave me some great gifts on taking care of myself. Young Adulthood An Evacuation Prepper Anew Tools Faith Remember; Wishing SurvivalBlog Readers God's Blessings - Gary J. « Letter Re: Book Recommendation: "Possum Living" |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Friday November 6 2009Letter Re: Preps and Minimizing My Debts Paid Off When UnemployedDear Mr. Rawles, It's been a year since I've been able to find work, and in the intervening time my wife and I have struggled to stay afloat both financially and physically as my wife has Multiple Sclerosis. Thanks to what I had learned from your blog and Patriots, we've made it. When my wife and I were married two and a half years ago I made sure we paid off debt, were smart enough to skip buying an overpriced house, and built up our food stores. Thanks to you when I watched over the past year the price of homes crash and energy skyrocket we were relatively secure in our apartment debt free and chopping up all the deadfall I could find out in the state owned land behind us to burn in our fireplace. I must have saved a thousand dollars last winter heating with wood and more importantly got myself into shape. Once again thanks to you when inflation hit food prices I dug into our larder to get us past the rise in prices. And thanks to you for getting me to take an interest in emergency medicine because I've been able to keep my wife stable during health scares a couple times now as we waited for the emts to arrive. We made it through the rough times, thanks to you and the survivalist community. Today my wife is healthy, our persons secure, and my family while not rich will begin to prosper again. I've found a new job, I enlisted in the US Air Force and am shipping out in two weeks. I'll miss all the holidays this year but I'll know my family is celebrating safe and in peace. Next to good planning, the most important lesson I've learned is to never quit. So through all your trials Mr. Rawles, I hope you can take heart knowing that you and the Memsahib have touched lives from afar for the better. Sincerely, - Brent S. « Letter Re: Retreat Commo and Monitoring Suggestions from a Ham Operator |Main| Reader Poll Results: Your Favorite Movies with Survival Themes » Tuesday November 3 2009Letter Re: Some Ground Truth--The "Us" and the "Them" in a Societal CollapseMr. Rawles, Having worked for the Army for 27 years in a number of different failed countries I may have a unique perspective on survival that I would like to share with your readers. I believe most of the "survivalist community" is vastly underestimating the impact that other humans are going to have on their plans. Hunkering down and waiting for everyone to die off is a simplistic plan and I believe has almost no chance of working. You may be able to hide your retreat, but you can't hide the land it sits on. That land itself may become a scarce commodity if the US transitions to an agrarian economy. Food is the key resource. Most communities are at risk because they simply don't have enough calories stored to get them through any kind of crisis. But, storage is no more than limited capital to allow people time to grow more food. Food production requires land....if your retreat is sitting on farmable land, it will be a scarce resource. Carrying capacity of the US using non-petroleum farming techniques is far lower than most of your readers probably think. Also, most areas of the US, especially cities, don't have anywhere near enough farm-able land to go back to some kind of agrarian pattern. Without public infrastructure and modern transportation, we are going to experience a huge die-off caused mostly by starvation. In a total collapse scenario without immediate restoration of the economy, basically everyone who lives in a city is doomed unless they can take over some kind of farm land. If you live in an area without enough farm land, you will be a "have not". Period. I don't care how much food you have stored in your basement. Here is my key point. These teeming millions will not just starve and go away. I believe that anyone who thinks they can defend a working farm against raiders is deluding themselves. 1. People are dangerous. They are the most dangerous animal on earth. You can never lose sight of that! In almost any society breakdown scenario you can think of, you will be surrounded by starving predators that are much more dangerous than tigers. In the USA, every one of them (or at least the vast majority) will be armed with firearms. The ones currently without firearms will obtain them by any means necessary including looting government armories. These are thinking-breathing and highly motivated enemies. 2. Raiders, defined as "outlaw looting groups" may be a threat for a very short period, but I really don't see groups of more than 4-6 ever forming...they will be quickly replaced by much larger groups of "citizens" doing essentially the same things, but much better armed and organized. An Example: A few hours after Albania's political crisis in 1998, (which was caused by a national lottery scam), almost every adult male in the country procured an AKM from government stocks. Armories were the first targets looted. I flew into Tirana packing a pistol and a sack of money, naively thinking I would be able to move around the country and defend myself. What a laugh. Everyone had me outgunned, and the vast majority of them had military training of some sort. I never got out of the capital city. Every road seemed to have roadblocks every few miles, blocked by armed local citizens. 3. Without central authority, people don't just starve and go away. They form their own polities (governments). These polities are often organized around town or city government or local churches. They may call it a city counsel or a committee or a senate. The bottom line is, "We The People" will do whatever "We" have to do to survive. And that specifically includes taking your storage goods. 4. When (not if) a polity forms near you, you had better be part of that process. If not, you will be looked upon as a "resource" instead of a member of the community. The local polity will pass a resolution (or whatever) and "legally" confiscate your goods. If you resist, they will crush you. They will have the resources of a whole community to draw upon including weapons, vehicles, manpower, electronics, tear gas, etc. Every scrap of government owned equipment and weaponry will be used, by someone. Anyone who plans to hold out against that kind of threat is delusional. 5. The local polity that forms is almost certainly going to make mistakes. Some of them are lethal blunders. Odds are, the locals will probably not have given a lot of serious thought to facing long term survival. They will squander resources and delay implementing necessary actions (like planting more food or working together to defend a harvest). They may even decide to take in thousands of refugees from nearby cities, thereby almost insuring their own longer term starvation. A much better approach is to be an integral part of the community and use the combined resources of the community to defend all of your resources together. This would be much easier if a high percentage of the community were like minded folks who were committed to sharing and cooperating. Because any community with food is likely going to have to somehow survive while facing even larger polities, like nearby cities, counties or even state governments. Don't expect to face a walking hoard of lightly armed, starving individuals. Expect to face a professional, determined army formed by a government of some kind. A small farming community can probably support a few outsiders, but not very many. The community will need to politically deal with outside polities or they will face a war they can't win. Hiding the fact that you are self sufficient is going to be hard. You can't hide farm land. Defending your resources against the nearby city will be even harder. You may be able to save the community by buying protection with surplus food...if you have prepared for that. You may indeed have to fight, but stalling that event for even a year could mean the difference between living and being overwhelmed. In any case, your community needs to go into the crisis with a plan. You may be able to shape that plan if you become a community leader instead of a "resource". With Very Kind Regards, - R.J. JWR Replies: You've summed up some essential truths quite succinctly. Your points square nicely with the scenario in my first novel ("Patriots"). It also matches my premise of gemeinschaft kampfgeist, in the context of cohesion in the "we/they paradigm." « Influenza Pandemic Update: |Main| Letter Re: Experience with a Shallow Well Hand Pump » Monday November 2 2009Letter Re: Thoughts on Preparedness in a Diverse Community
I just met this past weekend with a group of " preparedness folk." They are on a farm about 30 miles from here. I have become interested in the subject after reading One Second After (a New York Times best seller, highly recommended!) and some writings by James Wesley, Rawles. I was surprised at who they were and the mindset I encountered. A few observations: 1) The root idea is that whether or not some disaster hits, we are far too dependent on a very fragile and tenuous energy and distribution grid. Raising your own chickens, goats, vegetables, rabbits, turkeys, pigs and cows is preferable (and more nutritious and tasty!) to standing around in a Kroger (think "post-Katrina") looking at the empty aisles. 2) They were "green" but green in a good way, and not the fashionable mindless silliness coming out of the "environmentally conscious" crowd. (Sorry if my contempt shows here) I am talking about using a local stream to turn a box of old alternators from junked cars to produce current to charge batteries, building a steam fired boiler to run a generator, and lots of other cool ideas that are scavenged from junkyards...., including using a scrapped walk in cooler from a convenience store for a chicken coop (no insulation needed, and less heat source needed during cold weather). 3) The mark of an "advanced" society is division of labor, with the dependency on each other coming from specialization of labor being more efficient and less costly. However, we have evolved into a society of urban dwellers who produce nothing necessary for root survival needs. Cities are extremely dependent on everything being trucked in, and the ones who make the most money are the ones most efficient in distribution rather than production (think "Wal-Mart"). If that distribution system is disrupted, due to a failure of the electrical grid or a fuel supply disruption, we would be helpless. These folks recognize that. 4) I did not meet any tin foil hat folks, which surprised me. There were realtors, veterinarians, an auto parts distributor, a programmer, a cop, and a contract security guy (a "Blackwater" type, although he never worked for Xe). They were just normal folks living their lives, but concerned about the potential for future instability of a calamitous nature. 5) I was surprised at the political make-up of the group. I expected to see a bunch of rabid Republicans, fearful of antichrist Obama and the New World Order, blah, blah, blah. Rather, they were amazingly cynical of any politics, and were just as critical of Reagan (for different reasons) as Obama. Their attitude was more that of folks just trying to live their lives while being confident that their best shot at any change would come from being fiercely independent and doing what they could to remain so. 6) I was probably the biggest Bible Thumper out there. No religious zealotry at all. In my life, I have encountered a lot of religious whack jobs. I expected this crowd to be a magnet for them. It wasn't 7) I was also surprised about their attitude about guns. I expected to find a bunch of hyperventilating folks screaming out "Molon Labe!" as a password or something to enter the farm. Instead, I encountered a crowd of mostly ex-military guys who understood that guns are tools. They all hunt (mostly deer, but also squirrel, turkey, dove, and some varmints), and they all believe that they have a duty and a right to protect their families themselves and their freedoms and rights against all who would challenge them. Their attitude was that you would no more expect to defend rights and freedoms without guns than try to change a tire without a jack. Especially enlightening to me were the remarks of the contract security guy who worked security in Kosovo. Rather than sitting on his pile of weapons fervently wishing for social collapse so he could play "Rambo" or something, he just emphatically declared that if you ever lived in a society where the social order even partially breaks down, you will want to prepare for it here, but no one in his right mind would wish it. 7) The final funny observation is how close these guys are with all the ex-hippie counterculture who have moved south from Chapel Hill as the area has become completely yuppified. In fact, one of the guys there at the group was just a total stoner who had essentially moved down to smoke his own hydroponic, live cheaply, eat his own "organic" produce, and shoot, prepare, and jerk his own venison. The two types of "fringe" groups have a sort of affinity for each other, even if many other ideas are polarized apart. The whole group of folks were not now living on the farm. There are only three families there. However, they are all affiliated with it and looking to it as a kind of resource/preparedness area in the event of: My wife and I are not moving down there (smile), but we are interested in some people whose ideas about simplicity and "back to nature" mirror what we would like to see ourselves. I think "survival" is an improper goal for a Christian. We are supposed to be "dead" already, having surrendered all this stuff anyway. I do think that "working with your hands so that you may have something to share with those in need" is a proper goal for myself, though. I am looking forward to interacting more with these folk. « Letter Re: Comments of Storing Coffee and Grinding Whole Wheat Flour |Main| Note from JWR: » Sunday November 1 2009Letter Re: Retreat Security: I Am Your Worst Nightmare
I was thinking about the "I Am Your Worst Nightmare" post as I worked in my vegetable garden, preparing it for Spring. I wonder how long it would be until the Looters evolved their strategy Looter+1: Don't kill everyone, leave some alive to loot again later. Looter+2: Plan to scare, rather than kill, your victims, so that they can continue farming and provide for your needs later. Dead victims can't work. Looter+3: Claim a territory and collect "protection" money/goods from the people in your territory. Tell them that in return for only taking one-third of everything they produce, you will protect them from "looters" who will take it all and kill them in the bargain. Punish anyone who holds out. Looter+4: Call your loot taxes. You are now a government. Regards, - Bear JWR Replies: Your observation is astute. In many nations, there is not much difference between "the government" and the bandito "Señor Calvera." (You may remember the bandit leader in The
Magnificent Seven « Letter Re: Comments of Storing Coffee and Grinding Whole Wheat Flour |Main| Note from JWR: » Saturday October 31 2009The Dumpster List, by InfoRodeo
Because of our financial constraints, aggravated by the economy and rural area we now live, my family cannot afford to own a second “retreat” home, nor do we have much land on which to build a shed or store much of anything. As a boy, my parents didn’t have much money, and through a mix of my dad’s “fix it or make do” attitude, the scout motto “be prepared” and my newfound need for better frugality, I’ve made a kind of checklist that every non-food purchase my wife and I make must go through, and it’s jokingly called the Dumpster list. Each point of the dumpster list should be met as well as possible, if that point is applicable. The list helps us stretch our dollars, limit our output of refuse, and choose items that are easier to transport and maintain should we be forced to evacuate or relocate during an emergency event. DURABILITY. I try to purchase things that are built strong and proven strong. I buy denim or rip-stop pants. A lot of items I purchase are “military surplus” or Mil-spec items, because they are meant to take rough treatment and last a long time. Sometimes an item can be made stronger/more resistant/durable for a small charge. Having some sort of puncture-stop material added to our bike tires or spending the extra money for some sort of hard-shell case for a piece of essential gear would be examples of adding durability. I don’t include “Price” in the checklist because I’ve learned (contrary to what my parents tried to teach me) that most of the time, paying more for a high quality item saves more money in the long run than buying a cheap item, which have to be repaired or replaced it frequently. As long as we aren’t charging it to a credit card (or creating other debt) and are living within our means, I try not to think much about price. We also do most of our non-immediate shopping on the internet, because it is easier to find exactly what we need than making do with what we find at the local hardware or department store, and the prices (including shipping) are much better. By running our potential purchases through the Dumpster list, we’ve actually modified some other areas of our life, and it has helped us to generate less trash, have less blinking-light/electronic noise toys for our children, and I haven’t had to buy any new clothes in over a year now. Though I thought there would be more potential for “hard work” as a result, we’ve found that by being more picky about our purchases, as well as giving them proper maintenance, we’ve actually had a lot less break-downs to deal with and our “free” time has actually increased. « Letter Re: Using Direction Finding on Looter Bands |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Monday October 26 2009Letter Re: Survival Notes from the Dominican RepublicJim, I've recently read several of your books and found them both interesting and educational. I would like to offer some personal insights based on my experiences from living in a small rural town one of the larger Caribbean islands. Most of my notes are cheap solutions used by people in developing nations all over the world. There may be better ways, but these work and cost next to nothing. Water: There is something especially disturbing about opening the faucet and hearing a sucking air sound. Not being able to shower, flush, or wash dishes is the worst. One or more 55 gallon drums and 5 gallon plastic buckets are essential items to have. When you see that hurricane on the news, put the barrel it in the shower and fill it up right away. Add a few capfuls of bleach to make it keep longer. Expect the quality of water from the town water supply to drop. Rainwater collection should be set up right away. If possible the roof should fill a large cistern with a pressure pump. A gravity tank should be put on the roof. Washing up from a bucket is easy enough. A small plastic cup and a five gallon bucket makes is easy. If the water is cold don’t try to heat up all the water. Bring a good sized cooking pot to a near boil and add it to the cold water. A person can wash easily in 2 gallons of water. Pouring about two gallons of water rapidly into a toilet from a 5-gallon bucket will flush a toilet. Washing dishes from a bucket without using gallons of water is tricky. It takes some practice to do it right. If you don’t stack your dirty plates and wash them right away, you only have one dirty side and no dried food. It is very easy to contaminate your water supply. Dirty bucket bottoms and careless bathing are common causes, be vigilant. Food: Our community is an exporter of meat, milk, eggs, rice, vegetables and we have a 365-day growing season. Most families have a garden plot to supplement household food. Storing food is always wise but not nearly the problem it is in some other locations. Much of our farming is done with hand work. Power: We have daily blackouts here and most houses have invertors with battery backups. Since we have occasional power most people do not have generators but just charge when the lights are on. Most businesses have diesel generators. A 2.5 KW inverter system with 4 deep cycle batteries will keep a few lights on, a laptop and a fan or two for about two days and costs about $2,000. The better systems run on 24 VDC. Here we are all very aware of vampire appliances [aka "phantom loads."]. All those VCRs, TVs, microwaves, wi-fi boxes, alarm systems, clocks, all pull a significant load. You need to learn your house circuits and unplug and turn off the breakers for things you don’t need. Low wattage bulbs are essential. Running a generator for about 4 hours will charge most battery systems. Your generator will need to be at least twice the capacity of your inverter. Operating like this you can have basic lighting for the cost of about 2 or 3 gallons of gasoline a day. Running a refrigerator off a battery backup system is just not cost effective. Many people have put up both solar and wind systems as a way to produce some additional power to keep the batteries topped off. A few simple solutions: Computer UPS systems usually operate on a 6 or 12 V battery. It is very easy to open one up and connect a large battery by running wires through the back of the case. This will give a much longer run time. While you have the case open, take a pair of pliers and crush the annoying power alarm beeper. The charger on these systems is very small and will take a very long time to reach a full charge. An off the shelf battery charger will speed things up. Alternativel,y your car can be used to charge the batteries (12 VDC only) Guns: While being armed is important, life is so much easier when there isn’t a conflict in the first place. Some people always seem to have problems wherever they go and need to pull out weapons while others seem to walk through the valley of death without a care in the world. Spend some time researching body language, and read books on interpersonal relationship skills. Besides improving your life right now, it could change a potential fatal firefight into a new friend. Police: When we have a crime wave, the police set up road blocks coming into and out of town. Rarely does this cause any real problems for honest people but you do need to have your paperwork for your car or firearms on hand. A smile and a friendly face makes things go much smoother. Acting aggressive or angry will get a messy and thorough search of your person, passengers and your car at a minimum. Knowing your local police makes a big difference. Sometimes we are asked to “help them out” which is code for a bribe. Either pay it with a smile, say sorry but you can’t today, plead poverty, or turn back. Fighting it just is not worth the trouble. Crime: Most traveling gangs are small and short lived. They rarely survive an encounter with police. It is very hard for a crime group to survive outside of their own neighborhood where they have local knowledge, a place to sleep and the support of family and friends. On the flip side the crimes committed by these people are usually the most brutal. Local criminals gangs are much harder to control. Often these are well-connected individuals or gangs who are very good at remaining undetected. Some of them are drug smugglers, cattle thieves or burglars. Persons who are well liked and respected in the community are usually left alone. If you see large gangs forming, seriously consider leaving the country as it is a no-win situation. Home Security: This is a very safe country, but it is safe because people here do no depend on the police and protect themselves. With that in mind I have noted some of the more common security precautions here. My experience here is that a house with lights on and occupied is the house that is left alone. Your best defense is to be the least interesting but hardened house in a occupied community. Vacant houses attract soft criminals and people who need a place to sleep. Most Dominicans always have someone home in the house. Night time home invasions are rare but they do happen. People who do this time of crime are extremely dangerous experienced and hardened criminals. Isolated houses are at the worst risk for the most serious attacks. A gated community, walled yard, electric gate, bars on the windows, dogs, even armed security guards are all common place here. Country people live in small groups of three or more houses with the fields surrounding them. Your most vulnerable time is being ambushed entering or leaving your home or car. When designing your landscaping, don’t build easy ambush points for attackers. This sort of thing doesn’t happen much in a small town. Protests/Strikes/Riots: Occasionally when the power or water is out too much, the citizens will organize a protest/strike/riot. Often the organizers are union leaders or other non-governmental community leaders. The usual format is to shut down the with road blocks and burning tires. Much of the bad behavior is more for show than reality but trying to pass the road blocks will result in getting your vehicle wrecked by the strikers. It is important to know why people are protesting and to be sympathetic to their cause (in many cases it is well justified). Their intention is to cause just enough of a disruption to get government the government to resolve the problem without getting arrested. Trying to pass the roadblock means that you are disagreeing with the reason they are striking. Know your local area for alternate routes and don’t try to travel during strikes. Dogs: Good dogs are essential. A pair of large dogs of a known breed are a very significant deterrent. Rottweiler, Doberman, German Sheppard, pit-bulls are recognized and avoided. Dogs differ widely in personality. Be sure yours matches your needs. Be aware and realistic of their shortcomings. I know too many people who depend entirely on a easily circumvented dog for security. Professional thieves routinely outmaneuver, poison, or shoot dogs. Don’t overlook the value of small "yippy" and intelligent dogs like Chihuahuas. They are light sleepers, a second set of eyes and ears and are cheap to feed. They often work well with the bigger dogs. Watch your dogs. If your dogs suddenly become sick, it may mean they were poisoned and you should expect a robbery that coming night or the following day. Look for your dog before you pull into your drive or get out of your car. If there has been an intrusion it may be hurt, nervous, missing or dead. This will often be your first indication of an awaiting problem. Community After a disaster (hurricane, flood, earthquake) the best thing for everyone is to keep the community together. Building a good reputation and personal relationships with neighbors and community leaders will make all the difference when resources are scarce and people are scared. The people who are capable leaders and community contributors often get first dibs on any help that does arrive and the right to make decisions on how goods are distributed. Filling sandbags, organizing relief, passing out information, providing power, clearing roads, etc will make friends and build relationships that are not soon forgotten. This sort of thing can really bring a community back together in a hurry. We all depend on each other and leadership through positive action is a great way to rebuild. Just as looting is contagious, when people see others working together and helping, they are apt to join in. I have seen this numerous times here. Transportation Propane is subsidized here and is significantly cheaper than gasoline. Many people have adapted cars and trucks to run on both fuels using a special carburetor. As propane stores well this is a good emergency option for transportation, cooking, and power generation. Additionally propane machines can run on biogas and syngas. While horses are very common here there would be a shortage if things really went bad. They did become proportionally more valuable as the price of fuel shot up. I rarely see wood gasification mentioned as a alternative fuel supply. (See the Wikipedia page on wood gasification) This is an excellent modification that was used heavily in Europe in the 1940s. In my opinion, for most people this is the best solution to combustion engine power after a complete breakdown. Both alcohol and biodiesel require working farmland and refineries. Post crash employment: Anyone who can provide alternative sources of food, power, fuel or light will do well. A little Google work will show what technologies work on a small scale and provide business opportunities both now and after. Additionally, people here who can repair things never seem to make much money here but they always have work and food on the table. Currency and hyperinflation: After a major bank failure here, the currency here devalued by a factor of four in about two years. As the slide begins there are lots of opportunities to buy up things at old prices as many people price things based on what it cost them, not what the replacement value is. As prices shot up, wages lagged way behind. Interest rates sky-rocked. Food prices shot up. Skilled labor prices went through the roof. The economy stopped dead because it becomes impossible to price things and nobody wants to work. At the end of the slide the asking prices for everything got just crazy high, and the bid prices so low that almost no transactions took place except as acts of desperation. Three years later, the currency has stabilized. Interest rates on loans are still slowly retreating. Merchants learned to price goods on replacement cost. Prices are often quoted in USD instead of local currency. Asking prices never really came down, but bid prices slowly rose up and as the spread reduces the economy starts to move again. Salaries are paid in local currency, but pegged to the USD for stability. I wasn’t expecting to write such a long letter but maybe some of this will help people prepare and know what to expect. Sincerely, - S.H. « Letter Re: Lamar Alexander's Solar Homesteading E-Book |Main| Note from JWR: » Thursday October 22 2009Lessons Learned from Hurricanes Ike, Rita, and Katrina, by TiredTubes
