JWR was recently interviewed by Rick Austin of the Secrets of a Survival podcast.
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NJ gun owners dodge new ‘smart gun’ regs. – D.S.
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Government In Action: Guns Being Seized By Police From People On Secret List. – T.F.
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Another reason to make sure you have your press credentials in order: Illinois General Assembly revives recording ban. – T.P.
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Krayton Kerns, DVM: Mind Neutrality
“The strong survive, but the courageous triumph.” ? Michael Scott, The Warlock
December 9th, 1914 is the birthday of Maximo Guillermo “Max” Manus. He was one of the few Norwegians who had the testicular fortitude to put his life on the line, fighting the Nazi occupiers. (There surely would have been more active resistance fighters, but fearing widespread reprisal executions by the Germans, King H7 asked the civilian populace to stand down.) Max Manus passed away in 1996. I would have liked to have met him. His exploits are fairly accurately shown in the movie Max Manus: Man of War.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 56 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 56 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.
The concept of prepping has been widely publicized throughout the past decade, but it is rarely cast in a positive light, outside of survival dedicated websites, such as SurvivalBlog. The mainstream media networks mock our community by seeking out and casting the most ridiculous so-called preppers they can find to achieve high viewer rankings. The federal government encourages the citizenry to make minor preparations for surviving major disasters by storing several days’ worth of food, water, batteries, and other basic necessities. However, at the same time, it labels citizens who truly prepare (and especially those who own guns and military equipment) as “extremists” and “terrorists”. The general public, therefore, perceives preppers to be unjustifiably paranoid kooks who squander their lives engaging in pointless and often times dangerous endeavors in order to ready themselves for some event that is unlikely to ever actually happen. Is there any legitimacy to the criticism that the prepper community receives? Do the unprepared have good reason to fear or scoff at preppers? I believe that some preppers, like those seen on TV as well as a significant number of private individuals through actions displayed on the Internet and in the physical world, have created a negative stereotype that the rest of us are forced to endure. It is my hope to turn the tide by advising the reader according to my own example.
First, here is a little about myself. Today, I would be considered a prepper or more appropriately a survivalist, although I considered myself to be a fairly prepared person long before “prepping” became a household term. Back when I was quite young, in the late 80’s/early 90’s, it was not uncommon for people to inquire of me about all the gear I was carrying that caused my cargo pants pockets to bulge. I enjoyed activities such as fishing, snorkeling, archery, bicycling, exploring local forests, and climbing rocks and trees, and I was especially fascinated with making my own weapons, which included knives, crossbows, blowguns, spears, and bolas. I did most of these things by myself. My family wasn’t very interested in outdoor pursuits, and nobody else really influenced me in that direction. It’s just who I happened to be. Halfway through 9th grade, my parents told me I could no longer spend all my time running around in the woods by myself and that I needed to join some kind of club or organization, of my own choice, to socialize with other people.
I had heard of the Boy Scouts and had a vague idea (mostly from the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) that they were an outdoor-oriented organization, so I called up the local scout office. The clerk there put me in contact with the scoutmaster of a nearby troop, who said to stop by and check it out. I rode my bike across town to the next Monday evening meeting, walked down into the church basement, and introduced myself to the scoutmaster, who in turn introduced me to the guys in the troop (some of whom I recognized from school and would not have suspected were Boy Scouts). Our troop was athletic and creative, wild but very self-motivated, and disciplined when it mattered. Joining it was probably the best decision my parents ever made me make. (Please note that I took responsibility for joining and attending. My parents didn’t do the work for me.) In the Boy Scouts, I learned about camping (which I had never previously done), cooking (over an open fire), knot tying (to include advanced knots and their many uses), shotgun shooting (I had never previously fired a real gun), rock climbing (specifically, climbing with a rope and harness and belaying others), lifesaving, first aid, orienteering, leadership and true teamwork (which we frequently put into practice while conducting our own clandestine operations at camp and around town). It’s hard for people to call you a kooky prepper when you’re a Boy Scout and the organization’s motto is “Be Prepared.” During the years I was in Boy Scouts, I also joined and competed in Cross Country, Track, and Swim Team at the varsity level. Although I’m pretty sure all of the guys and most of the girls could swim faster than me, I did eventually become one of the school’s fastest long-distance runners. Curing the winter time, some friends from the troop and I would stay long after the school day ended to lift weights in the gym, and in the summers I did body-weight lifting at home. I attained the rank of Eagle Scout a week before the cut-off date of my 18th birthday, at which point I enlisted in the U.S. Navy with the SEAL Challenge written into my contract.
