Notes for Monday – March 07, 2016

I was saddened to hear that former First Lady Nancy Reagan passed away on March 6th, at age 94. She was born Anne Frances Robbins, on July 6, 1921. She was a devoted Presbyterian Christian. Although their marriage was Ronald Reagan’s second marriage, they were inseparable. In many ways, she was a much more glamorous First Lady than Jackie Kennedy. I’d recommend avoiding Kitty Kelley’s unauthorized biography on Nancy Reagan, which was a hatchet piece.  Instead, I recommend:
Reagan: The Life, by H.W. Brands. That biography includes quite a bit about Nancy Reagan.

March 7, 1707 was the birthday of Stephen Hopkins, (Governor of Rhode Island) one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

March 7, 1925 was the birthday of Rene Gagnon, a US Marine who was seen in the famous photographs of the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. (He died in 1979 in his home town, Manchester, New Hampshire.)

And March 7, 1944 was also the birthday of Townes Van Zandt, a gifted Texan songwriter. (He died in 1997.)

Occupy Wall Street Versus Occupy Malheur: Clear Cases of Selective Prosecution

This news headline makes it clear that the BHO Administration is widening their net:  Nevada Standoff Indictment Names Bundys, Five More.  These “add-on” indictments are quite troubling. I believe that the assessment by Brandon Smith’s (previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog) may be correct:  A Warning To The Feds On Incremental Prosecutions Of The Liberty Movement.  There may be dozens of more indictments of people who attended the Bundy Ranch protests in 2014 that filter out over a the next six to nine months.

Let’s draw a comparison: There were overt and quite visible physical threats and considerable actual violence in the “Occupy (Wherever)” protests of 2011 and 2012–particularly Occupy Oakland (rock throwing), Occupy Portland (Molotov Cocktail throwing) and Occupy Fort Collins ($10 million in arson damage.) But the Malheur occupiers and Bundy Ranch protesters who never pointed a gun at anyone are being selectively prosecuted. This smacks of partisan politics.  (Note: The Occupy Wall Street (and Wherever) crowd were leftists and hence media darlings, despite their scruffiness and uncouth public ablutions. It is noteworthy that they received zero Federal indictments for conspiracy. In fact only a few of them got local charges, and only then for overt acts of violence, not conspiracy.)

Whenever politics rather than the facts are the main drivers for felony prosecutions, then the end result is rounding up political prisoners.

As I’ve written before: It is important to pick your fights wisely. Discretion is a virtue. Perspicacity is a virtue. Silence is a virtue. Yes, America needs to have some proactive Tyranny Response Teams ready to travel on short notice. But ending up in prison for 40+ years just for being a protester or for being a journalist covering a protest event is a sub-optimal outcome. As previously noted, carrying press credentials could be advantage.  You can get press credentials free of charge, though our spin-off web site: CFAPA.org.

Avoiding prosecution in future protests and confrontations may come down to camouflage, tradecraft, and wise discretion. As I’ve mentioned in my blog previously: Because the owners of vehicles are easily identifiable, it is probably best to park a long distance away from a protest, and hike in. And if you park off the street (with permission) on private property where in most jurisdictions you can legally remove license plates, it is important to also cover up the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on your dashboard, which can be photographed through your car or truck’s windshield.

A few notes on visibility and identifiability:  Check state an local laws before attending a protest wearing a face mask.  (It is illegal in some jurisdictions. But where it is legal, then depending on the circumstances you might consider attending as Guy Fawkes.) It is very difficult to prosecute “an unidentified protester seen wearing woodland pattern camos and a mesh face mask”, but it is very easy to prosecute someone who sits down in a lawn chair and gives interviews to the press.

Likewise, it is best to leave at home any guns or gear that have been customized in any readily-identifiable way. By this I mean custom-made pouches, slings, or boots, guns with unusually distinctive modifications (such and hand-painted camouflage) or an odd combination of features. Ditto for any visible magazines that have painted-on numbers.)  Remember, ARs are modular like a Barbie Doll collection–you can mix and match the accessories.  So if you attend a public protest, I recommend that you bring one of your most “generic”-looking guns, such as an AR with just factory furniture or MagPul MOE furniture, and a generic red dot scope.  Even the unique wear patterns on faded denim blue jeans have been used to identify masked men. On another note, it is important that you carry your rifle slung over your shoulder, so that you won’t be charged with “brandishing a firearm”. Under most state laws, a holstered pistol or a slung rifle does not constitute an overt threat or meet the legal threshold of brandishing. Such laws, by the way are statutory mala prohibitium crimes, rather then a mala in se.)

It is ironic that the Federal government is prosecuting the Bundy Ranch and Malheur Ranch protesters with “conspiracy to intimidate”, when in fact it was their own sworn officers who were the ones doing all of the intimidating. And they were the only ones who did any killing. Now they are following up by suppressing evidence–by only releasing one grainy video of the shooting shot from a long distance and no audio, which would have told us how many shots were fired, and when.  (Many people now contend that Lavoy Finicum only dropped his hands after he had been shot.)

There is one other point that seems to be overlooked in the media accounts of these arrests and indictments:  Several of the recent Federal indictments seem to be predicated upon the erroneous assumption that carrying a gun is somehow in and of itself intimidating. That is a fatuous argument.  Someone choosing to exercise their First Amendment right to attend or journalistically record a public protest does not nullify their Second Amendment right to also bear a firearm in a public place. The two rights are not mutually exclusive. Instead, it was our Founding Fathers’ intent that these rights be mutually supporting. (It is the Second Amendment that is the de facto insurance policy for the rest of the Bill of Rights.)

