Americans face post-foreclosure hell as wages garnished, assets seized. – G.G.
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Weak Economic Data Slams Wall Street
Time to Reduce Reliance on the Dollar: Russia PM
Greek Bonds Extend Selloff, Pushing Yield Up Most in 15 Months
U.S. Retail Sales Drop: A Cautionary Sign on Consumer Demand
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Tiny Box Promises To Keep You Anonymous On The Internet. – G.P.
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When Holding An Orphaned Baby Can Mean Contracting Ebola. – T.P.
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America’s Ebola crisis is made worse by the people in charge. Dr. Thomas Frieden was Mayor Bloomberg’s Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2002–2009 and enforced the mayor’s trans-fat, 16-ounce soda, smoking, and salt bans.
CDC Director Tom Frieden faces rising tide of criticism[CNN] – M.A.
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Nurses’ Union: Ebola Patient Left In Open Area Of ER For Hours. – P.M.
“You should never have your best trousers on when you turn out to fight for freedom and truth.” – Henrik Ibsen, 1882
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.
I’ll give you a little background about me. I was born, raised, and am currently living in New England. I have a B.A. in History and have just begun work on my M.A. in the same field of study. This past June marked four years in the National Guard, and I received my commission as a Field Artillery officer (13A) in 2013. Currently, I serve as a Battery Fire Direction Officer and am a graduate of Field Artillery Basic Officer Leader’s Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and the U.S. Army’s Air Assault School. I have been reading the blog for a few months and am a huge fan. I’m far from where I want to be, as far as preparedness, but I’m confident I’ll get there.
I believe that every “prepper” or survival enthusiast has had their own personal “wakeup call”, be it a major/minor event, epiphany, or experience that motivated them to begin preparing for the worst. For me, that wakeup call came in October 2012, when I spent four days on SAD (State Active Duty) while my unit was activated during Hurricane Sandy. I’ll say right up front that from a “boots on ground” perspective, my participation in the relief efforts was pretty minimal. I didn’t pull anyone from a swollen river or man a checkpoint. I spent my time doing eight-hour rotations in our company’s TOC (Tactical Operations Center), assisting the staff by answering phones, producing a rest plan, coordinating movements, updating status boards, and yes, getting coffee. (The Dunkin Donuts down the street remained open through the entire storm, and God bless them for it.) This position allowed me to view the entire operation on a more strategic level, and it is having that perspective that allows me to write this article today.
I thought that by detailing my experiences as a Guardsman during an actual time of emergency, I might be able to provide some insight as to the Guard’s role in future, perhaps more catastrophic events, as well as illustrate the logistical issues that come along with activating even a single National Guard unit for emergency service. How would such knowledge be useful to you? Honestly, maybe it won’t be useful. Prepping and self-sufficiency go hand in hand; as you prep, you consciously or subconsciously condition yourself and your loved ones to stock, train, and prepare as though you will be on your own when the SHTF. So in all likelihood, many who read this are probably already in the mindset of depending on no one but yourself to get through hard times (as you should be). If that’s the case, I hope at the very least this article will provide readers with a point of view they don’t normally get to see and provide a dose of reality to those few readers that may still be prepping just enough to ensure they’ll survive until the “cavalry” shows up.
The hurricane grew in strength as it made its way north, and the forecast was bad enough that I pretty much knew I was going to be called, especially once the governor declared a state of emergency. I first received a text message two days before Sandy was to hit our area from my commander, a Major (at the time I was attached to our battalion staff element and worked directly for the S-3, or Operations Officer) to be prepared to go when he called, so I packed my rucksack with enough gear to sustain me for 72 hours (old habits die hard) and waited. About a half day before the really bad weather was due to hit us, I got the promised phone call and got in my car to leave.
Lesson #1: Getting the word out will take time. First, the command team for that particular unit will need to contact everyone and get them to a centralized rally point. In our case, it was our own armory. That in itself will take several hours. The Commander or First Sergeant will notify the rest of the senior leadership, who in turn will ensure that the message gets passed down the chain of command to the lowest level. Phone trees are complicated and take time to put into action. Even if phone lines and cell towers are still functioning (and that could be a big if, depending on the situation), figure on at least an hour before Private Joe Snuffy gets the word that he needs to come in.
