"You Need An F-16, Not An AR-15" - Biden Once Again Suggests

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

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“You Need An F-16, Not An AR-15” – Biden Once Again Suggests US Government Could Murder Gun-Owners. JWR’s Comments: So… Coupling that statement with the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision, I must ask Mr. Biden: To keep us on an equal footing with the active military, when are you going to release some F-16s as surplus through the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP)? Yes, and also surplus some M240B and M2 Browning .50 machineguns, and some 105mm Howitzers. Oh, and also some Stryker APCs complete with TOW missiles or 30 mm Mk44 Bushmaster II full-auto cannons. Those would all prove to be quite useful to us, as Unorganized Militia members. Thanks for clarifying what we require and deserve for militia use, Joe!

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Fightin’ Words: Governor Gregg Abbott’s January 24, 2024 Declaration. The governor’s declaration ends with this resoundingly firm statement:

“The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.”

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Reader K.S.E. wrote:

“We ordered some silver in late December from Walmart. It was a good price and swiftly delivered four days later (and one of those days was a Sunday and a second day was Jan 1st). Our order was via Walmart but with Apmex. There are other sellers available @ Walmart, choose yours wisely.

Please let your readers know that as of this writing, Walmart automatically charges taxes for PM purchases, even in states that do not have PM taxes. The only way to have it removed it to contact their tax-exempt department via e-mail after you receive your order (you can customer service, but it will suck 30 minutes out of your day and they’ll still tell you to e-mail them). taxexempt@customercare.walmart.com

Give them your order number, the amount of taxes you paid, and the reason for your tax reversal request. They will issue you an immediate credit back to your card, we received ours the day I requested it. There are no shenanigans to be concerned about once you understand the process.”

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The latest Sharp Pointy Things educational video from SurvivalBlog’s Editor-At-Large, Mike Williamson: Gotland Style Viking Era Reproduction Knives.

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Mike in Alaska wrote:

“I just couldn’t resist adding to the apt comment by SaraSue: ‘Having an all electric house, in my opinion, anywhere, is risky.’

Having an all-electric house is about as dumb as a box of rocks … yes, we have electricity at my home. But we can function just well without it too. In fact, when I first bought this house it was my determined aim to make it livable without electricity.

To that end, my first major upgrade was a brand new Blaze King woodstove with professional installation, followed by a 37-ton hydraulic wood splitter and a truckload of logs that held 80 birch logs each 25 to 30 feet long, and large diameter. That equated to approximately six cords of cut, split, and stacked firewood. The first year I had some already aged spruce firewood and burned through it quite fast as it is a fast, hot wood to burn. Birch, when well-aged and dried will burn quite hot, and much longer than spruce.

Since then, for the last 13 years, we’ve burned only well-dried birch and the occasional spruce during the day. If we load up the woodstove at night, and turn down the setting it will burn well into the next morning.

We heat our house with wood, we can cook on the woodstove, boil water, and even dry any wet clothing, towels, and such. We have several very good oil lamps, and many backup flashlights.

Yes, we have electric grid power, but we also have very heavy ice, lots of frozen and fresh snow, and very long, dark, deeply cold winters. Power will go out every winter, sometimes for weeks at a time. It will also go out during the summer due to wind, fires, etc. as well so our “backup plan” is in fact an immediate reserve plan that gets used regularly.”

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Reader Tim J. mentioned this from NC Scout: Data Bursts With The Baofeng. Tim’s Comment: “Great video, SMS text messages between radios, grid-down.”

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St. Funogas had this suggestion:

“In response to Lumin’s snow-covered solar panel problem, I solved mine by taking 20 feet of 1” PVC (anything smaller is too flimsy) and making a “T” by attaching a 30″ long piece of 1 x 4 wood to the end, then wrapping it with a towel. I remove snow by moving it up and down over the panels. You don’t have to get it all — just get what you can and when the sun heats the solar panels, which it did here even when it was below zero last week, the rest of the snow will slide off in a few hours.”

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Trudeau’s Orwellian Attack On Canadian Truckers Declared Unconstitutional.

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Reader C.B. spotted this news: California Bill Would Require New Cars Come Equipped with Speed-Limiting Device.

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Toby wrote:

“I enjoyed reading Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan by St. Funogas. I thought St. Funogas might want to consider renaming his Day One Manual (DOM), either:

- Day One Operations Manual or Day One Organizational Manual (DOOM) or
- Day One Manual: Activity Instructions Necessary (DOMAIN)”

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And on the same topic, L.E. wrote:

“One suggestion, you might make a short list of the things you absolutely could not live without, or ask potential members of your redoubt to do the same, for me, it turned out to be: hot water at a touch, and dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs, butter, sour cream, cottage cheese, etc.) This was quite revealing to me as previously I had thought I would miss electronic media and toilet paper the most, but living the “test” of no power for a week was a real eye-opener and allowed me to re-jigger my situation so these things would assume a more important role.”

