Do We Own Our Stuff, Or Does Our Stuff Own Us?
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Courtesy of the “thoughtsfromfrankandfern” blog: Radio – Stay In Touch
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After shooting a 12-year-old, cops waited 4 minutes to give him medical help. – D.S.
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Police shut down mysterious ‘Oath Keepers’ guarding rooftops in downtown Ferguson. – T.P.
“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:16-17 (KJV)
Today is the birthday of Clive Staples (“C.S.”) Lewis, who was born in 1898 and died 22 November 1963.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 55 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 55 ends on November 30th, 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.
Bugging out? Got a pickup or big SUV but not enough room to carry everything you want to take with you? Consider the military’s solution to the limited cargo space in their HMMWV (Humvee), the M1102 Light Tactical Trailer.
Our government (i.e. using our tax money) purchased a LOT of these all-aluminum trailers for our military, and they are built to last and take a beating. A local man had two of these for sale, tied down on a bigger trailer and parked on a busy corner with a sign on them. I called him, and he was asking $2,500.00 each. The original sale price was $8,954.00. I bought mine for $1,800.00, cash, and it is like new. I’m sure people are buying these surplus trailers from government liquidators and reselling them in many states.
The primary contractor is Silver Eagle Manufacturing Company– a subsidiary, located in Portland, Oregon, of Electrospace Systems and Chrysler Company. There are a lot of new open trailers available for less money, and used open and closed trailers, too. A good two-horse trailer would be fine also, but few “civilian” trailers can withstand the rough-road or off-road punishment that the M1102 can. The fat, high tires are great for off-road travel, and they are like new, showing hardly any wear.
The unitized body or hull of the trailer is made of aircraft grade aluminum and chromoly steel. It’s really thick, heavy-duty aluminum, and therefore rust-free. It was designed to carry 2,840 pounds but will probably take more, and mine came with a woodland camo canvas top with attached tubular hoops. A very nice, lockable fiberglass top is available from Amtech Military Products for about $4,000.00, new, plus nearly $1,000.00 for shipping from the factory in Washington to the northeast U.S. It weighs 370 lbs. but can carry an additional 500 lbs. on its roof! I’m not sure if they are available through military surplus sources, but if so, they would be a lot less!
If the canvas top deteriorates, it would be simple enough to buy a camo tarp to tie down over the hoops. Without the hoops, an aircraft cargo net would work well to keep things from bouncing out or being blown out. The trailer is rated for 55 miles per hour on primary roads, but who’s checking?
The interior of the bed is about 80″ wide by 85″ long, and the sides are 22″ high. On the floor of the bed are twelve heavy-duty, flush, swivel “D”-ring tie downs, and there are 1″ strap tie-down positions all around the top edges on the outside, which the canvas top’s straps loop through.
The trailer is complete and ready to pull, if you have a Humvee, that is. This is not the standard trailer hitch that hooks to a ball on your vehicle. Military trucks have a pintle hook that connects to a big steel donut on the trailer. It’s kind of like making a circle with your index finger and thumb of one hand, then putting the circle over your other thumb and “locking” them together with your other index finger. Pintle hooks and 2″ hitch adapters are readily available online.
The harder part is the fact that the trailer lighting is 24 volt. It’s simple enough to switch out all the bulbs for 12 volt models, but the electrical connector is a 12-pin NATO item. I solved this problem by ordering the mating plug and making a jumper cable with a standard flat pin 7-way commercial connector. The wiring connected as follows: Red wire, left turn signal to NATO pin B, stop light. Brown wire, right turn signal to NATO pin J, stop light. Green wire, running lights to NATO pin E, tail lights. White wire, ground to NATO pin D, ground. Military vehicles also have convoy lights, blackout stop lights, and other sockets/pins on their connector that are not used.
I have the jumper cable clamped to the removable 2″ hitch adapter and pintle hook, so that when I need to hook up the trailer I simply plug one end into the existing socket on the SUV and the other to the trailer’s NATO plug. There’s a bracket on the tongue in front of the box to hold a standard Army Jerry can, with a belt strap to hold it down. The running lights are also recessed to prevent them from getting smashed.