Only an unconstitutional tyrant should feel intimidated by the sight of guns at public meetings, and only then because they feel guilt and shame for their tyrannical actions. If anyone expresses such angst, then I contend that they either have an irrational fear of guns, or that they themselves are a tyrant (or a tyrant’s sycophant), at heart. – JWR

(Note: Permission is granted for re-posting of this entire article, but only if done so in full, with proper attribution to James Wesley, Rawles and SurvivalBlog, and only if the included links are preserved.)

Pat Cascio’s Product Review: North American Arms .32 Auto– A Closer Look

Over the years, I’ve gotten quite a few requests for a followup article on a gun I tested either on SurvivalBlog.com or when I was writing for the printed gun magazines. I usually decline to do these articles for several reasons. First of all, it’s next to impossible to get one of the firearms printed magazines to accept a followup article. Secondly, I can’t duplicate the torture tests that most gun makers put their guns through. However, I have received quite a few requests for a followup article and report on several firearms I’ve tested for SurvivalBlog.com, and I thought I’d do a couple articles for our readers.

Some time ago, I did an article on the North American Arms .32 ACP Guardian, which you can find in the blog archives. I was favorably impressed with this little gun, in more ways than one. We are talking about a .32 ACP round, fired in a little back-up gun, the size of a .25 ACP pistol. Yes! I don’t want to rehash what I wrote in the first article, but I wanted to give an updated report on this little gun, with long-term testing and with some different ammo.

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Tim Sundles, who owns Buffalo Bore Ammunition, is one of the few premium ammo makers who produces some +P .32 ACPammo. Now, the NAA owner’s guide says that their guns can shoot just about any kind of ammo, but I’m thinking that any longer-term shooting with a +P load in any of their guns isn’t the way to go. There is a lot of pressure behind any +P round, especially in a little hide out handgun. Still, I ran a lot of Buffalo Bore +P rounds through the little NAA Guardian .32 ACP. The round I first tested was the Buffalo Bore 75-gr Hard Cast FN round – a +P round, and it is one that Sundles recommends, if you’re going to carry a “mouse round” like the .32 ACP. I concur with Sundles; penetration is more important than expansion in these calibers.

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Now, since my first testing with the NAA .32 Guardian in .32 ACP, Buffalo Bore added a 60-gr Barnes TAC XP +P all-copper, hollow point loading to their line-up, and I requested some for testing in this article. I also ran some Remington .32 ACP FMJ and Fiocchio .32 ACP FMJ through the little Guardian.

To be sure, the Guardian isn’t a gun you want to go out and fire a couple hundred rounds through, in one shooting session. The Guardian is a very small pistol. It’s hard to hold on to, and it only weighs 14 oz. While the trigger pull is double action only and extremely smooth, it feels heavier than the advertised 10-lb trigger pull. I believe this is because the gun is so small and a little hard to hold onto, plus the trigger pull is long (I believe one of those lawyer liability things, so there won’t be an accidental discharge). There is no manual safety on the Guardian. Still, the trigger pull is smooth, just long. I just didn’t care to fire more than a box or a box and a half of ammo through the Guardian in one shooting session. Usually, 50-60 rounds was it and I’d call it a day.

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The Guardian perked along just fine, even with the Buffalo Bore two +P loads, especially the 75-gr Hard Cast FN round. There were zero problems with the Fiocchio and Remington FMJ loads. The Buffalo Bore 60-gr Barnes TAC XP load fed and fired just fine, for a while. Then, for some reason, I started having some feeding and extraction problems with this load. I kept the Guardian clean and well-lubed, so that wasn’t the problem. The chamber was also smooth, so I don’t know why the Guardian just stopped liking this load. About all I can think of is that this load, with that light bullet that is +P, was just causing the slice to move a bit too fast and it wasn’t picking-up rounds from the magazine and the slide was closing too fast, for the spent casing to fully eject. On average, I’d get one or two feeding or extraction problems per magazine. Still, when I first started shooting this ammo, the gun worked fine. It wasn’t until I went through several boxes of this ammo that the malfunctions started to appear!

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I don’t care how reliable any firearm is, you will find certain brands or types of ammo that it just won’t reliably work with; this is true with any gun!! It’s just strange that the Buffalo Bore TAC XP load worked perfectly for awhile and then started having problems. Plus, I had several spare magazines on-hand, and it was the same with all the mags. So, it wasn’t a magazine problem.

As I pointed out in my first article on the Guardian, I wouldn’t carry a gun chambered in .32 ACP as my one and only gun. However, it makes a dandy back-up gun, carried in a Black Hawk Products ankle holster or any ankle holster, or even in a pocket holster. North American Arms carries a pretty good selection of holsters and spare magazines plus different types of grips for all their guns. Way to go! So, finding a holster to work with any NAA handgun won’t be a problem. My wife “confiscated” the clip-on pouch that doesn’t look like a holster, and she often carries the Guardian in it on her walks down our road with a German Shepherd at her side.

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Now, to drive home the point that Tim Sundles made about penetration vs expansion in mouse calibers, during my testing with the Buffalo Bore 60-gr Barnes TAC XP +P load, it expanded nicely and went through two gallon jugs of water, just barely exiting the back of the second jug, and it expanded nicely. (See the pictures.) However, one of these rounds happened to just nick the plastic patio chair, an old one I had the water jugs on, and it caught just enough of the plastic that the hollow point didn’t open up. The Buffalo Bore 75-gr Hard Cast FN loads really penetrated. I never recovered one, and I fired them into four water jugs. That’s what we’re talking about. You must have enough penetration in order for any round to do their job.