I left for the Navy in August of 2000, completed boot camp in October, attended and graduated Intelligence Specialist “A” School, and in early 2001 I headed to Coronado for BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training). In BUD/S we learned how to paddle a raft through rough surf and land it on rocks with waves crashing down upon us; reconnoiter and survey a beach for Marine landing forces; SCUBA dive (open and closed circuit); effectively navigate, using a map and compass; navigate underwater using an “attack board”, consisting of compass, depth gauge, and stopwatch; rappel and fast-rope; responsibly use and maintain handguns, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, and grenade launchers; and handle, assemble, and detonate high explosives; and more. We did a tremendous amount of PT (physical training) by running, swimming, performing calisthenics, and body-weight exercises, running the obstacle course, and doing boat PT, log PT, and ruck humps. We also received a lot of beat-down sessions that could be considered exercise, and we ran six miles each day, regardless of any other PT, just to get to the galley and back for each meal. After BUD/S, we went through three weeks of Army jump school (static-line parachuting) at Fort Benning, GA, and after Christmas break we returned to Coronado for SQT (SEAL Qualification Training), where we refined and built upon the skills learned in BUD/S (minus the beat-down sessions). Upon graduating SQT, we were officially recognized as Navy SEALs and awarded our Tridents. At that point, we were all sent off to either our Teams or additional specialized training. It’s really hard for anyone to call you a kooky prepper if they know you are/were a Navy SEAL (or any other elite soldier).
Now granted, not every guy out there will take a path into special operations, but I wanted to begin with this lengthy introduction to illustrate the efforts and results that a motivated survivalist is capable of achieving. Below, I present and detail six points that, if implemented in your own life, will greatly increase your chances of success, both in surviving TEOTWAWKI and in breaking the stereotype of the “kooky prepper.” Hopefully, your good example will attract others to the prepping community!
I would venture so far as to say that if you are not fit, you cannot be adequately prepared for life, much less for a major crisis. A high level of personal fitness (PT) is one of the most important character traits an individual can build for himself and must be earned and maintained through self-discipline and perseverance over the course of a lifetime. Your PT should include activities to build and maintain your strength, speed, endurance, flexibility, and agility.
Strength is not necessarily all about how much weight you can lift. Although bench-pressing twice your body’s weight may be impressive, it is more practical to be able to actually lift and move your own body as necessary for any given task.
SEAL PT for strength generally involves:
Other exercises should also be added in, including:
You can easily do these exercises at home or on a playground with little to no equipment cost. (I use a Yukon Power Tower, with reinforcement struts added between the dip bars and base to prevent flex in the apparatus.) Be sure to focus first on your form, and only increase the number of repetitions to the extent that you can perform each rep perfectly. It is a pet peeve of mine to see people doing pull-ups by kipping and swinging. Each pull-up should be a perfect dead-hang pull-up (all the way up and all the way down) using only the arm and back muscles; otherwise, you are just using momentum and not actually building your upper body. Similarly, pushups should be done with the entire body in-line, head up, and chest touching the ground on each downward movement. (Again, go all the way up and all the way down.) Abdominal exercises should never involve any bouncing of the back or legs off the ground. Dips require the elbow to fully bend to a 90° angle and back.
