Odds ‘n Sods:

I had to chuckle a bit, seeing the news reports from the east coast. You see, we get five to eight feet of snow most winters here in our part of the American Redoubt. And it is not unusual to get two feet of snow with just one two-day storm. When we do, we just throw another log on the fire, top off our livestock water tanks, and our kids have an excuse to slack off on their homeschooling to do some extra sledding. But we certainly don’t call it #SNOWMAGEDDON, and the local police chief doesn’t threaten to arrest people if they go out driving. This is not The End Of The World As We Know It! Stay safe and warm, folks. Keep those who don’t have backup heat and water systems in your prayers. – JWR

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J.C. sent in this link to the vlogger Primitive Technology: Cord drill and Pump drill. It is truly amazing what can be accomplished with some of the most primitive tools and a little ingenuity.

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Reader A.W. sent this Facebook link to pictures of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard). In spite of a record snow fall, the Old Guard is still on duty at Arlington National Cemetery honoring the memory of the Unknown Soldier. (You do not have to have a Facebook account to view the pictures.)

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‘Seeds of Change’ Documents the Seed Saving Movement. Sent in by D.S., this article is about the PBS special documenting the rise of the patented seed, the decline of the heirloom seed, and the fight to save it.

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More reason to home school: Former Pearson Exec Reveals Anti-American Agenda in Common Core – B.B.

Notes for Saturday – January 23, 2016

January 23rd is the birthday of John Moses Browning, born 1855. He was the brilliant designer of dozens of guns, including the M1911 pistol, Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), and the venerable M2 .50 Caliber Machinegun. The latter is still in service in at least 95 countries, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is still in service in 2075 or even 2100.

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Today, we present another entry for Round 62 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 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 FloJak EarthStraw Code Red 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  4. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  8. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  9. 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 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. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  9. 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 62 ends on January 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.

Market Garden Tools, by J.B.

At the top of everyone’s prepping list is an abundant food supply. Gardening is an essential part of making that food supply as resilient as possible. Maintaining a garden does take a substantial amount of time and energy, both of which may be in short supply in a TEOTWAWKI situation. As a farmer running a market vegetable farm, there are a number of tools that I have come to rely on, many of which would be similarly helpful on a non-commercial scale as well, allowing you to spend less time maintaining the essential food source that is your garden.

The soil on which I farm, and accordingly on which I am familiar with these tools, is heavy clay loam. This means that I have a very dense soil that is sticky when wet and quite hard when dry, by contrast to sandier soils that would be looser and less prone to forming a hard, crusty surface when dry. Many of the tools that I will described will perform differently on different soils and in fact may be easier to use on a lighter, looser soil. Please note that I am not affiliated in any way with any of the retailers or producers of these products; I am just a retail customer.

Tillage & Bed Preparation

Tillage is the process of turning over, mixing, or otherwise mechanically preparing your soil for planting. There are a number of ways to do this, which I will describe in order of decreasing cost and scale.

Rotavator

A rotavator is a rotary tiller, or rototiller, powered and pulled by a tractor. If you already have a tractor and also have a very large garden, you may want to consider one of these. For most this is both prohibitively expensive and prohibitively large for a smaller space. However, rotavators are generally more capable of preparing your soil deeper, more thoroughly, and faster than any other method.

Walk-Behind Tractor

Walk-behind tractors are often referred to simply by the function of the implement that is attached to it, like a rototiller. Another common example would be a snow blower. Basically, this is a relatively small engine with a power-take-off (PTO) that runs an implement while you walk behind it. For a small to homestead sized garden a walk-behind rototiller should be everything you need to prepare you garden for planting. Rototillers are generally measured by the width or soil that they work, and range in size from 6” to 36” with sizes in the 16”-24” range being most common.

Prices range from $200-$500 for a used unit to over $5000 for a top of the line unit like a BCS or Grillo. Less expensive models are available from many outdoor equipment makers like Husqvarna, Troy-Bilt, and many others, and many of these will work great. It has been my experienced that older models (like pre-1985) are much more solidly built and if well maintained are less likely to have issues than more recent models. If you can afford it, I recommend BCS as a quality manufacturer with an outstanding reputation. With a BCS you also have the option of a number of other attachments aside from the rototiller, include mowers, snow blowers, and even a generator.

Hand Tillage Tools

Both tractor-mounted rotavators and walk-behind tillers make soil preparation much easier and faster than hand tools. However, both have a number of drawbacks in that they are major investments, require fuel to function, and are hard on the soil. If these options are outside of your budget or you would like a non-fuel powered backup, there are some hand tools that can be used in their place

The largest and most efficient is the broadfork. This allows you to lift and break up a relatively wider piece of soil than the other hand tools. Additionally, broadforks do a good job of aerating and deepening your soil due to the depth the tines reach. They can also serve as a harvest tools for digging root crops, like potatoes or carrots. One caveat of this tool is that it is breakable. In very dense soil, like the clay loam that I farm on, you can bend the tines just trying to work the soil up. And even in lighter soil, if you happen to catch a root or something, you can wind up with bent tines, and once they are bent they will never again be as sturdy as before bending. That said, folks working in lighter soil have told me that broadforks can be used effectively and efficiently.