The drive down was pretty uneventful; it was raining pretty steadily, but the roads were more or less empty. I realized I was lucky in that regard, because although my route only took me on a major highway for about ten minutes of my hour-long trip, it would have been enough to stop me dead in my tracks had traffic been bad enough. The driving ban hadn’t yet gone into effect.
Lesson #2: Units won’t just materialize out of nowhere, and it may take most soldiers a while to get anywhere during an emergency. Everyone who is able (in my unit, first responders and others needed by their specific towns were excluded from the call-up) will need to pack up and make their way to the meeting point. Again, depending on the situation, that could prove difficult or impossible. National Guardsmen are not limited to certain units, based on their state of residence. A soldier living in New York, for example, could find himself drilling in Massachusetts or Connecticut, based on his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty), or may voluntarily switch units due to a possibility for promotion not available in his current situation. The result is that most National Guard units have members that travel a considerable distance to come to drill. I currently drive 90 minutes to my armory every month, and that is without traffic and in good weather. I have several alternate routes I could utilize if need be, but only one does not involve traveling on a major highway or interstate. In some situations, such as a severe weather event, soldiers traveling to their respective units may be aided by a driving ban or restriction put in place by state government, which (in theory) will clear major roadways of all traffic minus emergency vehicles and other essential personnel. In a situation where mass panic or unrest has caused the public to attempt to evacuate/flee en masse, however, the roads will be a mess, and travel times will increase exponentially.
I got to my home station, signed in, filled out some paperwork, and waited for further orders. Pretty soon my commander told us that HHC (Headquarters & Headquarters Company), minus the battalion staff element, was going to move by bus to meet up with one of our companies in a town about 90 minutes away and work with them for the time being, and that I would be going with them. This necessity to move the unit introduced a whole new set of challenges.
Lesson #3: Military movements are complicated endeavors that take time. Hopefully, the situation will be such that operations can be conducted from the initial meeting location. If not, like in my case, there will have to be a plan to move soldiers, equipment, and supplies from the home station to wherever higher authority has ordered the unit to go. That means buses or transport trucks, either of which will require drivers that possess a valid military driver’s license and are qualified to drive that specific vehicle. (For example, my license states I am qualified to drive any number of Humvee variants but not a bus or truck.) The vehicles will have to be drawn from the motor pool, signed for, checked for maintenance issues, and fueled as necessary. As with any military operation, accountability of personnel and equipment will be crucial, so manifests will have to be drawn up for each vehicle. All of this, even if conducted hastily, will take time.
We arrived at our destination later that night. We were sharing the armory with an infantry company that called this their home station. Inside we grabbed cots and set them up in a locker room upstairs. Then we dropped our personal gear and began getting organized, based on the tasks we had been given as a unit.
Orders from higher said we were to standby in the armory until the worst of the storm had passed, and then we were to be prepared to conduct search and rescue operations. For us, this meant splitting up into various high-water rescue teams, which basically consisted of an LMTV (Light Medium Tactical Vehicle) and 6-10 soldiers armed with ropes, life jackets, and other equipment. To the best of my knowledge, these teams were never utilized; a small number of Air National Guardsmen arrived the same day we did and were given that same mission. Our next assignment ended up being our main effort for the time we were activated. We were located just a short drive from a major city with a less-than-stellar reputation when the lights were on. Once the power went out, things got even worse. We were ordered to, in conjunction with local law enforcement assets in that city, send presence patrols through various neighborhoods, establish checkpoints, and generally keep the peace until things returned to normal. I guess the thinking was that having a police car, a Humvee, and a couple of armed soldiers/LEOs at each checkpoint would help people feel more secure or, at the very least, discourage would-be troublemakers.
