Bureaucracy Kills: A Lesson from Rome. – P.S.
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South Carolina Inmate Sentenced to 37 Years in Solitary for Facebooking. – H.L.
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President Barack Obama’s Complete List of Historic Firsts [Updated]. – B.B.
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Restoring the Old Way of Warming: Heating People, not Places. – P.B.
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“To eat or be eaten, to escape or be taken…a matter of utmost importance to the one concerned, yet it happens all the time and we don’t even notice.” ? Nahoko Uehashi, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
February 15th: We’d like to wish Mike Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large) a Happy Birthday!
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Today, we present another entry for Round 57 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 57 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
To all who are reading this article, all is not well in the world of the bug out bag! It is my hope that this article will:
There is nothing like putting on a backpack filled with everything that you need to survive and thrive. After more than 15 years of avid backpacking and other outdoor pursuits, I have learned profound lessons. One of the most profound lessons I’ve learned through hard experience is to try to be prepared! As to what you are preparing for, I will leave that up to you.
Many of you already have bug out bags or are reading this article to make one. As I write this article, I am bewildered by the immense problems I see with most bug out bags. I would like to say that all is not well in the world of bug out bags!
There are so many choices and companies that call their product “the perfect bug out bag”. I have come to a vexing conclusion. Please don’t be mad at the messenger, but someone needs to say this to protect others. While some stores genuinely want to help you find a useful and practical emergency bag (B.O.B, I.N.C.H bag, or what have you). But there are others are money-grubbers who are selling gimmicky and unpractical products. Many of these apart or are not suited for the rigors of a bug out bag.
I believe in God and hate it when people take advantage of others. My hope through this article is to point out some of the common bug out bag problems. I’d also like to share some insight from a backpacker’s perspective.
As a backpacker I am able to go out into the mountains for a week and have everything I need. My main backpack is about +/- 5,000 cubic inches. In the summer, I have plenty of room and usually cinch down the compression straps for short trips. When I go winter camping or mountaineering, I can easily fill the backpack all the way and sometimes need to attach, on the outside, a snow shovel, ice axe, crampons, hiking poles, and an extra sleeping mat. My pack has been very versatile over the years. It disperses the weight very well.Hiking 15-mile days through the mountains feels truly like just a walk in the park. Most people can’t say this about their bug out bags.
There are some very nice backpacks on the market today. However, it means very little if it does not fit your body type well. I remember trying on a backpack at an REI store. An experienced worker there fitted the pack to my torso length. He then added 55-pound sand bags to the pack. I then walked around the store for about 40 minutes. After the walk, we both noticed that I needed a medium pack to fit my torso. I also needed a small waist belt. The worker swapped out a small waist belt from another pack, and now I had a custom fit pack. What service!
More than a decade later, through heat, snow, mission trips, and porting, the pack is still working just fine. It even came with a lifetime warranty. Now that you have heard the sunny side of a good pack, let’s talk about the dark side of things.
Common bug out bag problems:
A sleeping pad is like duck-tape. Who’s a wuss now?
Dear Gentlemen,
In the article titled, “IRS to Pay Back-refunds to Illegal Immigrants Who Didn’t Pay Taxes” by The Washington Times, raised a red flag to me. As a CPA, I try to look out for my clients so that they do not get in any trouble, but the quote below opened my mind to a problem that is coming.
The article stated, “Under the new program, if you get a Social Security number and you work, you’ll be eligible to apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit,” Mr. Koskinen said.
He said that would apply even “if you did not file” taxes, as long as the illegal immigrant could “demonstrate having worked off-the-books during those years.”
This might make you mad that the illegals get a refund. However, read the statement, “…could demonstrate having worked off-the-books…” If the illegals show they worked off the books, the full wrath of the IRS will be coming upon the businesses or people who paid the illegals and did NOT withhold or match payroll taxes.
