Day: November 28, 2009

Notes from JWR:

There are just two days left in the 33% off sale for the “Rawles Gets You Ready” family preparedness course. Order your course binder and audio CD soon! — Today we present another entry for Round 25 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready …


A Frugal Wife’s Contributions to Preparedness, by Desert Dawn

This is for the Ladies: take the lead on frugality to finance your family preparedness! Below are things I do and have done, some for years, some for only a few months. You’d be amazed at how much starts accumulating in your checking account when you do these things. I have paid off credit cares and bought a rifle with scope, some junk silver, 1,000 rounds of ammo and a more than three month food supply since I started being more serious about these things. My husband and I are professionals making good salaries – at least for now. We …


Two Letters Re: Generator Experiences During a Recent Nor’easter

Jim: The letter about Generators today inspired me to write this email. I have owned generators for around 20 years for emergency backup and portable power uses. I use my generator primarily for powering sound equipment in the field. As a result I looked for a quiet generator. The very quiet generators all run at 1,800 RPM, but it is expensive to make a generator that runs slow and quiet, and the affordable portable generators all seem to run at 3,600 RPM. When I purchased my current generator 10 years ago, Coleman had just started using the Briggs and Stratton …


Letter Re: Sources for Food Grade Buckets

Jim, I have found that Dairygold dairy (and probably also other) dairies in Boise, Idaho will sell once used HDPE #2 Food Grade buckets with lids inexpensively. (These were $2 or $3 the last time I bought a bunch of them.) These were used for bringing into the dairy the flavorings for ice cream, so you might have to wash out the strawberry syrup or whatever. These are HDPE #2 and Food Grade marked. They also have some food grade 55 gallon drums, metal and plastic that they will also sell. The same should be true of other large dairies …


Economics and Investing:

Chad S. sent this: Get ready for 65 percent tax rates. Also from Chad: “You could be running out of time to buy gold” The folks at The Daily Bell linked to this piece over at Seeking Alpha: High Gold Prices: It’s the Oil, Stupid Items from The Economatrix: Signs of Life in Stores as Holiday Shopping Begins Food Banks Nationwide Report More First-Time Users Russia to Invest in Canadian Dollars Recession “Is Even Worse Than Feared” Dubai Bankruptcy is a Taste of Things to Come. Global intervention has only bought us time Dubai is a Harbinger of Things to …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country … in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to …