Using Canning Jars For All Food Stores and More-Part 3, by Sarah Latimer

Managing Your Jarred Larder

Moving a single jar at a time is cumbersome when managing so many. I have kept the original Ball cardboard boxes that the jars came in because they assist in moving multiple jars and placing them on shelves easily, but we are gentle with them to help them last. Occasionally they require some reinforcement with duct tape or replacement altogether; however, so far, most have held up well for a minimum of four years.

Labels can easily be placed on the ends of the Ball boxes, identifying the contents and their dates, so that it is easy to walk down an aisle, look up onto a shelf, and see which box contains needed items. I classify the boxes by category and detail with the year. For example, the box might say “FD Vegetables- peas, corn, carrots 2015”. The “FD” is an abbreviation we use to distinguish freeze-dried items from wet canned items. Lids on jars always have the contents and year on them also. I just put some wheat in half gallon jars today and labeled the lid with “WW 2016” for Winter White 2016. That is the most extreme abbreviation we use. Most of the time we spell things out and say things like “FD Corn 6/16”. When you are looking down at a box of quart jar lids in a fairly dark space, it is nice to be able to read the lid and not have to lift a bunch of jars out of the box to see which one contains freeze-dried corn. I want to reach in and get the one I want the first time. I live a busy life after all, and you probably do too.

By keeping each type of food in the same size jars and in common areas, it is easy to stack them together in sections and locate contents. Freeze-dried meats are stacked in quart jars together. Meals in quarts are stacked together. I have a dairy section with quart jars filled with various freeze-dried items, such as cheese, milk, sour cream, and so forth. There is a section of freeze-dried raw eggs and another with already scrambled eggs. I have a section of canned vegetables and another of freeze-dried vegetables. Then, I have canned and dried fruits in a section. Of course, there is also a large spice, herb, and tea section, with a good amount of medicinal herbs, flowers, bark, and roots included. I keep a section of elderberry syrup already made and canned as well as jars of dried elderberries in stock for making future batches to provide continuous protection again viruses. (We enjoy this syrup in our smoothies, shakes, or just by itself and have noticed a significant reduction in colds, flu, and illnesses since we began taking this.)

I also have dried pastas, rice, potato flakes, and multiple types of beans and grains stored in half gallon jars. The LDS-Mormon Store is an excellent source for many of these items. I find that I can buy a bulk supply of the winter white wheat (which is what I use for my cakes, pancakes and muffins, pastries, and bread) at the Mormon Store for less than what I pay for chicken scratch at the local feed store! Still, I can’t bear the thought of feeding my wonderful, high quality wheat berries to the chickens! They have to eat that cracked mixed grain so I can keep all of the wheat berries for our family.

Within each section of the long-term pantry, I stack boxes of half gallon jars no more than three high and quart jars are stacked only four high because of the weight on the bottom jars and the need to move boxes to get to what is on the bottom. Hugh has built wonderful shelvings that are just the perfect height for this stacking system. We just stack the cardboard boxes on top of the jars below, making sure that they are squared and centered well. We’ve never had a mishap with any falling down or breaking. We do not have issues with significant earthquakes here, so if you live somewhere that does you should consider straps or shelves for every layer to hold your food securely. There is one caveat in our system though; when removing jars from the bottom box, it is necessary to fill in empty spaces to provide good, even support for the weight above. This is another reason why it is important to keep like items together. Pulling from the bottom is rare, as I usually have multiple boxes of a single item and we rotate to keep the oldest items on top. However, sometimes I have a rare item with just one or a few jars of that type of item, such as saffron spice or a purchased medicinal plant root, that may end up in a bottom box.

In rotating supplies, oldest items are on top and in the front, so that they are easy to obtain, one jar at a time. It takes periodic rotation and inventory to keep the larder in check, especially since multiple family members are sent to obtain supplies and may not always pull from the same box and location and multiple family members are sent to place items, too. It is a regular job to keep the long-term food storage well organized. A complete inventory should be done at least annually, but I do inspections more frequently.

