Round 65 Non-Fiction Writing Contest Winners Announced!

First Prize goes to D.D. for “Tracking Dogs – Part 1”, “Part 2”, and “Part 3”, which was posted on June 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. He will receive the following prizes:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical 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,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating an AquaBrick water filtration kit with a retail value of $250, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize goes to S.T. for “Sew and Grow, Save and Recycle Your Way Into Preparedness – Part 1” and “Part 2”, which was posted on June 28th and 29th. She will receive the following:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  3. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  4. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  5. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  6. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  8. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize goes to M.W. for “Pantry Building Basics for Individuals with Food Allergies or Sensitivities”, which was posted on June 11th. The author will receive the following prizes:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Honorable mention prizes ($30 Amazon.com gift certificates via e-mail) have been awarded to the writers of these fine articles:

Recipe of the Week: Oven-Roasted Vegetable Medley, by L.H.

This isn’t so much a recipe, but a guideline – a very forgiving guideline – that basically works every time. It’s a wonderful method for cleaning out those bits and pieces in the refrigerator crisper drawer that might otherwise go to waste, and super easy to adapt to your family’s size and tastes. And did I mention that it’s a pretty healthy and delicious way to add more veggies to your family’s diet?

Ingredients:

  • 3-6 c. assorted vegetables, cut into similarly-sized pieces, about 1”x1”, or about the size of a medium broccoli or cauliflower floret (and don’t stress too much about this – it mostly all works out deliciously in the end)
  • 2-3 tbs. olive oil
  • 1-2 tbs. seasoning of choice

Directions:

  1. Place all your veggies in a large mixing bowl and pour olive oil over. Start with a smaller amount and stir all together. You are looking for all your veggies to be very slightly “damp”. If you are doing a large amount of veggies add more oil and stir till they are all lightly coated.
  2. Sprinkle seasoning over, to taste, and stir all together.
  3. Spread veggies out in a single layer (as much as you can) on a large baking sheet.
  4. Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and toss with spatula. Return to oven for 10 more minutes.

And that’s it. 425 degrees, 20 minutes, tossing halfway through. It works for most all veggies, most all the time.

Some ideas for your vegetables:

Potatoes or sweet potatoes; red, green or mildly-hot peppers; yellow squash or zucchini; onions of any sort; carrots; cabbage; broccoli; Brussels sprouts; celery; corn (I urge you to add a cup or more of frozen or canned corn to ANY medley you make. Add during the 2nd 10 minutes of cooking, as it roasts super-quick. We’ve found the corn to be a superbly sweet addition to all of our medleys); okra; green beans; snow peas and sugar snap peas; cherry tomatoes; whole garlic cloves; cauliflower.

Some ideas for your seasoning:

Plain ol’ salt and pepper; seasoned salt; Mexican blend (cumin is wondermous); Italian seasoning; Ranch salad dressing powder; Greek seasoning; Cajun seasoning.

Another option for topping: a garlic-butter sauce (one of our favorites). Place 3-4 tbs. butter in an oven-safe cup, add 2 cloves minced garlic (or equivalent amount of dried, or some garlic powder if you are short on time) and place on the baking sheet at the halfway/tossing point. Then pour over for serving.

However, plain ol’ roasted okra is the bomb! Just the bit of olive oil and seasoned salt and oh my! I’ve been working too hard with all the cutting and breading and frying of the stuff all these years! – Enjoy.

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Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:

Robb Moffet has uploaded a new video on his blog Robs Homemade Life for Easy Crock Pot Chili made from food storage ingredients. The chili has no meat in it, but the TVP sausage bits and Soy strips make it taste like it does.