Tillage can also be done with just a simple shovel or digging fork. This is obviously much slower and more labor intensive than any of the other options, but shovels are much easier to find and are far less expensive than any of the other tools mentioned.

Many seed and supply companies also sell a number of other soil preparation tools. These include things like tilthers, bed rollers, or hand tillers. In my experience there is rarely, if ever, a need to have your bed so finely prepped that those tools are merited.

Planting

Planting in a home garden is a relatively minor task and can generally by quickly and easily accomplished by hand simply by dropping the seeds into a prepared furrow. As you increase the size of your garden, hand-seeding can quickly become a tedious and time-intensive project. A push seeder can make this process much faster, more accurate, and more efficient in terms of seeds used by spacing them more evenly than you can easily do by hand. The Earthway seeder is a good, low cost push seeder. To use the Earthway, you fill the hopper with seed and as you push it down the row the front wheel turns a seed plate that picks up the seeds and drops them into the soil. Another option is a Jang seeder, which works much the same as the Earthway but uses rollers instead of plates to pick up the seeds. The Jang is substantially more expensive than the Earthway, plus has the additional cost of purchasing rollers for the various seed types. It is, however, a much higher quality product and is capable of being more precise, thus further reducing waste from over-seeding. One particular drawback of the Earthway is that it can’t be used to plant small, round seeds, as it will crush the seeds.

Cultivation & Weed Management

Controlling weeds can be one of the most challenging and time-consuming components of gardening. The preferred method of cultivation is killing the weeds pre-emergence or extremely shortly thereafter by mechanically stirring or scraping the top layer of soil with a hoe or similar tool. There are many, many tools available for this, which I will again list in order of decreasing scale and cost.

Tractor Cultivation

There are many, many tractor cultivation tools out there. They are nearly all beyond the scope of even a very large home garden, so I am not going to get into them here, but if you find yourself approaching a commercial scale operation keep in mind that they are an option.

Wheel Hoes

Wheel hoes, I think, are one of the most indispensable tools you can have for a garden. They are a bit of an investment but quickly pay off in time and effort saved even in a smaller home garden. There are a number of brands out there, of which the Glaser is my preferred model. A wheel hoe allows you to cultivate the space between your rows quickly and efficiently. Also, it allows you to do so while standing, thus saving strain on your back and knees, which generally take a lot of abuse with many other garden-related tasks. The major drawback of a wheel hoe is that they lack the precision to control weeds close to your plants, meaning that you need to come back with a more precise tool for those weeds.

There are a number of attachments available for wheel hoes. I almost exclusively use 8-inch or 12-inch stirrup hoes, but there are tine cultivators, hillers, and even a single row seeder like those described above available for your wheel hoe.

Long-Handled Hoes

There are a number of types of long-handled hoes. I personally prefer scuffle hoes, collinear hoes, and stirrup hoes, but any kind of hoe can accomplish the same task. Scuffle hoes are essentially sharpened wedges on the end of a long handle that you push in a sort of ‘scuffle’ along through your rows. A collinear hoe works in reserve of a scuffle hoe; the blade is set to the handle such that you pull it toward you rather than push it away from you, like with a scuffle hoe. Both of these have the advantage that they can easily be used from an upright standing position. A stirrup hoe has a stirrup-shaped loop of metal at the end of the handle, the bottom of which is sharpened. These are more aggressive hoes and may work better than scuffle or collinear hoes in hard, crusty soil. Stirrup hoes do, however, require more bending to use effectively than the other types, thus putting more strain on your back.

Hand Hoes

The long handles hoes just described are much more precise than wheel hoes, but even so are sometimes not precise enough for some tasks. In that case you may need a hand hoe. Hand hoes allow you to cultivate extremely close to your plants. However, this are a much more labor-intensive and time-consuming task than using any of the other hoes. Also, using a hand hoe requires being on your hands and knees, thus making it physically challenging work.

Bear in mind that any of these cultivating tools rapidly become less effective as your weeds move past their very early stages. You truly do want to be cultivating as soon as (or even before) the weeds emerge from the soil. Once the weeds grow past an inch or three tall, it becomes difficult to impossible to hoe effectively and you may wind up having to pull the weeds by hand to remove them.

Harvesting

Nearly everything that you would grow in your garden must be harvested by hand, due to the delicate nature of the produce, even on our ten-acre market farm. There are a few tools that can be helpful, the first of which is a good knife. We use these Victorinox serrated paring knives, as they come extremely sharp, cut well even after lots of use, and are inexpensive enough that I don’t mind when they get lost or broken. At this point we treat them as essentially disposable, which is something that would have to change in a TEOTWAWKI situation, but for now I can hand them out to my employees and not worry about what happens to them.

