Odds ‘n Sods:

Sent in by T.P.: Flame Thrower Equipped Hobby Drone – Happy Holidays ! – You know you want one!

“The next best thing to having sharks with lasers” – JWR

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Also sent in by T.P.: FAA Finally Admits Names And Home Addresses In Drone Registry Will Be Publicly Available

JWR’s Comment: Let me get this straight: I can buy or build, and personally fly an ultralight or a powered parachute with an empty weight of up to 253 pounds with no FAA paperwork or licensing whatsoever. Some ultralight owners have staged solo cross-country flights. (3,000 miles!) But starting in 2016, the same agency wants to register the owners of all drone (remotely piloted) aircraft weighting more than 240 GRAMS? (About 9 ounces.) That is highly illogical.

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It has been reported that President Bolt Hold Open has started a lengthy vacation in Hawaii with his family, and that his raft of planned Executive Orders will be delayed until after his return. Let me be the first to suggest that BHO extend his vacation in Hawaii until late December of 2016. He could just mail the key to the White House to his successor. Our nation would be a much safer and more free place, because of it. – JWR

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The DOOMSDAY plan if America’s power systems are wiped out by cyber attacks – Sent in by G.G.

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Homeless Man Allegedly Lived In Army Barracks As Soldier For 8 Months – Not just any Army barracks but in a special forces barracks at Fort Bragg! – Sent in by G.P.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.” – John 5:8-9 (KJV)

Notes for Saturday – December 19, 2015

December 19th is the birthday of physicist Albert A. Michelson (born 1852, died May 9, 1931), who was the first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize in science, for measuring the speed of light.

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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, 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 pmags 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 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 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. 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.

Water Works- Part 2, by JSP

In part 1, I explained several things we did to take our water preps to the next level, which felt good but was still lacking in some areas. So, let’s start by looking at the potential problems of that system.

Problems of Our Water System At This Point

First, at this point, the poly tanks are not “plumbed” to anything; they are simply static, stand-alone storage vessels. Make no mistake that is way better than having no water on hand but not ideal either. Secondly, the primary grid down backup plan is a gas generator. Many people would argue that the flaw in that has to do with running out of gas for the generator. Remember that the well output is 23 GPM, so simple math tells us that in ten minutes I can pump 230 gallons, in 100 minutes I can pump 2300 gallons, and so forth. The point is that we don’t need to run the generator for many hours at a time to get a lot of water, and our well is tapped into an aquifer so it will likely never run dry. However, it is true that no matter how much fuel you store, it will run out eventually. I would say the flaw to the generator plan short term is not fuel but the following:

  • noise, which affects OPSEC,
  • the risk of the well pump getting fried from an EMP or otherwise, and
  • the risk of the generator having a mechanical failure.

Also have you ever hand pumped a Simple Pump that is down to any depth? It’s fun at first, knowing you have a backup, but it grows old fast. Also, while we now have several sources of water, we do not have running water or flush toilets in the house. Furthermore, our well head and Simple Pump at this time are out in the open with no structure around them in a very vulnerable location security wise. Lastly, it’s 12 degrees outside our home right now with a couple of inches of snow on the ground, In this condition, who wants to go hand pump me 20 gallons of water while I keep the fire going?

Where We Go From Here

I want to interject a concept that I had to think about for a while. There was a standing joke among some people I knew that went “all you need to know about water is that if flows down hill.” Unfortunately, it’s not true, and there is a lot more to know about water than that. Actually, water flows to the path of least resistance, which might be down hill. For example, water will flow uphill, if there is more pressure behind it than the pressure above it from gravity.

What this means is that you need to stop looking at places that water comes “in” and water comes “out” as your only option. This is important, and we will go back to it several times in this article and the next.

For example, many well heads have a frost-free hydrant (spigot) near by to get water for the yard and so forth. Everybody knows that when the grid is up and everything is fine, you open the spigot and water does what? It comes out, of course. What happens if the power is out and the well is not running but the pressure tank(s) has water in it and you open the spigot? Water still comes out. However, what happens if the pump is not running and the pressure tank is empty and you open the spigot? Right, nothing comes out.

Simple Pump (or its competitors) basic application #1

Build yourself a short section of garden hose with a female garden hose fitting on each end just a bit longer than the distance between your well head pump and your nearest spigot. Attach one end to the pump and one end to the spigot. Open the spigot valve and start pumping. You are now pumping water into the house system and can fill your pressure tank to give you running water in the house. No, this is not the easiest thing to do physically, so hopefully you have some teenagers around to do this a few times a day, but it’s a whole lot better than hauling 5-gallon buckets into the house.