While in college, I once thought about a career as a research librarian because I enjoy research and writing. With the Internet, the days of a library’s seemingly endless periodical, microfiche, and full reference section is over, but my cataloging skills are now useful for the pantry. What I am finding is that I occasionally have to reorganize the storage as a type of food outgrows its allocated area. When opportunities arise for extraordinary good deals on products that we use regularly, I take advantage of them. However, I am then in a quandary of where to put those items. The shuffling must begin. Fortunately, I am not required to stick with the Dewey decimal system with the food and can rearrange the storage area as I see fit. If the canned meats need a larger section, they can be traded with another category of food that will fit where the meats were and that is currently is on the periphery where there is some empty space for expansion.

Safely Transporting Jars

When we travel, we always take freeze-dried meals with us. Our health needs keep us from being able to eat exclusively at restaurants when we travel. For example, we cannot tolerate a lot of salt, and most restaurants use too much for us. We also need a lot of fiber and, frankly, are spoiled in liking to eat things “our way”. Eating out just isn’t that much of a treat for any of us, except me, because I don’t have to do the cooking. However, if I get one of my freeze-dried meals I am very happy. I get to eat what I like without any fuss!

On a recent trip that Hugh and one of our sons made, they took homemade freeze-dried meals with them, including Beef Stroganoff; Roast Beef, Sliced Potatoes, Carrots, and Peas with Brown Gravy; and Chicken Fried Rice. All they had to do was add a cup of hot water to each quart jar, gently roll the jars around occasionally over the course of five minutes, open the jars, and eat. I offered to send a thermos of hot water with them, but Hugh said his rocket stove was fine and he’d need to stop and stretch at meal times.

Several times a year, our family has taken one- to three-week long trips and taken all of our food with us, including our snacks, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. We only needed one large cooler plus our jars. For the three week trip, I believe we took about 48 jars, but we didn’t consume all of the contents. I am known for having much more than enough. The LORD is good, and His bounty is evident at our table! I thank Him daily as I work in our garden. We are preparing for a bountiful harvest again this year, thanks to our great Creator and His provisions.

Anyway, taking jars with us has been no problem. We have carried them in our SUV, pickup, and trailer without a problem. We have never had one break yet, but when we carry them, we do not let the glass jars “clink” against one another. I use pieces of cardboard or other food items to separate them. Hugh has built wooden carrying boxes with lids. Each box holds 12 quarts, and I use strips of cardboard between the jars to give some cushion as they vibrate and bounce going down bumpy roads. There isn’t much space between the jars, so that helps to minimize the amount of bouncing, too. I have not had to put anything under the jars, though someone might want to do this. The main concern has been to protect the glass from hitting against other glass. The boxes Hugh made only fit quart jars, so any products that are normally stored in half gallons are repackaged into quarts for trips.

Quick oatmeal cereal mixed with brown sugar and dried fruit is another great product to carry on a trip. Dried apples and fruit, nuts, and beverages can also help make trips more pleasant. If it is cold, mix up some cocoa mix or spiced tea to carry for hot water. If it is hot outside, mix up Kool-aid or a drink mix and sugar or stevia so that you can add the mix by the spoonful to cold water bottles out of the cooler.

The larder mentioned above can be built and arranged in your bugout location in advance of SHTF. With vacuum-sealed jars stored in the dark, especially in a cellar environment, which is cool year around, the properly canned contents should last at least a decade or so. You can have your meats/proteins, dairy, vegetables, fruits, starches, and also your herbs, teas, green coffee, herbal medicines, and whatever else you need stored in air tight jars that water, air, light, and pests cannot easily get into to destroy.

When SHTF, just dust off those jars, open, heat/add hot water, and eat. Once you have emptied some jars, they can be cleaned and used for heating and serving food. For heating food, they can go into a pan of boiling water. They can be used as drinking glasses, too, and have a lid to keep the contents clean and bug free while you are living and working in the great outdoors.

Letter Re: Washable Cloth Toilet Wipes

Hugh,

Regarding the person who wondered “Why go to all the trouble to cut and sew toilet wipes when you can simply use mass-produced bathroom washcloths”:

  1. By making them, each family member has their own as I used a different fabric pattern for me and my husband; this removes the “ick” factor
  2. Also, I plan to make and sell these both pre- and post-SHTF, and the fabric was free to me.

There are other issues that must be considered as well:

  1. Last year with a UTI, I used a full 1,000 sheet roll of Scott toilet paper in only six hours,
  2. If someone in the home becomes ill, say with the stomach flu of some other illness, you would want a large stock of washable toilet paper so they could just be placed in the pail until wash day; a person who is sick cannot “self-regulate their bowel voiding patterns”. – S.T.