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Letter Re: Sodium Hypochlorite Liquid

Dear Hugh,

I recently came across some Sodium Hypochlorite liquid at the big orange box store. It is 10% solution for swimming pools. It is packaged in one gallon plastic containers with two bottles to the box. The regular price was eight or ten dollars but they had it on clearance for $1.83. I have seen people talk about using this stuff in powder form for purifying water and I’m wondering if the liquid will work the same or if it is too hazardous and troublesome to store and maintain. It says 13oz per 10,000 gallons of water will give you 1ppm of chlorine so for 2 gallons of this you can do about 200,000 gallons of water…adjusted as necessary. It does say that it degrades over time and with sun exposure and that the caps are ventilated. Also not to store near acid. I’m almost thinking it is too much of a pain. What are your thoughts? God bless you and your and stay safe. – Nsane Prepper

HJL Comments: I would agree with your assessment of it being a pain to store. The liquid will have a much shorter storage life than the powder form and will cause much more corrosion on any metal stored in the same room as it. These are designed to be used in the same pool season that they are purchased. For our preps, we are moving away from storing volatile forms of chlorine anyway as chlorine generators are easy to purchase or build as well as maintain and the chemicals you store (usually table salt) are far more stable with much longer shelf lives. Two recent articles on this subject are:

Economics and Investing:

The Coming Seneca Cliff Collapse & Exploding Silver Price

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The Free Lunch Is Over

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The Grand Illusion, $80,000 Gold And A Worldwide Nightmare. Excerpt: “It is very important not to own illusory or paper gold. It must be physical gold and silver which is stored outside the fragile banking system.”

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RPT-Helicopter money talk takes flight as Bank of Japan runs out of runway

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Interested in a ghillie suit? Keep Shooting has a closeout sale on Red Rock 5-Piece Ghillie Suits. They are woodland camouflage and it comes with everything you need for concealment, including a rifle wrap for only $49.95.

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This is one tough guy! Modern-day ‘caveman’ has lived in cavern for 40 years – H.L.

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“We’re Here To Help?” Feds Go Door-To-Door In Florida Demanding Urine Samples Amid Zika Outbreak – H.L.

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What nobody is telling the public about a large sugar recall – RBS

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Kalifornia strikes again: California to proclaim August “Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month” – G.M.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“We have lost the government we learned about in civics class, with its democratic election of representatives to do the voters’ will in framing laws, which the president vows to execute faithfully, unless the Supreme Court rules them unconstitutional. That small government of limited powers that the Founders designed, hedged with checks and balances, hasn’t operated for a century. All its parts still have their old names and appear to be carrying out their old functions. But in fact, a new kind of government has grown up inside the old structure, like those parasites hatched in another organism that grow by eating up their host from within, until the adult creature bursts out of the host’s carcass. This transformation is not an evolution but a usurpation.” – Myron Magnet

Budget Planning- Part 4, by Sarah Latimer

Flexible Expenses

This is the list of all expenses that are generally short-term commitments and flexible in their amount. Initially, try to get a handle on where you are spending your money right now. Once you have that written down and can get the picture of how your income is being used, you can begin to make adjustments based upon your goals. So, be realistic and honest in this step! I will write more about how to cut some of these costs down in the next section, but for now get a handle on your spending. You will be able to make better decisions if you plan spending ahead of time, together with your spouse. Remember that accountability is very helpful!

During a month, try to keep track of the normal expenses within this category. However, it may be that you only make a sizable purchase to restock your reloading supplies or soap making supplies or other prepping materials, which can often be obtain at greater discount when purchased in larger bulk. Do your best to figure out what is a realistic amount you need to spend over the course of the year for these items that you only buy once or twice a year and then divide the cost into months, so you can properly determine how much of your monthly income should be set aside for those future expenses.