The amnesty is to the illegals not the businesses that paid them. The “Trust Fund Penalty” for not paying Social Security Tax and Medicare Tax is severe. The employer will be responsible for the employer and employee portions of the tax and penalties equal to 100% of the tax. If we do the math, let’s say you had a person, illegal, being paid $500 per week and he worked for 50 weeks. That would make his pay $25,000 per year. The tax you would have paid, if you had paid him legally, would have been ($25,000 * 7.65%) or $1,912.50. Now you will pay your portion, his portion and a penalty equal to both portions or $7,650.00 (1,912.50 (your tax) + 1,912.50 (their tax) + 3,825.00 (penalty)). Remember the statement at the bottom of your tax return, where you sign it; it starts out “Under penalty of perjury…” By signing your personal and/or business tax forms, if you paid illegal workers off-the-books, you also have committed perjury. Also, if the tax owed is substantial, you have committed FRAUD. FRAUD=Jail!
Be careful; the amnesty program is another program to go after businesses that did not withhold and pay what was legally required of them. If you have paid illegal people off-the-books, consult with a tax attorney, CPA, or other competent financial consultant.
There is one more problem; if the bookkeeper paid the EFTPS (federal withholding, Social Security Tax, and Medicare Tax) online and knows you were paying people off-the-books, the IRS will come after that person if the business did not pay the taxes and the owner is unable to pay the taxes. If the bookkeeper knows more secrets about you, you had better watch out! They can cut a deal. The IRS will chain your doors and run you out of business. I have seen it done.
Please understand; I am a CPA. If I were a plumber, I am conservative enough to wear suspenders and a belt. I am not trying to cause anxiety in anyone, but I am reading between the lines. We all have a responsibility to pay to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to pay to God what is His. My job is to keep you legally from paying any more than you have to. Paying people off-the-books is trouble brewing.
Respectfully, – JEH
Economic WAR Between U.S. & Russia, WWIII lies ahead, Federal Reserve is signally economic collapse
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Capitol City Bank & Trust Co, Georgia, Collapses – Largest Bank Failure of 2015. – G.G.
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Could Turkey Become the New Ukraine?
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IEA Sees Oil Prices Bottoming Out, But Not Surging Back To $100-Plus Levels
Yet another Philip K. Dick novel has made it to the screen. This one is an alternate history story: The Man In The High Castle
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SurvivalBlog Reader JBG sent in this link talking about the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission Report. It’s notable that the report references that there were over nine minutes that passed while the shooter had unhindered access to do his evil deeds. Then the report takes a tangent into left field and makes recomendations that would have had zero impact on this school shooting but certainly carry the left’s anti-gun message. Missing from the report is the impact that having armed personnel on this gun-free victim zone would have had.
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SurvivalBlog Reader T.B. writes in from California to confirm the severe drought they are having. They are already ceasing the watering of low-producing trees. He also warns that in the poor conditions, bug infestations on the trees are becoming an issue. Be careful of the advice given over controlling these infestations, too. The local garden center recommended a systemic poison that kills ALL bugs (including beneficial ones, like bees).
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Automatic License Plate Readers Also Gathering Millions Of Facial Photos Daily. – B.B.
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Warning: Facebook video: Off Grid Rotisserie. – BRB
“Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.” Luke 7:12-16 (KJV)
February 14 is the birthday of Medal of Honor recipient Jack Lucas (born 1928, died June 5, 2008). During the Iwo Jima campaign, this 17-year-old won the Medal of Honor for unhesitatingly hurling himself over his comrades upon one grenade and for pulling another one under himself. One of the grenades exploded, and Lucas absorbed the entire blasting force of it with his own body. PFC Lucas was the youngest Marine ever to receive the Medal of Honor. (He was just 13 when he forged his mother’s signature to enlist.)
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Our friends at the View From The Porch have reported that the BATF is about to classify the XM855 round as an armor piercing pistol round and force it’s removal from the market. You may want to stock up on such items. As of this writing, there seems to be plenty of stock, but you don’t want to get caught short handed.
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Don’t forget the Camping Survival’s Mountain House Sale, which ends today– February 14th. It would be a good time to replenish your stock!
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Today, we present another entry for Round 57 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 57 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
The three elements of nature that cause damage– sun, wind, and water. My bet is on the last one, especially the frozen kind. Preparing and acting upon it are two entirely different and opposite things.
The rain started in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, without much concern at first. Although the weather report at first said the possibility of ice was real, it would stay south, in Ohio.