In September, 2008, Hurricane Ike--a Category 4 hurricane--pounded the Gulf Coast of the southern US. Some coastal communities like Crystal Beach no longer really exist. Inland, life was severely disrupted. For those of us on the South Coast hurricanes are a frequent reality. We were quite well prepared, but used the disruptions and dislocations as a test and opportunity to tune up our preparations. 1. Be ready to help others and to accept help We didn't need much during Ike, but the power went out before a neighbor finished boarding up his house. My 1 KW inverter, hooked up to his idling truck provide the juice for a Skilsaw and a few lights; allowing him to finish. Usually it is skills and not "stuff" that helps others and yourself. Besides strengthening a neighborly friendship, the number of damaged houses was probably reduced by one. Our own [permanently-installed] genset uses natural gas (a tri-fuel generator) which in the majority of cases is superior and much cheaper to operate. Over the 11 days that we didn't have power it consumed $100 worth of natural gas. I estimate that an equivalent amount of gasoline would have cost more than $300. I stopped it every 75 hours for oil and filter. If your genset doesn't have an hour meter, then add one. There are some inexpensive self contained hour meters made for lawn equipment that work very well and require no hard wiring. It's really the only practical way to keep track of operating time, without which, intelligent maintenance is impossible. I noticed that many generators, some still in the box, on Craigslist following Hurricane Ike at bargain basement prices. I recommended to a friend he latch onto one of these and purchase a dual-fuel gasoline/natural gas carburetor] kit. Ants can profit from short-sighted grasshoppers. Develop a pre-event SOP: When we hear of a hurricane in the Gulf, we pick up loose items like branches that can be thrown by high winds and cause damage (aviators call this rubbish FOD), trim trees, check prescriptions, recharge everything rechargeable, treat the swimming pool with "shock" chlorine, get all the laundry and dishes done, get all the trash out for pickup, take “before” pictures, etc., etc., etc. 3. Have backups for your backups. The portable generator above was our backup to the natural gas-fueled genset. Then an inverter and ups. After that is a 100 Watt solar array I've been tinkering with to provide power for security lighting,etc. One important word on generators: Treat yours like it is the last one you'll ever get. Try and get a good one, I prefer either a Honda or Briggs Vangard engine. My Vangard portable is approx 10 years old and absolutely dependable. The difference is methodical maintenance. Keep the manuals, and read 'em ! Keep the oil changed, keep a fresh spark plug, keep spare [oil, air, and fuel] filters. Most importantly run it under load once a month. Unless it's new, pull off the cowling and clean all the dirt and dust from fins on the cylinder jug. Closely examine the starter rope, the fuel lines, et cetera. Replace 'em if they ain't perfect. Don't store gasoline in the machine other than enough for one periodic test run. Develop a ritual on test runs: such as every other payday, or the last Saturday in the month, to reduce it to a ritual. I run mine monthly whilst cutting the back yard lawn. (The mower makes more noise.) If you use gas cans; stick with metal, preferably safety cans. Plastics are slightly permeable and it will go bad much faster in a plastic can. On that note, [in humid climates] don’t keep spare spark plugs with the machine. This is because in outdoor storage the insulators can absorb moisture [and the metal parts can corrode]. Keep them inside or in a sealed can with some silica gel. An old one-quart paint can is ideal. 4. Double your plans for helping other people. Several relatives from coastal areas evacuated to our house (approximately 50 miles inland). I keep a 55 gallon drum of stabilized gasoline to fill up their cars to get them home. This was a lesson learned after the Rita evacuation cluster. How much food you will go through will surprise you. It finally dawned upon us that we almost always eat dinner (lunch to you Northerners) and sometimes breakfast away from home. So what we consumed whilst hunkered down seemed out of proportion. 5. Keep a dial up phone line around, after 24 hours the cell phone tower generators started running out of propane, the cable modem (and the cable) went down with the power. Remember how to make that dial-up modem work. If you have cable television, then keep a traditional antenna handy. If you live near a major market the local AM news station, then it is probably a good bet. Have a good UPS, plug the computer and the desk lamp into it. If you have a cordless phone, plug it into the UPS too. The UPS will take the "bumps" out of the generator's power; your computer will thank you. Make sure you test the UPS periodically by plugging in a 100 Watt lamp and pulling the plug on the UPS. I find I need to replace that UPS battery about every 2-to-3 years. 6. Plan for the guests. Have plenty of soap, have a small flashlight (preferably with rechargeable batteries) for each guest. Have things other than television to keep youngsters occupied. Try and get plenty of rest. You'll probably be plenty busy after you can poke your head out again. In this vein don't forget dishwashing supplies, laundry supplies, baby supplies, etc. If it's a predictable event such as a hurricane, have all the dishes and laundry done. before it hits. Keep fire extinguishers near the gas generator, in the kitchen, and near the camp stove. 9. Be ready to make temporary repairs.. The missing shingles, damaged windows, etc. Have some plywood, a few 2x4s, some Visqueen polyethylene sheeting, batting boards, duct tape, a tarp, some nails, and so forth around. If you happen to have a good cordless drill, then you'll find sheet rock and deck screws are very superior to nails. If you're squared away then you already have this stuff , but a neighbor might be in need, so buy extra. 10. If I had my choice of just one utility it would be running water. Fortunately where we reside is served by a well run rural utility district which has prepared well for hurricanes. Failing this, in addition to stored water I have a portable gas utility pump (Robin brand) that can pressurize our water system from our pool and has sufficient capacity for a fire line. The pool got a good jolt of shock a day before the storm hit. 11.Keep some cash money handy. For a few days [with no utility power] there were no functional ATMs, and no way to use credit or debit cards. 12. Keep a low profile. About a week after Ike a passerby indignantly asked "How'd you get your lights turned on?" This showed his ignorance on several levels. He seemed to think someone just had to flip a switch downtown and "shazam!" his lights are on. I couldn't make him understand there has to be an unbroken physical link between a power plant and consumer, this seemed to aggravate his obvious helplessness. Telling him that we had been making our own juice seemed to irritate him. I wonder who he voted for? People with this mindset (that the world owes them something) could be a genuine liability in a real catastrophe. (BTW on a news show during a piece about energy, I actually heard a lady refer to natural gas as “just another dirty fossil fuel”) and not be challenged on the facts. Little minds scare me. I think that the hyper-liberals would love to use the heavy hand of government to force the ants take care of the grasshoppers. Keep a low profile. The best advice I ever heard on the subject (I believe it was Howard J. Ruff 13. Keep a notebook, keep a record of what happened, but especially keep a record of preps you overlooked or screwed up, or stuff you ran out of, or skills that need to be added or honed. That's where most of the preceding information came from! Also keep tabs on what's scarce after an event. Gas was scarce, but diesel plentiful after Rita. In contrast, after Ike there was plenty of fuel, but few operating stations due to lack of power. (There was a "mandatory evacuation" during Rita which turned out to be a fatal traffic jam for a few poor souls which quickly emptied the filling station tanks.) Out our way the local Wal-Mart made a heroic effort and opened up on locally-generated power, two days after Ike. The sheriff’s department was there to “maintain order”. (Let’s just say that they actually wear brown shirts here.). This event was a lifetime opportunity to study the varied behaviors of people under stress. « Two Letters Re: Preparations for Eyesight & Hearing |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Monday October 19 2009Twenty-Two Reasons Why this Recession is Different and Why it Will EndureI
find it surprising that I'm now getting inquiries from readers, asking if "we've reached bottom" in the current economic recession, and asking if the time has come to start buying stocks or residential real estate. It seems that the talking heads of mainstream media are using some sort of voodoo. How can anyone think that we've hit bottom, and an economic recovery is in progress? To dispel the myths from the CNBC Cheering Section, please consider the following. (And note that I've provided references for each assertion, just so you know that I'm not talking out of my
Back in the Fall of 2008, I started hearing from consulting clients with notes of fear in their voices. They realized that something is horribly wrong with the economy, but they could not properly isolate and articulate the problem. In my estimation, the "something wrong" that they sensed is nothing short of a monumental shift in the economic climate. America will continue in recession. Most economic recessions are simply a product of the business cycle. These recessions are relatively mild and they often last just 12 to 24 months. The economic engine just readjusts and everything soon gets back to normal. But the recession that began in 2008 is something radically different, and it won't be short-lived. The current slow down was triggered by a collapse in the global credit market. For decades, the global credit market grew and grew, in an enormous debt spiral. Our neighbors to the south saw trouble coming decades ago, because their economies were at the time more debt-dependent than our own. As far back as the mid-1980s, their newspapers featured political cartoons that portrayed an enormous, insatiable monster that was invariably captioned "La Dueda"--"The Debt". Our cousins in Latin America saw it coming first, but the dark side of the debt nemesis will soon be clear to everyone. The Federal governments's debt, just by itself is cause for concern. As an old gunsmithing friend mine, the late Chuck Brumley, was fond of saying: “If your outgo exceeds your income your upkeep will be your downfall." Several decades of profligate spending by the US Congress are finally starting to take their toll. Just because their friend Helicopter Ben has a high-speed printing press does mean that they can continue to spend money like drunken sailors in definitely. (On second thought, I should apologize for impugning the reputation of drunken sailors. They are actually much more conservative with their funds than congressmen.) Because modern banking in the western world is based on interest charges that create continuously compounding debt, credit cannot continue to grow indefinitely. At some point the excesses of malinvestment become so great that the entire system collapses. This is what we are now witnessing: a banking panic that is spreading uncontrollably as wave after wave of ugly debt gets destroyed by margin calls and subsequent business failures. Some economists are fixated on reading charted histories--and unrealistically expect that by doing so that the can reliably predict future market moves. Although they are working from a flawed premise at the micro level, the chartists do have some things right on the macro level: There are major economic "seasons" and even climate changes. The most vocal chartists like Robert Prechter hold to what is called the Elliot Wave Theory. And the big bad nasty in this school of thought is a Kondratieff Winter. This "K-Winter" is an economic depression phase that the world has not fully experienced since the 1930s. An economic winter does not end until after the foundations of industry and consumer demand are rebuilt. This can be a painful process, often culminating with war on a grand scale. (It was no coincidence that the Second World of the early 1940s was an outgrowth of the Great Depression of the 1930s.) The US Federal Reserve and the other central banks are furiously pumping liquidity to the best of their ability, but in the long run they will not be successful. At best, dumping billions in cash on the economy will delay a depression by perhaps a year or two. But inevitably, a K-Winter depression will come. And the longer that it is delayed, then the worse the depression will be. Further inflating the debt bubble will only make matters worse. "Big Picture" Implications As I've mentioned before, hedge funds are presently most at risk in the unfolding liquidity crisis, because they use lots of leverage in lending funds that they themselves have borrowed. They borrow short and lend long, and effectively use debt compounded upon debt. Even more alarming is the scale of global derivatives trading, particularly for credit default swaps (CDSes). Derivatives are a relatively new phenomenon, so most derivatives contract holders are only just now experiencing their first major recession. Thus, it is difficult to predict what will happen in a genuine K-Winter phase. In a perfect world, derivatives are a nicely balanced mechanism, where there are parties and counterparties, and every derivatives contract equation balances out to have a neat "zero" at its conclusion. But we don't live in a perfect world: Companies go bankrupt. Contracts get breached. Counterparties disappear and disappoint. We have not yet experienced a full scale "blow up" of derivatives, but I predict that if and when it happens, it will be spectacular. The pinch in CDSes (a form of derivative contract) in 2008 was just a faint foreshadowing of what we'd experience in a a full-blown derivatives collapse. The scale of derivatives trading is monumental, and the vast majority of the population is blissfully ignorant of both its scale and the implications of a derivatives crisis. There are presently about $500 trillion of derivatives contracts in play. That is many times the size of the gross product of the global economy, but the average man on the street has no idea what is going on. It won't be until after the giant derivatives casino implodes that the Generally Dumb Public (GDP) awakens and asks, "What the heck happened?" Since the credit market began to collapse in the summer of 2008, the number of new derivatives contracts has dropped precipitously. But whether the aggregate derivative market is $400 trillion versus $500 trillion, when a crisis occurs there will undoubtedly be some very deep drama. The next decade will likely be characterized by successive waves of inflation and deflation, and perhaps some of both simultaneously, at different levels. Countless corporations, and perhaps a few currencies or even governments will go under as this tumult plays out. (Take note of the recent vote of no confidence in Latvia.) The current low interest rates will soon be replaced by double-digit rates, much like we saw in the late 1970s. The dollar will lose value in foreign exchange, and may collapse completely. The Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB) will inevitably result in mass inflation. The bull markets in silver and gold will surge ahead, propelled by economic and currency instability. (Investors will be desperate to find a safe haven, when currencies and equities are falling apart.) Mitigating the Risks Be ready to "winter over" the coming K Winter depression. That will require: 1.) Prayer. 2.) Friends and /or relatives that you can count on (a "retreat group"). 3.) A deep larder, and 4.) An effective means of self defense with proper training. (For each of those four factors, see the hundreds of archived articles and letters at SurvivalBlog.com for details.) Since additional large-scale layoffs seem likely, it would also be wise to have a second income from a recession-proof home-based business. In the event of a "worst case" (grid down) economic collapse, it would be prudent to have a self-sufficient retreat in a rural area that is well-removed from major population centers. Get the majority of your funds out of anything that is dollar-denominated, and into tangibles, as soon as possible. The very best tangible that you can buy is a stout house on a piece of productive farm land. It will not only preserve your wealth, but living there may very well save your life. « Letter Re: Preparations for Eyesight and Hearing |Main| Note from JWR: » Sunday October 18 2009Prepping for the Worst Case: Becoming a Refugee, by Dr. L.D.
I am unable to make my home self-sustaining. So, unfortunately, my family will probably become refugees in a true SHTF scenario. My focus presently is in becoming desirable refugees rather than shunned refugees. The key is minimizing any negative impact (extra logistics of all sorts) and maximizing any positive impact (filling in weak spots) to someone that is geographically fortuitous. I was challenged to figure out how a small family could best become a wanted commodity when food is tight and security isn’t. I determined the key for us was that everything carried needed to be dense in value. Density equals mass divided by volume. In our case, mass would be the battered value of the item; volume was limited by the size of our packs. We can’t carry enough bulk food, but we can carry items that will have an excellent post-SHTF (bartered) value, an example would be trading batteries for an illuminated-reticle or starlight scope in exchange for food. Keeping our packs small (but danged heavy) will give us an additional advantage if we need to make a small camp. Skill sets are valuable. I am fortunate to have become a physician. Talk about (trading) food for thought! I am trained in Internal Medicine, so much of my skill set depends on a working infrastructure, that is, availability of medications, imaging (X-rays, CT, MRIs and the like) which will be useless once the grid goes down. To make up for that, I have been certified in ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) and ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support), the former being far more useful in extended emergencies. Further, I have also trained in mass casualty scenarios. I have been stashing typically needed and well tolerated medications in a FIFO set-up in my home, from antibiotics to blood pressure pills. In a legally gray area, I have some potent narcotics (barter/ransom/medical use). I also have a good stock of scalpels, retractors, Celox and the like to maximize my worth. The first lives my first aid kit may save might be my family’s. My skill set will be in demand, and I hope with the other positives below, worth enough to take in extra mouths to feed. But I recognize, perhaps better than non-medical people, that the quality of medical care will quickly revert to the level practiced before the advent of antibiotics and other modern pharmaceuticals. Think Civil War or WWI where a gut-shot was a death-sentence. Garlic may have some ant- microbial properties, but it pales compared to a few doses of modern antibiotics. Being a doctor in a SHTF scenario may be like being a sailor in the middle of a desert: lots of knowledge but only able to apply a small fraction of it. My wife is an educator and now teaches special needs kids. If the Collapse is a bad one, kids will still need to learn, and there is more to teaching than just putting material in front of kids, as anyone that homeschools will agree. Those are our special skill sets. You can never have enough skill sets, and we plan to further develop our skills. Our two children are too young to be useful for anything except giving us joy, . And dirty laundry. We have been buying weapons in standard calibers – 45 ACP, 5.56, and 22LR. I have given myself the luxury of owning a PS90. I rationalized the purchase by the fact that it supports a 50 round magazine of 5.7 rounds and bridges the gap between a pistol and a longer rifle. In reality, it looks really cool. Four mags on my hip (and one in the rifle) gives me 250 rounds. In an urban/suburban location, which will be the most difficult part of our journey, I do not see a need to shoot over 100 m. Most action will likely be under that, and that is the niche for the PS90. Additionally, it’s bullpup design keeps it short and maneuverable in a vehicle without sacrificing accuracy (it has a 16 inch barrel). More importantly, we have packed way about 150 pounds worth of ammo in our G.O.O.D .bags and another 70 lbs in our BOB’s. We have so far two extra ARs and three Glocks for barter/trade. We don’t have a weapon for the 22LR, but either we will (Ruger’s 10/22) or it’s for barter. Our bags are meant to carry the lead at the sacrifice of food. It may be easier to barter rounds (heavy but small) for food (light but large). If we do make to the hinterlands, having our ammo added to the favorably situated ‘castle’ will be a bonus. My wife and I both shoot accurately to 200 m, and well enough at 300 - 400 m to keep the philistines away. We continue to practice our shooting skills by range time and class time. We will get far. I’ve begun a ‘collection’ of survival knives and high quality folders by buying two at a time (again, two is one, and one is none). They will be needed en route and, like ammo, possess an excellent weight to bartered value. My guess is that knives will lost or broken and there will be a demand for them. In the same category, are redundant Katadyn water filters kits. Extras were purchased because they are small and will barter well. Bolt cutters were bought because they will be useful traveling and also in barter. Bic lighters, assorted tiny screws for spectacles with jeweler screwdrivers , rechargeable CR123 and AA batteries, extra Gerber multitools, quality compasses, 550 cord, several small but bright flashlights (Fenix brand – 1 or 2 CR123 batteries and they pump out over 180 lumen and fit on a keychain or a rifle), two Old Testaments, and 2 American flags fill the small spaces in the gear. We keep thinking on how to improve our “stock” and get more bang for the buck with ‘value dense ‘ items. I thought of the extra eye-glass screws after having my own come apart just as I got to work and spent a miserable day squinting. Someone missing their glasses won’t function at near capacity and the eye glass screw may be the equivalent of the nail that caused a horse to be lost, then a rider to be lost etc. We also have our own gear and clothing, using the layer approach with an outer hardshell in camouflage. We both have packed two pair of extra boots, either for the long haul or barter. These items get thrown into the trunk along with our Camelbaks, and our mountain bikes (with extra tubes and tires) go on top supporting a few jerry cans of gasoline lashed between them. If we can’t get to a refuge with available gas or the roads become impassable, then we load the bikes up and ride/walk until we are welcomed. If we’re lucky, the Collapse will wait until we can move to a more geographically desirable location and all these purchases will remain useful while we focus on new needs (stored food, long term water and power and etc). If not, I have improvised a plan that adapts to our situation and hopefully will change our refugee status to a valued team-member. This is written in part because there has been no view from the prepared refugees. There may be more preppers without a safe haven than those able to develop a safe haven, not because of any deficit or laziness on their part, but because of reality. In addition, all preppers cannot move to a sparsely populated area in the US for if they did (imagine merely 10% of NYC, LA, and DC doing so during by the end Obama’s administration), those areas would no longer be sparsely populated! So think of what you can carry that can be bartered for things you can’t carry and that will make you into a valuable team member. I have worked hard to become a doctor (and perhaps even harder to remain a doctor is this crazed system) and to be able to give charity rather than receive it. If I am to receive the charity of shelter from someone who is able to do so, I will be sure that we do more than just pull on own weight. We will add security, in the short and long haul. So if TEOTWAWKI happens, keep a lookout for strangers who may have much to offer. But for the grace of God, it might have been you unable to live in a geographically desirable area and looking to add to an established sanctuary. « Experience With Bicycle Commuting and Touring, Hammocks, and Stoves, by David in Israel |Main| Notes from JWR: » Monday October 12 2009What Recovery? Find Yourself a Recoveryless JobFor more than a month, the mainstream media has been yammering about an economic recovery. Chasing phantom "good number" statistics amidst an onslaught of otherwise bad economic and global credit market news, the Wall Street cheering section is desperately seeking some news that the current recession is coming to an end. They talk about "the recovery in progress"--almost a fait accompli. They have been so good at this that they have fooled some investors into putting their sidelined money back into the stock market. What a masterpiece of disingenuous grandstanding. But the sad truth is that there is no genuine recovery in progress. Perhaps there will be a minor economic boost, generated by the huge bailout spending, but the bottom line is that we are in the midst of a major recession. And unlike the recessions in the past 50 years, this one is not based on just market cycles, but rather caused by a systemic failure of the global credit market. So any attempts to re-inflate the bubble with new credit (based on artificially low interest rates and bailout "programs") are bound to be unsuccessful. This recession cum depression won't end until malinvestment is driven out of the system, and trust in a fully transparent system of credit that backs genuine, truly marked-to-market tangible assets is restored. America's debt bubble that emerged from over-inflated real estate is at the root of the current mess, just as it was in Japan in the 1980s. (In their case, it was commercial real estate, in parts of Tokyo.) The Japanese government has tried similar measures (mostly in the form of massive public works programs and artificially low interest rates) for 25 years, and they still haven't pulled out of their economic doldrums! But consider that our real estate bubble was much, much bigger, and that unlike Japan, we are a net-debtor nation. (Japan has traditionally been a fiscally-conservative nation of savers.) So how can we expect to do any better at "recovery" than they did? The Obama administration has two potential courses of action that it can implement--through Treasury Department action, in concert with the Federal Reserve banking cartel's open market committee--to attempt to emerge from the current mess. Neither of these are appetizing:
My suspicion is that the BHO administration will opt for the "weak dollar" route, since that will be the least painful of the two options. The sad news, however, is that ultimately neither option will solve the underlying problem, and hence the US economy is doomed to a deep 10+ year depression. During this period we will witness (and endure) massive unemployment, high crime, dislocation, rioting, repatriation restrictions, and substantially higher taxes. With these in mind, take the steps necessary to protect your family's safety, and your assets. The talking heads on the finance and investing shows would have you believe that an economic recovery, or at least a "jobless recovery", is just around the corner. Do not be deceived. If any of you reading this are still under the deceptive spell of the CNBC rah-rahs and believe that recovery could be underway, then just take a look at this chart of scheduled mortgage interest rate resets, which I've previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog. As you can see, the oft-cited peak in subprime mortgage interest rate resets is now behind us, but the peaks in Alt-A, and Option Adjustable (aka "Option ARM") rate resets are still ahead of us. Thus, in actuality, the worst is not yet over. We are just in a lull between two tsunami waves. With the exception of a few newcomers, SurvivalBlog readers are already well-informed on the foregoing facts, so I won't belabor these points. Instead, I'll move on to some practical issues that will have some benefit to you. Lets talk about jobs, and to be more specific, your job. Even if you are currently employed somewhere in a "safe and secure" job, keep in mind that there are no absolutes. You could have a small town civil service jo, for example at a water treatment plant. But what if the city or county that you work for goes bankrupt? You could be laid off in a heartbeat. The phrase "under new management" often means firing you, and hiring the nephew or old pal of the new boss. The fictional character Sarah Conner said it best: "No one is ever safe." So hedge your bets. I recommend that you develop a second stream of income through self-employment. Typically this can be found in a moonlighting service job, or a home-based mail order business. I've often encouraged even my rural consulting clients to develop a second income stream. Why is this important? "Living off the land"-style self sufficiently is an admirable and commendable goal. But even if you are living truly "debt free", you will still have property taxes to pay. That means that you will need a recession/depression proof revenue stream in the event that you lose your primary job. One market segment that prospered in the Great Depression of the 1930s was repair businesses. Obviously, in hard economic times, people try to make do with what they have. So repair businesses are a natural. If it is some small appliance that you could repair that could be mailed from and back to the customer, so much the better. (That way you could have a nationwide business, rather than just a local one.) This might include: DVD player repair, laptop computer repair, and so forth. Its a Dirty Job, But Someone Has to Do It Some suggested employment possibilities: 1.) Mining and manufacturing processes that because of shipping expenses cannot be practicably be moved offshore. Coal mining is a good example. 2.) Service industry jobs that are essential and non-discretionary. Let me reduce this to a few key examples, so that you'll know what to avoid:
3.) Retail sales (face to face, or mail order) of crucial items. 4.) Retail sales (face to face, or mail order) of comfort items. In the midst of an economic depression, people will crave escape. Movie DVDs are a good example. 5.) Military service. Most people don't think of the armed forces as service industries, but that is essentially what they are, on a national scale. In the military you are sort of a security guard for the real Mall of America. Or think of it as a lead delivery service. My father was an Air Force instructor pilot, back in the days of T-33s. He summed up his service when he told me: "I was a glorified bus driver, burning up lots of Uncle Sam's jet fuel. I did a great job of defending miles and miles of cactus." Thirty years later, I served as an Army Intelligence officer. It was great fun at the time, but in essence, I was just a detective--or more precisely the manager of detectives--that worked for one of the world's biggest detective agencies. 6.) Repair work. Be Flexible and Proactive The coming years will be difficult ones, globally. If you are risk of a layoff, then hedge your bets by developing a second stream of income, now. And if you are laid off, do not hesitate. Do whatever it takes to find steady work, even if means moving, or taking a lower-paying job. Don't just wallow in self-pity and draw unemployment insurance. be proactive and do something! « Letter Re: How to Make Your Own "Black Out" OPSEC Window Panels |Main| Note from JWR: » Friday October 9 2009Where You Live Matters: How to Assess Your Location and Develop Scenarios, by Brendan S.