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While the other FMJ loads are fine for target practice, I wouldn’t want to carry one for self defense. You see, while they do penetrate, if they hard bone they will deflect, unlike the Buffalo Bore Hard Cast FN bullet that will crush and punch right through bone doing a lot more damage than the FMJ bullets do.

In all my testing, I have probably run about 1,000 rounds through the little Guardian. Once again, this isn’t a gun you want to fire a lot of rounds through in one shooting session. Then again, it wasn’t designed for that. It is designed for up-close and personal self-defense work with the right loads. My choice would be the Buffalo Bore 75-gr Hard Cast FN load – a +P load that will surely give you all the penetration you need.

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I did find that, if I shot the Guardian for an extended period of time, I was experiencing trigger slap or something akin to it and my trigger finger started getting sore. Once again, it’s not the fault of the gun. This gun wasn’t designed as a target pistol or one you take out to the range and shoot for a couple hours. It’s intended purpose is that of a hide-out, self-defense handgun that you can have on your person all of the time. It beats throwing stones or carrying a stick; that’s for sure.

I found that, with the little pinky catcher floor plate on the magazines, I could get some better groups. All accuracy testing was done at five yards. The groups were a bit tighter, and I believe that’s because I could get a better grip on the gun. It didn’t flip as much in my hand.

Now, to be sure, the NAA Guardian .32 ACP isn’t a cheap (as in cheaply made) little hide-out handgun. It is made out of stainless steel, and the quality is there. The gun is very well made and worth the price. It’s not going to shoot loose, like many other little guns do. Some gun makers only claim that their guns are warranted for “X” number of rounds. Really? If you shoot more than that, the gun falls apart? Strange. There are no worries with the Guardian. It is little but build extremely strong. Compare a Guardian to any similar hide out pistol and you will readily see the quality is there in the Guardian.

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I hope this long-term testing update answers some of the questions I’ve gotten on the NAA Guardian .32 ACP. Oh, and one other reason for not doing many follow-up articles is the cost of ammo. Yes, I do get some of my ammo for free, like from Buffalo Bore. However, I spend a lot on ammo out of my own pocket, and .32 ACP ammo isn’t inexpensive these days. I plan on doing one or two more long-term testing articles/follow-up pieces this year on a few other popular handguns I tested.

The little NAA Guardian .32 ACP is well worth the money, if you ask me, and it will give you a lifetime of service. Just make sure that, you run at least a hundred rounds of ammo through it and use the ammo you want to carry in the gun for self-defense purposes to make sure there aren’t any problems.

– Senior Product Review Editor, Pat Cascio

Sarah Latimer: Unrealized Expectations – Part 2

In continuing with the idea of not relying upon others for the “sweet” wants and needs we have, here are a few more ideas that you can provide for yourself (and feel quite good about your independence in doing so!):

  • Fresh and Dried Fruits and Vegetables– Want organic, highly nutritious fresh or dried fruits and vegetables year around, economically? Plant fruit trees and bushes and grow a garden as well as consider using a greenhouse for winter produce. Then, can, freeze, dehydrate, and/or freeze dry your excess produce for later seasonal use. We are still enjoying freeze-dried cubed tomatoes from our garden in late February. Our family is spoiled with my salsa, so I freeze-dry it and then can whip up a 4-ounce bowl of it in a matter of seconds that tastes like it is fresh. It is so much better than the canned (cooked) salsa or store-bought! Using the freezer for produce storage is a risk in the event the grid goes down, unless you have a generator and a very large supply of fuel to keep it running long term. Also, the noise of the generator may attract undue attention by those who are without food and looking for resources. I use the freezer as a holding place while food is waiting to go into the freeze-dryer or dehydrator during the peak garden season and when the meat has just been processed. Our Harvest Right Freeze Dryer has been a fantastic investment in that we have ingredients and also pre-cooked meals vacuum sealed in canning jars that only require hot water to prepare. When the hordes start literally sniffing out food due to their hunger-induced heightened sense of smell, we will only need a few minutes to prepare and consume our delicious meals. It will be gone before the smell leaves the kitchen. All of this work in preparation at the end of the day makes me think it is time for a long, hot spa bath.
  • Aromatherapy Bath Soak– Do you enjoy an aromatherapy salt bath and miss the big city spa treatment for your achy muscles? Make your own with a bit of epsom salt, baking soda, and essential oil, or even better use a sachet of dried herbs from your own gardens. You can use peppermint and/or rosemary to rejuvenate or chamomile and/or lavender to relax. It is easy to just use a large, disposable tea bag or two from Amazon as a sachet for the herbs in your hot tub water. Put several tablespoons of the herbs inside the paper tea bag, twist the top of the bag, wrap the string around and tuck it under to tie it off. As soon as you begin drawing your hot water into the tub, add two cups of epsom salt and 1/2 cup of baking soda, and stir it around to dissolve it. Then place the tea bag(s) at the back of the tub so that it is not under the water faucet (as it is fragile and might tear under water pressure). Let the tea bag seep for a few minutes before getting in. Leave the tea bag in the tub while you enjoy the invigorating or relaxing aroma during your bath. Who needs to pay for a fancy spa day when you can make your own at home? Light a few candles, turn on some music, and enjoy yourself in your own remote Redoubt nest!
  • Whole-grain Breads, Pasta, and Cereals- Want wonderful, freshly baked whole grain breads, pastas, pastries, and even multi-grain hot cereals? Make your own! With our Country Living Grain Mill and motorized attachment, we are able to produce whole wheat and other grain flours that are almost as fine as powdered sugar or that can be ground coarse for cereal. It is amazing! I make a whole wheat angel food cake that is the best angel food cake ever. (I’ll share my original recipe at some point in the near future.) We are able to make wonderful whole wheat sandwich/everyday loaves from freshly cracked wheat berries so that we are getting the live wheat germ and more protein and fiber than what you get from store-bought whole wheat flour, yet we have the fine fluffy texture of fine bread flours, using winter white wheat berries. I could make croissants with this flour! I use it to make whole wheat pasta dough, the best pan pizza ever, and Hugh has a custom, coarse multi-grain hot cereal blend that he makes of oats, flax, millet, (homegrown) corn, and wheat that is so delicious and filling when boiled and then topped with a dot of butter and sugar/sweetener. Who needs a bakery when we can do it ourselves! (I’ll likely have a whole article or series on breads and pastries in the future, so hang on.)
  • Sewing/quilting, aromatherapy, herbal medicine/natural healthcare, candle-making, beekeeping, soap-making, woodworking/furniture making, metal tooling/welding, knife-sharpening, leather cutting/tooling/sewing, mechanical/electrical work, bookbinding, plumbing, photography, music, entertainment, and more– these are all things that our immediate family members provide for ourselves.

