This is a recipe that I got from a local beekeeper for honey lemonade. It is delicious and simple to make.
o o o
Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!
Hi Hugh,
I think it’s necessary to add a #10 to R.B.’s factors for experiencing pessimism:
10. A lot of people out there are waiting for some trigger event that will signal the start of a collapse. In reality, it has already occurred. That event has been the collapse of our government. We no longer have a government that upholds the rule of law. We are seeing epic lawlessness displayed by all of the government institutions. Our representatives and senators are truly ineffective against the growing power of a very, very small group of individuals who have control over very, very large government organizations. The DOJ has been completely corrupted at all levels. The NSA has taken what could be considered the culmination of human technology, the Computer Age, along with the once noble ability to find the “bad guys” out there and has churned it into a cesspool of corrupt political motives, blackmail, extortion, etc., etc., etc., that puts the East German Stasi to shame.
We are seeing one manufactured crisis after another. They are deadly, and someone is spending billions to get this all accomplished. The data coming in from all over the world which debunks the propaganda, the lies, lies, and more lies is constantly attacked by the NSA by scrubbing the data from the Internet and attacking/hacking truth sites. We see data, links, and evidence constantly tampered with by those that control the workings of the Internet. We now know that the high tech companies have been strong armed into engineering back doors into everything electronic for the purpose of NSA access. They CAN get into your computer. The only way to stop them would be to nuke them out of their caverns and have hi-tech companies rebuild the Internet with technology that would never allow this type of single-point control again. I don’t see that happening.
If you take a stand and expose political corruption, your computer is hacked, and your electronic communications are interfered with (trust me on this one). I believe we are at a point of no return. There is no curing the disease this country is infected with. It is too strong, too inaccessible, and too widespread. A country simply cannot exist under these circumstances. You cannot maintain a lawful country under an unlawful government. The citizens are SLOWLY waking up, and I believe this is why we are seeing an increase in events to create an environment where the government can clamp down and why we see a government hell-bent on building a domestic military and staging for an internal war.
THAT, and the ensuing fallout, is what I am preparing for. – P.B.
Here is a very important story for SurvivalBlog readers. A recent California court decision has stripped water rights from well owners, and the management of underground water supplies could now be regulated, if this court case is upheld. Expect meters and limits on water pumping “in the name of fairness” and to “protect this endangered species”. Court ends Private Property Rights: Lawsuit could expand state control of groundwater. – C.K.
o o o
The District of Columbia Loses a key Handgun Control Federal Court Decision Tonight. – H.L.
o o o
Nanny-State of the Week: Wisconsin Towns Fight Repeal of Bow Ban. – G.S.
o o o
Man Says Police Wouldn’t Let Him Help His Dog After They Shot It. – B.B.
o o o
NYPD Officer Loses Badge and Gun After Stomping on a Man’s Head . – T.P.
“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” – Plato
July 27th is the birthday of Captain Samuel Whittemore(born, 1694 – died February 3, 1793.) He was an English-born American farmer and soldier. He was eighty years of age when he became the oldest known colonial combatant in the American War of Independence.
o o o
Today we present another entry for Round 53 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 53 ends on July 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.
This article will be on something that is rarely talked about but nevertheless is a fact of life and certainly a major fact in a TEOTWAWKI type situation. It’s the combat mindset of killing, dying, and death. This includes getting a handle on killing bad people; you dying; your wife, husband, or kids dying; and the fear of death. Most importantly, it also includes the fear of killing. It will hopefully shatter all the theories and misconceptions people have from Hollywood, or from “experts” who have never killed or risked being killed. While not particularly thought of as a skill set by most, without a combat mindset and acceptance of the horrors of war, all of the other skills will render themselves useless the moment one is confronted with a horrific event, such as watching one’s spouse get shot in the head.
Everyone is an expert these days. A young teenager I had hired to help me build some fence and I were discussing ballistics and he was arguing for this caliber and that, based on what he had been told by others. I asked him how many of those people had killed people before. He stated that they were all in the military; I repeated my question, to which the answer was “I don’t know”. Remember folks, if your veteran buddy was a grunt, it does not necessarily mean he EVER saw any action, let alone was in close combat.