For gifts, list the people you buy gifts for each year and about how much you spend for each person and then total it up and divide by 12. Apply these same steps to other categories to obtain monthly estimates for each category of flexible expense. These categories (in no particular order) include:

  • Gasoline. Remember to include extraordinary use, like car trip vacations that might be taken in the summer or at holidays to see family and friends.
  • Transportation/toll.
  • Vehicle repairs and maintenance. Include tires as well as oil changes and repairs. Repairs are hard to estimate in advance, but set some money aside especially if you have older vehicle(s). More will be needed if you require a garage to do the work rather than you just buying the parts and making repairs yourself. For a seven year old truck, you are probably spending (or needing to save for future expenses) $100-200/month. If you live in town or the city and must transfer clients in your vehicle where you require a full service car wash/detail every week, then you may be adding another $40-150 per month, depending upon the services required and your location. Edmunds provides a resource to estimate the total cost of ownership of vehicles since 2010. Part of the information available on this website is estimated repairs and maintenance for various makes and models over the course of the first five years of ownership. If you have a newer model vehicle that you recently purchased, you could use this to estimate your repairs and maintenance. There are other sites as well to help find average costs.
  • Clothing. Include purchases of everyday street clothing, work clothes, hunting/survival/tactical clothing, vacation clothing, church clothes, shoes/boots, coats, gloves, hats, jackets, hunting/camo gear, swimsuits, and anything you and your family wear on your body throughout the year– winter, spring, summer, and fall. (I do list fine gold and silver jewelry separately, because it has the potential to be used for barter or trade as something of high value rather than merely a functional item, like clothing.)
  • Laundry/dry cleaning.
  • Children’s toys.
  • Entertainment/books.
  • Memberships.
  • Home school/continuing education.
  • Prescriptions.
  • Dining out. A lot of people do not realize how much they spend in this category. Keep receipts and add them up for a full month. Include breakfast, lunches, and dinners as well as those quick runs to the mini-mart/dollar store for frozen dinners, candy bars, ice cream, chips, and soda, too! Those are conveniences usually purchased at premium prices. Either place them in this category or in groceries, but do not exclude them.
  • Groceries/cleaning supplies. Keep your receipts for an entire months and total it up. Don’t modify your purchases yet.
  • Livestock/pet care/veterinarian services. Your expenses for medicines, neutering/castration, injuries/illnesses, basic first aid supplies, as well as securing their area (fencing, kennel, or cage), feeders, watering supplies, hygiene, feed/seed, vitamins, and toys, and anything else specific for your animal(s).
  • Household maintenance. Whew! Our homes need lots of TLC, don’t they? This is especially true of the older homes, but it is true of even the brand new homes. At a minimum there is the A/C and heating maintenance, light bulb replacement, battery replacement in fire and carbon monoxide detectors, but there are plumbing issues, electrical issues, and simple little functional things that need attention, like drawer sliders, door knobs, and key locks. It is conservative to say that a person should budget $100/month for household supplies, especially if you have a home that is not “newish”, and if you must hire help for even minor repairs then I recommend that you budget more. Take a look at what you have spent in the last year, if you have receipts. Some of the stores, like Home Depot, let you email your receipts to yourself and then you can electronically keep track of expenses over time, but it is best to keep paper copies in case we lose our electronics.
  • Yard/land maintenance. Do you have to mow the lawn and/or maintain a lawnmower, weed eater, hedger, edger, and/or chain saw? Is a tractor, hay baler, trailer, and/or other heavy machinery required to maintain your property? The cost of any of these items and their fuel and oil should be included in this category along with anything else required, including plants, seeds, chemicals/sprays, gates, gravel, et cetera. If you have a tractor loan, include it here, unless you want to set up a “ranch” or “farm” expense category because it is a significant separate category from the house yard.
  • Vacations. How much have you spent in the past year on trips, including weekend getaways? Do you have plans to do something extraordinary or different in the future? Consider the fluctuations in gas prices and airline tickets when projecting costs going forward.
  • Gifts. As stated earlier in the introduction, think about the holidays during which you give gifts and the list of people to whom you give gifts. Estimate the amount you give to each person throughout the year and then divide by 12 to arrive at a monthly expense. Most of it may be utilized in the months of November and December (the biggest shopping time of the year) or at some other time of year, but you will need to set money aside each money prior to these months in order to have enough when it comes time to do the shopping, so we need a monthly amount to withhold from our monthly income for gift-giving. Also, remember that you will likely have a few surprise gifts or invitations extended beyond what you know about now, so add a little extra. Try to be realistic with this budget, based on what you have done in the past and then add just a little for the “unknowns” or “forgotten gifts”. If you have used your credit cards, you may be able to go back through your receipts or history and get a good idea, particularly around the times of year that you celebrate holidays/birthdays.
  • Reloading, ammo, gun maintenance, and cleaning supplies.
  • Hobbies.
  • Religious education/conferences.
  • Larder. Include in this what you have bought beyond “groceries” for your larder. If you have purchased buckets of freeze-dried foods that you don’t normally use in your food supply, the expense of these buckets would certainly fit in here. Anything that is above and beyond what you utilize during the month and that can be stored long term should go here. It may be difficult to tell which category some things should go into (groceries or larder), but don’t worry too much about that. The main thing is to get every expense into a reasonable category. Just make the best judgment you can. If you want to combine these two, as I do, go right ahead. Going forward, it just may help if you are only beginning to build your larder and getting started with prepping to separate an amount toward buying some things that you don’t use normally, like freeze-dried items, to help you get disciplined in doing so. In spite of some who ridicule the idea, our family does eat what we store and store what we eat. We eat some wild things also, including some early spring-time dandelions in our salads and so forth, and we always eat whole grains so that our bodies will be well adjusted to the stored grains. We’ve found we prefer their taste and the health benefits, so it is now a way of life for the Latimer family, and the “larder” is simply our larger pantry with an intermediate and small pantry, too. You have to figure out what works for your family and how you make purchases. Look at receipts and begin by looking at what you are buying now.
  • Jewelry/precious metals.
  • Cash.
  • (others categories specific to you and your family.)