HJL Comments: The question of what to do when the toilet paper runs out is always on the mind of preppers, and I have seen some very ingenious solutions to the problem. However, the easiest and most reliable method is just to use water. Americans seem to have an aversion to this method due to the fact that you have one hand that touches your nether regions, but the vast majority of the world uses this method in various forms with very satisfactory results. You might consider what would happen if you were camping and you sat down on the ground and accidentally placed your hand in a pile of poo. Would you just take a roll of toilet paper and wipe your hand until it looked clean and then call it good at this point? Most of us would not. You would spend some time with soap and water and thoroughly clean the hand. Why do we then consider wiping our bums with toilet paper as an adequate sanitation procedure?

This concept was hammered home when I had to have a colonoscopy a couple of years ago. Before the procedure, I was required to drink a gallon of solution that cleaned me out. During that time, ready access to a bathroom was mandatory and my bum became so sore that it was literally bleeding. Using toilet paper was out of the question. Thankfully, the toilet was next to the tub/shower, which had a hand wand on the shower head. Using water on low pressure provided an easy, sanitary and painless way of cleaning up. This experience prompted a search on how third world countries with no access to toilet paper deal with the situation.

In many countries, access to soap is limited and you end up with the concept of a “clean” hand (usually the right hand) and a “dirty” hand (usually the left hand). Cleaning up is relegated to the “dirty” hand, while greeting people is done with the “clean” hand. Don’t get those two mixed up or you will thoroughly insult the person by offering them the “dirty” hand. If you have access to soap, there is no need to dedicate a “dirty” hand because cleaning the hand is as simple as washing with soap and water afterwards.

The procedure is simple:

  1. Bring a cup of water (or better yet, a peri bottle) to the toilet with you.
  2. While still seated on the toilet (or crouching over the latrine), wet the fingers of the “dirty” hand so the poo doesn’t stick readily to the skin.
  3. Holding the cup of water in your “clean” hand, dribble it down into the nether region while rubbing the affected area with the fingers of the “dirty” hand. Men generally have to dribble the water down their backside; women can dribble it from the front or the rear. For women, the front is preferred, as it flushes the waste away from sensitive areas.
  4. After cleaning the nether regions, use the remaining water to rinse off your fingers from the “dirty” hand.

If done right, it takes less than a cup of water to thoroughly clean the nether regions and the fingers, and you will be surprised how much cleaner you feel afterwards compared to using just regular toilet paper. When you have completed the job, wash your hands as normal with soap and water. If TEOTWAWKI occurs and access to soap is limited, the society will simply revert back to the concept of only using the right hand for public, reserving the left hand for private. While the concept is simple, some practice is required. Cleaning the area is simple, but keeping the water from dribbling down your legs or making a mess in your bathroom can be challenging at first.

There are those among us who are totally averse to touching the nether regions with the bare skin of your fingers. Leaving aside the question of how you perform bathing or showering, this video may be for you. It contains instructions on how to build a portable bidet kit with nitrile gloves along with instructions on using it replete with a demonstration on a small stuffed animal. I think it’s overkill, but each to his own. A word of caution is in order here. Please be careful in searching YouTube for instructional videos on this procedure. Most are highly offensive.

Economics and Investing:

CNBC interview (video): The European Union is ‘doomed to fail,’ says ‘Black Swan’ author Nassim Taleb

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From the Of Two Minds blog of the always incisive Charles Hugh Smith: Brexit, the E.U. and the “Special Relationship” of the U.S./U.K.

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I missed this well-reasoned piece by Gary Christenson when it was posted back on March 21st: Silver – A Long-Term Perspective

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For those considering investing in guns, here is a good intro: Garry James’ Rules for Buying Collectible Guns

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And here is is much more detailed article, by Mike Venturino: Smart Gun Buying

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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:

Federal regulation of Internet coming, warn FCC, FEC commissioners

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I see that our SurvivalRealty.com spin-off website now has an amazing 260 listings in the United States. Congrats on that to my #1 Son! Be sure to check out the many unusual retreat properties offered for sale. For example, see this one near Worley, Idaho with plentiful water and a 1,000 square foot NBC bunker!