A little foreknowledge will prevent you from becoming a victim. Most people don’t think about what they will actually do in the case of an emergency. One just has to see what happened after Hurricane Katrina to see how ill-informed the masses are. They simply expect the government to take care of everything. They meander like zombies to some location and wait to be fed and cleaned up after. Not me! I know what I’m going to do when any disaster strikes.
When disaster strikes where will you be? How well do you know the place where you live, work, or the space in between? Chances are that when a disaster occurs you will be either at home or at work or commuting in between. You may be ready to deal with things at home on a sunny afternoon, but what if you’re on the road in a downpour? The main occupation of think tanks is to devise scenarios of whatever their specialty is; oil, food, military or political events. The same tactics can be done on an individual scale to find out what your reactions might be to disasters or events. You can plan out your reactions to events by knowing what your assets are at the time and how to be ready for any variables. Planning is simply about not being surprised. “When I am in situation 1, I will do X. When I am in situation 2 I will do Y.” Simple yet effective. ASSESS THE SITUATION A scenario doesn’t need to be the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI). Natural disasters are just as important and deadly. Not just in the initial disaster but also in the aftermath. Actually more people usually die after a disaster. Living here in Northern California, earthquakes are an ever present fear and so ill prepared by people and neglected by the elected officials, city planners and developers. People’s houses might be able to take a moderate earthquake with little damage, but what about the roads, highways and overpasses? Chances are fire will spread unabated killing more people than the initial damage. Or, with the cops busy, looters will think it’s open season on home shopping. So where does your house stand in the general theme of threats? TASK #1: List the dangers that might affect your area. Living where you do, you should already have some experience with some disaster inducing events. The United States has a very large variation in weather and its effects can be devastating. Floods near rivers, hurricanes near the coasts, blizzards up north, heat waves almost anywhere, earthquakes out west… the list goes on. You have probably dealt with something already. Growing up in the Midwest we were always in danger of tornados cutting a swath through our neighborhood. Then in winter we had to worry about blizzards. But the situation doesn’t have to be devastating. What if a thunderstorm simply cut the power for several days? What if the basement floods? What if there’s an escape from a prison? Could the effects be temporary or long lasting? Is it just power lines down or a blackout covering several states? Do striking rail workers mean food shortages? Is the riot from a basketball game or did Oakland finally collapse into chaos? ASSESS YOUR LOCATION TASK#2: Know your city. As a pilot I know a lot about terrain. All day long I see the land rolling underneath me. Here in Northern California, from the air, I can easily see how land is managed and how cities and towns are developed. I see how many roads go in and out of town centers, suburbs, business parks and so on. The place I live in is a small town in a valley with only a few roads leading in and out. If there was an earthquake along the Hayward fault line like the “big one” that is due to happen here any time now, and most of Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco were apocalyptic hellscapes, the bridges might be knocked out and it would hopefully prevent refugees from setting up camp in our open land. We have a route to safety toward Sacramento if needed. And we have arable land that can be turned into farms quickly. How dense is the population where you live? Do you live in a dense populated city? A suburb? In the center or on the edge, close to farmland? If there was a disaster, where would most of those people head? You don’t need to fly over your area to assess it, Google Earth will do just fine. Take a good look at the main avenues of traffic and housing. Where is the most dense? Where do you not want to be? Where does the suburbs taper off finally into farmland? If Hurricane Katrina is any indication, people will congregate in a large open space like a stadium, park, school or the like. If you were a FEMA organizer, where would you tell people to go? Where are the nearest hospitals? When something happens these are most likely going to be the first place that people head for. There is medical attention, food, warmth and light. If you are uninjured, do you really need to go there? Would it be more dangerous? When the hospital gets overloaded after a disaster and turns into a triage; giving attention to the worst cases first, do you think that panicked people are going to simply wait calmly in the waiting room? Or will they start fights, demand attention maybe at gunpoint? Better to avoid it at all costs. (Or be the very first to show up through the emergency room doors!) Is your home prepared? Most time spent by people like us is in preparing our home for disaster, so this is well covered elsewhere and too vast to talk about here. But don’t just look at the stuff you have in your house. The wall of freeze-dried food will get you through the initial catastrophe, but then what? How adaptable is your house? Do you have a yard that can be turned into a garden with a little work? Where can you get more water? Are you near a stream or lake? Is your neighborhood safe and secure? You don’t have to live in a gated community to be safe, but how far off the main roads is your house or apartment? Would big city gang-bangers find it accessible and tempting? This fear goes up as the powered lights go out at night and all you can see is darkness out of your front door. Even temporary power outages cause hoodlums to go outside and behave like jackasses. How well do you know your neighbors? What would your kids do if you were stuck at work and they were home from school? Do they know your plan of action? Which neighbors could they trust? Which neighbors might want to come together but really are there to deplete your stockpile at twice the rate? ASSESS YOUR WORK AND COMMUTE TASK #3: Know your place of work. If you are stuck at work how long could you last there? You could always sleep at your desk overnight but what about food? Do you think your boss would be ready or willing to provide for you and the other employees? Probably not. It would probably turn into surviving out of your car, especially if your place of work is damaged. What would you do if stuck on the highway? The cars are stopped because of an earthquake, flood, jack-knifed chemical truck, etc. Could you pull off and hike on foot? Which way? When I lived in Tokyo we had to have a plan ready for commuting by train and an earthquake happened. I carried a small street map book so I could walk back to my home when the roads and train lines were disrupted. (Even harder for a foreigner.) The Japanese are far better equipped for disasters from typhoons to earthquakes because of simple occurrence. They know it is just inevitable that something is going to happen. There they can trust their government and employers to help though. Where are your loved ones and do they know what to do? Does your spouse know what you might do? Don’t expect your cell phones to be working. I have an agreement with my wife not to come looking for me. I will either go to work or home and she will do the same. ASSESS THE VARIABLES TASK #4: Game out some variables. Once you have a plan of action and know what you want to do, you have to be ready for any changes. The emergency situation probably won’t stay static, but either gets better with quick action from authorities or more likely get worse through inaction and incompetence from them. If rising flood waters block the road that lies between you and your loved ones, do you know the alternate routes? Where is the higher terrain versus lower? Once you know what you want to do, head straight home for example, what variable might change that course of action? Snow too deep. Flooded bridge. Tremors sending rocks to the road below. Pinhead cop telling you the road is closed. Are you ready for the extremes? Are you ready to spend the night in your car? Or several nights? You can find lists of things to have to make your car into a temporary shelter, but the main thing is not to be surprised and get taken by panic. Simply be ready to tough it out for a while until the situation is to your advantage. If you plan to stay at work, how long until you want to head home? In conclusion, being prepared for emergencies is not just about sitting on top of your stockpile of food with an AR-15 and waiting. You have to know the game plan and how to implement it and expect it to change. As a pilot, I am always ready for an emergency situation by being mentally prepared for it and never panicking when it doesn’t go the way I’ve practiced. You can do the same for any situation. « Letter Re: How to Make Your Own "Black Out" OPSEC Window Panels |Main| Notes from JWR: » Thursday October 8 2009Hard Love Preparedness Upbringing, by FBPAs a child, I was orphaned by age 10. I went from living in wealthy lifestyle with maids and yard handyman, with ponies and pet monkeys in Miami, Florida, to living in rural mid-West with my Grandparents. This was truly a culture shock. It has been with prepping that I have truly appreciated the time spent with my Grandparents. From them learned about gardening, canning, freezing, sewing, and mind expanding experiences from visiting relatives on the farm (acres and acres of corn, and livestock!) I remember Grandma’s bootstrapping on everything. She’d lived through the depression and WWII with its rationing. She saved everything useful. She explained to me that sewing needles were hard to come by, and butter had been rationed. In today’s perspective, it reminds me to stock up on those little things, like needles. Butter making is a skill and relatively easy to do if you have the animals to do it, but without them, I stocked up on powdered butter, just in case! Old clothes were always saved, and were sometimes remade into new ones (hand-me-downs) for another. I even remember an old rag rug made from scraps of old materials braided and then sewn together in an oval shape. Nothing went to waste. My other Grandmother told me of her experiences during the Depression. They didn’t have electricity to ‘do without’ because they didn’t have electricity back then! They managed and just didn’t seem to be aware of how hard they had it; just because that was the way it was then. However, she did mention that there were problems in the area with hobos and less fortunates stealing and killing livestock. Grandpa had been more fortunate and not had as much trouble with them due to his reputation for being fair. He paid anyone dropping by, ‘a meal for a day’s work’, such as splitting wood, or other farm chore. The word got around that one could get a meal for work and some would come, help, and eat. Grandpa’s farm wasn’t bothered by losses like some of the neighbors. Today, when reflecting on my childhood and the things I learned, and in contrast looking at today’s young people, gave me pause. Our group of prepper families consists of older parents with young adult children who are continuing their lives as usual. We had viewed it as giving them a chance to enjoy life and have some good memories before the hard times. It occurred to me today, that for our kids, it is comparable to the Roaring Twenties just before the Great Depression. But, isn’t the prepping for the continuation of our offspring? I realized today that they are not gaining as much of the skill sets for survival, like I had gained from my Grandparents, by working at their side pulling weeds out of the garden, picking green beans, snapping green beans, shucking corn, blanching and freezing corn, canning green beans, cooking (from scratch!), sewing, automotive repairs, and on and on… Or rather, the extensive lessons gained from this year’s prepping. This summer’s garden has been unusual for us. We have had a large garden for nearly 15 years, but this year’s garden was planted as a training garden. It was laid out on paper first, companion planting in mind. We innovated and experimented with several new crops, including hops. We planted some both in the garden and in containers for comparison. There are berries, tomatoes, peppers, grapes, lemon bushes, pole-green beans, tire-stack potatoes, yams, and landscaped with herbs and cucumbers and pumpkins. Before planting the garden, we assembled a PVC water distribution line with on/off valves for each row and for the garden as a whole. After rototilling the compost into the garden and covering it with black plastic for two weeks to kill weed seeds, we made furrows and laid out the soaker hoses on the rows, and connected to the water distribution line (PVC) at one end of the garden. The seeds were planted according to the preplanned paper charted layout; each soaker hose was planted on both sides of the hose, essentially doubling the garden’s capacity. (We did have to fertilize a month ago because of the doubling of the crops.) Marigold seeds were planted around the outside perimeter of the garden, unfortunately not on a soaker hose, which required manual watering. This turned out to be a blessing because it provided a bi-daily requirement to water and an opportunity to review progress and address weeds and needs of the garden. It has blossomed like a jungle forest in Hawaii despite being in the middle of a drought and 100 degree summer weather! I have maintained my first ever garden journal and noted all progress and failures. Our hops are now over 9 feet tall, and covered with hops. Our potato tire stacks looked like they worked well, but we discovered potatoes only liked the first tire which held dirt; the tires above were filled with tree mulch and grew no potatoes. This was a good lesson before TEOTWAWKI. The green beans have produced 49 quarts to date and are ready for their 4th picking and are still blooming! The bell peppers are nearly the size of a baseball. These were grown from seeds we saved from Costco’s bell peppers eaten earlier in the year! We have a patch along the side of the garden which holds the perennials which don’t get rototilled. There grows the asparagus, which gave us spears for two months early in the year and then goes to frond, tall and wispy, to support the root structure. We also grew new asparagus from seed saved from last year! We have tomatoes planted next to the asparagus. They repel each other’s pests! In between are basil and parsley and garlic. We have had no problems with pests this year! Yeah! We learned not to plant winter crops in spring, but rather in July. We learned that spinach and lettuce like shade, and that spinach bolts (goes to seed) when the days are too long. Our pole beans have grown up 6 foot rabbit/deer fencing staked down along the soaker hoses. Pole beans are vining plants and have grown into arches making getting down the rows difficult. Next year we will alternate pole bean rows with spinach or lettuce I think. Our cowpeas/black-eyed peas are doing fine and require no work! They will also make a great cover crop for the winter and to rototill into the garden. They add nitrogen to the soil! The entire garden survived a devastating hail storm which tattered much of the garden, and bruised some of the produce, but most survived and recovered. I discovered that thinning can be done with scissors to remove the extra plants without disturbing the roots of the "keeper" plants. The garden has always been canned, but this year, we have discovered that much of it can be put up through dehydration. The Excalibur dehydrators web site has excellent videos of how to dehydrate food for TEOTWAWKI, which saves space and weight! We are still canning meats. We also smoked our first freshly caught river salmon and vacu-sealing it before freezing it, to keep it around for awhile. (Of course, that is after we ate lots of fresh salmon.) The discoveries this summer have been wonderful, but the kids have not been around for much of it. They have been too busy enjoying their own lives in our urban community. They have grown gardens before, but they missed out on much of what we learned this year, by not being around. It is hard to tear them away from their friends, girlfriends, jobs, college, parties, movies, and of course electronic games. I have learned, like the song says, “You’ve got to be Cruel to be Kind”. To do the right thing for our kids will take ‘Hard Love’, like my Grandparents did with me; chores and responsibilities/school homework came first, before play, and before friends! I hated that rule, but it made a better me as a result of it. Wish me luck. - FBP « Economics and Investing: |Main| Letter Re: Raising Sheep and Goats: Dealing with Internal Parasites » Monday October 5 2009Three Letters Re: Travel Security, by CapnRick in ArgentinaSir:
Dear Jim, 1. We have two types of taxis. One is a Hackney Carriage (also known as a black cab, although they're not all black!), which carries a lit 'For Hire' sign and may be hailed from the side of the road or picked up from a taxi-rank at a town centre, port, station or airport, and the other is a Private Hire (mini-cab) which must be booked from a despatching office. Never, ever get into a mini-cab unless you have booked it and it is the same company you booked with. You can tell which is which from the licence attached to the vehicle (usually at the back). Check that the vehicle registration number is identical to that on the taxi licence. 2. A relatively new phenomenon is areas which have become controlled by fundamental Muslims. [and I hate reporting on this because it sounds racist, but I don't have a racist bone in my body]. People of all ages and gender have been attacked and beaten (and in the case of women, raped) simply for being white, afro-Caribbean, Hindu or Sikh. Whites and Sikhs are particular targets. Examples: in Manningham, Bradford, white people (even the few that live there) have been regularly beaten, usually by stone throwing, but stabbings are also reported, and are racially abused. In Alum Rock, Birmingham, two US Christian missionaries were escorted by police from the area for their own safety because 'it's a Muslim area'. and evangelising is 'hate speech'. In such areas, non-Muslim women are considered to be 'uncovered meat' and are targets for rape. Remember, to a devout Muslim, even the sight of an woman's ankle or wrist is considered shocking and to some men means you are 'asking for it'. If you are in an area that is heavily populated by Muslims (you can tell by the Islamic dress), and a group of youths become interested in you, then beware. If all the women disappear and melt into the background, you are about to be attacked. There are other areas throughout Europe where this happens, but I have only reported the incidents and experiences I personally know about. Recently this summer there have been riots involving nationalists and Muslims (although sometimes just Muslims), and there is a danger in getting caught up in such. Hotspots for riots are Birmingham, Luton and Harrow. Discussing your faith (or even lack of it) with a Muslim can be fraught, some of them will report you for 'hate speech'. See this article: Christian hotel owners face ruin after 'defending their faith' in row with a Muslim guest - this is not an isolated incident. Jim, I hate singling out a group like this, but reality is reality. Although none of these crimes (with the exception of the 'hate speech' two) are exclusively Islamic, the reality is that these crimes are many, many times more prevalent in areas with a large Muslim population. However, I understand completely if you don't publish paragraph 2 - you may have readers who are reasonable Muslims and would take offence. The situation in this country has reached crisis point, and if it wasn't for the fact that my husband has been diagnosed with a third serious, life-threatening illness, we'd be looking to leave. For now, we are trusting in God's mercies. We do live in an area which is untouched by the above concerns, but I have friends and family who, unfortunately, live in the thick of it. I never thought, as little as five years ago, that Islam would be such a concern - in fact, I welcomed such immigration because I hoped it would mean that our church missionaries would be able to evangelise here, at home with the full backing of British Law, instead of the cloak and dagger missionary work that went on in Egypt and other Islamic countries. This has proved to not be the case. Missionaries are still in grave danger. I understand from my Stateside nephews and nieces that Dearborn, Michigan is starting to experience some of these concerns. (My nephews and nieces are misguided Mormons, the lot of 'em, but I pray for them to see the truth! I have to do it in bulk, though as there's so many of them - and they have around six kids each :-) ) Thank you for all the work you do, it's really appreciated. Keep safe, keep well. Blessings, - Jean in England
« Two Letters Re: Applying For a Non-Resident Concealed Carry Weapons Permit/License |Main| Notes from JWR: » Sunday October 4 2009Travel Security, by CapnRick in Argentina (Part 2 of 2)
What Survival type Are You? [I concur with the Glenn Beck and the Survivor's Club that] there are distinct personality types of survivors. These are as follows:
It is important that each reader think about and analyze their feelings about each of these approaches to survival, come up with their own definitions of what each type is like, decide which type each reader is, and start thinking about “what if...?” scenarios for their particular circumstances. If you think the unthinkable and devise plans to survive, then when the unthinkable occurs, you will make the correct choices automatically. This is important, because people have failed to survive because they refused to think about the unthinkable, and their brains froze, they acted thoughtlessly, or they reacted without thinking clearly through all the possible ramifications of their actions. Sounds like crisis government, no? A Word About Martial Arts: Anyone with knife scars and bullet wound scars is not proud of their scars. They know that each scar is a visible reminder of a personal failure to avoid a life-threatening event. I acquired the knife scars on my arms as a dumb teenager living on the Texas border and getting caught in avoidable confrontations while being in places where I shouldn't have been, both in Texas and Mexico. As I got a bit smarter and more aware of my sometimes dangerous surroundings, I started getting knife scars on my legs... having learned that distance is the best defense with an over-medicated knife fighter. When I finally wised up and started avoiding bad places, I got fewer and fewer scars. I have had no formal martial arts training except the small amount standard in armed forces boot camp. Those of you who are interested in martial arts, please be certain that you make a serious commitment to always stay in peak physical condition. If you cannot fight at full force for at least two minutes, then no amount of skills training is sufficient. It has been my experience that none but those dedicated to their physical conditioning can maintain an aggressive fight for two minutes. If you are proud of your elite status as King of the Dojo, check out the free video series on real-life street defense at AttackProof. Terrorist Attack Concerns Phase 1: Broad Target Selection. During broad target selection, terrorists collect information on numerous targets to evaluate their potential in terms of symbolic value, casualties, infrastructure criticality, or public attention. Timothy McVeigh wanted to attack a symbol of the federal government, preferably the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, or Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He identified possible targets such as individual federal employees, their families, and facilities in at least five states. Phase 3: Specific Target Selection. Specific targets are then identified for attack based on anticipated effects, publicity, consistency with overall objectives, and costs versus benefits of the attack. After preparing the bomb for detonation, McVeigh walked away from the scene on a preselected route. To flee Oklahoma City, McVeigh used a get-away car pre-positioned before the attack. McVeigh wanted the world to know that he attacked the Federal Murrah Building because he believed the Federal Government infringed on individual rights of Americans. McVeigh left a file on his sister's computer titled "ATF Read" echoing these sentiments. His get-away car contained anti-government literature and he subsequently made statements concerning his motivations for the attack. Geographical Regions of Interest Do you think that you are safe , traveling in the U.S. or in western Europe? Consider this: Within the United States, several organizations and individuals used Terror/criminal tactics to achieve their goals. Other organizations provide direct and indirect assistance through fund-raising, recruiting, and training support. Terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists against US interests and personnel began in 1978 with the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran. In my personal opinion, the US has been at war since that date. Foreign Terror attacks in the US began in 1968 with the hijacking of Pan Am flight 501 to Cuba, and in 1993 with the first attack against the World Trade Center in New York. More recently, the foiled Terror/criminal plot against Fort Dix, New Jersey demonstrates that Al-Qaeda cells still exist within the nation's borders. Home-grown terrorism is a reality. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Weathermen and the Armed Forces for Puerto Rican National Liberation executed several small-scale terror/criminal attacks. More recently, violent elements include the anti-abortion Army of God, the eco-terrorist Earth Liberation Front, and other domestic anarchist groups and individuals. Homegrown terrorists have employed various tactics such as rudimentary letter bombs, improvised explosive devices, small arms attacks, and truck bombs. Bioterrorism is also a concern in view of the anonymous anthrax attacks in 2001. For more information on events in North America, see historical examples on the Oklahoma City bombing, United Flight 93, and the plot to attack Fort Dix. There are serious threats now from MS13 and other Latino gangs, who work with Russian/Italian/Asian mobs, and other gangs. Also, note that the Mexican Cartels have turned the US border area into a war zone, per recent news items. It is reported that Phoenix, Arizona is now the kidnapping capitol of the US. Islamic extremists pose the primary Terror/criminal threat to US military and government personnel. Since the mid-1990s, terrorists have enhanced their capabilities around the world... including Indonesia and the Pan-Pacific area, Venezuela, the tri-border area of Paraguay/Brazil/Bolivia and expanded their influence and presence into other parts of the world. In the areas of current US military operations, roadside IEDs pose one of the greatest threats to US forces. Additionally, local political leaders and civilians, infrastructure, and international aid personnel are terrorized by suicide bombings, kidnappings, and murders. In many other parts of the Western Asian and African regions, suicide bombers and gunmen target hotels and tourist attractions to advance domestic political agendas. Numerous Terror/criminal organizations operate in almost every region of the world. In addition to Al-Qaeda, other organizations include Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ansar al-Islam, and Mujahedine-e Khaiq, the Russian Mafia, etc. For more information on events in this region, check the Internet for historical examples on the USS Cole, the Luxor Massacre at Deir el-Bahri, and Khobar Towers. European Union In recent years, US allies in Europe have suffered dramatic Terror attacks. Terrorists have targeted civilians with IEDs and suicide bombers for maximum impact on government policies and elections. US military forces have also come under direct attack by organizations wishing to diminish America's influence in the area. Additionally, organizations sympathetic to Terrorist/religious radical objectives actively raise funds, recruit, and provide other support to religious extremist groups. As seen in the events of 9/11, western Europe can be a staging area for attacks against the United States. For more information, see the historical case studies for the London and Madrid subway bombings, the bombing of the La Belle Discotheque, and other attacks. Africa The 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania illustrate the willingness of terrorists to use indiscriminate violence to attack foreign interests in Africa. Additionally, local ethnic and nationalist-based conflicts increasingly threaten foreign corporate infrastructure and personnel. Terrorist organizations also engage in support activities within the African continent. These include fund raising, training, recruiting, operation of front activities, and involvement in criminal enterprises. Africa has the potential to be a significant transit point and support base for Terror/criminal operations in other parts of the world. For more information, see Internet sources on the African embassy bombings. Pacific Rim/Southeast Asia Terrorist attacks in this region demonstrate a broad spectrum of tactics. These include kidnappings, suicide bombings, and even chemical attacks. Aleph, formerly known as Aum Shinrikyo, attacked Tokyo subways with Sarin nerve gas and cyanide in 1995. Abu Sayyaf, a Philippine group seeking to create a radical Muslim state, targets foreigners for kidnapping. Terrorists have targeted foreign assets in the region. In 2001, Singaporean officials foiled a plot to attack US military forces and western diplomatic missions. The group, Jamaah Islamiya, seeks to create a radical Muslim state across South East Asia. In 2002 it conducted a suicide bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia to kill western tourists. For more information on events in this region, seek Internet sources on the Bali Nightclub Bombing and Tokyo Subway Attack. Latin America Unlike the 1980s, recent attacks against US interests are focused primarily on businesses and not US military or government assets. In addition to bombings and arson, Terror/criminal tactics include targeted assassinations and kidnapping, especially against foreign-owned commercial assets. Some of the most prominent Terror/criminal organizations within the Latin American region include the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN), and the Shining Path ["Sendero Luminoso"] in Peru. Various Internet sources are available. A few words about the Mumbai attacks: The FBI reports are trickling back from the agents dispatched there to cooperate with Indian authorities, and the results are depressing. It appears more and more certain that various Pakistani high-level authorities were aware of the activities of the attackers and their support team in Pakistan. An incident of this sort could easily be the start of a war between these two nuclear powers. But, take a moment to think of the businessmen and their families that were at their hotel having a nice dinner and deep into their cozy world, when the unthinkable happened. I hope each and every reader of this report will resolve to include a special Survival bag in their luggage to include packaged ready-to-eat food. I use Wal-Mart granola bars, peanut butter and crackers, and so forth. MREs, if space is available. You should also have lots of spare batteries, a flashlight, et cetera. I use a head-band light, a bottle for water, a fire-starter kit (cotton balls soaked in vaseline with a spark striker and a Bic disposable lighter). In closing: the most important thing is to maintain a positive and happy attitude while preparing for the unthinkable. « Economics and Investing: |Main| Note from JWR: » Saturday October 3 2009Travel Security, by CapnRick in Argentina (Part 1 of 2)The following recommendations are a result of my travel throughout the world on business for 20+ years. These observations are offered as a helpful supplement to other sources on the web dealing with personal security issues while traveling. My apologies to those who do not find these observations pertinent to their particular situation. Allow me to say that these suggestions are offered freely and without restriction so they may be passed around with no obligation. Very little of this information is original to me, and I apologize if anyone has written anything similar. Also, I am not a security professional and make no claims of expertise. This stuff works for me, but each reader's mileage may vary. Some of my ideas might actually get people in trouble with the authorities and/or cause physical harm. Please read this with an open mind and a critical eye. Comments are appreciated at travel@ricdav.com. Lots of US Embassy staff, host country Federal Police and Army staff gave me input, horror stories and advice regarding personal safety issues while I was visiting and working in overseas markets. These were Latin America, but including trips to Western European and Pacific Rim countries. I also have input from international and US expatriates living and working there. I know that many people have a lot of experience in many different countries, and may honestly laugh at all these ideas and issues presented here as stupid and alarmist. How you take it is your business. It is submitted in serious concern for the safety of all international travelers. It was necessary for me to learn this stuff because I have lived and worked outside the US most of my life. I first traveled internationally in the 1960s and retired in 2005 to live in Argentina. I hope you can understand that the world in post 9-11 has really changed. Radicals of the right, the left and the lunatic religious extreme and NarcoTerrorists all celebrated when the twin towers went down. You should also be aware that even pre 9-11, international travel was seriously more dangerous than it was in the 1960s. Now, bad guys all over the world have become more encouraged by their perception that bad guys can get away with bad stuff... hence, have become more aggressive. This article contains various types of info, including some info that may not be of interest to all travelers. I hope you will find some of the following items of interest including...
