Today I had our 325-gallon propane tank refilled at $2.39 per gallon.

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

Bluesman wrote to mention:

“Today I had our 325-gallon propane tank refilled at $2.39 per gallon. We have owned the tank for 4 years and I inquired about buying a larger used one. The driver mentioned that steel propane tanks were very difficult to buy at this time. He said by ordering now we may have it delivered next March or maybe April or ? Buying one now you would not be sure of delivery date. He also mentioned that if a person gets 1 month in arrears on any payment associated with the tank it is repossessed. He said they need steel tanks and that this situation is common throughout North America. The lowest prices on propane in our S.E. Washington area [tends to be in] the last two weeks in July thru the first two weeks of August.”

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Tim. J. liked this instructional video: KFC Style Keto Coleslaw – only 2g net carbs per serving.

“Hands down, my favorite coleslaw is the stuff from KFC. Unfortunately, KFC isn’t particularly keto, so I haven’t had their coleslaw in a couple of years. In this video, I attempt to recreate the taste and texture from memory.”

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Reader James D. recommended this video: Peter McCullough, MD testifies to Texas Senate HHS Committee.

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Andre sent us these three links:

Volcano erupts on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands.

BBC: Mega-tsunami: Questions and Answers

INTENSIFYING SEISMIC CRISIS AT LA PALMA VOLCANO: MEGA-TSUNAMI POTENTIAL

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D.S. spotted this headline: Japan ‘preparing for war’ in first major military drills for 30 YEARS as tensions rage with China over disputed islands.

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SaraSue wrote:

“I am exhausted. LOL. I don’t even know what I’ve sent in as an update! I had purchased 10 chicks and 10 guineas, put them in the small barn, then realized it had no ventilation (in very hot and humid August!), and there was an escape hatch in one of the corners. I lost 5 of them to the turkey vultures, which are plentiful here, and gathered the survivors up in a thunderstorm. Good news, the turkey vultures pick up all the mice, rats, and small critters, so I haven’t had any small pest problems. I realized the barn needed modification (ventilation), so the babes went into an extra-large dog crate while I worked out the logistics. I’m wrapping (with hardware cloth) a large fenced garden area attached to the small barn for a chicken run, and covering the top of the run with a heavy knotted netting to keep the turkey vultures out. Almost done! I picked up Nigerian dwarf goat wethers to graze the fields and make for some adorable watching. As much as I love making goat cheese, I’m not ready yet for dairy goats. I’m investing in tools, but have hired someone to mow the 5 acres until such time as I can do it myself, and until I see what the goats can do. I learned that you can usually pick up a professional-sized mower in the fall, since professional mowers are upgrading equipment, for a third to half the cost of a new one. The little ride on mowers won’t last when there’s this much to mow. I found a “farm hand” to help with the extra heavy chores. I hit the wall physically on a regular basis, so I’m learning to work smarter, not harder.”

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News from New Hampshire: ‘Enough is enough’: Lawmaker pushes state to secede from Biden’s America.

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St. Funogas sent us this note:

“Concerning C.A.’s experience with certain generic lids crumpling or kinking during the canning process, I’ve experienced the same. They’ve always held the seal but would not be reusable of course. The only lids I’ve had that happen with were on generic Chinese jars, which I no longer buy. If the lids are gold-colored on both sides and no writing on top, then they are probably Chinese generics. Ball/Kerr lids are silver with white underneath, Anchor Hocking and Golden Harvest are gold with white underneath. There are many other lid options out there which I have no experience with so check reviews if buying online.

I use new lids for my honey sales and just bought some online $18.95 for 128 lids. Due to the unavailability of lids the past two years, at the auctions I attend they can hardly give away boxes and boxes of mason jars — so they’ll work well with those too. The 100+ jars I’ve canned so far this year were all with used lids and I only had two failures. When I took the ring off to troubleshoot the problem, I discovered I had put two lids on each of the jars and the one underneath had sealed, so 100% success rate again this year with used lids.”

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Reader C.B. sent this interesting item: New study identifies likely cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

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C.H. had this comment, regarding this linked article: Treasury Department Seeks to Track Financial Transactions of Personal Bank Accounts Over $600.

“The article appears to omit that the reporting requirements extend beyond what most people think about: personal checking. These reporting requirements include person to person transactions over platforms such as Venmo, Paypal, CashApp, etc.

