An Army Veteran’s Thoughts on Camouflage, by H.R.

In case of TEOTWAWKI, being successful in the art of camouflaging will be a serious matter. It will be necessary for many aspects of life to include; movement, reconnaissance, and ambush. Camouflaging is a multi-tiered animal, including camouflaging your skin, your clothing, your gear, and your weapon. I spent six years in the army as an Infantryman. As a result I personally have spent 26 months of my life in Iraq, and I have been on well over 500 combat patrols: to include raids and ambushes of all kinds. Camouflaging of your outfit or uniform begins with the construction of …


Letter Re: The Sling Shot Channel

Sir: I think you might enjoy Jörg Sprave’s slingshot channel on Youtube.com. His videos on his home made slingshot weapons, I mean he is something else!!  he has a slingshot rifle with scope, a pump action repeating slingshot sort a rifle or pistol device, one that shoots machetes (yikes!!!) and a cannon slingshot, etc, etc, etc.  I like the pump action job.  He even has a tutorial video on how he makes it.  He shoots .50 caliber lead balls and I think it is comparable  to  a firearm for knock down power and penetration.  he tests it on ballistics jell …


Letter Re: Long term Survival Electronics Storage, Tin Whiskering and RoHS Compliance

James, Your readers that store modern electronics long term should be aware of this. There is a problem with all modern electronics that are RoHS compliant. RoHS stands for Reduction of Hazardous Substances. One of its requirements mandates the use of lead free solder in all consumer electronics. This started in Europe and subsequently adopted here in order for the US to sell products outside this country. There is a physical process know as tin whiskering, where by tin will grow microscopic metallic whiskers. See NASA’s web site for extensive research and information. Please do your research on this and …


Economics and Investing:

SurvivalBlog’s G.G. sent this: Census: Housing bust worst since Great Depression Der Speigel asks: What Options Are Left for the Common Currency? EU delays summit to have more time to finalize plans for Greece, banks, bailout fund John R. mentioned this by Marty Weiss: Seven Major Advance Warnings Nine Ways Supermarkets Suck You In R.C. sent this: Colorado empties popular lake to pay its water bill Items from The Economatrix: Stocks Jump on European Pledge to Help Banks Oil Rises to Two-Week High Occupy America: Protests Against Wall Street and Inequality Hit 70 Cities


Odds ‘n Sods:

If you don’t already have a copy, then I highly recommend that you get the book The Prepared Family Guide to Uncommon Diseases. (The author is “Enola Gay” of the excellent Paratus Familia blog.) Some of the diseases described may become a lot more common, in the a major grid-down disaster, because sanitation will likely be pitiful–especially in the cities and suburbs. So get a copy for your bookshelf. Oh, and I’ve got to mention: Ironically, just a few months after publishing the book, the author’s own family contracted an uncommon disease: Whooping Cough. After this happened, Enola Gay quipped: …



Pat’s Product Review: “Commence Fire” Emergency Stove

Way back in 1979, when my wife and I were first married, I was working two full-time jobs to make ends meet. My wife, who had just graduated from college with a degree in elementary education, couldn’t find work. One job I worked consisted of working three 12-hour shifts on Friday , Saturday and Sunday. I was working for a security company, and my job was to patrol an industrial park. That job wasn’t too bad, as most of the patrolling took place in my vehicle – just driving around the industrial park, and checking for trespassers, and ensuring doors …


Letter Re: Is Your Flash Memory Data Really Erased?

Hello James: Take a look at Deb Shindler’s blog post linking to a PDF download about reliably erasing data from SSD drives.   Here is just one sentence from the second paragraph of the PDF that really struck me.  “Third, none of the existing hard drive-oriented techniques for individual file sanitization are effective on SSDs.”  Thanks for all you do. – Joe K.


Letter Re: Obsolescence in American Coinage

Dear Mr. Rawles, I read your article about US coinage and the opportunity to save nickels.  I must admit that your post about nickels is the first thing I linked to and that it introduced me to the many other valuable and useful topics on your blog. I have two concerns about modern coinage.  The first is obvious and refers to the decreasing value of the coins themselves.  The penny is now essentially worthless and should be abolished.  We spend time making change.  We spend money creating, transporting counting and wrapping them.  Our tax dollar could be better used.  The …


A Remembrance Gathering for Jan LeBaron

As many of you know, Jan LeBaron, proprietress of Healthy Harvest, died suddenly on September 18th.  Jan touched each of our lives in a unique way through her friendship and her work at Healthy Harvest.  In order to honor her and have an opportunity for closure due to her untimely death, a small group of us decided to organize a simple event for those who would like to gather and reminisce about Jan.  This may also be a great networking opportunity as Jan was always encouraging people to connect and network with new people.   Whether you were an acquaintance or …


Letter Re: Re: Making Your Range Time Real Time — Train as You Fight

James: H.R. here, to follow-up to one of the responses to my article: In no way do I divert from the baseline of “Shoot, Move and Communicate”.  They are the very core for any affective operation.  If you take any or all of the three capabilities out of the mix than you have severely disrupted any operation! There is a core concept to everything that should be thought about in anything that life throws at you…Crawl, Walk, Run.  When shooting you must make sure that you can complete a “Phase” before you move to the next one!  Let me break …


Economics and Investing:

Gold Investing: Detailing Gold’s Wild Q3   Silver Futures Auction Market Perspective For those of us that like to track precious metals price ratios, Jerry T. recommended these charts. Steve R. sent this: Holiday Retail Sales Set To Slide Amid High Unemployment and Low Consumer Confidence G.G. flagged this: A job is becoming a dim memory for many unemployed Used Car Dealer Becomes a Horse Trader John R. sent us these items: World facing worst financial crisis in history, Bank of England Governor says – The Telegraph Economic Apocalypse Goes Mainstream: Meltdown In Two To Three Weeks; It Will Spread Everywhere; …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Dan T. sent this news story from Colorado: Welder goes into the Armageddon business.    o o os I just finished reading the near-future action adventure novel Castigo Cay, by Matt Bracken. It was a great read and I highly recommended it. Bracken is really hitting his stride as a novelist. As with his previous novels, you will also find that there are some useful tips woven into the storyline. Although there were some adult situations described in the novel, the author refrained from obscenity or and vulgarity beyond a few coarse words. (But given the violent situations, it is …