Try to familiarize yourself with the area you plan to visit. There are various aggregators of news that allow one to program their search “bots” to look for keywords involving your area of interest. I use Yahoo News, Dogpile News Search element and some others. I also look for the local news sources for the area in question on the web. Here are some questions you should consider when seeking information about your geographical area of interest.
Groups and individuals have demonstrated their willingness to employ terrorist/criminal tactics to further their agendas. While some threats have a regional focus, others have become international and affect multiple areas. Foreign visitors, military and diplomatic staff are seriously targeted in virtually every region of the world. ALWAYS PLAY THE “WHAT IF... ?” SCENARIO GAME Consider ways you might become a victim of a criminal/NarcoTerrorist attack. Several factors to keep in mind include:
If you see something unusual, report it immediately to security officials for further investigation. Make a note of the individual's description and activities, the time of day, and equipment being used. TRAVEL TIPS Terrorist/criminal attacks at the Spanish/English/Japanese rail systems, Mexican border towns, Bali, Indonesia, Luxor, Egypt, London, England, and other tourist locations signal an increased threat to foreign travelers. While visiting a new location, it is natural to tour local sites of interest. While sightseeing, you should keep good anti-crime/antiterrorism practices in mind. Plan Ahead
If sightseeing with others, pre-designate a location to meet at if separated during an emergency. Make sure someone knows your itinerary (acquaintances, business contacts, hotel staff?) and what time you may be returning. Blend in to Your Surroundings Conceal your national/business/religious affiliation and try to blend in with other people on the street. USA red white and blue t-shirts, soccer/baseball logo clothing and religious jewelry are overly conspicuous in many instances. Observe and conform to local culture. Activities such as public displays of affection, drinking alcohol, or wearing shorts or skirts may be inappropriate. Do not bring undue attention to yourself. Avoid loud or boisterous behavior. Walking the streets at night in an inebriated state in very dangerous in many locations.
If you happen to be one of the poor guys shivering naked on the side of the road with 20-30 others watching the NarcoTraficantes molest the women passengers, understand that you will spend the next several years of your life eating beans in the jungle. Poor folks get to go home, except for the young and pretty girls and teenage boys they want to draft for paramilitary service for the NarcoTraficantes . The NarcoTraficantes are studying in the same Islamic extremist terror schools as Al Qaeda, and Colombian/Mexican NarcoTraficantes' IEDs are really starting to show up a lot more... in recent cases, bait and blast techniques were used in the south of Mexico to kill lots of soldiers and Federal Police. Cruise Ship Security Cruise ships are like a small city where passengers are encouraged to forget their troubles and relax once onboard ship. It is natural for passengers on vacation to let their guard down, especially when out to sea in a resort-like setting. Try to not let a false sense of security aboard a cruise ruin your vacation by becoming a crime victim. Before you ship out, consider taking some of these preventative steps: After you enter your cabin, and while the door is still open, always check inside the bathroom or closest before sitting down inside. Don’t assume that your cabin is as secure as a hotel. Many people have keys to your cabin and your cabin door may be left standing open for hours while the cleaning crews or cabin steward services the room. Cabin doors locks are sometimes horribly outdated and are not re-keyed as frequently as hotel rooms. Obviously, don’t leave valuable items lying around. It is a good idea to have inventoried your luggage and photographed expensive items at home, and even emailed the info to your web email account for easy retrieval anywhere before you packed them at home in case of loss. Since most ship passengers are set up on a charge account system, be sure to use the ship safe deposit box for storage of valuable items, papers, credit cards or extra cash. Use all locks on the cabin door including the night latch. Consider carrying a hardware store door stop in your luggage and deploying it for extra security of the closed door while in the cabin. Some are available with alarms from web suppliers. Don’t open your cabin door to strangers. Whatever the person wants can be expressed from the other side of the closed and locked door. Be sure to teach children about this important procedure. Just like in a hotel, protect your cabin key and cabin number. Dishonest crew or passengers will look for the opportunity to snatch a loose key or one that is left unattended. When in port, be sure to leave your key with the registration desk before disembarking. You also need to keep your guard up with intoxicated passengers. Food and liquor consumption peaks on board ships and cause bring out the worst in some people not used to it. Just because passengers are dressed up, doesn’t mean they will act appropriately or not be overly aggressive. It is not unheard of for a ship passenger to slip a drug into your drink and take advantage of you just like on shore. There are pickpockets, purse thieves, and cabin burglars on board waiting for you to let your guard down or become careless. There are also scam artists who seek and prey on rich vacationers if given the chance. Be aware that if you or your family member gets into trouble on board a ship or in a port, you may be held accountable to the laws of a foreign country. The thing to do is to stay alert, be cautious, and stay safe while at sea. For details on the safety record of your cruise ship or how your ship will handle problems such are lost luggage or crime acts, contact the cruise line directly and ask for written disclosure of their policies and regulations. You can also contact the Cruise Lines International Association in New York City who represents the twenty five largest cruise lines for more information. Door Security Hardware Hotel or motel rooms should be equipped with a solid-core wood or metal door for best protection. Doors should be self-closing and self-locking. Room doors should have a deadbolt lock with at least a one-inch throw bolt. If the lock appears worn or there are pry marks around the lock area, get another room or move to another hotel. The knob-lock should be hotel-style where you can push a button on the inside knob and block out all keys. This feature is designed to prevent a former guest or housekeeper from entering the room once you are safely inside. Hotels with electronic card access have the advantage of being able to disable former key cards issued to previous guests and unauthorized employees. Electronic locks also will block out most room service keys when you set the deadbolt. The room door should have a wide-angle peephole so you can view who is at the door before opening. Do not open your door to someone who knocks unannounced. Some criminals will pretend to be a bellman, room service, maintenance, or even hotel security to gain admittance to your room. Always call the front desk to confirm their status with the hotel and only open the door if you requested the service. Do not rely on door chains or swing bars to secure the doors while you partially open the door to speak someone. These are unreliable security devices. Teach your children not to open the door of any hotel room without knowing the person on the other side and without your permission. Make sure all windows and sliding doors are secured, if they are accessible from the ground. It is a good idea to test all windows and glass doors to see if they are secure. Beware of balconies where someone can climb from one to another and enter through an open window or sliding door. If the windows or sliding doors are not securable, ask for another room or find another hotel. If your room has an adjoining door to an adjacent room, check it to see that it is secured with a deadbolt lock. If it is questionable, ask for another room. If you are a woman traveling alone or with small children, take advantage of car valet service, if available to avoid the parking lot. After checking-in, ask the bellman or desk clerk to escort you to your room. After unlocking the room, quickly inspect the closets, under the bed, and bathroom including behind the shower curtain before the bellman leaves. Tip the bellman for his efforts. Put the Do-Not-Disturb sign on the doorknob even when you are away, this deters room burglars (it may affect housekeeping service, however). Turn on the television or radio just loud enough to hear through the door to give the appearance that the room is occupied. Leave one light on inside the room if you will return after dark. This helps you see upon re-entry and gives the room the appearance of occupancy from the outside. Always go through the same room inspection routine every time you re-enter. People traveling alone should use caution when using the breakfast order door-knob hanger card, especially if the card lists your name and number of persons in the room. A smart crook can knock on the door posing as room service and use your name as a ruse to gain entry. When you find a suitable hotel that meets your safety standards and will cater to your security needs try to stick with it or with the same hotel chain. Don't be afraid to complain to management to get the safe room you deserve.
Hotel Room Invasions Like the crime of carjacking, most police agencies don’t track home or hotel room invasions as a separate crime. Most police agencies and the FBI will statistically record the crime as a residential burglary or a robbery. Without the ability to track the specific crime of hotel room invasion, little can be done to alert the public as to the frequency of occurrence or devise a law enforcement plan of action to prevent it. How Invasions are Carried Out Hotel room invasion robbers, in contrast, work more often at night when rooms are more likely to be occupied and less staff is on duty. The hotel room invaders usually target the occupant and room location and not necessarily the hotel. The selection process may include women traveling alone or senior citizens, or known drug dealers, or wealthy travelers, for example. It is not unusual for a robber to follow the victim to their hotel room based on the value of the car they were driving or the jewelry or clothes they were wearing... even being seen exiting a high-end retail establishment or restaurant can cause one to be targeted and followed. Hotel room invaders have been known to work casinos and watch for guests flashing large sums of money or jewelry. Hotel room invaders usually work alone or with just one accomplice and they rely on an overwhelming physical confrontation to gain control and instill fear in the room occupants. The violence occurs instantly with an overwhelming explosive force to take control of the room. The hotel room invaders often come equipped with handcuffs, rope, tape, and weapons. Some hotel room robbers appear to enjoy the intimidation, domination, and violence and some claim it is a "rush." Some hotel robbers are also opportunist rapist and may sexually assault their victims. Dangerous Trends Guest room robbers will sometimes use a ruse or impersonation to get you to open the door. They have been known to pretend to be room service, housekeeping, security, or delivering flowers. Clever room robbers might hold a room service tray or flowers in view of the peephole to further the impersonation. Once the door is opened for them, the hotel room invaders will use an explosive amount of force and threats to gain control of the room and produce fear in the victims. Once the occupants are under control, the robbers will begin to collect your portable valuables. Another tactic is for a robber to select a victim in the lobby and ride up in the elevator with them. They will get off on the same floor and pretend walk behind you as if going to their room. This means you need to return to the elevator and return to the lobby. Once the guest opens their door, the robber will force his way in behind them and make his demand. Weapons: A Slight Edge If you habitually carry a firearm, you tend to feel naked without one on your person while in unfamiliar circumstances. Except for active duty military or law enforcement, it is difficult to get the paperwork necessary to legally carry a firearm in a foreign country. Carrying an illegal firearm is a really, really bad idea in an unfamiliar country. Severe penalties, up to and including the death penalty, ensue if caught at it. While Mexico is currently a more dangerous place that either Iraq or Afghanistan, please understand that if NarcoTerrorists get their hands on you, you will be faced with 15 – 20 guys with AKs and M4s. Your measly popgun will just be added to their collection. Going about unarmed in potentially dangerous territory means that situational awareness and “What if...?” scenario planning are not optional. My favorite defense tools include a stun gun, and a metal extendable police baton, camouflaged with a small flashlight replacement for the end ferrule. It looks like a typical metal body flashlight, and the police don't question it. Both the flashlight extension and the baton were purchased for less than USD40 on eBay. For less than USD40 I bought a stun gun with a personal alarm and a flashlight as well as 100v stun buttons on top all included on a unit camouflaged as a cell phone. This is great... though, it will not pass close inspection as a cell phone. What is really good about it is the Argentine thieves usually demand your cell phone and your money, giving no alerts as you reach toward him with a cell phone stun gun. Also, it is very useful in a dark, dangerous area to have it up to your face pretending to talk on it so deployment is almost instantaneous. In less dangerous environments, it rides quite openly and comfortably in a cell phone carrier on my belt. Neither of these items pass airport security inspection for carrying on one's person or carry-on luggage. Checked luggage should be okay. You stand a very good chance to be arrested if you forget. I forgot once, and was able to talk my way out of getting arrested after surrendering my extendable baton. One should be able to get by with taking a ground-down razor sharp screwdriver and/or a multi-tool with a knife blade inside checked luggage. These are handy to carry while in unfamiliar surroundings. I put a plastic barrel of a ball-point pen over the sharp blade of the screwdriver, and it sits upright... held in place by yet another handkerchief... in my left-hand hip pocket. I have practiced with this item until I can whip it out and strike a telling defensive blow in less than a half second. These items pass inspection as tools you just happen to have on you. I sometimes use a belt with a push-blade knife concealed in the belt buckle. My Colombian and Argentine police buddies say that they would not even be suspicious or think of being suspicious of such items, since they don't run into them often... if ever. The Mexican police are a bit more suspicious of such items because they see stuff like this all the time with lots of Mexican nationals just released from prison in the US, as well as weekend commandos from the US. Again, one would face a high probability of arrest and detention if caught attempting to board an airplane with such items on one's person or hand luggage. See the TSA web site. You can carry pepper spray in checked luggage on some airlines. Local cops that are not trying to rip you off typically won't hassle you for having it for self defense. It is not against the law in any part of the world that I am aware of. An Example: Two US guys off a private sailboat walking down the street in beautiful downtown Cartegena, Colombia in broad daylight when five thugs armed with knives tried to pull them into an alley to have their dastardly way. The sailors applied pepper spray and fled easily. The cops were televised grinning and slapping the sailors' backs in congratulation for having foiled the crooks. The reports talked a lot about the fact that the sailors had used pepper spray, and marveling at the fact that the pepper spray had so effectively disabled the crooks that they were still coughing and spitting 20 minutes later when the cops arrested them. The small, compressed gas capsicum pepper spray canister can easily fit in the pocket, even on a key chain and is available anywhere. These canisters are usually available for purchase in any country, perhaps in a salvage/surplus/sporting goods retailer. If you prefer, It is legal to carry a small plastic bottle or baggie with cayenne pepper in checked luggage on an airplane. You could also carry an EMPTY plastic squeeze bottle, and mix up a little cocktail in the bottle with the pepper when you get access to some water at your location. I haven't used it on humans, but it worked really, really well on uncontrolled dogs trying to chase me down the street. Again, carry these items in checked luggage only. The good news is that accurately applied pepper compounds really work. I have seen very tall, large muscle bound guys rolling on the ground screaming for their mommy, while the petite 4 foot 9 inch lady at their side is just crying quietly. The bad news is, don't bring pepper spray to a gunfight. Also, I have used pepper spray on guys lit to the gills on crystal meth doesn't work. Doesn't even slow 'em down. A really, really drunk Mejicano I used it on also didn't seem to notice. Like anything else, pepper spray defense is an excellent option for most people, and can be considered legal almost everywhere. However, it requires good judgment and adult behavior. An Example: Not so long ago, two US guys were leaving their sailboat in an African port. It was around sundown, and they were walking to a restaurant about a mile away. They noticed a group of locals giving them the eye as the sailors ambled away. They soon passed beyond sight of any passers by.. The dock areas were deserted. They noticed a guy running parallel to them on a path about 50 yards away in their direction of travel. They realized that they were in trouble... unarmed at night and in a foreign port with no witnesses. Sure enough, the thug ran up even to them and held them at bay 30 feet away with a pistol as his two thug friends came running up from behind. Even with martial arts training, this was the perfect setup for the thugs... no way to reach the guy with the gun before suffering serious injury, two unarmed thugs shaking them down for all their valuables. The even lost their secret hideaway stashes, and were stripped of all of their goodies. They later said the thugs searched them from the skin out, including shoes. And only the crotch area was safe. Because they were unarmed, they were left alive. The criminal with the gun had the drop on them... going for a gun would have resulted in sustaining serious injuries. This was not a scenario for a quick-draw exhibition. The police and port officials reported that the tourists were lucky. The hijack group was highly experienced and professional. Mostly, the less professional groups in the area at that time just shot you dead and took what they wanted. What have we learned from this? Playing the “What if... ?” game, we may make suggestions.
In this instance they had a few moments after noticing the running gunman where they could have drawn their firearms. When I carry a weapon in a dangerous area, I carry it in a shopping bag or a folded magazine/newspaper... even a hat or cap... with my hand on the grip, finger off the trigger. Just drape a handkerchief over your cocked and locked pistol if necessary, keep your ready weapon in a convenient pocket or under your shirt... but you must have your firearm in your hand ready to use, not holstered. I practice these things in the safety of my home. With 20/20 hindsight, several people were going to get hurt that night if the victims had at least one firearm in their hand... but, at the time, they had no knowledge that the usual practice was to kill the victims, and might have hesitated to fire. They would have guiltily realized at this time that they should not have been there in the first place... realizing that they had ignored the danger clues when leaving the secure marina. They might have realized that their many hours of target practice were not sufficient for a situation requiring split-second instinctive shooting at someone who had 'the drop' on them and would be shooting at them. The only chance with a weapon in this scenario would be to turn to face their attacker, cooly bring up the pistol up and take their best shot. The chances of this action being successful were not good even if they already had the gun out and ready. Gunfights are serious matters. The outcome is serious... as the book says, No Second Place Winner. Using a firearm to wound or kill an attacker will change your life forever. We all have to look at a gunfight as an admission of guilt, of failure. You probably shouldn't have been there in the first place. A gunfight is evidence of bad judgment, unless it happens defending your family in your own home, a carjacking, etc. We must plan to be arrested after such an incident, and carry local phone numbers of attorneys/embassy officials/personal and/or business acquaintances for notification of your situation. Also, it is important to know the local laws regarding such incidents. It would be a good idea to read up on gunfights and take an instinctive shooting course if you plan to travel armed. Most importantly, practice, practice, practice. If using a semi-auto, arm yourself with a CO2 pistol as close to the type you will be using, practice drawing and firing BBs as trained in an instinctive shooting course. Practice walking, running or sitting while shooting. Practice shooting from different types of cover from different positions. Practice instinctive shooting in low light conditions. I use my J-frame .357 with wax bullets/primers/plastic shells that I make up myself. My friends who hate guns actually enjoy this activity and look at it as play. I don't. I practice at 7 – 15 feet--about the useful range for a wax bullet--shooting at a cardboard poster. You can just tape a silhouette target over a cardboard box. You must literally train for hundreds of hours if you want to get into peak performance. And, why would you not want to be the best you can in such critical situations? An Example: A more successful outcome. It was Christmas in Houston, and my friend Sara was at Sharpstown Mall carrying lots of packages and shopping bags as she went to exit the mall to go to her car. Since the lot was crowded, her car was not in an optimal location for security. Sara's situational awareness kicked in. She saw that it had gotten dark early, as it does in Houston at that time of year. She noticed some young thugs hanging around the exit. Sara returned to the mall, sought out a security guard, and requested that he escort her to her car, but he refused. Sara stood at the door for a while, contemplating a route to her car that would avoid parked vans in the lot... the criminals' vehicle of choice in Houston at that time... took careful note of who was visible from her vantage point, and plotted her course. Before she started out, she carefully sat down her packages and removed her keys and... discretely... a very small .22 caliber pistol which she concealed in her strong hand, retrieved her packages with her purse over her gun arm and set out to her car. As she was on her way, she turned around several times to scope out the other people in the lot and what they were doing. She planned to return to the mall and insist on an escort if she didn't like what she saw. When she got to her car, she was putting her keys in the door lock when a young thug rushed up to her and yelled some obscenities and threats at her as he grabbed Sara's purse, attached to her gun arm by the strap. The action caused Sara's pistol's pointy end to actually go up his nose. He said... and I quote Sara's description... “Whoa, Mamma! Be cool.” Sara said, “This is as cool as I get.” The thug's friends were running up to help, but the young thug said, “Let's get outta here She got a PIECE up my nose”, and they all took off running. Sara immediately drove to the nearest police station to report the attempted crime and the mall security guard's indifference. She later found out that the young criminals were part of a large group that kept a rental van parked in a central location, and the various teams were dropping off their ill-gotten swag so their hands were free for more crime without encumbrance. Several older people were hurt that night in the Sharpstown Mall parking lot. One younger victim, a man, tried to resist with his wife and children present and ended up in the hospital with permanent damage from the beating he got. In the two preceding examples we see that options only exist for the wary. The two sailors ignored the little stomach lurch of instinct when they saw thugs eying them. Had the group of thugs that targeted them been less professional, they would probably have died for ignoring their instincts. It only takes one mistake like that... an instant of recognition that was ignored... to end our lives. Sara's example ended well because she understood that only outstanding situational awareness and planning via “What if... ?” scenarios can help us survive potentially dangerous situations. Even though she was armed, Sara's pistol would have ended up as part of the criminal swag had she not had it in her hand and “gotten the drop” on her own private thug. She probably would have sustained a few injuries as the thug pistol-whipped her with her own gun for being dumb enough to carry a pistol she wasn't ready to use. Please keep in mind that thugs hate you and everyone else that has more than they have. They have only contempt for those who have less. As they gain more experience at thuggery, they develop a bored indifference to violence and will kill without remorse and spend their swag on a nice meal immediately after a rewarding murder. If you are in law enforcement, you already know this. Ex-military people who have been in Close Quarters Combat know how to shoot instinctively, how to survive a gun battle, and how to keep their heads on a swivel. They are adept at the “What if... ?” game. Unlike police officers who have survived many criminal confrontations, they may lack other important skill sets. Whomever you may be, it is important to brutally analyze your inventory skill sets, try to determine which sets you lack, and work on trying to improve your chances in a criminal confrontation. Please keep in mind that though Sara did everything right except be in a crime-prone area... not very avoidable in Houston at that time... she had to use every skill set she had plus a lot of nerve to survive unscathed her criminal confrontation. And, yes... street survival is a mind game. Decoy Money: Consider keeping about US$30 to $50 folded up in a place where you can get to it. If an armed thief comes up to you, give it to him. He may just go away and leave you alone. Seriously… it's been reported as a successful ploy and may save you. Be aware that I have seen video of five armed guys stripping a guy on the street at night. There is no hiding place when you’re barefoot and naked, unless you have your goodies in a tube inserted into a body cavity. If you can avoid that by giving them the bait money, good for you. If not… you’re gonna lose the bait money and everything else anyway. Just a thought: consider carrying the bait money in small bills and throw them to the wind so you can get a head start in running to a safer place very fast. I know from personal experience that this works... sometimes. I also carry my pepper spray concealed in my hand with my finger on the trigger while observing suspicious activity. Since I am not allowed to carry a firearm in my residence country, I need the pepper spray to get far enough away to pull my collapsible baton/flashlight combo as I run toward a safer place. And, yes, I have trained in baton tactics, read many instruction manuals and scenarios, and practice, practice, practice. Dress for Success Stun Guns Collapsible baton: This is my all-time favorite. But be advised, to the best of my knowledge a baton is not legal in any part of the world. However, it is easily concealable. I carry my 17 inch (extended) baton from eBay discretely in a jeans hip pocket. I paid extra for an LED flashlight butt from eBay so it appears to be a flashlight with a long handle. It doesn't even look extendable. The flashlight module gives good light and replaces the butt ferrule. If you are fluent in the local language, do not show off or act like a jerk, you may be get by okay with a collapsible baton in most countries. An Example: I have carried my "flashlight with an extensible handle" in Mexico, in Colombia and Argentina on and off cruise ships (the worst questioning I had to endure while going thru bag checks by cruise ship personnel). I had a problem with an federal officer checking hand luggage at the Buenos Aires airport. I had planned to leave it at my Argentine home. I forgot it was in a small bag stuffed in my carry-on luggage. Woops! I was embarrassed. This could have been serious if I wasn't muy fluido en castellano and such an obviously nice, friendly guy. This guy was giving me a bad case of cop eye as I smiled and explained that it was a flashlight. With an expressionless face, he extended it. I showed him my Florida commercial appraiser license and explained it was for seeing into dark corners while appraising buildings. He said... "Sir, this is a weapon". I smiled and stuck it in the box they had there for disposing of small knives, scissors, et cetera. Still smiling, I shrugged my shoulders and got the rest of my stuff together and departed, dignity almost intact. My wife was laughing. I heard the Feds laughing, too. I was out $40 for my own stupidity. It would have been fine in checked luggage. No problem... I got another one via eBay for about $50 and resolved to always re-check the contents carry-on bags prior to leaving home. In any country, it seems reasonable to follow some common sense safety tactics:
If your attempt to be inconspicuous is unsuccessful, your defensive tactics aren't a good idea and you find yourself naked on the side of the road with a bunch of bad guys, here are some tips that were passed down from folks who have succeeded in getting away from the NarcoTerror boys.