Take a Good Look at Your Budget

Now that you have everything written down, take a good look at where your money is currently going. Is there money left over every month, or are you going into debt each month? Ask yourself, “Am I spending my (our) hard-earned income in ways that support my (our) life goals?” Is this how God has directed you to utilize the resources He has enabled you to have? If not, you need to think about making some changes, possibly some significant ones.

Does your family know and love our Lord and Savior? Is your family emotionally close to one another and obedient to God’s Word, such that you all have a common perspective on life and priorities in this world? Do you have a secure homestead that is away from the city? Do you have multiple sources of clean water, food to sustain your family for weeks and months and possibly years in a TEOTWAWKI event, a means for cooking without utility services, power when the grid goes down, communications, defense, a bug out location, bug out gear, medical supplies/training for SHTF/TEOTWAWKI, and is your family trained and prepared spiritually, physically, and emotionally for what may come? Do you have skills that can see you through and be valuable to others in a long-term SHTF event or TEOTWAWKI time? If you can’t say “yes” to these, then maybe you ought to consider investing in achieving some or all of these goals. There are many ideas in SurvivalBlog articles about how to achieve the objectives above, including your relationship with God. Our money reflects our priorities or a lack of directed priorities. Take a good look at your own and pray about what needs to change. There is always room for improvement. I am working on some right now myself. What do you need to do differently or better?

It may seem scary and risky to make significant changes. The greatest returns on investment usually, though not always, come from things that seem to have the highest risk (or require the greatest patience). Now I do not believe in taking risk for the sake of the thrill of risk. Oh, no! However, when there is a strong reason to do something that I believe in but requires me to leave my comfort zone, I have learned that being risk-averse only keeps me from reaching my goal and ends up causing me harm. Staying in the same rut is often detrimental, though it is comfortable. If I am willing to make changes and adjust my life to accomplish something great that the Lord is calling me to do, there is reward. You, too, can make changes that will bring about great reward! In the short term there will likely be some pain and discomfort. Change seems to do this. We have to let go of some things that we have held onto for awhile. Even if they were not healthy for us, we grow comfortable with them. However, when we see that something better can be accomplished, we need to move to it. That is the case with your budget.