A hand pruner can also be a helpful tool for harvesting. I use these for harvesting things like peppers and eggplant, where cutting them with a knife increases the odds of both damaging the plant and cutting your hands. Also, a pruner or even a lopping shears can come in handy for cutting full stalks of Brussels sprouts before they go into the root-cellar.

Crops like carrots, garlic, or potatoes have to be dug up. I already talked about broadforks in the tillage section above so will not go into detail on those again, but they are a more efficient option than a regular shovel or digging fork. I prefer to use a shovel for digging root crops rather than a digging fork because I seem to damage more of the roots with a fork. The fork may be more effective in a looser soil than mine though, and they do come in handy for other tasks so are worth having around.

Once crops are harvested you need something to store and transport them in, and while any tote, bucket, or bag will work I highly recommend crates from Intercrate Container. I use the 6.7, 8.5, and 10.5 crates for transporting and storing nearly everything on the farm. Their major advantage over other types is their swing-bar stacking design. Basically there is a bar on either side of the top that you swing in, allowing the crates to be stacked without crushing the contents, and when the bars are swung out the crates nest inside each other, saving on storage space.

Season Extension

On a farm scale we use heated greenhouses, unheated hoophouses, and row cover to extend the season in which we can grow certain crops. The larger scale and greater cost of the greenhouses and hoophouses makes them impractical for a home garden setup, but row cover is something that can be fit to any scale. Row cover is a very lightweight non-woven fabric that is used to cover your crops, giving them a little bit of cover from cold and frost. It also traps heat like a greenhouse would, warming the soil faster, adding to the season-extending benefits. Additionally, row cover creates a physical barrier to insect pests and can be used in place of sprays for some crops. For many of the sturdier crops, such as broccoli or summer squash, I let the row cover simply lay on the plants directly. For more fragile crops like peppers, tomatoes, or sweet potatoes the row cover needs some support to keep it off of the plants. I generally use hoops of heavy wire (less expensiver in other places) or you could use bent electrical conduit or pvc. The edges of your row cover need to be buried slightly or thoroughly weighted down with something to keep it from blowing away.

Row cover is reusable, but it is also quite fragile and tears easily. It can make a big difference in crop health and can extend your growing season upwards of two weeks on either end. So, it is definitely worth using but may not be sustainable in a long-term TEOTWAWKI scenario.

Letter Re: Starting a Small Business, by T & BR

HJL:

I admire their enthusiasm. As an independent insurance agent I work with lots of successful businesses. Those successful business people have one thing in common and that is focus. If there is a second commonality, it is unequaled knowledge which would be a product of the first. Sure, those people are branched out in other endeavors with a goal of income diversification and asset preservation but only after significant success in the first. Rarely are the alternative investments as lucrative as the first, but they make up for that with security.

Knowledge of how to get a job done is not where you stop. Understanding costs and what jobs will and will not pay for the effort is key. Figuring out who you should do business with is at the heart of success. There are people that you just cannot work with and mutually win. You learn the noises they make and politely bow out.

Getting your fanny handed to you makes the success sweeter. Keep it up.

Economics and Investing:

Strange and Crazy in the Financial World!

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Reader B.B. Sent in this article: New Arizona Bill Would Give Tax Break To Gun Owners

HJL’s Comment: While it seems at first glance that this bill is a good thing, a deeper look reveals that it is not. On July 29, 2010, Arizona’s Constitutional carry law went into effect. This means that if you are legally able to own a firearm and you are 21 years of age or older, you can carry concealed in the State of Arizona without a concealed weapons permit. (You still have to abide by all concealed carry laws and off limit signs.) I believe this is just another attempt to “register” those who would carry a firearm to protect themselves, except this time, they are trying to entice the person rather than coerce the person to sign up. I’m putting this right up there with the 501c3 scam perpetrated on America’s churches. Stay away from it!

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Nearly $8T Wiped Off World Stocks in January (Reuters) Excerpt: “World stock market losses are approaching $8 trillion so far this year and investors last week poured the most money into government bond funds in a year, suggesting they fear the global economy could tip into recession….”

Schlumberger Cuts Another 10,000 Jobs as Oil Rout Deepens (Bloomberg) Today’s “rally” in the price oil may simply be too little and too late to change the trajectory of larger and longer term decisions by companies like Schlumberg. … but perhaps more interesting is whether or not there has been a geopolitical shift with regard to the management of the price per barrel. Here are two additional reports that further develop this story. Business Insider’s quick read: Oil is Now Rocketing …and a more detailed article from Market Watch related to China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia: Russia, China and Saudi Arabia are on the Ropes

Puerto Rico: US Calls on Creditors to Make Sacrifices (BBC News) If history is any measure, creditors are unlikely to volunteer themselves for loss. It is reasonable to expect that the process of resolving Puerto Rico’s debt debacle will occur substantially within the courts. Excerpt: “The people of Puerto Rico are sacrificing, but unless that sacrifice is shared by creditors in an orderly restructuring, there is no path out of insolvency and back to growth…”

International News

The World’s Most Famous Case of Hyperinflation (Visual Capitalist) Excerpt: “The world’s most famous hyperinflation event, which took place in Germany from 1921 and 1924, was a financial calamity that led millions of people to have their savings erased.”