[Tomorrow, Part 2.] « Two Letters Re: Preparedness Information for Diabetics |Main| Notes from JWR: » Monday September 28 2009Five Preparedness Lessons Learned, by Allen C.
I was speaking with a friend recently who mentioned he still has a generator in the box taking up space in his garage. It has been there for ten years. He did not know what to do during the Y2K panic so he spent money to make himself feel better. I am not knocking the value of a good generator. I have used mine for almost twenty years. However, purchasing a generator he did not know how to use without at least buying some gasoline to go with it was a waste of money. It has been said the humans are the only creature that move faster once they realize they are lost. I am sharing my experiences for the benefit of those who do not have a lot of training or experience in preparedness that they may go just slow enough to make good decisions while moving fast enough to be effective. I was first referred to as “a survivalist” twenty-five years ago by local authorities during a routine traffic stop. Still a teenager, I had saved my Christmas money to purchase my first rifle, an AR-7 survival rifle. I had to explain to the nice officers why it was broken down in the back seat of my father's car. I dressed like the cover of a survival magazine during my high school and early college years and my appearance had brought me the attention I thought I wanted. This teenage self-expression included camouflage pants and a black T-shirt accented by a defused hand grenade hanging from a chain around my neck. I quickly learned the attention this drew was not in my best interest. Today I look like every other clueless rat in the race. It is not just the blatant activity described above that draws unwanted attention. Someone asked recently how to keep their nosey neighbors from watching them bring in supplies. I advised her to buy several identical plastic tubs. Each time she goes out, an empty tub will go with her and return full. The world sees just one tub going back and forth and incorrectly assumes it is the same one each time. Absent evidence to the contrary, people tend to see what they expect. Lesson One: Lay low and don't make the big mistake. Appear to be someone not worth noticing. Throughout the years I grew in my training and expertise. I became a firefighter and HazMat technician, shooting sports and wilderness survival instructor. The same skills for which I was previously viewed as a threat now brought me acceptance and admiration. After 911 they honored me at events and put me in parades. My key to success was preparation in both skills and provision. The most expensive piece of equipment in the hands of someone who does not know how to use it is worthless. The converse is also true. The more skilled one becomes, the less likely they are to think they need the latest gadget. Over the years the tools in my fire gear and my survival kit became more refined allowing me to do more with less. For example, knowing several ways to purify water without spending several hundred dollars on a filter system allowed me to allocate first funds to food storage and firearms. If tribulation should come before I am fully prepared (if that is possible), I can provide food, water, and protection for my family. I would love to have a bigger filter system, but because of my knowledge level, I am able to better prioritize. Lesson Two: Knowledge makes a little provision go a long way. The other day I went to visit a friend from high school that I had not seen in years. He proudly showed me not only his gun collection but those of a mutual acquaintance who keeps his at his home. Some were sitting in a wooden gun cabinet with a glass front. Most were lying in gun racks mounted to walls in the spare bedroom. In my home you will not see one gun or a large cabinet that would be a bullseye for any thief who might kick in the door. Those are kept safely in a secure and innocent-looking location that would not get a second look. An inexpensive assemble-it-yourself bookcase with a few inches cut off the back of most shelves makes an excellent cache. Trim the back panel to fit within the frame of the bookcase and use a hook and eye lock to secure the top of the bookcase to the wall. This hidden cache holds several guns locked to the unit and the wall with a cable lock through the trigger guards. Lesson Three: The best defense is to not become a target in the first place. Many of my friends are buying and storing a year's supply of freeze dried food as they did for Y2K. I am not doing so now nor did I in the Fall of 1999. I personally do not enjoy eating freeze dried food. Perhaps it is because I was raised in Amish country, but I have always stored and rotated my food. This is not to say that I never buy food for long-term storage, but that I am selective in buying those things which I can get locally, inexpensively, and actually want to eat. The rest I rotate through my pantry. The other day a friend of mine sent me a link to a web site where I could purchase fifty pound bags of grain for three times what it sells for locally. It has not been specially prepared for long-term storage nor is it significantly different in quality. In the Bible, Joseph stored grain for seven years without packing it in nitrogen. This grain is marketed as a preparedness product at a price that covers shipping and a higher profit margin. To most efficiently allocate my funds, I segment provisions into three categories:
Using this method, I can provide variety and nutrition for my family for less than the average family spends going on one vacation. Lesson Four: We don't have to spend thousands of dollars on food we don't really want to eat. Rule number one of wilderness survival is Don't Panic! This warning is equally relevant in any survival situation. While time is of the essence, I would not recommend anyone without experience quit their job in the city and move directly to a secluded retreat. I have talked to several people who just this year planted their first garden. The quantity of errors and problems they experienced are too many to include here. Although I am from the country, I married a city girl and currently live on a postage stamp in a small city. This permits us to continue to earn money and improve our country retreat until the last possible minute while visiting on the weekend. I have found the best way to buy and own retreat property is through a housing cooperative or land trust. Although seldom used for rural land, cooperatives have successfully owned and occupied housing in New York City since the 1800s. Instead of an individual purchasing a few acres at a premium price because each parcel must be surveyed, title examined, deeded, etc, a cooperative is a group of people who together purchase a large tract of land by forming a nonprofit corporation. The property is deeded to the corporation with the rights to occupy individual parcels guaranteed through an occupancy agreement. Advantages of a housing coop include lower price per acre, anonymity of ownership, and protection for creditors. Lesson Five: Don't Panic – One small preparation every day will produce the best long-term results. Whether surviving a wilderness emergency or social unrest, our attitude and ability have a lot more to do with our success than the products we purchase. We do not have to drastically change our way of life until circumstances change it for us. These small things done over time will produce great results. While there are necessities to secure, the most valuable asset we have is ourselves. An investment in us pays the highest return. « Letter Re: Chronic Troubles with PT/MMC Pistol Night Sights |Main| Note from JWR: » Wednesday September 23 2009Letter Re: Think of Preparedness as Insurance
Jim, 1) Why do you have firearms? Police insurance. If the police can't come in time, (can they ever?) or are overwhelmed (Los Angeles riots anyone?) or just go home (Hurricane Katrina?) then you may need need firearms. 2) Why do you have stored food? Eating insurance. Just in time (JIT) delivery systems, monocrop susceptibility to plant diseases, lack of any food stored at the national level. 3) Why do you have stored gasoline/diesel? Transportation insurance. If you live in the country or suburbs walking everywhere is probably not realistic, or want to bug out of a city. 4) Why do you have a ham radio and portable transceivers? Communications insurance. Storms, blackouts etc. No monthly charges like cell phones and easier than smoke signals. 5) Why do you have generators and stored fuel for them? Electrical insurance. This way the frozen food I have stays cool for a few days etc. 6) Why do you have stored water? Cooking, drinking and washing insurance. 7) Why do you have precious metals? Fiat Currency insurance. In case some bureaucrat decides to print up so much money that we go into hyperinflation. Even the adage, "one is none and two are one" is not ignored by the masses. Ask someone who relies on their eyeglasses to see if they only have one pair. How many people have two cars when they could really get by with one. It is only the wandering barefoot ascetic with a loincloth and begging bowl as his only possessions who makes no preparations. It is human nature to prep, the only question is to what degree. - SF in Hawaii « Economics and Investing: |Main| Notes from JWR: » Sunday September 20 2009Squeezing Efficiency Out of Every Second of Your Workday to Provide Quality Relaxation Time, by KAFYes, I actually said relaxation. Are you finding yourself overwhelmed with chores, or frazzled and just flat out fatigued trying to accomplish everything you must do in a workday on the homestead? « Four Letters Re: Prepare to Garden Like Your Life Depends on It, by Prepared in Maine |Main| Notes from JWR: » Friday September 11 2009One Woman's View of Budget Preparedness, by Lisa L.I wanted to write something for the contest for other ladies with children were in the same situation with wanting to be more prepared but not having the means to do so like the books recommend. I've had my frustrations but I've learned and bought gradually and wanted to share. :) It always upsets me when I hear in the media or from people their point of view that people are helpless due to their income level. This is what I've learned so far, how to cook with wheat, stockpiling shampoo for very little and ways to acquire some supplies for a 72-hour-kit inexpensively. 1. Educate yourself! I was able to get every preparedness book I requested from inter-library loan. Now I have high speed Internet and there are so many videos on YouTube. I was interested in learning how to use wheat so this is my experience. :) There are so many other preparedness topics and skills on youtube and in books. Try to eventually purchase wheat in different forms like whole wheat berries, cracked wheat , bulgar, whole wheat flour, and whole wheat pastry flour. Purchase items found at regular the grocery store too like oats, beans and rice. 6. Buy wheat in a larger quantities like 25 lbs or 50 lbs. At this point you will already be using it in your meals. You can do this from the same place you bought it in a small quantity before. Do this even if you don't have grain processing equipment but are cooking it on your crock pot. Look into buying other grains in the large quantities too like beans, rice and oats. Sam's club has the best price on Bastmati rice. Learn how to store food in 6 gallon buckets with a mylar bag and oxygen absorber. The same place that sells you wheat should sell 6 gallon buckets except for a health food store. I have not tried to pack my food like this yet but it's next on my list. :) There are some great videos on YouTube that demonstrate this. You can buy grains already packed like this. For some things like rice, I plan to pack myself with the O2 absorbers and mylar bags myself since it's more economical. (And sugar, too, minus the O2 absorbers.) Some Lessons Learned It now seems so easy but at first I had no idea about purchasing small quantities of wheat. I called some of the vendors and had no idea about small cans, had no idea the health food store sold wheat, etc. It really took me years from the time of learning about it to purchasing it because I didn't have the money for 50# and had no idea I could buy it in a #10 can or locally one pound at a time at the health food store. It would have saved me a lot of time had I known those things. I learned about 72-hour kits and low cost things from dealing with the hurricanes. The Prudent Homemaker. I know Brandy from the internet and she eats from her food storage. The nice thing about her blog is she posts recipes that she actually makes from her food storage and garden. She is really talented in making the food look really nice too. « Letter Re: A Practical Use for Post-1982 US Zinc Pennies |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Thursday September 10 2009Letter Re: Living in the Time After TEOTWAWKI
Dear Mr. Rawles, However, I have not seen anyone talk about how we will boot strap ourselves to back towards some sort of village life and civil society[, in the event of TEOTWAWKI]. In your novel "Patriots" , you touch on this with the Troy Barter Faire, and then fast forward at the end of the book to this being an accomplished fact. In the novel "One
Second After", the author makes the point that an EMP event could have pushed people back to a 19th century lifestyle, but things were more medieval because no one had the knowledge of how In a post-SHTF scenario, there won't be much call for fibre-channel administrators, but there will be a demand for bakers and candle makers. What I suggest is that while people are assembling their preps, they also look at the skills and services that they will need afterwards, and see if they can't learn to do these things themselves. After all, if they need them, Here's a quick list of skills/trades that I think would be useful in a post-SHTF world. Food: Dry goods, sundries: Clothing: Materials: Manufacturing: Many of these skills and trades can be started as a hobby. I suggest that people think about these now, and find what they have a knack for and consider it "job security" for the future. - Bear in California « Influenza Pandemic Update: |Main| Preparing for Uncertain Times--A Simple Guide to Getting Ready, by Mr. and Mrs. Joe Patriot » Tuesday September 8 2009Letter Re: Thoughts on Shedding Bad Habits, and Developing Good Ones
Hello Mr Rawles, I would like to caution her, as well as others, that preparedness and survivalism is not an activity one does for a few weeks, and "is ready". It is a lifestyle changing activity that probably reaches every facet of life, changing many things all at once. Don't burn out on it. Things like the glass of wine, some breath mints or chewing gum are all small things that add up. Remember, you should be in this for the long haul, and a perpetual cycle of denial of these little things can add up, building a resentment to the lifestyle you're trying to adjust to. I know when I'm going backpacking for a long time, I miss my bed. If I was suddenly out of the house and this was my only means of warmth at night, I would begin to resent requiring the tent and backpack, and long for the days of my warm house and bed. Finally, when I get my nice warm bed back, I'm likely to never want to camp or backpack again.If you deny yourself a lot of creature comforts all at once, then start "caving" on a few of them, you may find yourself in a backwards slide where you resent the whole preparedness mindset. Even if that sacrifice of these little treats is acceptable to you, what of those in your family, who may not feel the sense of importance about what you're doing? Suddenly being denied soda pop and television may cause an instant animosity to the lifestyle you're hoping they embrace. Even a gradual denial of these things may cause it, albeit less severely all at once. If candies or wine are important to you, find ways to store or re-supply what you have. Preparedness should be about sustainability, not denying ones self of what they feel is important. As for television, it is a tool. You can cut it out altogether, or look at it as another medium of information. Yes, you can turn off Spongebob, but maybe you should be watching shows about deer hunting or food prep? Even the occasional movie is important, as your family all watches it with you. Some households, this is the only "together time" there is, sadly. Look at what that television means to your family. If gathering to watch a movie every other night is some family quality time, then don't deny that. These are the people you care most about in the world, and the ones that will have your back in the situations you're prepping for.Just having that quality time to reinforce family relations is important. - DA in Michigan « Letter Re: Surviving an Expedient Ambush Roadblock While Traveling by Vehicle, by M.W. |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Sunday September 6 2009An Instructive Survival Story from the 1930s
Do you thrill to read pulse-quickening stories of survival where individuals triumph over extreme odds? How about a survival situation that didn't occur over a period of minutes, such as a tornado....or a survival situation that didn't occur over a period of hours, such as a hurricane ....or a survival situation that didn't occur over a period of days, such as a flood. What about a horrifying survival story that dragged on year after year with no help, no rescue, no hope, no end in sight? « Influenza Pandemic Update: |Main| Note from JWR: » Saturday September 5 2009You're Not (Yet) Prepared, by Ted B.
You saw the warning signs years ago and decided to be the ant, not the grasshopper. You found and purchased the home on land that is now your residence as well as your retreat. You’ve gathered the materials to survive, perhaps even thrive, during the coming storms of political upheaval, food shortages, social disorder and economic distress. You took courses on weapons use and feel confident in your ability to defend home and kin with any of the weapons in your personal armory. You assembled canning materials and learned how to use them. You consume, replenish and rotate those foods regularly, not just watch them age on the basement shelves. You have the house wired for 12 VDC as well as standard 120 VAC. Your solar panels, batteries and backup generator are all positioned and tested. The neat stacks of silver rounds lie nestled in protective containers, waiting to be used for purchases when the dollar is finally recognized for the worthless paper it has become. Medical supplies are all labeled and stored in easy to reach locations in the house, barn and bunker. Manuals on survival techniques, emergency first aid, growing and preserving your own food, and a host of other critical topics are carefully filed away for future reference in an Internet-limited world. Stabilized gasoline and treated diesel sit quietly in sturdy underground drums. Your communications gear includes CB, ham and FRS radios, and you rigged up wired field sets between the main house and outbuildings. You even took some steps not normally included in the various “Preparation for Apocalypse” articles that flooded the media and which were read by millions. You measured the firing distance to each property landmark visible from your home and wrote up landmark-specific bullet drop tables for the calibers of rifles you will use in defense. You got part of a fresh animal carcass from the local country butcher and practiced your wound suturing skills on real flesh. You picked up and squirreled away various strengths of reading glasses that you don’t need now but may need in years to come. You gathered moderate quantities of several multi-use chemicals and a book that shows how to make simple mixtures such as match head material, flash powder, and smoke grenade filler. When buying and storing your paper goods, you didn’t just lay up three years worth of toilet paper, you also remembered that "If The Momma Ain’t Happy, Ain’t Nobody Happy" and, setting aside your embarrassment, you bought and carefully stored away a generous stash of feminine sanitary products. You knew that having beans and rice for months at a time potentially could be considered a fate worse than starvation, so you added hard candy, plenty of dried fruit and other treats to the pantry. You feel a sense of accomplishment and confidence as you fine-tune your checklists and provisions. You can’t plan for absolutely everything, but you feel you’ve done all you can to get ready for the majority of scenarios that might come about. You are prepared. Or are you? A vital component that many people forget is preparation as a community. Self-sufficiency tends to lead to some amount of isolation. My own little slice of heaven in North Idaho is a prime example. Almost every resident of my small rural town is independent, largely self-reliant, skilled, practiced and ready for everything from extreme weather to MZB attacks. Each of us knows the neighbors who are in our immediate vicinity, and within that small area we all share goods as needed and assist when the situation calls for it. But until very recently, no one but the Postmaster could say he actually knew the majority of people in our community beyond a wave and a hello as they drove past. Each micro-community, composed of anywhere from three to a dozen families, had social interaction at backyard barbecues, fireworks displays and 4H meetings, and teamwork interaction at such events as road clearing sessions after a big windstorm or snowstorm. But these individual micro-communities did not interact regularly, did not know what skills or provisions each could contribute in times of widespread emergency, and most importantly did not know whom to call to rapidly disseminate important, time critical information about events that could impact the entire region. We had no phone tree, no list of skill sets available within the town, and no plans for assistance beyond what each micro-community did as a matter of practice, informally developed over the years. We were not truly prepared, even though most of us thought we were. While it is still an ongoing process of refinement, as all preparations tend to be, we took an approach that may well serve your own community. First, we advertised a community preparedness meeting, with enough advance notice that people could get it on their calendar if interested, but not so far in advance that it was forgotten by the time it arrived. The invitation, via signs at the Post Office and Fire Station, and distributed via flyers, had three key elements: It was to be an informal meeting with no governmental spin or involvement; it was to get folks talking about community preparations for a variety of situations where we could help each other out effectively, while maintaining our privacy and independence, and finally it would include some refreshments. You’d be surprised how many people are drawn by the prospect of home made brownies, fresh coffee and Huckleberry lemonade. The meeting itself stressed that the purpose was to:
Also mentioned up front was that the meeting was not called in order to: We reminded attendees that planning was important now: - So that preparations can be done when we have time, resources, good weather, low stress levels We talked about the various scenarios that might require the community to band together instead of trying to deal with the issue on our own, including wildfire, extreme weather, a major transportation interruption, a large scale natural (or man-made) disaster, economic meltdown or further acts of governmental tyranny. We discussed the focal areas that might be established to get people with specific knowledge or skills involved on teams of resource planners/coordinators to allow the best response to the situation:
We asked attendees to sign up, voluntarily, for areas where they felt they could add benefit by thinking and researching, providing leadership or just helping out on a time available basis. We established a web site where residents can find out – at their convenience – about meetings of possible interest; tips from others on various topics such as food preservation, animal husbandry, and ammo reloading; updates to community contact lists; and other information that may be of value but does not warrant continual phone calls or E-mail messages. We created a phone tree that allows any person to make as few as three calls and be confident that within 5-10 minutes the vast majority of residents had either been personally contacted or had a message left on their phone machine. The mechanism is simple: The close the loop step ensures that the community phone tree has been activated, at least partially, from top to bottom and allows cross-trunk communication if the line is severed unintentionally by personal or electronic difficulties. A community of >1000 people can be reached in just five vertical steps if each person makes just four phone calls without duplication; six steps if only 3 calls per person are made. For events requiring continued updates, such as wildfire location or direction of approaching zombies, the web site can then be used to stay up to date without tying up the phone lines again and again. To ensure that the phone system itself does not cause a breakdown in communications, the community should have backup schemes as many layers deep as necessary, including CBs or other pre-established radio lines, “pony express” mechanisms using car, ATV, snowmobile, horse, dogsled or whatever makes sense in your region. This one step alone can dramatically improve your overall preparedness as you will have hundreds of trusted eyes and ears scanning for dangers, hundreds of hands and minds that may be applied to a situation that would overwhelm your own family’s abilities, and a means to call on resources beyond your own wealth – as long as the spirit of give and take is kept balanced and not abused. Beyond these steps, you might also consider establishing an appropriate number of recurring activities or meetings, whether they are weekly or quarterly as prescribed by the level of availability and interest; fleshing out or refining your community preparedness plans based on detailed threat scenarios that seem likely for your area; establishing response plans, including identification of leaders and supporters; and holding community response drills to see what holes you’ve missed so they can be corrected before a real crisis comes along. As a final thought for consideration, a hand-cranked 110 dB siren suitable for notifying all locals within a considerable distance that they need to get on “the community net” can be had very affordably on your favorite auction site… Now you can go clean your M1A again while gazing fondly at your stuffed pantry shelves, secure in the knowledge that you probably are about as ready as you’ll ever be. « Letter Re: A Nation of Improvisers--More About Everyday Life in Communist Cuba |Main| Note from JWR: » Thursday September 3 2009Letter Re: Thoughts on Shedding Bad Habits, and Developing Good OnesHi Mr. Rawles, « Economics and Investing: |Main| Letter Re: Thoughts on Shedding Bad Habits, and Developing Good Ones » Letter Re: A Nation of Improvisers--More About Everyday Life in Communist CubaFirst our prayers are with your family in these dire times. The first thing about surviving in Cuba was that we did not see it as "surviving", it was more like living, we did not know anything else, as the media in Cuba is tightly controlled. I remember as a child we did not have glue so we made glue out of Styrofoam and gasoline, just mix them up in a glass container that you could close to preserve and that's it (if you go a little crazy on the gas it would be too liquid and take forever to dry). Canning was done basically with pressure cookers because there was nothing else, so all the knowledge of our grandparents was very handy and since you can't buy a new house we all live together, so it was very common to live in the same house with your parents and grandparents and sometimes your uncles and your cousins. You learn not I know that a lot of people are amazed at how we kept old cars running, but trust me, it wasn't that big of a deal, a little bit of ingenuity goes a long way. I'll go later into more detail. We were born with the system, so there was no getting ready like we are doing now, and believe me, no matter how ready you can get, if the S*** really hits the fan and it's TEOTWAWKI, you will run out of things, and even if it doesn't and we are stuck in the middle, then you need people because there is no way you can learn everything. Your best bartering tool is your knowledge, if you have a trade, mechanic, electrician, construction, carpenter,... that is a life saver, the people that had a harder time were teachers, musicians, economists, etc. They could not trade their work for nothing. For instance if you are good working with metals you will find someone to get the metals and that person will join with you and you can make parts for cars, if you are a welder you can also join in, remember that old cars were very simple, no hydraulic steering, no power nothing. It was basic carburetor, spark plugs, distribution and engine. An alternator is not that hard to fix, it basically a motor, the parts that wear down can be made again, maybe not the same quality as the originals but they will do. You can also adapt an alternator from another car (we had Russian cars coming in, including some WWII jeep-style Russian vehicles), they are mostly 12 VDC (some trucks are 24 VDC). A good mechanic will make an adapter so you can use the transmission from a Russian built jeep and make it work with an old American car. My trade was electronics (we use to call electronics to anything below that 24 volt and electrical anything above) so I will get in when they needed the electrical system of the car fixed, again it is very simple; remember no computers or anything like that in those cars. Here is a link of how a car alternator and a bicycle dynamo were used in the mountains to produce electricity, no means to store it so it was to use immediately, but when there is no power even a radio is an amazing thing. (See this YouTube segment: La Cuchufleta - Alternative Power Generating in Cuba.) I also fixed radios and television, I used to buy old radios and television and use the parts to fix the other ones. Later on when computer UPS [devices] became available, by available a mean people started to steal them from the government and sell them in the black market, then we can hook up a battery and get electricity when the power went off, which was very common. No deep cycle batteries, just whatever battery you could get. Other people were real artisans; they would make shoes with leather and old tires, and let me tell you, they were super nice and expensive. When you were able to buy rice (the amount they give in rations, every family had a ration book, was minimal, so again black market) you would buy a good amount as much as you could afford because maybe next month the guy was in jail or it was impossible to get. The rice you got was not stored properly so you always had to first put it on a table and go slowly through all the rice to search for small stones and foreign objects, then you put the rice in water and keep moving the rice with your hand and look for bugs, worms, they float and would come to the surface. I still remember as a child that grandma would call the children to "escoger el arroz" (that is what the cleaning process was called). After you ate the inside of oranges and grapefruits, you would use the rind and cook it in water with sugar and it was an excellent dessert. To have some variety, you will get spaghetti, crush them and leave them in water, next day it was kind of a soft mix in the bottom, get rid of the excess water, add sugar and an egg and you could make pancakes. Alcohol is consumed in Cuba in enormous quantities, I have no statistics, but it was relatively easy to make with a small homemade distillery (again quality is not a great concern), and I guess it's a good way to forget the problems, although it brings another problems. People would fight for the simplest of reasons, and there is no 911, and you better not be the weakest link because your family is in for a rough time because no one will respect you. Criminals would typically give you respect if they know you and you respect them and they knew it was not going to be easy to take on you or your family. If not you would be the target of thieves all the time. Unless we go down into total collapse - War, in which case all bets are off and nothing will ever prepare us for that because it would be the law of the jungle, whoever is stronger will survive and then you better have a strong group of family/friends or you will have to join a group, because alone you are pretty much gone. Read the accounts of Somalia and Serbia so you have an idea. I know more of Somalia because my father served for two years (in the 1970s) in the wars between Ethiopia and Somalia, Cuba sent troops there to fight on the Ethiopian side. I'd also like to respond to a misinformed comment in the article "Developing Our Family's Survival Strategy, by FBP". Cubans cannot grow 70% of their own food as a country, let alone in the cities. Cubans eat a lot of rice, beans and potatoes, there is no place in a city to grow enough of that to supply a family, much less a whole city. The population density in Havana City, Cuba is 7,908.5/sq mi, By comparison: So can those cities provide more than 70% of their own food? - ILR « Letter Re: A Practical Use for Post-1982 US Zinc Pennies |Main| Notes from JWR: » Wednesday September 2 2009Guest Article: Disaster Preparedness--Principles of Self-Sufficiency, by Don McAlvany
1. Change the way you look at everything. Rethink your entire lifestyle. - Don McAlvany, Editor, The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor « Letter Re: Preparedness for Living on a Chesapeake Bay Island |Main| Note from JWR: » Friday August 21 2009Camouflage: The Art of the "Liar", by T.W.P.