At this point I had visions of a more elaborate system, but I needed a place for it to all come together. So, I built a pump house around the well head and nearby spigot. In our county at the time, you could build structures up to 120 square feet without a permit (now it’s 200 sq ft), so that is exactly what I did. The pump house is 10′ x 12′, and we poured a cement slab floor. The front third of the building (10′ x 4′) is the pump house proper, and the back two-thirds is storage.

Reducing Risk to Pump of EMP or CME

Once the pump house was built, it was time to add a few enhancements. Because the high voltage well pump delivers so much more water than slow pumps, keeping it operational even grid down for as long as possible makes things much easier. One possible problem is what might happen if there is an EMP or CME that renders that pump toast. Years ago I read an article on Survival Blog where a gentleman posted plans of an electric shut off switch to protect your well pump from an EMP. As I understood it, when the pressure switch turns on the pump simultaneously this “switch” opened and when the pressure switch shut off it would close. I don’t know the technical definition of this switch, but we did have an electrician install one, and he referred to it as a “Mag Starter”.

The problem with this protection device is that if it is “open” at the time of a surge, EMP, CME, et cetera, it doesn’t matter because the pump will be toast anyway. This started me thinking that in addition to that, well pumps don’t wear out from running; they wear out from starting and stopping. This is often times referred to as “cycling”. So, to reduce the chance of the well pump running in the event of a surge and to reduce “cycling”, I added a second pressure tank to the system. Originally, we had an 80-gallon pressure tank inside the house, and then I added a 120-gallon pressure tank (the largest I could find to purchase) in the pump house. The pump house tank and the in-house tank are about 90 feet apart, and our well people advised against having two pressure tanks that far apart, as it might wreak havoc with your pressure switch, but we have had no problems at all. At this point the spigot now inside the pump house was removed and in its place a galvanized “T” was placed in its place and the Simple Pump comes in one side of the “T”, and the pressure tank to the other side.

This project accomplished several things:

1) Reduce the cycling of the pump so it will last longer, which could save thousands of dollars in the long run,

2) Reduce the chance that your well pump will die at the worst possible time (because it will last longer),

3) Increase the pressurized, stored water for the house so that if you do lose power it’s that much longer that you have to mitigate things until you run out of water. Also if you’re grid down and need to run a generator or hand pump to “charge” the house water systems, you don’t have to do it as frequently, and

4) The pump will be running less frequently, which may reduce its vulnerability to power surges, EMP, et cetera.

Motor for Simple Pump and Solar Equipment

The next phase of the project was to purchase a 15-volt motor to run the Simple Pump and add some very basic solar equipment to power it. I spent about $800 for the pump directly from a Simple Pump distributor, which is not cheap but, boy, is it a good way to go, if you can afford it. I placed one 135-watt solar panel on the roof of the pump house and an inexpensive charge controller and small battery bank that easily runs the pump motor. For fun we placed a second 135-watt solar panel on the roof, and those two together run the pump “PV Direct”, which is very cool.

Gravity-fed Water and Pump House

The next phase was to add gravity-fed water. At this point I purchased our first buriable poly cistern (1500 gallons) and an above ground poly “Guido” tank (2600 gallons). We have a hill behind the house, so a friend brought over his excavator and we hauled the two tanks up the hill and placed them. The buried tank is for year round use, and the above ground tank for summer, when we are watering gardens, the orchard, and when the animals drink more. Then we rented a trencher and ran a trench from the tanks on the hill to the pump house.

Prior to pouring the cement slab floor for the pump house, I purchased a simple irrigation valve box and placed that at grade in the floor of the pump house as I knew we would need to bring piping into the pump house from under ground. We ran a two-inch PVC pipe from the tanks on the hill to the pump house. At this point it’s important to know the elevation of things. The pump house, main house, and house tank are all at the same grade. Using a GPS, we determined that the gravity flow tanks on the hill are 72 feet in elevation above the pump house.

This may sound like it’s getting complicated at this point, but trust me it will come together in a minute.

Connecting It All Together

Another trench was dug from the pump house to the house water storage tank and then a third from that tank up the hill to the gravity tanks. One inch PEX pipe was installed to connect those points, and a manifold was built in the pump house to connect everything together. If you followed all that, you may be thinking why was only one pipe run from the gravity tanks to the pump house? Don’t you need one to fill the tanks, and one pipe to gravity feed back down the hill? No; one pipe does both. That is if your standard well pump is working, meaning that when you run the pump you push the water up the hill and it fills the tank because it has sufficient force to do so. Then when the pump is off, gravity takes over and the water will flow back down the same pipe that filled the tank.

Now, here’s the fun part. When our house is on gravity feed, we can hardly tell the difference from the well pump. We have running water at all of the sinks, can take a shower, flush toilets, et cetera with no electricity whatsoever.

