Month: May 2006

Letter Re: Kerosene Lanterns

Sir: I have owned and used Dietz and other lanterns and lamps for many years. I enjoyed reading about others care and use of these lanterns. I thought I would let you know what I burn in them. I have found that I prefer to use the High Grade 1-K [water clear] Kerosene that is available in one gallon cans at places like Ace Hardware and Lowe’s. In all my lamps and lanterns it burns without noticeable odor. This is not to be confused with the K-1 Kerosene that you get at the gas station (I burn that in my …


Letter Re: Patriots, New Zealand, and L1A1s

Dear Mr Rawles, I recently bought and read your book, “Patriots, Surviving the Coming Collapse.” Can I say congratulations on penning such a great read, great story and heaps of useful info. I have read it twice and my wife has just finished it, she loved it too. We live in the lower part of the south island of New Zealand, in the countryside about 30 km from the nearest town, reading your book has inspired us to make ourselves more self sufficient, thank you. As an interesting point, I read an article written by you regarding the L1A1 Rifle, …



Note From JWR:

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Two Letters Re: Firearms Training and Subsequent Practice

Jim: A question for your readers: If our possession of firearms in the US is such a fundamental right that we should be closely guarding as a privilege that could be revoked at any time, why do so many of us take it for granted and how many of us are merely owning fine weapons as a ‘talisman,’ as I once heard Mas Ayoob put it, with no intention of ever using them, hoping that merely possessing weapons will ward off all evil? Why do we own them if we aren’t going to figure out how to use them effectively? …


Letter Re: Sources for Greenhouses and Coal Stoves

Jim: First, I have no interest in either of the following mentioned companies other than that I’m a satisfied user. I recently got a bigger greenhouse for my birthday and have used it for this years garden plants. A little over 200 plants so far. They have two models on sale right now. I do recommend completely caulking every panel with adhesive caulk. The large one took 30 tubes. I have ordered this stove to heat my greenhouse in cool weather and through the winter. I keep two tons of coal for the house coal stove anyway. This combo will …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Florida Governor Jeb Bush declared a state sales tax holiday for hurricane preparedness that starts this week. If Bush were a realist, .308 Ball would have been on the tax exempt list.    o o o News from England of a possible H5N1 cover-up.    o o o Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke: ‘Pretty Clear’ Housing Market Cooling, But Should Land Softly Why am I less confident than Helicopter Ben of a soft landing for the U.S. housing market?   o o o When on a drive into town yesterday, a fellow motorist was in such an all-fired hurry that she …



Note from JWR:

Get your entries in soon for Round 4 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up up to $2,000!) The deadline for entries for Round 4 is May 31, 2006. Please e-mail your entries before May 31st.


Two Letters Re: Advice on Firearms Caching

James: You mentioned using sonobuoy shipping containers for caching. I used to work as an engineer at a company that built sonobuoys. We would routinely reject fairly large numbers of these tubes for either mold defects or physical damage that would result in a leak. At one point, I and another guy in my group went to the plant (after getting the necessary paperwork) and carried off a large truck load of them. All had to be repaired, but they were usable. Just be sure to check them carefully and be prepared to do some patching if needed. As an …


Four Letters Re: Letter Re: Feeding Your Dog in Hard Times

James: If you enter “pet food recipe” into your search engine, you get more free recipes and e-books than you can use. It is a good idea to try them out on your furry friends before TSHTF.- Doc at www.bigsecrets.cc   Mr. and Mrs. Rawles, Greetings and hope things are well with you and yours. I felt you that you might might find these threads interesting. Survival Forum Thread 1 Survival Forum Thread 2 Lord bless you all. – C.K.   Hi Again Jim, Just my take on the dog food issue. I have a female Rat Terrier about 10 …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Brett Arends comments on the new Wile E. Coyote (“Falling Off a Cliff”) Markets    o o o The global economic crisis, from the French perspective    o o o The bad news on H5N1 from North Sumatra. Meanwhile, The Lancet released a sobering opinion piece. A tip of the hat to Geri Guidetti of The Ark Institute, who alerted me to these two articles.    o o o There is a great thread in progress over at the Gold Is Money Forums, inspired by an article by David Andrews at Safehaven.com.


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The Qualities of a good intelligence officer: * Be perceptive about people * Be able to work well with others under difficult conditions * Be able to distinguish between fact and fiction * Be able to distinguish between essentials and non-essentials * Possess inquisitiveness * Have a large amount of ingenuity * Pay appropriate attention to detail * Be able to express ideas clearly, briefly and very important interestingly * Learn when to keep you mouth shut * Understanding for other points of view, other ways of thinking and behaving, even if they are quite foreign to his own. * …


Letter Re: Content of Gold Bullion Coins and Numismatic Gold Coins

  Dear Jim, Regarding the metal content of gold bullion tokens: Gold Eagles are 22 karat, as are Krugerrands–the respondent in the old mail you quoted had that point wrong, too. (Where he claimed Eagles were less accepted than “pure gold” kruggerands (sic).) British Sovereigns are also 22 karat, with four coins equaling not quite one ounce of gold. Canadian Gold Maple Leafs, PAMP and Credit Suisse bars, and hallmarked bars and coins with .999 or .9999 are as close to pure as one can find. However, since it’s the gold content that is being traded, and that content is …


Letter Re: Feeding Your Dog in Hard Times

Jim, I was feeding my dogs last night when it hit me; what am I going to do for them if I were in a situation where I could no longer acquire more dog food? I know they love scraps from our food, but I try to keep that at a minimum for various, obvious reasons to us dog owners. As for a substitute to commercially obtained kibble, what sort of foods are best used to feed man’s best friend? I thought about this a bit, and figured jerked meats mixed with dried grains to cover the basics. As for …