5 Reasons Why Venezuela’s Economy is in a “Meltdown” (CNN Money) Oil crash. Currency worth less than a penny. A political power struggle. Default that is difficult, may be impossible, to avoid. …and a food crisis. Conditions in Venezuela are tragic and teaching.

ECB to Review Monetary Policy in March (Fox Business) Excerpt: “The European Central Bank held interest rates at record lows on Thursday, but the market crash, tumbling bank stocks and ebbing inflation may set the stage for action later in the year.” Even so, there is only so much monetary policy can accomplish as referenced in this second link to a quick read and an important message. Reuters reports: ECB’s Nowotny Says Monetary Policy Has Limits in Boosting Growth

Personal Economics and Household Finance

How to be Frugal: One Month at a Time (Frugalwoods) Excerpt: “If your internet is anything like my internet, there are approximately 595,890 articles out right now about how to successfully save money this year. But here’s the thing: the timeframe of a year is entirely too broad when thinking about money (or most things, really)–it feels like a freaking eternity.”

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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:

Good news for those living in the deep south…Reader G.P. sent in this article to an interesting invention. It’s a self-filliing water bottle that converts humidity to drinks.. Now if only they could invent one of those for the arid southwest.

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Staying Warm During the Polar Vortex – Submitted by T.A.

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Sent in by D.S.: Is D.C. megastorm Jonas a ‘gift of God’. While it’s probably not judgment from God, “Snow-pocalypse”, as many are calling it, can at least be looked at as an excellent time to practice putting those preps to work. A true grid-down challenge on possibly a grand scale.

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Video – Reader M.T. sent in this link to a video with a report on the Senate’s (usual and expected) betrayal of the American Populace: Martial Law Granted Under New Lsls Warpowers Act

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Coming to a city near you ! Obama Releases Another Gitmo Prisoner — This Time it’s a Bomb Expert – Sent in by W.C.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel,
when the people willingly offered themselves.
Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes;
I, even I, will sing unto the Lord;
I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel.
– Judges 5:2-3 (KJV)

Notes for Friday – January 22, 2016

Between 1861 and 1865, more than 50,000 civilians died as a direct result of the American Civil War. In the years between 1914 and 1918, more than 7,000,000 innocent civilians died as a direct result of World War I. From 1939 to 1945, more than 23,000,000 innocents died as a direct result of World War II. (This number includes the 11 million deliberately killed in concentration camps.) Between 1905 and 1941, Stalin purged Russia of anyone whom he considered a threat or disloyal, murdering somewhere over 25,000,000 innocent people. Mao Tse-tung murdered more than 45,000,000 people from his own country in his rise to power. But on January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision that has resulted in the legalized murder of over 56,000,000 of the most innocent persons that could exist in the place that should be the safest place on earth. Roe vs. Wade is a horrible black mark on our country that we will be called to account for before God. The video “180” produced in 2011 is one that I highly encourage everyone to watch (both pro-life and pro-choice). It will change your life. -HJL

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Round 62 of the SurvivalBlog writing contest is coming to a close. If you’ve been planning on submitting an entry, now is the time to finish it! If you were one of our top prize winners more than a year ago, you are eligible for the prizes again as well. There are some really neat prizes in the contest, so get busy and get those submission in to me!

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As a heads up for our readers, SurvivalBlog is being moved to a new server this weekend. Our provider has informed us that there may be some down time as the transition between the two machines is performed Sunday afternoon. Let’s pray that all goes smoothly.

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Today, we present another entry for Round 62 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 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 FloJak EarthStraw Code Red 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  4. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  8. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  9. 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 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. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  9. 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 62 ends on January 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.

My Truck Gun and How I Chose It, by M.M.

I don’t care how many times you get into a discussion about guns, there are at least as many points of view as there are people talking. Exponential growth in opinions happens when you talk about ammo, especially calibers. Yet, for all the vast sea of opinions, there are good ideas and empirically verifiable facts that can help us narrow down our list to which firearms we ultimately go with. For this article, I will share with you my primary criteria and then go through my thinking process for how I landed on the truck gun of my choice. Your mileage may vary, so do your homework. You alone are responsible for the choices you make.

Appearance

I mention it first to get it out of the way, but this is the absolute last thing you should use in making your selection. By that I don’t mean to ignore a gun’s appearance, but make it the tie breaker at the end when you are narrowed down to two or three otherwise equal choices. If you feel good about the gun and the way it looks, you’ll practice with it more and have a certain comfort with it you would not otherwise have.

Application

Pragmatism is the first rule in firearms selection for me. What do I plan to do with it? On my limited budget, I have to be able to justify each and every firearm purchase I make. If I can’t justify it with some need or application, I can’t buy it. Also under this category, I place things like caliber because I want as much commonality of ammunition as possible. For example, all of the handguns in my home are .45 ACP or .45 Long Colt. I deal with ammunition as a separate consideration below.