    By providing our own wants and needs, we actually often spoil ourselves with higher quality, much healthier items than what are generally available at the stores, and we often enjoy these things that many consider “luxuries” on a more regular basis than most people, because we provide them for ourselves in abundance using predominantly our own renewable resources. We work hard, but at the end of the day we have the resources we need to make sure we have what we need and what we enjoy! We aren’t dependent upon many others to make our creature comforts come true either. It goes deeper than all that. We can share these pleasures with others, too, and that makes us happy.

    For example, we enjoy herbal, flavored teas for free (or nearly free) from our own gardens and fresh roasted coffee every day (though the coffee is purchased green in bulk for less than eight cents per cup and vacuum sealed until we roast it several times a week), and we enjoy a variety of fresh breads, pastries, and/or desserts daily. Whole Wheat Orange-Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls were on the breakfast menu this morning with scrambled eggs, which were provided courtesy of our chickens, which eat our vegetables scraps, weeds, grasses and seeds, and our cast off organic coconut cooking oil in addition to chicken crumbles and scratch. Almost all of the food waste at our homestead gets recycled to one of the animals or into the garden compost. We do not waste; we enjoy!

  • Though I hinted to it above, the last but certainly not the least of ways that I deal with unrealized expectations, is to look for ways to serve others rather than ways that others can serve (or should have served) me, especially within my marriage and home but also in my extended family, group, or community. If I choose to focus on the needs of others rather than on my feelings and expectations that I set myself as well as demands that I engineered unrealistically for someone else, I can more quickly move on and shake off the emotions (whether anger, frustration, or hurt) over someone “failing” these often unexpressed or unrealistic expectations. I realize there are times that, as a woman, I expect my men to read between the lines and somehow know that I wanted something when I didn’t, figuratively of course, “hit them over the head” with the actual words. Somehow, even though I didn’t tell them what I needed or wanted, I still feel disappointment that they didn’t “get it”. My head knows how ridiculous it is that I had these expectations, but my heart is disappointed none the same. This sometimes even happens between women and also in business dealings when terms of agreements are not detailed in writing. Someone makes assumptions that the other does not. We have to learn to negotiate and get beyond the emotions to work through the matter. It’s a fact of life. However, we women are emotional beings, but we must capture our unreasonable emotions and turn those passionate feelings into good actions rather than destructive ones. We have to love rather than grow bitter and angry. It is part of our cherished role in the community of family to be the nurturer and lover, but if we hold on too tightly to our disappointments we will lose sight of this. Don’t do it! Let go! Move on! Put your big girl skirt on and add a smile and give that baggage to the Lord. He can handle what will bring you down. You have too much life to live to let those past disappointments keep you from an adventurous and loving future with people who enjoy your company.

    I’ve learned to simply stop and pray and then choose to look for opportunities to meet the needs of others around me. How? Usually, a simple prayer asking the Lord to show me someone’s need or desire and how I can fill it produces results quite quickly. In giving joy to others and meeting a need, I receive a great blessing and can fix my eyes on godly things and others, whom I am put here to serve. It sometimes can be difficult to get into that mindset. Sometimes, we don’t feel like giving because we feel like everyone is taking from us without giving to us. When I get that kind of “stinkin’ thinkin’” going on, it is because I’m getting a selfish streak. I have to remember that the world does not revolve around me, and that I am looking at things through my own skewed mental balance sheet or invisible scale that is probably far from accurate. If my basic needs are met, then focusing on helping others with theirs will give me a great satisfaction and fulfillment, and it will help me learn to be grateful for what I have when I see others with less, because there are always lots of people with less than any of us. We are all truly put here to give God glory and to serve Him and one another rather than to focus all our energies on being served ourselves.

    Just the fact that most of us live in the U.S. means we live well, even wealthy by most standards when compared to the rest of the world. Think about so many in Greece who are losing their homes and in Venezuela who don’t even have toilet paper! There are many in the Middle East who have lost everything, and children in Israel who go to school every morning after hearing bombs go off in the nights, looking to see which students or teachers aren’t at school that day and were killed or injured the night before. Many are losing jobs or are getting pay cuts, and it is getting rough right here in the U.S., but remember that we still are blessed with much more than many. If you have resources, whether it is stuff, money, energy, and/or time, give a little to those who God puts in your path or heart. They may be in your home or they may not. There are elderly people forgotten in your community nursing homes and orphans feeling a bit neglected in children’s homes or crowded foster care. There are shut-ins and people fighting in hospitals with little or no family to help them through their battles with disease. There are children needing an interested adult to cheer for them and teach them some practical skills.