What if you can’t run your high-voltage pump system and you need to go to the Simple Pump as a back up? Your pump dealer can do the calculations for you, but just because your low voltage or hand pump can bring water to the surface of your well top does not mean it has much more “umph” to do anything else. In our case because we are not maxing out the vertical lift ability of the hand pump, it has a little “umph” left when it gets to the surface, but there is no way it will pump water up the hill to the gravity tanks. So, now what do you do?

Basically you do the following. The Simple Pump can bring the water to the surface of the well and pump it over to the house tank, as they are at the same elevation. I then installed a Dankoff Solar slow pump and another basic solar system to run it at the house tank. This pump does have enough “umph” at this point to pump water from the house tank to the gravity tanks on the hill. Make no mistake, these systems don’t run a lot of water. Depending on the circumstances, you can expect from 1/2 GPM to 2 GPM, but a pump like the Dankoff can run 24/7 for a long, long time. At 1 GPM though, that is over 1400 gallons of water per day. (The only flaw to a Dankoff pump is that it absolutely, positively needs the water to be filtered well before it gets to the pump.)

I do not want to delve deeply into rain water collection in this article, as it has been covered sufficiently on the Internet. However, I will say that our rain water collection goes into the house tank, thereby reducing wear on our well system, and that our main roof surface area used to collect rain water is of a good size but not huge. Just 1.25 inches of rain will fill the 1500 gallon tank.

On paper, these projects may seem a little complex, but they really are not. Once you start down the path, taking it one step at a time, and bring things like this online, it will take on its own energy and excitement.

In the next part of this series, I will address methods to obtain and manage hot water in a grid down or survival scenario.

Letter: Professor Preponomics on Yellen’s Rate Hike

I have long been of the opinion that the Fed has backed itself into a corner with interest rates near 0%. Such low interest rates only serve to encourage the borrowing, adding to the unwieldy national debt. With the interest rates so low, the debt may be currently serviceable, but if the rates are raised, I question whether or not the debt load can be serviced at all. After Yellen announced a 0.25% rate hike, I queried Professor Preponomics on what in the world Yellen was thinking. I believe SurvivalBlog readers will be very interested in the answer. – HJL

JWR’s recent post with a warning about the risk of a liquidity crisis was SPOT ON. In my view, it was so right (and so timely) that it’s worthy of a reposting to the blog such that it captures the attention of as many readers as possible. His recommendations for diversification were very much like those that govern my own beliefs and strategies: cash, precious metals, survival stash, means of production, and goods for barter. I also suggest advance payment of property taxes.

JWR and Hugh are so right to raise the question and concern with regard to that nasty four letter word: debt. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I post often on this subject and the spendthrift nature of Congress. Many of the programs they fund are so absurd that I shake my head in disbelief and disgust. An example: We’re spending a cool $5M to help hipsters quit smoking alongside $119M to prop up the tobacco industry. One analysis suggests that interest on the national debt will shortly triple and will become the 3rd largest budget item on the books. …and yet we continue to borrow. …and spend. …and borrow even more. The midnight passage of this latest spending bill was an outrage, and a total failure of fiscal policy.

I am deeply concerned about whether or not the debt could ever be repaid. I believe that neither the momentum nor the mathematics are favorable to this outcome, but perhaps as worrisome (maybe more so) is the lack of any political will to have an honest conversation about the state of our national finances. Politicians avoid the subject and so do most Main Street Americans. Many simply believe that we can simply outrun our obligations by spending ever more and devaluing our currency by way of targeted inflation rates. …and why address the painful reality of repayment for as long as we can remain in denial? There simply is no will to reduce the debt, we’re not even trying, and we are in very real trouble. The United States is, and has been for some time, insolvent.

Unfortunately, our refusal to face the facts will not relieve us from realizing harsh economic consequences, and those consequences may be quite severe as conditions unravel. In point of fact, it’s possible we are already seeing the signs of such an unraveling in various forms of economic malaise (or non-responsiveness to stimuli) punctuated by points of significant volatility. The swings may be warning signals with an important message: Danger Ahead.

Our fiscal policy (which includes no apparent form of spending restraint) is most assuredly complicating our monetary policy – and our monetary policy has exhausted most of its traditional options designed to promote increased production, maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate interest rates.

Now here comes the rate hike – and economic hysteria ensues. What in the world was Janet Yellen thinking?