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C.B. recommended this Build video: Underground Propane Tank Install.

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SaraSue sent this snippet:

“Just as the snowmaggedon weather dissipated and rainmaggedon started, one of my feeder pigs farrowed. I counted 8 healthy piglets. The boar, as I suspected, got to her and bred her before his departure in early December. She is doing very well for a first time mom. She will miss her butcher date in two weeks and go in April on a date I reserved. The other pigs will go as scheduled. I so wanted to be done with pigs, but that was not to be. I know the ropes now, so it will be fine. The break I was hoping for between milking cows, tending to calves, pigs, and piglets, chickens, dogs, and cats has gone out the window. LOL. I’m not sure what’s worse, carrying buckets of hot water to frozen water troughs, or slogging through tons of mud with long hoses to service the water troughs. One of my dairy girls is due to calve in two weeks so I’m preparing for that.

I did a little experiment this past year (2023). I made and froze as much butter as I could when the cows were in milk. I just finished the last of the frozen butter. I also made shelf stable Ghee (butter oil). When I ran out of the butter, I used Ghee on toast, for frying eggs, and for any cooking that required oil. My goal was to not purchase any dairy or oil at the stores for a year. Homemade yogurt lasts for months in the refrigerator, as do various soft cheeses in the freezer. I made it the whole year, even though I had a planned milking break from mid-Dec through mid-Feb. This year (2024), I have staggered calving, so there will potentially be no milking break until late 2025, if at all, lots of milk, and lots of dairy products to make. I remember getting a little stir crazy towards the end of last year. Farm sitters are hard to come by when you have cows in milk. We shall see if I can arrange something this year, but I’m okay if I can’t. This is a farmer’s lifestyle.”

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Some useful advice, over at our friend Commander Zero’s blog: Lightsticks over the doorway II.

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Reader T.Z. had this tip on maps:

“The Wyoming rest stop and welcome center in Sheridan on I-90 at exit 23 has official state paper maps for dozens of nearby states.

If you are passing through you can complete your map collection.

Washington (state) only has online PDFs, so you need a printer. Most of the Welcome centers in other states have state maps available and by just finding the state tourism site you can request a map for free.”

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Lily suggested this video with some conjecture on a potential pole shift: The Earth Will Turn Over.

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“G.” sent this: Tactical Lessons from Ukraine.

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Reader “Sis” wrote:

“Concerning Lumin’s query, we mounted our solar panels on a frame that we could reach and remove snow from. We’re here in Northwest Montana and lived completely off the grid for 13 years. Our current place has regular grid electric power and solar for backup. I highly recommend mounting photovoltaic panels lower down. Study to figure the best angle, to get the most power. “

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The latest from John and Nisha Whitehead: Watchlisted: You’re Probably Already on a Government Extremism List.

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Lumin sent us this snippet on his life in North Idaho:

“I don’t like going into town. Even though my nearest little town is lightly populated and charming, I only go when I need to, which is about once a month. I much prefer the solitude and beauty of my remote property and off-grid log home.

However, I still love my little town and call it charming for specific reasons, like local businesses providing me only two bathrooms, one for men and one for women, and I know exactly which one I’m supposed to use. Also, last December was my first Christmas season in my little town, and local businesses displayed nativity sets in their windows, and played Christmas music, and greeted me with Merry Christmas. I loved this! I rarely or never found these features in the San Francisco Bay Area where I moved from. There is a strong Christian presence and influence in my little town, which is one of the main reasons why I moved here. So that’s another pro-tip for Californians who are thinking about moving to Idaho like I recently did. I wanted my little town because of these features, not despite them.

Last week I made my monthly trek into town to check my post office box, mail a few letters, buy some supplies, and refuel my diesel truck and my non-ethanol gas tank mounted in the back of my truck. One of the letters that I mailed was to SurvivalBlog to pay for my SurvivalBlog archive USB stick. Although I had pre-ordered my SurvivalBlog archive several weeks ago when pre-orders first became available, I couldn’t send payment until my next trip into town because I only pay cash for everything, which in this case was in the form of an anonymous cashiers check. I would’ve preferred to send physical cash if that was an option on the order form.

However, I did send physical cash, a $50 bill, to SurvivalBlog to help establish the SurvivalBlog – Old School (S.O.S.) Newsletter Contingency Plan, and asked to be an initial subscriber. What a wonderful idea and service that I know I will need soon.

Someone once told me that if I don’t exercise my rights then I will lose them, and paying cash for everything is one way that I exercise my right to privacy.

Going into town is an all-day event for me because it’s at least a three-hour round-trip down and back along the 15 mile forest service road from my property. It can take me much longer when the road is slick and slippery when covered with wet ice, like it is now, because the temperature has recently been well above freezing. I much prefer driving when the temperature is well below freezing and there’s a few inches of snow on the ground that stick to my tires. One of the first things the locals taught me about winter driving on forest service roads is to prefer driving when snow sticks to my tires.