Human Perception - from an artist’s point of view. Have you ever sat down and watched a movie? Sure you have. But did you ever stop to realize that everything you were watching was a lie? Most likely not, even though you do understand that intellectually. Most movies cash in on the concept of “suspension of disbelief” which means “you know that what you are watching is not real or true, but you are willing to pretend, accept that it is real or true, for sake of entertainment.” It is an implied contract between you, and the makers of that movie. The producers of that movie have an obligation to you - and that obligation is to make it “look” so real, make is so convincing - that you are able to believe it when you see it. A “Special Effect” that you noticed and commented on, saying “Wow that was a great effect, it really looked real” is actually a badly executed effect. If you recognized it as an effect, it was not a successful effect – because you recognized it – it drew attention to itself. A real special effects artist covers his tracks so well, that you believe that what you saw was real, and do not question it or recognize it as an effect – you accept it at face value – and that is what camouflage is really all about – tricking your opponent into accepting what he sees at face value, and not even thinking to question it. For the past 28 years, I have been employed as a professional sculptor/artist in the entertainment industry. What that means is that for those years, I have been paid to lie to you. That statement is not meant to give offense. It is meant to draw your attention to a point that I think could save your life. Camouflage is, quite simply the skill of lying. Think about it. You goal, your desire is to create an illusion, a deception, a trick of the eye with such skill that your enemy does not see you, or realize that either “you” or “it” is actually there at all. Your enemy thinks it is just a rock, a bush, and clump of dirt, - he has no idea that there is something there at all. He is at ease, relaxed; he feels safe and does not see any booty to snap up for himself, or any enemy to threaten him, because he sees nothing but the environment around him. That is your goal – right? So, to achieve that goal, you need to become a great liar! You have all seen paintings, photographs, “art” of many kinds. But the things you see are not what your mind tells you they are. Thus, your mind plays tricks on you, it “interprets” or “translates” the images it receives by way of your eye, into concepts; and then you react or respond to those perceived concepts. But the concepts your mind’s eye creates by way of its interpretation of visual stimuli, may not be accurate with respect to the objective environment, as any one of a million playfully entertaining optical illusions can clearly demonstrate. Your mind can be easily tricked into believing something that is not real or true. In general, there are very few straight lines or repeated patterns in nature. Exceptions to the rule do exist, in such things as sedimentary strata that is uninterrupted by geological events beyond its original “manufacture”, or the magnificent rhythm of sea shells, and a few other things; but as a rule, regularity and repetition, rhythm and pattern, is rather hard to find out in the bush. However, in contrast to the “randomness of nature” the human mind, tends to seek out regularity and pattern, rhythm and harmony. (Bear in mind that the eye does not “see” anything. It is merely an organic structure designed to collect and receive light from the outside world, and transfer the image to the mind for interpretation. It is the human brain that actually “sees” what is going on out there, by way of interpreting the information given to it by the eye.) Our modern definition of beauty to a very large degree stems from this perception of “visual harmony” and we seek out balance and summitry as a means to define beauty in others. In other words, the left and right eye are “balanced” with respect to each other. The nose is centered on the face, and if a sentient line or center line were drawn through the middle of it, both half’s of the nose would be in balance. In the male, if this balance and cemetery is hard and “chiseled” he is considered handsome or good looking. In the female, if this harmony of features or balance is soft and delicate, she is considered beautiful. There are occasions when a “crooked smile” can be considered quite attractive – but the very reason it is considered attractive, is because we recognize that it is “crocked” as compared and contrasted to our traditional interpretation of beauty, which seeks out that straight, balanced harmony radiating from a center line, and it becomes that consciously recognized exception to the rule that we find attractive. Because we tend to seek out rhythm and balance, we automatically create a repetition or pattern in our physical actions. But then this very pattern, this rhythm is precisely what our eye seeks out and recognizes. So, to truly disappear into your environment… Rule # 1 = never repeat your pattern or your placement of color or item. Become deliberately random. Consciously pay attention to your natural tendency to become rhythmic and repetitious, and willfully violate that natural tendency by placing things at deliberately irregular intervals. Test yourself on this. Take a sea sponge and dip it in paint, and then casually dabble that paint loaded sponge on a wall or plywood board. Then step back and look at your work. Odds are, you will see a rhythm, an equally spaced, even and regular pattern of sponge pats on the wall. In fact, you could almost put a tape measure to each sponge splotch, and they would all be within a ¼ of one another. This is exactly what you want to take note of – and avoid when seeking to camouflage yourself or your stash! If you see a pattern, so will your enemy. Remember – rhythm and regularity = presence of man – weather your opponent consciously recognizes this fact, or not, he will “perceive it” and gravitate towards this regularity. “Composition” is something you will hear artists speak about frequently. This refers to the placement of colors and images within the frame of the work. (And the negative space – the “empty” space around objects, between objects, within objects – is also an element of the art work – and something you need to pay attention to). This concept of composition is a format artists use to guide the viewers eye along a specific path to enhance interest and visual pleasure. (the eye can be directed along a specific and predetermined path – guided by the skillful artist to “look here, not there” - hint, hint). But again, with physical objects, (in the case of a painting, for example, a pile of rocks) even numbers of elements represent regularity and pattern, and regularity and pattern means man, not nature. Rule #2 = odd numbers work better than even numbers. Place colors or elements in groups of 3, 5, 7, et cetera. Starbucks, like every retail food outlet, offers three sizes of drink cup. They don’t call it small, medium and large, they rename it so it sounds fancy and costs more - Tall, Vente, and Grande, but it is still small, medium and large drink cup size no matter how you slice things up. But if you stop to think about it, a small one, a large one, and one that is exactly in the middle of those two - - is regular, predictable, rhythmic and repetitious. It is contrived. It is according to the rules of pattern and harmony. What that means is – to camouflage yourself and your stash, you need to be aware of this, and violate that thinking. In composition, (placement of items and colors within your framework) arrangements that are odd numbered work better. Arrangements like large, large, small - or small, small, medium. Remember – odd numbers (3,5,7), and odd arrangements (L,L,s). Rule #3 = selection of object sizes and placement relationships with one another, should be as random and irregular as the arrangement of item groups within your overall framework. You have all seen Leonardo De Vinci’s masterpiece “The Last Supper” But I invite you to revisit that work with a new understanding. Notice, as you view it, that each of the Apostles are in groups of three, (odd number) and that each group is slightly separated from the other groups. Notice also that the eyes of all Apostles (save Judas) are facing towards Christ. Notice also that the building in which they sit, is rendered in what is called a single point perspective, with a single vanishing point – all things converge on that vanishing point, and Christ is at the center of it. In other words, everything in that picture, from foreground to background to the stitching on the tablecloth - commands, forces, directs our eye to our Lord, Jesus Christ. You have no choice but to look upon Him. Da Vinci skillfully directed you to look where he wanted you to look, and you naturally obey. Bearing this in mind, you can also misdirect your adversary by employing branches, sticks, or a carefully placed “line” of items, all pointing where you want him to look. See what you want him to see. You can actually direct his path, even make him literally walk right where you want him to walk, by placing well crafted “arrows” that point along your chosen path (providing you do do not make it obvious - - another rule of art is that often - less is more, so don’t forget the first three rules). Rule #4 = item arrangements can direct the eye along a predetermined path. Knowing this, gives you the power to control that path and direct your adversaries attention to a point you chose. As a sculptor, on occasion I will accidentally chip off a chunk of material that results in what we call “the happy accident.” It usually happens because I am working quickly. While this break in material was not designed, expected or intended, nevertheless it often yields fantastic results, and is incorporated into the work, if at all possible. However, being human, we tend to seek order and harmony – we desire to have control – and we also tend to work that way. We tend to work meticulously and deliberately, with care and consideration towards our goal. But again, this is not how nature works. Haphazard and disorganized is natural – and the best way to achieve this “look” is not to be too careful, too controlled or to focused on what you are doing. Rule #5 = Deliberately work with haste and speed (until you master the first 3 rules) to allow for the haphazard ‘happy accident’ that more accurately reflects a natural environment. Force yourself to do it fast until you get good at it, then you will do it fast because you are good at it. Those professionals who make their craft look easy are those who have done it so many times, that they don’t have to stop and think about it anymore. This deliberate under pressure, with speed technique is the first step in teaching a student to be a sculptor – because his natural tendency is to start detailing from one end to the other, rather than establish the overall “anatomy” first. Most people see only the surface, the final detail and finish, and neglect to recognize the more important underlying structure – bones, muscle, balance, etc. The foundation upon which your details are built - is more important than the details themselves. You “see” the frosting on the cake – the surface detail - sure, but don’t forget the frosting is on the cake. Another trick of the trade is a bit more tactical, and goes hand in hand with rule #4. Diversion and distraction. In my profession, we often employ a technique called “the purple flower.” Art directors, having already designed and blueprinted or sketched the look of the movie on paper are - technically speaking, no longer needed on the payroll. They design it, send it to me and I build it, according to design. Simple. However, would you want to walk away from a $5,000 per week paycheck? So, what would you need to do in order to justify your continued employment? Make changes! Well, we know they are going to make changes. So – we give them something to change. We deliberately introduce into the project, something wrong, something noticeably out of whack. Naturally, he will see this, and demand we “fix this immediately,” to which we promptly reply “yes sir!” He has corrected our mistake, justified himself on the payroll, and is happy, and yet, he has not messed up all our work, because we directed and controlled his “change” by giving him something to change. (Please don’t let the cat out of the bag by telling others about this – especially if you are under a chain of command. The C.O. cannot find out what you are doing or the game is up.) In other words, your adversary is looking for something – anything that will tip him off as to your presence. Give him what he wants. But under your control, not his. Rule #6 = Now that you know some of the rules, (and you do need to master them first. Foundation, remember?) learn when to throw the rules out and go right back to doing what you should not do. Remember, the odds are, your adversary does not know the rules to art, or how to control human behavior through visual stimuli – so take advantage of his ignorance - - today’s marketing and advertising agencies do this to you every day of your life. Camouflage patterns on military uniforms have, for decades been defensive in nature. Their goal was (obviously) to break up the human form or silhouette, using colors found in nature and irregular patters. Their intent was to make the wearer “fade away” – “disappear into the surrounding foliage” or simply put - “hide.” Today’s digital camouflage pattern is quite the opposite. It is a deliberately ‘in your face’ offensive pattern (psychologically speaking). If you look closely, it is composed of colored squares – which as we all know are shapes that are exactly equal on all four sides – i.e. regular, mathematical, and thus, easily discernable in a non-mathematical natural setting (or so one would think). However, this new pattern is designed around the manner in which human perception functions and operates. The designers understand how the human eye perceives color, shape and line, and how the human mind translates the visual stimuli brought to it through the eye to formulate perceptions and concepts. Thus, digital camouflage assaults your brain’s natural perceptive methodology – which makes it more effective than the traditionally defensive camo pattern. (The colors are more subtle too – prone to emulate the tones on a bright sunlit day). What happens is that your mind blends, interprets, or translates those “tiny little squares” into fuzzy random, totally innocuous natural shapes. There is no “edge” to separate “this” shape from “that” shape and thus identify it as a printed pattern – so it all blends together into something else. Next time you see the digital pattern, try squinting your eyes as you look at it, and you will see how it effects you. You fill in the blanks. You “participate” (albeit, without your conscious knowledge) in the camouflage of the digital patterns now worn by our military. Thus, as exemplified by Edgar Allen Poe, and Sherlock Holmes – on occasion, the best possible disguise is right in front of your eyes. Naked. Exposed. Right there – which is the last place anyone would think to look. A cop, searching for an escaped convict, probably would not think to search the police station’s basement. Remember, your opponent is expecting you to try and hide it. Rule #7 = Sometimes, right out in the open, in plain sight is the best possible place to “hide” it, simply because they are expecting you to hide it – looking for where you hid it, and not expecting, or looking for the obvious. (This tactic can also serve well as “bait for the trap”). There are a number of additional ‘rules of art’ but the best teacher is observation and practice. Wonder around in nature and really stop and “look” at it. Most beginners, if I instructed them to sculpt a rock, would create something that more closely resembles a potato than a rock. This is not because they are incompetent (per se) – so much as because they “think” they know what a rock looks like, and as a result, have never actually stopped and looked at a rock. They assume they know what they know they don’t know – to their determent. So, go out and really look at your environment – study it. Take notes as to what you see – and why it is the way it is. Take a few minutes to read a book or two on art and learn what defines it, what categorizes “good” from “bad” art. It will help, not to mention expanding your horizons and affording you a new found “level of cultural enlightenment and appreciation.” Note: Considering what I just said, I have to add that the Accredited Fine Arts Academia today - is a socialist/elitist, self glorifying pompous joke. I know many people with degrees in art – but I have never met one on the job site. “Those who can – do. Those who cannot - go back to school and teach.” Be that as it may – learning something about art is not going to hurt you. In fact, it may grant you a little more insight as to how “you” function in your environment. In the meantime, don’t necessarily buy a bunch of expensive ghillie suits and nets and stuff at Cabela’s (however ‘cool’ they might be). More often than not, your best bet is to use whatever is there, within the environment you are trying to hide in. You want to blend into “it” – so use “it.” Procedure: So, say that you want to hide your truck or your pile of MREs in such a way that you can retrieve them quickly and easily, whatever. How do you go about it? For first time ‘artists,’ hesitation, fear of a mistake, self consciousness and insecurity must be overcome. And anyone trying something new, for the very first time, is, naturally, going to be self conscious and hesitant--afraid of messing it up. However, if you are afraid of making a mistake – you will. And, there is nothing that cannot be changed, amended, altered or adjusted to correct a ‘mistake.’ There is no such thing as a mistake (unless you are on a deadline and getting paid). Further, very often, those perceived mistakes actually further your goals –so allow for them. However, to break through that barrier of self hesitation and insecurity – force yourself to work fast. Reflect on your goals (camouflage) - – then reflect on the general rules of art - - then stop thinking and attack what you are doing with boldness and power, confidence and positive self-assurance. Throw yourself at it whole heartedly. Loosen up – relax. “Play” at it. Then, when some progress has been made, pause and take a step back. Review. Ask yourself:
The answers to these questions will give you information, and it is the information you receive from your work that will dictate your next action. (It sounds a bit “Zen” but the only way I can describe this is to “let the work speak to you – and learn how to listen to it.”) Then – attack it again, boldly, powerfully and quickly. But, know when to stop fussing with it and put the tool down. Know when to say ‘when', and walk away – because it is all too easy to “overwork” something, and destroy the point to your efforts. Very often, less work yields a more effective result – as we have pointed out, less “attention to detail” commands and requires the viewer to “participate” in the work – to fill in the blanks himself – and that is what will trick him into thinking it is simply a bush or a pile of rocks – so learn how to use your opponents own mind against him! Proviso: If you are doing this in the safety and comfort of your back yard - to practice and learn the some of the skills – you may find you are having some fun. Do not let your spouse figure this out, or they will take it away from you and replace it with a “honey do” list. ‘God’s speed’ to one and all. - T.W.P. JWR Adds: Keep in mind the classic military observation cues when you are designing camouflage:
Take a look at this series of photos of Swiss Army bunkers, and then this montage, and answer this: what did they do right, and what did they do wrong? Do you see the straight lines? Now take a look at this series of photos. (If you can't mimic nature, then mimic man! Note that the "windows" are all just painted on the reinforced concrete.) Ach! Those same clever SwitzerDudes that invented the Swiss Army Knife. You have to admire them. OBTW, a stack of cordwood can hide a lot of things, including a bunker entrance. My favorite hidden bunker door is in the second photo on this page. (It takes a while to spot the door hinges.) For additional reading, I recommend these two books: The War Magician « Letter Re: Burros for TEOTWAWKI Transport |Main| The Open Carry Debate Catches Mainstream Attention » Wednesday August 19 2009What Divides You from The Sheeple? Plenty!Nearly every week, I get at least one frantic e-mail from a new SurvivalBlog reader, stating that they feel woefully under-prepared. The gist of these e-mails is: "I'm behind the power curve! How can I possibly get prepared in time?" Fear not! Just by reading SurvivalBlog and taking some small, gradual steps at preparedness, you are miles ahead of your sheeple neighbors. And even with just modest preparedness measures, you have already substantially increased your chances of surviving most scenarios. As I see it, here are your advantages: Awareness Skills and Knowledge Networking Tools Planning Logistics Locale Communications Capacity for Charity The Bottom Line « Letter Re: Comfort and Holiday Foods for Family Food Storage |Main| Notes from JWR: » Tuesday August 18 2009Barter Goods -- A Woman's Perspective, by "Wry Catcher"
Most of the survival information published today comes from thoughtful and hardy men who plan, prepare, and protect themselves and their families from disasters. My admiration and appreciate for such men cannot be overemphasized. I doff my hard hat to all of you. There are, however, some elements of survival that are perhaps better served from a woman’s perspective. In particular, this article focuses on barter goods – those items that can be traded to other survivors for an improved quality of life or for basic necessity. For purposes of clarity and ease of reference, this article is divided into age groups. That’s because each age group has a specific set of needs and wants, aside from basic survival supplies. Let’s get to it! Infants and Toddlers Chew Toys: Chew toys aren’t just for dogs. Very young children like chew toys, too. The toys help with teething and they keep a child content when parents are busy. Be sure to acquire those that have no extraneous parts, and any painted surfaces must be non-toxic and non-allergenic. To be safe, buy those that are made of new materials and have little or no decoration that could come off, including surface colorations. Go for the plain models, in other words. The child who wants a chew toy is not looking for anything fancy, just something to mouth. Do not acquire a chew toy that could be swallowed or could block the airway. The toy must be too large to fit wholly within the child’s mouth. Any store specializing in infants and toddlers should have a wide array of acceptable chew toys, although they may prefer the term “teething ring” to “chew toy.” Most people working to survive a disaster of any type are not going to plan for something as specific as a child’s chew toy. They will, however, soon learn that their young one will be much happier and therefore much less fussy if there is something fun and safe to chew on. The toys will make good barter for adults with young children, and chew toys take up little space and weigh next to nothing. If teething infants are not part of your survival group, these toys may be used as dogs’ chew toys or as older children’s playthings if not too infantile in decoration. Keeping the toys simple will make them more versatile. Pull Toys. Toddlers like to walk, and when they walk, they like to drag something along with them. A few inexpensive pull toys will provide hours of enjoyment for them. If the toy makes a little noise, the fun is doubled. Beware those that have excessive parts – they are harder to repair and could become a choking hazard. Ages 4 – 9Crayons & Coloring Books. Nothing keeps a youngster as content and therefore as quiet and occupied as a set of crayons and a coloring book. Put aside some girl-oriented coloring books and some books appropriate for boys. Girls like girly things: houses, clothes, female figures, rainbows, horses, and furry critters. Boys like trucks and tractors, robots, war scenes, cowboys and Indians scenarios, and outdoor scenes. These are the types of outlines that coloring books should contain in order to satisfy a child who is cast into a situation where her/his world may be vastly different and his/her friends may be unavailable. If your own child has a particular preference, be sure to include that theme in your acquisition. Published coloring books will have gender-specific covers that will immediately signal whether they are more appropriate for boys or for girls. Crayons should be non-toxic and come in a wide variety of colors. Acquire several boxes of crayons and do not remove them from their boxes, they will be less likely to melt. Obtain or make several coloring books, some for your own children and some for barter or charitable donations. Downloading outlines and compiling them into 3-ring binders can be done in lieu of purchasing published books. Kids of all ages might find them fun, whether they color on them or not. Older children may use the books for paper airplanes or for journals. Crayons are useful for adults, too, when an all-weather writing instrument is needed. Hard candies add a sweet touch in what may otherwise be a sour situation. Kids love candy, and giving them an individually wrapped hard candy at midmorning or mid-afternoon may be a treat that eases the change in routine which is an unavoidable part of any survival scenario. Although there are some drawbacks to storing candy, the rewards for doing so will offset any problems. Store them in rodent proof containers and in a cool, dry location and they should be good for 12 months or more. Dental hygiene may be difficult, and too much of anything is seldom good, so ration the dole and don’t divulge the hiding place. Families will want to add some candy to their provisions, so lay in a supply of individually wrapped hard candies. [JWR Adds: The ingredients for candy store much longer that wrapped candies, but even old candy that has "gone sticky" is generally still safe to eat. An annual candy-making session can be a lot of fun for kids, and it is also economical. Our favorite to make at home is molasses taffy.] Clutch Toys. Yard sales often provide an inexpensive source for small, fluffy clutch toys. These are toys that young children can carry with them for comfort and companionship. Look for small, soft toys and dolls that are clean and, whenever possible, brand new in the package. All loving parents want their children to be happy whether in good times or bad, so items that children want will make good barter items. Senior Citizens Personal Care. Denture cream, magnifying glasses, packets of facial tissues, hand creams, bucket hats (this style of hat is often worn by both men and women), cold packs, heat