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Despite some recent shortages throughout the U.S., Gun Mag Warehouse still seems to have some 20-, 30-, 40-, and even 60-round PMAGs on hand. I recommend stocking up before the DNC”s Election Convention in July!

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Human, bear conflicts on the rise in Northern Rockies

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I saw this linked over at The Drudge Report: Talk Of Moving TSA Checkpoints Outside. When will the expansion of TSA jurisdiction end?

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” – Romans 10:9 (KJV)

Making a Living in the Hinterboonies

One of the great quandaries faced by many American preppers is that their desire to move to a lightly-populated rural region is usually not consistent with the ability to earn a good living. Let’s face it: The job opportunities in the Hinterboonies are scarce. Unless you are retired, self-employed, or you are in a high-demand profession (such as medicine or dentistry), then it might be difficult to have the same standard of living that you’ve enjoyed in an urban or suburban community.

Part of the following repeats what I wrote in SurvivalBlog back in 2009 about the sorts of jobs that will likely survive an economic recession or depression, but it is still sound advice.

Even if you are currently employed somewhere in a “safe and secure” job, keep in mind that there are no absolutely secure jobs. You could have a small town civil service job, for example at a water treatment plant. But what if the city or county that you work for goes bankrupt? You could be laid off in a heartbeat. The phrase “under new management” often means firing you and hiring the nephew or an old pal of the new boss. The fictional character Sarah Conner said it best: “No one is ever safe.” So hedge your bets.

I recommend that you develop a second stream of income through self-employment. Typically, this can be found in a moonlighting service job, or a home-based Internet mail order business. To have the opportunity to pursue an online business venture or to telecommute, find a rural community that is served by high speed Internet. You probably don’t need gigabit speed (like Chattanooga), but try to find a place with at least moderate speed DSL Internet service available. Better connectivity means more options. Poor connectivity (at “dial-up” speed) means fewer options.

I’ve often encouraged my consulting clients to develop a second income stream. Why is this important? “Living off the land”-style self sufficiently is an admirable and commendable goal. But even if you are living truly “debt free”, you will still have property taxes to pay. That means that you will need at least a part-time depression-proof revenue stream in the event that you lose your primary job.

Successful home-based businesses usually center around filling otherwise unfilled needs. Find something that your neighbors buy or rent or a service that they “hire” on a regular basis that currently requires a 40+ mile drive “to town”. Those are your potential niches.

A successful recession-proof home-based business is likely to be one where the demand for your goods and services is consistent, even in a weak economy. These include septic tank pumping, home security/locksmithing, care for the very young and the very old, installing home security webcams, and escapist diversions such as Blu-Ray movie sales or rentals. (It is noteworthy that the movie industry was one of the few sectors of the U.S. economy that prospered in the 1930s.)

Another market segment that prospered all through the Great Depression of the 1930s was repair businesses. Obviously, in hard economic times, people try to make do with what they have rather that throwing things way and replacing them. So repair businesses are a natural. If it is some small appliance that you could repair that could be mailed from and back to the customer, so much the better. (That way you could have a nationwide business rather than just a local one.) This might include: DVD player repair or laptop computer repair.

It’s a Dirty Job, But Someone Has to Do It

If you want to work for someone else, yet still be employed in a recession-proof field, then consider the dirty jobs. These are some of the least likely to suffer a layoff. In Japan, these are called the “Three-K” jobs: kitsui (“hard”), kitanai (“dirty”), and kiken (“dangerous”). If you are willing to take on any of the Three K jobs, do cheerful and hard work, and have exemplary attendance, then you will likely have a job that will carry you all the way through a deep recession or even an economic depression. If times get truly Schumeresque and you get laid off, then please be willing to “think outside the box” and consider taking a Three K job. Some of these are low level city and county payroll jobs. By low level, I mean things like sanitation worker, animal control officer, sewer technician, solid waste transfer station worker, highway maintenance worker, and so forth.

Mike Rowe (of “Dirty Jobs” fame) recently made a video for new graduates, titled: Don’t Follow Your Passion. Take a few minutes to watch it. I concur with his view.

Think about it: A steady job beats no job. Don’t let your family starve or end up homeless. There is no shame in accepting good old-fashioned hard work. If you take a job that brings in only one-half of your existing income, consider that you’ll actually come out ahead of any of your contemporaries who are laid off more than half of each year. Further, you will have uninterrupted benefits, such as health insurance, that they will also lack. A menial, low-paying job is better than no job.