Speed and endurance are developed best by running and swimming. I recommend regularly running three to six miles per day, several times each week, over a variety of terrain to include hills, stadium steps, and tracks. A track and a stopwatch will help you to establish a steady pace (6-9 minutes per mile). Stadium steps and steep hillsides provide the best mediums for improving your speed via uphill sprinting. (Avoid excessive sprinting, as it can lead to painful shin splints, which will prevent you from running later.) Long, cross-country runs (preferably over semi-hilly terrain) will build up your endurance. While running, I inhale and exhale every left step to keep a rhythm going, similar to calling cadence. I have previously run while listening to an MP3 player, but I found the wires and controls to be distracting, and the tempos of different songs can make it difficult to keep a steady pace. Conversely, it is beneficial to carry weights while running, such as 3-6 lb dumbbells or a dummy rifle, which will acclimate you to patrolling with a real rifle for extended periods.
I recommend swimming 1-2 miles per day, as your situation allows, using the breaststroke or sidestroke. These are both underwater-recovery strokes that can be maintained over long distances with relative ease and which do not cause splashing that would attract unwanted attention during a clandestine operation. The sidestroke can be performed with or without fins, but the breaststroke cannot be performed with most fins. Fins will increase your speed but more importantly your “horsepower”, meaning they’ll allow you to easily tow objects, such as a rucksack or another person, through the water, so they’re good to practice with (and they do require practice). Until your legs are familiar with fins, you will probably experience cramped calf muscles and sore ankles.)
Swim PT can be done in virtually any aquatic environment, as long as there is ample space for you to move freely and sufficient distance for minimization of boost-providing turns; a 25-yard pool is as short as I would recommend. Like running on a track, swimming in a pool that has been measured lengthwise and marked with lanes will help you to establish your pace. For better real-world practice, you can place buoys (add your own flags, lines, and weights) at a fixed interval in a lake, bay, or past the surf in the ocean, and swim from one to the other and back, guiding yourself off the shoreline or along a yellow polypropylene rope stretched between the two buoys. If you have no calm body of water in which to swim, you can also swim upstream in a moderate river current for a pre-determined amount of time and try to stay in the same spot relative to a point on the shoreline or bottom. (This is probably the least satisfying of any swimming workout, as you don’t actually cover any distance. I did this once or twice, and that was enough.) You should complete each swim by sprinting the last 50 to 100 yards, just as you would for running during the last 100 to 300 yards. I recommend swimming with a mask, rather than goggles, to keep water out of your nose and for better vision. I got a headache the first few times I did it in BUD/S, but now a mask is all I’ll use. Be sure to get a quality low-profile/low-volume mask as well as a snorkel, for survival, operational, and recreational use. If you opt to use fins, the Deep See Aqua Glide split fins feel great with or without fin socks (“translucent black” is the best covert option). The SEAL-issue fins are the excellent Apollo Bio Fins, which you can certainly use for PT, but they cost about ten times as much as the Aqua Glides and you’ll need a pair of dive boots to use them. Although there are many other forms of endurance exercise, none of them are as beneficial or practical as running and swimming.
Tomorrow, we will continue the section of “Be Fit” and move on to the second point of success outlined in this five-part article.
Hugh,
I have been thinking of vaccum sealing my storage ammo and just use wood crates to store in bulk. You know, I’d do it with a common food sealer system. Has anyone tried this or made suggestions in this area? Any feedback (good or not) would be greatly appreciated! – C.P.
Hugh replies: You can seal your ammo, but you need to be careful about what type of ammo. The powder contains its own fuel and oxidizer (as does the primer), so a storage in a vacuum should not harm the active components. You may still have some tarnishing though, as the powder will outgass under vacuum conditions. However, since the ammo is produced at roughly 1 atmosphere of pressure, you will have approximately 14 psi pushing on the back of the bullet during the storage. If your crimp on the bullet is not tight, it may push the bullet out of the cartridge or change the overall length of the cartridge, possibly creating an unsafe condition when the ammo is used. Use vacuum sealing with caution, and check your ammo at regular intervals. Personally, I do not vacuum seal ammo, but I do use just the sealer portion of the vacuum machines to seal the ammo in plastic with a moisture absorber to keep it dry. I prefer this method, because of the failure mode of vacuum sealing. If you have a breach of the plastic barrier, the vacuum will pull the atmosphere surrounding the bag into the bag. If that atmosphere contains high levels of moisture, you defeat the purpose of the packaging. By using a normal atmosphere level, with a moisture absorber, a small breach does not pose any issues.