  • She is trying to recover some degree of credibility, having backed herself into a corner with lots of talk and no action over too extended a period of time. She may also be trying to preserve some degree of political maneuvering room, and she’ll need it if things don’t go according to the Fed plan.
  • She is probably also trying to ease into a rate hike to signal (or telegraph) confidence in the economy, and perhaps she hopes this will stimulate the velocity of money or what I call the “wind tunnel” with the stated goal of 2% annualized inflation.
  • At the same time, she is trying to prevent the kind of runaway inflation that can easily arise from the extraordinary levels of QE; surely Yellen recognizes the signals that bubbles are forming (even as some sectors of the economy struggle along).
  • In order to accomplish this goal, she knows she must reach beyond the banks. Yellen’s efforts to expand influence in the financial decision making of non-bank financial institutions through the use of reverse repos is, in my opinion, a real sign of risk recognition. …and since she has effectively uncapped the reverse repo ceiling, it seems reasonable to assume she views the systemic risks coming from non-bank financial institutions as significant.
  • She may as well be trying to curb the risk taking behaviors of banks (and other financial institutions), but I do not believe she will succeed in this regard given the evidence of the past as well as the nature and character of bankers. Derivatives are an excellent example.
  • Of course she must also counter balance the need to manage the risk of inflation with the risk that Fed policy could ignite a liquidity crisis, especially since she may have to pull back quite severely on the money supply in order to accomplish the real effects of a quarter point rate push.
  • Does she hope that the relatively strong U.S. dollar will do some of the work by holding economic activity in restraint? Maybe. This is certainly a possibility. If this works, she may believe that while the rate decision will capture most of the headline news, the real economic work will come from the reverse repos and the relative strength of the dollar.
  • While Yellen is considering all of this, she must weigh as well the risk of emerging market debt defaults that might follow from the increased costs of servicing huge debt loads. Economies are so intertwined that it would be impossible for her not to consider global implications.
  • …but none of this mentions the implications for municipalities, which also service debt, or for pension programs that are starved for returns and facing their own insolvency issues. None of this mentions the U.S. national debt or the ever-escalating cost of servicing that debt let alone the possibility that the debt might ever be retired.

No doubt about it… Yellen is navigating a narrow tight rope across a very deep canyon where one misstep (or unanticipated gust of wind) could spell disaster. Unfortunately, the chances she can traverse the distance to a safe landing are not good.

Missteps and gusting winds could come from just about any direction:

  • A misunderstanding of the underlying cause of the problems we face and the misapplication of any solution or combination of solutions.
  • Errors with regard to the timing of any form of intervention – too early or too late.
  • Attempts to solve problems that are beyond the limits of monetary policy – including out of control fiscal policy and climate change. No, Janet; climate change is not part of the Fed Reserve’s mandate nor (in my view) should it be.
  • The challenges of evaluating the effectiveness of any policy measure given lag-time effects.
  • The necessary and unavoidable reliance on the cooperation and good will of other nations, whose interests (domestic or foreign) may diverge from our own (and sometimes unexpectedly).
  • The risks of unexpected events where economics are overly leveraged and there is no room left within them to absorb shocks. These can come from the natural phenomena of a solar flare or an earthquake to acts of man, including those tied to terrorism.

We are all watching closely. With level heads, it’s wise to continue to prepare ourselves in earnest.

Economics and Investing:

Something Broke In The U.S. Silver Market

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Here is a new interview done with Jeff Berwick regarding current and upcoming events.

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

U.S. News

Sell the Bonds, Sell the House, Dread the Fed (Contra Corner) Article Quote: “There is going to be carnage in the casino…” …and from one of the comments at the end: “As the pilot told the passengers after lightning struck the plane and fried all of its instrumentation: “I’ve got some bad news and some good news. First, the bad news. We have no idea where we are, no idea where we are going, and we are not even sure that our trajectory has not turned us into a nosedive. THAT SAID, the good news is that we are making EXCELLENT time.”

CAGW Reacts to Omnibus Budget Deal and Tax Extenders Package (Citizens Against Government Waste) Article Quote: “… political expediency was placed ahead of the taxpayers’ interests in a backroom…”

Higher Interest Rates will Raise Interest Costs on the National Debt (Peter G. Peterson Foundation) Commentary: With all eyes on the Fed, this is an interesting focus on failed fiscal policy which also remains very important as we consider the financial condition of the country and the steps which must be taken to step it back from the precipice.

International News

Bank of Japan Announces Extra Easing Measures (Market Watch) From the Article… “The surprise moves reflect a renewed sense of urgency at the central bank.”

Switzerland Has Discovered the Unintended Consequences of Negative Interest Rates (Business Insider) From the Article… “As the Swiss mortgage debacle shows, markets can be recalcitrant and re-develop a will of their own when things get too absurd.”