One other important point is that you need to be willing to work several part-time jobs. This redundancy could prove crucial, if one of your ventures fails. (And odds are, at least one of them will fail.)

Some suggested stable employment possibilities:

  1. Mining and manufacturing processes that, because of shipping expenses, cannot practicably be moved offshore.
  2. Service industry jobs that are essential and non-discretionary. Let me differentiate so that you’ll know what to avoid. “Discretionary” would be jobs like pilates instructor, hairdresser, massage therapist, and manicurist. Non-discretionary jobs would include mortician, sanitation worker, and emergency room doctor.
  3. Retail sales (face-to-face or mail order) of crucial items, such as soap, vegetable garden seeds, vitamins, spices, batteries, et cetera. The value of concentrating on items like these is that there will still be orders, even in a deep economic depression.
  4. Retail sales (face-to-face or mail order) of “comfort” items. In the midst of an economic depression, people will crave escape. Blu-Ray movies, video games, escapist books, and MP3 players are good examples. (To explain the last item: In really remote areas where there is no cell phone service available, few people own smartphones. There, dedicated MP3 players are still popular.)
  5. Repair work. (Repairing small appliances, laptop PCs, chainsaws, boat engines, guns, vacuum cleaners, and so forth.)
  6. Sales of a patentable small product that you can you manufacture at home (or a ta shop in a small town) and sell nationwide through the Internet. (A patent is important, to give you several years of production without competition from China or other foreign countries.)

Be Proactive

I have observed that the folks who find good-paying employment in a rural area are generally those who are proactive. If you sit around and read the “Help Wanted” ads, then you will probably be disappointed. Your best bets are to either bring an income with you (via telecommuting) or to launch your own businesses. If possible, get those businesses established and profitable before you make your move.

In closing, I encourage you to make the move to the hinterboonies. It can be a great place to raise a family. But beforehand, be sure that you can support your family. – JWR

Letter: Starting a Manufacturing Business on a Tight Budget, by M.B.

In case you have not kept up with the Maker movement the last couple of years, great strides have happened in the average guys ability to build advanced micro-manufacturing facilities for very little money versus even a few years ago.

I will note that this discussion is not all inclusive as this field changes on a sometimes weekly basis.

The ability to do advanced manufacturing with relatively small amounts of money is the dirty secret of China’s present economic success.  I should know, since I have been there, I have friends in the industrial automation business who have been there, and I regularly import items from China, although my capacity to produce many of the the same items that I import is growing rapidly. The parts to make these items allow are sold in nearly every small town in China.  They sell stepper motors and automation equipment at the hardware stores in China. 

First off and the easiest to learn tool is a CO2 laser cutter.  Good quality 40 watt laser  engraver/cutters are now around $425 USD, plus shipping.  They do work, and I have bought several of them. While only having a small 8×10″ inch work area, they allow me to build larger things, and to produce higher value items like rubber stamps, 3D printers, key chains, signage, logo plates and even other CNC machines.

CNC routers and milling machines  have  come down substantially in price. I have a few routers and mini mills.  A fairly decent small mill can be now had for $800 and a good large router like the Mostly Printed CNC are as little  as  $500  in kit  form. (Files are  available  on on Thingiverse or it is available as a kit for $500 from the creator of the project.) Those two machines expand your manufacturing capability to be able to make other more advanced items and other machines.

The Mostly Printed CNC mill can even be used as a CNC plasma cutter.  For basically about $1,000 you can now have a table mill that cost $10,000 in 2006.

3D printers have become ubiquitous.  I picked up a very good Delta 3D printer, delivered as a kit for just $280. Being in the business of making printers myself, I was blown away by the quality that  I got from this inexpensive kit.  This tech has advanced immensely in the last year with machine reliability becoming very good.  I should mention that when I first started 3D printing, I nearly gave up on it  because it was so difficult to get it to work right with the print heads and other issues of the older-generation equipment. But everything has changed with the latest generation 3D printers. 

Injection molding machines are also now affordable. If you have the 3D printer and/or mill, then you can builda injection molder yourself or purchase a production model from someone like Many-Maker.  Your costs are under $1,000 for this. I have built a manually operated injection molder for less than $100.  This allows you to basically take advantage of the free money that is strewn in the streets and trash. (Namely, plastic.)  I can purchase used plastic for around 12 cents a pound or collect it for free.