Versatility

Can I apply this firearm to multiple scenarios? My SiG P220 is a great city gun and EDC firearm, but it may not be powerful enough if I am in grizzly country, even if I bought the ten-round magazines for it. The same is true with my Single Action Army reproduction. If you’ve ever heard of Hugh Glass, you’ll know what can happen when you’ve shot a grizzly and didn’t kill it, which is very possible. However, carrying my FAL about for a pleasure hike is likely to get reports made to the local ranger station or game warden’s office, if it is outside of hunting season, not to mention that my FAL is 12 lbs. No one wants to carry a bowling ball around on a hike. The answer lies somewhere in between, including using an abundance of caution in grizzly country and making enough noise not to surprise a sow with cubs nearby.

Weight

Weight is an issue. Even a light sidearm can be a lot of weight on your hip unless you’re used to it. Back when I was working as a security professional, I used to get a sore hip for the first few weeks that I wore my sidearm. Now, I wear it everywhere and feel naked without it. Weight can also dictate how fast a firearm can be brought to bear on a target. If your firearm is for immediate defense of your person in the city, you don’t want a .500 Smith & Wesson revolver or a Ruger Super Redhawk. They will put down most any predator, but you may not be able to bring it to bear fast enough. On the other hand, a very lightweight gun is not going to resist muzzle jump well and will take more practice and effort to maintain muzzle control in a firefight or when shooting a charging bear. This is why I chose a non-polymer auto. Polymers have come a long way in reliability in pistols, as any Glock owner will testify to. However, they don’t feel right to me. I like my pistols to have all metal receivers. The heavier weight helps with controlling my shots and speed with follow-ups. That’s just my experience.

Ammunition

Ammunition is very important. I could buy a .338 Lapua bolt action, but could I handle the recoil? I own a 12 gauge pump action, and I can shoot bird shot all day long with no problem, but I have a limit of about a dozen slugs even if I have a recoil pad. Do I really want a slug gun for general big game hunting then? No. (As an aside, I put a Knoxx Compstock on my shotgun, and I could probably handle 25 or 30 slugs in a single session, giving me much more versatility.) Ammunition is an important part of versatility. Shotguns especially have great versatility because of the plethora of both lethal and less-lethal rounds available. You can even get flamethrower rounds for them. Break action shotguns take this even further: caliber converters can be inserted in the 12 gauge models that allow the use of common pistol ammo or smaller bore shotgun ammo. The trade off for the shotgun is short range and minimum 18” barrel (unless you want an NFA registered short barreled shotgun). Rifles, on the other hand, will reach out anywhere from 100 yards to over 2,000 yards in some calibers and models. If game is scarce, reach may put food on the table when other things won’t do it. Availability is another issue. If the ammo is rare, you may be forced to order over the Internet or through snail mail. One round that has an immense following but is still relatively new is the .300 AAC Blackout. My local sporting goods stores rarely (if ever) have it on the shelves, and when they do it’s 147 grain FMJ. That’s supersonic target ammo. I could hunt with it, but if I missed a vital, I am going to be following a long blood trail to get the deer in the bag. I might not find the animal if it was a clean flesh wound. On the other hand, it’s a great shorter-range round with more power than an M4gery in 5.56/.223 can offer. There are a growing number of bolt actions in this caliber, too. See more about this round below. Finally, controllability is an issue. If you can’t handle the recoil, you can’t handle the round. But what about if you can handle the recoil but have trouble with follow-up shots because of the muzzle jump? My middle daughter has a great love of a .45-70 Government lever-action, and she shoots it very well. Her next older brother doesn’t like it at all. There’s too much recoil for him, so he invariably flinches at trigger pull, which throws his aim.

Accessories

Does your firearm have after-market accessories you want for it? Do you insist on a caliber specific bullet drop compensator reticle on a scope or after-market iron sights? Do you want a particular sling or gun bag? Conversely, if you don’t need/want a lot of tacticool fluff, is it going to be basic enough for your tastes/needs? If you only ever use traditional iron sights, do you really want to bother with something that has that great red dot sight and vertical handgrip and laser-flashlight combo? In many ways, accessories (or the lack thereof) are dictated by training, experience, and philosophy of shooting. I have Gen 2 T-Pod vertical foregrip that turns into a bipod on my M4gery carbine, but I rarely use it. When I do, it is usually in bipod mode. I have a quality scope, a finger grooved pistol grip, and a 3-point sling on it. Other than that, it is basically mil-spec as it came from the factory. I don’t need all the toys.

Your Friends

What your friends like or shoot is going to play into your purchase decision, whether you like it or not. However, you need to keep this in your mind so you can silence their voices until more pragmatic decisions are made. However, if they are a successful 3-gunner, hunter, security, military, or police professional, listen to their practical advice. You can learn a lot from these folks.