    As a prepper, you have a lot of practical knowledge that you can pass on to others in need. A family who has lost their income could benefit from some shared garden seeds. Your family could til a garden spot for them this spring, share some of your collected seeds, and help them put in a garden so that they can grow their own food. You’ll be providing food for them and teaching them how to provide for themselves going forward. In your marriage, pay attention to the small things that make your spouse happy and do those “for no reason at all, except that you love and appreciate having him in your life.” You will find that this will be a great encouragement to your husband. When times are hard, as they are becoming, the little things we do to bring pleasure to our loved ones, like preparing a favorite breakfast or dessert or sending a love note in their briefcase or lunchbox, or cleaning something they particularly like to have clean and orderly, goes a long way. You can also gift a little gift by packaging some of those treats mentioned above (teas, candy bars, bath salts, and so forth).

    Seeing their burden’s weight lifted a litttle bit through your efforts will make your heart soar a bit, too. Just be cautious about who you contact outside of your home or trusted friend group. If you are going to see someone outside of your “safe” and local community and if you going into the city to a city hospital to visit someone, be sure you take your get home bag and preparations and also take a friend or family member with you. Be sure your husband is aware of where you are going, that you are always alert, able to defend yourself, and have a plan of how to get to safety quickly. Also, pray thoroughly before venturing into new territory to reach a hand out to any “stranger” or enter into a danger zone. It is my strong advice that women need to reach out to women and men to men, and it is still a good idea to meet someone you don’t know well in a public place, have someone with you, and be prepared to defend yourself with force, if the need arises. Always be prepared to defend yourself and extend yourself, as God leads. He is our reason for living, and He cares for His own!

    Don’t just survive, but thrive and live well!

Recipe of the Week: Super Lasagna, by P.L.

Ingredients:

  • ¾ lb lean ground beef
  • ½ lb lean ground pork
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 (16oz) can tomatoes, cut up
  • 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
  • 1 beef bouillon cube, crushed
  • 1 tbs parsley flakes
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp crushed basil
  • 1 pt. cottage cheese (16oz)
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp crushed oregano
  • 8oz lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
  • 8oz mozzarella cheese, sliced

Directions:

  1. In a large skillet or slow-cooking pot with browning unit, cook and stir beef, pork, onion, and garlic. Drain off excess fat.
  2. In a slow-cooking pot, combine drained beef, pork, onion, and garlic with tomatoes, tomato sauce, bouillon cube, parsley, sugar, salt, and basil.
  3. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
  4. Mix cottage cheese, ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, and oregano.
  5. In a 13x9in pan, layer half the cooked noodles, sauce, mozzarella cheese, and cottage cheese mixture; repeat, reserving enough sauce for layer on top.
  6. Sprinkle with ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese.
  7. Bake in 350°F oven for 45 minutes.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.

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Letter: Advice on Establishing Retreat Group SOPs

Dear Mr Rawles:
I wanted to reach out. I am now reading your novel Patriots and in it the topic of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is addressed. Do you all have a good template example to help me get started in this arena?

Thanks, – Jon B.

JWR Replies:  There are no “one size fits all” SOPs. Your SOPs should definitely be tailored to your particular circumstances.

Military SOPs are usually a good starting point.  (These include: immediate action drills, perimeter security (including challenge and password), patrolling, field sanitation, communications CEOI procedures, OPSEC, COMSEC, et cetera.)  I don’t want to sound self-promotional, but I must mention that there are more than 2,000 U.S. military manuals and training circulars included on the Bonus DVD included with our latest 10-year SurvivalBlog Archive DVD. The set is quite reasonably priced. Note, however, that you can find earlier editions of many of the same manuals out on the Internet, if you invest some time in searching. Sadly, however, many of the latest manuals and many that are marked FOUO (For Official Use Only) are now hidden behind the password-protected firewall of the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) database. But the good news is that we obtained copies of the quite recent editions for inclusion on our DVD.

With access to U.S. military manuals you will find many dozens of quite well-written and “mature” SOPs and crew drills. These are nearly all based on the Lessons Learned from countless thousands of hours of real-world military experience. Most of these SOPs were developed while operating in austere environments.  I can’t think of any better starting place for writing your own SOPs.

Letter Re: Know Your Limits

Dear Sir,
Regarding the article in SurvivalBlog by “Molon Labe” titled: Know Your Limits: The thing is to also know your real personal limits.  Too many people think that if “I have this gun and this ammo then I can hit anything.”  I recently tried to talk some sense into a guy who was looking at a $3,000 .338 Lapua Magnum rifle with a $5,000 scope in a sports shop.  He was looking at it as his first firearm. I tried talking him out of it.  He insisted that he had friends who were snipers so he knew what to do. The guy was in his fifties.  I could only stare at him.  I agree that shooters shouldn’t buy junk–since you cannot get better at shooting, when you are shooting junk like a shot-out Mosin Nagant. But you should be realistic about what your abilities are. He asked me what I thought about the rifle. I said it was nice.  He asked me if I would buy it. I said no. It was more rifle than I would ever use. I do not shoot past 400 yards.  It would be nice to be able to shoot at 1,000 yards but let’s be realistic. He dismissed my advice and called me a “Wanna-Be”, once we got into a rifle care and bore breaking-in conversation.  His friends and blog buddies said that he needed to “Buy big.”  Apparently once you pay big bucks rifles all shoot sub-minute of angle groups, right out of the box. “No need to sight them in if the store mounts and bore sights the rifle.” 

The sad truth is that some people are just poor shooters, right out of the box.  No amount of practice on their own will get them much better.  Maybe they should stick to shooting under 200 yards with a rifle.  With a deer you are wasting meat if you wound it and it gets away but with two-legged coyotes if you miss then all you have done is give away your position at best and at worst really infuriated them. 

