Month: November 2009

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 …


Notes from JWR:

Notes from JWR: There are just three days left in the 33% off sale for the “Rawles Gets You Ready” family preparedness course, Order yours 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 Made Resources. …


“Cross-wire” Your Home Heating and Save Money, by Ted B.

This article explains one way that you can configure a hybrid heating system for your house in a Schumeresque environment, but it is also potentially a way to cut your heating bills before TSHTF, depending on the prices of various heating fuels in your area. We live in North Idaho, in a house that would be better suited in Hawaii.  It’s watertight but mostly a heat sieve.  Each of the last few years as the propane prices jumped each winter, we ended up getting hit with astronomical bills to keep the inside of our rather large home livable in outdoor …


Letter Re: The Fabric of Our Lives

Mr. Rawles, I took a textiles class while in college. This is a subject I recommend to anyone, as it is very interesting, and more useful than you would think (our textbook was Textiles by Sara J. Kadolph if anyone is interested). One of the things I learned is that fabric should not be stored in plastic or next to cardboard or wood. The chemicals or natural acids will be absorbed by the fabric and deteriorate it. The best way to store fabric is to wrap it in cotton (I use an old pillowcase), and of course keep it in …


Two Letters Re: Sources for Food Grade Buckets

Greetings JR- Regarding the discussion on the mother lode of seed buckets: Be aware that seeds meant to be placed in the ground are almost always treated by industrial seed firms with a pesticide that is designed to protect the seed and give it a greater chance of making it out of the ground from such enemies as rodents, weeds and fungus’ etc. For the same reason you don’t want to eat seed grains if they are treated as seed materials, you might want to make sure that you are able to adequately wash or remove the pesticides that might …



Economics and Investing:

Bobbi-Sue mentioned an extensive Niall Ferguson interview. Bobbi-Sue’s comment: “Ferguson is still bearish based on historical norms and a few of his other popular ideas such as the China/America dance.” From Damon S.: Dubai Debt Woes Turn Ugly After It Seeks Standstill Deal Items from The Economatrix: FDIC Rescue Fund Slides into the Red Washington Post Closing All US Bureaus Outside of DC Britain Has Run Out of Money Cold Turkey Thanksgiving 2009 The Day The Dollar Died (Part 4–Arrogance of the Gods)


Odds ‘n Sods:

M.K. sent a link to a piece on potassium iodide (KI) that ran on NPR. By the way, KI and KI03 are sold by several SurvivalBlog advertisers.    o o o Joe Ordinary sent a link to footage of a large meteor that went over South Africa late Saturday evening. Listening to eyewitness accounts it was seen from as far away as Maputo (in Mozambique) Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The meteor was traveling northwest and was presumed to have landed beyond the Botswana border. This video footage was taken approx 350 kilometers from the border.    o o o The …




Two Letters Re: Sources for Food Grade Buckets

Mr. Rawles, I’m glad that I bought the “Rawles Gets You Ready” family preparedness course! It has a ton of great information. I followed one piece of advice in the course, and I struck pay dirt: I went to three local bakeries (one was actually part of a supermarket). All three had food grade buckets available. At two of these bakeries, I got charged just $1 each for five gallon buckets with lids. Most of them had already been cleaned. They also threw in a few extra [bucket]s with no lids, for free. And at the other bakery, the buckets …