Next, consider the CNC Lathe.  Used EMCO brand lathes are presently available for between $300 and $2,500 USD.  I am currently retrofitting one with more modern electronics and the total cost should be somewhere around $1,000.  Open builds has a 4-axis CNC design that will give you nearly the same results for about the same costs.

Casting metal is another inexpensive option. You can now safely melt and cast metal including aluminum in small amounts by the use of special crucibles that work in a microwave oven. These special crucibles absorb the energy and transfer it to the metal.  You can also build small gas-fired or AC electric crucibles with plans found all over the Internet. [JWR Adds: Glass fusing crucibles for microwave ovens are also now available. Find a used microwave oven for your workshoop. And never use that one for cooking!]

The investment of $10,000 can now get you the capacity of a shop that would have required the investment of several hundred thousand dollars only 10 years ago. Most of these machines do not use much electricity and they can easily be set up in a one car garage work space. 

Bottom  line: Your cost barrier to making things for a living, and selling them locally or online is now extremely low.

JWR Adds: I see the profusion of new home manufacturing technologies as part of the Internet-enabled Second Industrial Revolution. The advent of these many low-cost machines is something akin to when home treadle sewing machines first became widely available in the late 1800s.  Suddenly, almost everyone could afford one, and it revolutionized cottage industry. 

One manufacturing technology that M.B. did not mention was the advent of home vacuum forming of sheet plastic. A simple-to-construct vacuum box with an electric heating element and the hose from a Shop Vac can be used to turn ABS and other styrene sheet plastic into an amazing variety of shapes. Making the wrap-around molds takes patience and skill, but this is a proven technology. May the Maker Force be with you.

Odds ‘n Sods:

At Instructables: Best Solar Oven (Home-made!)

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Fresh details spur debate on Orlando police response

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Best Bug out Vehicles You Can Actually Afford (The Prepper Journal)

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Over at The Daily Caller:  State Department Won’t Release Clinton Foundation E-mails for 27 Months.   “Nothing to see here, move along.”

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She’s painted herself into a corner: Lynch to Accept F.B.I. Recommendations in Clinton Email Inquiry, Official Says.  My favorite quote in the article: “Ms. Lynch has said she wants to handle the Clinton investigation like any other case.” Ah-ha! This explains why she flew 2,500 miles at taxpayer expense to have a secret meeting with the defendant’s husband, while parked on the tarmac, with the Secret Service posted at a discreet distance, in Phoenix.  This was all just  talk about “grandchildren and golf”, we are told, with a straight face.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)

Notes for Friday – July 01, 2016

July 1st, 1863 was the beginning of the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg.

Today is also the birthday of actress Olivia DeHavilland (star of Gone With The Wind), actor Dan Aykroyd (co-star of The Blues Brothers),  and film director William Wyler (often remembered for his film Best Years of Our Lives.)

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Today, we present another entry for Round 65 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  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:

  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:

  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).

Round 65 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

A Call for Legislative Change – Part 2, by J.D.

(Continued from Part 1)

The third explanation is law, which is defined as the system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties. Let’s disagree with that definition, because clearly with millions of laws and regulations on the books to regulate our actions it doesn’t work. Our country’s prison system maintains over 5,000 jails with a population of nearly seven million. It doesn’t look like law regulates anything to include the definition of “actions”. I think we can argue ethics does regulate action, because it regards or concerns what is right and wrong in human behavior and is considered the study of proper action.

The fourth explanation is Moral Law and relates to moral behavior. Moral Law can be referred to as a system of guidelines for behavior, such as God’s Ten Commandments, for those who practice Christianity. These ethical principles have influenced the development of secular law within our society. Passing laws can be easy when politicians identify behavior that’s socially unacceptable. But what kind of behavior should government promote? Does government rule “we the people”? Government has tried to implement that behavior with millions of laws and regulations, and with a clear reflection I think we can agree that it doesn’t work.

The fifth explanation is Immoral Law. Dr. Martin Luther King, inhis letter from Birmingham Jail, argued segregation laws were immoral because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality (King, 7). So in relation to this explanation of immoral law at that time in America, it could be said: A law inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating because they did not have the right to vote. How does this example apply to our laws of today in regards to the minority of undocumented worker wages?