As for pistols, I have seen trained people miss at ten feet consistently. It would be nice if people only ever pulled the trigger when absolutely sure of the shot but we all know that is never going to be reality.  The best they can do is practice under the tutelage of someone who is better, and learn what their abilities with their firearm really are, so that when the time comes they’ll have the best chance of getting it right.  – Byron A.

 JWR Replies:  I concur wholeheartedly about the need for training. I would much rather have a $2,000 scoped rifle with great training than I would a $4,000 scoped rifle and no training.  Get the best training available, folks!  For long range rifle shooting, you should talk to the folks at Gunsite in Arizona, or at Darrell Holland’s school in Oregon. I can promise you that for even most “experienced” shooters, in three or four days you will gain more knowledge and skill in rifle shooting that you’ve already accumulated in your lifetime.

Economics and Investing:

I see bubbles bursting everywhere: Top academic Vikram Mansharaman

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Reader D.S. mentioned this troubling news, over at Forbes: 
How Fiduciary Rule May Censor Financial Broadcasters Like Dave Ramsey

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Fed Proposes New Limits on Big Banks’ Exposure to Each Other (Reuters)

Jobs Report Reveals Lingering Long-Term Unemployment (Washington Examiner)

GAO Study Documents Massive Fraud Likely in Obamacare Exchanges (Contra Corner)

International News

Debt
“Explosion” Awaits Unless Policymakers Defuse Demographic Time Bomb, Warns IMF Chief (The Telegraph)

EU’s Tusk Warnes Illegal Economic Migrants: Do Not Come Here (BBC News)

Brazilian
Economy’s Steep Slide Raises Specter of Depression (Reuters)

Personal Economics and Household Finance

Facebook Quizzes Could Make You Vulnerable to Hackers (Clark Howard) Excerpt: “…the quizzes could be a dangerous link that could either take data directly from your Facebook account or have you unknowingly download malware to your PC.”

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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:

Reader Mr. N. suggested a great multi-part article, over at WeaponsMan:  Caching Your Guns for a Civil War. (A total of four installments are planned.)

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Woo-hoo!  West Virginia Lawmakers Override Veto: Permitless Carry ‘Becomes Law In 90 Days’. The advancing Constitutional Carry wave continues!

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SOFREP News: U.S. ramping up cyber warfare on ISIS

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FBI investigating if Clinton aides shared passwords to access classified info

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“To my young friends out there: Life can be great, but not when you can’t see it. So, open your eyes to life: to see it in the vivid colors that God gave us as a precious gift to His children, to enjoy life to the fullest, and to make it count. Say yes to your life.” – Nancy Reagan

Notes for Sunday – March 06, 2016

March 6th was the birthday of Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper Jr., (born 1927. in Shawnee, Oklahoma.) He was a US Air Force pilot and astronaut, aboard Mercury 9 and Gemini 5. Cooper had his pre-Mercury mission exploits and hijinx arewell documented in Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff, and in the very entertaining film of the same name. Cooper died at age 77 of heart failure, at his home in Ventura, California, on October 4, 2004.

Coincidentally, this is also the birthday of Valentina Tereshkova (born 1937), a Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman in space (aboard Vostok 6). She was born in Maslennikovo, USSR. At last report she was 78 years old, and still in good health.

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Today, we present another entry for Round 63 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, chromlined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR type rifle to have 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 both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304, 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. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knifemaker 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 63 ends on March 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.

Noisy Cows and Other Animal Noise Issues, by B.O.C.

I will start this by saying my farm experience range from South Florida to Maine and in climates in between. I also have experience from hobby farming to production on a large scale. From rabbits, chickens, pigs to beef and milking animals. My tenure in these areas has encompassed about 30 years of my life in one form or another. A lot of this is some common sense as well, so forgive me if I dumb this down too much.

A few days ago I read an article on this site about the farms in Venezuela and their government taking them over. (The country is running out out of food.) So that brings me to how to conceal the presence of these animals. Whether you are in a remote location or living at a well-known farm, your animals will make noise. One of the purposes of this writing is to minimize this risk, from people finding your animals or more importantly you. Animal OPSEC, if you will.

Let us look at why your animals will make noises. Animals make noise when they are in pain, a lack of their required food or water, for communication with each other (mating or just “Hey I am here”), a danger warning, territorial warning, coughing, and so on.

Small animals like chickens and roosters and rabbits are common, and their noises are easy to recognized. Roosters crow as we all know but the reasons will vary. For the most part if you have one, everyone knows you have one. The crow of the rooster serves as a territory marker and to say ” Hey don’t go too far lady birds, because I am here.” If you have more than one rooster you will have much more crowing obviously, but what you may not know is this: A single rooster will crow at a normal rate, two roosters will increase their crowing by a factor of four or more. This is due to competition between them. Chickens can and sometimes crow as well, but it is not the norm for them. Danger sounds from chicken and roosters are on the higher end of the sound scale and do not travel too far, as far as us humans can hear. General chicken noises are clucks or bauks and for the most part just a small noise. When in danger these noises are much louder and have wing flapping along with them and the sound will travel farther. To help offset these noises you will have a few options but they are worth mentioning. The type of chickens you choose to have is the greatest impact on noise. Some breeds are naturally not as quiet as others. You will have to make these choices for yourself, based upon what it is you want your chickens to do–either for egg layers or for meat, or both.

Rabbits for the most part are very quiet animals. When in danger or in pain they can and do make a horrid noise, a screechy high pitch scream is the best way I know to describe it. All and all they are not a concern. [JWR Adds: Perhaps the biggest noise concern for rabbits is the sound of rabbits thumping on the floors of wire cages.]