packs, compact chess and checker sets, large print puzzle books (don’t forget the pencils), condoms, over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications, Ben-Gay, Vick's Vap-O-Rub, hard candies, and sunglasses. While perhaps not as vigorous as they once were, these elderly folks can provide much depth and affection in a family, particularly for the children. They should be treated with the respect and care they deserve. When they or their family have nothing to trade, a caring person will provide the barter item anyway. That’s what keeps us human. Adults Some good barter items for this group, and in general, include pocket knives (get some small and colorful ones for the ladies), condoms, individual cosmetics, WISP (Colgate product) toothbrushes, .22 ammo, honey, Vaseline, sturdy work gloves in various sizes and colors, romance and mystery paperback books, spare batteries in various sizes, feminine and masculine baseball-style caps, pocket sewing kits with spare buttons, eyeglass repair kits, used hand tools (hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers, folding pruning saws), tampons, pencils and pens, journals, and bags of jerky. A word of caution: don’t trade anything to anyone that could later be used against you or your family. For example, don’t barter ammo or a fixed-blade knife to someone you don’t trust, unless you absolutely need what they have and can’t get it elsewhere. Conclusion « Three Letters Re: Acquiring Pre-1965 Silver Coinage |Main| Note from JWR: » Wednesday August 12 2009Preparedness Beginnings, by "Two Dogs"I am a retired Marine Corps officer and Naval Aviator (jets and helicopters), commercial airplane and helicopter pilot, and most recently, an aircraft operations manager for a Federal agency. I graduated from numerous military schools, including the U.S. Army Airborne (“jump”) School, U.S. Navy Divers School, Army helicopter, and Navy advanced jet schools. In addition, I have attended military “survival” courses whose primary focus was generally short-term survival off the land, escape from capture, and recovery from remote areas. Like most Marine officers, I attended The Basic School, an 8-month school (only five during the Vietnam era – my case), which is still designed to produce a second lieutenant who is trained and motivated to lead a 35-40 man platoon of Marines in combat. This course covers everything from field sanitation to squad and platoon tactics, artillery and other ordnance delivery, communications, reconnaissance, intelligence, firearms training, and much more. Later, I attended the Marine Amphibious Warfare School and the Command and Staff College, both follow-on schools and centered upon the academic study of tactics and strategy as they applied to the missions of the Marine Corps. I flew helicopters offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and across the U.S. I found out first hand how thoroughly corrupted is the federal bureaucracy and the government, in general. Not a pleasant experience. I’d rather have been flying. I have bachelor's and master's degrees. As a result, my wife of forty years and I seem to have been moving endlessly from place-to-place. Nevertheless, I have tried in each place to do what I could to maintain a level of self-sufficiency for my family that varied greatly with locations and personal finances. My intention here is to try to share some of the less-than-perfect ways that I have tried to accomplish that end. Only in the last few years, primarily as a result of the political and fiscal situation in the U.S., have I begun reading some of the huge amounts of literature about how one can prepare for serious long-term off-the-grid survival. I have found that the preparation required to be ready for that contingency seems to be endless. I do not want to talk about all of those preparations. Others have done so very well, and besides, I’m not there, yet. What I would like to do is to talk to those, perhaps like me, who are not true survivalists in the commonly referred-to sense, but who are genuinely concerned about the future of this country, and might desire, like me, to begin to prepare. Perhaps my elementary and simplistic efforts might be of help to someone else who is beginning to think about the subject of preparedness. There are many scenarios that might require this, but the two that I am thinking most about are economic collapse and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. I’m building small Faraday boxes, but not doing much else for EMP. My thinking on begins with my own estimation of the basic problems: shelter, water, food, fuel, and security. I view these as the most critical needs, whether living in a tent or other outdoor shelter or here in our rural home in West Virginia. Here I have and often take for granted what I have -- shelter, well water, a small stream, a pond, a rain barrel; canned, dried, frozen, and freeze-dried foods; fuel for the generator and portable stoves, kerosene heater and lanterns; factory-made and reloaded ammunition for any one of several firearms. Edible plant books. Gardening books. Encyclopedia of Country Living-type books. Reloading books. Hunting books. Tracking books. A few novels devoted to the “what ifs” of the future, including Jim Rawles' excellent "Patriots:
A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse" Those are the basic things about which I think. I have been thinking about them for quite a while, in fact, longer than I even realized. Perhaps I’ve been thinking about them ever since I was a young lad. For example, my very first “survival book” was the Boy Scout Field Book, the original of which I still have (circa late-1950s edition). It is still a great reference if one is looking for an all-in-one manual for starting fires, making simple shelters, recognizing game tracks, tying knots, and much more. I note that it is still available on Amazon.com. (It’s probably been scrubbed to favor the politically correct, but don’t know [JWR Adds: Yes, I can confirm that unfortunately it has been made politically correct--with the traditional woodcraft skills showing any injury to innocent and defenseless trees duly expunged. So I advise searching for pre-1970 editions!] ) One does not necessarily need the SAS
Survival Handbook I think that my first education in “survival” came at about fourteen. That’s when I first shot a .30-06, an old [Model 19]03 Springfield. It pretty much rattled my cage. Mostly, my older brother and I used to track and shoot small animals in the deep woods of Missouri as youngsters. We were “issued” ten rounds of .22 LR ammo by our father, a retired USAF pilot, to be used in a bolt action, single shot, .22 rifle with open sights. One would be surprised what that meager handful of loose ammunition could do for one’s choice of shots, one’s ability to be patient in waiting for the shot, and for one’s great satisfaction at having brought home six or eight squirrels for the cooking pot, having used just those ten rounds – and sometimes, but not often, less. My point is that the knowledge of firearms is, in my view, basic to the notion of preparedness and in surviving in the wild. And it need not be exotic or overly complicated in nature. One can surely attend modern schools that will teach one to double-tap a cardboard target or silhouette at seven yards with a semi-auto pistol, as well as basic and advanced tactical rifle courses, but very basic survival skill with a rifle can be had without much cost if one is committed to learning the skill and if one disciplines oneself. Start with only one round, and work up from there. As Col. Jeff Cooper used to say, “Only hits count.” In a purely off-the-grid survival scenario, I can envision that .22 LR rounds would be very precious, indeed. Consequently, and even though I own handguns and rifles that will shoot .45 ACP, .44 Magnum/.44 Special, .357 Magnum/.38 Special, .380 ACP, .223, .25-06, .270, 7mm-08, .308, .7.62x39, .30-30, .30-06, and .45-70/.457 WWG Magnum (a wildcat), I shoot a .22 rifle and pistol more than all of the others, combined, and normally at least twice a week. And I’m hoarding them, as well as shooting them. I have the capability to reload all the calibers (except .22 LR/Magnum, of course) above, as well as shotgun ammo in 12 and 20 gauge. I wasn’t really thinking of “survival” when deciding to do this about twenty years ago, but was interested only in having the capability to shoot more, and to do it more cheaply. Yet it appears that much of that ammo could be used for barter. I had never even considered this until reading some of the recent “survival novels.” My apologies. I’ve wandered into the weeds here, as I could do forever on my favorite subject. Suffice it to say that whatever firearm one chooses – and make no mistake, one is necessary in my opinion -- there are all kinds of reasons to choose one over the other, depending on the situation and the person. One must endeavor to shoot it well. Owning a firearm is of almost no consequence, at all, unless it is properly employed. Personally, I prefer a M1911 .45 ACP pistol and a 7.62 M1A SOCOM, while my wife is comfortable with the milder .38 [S&W] revolver and 20 gauge. pump shotgun. I won’t even begin to get into the debate over .223 vs .308 and 9mm vs. .45 ACP. Suffice it to say that in Vietnam I had the opportunity to see the effects of all of these, and I chose for my own security the .308 and .45 ACP. Having got my favorite subject out of the way, I’ll talk about one that is likely even more important. Water. It is amazing how complicated this can be, and how many choices one has to solve this problem. I have not yet solved it. I have put up a rain barrel, and plan to get a couple more. It’s amazing how rapidly a 55 gallon barrel will fill in even a moderate thunderstorm. I got mine from Aaron’s Rain Barrels. http://www.ne-design.net/. I’ve camo-painted the first one to make it recede into the bushes that surround it. We have a very shallow stream down the hill that I need to dam so that it keeps only about a foot-or-two deep pool for gathering some water. It flows into a large pond, of which we own half (The owner of neighboring property owns the other half.). But that’s over a hundred-yard trek downhill with empty buckets, and the same distance uphill with full ones. Now, while that is okay for a backup, in my thinking, because I’m going on 63 years, I prefer to have something closer. So my next “big” purchase will be a Simple Pump that allows one to drop a pump and pipe though one’s existing well casing down to below water level and extract water by means of a hand pump or DC motor attached to a battery which, in turn, will connect to a solar panel. This is much, much cheaper than a Solar Jack. At $1,200 for the hand pump capability (I’ll add on the DC and solar later), it’s a bargain, for me. See: http://www.survivalunlimited.com/deepwellpump.htm. I’ve also started collecting clear plastic soda bottles for use in Solar Disinfection (SODIS), see; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection. I’ve set up a rack for putting out the bottles in a sunny place. Again, that’s a backup, but I’ll use it. I have bought three different water filtering devices, the best of which is the Swiss-made, all-stainless Katadyn Pocket Microfilter. It works wonders in that shallow stream and pond down the hill.. [JWR Adds: The same Katadyn filter model is available from several SurvivalBlog advertisers. They deserve your patronage first, folks!] With the exception of the Simple Pump, these solutions are relatively cheap and effective, if not producers of great volume. So far, they are what I’ve come up with. I won’t go much into the food problem. It isn’t quite as complicated as the water problem. I’ve either got to have it [stored], grow it, or kill it. I’ve started storing all kinds of Mountain House freeze dried #10 cans (with expiration date dates in 2034), two-serving meals from Mountain House (expiration dates circa 2016), and numerous grocery store-type canned foods (expiration a couple years), in addition to dried beans, rice, Bisquick (sealed in plastic bags with desiccant inside), salt, sugar (Domino, which are sold in one-pound plastic tubs), olives, peanuts, wheat, etc. Basically hit-or-miss, so far. I need to get this “food problem” organized and do it right. But it’s a start. I think we’ve got only about a 60-day supply now, for two. I’ve got two Coleman two-burner stoves. One is a butane stove, and the other a dual fuel (white gas or unleaded gas), as well as several small backpacking stoves, the best of which is a MSR Whisperlite International Concerning backpacking stuff, I can recommend a book that I read back then called The Complete Walker, by Colin Fletcher. I haven’t read it in at least a decade, but its import is such that I remember much of it. He emphasizes simplicity in gear. That is to say, don’t pack a tent if you can get by with a tent fly – which you cannot in cold weather. I’ve still got my old three-season tent, but am saving up for a four-season. And he emphasizes: don’t worry about pounds – worry about ounces. That is to say, if one is packing tea bags, remove the labels from the bags. Ounces. Remove all packaging material unless it is absolutely necessary (usually never). Don’t carry a “mess kit,” nor a knife, fork and spoon set. A spoon will do (I’ve done it) along with a pocket knife. Now I have so many knives of so many types that I can’t remember them. Personally, I’d go for a multi-tool. But it’s heavy. I never used to carry a weapon while backpacking. Of course, it was (and is) illegal in Hawaii, but I think one would be remiss in not doing so today. There was so much good advice in that book that helped me in the USMC, if nothing more than when packing my helicopter before a mission, or a car, trailer, or truck to move across the country. “Think ounces, not pounds.” I always think about Mr. Fletcher’s advice when I pack. Anyway, I think I’ve got the camping stove angle covered in spades. That is, until the fuel runs out. Same goes for kerosene heater and lanterns (5). My plan is to pull out our pellet stove and replace it with a free-standing wood stove. Pellets are nice, but they must be bought, and the price is getting exorbitant, according to my pocket book. They likely will be non-existent in a crunch. I connected a 12,000 Watt/50amp gasoline generator when we moved into this house nine years ago, as I have with every house in which we’ve lived for the last two decades. I’ve got it wired through a transfer box to the circuit-breaker panel, a job that I did myself. It works, and it’s safe. The main reasons for having this were to run the 220V[olt AC] well water pump and to run the refrigerator and our free-standing freezer during power outages. But I’ve got it wired, anyway, to nearly every circuit in the house, except the other 220V appliances – water heater and heat pump. It is somewhat selectable. That is to say that I can choose which circuits I want to power by engaging or disengaging the switches on the transfer box. The problem is that it uses gasoline. So in a long-term outage it would soon become useless. I’ve had the propane gas company come out to estimate what it would cost to get a dedicated 100 gal propane tank for the generator. It would be about $500, but then, in addition to the 50+ gallons of gasoline, butane tanks, and white gas that I keep stored in a separate outbuilding, it would make a great explosion when hit with a tracer round. Which brings me to the subject of security. We live in a split-level home on about ten acres of forest. The property is surrounded by other similar-sized properties of seemingly like-minded individuals. I gleamed this because everyone out here shoots. The sweet sound of gunfire can be heard at times in a full circle. West Virginia, at least, has still got its priorities straight in this regard. But I digress. This is a frame house with half of it below ground in front, but framed in back, which faces the forest. The forest, itself, is a maze of downed pine trees blown over by the wind, interspersed with small saplings, vines and low brush. Not a likely avenue of approach for anyone but the most determined. For those who are determined, the downed trees would make excellent cover and concealment. So I have a security problem to solve there, as well as at the front. I’ve started buying rolls of barbed wire and baling wire. Unfortunately, I do not have access to dynamite, which we used to be able to buy in a hardware store in the 1960s. We used it back then to blow stumps while clearing the land for our house. I am thinking of buying a bunch of used railroad ties to build cover in the back; I’ve thought also of bricks and sandbags. Problem is we’re reaching the point in all of this where the house would begin to look like a fortress, of sorts, to all but the most ignorant observers. So there’s a line here concerning security versus “normalcy” that I must cross sooner or later. Inasmuch as my wife is a few years older than I and is on constant medications, I’m afraid that finding a retreat (if we could even afford one) would be out of the question, as access to doctors, hospital and pharmacy are a necessity. Nevertheless I’ve got the bags packed and gear ready to throw into the pickup (Toyota 4x4 – like to have one of those older model American trucks, but I think they are getting rare, at least around here. And what there are will likely go to the Cash for Clunkers Program….grumble, grumble. What will they think of next?). So it looks to me as if we are here for the duration of the crisis, or sooner, if they try to take the guns from my cold, dead hands. Speaking of, I still have to build a cache or two for guns and ammo and a few other necessities. And since I’ve more-or-less made that decision (here for the duration), I’ve thought of organizing the apparently gun-loving neighbors. I’ve begun to buy walkie-talkies, if not field phones and commo wire. I’ve got solar panels and several batteries (need to get a mega deep cell or two, however) to run the small battery chargers and the CB radio. My shortwave is up and running. I will have to wait to talk to the neighbors, whom I rarely see, much less know. I can just imagine the words that would come out of their mouths if I were to mention to them the notion of forming a security “company” and establishing a perimeter. “That old retired Marine down the road is nuts!” So that’s what I’ve got to say. I do hope it at least stimulates some thought for those who are starting out trying to prepare, as I am. All of this shows me that one “problem” in this “survival” business leads to several more, and they in turn lead to even more problems. Lots to do. So I’m glad I’m retired. I’ve got time to think about it. If I were rich, I could do a lot more and likely in a far away place, but as it is, we do with what we have. I have to use the lessons taught to every Marine: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. Long Live America. Keep the Faith. - “Two Dogs”, Col. USMCR (ret.) in West Virginia « Letter Re: The Virtues of Fasting Experience for Well-Rounded Preparedness |Main| Note from JWR: » Tuesday August 11 2009Letter Re: Surviving 90 Miles from the US -- A Cuban-American Exile's ViewA brief background of myself. I am an Telecommunications Engineer, I served three years in the Cuban army as an Engineer in several units (it was mandatory unless you were integrated with the system, in which case you will get a better civilian job). After I served my time they did not want to release me (basically no one wants to stay unless you are willing to do their bidding) so they offered 2 years to a very harsh unit that stays in the mountains for months end ready to be sent anywhere, or stay for 20 years in very comfortable position as an Engineer, I sucked up the two years (30 months The government controls everything, I mean everything, from health, to communications, from commerce to defense. When government controls everything there is absolutely nothing you can do. They determine what is legal and sometimes they let you get away with it, as long as you do not mess with the regime. They can take you to jail for anything because as I said everything is illegal. You cannot legally sell a house, only cars that were in the country before 1959 can be sold legally, [Owning a] DirecTV [satellite television receiver] is illegal. The list goes on and on. In order to survive you must depend on the government or go black market. There is something called the Comite de Defensa de la Revolucion (CDR), basically is an organization at community block level that monitors everything that happens and reports to the government, it is completely volunteer, but it tells you how low citizens will go. Electrical Power is obviously controlled by the government, and they impose restrictions so you will have times that power will come on for only a few hours a day, people have converters because generators are hard to get and even harder to get gas for them (it is expensive, a gallon goes for about 8 dollars a gallon last time I heard), to use the converter you hide in a room to watch some TV, have a fan for the heat and that's it. You must try to hide, as much as you can, the things that you have, because you might get robbed. Being robbed at home is nothing new, you try to be as modest Water is also government controlled, it does the same as with the electrical power, you can go days without water, so every house has water tanks to store water, even in buildings people will have water tanks in the bathroom. Drinking water always needs to be boiled. People will raise pigs in a bathtub in the bathroom or if you are lucky to have a small backyard and someone to watch over it because it will be stolen. Pig will give meat and the fat you need to cook. People that live in the countryside can raise animals and food, they can sell it under government supervision, they cannot become wealthy because government will intervene and accuse them of "exploiting" others. It is illegal to kill a cow or a horse, as the government has a strict control. [If you slaughter one without prior approval and are caught,] you will serve the same time as if you killed a human being. People will slaughter a cow and dispose of it in two hours and "disappear" the remains by burning it with car tires because it burns very hot. And then you have to be careful how to transport [the meat] because they will have checkpoints. They can stop you anywhere, anytime for any reason and ask to search your vehicle. You have to be extremely careful on who you trust, because they could be a government informer. (Did you see how our government is asking [their allies] to report when they see something "fishy" about [opposition to socialized] healthcare? That scares the h*** out of me.) Not everyone can move to the countryside because the government controls that, they control movement within the country, you just can't pick up your stuff and decide to move, so you have to make a living where you are. In the countryside you'll have more food but they will cut electrical power more often. I used to install alarms (on my own, I refused to work for the government) for farmers that had pigs, pigs are raised in jail-like cages to avoid thievery, so I would install an alarm with battery backup because they had so much power shortages. It goes without saying that [privately-owned] guns are illegal. I just wanted to give an idea about how people live under a [total] government-controlled country. They will slowly take away your liberties and you will find out one day that you have nothing. And your fellow citizens will go as low as they can to survive. Government would threaten their family and force you to do what they say. This is always under the [mantle of] "we are doing it for the benefit of the majority, and only because we are in a crisis", but there is always a crisis. They will say that you do not want to work for the improvement of the country, that you are against your people, they will make things up, and suddenly you will become a pariah. Does it sound familiar "... these mobs against health care are destroying the democratic process..." Next it will be "they are organized by the enemies of democracy" and suddenly "we need to eliminate this threats to our democracy". Never think it cannot happen [here in the United States]. Sincerely, - Ignacio « Economics and Investing: |Main| Underground Survival Shelter Construction and Security--Learn from My Mistakes, by B.B. » Saturday August 8 2009Letter Re: Hard Times at Here--Are You Ready? Mr. Rawles: « Two Letters Re: Advice on Storing Precious Metals--Are Safe Deposit Boxes Safe? |Main| Note from JWR: » Friday August 7 2009Preparedness on a Very Tight Budget, by Shane M.I see it several times a week: What gun should I get? How much ammo should I have? How big should my garden be? Should I get gold or silver? And on and on it goes, week after week. More and more people are becoming “aware,” and are seeking the advice of those of us who have “been there, done that.” There is so much great information out there to answer the plethora of those types of questions. Invariably, someone eventually asks, “how do I afford that?” There are other variations of this question as well, but it all boils down to the same thing in the end. Many of us, including myself, are not monetarily wealthy. Considering that most of the country is in debt, that means that many survivalists, especially those new to the subject, are in debt. With the sudden realizations smacking them about the head and chest, combined with the required urgency of the situation, people want to get the necessary preparations in short order, but are not sure how to do it with limited funds. It can be done. Just like your 401(k) investments, it happens a little bit at a time. I do not know a single survivalist that just bought into the life with just one check from the checkbook. This is not a life you just buy into in a day. So rest assured that those of us who are well prepared did so over time, with trail and error, money, sweat, and bruised egos. You have an advantage that we did not have – the internet. You can learn from us, from our mistakes and our wisdom through the internet and gain valuable insight, hopefully without many monetary mistakes. Absorbing this knowledge is your first key to being able to “afford” preparations. Beans, bullets, Band-Aids has been articulated many times and in many ways. Now, how do I afford it all? A budget and prioritizing are the answers. Did I just hear you moan? I am sorry, but you cannot do it without a budget and setting your priorities to pay down debt and acquire preparations. All other things go to the bottom of the list. I have never in my life made more than $40,000 in a year. Looking at my last 22 years of taxable income statements, it shows that my average yearly pay is just over $18,000 per year. This is not because I do not have the ability to earn much more, it is because I choose to live life and not be a slave to societal pressures to have a career. I have still managed to prepare with miniscule funds, debt, and a family by setting my priorities and keeping a strict budget. So, how do I get started?
