Day: March 11, 2008

Letter Re: Property Tax Rates as Criterion in Choosing Retreat Locales

Hi James, I finally took the 10 Cent Challenge and pledge to keep it up in the coming years. Thanks for a site with a reliable source of news and resources for family survival. Thanks for referring me to a good storage food vendor. I bought 60 of the #10 cans of dehydrated food and made sure to tell them a couple of times that I heard of them on SurvivalBlog. They were prompt and delivered everything as advertised. Nice people, as I would expect from your recommendation. I am looking to get more freeze dry foods later this year …


Letter Re: Observations on Chest Freezer Efficiency

Hi Jim, I was reading Monday’s letter regarding “Sizing a Retreat AC Power Generator”, and a thought came to mind when the author mentioned super-insulating a freezer for extended cooling durations. There are basically 2 types of freezer; the upright and the box, (what we call around here, the “coffin” freezer). Given the same basic amount of insulation included with each type, to the point where both manage the loss of cooling at the same rate, the “coffin” appears to be more efficient during access. Cold air sinks. When the door of an upright freezer is opened, the cold air …


Letter Re: Consider Volunteering at a Homeless Shelter

Sir; I once had an opportunity to volunteer at a homeless shelter in Denver, Colorado. What started as a chance to be of service, turned out to be a lesson in survival. I was surprised to learn that many of the “guests” at the shelter had become experts at existing comfortably, on a permanent basis, without benefit of a home. Here are some of the things I learned: 1) The first lesson is – The quality of your bags determines the quality of your life. If your possessions are contained in fragile garbage bags, you are limited in how much …


Odds ‘n Sods:

More from economist Marc Faber’s recent speech: ‘Doom and Gloom’ has just begun. And at the risk of exceeding your maximum daily dose of Gloom and Doom, consider this article sent in by RBS: US Fed releases [another] $200 billion as credit crisis hits new depths. And for the icing on the cake, The New York Times ran this: Seeing an End to the Good Times (Such as They Were). A key data point mentioned in the article: “The median household [in the US] earned $48,201 in 2006, down from $49,244 in 1999, according to the Census Bureau.” OBTW, that …