Category: Fuel Storage & Distilling

The “Come as You Are” Collapse–Have the Right Tools and Skills

When the Second World War broke out in September, 1939, the United States had nearly two full years to ramp up military training and production before decisively confronting the Axis powers. In the late 1970s, looking at the recent experience of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the Pentagon’s strategic planners came to the realization that the next major war that the US military would wage would not be like the Second World War. There would not be the luxury of time to train and equip. They realized that we would have to fight with only what we had available on Day …


Letter Re: More About the Chimney Fire Hazard

We just just learned that the beautiful house we had built on our 20 acre Michigan property burned to the ground. I want to urge all readers to have their chimneys checked yearly. The house had a wood furnace in the basement and a well-built 3-flue chimney yet in a state with deep frost, foundations can settle. The new owners never spent the money to have the chimney cleaned/inspected yearly as we had advised them to. Yet they just spent over $40,000 on granite countertops and all that fancy stuff. “Penny wise and Pound foolish!” My brother-in-law lives next door …


Letter Re: Vehicle Selection in Light of Potential Post-Peak Oil Shortages

Jim, no one seems to be discussing what kind of cars to buy in light of the Peak Oil situation. My reading so far has been to stay away from hybrid cars. My situation is that I have a 2003 4×4 V8 Toyota 4Runner. I commute about 30 miles each way to work and [the price of] gas kills me now. My car weighs 6,000 pounds and I don’t need a vehicle that big to tow myself around-I am single. I expect the gas prices to go up drastically in the next five years. I am considering trading in for …


Shortages Can Induce Deep Drama, and Making Do-It-Yourself Fire Logs, by Heghduq

I live in the Midwest. With the recent snow storms hitting the area there has been an abundance of snow and ice. We have had record levels of snowfall for the month of February. It comes as no surprise that the state was ill-prepared for this. As a result there is a statewide shortage of road [de-icing] salt. The distributors are out of stock and it is unknown how long it will be before they will get more. To those of you who have never had the pleasure of driving on winter roads in the Midwest, you may not understand. …


Letter Re: SurvivalBlog Has the Edge in Reporting Some News Stories

Dear Jim, I’ve been following your web-site for a while now and am amazed how you and your members chime in with very news worthy items sometimes weeks before the mainstream media starts covering them. One latest point would be the CountryWide Equity Line suspension finally made our local evening news last night.[It was mentioned in SurvivalBlog on February 5th.] I was stunned to read today in The Wall Street Journal that coal prices, which once were steadily priced in the $20 per metric ton range began trading in the $40 to $60 range from mid-2003 to mid- 2007, then …


Peering Over the Precipice: The Future of America’s Credit-Driven Bubble Economy

Here in the States, the newspaper headlines are full of bad economic news: “Credit Collapse”, “Housing Market Tailspin”, “Credit Rating Agency Scandal”, and “Three Trillion Dollar Federal Budget”. Most recently, the Federal Reserve (our central bank, operated by a private banking cartel) made a panic move, cutting interest rates in two jumps in just eight days, a whopping 125 basis points (1.25%). A drop that great, and that fast, was unprecedented. This maneuvering did little to calm the markets. If anything, the Fed’s actions confirmed the suspicion that the credit market is essentially broken and our economy is headed for …


Impassable Freeways and Highways in an Eleventh Hour “Get Out of Dodge”

Jim, I found some depressing analysis on G.O.O.D. for those of us near US population centers: Read this PDF. For further information on the ineffectiveness of G.O.O.D. when times get bad, US DOT generated this report: Using Highways for No-Notice Evacuations. In addition, there is no shortage at the US DOT web site of well-intentioned and theoretical research reports on disaster planning. For many of us, last minute G.O.O.D. plans are likely to be characterized by a high probability of failure along with its associated human costs. One might guess that the chance of failure is an exponential function of …