Plans to Jump the Snake River Canyon Still a Go
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La Grande, Oregon: Burglaries frustrate law enforcement
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Hunter who shot two bighorn sheep in Idaho will not be charged. – RBS
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And following up on the van full of cats: 68 cats in van get outpouring of donations. – RBS
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New Rules: Cyprus-style Bail-ins to Take Deposits and Pensions
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Average Federal Spending Per Household Nearly $30K. – P.M.
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Egon von Greyerz: Global Deflationary Implosion Will Start Money Printing
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Items from Mr. Econocobas
New Law Would Make Taxpayers Potentially Liable For TRILLIONS In Derivatives Losses – This essentially already exists as they have an implicit guarantee from the government but suppose this would have it officially explicit.
JWR has been warning about the derivatives since 2006
The dark secrets of a surveillance state – RBS
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“Careening Toward A New & Different Kind Of Civil War” – B.B.
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Russia To Conduct Observation Flight Over US. – M.B.
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Beloit Police Ask Residents To Volunteer To Have Their Homes Searched For Guns. – T.P.
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Continuing the open source discussion: Linux Mint 17.1 review—less change is good change. – P.S.
“People will do amazing things to ensure their survival.” ? Patricia Briggs, The Hob’s Bargain
Now available for pre-ordering at Amazon.com, but I’d prefer that you wait for December 30th to order: Tools for Survival: What You Need to Survive When You’re on Your Own. This book is a guide to the selection, use, and care of tools. It will also be available as an e-book and audiobook. -JWR
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On this day in 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
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For those in South Florida: Miami Area Nuclear Plant In Partial Shutdown After Steam Leak. – D.S.
Many misconceptions about electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects have circulated for years among technical and policy experts, in press reports, on preparedness websites, and even in technical journals. Because many aspects of EMP-generation physics and its effects are obscure, misconceptions from those who do not perceive the seriousness of the effects to those who predict a doomsday chain of events are inevitable. However, not all EMPs are the same, with the most significant effects being caused by E1 and E3 fields.
Nuclear bursts detonated at altitudes above 40 km generate two principle types of EMPs that can debilitate critical infrastructure systems over large regions:
By over- and under-emphasizing realistic consequences of EMPs, policymakers may delay actions or dismiss arguments altogether. The six misconceptions about EMPs that are perhaps the most harmful involve: (a) exposed electronic systems, (b) critical infrastructure systems, (c) nuclear weapons, (d) cost of protection, (e) type of EMPs, and (f) fiber-optic networks.
Based on the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Congressional EMP Commission’s EMP test databases, small, self-contained systems, such as motor vehicles, hand-held radios, and unconnected portable generators, tend not to be affected by EMPs. If there is an effect on these systems, it is often temporary upset rather than component burnout.
On the other hand, threat-level EMP testing also reveals that systems connected to power lines are highly vulnerable to component damage, requiring repair or replacement. Because the strength of EMP fields is measured in volts per meter, the longer the conducting line, the more EMP energy will be coupled into the system, and the higher the probability of damage. As such, the electric power-grid network and landline communication systems are almost certain to experience component damage when exposed to an EMP with cascading effects to most other (dependent) infrastructure systems.
Although an EMP would not affect every system, widespread failure of a significant fraction of electrical and electronic systems will cause large-scale cascading failures of critical infrastructure networks because of the interdependency among affected and unaffected systems. Mathematician Paul Erdos’s “small-world” network theory applies, which refers to most nodes– equipment attached to a network– being accessible to all others through just a few connections. The fraction of all nodes changes suddenly when the average number of links per single network connection exceeds one. For example, a single component failure, where the average links per node is two, can affect approximately half of the remaining “untouched” network nodes.
For many systems, especially unmanned systems, loss of control is tantamount to permanent damage, in some cases causing machinery to self-destruct. Examples of this include:
Due to a limiting atmospheric saturation effect in the EMP-generation process, low-yield weapons produce a peak E1 field similar in magnitude to high-yield weapons if they are detonated at altitudes of 50-80 km. The advantage of high-yield weapons is that their range on the ground is affected less significantly when detonated at higher altitudes.