Lesson #4: It’s going to pay to blend in. I recently saw an episode of a certain show on the National Geographic channel that featured a prepper who stated his bug-out kit was modeled after military and SWAT-style equipment. It included a black tactical vest, various knives, and all black clothing, complete with bandana. His reasoning was that this look made him appear tough and, thus, would prevent civilians from messing with him in a SHTF scenario. This man certainly isn’t alone in his opinions; I see plenty of bug-out vests and kits that consist mainly of a plate carrier capable of carrying twelve AR mags, a sidearm, and all other varieties of tactical gear. However, all of these people seem to be ignoring a very pragmatic aspect of bugging out in any type of emergency; law enforcement, the military, or some mix of both will almost certainly be out in force. They’ll be performing a multitude of tasks, depending on the situation, but first and foremost in their minds, as it always is, will be security, both for themselves and the civilian population. With that in mind, how do you think you’ll be received when you come within sight of a manned checkpoint looking like Rambo and wearing a vest covered in knives and other dangerous tools? Or worse, how will you be perceived wearing a plate carrier and carrying an AR? It may sound harsh, but bug-out kits like those described above strike me as no more than the products of people with too much time and money on their hands, and active imaginations. The practice of buying and fawning over all this equipment is satisfying to them and their egos, but I think they’d be in for the worst kind of wake-up call in a real-life emergency. Urban preppers will have to consider this more than those who may be able to bug-out via more secluded routes (people in the suburbs or rural areas), as your location in a city pretty much guarantees that, unless you get out way ahead of the pack, you’ll be coming across a lot of people headed the same way you are, and there will be a lot of men in uniform with guns trying to keep the peace. Be prepared, by all means, but don’t do so in a way that will make you a target when the time comes for the real deal.
Things settled into more or less of a routine after the first day or so. Platoons would rotate into the city for checkpoint duty, and come back to the armory to rest and refuel. We in the TOC would keep track of who was where and monitor reports coming in from the city. This cycle continued until the entire unit was released from State Active Duty about a week and a half later. Whether or not the “show of force” strategy worked is up for debate; what I do know is that our guys in the city and the police force there were kept very busy in the first three or four days following the storm. On the one hand, there weren’t any (or at least I didn’t hear any reports of) instances of rioting or unruly crowds. People seemed content to hunker down in their homes and try to stay out of sight until things calmed down. Even if crowd violence was virtually non-existent, there were still enough individuals engaging in criminal activity to keep things busy. We had reports of shootings, stabbings, and other violent acts, which were dealt with by the police. I was surprised (but shouldn’t have been) to find that, at least from the news we were receiving, the most common crime committed during that first week seemed to be generator theft.
Lesson #5: Secure your generator(s)! Granted, not everyone’s plan involves the use of one, but should you decide to utilize one or more generators to power your home, bug-out, or bug-in location during a SHTF situation, make sure you secure it. Bigger and heavier units will obviously be harder to just walk off with, but regardless of your generator’s size, take the time to ensure that no one will be making off with it. A simple Google search will turn up lots of great suggestions on how to accomplish this, so I won’t go too in depth. Suffice it to say that simply plugging in a generator and leaving it outside to run is not your best plan of action; the responsibility of securing your home and its contents is yours and yours alone. Once something is stolen, it’s likely that you won’t see it again. Chain that generator if you want to keep it.
The generator example provides an excellent segue to…
Lesson #6: The National Guard won’t be making house calls. Regardless of the situation, we’re going to be busy. We’ll be keeping the roads open and safe. We’ll be conducting search and rescue operations if need be, and air assets might be flying in supplies and/or evacuating the wounded. We’ll be augmenting local law enforcement manning checkpoints and responding to civil disturbances. Depending on weather conditions, we may be shoveling hospitals and other essential areas out from under snow drifts, filling sandbags, or building fire breaks. On top of all that, we’ll need to maintain our own readiness by sleeping, eating, and getting “off the line” for a few hours at a time.