We should also remind ourselves that the reporting requirement is set at $600–for now. Future reporting requirements could cover anything from a mortgage payment to a toothbrush or stick of gum. And consider that the IRS is cleaning out accounts and freezing assets of small businesses that deal mostly in cash with accusations of “structuring” their deposits. Why wouldn’t they do the same thing if you withdraw cash from your account regularly under the $600 threshold? Most ATMs I’ve seen have an upper withdrawal limit of $300-$400. This could lead to new charges being leveled against ordinary citizens of “structuring” withdrawals. I pull out cash every pay period, at the very least that could be a flag for an audit. How do you answer the question in an audit: “Mr. H, why did you withdraw $400 on June 27 last year? August 12?” I mean, I know how I might answer, but cannot imagine anything good coming from such a conversation.

One further point if I may. For the time being, I am still on a major social media platform, limiting myself mostly to pictures of bbq. I do observe a great deal. There appears to be a great deal of outrage from people who claim to be (I don’t really know) conservatives and libertarians over leftist proposals in DC. How many of them on social media, how many SurvivalBlog readers wrote to their US Senators to express their opinion on these proposals? I did. Not just for this, but for all those ridiculous gun control bills. Outrage without action is useless.”

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An anonymous reader spotted this: Internet funding rule could favor rural areas over cities.

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Mike had this response to the recent “Flatten The Curve” ballistics article:

“I once shot a jackrabbit when I lived out in the far eastern area of Montana, up on the MonDak border. I was hunting with my buddy Gary D, and was shooting my 6.5×55 Swedish Mauser with handloaded 125-grain Spitzer boat tail bullets.

Anyway, that jack had run out in a huge arc and hunkered down under an old abandoned tractor wreck sitting out in the field … later we measured the distance at 320 yards … the bullet impacted the varmint, my buddy saw it move but I didn’t see it, since I was using old iron sights. I had bought that gun in a pawnshop for $50. It was mostly original stock, and seemed to be a nice straight shooter. We walked up closer to the rabbit and it didn’t move a twitch so we walked closer and it still didn’t move. I walked right up to it and was absolutely amazed to see it was quite dead. The bullet had entered its mouth, went right down the spine and out the rear end …. crazy lucky shot.

The last time I shot that rifle was in western Montana on an elk hunt. I was three days on and we had had no luck, it was cold and a lot of fresh snow had fallen overnight. (Did I mention it was frog-killing cold?) I decided to take the long trip out on my horse hoping to at least see an elk, and sure enough, about two miles from the exit point a nice bull ran up out of the forest hillside from the right to the left and up hill. He paused at mid-hill and looked back my way, and I debated should I get off the horse (who wasn’t gun broke) or should I take a shot? Well, I pulled my feet out of the stirrups knowing that I might get my desire to become an astronaut, and took the shot using the old Swedish Mauser, again a 125 gr Spitzer boat tail … well sir, I went straight up, then I reversed course and went straight down the side of that steep fire trail hillside, the horse went …I don’t know where … and the elk was gone uphill and over the hill.

Once I determined I wasn’t broken, I crawled up the side of that hill and found my rifle, dug out snow from body area I had forgotten I had and started to walk out the trail and I hadn’t gone more than 100 yards around the base of the notch and looked up hill to see my elk laying up there; the bullet had entered just under his spine (I had aimed for the heart) and he had run that far before falling dead. I gutted him and stuffed him with snow; then heard a voice call out: “I’ll bet you shot that d@! elk off this here horse didn’t you?” … another hunter coming up the trail just about got thrown off his when my horse ran passed him at full tilt.

The real end of this story was that when I got myself and my elk down to the bottom of that hill I was surprised to see that three other members of our hunting party had also gotten their Elk too …so I had to wait until they made it back to Polson and come back for me and a buddy … did I mention that it sure was cold?? The tent was warm but it was still darn cold. Fresh liver with onion that night over the campfire was good … I miss those days Jim. Truly I do.

The Flatten The Curve article is “dead on” (pun intended) and is a great one. I really enjoy reading all of them.”

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‘Defund police’ Squad members are biggest spenders on private security. (Thanks to Peter for the link.)

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Another from C.B.: Further evidence that vitamin D might protect against severe COVID-19 disease and death.

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And to round out today’s column: Apple security flaw: How do ‘zero-click’ attacks work?