I will use actual events I have experienced to demonstrate the reality of some of the points I want you to grasp. Are the examples I use the standard all the time? Of course not, but it should make you think!
Death and Dying.
Most people are scared of dying. From young to old, we fear death or the thought of its occurrence in one way or another. Some family of mine never want to talk about what will happen when they die, nor choose to make a will, thereby they are leaving a mess for their children, because they won’t handle this “stressful” topic. My mother-in-law asked me one day about what she should do if somebody came into her house. I told her my opinion. She decided it best to just go out the back door. Then I asked, “What if my kids are spending the night in the other bedroom?” Oh boy, it’s no longer a simple option. Well, that resulted in her ending the conversation with “I don’t want to think about it”. I fear getting burned to death. That has just got to stink. I don’t fear other common forms of death, nor the thought of dying. I do fear what could happen to my family after my death, which was a variable I did not have while in the military. That variable is scary to think about, since a social collapse could result in very unfriendly conditions for my wife and two kiddos after my demise. However, I cannot let that fear hold me back, or it will consume me. I accept that I will die and so will my family. Personally, I believe that if I endure till the end (as stated repeatedly by Jesus) in the way of righteousness, I will go to heaven after death. Regardless of faith or lack thereof, accept the fact of death and focus on making sure it is not in vain.
Having seen charcoaled bodies and bloated bodies laying out in the sun, having shot a man in the head and watched the top of his skull disappear and his brains spill all over the floor, having walked through pools of blood, having seen dead men and women (thankfully no children) laying in the streets of Fallujah, I will tell you it is not a glorious sight as portrayed in the movies. Is it something I sit at home and cry over or even dwell over? No. Though, having seen it and knowing the ignorance of the masses regarding the horrors of war or whatever you may call it, I want you the reader– the man, woman, or teen reading this– to recognize and accept that there will be horror, dead bodies in the streets, mobs that will tear people to pieces, bombs dropping on YOUR house, blowing your little girl to pieces. Oh, no? You say, “I have a bunker and my kids will be safe.” They may; they may not. If not, and your fantasy prepper world goes to hell in a hand basket because you did not have time to get to your bunker, and you watch your child bleed out, you may potentially render yourself utterly useless to the rest of your family, since you’re likely to be so emotionally distraught that you cannot even think, while the post-bombing team is lining up at your door to clean up the survivors. Accept it now. It will not be easy, nor pleasant to think about, but I beg of you not to deny reality and risk more losses by your denial.
Killing.
It seems that some folks have a huge issue with killing people. If you are truly convicted in your mind that you will not kill anyone for whatever reason, it does save you the cost and trouble of weapons. For those who don’t have a specific conviction, remember that life is not to be taken lightly. It is one man fighting for his cause against another fighting for his, however good or evil those causes may be. Yet, if you know in your heart that your cause is just and right, the man who comes against you should not be thought of more than the time it takes to eliminate him. Why? Because you are the good guy, and he is the evil guy. If you want to think about the decisions he made in life that resulted in him being a bad guy, give it a few days, or until hostilities are over before you lend yourself to doubt.
Easy enough you say? No problem killing all the bad guys that come along? You are just going to pretend they are all zombies and never bat an eye. Fair enough, but let’s take it a few steps further: Let’s pretend we are in Nazi-controlled Holland at the moment; the Nazi party has been established and is recruiting young men and women into the ranks in what starts out as harmless roles. A year later these young people are committing atrocities. Your nephew had joined the Nazi party. You know he has knowledge of your family’s beliefs, which will likely result in your death, as well as the deaths of your wife and two other children and the eight Jews you have hiding on your farm. Would you kill your nephew to protect the other lives? What if we replace your nephew with your son? Killing bad guys just got real in your mind, I hope. I’m not going to tell you what I would do, or what you should do, other than that you should think about it, because that type of situation has happened many times in the last 100 years and will happen again someday. Tribes are formed, people band together for both good and evil, and sometimes people you know and care about may join up with the evil.