It’s true that the National Guard probably won’t be alone in responding to crises; agencies like FEMA, the Red Cross, and local law enforcement are just a few of the groups that would be there as well. All are designed to offer aid and assistance in times of emergency, but consider this– we were stretched thin during Sandy. Those pallets of bottled water and MREs we handed out were gone in a flash. We had pretty much the entire state mobilized for a storm that did its worst in the coastal areas and left the interior largely untouched (besides the prolonged power outages). Now consider the combined strength of all those agencies in your state, and your National Guard, and compare it to the overall population of your state. (Google is your friend on this one.) I’m no math whiz, but you should be coming up with a pretty small number.
With all of that in mind, how much priority do you think you will be given as an individual? Sandy was bad, obviously, but it could have been even worse, and it kept everyone involved in the relief effort extremely busy. I was lucky to be part of a group released after four days, but elements of my unit stayed on location for almost a week and a half following the storm. Even small-scale emergencies have the potential to affect thousands of people, easily stretching emergency preparedness resources very thin in a very short amount of time. The bottom line is that in any situation serious enough to warrant you implementing all or part of your survival/bug-in/bug-out plan (or whatever you choose to call it), odds are there will be far more people asking for help than offering it. The theft of your generator is going to be item #4,357 on a list of 10,000 things and complaints the police or National Guard will have to deal with during a disaster.
My biggest lesson, learned from my time on State Active Duty, was undoubtedly…
Lesson #7: Any event involving multiple state and federal agencies, including the National Guard, is going to have a lot of moving parts and a lot of red tape to cut through. During my rotations in the TOC, I witnessed firsthand the issues that plagued us as we tried first to get ourselves organized and then to coordinate our relief efforts with local law enforcement and other state agencies, and the resulting amount of time that elapsed before we were actually able to carry out the mission we had been assigned was staggering. Decisions had to pass through so many levels of command that even the smallest issues took hours to resolve. Who owned what vehicles, who was authorized to perform what mission, and so on. Did the infantry fall under us, or did we fall under the infantry? Colonel So-and-So said to be prepared to do this, but Major So-and-So said something completely different. The Major is in our chain of command, but the Colonel outranks him. At one point, we began packing up completely in preparation to move our command center to a nearby school on the orders of some higher up, though a move that never happened. Frustration abounded, and at times tempers flared. I, along with other non-essential personnel, was asked more than once to leave the room to allow for some spirited “discussions” amongst other members of the unit.
It was also a huge deal when we requested to carry our weapons during presence patrols. I think a lot of people figure that the Guard is authorized to lock and load whenever they think it is necessary. I can understand why they think that we’re a military organization, and our weapons and magazines are kept at our own armories. However, the fact of the matter is that arming Guardsmen during a state emergency so that they can keep order amongst the civilian population is a major decision with potentially huge consequences if something were to go wrong, and it was a decision that went all the way to the top of the chain of command; generals were arguing with other generals on this one. Meanwhile, events in the city we had been assigned to patrol continued to unfold, whether we were prepared to meet them or not.
As a military organization, the National Guard is unique in the sense that we perform dual Federal and State missions simultaneously; that is, we are expected to maintain a state of readiness that allows us to be called to active service for overseas missions, combat or otherwise, as well as be prepared to support state missions during times of emergency. Given the high operational tempo over the past twelve years due to the War on Terror, it is no surprise that the “emergency preparedness” mission has, by and large, taken a back seat to preparing National Guardsmen to go to war.
With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, however, and less National Guard units deploying overseas, we as a force will no doubt be attempting to play catch-up with regards to readiness in case of state activation, just as we are already cracking down on garrison-related issues, like grooming standards, tattoos, and physical fitness. Indeed, during my writing of this article, I received an email inviting me to attend a two-day course being put on by my state’s Emergency Management Agency to train Guardsmen on our Incident Command System, which is initiated in times of emergency. Such training is a step in the right direction, to be sure, but getting prepared will take time, and there is no guarantee that a SHTF scenario will wait for us to be ready.