Nuclear weapons with yields ranging from three kilotons to three megatons (a three order of magnitude difference in yield), when detonated at their optimum burst altitudes, exhibit a range of peak E1 fields on the ground differing by only a factor of ~3, viz. 15-50 KV/meter. With respect to the late-time (E3, or low-amplitude, low-frequency components) EMP field, a 30-KT nuclear weapon above 100 km would cause geomagnetic disturbances as large as solar superstorms, although over smaller regions. It also is worth noting that peak currents on long overhead lines induced by E1 from 10 kiloton-class weapons can range in the kiloamperes with voltages reaching into the hundreds of kilovolts.
Of the 14 critical infrastructure sectors, EMP risk is highest for electric power grids and telecommunication grids, because of their network connections and criticality to the operation and recovery of other critical infrastructure sectors. Attention to hardening these infrastructure grids alone would provide significant benefits to national resilience.
The electric power grid is essential for sustaining population “life-support” services. However, some major grid components could take months, or years, to replace, if many components are damaged. The primary example is high-voltage transformers, which can irreparably fail during major solar storms and are thus likely to fail during an EMP event. Protection of these large transformers would reduce the time required to restore the grid and restore the necessary services it enables.
According to Emprimus– a manufacturer of transformer protection devices– the unit cost for high-voltage transformer protection is estimated to be $250,000, with the total number of susceptible, large, high-voltage units ranging from 300 to 3,000, according to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The requirement and cost for generator facility protection are still undetermined but are likely to be similar to transformer protection costs. To protect SCADA systems, replacement parts are readily available and repairs are relatively uncomplicated. Protection costs for heavy-duty grid components are in the $10 billion range, which is a small fraction of the value of losses should they fail. When amortized, protection costs to consumers amount to pennies per month.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s January 2010 report on its E1 tests of 7.2-KV distribution transformers produced permanent damage to transformer windings in seven of the 20 units tested. The failures were due to transformer winding damage caused by electrical breakdown across internal wire insulation. As an important side note, transformers with direct-mounted lightning surge arrestors were not damaged during the tests. Similar tests of high-voltage transformers are needed.
In general, fiber-optic networks are less susceptible than metallic line networks; however, fiber-optic multipoint line driver and receiver boxes, which are designed to protect against ground current, may fail in EMP environments. Long-haul telecommunication and regional Internet fiber-optic repeater amplifiers’ power supplies are particularly vulnerable to EMP environments (Figure 1). Terrestrial fiber-optic cable repeater amplifier power is provided by the electric power grid and, thus, vulnerable to grid failure as well as to direct EMP/E1 effects. Undersea cable repeater amplifiers also are vulnerable to EMP/E3 effects, since they are connected to a coaxial metallic power conductor that runs the length of the line. Because of its low-frequency content, E3 penetrates to great ocean depths, which subjects undersea power amplifiers to high risk of burnout. On the positive side, line drivers/receivers and repeater amplifiers are relatively easy to protect using shielding, shield-penetration treatment, and power-line filters and/or breakers.
From a risk-based priority standpoint, the electric power grid is a high priority for EMP protection. Hardening this infrastructure alone would have major benefits for national resilience– the ability to sustain, reconstitute, and restart critical services. EMP engineering solutions have been implemented and standardized by DOD since the 1960s and are well documented:
With respect to the power grid, the installation of blocking devices in the neutral-to-ground conductors of large electric distribution transformers will significantly reduce the probability of damage from slow EMP/E3. Transformer protection against E1 over-voltages is achievable by installing common metal-oxide varistors (control elements in electrical circuits) on transformers from each phase to ground. Costs for protecting the power grid are small, compared to the value of the systems and services at risk.
The author of this article is a professor emeritus who consults on critical infrastructure assurance, specializing in EMP and other nuclear effects for various government agencies.