The trailer is equipped with huge 37 X 12.5R 16.5″ low-pressure (17 lbs.) tires with 30-mile run flat inserts. The hitch is connected to hydraulic surge brakes with automatic breakaway, and independent lever-operated left and right mechanical parking brakes. Two stanchion legs are carried on the front of the trailer. These are inserted in sockets on the rear corners to stabilize the trailer when disconnected and leveled by using the tongue jack. This creates a very stable platform for loading and unloading. A Marine I know used one of these trailers for sleeping quarters during Desert Storm!
Four thick “D”-ring tie-downs are on each corner– two in front and two in the rear. Everything about this trailer is heavy duty, including the safety chains. The drawbar hitch eye is fairly high, at 29.5″, but the pintle hook hitch adapter plate has several height positions. The deck height is 34.5″ and ground clearance is 16″. The suspension is unusual, incorporating fully independent progressive rate trailing arms. The springs are actually torselastic rubber chords, and there are two shock absorbers. Wheels are the same as on the HMMWV, with eight lugs.
In order to get it registered and licensed, I had to run it over a certified scale and get an official weight slip. I was issued a plate, but I haven’t put it on, nor does it have a plate light. I’ll make a license plate bracket to slip over the tailgate, if I need to move it over the roads, but if the SHTF I don’t think anyone is going to be worried about plates or if it is legal.
I’ve pre-loaded my trailer with non-perishable, weather-resistant supplies, including tents, camouflage canopies, sleeping bags, a military surplus stove, LP gas canisters, cooking equipment, a shovel, an axe, and a pick. The Plano 1819 XXL storage trunks hold most bigger items, with 3.7 cubic feet of storage, and they provide protection as well. They have built-in brackets for tying down, and I used bungees to anchor them to the “D”-rings in the floor. They also nest when stacked. The smaller Plano 1619-00 56-quart tote tub is handy for stowage alongside the bigger trunks and also nests when stacked.
The boxes are numbered, and a complete inventory of each one makes it easy to find just what you need during unpacking. No, I didn’t pack like an assault landing ship, last on, first off, but you could. Pack the tent last. About one-fourth of the space at the rear of the trailer is left open to throw in last-minute things, like perishables, water, ammunition, and high-value items. Large volumes of water are not necessary, if you are in an area with small lakes, streams, or rivers. The LifeStraw Personal® water filter and LifeStraw Family 1.0® water purifiers allow you to safely drink from just about any outdoor water source.
The center of balance is about ten inches in front of the axle, so loading heavy items, like ammo and fuel, in this rear area will help balance the trailer. I plan to add a row or two of hickory rails to the inside of the canopy hoops to protect the inside of the canvas cover in case things shift around during rough travel. That’s really the only other modification I can think of to make this beast more perfect for the job, other than that hard top.
My driveway extends around behind part of our house, so I keep the trailer back there, partially hidden from the street. The woodland camo really works with the backdrop of a blue spruce and various bushes. Those who’ve noticed it and asked what it’s for, I respond with, “I use it for camping”. It would make a perfect camping trailer, too, and basically that is what bugging out is going to be about. That is, unless you have a cabin or Redoubt location ready to go to. We have some major national forests within an hour’s drive of home that I have already checked out for retreat.
Just about every survival or prepping item I had stored in my basement is now in the trailer, freeing up more shelf space for freeze-dried and dehydrated food, peanut butter, honey, sugar, and salt, et cetera. The boxes are also packed with some redundancy, such as fire starters in nearly all of them, knives, paracord, and ponchos (remember “Rambo”?). In case I have to abandon the trailer and grab just a couple boxes, I should have some essentials in whatever I take. Using the trailer also gives me more space in our SUV or pickup to carry high-value supplies, including guns, ammo, and food. If there’s an EMP, however, the trailer won’t be going anywhere unless I can get a pre-1980 vehicle to pull it. I have a 1975 Honda CB200T to get my wife and I out of Dodge if that’s what happens.
I love my “TRAILER, CARGO M1102,” and hope our country doesn’t go down the tubes, but I feel a lot better about my preps knowing it is ready to hook up and head down the road.
HJL,
My grandmother lived in a small village in Vermont at a time when there was only one washing machine in the village. The lady who owned it made her living taking in other people’s wash.
