Note from JWR:

An unusually dry summer has created a hay shortage in much of the western US that is bordering on “severe.” In our area, just plain grass hay is fetching $250 per ton in the field. I’ve noticed that the local classified ad paper is chock full of ads for inexpensive horses. We are blessed to have some good pastures here at the Rawles Ranch, but we still need to supplement for winter feed–for when we have snow on the ground. With hay prices like these, our beloved saddle horse Money Pit is starting to live up to his name.


Two Letters Re: Lantern Battery Disassembly

Jim: On Saturday 22 September 2007, you posted a web link from T.A. in Indiana for a video on how to take apart a lantern battery and get 32 AA batteries out of it. I tried that with a heavy duty Ray-O-Vac and it had four cells approximately the diameter of C cell batteries but longer. Before people stock up on 6-volt lantern batteries thinking they will break down for AA batteries, they need to disassemble the brand they intend to buy to see how it is put together. The battery in the video appeared to be a bargain brand …


Letter Re: Information Security Considerations When Selling a House with “Special Features”

James, Thank you for the SurvivalReality.com web site. I check the listings regularly, hoping for my own retreat purchase in the future. The Bunker Home Retreat caught my eye since I’ve been to Pueblo Colorado many times. The bunker sounds very well designed and built. But the aerial views show exactly where the home is located, including street names. I don’t see how anyone can consider the bunker as secret, or “stealth” any more. Also, the seller includes a picture of the hidden entrance plainly open in broad daylight right in the middle of his front yard. I can only …


Letter Re: Advice on Short Term Shelter from Inflation

Mr. Rawles: After reading your recent comments regarding the possibility of extreme inflation in the US, I began asking myself how well prepared I am to handle such a situation. The answer was not pretty. You see I am only 24 years old and my wife and I are saving for a house, so most of our funds are tied up in some sort of bank. I fear that if inflation hits, all that cash in the bank will be worthless, and all my saving will be for naught. Do you have any suggestions on how a person like me …


Odds ‘n Sods:

 Hawaiian K. forwarded us this piece from Mineweb: $3,400 Gold – pipe dream or possibility?   o o o Treasury Secretary Paulson tells U.S. Congress current debt ceiling will be hit on Oct. 1    o o o From MSN Money: What the big banks aren’t telling you — yet    o o o An editorial from The Financial Times: The Bank loses a game of chicken. From the same publication, we also read: Ease of FOREX swaps vanishes in rush for cash



Note from JWR:

A brief reminder that the special “six pack sale” for autographed copies of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” is still underway. The sale price of a box of six books is now just $90, postage paid. (Normally they are $22 per copy, but during this sale you get six autographed copies for $90, mailed in a Priority Mail Flat Rate box, sent to anywhere in the Unites States, including APO/FPO addresses.) This sale ends on October 31st. This is your chance to buy some extra copies for Christmas presents.


Letter Re: Building Design Questions for a Retreat

Mr. Rawles: Several years back I purchased 40 acres next to a National Forest. In three months I will have the property paid off free and clear so I am using the cooler months ahead to clear a homestead site, put in a well/septic system and try to move ahead faster than the world is declining. (It is surreal at times to live a nice life now but constantly prepare for what a lot of folks are seeing coming down the tracks – a huge train wreck!) I am always feeling I’m behind the curve, but I’ve decided that if …


Letter Re: Estimate on the Likelihood of an Economic Depression or Full-Scale Collapse?

Jim, What a lot of folks don’t think about is that during the last depression, almost 80% of the population was still connected to a family farm. They also knew how to can meats and vegetables and had all of the equipment to do so. It was a way of life for them. Today less than 1% is connected to a family/small farm. That is daunting. Even if some of the population knows how to can and has a small garden, How many of them have 500-600 jars, lids and rings? Got lots of Salt, a working smokehouse that doesn’t …


Two Letters Re: New Scanner Technology — An Emerging Threat to COMSEC

James: Regarding the “signal stalker” technology: This type of thing has been available for years in the form of frequency counters. Perhaps the best known in the ham/scanner community is the Opto Electronics Scout series. These units let you scan for radio transmissions and will store the last detected frequencies in memory for later recall. This is a handy feature if you are visiting a race track, for instance and want to find out the frequencies in use while you tour the pit area. They also sell a cable that will interface to various scanners, allowing you to immediately tune …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From The International Herald Tribune, via our friends at SHTF Daily: Dollar hits bottom, and then falls again    o o o Dave Duffy, the editor of Backwoods Home magazine (one of our favorites) offers some very useful Recommendations for Handling/Storage of Specific Fruits and Vegetables:in his latest e-newsletter. If you don’t already have a subscription to the magazine, then I highly recommend it.    o o o “The Fox” sent us a link to a CNN video clip with more about Zimbabwe’s black market and hyperinflation    o o o Frequent contributor RBS recommended this eye-opening primer from Financial …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve — nor would it be appropriate — to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions." – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking at the Jackson Hole Federal Reserve conference, August 31, 2007. (Just 25 days before doing exactly that–by lowering interest rates by 50 Basis Points, to the advantage of banking lenders and equities investors, and at the expense of the value of the US Dollar in foreign exchange, and to the detriment of all holders of US dollars.)


Note from JWR:

My special thanks to the anonymous SurvivalBlog reader that recently made his 10 Cent Challenge subscription donation in the form of pre-1964 silver dimes. (He sent us a small box containing 365 silver dimes.) Considering that US 90% silver coinage is now worth nearly 10.3 times its face value, that was very kind of him. Many thanks!


Letter Re: New Scanner Technology — An Emerging Threat to Retreat COMSEC

Jim: I was not aware of this until last weekend. I visited a friend of mine who lives up in the hills. I brought with me a [older] handheld 2 Meter radio that I got for free when I bought a Kenwood 50 watt [2 Meter Band] mobile radio. Anyway, this handehld has crystals in it. It works excellent and can be used ether simplex or to bring up major repeaters. I did not know that or what frequencies it had. Now for the story. My friend showed me a new type of handheld scanner from Radio Shack. It has …