The angst of buying the right storage foods made me feel as if I was stuck in a drama, so I turned to Shakespeare and found a suitable quote in The Comedy of Errors: “Unquiet meals make ill digestions.” Although it wasn’t his best play, by a long shot, and the character had more on her mind than food, the thought does have some application to my household.
I mentioned in another review that my wife is a pretty intense food person, who loves gourmet meals and is a serious cook. My ten-year-old son is surprising in liking a large variety of cuisines, but he stubbornly draws the line on things like onions and a number of vegetables. He also insists that each food stay in its place on his plate and not be mixed up. He also inherited my wife’s need for quality on the dinner table. I’m the low brow, and as long as it’s not kimchi, mushrooms, or raw tomatoes, I can probably manage to get it down. I may not enjoy it, but it’s just fuel, right? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good meal, but I can get by without one for a lot longer than anyone else in the house.
My tolerance for low-quality food made it pretty easy to store stuff just for me. However, now that there are three of us, it is a lot more complicated. As we have started to rotate out some of the older stock, I am finding that they don’t want to eat some of the food I had been buying. My wife draws a heated line against MRE’s. My son likes the idea of Army food, but he will only eat about half of them. There are a few I don’t like either. There have been some other types of food that haven’t gone over well either, so we have been giving unwelcome items to food banks or homeless shelters. While I am happy to provide charity, some of this stuff was expensive, and I feel as if we have lost money we can ill afford.
For a while, I have motored along on the assumption that if they get hungry enough in a crisis, they will eat it, but the agony over eating it in normal times has made me worry about the stress that would be caused by forcing them to eat what they see as swill. That’s not a good plan for family solidarity in the crunch. Food is important to them, which means it needs to be more important to me when I make purchases.
My new vow is to try to buy storage food that we will eat at any time. While it might not be a first choice, it has to be something at least two of the three of us can handle.
My new food policy made me very eager to accept an offer for some sample food from a new company– Valley Food Storage https://www.valleyfoodstorage.com/ of Orem Utah. Their slogan– “Store food you’ll love to eat”– certainly fit into my plan as did the 25-year life they guarantee on their products. The longer it lasts, the less often we have to rotate it. That saves time and energy as well as money, since this stuff is often costlier than fresh food from the store. (However, their per-serving prices aren’t bad.)
Valley Food Storage was started by people who were unhappy with the storage food they purchased in 2005. When they decided to try some a few years later, they discovered that all of the food they purchased had gone bad. They learned that the food they purchased had been made with ingredients that had limited shelf lives, and they resolved that they could do better. In short, Valley Food was started, as have been many companies, by people who were unhappy with what they found on the market and who felt they could do better.
Valley Food says there are a number of elements to why they are doing better. They make first-class choices in sourcing food. They ensure that their foods are dehydrated or freeze dried in ways that provide the right moisture level for storage, while not destroying nutrition or flavor. They are highly concerned with rancidity and say that their choice of palm and coconut oils will prevent it, as these oils are more stable. Nitrogen is used to flush out the bags of food before they are sealed, which helps reduce moisture and microbes. Valley Food feels this is more effective than just using an oxygen absorber.
Interestingly, they argue against the ubiquitous can for storage food, due to how they can rust. They also feel that cans transfer heat to the food, which will shorten storage life. Personally, I have seen rusty cans go bad, but I haven’t had a problem with the ones I keep in air-conditioned spaces. I do, however, keep thinking it might be a good idea to give all of mine a coat of varnish to protect them.
Valley Food also does not use MSG or genetically-modified products, and they eschew the use of soy oil, which are all pluses in my book. We can’t be sure of what the genetically-modified stuff is actually doing to us, and there are many arguments that can be found on the Internet about soy oil being dangerous to our health. MSG is a flavor enhancer. While most governments say MSG is safe, some complain that it causes headaches and other health issues; I would just as soon do without it.
Valley Food also has some items that are gluten-, dairy-, and nut-free, for those who can’t handle those items. All lunch and dinner entrees are five servings, while the breakfast ones vary from 15-20 servings.