If you need to cut way back on your entertainment in order to increase you larder, it will be painful in the beginning. However, you’ll find comfort in seeing the larder grow. You’ll find other avenues for inexpensive entertainment, too. You might even find something that you enjoy far better that you would never have explored had you no had to search for it. I certainly had no idea how much I would enjoy gardening and herbalism, until I realized the necessity of them and began pursuing them, at first to supplement our income and improve our health. Now, they are a pleasure, though there is still a fair amount that I wish someone else would do for me. (Weeding is not high on my list of favorite past times!) Still, there is always the opportunity to listen to music or instruction while weeding to make the time pass more quickly.) What joy there is in seeing the produce come in off our garden and to taste the incomparable flavor of our homegrown, organic vegetables and herbs, given to us by the hand of God through His providential love, care, and provision and our obedience to guard His garden. We get more resourceful out of necessity, and this is a good thing as we prepare for SHTF situations.

My mother was an accountant and gave me some very good guidelines when I left home that I agree with. She and Daddy were married during the Great Depression, and she graduated in the 1930s at the top of her college class with a degree in accounting, so I think she had a good handle on finances. Though some things have changed since then, most haven’t. Her guidelines below still apply:

  • Don’t spend more than 30% of your income on your home mortgage/escrow payment and preferably only 25%, then pay extra each month as you are able to get that mortgage clear as soon as possible. Be sure not to take on a balloon mortgage or one that penalizes you for early pay off. With the banks so volatile these day and eager to foreclose, a person really needs to do their best to get their property paid for as soon as they can. However, other debts with higher interest rates may need to be handled first, if you have those.
  • Use credit cards for travel and emergencies only and always pay off the balance each and every month. Never leave a balance that requires any interest be paid!
  • Put cash aside in savings in order to pay for a few emergencies, and keep some cash at the house to cover weekends and holidays when banks are closed. While Mom’s recommendation to keep cash in the house isn’t as necessary for weekend and holiday access with debit/bank cards these days, the risk of bank closures, credit card cancellations, hackers, and possible bank account confiscation by the government are all real risks to relying on the bank to hold all of your money. It is still good guidance to keep cash or coin outside of the bank in a secure location that is accessible to you whenever you might need it.
  • Cut corners where you can, but buy quality where it matters. This was one guideline that has been profound as we got our financial and life priorities realigned. “Keeping up with the Joneses’” is fruitless. Appearances to look like you have more than you do is counterproductive, especially in SHTF situations. We do well to do the reverse. Mother made a lot of things in our home, sewed many of my clothes, repaired clothes, gardened, collected those old S&H Green stamps at the grocery store to buy her small kitchen appliances, and cooked many things from scratch. Daddy hunted, processed meat, did woodworking, and was “Mr. Fix-it” around the house as he was capable, and they both readily bartered services and products when possible. Still, we took vacations to foreign countries, had reliable vehicles, lived in a nice house, and generously helped our church, foreign missionaries, and many individuals in need. They also had a nice retirement built up and had bought farm land on which extended family were sharecroppers. Dad, being in the healthcare field, believed in buying quality shoes, but they didn’t care about brand named jeans or designer labels. Healthy, durable, functional, wholesome attributes at a good value were the criteria that mattered. They’d save up for what they needed until they could pay cash. I recall the car salesman’s eyes when they brought cash to buy a car Daddy had negotiated. Apparently, few bought that way. It was the norm with my parents. It has become the norm for Hugh and me, now, too! It is strange how things change and yet don’t, isn’t it? There is so much to learn from those who went through the Depression. I feel fortunate to have been raised by people who learned those lessons. I only regret that for a period of my life I discounted those ways, thinking we were in more “advanced times”. It would have gone better for me to have listened and applied all of their lessons earlier. The age of “gotta have it now,” indebtedness, and thinking “I deserve to have ‘it’” is not advancement. I recall when Hugh and I were shopping for my recent vehicle at a local dealership and waiting for the car salesman to return from taking our offer to his manager that we listened to a woman bawling. She was hysterical over being turned down for credit on the car that she just had to have. I honestly don’t recall seeing anyone who had just received news of a loved one’s death bawling any harder (and few as hard as) this woman. The salesman offered to check on a lesser expensive car, but she just had to have that one. That car was the only one for her, and it seemed to be the end of her world that she couldn’t afford it. Even if she had been sold that car, it would have probably been in the junk yard in less than ten years. How sad!