Government has created a byzantine maze of criminal law that is so incomprehensible that even legal specialists don’t agree on what the rules specify. And because of this, let’s talk about some solutions to ease or repeal our over regulated societies options to get us started down a path of common sense law making. First, laws should be subjected to cost-benefit analysis by an independent watchdog. Second, big regulations should have sunset clauses. Third, laws and regulations need to be written with much simpler language. Fourth, unreasonable judgments should be subject to swift appeal. And finally, the fifth and most important solution to repeal or ease our over-regulated society is jury nullification. We should consider it our fourth branch of government. Jury nullification can be explained when a jury returns a verdict of “Not Guilty” despite its belief that the defendant is guilty of the violation charged. The jury in effect nullifies a law that it believes is either immoral or wrongly applied to the defendant whose fate they are charged with deciding.

Jury nullification rests on two truths about the American criminal justice system: Jurors can never be punished for the verdict they return, and defendants cannot be retried once a jury has found them not guilty, regardless of the jury’s reasoning. As our third president, Thomas Jefferson, wrote to Thomas Paine in 1789 in a letter, which said, “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor, ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of the constitution.” Jury nullification is an ancient right first expressed in the Magna Carta and dating from Greek and Roman times. The lawyer Lysander Spooner explained the doctrine in Trial by Jury in 1852, saying, “It is not only the right and duty of juries to judge the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law; and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such laws.” In plain speak that means, the jury has a duty to judge the law as well as to judge the facts presented against the defendant, and if the law doesn’t agree with their conscious they have a moral obligation to acquit the accused because they believe the law immoral or unjust. Legal scholar Glenn Reynolds provides a strong defense of nullification:

Of course, prosecutors have essentially the same power, since they’re under no obligation to bring charges against even an obviously guilty defendant. But while the power of juries to let guilty people go free in the name of justice is treated as suspect and called “jury nullification,” the power of prosecutors to do the exact same thing is called “Prosecutorial discretion,” and is treated not as a bug, but as a feature in our justice system. But there’s no obvious reason why one is better than the other. Yes, prosecutors are professionals, but they’re also politicians, which means that their discretion may be employed politically. And they’re repeat players in the justice system, which makes them targets for corruption in a way that juries — laypeople who come together for a single case — aren’t. (Reynolds 1)

Our society is growing increasingly impatient with our judicial system and the bureaucrats that have created this monster. Our various levels of government do not grant or give us our rights. Politicians are voted in and sworn to recognize and protect our pre-existing and unalienable rights as guaranteed by our Constitution, which is based upon common sense law. And when lawmaking gets out of hand, the jury has a duty to express its power against an over regulated society by purging corruption from our judicial system when a law doesn’t pass its conscience and finds the accused not guilty. Enough, “Not Guilty” verdicts can redirect politicians and bureaucrats to reexamine or repeal the over-regulation and return our society to some common sense legislative work. The current system is out of order. Law is thought to be a structure for humans to make choices, not a substitute for volition.

Works Cited

“Fast Facts.” Fast Facts. National Center for Education Statistics, 01 May 2015. Web. 12 June 2016.

Andrade, Jane C. “New Laws for a New Year 2014.” National Conference of State Legislators. Public Affairs Director, 18 Dec. 2013. Web. 09 May 2016.

Bloomekatz, Ari. “Ball Playing, Frisbee Tossing Now Allowed on
L.A. County Beaches.” L.A. Times. L.A. Now, 07 Feb. 2012. Web. 12
June 2016.

Dawson, John W., and John J. Seater. “Federal Regulation and Aggregate Economic Growth.” The Sources of Economic Growth in OECD Countries (2013): 0. North Carolina State University. Department of Economics, 01 Jan. 2013. Web. 12 June 2016.

Glaze, Lauren E., and Danielle Kaeble. “Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013.” Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013 (n.d.): n. pag. U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs, 01 Dec. 2014. Web. 12 June 2016.

Howard, Philip K. “The Death Of Common Sense. (Cover Story).” U.S. News & World Report 118.4 (1995): 57. Vocational and Career Collection. Web. 5 May 2016.

King, Martin L. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.].” University of Pennsylvania. African Studies Center, n.d. Web. 12 June 2016.