Price

If you can’t afford the gun and all the extras you need to make it fully usable for you, then you can’t get the gun. It has to be within your budget. Upgrades can be put off, but essentials cannot. My M4gery came with every essential, except a rear sight. I had to purchase an after-market flip up rear sight. My FAL was a kit when I bought it, and it needed several parts plus tools before I could use it. When I bought my suppressor, I also had to pay for an NFA trust and give BATF a $200 excise tax to take possession on top of the cost of the suppressor.

Okay, now that you have an idea of the major factors that I consider in a firearms purchase, let me share how I determined what truck gun I decided on.

Concealed Carry

I live in Idaho, between Washington and Montana. While Montana recognized my basic concealed weapon permit, Washington did not. However, since getting the enhanced concealed weapon permit, I can also travel while concealing a pistol into Washington and any other state I ever anticipate being in. Here in Idaho, I can legally conceal any weapon I can legally own (except on public college and university campuses, where it’s limited to firearms only). However, in every other state where I am aware of the specifics, it must be a pistol, so I need a truck gun that is a pistol. If I only ever planned to stay in Idaho with the weapon, I could possibly use a registered SBR (short-barreled rifle), provided I went through all the hoops and hurdles I went through to get my suppressor, but I plan to cross state lines from time to time.

Versatility

Next, I want versatility. I want to be able to use this weapon primarily as a defensive weapon, but in a real pinch I want to be able to hunt with this weapon. It must be small enough to be maneuverable in the cab of my truck. My truck is older, so it has a slightly smaller cab than current models, making this an issue if I have to pass the weapon from one side of the cab to the other. Virtually all pistols will meet this requirement, but if you’re considering a shotgun or a rifle for your truck gun, this may be an issue for you.

Commonality

I decided that commonality of ammo was a must for me. I just don’t want to have to keep track of fifteen kinds of ammo, so what I have in the house is a big issue to me. By keeping to chamberings I already have, it makes my bulk purchases of ammo that much more practical.

Familiarity

Familiarity was another issue for me. I didn’t want to experiment with something new. That narrowed it down to a handful of choices.

What I Didn’t Go With

I considered an AK pistol and an FAL pistol. The 7.62x39mm is not as powerful as the .300 Blackout round. The .300 Blackout has 23% more muzzle energy and 16% more energy at 300 yards with the 147 grain FMJ. The numbers are better in the 125 grainers I use, and that is from an 8.5” barrel. I don’t own an AK and have only rarely handled them. I also have no other weapons chambered for 7.62x39mm ammo. There is just not enough familiarity at the moment for an AK pistol. The FAL pistol was honestly too powerful for my intentions. Not only would a .308 Winchester (or 7.62 NATO) be very hard to control in a barrel that short, the blast and roar from unburned powder would make a brilliant flash and a boom powerful enough to break automotive glass in some vehicles. The .300 Blackout was designed for an 8.5 inch barrel, so there’d be no flash and little roar by comparison and a lot less with the suppressor on. I am also not likely to hunt elk or moose in a short-term survival situation. I have plenty of familiarity with the platform and the ammo, but it’s just too much power for the application I have in mind. I also rejected some great weapons that would have been suitable for the city alone or for the back woods as a bear gun. The Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan was one. In .454 Casull/.45 Long Colt, it has some versatility, but ammo is expensive for both of those calibers and not always available, especially in the city. My regular EDC pistol is high quality, but the .45 ACP won’t usually go through a quarter panel and still damage an engine block or head enough to stop the vehicle. It won’t usually stop a white tail if you don’t hit a vital, and you need to be within about 50 feet, using a pistol to get that kind of shot in unless you’re exceptionally skilled. I briefly considered the Thompson/Center rifles, considering that a wide variety of barrels are available in both their pistol and rifle versions, but the trade-off is price. I can get a lower-end AR with lots of extras or a mid-range one for the price of one T/C receiver and barrel. They’re also single shot, which is next to useless in self-defense scenarios with humans.

What I Decided On

I decided on an AR pistol. There are a mountain of after-market upgrades and accessories available to totally customize my loadout. The amount is just staggering. The short length gives me maneuverability in the cab. If I need it on one side, I have it. If my wife needs it on the other side, I can safely pass it without a gymnastics act while driving. It is legally a pistol, so I can cross state lines with it concealed and loaded via my enhanced concealed weapon permit. I can carry it in my backpack to the Idaho state-owned colleges and universities if I want to. There are several calibers available in today’s AR platform. You probably guessed by now that I chose .300 AAC Blackout. The .300 Blackout round is versatile. I use 125 grain Sierra Match King rounds for hunting. They pump out around 1,400 ft-lbs of energy from an 8.5-inch barrel and are more than enough for a deer or smaller game, should I need to hunt to survive. In some states, I can hunt with it as it is a .30 caliber (though Idaho prohibits pistol hunting with rounds that are necked or originally designed for a rifle). With a 30 round magazine and a CMC 3.5 lb. trigger, I can unload on a grizzly if the need arose. I can punch through a car’s quarter panels and into an engine block this way, too, if I should have that need. I can also use subsonic rounds in the 190 to 240 grain range. The 220 grain projectiles typically put out muzzle energy comparable to a .45 ACP but with much better penetration than the fat .45 is capable of. This makes a good personal defense compromise should I be compelled to enter or spend time in the bigger cities. I can also use both types of ammunition with or without my suppressor without cycling problems or the need to have an adjustable gas block. Having an M4gery in .300 Blackout already, I am thoroughly familiar with the action and the limits of the platform. This would give me a smaller, more portable “just in case” gun that I can lawfully transport across state lines in a loaded condition in any of the states I would willingly visit. There are also a gazillion parts out there and almost any gun store either has, or can easily get, whatever part you need or you can order spares for yourself.