Bank of England Set to Limit Lending to Landlords (The Telegraph) Article Quote: “Mark Carney, governor at the Bank of England, has warned that he fears the buy-to-let sector could be a source of risk in the financial sector. ” …and Commentary: This article is interesting as international news, and as well because of the high levels of rental demand across the U.S. Could changes to investor loans be coming across the pond in America as well?

Personal Economics and Household Finance

15 Quick and Easy Handmade Christmas Gift Ideas (Living on the Cheap) Great Ideas: “From edibles to handmade bath products, all of these Christmas gift ideas provide an affordable way to celebrate the holidays and to give gifts that are unique and special.”

Odds ‘n Sods:

Forced Diversity: Obama Administration Begins Redistributing Poor Inner City Families to US Suburbs – Sent in by B.B.

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Like him or not, Rush Limbaugh covers the GOP sellout of America. – Sent in by P.M.

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Reader GJM writes in: I Sold My Soul On A Fractional Reserve Banking Basis—-And Then Some Of The Buyers Were Mean To Me! That’s one of the things about the buying and selling of high offices…The more compromised the ascent, the more uncompromising the descent.

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ISIS loots the rich heritage of the Middle East, pillaging, burning, and purging history of things it doesn’t like, but here in the U.S.: New Orleans council votes on purging city of Confederate monuments – Sent in by B.B.

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Parents Question Schools Choice To Have Children Sing ‘Allahu Akbar’ At Holiday Concert – P.M.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.” Ezekiel 37:18-19 (KJV)

Notes for Friday – December 18, 2015

December 18th is the birthday of Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788). He wrote more that 1,700 hymns. Today is also the birthday of Jørgen Haagen Schmith (born December 18, 1910, died October 15, 1944). He was better known under the codename Citron and was a famous Danish resistance fighter in occupied Denmark. His biographical sketch at Wikipedia describes his death, after he was tracked down by the Nazis: “German soldiers arrived at the house to arrest or kill Schmith. He fought for hours against an overwhelming force of enemy troops killing 11 and wounded scores of others before the house was set on fire and he was shot attempting to escape the flames.” His exploits were dramatized in the movie Flame and Citron.

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As expected, Obama huddles with Bloomberg as he preps order on guns. Remember, he has nothing to lose at this point and he has already stated that he is willing to use executive orders, bypassing congress, to get what he wants. The White House has released a statement: “The two discussed ways to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have access to them…” and based upon their past actions and statements, “those” would be you.

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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, 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 pmags 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 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 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. 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.

Water Works- Part 1, by JSP

Many years ago I became friends with an older gentleman who was a retired farmer. It seemed to me that there wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix or build, whether small engines, regular engines, diesel engines, electrical, electronics, welding, and so on. Not having been raised around people like this gentleman, he was a good role model for me, especially when it came to problem solving. He and his wife had retired, sold their farm, and moved to the “city” of 30,000 people. One day he told me that they were selling their home in the city to move to a small, rural comunity. I asked him why they were moving. He said, “Because the place we are buying has its own well”. I must of had this “Yeah, so?” look on my face, because he then said, “If you don’t control your water, you don’t control your life.” I wasn’t a survivalist back then, but that statement always stuck with me.

Fast forward a couple of decades to September 11th, 2001. When the second plane hit the World Trade Center, it was obvious to me that we were under attack. I started filling everything I could find with water, including the bath tub. On September 12th, 2001, my wife and I realized that we were woefully unprepared to weather much of a storm and so began our path to preparedness. One of the first things I did was purchase a 55-gallon, food-grade barrel and fill it with water in the garage. It didn’t take long to realize that we were in a bad location and 55 gallons of water could be consumed quickly by a family of four.

That was thirteen years ago. We sold that house and moved to the country. What follows is a description of an elaborate and expensive water system designed to provide water in a grid-down situation for a homestead with livestock, gardens, and orchards, but there will be some applications to those not on a well. I provide the background above so that nobody gets discouraged at the elaborateness of our current system. We started pretty humbly and built our current system one step at a time. Trust me, we made lots of mistakes along the way. My hope for this article is two fold: 1) that it encourages people to take their water “preps” to the next level, and 2) that the reader can learn from our ideas and mistakes.

DISCLAIMER: I am not an electrician or a plumber, but I do possess a pretty good basic understanding of both. While a good set of problem-solving skills goes a long way in this arena, so too does the common sense to know when you’re working with systems where you should get professional assistance. It should go without saying that anytime water and electricity are near each other, it should be treated with the utmost of care. Also when working with hot water systems, even without electricity, you need to be careful. Furthermore, in the course of this article, I will mention some products and distributors by name. I do not have any connection to any company mentioned, economic or otherwise; I am simply a retail customer.