They sent two items– the Pasta Primavera and the Mango Habanero Chili. Both meals come in a heavy “industrial-grade mylar” bag. They were tough enough that I preferred to use scissors to open them, rather than using brute force and tugging at the top where they had the little notches to tear. The bags can be resealed, too. A bag of either meal costs $11.95. If you buy one of their larger units of one or more months of food, it will come in one of those heavy plastic buckets to further protect it.
We tried the chili first. You boil five cups of water, whisk in the package, and then leave it on a low boil for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. They also suggest cooking, until the beans are to your preferred tenderness. You then take it off the heat and let it stand for 5-7 minutes. I did feel it was slightly soupy and would consider cutting the water back by ½ cup. My wife and I both liked it as is, but I then added the suggested ½ pound of ground beef. We agreed that improved it. She enjoyed the heat, but I found it a bit too warm for my tastes. (Habanero is hot? Who knew!) So I added some canned chili beans, which toned it down more to my tastes. I really enjoy chili beans and felt the extra beans added to the meal. I also sautéed some onions and threw those in too. Some green pepper might have been nice as well, but there weren’t any around. What I wish I had thought of was using some of the pork sausage patty from our hog hunt rather than ground beef for the meat. I think it would have worked well together. I’m not much of a mango fan, but I was surprised at enjoying it in the chili. It had a pleasing texture and the little bites of sweetness were a pleasant counter to the habanero. Adding some shredded Colby Jack cheese further enhanced it. From the package, you get 180 calorie servings, which could be a bit light for a full meal, but adding meat will bring that up. Include some bread and cheese along with a side vegetable and you should be able to get the calorie count high enough for someone doing manual work to get by for a meal. This one is on our buy list.
The Pasta Primavera is prepared similarly to the chili. You boil five cups of water and whisk the package contents in. Let it low boil for 15 minutes, or until you think the noodle are soft, and then let it stand for 5-7 minutes. My wife prepared this one; she likes noodles al dente, while I like them softer. That led to the peas, in my view, not being fully cooked. I suspect that if I had prepared it, she would have felt the noodles were too soft, though I would have been happier with the peas. This may sound familiar to many of you! We tried it without the suggested two tablespoons of butter and thought it was pretty tasty. Then we added the butter and felt that made it even better. She then cut up a chicken breast and some cooked butternut squash and put them in, which made it work quite well for a full meal. Again, we both would be tempted to cut back slightly on the water to make it a bit thicker, but it didn’t prevent us from enjoying it. I would have appreciated a few more vegetables in the original mix. I suspect green pepper would be a good addition, along with more broccoli and peas. I was very happy that the mushroom flavor wasn’t very strong, as I really don’t like those nasty things. My wife loves them, so it was not of concern to her. The servings from this entrée are 380 calories, so more likely to fuel you while doing manual labor. The chicken would pump it up as would some bread and extra vegetables. Again, this is one I will buy.
My wife agreed that both meals would be fine to purchase. She prefers making her own meals from scratch, but she felt these were good to go, even if we don’t wind up in a crisis. I won’t have to worry about throwing them away or giving them to a food bank.
Brass Stacker Scope Mount updateJames Tolboe of Valley Food agrees with adding things to their entrees is a good way of making them meet your own tastes. He said they did that with one of their chili entrees recently and won a contest with it.
My 10-year-old is absent from this discussion, as he pretty much refused to try anything. I came up with some other food products he flatly didn’t like. Now he is keenly suspicious of anything Dad prepares, trusting only Mom’s cooking. I’m probably going to have to let her prepare the next few samples and see if I can slip a few meals in for testing. The frustrating thing is I am pretty sure he would have liked both of these meals, as he is fond of hot chili and loves pasta with chicken and cheese sauces, at least as long as he knows Mom made it!
When I reviewed the Brass Stacker scope mounts https://survivalblog.com/scots-product-review-brass-stacker-products-for-the-mosin-nagant/ for the Mosin Nagant, I mentioned that I would have liked to have the torque settings for the mounting screws. Apparently I got a copy of the instructions that didn’t have this information, and Brass Stacker let me know that it is now in them. They recommend 20 inch pounds of torque, to be sure everything is correctly tightened.
– SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor, Scot Frank Erie
With cranberries available right now, it is time to buy them and freeze or freeze-dry them for all your wonderful breads and dessert recipes! This is one that our family loves. It’s very easy, and the family expects lots of it available continuously from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. This bread recipe is great to double and then freeze what you don’t eat right away. (Just don’t put icing on what you want to freeze. When it’s time to serve, remove from the freezer, put in the oven or microwave to warm, and then drizzle some icing over the top. The icing isn’t even necessary. This bread is simply wonderful to have on hand when a neighbor drops by; just serve with a cup of coffee or hot tea on a cold wintery day and you’ll “win” your neighbors over!)
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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!
I was displaced from Jamestown, Colorado, in the 2013 flood, and was evacuated on a Blackhawk helicopter in the second biggest airlift after Katrina. I live in a town of 300 souls in the mountains, where the flood wiped out 20% of the homes.
The most valuable preparation I was able to use was a laminated emergency checklist. The checklist was for a fire, but it served well for the flood. When the helicopters are overhead and you’re freaking out with phones down, it’s important to know to turn the gas tank off, which elderly neighbors and pets need help, and what to do next is better than utter panic. Having a reciprocal agreement with someone down on the plains for a disaster was great; we got to the airport, registered with FEMA, and in 15 minutes were in a friend’s home.
A few folks stayed in town and did okay, depending upon their geography and preparations. My geography and medical needs didn’t permit it. We probably could have withstood a fire, assuming no structure damage. Fires burn out in a day or two and leave roads mostly intact. The road system was down, and the National Guard let everyone know that fact, which made the decision to evacuate sensible.
We were displaced for 10 months. During the diaspora, I occupied myself with volunteerism to rebuild the town, and it helped a lot. Now I’m home and on rebuilding groups, and there’s another year of recovery in terms of roads, waterways, homes and community.
Now I’ll move on to talk about FEMA, the bugbear of sites like SurvivalBlog. My review of FEMA is mixed. If I could go back and do it over, I would have not registered with them. If you have a decent job, paying $50K/yr or more, you’d be better off walking away from them. They provided everyone with a rent and deposit payment, on an incident basis. Anyone who registered got $1600.
For folks making less money, they provided a lot of true help to real citizens who got some value from their taxes for a change. Just because your house isn’t there, doesn’t mean you don’t still have a mortgage. The banks were wretched, as were the insurance companies if you still had a house but couldn’t occupy it and wanted fire insurance; there were many denials. FEMA did some good things.
The problem I had with FEMA is that I was unaware that the cash was a one-time payment given to everyone that was in the disaster. I filled out a lot of forms for chump change and had an expectation that my rental expenses might be covered. Oh well. For the less well-off, FEMA paid rent for many months and was pretty good.
FEMA is a road show. They come into disasters and their site reps make some great promises that aren’t delivered on, and they don’t explain the implications of your choices. The Small Business Administration pushes loans, at good rates, but on folks that were barely qualified to repay, and the SBA doesn’t tolerate defaults. Recently, FEMA wants audits and repayment of some money disbursed from some folks. Fortunately, I’m not among them, at least not yet, to the best of my knowledge.
The most odious behavior from FEMA was to require photos of the interior of the house. I had to fib and tell them I didn’t have a basement (where my storage area is), but a couple preppers got their supplies photographed.
The most odious behavior from SBA was to enter my property, which was fenced and had fresh no trespassing signs on it, and leave business cards. Okay. I could make a complaint to my sheriff, but I was not up for fighting a 900 pound gorilla.
The outpouring of generosity from local United Way, Red Cross, and Salvation Army was incredible. The Mennonites and Baptists deserve a special shout-out for the cleaning and carpentry they provided the town. Our local Bible-based church also gained a lot of popularity because of the support and dinners they provided. SurvivalBlog deserves credit for helping me be as prepared as I was, which was far from a high level, but in comparison to some, I was way ahead of the curve. If I have a piece of advice at this point, it’s laminate a formal disaster plan. – R.