McLaughlin, Patrick A., and Richard Williams. “Why We Need Regulatory Reform in Two Charts.” Mercatus Center, George Mason University. Mercatus Center, 27 May 2014. Web. 12 June 2016.

Reynolds, Glenn Harlan. “Reynolds: Nullifying Juries More Interested in Justice than Some Prosecutors.” USA Today. Gannett, 06 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 June 2016.

Stephan, James J. “Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities, 2005.” ICPSR Data Holdings (n.d.): n. pag. U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs, 01 Oct. 2008. Web. 12 June 2016.

Stossel, John. “America, the Law-crazed.” Townhall. n.p., 25 July 2012. Web. 09 May 2016.

Letter: Washable Cloth Toilet Wipes

Dear Editor:
I have a suggestion, prompted by my reading of the recent two-part SurvivalBlog article titled: “Sew and Grow, Save and Recycle Your Way Into Preparedness“:
Why go to all the trouble to cut and sew toilet wipes when you can simply use mass-produced bathroom washcloths? They are already the right size and will clean you up better than smooth cloth will.

I already have a large stash of thick washcloths that I bought at a thrift store, along with a case of rubber dishwashing gloves in various sizes. When all the toilet paper is gone, each family member gets a pair of rubber gloves and a washcloth with their name inked in permanent marker. When nature calls, first put on the rubber gloves, wet and wring out your washcloth, when done pooping: wipe, fold, wipe, fold and wipe again, then wash the washcloth and your hands while wearing the gloves. Be careful to not get the inside of the gloves wet. Hang both the gloves and your washcloth back up to dry until next time.

This sanitation method will also have the unintended benefit of forcing family members to self-regulate their bowel voiding patterns, since no one wants to do the icky job more than once per day. Regards, – L.E.

JWR Replies:  That is a good suggestion. But, regardless of what sort of cloth is chosen, be sure to store plenty of bleach, for your laundry days! And, of course, you will need a diaper-style bucket with a tight-fitting lid to store the soiled wipes in a weak bleach solution until your periodic laundry days.

Letter Re: Pre-1965 90% Silver Coins are the Best Defense Against Counterfeits

James,
That was an excellent letter sent recently by “The Silver Bull” (Pre-1965 90% Silver Coins are the Best Defense Against Counterfeits).  Regarding his suggestion of  pre-1965 “junk” 90% silver coins,  I’d like to ask  a question: Are the 1 Troy ounce U.S. Mint American Eagles purchased from dealers considered suspect for counterfeiting? I know that are when purchased through eBay. There is some good counterfeit-spotting tutorials available on YouTube. I appreciate what he is saying.

By the way,, my favorite precious metals remain quality brass, lead, and copper in 5.56 and 7.62. Thanks for all you do. – RetiredPara

JWR Replies: With the recent profusion of counterfeits from mainland China, ALL Morgan and Peace silver dollars, and ALL silver bullion coins and ingots should now be considered suspect as fakes, regardless of where you buy them, unless perhaps you are buying them in a sealed Mint Monster Box or out of a verified old family cache.  (If you are buying tarnished old “Christmas” ingots with dates from the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s, then you are probably safe.)  My general advice is to buy coins only from trusted, well-established dealers, and get confirmation that they have checked their coins for authenticity. 

In the end, however, there is no sure substitute for checking for yourself.  I strongly recommend that every family that is serious about precious metals investing get themselves a full set of Fisch Instruments brand coin calipers/scales. These employ a very clever design, made in South Africa. Each “Fisch” provide four tests is one device: A coin diameter and shape caliper inset portion, a coin thickness caliper slot, and a coin weight teeter-totter.  The most clever fake might be able to pass one of these tests, but no fake can pass all four! It is noteworthy that Fisch Instruments was a SurvivalBlog advertiser for several years and I can vouchsafe that the Fisch method is wonderfully reliable, and simple to use. I have two full binders their calipers–one for silver coins and one for gold–and I use them whenever I go coin shopping. 

An Important Closing Note: Remember that once you walk out the door of any coin shop, if you later discover a counterfeit and then come back to confront the seller, they could claim that you are presenting them with a different coin than the one that they sold you.  Therefore, it is essential that you do your tests before you leave with your newly-purchased coins!