Month: September 2008

Letter Re: Build it Yourself Farm and Homestead Equipment

Mr Rawles While looking for plans and ideas for a new outbuilding for my home. I found this little gem solid information buried deep in the Countyplans.com web site. It has probably has around 150 plans to build everything from a Turret Lathe and Mill to Cement Mixers and Tractor Scoop Loaders. This stuff is in PDF format, download able and free. The plans are reprints from old do it yourself magazines and are past copyright so there isn’t any legal issues with the downloads Now a lot of these equipment plans would not pass the government’s current nurf world …


Odds ‘n Sods:

With a web search, I came across a couple of Tsunami e-mail alert pages. One for coastal Alaska, coastal Canada, and coastal United States, and one for the entire Pacific Ocean. Speaking of alert e-mails, Weather.com provides free regional e-mail/cell phone severe weather alerts. And, as I’ve mentioned in SurvivalBlog before, anyone interested in radio propagation can get free solar flare alerts. (The latter is also useful for those of use that enjoy watching auroral displays.) But presently, of course, we are at a sunspot minimum.    o o o David F.sent us a link to an article that confirms …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

While bankers do control the issuance of credit, they cannot control themselves. Bankers are the fatal flaw in their deviously opaque system that has substituted credit for money and debt for savings. The bankers have spread their credit-based system across the world by catering to basic human needs and ambition and greed; and while human needs can be satisfied, ambition and greed cannot-and the bankers’ least of all. – Darryl Schoon


Notes from JWR:

It has now been seven years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I give thanks to our servicemen who have helped stop additional attacks here in the States. Please support our troops, not with just lip service and a yellow ribbon magnet on the back of your car, but tangibly, and with consistent regularity. And if you are an employer, then please consider hiring a returning veteran. Is Hurricane Ike headed toward Galveston, Texas? Batten down the hatches, folks. I’m sure that by now, the well-read SurvivalBlog readers on the Gulf Coast have a Plan B and a Plan C, and …


Two Letters Re: The EMP Threat May Be Worse Than We Had Thought

Hi Jim: I understand about an EMP attack and it’s possibilities to wreak havoc. But I can’t help but wonder when I hear about a possible future EMP attack if we are trying to convince the terrorists through disinformation to detonate their nuclear weapons at a safe altitude instead of over the capitol during the state of the union speech. I am thinking that for an EMP attack to be effective they would need at least 4 or 5 high yield nuclear weapons of at least 1 megaton each . These would have to be evenly spread over the US …


Three Letters Re: Welding Oxygen Versus Medical Oxygen

Jim, I write to you again as I pull another EMS duty shift. So far tonight I have had one EMS call and it was a “difficulty breathing” call. Our local law enforcement officers (LEOs) already had the patient on 15LPM. of 02 via non-rebreather mask (NRBM) before we got on scene. The LEOs tend to over inflate, so I titrated the flow down to 8LPM., which worked for the patient’s breathing pattern. I’m glad our LEOs are proactive, but this means that I don’t get a baseline Room Air (RA) 02 saturation for comparison and it does waste some …


Odds ‘n Sods:

C.S.D. mentioned an interesting product with several survival application: Gloshade. Note that these reflectors will also work with infrared chemical light sticks.    o o o More economic news and commentary, courtesy of SurvivalBlog’s Economic Editor: Fannie & Freddie: Buying Friends in D.C., Fannie & Freddie Bailout Destined to Fail as US Debt Doubles, Mortgage Giant Overstated Its Capital Base, Fannie and Freddie: Just the Beginning of the Derivatives Deleveraging Bailout, Lehman Bros. Worth a Big FAT Zero?, Fannie Mae Faces Investor Lawsuit, Berkshire, in Blow to Banks, Reins in its Deposit Insurer, Wall Street Trading Gets Zero Value from …



Notes from JWR:

Hey! I just noticed that we’ve surpassed 4.5 million unique visits. Thanks for spreading the word about SurvivalBlog! The high bid in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction is now at $550. The auction for a mixed lot that includes: Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried foods in #10 cans, (donated by Ready Made Resources–a $320 value), a NukAlert radiation detector, (donated by KI4U–a $160 value), a Wilson Tactical COP tool, (donated by Choate Machine and Tool Company, a $140 value), a DVD of 480 E-books on Alternative Energy (donated by WK Books–a $25 value). The auction ends on Monday September …


Letter Re: Should I Get a Bigger Property and a Bigger Mortgage?

JWR, I currently live in a crowded subdivision in a moderately nice house that is worth $240,000. We owe approximately $120,000 on it, and have $120,000 in equity. Based on much of what I read here, we were looking for a house with some land, and recently found one for $370,000 (it’s only 2.5 acres, but that’s much more than we have now). If we buy it we will owe $370,000 -120,000 = $250,000). I currently make around $120,000 per year, in a job in the medical field that should not be too hard hit by financial crises. So what …


Letter Re: Substantially Higher Food Prices at Warehouse Stores

Hi Jim, Yesterday I made my monthly or thereabouts pilgrimage to Costco to buy bulk items for our pantry and other needs. I immediately noticed that prices had gone up on just about everything. The 40 pound bags of Kirkland brand dog food (re-labeled Iams brand) had gone up from $19.90 to $23.64 which is about a 16% increase in price. The 25 pound bags of Indian long grain rice went for $20.00 to $24.00 – a 20% increase and other items here and there had gone up a dollar or two or three. While Costco continues to be a …


Letter Re: Observations on Empty Store Shelves in Louisiana

Mr. Rawles, I am an over the road truck driver and happen to be in Louisiana today. I have been to several stores in the southern part of the state and took note of what was in short supply. The shelves in the camping section were empty, they were out of water, generators, gas cans, coolers and frozen dinners. The frozen dinner thing I didn’t get, I figured they’d be short on canned or boxed food. Just stuff I noticed and thought I’d share. God Bless and I’ve been praying for your wife.- Vincent from Portland JWR Replies: Part of …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader I.T.N. wrote me to ask: “I noticed that [the base metal value of] a nickel is [down to] now 4.9 cents. (due to a sharp decline in nickel as of late) Do you think this is temporary, or should I begin to spend the milk jugs full of nickels I acquired.” I expect that spot price of nickel will rebound in coming months, as the US Dollar resumes its decline. With more rapid inflation looking likely, I expect that a US five cent piece will have a base metal value of 10 cents (twice its face value) within two …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“…we have the phenomenon called inflation which is the appearance of rising prices. I emphasis the word ‘appearance’ because in reality prices are not rising at all. What we’re seeing is that the value of the dollar is going down, that’s the real side of the equation. If we had real money based on gold or silver or anything tangible that couldn’t just be created out of thin air, it could be based on microphones, that they couldn’t just create with the stroke of a pen, you would see then that prices would remain stable over a long period of …


Notes from JWR:

The high bid in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction is now at $550. The auction for a mixed lot that includes: Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried foods in #10 cans, (donated by Ready Made Resources–a $320 value), a NukAlert radiation detector, (donated by KI4U–a $160 value), a Wilson Tactical COP tool, (donated by Choate Machine and Tool Company, a $140 value), a DVD of 480 E-books on Alternative Energy (donated by WK Books–a $25 value). The auction ends on September 15, 2008. Please e-mail us your bid. Today’s posts include an article cross-posted with permission from the new Everyday …