Getting killed
Everybody is a tough guy while standing around their buddies. Few are tough when their buddies have been killed or the odds are not in their favor anymore. While a grunt in the “Battle of Fallujah”, I saw this repeatedly. Another young Marine was with me on the roof of a mosque one night posting security, and he said “I just want to go home; I am scared.” Not without reason, mind you, the closest the average American has gotten to that level of chaos is fireworks on the 4th of July. Another Marine crapped his pants. Yet, another crawled under a Humvee rather than use his machine gun for suppressive fire. One of our E-4s, a big ‘roided up dude, kicked in a door for me one time; I ran into the dark room with my gun light on to find a man hiding in the far corner with his AK still pointing at the ground. Mine was up and ready, and therefore he lost his life instead of me. After about six rounds rapidly sent into his chest, two other guys started coming up from behind a bed. Do you think the big, tough, smack talking, steroid-using powerlifter came in to help me out? No, he did not. The same Marine Corporal was very tough and aggressive when there was 10 of us shooting at one unlucky insurgent, who had no chance off inflicting damage on him. Another time our squad was split into two teams, each team would take a side of the street, and we just went down the road clearing houses. Seeing my counterpart point man, SS, who has since passed from an IED, getting ready to go into a courtyard, I waited to make sure they got in “okay” before going into my house. SS went through the door, followed by two other Marines, when SS started shooting. I cannot recall if I was heading across the road to assist the moment the shooting started or after I saw the first Marine run out, since it happened rather quickly, but I literally RAN INTO the second Marine as he ran out of the courtyard. SS was fine, even though he was quite irate that the two left him. Also, I was the only one who ran into the courtyard out of the entire squad. I hope I have portrayed the scenario well enough to help the reader grasp what happened. Two trained Marines ran out of a courtyard leaving one of their own! One Marine out of what I recall to be about 10 at the time took immediate action! Those two cowards sure told a lot of good stories when they got stateside though. ( I will come back to this at the end of this article for a side note to the main theme). These are young men who went through a rather specific indoctrination in boot camp, two months of infantry-specific training, followed by unit training before a deployment, complete with live fire, sim rounds, et cetera. So, if you think that just because you went to a Gunsite class and read a few books that you are good to go, you may want to take things a step further. One senior Marine was especially motivating while doing MOUT training with sim rounds on an old Air Force base. I thought that for sure this guy is going to be good to go to war with! The moment we went into Fallujah that all changed. He was a coward, to put it bluntly. What were these Marines lacking? In my opinion, acceptance of death and mental training.
The moral of the story is well summarized in the quote commonly attributed to Heraclitus: “Out of every hundred men, ten shouldn’t be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”
Part two of this article will discuss the training to make yourself the fighter!
Hugh,
I appreciate this discussion, but it also frustrates me, because the head of my household thinks preparing beyond a few day’s worth is all hype and hysteria. I have put up a number of provisions but am unable to make many of the prudent improvements to our home for physical and energy security. I take my vows seriously, but this tears at me because I know we will likely suffer needlessly when, not if, it all comes apart. (Money is not an issue for us.) I would truly appreciate your wisdom on this “opposite” issue that I’ve never seen addressed. – Mrs Southern AZ
o o o
Dear S.R.