Even if the National Guard as a whole is given adequate time to bring its emergency preparedness training up to speed, and establish SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for a variety of emergency situations, the basic process of activating Guardsman and getting them to a state of readiness outlined above will remain the same, as will the obstacles we will face. The fact of the matter is that, regardless of the situation, the Guard’s effectiveness will always be limited to some extent by logistical and administrative concerns, as well as the unique set of threats and challenges presented by every emergency. As the article describes, we had a fair amount of difficulties during Sandy. What drove me to begin prepping wasn’t so much the memory of those difficulties, however. It was the “what-if” factor of what I experienced. Yes, things were bad, but what if the storm had been worse? What if cell towers had been inoperable? What if the level of civil unrest had been greater in the city we patrolled?
The realization of how much worse things could have been keeps me dedicated to this lifestyle, and it is the memory of these and other “what-ifs” that serve as constant reminders as to why I prep.
Hugh,
Based on the strength and thoroughness of your review, we bought a machine and just processed our first batch. It is everything you said it was. Thanks for the great review and helpful info. – M.W.
Hugh Replies:I’m glad that review helped you. We have been running ours full bore since the review and have accumulated quite the batch of freeze dried foods that are both standard fare and those that cannot be purchased. It has made an amazing impact on our prepping. Everything from garden herbs to full meals work well. Basically, if you can freeze it, you can freeze dry it (except for butter, which we haven’t tried again yet).
U.S. Army Ranger Handbook (U.S. Army manual)
Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Wilderness Survival
The Weapon by Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large)
Johnny Tremain Suitable for children 10 and up
For any readers who have Reddit accounts, you might find the current discussion of my upcoming novel, Liberators, of interest. – JWR
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Todd Hoffman (who you might know from the Gold Rush reality TV series) has recently launched a conservative news aggregation website: The Hoffman Report. His site has a solid emphasis on news related to The Four Gs: God, Guns, Gold, and Good Government.
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Video:Making your own lumber. – T.S.
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DHS Insider: Everyone seems to be waiting for some big, history making event. – R.M.
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If they can’t do it, why do we think anyone else will adhere to a “voluntary” quarantine. NBC doctor admits she violated quarantine to get takeout. – P.S.
“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.” – Henry Louis Mencken
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.
[Editors Note: It is important to note that many of the claims of this article are supposition and not fact. Remember that while conspiracy theories are often intriguing and you can bet you are not getting the whole story from standard media, Occam’s Razor is more often than not the right way to go.]
Have you ever felt like something was about to happen, but you couldn’t quite explain what it is? Have you just had a suspicion or maybe uneasiness that something was about to happen? I guess you can say my old Army intelligence service, from some 41 years ago, still sticks with me. I think that there is a reason for the recent disappearance of the aircraft Malaysian airline MH370 and the corresponding 11 aircraft lost at the Libyan airport, when rebels took over, that are missing now that the military has recaptured the airfield.
I think the disappearance of the plane in the Indian Ocean was staged; it actually made landfall in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Having had a little experience with aviation radar and radar systems, I know that the separation we need between aircraft is between 500 to 1000 feet minimum. Most radar systems in the United States or maybe the free world cannot differentiate between the two aircraft under 1000 feet. We use transponders to verify separation under that distance. Now what this means is the aircraft in the Indian Ocean did fly over two known radio beacon fixes before disappearing over the Indian Ocean. Its last known flight trajectory was northward not westward. So I believe it came up underneath another aircraft, and without the knowledge of India, Afghanistan, or Pakistan radar controllers, it managed to slip into their air space. Most radars, because of ground clutter, find it is hard to definitively state that there is a aircraft flying under 1000 feet. (Ground clutter is movement by wind or nature that bounce the radar radio signal.) Definitely, below 300 feet not even sensitive military radar could see the aircraft; so the bottom line is that an aircraft could have made landfall in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Now the aircraft that have been lost to the recent attack in Libya International Airport amounts to 11 commercial jetliners, now missing. These are long-range aircraft with a flight radius of up to 8000 miles, and thus they could reach the eastern United States from almost any Middle East or North African runway. At the very least, they could reach the southern states of the United States and the East Coast from runways in Africa. What this means is they could reach just about any military target as needed with this commercial airliner. These commercial airliners could do just like what was done in the Indian Ocean– fly with transponders turned off and get within 500 feet behind and below any aircraft entering American airspace; to American radar via traffic control they would not appear as a separate radar image. They could fly with the lead plane until the landing gear came down and then turn off and land anywhere else in the United States. If they stayed low and away from military air bases that have military radar, they would be invisible.