Pigs and goats are among the noisiest animals we have on the farm. These two types of animals as very human social. They like you and want to spend time with you. Goats more so than pigs. You can train your pigs to keep the noise down, but goats not so well. Pigs for the most part are their nosiest at feeding time if they are not getting all the food that they need. These squeals are ear piercing and do travel a good distance. Pigs will also sometimes fight to establish there “pecking order”. This does not last long but it is still a problem when it comes to OPSEC. Feeding Sows can be a bit of a noise concern. They do emit a low grunt for the entire feeding time for their piglets, so just be aware of it. In general pigs aren’t an issue unless they see you. I can be outside our barn and never know there are pigs in there until they smell me or see me or there is a noise that they associate with me. So in general pigs grunt and squeal. For the most part they are calm and do well, but there are always a few very noisy exceptions to this and these exceptions may require a culling depending on the circumstances. You can train pigs. Yep, they are as smart as dogs if not more so. So you can train them to keep the noise down aswell but this is only if you have the time to do so. Training apig is just like training a puppy. I will warn you: make sure you are training the pig and that the pig is not training you. Again, they are smart animals.

Goats are very human social. They want to be near us and love to walk and talk with you, even if they are the only ones carrying on the conversation. Some breeds of goats will make their goat baying for just about any reason. Like the pigs this is increased if they know I or someone is around or think they hear me. This also goes for predatory animals as well. Goats will call if they are missing someone from their group, calling out saying “Hey this way, we are here.” This can be an issue when a tactical situations demands quiet. Goats are vocal. Keep this in mind if you want them. They are a versatile animal, meat and dairy products, but weigh the risks. The various breeds of these animals will differ in their noise levels. Their sounds carry very well and sometimes sound like a human child calling out to the “mama”. This can draw in people who maybe concerned for the well being of a child or to simply take advantage of the situation.

Some cows are quiet if you have the right breeds. I will take a moment to explain some of the breeds–beef and dairy. (I am more familiar with beef animals than dairy)

Dairy cows: The louder breeds are Holsteins and your other common commercial type milkers. Like most animals they want to tell you something, so this is the reason for the moo’s, well most of the time. For the most part they are saying “Hey, my udder hurts, so fix it.” Smaller family cow breeds do not typically have a mooing problem as long as they are not bagged full of milk. You know what your needs are so pick the type that best suits your family’s needs. If you are wanting extra milk for barter then try two cows of a smaller breed, versus one cow of the larger more noisy breeds. Just an added tidbit here” Larger breeds will eat more and will use more resources compared to two smaller breeds. Also having two smaller ones will allow you to rest animals before breeding again, like stock rotation.

Beef cows: When you say beef, I would bet that your mind goes right to Angus. After all it was the breed that was promoted by the National Beef Counsel with the slogan “Beef it is what’s for dinner”. Keep in mind that the price tag for that 17-month long promo of beef cost about $42 million, which was paid for by the “Big 4” in beef. I am sorry–I digress.

Angus beef cows are meaty, and yes, they taste good. The breed as a whole has been over done on so many levels, but it’s about the noise here. Angus are very vocal. Even if all their needs are met, they will still moo, and moo loudly at you for no reason. If they have a reason, I have been unable to find it. Their mooing will travel for a good distance. I can hear them a mile down the road without any problem.

Belted Galloway cows (some folks like to call them the “Oreo Cows”) are also loud. But they are a good breed that is very hardy and thrifty on their feed. Other than their noise, they will do well in a post-SHTF situation. But they typically only make lots of noise when their needs aren’t met.

Simmental cows are not as loud as Angus but are still prone to mooing if they are not milked on a timely schedule. This breed is a multipurpose breed for dairy and beef. They consume more hay than other breeds because of their dual purpose.

Dexter cows are a kind of conundrum. They can be a multipurpose breed, but there is a trait that will pop up at times. Dwarfing, for whatever reason in their blood lines they will on occasions they will have dwarf calves. Generally, there is nothing wrong with the calf, it is just small and will be a dwarf. You can call it good thing or a bad thing depending on the needs at the time. They are a quiet breed and tend to stay that way even when food is low.

Charolais cows are my personal favorite beef animal for many different reasons and one of the breeds of which I have the most experience, besides the Angus breed. First, they are great for mixing with other breeds. A pure bred Charolais when bred with any other breed will tend to only pull the good out of the other breed. They are very cold tolerant and are very quiet. They grow fast and are very quiet. Good for eating and very quiet, they are also resistant to parasites and diseases. Oh and they are very quiet even if food or water is low.

Brahma cow are nice and quiet. They have been known to have an attitude towards their keepers/ Some have also said this about the Charolais as well. But I have not personally seen it in either breed. Brahma cows will not make a lot of noise as long as their needs are mostly met. Strictly, the Brahma is a beef animal, and they are bred for hardiness in hot and dry areas.

I would like to point out that the foregoing discussion was about cows, but bulls are entirely different altogether. The only time I have seen a quiet bull is when he is with the girls (his harem of cows). If you think cows are a noise threat to you, then trust me: bulls are twenty times as loud and will go on and on for hours–if not days. The only way to stop it is put him in with the girls and call it a day. This also comes with its own set of problems but he will be quiet none the less. So the problem is this, if the bull runs continuously with the girls then you will have them dropping calves at any time of the year. This is not desirable, for me anyway. If you were to have a calf drop outside in the middle of winter when it is 10 degree Fahrenheit with a wind chill and that calf will be done in a matter of minutes. A bull can smell a female in heat that is a mile away, and he will let you know it, too. The bull has a deep bellow which can travel far and wide. So  make sure that you can keep him quiet should the need arise or you may find out that he is calling in some trouble for you.