Our First Three Enhancements To Our Water Systems

We began by enhancing the deep water well on our property. To be conversant about your well in dealing with others, you need to know the statistics of your well, including the following:

  • Well depth
  • Pump depth
  • Static water level
  • Water delivery from the well in Gallons Per Minute (GPM)

In our case:

  • Well depth = 187 feet
  • Pump depth = 167 feet
  • Static water level = 135 feet
  • Water provided = 23 GPM

The first thing we did was to install a system to help facilitate using a gas-powered generator to run the deep well pump grid down. Most of the projects listed in this article we installed ourselves, obviously to save money but often times since this is not “plain vanilla” electricians, plumbers, and pump specialist either weren’t interested in the work or had no idea what we were wanting them to do. In this first step though, we absolutely did hire an electrician, because you are working with 240 power, which is not for the inexperienced.

Step 1: First of all, it takes a lot more electricity to get a deep water well pump to “turn over” than most people realize. At first, we purchased a 2500 watt pump that turned out to not even be close to enough “juice” to run the pump. We then purchased a Generac 7500 watt gas generator with surge ability of 12,500 watts. What that means is that many things, such as well pumps, freezer motors, and so on take a lot more power to start them turning than to keep them running. So, this generator can get something started briefly up to 12,500 watts and keep things running long term up to 7500 watts or so.

If you have ever tried to interceed into the standard deep well pump system and connect a generator to the wiring, you really need to know what you’re doing electrically, and it is not for most people, myself included. So, we had an electrician install two things. First, is a three position wall switch in our laundry room where the charge control unit and pressure tank are located. This switch directs where electricity will come from, when it enters the well pump control box. When that switch is in the “up” position, the well gets its power from the grid. In the middle position it is off, and the down position means the power comes from another source. This switch does a variety of things, but most importantly it insures that if you use a generator to run your well no “juice” back feeds down the grid power lines where some unsuspecting lineman gets killed or seriously injured by your generator.

Step 2: The second part to this was to tie that switch to a waterproof junction box outside. You can put it in the location of your choice. I chose a location where the generator would be out of site and the noise signature would at least be somewhat muted. Then you or your electrician can build a simple cord with a waterproof inline shut off switch. (I did that part, and it was easy.) So, when the grid is down and you need to run your well with a generator, you simply put the three-way switch in the down position, plug the cord into the generator on one end and the junction box on the other, and fire up the generator. This is a very safe and easy way to run a well pump with a generator, and our electrician charged under $200 to install this.

The next step was to install a Simple Pump into the well, as a back up to the deep water pump. The Simple Pump (and its competitors) are a deep water hand pump for a well. I believe they advertise that they can pull water up to 300 feet of lift, as opposed to the typical well top “pitcher pump” that usually maxes out at 25 feet of lift. There are now other brands of pumps that accomplish the same thing, but to my knowledge there weren’t choices at the time, so I have not done a side-by-side comparison of different manufacturers. For this step, we also hired the work done and our “pump man” drug his feet on this project. He had all kinds of reasons why it wouldn’t work and how you are potentially jeopardizing the wiring down to your high voltage pump, et cetera. Well, he was wrong.

One of my philosophies about hiring work done that has helped improve my skill sets is that if you are on my property and on my “dime” then I get to watch and ask questions.

A year or so after having the Simple Pump installed, I went to try it. It didn’t work. I pumped and pumped and got nothing. This was not a good feeling, as this was a major part of the backup plan. Long story short is that our pump man, when assembling the sections of pipe that come with the Simple pump, used teflon tape. Pieces of the Teflon broke off and settled at the very bottom, blocking the foot valve. We had to pull the entire pump out and redo the sections with pipe dope. The Simple Pump folks had never encountered this problem previously, but when we disassembled the foot valve and base pump we could see how the Teflon tape had interfered with things. So, the lesson learned is to use pipe dope rather than Teflon tape in all well casing applications. Also you can purchase an extended pump handle and extra “O” rings for a Simple Pump, which I highly recommend. The longer handle makes the pumping much easier.

Step 3:The last step in our path to enhance our water system was to purchase some poly water storage tanks. We purchased a 1500-gallon tank, a 300 gallon vertical tank, and a 425-gallon tank designed to fit in the back of a pick up. The 1500-gallon tank that we refer to as our “house tank” was sunk about two feet into the ground on a bed of sand, and the rest of the tank is about four feet out of the ground. This was done in a storage “lien to” that I built on the back side of our house. It is closed in and well insulated and you can’t be seen coming and going from it from the county road. At first it gave a great deal of piece of mind to have that tank full, and later it became an integral part of our gravity feed system that I will speak of later.