A new conspiracy theory that the aircraft that was shot down in Ukraine and the other Malaysian aircraft that disappeared in the ocean Indian Ocean were one and the same. Until analysis states that is true, we do not know the fate of the ocean airliner. It’s interesting to note the bodies were showing decomposition before they got there and many have been drained of blood. I have more about this later.
There is a theory that the Bali Resort bombing in 2003 showed a miniature nuke was tested there. I wrote an article many years ago– a school paper– in which I explained that the Bali bombings were indeed a test by Al Qaeda or some similar group of a miniature nuke. Approximately 170 miniature nukes are missing from the Soviet arsenal. They have no idea where they are, nor can they account for them since the breakup of the satellite nations around the Soviet Union. Now, it’s true that the half-life for deterioration of the nuclear material in those bombs may have expired and new material needed to make them operational. I think that explains much of the actions of Iran in trying to build nuclear facilities. What this seems to indicate to me is that there are indeed some missing suitcase small nuclear weapons, some as small as softballs in size, that are missing from the eyes of the world nuclear watchdogs. Al Qaeda or some similar offshoot, has these weapons at their disposal. What they do lack is having some sort of delivery mechanism to a far off target, like the United States, which is a large target far from their locations in the Middle East.
A recent prepper theory or scenario has also surfaced and showed it’s possible that an EMP strike could be done with a small yield nuclear weapon detonated high enough in the atmosphere to cause massive disruption to electrical infrastructure affecting electronics from cars to electric lights. The author of this theory proposed we would return to pre-electrical society. Anyway, it is probably something those enemies of the United States would like to try, but I’m not a specialist in that area and can’t really address EMP potential. Now a commercial airliner typically has an operational altitude of about 32,000 feet. If the aircraft had been modified, it could probably reach 55,000 feet which is nearly the correct altitude for the detonation of an EMP (electronic magnetic pulse); whether it would have the disastrous effect is debatable, as a weapon like it has not yet been thoroughly tested. However, like the first two nukes created, they might be tested in battle.
Recent concerns have caused me to wonder if a less technical or low technical attack might be planned. What if they created a biological bomb or weapon? Using the recent outbreak of Emboli virus, could they take the infected blood, which is a living portion the virus needs to survive, and then spray that blood over city streets when the populace of the city is out, like during rush hour. Once again, they could use the same technique to get the planes inside the United States, and if they had a very small fertilizer aerosol sprayer situation set up with the aircraft they could infect cities very quickly. The same chaos and loss of traffic would happen as parts of the nation are sealed off from each other to contain the outbreaks.
The bottom line is either or both attacks could be in the preparation to execution stages. We, the American public, have little we can do to stop these attacks. What we can do is prepare for a future of uncertainty. We could stock up on food supplies, water purification, some minimal power needs, clothing, camping gear, and some forms of protection.
Might I suggest some items for your emergency preparations? Here’s my suggested list:
All of this could likely be put aside right now for around $1,500 a person and within every couple’s budget. (It could also be loaded in a car, in a hurry if needed, to bug out of the area.) If you can’t afford or have no space to store the food, try getting 1/3 of the above required food for now. The rest you might have already because of the need for soccer Mom duties or Boy Scouts or whatever. Note the sprouting is vital, as when we adjust to eating these raw food sources they can kill you without some transition. You will need to sprout some of your food to keep from getting sick from all the bran in the raw food. However, once your system has adjusted it will be healthier for you I am told. But at first you should sprout about 25% of your daily food when all you have to eat are these food supplies for about 30 days.
I do not know if you will have to bug out or not, so if you are a city dweller you might need to be prepared to move out quickly. In this case, you might want to put these items in plastic totes, which are cheaply found at Walmart. Having a small library of reference books in paper print stored as well might be worthwhile. Knowing what to eat or how to prepare food from scratch or from wild game would be useful. Having Heirloom seeds, even if you are in a apartment setting, can be useful to grow your own food. Gardening is worthwhile, if you are surviving in place or at a bug out location. Remember, body heat can heat rooms when needed, so the more the merrier. Helping each other through tough times help build friendships and independence of government interference.