In Genesis 20 (Abimelech in Gerar) Abraham asked his wife to say she was his sister and allowed her to wind up in a harem. God protected her from the man of the harem, and she was never touched by him. She is commended in 1 Peter 3:6. So how does the lesson here apply to modern times? When a husband and wife are in disagreement on an issue and she feels he is wrong (especially if he really is) I call that situation a “Sarah’s Harem.” My husband and I have the blessing of us both being Christians and preppers. He is a good man and a good husband. My “Sarah’s Harem” was financial. I have always been a debt-averse saver. My husband was not. Our start into credit card debt was small and “floatable.” Eventually, we had a large credit card debt and a mortgage. We were usually in disagreement on how our money should be handled. I made sure he knew where I stood on each purchase and on debt in general (trying hard not to nag) and left the decisions in his hands, right or wrong. Being in debt was stressful to me, and seeing it grow with no end in sight was terrifying to me. I strove to show him respect (Eph. 5:33) and to be submissive (Eph. 5, 1 Pet. 3, Col. 3); but I didn’t take it sitting down. I went to my knees and took it to my heavenly Father. Being in submission to and respecting my husband in the financial area were difficult, and the only way I succeeded was through prayer and fasting. God showed me many of my own flaws, and I worked on those as he did. Eventually, a coworker of my husband took a financial class and began working his way out of debt. My husband signed up for one also. We are now debt free, and he is committed to staying that way. God did a work in both of us during our 15 year debt journey. I recommend two books. Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs; I personally found this book to be very helpful. The other is Beloved Unbeliever by Jo Berry; I haven’t read it, but formerly “unequally yoked” (now equally) women I have known have spoken very highly of it.
o o o
Dear HJL,
I can’t say I have an unsupportive spouse, since I don’t have any spouse, but I’ve been prepping on a poverty line budget for years. I have this to offer: see if your husband would support some of the more traditional feminine hobbies. Don’t say they are for prepping; instead say they are for helping out the household budget. Mending would be my first choice. Then, look at sewing your own clothes or knitting your family’s sweaters. You are learning a skill that will be in limited supply after SHTF. You can grow your own vegetables. Do you live in a Homeowners Association? You can still learn to garden; tuck a few decorative veggies into your landscape. You will be learning about soil, weather, pests, et cetera. Many fruit trees bloom in beautiful profusion in the spring and would be acceptable to your HOA. If you’re not in an HOA, maybe the kids would like a pet rabbit. 4H and FFA teach the kids a lot of skills they can pass on to you. If you can afford the time away from home, volunteer at Habitat for Humanity or Rebuilding Together. They will teach you the skills you are asking about. Learn, learn, learn. Reading is free. Yes, it’s best to have hard copies, but if your husband complains about space, then get books on DVDs with all the skills you can ask for. Watch YouTube, too. There are thousands of how-to videos. The knowledge will pay off eventually. Finally, follow Mrs. Latimer’s advice– pray for him and praise him. Be the wife he wants you to be. I wouldn’t hide any of the above, and I certainly wouldn’t let it interfere with the time he expects you to devote to him and your family.
From Jim Willie of the Golden Jackass Newsletter: Derivatives: Abuse, Props, Risks
o o o
The 14th one to go this year: U.S. regulators close small bank in Chicago . – G.G.
o o o
Items from Mr. Econocobas:
U.S. Meat, Seafood Prices Rising on Drought and Disease: USDA
US New-Home Sales Plummet in June
No Inflation Friday: Dollarized Panama Issues Price Controls For Basic Goods
This is a major concern for those prepping in the west. With many city and agricultural wells pulling water from over 1000ft deep, how will your well hold up in the long run if it is only the average 250ft deep? Spend some time studying water at the county extension office to know how you will fare.
o o o
No more Rem Oil: Gun Lubricant Corrosion Tests. – M.M.
I recognize that this test was about commercial lubricant/protectors, but I feel that there was a glaring omission: Ed’s Red Homebrew cleaner/lubricant, or perhaps a modern synthetic like mobile 1.
o o o
The End Of Immigration Enforcement In America. – B.B.
o o o
Boston Top Cop: City Residents Do Not ‘Need’ to Own Shotguns, Rifles – J.C.
o o o
Doctor shoots armed patient in Philly hospital: A gun rights case is born (+video). – G.G.
“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” James 3:13 (KJV)
Today we present another entry for Round 53 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 53 ends on July 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.
Here’s a little about myself. I work in law enforcement. I grew up in suburbia, was a Marine and outdoorsy person, yet I have never really, truly gardened. I can’t. I work full time and own a home (in a development). I have two children, who run me all over the place, and I have never had a green thumb. I do hunt, and I do that well. So, I figured how hard is planting some seeds in the ground and growing some vegetables. Well, my experience woke me up and am I glad that it did, because had I not started my garden last year, I would have had a rude awakening come the fall of civilization. I probably would have killed my family and wasted my money on my heirloom seeds. At least I’m learning now and not when it’s life or death.