My grandmother mostly did her own, in the big farmhouse kitchen sink. I remember the corrugated washing board and seeing her scrubbing clothes on it.
During TEOTWAWKI we will be in a similar situation, but there is a much easier method of washing clothes, which I have adapted from traditional methods of pressing grapes to make wine.
It involves a bathtub, soap, water heated on a stove, and hopefully, some active and energetic children. If no children are available, any size adult will do.
Especially dirty spots in the clothes should be moistened, soaped, and left to sit for a few hours. Then, place the dirty clothes in the bathtub, which should be full of fairly hot (not painfully so), soapy water. Add children, who have first had their feet and legs scrubbed. Begin singing, preferably a marching song, or something with plenty of rhythm to it.
Have children (or adults) stomp, march, stomp, and dance on the laundry. Installing a grab bar all around the tub will help avoid mishaps. This will get the dirt out, and works best on heavy work clothes, which are the hardest to wash by hand. (Do not use this method for delicate silks and laces; however, they are easy to hand wash.)
Continue stomping for five or ten minutes, and then drain water out of tub. Bathtubs are perfect for this, as they are designed to hold soapy water, have slightly sloped bottoms, and have a drain at the lowest point. Buckets do not, and have to be carried and dumped, which makes a mess.
If you have a wringer, wring out laundry. If not, you can wring the wet laundry out by hand, which is probably a teen or adult job. You can also use the roll and squeeze method. For this, tightly roll up the item of clothing, put it back into the empty tub, and stomp slowly back and forth on it, squeezing most of the water out with your feet.
Then refill the tub with fresh hot water, rinse, and repeat. Also, the children will now be clean, and they’ll be tired. Hmm. Maybe this would be a good pre-bedtime task.
The legs have the largest muscles in the body, while the arms and hands are much weaker, especially for most women. The old saying “She’s built like a washerwoman” was no compliment. This method uses your largest muscles, plus the whole weight of the body, to wash clothes with minimal effort.
In TEOTWOWKI, conserving energy, whether human or otherwise, will be a prime necessity. The scrub in the tub method of doing heavy laundry is not only far easier and more efficient, but with a certain amount of singing and stomping can even be fun. – J.W.
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PONZI: Treasury Issues $1T in New Debt in 8 Weeks — To Pay Old Debt – G.P.
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Items from Mr. Econocobas:
Video: Gold Will Rise Faster Than Rocket Ship – Peter Schiff
The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of The Debt Enslavement System That Dominates Our Lives
“There Will Be Blood”: Petrodollar Death Means A Liquidity And Oil-Exporting Crisis On Deck
It’s not strictly survival related, but an inspiring story nonetheless: This tribute was almost lost to the ravages of time but even in its less than HD format it bears striking witness to what one man can do even when they are given less than a fair shot at life. – RBS
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Homeless woman’s stun gun spurs 2nd Amendment case. – G.P.
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From the “Say What?!” annals: US student gets mugged at gunpoint then writes incredible piece saying he deserved it. The brainwashing is obviously complete. – T.P.
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If you don’t want to give your hard earned money to MS or others, here is a free word processing program. It is very easy to use and employs many if not all of the features of expensive WP programs. All you have to do is download it. It works great. – RBS
HJL adds: Because a for-profit organization (Oracle) that has a history of “unfriendliness” to open source software actually owns the rights to the software, I use a spinoff: LibreOffice. For those interested, there are several articles on the net comparing the two. Both come from the same codebase and are very similar.
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Don’t forget the Black Friday sales of SurvivalBlog advertisers JRH Enterprises, Ready Made Resources, and Safecastle. All three companies have great deals going on right now. It’s a great time to grab that field gear you’ve been thinking about, or stock up on the freeze-dried food!
“And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” Genesis 28:15 (KJV)
SurvivalBlog missed the announcement of the birthday of SurvivalBlog’s past Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio yesterday. A happy birthday to you Pat and a thanks for all those years of service!
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Safecastle is having a fantastic Black Friday sale with discounts of 20-60% off on many products. Be sure to check them out!
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Today, we present another entry for Round 55 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 55 ends on November 30th, 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.