When choosing your truck gun (or any other for that matter), it boils down to application, versatility, ammo choice, and your personal use parameters. Don’t let my categories be your sole categories. These work for me. You may need more or different specifics than I do. I don’t plan to go into open combat, if I can help it, and this is my “just in case” gun. Your wants and needs will be different. Be pragmatic to the bitter end. Then, if you have a tie, use appearance to break the tie. Once you have it, train with it the way you anticipate using it. Don’t turn it into a locker queen, unless you’re just collecting guns as a hobby.

Letter Re: The Year In Review of Starting a Small Business(es), by T&BR

I’ve owned and operated a painting contracting business in the American Redoubt for the last 30+ or so years. Something that stands out about T&BR’s experiences is their start up and the dollar amount of their losses. With all do respect and absolutely no disrespect intended, they need to hear some words. Those numbers don’t reflect a small business startup failure. They reflect the flawed thinking that throwing enough money at your problems can fix them. The problems they experienced weren’t a result of the size of their equipment. It was the job out-sizing their ability, their experience, and their knowledge of the sandblasting business, not to mention that their lack of focus is evident in their post (ranging from biofuel to sandblasting to sunflowers). I’m not trying to be disrespectful or rude, but they are all over the map. Their hearts weren’t really into making it work the first time, and they want to repeat it again only this time with 50K of other people’s money, and no track record of success? Again, I am not trying to hurt feelings here, but it must be said– people got into the biofuel business for around 3K. Some pulled it off for less. Learning as they went, some made it and some didn’t. TB&R are talking 200K gallons and a quarter Mil bucks as a start-up. Are you following me here? Money isn’t their problem.

Again, at the risk of hurting feelings, which I am not trying to do, they need to hear it. TB&R are again talking about dollar amounts (50K) for a startup that is absolutely unreasonable, in light of their described track record.

A highly respected Christian and past president of a major airline company sat me down and said, “God will never bless a man with large sums of money, if he doesn’t understand the way in which he came about the small amounts first.” He said “small amounts.” If you have no money and banks won’t loan you money, you have no job, then “small amount” is whatever you have in your pocket. This was me when I was living in a rain-drenched tent at Fernan Lake 33 years ago, and I was about to enroll at the University of Jesus Christ for my education.

Startups take more prayer, guts, courage, and faith than money, going heavy on prayer when your faith gets shaky. “Startup” means you nurture a seed not a plant. $9,000 isn’t a seed or a plant; that’s the whole garden! In your case, the seed would have been profiling small metal parts for paint or powder coating. A blast rig from Harbor Freight would have done this. It’s certainly not as glamorous as rolling up on projects with big showy, expensive, equipment, but a 9K loss is 9K lost. It’s gone. As the owner of a painting company, I have my finger on the pulse. I know what’s needed in my neck of the woods. (Hint Hint, fellow Redoubters, are you paying attention? Sandblasted small metal parts can be done at home and shipped regionally.) UPS, USPS, Fedex, Nickels worth, Nickel Nick, and other shippers are your friend. Start-ups require guerrilla tactics. Before the age of the Internet and cell phones, I walked neighborhoods putting fliers on doors, because I couldn’t risk the cost of mailings landing in the bottom of the birdcage. I needed people to read what I had to offer, making it a coupon for discounts and making sure my flier wasn’t used to fire up the wood stove or line the cat box. I needed every flier I paid for to reach a homeowner.

Dial back your lofty thinking. “Fake it until you make it” is for people who keep digging themselves holes and refuse to stop digging.

When I started my business, I started out with a putty knife, a knife, brush, a bucket, and $15 to rent an airless sprayer for four hours. Plus, I did a lot of praying. That’s it. I didn’t have money (thank you, Jesus!) or knowledge enough about the paint industry to paint much more than a very small house, and I didn’t have a job to fall back on if things didn’t work out, (CDA in the 1980’s) let alone money to cushion the fall. It was back to Fernan Lake for me, homeless, living in a tent, wet, broke, with no hope if I didn’t pull this off. But I’ll save that story for another time. Failure was not an option.