  • Above all, pray about purchases, especially large ones, and don’t make emotional, quick decisions to buy anything without talking with the Lord and your spouse, if you have one. When married, pray and discuss purchases together. She suggested setting a limit of how much one spouse should be able to spend without consulting the other and then sticking to that limit. Hugh and I have changed this amount as our financial situation and goals fluctuated, but for most of our married years we have rarely spent more than $100 without consulting the other one first. Many times the other one has served as a good consultant to ask the questions that guided the one considering the purchase away from making a mistake and toward making a much better investment elsewhere. Two heads are better than one, and the one that isn’t in front of the salesman or the shiny, new toy can sometimes be more clear headed to think through the considerations and the other items higher on the family’s “need” list competing for the family’s resources, too. I have so many times been grateful for Hugh’s wise counsel on purchases I was considering! I think he would say the same thing about my advice. We have “family” goals, yet we also desire for the other one to have hobbies and be satisfied, too, so there is no selfishness involved. We aren’t trying to deny one another but to help each other make good choices for the benefit of the family and our common goals. Sometimes, I have advised Hugh to upgrade his purchase consideration, which usually shocks salesmen of tools and guns, as apparently most wives are not generous, but I like Hugh to have the tools necessary to get the job done right! Working together to set family goals and taking actions that help the family reach those goals is key, but we each also need to have a little flexible spending money, too, to pursue our individual interests and spontaneous desires or opportunities. That limited amount should be determined in advance and respected. Mom and Dad did a good job of this. They had a separate compartment in their wallets for their “personal” money, and I sometimes, if not often, saw them take their personal spending money and use it for others. Dad bought a sandwich for a “ho bo”, and Mom bought some perfume for a lady in the nursing home. Sometimes, they would buy me some candy with it or we’d all go out for a banana split or malted shake, which of course I didn’t mind at all. It was all the Lord’s anyway, and they considered themselves simply good stewards who got the benefit of enjoying it and enjoying sharing it. Hugh and I have to agree that there is a great pleasure in caring for others and sharing what we have with those who appreciate it and have true needs.

In the next article, I will address goals and specific cost-cutting ideas for various categories that we have implemented and that might help you to cut your costs and achieve your budget goals. Thanks for hanging around for this long series articles. I truly hope it helps.

Letter Re: Sawyer Water Filter Additional Information

Hello,

I would like to add some information about the Sawyer water filter. One of the readers mentioned that the Sawyer filter use to be 1,000,000 gallons, and now it’s 100,000. Those are two separate filters. The 1-million gallon filter is the larger version. The 100,000 gallon is the mini version, which I personally have used since it came on the market. I do a lot of hiking, backpacking, and exploring in the outdoors. I like to carry my Camelback for ease of drinking and carrying my water. What I recommend is to buy the Mini Sawyer filter, cut the Camelback tube in the middle, and install the filter there. Just fill the Camelback and go back to hiking. It makes the suction a little tougher to get the water, but it’s not hard whatsoever. I have never had any issues, and I have found this is has been the easiest way to get clean water in the back country. It’s also lighter than a lot of hand-operated filters. Most filters are susceptible to freezing temperatures, including the ceramic ones. I like to take a zip lock baggie with me and put the Mini Sawyer filter in it at night, which I then put at my feet in my sleeping bag. You will never have a frozen filter, it won’t make a mess, and it’s still super light to carry around. I highly recommend buying a few to keep with your supplies. – D.S.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Turkey cancels 50,000 passports as President Erdogan tightens noose around suspected dissidents after failed coup

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This unusual new listing in Texas posted over at SurvivalRealty.com caught my eye: Former Military Base – Nike Missile Site.