So, last year I thought, “You know what, let’s start a small garden and see how we do.” I cleared a nice spot in my yard, ran the tiller, brought in some good planting dirt and some manure, bought my non-hybrid seeds, and starting my great experiment with my two children.
LESSONS LEANED YEAR ONE:
1. Put a stinking fence up. I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, peppers, strawberries, mint, and some other odds and ends that I can’t seem to remember. Well, all my seeds began to sprout and grow. My children and I would water and weed the garden regularly, and everything began to look good. About 30-45 days into the experiment, it began. The animals began to eat all the stinking leaves off all my stuff. They struck fast and hard, and the next thing I knew most off my stuff was just stumps. Everything but the mint and tomatoes was gone. Those the animals didn’t seem to mind.
2. Do your research, and don’t listen to urban legends. Now, I did plant marigolds all around the outside of the garden, because someone said that rabbits don’t like those, and it would keep them out. I wanted to try to be as natural and use things that would be available during TEOTWAWKI. Well, I can now officially say that’s crap, and I actually watched a rabbit eat the cap off a marigold. So don’t listen to friends who claim that they have done “it”. Ask professionals and talk to the people at garden centers.
3. Weeding and spacing is very important. I found that no matter what I did, the weeds invaded and I seemed to underestimate the size my tomato plants would grow, too. I had trouble getting in the garden to pick my tomatoes without breaking stems. So be sure to leave yourself enough room for plants to grow and bloom.
4. Keep herbs separate and contained. My mint went wild and invaded everything. No matter what I did, it seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Also, no matter how much I cut and pulled it, the mint grew and grew and attempted to overtake everything.
So year one was a wash, although I had a huge load of tomatoes and mint. So, I could flavor my water with mint and eat a lot of tomatoes. Yeah. I would have starved. No! My family would have starved.
CHANGES AND LESSONS OF YEAR TWO:
I’ll start by saying that I began year two on a mission. I would plant and maintain a garden that we would have an abundance in order to practice some canning this year. I built raised boxes. These boxes where about four feet off the ground. I built two of them that where eight foot long, about two foot wide, and 18″ deep. I filled them with good soil and manure. I knew that I would stick it to those rabbits and have a huge haul this year. I also bought some chicken wire and stakes and was going to build an impenetrable garden fortress around my garden from last year. Well, that’s what I thought, anyway. Again, my garden has given me many learning opportunities.
1. Spacing is still important. My tomatoes still look like a South American jungle that I need a machete to get through. Although I have quite a haul of tomatoes growing, I am again having trouble getting to them without damaging the stems. I also have to be extremely careful when I tie them up, because I can’t tell which plant the stem is from.
2. Mint will still invade and take over everything. Last year I thought that I really took care of the mint problem, but guess what is back and back with a vengeance? I think it is trying to punish me for pulling it out last year. I did allow it to go semi-crazy this year because I dried some last year and used it for things. The animals don’t mess with it, and it has grown around my fence to sort of hide the fence. It has gotten so big it actually hides my garden and sort of looks like a weed that needs to be trimmed. So I figured that could be a good thing when trying to keep your garden on the down low.
3. Fences don’t make your garden a fortress. I came home one day and was admiring my strawberries that were finally growing and starting to turn red, when movement in my mint jungle caught my eye. A baby bunny was chewing on my berries. Arrrgghhh! I wanted to scream, but that wasn’t the end of my year two garden troubles. I still, to this day, have no idea how he could get through the wire, but he did.
4. Raised boxes don’t stop all animals from eating your garden. Last year most all of my garden was eaten, so I thought that this year I would transfer all those plants to my new raised boxes and outsmart the animals. Well, again the leaves started to find themselves being snipped off the stem, and once again my peppers and other garden delicacies were killed. I think, but I’m not sure, that it was birds doing this. I have never found evidence of animals or birds. There were just leaves laying there. So, I think maybe a net over the raised boxes is in order for next year. That would keep both birds and other critters out of my boxes. The funny thing is that the cucumbers and green beans are taking off and growing crazy, so far. Knock on wood that this keeps up.