Now that you are started with properly managing your money, it is time to make lists for preparations. Food should be the first thing on the list, followed closely by defense (guns, ammo, and training) and medical supplies and training. Clothes, shoes, coats, etc. should also be on the list along with communications gear. There are plenty of other things to put on your lists, and much of it has been discussed on this blog. Now that you have your lists of things to get, research real costs of these items and document your findings. What do I mean by real costs? In the business world, this is called total cost and is the actual cost of an item, shipping, storage, and upkeep of the item. You need to know all costs involved for every item on your lists. Fifty pounds of triple cleaned oats may cost you $12.50 from you local supplier, but to put it up long-term, you will need a bucket, mylar bag, and oxygen absorbers. You also need to know where you are going to store it, and any associated costs to keep it stored. Some items may require a climate-controlled environment for long-term sustainability and this cost may be separate from your home costs depending on your situation. You can severely cut into the total cost of preparations by researching, pooling resources with other preppers, and working as a team to put up those preparations. You can get bulk discounts by purchasing case lots, pallet lots, and purchasing seconds. This goes not just for food, but also for guns, ammo, clothes, seeds, construction materials, etc. Write down the price quotes you get, the name of the business, the phone number, and with whom you spoke. After the first few calls, it will get easier and become enjoyable. If you have friends, break up the lists and put others in charge of researching a subject. A big thing to remember when researching your future purchases: businesses must sell products to stay in business, but you are not required to buy – most things are negotiable. So, how did I do it? Using all of the above, I started by allotting $10 per weekly trip to the grocery store to get canned goods. These were put away for emergencies. Other money was saved until I had enough to purchase an item at the top of my list (i.e. a rifle), and then the process started over. Later, I learned that I needed to set a budget for my weekly grocery trip and make a list for that as well. Since I was keeping track of every dollar I spent, I noticed that my weekly shopping trip expenditures were erratic, fluctuating between $90 and $190 per week plus my $10 preps. So, I made a list for the week’s groceries and set a [weekly] budget of $125. The first few months of this were hard. I had to make concessions, purchase lesser cuts of meat, off-brands, or simply cut certain things altogether. After a year of doing it this way, we were spending less than $75 per week to feed a family of four. What do you think we do with the extra money we were spending at the grocery store? That’s right, it buys more preps every week. I sold my full sized four-door truck with payments, which freed up $430 per month, and paid cash for an early 1990s model beater S-10 Blazer. Is it as nice as my truck was? Not even close. Does it get me where I need to go? Absolutely. What do you think I did with the extra $430 per month? Right again, I bought more preps. Every time we pay off a debt, the money we were paying towards it gets put towards another debt, until it is paid off. Then all of that money goes to the next debt and so on, until suddenly, no more debt. Every extra dollar we got, paid for a prep or went to a debt. I also save the required money and purchase exactly what I want, not something to get me by. Always buy what you want. Never purchase something that you think you want or something inferior. I see others do this all the time. This is the best way to waste your money. I see others with slim budgets purchase a Mosin Nagant and a tin of ammo, simply because they wanted to have something, when they really wanted a M1A or an AR-15. If I want an expensive rifle, or high quality tent, I stay patient and save the required amount of money and get exactly what I want. I learned this lesson the hard way, so you shouldn’t have to. If you were as prepared as you thought you could be, and TEOTWAWKI came to pass, you would do everything in your power to properly manage your resources and hopefully ride out the storm. You would document all of you food, guns, ammo, and supplies. You would make plans on how best to utilize what you had, disseminate those plans to your family (and friends) and make certain that those plans were followed. Well, TEOTWAWKI has not come to pass, but all of the ingredients required to survive are the same ingredients needed to prepare to survive. Document what you have in monetary means, make plans to best utilize those means, disseminate those plans to your family, and make sure everyone sticks to the plan. Before you know it, you will be well stocked and supplied.
« Letter Re: Advice on Storing Precious Metals--Are Safe Deposit Boxes Safe? |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Thursday August 6 2009Hard Times at Here--Are You Ready?
The hard economic times that I--and many others--warned you about are now here. We are clearly now in the opening stages of a full-scale depression that will last a decade or longer. This news article (sent to me by SurvivalBlog reader Eric C.) .about an unemployed couple in Indiana is a microcosm of what we will be witnessing for the next decade. Take a few minutes to read it. Our pampered society is in for a rude wakening. Now, at the risk of sounding unkind and judgmental, the term "white trash" comes to mind. Note that this man in Indiana had no savings, plenty of debt, and obviously no food reserves. Also note that despite his "austere" budget on unemployment insurance, he wastes hundreds of dollars per month as he smokes cigarettes, drinks soda pop, drinks beer (in large quantity), gambles, and pays for commercial car washes. His wife still carries a Blackberry with an airtime contract. Why are they buying disposable diapers, when they could be washing cloth diapers? The article also mentions that the husband has gained 40 pounds in the year since he was laid off. Did he consider planting a vegetable garden? Or washing his own car? (Both would have saved money and provided exercise.) This couple needs a serious lesson in budget priorities. They say that they are worried about their children's school grades, yet they still have a television and XBox games. It is time for a garage sale, to sell those time-wasting gadgets. Then regularly-scheduled trips to the local library, to get their children literate! This gent is in his thirties, yet he has ruined his health with drinking, smoking, and over-eating. He and his wife seem to view military service as a last resort for their high school senior son. Well, I have a news flash for them: Both the son and the father should have enlisted! In 2006, the US military raised its maximum age of enlistment to 42. (BTW, as the economy continues to worsen, I expect the military to raise their standards considerably and eventually begin turning away large numbers of candidates, just as they did in the 1930s.) It is also noteworthy that this man is on anti-depressants. He is not alone. Consider this article that was sent to me by Karen H.: Antidepressant Use Doubles in US, Study finds. That is alarming just by itself, but just consider what will happen if and when the Schumer Hits the Fan, and all those patients run out of their medications. (And their booze, and their cigarettes, and their marijuana, and their MTV, and their Crackberry instant messages, and their chocolate, and their American Idol, and their Dunkin' Donuts, and their porn, and their meth, and their soap operas, and their "Energy" drinks.) This could get very ugly, very quickly, once so many millions of suddenly very cranky, very desperate people start roaming the streets. My suggestion is: Don't be near then, in any significant numbers. Move to hinterboonies. In summary: I had no idea that wallowing in self-pity was such exhausting, time-consuming work. At least they have a comfortable couch and recliner. This old quote mentioned by a SurvivalBlog reader sums up their situation: "The Lord does not bless the farmer who leans on his hoe." Here is my advice for SurvivalBlog readers on how to survive the currently unfolding Depression:
Forgive me for ranting, but that article about the unemployed family in Indiana got me a bit riled up. One suggestion, in closing: If you get laid-off, do not move to a relative's basement in Michigan. Instead, move to where you can find work, even if it hard, "rolled up sleeves" work. « Three Letters Re: Here Comes Winter! |Main| Note from JWR: » Tuesday August 4 2009A Prepper Husband and a Stubborn Wife, by JRM
Part 1 - Introduction History will repeat itself, for history has shown, that history will repeat itself. Unfortunately my wife is not interested in history. She is, however coming around, and now I pass my knowledge on to others whose "significant others" might not see the picture. Understanding the situation is the first step to doing something about it. We have been married for three years, and I was blissfully unaware of the possibilities that life as we know it might change. I was in high school when my parents prepared for Y2K, but saw decent planning and stockpiling take place. My wife's parents planned as well, but they planned a holiday ski trip to Lake Tahoe [for December 31, 1999.]. That being said, when I joined the Navy and landed in Virginia I did not begin to take steps in preparing. That was my first mistake: I met my wife, I wasn't preparing, and she had no indication that a couple years down the road that I would open my eyes and want to devote so much time and resources towards preparing as best I could. I can't pin down the exact moment when I realized that I had lost precious time and felt the urge to get ready. I think it was a steady stream of facts that I was able to put together, and the more I researched the more bleak the picture looked to me. I then began looking for a way to make my family's situation better. The first thing I realized was that it would cost money to prepare. So, I dusted off the planned budget, took out a red pen and started making cuts and shifting priorities around. After I felt satisfied, I sat my wife down and proposed the new budget. Needless to say, my "radical" new budget was shot down. Part 2 - The Wrong Way I was not entirely discouraged, but a little disappointed that my wife didn't just take my word that we needed to spend money and time on preparing. I suppose that an older (read: "wiser") man would have known to ease his wife into a new lifestyle. I then made my second big mistake. Feeling that I "knew better" and was doing it for "her own good" I began to run a "disinformation campaign" on my wife. (Note: I don't endorse this method, as in my own experience it will fail in the end!) With spring starting, I began a dialogue with my wife about camping. It seemed logical to me, we devote money and time preparing for a few camping trips, I cross some of my items off the "need for preparation" list and she is none the wiser. It worked. We both had bug out bags, I mean "hiking packs", some cooking gear, some camping knives, flashlights, a good tent, sleeping bags, first aid kits, and the like. I was even allowed to make most of the purchases for her (thus ensuring that we didn't end up with a bright red tent, a hot pink pack and such.) We went camping, it was great, learned a few things about her ability in the wilderness (and my own) and several more things were added to my "preparation list" that I had never though of. I felt great, stage one of my disinformation campaign was a success, and I felt ready to move on the next stage. The garden. My wife loves her flower garden. We started with a weed-infested back yard, and with a lot of hard work (on my part) and a vision (wife's department) we ended up with a nice yard, with a lot of flowers and ornamental trees. I don't intend on eating trees and flowers, so I just brought up the subject of a home vegetable garden. She liked the idea, but it was something that we really knew nothing about. We did some research on the internet, and she was immediately overwhelmed by the information and lost motivation. (I mean, c'mon we live within walking distance to the commissary.) I was greatly helped by a new girlfriend she had made. Her friend opened her eyes to organic foods and sold her on the benefits of buying organic. I just had to wait for the right time, because I knew that the organic food store was much more expensive than the commissary. I would use my wife's own argument against her, that organic foods cost too much, but I would compromise and "allow the expense" of growing our own organic garden, which would offset the cost of buying organic meats and milk. Stage two complete. I continued with my disinformation campaign for months, and was able to cross a decent amount of things off my "preparation list". But it was this very list that was my undoing. While cleaning she came across my list, and saw that very clearly, I had checked many things off. Then the light bulb clicked on and the gig was up. Understandably she was hurt. For months I had been less than honest about my intentions, and she viewed it as selfish and childish. Which it was. I won't go into detail about how terrible that night was when I got home, but it's safe to say that my plans for being ready were placed on hold. Part 3 - The Right Way As a uniformed service member I feel it necessary to keep my political beliefs private. Because of this, my wife became my outlet for venting frustration with policies I don't agree with. At first my wife was uninterested in the happenings in D.C., because she felt that it would have little impact on her way of life. This was a blessing in disguise that brought my wife to a point in her life where she wanted answers. My wife and I were invited to a friend's house for dinner and drinks. Little to my knowledge, my friend's wife is very passionate about politics. As drinks were made, discussion ensued, and before long politics was being discussed. My friend, a Marine, is a conservative through and through. He has no problems voicing his opinions on any number of topics and policies. His wife is as liberal a person as I have ever met. The debate was quite invigorating. My poor wife, knowing only the politics that I preach to her, decided to throw her two cents in, but could barely regurgitate the things I had said previously to her, let alone defend her "position" when pointed questions were asked. The next day I came home to my wife watching the news, and reading headlines on her laptop. She would never get into another political debate without knowing what she was talking about. I was impressed, and engaged her in many long conversations. I showed her articles and stories, and allowed her time to come to her own conclusions, the same way I came to my conclusions. But in the end it was Glenn Beck's show that prompted a question from her, "Is it possible that our economy could really collapse?" Now I know, at 25 that I am in no position to give history lessons, but I did my best and pointed mostly towards the 1930s as an example. I talked at length about the increased danger we live in now, as modern day America is not what it was in 1930. The danger is not in the market, but in the fragility of our now intertwined systems. We talked for quite a while, and in the end talked how to protect ourselves. And finally talking about how to prepare for the worst, should it come. Part 4 - The Plan Again, we pulled out the family budget, and re-prioritized. In the end we were able to devote $200 a month for preparations. That was three months ago. Simple. That was my number one priority, as it pertains to a plan. Mostly, because I knew that there is a decent chance that I could be across the world when/if an event happened. My first purchases were paper, a few three-ring binders, and some shelving. I started by making lists of everything. Then I developed a set of SOPs, checklists and a commo plan. These are very much still in a beginning stage, but they get better every week. These binders serve three purposes. One, they allow me to think things though, and shoot holes in my plans. Two, give my wife an easy set of instructions to follow should I be deployed. Three, give me piece of mind when I am away. Eventually, these binders will evolve into an all encompassing SOP. Set up similarly to a "choose your own adventure" book. Meaning that, you evaluate your current situation then flip to that section for a course of action. (For example, a Hurricane is rolling in, and it's going to require an evacuation. Turn to page 16 for instructions. Or it is a G.O.O.D. situation and you have an hour to get loaded up and out of town, turn to page 74.) In conjunction with this, the shelving units in the garage are organized with the binder. Meaning, that for a hurricane, all items on shelves one and two have priority in the truck. Most of the things we have done thus far are extremely cheap. Making plans for instance, are free. Aside from the cost of the 3 ring binder, paper and ink, planning for an escape was free. We live in a very densely populated area, and our tentative plan is to bug out early to a planned waypoint to reassess the situation. I do not want to risk waiting and "fighting" my way out of town, so we may have a few "unplanned camping trips" that turn out to be false alarms, but I'll chalk it up to practice. As funds are available, I hope to store a cache of goods at this location to enable us to travel further west without needing assistance or gas stations. This first waypoint is just inside the range my truck can go on a half a tank of gas, with three routes already planned if needed. I feel that at this stage we would be ahead of the hordes of people trying to evacuate the east coast. From this point we should be able to "camp", assess the situation via radio, and decide on the next course of action. If it's a false alarm, we pack our things in the morning and head home. If not we decide which preplanned route would be safest to get to our second waypoint. (note I have planned for a few waypoints for my second leg. Basically, if you drew a vertical line every 250-300 miles across the US there would be a few waypoints close to that line.) This will allow for flexibility in planning as we continue to assess the situation. If we must go north to get out west we will have a plan, if we can still use the interstate there will be a plan, of we need to go south there is a plan. All we have to do is chose at each leg. The hardest part of planning was having contingencies for natural barriers, such as the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi river. Of course we have a destination in mind, and that is linking up with some like minded family members, who will hopefully be waiting for us when we arrive at grandpa's house out in the middle of nowhere. 90% of our focus has been on bugging out, but we plan to start shifting some focus on maintaining the homestead. This would likely be limited to a high inflation scenario, where food storage would offset costs and impact us less, as well as securing the house for the rise in crime. However, it would be foolish in our situation to stay in our city for most foreseeable situations. The other cheap way we have begun to prepare is mentally. This was difficult for my wife. I started by giving her my copy of "Patriots" and then a copy of "The Road I will end with this. We are only three months into actively preparing ourselves. And in a short essay it is impossible to discuss all the things we have tried. But there are some fundamental things that have worked for us. - You have to be a team. I have gotten much further working as a team than trying to "sneak around" and prepare. - You have to prepare spiritually. I am not a fan of church, as every time I go I feel like I am being sold something. My wife and I go straight to the source for our spiritual guidance. Prayer and studying the Bible works for us. But you need to find what works for you. - You have to stay motivated. Keep yourself informed, and do something every single day that makes you a little more prepared. 365 little things to prepare will get me much further than saving up and buying a bunch of gear at the end of the year. - You have to look for support. Too many of my peers (20-30 years old) are happy being blissfully unaware. But many are opening there eyes every day, and just need a friend to help them. This is where my plan falls flat, for now. Establishing a network of people to count on is very high on my priorities, but with the ever evolving network of friends getting rotated to new duty stations every couple of years this has been hard. - You have to have a plan, and expect it to fail. I've been on many military missions, and Murphy has been there every single time. But it is easier to adjust a plan or fall back on a contingency than it is to shoot from the hip. « Letter Re: Shoot or Don't Shoot--Moral Implications of the Split-Second Decision to Take a Life |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Tuesday July 28 2009Gear Up -- Appropriate and Redundant Technologies for Prepared Families
I frequently stress the importance of well-balanced preparedness in my writings. All too often, I've seen people that go to extremes, to the point that these extremes actually detract from the ability to survive a disaster situation. These range from the "all the gear that I'll need to survive is in my backpack" mentality to the "a truckload of this or that" fixation. But genuine preparedness lies in comprehensive planning, strict budgeting, and moderation. Blowing your entire preparedness budget on just one category of gear is detrimental to your overall preparedness. Another common mistake that I see among my consulting clients is an over-emphasis on either very old technologies or on the "latest and greatest" technologies. In the real world, preparedness necessitates having a bit of both. At the Rawles Ranch we have both 19th century technology (like hand-powered tools) and a few of the latest technologies like passive IR intrusion detection (Dakota Alerts), photovoltaics, and electronic night vision. My approach is to pick and choose the most appropriate technologies that I can maintain by myself, but to always have backups in the form of less exotic or earlier, albeit less-efficient technologies. For example, my main shortwave receiver is a Sony ICF-SW7600GR. But in the event of EMP, I also a have a pair of very inexpensive Kaito shortwaves Here is my approach to preparedness gear, in a nutshell
If you are serious about preparedness, then I recommend that you take a similar approach. « Economics and Investing: |Main| Gear Up -- Appropriate and Redundant Technologies for Prepared Families » Letter Re: Shoot or Don't Shoot--Moral Implications of the Split-Second Decision to Take a Life
James, « Economics and Investing: |Main| Distance Traveling by Waterways, by Jason C. » Sunday July 26 2009Letter Re: Shoot or Don't Shoot--Moral Implications of the Split-Second Decision to Take a Life
Hello, I work as a Pharmacist in Philadelphia and was involved in an attempted armed robbery, six years ago. Two armed men came in the store early that morning attempting to obtain narcotics. I was able to see them early enough that they didn't get the drop on me. (Situational awareness!) The man in front had a .44 Magnum revolver with the hammer cocked. He announced "Get the f*** down, this is a stickup!" as he walked at me. I fatally shot him and wounded the second man (although he fled and was never found). The entire incident happened in about 5-7 seconds and before there was any time to get afraid or ponder the options. My arms were tingling for two hours after though, from adrenaline! It was an instant self-preservation reaction. This is why you must square up any moral concerns well beforehand as there will be no time during. Know what you will do! I had mentally rehearsed scenarios like it happening and would practice the draw stroke which I think made everything so smooth. My technique wasn't the best as I shot one-handed and kind of point shot where I knew he was. He was about seven feet away when he was hit. The first shot hit him in the right eye, and the second somewhere else in the face, according to police). He literally died in the fetal position still holding the cocked gun. The entire thing seems surreal, like a quiet dream when I remember it even though I emptied the magazine. I think that mental preparation like Jeff mentioned is so important (in any training) to things working in your favor. I had to sit in homicide department for about four hours total until our lawyer showed up and we gave a statement. I think it is important to have one there with you before you make any statements. You will be shook up, like Jeff said, and will benefit from having someone there with you. He advised me not to say anything to the media. Even though the police were praising me and saying it was obvious self defense I was concerned about the reaction from his family, et cetera. Supposedly they knew he was into "bad things". I had to call regularly to find out information on the incident as nobody ever got back to me. I later found out that I had been exonerated. You think they would have let me know! It took me two years to get my gun back! They kept saying that it had to go through forensics for some reason. I know Philly isn't the most efficient place in the world and has lots of other crimes to deal with but what the heck? I couldn't believe it! Jeff's advice is important to follow on dealing with the aftermath as you ponder how things could have gone differently and the consequences if they had. James, thanks for all you do! Be aware out there everyone! - S. in Philly « Letter Re: The Quasi-Reality Television Show "The Colony" |Main| Note from JWR: » Friday July 24 2009Shoot or Don't Shoot--Moral Implications of the Split-Second Decision to Take a Life, by Jeff R.It doesn’t have to be | ||||||||
. (The last third of my novel describes modern resistance warfare, in fairly good detail.) 
.) 
. We had seen some episodes in passing earlier in our marriage, but I finally rented the DVDs at one point to see what all the hubbub was about. Lesson learned: despite the Hollywood "angle", we learned a lot and more importantly found out that we were each quietly prepping without mentioning it to the other. He has his specialties and interests and I have mine, and both of us were silently tackling them. Ahhh, the fun of two very independent newlyweds finally figuring each other out. <Chuckle>. I admitted I'd been stocking the pantry for more than just a rainy day and he admitted his interest in gear wasn't just so we could try out camping sometime. We later found that his interest in things mechanical and my interest in topics "green" worked out quite nicely when he mentioned a preference for diesel engines and I brought up biodiesel - oh, the topics we've covered since. 
by James Howard Kunstler
[by
Pat Frank] about 10 years ago. Since then i've read just about every book on the subject I can get hold of. I ran across your novel 
--which was the American remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic film 
, and a combination 
are absolute "musts"!] Don't get in a hurry unless there is a threat to life. Be hyper cautious, be very aware of your surroundings and things that can go wrong. Don’t toil alone. Make sure you have a clear path to beat a hasty retreat if things go wrong. Wear those gloves, safety glasses, boots and maybe a hard hat.
) was to "keep your principles public and your actions private".
. Carry one [loosely sheathed in a length of clothes hanger cardboard tubing] in each jacket pocket. I know one guy who pre-stresses his "ready screwdrivers" to snap away like a prison "shank". A snapped off screwdriver shaft stops a fight [As a motorcyclist,] it's not considered a weapon in a foreign country, and you never have to worry about them being confiscated. 
for each livestock tank is a tremendous labor saver. In warm climates these can be used year-round, but in cold climates, you'll have to remove them for the coldest months to prevent cracking in sub-zero weather.] Next, I installed an overhang shelter to protect each of the feeding stations. It keeps the rain, and snow which sometimes comes in winter off of me, and also shields the open feed containers from the weather while I’m scooping into the buckets. It also has given me an area to hang the tools that I use for each set of animals and I can keep a reserve bale of hay there as well. This saves me numerous trips and energy going back and forth to the barn. I installed a T-post pole mounted liquid soap dispenser at each of our watering locations. They used to be attached on the outbuildings. I attached a short hose extension to one of the vacant manifold outlets with a shutoff switch. This is used only for hand washing.
/oat roller (it manually flakes grain) and the 
(electric grain mill to make flour from the whole wheat). Both have pretty good resale value compared to the initial cost [if purchased used] on eBay if you ended up needing to sell it quick to pay a bill. I use the grain flaker to crack wheat and turn oat groats into oats. I use the Wonder Mill to make whole wheat flour.
.
and 
.
or your 
or the U.S. Army survival manual. I have them and have read them. They do cover security problems, but then don’t cover other topics. Alas, there appear to be no “perfect” manuals, and the Boy Scout Field Book is no exception. But it’s not a bad beginning. And so I was beginning the journey even before I knew that I was. 
, which uses virtually all fuel (unleaded, white gas, kerosene, diesel, and maybe even corn oil). I was heavily into backpacking when we were stationed in Hawaii in the late 1970s, and still have all the gear. After having one knee replacement and hedging doing another, I’ll not be backpacking if I can help it. Nevertheless, I have two bug-out bags with essentials in them, ready to hit the trail if need be. I’ve saved up and bought two good 
". It allowed her to see a significant contrast in what could happen, as well as the difference between preparing or not preparing. 
and a trusty old 
, and biodiesel compatible vehicles)
and 
are your allies.