Note: It is just one of more than 275 retreat properties available, through the site. Take a look. You will be amazed by many of these properties!

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Hillary Is a Menshevik. The Bolshevik/Menshevik crisis we saw in the first stages of the Russian Revolution is bubbling to the surface in our country through the Democratic Party. – H.L.

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President Obama Just Signed The DARK Act Into Law – B.B.

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The Treason of the Congressional Central America Caucus – B.B.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” John 2:13-17 (KJV)

Notes for Saturday – July 30, 2016

Today we remember the birthday of author Reginald Bretnor. He was born Alfred Reginald Kahn on July 30, 1911, in Vladivostok. He died on July 22, 1992 in Medford, Oregon. In addition to penning many witty science fiction novels and short stories in his characteristic style, he also wrote nonfiction articles for Mel Tappan’s P.S. Letter.

SurvivalBlog’s Orwell Awards – 2016

As promised (but after a delay) we are announcing our first set of Orwell Awards. These are awarded to individuals and organizations who have abused the English language with Newspeak distortions in ways that degrade our liberty, our dignity, our heritage, and the truth, in the past year. Our thanks to the many readers who e-mailed us their nominations. We plan to issue these awards annually. The winners are:

First Place: Barack Hussein Obama, for his “Gender Identity Mandate“. Under Obama’s twisted logic, any school, organization, agency, or business will be denied Federal funds or contracts if they don’t allow boys to use the girls bathrooms and vice versa. The guidelines, announced in May, 2016, are designed to ensure that “transgender students enjoy a supportive and nondiscriminatory school environment” (regardless of how the chromosomes of every cell in their bodies identify them).

Second Place: On July 5, 2016, FBI Director James Comey, for exonerating Hillary Clinton’s repeated gross national security violations, claiming that she and her staff were merely “…extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” In effect, he exonerated her (declining to refer her for prosecution) by detailing her guilt in these crimes.

Third Place: In April, 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, for admitting that there have been discussions within the Department of Justice about possibly pursuing civil action against so-called “climate change deniers”.

Dishonorable Mention

The Library of Congress, for dropping any use of the term “Illegal Alien” and substituting the amorphous term “Undocumented”.

Dishonorable Mention

The World Bank, for abandoning precise terms, such as “now”, “recently”, and “later” in their reports.

Dishonorable Mention

Barack Hussein Obama, for describing the Muslim San Bernardino and Orlando terrorists and as “self-radicalized“. (In Obama’s view, the Imams at their mosques had no role in them becoming radicals.)

Dishonorable Mention

Hillary Clinton (long famous for using the euphemism “humanitarian intervention” in place of the word “invasion”) has coined the term “smart power” to describe a hawkish, interventionist foreign policy.

Letter Re: Keeping Children Safe

Hugh,

The author did not explain that during emergencies, public schools will sometime remove children from the school and relocate all the children to a safe location. The local school should have the predetermined safe location address.

(Obviously, if there is a big fire at the school or other emergencies, the school does not leave the children in the school or school yard.)

You might want to mention this fact in some added on information by the SurvivalBlog editors.

During Red Cross training at work, the Red Cross representative asked everyone in the room (100 people) if they know the address or location of, the predetermined safe location for their children`s school. Everyone sat there like dumb turkeys.

During these dire times, children should be homeschooled (or attend a religious school). It is not just the possible emergencies that could cause problems but the dire times involve we face, what is being taught in the schools, and what the children are learning from the other children too. – S.A.