Now I have officially decided that gardening is never, and I mean never, going to feed my family when civilization fails. I’m not giving up, nor do I write this with the wishes that anyone else give up, but each year is a new learning experience, and if you haven’t started yet, no amount of reading and research is going to help you to figure out how to garden. Practice, practice, practice. Get out and dig in the dirt, rotate your crops, do all you can to keep out the critters, and pray that you are bountiful. When all else fails, find your weakness and exploit it; make it your strength. As I mentioned above I hunt. I’m good at hunting, so I decided that I would attempt something new. Trapping.
Well, I’m not talking about trapping where I go out buy a license and traps and set them up out in the wood. I mean something that I have not read about on this site, but I figured that I would give it a shot. I have rabbits running around my house eating my stuff, so guess what I got? Yep. I got some box traps and set them up near my garden.
I baited them and waited, and wait I did. A month went by before anything went inside the trap, but bam, I caught some rabbits. I have four to be exact. Guess what I built myself? A pen, and now I am raising rabbits. I don’t know, but you know what they say about rabbits. So, before I know it, I should have a bunch of rabbits. This should give me some ability to barter and trade.
Now, what have I learned the last two years? Well, first, I learned that if you think you are going to garden to survive, you are probably out of your mind, and you will be dead within a year. Gardening is “guard” and “you need a lot of space to feed yourself and a family for a year”. Secondly, success only happen after repeated failures. I guess that in business, gardens, and everything else in life, you have to fail multiple times before you get it right. I’m two years in, and I know that it will take me forever to be able to sustain myself on a garden. Next, find the positive in everything that goes wrong. I have started a new survival tactic, because they were eating my food. So I created a food supply by losing one. And lastly, never under any circumstance give up. In a failed society, every little thing will help. Even if all you get out of a garden is mint and tomatoes, at least it’s something. By the way, there are no big box stores to get the stuff you need for a garden, so stock up now and attempt to find alternative methods.
Si vis pacem, Para bellum wertieinpa
I saw your list of recommended reading for young people, especially those being educated at home by their parents.
I would like to add my own list. Anything by Stephen W. Meader (1892-1977).
Meader published 44 novels in his lifetime. The subjects range from entrepreneurial to adventure to American history. The grammar, vocabulary, and storytelling qualities are first rate.
His books are set during difficult times, including the American Revolution, the westward expansion, the War Between the States, and the Great Depression. Characters are mostly young men trying to make a living through common sense, hard work, and persistence. Most of the characters live satisfying, adventurous, and productive lives in a world where electricity, plumbing, and all the modern conveniences had not yet been invented.
Though aimed at boys, they would have relevance and appeal to girls, as well. I enjoy reading them as an adult. The first fiction book I ever read, many, many years ago, in the fifth grade, was “T-Model Tommy”– the story of a young man in the 1930’s who rebuilt an old truck and started a coal-hauling business. He helps to support a widowed mother, while still attending high school and taking some time to court his girlfriend.
All of Meader’s stories are wholesome and promote honesty and moral values. Meader does not shy away from violence, because that was and remains a fact of life, but he is not grotesque or explicit. There is no profanity nor sexuality. Meader quit writing when such matters became commonplace in juvenile fiction.
When I tried to find a copy of T-Model Tommy on eBay, the price was prohibitive. It took years of scavenging thrift stores and online auctions to complete my set of all 44 books.
Today, all the Meader titles are available new from Southern Skies Press.
I have no financial stake in the company, but they did a favor for me. When the copy of “The Will To Win”, an anthology of sports stories which I purchased from an eBay seller, turned out to be missing four pages, Southern Skies graciously sent me the four missing pages so I could graft them into my book. That tells me something about the people who are publishing these treasures, not only for financial gain but to spread the memory of a man who dedicated his life to producing good reading for young people. – PMW