This particular trip into town was unnerving and a little scary because my truck would start but not move forward. I started my truck to let it warm up, and the engine sounded fine. However, when I put the transmission into drive it wouldn’t move forward. Did my transmission stop working? I wanted to panic because I am not a mechanic and there is no one to come and save me, but I stayed calm and tried to think through the problem. I put the truck in reverse, and it moved backward, which told me at least part of my transmission was working. I tried 2WD, 4WD-Hi and 4WD-Lo, and none worked initially. I was finally able to get the truck to move forward at a very low rate of speed.

No matter how much gas I applied to the accelerator, the truck would only move forward at 5 mph, so it took me many hours to get down the mountain to the nearest small highway and then into town. I immediately went to my local mechanic who discovered that one of my truck’s engine components had malfunctioned and was sending false signals that put my truck into “limp mode” to protect itself from possible damage. My mechanic ordered a replacement for the malfunctioning part and reset my trucks computer to clear the false error codes. After that, it drove fine. I go into town again next week once the part arrives to have it replaced. I pray that my truck allows me to get into town one more time for this repair, and I ask for your prayers too.

I enjoyed Avalanche Lily’s video recommendation from last week on top reasons for home-churching. I don’t know how to find one near me, so I’m puzzling though, about how to start my own.

Fresh baked bread just came out of the oven, so that’s all for this week.”

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New FDA Rule Allows for Medical Research Without Informed Consent.

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And lastly, reader Robert W. had these comments in response to the five-part article Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan, by St. Funogas:

“Though not all of this is applicable to everyone, he has excellent points learned the hard way…….by doing. I don’t entirely agree with everything he’s presenting here but even the things you don’t agree with do force you to think about it, which is good!

One large departure of my plans from his, is the likelihood that the trigger for TEOTWAWKI will include an EMP by a hostile actor or an act of God CME (solar flare) at the outset. Few vehicles will survive save for old ones with points and condenser. Almost all electronics, if not properly stored in Faraday cages will be toast. If it has transistors/diodes it will likely be dead if not protected.

Solar systems are particularly vulnerable unless hardened against it (it can be done) but it’s still prudent to have a deep bench of backup components such as charge controllers, inverters, transformers, batteries, cordless tools, battery chargers, LED bulbs of all kinds. Remember “One is none, two is one”. Store your multiple sets of backups in different places/Faraday cages in case one or more is lost to theft, fire or multiple EMP/CME events (likely).

His thesis of having a plan is a brilliant, hard won idea driven by experience. Many of us long ago integrated “preps” into our lifestyles but have never gone, or had to go Cold Turkey as he has done.

His insights are extremely valuable to help form your own action matrix depending on different potential scenarios. It is also a useful tool to bring family members into the decision making process so that there is already buy in on priorities so they have some ownership and any disagreements can be resolved beforehand and without the stress added by an actual crisis.

He is a long time contributor to SB who has earned my respect by actually DOING a 10 day test. His other Articles are also valuable and worth re-visiting. I don’t have the courage to do what he did as my significant other is not entirely on board and would not tolerate the “inconvenience” of practicing. I have got a little buy in from her in that she’s willing to develop recipes based on our stored goods (mostly dried/freeze dried).

Something that can’t be emphasized enough is that (God forbid) we really do have TEOTWAWKI, the hardest thing to impart is:

What you now have is IT!

There won’t ever be any more.

There will never be any more tape made in our lifetimes. Or toilet paper, tissue, paper towels,

Or aluminum foil, or Saran wrap, or Ziploc baggies, or thread, or buttons, or nuts/bolts, or oil, gas, diesel, propane, wire, solderless connectors, solder, flux, welding rod, batteries, light bulbs, shoes, rope, grease, aspirin, drugs, Band-Aids, Vaseline, smokeless powder, primers, brass, bullets, center or rim fire guns, tires, Tupperware, wood pellets, toilet paper, paper towels, fabrics………………..

Nothing! Zero! Zip! Nada! All the disposable conveniences we take for granted, when consumed, will become treasured barter items as people struggle to deal with the new reality that the world has, indeed, become a different and unforgiving place.

To give you an idea how serious I believe this tragic weakness is, I have modest inventories of disposables that I lock in a steel container on the property that has one set of keys. My wife would whistle right through them if given the chance while I’m trying to conserve a few things to ease the transition back into the bronze age for her and to have some barter items for other hen pecked husbands. (Sorry dear, it’s the truth.)

Think again if you don’t think you will be able to get a flat of primers for a roll of aluminum foil or some Ziploc bags someday. Everything is going to be unhinged and we have to be able to anticipate the worst of it.

My parting thought is something I have been saying for 60+ years….

“Someday, .22 ammo will be the coin of the realm”.

A few worn .22 shells will be in your pocket that used to have coins, and you will use them as you use dollar bills now.”