Hugh,
NP’s post on water storage was excellent. I live in southeast Washington and have been working on the water storage issue for a while now. My water comes from two sources– city water and gravity-fed irrigation that comes out of the Columbia River. I’ve been toying with the idea of burying an underground water tank in my backyard and connecting my city water directly to the tank on one end and piping it to the house on the other. It would work much like a toilet tank; as I used my water, a valve would open and refill the tank, keeping the tank at a constant full. Because the tank would be underground, I would have to have a pump to pressurize the water going into the house, but it would solve the storage space problem. I think a guy would only be limited by the size of tank he wanted to bury.
I’m not sure of the legalities of something like this, or the feasibility, as I’m just in the thinking stages of this kind of storage idea now. However, this would serve as a two-fold solution for water storage and water treatment, because the water would be municipal, and it wouldn’t be just sitting in a tank unused. In the event that we had a grid down or a massive power outage, I would just shut the valve off at the meter to prevent back flow and pump it out either by hand or with a DC pump.
I brought up the fact that I also have gravity-fed irrigation. My thoughts on that are that although it’s very convenient and a seemingly endless source of water piped right to my backyard, it’s really gross water and disgusting; also, it only runs until the middle of October when they shut it down until spring.
I would like to hear from you and some readers on this topic. Is this something that can be done?
Also, a Big shout out to JWR and his interview with Ian Hawthorne. It was a great podcast and very informative, particularly on the subject of water. There was one particular part Jim said that really hit home. Even if nothing ever happens, at least he is living his life on his own terms, and he got to home school his kids, keep them safe, and raise them in a wholesome environment. Maybe that’s not verbatim, but who could ask for more then that? I think at the end of the day, that’s really what we all want.
God bless. L.O.
Trike flyer TTABS recently posted two great narrated flying videos that show some fantastic scenery deep in the American Redoubt: Spokane WA to Polson MT – Part I and Spokane to Polson MT – Part II – The Cabinet Mountain Crossing
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Chuck Baldwin’s son under corrupt local Gov’t attack in MT
article quote:
“According to the recorded voice of the drug task force officer, the reason the prosecutor’s office doesn’t like Tim is because he is a “constitutionalist,” his dad (me) ran for President in 2008 as a third party candidate, and Tim doesn’t just “go along” with the prosecutor’s office but actually defends his clients. The police officer referred to my presidential candidacy as some B*** S*** party. Actually, Mr. Drug Task Force Officer, it was the Constitution Party, which, in 2008, was America’s third largest political party.”
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A reminder to voters in the American Redoubt: The seating of some State Supreme Court Justices, Court of Appeals Judges, and District Judges will be decided in the upcoming Primary Election. (On Tuesday, November 4th, 2014.)
For example, in Idaho the incumbent seats currently held by Justice Joel Horton and Justice Warren Jones in Idaho are up for a vote.
In Idaho’s Seventh Judicial District, Judge Shindurling is stepping down. That open seat will be a hot race.
It is often difficult to pin down where judicial candidates stand on key moral issues. (Their web pages are usually full of wishy-washiness.) That’s not so in Montana, where incumbent Supreme Court justice Michael Wheat is being challenged by a solidly conservative and God-fearing man who homeschools his children: Lawrence VanDyke. – JWR
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News from Wyoming: Disgruntled employee steals train
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This Is What Happens When Someone Is Desperate To Sell $750 Million Of Stocks. – J.W.
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Mark Cuban: Limit Student Loans To Improve Economy– Obviously there are a lot more issues than student loans, but the point is valid; in the absence of government guaranteed loans, college would be much less expensive.
The Fed’s 2% Inflation Target: The Ultimate Keynesian Con Job
What The Heck Just Happened in Global Stock Markets?
Defying The Dollar Russia & China Agree Currency Swap Worth Over $20bn