The 300-gallon vertical tank has a lot of versatility and would be great for the homeowner with not a lot of room in a garage, as it has a very small foot print for that many gallons of stored water. The 425-gallon pickup tank is also very versatile, if you need to venture out and bring water back from another location, be it surface water or not. Later, we purchased a Honda High Pressure two-inch gas water pump, in case we needed to load surface water, and then we built a manifold with one-inch hoses to create our own fire truck with the tank, the pump, the manifold (that just steps things down in size and has shut off valves) and two fire hoses.

A Few Thoughts On Poly Water Tanks

Generally speaking there are two kinds– above ground and those that can be buried. As you might imagine, the buriable ones are much more expensive. For example, we have purchased three buriable tanks that I will discuss later, and they tend to run about a dollar a gallon, in our location. In other words, a 1500-gallon buriable tank costs about $1500. Our 1500-gallon house tank, which is an above ground tank, was a bit over $500. Yet, we had no problems burying it down a couple of feet. Buriable tanks have ridges to provide strength against having dirt around and on top of them, so they don’t collapse. Even still, our preferred method of installing a buriable tank is excavate the hole and level it. At a bare minimum insure there are no rocks or sharp objects in the hole but better yet put down a bed of sand. Place the tank in the hole, and check for level. If it is level, fill it with water at this point and let it sit ovenight. Then, backfill the hole.

Buriable poly tanks tend to come in two types– cisterns and septic tanks. Cisterns are often white, and septic tanks are often yellow. Either can be used for water storage, but the septic tanks are often two chambered. If I was going to use a poly septic tank for water storage, prior to installation I would send someone smaller than me down a manhole with a three-inch hole saw. I would have them drill four or five holes through the wall separating the chambers near the bottom of the tank to allow water to move easily back and forth between each chamber.

One differentiation on above ground poly water tanks is that some are designed to take direct sunlight and others are not. Our “house tank” is clear or nearly clear plastic, which means that direct sunlight would absorb heat and cause the inside of the tank to mold in not much time on hot summer days. We now have an above ground tank that is green (some are black) and is referred to by its manufacturer as a “Guido” tank, which just means that the dark color helps reduce the absorbed sunlight and retards the mold growth.

Where do you get poly tanks?

In our area, they are an agricultural product usually used to hold liquid chemical fertilizers and such; so start with farm supply or “ranch and home” type stores. Just because you don’t see them at said stores doesn’t mean they don’t have them or can’t get them, so ask. Unfortunately, special ordering them can be cost prohibitive, as the shipping can run as much as the tank itself, so it’s best to try to find them in stock some place in your area.

A couple of final words on poly water storage tanks

I personally would never buy a used tank for our water purposes. They make chemical “neutralizers” that are supposed to clear out chemical residues from used tanks, but again I would only get new tanks for our water system.

Most tanks come with a “man hole” cover opening at the top and a two-inch threaded opening at the bottom. Some tanks, though, do not come with any threaded openings (besides the man hole cover), so you have to install them yourself, which is not a big deal. The fittings themselves are called ***AMAZON***bulk head fittings and can be found online or our local hardware store stocks them. They are commonly used for many water-type applications, from aquariums to boats. You use a simple hole saw in a cordless drill to make the hole and then insert the fitting and tighten it down. Typically the outside fittings are reverse thread and the inside are standard threads. The trick to installing these is to be very carefull about the size of hole you drill. Use a hole saw that is exactly the same size as the outside threads of the bulk head fitting. If it won’t go in, then use a round file and take a tiny little bit of plastic out until it will. If you drill a hole too large, you may have just ruined that tank, or at worst you need to go up to another size (say from 2″ to 3″ bulk head fitting), but that is a challenging hole to drill and keep things straight.

Finally, to fill and drain a tank from the bottom fitting or a drop tube (more on this in part 2) as apposed to opening the man hole cover and working from the top, you need ventilation. When filling the tank, the water you insert will be displacing air inside the tank. Without ventilation, there will reach a point where the air pressure inside the tank will exceed the water pressure coming into the tank, and it will stop filling. Also, say you fill the tank from the man hole cover, seal it, and then start to drain it out the bottom, at some point a vacuum will occur and it will stop draining properly.

Venting these tanks is a simple project. What I do is purchase a 1/2” bulk head fitting and install it at the top of the tank near the man hole cover. Then use 1/2” schedule 80 (plastic) nipples to get up out of the ground and high enough to avoid any snow that may be on the ground in winter (or not so tall for an above ground tank). Then attach a 90-degree fitting, a short nipple, another 90-degree fitting, and short nipple, so that now your “vent” opening is pointing down. Then cover it with some window screen material and zip tie it on to keep out any bugs.