Lesson #1: Nature is fickle, and even NOAA cannot always track the line between rain, snow, and ice. Predictive weather paths can give you a false sense of security, and margins of error are costly. Unfortunately, the prediction of a little bit of accumulation of ice turning to snow was wrong. It was all ice, at least for my area in Southeast Michigan, and we paid the price for the miscalculation.
All was well until dark. The warm upper atmosphere and the cold air clashed as it swepted out of the northwest. By the time I looked out the front door, two hours later after dusk, it was too late. Ice hanging like chandeliers had already formed on the trees and power lines in front of my house. A hundred-foot tall pine tree that had survived decades of inclement weather soon bore witness, the branches cracking and shaking to the ground in piles. I shut the door and told my wife that we had better fill the bathtub and water jugs with water for drinking and flushing the toilets.
Lesson #2: Don’t trust others when you are first responsible for yourself and family. Local authorities on a large-scale emergency are only reactionary and are little prepared themselves for a regional disaster.
Before I could fill the bathtub up halfway, the lights went out. I had backup power, so I had a false sense of security that I soon paid for. I looked out the back window to see the transformer located on a pole above my outdoor shed explode in a shower of sparks. It was the fourth of July, except it was February. Luckily, I had moved the wood pile and it wasn’t behind the shed, as the situation was only going to get worse from here.
I had a Bearcat scanner with fresh batteries, so I had the local catastrophe well monitored. Already the police, ambulance, and hospital were at duty, but I couldn’t keep up with all the 911 calls. I dwelled at that moment on taking a chance of going to Walmart for extra everything. I went outside and soon regretted taking that chance. I reached the car and realized the vehicle was covered with an inch of solid ice. Before I turned to get my utility bar to chip away at the mess, I found myself in mid-air grasping for the car door to help right myself. Instead of standing, I hit the asphalt; all 200-pounds of me was bouncing on the ice-covered driveway. I pulled my head forward, barely in time to prevent hitting my head flush thereby keeping consciousness. I couldn’t move. My back locked up, and the air in my lungs was gone. I couldn’t breathe. I heard no one come to the garage door to see what I was doing. The frozen ice had already covered my face. Finally, I started to breathe again. I couldn’t stand. I rolled slowly side to side, until I landed on my stomach. I crawled on my elbows up the driveway toward the garage doorway. I had full strength in my arms, but my lower legs were weak, leaving me unable to rise up. Those fifty feet felt like a mile. By the time I crawled to the door, my wife opened it and I rolled in.
I asked my wife to get the electric heat pad and plug it into the DR Series 2400 Watt Inverter/Charger I kept in the corner of the garage with my battery bank. I forgot to check it immediately after the transformer blew. When the power goes out, it automatically goes from charger to inverter mode instantly. I later found out the 30 amp fuse had blown.
Lesson #3: Keep multiple extras of whatever you think you really need. My wife grabbed the hand warmers I kept in the kitchen drawer. This was a chemical solution for my locked up back. Non-electrical items are key in any emergency situation and I buy these in bulk now. After taping the hand warmers and later some icy blue gel packs to my lower back, I was able to stand again.
No cell phone worked. We still had a land line, but since most of my friends had cell phone I couldn’t reach them. Land lines have back-up batteries and operate on low voltage, which is an advantage in a crisis situation. I called my aunt, who also still had a landline, and made sure she had no immediate problems. I told her to take her medicines out of the fridge and put them in the garage, as most attached garages stay just above freezing in the winter. A thermometer revealed it was 36 degrees in ours, so we emptied our refrigerator and stored the goods in coolers out there. We taped the freezer shut, so no one would accidentally open it and let the cold out.
We had installed a Hearthstone wood heater with soapstone in the living room. It gives off heat slowly and evenly instead of a red hot steel one that burns anyone who suddenly touches it. My wife uses aluminum coffee cans filled with rock salt that absorb the heat and provide extra heat also. Although the central heating system was down, we were still warm. In the breezeway that separates the kitchen and utility area from the living room and bedrooms, we hung a blanket to keep the immediate areas more warm. The kitchen was cool the next day, but we only prepared meals and didn’t spend much time in there.