Some of the principles of guerrilla tactics are continued:
This is the art of attacking under conditions that seem unfavorable in the enemy’s eyes. Poor weather and/or terrain can be an advantage for the guerrilla warrior. Also, attacking when the opposing force is sleeping, worn down, or resupplying is advantageous. Sabotaging enemy soldiers’ resources is a very effective way to stun and demoralize troops. Another “abstract attack” is to convince weaker enemy soldiers that they are safer or better off fighting along side you rather than against you. This allows you to grow your numbers while diminishing the enemy’s. It also gives you the opportunity to have a “double agent”, serving in the opposing squad. Keep in mind that “double agent” use can go both ways and that your own “double” may be there for sabotage against your troops or to give you misinformation.
When recruiting combatants from the enemy force, make sure to take appropriate measures to “re-educate” the recruit by white washing their erroneous beliefs that the enemy leadership implanted and then upload the information you want ingrained in them. This needs to be done on three levels of consciousness.
Once these three levels have been correctly induced in the individual, a reasonable degree of trust may be assumed for the new recruit.
Use this same context in your own survival training and prepping. This means you must educate yourself on the target subject you are studying, make it a part of your natural way of thinking, and completely absorb it. (It helps to connect pleasant feelings with the course of study.) Then practice and repeat successes in training. Discard what is of little use, and narrow your focus on the important or lacking areas in your training.
There is a lot to be said about camouflage. Knowing how to use natural and synthetic materials to camouflage yourself, group, or equipment can mean the difference between freedom or capture and life or death. There is more to it than the uninitiated might think. Take into account your surroundings, time of year, type of animals in the area, and disguising the human form. Those concerns merely scratches the surface. Learn how to make natural camo paints for your face and body if in the wilderness. In an urban environment, use garbage instead of foliage as cover, and stay in the places others are afraid to go.
Camouflage is not just physical! Learn how to camouflage your plans and preps with rebuttals to questions commonly asked by prying outsiders. Deciding who knows your prepping strategies and who doesn’t should be entirely under your control. Hiding what you have and your full intent will make you far less of a target.
Use darkness, whether at night or in the shadows of daylight, for infiltration purposes and to attack enemies. Combined with an abstract attack, this method is extremely effective. If you have ever been standing out in the dark and saw something moving in the shadows, you know how fear can be amplified in darkness. Imagine a very fast, random attack bursting out of those same shadows. It’s an absolutely devastating combat technique. Keep these tactics in mind for home defense in a complete SHTF scenario.
There are simple, cost-efficient, and effective solutions to getting nearly everyone the training and equipment that is needed for an individual, family, or group to intensively engage in combat. When it comes to unarmed hand-to-hand combat, there are a few simple, easy to learn, and highly effective systems available. Krav Maga is one example of these types of systems; KAPAP is another. These systems are designed to give the student the ability to enter into a combat situation and survive. One of the main objectives of these martial science systems is for the student to be able to use these skills immediately after being taught them, becoming proficient in a very short amount of time. There are plenty of ways to get this training very cheap and in several cases for free, and you can actually learn the method via video fairly well, and then keep up with the training. Then you become responsible for your safety, as opposed to relying solely on others.
Books are good items to store for both a short- and long-term survival situation. They can be used for information, entertainment, barter, and in educating and occupying children. Other uses include for coded communications or to leave messages within a group or family. Books can also make an excellent armor when several rows are stacked front to back against a wall or stuffed inside the body of an automobile. Don’t forget, a soft bound book can be used as body armor against the walking dead (as seen in some popular Zombie movies and shows).
When it comes to books that have information that the Guerrilla practitioner can use for “on the cheap ways” to make several types of weapons, armor, gadgets, strategies, gain combat skills, chemistry and no budget-on the fly techniques used by spies, soldiers, and specialists, The Poor Man’s James Bond is an excellent resource for these and many more subjects related to survival and sustainability. This series written by Kurt Saxon is four volumes of collected knowledge and wisdom handed down from master tradesmen, smith’s, operatives, alchemists, chemists, and combat-hardened instructors; it’s all combined to give the reader a “black bag of tricks”. These are the skills that will allow a well practiced student of the series to have the ways and means to lead or create an effective Guerrilla attack for brief or prolonged periods of time. I have found the Poor Man’s James Bond Volumes to be well thought out, realistic, and user friendly, making for a power house and unique tool in my toolbox.