I’d like to put this rhetorical question to people who are looking at becoming self-employed as a way of life. If all you had in your life was the thousand bucks (seed money) you saved, won, or were awarded, with no chance at getting another thousand, how serious would you take your plans of what to do with it? How well thought out would your plans be? This is the state of mind you need to be in. This is where you need to focus. Money is just the byproduct of success.

Humbly walk with the Lord, and do it with humility. You will never find a better business partner.

Economics and Investing:

Mason jars in the backyard better than the markets for now – D.S.

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San Francisco housing mania: Badly charred home that is uninhabitable sells for $186,000 over asking price.. In the S.F. Bay Area, the Housing Bubble now includes Rubble. What madness! – JWR

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Big Banks Brace for Oil Loans to Implode (CNN Money) Excerpt: “The oil crash has already caused 42 North American oil companies to file for bankruptcy since the beginning of 2015, according to a list compiled by Houston law firm Haynes and Boone. It’s only likely to get worse.”

Top Regulator Warns that Feds’ Too-Big-To-Fail Plan is a “Gamble” (Washington Examiner) Excerpt: It is “paradoxical to suggest that the best way to manage the effects of excess leverage and financial vulnerability is to require more leverage….”

KPMG Withdraws Audit Opinions on CFTC Over Accounting Error(Reuters) Excerpt: “The U.S. regulator that polices the complex derivatives markets is struggling to keep its own books in order and has made a material error that its auditor found so significant that it withdrew nearly a decade of its financial opinions…” Zero Hedge is also developing this story: CFTC Has Decade of Audit Opinions Withdrawn After Massive “Error” Uncovered Warning: the ZH article commentary may contain bad language or inappropriate avatar images.

International News

As Greek Crisis Wears On, Times Becomes the Enemy (Deutsche Welle) Excerpt: “With the economy entering its seventh consecutive year of recession, Greece’s crisis is testing coping mechanisms to the limit and threatening even once healthy businesses.”

Recession, Retrenchment, Revolution? Impact of Low Crude Prices on Oil Powers (The Guardian) Excerpt: “A glut of oil, the demise of Opec and weakening global demand combined to make 2015 the year of crashing oil prices. The cost of crude fell to levels not seen for 11 years – and the decline may have further to go.”

Oil Can Reach $20: Saudi’s Willing to Play the Long Game (Business Insider) Excerpt: “The Saudis are willing to play the long game,” Behravesh said. “While their budget is under pressure, they still have ample forex reserves and will able to last at least another year and possibly two.”

BHP Slump Outpacing Glencore, Nearing Anglo American (The Australian Financial Review) Excerpt: “The Bloomberg Commodity Index, a measure of returns for 22 raw materials, is at the lowest since at least 1991. The Bloomberg World Mining Index of 80 stocks slumped to the weakest since 2003 as fears of slower economic growth in China and a slump in oil prices fueled a fresh bout of selling.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

Bargain Stockpiles vs. Emergency Food Supply: Know the Difference, Plan Accordingly (Backdoor Survival: Prepping with Optimism) Coupon wisely! Excerpt: “Do you ever watch those programs on television about extreme couponers? I am not much of a TV-watcher, but I’ve seen a couple of these. It is astonishing to watch people load up a heaping grocery cart, then give the cashier a thick wad of coupons and walk out of the store paying $3.11 for everything. I imagine you could build an enormous stockpile of goods this way, but is it really the best way to build a preparedness supply?”

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

Friday’s Vlogging Pick:

Pneumonia is always a concern for those who are at risk. Individuals who are bed-ridden, have other ailments or infections that migrate to the lungs, or a myriad of other issues that can compound into pneumonia. What happens when you don’t have access to a doctor or antibiotics? The Patriot Nurse walks you through some basics, from preventative maintenance to primitive care.

What to do for Pneumonia

Odds ‘n Sods:

French Toast Warning! (Get your Milk, Eggs, and Bread now.) – Or better yet, just check your pantry and make sure everything is in order. More than 75MILLION people brace themselves for the wrath of Jonas – the monster East Coast snowstorm – as FIVE THOUSAND flights are canceled and panic buyers clear the shelves – JBG

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Reader BLW wrote in to tell us that while the east coast is expecting a major snow storm in the next couple of days, an unexpected clipper roamed through his area Wednesday night and it crippled the city. Only one inch of snow fell, but the roads iced over and apparently even the President’s motorcade spun our of control. The grocery stores are cleared, and the gas stations are out of gas. The governor of Maryland is telling people to be prepared to stay in place for a week.

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Sent in by A.L. The Right to Tell the Government to Go to H*ll: Free Speech in an Age of Government Bullies, Corporate Censors and Compliant Citizens “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell

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Reader B.B. sent in this link showing how Facebook is an Ignorant Tyrant.

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Due to Venezuela’s economic crisis, even the politicos have turned to growing their own food at home. President Nicolas Maduro has 50 chickens in his house. (Yes, you read that right– “in”.) Of course, true to form and a politician at heart, he then announced the formation of yet another ministry called the “Urban Farming Ministry”.