With the inverter down, I still had a generator for power, but I decided not to use it at that point. I did have several smaller inverters– 300 to 700 watt size– to use for smaller appliances, which I used with the deep cycle batteries. The DC sump pump with the batteries helped to keep the water entering the sump pit from flooding the basement. I let my son do the lifting, as my back was in no condition to carry 100-pound batteries. Two six-volt batteries in series parallel produce 12 volts and run the DC sump pump, bypassing the AC sump pump. In the argument of Tesla’s AC versus Edison’s DC system, Tesla’s AC system clearly is much better delivering power over great distances, but in an immediate power down situation DC power in a homestead has advantages over AC. Small appliances can be run fully charged in a power down situation. Any appliance found in a RV can be run on DC.
By morning, I surveyed the damage from overnight. Trees and power lines were strewn across the roads. The people on my street who dared to go out decided to leave altogether instead of staying in their unheated homes. Our neighbor across from us left to go live with her grown children. I went out in my backyard to get a closer look at the blown transformer and discovered a power line was down the width of my entire yard, just missing my shed. If it had landed on my shed roof, it would have burned down, and with the gas can I kept inside, the shed might have blown up. That was a close call. It was six days before the power company finally installed a new line. They decided to put the new transformer in a new location, closer to road access. That was a good decision. The clean up on my street took several days, even after the power came back on.
A Big Berkey water filter gave us a gravity-fed clean water system. Draining the hot water heater also helped provide water for flushing toilets. Lighting was done by oil lamps and LED flashlights, a low tech solution. I missed work for a few days but safety was my first priority after my fall. I found lead acid deep cycle batteries are the weak link in any solar home power system. If you cycle them down more than 50 per cent over and over, you soon lose capacity and shorten their life. Newer technology in batteries lessens the problem but they are more expensive. Oh well. Communication is paramount in staying in touch with the outside world. FRS and CB radios can offer immediate help. Shortwave still has a place and is not obsolete.
I converted a gas generator with a conversion adapter kit to use propane years ago, and a 500-gallon tank provided ample fuel for the week-long blackout to keep the freezer on. The power did come back on, and everything slowly got back to normal, but I’ve been thinking lately what would happen if you had to go a year or five years without juice. Civilization and the population would be scaled back drastically. Everything is doable with the proper resources and man power. No electric power, no refrigeration, no cars, and technology strangled by the lack of energy will be daunting indeed. The solution is around the corner, but it may not reveal itself until after another major war and /or economic collapse. Still, GOD makes a way no matter how grim it appears. Having stuff (solar panels, water filters, and all of that) gives solace, but we only have the CREATOR to protect us. Amen!
HJL,
Instead of stocking baby food in jars, I have the Kidco Food Mill. This neat item allows baby to “eat what we eat”. While little baby food jars are good for barter, if I had one or more babies show up at my front door, I would want the food mill. Life would get easier and less stressful right away. – C.G.
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Dear Survival Blog:
FC makes some great points in his article on caring for babies in a post-collapse world. We raised our 11 babies and spent very little on baby food because we had a small hand-powered baby food mill that we used to grind up our meals to feed the infant. Anyone preparing to deal with babies in an extended crisis would do well to have one on hand. They are readily available through online retailers; just search for “baby food grinder” or “baby food mill”. (Obviously all the rules about introducing new foods one at a time initially still apply.) – EF
It gets worse even quicker from here… Tweeting for Treatment in Venezuela. – H.L.
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Want To Start A Blog in Philadelphia? You’ll Need A $300 License For That!. – RBS
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Officials in Missouri are SUING THEIR OWN RESIDENTS for Voting Against Red Light Cameras. – H.L.
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Homeland Security to be put in charge of info spying. – P.S.
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CNN Anchor: ‘Our Rights Do Not Come From God’ – T.P.
This CNN anchor fails civics class: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” – Quoted from the Declaration of Independance.
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Here is an entry opportunity into the Redoubt area for someone who is serious about making the move. It’s not alot, but it helps, and the hours would allow a young person to spend plenty of time with the family or hold a second part-time job.
“Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.” Exodus 23:20-22 (KJV)
Today, February 13th, is the birthday of both Robert Charles R.C. Sproul, Jr.(born 1939), a well-respected American Calvinist theologian, and General Chuck Yeager (born, 1923), the first man to break the sound barrier.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 57 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 57 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