“My Way is Elemental, My Weapons Are Everything That Exists” -Unknown (Ancient Martial Art Creed)
Weapons are all around you but can you use them? From batteries (set dead ones aside for this purpose) to pocket change, many objects can be used in hand-to-hand combat to effect your survival. There are many good survival combat instructors spread across the world who are ready to teach their style. As a part of martial science programs, like the ones I mentioned earlier, the student is taught how to use any and all weapons available to eliminate the threat. Specific drills and techniques are utilized to train the mind to see all the possibilities around and yet decipher and execute an attack quickly and efficiently. As part of the training process, the extraordinary power of “situational visualization” is ingrained in the student, developing a sense of awareness they hadn’t had before and using muscle memory to speed the reflexes, ease the “panic response” when under attack, and create a condition of natural pro-action when responding to an enemy combatant.
As far as acquiring weapons is concerned, if you are on an extremely tight or no budget, take the latter approach and start out at ground level. If a kitchen knife is the only weapon you have available, learn to wield it like a ninja and become proficient enough that you can teach others.
A baseball bat, golf club, railroad spike, hammer, umbrella, and a broom are some common items that you can learn to be deadly with. If you have these items, learn how to use them as instruments of war. A bottle of alcohol or other highly combustible liquid can be made into a weapon. See, we already have an arsenal and we haven’t even gotten to the guns. Make no mistake, an entire war can be waged with improvised weapons.
If it is feasible for you to get a gun, there are several resources for “bomb proof” yet affordable firearms. There are articles on this site, as well as other reliable resources on the web, that cover the gambit of information that’s out there about getting firearms on a budget. Also, there are free courses designed to teach youth how to shoot and hunt. Sometimes these courses are run just by an individual in the area. Ask around and take advantage of opportunities like these. Every little bit helps.
Survival as a whole is rarely looked at with the guerrilla mentality. By studying these and other unconventional techniques, one may broaden their survival spectrum and see that there are many angles and perspectives possibly not considered before. My advice, even if you choose not to use this method in your survival practice, is to be aware of this mentality if only in others. It may save your life.
Dear HJL and JWR,
Could you please spread the following information?
There has recently been some interest in bringing forward a legal challenge on the right to Open Carry of sidearms (handguns) in wilderness environments in Canada. Specifically, it questions the prohibition on carrying handguns and advocates Open Carry to meet threats from dangerous animals on (public) Crown Land and private rural land. It is not a challenge for concealed carry or open carry in urban environments, but it may be a good first step.
As you know, the laws on handguns in Canada are not based on any form of logic, and I personally hope that this small step in the right direction gains traction and is successful. To my knowledge it is the first (potential) legal challenge of its kind in Canada. It is in the very early stages, and as such I do not know what specific legal grounds (if any) are being cited or challenged.
A website has been set up at wildernessprotection.ca, called the Canadian Wilderness Protection Initiative. There is also a link to a relevant outdoors forum discussing the initiative.
Although the idea is in its very early stages, it may be something your Canadian readers would want to know about and perhaps even support.
Kind Regards, A Canadian in the Wild
Podcast: 5 Reasons Why I Own Gold
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Items from Mr. Econocobas:
Americans sorting themselves into politically similar counties. – A Redoubtable concept! – JWR
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Gun Control Measures Hazardous for Citizens. Nazis disarmed the Social Democrats and other political opponents whom they deemed “enemies of the state.” The turn of the Jews came in 1938. – H.L.
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#HappyTracksgiving: How your travels are tracked this holiday season. – P.M.
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Cop Fires on Unarmed Man and His 6-Year-Old Daughter on Their Way to Get Asthma Medicine. – D.E.
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Breastfed, Homebirthed Babies Taken Away From Parents For Not Using Hospital. – D.S.
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Don’t forget the Black Friday sales of SurvivalBlog advertisers JRH Enterprises and Ready Made Resources. Both companies have great deals going on right now. It’s a great time to grab that field gear you’ve been thinking about, or stock up on the freeze-dried food!
“Somehow, even in the worst of times, the tiniest fragments of good survive. It was the grip in which one held those fragments that counted.” ? Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock