Letter Re: Bathing in a World Without Electricity

Good Morning; My wife and I were once again looking at our list of to-do’s in our quest to prepare. I was looking at the list and noticed she wanted to find a wash tub that we could bathe in. Fortunately we live about one hundred feet from a year round creek and water will not be a issue. I started looking around  the house and my eyes fell on the woodstove and the 2.5 gallon water tank on the side. Now that water gets very warm obviously and I thought ok well that solves the hot water problem. Well, …


Two Letters Re: Pomona Universal Pectin

Sir: I asked my cousin to respond to the Pomona Universal Pectin article. She is the  production manager and head nutritionist at a commercial jam manufacture. Here is what she had to say: “Pomona Universal Pectin is a low methoxyl pectin.  This means that it will gel without the presence of sugar if a salt (monocalcium phosphate) is added at the critical time.  If the salt is added at the wrong time, the resulting products have an “applesauce” type consistency.  The biggest problem with this type of pectin is that it is inconsistent across different fruit and different degrees of ripeness …


Letter Re: Some Woodstove Experience

Mr. Rawles: I would recommend that your readers get a copy of the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  Many of the breads in the book use a high-quality, half-inch thick baking stone, much like the types used for pizza.  Also shown is a pizza peel. The book has many recipes using many types of grains to make  peasant loaves, rolls, baguettes, flatbreads and pizzas.    Another suggestion from an outdoor cookbook is to use a large Dutch oven and put small stones or nails in the bottom, then set your baking …


Economics and Investing:

Reader Scott M. sent us this: “No Way Out” of Debt Trap, Gross Says: U.S. Living Standards Doomed to Fall Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages. (Thanks to Pierre M. for the link.) Will China’s ‘Have-Nots’ Be Next to Rebel? Items from The Economatrix: US Wants To Take Your Dollars And Replace With Coins Financial Dismantling Of The American Middle Class   Physical Silver is Really $50 Per Ounce   People Of Earth:  Prepare For Economic Disaster   Bank Stocks Push Indexes Higher; Oil Prices Dip   Beyond Libya, Oil Market Warily Eyes Saudi Arabia


Odds ‘n Sods:

Another Self Reliance Expo is planned for April 8-9, 2011 National Western Events Complex, in Denver, Colorado. There will be a number of panel discussions and many exhibitors putting on product demonstrations. Topics will include aquaponics,canning and food dehydrating, ham radio, solar ovens, and much more. Admission is $9 at the door or you can get a 20% discount on tickets by registering online (click on the “Admission” tab.) Another Expo will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 7-8.    o o o Paul Farrell: The 2008 crash isn’t over, only covered up    o o o File …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“1. Human societies are problem-solving organizations. 2. Sociopolitical systems require energy for their maintenance. 3. Increased complexity carries with it increased costs per capita. 4. Investment in sociopolitical complexity as a problem-solving response reaches a point of declining marginal returns.” – Joseph Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies


Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 33 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: 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 $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP …


Some Woodstove Experience, by C.V.Z.

Being without electricity in the middle winter is cold. We didn’t have any heat during an ice storm. With that winter in mind, we finally purchased a wood stove for heat and cooking opportunities. As the wife and mother, I had this horrible image of an old black pot bellied stove belching smoke and catching the roof on fire. I could hear the neighbors complaining about the smell and my kids going to school smelling like they had just burned down the house. Images of black walls and ceilings and truck loads of firewood haunted me with every winter wind. …


Letter Re: Lakeside Foods Outlet Store

Mr. Rawles;   My family lives in southeast Minnesota.  We are fortunate to have a Lakeside Foods processing plant and distribution center nerby in Plainview , Minnesota.  Lakeside Foods is a private label food processor.  Its Plainview operation is quite diversified. Their operation at Plainview has an interesting program for people looking to stock-up and save money on vegetables.  It has an outlet store that sells damaged cans of vegetables inexpensively.  These cans range in size from family size to one gallon.   For example, a case of 24 cans of corn, in family sized cans, sells for $6 and …


Letter Re: Pomona Universal Pectin

Mr. Rawles, I recently discovered Pomonas Universal Pectin, for home canning. It stores indefinitely. It’s also very versatile: it makes regular, low-, or no-sugar jams, jellies, fruit spreads, gelatins, freezer jams, etc. (The other pectins I researched have about a 1-year shelf-life. It will work with sugar, artificial sugar, honey, stevia, or fruit juice as a sweetener. It will also gel things that don’t have any natural pectin, to make things like hot pepper jelly. Their web site is PomonaPectin.com. It’s also available on Amazon. I’m not affiliated with them in any way. – Texas Sunflower


Odds ‘n Sods:

John R. sent this from Peter Schiff: A Little Understanding Goes a Long Way Billionaire Carl Icahn returns $1.76 Billion to investors. The article begins: “On the eve of the bull market’s second anniversary, billionaire investor Carl Icahn had an unsettling message for his investors: Take your money back. Icahn told investors in his hedge funds that he didn’t want to be responsible to them for “another possible market crisis…” (Out thanks to “Air Force Dad” for sending the link.) Kevin S. suggested this from over at Sovereign Man: The market is telling us that the dollar is finished Items …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Please pray for the people of the fledgling nation of South Sudan. Following a well-monitored landslide vote, the south (primarily populated by Christians and pagan animists) is seceding from the predominantly Muslim northern half of the country. Independence Day is scheduled for July 9, 2011. May God grant them peace and liberty. I am hopeful that an international group will be formed to help direct aid to the new nation, and to help arm its citizenry so that they can defend themselves from Muslim aggression. (The recent genocide in the adjoining Darfur region is still fresh in our minds.)    …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 33 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: 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 $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP …


You’re Ready for the Outlaws, But What About the In-Laws?, by Ellie Mae

I’ve been a daily visitor to SurvivalBlog for nearly three years now.  I really can’t believe it has been that long since that desperate day when anxiety from losing my job took over and compelled me to search for survival information on the Internet.   You see, I was a 20 year mortgage originator.  Not only had I lost my job when my company folded, it was clear to me that I and millions of others had lost any ability to make a living in that crumbling industry.  The music stopped while I was chasing the dollars and it was game …