Letter Re: Livestock at Your Retreat

Mr. Rawles: Just a few tips on the livestock side of things, in response to Samantha’s piece on Livestock at Your Retreat: – Your Mile May Vary (YMMV) on pasture needs. On the coastal plain, two acres per head of cattle will do quite nicely in most area. But in more “brittle” areas, such as the high plains, the East slopes of the Rockies, West Texas, etc, you will find yourself needing considerably more land than two acres per cow. (Check with your Agriculture college or county extension agent.) Hereabouts, one acre of good land will provide both grazing and …


Letter Re: Lead From Car Batteries–Can it Be Recycled Into Cast Bullets?

Dear Mr. Editor: Can lead from car batteries be recycled for bullet making? I’m just wondering, since there will be lots of dead batteries to be found in a post-SHTF world! Just a thought. Sincerely, – K&S JWR Replies: Yes, lead from car batteries could be used, but only with stringent safety precautions! “Cracking” old sulfated car batteries will expose you to highly corrosive acid and acid fumes. I’ve also read that battery lead has high toxicity from contaminants like strontium. A much safer and more convenient source of bullet casting lead is clipped-on wheel balancing weights. In a worst-case …


Odds ‘n Sods:

RCP’s sharp eye caught this news story: Great Lakes fish virus may threaten U.S. aquaculture. Gee, these plagues are starting to take on Biblical proportions. First it was the honeybees…    o o o KT flagged this one: Congressman Kucinich Seeks To Ban Handguns In The United States. Meanwhile, Rep. McCarthy (D-NY) is pushing other “gun control” legislation. My advice: stock up, particularly on full capacity magazines. I fear that a new Federal ban on 11+ round magazines is likely to be enacted before the end of the current session of congress, as part of some typical Washington DC “reasonable …




Poll Results: An Exercise in Humility–a Poll on Embarrassing Mistakes

Mr. Rawles: When I think of our early mistakes, so many things come to mind! 1. Buying ten #10 cans of T.V.P. for Y2K. Ick! We could not give the stuff away. We learned never to buy large quantities of anything we don’t normally eat until we try it first 2. Buying cheap BOB backpacks. We thought that since we would most likely never need them, we could buy the cheap backpacks from Walmart. A few years later, when we decided to take a test run, we found that the packs were incredibly uncomfortable and the bottom fell out of …


Letter Re: Ethnic Food Stores as a Source for Bulk Storage Foods

Dear Mr. Rawles, While rag-picking at my local thrift store, I spotted an Asian food wholesale supply store in that neighborhood. What caught my eye was the 50# bags of rice stocked 6′ high and three deep, right in the storefront window. By my count, he had six tons of rice varieties on site. That is far more than the half-pallet that Sam’s Club seems to stock. Note to preppers: If you happen to recognize a slow spiral to TEOTWAWKI, and you still have the need to accumulate calories for the homestead or charity, map out the ethnic food wholesalers …


Letter Re: Privacy from Google’s Prying Eyes

Hi It may be an interest to readers who use the Firefox browser, there is an extension call “Track Me Not“. [Here is a description I found on the web:] “TrackMeNot is a lightweight browser extension that helps protect web searchers from surveillance and data-profiling by search engines. It does so not by means of concealment or encryption (i.e. covering one’s tracks), but instead, paradoxically, by the opposite strategy: noise and obfuscation. With TrackMeNot, actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are essentially hidden in plain view. User-installed TrackMeNot works with the Firefox Browser and popular search …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Makezine‘s MakerFaire is scheduled for May 19-20, 2007 at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds, in northern California. SurvivalBlog readers in the S.F. Bay Area should plan to attend. Your will learn some great hands-on MacGyver skills there.    o o o 11 Retired U.S. Admirals and Generals Urge Changes on Greenhouse Gas Emissions   o o o Commercially available (“off the shelf”) hydrogen fuel cells! Of course pricing is another matter, but in the long term, fuel cells are a promising technology for powering retreats and self-contained NBC shelters.    o o o InyoKern’s research turned up this article: California …




The Big Picture on Gold, Silver, Real Estate, and the U.S. Dollar

I have come to the conclusion that the nascent implosion of the U.S. residential real estate bubble is going to have some far-reaching macroeconomic consequences. We are just starting to see the beginning of the real estate collapse. The adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) reset clock is ticking, and the home foreclosure rate is just starting to spike. I predict that in just three or four months, the housing market collapse will be just as big a news story as the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s. There will be plenty of hand wringing and finger pointing. The lenders that …


Letter Re: Potential Range of Nuclear Weapon EMP?

Mr. Rawles: I’m confused. Some things that I’ve read say that the maximum range of [nuclear weapon electromagnetic pulse] EMP is about 60 miles, but others say 200 or 250 miles. Which of them is right? Wouldn’t a terrorist bomb at ground level have shorter range EMP than a nuke touched off at high altitude or low orbit? (With a wider horizon.) Thanks, – Lance in Nebraska JWR Replies: You aren’t the first SurvivalBlog reader to ask about the greatest potential effective range of an EMP-optimized nuclear detonation. I first discussed this in SurvivalBlog back in October of 2005. The …


Letter Re: The 1898 Threshold for “Antique” Gun Exemption in the U.S.

Mr. Rawles: I have read your FAQ about Pre-1899 firearms being classified as antiques and exempt from some of the Federal regulations. The 1894 Winchester 30-30 serial number exempt at that time [that you wrote the FAQ] was below 147685. Mine carries serial # 165559. Would it now be exempt since it is [now] 2007? Thank you, – Eleanor JWR Replies: Sorry, but the “antique” threshold has been frozen at Dec. 31, 1898, ever since passage of the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968. That defies common sense, but that is the law in the United States. The frozen legal …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From RBS: The history behind “political correctness”    o o o Survivalist.com has a fascinating links page on various disasters   o o o RCP sent us this, but it hardly comes as a surprise: Japan is considering selling some of its US Dollar reserves.    o o o I heard that J&G Sales in Arizona has some .303 British surplus ammo now in stock. It is POF surplus ammo, with a FMJ bullet, brass case, packed in 32 round boxes or 768 round cases.