Weaning Calves. Welcome to noise headquarters. There is no way around the fact that when you wean calve there will be noise and lots of it. I have seen a calf stop bellowing after a few day and I have seen them take 3 weeks or longer. Of course you do not have to wean them but this will not allow the mother to regain her strength before winter or before calving again.

Do your research. Look at something and then look at it again. Think beyond the moment of it all, then look to the future at what could happen. Look at it again. Have a plan and another plan and then as many as you feel need to be addressed. Do not forget the “doing” part of it. Get it done. Look at it again to see further. If you ever think you have it all worked out as I once did, know that you are more than likely wrong. Thanks for reading, – The Old Farmer, in a Strange World

JWR Adds:  Readers shoulld keep in mind that dairy cows of any breed are noisy when separated from their calves.  If you don’t need to maximize milk production, then you can leave the calves in with their moms during the day, and just separate them at night.  This will mean that you’ll get just one productive milking each morning.  But as long as you get out to the barn promptly in each morning, in my experience this creates a fairly quiet routine.

Letter: Solar Fence Chargers as Alternate Power Supplies

To HJL and JWR:
I’m a dry land crop farmer, cattle rancher, and hog producer in Montana. Through my work I find things that make me think I could use WTSHTF. (Yes, I’ve read your books). One thing I wanted to offer up, if you haven’t tried it, is a solar powered electric fence charger. These charges cost from $170 to $500. But to charge a few small items the PV panels on the smaller $170 to $300 models are plenty large enough. The chargers work by solar powering a gel cell battery. The [battery] terminals can be changed with a couple tweaks to charge or power about anything. It’s a very inexpensive and simple way to have some power when needed and on a plus side a new gel cell battery has a shelf life of around 10 years, making it a very easy item to store for the future at your retreat. Thank you, – Troy

JWR Replies:  Keep in mind that most solar electric fence chargers provide pulsed power, using both an intermittent relay and a transformer. So for almost all of these charger designs, to get any useful power for various small electronics you will have to tap into the gel cell battery terminals directly–not attach your power cable to the unit’s fence-charging external terminals!

Economics and Investing:

Watching this conversation is well worth an hour of your time:  Mike Maloney & Harry Dent – The Great Deflation (YouTube video.)  JWR’s Comments: Dent and Maloney concur with my prediction that we will see a deflation followed by mass inflation. Their discussion of personal strategies to prepare to live through a deflationary reset begin at the 21 minute mark.   Heed their advice:  Avoid debt! In the unfolding deflationary depression, cash will be king and any debt will be painful. Then, as the inevitable mass inflation follows, cash will become trash, and silver and gold will be the new royalty. (We will still be in the depths of a depression, but it will have transitioned into a painful inflationary depression, following massive bailouts of the banks.) Depending on how American lawmakers react (or over-react) it may be 20+ years to a full economic recovery.

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Reader R.B.S. spotted this over at Zero Hedge: “We’re In Trouble”: Alan Greenspan Delivers Stark Warning Comment from RBS: “[Greenspan] has no axe to grind and no products to sell.  He pretty well says it the way it is… And based on his lifetime experiences he should have a pretty good Bravo Sierra filter to prove it.”

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Economist for the Nanny State (Mises)

Facing Record Oversupply, US Oil Looks for a Home in Europe(Reuters)

International News

Economist: For the ECB, It’s No Longer About Oil (Bloomberg)  …and an additional article from The Telegraph tracking developments in the EU on the question of expanding the union to include unified fiscal governance in addition to monetary policy:  EU Superstate Would Have No Democratic Legitimacy, Warns EU Architect

UK Hit by “Triple Whammy” as Brexit Looms Over Economy (The Telegraph)

Emerging Market Debt: The Well Runs Dry (The Economist)

AEP:
Brazil’s Ruling Party Aims to Tap Foreign Reserves as Policy Fight Escalates (The Telegraph)

Brazil Recession: I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This (CNN Money

Personal Economics and Household Finance

10 Skills to Survive a World Without Oil (Just Plain Living) Whether the wells run dry, the companies simply stop producing or the price becomes unaffordable, it’s instructive to imagine a world without oil and the skills necessary to live in an environment so different from the one in which we live now that it might seem truly alien. This article includes several good ideas for the diversified low-tech skill building that will be necessary in a world without oil or with more restricted access to oil. The same ideas apply well to other scenarios a well.

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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:

Reader MtH highly recommended a free 58-minute documentary film produced by JPFO on the history of gun control and genocide in the 20th Century: Innocents Betrayed. (Don’t miss the bonus interviews, following the credits.)

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The oft-stated goal is to slow the inflow of illegal immigrants into Europe. But, now this?  Migrants in Greece to be handed cash in envelopes to ‘maintain their dignity’ under £550million EU disaster fund.

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GunsAmerica, one of the two largest Internet gun classifieds web site in the U.S. (the other is of course GunBroker.com), recently introduced a new program to promote person-to-person private gun sales. It is called Free Local. Under this program, all sales within a 50 mile radius (ZIP code to ZIP code), will have no posting fees and no after-sale fees. Local FFL dealer offerings also show up there, but I have always been a big proponent of buying guns without filling out a federal Form 4473 (“private party”), whenever and wherever it is legal.  This new service might help you add some guns to your battery, sans papiere. – JWR

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SurvivalBlog reader “Longreach” suggested a long but interesting read The Guardian, especially in light of the storyline of my novel, Land of Promise, about an independent claim of sovereignty: Welcome to the land that no country wants