Letter Re: Keeping a Low Profile is Crucial for Preparedness

Jim, My missus and I have been into “prepping” for about 15 years. Our house has a basement and it is practically wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with shelves–with just narrow aisles in between. The shelves are chockablock with storage food (all labeled and organized “FIFO“-style), medical supplies, assorted “field” type gear, tools, barter/charity stuff, ammo cans, propane cylinders (that fit our camp stove and camping lantern), reels of field phone wire, paper products, and so forth. Following the example of Mr. Whiskey (from your “Profiles“) we have recently built up 27 sets of designated “charity duffles”, each packed in a cheap …


From the SurvivalBlog Archives: Start With a “List of Lists”

Start your retreat stocking effort by first composing a List of Lists, then draft prioritized lists for each subject, on separate sheets of paper. (Or in a spreadsheet if you are a techno-nerd like me. Just be sure to print out a hard copy for use when the power grid goes down!) It is important to tailor your lists to suit your particular geography, climate, and population density as well as your peculiar needs and likes/dislikes. Someone setting up a retreat in a coastal area is likely to have a far different list than someone living in the Rockies. As …


Letter Re: Best Items to Store for Barter and Charity?

Mr. Rawles, My wife and I are are in our 50s, (never had kids) and we live in a four bedroom house on 80 acres (mostly leased out [for farming]), eight miles outside a town of 20,000 population, in south-central Iowa. Two of our cousins and one nephew–all military vet[eran]s–that live in town are planning to come out [and live with us], if and when times get nasty. We have now have (or will soon have) all our basic preparations in hand, including a three year food supply for five people, which we got mostly through Safecastle and Ready Made …


Prepare or Die, by J. Britely

Throughout my life I have been caught unprepared several times and while nothing seriously bad happened, it easily could have.  I have been lost hiking.  My car has broken down in very bad neighborhoods – twice.  I have been close enough to riots that I feared they would spread to my neighborhood, been in earthquakes, been too close to wildfires, been stuck in a blizzard, and have been without power and water for several days after a hurricane.   I managed to get myself out of each situation, I thanked God, and tried to learn from my mistakes.  I could have …


The ‘Perfect’ Bug Out Vehicle, by Crazy Frenchman

Introduction. Not all of us can quit our jobs and live year-round at a permanent retreat. Yet some of us may be able to afford a semi-permanent retreat (e.g. vacation home), at least partly stocked (a.k.a. main supplies), and located within reasonable ‘travel time’ to the city where we work. As a catastrophic event would unfold, you would bug out ahead of the crowds. Otherwise you could begin by staying in your house, assess the situation, and never actually bug out. If the situation would deteriorate besides all hope, then bugging out would become a sound option. As part of …


Letter Re: I Told You So

Jim: My pessimistic mentor in preparedness frequently says: “I hate being so d*mn right all the time!” I can’t help but wonder if you share the sentiment. I’m beginning to do so! The more I read the current news about market volatility, Peak Oil, and CCD the more I am reminded of the pieces I wrote and you published on SurvivalBlog months ago! The full texts are still available in your archives and the advice is still valid! For new readers and to refresh the memory of others here are a few quotes pulled out of the late in 2006 …


Letter Re: Switchgrass for Ethanol Production

Dear Jim, I just discovered SurvivalBlog.com in November 2007. I have bought two of your books so far. We are working on our lists, in the meantime I am building FIFO shelving for the canned part of our provisions. We thank God for you, your great work, and The Memsahib’s support of this. I’m not so sure this article will be a fit, but it is good news nevertheless. From Scientific American: Grass Makes Better Ethanol than Corn Does. The USDA and farmers took part in a five-year study of switchgrass, native to North America. They found that switchgrass ethanol …


Letter Re: Burning Soft Maple Wood as a Primary Home Heat Source

Jim: A few comments about the article discussing soft maple as a “softwood” firewood. Technically, Soft Maple is not [classified as] a softwood, it is a hardwood. That being said, yes it is a fine firewood – sometimes better that hard maple because it dries faster. I’ve heated my farm house and barn 100% with wood for many years. I also own several 100 acre-plus stands for “hard” and “soft” maples. A softwood is a needle-bearing conifer and a hardwood is a broadleaf deciduous tree. Some softwood trees have harder and stronger wood then many hardwood trees. Yellow Pine is …