These few projects leapfrogged our water systems dramatically for not that much money. We went from a well that could be used when the grid was up only with a small amount of stored water to a safe and easy way to run the well pump grid down plus a hand pump backup and a couple of thousand gallons of water storage.

In part 2, we will take that system to the next level and talk about how best to implement the Simple Pump, some very basic solar water tools, and a gravity feed system.

Letter Re: How To Title Retreat Property, An Overlooked Item in Your Planning, by John in the Ozarks

HJL

John in the O is right on. It is important to make it hard to track you down. He talks about insurance in a figurative sense. My day job is independent insurance agent. In the literal sense it is important in insurance for names to match. Not named? Then there’s no coverage. Find an agent that preps, confide in that agent, and get the coverage right. No one ever comes to me looking for one of my clients, particularly lawyers. Even if the insurance company is not paying attention to details, handling a check with the wrong name on it is a real problem. – RV

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Hugh,

A couple things you might want to consider before you title your property under an LLC or any other corporate entity. If things go bad for you in a lawsuit or for any other reason you have to file bankruptcy, you will lose the property. Under bankruptcy law there are certain exemptions from execution. These exemptions are items that you get to keep. You get to choose either the federal exemptions or the state exemptions. The state exemptions vary, but state and federal both include homestead exemptions. Some states, like Florida, allow 100% of one home, while the feds and most states have a dollar amount maximum on one home. Corporations do not have exemptions. So, if the corporation gets sued, you lose the property. If you get sued, you forfeit the corporation and still lose the property. I might suggest that you keep at least one residence in your name.

Some states, and other governmental subdivisions, provide for reduced property tax to senior citizens. Even very old corporations don’t get that benefit. This is good only on one residence. – R.

Economics and Investing:

Something Strange Is Taking Place In The Middle Of The Atlantic Ocean – Sent in by J.C.

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Baltic Dry Crashes To New Record Low As China “Demand Is Collapsing” – Sent in by G.G.

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

U.S. News

Fed Betting It Will Avoid Central Bank Errors of the Past (CNS News) Commentary: The Fed’s 1937 error, Japan’s lost decades, Europe’s dubious hikes… A stroll down a less than pleasant version of memory lane. Time will unfold the story about whether or not the current quarter point rate hike was the right Federal Reserve decision, and it may not be long before we know.

Fed Aggressively Ramps Up New Tool to Pry Rates Higher (Reuters) Article Quote: “The Fed’s first tightening in more than nine years represents a big step on the tricky path of returning monetary policy to a more normal footing…”

Did “Tight” Fed Policy Cause the Financial Crisis? (Mises Institute) Spoiler Alert: “Ted Cruz and the Market Monetarists are right to blame the Fed for the financial crisis, but they are focusing on the wrong end. The real problem was the Fed’s inflation of the early and mid-2000s that fueled the housing bubble and related malinvestments.”

Bernanke Says the Fed is Likely to Add Negative Rates to Recession Fighting Toolkit (Marketwatch)

In the Middle of the Night, Congress Unveiled a Massive, Trillion-Dollar Budget Deal. Here’s what’s in it… (Business Insider) Calendar Note: The vote is set for Friday…

International News

Russia is Bracing for $30 Oil in 2016 (CNN)

Personal Economics and Household Finance

How to Get Your Finances in Order in 30 Days (Clark Howard) Note: This article was originally posted to the Clark Howard site in September, but it’s timely given both the start of a New Year just around the corner now, and in light of the uncertainty of the economic future.

Odds ‘n Sods:

There are some pretty frightening satellite images in this link sent in by RBS. Batten down the hatches! Bering Sea monster storm hits Alaska as wind gusts reach 122 MPH and waves 40ft in the Aleutian Islands.

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SurvivalBlog reader B.B. sent in this link: Russia and China’s “Enhanced Human Operations” Terrify the Pentagon.

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Just tourism or something else? Sheriff’s office confirms tip about possibly suspicious questions regarding Bagnell Dam.

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Electromagnetic Harvester charges battery (in a day) from “thin air” While this isn’t a new concept, I do wonder how long before a law is passed against its use similar to using public power to charge cell phones in some places.

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In the continuing saga of the malware masquerading as an operating system – Why Microsoft Says Windows 10 Upgrades Cannot Be Stopped.

Notes for Thursday – December 17, 2015

December 17th, 1905, was the birth day of Simo Häyhä, who was the world’s most successful sniper. Using an iron-sighted Mosin–Nagant in Finland’s Winter War, he had an astounding 505 confirmed sniper kills. He died April 1, 2002.

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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, 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 pmags 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 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 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. 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 61 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.